Some doubts about Globe of Invulnerability

[Jaeleth]

Last night I was swiping the floor of House of Hope with Raphael (Honour Mode), as usual...
I mean, Globe of Invulnerability + Black Hole and a couple of well chosen potions and a few barrels of smokepowder are so OP on this fight, lol.

Still... One thing stroke me, I had the distinct feeling that that Ravaging Inferno or something that Raphael casts wasn't hitting me properly... My question is this:

AoE spells should affect those inside Globe, right? And Ravaging Inferno is an AoE spell, right? So, if I step onto those purple-ish flames I should get some damage, particularly if they spill inside the globe, right? Well, it appeared that my party characters were wincing from being affected by the infernal flames but no damage registered, I mean, I got a little damage on the fight, can't remember from where, most of it from the initial fireworks I, myself, set to blow up the pillars in one shot, but that was expected. Hope did nothing for most of the fight since I needed almost no heals... Stayed inside the globe, casting black hole, throwing nyrulna into the crowd, going in and out with my paladin to do some extra damage, Astarion shooting from inside and gale throwing magic missiles and artistry of war from inside and re-casting globe when it went out. Combat was almost boring... Only interesting round was the first when I had to make sure those NOT with first initiative, got safely inside the globe, from there on it was almost pitiful to watch Raphael's futile clawing...

But I was a bit puzzled... Apparently the hell fire should have damaged me, I drank potion of fire resistance but hellfire bypasses that.

Also A.I. seems a bit confused on how to deal with globe... They didn't try to push me (magically or physically), no, they simply insist on hitting me knowing that that will be completely useless... And then they came into globe but I simply pull them off with black hole... I don't think Globe is overpowered, the problem is A.I. being UNDERpowered :)

[Mike Garrison]

RAW D&D 5e says Globe of Invulnerability stops all effects from 5th level spells or lower.

However, BG3's version says it blocks ALL DAMAGE. Period. (It does allow status effects to pass through.)

Obviously the BG3 version is much stronger.

So anyway, no. AOE spells should not affect anyone in the globe. It's not like Sanctuary, that disallows you to be targeted. Hellfire should not damage anyone in the globe. It's not resistance. It's just "blocks all damage".

[Mike Garrison]

Side note:

As it happens, I played this battle this morning myself. Honor rules. Party was Tav, Gale, Lae'zel, Shadowheart (and Hope). I also had Yurgir on my side.

It was pretty much trivial because the first round Lae took out two pillars with the Orphic Hammer, and Gale took out one with magic missiles.

Second round Gale took out the last pillar. Tav got downed but Hope healed her. Lae'zel switched back to Nyrulna.

Somewhere in there Raph tried to Inferno us, but it was counterspelled. Tav used Black Hole, which helped slow down all the devils. Shadowheart had necrotic spirit guardians up. Hope just spammed healing over and over.

After that, Gale just kept hitting Raph with Hold Monster. Lae smacked him again and again, all crits of course. Each time Raph made his save and got unheld, but had no action, and then Gale just held him again. I ended up using a few scrolls because Gale ran out of high-enough level spell slots, but no matter. Three guaranteed crits per turn from Lae'zel took down his health in maybe four turns.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

After that, Gale just kept hitting Raph with Hold Monster. Lae smacked him again and again, all crits of course. Each time Raph made his save and got unheld, but had no action, and then Gale just held him again. I ended up using a few scrolls because Gale ran out of high-enough level spell slots, but no matter. Three guaranteed crits per turn from Lae'zel took down his health in maybe four turns.

I'm pretty sure Raphael still has that ability that auto-cancels Hold Monster after a turn, so he wasn't even making checks.

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Kernest:

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

After that, Gale just kept hitting Raph with Hold Monster. Lae smacked him again and again, all crits of course. Each time Raph made his save and got unheld, but had no action, and then Gale just held him again. I ended up using a few scrolls because Gale ran out of high-enough level spell slots, but no matter. Three guaranteed crits per turn from Lae'zel took down his health in maybe four turns.

I'm pretty sure Raphael still has that ability that auto-cancels Hold Monster after a turn, so he wasn't even making checks.

Yeah, seems likely. Legendary resistance or something. No biggie. He still only got a few actions to use in the entire fight.

[Kernest]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Yeah, seems likely. Legendary resistance or something. No biggie. He still only got a few actions to use in the entire fight.

Nah, it's a specific ability called Inevitable Resolve.

IIRC it was added early on once the players figured out the fight could be made trivial with Hold Monster.

It's still pretty trivial with that strat, but at least it costs you more resources.

[paulxiep]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Normally I only hit the pillars if I don't have CC spell to use on Raph. (since I don't use consumables and usually face Raph at level 9-10, this happens some of the time.)

The pillars only need to be destroyed to lower his AC and take out his Legendary Action Beguiling Rebuke that'd prevent you from targeting him. If you already had Hold Monster, there was no need to touch the pillars.