Gonna start my honor mode run soon, and I’ll be using your builds for all my characters. Love your content!

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Awesome, thanks very much - and good luck!

@dominusbalial835

4 ай бұрын

You've helped me organize a lot of character builds that fit the lore of the character vaguely that I can slot into different party compositions for different playthroughs, i'm gonna start a dark urge playthrough and I think this build would go well paired with a monk thief multiclass. lae'zel being the wall and the monk thief dark urge rushing it to attack the crippled enemies before running away to avoid retaliation.@@Cephalopocalypse

@CalamariLoverr

4 ай бұрын

@@Cephalopocalypse got my golden dice, your bardadin build was amazing. Can’t wait to try out more of your guides!

Oh you are such a nerd and I love it. The minute you mentioned Alexander the Great I knew I was in good hands here. Your builds are all I use.

I was thinking about some build like this, I'm glad you made it so far better than what i tried, thank you so much 🙏

This is just great. Simple yet effective. Loving all your guides and the in-depth explanations they provide. And patiently waiting for the BarBearian to appear on here… ;) All my best

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! Really glad you're enjoying them :D

Just watched the first two minutes and before I even get to the rest of the video, the classic 5e staple! Polearm Master + Sentinel!

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Exactly! I hadn't covered it yet because of the buggy movement, but patch 6 has helped a lot with that so it's time to spread the word of the most annoying character for every DM to face

I stumbled on this playstyle during my first ever playthrough. Wasn't great at positioning but still was very effective!

I'm so happy to see this build, since this is what I've built my Honor Mode Minsc with, as a complement to your "Lore accurate" Jaheria Druid/Fighter multiclass. I've also given this character the Ring of Regeneration and the Whispering Promise ring, giving him some REALLY good hit chance, and help with his saving throws. I'm just SO SAD that tridents aren't considered polearms 😭 Like, Spears act pretty much exactly like Tridents, they work for Polearm Master AND they're simple weapons... I just want love for the Tridents (in both 5e and BG3) A great use when grabbing Great Weapon Master is that the Bonus action attack you get when killing an enemy or landing a critical hit will use the normal weapon damage dice, instead of the Pole arm Master d4, AND will let you benefit from the -5 to hit, +10 damage. So it's important to remember to use that one over the Polearm master one, for slightly more average damage. A weapon I really enjoy using with a Polearm master build is the Harmonium Halberd from Act 2, which does help somewhat compensate for the slower progression to your Strength, since it does give a +2 to your Strength stat (and the lowered Intelligence and Wisdom can be somewhat scary, but sometimes you gotta live life on the edge, since missing your opportunity attack means you're not doing what that character is build to do). The Halberd of Vigilance does help a decent amount with initiative, and Perception, and if I ever use Riposte, it gives me advantage on THOSE attacks as well (since Sentinel only gives advantage on OPPORTUNITY attacks, while the Halberd give advantage on all Reaction attacks).

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Awesome, that sounds like a sick combo! It's true - especially since the only historical uses of tridents (or bidents) in warfare that I'm aware of (at least as a designed weapon, rather than "this is my fishing spear and I need something long to poke someone with") were for almost exactly this purpose: The Assyrians used them in combination with archers in formation to present more sharp points towards cavalry and charioteers, basically using them to hold ground for their missile troops despite being much more unwieldy than a normal spear in hand-to-hand combat. They definitely were not thrown :P

@Princess_Salami

4 ай бұрын

@@CephalopocalypseAlso, I just noticed, that since the last Patch or Hotfix, Hellrider's Pride doesn't seem to give Blade Ward to the wearer anymore... and it breaks my heart (and some builds, but mostly my heart). Not me, unsure if that is a bug, or how the gloves were intended to work from the start, and figuring I should share the info with the youtuber who I feel will enjoy knowing about at least one hidden change from the last patch.

I did a similar build concept to this on my first run using Karlach, but it was Barb build. Tiger Heart + Wolverine Aspect so she can lockdown multiple enemies at once, with Sentinel+Polearm master in case someone gets out. Takes a bit longer to get fully online, but boy she did her job.

