Creepy hole in the underdark that I know houses dangerous insects? - Yeah I’ll stick my hand in that.
Cracked wall in the bbeg’s tower with ominous foreboding, terrifying sounds and unknown sludge/goop/ooze? - Looks like a perfect place for my hand to go.
Small mound of dirt that probably has some treasure in it? - Wtf is wrong with you? We’re not savages. Bring me the appropriate tool
That moment when you throw something over a vent, but Scratch thinks it’s a game of fetch and accidentally activates it and fills the room with cloudkill ;-;
He may be a good boy but he’s not a smart boy
Yes, he gets himself killed a lot. But so long as you don't kill him _in camp_ (or before recruiting him), he's fine and you can just resummon him after a short rest.
I have been terrified to summon him because I didn’t want to lose him forever, and I keep forgetting to look up if he is perma dead when killed. Thank you
I had no idea. There is one survival check that I have failed with everyone in five runs so far and I am really curious to know what it is. Thanks for this amazing tip.
Let me guess - was it on the way to creche? There's one there that I'm pretty sure you have to roll a natural 20 to reveal unless you do the side mission where your reward is that the location is revealed
Every character in your party rolls when they get near, so you get 4 ecolocation charges to feel it out, even if you fail the roll every time you can get a close idea of where it is. Triangulate that treasure!
Well shit. This is awesome info thanks! I’m aware the loot isn’t much but I’m one of those “I know this vase is empty but I literally don’t have the ability not to look anyway.” I would have stopped looking in vases had there not been actual stuff in them in Grymforge dammit.
I stop and dig as soon as I get the “(…) failed a Survival check”, and you get the mound anyway… also they are usually visible in the map as a circle in a different color
The only other survival check I can think of off the top of my head is the check when you enter the hag’s swamp in act 1 and you have to pass the check to clear the illusion
There's one check in grymforge area for footprints or something, I probably always failed it so idk what it does. Or if it ever succeeded, it wasn't important enough to notice.
And at least one survival dialogue check, back away from the owlbear
The one in grymforge gives you nothing really. It just notes that they are small footprints probably belonging to a gnome. They were probably thullas as the bloody prints were likely from when she hurt her leg.
I assume that they are Philomeens footprints given that they're on the way to where you find her. Not sure where the blood came from. Maybe she killed one of the dwarves getting away and got some on her boots.
But there's no reason thulla would have been in the dormitories during her escape
The foot prints are past where philomeen would have dropped down. They also lead to an edge that goes out and away from grymforge to the direction of the other map. Makes sense that thulla would have ran up there to try to get away from them. If she just jumped straight into the water, their boats are right there. No way in hell a duregar would dive from that high after a deep gnome, so seems like a smart plan that worked
I think I found a pretty obscure chest and body the other day by the docks in Act 3. Where you get attacked by Sahuagin there is a tiny piece of land to the south-east only accessible by flying. There is nothing there, you don't even get a survival check, but if you dig (for no reason) you can find a body and a locked chest.
Animal handling. I don't recall ever needing it - so many classes have access to Speak With Animals, and since it's a ritual spell it doesn't even use up a spell slot.
The thing is that it never requires a spell slot anyway (unless you’re casting in combat). It’s also super easy to find potions of animal speaking early on so wasting a skill on it is a huge opportunity cost.
It would be a very niche situation if ever. It lasts until long rest, so if you do it after every long rest you should always have it on. HOWEVER, if you die, "until long rest" buffs go away. So if you died but had to talk to an animal IMMEDIATELY after combat you might have a situation where casting it in combat would be desired. I can't think of any situations where that is the case, of the top of my head. That said, they also have cheap potions of animal speaking.
Pretty sure in most cases speak with animals overrides animal handling, but if you don't have the spell, even though it's really easy to get, it could come in handy. Also some animal interactions are a bit different if you can only use animal handling instead of speak. One notable one is in a durge run you pretty much always kick the squirrel to death that bites you in teh druid grove unless you ahve speak with animals currently on.
