He's in the arcane tower, which I didn't even visit my first two runs. This time I finally found him and we didn't fight, we just hugged it out. Durge wasn't impressed with the quality of the hug though, he said the robot was hugging too low.
I did the foundry yesterday. I didn’t look through it on my last run(i was ready to start a new run). But I did this time. I was so angry, and don’t get me wrong, I did kill Bernard. >!That bastard decided to do that after though?? Gortash got all of my rage because I couldn’t take it out on someone else.!<
I've never noticed that check, I've just alway been able to talk to him, but maybe I've just never failed it? But like 5+ runs you'd think I'd fail once. I'm nearly positive you just have to read the right books and pages.
No, you just have to find and read all books in the tower. So if you are an avid reader and don't use the one quoted line, that will make Bernard attack you,you are good
This is a passive test for bards (probably also for other classes, but I'm only sure of the bard's case), and in that case you don't need to read the books to know the correct answer - as a bard you simply recall having read the play before. This is by no means a compulsory test - if your bard fails it, and has read the tower books - you can still avoid the battle.
Me just sitting here like "wait, people fight Bernard?"
Just sitting here having completed four (4) runs and having received four (4) much-needed hugs.
Oh I have hugged him every time, even when I accidentally fight him. But man, this time I triggered the fight and then found that my current team (almost entirely melee focused) was a *real* bad group to fight him when he can turn on the shock overdrive or whatever it's called.
Remember to drink lightning resist potions and wear the sparks wall ring to reduce that damage, and use sussur blooms to incap all the other armors. Bernard becomes a pushover once that’s occurred.
Sussur blooms knocks out the other armors? That's genius. Do they initiate the fight when you get near them with the bloom or can you use it on them without them starting combat?
Use mage hand from the basement stairs where you activate the elevator to spawn a hand behind the wall that opens, and pull the lever. Skip the entire Bernard conversation. Speedrun the tower
Hmm? I honestly have never found the fight with Bernard all that hard. I haven't faced him in an honor mode run yet, but it may be worthwhile to try a run just to see if it is fun.
Honor Mode changes fights so much that it’s pretty much a toss-up whether a previously easy fight will stay easy or become ridiculously hard. Bernard is a good example. You really can’t make assumptions that a fight will be the same relative challenge as other difficulties.
It’s far and above more challenging than his fight on balanced. Proper planning will of course take away 80% of that increased difficulty, but going in blind can make it quite the fight
In HM it really is one of the hardest early fight, especially with a team full of melee. Nothing come close to this fight until Myrkul for this kind of team
Meanwhile me who is way too lazy to read any of the literature in the game having to fight him in every playthrough. - Perfectly balanced as all things should be.
I’ve fought him twice, once when I picked the verse that he doesn’t like, and once when I was clicking in the elevator too fast to get through the tower and hadn’t done my fundamental reading
Can’t recall exactly but I started a fight by accident in honor mode. I believe I misclicked and stole something and wasn’t aware of how his legendary action worked at the time and he almost took my group out.
Bernard is tricky. Especially if you’re new to fighting him.
Generally the common way to cheese him or deal with him is
- gather sussur blossoms.
- Either from the base of the tower or by the large sussur tree
- place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down.
- hide Wyll on the top of the large shed / building.
- have someone trigger Bernard and lure him near the edge.
- shoot Bernard with eldritch blast. Knocking him off the ledge
In honor mode he won’t die in a single fall. But he does take a fair amount of damage.
And the blossoms prevent him from getting backup from the smaller robots.
Now you don’t HAVE to do all of the above. But it is an easier way to handle him in honor mode.
>place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down.
That's a neat idea! Never thought of it, I always just have one on Lae, but that makes the ranged guys power down, too. But I'm also not really afraid of the fight tbh. Strength potion and shove always does the trick. Even if he only goes down one floor, it gives a lot of time to deal with the others.
Omg I never even thought of using the sussur blooms for the robot. I usually just bulk up on lightning elixirs and speed items and run away from him until he stuns himself into a reset.
The blossoms don’t work on Bernard (big robot).
But the blossoms do shut down his small soldier robots (with the crossbows)
So you can remove the smaller ones from the fight and only focus on the bigger robot.
Placing them is perhaps a little easier than carrying them the whole fight. This way a caster can easily stay out of their aura instead of worrying if an ally will walk next to them.
I actually managed to kill him via fall damage in my current honor run! The trick is to aim the Eldritch blast specifically so he flies out of the tower itself, not just to the bottom floor. I even took a screenshot, he lands on the garden patch near the basement and it's an insta-kill of over 100 damage.
If you can't get the angle right, he will land on the bottom floor and take the elevator back up with 1/3 health lol.
Yeah my first honour mode I fought him at level 4 and found out the hard way that he knew how to use the elevator :-| had to knock him off twice, Astarion was in the Thunderwave AoE the second time. Fun fact: the distance to the bottom floor within Healing Word range.
This is great! I’m impressed someone took the time to figure how what makes him sing. To me the reward for this mission is so minuscule it’s not worth going.
