Astarion in our honour run is not the party face but still has high charisma to succeed in dialogues he didn't intend to end up in - mostly starting with 'you have been accused of theft..'

@travisretriever7473

15 күн бұрын

...Gods, I wish I had the option to

@doloresabernathy9809

15 күн бұрын

Yep exactly

3:05 "You do need to play rogues more cleverly..." Which is a super diplomatic/polite way of saying it's a skill issue. :P

@twigz3214

15 күн бұрын

To be fair 3 thief rogue 6 battlemaster fighter is probably a stronger character than 12 rogue. You'd attack more often, have control effects with your superiority dice and bonus damage, have action surge for more burst damage when needed, and have two handed fighting style so you can get your dex mod added to damage on your off-hand crossbow attacks without having to use the gloves that give it. You also of course still have 3 extra levels to use elsewhere. 12 Rogue of course has a bit more survivability (excluding the obvious extra hp) with the passives and the damage is comparable if you can crit your sneak attack dice but you're reliant on an ally using something like hold person or using luck of the far realms to reliably do so.

The elephant in the room here is the Bhaalist armour. I sort of sense you wouldn't want to build around it because its OP and requires specific story choices, but it will turn your 12d6 crit sneak attack into 24d6. As an archer you can either come just close enough to proc the effect or give it to a melee teammate to set you up before you shoot. Great vid though dude, rogue needs some more love!

@ginar2339

15 күн бұрын

More like the Hollyphant in the room

@alexsamurai1230

15 күн бұрын

@@ginar2339

@vincent4805

15 күн бұрын

Agreed. This is where picking crossbow expertise as a feat makes sense

Something neat about the Ne'er Misser is that if you wield it in your main hand, it converts the sneak attack damage dice from off-hand shots to Force damage too. It's not the most significant bonus, but it helps against enemies that are resistant/immune to Pierce but not Force.

I've watched a bunch of your Character Class Build videos for a couple months now. Tonight, I finally beat my own Honour Mode run after slowly making my way through it. Thank you for all the inspiration.

In my current game I built Shadowheart as a Gloomstalker Assassin with four levels of Trickery cleric on top. Didn't care much for optimization or anything, just wanted her to be rogue of a party, good archer and stay on theme. I was amazed how powerful that character turned out to be, especially at utilizing Arcane Aquity, practically always go first, shut down everything that suvived initiaton and first turn.

Dude how well timed this is. I’m in Act III on my current playthrough and was just thinking I wanted to do an Honour Mode pure rogue Astarion Origin Story next

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

Nice - good luck!

Thank you for all the content and build guides. You've made a video about party compositions and what role types one should have to fill a party, but I'd really love a dedicated video where you just go through a whole bunch of potential party setups using specific builds. Basically I know what the good builds are, but I still have some trouble putting the right ones in to make a synergistic party

This is the 3rd time I've been playing BG3 and was like "huh, I should use this class/character" then I look on here and you uploaded an updated guide for the build/character a few hours ago lol. Appreciate your content, definitely the best value/time guides out there hands down! The brief and concise explanations of why you pick certain things per level and giving an overview in the beginning is such a godsend. The understanding of the classes helps an absolute ton. Keep up the good work!

I love the simple joy of throwing a bunch of dice and getting a bunch of Sneak Attack damage. I've played a lot more monoclass Rogue in Pathfinder than in BG3, though, specially with the way Flat-Footed works.

@bentrieschmann

8 күн бұрын

Yeah, not being limited to one sneak attack a round and with how attacks work they can deal a decent amount of damage. Especially Unchained Rogue for how well that buffed the class.

Thanks for another lovely build. For a second i thought i was being smart for thinking about the savage attacker feat, but that's only for melee attacks. Wow. Well, gotta try a mono class run some time soon.

For me my Astarion was an 11 Thief Rogue with 1 level in Fighter. The proficiencies granted by fighter are really nice and open him up to tons of great loot, like the Yaun-Ti Scale Mail and the Lightning Charge boots, the boots working great with having two bonus actions to dash with and get more lightning charges.

Thanks for this build guide. I’ve always preferred Warlocks or archery-based Fighters as my blaster of choice but I think you’ve convinced me to try a pure Rogue on my next playthrough One thing I’m surprised you didn’t talk about at all are scrolls/item-based spells, this build seems like one of the best characters in the game at using them. You can attack and deal most of your per-turn damage (Sneak Attack) with a bonus action(s), so this build can use actions on scrolls at little cost to its regular output. Additionally, this build has no in-class way of utilising its concentration, and despite not having proficiency in CON saves it can keep its concentration quite reliably by hiding to avoid damage entirely and using Uncanny Dodge to reduce damage taken and therefore, reduce the concentration save DC, you could even take Resilient CON with 1 of your 4 feat choices if you wanted to. What are your thoughts on this?

