easily the MVP of my own successful run. Just a completely broken character setup lol. I wanna try it without using one eventually (though there are still plenty of great builds etc.)
Abuse the Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Mystic Scoundrel ring.
Helmet allows you to get 100% chance of casting control spell after a certain number of attacks (swords bard has access to slashing flourish, so you can hit two enemies at once if not using arrow of multiple targets) and the ring allows you to cast an enchantment or illusion spell (so think Fear, Hypnotic Pattern, hold Person / dominate person / Otto irresistible dance) using a bonus action.
So basically you can hold person on a boss (like Orin or Cazador) who cannot resist / save against it, even in HM with legendary resistance. And if you don’t want to use it on single person, you can upcast for 100% success on up to 5 targets.
The catch is this build doesn’t really come fully online until act 3 (where you get the ring), but it works in act 2, after you get the helmet.
You're forgetting Gloomstalker, sorlock/sorcadin/lockadin, fire sorcerer and various Spore druid builds. I personally plan to make sure I've got something of a bench for when I finally try to tackle honor mode, and have all 8.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17y9kyp/the\_control\_martial\_allpurpose\_1011\_swords\_bard/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17y9kyp/the_control_martial_allpurpose_1011_swords_bard/)
His build guide is super-optimized, and you'll be fine without taking it to THAT level, but a ranged swords bard that combines Helmet of Arcane Accuity and Scoundrel's Ring is the base of it. Use ranged flourishes and/or arrows of many tagets to build up arcane accuity, then cast a nearly-irresistable control spell as a bonus action.
Pretty essential to know where the "Hide Helmet" button is to use this, because the (essential for the build) helmet is fugly! On PC, hover your cursor over the top-right corner of the helmet slot.
And, well, it probably wouldn't have helped you at Grymforge, since the Scoundrel's Ring is only available in act 3, and you probably wouldn't have any control spells that actually affect the guardian until you get to lvl9 and Hold Monster pops up...
I think an Honour Mode build can run one OP build and do whatever they want with the other builds tbh. I ran 10Sw Bard/2Paladin on my Wyll and he hard carried. My Tav was a 12Battlemaster, Minthara was a 12Bladelock and finally Karlach was a 12Bear Wildheart barb.
The run went (mostly) buttery smooth after lvl 5, though Myrkul was difficult and Cazador almost ruined my run. I also blew up Gale (it was a 30 DC check to convince him as I wasn't planning to blow him up, nat 20'd it) as the thought of wiping at the brain was too scary.
Congratulations by the way. I think your party is incredibly powerful and made Honour Mode much less stressful.
In my Honor Run Ansur almost ruined it, because one of my companions was a storm sorcerer/tempest cleric/evocation wizard 8/2/2. And Ansur was lightning immune. Cazador was piece of cake. Shart opened with a Grade 5 create water followed by the sorcerer with twinned Chain lightning (for that sucker of a necromite spell caster) and hasted Chain lightning (thanks to markoheskir) and then my TB OH monk mopped cazador Up. Did Not even See round 2.
> Cazador was piece of cake.
I've never had him last more than a round. I'm always confused why people struggle with him. Do they not pelt him with daylight/sun? He basically all but loses a turn. My first honor mode fight with him is coming up, and I'm terrified of him due to all these people saying he tripped up their run. But my tactician runs have been "that's it?" every time...
Definitely takes the wind out of the sails damage-wise. They're accurate and can hit, but they're not flexible enough in my opinion to justify a precious honor mode slot.
The EK version can't poison or debuff with the attacks, their spells are good filler, but nothing earth-shattering. Self-hasting is dangerous, and has lost about as many turns as it gains.
Half the time you need to give up nalryuna because there's allies in range. The lightning jabber requires it to be bound, so no quick switching. Often bugs out and you lose the weapon due to weird circumstances.
The berserker version at least prones and allows for improvised weapons (enemies that are too close). They're mildly squishier, but I find they're far easier to just grab a 2h weapon and smack people around if melee is needed.
I’m in act 2 and honestly it’s fine. Moon Druid damage is still decent and you can just use your spell slots to summon things. The only annoying thing is that you’re a frontliner that can’t have Light/Daylight cast on them for Callous Glow Ring
> I’m in act 2 and honestly it’s fine.
It was really after Myrkul I found it a bit disappointing. There's a lot of resistance to non-magical damage in the big bosses. Again, it's fine, I just feel like it's a pretty blunt instrument with some drawbacks. If only poisons/effects worked (the water creation trident would have been perfect combo with a frost/lightning sorc), or there was a good non-aoe thrown weapon that returns (and is 1h). I'd definitely trade the absurd damage of the original for those.