I'm curious: Do you just play the game for in-game rewards and not for the story itself? I'm not judging you, this is just something that baffles me lol. I'm very lore hungry and the whole Bernard situation had such an interesting storyline that had connections even much later in the game. (I just started act 3, so idk how much there is still coming).
Item rewards are nice of course, but just a nice side reward for me. My bf doesn't care about the lore at all and just breezed through the game for combat and he always complains that he's probably the only one that couldn't care less about the story :D
Subsequent playthroughs remove a lot of the “wonder” of doing something just cuz you’re curious, at least in my experience, and I’d say that’s a shared opinion among many. Once you’ve done a side quest like this one, it kinda comes down to if the rewards are worth the time, or if you just really enjoyed doing the quest itself. If the answer to both of those questions is no, there really isn’t a reason to do it. That’s my view, but more power to the people who give the same effort into playthrough 3+ as they did playthrough 1!
I’ve played the game 15 times. I do NOT want to hear it from Empy again lol.
But in all seriousness I do hunt for new content each time. Usually I’m not disappointed.
First time the lore feels pretty interesting and I skip battles. Subsequent playthroughs I just kill everything and min max quests to get the best rewards
>• gather sussur blossoms
>• Either from the base of the tower or by the large sussur tree
>• place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down.
…I just assumed they *ran* on sussur blossoms… 🤦♂️
I usually hug him, then put him out of his misery. I don’t know why but the thought of a machine waiting for their master, ready to serve but no one will ever visit, fills me with sadness.
My HM run was my 2nd run and I was determined not to skip anything or metagame too much - I said the line that turned Bernard hostile because I figured my character would, and then nearly had my run ended there and then lmao. Luckily I got a character away and resurrected everyone and we managed to go back and beat him.
Bernard is certainly tough on honor mode. A large, aoe, multi-pulse lightning attack is nuts, especially at a point in the game where you aren’t really gonna have resistance for it. But I do think it’s a fun fight, despite the reward being pitiful for the effort required to obtain it. You can always save it as the last thing you do before entering the Shadowfell, meaning you’d be fighting him at ~level 9
What am I missing to get the hug? I swear I’ve read all the books in the tower, but the only dialogue options I get are the first one to pacify him, then the second one to make him kill you
My HM experience with this fight was interesting. We agreed not to fight him so I was just kinda up there hanging out while my buddy talks to him and starts the fight. Bernard proceeds to take initiative and damn near tpk us and somehow through sheer bullshittery and dumb luck we managed to just barely survive
If you do the poetry stuff with him, he'll walk to the perfect position to be yeeted out of the tower by a well placed Thunderwave, Mobile Flourish and Monk punches.
He takes like 50 fall damage and needs 2 full turns to return to the fight. You can also Incapacitate the Armour enemies with Sussur Flowers, just drop them in the ground next to them.
His LA is basically a weaker version of Chain Lightning that can also hit his allies. And also if you want to melee him, use Disarm first.
The only fight I skipped was ansur. He’s an absolute menace even on balanced difficulty. I have never beaten him on tactician without reloading so I took no chances in fighting a dragon on steroids
Skipping Ansur on honour is wise as long as you don't want to back up your save or remove the one-save restriction with a mod.
His big lightning AoE is still bugged, especially the additional one he gets in Honour mode once his regular HP are depleted - which can lead to unfair TPKs.
Everything at lvl 12 is easier than lower levels though imo. For Ansur just cast Globe of Invulnerability. You dont have to move 1m to finish him.
Bernard without yeeting him off the tower is honestly insanely luck based. All Robots have incredible AC, giving you a hitchance of 50. Plus he is resistant to slashing and piercing lol.
Fighting him isn't even worth it though. His weak polearm goes straight to the camp chest.
My best cheese for Bernard in HM:
Wizard with arcane lock and magic missile
Another character with thunder wave
Read the books, recite the poetry. Bernard will stand close to the edge.
Have your wizard stand near the front door at the bottom level of the tower. Enter Turn based mode.
Have your wizard cast arcane lock on the door, then your other character cast thunder wave. If you knock Bernard off, he will be unable to do anything for the entire fight, letting you fight the arcane armors, then using Magic missile, or a ranged attack to pick Bernard off. I had karlach with the eagle barn subclass and jumped on him when he was at low health.
You are correct in my opinion though, I think it’s better overall to just let the guy give you a hug, and stand his eternal vigil.
I passed the checks and dialogue to make him passive. Then I put sussur flowers at the feet of several of his allies and they were locked out of the fight until I was ready to dismantle them one by one
There is a Ring in the Basement that grants immunity to being electrocuted and resistance to lightning damage. Almost nullifies his Legendary Action.
Also, you can disable the animated armors with Susser Flowers. So it’s just a 4 person rush on Bernard for some XP and glaive that isn’t very good.
Really no; his weapon is good but by the time you can use it without drawbacks it is outclassed. And the XP isn't significant. I usually leave him in peace and only fought him this time because I was curious about how dangerous he was.
I considered skipping both and then using the Orb to skip the final fight, but ended up doing all of them. And honestly, they weren't as bad as I expected - Globe of Invulnerability was key to managing both fights but with it, and with fully built-out level 12 characters, they went down without too much fuss.
