Dark Urge Druid - Build Notes

Baldur's Gate III - Tactician - Dark Urge Druid

Some things are out of date - this was written very early in the game; some subclasses have been changed - along with some general approach/build details.  That said; its likely not worth mentioning it; you can decide your own customizations as you play - the majority of these notes are reasonable.

"Beginner" level - but; with a background in trying... and so, tactics that work - and a summary knowledge of D&D (enough to play).  Trust me; tactics in a game and tactics vs a DM do not relate.

If you watch the battle videos you'll see I make plenty of mistakes due to various ... mistakes.  These are not videos on how things work perfectly... but, they do show how easy it is to play the game.

Something of note - I don't even use the powerful druid forms in the early game; I save them for an emergency - later in the game I will invert this strategy.  My first feat was tavern brawler; which, in this game, works for animal weapons.  

The next feat will be an ASI (Ability Skill Improvement) - as it is important when I am down to the Druid (as a last stand) I need him to have high odds of landing spells.  Most stats are effected by his creature form, but not his primary stat for casting.  Which means I will benefit from resistance type checks as well.  
The Tavern Brawler Feat will come in handy for the Dark Urge as well.  It makes it hard to miss, and does lots of damage.
I snagged a random "hit" to show the modifiers you'll see in general: .... the attack roll you see started with a 7/20... then +3 proficiency (linearly scales as you level)... the +5 for tavern brawler, as I said works in this game for "beast" weapons... str from being an owlbear... and the 7 goes all the way up to a 23...

Then; you can see, many of the same modifiers determine the damage.  The later videos are already showing that he basically never misses, and even with resistant creatures does good* damage.

In general items do not change anything for the beast or dark urge forms; you cannot change your armor or items either - so I need to be careful not to accidentally trap an item I may want.  That said, if it says I get an unarmed attacked type bonus, even though I know it should not apply, I keep it equipped... I'll check the logs to see if anything slips through.

Game Mechanics Notes

Many of these notes you should make sure you preform after each Long Rest in the game.
  • After any character goes through a leveling screen, or after any long rest; merchants restock - this gives you the ability to control* when you restock.  You could even hire hirelings (and level it), just to restock a merchant, if you wanted. 
    • Knowing the location of as many vendors as possible, is extremely valuable; you should visit all of them after each long rest.  Keep track however you need. 
    •  The inventory system is arguably broken; you can have a particular character responsible for all of a particular thing; you can go to another character's inventory and use (throw/shoot/etc) the items as if they were in your inventory. 
      •  There are bugs with this; but you can also simply split items and transfer them - as these do not seem to cost any type of action or bonus action to do.  In effect, it is the same as the previous comment with slightly more effort.
    • Also, in general, each new level will put "new" items onto vendors that were not available at previous levels; the merchant items scale with your level. 
    •  Pick up the small bags (low weight) for organizing things into categories: quest items, throwables, coatings, potions/elixirs, arrows, spells... whatever. 
  • Keep clean and organized inventories - use the "send to camp" option liberally, you can always go there and get items you want to sell.  Always stock up on the most useful potions (e.g. healing; and arrows for utility... and any other useful things).
  • I try to accomplish as much in one day (between long rests) as I can - that's really the only challenge I place on myself, in general.  You never know when there is a ticking clock on a quest.  Its important to keep the game paused (go into turn based mode), to stop the passage of actual time as well. 
    •  You'll notice (in the battle videos) that I almost never use the 'once per long/short rest' abilities, to a fault (I guess; fights could end faster/easier)... so I likely save them until I know I'm about to take an appropriate rest type for a refresh in the ability.
  • Elixirs are just potions that last until your next long rest; I try to make sure every character has some elixir that makes sense for them.  For example, the Druid (main character) will be using the colossus elixirs. NOTE - decided bloodlust is better, just hard to keep up the supply. 
  • Ritual Spells are spells that work like cantrips if you are NOT in turn-based mode.  These are additional buffs, some of which last until a long rest; examples are Speak with Animal and Detect Thoughts (which also have a potion form)...  these are potions/buffs that cost nothing* and last until your next long rest.
  • Higher level casters may have powerful allies that you can summon, that last until a long rest.  It is generally more than worth the spell slot to have the more powerful summons... In the druid's case, he gets Conjure Woodland Being which can - in turn - summon its own pet; that will last until a long rest. 
  • It's never* a bad idea to close doors behind you if there is a chance more things may get drawn into a battle, that otherwise may not... or if there is any looting or removing items from containers that could get you in trouble. 
    • You can remove items from within containers/corpses, so long as nobody sees (or hears) you open said container.  Hence, if a door is closed (and with care) you can take items from containers.
      • I don't want to make promises (line of sight, etc); but so long as there's no pathing into a room, and no one hears you through the closed door - its likely you can take anything and everything you want without risk. 
    • Many times, there is no pathing by mobs through doors; so even if you manage to kill someone and leave a corpse, it may never be found... generally you can send them to your camp or throw them into a chasm though.
  • As a rule of thumb, after most dubious activities (thefts and such)... I return to camp and wait 10 turns (that's more than enough)... when you return; even if someone notices something was stolen, you should* not be considered the thief. 

So; after I woke up after resting after the Nere fight, this is what I leave camp with (as far as my main character):

Elixirs that I particularly like are:
  • Bloodlust - an extra attack when you kill something; good for your DPS, but not so common.
  • Viciousness - lowers the number you need to land a crit; good if you don't have bloodlust.
  • Heroism - comes with blessing, which is just an extra 1d4 for you on virtually everything.
  • Strength - you can avoid paying for (valuable) STR ASIs feats on some characters this way; this is one of the most common potions early game.
  • Vigilance - as a last choice; just ensures you will get to go early in combat, and will not be surprised.
  • Battlemage Power - ups the odds your spells land, and stick.

UI Organization NOTES for casters:

Class/Item actions on the farthest left (ignoring the basic abilities of all characters); first panel... cantrips/rituals on the right side, next to the class/item actions... these spells will not use up spell slots - certainly not cantrips and rituals (out of turn based); but class and items may have limits based on resting, or other things.

Generally, if you only need to use a cantrip, just use the cantrip - there's no reason to kill everything as fast as possible; pace yourself.  Read the secondary effects of cantrips if they have them; you can slow mobs, stop them from healing, and many other things.  Inspect the enemy to check vulnerability (double damage) /resistances (half damage) /immunity (no effect/damage) before throwing them out though.

The spells I line up based on their level; level ones at the bottom, through level fours at the top.  In general, I avoid touch-attack spells, and I try to pick spells that scale - but, there are more consideration; you'll decide as you play.

The cleric (Shadowheart) gets all appropriate spells automatically, and can change them at any* time.  I also re-classed (re-subclassed really) Shadowheart - to be a Light build - it did cost me a strong level 4 pet; but, I think that's ok - you can change your mind all you want in this game... more or less.

The wizard (Gale) can learn* spells, and can change them at any* time.

The warlock (Wyll) works a bit differently - and I'm sure, when the time comes, it will end up here.

Summary

In the end game fights I will likely use the Owlbear forms, then the Dark Urge form, then finally the Druid himself.  The value here is the enemy will need to eat through multiple hundreds of hitpoints to kill you, and you can liberally use your potions to prevent any catastrophes.




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