Its nice to hear that they fixed some of the movement issues of attacks of opportunity. That was the main roadblock for me and a biuld like this. Also, it'd be nice for the demos to be in a more proper encounter, like vs a bunch of guards or something like the big fight in the house of grief, although maybe it'd be a spoiler. Idk, just a bigger arena with more badies imo.

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Yep, exactly! It was really a shame since this is one of my favorite tabletop builds - it's still not perfect I imagine, but it was frustratingly imprecise before and has been fixed a lot

so happy they fixed the combo.

For anyone who's down to mod the game, Warcaster UA allows the use of melee cantrips or spells (like say, Booming Blade from 5e spells) with Polearm Master (you want the 2014 option not the UA option of the two mods). This let's you make an Eldtrich Knight reaction focused build that does a similar thing (because Booming Blade procs whenever they move, and you can also combine this with a variety of other things like, say, Reverbaration to instantly prone enemies trying to move past you, Hold Person and the like work with the UA version but it will not proc melee cantrips with extended polearm reach (works perfectly fine with other weapons though). Of course you need to get a fair bit into the game for this to really come online, but it's a solid build that works well and is sort of the classic EK "turret" build (you stand somewhere and basically shut enemies down while doing decent damage and having solid survivability).

I remember theory crafting this build like 8-9 years ago after a few months of playing D & D with my friends and it felt too… cheesy? To use there. But it feels totally valid in a video game like BG3! and I’m happy it’s getting a spotlight shone on it. Any thoughts on some multi classes to use with it? Already someone mention maim barbarian which I’m really eager to try. Thought about trying to squeeze barb rogue thrower in but it’s 1 level off of having all the feats.

I would think this build would be better with a wild heart barbarian with tiger and wolverine. You can stop movement for up to 3 enemies per attack by moving around the battlefield and cleave+maim everyone then position yourself for your polarm+sentinel attack, so instead of stopping the movement of 1 enemy, you could possibly do it up to 7 enemies. Also barbs effectively get alert as well.

@Zero_Zone.

4 ай бұрын

My god, you would be a walking CC machine.

@Jules_Diplopia

4 ай бұрын

That sounds interesting too.

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

For sure! In fact, I discuss that version of the build somewhat in my lore-friendly Karlach build guide ("The best karlach build in bg3"), though at the time the movement was too buggy to unreservedly recommend the combo - the optimization in patch 6 has really helped AoO characters shine!

This build really feels like a sentinel.

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Yeah! It's one of the most satisfying martial characters to play I think - you have so many small choices to make every turn, and when you make them right you feel extremely clever

It seems to me that this is the best tank build for Baldur's Gate 3. Of course, the bearbarian is more resilient, and the paladin deals more damage. But this build offers much more control over the battlefield and the ability to prevent enemy movement, which allows for protecting party members. Due to the absence of aggro mechanics, this becomes more important than the resilience and damage output of the fighter itself.

10:10 The bonus from Precision Attack is on average superior to Advantage in a lot of cases. The mathematical benefit from Advantage actually varies depending upon what you need to roll in order to hit your target. For instance, if you are only hitting on a Natural 20, then Advantage increases your odds of success from 5% to 9.75%, or slightly less than a +1. If you need to roll a 16 or higher to hit, then Advantage increases your odds by about 13%, or slightly more than a +2. If you'd hit on an 11 or higher, Advantage adds about a +5 to hit. Beyond that, the mathematical value decreases because your odds of hitting are already high. This makes Precision more valuable against high and lower AC enemies than Advantage would be.

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

That's correct - between 6 and 14 needed on the die, advantage averages +4.4, which are by far the most common cases when you're actually rolling. There are edge cases but if you think of the two as equivalent you'll be right basically all the time

Do you think it would work to get sentinel before polearm master to get the lock down effect earlier?

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Sure! I think either order is fine

I love how Cephalopocalypse calls me his friend

great build idea gotta say however i never really struggled with keeping any of my characters safe or control enemies in encounters, even on level 5 all my characters are busted and can pretty much decimate the battlefield.

what about savage attacker?

Why does Battle Master have EK’s logo now?

What about the items?