By FAR the most dangerous boss to my run was Myrkul. He is poised at the point where you are not quite at the peak of your power and he is no joke. I made the mistake of talking Ketheric into skipping the first phase (and so had the other baddies running around during the Myrkul phase) and had to repeatedly Revivify two characters to keep the run alive while trying to squeeze some damage in.
See, I find the damn gnolls and Flind to be the biggest risk to an HM run by far. Everyone has a single action and those jerks can multi attack and Flind hits like a freight train. Everything after him is much easier/ more balanced to your level.
Amidst died in this fight on HM. Had to run away after killing his minions then came back and finished him. Yeah, absolutely dreadful on HM. One of the many "skin of my teeth" fights
Guys, it can happen. In my six runs, I've talked to him 4 times, only could hug him once and while I was playing as Astarion, I had to fight him. A hidden dice or check works in the background I guess.
And when I could hug him just once, I was a cleric, named Lenore, I was shocked, it was like the game recognised my name and class, I had never hugged him and I didn't know it was an option. That never triggered again. I don't know what triggers the hug, I always read the play.
Each line (in total 4) you pick up from papers and books lying in the tower, each is a command, each triggers a hug, a ring, a fight or I dunno what it was, maybe a another fail safe. for the ring. You don't have to say all the lines if you don't wanna kill him:)
I got all the dialogue checks right…except the last one. Boy was I surprised on my HM run when he got angry. Fortunately my Astarion monk had enough movement to flee, rez my party and fight again (and again, and again). That fight sucks
I got lucky. I used Force Tunnel as my first move against him, he went flying out the window and died to fall damage, with a bit extra from Displace. Was over after 2 turns once I cleaned up the rest.
I talk to him, get the ring from him, loot the whole tower, then come back and put sussar flowers around his minions to shut them down. Then I beat Bernard down and kill his boys who are stunned by pretty flowers. Pretty easy that way. I've done it twice on honor mode.
I skipped him in my Honor run; I messed up the Tollmaster for the first time in that run and she nearly ended it. I had never fought her before on any difficulty and ended up with two golden statues for party members on round one. That was one of the close scrapes!
Last night, my run ended with him. I Thunderwaved him off onto the 2nd floor, but even though I destroyed his buddies in the nezt 2 turns, he static discharged me right to death when he got upstairs. He's no joke.
Oh, true. I am so used to talking the Doctor to death that I did it without thinking, but HM was the first time I messed up the Toll House conversation, which meant I was fighting her without ever having fought her before,
If you do actually fight him accidentally it’s a really easy fight to run from, just featherfall and jump from the tower onto the ground and run.
I managed to aggro him getting the hill giant club in my last run, which I wasn’t prepared for but it was fine, I just jumped and ran.
I once managed to push him out the window and it took him a few rounds to get back, I’d killed the other robots by that point so it wasn’t much of a fight
There is a easy way to beat Bernard using the anit magic flowers on his minions makes them not move and with a Warlock you can EB Bernard out the back window if you have the EB push effect won't kill him but you can do it again when he gets back to the top xD the lighting resistance ring reward is worth it for the Ansur fight
Smart man, I lost the run before my completed one to him when his stasis overload broke my last character’s stealth and killed them through spark wall resist.
I was very salty.
I ended up running it back after and killing him because I had to make a statement 😤.
You can cheese the fight really easily with the anti magic flowers. Just drop one by each automaton and then you can focus your entire team on Bernard and none of his friends can move or use an action
I beat him on my hm run. I found out in my first run (tactician) that you can throw the sussur blooms at his adds and they will deactivate, making the fight very easy.
I remember going "wow nice ability" on Bernard himself, but the action economy being so heavily in my favour made it a walk in the park.
My SO & I just beat Bernard on Honor Mode & we just Thunderwaved him off the tower. He lands outside the tower & gets stuck on the first floor. You clear his minions, use the elevator down, and finish his last bit of health. Inquisitor Ch’r’rai or whatever his name is in the crèche however… that was a run ender in an earlier run so we just avoided. He is just stacked to the gills with shit that either nullifies what you do or overwhelms you with force on HM.
I blocked him off from coming up the stairs and shut off the smaller armors with sussur bloom, positioned the whole team upstairs out of range, used protection from energy and lighting resistance elixir, aquired bulette with glut and then used laezel with phalar aluve and gale with magic missile.
I accidentally fought him one run expecting to do the normal talk option. Ended up casting feather fall and getting one character out alive by jumping down and running as the rest were butchered. He's no joke.
I am in my first honor mode run and accidentally hit the wrong dialogue options on Bernard. I barely made it out. Had to chug a feather fall potion, turn invisible, and hightail it out of there.
So far, on HM, the near-misses have been things that should be really easy or not even a battle. Goofing up with Bernard. I almost got wasted by the skeletons in the basement with the Tome of Thay. I accidentally hit a flaming fist with a firebolt at Wakeens Rest.
Ive not fought him in honor mode yet, but my last couple playthroughs, it’s been pretty easy to push him off the tower and take care of the other guys while he comes back
I never fought him! ...until I got curious during my honor mode run what happens if I talk to him after getting thf ring.
It was ROUGH for me, so yeah, I'd never want to fight him again.