>Monoclass guides from you are in the "simple class" guides. Noted. I'll keep that in mind; thanks, Ceph. :) And huge thanks for this, as I tried to love this particular spec/subclass of build for rogue, just because I felt that, 1) It felt more in line with Astarion's story/character, given that he's a charlatan background character 2) I use him to steal so much shit. XD 3) Because I already have the spell/etc utility/control/versatility via my wizard, Gale. ^.^

Thanks for this! i definitely want to play pure rogue because rogue multi classes make the game too easy once you know how to do it. Worth mentioning: charisma is useful if you are pickpocketing or stealing stuff because if you get caught you’ll want to talk your way out of jail or combat. So i always take 12 charisma and persuasion proficiency even if not the party face. and you can get caught with any rogue below level 11 because you can roll a 1. and some merchants in Act 3 have very high and increasing DC for pickpocketing.

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

Yes, very true, another good reason to take persuasion even if your rogue isn't the party face!

New peak build just dropped!

My suggestion to "fixing" mono rogue is give them toggelable passives similar to Open Hand Monks elemental damage, but instead for oils/poisons. Either you learn new ones every few levels, or you unlock them as permanent options from actual consumables similar to how wizards scry spells from scrolls. Would definitely make the mid-late levels of rogue feel more like milestones, and getting more oils like Oil of Combustion plays well into the rogue style of adjusting to the task ahead

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

That would be cool! In older editions, rogues got Use Magic Device as a skill, so could activate wands and scrolls even without knowing the appropriate spell (every character can do that in BG3, of course). That gave them a niche as an item-user and tinkerer, and they also got abilities related to poison. 5e simplified a lot of that out, but personally I miss it.

I’m doing my very first honor mode runs, and I just finished clearing the Goblin camp. Astarion CARRIED those encounters. I gave him an elixir of Hill Giant Strength, and had him jumping around the rafters sneak attacking all the enemies to pick them off. Then when there was just the bosses left, the rest of the party would go in and clean up. I love rogues so much

I’ve played twice as a monoclass rogue, one of them in honor mode, however (for roleplay reasons) I didn’t use ranged weapons, only one knife, with my bonus action (Assassin subclass, so only one bonus action) I used to coat my weapon, desingage etc, If you’re interested in a Knife guy, get the Mobile feat as soon as possible and you’ll be good to go Both of them I played as a Deep Gnome, they’re the only race that can have 24 Dex along with other benefits, don’t worry so much about movement, with the mobile feat you’ll have increased move speed and there’s also a ring in the early game that gives you increased move speed

Smuggler's Ring is always a great option for Rogues, especially if you're stealing money and don't want to save scum.

41:00 if u are dual wielding melee weapons and make an attack of opportunity, it's actually better to have dual wielding toggled on, because then u will attack with BOTH weapons instead of only your main hand. also better if u wanna destroy things like a certain burning door. not super important, but nice to know. and of course it's much better for assassin to start a fight with dual wielding toggled on if melee or handcrossbows, because then u will get your action AND bonus action back and u got 2 hits instead of one before the fight actually starts. love your guides

Thanks for the tips! On a slight tangent, any idea if the Timmask spores from the Sporekeeper armour get advantage applied from Magical Ambush? Circle of the Spore Arcane Trickster is looking like my next playthrough

Once again great video. And I promise not to throw my controller across the basement

Easily one of the most informed and comprehensive rogue guides I’ve come across, awesome stuff. Almost everyone either just glosses over a lot of the mechanics and options available, or create a messy/unorganized hour long video that’s difficult to return to a section later. Gold standard BG3 content here 👍

My next run is going to be mono-Rogue or 11/1 with Fighter. One of the few classes I haven't exploded and love the idea of seeking out crits with hand crossbows to land enormous sneak attack crits.

I seldom multiclass Astarion. The feats I use that are not ability increases are moderately armored, sharpshooter, and alert. As soon as I enter Last Light Inn, I get him the gloves of balanced hands, and the Yuan-ti armor, so his off hand gets his ability modifiers and he gets good armor class. I also give him the risky ring from Araj. This gives him advantage on all his attacks. I even used those on honor mode with no problems.

15:50 Question, regarding the Assassin subclass, in your subclass tier video, you talked about how a lot of the stuff you get from that one is bugged. Is that still the case? And if so, any workarounds?

Barbarian rogue also viable option, using sentinel and sneak atk 2x per turn on reaction. Barb5 rog7 reckless atking + sneak atk 4d6, while having survivalability to the roof with uncanny dodge and evasion. Also in act 3 there's dancing breeze that works on PAM. I saw some reddit threads that saying this doesn't work, idk if they patched it

Any chance you could do an Astarion Rogue/Bard build? I think it would be perfect for the excentric guy he is.

