PSA: You can farm Hill Giant Elixirs infinitely in act 1 for free (and many other resources)

[Arthur]

I don't know if this is a super well known tactic or something, as I just figured it out on my own by accident on my current Honor Mode attempt, but here's how it goes: Astarion. By default he's already excellent at nabbing stuff from people, but there's a ring you can find on a skeleton near the place where you find Karlach that gives you +2 to stealth and sleight of hands (at the cost of -1 charisma, but he's not the main character so he's never talking in cutscenes anyway).

Then, you can cast Guidance on him with someone (there's a necklace you can find near the place where you first meet Raphael that has it), and then use Shadowheart's (or the party cleric's) Enhance Ability spell, which will give the target Advantage on ability checks for the chosen stat (obviously you wanna give dexterity advantage to Astarion). This one lasts until the next long rest too, so no need to use it more than once, unless your concentration is broken/replaced by something else.

With this combination, Astarion is guaranteed to steal almost everything from anyone, but here's the funny part: Auntie Ethel sells 3 Hill Giant elixirs, and merchant stocks reset with every long rest. So what you do is you use those buffs on Astarion and have him steal the elixirs, and then long rest. You don't need to use camp supplies, however, because partial rests already restore half of your resources, so Shadowheart will always have enough level 2 spell slots to use Enhance Ability. Just repeat this loop and bam, you're done. Free Hill Giant Elixirs for everyone.

You can use this tactic to steal from any other merchant, of course. Fully geared up my team with enchanted armor pieces and weapons, lol. Its so over for Honor Mode.

(and of course, this requires you to not fight/aggro Auntie Ethel, so I'm leaving her fight for the end of act 1. Also, whenever you feel like stealing something from an NPC, make sure you separate Astarion from the rest of the team, because if the pickpocketing fails, he's the only one in the middle of a fight, so its okay if he just dies, you can have someone else resurrect him via Withers, and a failed pickpocket will only aggro npcs temporarily, so its no big. On lower difficulties you can also just reload lol, this is mostly for Honor Mode. Don't forget that you can also steal Withers after paying him for any service, and he doesn't care if you fail, so try as many times as you like. Free ressurection, GGs)

[Ghost]

Help Tips and Tricks: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/2/

Spreading info is good, but this is the wrong place and also several years late.

That's also a lot of extra unnecessary steps for a slight advantage, and somewhat redundant considering the abundance of gold, the general lack of punishment for being caught.

Additionally, can also get the potions and the ingredients to make them from Derryth in the Myconid colony.
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Generally find it's much quicker to just give the target a bunch of trash so they like you, sell some gems (easier to steal), buy the items, and get the gems back.

[Metallicus]

Sounds more like 'Dishonourable' mode to me.

[Arthur]

Originally posted by Ghost:

Help Tips and Tricks: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/2/

Spreading info is good, but this is the wrong place and also several years late.

That's also a lot of extra unnecessary steps for a slight advantage, and somewhat redundant considering the abundance of gold, the general lack of punishment for being caught.

Additionally, can also get the potions and the ingredients to make them from Derryth in the Myconid colony.
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Generally find it's much quicker to just give the target a bunch of trash so they like you, sell some gems (easier to steal), buy the items, and get the gems back.

Ah, sorry, didn't know there was a specific section for that.

And well, yes, you're right, but in Honor Mode, every advantage counts. Personally I don't find this takes too much time at all, I can run this loop several times in a few minutes, and considering how Ethel sells 3 elixirs (instead of 1 like other vendors), you can get a bunch of them pretty quickly. I'd rather save my money for stuff that are too expensive to steal :b

[Arthur]

Originally posted by Metallicus:

Sounds more like 'Dishonourable' mode to me.

Lmaoo, you gotta do whatever it takes to survive xD

[Metallicus]

The biggest challenge to surviving Honour mode is playing when you are tired.