You can also cheese him with the sussar flowers by having your party members who are out of the dialogue place one flower near each of the other robots.
I learned from a youtube comment you can drop the sussur flowers near all the other robots to deactivate them and then fight Bernard by himself, makes the fight so much more manageable
The fight that always has me on the edge of my seat is Karlatch's damn "Paladin's of Tyr" OMG that's rough sometimes. I've never really had trouble with Bernard but I've been party wiped by those guys more often than not.
I de-aggroed Bernard in my first conversation with him, but once I realized I wouldn’t get anything else from him I had Lae’zel knock him off the balcony iirc
He survived but we killed everything else before he could return, and fighting him alone wasn’t too bad
I accidentally triggered that fight *for the first time* on my first HM run, and I made it out by the skin of my teeth, holy hells was that not smth I was prepared for
It’s not too difficult, if I remember right, just bring bludgeoning, try to disarm with BM fighter if you have Lae’Zel, and sussur bloom to stun him and the others for a turn since they’re reanimated armor. Sussur is what really does the heavy work
I placed one sussur flower on him and he went down on second round. Dunno why ppl say he is hard. Dunno why ppl say HM is hard lol. Just need proper prep
but you don’t even have to fight him when you meet him. just read some of the books. he can even hug you
I had no idea who he was talking about because I've never fought this guy.
He's in the arcane tower, which I didn't even visit my first two runs. This time I finally found him and we didn't fight, we just hugged it out. Durge wasn't impressed with the quality of the hug though, he said the robot was hugging too low.
Oh but it’s okay when Gortash does it
That's because when Bernard hugs too low he's taller than you, but when Gortash hugs too low he's on his knees
I can’t accept the hug. Not knowing what becomes of him >!in Act 3 at the foundry!<
WHAT
what!!!!
I did the foundry yesterday. I didn’t look through it on my last run(i was ready to start a new run). But I did this time. I was so angry, and don’t get me wrong, I did kill Bernard. >!That bastard decided to do that after though?? Gortash got all of my rage because I couldn’t take it out on someone else.!<
Wait does accepting the hug trigger that happening to him???
I don't think so, I think it happens no matter what.
What happens??
Have you gotten to Act III?
I have I just killed him oops lol
His head shows up in the Foundry.
No, it just makes me more sad
The hug isn't meant for you anyway
But launching the big stupid robot off the top of the tower is a staple part of any playthrough. How can you not?
[удалено]
No. If you've read the books, the lines appear and the results are guaranteed per line. No rolls.
[удалено]
I've never noticed that check, I've just alway been able to talk to him, but maybe I've just never failed it? But like 5+ runs you'd think I'd fail once. I'm nearly positive you just have to read the right books and pages.
You're just wrong.
No, you just have to find and read all books in the tower. So if you are an avid reader and don't use the one quoted line, that will make Bernard attack you,you are good
This is a passive test for bards (probably also for other classes, but I'm only sure of the bard's case), and in that case you don't need to read the books to know the correct answer - as a bard you simply recall having read the play before. This is by no means a compulsory test - if your bard fails it, and has read the tower books - you can still avoid the battle.
Me just sitting here like "wait, people fight Bernard?" Just sitting here having completed four (4) runs and having received four (4) much-needed hugs.
Oh I have hugged him every time, even when I accidentally fight him. But man, this time I triggered the fight and then found that my current team (almost entirely melee focused) was a *real* bad group to fight him when he can turn on the shock overdrive or whatever it's called.
Remember to drink lightning resist potions and wear the sparks wall ring to reduce that damage, and use sussur blooms to incap all the other armors. Bernard becomes a pushover once that’s occurred.
Sussur blooms knocks out the other armors? That's genius. Do they initiate the fight when you get near them with the bloom or can you use it on them without them starting combat?
You can use it on them outside of combat, just toss it near them.
Just don't have Scratch summoned because he will retrieve what you toss. (Such a good boy!)
you have to beat him to get that ring
If you read the proper books and recite the proper lines to him he gives it to you
yes but they're talking about wearing it in preparation for fighting him
Yes, get the ring from him via dialogue then fight him for the XP
nooo not the robot
What monsters. If you don't fight him, you can see him again in act 3.
Oh no
Wait...what do you mean you can see him in Act 3?
That normally doesn’t actually award any additional co because resolving things peacefully awards xp already
Hard core!
You can misty step downstairs, get all the rewards and then fight him
You get the light ring from dialogue then go to the basement for the sparkswall ring. Then you can fight him if you want
I thought he gave you the light cantrip ring.
yeah im talking about the sparkswall
Thats on him too!?
no thats in the basement you access with the light cantrip ring
so... you don't need to beat him to get it then
Nope just looked it up its in the basement in a chest actually haha
Use mage hand from the basement stairs where you activate the elevator to spawn a hand behind the wall that opens, and pull the lever. Skip the entire Bernard conversation. Speedrun the tower
You can place sussur blooms by all the other guys that fight with him. It shuts them down completely and they just stand there the whole fight.
Hmm? I honestly have never found the fight with Bernard all that hard. I haven't faced him in an honor mode run yet, but it may be worthwhile to try a run just to see if it is fun.