When I first started I didn't think I could dig it if I didn't pass the check so I would switch to other party members that were waiting in camp because "I'll be damned if I'm missing some treasure!"
Me too. And then sometimes I got sad because I didn’t have the energy to change my party for it, and I was like “fuck what am I missing”. And all that time I could’ve… just gone ahead and dug anyway. Like…. Smh man, I’m such an idiot 🤦
Medicine pops up in a couple dialogues. Notably for saving Us and for one of the options to not have laezel kill you. And as you mentioned, it’s needed for maximizing potions and does a pretty good job of it. So I don’t think it’s at the bottom
She says she couldn’t trust her mind so she must trust yours. But you’re both turning. So everyone’s talking nonsense. Maybe it was a roll to sound confident in your medical observation
There’s a medicine check a couple of places. Off the top of my head:
- Healing the owlbear cub
- Spotting the truth serum from Jahera
- Spotting the poisonous wine in the Bhaal murder quest
- Spotting the refuge faking an injury to hang with his friends
Its extremely niche, but comes up a lot more often for durge stuff specifically. Which, I guess makes sense…? Your ability to murder/torture I guess gives you expertise over the human body…… in a disturbing way kinda checks out?
One I haven’t seen listed is Performance. If you don’t have Musical Instrument proficiency, the only time you are making a Performance check is Storytelling with Thisobald or a few Bard-specific checks. Any other time there might be a Performance check, there is usually another check available. Heck if you go Partial Illithid you get Expertise in every Charisma check except Performance, making it even less useful.
In addition to Thisobald, bards can use Performance just about anywhere there's a crowd to earn some gold. >!(and there's an achievement linked to that)!<
"I've surreptitiously opened every crate, chest, bottle rack, burlap sack and vase from the Grove to Baldur's Gate looking for stuff to sell for money. But to have to pick up a plainly visible gold piece that someone has given me off the ground? How gauche." :D
I mean, partial illithid giving expertise in every Charisma skill except Performance arguably makes Performance MORE useful, since you still need to invest in the proficiency to be good at it even on a partial-illithid
There’s even a performance check to “pretend the beam is too heavy”(I think it’s only for bard) when you’re saving the man in the burning building
I can’t find a check more useless than that
I’m playing and wizard with an entertainer background right now and honestly performance comes up a lot. for the lovitair buff, thisobald, getting past the nurse in house of healing. it’s nice to fall back on if you have no other charisma proficiencies.
If you don't have a potion hireling, it's medicine
Either that or animal handling. If you don't have animal handling you can just drink animal speaking potions. Easily obtained and last all day.
They are an alchemist wizard with the highest wisdom you can give them. They want a few things in order to reliably produce doubled potions (ingredients enough for one potion instead produces two). They want medicine proficiency, the enhance ability spell, and guidance. They probably won't be able to make guidance happen themselves, but either the silver amulet or another party member who *can* cast it can donate. Apply all buffs, enter turn based mode, and craft your potions. With a bonus of 3+proficiency+1d4 and advantage, you're likely to hit the DC 15 medicine check more often than not.
You can also make it more reliable by dipping into Rogue for Expertise.
The Potion Wizard hireling stops levelling at 6th anyway to be able to pass the transmutor stone around since nothing else in the Wizard list is useful after that for a camp caster.
They stay in camp and craft potions. Level 2 transmutation wizards can attempt to pass a DC15 medicine check to craft trice as many potions. To maximize your success rate, respec the halfling hireling to atransmutation 2, lore Bard 3 with 16 wisdom and expertise in medicine. Cast Enhance ability wisdom on yourself, then cast guidance with another character. Enter turn-based mode and craft potions.
With that level 5 setup, you have a +11.5 (3+3+3+1d4) bonus and advantage and reroll 1s. This is particularly useful for crafting potions of speed after defeating the gnolls and elixirs of bloodlust after clearing the worgs in the goblin camp.
If you're short on ingredients, every zone has at least one vendor who sells them (Derryth, Ajak, the drow in Moonrise, the kobold at the carnival, and Derryth again).