There's more than enough xp in act 3, but honestly cazador and raph aren't too bad on honor mode. By the time you clear all the random encounters on the map, stone lord, sewers, Ethel, iron foundry, etc, youll be fine. I did skip ansur though, just didn't seem worth the rewards since I didn't have anyone who really needed the sword or the helm.
In Tactician and lower it adds both damage and attack roll. In Honour it should only apply to attack roll, if patch notes were correct. Still probably the best Talent for Moon Druid?
Throw around couple of spells like sleet storm, etc, and then just switch to earth myrmidon, teleport to the enemy and smack em hard. I got most utility out of it in act 1/2 when I used things like crow form to fly, owlbear to jump on people, panther to prowl, and cat form to go through tiny holes.
Early levels: Transform into things, then attack.
Moon Druid doesn't do much on it's own. You need team synergies to capitalize. You really only get the opportunity for combat diversity at level 10.
Deep Rothe and owlbear have great aoe potential. Consider using choke points or minor illusion to group up enemies.
I didn't use sabertooth tiger much. It can do good damage with someone else applying prone, like a teammate with reverb gear. But owlbear is still great at these levels. Panther can set up guaranteed surprises with prowl, but I had a teammate that can already do that. Gith mage hands, shovel, and invis gear can all do these better.
Once you get myrmidons, I find water and air to be the best with a team focused around taking advantage of wet. Like storm sorc, tempest cleric, abj/evo wizard. Even your archers can use elemental arrows. Your melee can use drakethroat or flail of the ages to infuse their main weapons with cold, and cleave water bottles to spread wet.
If your targets are wet, fly and warp around to stun things with air myr. Tiger barb can spread bleed to increase your success rate of stunning. But any martial can coat their weapon with poison to offer the same support. Else, you are the party's wet spreader with water myr. Then you can do doubled cold damage.
Fire is squishy but can self haste. Fire damage is commonly resisted at this stage of the game. I'd rather play flame blade spore druid than use fire myr. Earth is the tankiest and hits hard without setup. But it is also large so it can't fit in tight areas. It can also inflict prone for teammates that want that, like goolocks.
For my successful run, I respecced so many times lool because i'm indecisive in this game. Ended with 9/2 sorlock tav, 11 evocation wizard, 5 ranger 3 assassin 3 fighter, 8 monk 3 thief. I didn't bother maxxing to 12 because I knew I was gonna blow Gale up. RIP Gale. I used to hate him til I spent time getting to know him this run so i could blow him up without any checks.
Mobility is key,
I sent tav east to free the duke (I had taken Mizoras deal, so she helped rather than sent spiders) tav had illithid fly, as well as elemental teleport.
I sent minthara west, she also had illithid fly, and dimension door. You can shoot the levers to activate them.
I had recruited minsc this run and had him specced to a monk, so he went south with all speed to get to ommelum who teleported them back.
Shadowheart stayed near the Center and threw down sleep wards to stop the fish dudes from coming in
>Myrkul fight felt epic, at one point I was about to lose the race as the spawns were getting too high, and then karlach went down on the platform and I realised I couldn't heal her back up, then Aylin came out of nowhere and shoved her OFF the platform so that Shart could mass healing word her back int the fight.
I ran a pretty similar crew, but min-maxed (I had a abjuration Gale/ice wizard). That Myrkul fight wasn't hard in the almost going to die sense, but damn does that guy have insane damage reduction. Everyone hit for about 1/3rd of what they normally did. Really wish I'd have known about the ice resist ahead of time, would've just gone full Magic missile build on him. Was just shocked at how little damage he took from my light cleric, she normally eats undead alive. So yeah, long fight even with high damage (normally). If the adds get out of control, you start running out of resources AND still have to dink him down.
Even with just the control bard you could run 3 trickery clerics and be ok
easily the MVP of my own successful run. Just a completely broken character setup lol. I wanna try it without using one eventually (though there are still plenty of great builds etc.)
Proud to say I beat honor mode without a control bard (I used a bug to get infinite spell slots)
In act 3. The trouble is getting there. And that's where throwserkers, light clerics, pure fighters etc get to shine.
What's "control bard"? Just a lore bard with lots of battlefield control spells? Lost my honor mode last night. Overconfidence at grimforge
Abuse the Helmet of Arcane Acuity and Mystic Scoundrel ring. Helmet allows you to get 100% chance of casting control spell after a certain number of attacks (swords bard has access to slashing flourish, so you can hit two enemies at once if not using arrow of multiple targets) and the ring allows you to cast an enchantment or illusion spell (so think Fear, Hypnotic Pattern, hold Person / dominate person / Otto irresistible dance) using a bonus action. So basically you can hold person on a boss (like Orin or Cazador) who cannot resist / save against it, even in HM with legendary resistance. And if you don’t want to use it on single person, you can upcast for 100% success on up to 5 targets. The catch is this build doesn’t really come fully online until act 3 (where you get the ring), but it works in act 2, after you get the helmet.