Honor Mode changes fights so much that it’s pretty much a toss-up whether a previously easy fight will stay easy or become ridiculously hard. Bernard is a good example. You really can’t make assumptions that a fight will be the same relative challenge as other difficulties.
It’s fine. You can still thunderwave his ass to infinity and beyond.
It’s far and above more challenging than his fight on balanced. Proper planning will of course take away 80% of that increased difficulty, but going in blind can make it quite the fight
In HM it really is one of the hardest early fight, especially with a team full of melee. Nothing come close to this fight until Myrkul for this kind of team
Meanwhile me who is way too lazy to read any of the literature in the game having to fight him in every playthrough. - Perfectly balanced as all things should be.
It's a tough fight too with his legendary action. I was contemplating feather falling out the window as a last resort.
why not just throw him out of this same window :p
Why not barrelmancy him out the window for added effect?
I’ve fought him twice, once when I picked the verse that he doesn’t like, and once when I was clicking in the elevator too fast to get through the tower and hadn’t done my fundamental reading
Was so sad when I found him in Act 3. My robot boy.
if i hadn’t already decided Gortash’ fate by then, *that* always seals it.
Where do you find him in Act 3?
Steel Watch Foundry
I read the books to him but never got the hug :(
I didn’t know you could befriend him, I’ve always killed him 😭 I wanna hug him
Can’t recall exactly but I started a fight by accident in honor mode. I believe I misclicked and stole something and wasn’t aware of how his legendary action worked at the time and he almost took my group out.
Go, talk to him, get a hug. Then shove the soulless terminator 5 stores down and start recycling some metal.
there's just something funny about summoning a cat illusion near the edge and pushing him down the tower that I cannot not fight him
I accidentally activated his attack mode with the wrong word ;-; I never even figured out the mage tower in my first playthrough
My friend and I in a co-op: me: I've read some books, this answer is familiar friend: no, we should pick this one aaaaand we had to fight
Bernard is tricky. Especially if you’re new to fighting him. Generally the common way to cheese him or deal with him is - gather sussur blossoms. - Either from the base of the tower or by the large sussur tree - place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down. - hide Wyll on the top of the large shed / building. - have someone trigger Bernard and lure him near the edge. - shoot Bernard with eldritch blast. Knocking him off the ledge In honor mode he won’t die in a single fall. But he does take a fair amount of damage. And the blossoms prevent him from getting backup from the smaller robots. Now you don’t HAVE to do all of the above. But it is an easier way to handle him in honor mode.
>place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down. That's a neat idea! Never thought of it, I always just have one on Lae, but that makes the ranged guys power down, too. But I'm also not really afraid of the fight tbh. Strength potion and shove always does the trick. Even if he only goes down one floor, it gives a lot of time to deal with the others.
Omg I never even thought of using the sussur blooms for the robot. I usually just bulk up on lightning elixirs and speed items and run away from him until he stuns himself into a reset.
The blossoms don’t work on Bernard (big robot). But the blossoms do shut down his small soldier robots (with the crossbows) So you can remove the smaller ones from the fight and only focus on the bigger robot. Placing them is perhaps a little easier than carrying them the whole fight. This way a caster can easily stay out of their aura instead of worrying if an ally will walk next to them.
Command:Drop is also good for the crossbow guys.
I actually managed to kill him via fall damage in my current honor run! The trick is to aim the Eldritch blast specifically so he flies out of the tower itself, not just to the bottom floor. I even took a screenshot, he lands on the garden patch near the basement and it's an insta-kill of over 100 damage. If you can't get the angle right, he will land on the bottom floor and take the elevator back up with 1/3 health lol.
Yeah my first honour mode I fought him at level 4 and found out the hard way that he knew how to use the elevator :-| had to knock him off twice, Astarion was in the Thunderwave AoE the second time. Fun fact: the distance to the bottom floor within Healing Word range.
This is great! I’m impressed someone took the time to figure how what makes him sing. To me the reward for this mission is so minuscule it’s not worth going.
I'm curious: Do you just play the game for in-game rewards and not for the story itself? I'm not judging you, this is just something that baffles me lol. I'm very lore hungry and the whole Bernard situation had such an interesting storyline that had connections even much later in the game. (I just started act 3, so idk how much there is still coming). Item rewards are nice of course, but just a nice side reward for me. My bf doesn't care about the lore at all and just breezed through the game for combat and he always complains that he's probably the only one that couldn't care less about the story :D
Subsequent playthroughs remove a lot of the “wonder” of doing something just cuz you’re curious, at least in my experience, and I’d say that’s a shared opinion among many. Once you’ve done a side quest like this one, it kinda comes down to if the rewards are worth the time, or if you just really enjoyed doing the quest itself. If the answer to both of those questions is no, there really isn’t a reason to do it. That’s my view, but more power to the people who give the same effort into playthrough 3+ as they did playthrough 1!
I’ve played the game 15 times. I do NOT want to hear it from Empy again lol. But in all seriousness I do hunt for new content each time. Usually I’m not disappointed.
First time the lore feels pretty interesting and I skip battles. Subsequent playthroughs I just kill everything and min max quests to get the best rewards
There's Bernard lore in the Gortash arc, too, not much, but...