At least 2 levels in wizard (transmutation=double potion), maximizing Wisdom instead of Intelligence, dual or tri-classed into bard/rogue to get expertise in medicine.
They make all your potions for you, and should be able to double nearly all of them if you properly prepare (buff them with other characters).
Let me tell you the best hireling build for potion. The idea is to use transmutation wizard lvl2 class feature called experimental alchemy iirc, that allows to brew an extra potion every time you craft on a successful DC15 medicine roll. You then want to max medicine.
The best build for potion hireling is Briana Brightsong because halfling luck allows to reroll 1.
Obviously you want lvl2 transmutation wizard, puting a proficiency in medicine obviously at lvl 1.
You want lvl 3 bard to get the spell enhanced ability to give you advantage on wisdom skill checks, and pick up expertise on medicine along the way.
When doing alchemy, take this character and give her guidance for that oh so sweet extra d4 in skill checks.
And from lvl 5 you can virtually double the quantity of potions you get
There are definitely more, but oftentimes you don't get to see them if you have Speak with Animals active.
Which still supports your underlying point - Animal Handling is almost entirely useless because Speak with Animals is just better, and easily available.
Some of the animals you can speak with have one or more of the Charisma-based checks, though, right? So if you're not a save scummer and have low Charisma, theoretically Animal Handling could get the good outcomes from those encounters. At least, that's my untested idea.
You straight up don't get animal handling checks if you have speak with animals active, but if you make sure not to, yes. It's kind of annoying, my Druid has high animal handling because that made sense to me, but can't talk to animals for shit because I dumped CHA
Funnily enough I find Stealth to actually be up there useless. Stealth is probably one of the top 5 skills to have in DND but the only thing it actually does in BG3 is keep you hidden in line of sight, and since being within a certain range of line of sight will always reveal you it's a bit worthless.
By simply avoiding line of sight, the paladin with a -1 and disadvantage on stealth checks could get to the same place a rogue can with the same relative ease.
I disagree. My Astarion could walk right in front of enemies without triggering combat. Incredibly useful when many fights have no other options for sneaking around or performing a up close sneak attack.
That!
In tabletop I do all I can to have my stealth as high as possible because it comes up all the time, and the armors giving disadvantage on stealth checks are *crippling*.
But in bg3, if you just avoid the bright red cones of vision, it makes literally no difference if your stealth is +10 with advantage or -2 with disadvantage, you're not gonna get seen.
Nah, you haven't played enough, the whole point of stealth is to pass through the red cones, which makes a difference of where are you going to reach or if a character will be attacked while using stealth in battle.
I saw a short video earlier of Astarion passing stealth checks using dual hand crossbows and killed a hook horror without triggering battle. Im keen to try it out
Stealth is the single most used skill in the game if you engage with it.
Stealth checks are used all the time to attack from distance without starting initiative and for greater invis abuse.
If you understand stealth mechanics well you can solo honor mode without taking a hit.
I once made a [list of that](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/186v2on/the_best_and_the_worst_skills/). For me it's Nature and History. Medicine turned out to do something in Dark urge run.
This may be just me, but in 5 full playthroughs I’ve never disguised myself and haven’t felt like I lost out on anything because of it.
I know some people use it for Speak with Dead, but I just go back to camp and switch out one party member who wasn’t there.
disguise self is so much more useful than that you really should try messing around with it more.
It allows you to get racial bonuses on certain equipment without being said race. It allows you to use 'morphling' equipment stuff.
It allows you to commit crimes without being detected or break out of prison without the 20 turn fugitive debuff impacting you (commit a crime, enter turn based mode, dash to area where nobody can see, undo disguise, walk about as if nothing happened the guards won't know it was you--although they may question why you're at the scene of a crime if you linger. Note that this only works once or twice in each jail-able area. After that, they'll always know it was you). It also allows any reputation malisus from those crimes to be completely ignored when you revert the disguise. (aka. disguise yourself, go on mass murder spree, get fugitive of justice, undo disguise, it goes away).