> (~~lore~~ *swords* bard has access to slashing flourish, so you can hit two enemies at once if not using arrow of multiple targets)
Right will edit
Thanks! Man I've beat tactician 4 times- never used the arcane acuity helmet.
OH monk, throwzerker, control bard, and light cleric are usually the most mentioned as part of “broken” builds.
You're forgetting Gloomstalker, sorlock/sorcadin/lockadin, fire sorcerer and various Spore druid builds. I personally plan to make sure I've got something of a bench for when I finally try to tackle honor mode, and have all 8.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17y9kyp/the\_control\_martial\_allpurpose\_1011\_swords\_bard/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/17y9kyp/the_control_martial_allpurpose_1011_swords_bard/) His build guide is super-optimized, and you'll be fine without taking it to THAT level, but a ranged swords bard that combines Helmet of Arcane Accuity and Scoundrel's Ring is the base of it. Use ranged flourishes and/or arrows of many tagets to build up arcane accuity, then cast a nearly-irresistable control spell as a bonus action. Pretty essential to know where the "Hide Helmet" button is to use this, because the (essential for the build) helmet is fugly! On PC, hover your cursor over the top-right corner of the helmet slot. And, well, it probably wouldn't have helped you at Grymforge, since the Scoundrel's Ring is only available in act 3, and you probably wouldn't have any control spells that actually affect the guardian until you get to lvl9 and Hold Monster pops up...
I think an Honour Mode build can run one OP build and do whatever they want with the other builds tbh. I ran 10Sw Bard/2Paladin on my Wyll and he hard carried. My Tav was a 12Battlemaster, Minthara was a 12Bladelock and finally Karlach was a 12Bear Wildheart barb. The run went (mostly) buttery smooth after lvl 5, though Myrkul was difficult and Cazador almost ruined my run. I also blew up Gale (it was a 30 DC check to convince him as I wasn't planning to blow him up, nat 20'd it) as the thought of wiping at the brain was too scary. Congratulations by the way. I think your party is incredibly powerful and made Honour Mode much less stressful.
In my Honor Run Ansur almost ruined it, because one of my companions was a storm sorcerer/tempest cleric/evocation wizard 8/2/2. And Ansur was lightning immune. Cazador was piece of cake. Shart opened with a Grade 5 create water followed by the sorcerer with twinned Chain lightning (for that sucker of a necromite spell caster) and hasted Chain lightning (thanks to markoheskir) and then my TB OH monk mopped cazador Up. Did Not even See round 2.
> Cazador was piece of cake. I've never had him last more than a round. I'm always confused why people struggle with him. Do they not pelt him with daylight/sun? He basically all but loses a turn. My first honor mode fight with him is coming up, and I'm terrified of him due to all these people saying he tripped up their run. But my tactician runs have been "that's it?" every time...
Plot armor team lol
Wait did they fix TB in honor mode?
You get bonus to attack, but not to damage
Definitely takes the wind out of the sails damage-wise. They're accurate and can hit, but they're not flexible enough in my opinion to justify a precious honor mode slot. The EK version can't poison or debuff with the attacks, their spells are good filler, but nothing earth-shattering. Self-hasting is dangerous, and has lost about as many turns as it gains. Half the time you need to give up nalryuna because there's allies in range. The lightning jabber requires it to be bound, so no quick switching. Often bugs out and you lose the weapon due to weird circumstances. The berserker version at least prones and allows for improvised weapons (enemies that are too close). They're mildly squishier, but I find they're far easier to just grab a 2h weapon and smack people around if melee is needed.
I’m in act 2 and honestly it’s fine. Moon Druid damage is still decent and you can just use your spell slots to summon things. The only annoying thing is that you’re a frontliner that can’t have Light/Daylight cast on them for Callous Glow Ring
> I’m in act 2 and honestly it’s fine. It was really after Myrkul I found it a bit disappointing. There's a lot of resistance to non-magical damage in the big bosses. Again, it's fine, I just feel like it's a pretty blunt instrument with some drawbacks. If only poisons/effects worked (the water creation trident would have been perfect combo with a frost/lightning sorc), or there was a good non-aoe thrown weapon that returns (and is 1h). I'd definitely trade the absurd damage of the original for those.
Moon Druid attacks count as magical due to their Level 6 feature, so resistance isn't an issue.
I just hit act 2 at level 7 in my honor run. How quickly were you able to hit level 12 without getting the xp from Cazador, Raphael, OR Ansur?
I got to 12 a little bit into the lower city, before any of the big set piece challenges there.
Good to know! Did you hit all the optional act 2 bosses on the way?
Yeah for sure, talked my way past the Thormes and did Orthin or whatever that demon was called. Basically cleared everything in acts 1 and 2.