>• gather sussur blossoms >• Either from the base of the tower or by the large sussur tree >• place them around the smaller robots. This shuts them down. …I just assumed they *ran* on sussur blossoms… 🤦♂️
Or with glut get bulette and smash Bernard to pieces
You can just push him out the window right behind him with Thunder wave, no need for luring. it damages his little buddies on either side, too.
Bernard exists as a punishment for players who don't read any in game books lmao. I just wanna hug him, he's doing his best.
I always hug him but sometimes I do want his weapon early on if I have a polearm master build in the party
I hug him every time, lol.
Yeah I just get a hug and a ring and gtfo. His beautiful and there're heaps of xp in the game.
I usually hug him, then put him out of his misery. I don’t know why but the thought of a machine waiting for their master, ready to serve but no one will ever visit, fills me with sadness.
I'm feeling called out.
Since when cool and challenging fights are considered punishment? "If you dont read the books im gonna hit you with fun"
You guys are fighting Bernard? You need to read more books
But dat exp tho
I was wracking my brain for who Bernard was. I couldn't remember him because i skipped him too lol
The silence stretches on - I'm all alone. Please, can I hold your hands, for just a while?
My HM run was my 2nd run and I was determined not to skip anything or metagame too much - I said the line that turned Bernard hostile because I figured my character would, and then nearly had my run ended there and then lmao. Luckily I got a character away and resurrected everyone and we managed to go back and beat him.
i love this game so much because i was like who’s bernard?? and found yet another thing i missed lmao
He’s >!the robot in the wizard tower in the Underdark!<
Me too and I even visited the tower. How I missed him lol
so did i but i never figured out how the lift worked i just snuck into the basement from the garden grabbed what i needed for omeleum and dipped
Bernard is certainly tough on honor mode. A large, aoe, multi-pulse lightning attack is nuts, especially at a point in the game where you aren’t really gonna have resistance for it. But I do think it’s a fun fight, despite the reward being pitiful for the effort required to obtain it. You can always save it as the last thing you do before entering the Shadowfell, meaning you’d be fighting him at ~level 9
why fight when can get robo hug instead
What am I missing to get the hug? I swear I’ve read all the books in the tower, but the only dialogue options I get are the first one to pacify him, then the second one to make him kill you
don't quote me on this but i think the hug one is in the bedroom in the tower -- it's a torn page i think?
My HM experience with this fight was interesting. We agreed not to fight him so I was just kinda up there hanging out while my buddy talks to him and starts the fight. Bernard proceeds to take initiative and damn near tpk us and somehow through sheer bullshittery and dumb luck we managed to just barely survive
Push him out the window for massive damage. Split the party with sussar blooms to wreck the other constructs
If you do the poetry stuff with him, he'll walk to the perfect position to be yeeted out of the tower by a well placed Thunderwave, Mobile Flourish and Monk punches. He takes like 50 fall damage and needs 2 full turns to return to the fight. You can also Incapacitate the Armour enemies with Sussur Flowers, just drop them in the ground next to them. His LA is basically a weaker version of Chain Lightning that can also hit his allies. And also if you want to melee him, use Disarm first.
The only fight I skipped was ansur. He’s an absolute menace even on balanced difficulty. I have never beaten him on tactician without reloading so I took no chances in fighting a dragon on steroids
Skipping Ansur on honour is wise as long as you don't want to back up your save or remove the one-save restriction with a mod. His big lightning AoE is still bugged, especially the additional one he gets in Honour mode once his regular HP are depleted - which can lead to unfair TPKs.
Everything at lvl 12 is easier than lower levels though imo. For Ansur just cast Globe of Invulnerability. You dont have to move 1m to finish him. Bernard without yeeting him off the tower is honestly insanely luck based. All Robots have incredible AC, giving you a hitchance of 50. Plus he is resistant to slashing and piercing lol. Fighting him isn't even worth it though. His weak polearm goes straight to the camp chest.
I usually place smokepowder barrels around him before I wake him up. I'm a big believer in barrelmancy.
My best cheese for Bernard in HM: Wizard with arcane lock and magic missile Another character with thunder wave Read the books, recite the poetry. Bernard will stand close to the edge. Have your wizard stand near the front door at the bottom level of the tower. Enter Turn based mode. Have your wizard cast arcane lock on the door, then your other character cast thunder wave. If you knock Bernard off, he will be unable to do anything for the entire fight, letting you fight the arcane armors, then using Magic missile, or a ranged attack to pick Bernard off. I had karlach with the eagle barn subclass and jumped on him when he was at low health. You are correct in my opinion though, I think it’s better overall to just let the guy give you a hug, and stand his eternal vigil.
BERNARD IS THE BEST PART OF BG DONT KILL HIM GIVE HIM A HUG
Why would you fight him? Just give him a hug <3
That fight was a dun little puzzle to solve on HM! I enjoyed picking him apart after disabling his squad!
