so which new class will you play ?

[Illaoi Bot]

the patch is arriving soon and im gonna cosplay jamie from street fighter and play a drunken fist monk

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by anonymous316:

It'll be my first actual play through. Trying to decide between Hexblade Warlock or College of Swords Bard

Currently Bards is unable to get the Shadow blade spell with magical secrets. So far only sorcerer, wizard and warlocks among full casters. And eldritch knights and arcane tricksters.

Shadow Blade is a full spell version of the previously ring granted summoned weapon, and doing full psychic damage. Which can be doubled with the resonance stone from late act 2.

Which leaves only Hexblades and Bladesingers capable of using it at full upcast, and still having an extra attack.
https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Shadow_Blade

A 5th spellslot version of Shadow Blade makes it dole out 4d8 psychic damage. The spell version does NOT require concentration unlike the ring version. Remember, its a summoned weapon without any duration to it as long you keep it on you.

So I think everyone is holding their breath for if Shadow Blade escapes unscathed.

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by Nirain:

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Sunbeam, the lvl 6 spell, is part of the druid kit. Unlike the one cast from Blood of Lathander, the spell version can be recast every round only needing an action and concentration, expending no spellslots. Druids can wear Luminous armor.
Edit: Sunbeam blinds targets too.

Concentration is something which dragon constellation star druids excells at. Clerics does not get Sunbeam. Sunbeam does 6-48 radiant damage to all in the effect.

Realistically as good as sunbeam can be, in most cases 6th level spirit guardians and using you're action to do anything else is often just better. yes no blinding but SG is honestly just so strong, i'd even argue moon beam could be better than sunbeam as you can move it per action sure doesn't blind but less likely to hit friendlies will always do damage on cast and start of their turn. which 6th level moon beam (since sunbeam is 6th level) is 6d10 on cast, 6d10 on movement of spell on turn or per action, 6d10 on start of turn in moon beam. Also great party synergy as you can use a throw barb to throw enemies into the moon beam or thunderwaving/eldritch blast/pushing attack things into/through moon beam dealing 6d10 on entry as well as if they land in the circle at the start of their turn. honestly the only thing moon beam wont do is proc radiant orb..

Sunbeam just isn't that great if all you're using it for is blind, at the risk of doing massive damage to allies and blinding them.

Druids does not have Spirit Guardians.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Originally posted by Nirain:

Realistically as good as sunbeam can be, in most cases 6th level spirit guardians and using you're action to do anything else is often just better. yes no blinding but SG is honestly just so strong, i'd even argue moon beam could be better than sunbeam as you can move it per action sure doesn't blind but less likely to hit friendlies will always do damage on cast and start of their turn. which 6th level moon beam (since sunbeam is 6th level) is 6d10 on cast, 6d10 on movement of spell on turn or per action, 6d10 on start of turn in moon beam. Also great party synergy as you can use a throw barb to throw enemies into the moon beam or thunderwaving/eldritch blast/pushing attack things into/through moon beam dealing 6d10 on entry as well as if they land in the circle at the start of their turn. honestly the only thing moon beam wont do is proc radiant orb..

Sunbeam just isn't that great if all you're using it for is blind, at the risk of doing massive damage to allies and blinding them.

Druids does not have Spirit Guardians.

i'm aware but they are the only class that learns moon beam. which is still vastly more utility then simply blinding. However dipping into cleric is always great for druid. i'm aware ancient paladins learn moon beam but arguing to a paladin they should use a spell on moon beam and not smite is a losing battle. Not to mention druids have higher level spells than paladins so Moonbeam on druids is often better than any other concentration.

[Moonbane]

Oath of the Ancients knows it too.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

I am not impressed by Death Clerics or Shadow Sorcerers, both are severely underwhelming. The Shadow Sorcerer kit is just bad. You only get supervision with blind imunity when channeling the special darkness that also takes sorcery points. The dog costs 3 sorcery points to summon, and it might or might not give you a sorcery point if its special bite lands with the correct damage done by you.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hound%27s_Omen_(Condition)
If you after the dog do the same damage type to the target omened by the dog, you get one sorcery point back.

Needlessly restrictive.

I wouldn't call it restrictive: as long as your cantrips match omen elemental damage, you’ve a sorcerer able to regain consistently their sorcery points, regaining spell slots.
With the ability to use metamagic that much more frequently.
It may appear a hassle and half, but considering what sorcerers can already do, making it too easy would have broken the game.
I’m looking forward to the shadow sorcerer.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Oath of the Ancients knows it too.

ha you beat me to my edit yes ancients do learn it too but it's always lower level max as paladin spells max at 3rd level.

[Mander]

Originally posted by Nirain:

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Druids does not have Spirit Guardians.

i'm aware but they are the only class that learns moon beam. which is still vastly more utility then simply blinding. However dipping into cleric is always great for druid. i'm aware ancient paladins learn moon beam but arguing to a paladin they should use a spell on moon beam and not smite is a losing battle. Not to mention druids have higher level spells than paladins so Moonbeam on druids is often better than any other concentration.

I would say that create water+ call lightning is still better, utility wise (bar vs undead ofc, where sunbeam is king)

[Moonbane]

Originally posted by Mander:

Originally posted by Moonbane:

I am not impressed by Death Clerics or Shadow Sorcerers, both are severely underwhelming. The Shadow Sorcerer kit is just bad. You only get supervision with blind imunity when channeling the special darkness that also takes sorcery points. The dog costs 3 sorcery points to summon, and it might or might not give you a sorcery point if its special bite lands with the correct damage done by you.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hound%27s_Omen_(Condition)
If you after the dog do the same damage type to the target omened by the dog, you get one sorcery point back.