The most impressive thing about this is that you got polearm master opportunity attacks to trigger reliably

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

They updated enemy movement in patch 6! That's why I waited until now for this build :D

I think that the Athlete feat would be good for this build if going with STR elixirs. That way you can go with 17 Dex, get Athlete +1 to 18 Dex, +50% jump distance (crazy positioning), and if you are ever knocked prone you can stand up with barely any movement. Another one to consider is Mobile; +10 feet of movement, Dashing now makes you immune to Difficult Terrain, and moving after making an attack doesn't provoke an enemy Attack of Opportunity. Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master + Athlete + Mobile is wiiiiild

@Cephalopocalypse

3 ай бұрын

Yup, great suggestions!

I thought this was going to be a Reverberation Tiger/Wolverine Barbarian. Colour me surprised.

What happened to items?

That’s really late for getting great weapon master. I feel like that’s a must take feat at lvl 4 for encounters late act one (githyanki crèche) and the fights in act 2

So would you call this the lore friendly build?

pretty much the only reason to not run laelae in this build is the fact that way of the open hand monk exists. ive been swapping her back and forth between those 2 on every playthrough

Would this work with Karlach?

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

Sure! In fact, if you want to do a barbarian version of the build, I recommend following my lore-friendly karlach build ("The best karlach build in bg3") and just adding in the polearm and sentinel feats. You'll end up with incredible synergy for stopping enemies in place.

is it just me or is the audio kinda low, volume wise

This game looks quite different on pc. I have lost at least 10 honor runs so I'm definitely gonna start my deep dive into meta stuff so I stop losing hours of progress.

I find polearm builds a bit frustrating because you need two feats (Polearm Master and Sentinel) while at the same time, arguably the best weapon available is the Halberd of Vigilance (available very early in Act 2) which duplicates half the effect of Sentinel (advantage on reactions). Since you need Sentinel for the stopping anyway, I don't know why the Halbred of Vigilance has the redundant advantage effect. The Unseen Menace from Act 1 (Creche) is pretty fantastic also with advantage on all attacks. I think this is a build that's best to skip Alert. I'd rather get Great Weapon Master for the +10 damage and much better bonus attack option. For Initiative between dexterity, gear, and Elixirs of Vigilance you can manage fine.

@Cephalopocalypse

4 ай бұрын

It's true - and the feat hungry nature of the build pushes you towards using strength elixirs, which I find kind of irritating; I still wish those hadn't been included or were at least removed from the shops for honour mode. It doesn't help that the specific polearms in this game seem to have been kind of an afterthought, with the best polearm in the game by far being a trident and not actually working with polearm feats

@trengilly01

4 ай бұрын

The entire Elixir system could really use a rework/rebalance. Its hard to justify ever using the Resistance ones, even in specific fights where you want them. Bloodlust and the Giant Strength ones are just so OP, among others. Actually . . . a Tier list video for Elixirs would be really good . . . and useful. Many players ignore consumables and really have no idea what all the options are. @@Cephalopocalypse

I've created this build for a solo tactician run, and unfortunately movement is still so janky that after your sentinel hit, many enemies still 'nudge' a bit closer to you, so that they can hit you. A real bummer. I reckon the build still works wonders for zoning off melee characters trying to get to your lower AC ranger characters, but it does little to protect the actual sentinel character from direct attacks, unfortunately.

I recently finished my solo honour mode with an absolute beast, Titanstring sword bard with con necklace and cloud giant strength, asi to 20 dex (with Ethel hair) 5 bard 6 champion 1 war cleric I had 145hp +10 from illithid shield ability. 30 ac and could do over 150 dmg per turn. Really fun build because it works as a talker and you don’t have to play stealthy. Def worth to try it

@Stargetsu

4 ай бұрын

Did you do respecs or just go first five levels bard then six champ then at lvl 12 cleric?

@papperankan

4 ай бұрын

@@Stargetsulittle late but no respecs

FBI: wants to know your location

Is this lore friendly?

@Cephalopocalypse

3 ай бұрын

I think so!

Oh give her animal handling instead of survival because it's aesthetic

Cool build but I think you're overselling the effectiveness. You only get 1 reaction per round, so in an encounter with more than one enemy (almost all of them), you'll have enemies walking right past you.