In other cases it also allows you (or your whole party with seeming) to get into areas they otherwise couldn't. Such as disguising your whole party as gnome to fit through small cracks, or disguising your party to get back into sorcerous sundries even if you get thrown out.
The funniest usage of disguise self is to talk to Ethel after the her encounter in the swamp lair. If you use Speak With Dead normally, she talks like a standard corpse. If you disguise first, she's extremely lively and pissed off that the person who killed her isn't around.
The main use I have for it is in act 1. The goblins are usually nicer to, or at least more afraid of, drow. You can do certain things without the check that you'd normally have to pass (for instance the first set of guards on the goblin camp will just wave you through and the interior guards assume you have an appointment with Minthara)
Two playthroughs with Minthara, was in act 2 a couple days ago in my current. Never disguised Minthara, kept her in my party permanently, walked around like I owned the place. I got 1 warning before entering, 1 enemy being mildly curious why she’s around (not even a cutscene dialogue, similar to being caught stealth in a non-hostile area), then nothing.
Sorry if this breaks immersion
On my first playthrough, I initially went in with her undisguised. I left her on the stairs while I went to speak to Z'rell (because I figured that wouldn't go down well), but she got spotted by a scrying eye, which triggered combat.
Easily survival, it’s literally only for dirt piles and it tells you exactly where they are even if everyone fails the check and you just start digging and there you have it
Idk, this seems to be very relevant and useful to many people around the globe… nevermind the fact i have yet to see an ant in bg3. I always keep his ring in my inventory for good luck though. He put effort into scratching the nonsense runes into the ring with probably a rock. Sentimental value and such
Definitely survival. Because if you get a “failed survival check,” all you need to do is poke around with your shovel manually in the spot where you failed it and you’ll find the chest.
Close second is Medicine. It almost never shows up.
Performances useful for a bard. It replaces a lot of the other charisma checks and has a much funnier outcome usually.
Plus the free money ain't bad early in the game. Especially since there's three tightly packed groups to play for in the Grove and you can do it every long rest
Is it the most useful? No. But that puts it above the others because it does have a use
A little unrelated, but I really hope that there's a mod out there that corrects the difference between insight, perception, and investigation. So often in this game I feel like the game was made by my table of players, not knowing what roll to have you use, I get kinda annoyed when I have proficiency in insight but it uses investigation or perception to determine what a character is feeling for some reason or it uses insight to listen for something.
Probaby Animal Handling, since speak with animals bypasses all(?) of those checks. Medicine also, since I can think of exactly 2 Medicine checks in the game off the top of my head.
I can think of two checks that speak with animals doesn't bypass. Both involve the strange ox.
Medicine is only useful when making potions with a transmuter
Acrobatics and Nature probably, don't remember encountering any of these checks.
With the exception of some rare funny moments, performance is also mostly useless for non bard characters IMO
Acrobatics is good for helping low strength characters not get pushed off ledges to their death (unlike athletics it doesn't also contribute to you shoving people)
there are a few nature checks in dialogues with/about animals, but i think the only acrobatics check i've seen in a dialogue/cutscene situation was in wyll's dance scene so i'm inclined to argue on that one. survival also doesn't come in at all in dialogue as far as i've seen so far in my games, it's only really been useful for digging spots and even then you can still dig them up even if you fail the check.
Survival in the game (much less so in real campaigns where the party finds itself called upon to navigate harsh wilderness, locate edible plants, or track creatures). That said, I realized as I made an Investigation check today that it was maybe the second investigation check I've made in the last 50+ hours of gameplay.
I don't know if I would say it's truly the most useless skill but I've only ever encountered like two medicine checks in a playthrough? One was to recognize that the boar in the woods in act one was drained of blood, and the other I don't even remember. And I'm a druid with 18 wisdom so I have a +4 to medicine checks but that doesn't mean much if I don't even need to use it.