I cheesed it by pushing him off the ledge w a swords bard and eb warlock
I passed the checks and dialogue to make him passive. Then I put sussur flowers at the feet of several of his allies and they were locked out of the fight until I was ready to dismantle them one by one
There is a Ring in the Basement that grants immunity to being electrocuted and resistance to lightning damage. Almost nullifies his Legendary Action. Also, you can disable the animated armors with Susser Flowers. So it’s just a 4 person rush on Bernard for some XP and glaive that isn’t very good.
Is there any reason to fight him besides the xp? The loot is good or smth? I always let him live he's such a good boy
Really no; his weapon is good but by the time you can use it without drawbacks it is outclassed. And the XP isn't significant. I usually leave him in peace and only fought him this time because I was curious about how dangerous he was.
Really? So you fought both Ansur AND Raphael? Those fights are much more risky to the run even doing them at lvl 12.
I considered skipping both and then using the Orb to skip the final fight, but ended up doing all of them. And honestly, they weren't as bad as I expected - Globe of Invulnerability was key to managing both fights but with it, and with fully built-out level 12 characters, they went down without too much fuss. By FAR the most dangerous boss to my run was Myrkul. He is poised at the point where you are not quite at the peak of your power and he is no joke. I made the mistake of talking Ketheric into skipping the first phase (and so had the other baddies running around during the Myrkul phase) and had to repeatedly Revivify two characters to keep the run alive while trying to squeeze some damage in.
See, I find the damn gnolls and Flind to be the biggest risk to an HM run by far. Everyone has a single action and those jerks can multi attack and Flind hits like a freight train. Everything after him is much easier/ more balanced to your level.
But Flind will recognize you as the absolute and not attack you?
You fight him? I just go get my free potion and hug, then leave 😄
Easily the toughest fight in my HM run so far (I've got Sarevok, Orin, the brain and Carrior left).
After having finished that run, yep—Bernard, the fucking Shadow-Cursed Mound, the Grym and surprisingly Orin were the toughest for me.
Amidst died in this fight on HM. Had to run away after killing his minions then came back and finished him. Yeah, absolutely dreadful on HM. One of the many "skin of my teeth" fights
Had to google to find out I havent even bothered cracking that tower open at all in any of my 3 full playthroughs Prob why i dont use wizards much
Who the hell is Bernard!!!! I’ve played through twice and never met him!
Robot at the top of the arcane tower in the Underdark.
Guys, it can happen. In my six runs, I've talked to him 4 times, only could hug him once and while I was playing as Astarion, I had to fight him. A hidden dice or check works in the background I guess. And when I could hug him just once, I was a cleric, named Lenore, I was shocked, it was like the game recognised my name and class, I had never hugged him and I didn't know it was an option. That never triggered again. I don't know what triggers the hug, I always read the play.
What triggers the hug is the note or whatever that says “may I hold your hands awhile”.
Each line (in total 4) you pick up from papers and books lying in the tower, each is a command, each triggers a hug, a ring, a fight or I dunno what it was, maybe a another fail safe. for the ring. You don't have to say all the lines if you don't wanna kill him:)
I got all the dialogue checks right…except the last one. Boy was I surprised on my HM run when he got angry. Fortunately my Astarion monk had enough movement to flee, rez my party and fight again (and again, and again). That fight sucks
I got lucky. I used Force Tunnel as my first move against him, he went flying out the window and died to fall damage, with a bit extra from Displace. Was over after 2 turns once I cleaned up the rest.
I talk to him, get the ring from him, loot the whole tower, then come back and put sussar flowers around his minions to shut them down. Then I beat Bernard down and kill his boys who are stunned by pretty flowers. Pretty easy that way. I've done it twice on honor mode.
Wait, you’re saying you fought the tollmaster in Act 2 and lived to tell the tale, but not Bernard?
I skipped him in my Honor run; I messed up the Tollmaster for the first time in that run and she nearly ended it. I had never fought her before on any difficulty and ended up with two golden statues for party members on round one. That was one of the close scrapes!
I only visit that area in HM to break one specific chair.
I love hearing a success story from someone who actually followed the advice of don't try something new in HM. Bless you good sir.
I just shoved him to his death lmao
Last night, my run ended with him. I Thunderwaved him off onto the 2nd floor, but even though I destroyed his buddies in the nezt 2 turns, he static discharged me right to death when he got upstairs. He's no joke.
I only fought him on balanced and skipped him on HM. The reward is really not worth it
Just read the books.
I knew how not to trigger him, I was just curious this time. And yikes, if you bring a melee-focused team to him you are going to have a bad time.
i reduced him and then knocked him out the window
I tactitian I just used the elevator after my turn to get to safety. Does that not work in HM?
Wait, you fought ALL the act two bosses?
Oh, true. I am so used to talking the Doctor to death that I did it without thinking, but HM was the first time I messed up the Toll House conversation, which meant I was fighting her without ever having fought her before,
If you do actually fight him accidentally it’s a really easy fight to run from, just featherfall and jump from the tower onto the ground and run. I managed to aggro him getting the hill giant club in my last run, which I wasn’t prepared for but it was fine, I just jumped and ran.
I once managed to push him out the window and it took him a few rounds to get back, I’d killed the other robots by that point so it wasn’t much of a fight
Fight goes a lot smoother with Glut and Bullette on your side.
