Stuff I learned from EA and getting to lvl 9 after release, stuff I was super happy I knew
Have a lockpick/slight of hand guy, get used to having Astorian in your group, make sure he’s good at those skills. The game is FILLED with traps and most of the best loot is in locked chest. Not being good at this with at least 1 party member will be a ton of lost opportunities.
Learn to love jumping, especially your melee. Like lockpicking above, a good chunk of the content is across gaps or on ledges. I have Astorian as my jumper because a lot of the time a locked chest is on a ledge. Also, for fighters/barbarians, jumping lets you cover more ground, so if you try to run to the foe and are just short, click on the jump button and measure it, it will give you another 3m of distance. Trying to jump and it says “too high”? Stack some crates, right click and climb on the crates, and jump from there.
Have someone proficient in Perception, someone with a lot of wisdom, ideally someone with expertise. So much of the game is hidden, the traps are hidden, ambushes are hidden, secret doors and walls, etc. Nothing more frustrating than running by, seeing the Perception die roll and everyone failing…you know there’s something there, but you can’t see it.
The next important skills are Insight, Persuasion, and Deception, in that order, but they need to be on the speaking character. Having Shadowheart great at Insight when you’re the one talking and you suck at it is pointless. This is less tactical and more RP focused, it allows to expose more information, g ives more options, and in several cases allowed me to bypass fights. Needless to say, I recommend Bard as the primary class. Honestly, I can’t imagine why anyone would play anything else, it’s like the game was written for me to play a Bard.
Your packrat is encumbered? Right click, Send to Camp. Send everything to camp, you have unlimited storage in your camp chest. Get to a vendor and want to sell? Click the camp button and Go to Camp. Pick some stuff out of the chest, Leave Camp, and sell. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. You don’t have to carry everything, dump it in your camp chest. This is especially true of food/camp supplies, dump all that crap to Camp, don’t lug it around.
Have someone with Guidance (Cantrip) in the group. Shadowheart has it, it’s a free +1-4 to every check you make.
Don’t be afraid to long rest. A lot of the story elements advance by long rests, and if you “push on” then they’ll start to back up and you’ll have a hard time catching up. You’ll have plenty of food/camp supplies if you are even only moderately a pack rat.
Oh, don’t put anything in any camp chest but the main one. If you do, it will be there as long as you go to the same type of camp. For example, the camp you go to in the wilds of act 1 is not the same as the one in the ruins or underdark of at 1. The other chests are gone. The items aren’t gone, you just need to go back to the wilds…but in act 2, you reach a point where you can’t get back to act 1, so don’t rely upon chests other than the main one.
For unlocking most things (“simple” locks), you can get any mage type to learn “Knock”, which will be an instant unlock without using any resources or rolls. (Other than a spell slot, obviously).
Those are some great tips. Expecially someone that can pick locks. Lock picking tools and Disarm trap tools are a requirement to carry.
I have a tip to add: Use doorways / narrow passages as choak points. And drop a “Cload of Daggers” or simular spell in the doorway. I dont know how many times I have been heavily outnumbered and used this trick to pull enemies thru the daggers… saving my butt. Just keep yourself hidden on the other side and many a enemy will fall to it.
I just recently did a room with 25 traps and 8 locked chests.
I like to use LoS and corner pull, as doorways are rare, but yeah. I also highly recommend loading up Persuasion heavily, especially if you’re going through a “good” playthrough. If you’re going evil, don’t bother, but I’ve managed to avoid 5 MAJOR combats while still getting the exp and loot.
Honestly the game was written to be played as a bard (if good is your choice).
I was playing Monk, but I decided to start over as a Bard. Plenty of martial NPC companions and nary an NPC Bard companion. Once I get expertise at lvl 3 to apply to Sleight of Hand Astarion is getting replaced
Counterspell and Fireball at lvl 6, I’ve not had Gale or Wyll in my part except when the story requires it. My bard has a TON of scrolls, every scroll that drops, she rains fire, lightning, poison, whatever she needs, from far away. I’m hitting 36 persuasion DCs and 34 pick locks/traps, and Karlach/Astorian just murders things. I’ve had 3 different fights where 3 people were making death saves and Karlach was stomping around murdering people
Counterspell and Fireball, exactly why I am going College of Lore Bard also. i am disappointed that 2 out of 3 Bard subclasses are martial subclasses, Bard should have had College of Eloquence instead of either martial college.
I just found my Violin, so have Lute, Lyre, Flute, Drum, and now Violin. I love the music in this game. I find another bard, target them and see what they’re playing, start playing that song on a diff instrument and I accompany them. So much fun!
I’ve taken all of the chests that I’ve picked up so far and put them in the camp chest to create more room/a way to create a better organization of stuffs.
Be careful, when you change areas you lose all of those chests I believe. I know I did. For example, out in the field I put 2 chests down and put books in them. Then I went to the underdark and went to camp and the chests weren’t there. Back up top and they were there again, so they only existed in that 1 camp.
One thing I wish I could do, right click and Send to… someone not in my party. I’m regularly having to grab Wyll or Lae’zel for a mission and realizing they have crap gear, but it’s such a PITA to move things to them when they’re nearly never in my party.
I just found this out and now I’ll need to rethink how I handle my camp stash. You lose the waypoints from the previous acts when you advance into the next act. I guess I’ll sell it all before moving into the next act. No big deal, I guess. It’s basically junk that I haven’t sold yet.