How would you change the build to not use Hand Crossbows? Would Thief still be the best pick? I just hate Hand Crossbows as a concept. Rogue does not get extra attacks though so I get using a Longbow would not be as good. Would going Arcane Trickster be better or melee Thief, maybe?

For Moderately Armored feat.. depending on all of your gear, it can be a waste especially if you already have shield proficiency. You can get 18 dex through other means, cast mage armor from wizard and shield you have 19 AC. Just sayin, always good to have options!

Lots of information - thank you for that. But after I thought I had a plan, the multiclass part completely confused me again. Ro-Fi, Fi-Ro, Ro-Ra, Ra-Ro? I'm a level 9 Drow and now have a 1xRo,5xRa,2xRo,1xFi and I'll see if that works. Luckily I always have your Lae'Zel polearm build by my side.

Everybody sleeps on Arcane Trickster. Sadness.

@mitnehmerrippe

15 күн бұрын

People don’t realise how strong and useful invisible perma mage hand is. It’s like inbuilt permanent advantage - because the hand is invis, it doesn’t get drawn into turn based combat and can at all times move freely across the battlefield unnoticed (and unlimited by movement speed). It can always move up next to an enemy you want to sneak attack even if you wouldn’t otherwise be able to sneak attack them, with weapon range being the only limit in that case. You can even move it out of the way before applying an AoE, so that it stays alive and invis. It’s like a free risky ring without all the risks (and no ring slot spent)! You don’t even need to spend a turn on summoning it like you would with regular mage hands that are already so useful but limited to 10 turns per short rest, you just conveniently always have it on hand. Oh and the arcane trickster also gets the shield spell, making them so much more survivable. And you can be your own crit hit factory with a smart trickster build too.

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

You might want to check out my arcane trickster guide ("the best astarion build in BG3") ;)

@mitnehmerrippe

15 күн бұрын

@@Cephalopocalypse already did and enjoyed it a lot!

@KudzuHaiku

15 күн бұрын

@@Cephalopocalypse There's a red line through it, so it has been watched. I just wish that more people were aware of just how broken this class is when done right.

For PS5, you can check vision cones by holding R3.

I wish you could get reliable talent earlier. Before you reach level 11 you are already in act 3. Rogue would definitely be in A tier if they would get the skill at level 5.

Uncanny dodge deactivating every time it’s used is annoying… I lost track of how many turns that I played and uncanny dodge was off. Reliable talent is cool, but it rogues get it way too late! Interestingly, the revised d&d books will lower the level that rogues get reliable talent.

I think I prefer assassin over thief for this kind of build. I prefer to hide to get my sneak attacks rather than rely on other characters, because hiding gives advantage, which almost doubles your crit chance. The increased hit chance also makes up for sharpshooter pretty well.

@Camel75749

16 күн бұрын

Could just use Risky Ring and not worry about other characters' positioning nor hiding anymore

11:45 So if I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like Rogues, along with Paladins, & Warlocks, tend to benefit the most from crit builds. Also, regarding the level scaling of sneak attacks, it's one more reason why going from level 4 to 5, is such a HUGE power spike for your entire party.

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

Yep, that's right!

This was a lot of fun. And your pure rogue meshes super well with your consumables tier lists. For me, the most lore friendly Astarion builds based on his comments and behavior in game come down to his desire to sneak and stab; his desire to charm and seduce; and his desire to pursue arcane (Book of Thay) or forbidden (the tadpole) power. For me, this makes Astarion a natural Swords or Lore Bard, which gives him everything he wants. Or an arcane trickster 3 / wizard 9, to stick even closer to how he was built when he showed up. Thief 3 / Great Old One Warlock 9 is really interesting for Astarion. His patron becomes The Absolute or his tadpole, and the powers he gains are explained as variations on tadpole powers.

The best rogue I've played thus far in the game? Drow: 7 assassin 5 warlock (old one)

Great content! Anyone know why when my bound sword get thrown by Eldridge warrior sometimes it doesnt come back and it costs an action to equip another weapon? Also did tavern brawler get nerfed for honor mode? Seems lackluster

@bentrieschmann

8 күн бұрын

Yeah, I think the damage did, but could be wrong.

paladin custom character mayby next ?

The best anything in the game, yes there maybe better builds, but will everyone want them like they was Astarion.

Excellent guide, why not 22 dexterity?

