How do you make Astarion any good?

[Space Cowboy]

Crappy damage, terrible chance to hit with bows and spells, and the spells themself aren't too effective either. Only thing he's been good for so far is opening locks - otherwise he's a burden in any fight. How do you make him effective?

[Ashling]

cunning action -> stealth -> sneak attack (ranged)

He was my primary source of damage for act 1.

[Zer0]

Originally posted by Ashy:

cunning action -> stealth -> sneak attack (ranged)

He was my primary source of damage for act 1.

Yeah this, me and my mate got into a really bad fight that ended up involving a lot of enemies and such, Astarion one man armied the rest of the fight with a bow and stealth.

[zpc]

Talk to him, select "stay at camp", confirm the choice and take Karlach with you

No, seriously, dip him into any other class. I'd say 2 rogue for the stealth kills / bonus move abilities and then something else (e.g. DEX fighter or ranger).

[DeuceBane]

dude he shreds lol, question is how do we make OP any good

[John Adams]

Originally posted by DeuceBane:

dude he shreds lol, question is how do we make OP any good

Agreed. My Astarion is a blender. Cuisinart. Death machine. Gets em to 1hp, then bites them for happiness.

[rservello]

Are you serious? He's one of my best party members!!

[Mazzle Dazzle]

Honestly, just hide and sneak attack every turn once you get caught. If you aren't caught, then stealth assassinate every enemy before they even know they are in a fight.

[Mantower]

Use the shift key. Don't melee

[Space Cowboy]

Right, I couldn't quite figure out how to get an advantage to use his stealth skills so I just ignored them and basically play him like Imoen in BG2 which apparently doesn't work.

[Seraphiel]

Astarion is a one man killing machine. He's dashing around mincing entire camps,

[Seska Larafey]

I dont even have Astarion in my main group. open locks is no problem for me, too, and i am an Paladin XD

[rservello]

Originally posted by Space Cowboy:

Right, I couldn't quite figure out how to get an advantage to use his stealth skills so I just ignored them and basically play him like Imoen in BG2 which apparently doesn't work.

Oh, well that's a big problem then. Yeah stealth is clutch

[Batailleuse]

Originally posted by Space Cowboy:

Crappy damage, terrible chance to hit with bows and spells, and the spells themself aren't too effective either. Only thing he's been good for so far is opening locks - otherwise he's a burden in any fight. How do you make him effective?

simple.

Pick Rogue 3 (pick the top left option rogue that has 2 bonus action)
then pick ranger (gloom-stalker) to 5 (to get extra attack) - pick archery as specialization
gloomstalker gives you darkvision, and a FREE attack (melee or ranged) on demand when you start a fight.
then warrior 2 (to get surge) or 3 to pick a specialization (pick defense as specialization or dual wield)
then finish with levels in ranger
use dualwield crossbows

stack as many source of extra damage on his gear.

now fight usually go like this.

sneak,
Sneak attack target
you now have an extra attack, then 2 extra off hand.

so 4 attacks total,

and with 2 bonus action, that means you can do a lot of extra stuff, like jumping, teleport, gulp potion in time of need.

astarion in my team (supposing everything hit) is about 80-120 damage per turn.

[Space Cowboy]

Originally posted by rservello:

Originally posted by Space Cowboy:

Right, I couldn't quite figure out how to get an advantage to use his stealth skills so I just ignored them and basically play him like Imoen in BG2 which apparently doesn't work.

Oh, well that's a big problem then. Yeah stealth is clutch

How do you reliably get an advantage to be able to use his ranged sneak attack other than height which is rarely achievable?

[Boogeyman]

Respec into rogue/monk