Needlessly restrictive.

I wouldn't call it restrictive: as long as your cantrips match omen elemental damage, you’ve a sorcerer able to regain consistently their sorcery points, regaining spell slots.
With the ability to use metamagic that much more frequently.
It may appear a hassle and half, but considering what sorcerers can already do, making it too easy would have broken the game.
I’m looking forward to the shadow sorcerer.

Not worth the hassle, just drop water and zap a whole large group as a stormy, much better results.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Shadow+Magic
Look at the top comment that describes quite well whats wrong with shadow sorcerers.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Originally posted by Mander:

I wouldn't call it restrictive: as long as your cantrips match omen elemental damage, you’ve a sorcerer able to regain consistently their sorcery points, regaining spell slots.
With the ability to use metamagic that much more frequently.
It may appear a hassle and half, but considering what sorcerers can already do, making it too easy would have broken the game.
I’m looking forward to the shadow sorcerer.

Not worth the hassle, just drop water and zap a whole large group as a stormy, much better results.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Shadow+Magic
Look at the top comment that describes quite well whats wrong with shadow sorcerers.

Honestly as bad as shadow sorc "might be" kit wise, thematically it's one of the better added sub classes this update. When i was trying to get a friend to start BG3 with this update explaining the new subclass the key words "has a dog that..." "i'll choose that one" this will probably be a favorite subclass of a lot of people. It's beast ranger mains answer to spell casting. (yes i know rangers get spell casting but fire ball caster vs insert any spell ranger learns it's not a contest) add on the dog can split apart splitting group damage taken, as well as the fact the dog's bite can give back sorc points... i think it's a good combo if sometimes hard to proc.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Originally posted by Mander:

I wouldn't call it restrictive: as long as your cantrips match omen elemental damage, you’ve a sorcerer able to regain consistently their sorcery points, regaining spell slots.
With the ability to use metamagic that much more frequently.
It may appear a hassle and half, but considering what sorcerers can already do, making it too easy would have broken the game.
I’m looking forward to the shadow sorcerer.

Not worth the hassle, just drop water and zap a whole large group as a stormy, much better results.
https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Shadow+Magic
Look at the top comment that describes quite well whats wrong with shadow sorcerers.

Also to counter this with something you said earlier, sorc is one of the few classes that learns sunbeam. yeah you can't use darkness the point of the class, but now you can use sunbeam and have a decent dog. with a "free" bonus teleport at level 11 assuming it's dark somewhere. not to mention a shadow sorc can still wet'n'zap, so assuming you're not multi classes compared to all other sorcs

at level 1
superior dark vision regardless of race. Cool

when you get killed you instantly pop back up once per long rest. Dope normally a spell/racial in a class passive.

completely ignoring darkness going off you're love of sunbeam

level 6 a dog that can semi tank, expecially paired with AID spell. a chance to recover sorc points the only sorc that currently can do this without using spells to sorcpoint. Meaning if you get lucky and spread you're attacks via damage type a legit if not tricky way to get inf spell slots turning sorc point into spell slots (probably not worth it).

level 11 a free darkness misty step... the only thing shadowmonk had but now on a much better class. No other sorc can do this.

Arguably yes draconic AC/fly often better however fly is meaningless if you go worm in act 3. AC is nice though resistant to element also cool.

Wild magic is a meme and i love it, ultimately bad but the most fun.

storm sorc still not great all things considering, worse than shadow sorc in most regards other than free fly at level 1 using rituals.

Damage wise shadow sorc has a higher potential, not to mention dog clones have CC, and dog will do damage every turn unless it dies. Tank wise even i think it still evens out compared to draconic if only because more enemies on the field means archers more likely to be threated thus disadvantage, also AI might target the dog and not you. you can also wet the ground hide in a darkness cloud and wet'n'zap while being much harder to hit.

[The Mook]

What? No one wants to be an Arcane Archer?

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by The Mook:

What? No one wants to be an Arcane Archer?

Well, the first response is Arcane Archer so they're getting some love

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Nirain:

Hexblade ... not a big fan of needed pact of the blade for multi attack, like i get it... but i'd rather they just change pact of the blade hence forth to more match 5e

PotB *does* follow the latest version of 5e. OK, some people don't label the 2024 rules as "5e", but WotC does.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by The Mook:

What? No one wants to be an Arcane Archer?

I think it's just purely the fact, similar to eldritch/trickster is requiring a weapon stat+spell DC being int. IE to really "maximize damage" and spell DC you kinda have to go str bow in act one and use str elixirs the whole campaign just so you can try to keep you're int high. It's manageable but most don't know this. Most see needs int and dex and goes nah. Or they don't know and wonder why all their spell arrows keep being "saved" because they didn't add any int for spell DC.

[Nirain]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Originally posted by Nirain:

Hexblade ... not a big fan of needed pact of the blade for multi attack, like i get it... but i'd rather they just change pact of the blade hence forth to more match 5e

PotB *does* follow the latest version of 5e. OK, some people don't label the 2024 rules as "5e", but WotC does.

yeah but if i recall Hexblade in 2024 rules also gets elemental damage of choice on attacks each turn. which they didn't add either... I do understand what you're saying and i'm fine with pact of the blade being the only source of multi attack if it didn't give it to all other warlocks. It's fine as i said just seems like you're only doing Hexblade for smites and undead servant. which is cool i guess, just doesn't feel like a new subclass all things considering. It'll still be as good as warlock/PoTB is currently because most are just going to 3 dip that for paladin, with the new hexblade bonus action/chance to proc. As i said "cool i guess."