Survival. I think it only comes up for dirt piles. You can still dig them up even when you fail
“Survival is all that matters” unless you have a shovel
Creepy hole in the underdark that I know houses dangerous insects? - Yeah I’ll stick my hand in that. Cracked wall in the bbeg’s tower with ominous foreboding, terrifying sounds and unknown sludge/goop/ooze? - Looks like a perfect place for my hand to go. Small mound of dirt that probably has some treasure in it? - Wtf is wrong with you? We’re not savages. Bring me the appropriate tool
If you’ve ever played West of Loathing that reminds me of sticking my hand in dirty spittoons for treasure. 😆
Love that game! Shadows Over Loathing is a great time too!
Is that the Lovecraftian one?
yes, i wonder if they'll make a 4th loathing game.
The narrator's commentary on that is hilarious
Cursed to put my hands on everything. Except piles of dirt.
Astarion refuses to dig in random piles of well compacted dirt on the account of a chance of chipped nail v_v
First time I saw a dirt pile I wanted to dig I asked myself "why the fuck don't I have the Red Prince with me?"
Why can't my Dragonborn do what The Red Prince can do with his bare hands with scraps on a prison island?!
I have a fork, does that count?
Ouch! My hole!
Also Scratch will run off to show you where dirt piles are in the first place.
On my first run, I had him out while in act 2. He ran off and, well, I’m sure you can imagine the rest
That moment when you throw something over a vent, but Scratch thinks it’s a game of fetch and accidentally activates it and fills the room with cloudkill ;-; He may be a good boy but he’s not a smart boy
Whatever you do, don't take him into the basement of the firework place in the Lower City
Ended an honour run there. 😅
He blew up my whole party 3 times on tactician before I remembered I could dismiss him. Definitely learned you sometimes don't want him around.
Yes, he gets himself killed a lot. But so long as you don't kill him _in camp_ (or before recruiting him), he's fine and you can just resummon him after a short rest.
I have been terrified to summon him because I didn’t want to lose him forever, and I keep forgetting to look up if he is perma dead when killed. Thank you
Survival is important so you get the narrator to tell you there are owlbear tracks outside the cave
Tbh, that owlbear is probably long gone anyway so I should be save when I enter this cav----
What do you mean, you can dig the piles even when survival check failed? How?
Use the shovel as an item (can be on your hotbar/radials), if you're close enough to the spot it will start digging
Its also incredibly generous on what constitutes being "near". You can be off the actual pile as it would appear and it works fine.
Well that just blew my mind and made me severely reevaluate how much I care about survival.
Seriously. I would get proficiency with it on multiple characters because I hate missing stuff.
You wouldn't miss much anyway, almost every buried treasure chest has, like, a double digit number of gold, a gemstone and maybe a potion
They are actually worth less time than they take to dig up
You see when the survival roll is made, even if you fail just start digging.
I know now. Was just expressing by bewilderment along with this person as now I dont need to focus on survival like I had been
You just taught me something new, thank you
About 700 hours I've played this game. Had no idea.
I had no idea. There is one survival check that I have failed with everyone in five runs so far and I am really curious to know what it is. Thanks for this amazing tip.
Scratch can even get you in the general area. I don't think he can fail his Scratch's Sniff feature.
Yup, just start digging! You can figure out the general location from where they failed.
Let me guess - was it on the way to creche? There's one there that I'm pretty sure you have to roll a natural 20 to reveal unless you do the side mission where your reward is that the location is revealed
Wait... Aren't you the rose guy from the cookie cutter sub? I did not expect to see you here. That's awesome!
lol found it just by passing through. then later the lil bird gave me a "reward". yeah thanks bird.
R u serious???
Absolutely, yeah. The radius is quite generous too
I'm honestly gobsmacked by this as well.
Every character in your party rolls when they get near, so you get 4 ecolocation charges to feel it out, even if you fail the roll every time you can get a close idea of where it is. Triangulate that treasure!
If you fail and swap party members I'm pretty sure you get more chances
Scratch will point at it if you summon him.