@ginar2339

15 күн бұрын

You can’t use feats to get higher than 20 in a stat

I think you misunderstood how Reliable Talent works. You talked about how it also helps hitting high skill checks when it really doesn't. What it helps with is ensure you 100% skill rolls that require a 10 or lower. If you need to roll a 11 to win a skill check your chance to hit it are the same with or without reliable talent, because it only replaces rolls below 10 with 10. So you have a 50% chance to roll a 10, but still only 5% for 11, 12, 13 and so on. Not saying it's not a great class feature, because it turns out 10 is plenty for most skill checks, especially if you use all the other stuff the game offers you to help them. It's not too hard to be able to be able to 100% succeed DC 25 checks with reliable talent around.

How did you make the Uncle Sam color theme?

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

I think it's the Bloody Plum dye, but I don't remember 100%

I did something wrong here. I copied your build exactly, but I'm missing a huge number of shots. I rage quit yesterday when he missed a shot with a 95% chance to hit. What am I doing wrong here? Do I need a specific type of equipment?

@Cephalopocalypse

23 сағат бұрын

If the hit % is high but you're still missing, that's just bad luck I'm afraid! However, one culprit could be BG3's "Karmic Dice" which is a setting in options that's on by default and tries to prevent long streaks of misses - but because it's making the dice rolls not fully random, it can lead to weird behaviour with high % rolls. Try turning it off and seeing if that helps!

Day 2 of pitching my favorite BG3 creator a new series idea: building a viable honor mode party where all characters have the same Base Class You can do a lot with not only restricting yourself by you trying to use every subclass at least once (except for wizards and clerics lol), but also maybe even having an interesting thematic element for example your four bars could be fitting into the Beatles archetype, and you have to challenge yourself by using a Valor bard when either of the subclasses would probably do better This would also give you an awesome opportunity to talk about what strengths and weaknesses each class brings and how for example some subclasses might be great do better / worse whenever surrounded by other similar team members, finally at the end maybe at the end of each video or after you finish a series you could do a tier list ranking which of them would be the most viable in which of them would be the least viable Thanks for taking the time put of your day to read this, you're a wonderful resource to a lot of people, and I hope you consider this idea as it's one id be super interested in seeing you tackle

Generally, I enjoy watching and listening to your videos because there’s lots of great info. But I have not disagreed with you as vociferously as before. Reliable Talent is nice for avoid bad RNG; Reliable Talent can be nearly effectively matched by just using Enhance Ability spell. Rogue 12 (with Reliable Talent) just doesn’t have equitable gains as compared to X 8/Rogue 4, X 5/Y 4/ Rogue 3, or X 6/ Y 2 / Rogue 4 builds. Single class builds can be fun. Single class builds are fine. Other than Fighter 12 (for extra extra attack), single class builds just aren’t in the same ballpark power level wise as good multiclass builds. It’s not even a “skill issue”; if you can’t succeed at sneak/stealth combat initiations as a Rogue 12 then you still won’t as a Rogue 3/ X build.

Captain Astarion Ahh Armor Dye 😂😂

First!!!! Keep them builds coming good stuff

Why does Astarion look like a George Washington cosplayer though?

I like how everytime stats are mentioned, it's always "these starting stats are really bad" and they are just the standard array... Which is just an excuse for me to gush about how the standard arraw sucks and everyone show roll for stats =P

@Cephalopocalypse

15 күн бұрын

It's true! Standard array is even worse for rogues than everyone else because they're SAD, so the spread out points are even more wasted than normal

Welp. Guess it's time to respec Astarion. Again.

I never got people that disliked rogue. People always go Thief as well, I disagree. Thief is for fights that will get drawn out, go Assassin and clean up in round 1. Start with a hidden sneak attack (lots of damage), then enemies are surprised and you have all actions back so you can now sneak attack with guaranteed crit. Then if they are still alive, the chances are you move before they do (due to high dex) and you can do another sneak attack again. That's 3 sneaks with 1 guaranteed crit, oh and you most likely have advantage on these as well due to "initiative information" Still not enough? well with Haste you get a sneak and normal attack per turn then off hand melee to round it off. With this I killed Cazador, Orin, Gortash and more in round 1. Even when they can't be surprised at the late game it's high chance for crit with the right gear and then just throw in any fighter you have got with action surge to mop up whatever health is left or bad rolls.

do some version of bardlock again and ill donate or sub or sum

Honestly, 8 sword bard and 4 rogue (thief if unsurprise encounter, assassin if supriseable) is what I run for astarion given how stupid it gets. here lemme attack someone at least 4 times per turn (florish), get instant advantage with BA hide, medium armor, various support spells (or rarely offensive), crits if enemies are surprised, 4 FREE ATTACKS if not already in combat (TBF I think that's a glitch, but it still counts), also sneak attack. or 6 attacks per turn (florish), all adding dex mod in exchange for no free attacks or free crits

First

My Astarion changed class to bard early like 8lv bard and 4 rogue late