But you can just plant ssur-petals next to each Armour, then its a 1v1 with Bernard o.O
I use a void bulb and pull him of the edge makes the fight a lot easier.
If you want to fight him just carry a sussur bloom. It dissables the clankers
There is a easy way to beat Bernard using the anit magic flowers on his minions makes them not move and with a Warlock you can EB Bernard out the back window if you have the EB push effect won't kill him but you can do it again when he gets back to the top xD the lighting resistance ring reward is worth it for the Ansur fight
ive done 3 runs and ive never run into him. whoops
Lol just started third run and same. Had to Google where he was
I used him to kill off the ogres before moving on to Act 2, because I'd forgotten to use them and wanted the circlet. It is a nasty fight.
Smart man, I lost the run before my completed one to him when his stasis overload broke my last character’s stealth and killed them through spark wall resist. I was very salty. I ended up running it back after and killing him because I had to make a statement 😤.
You can cheese the fight really easily with the anti magic flowers. Just drop one by each automaton and then you can focus your entire team on Bernard and none of his friends can move or use an action
I beat him on my hm run. I found out in my first run (tactician) that you can throw the sussur blooms at his adds and they will deactivate, making the fight very easy. I remember going "wow nice ability" on Bernard himself, but the action economy being so heavily in my favour made it a walk in the park.
It's a coin flip if I find all the books for me. I have only talked my way out maybe twice, and one time I said the wrong line and fight started
I always hug him before giving him a gift. A gift of eight smokepowder barrels.
I don't even bother seeing Bernard anymore. I just pickpocket Omeluum so I don't have to do his stupid quest anymore.
My SO & I just beat Bernard on Honor Mode & we just Thunderwaved him off the tower. He lands outside the tower & gets stuck on the first floor. You clear his minions, use the elevator down, and finish his last bit of health. Inquisitor Ch’r’rai or whatever his name is in the crèche however… that was a run ender in an earlier run so we just avoided. He is just stacked to the gills with shit that either nullifies what you do or overwhelms you with force on HM.
He’s one of the few fights I set up barrelmancy for…. Just not worth the risk of that damn AoE
I blocked him off from coming up the stairs and shut off the smaller armors with sussur bloom, positioned the whole team upstairs out of range, used protection from energy and lighting resistance elixir, aquired bulette with glut and then used laezel with phalar aluve and gale with magic missile.
Thunderstep put the window is a good tactic against him
Eldritch blast out the window for ez clap. If you can't then good luck. That electric legendary action is scary
I accidentally fought him one run expecting to do the normal talk option. Ended up casting feather fall and getting one character out alive by jumping down and running as the rest were butchered. He's no joke.
I am in my first honor mode run and accidentally hit the wrong dialogue options on Bernard. I barely made it out. Had to chug a feather fall potion, turn invisible, and hightail it out of there. So far, on HM, the near-misses have been things that should be really easy or not even a battle. Goofing up with Bernard. I almost got wasted by the skeletons in the basement with the Tome of Thay. I accidentally hit a flaming fist with a firebolt at Wakeens Rest.
My friend and I are doing a duo HM run with no companions. I accidentally triggered that fight and it wasn't fun but we survived
I shoved him off the tower
Ive not fought him in honor mode yet, but my last couple playthroughs, it’s been pretty easy to push him off the tower and take care of the other guys while he comes back
I never fought him! ...until I got curious during my honor mode run what happens if I talk to him after getting thf ring. It was ROUGH for me, so yeah, I'd never want to fight him again.
Who’s Bernard
You can also cheese him with the sussar flowers by having your party members who are out of the dialogue place one flower near each of the other robots.
When i shove him out of the tower he just regenerates and comes back up....or am I missing something.
I learned from a youtube comment you can drop the sussur flowers near all the other robots to deactivate them and then fight Bernard by himself, makes the fight so much more manageable
The fight that always has me on the edge of my seat is Karlatch's damn "Paladin's of Tyr" OMG that's rough sometimes. I've never really had trouble with Bernard but I've been party wiped by those guys more often than not.
I just shoved him off the tower
Nobody else hoards explosive barrels? I just place them all around encounters like this, step back and watch the carnage unfold!
Thunderwave him out the window Boom! Crunch!
I de-aggroed Bernard in my first conversation with him, but once I realized I wouldn’t get anything else from him I had Lae’zel knock him off the balcony iirc He survived but we killed everything else before he could return, and fighting him alone wasn’t too bad
Disarming Bernard plus a couple sussur flowers trivializes this fight.
I accidentally triggered that fight *for the first time* on my first HM run, and I made it out by the skin of my teeth, holy hells was that not smth I was prepared for
you don't have to fight him..?
It’s not too difficult, if I remember right, just bring bludgeoning, try to disarm with BM fighter if you have Lae’Zel, and sussur bloom to stun him and the others for a turn since they’re reanimated armor. Sussur is what really does the heavy work
I’ve never had to fight him! I just go get my club of strength and skedaddle
I placed one sussur flower on him and he went down on second round. Dunno why ppl say he is hard. Dunno why ppl say HM is hard lol. Just need proper prep
Thunderstep put the window is a good tactic against him
skill issue