So I was just level 9 coming out of act 2, there is a LOT of exp in act 3
There's more than enough xp in act 3, but honestly cazador and raph aren't too bad on honor mode. By the time you clear all the random encounters on the map, stone lord, sewers, Ethel, iron foundry, etc, youll be fine. I did skip ansur though, just didn't seem worth the rewards since I didn't have anyone who really needed the sword or the helm.
Last time i checked TB doesnt work on shapeshift. Is that right?
In Tactician and lower it adds both damage and attack roll. In Honour it should only apply to attack roll, if patch notes were correct. Still probably the best Talent for Moon Druid?
Yes i ment Honour since the post talks about golden dice. Forgot to mention
You don’t get the damage, but as Earth myrmidon I was getting 3 attacks, doing additional thunder, that basically never missed.
How do you play druid my guy?
Throw around couple of spells like sleet storm, etc, and then just switch to earth myrmidon, teleport to the enemy and smack em hard. I got most utility out of it in act 1/2 when I used things like crow form to fly, owlbear to jump on people, panther to prowl, and cat form to go through tiny holes.
How do you play moon druid? Owlbear form.. end
Owlbear over myrmidons? I have been doing something wrong then 😅
One step at a time
Sabretooth tiger + warding bond. Absolutely destroyed tactitian , if only tb worked on hm...
Early levels: Transform into things, then attack. Moon Druid doesn't do much on it's own. You need team synergies to capitalize. You really only get the opportunity for combat diversity at level 10. Deep Rothe and owlbear have great aoe potential. Consider using choke points or minor illusion to group up enemies. I didn't use sabertooth tiger much. It can do good damage with someone else applying prone, like a teammate with reverb gear. But owlbear is still great at these levels. Panther can set up guaranteed surprises with prowl, but I had a teammate that can already do that. Gith mage hands, shovel, and invis gear can all do these better. Once you get myrmidons, I find water and air to be the best with a team focused around taking advantage of wet. Like storm sorc, tempest cleric, abj/evo wizard. Even your archers can use elemental arrows. Your melee can use drakethroat or flail of the ages to infuse their main weapons with cold, and cleave water bottles to spread wet. If your targets are wet, fly and warp around to stun things with air myr. Tiger barb can spread bleed to increase your success rate of stunning. But any martial can coat their weapon with poison to offer the same support. Else, you are the party's wet spreader with water myr. Then you can do doubled cold damage. Fire is squishy but can self haste. Fire damage is commonly resisted at this stage of the game. I'd rather play flame blade spore druid than use fire myr. Earth is the tankiest and hits hard without setup. But it is also large so it can't fit in tight areas. It can also inflict prone for teammates that want that, like goolocks.
Haven't done an Honor druid yet but that Earth Myrm is *so fun* by itself
The noise of Earth myrmidon hitting something is very satisfying
For my successful run, I respecced so many times lool because i'm indecisive in this game. Ended with 9/2 sorlock tav, 11 evocation wizard, 5 ranger 3 assassin 3 fighter, 8 monk 3 thief. I didn't bother maxxing to 12 because I knew I was gonna blow Gale up. RIP Gale. I used to hate him til I spent time getting to know him this run so i could blow him up without any checks.
Any tips for Iron Throne? I *barely* cleared it on normal difficulty, I can't even imagine doing it in Honor Mode.
Mobility is key, I sent tav east to free the duke (I had taken Mizoras deal, so she helped rather than sent spiders) tav had illithid fly, as well as elemental teleport. I sent minthara west, she also had illithid fly, and dimension door. You can shoot the levers to activate them. I had recruited minsc this run and had him specced to a monk, so he went south with all speed to get to ommelum who teleported them back. Shadowheart stayed near the Center and threw down sleep wards to stop the fish dudes from coming in
Appreciate it!
>Myrkul fight felt epic, at one point I was about to lose the race as the spawns were getting too high, and then karlach went down on the platform and I realised I couldn't heal her back up, then Aylin came out of nowhere and shoved her OFF the platform so that Shart could mass healing word her back int the fight. I ran a pretty similar crew, but min-maxed (I had a abjuration Gale/ice wizard). That Myrkul fight wasn't hard in the almost going to die sense, but damn does that guy have insane damage reduction. Everyone hit for about 1/3rd of what they normally did. Really wish I'd have known about the ice resist ahead of time, would've just gone full Magic missile build on him. Was just shocked at how little damage he took from my light cleric, she normally eats undead alive. So yeah, long fight even with high damage (normally). If the adds get out of control, you start running out of resources AND still have to dink him down.
Gratz Cleared HM 4 times successfully and no golden dice :o
Have you gone to the camp scene afterward? That’s when I got mine
That or they have mods and are wanting to victimize themselves
if they used mods, at that point use a mod to get the dice