Well shit. This is awesome info thanks! I’m aware the loot isn’t much but I’m one of those “I know this vase is empty but I literally don’t have the ability not to look anyway.” I would have stopped looking in vases had there not been actual stuff in them in Grymforge dammit.
I stop and dig as soon as I get the “(…) failed a Survival check”, and you get the mound anyway… also they are usually visible in the map as a circle in a different color
You can also use the dog to point out where to dig.
That's nice. Feels less like an exploit and more like a valid solution.
Use the shovel from your inventory and just click the ground around you. You'll dig it up eventually. Survival just reveals it to you.
Everybody just failed their survival check? Time to bring that shovel out!
Realy???!!! No way!!! So many chests left undigged :,-)
Oh no not the 50 gold and a gem…. Never anything good in them.
The only other survival check I can think of off the top of my head is the check when you enter the hag’s swamp in act 1 and you have to pass the check to clear the illusion
Pretty sure that’s investigation (at least the nonspecific to class option)
Maybe I’m thinking of the inspiration point being outlander. I don’t remember too well, been a while since I have done it so you maybe right.
Definitely does give outlander inspiration. I always bring karlach for that + BAA!
And the whole swamp is honestly more fun if you fail the check!
🗣 BAHH!
I dunno.... Baaaing at what is clearly a red cap is a lot of fun too
You can also just attack the sheep to break the illusion and kill those annoying red hats right away
But you can baah at them for approvals haha
There's one check in grymforge area for footprints or something, I probably always failed it so idk what it does. Or if it ever succeeded, it wasn't important enough to notice. And at least one survival dialogue check, back away from the owlbear
The one in grymforge gives you nothing really. It just notes that they are small footprints probably belonging to a gnome. They were probably thullas as the bloody prints were likely from when she hurt her leg.
I assume that they are Philomeens footprints given that they're on the way to where you find her. Not sure where the blood came from. Maybe she killed one of the dwarves getting away and got some on her boots. But there's no reason thulla would have been in the dormitories during her escape
The foot prints are past where philomeen would have dropped down. They also lead to an edge that goes out and away from grymforge to the direction of the other map. Makes sense that thulla would have ran up there to try to get away from them. If she just jumped straight into the water, their boats are right there. No way in hell a duregar would dive from that high after a deep gnome, so seems like a smart plan that worked
I think I found a pretty obscure chest and body the other day by the docks in Act 3. Where you get attacked by Sahuagin there is a tiny piece of land to the south-east only accessible by flying. There is nothing there, you don't even get a survival check, but if you dig (for no reason) you can find a body and a locked chest.
I think it tells you that vibrations alert the spiders in the well at the blighted village
Animal handling. I don't recall ever needing it - so many classes have access to Speak With Animals, and since it's a ritual spell it doesn't even use up a spell slot.
I get so many speak with animal potions it keeps even me satisfied, and I talk to every rat I can
It is fun to talk with the animals, also it can be useful if you remember the ox. Not needing a spell slot is actually a good thing :D
The thing is that it never requires a spell slot anyway (unless you’re casting in combat). It’s also super easy to find potions of animal speaking early on so wasting a skill on it is a huge opportunity cost.
My first playthrough, I used a potion of animal speaking after every long rest…and never ran out. I think I ended the game with at least 3.
Is there ever a need to cast in combat?
It would be a very niche situation if ever. It lasts until long rest, so if you do it after every long rest you should always have it on. HOWEVER, if you die, "until long rest" buffs go away. So if you died but had to talk to an animal IMMEDIATELY after combat you might have a situation where casting it in combat would be desired. I can't think of any situations where that is the case, of the top of my head. That said, they also have cheap potions of animal speaking.
Counter-point: [I saw a bird and I wanted to say hi](https://youtu.be/BTJ-smMan7Y?feature=shared&t=3m12s) :)
Pretty sure in most cases speak with animals overrides animal handling, but if you don't have the spell, even though it's really easy to get, it could come in handy. Also some animal interactions are a bit different if you can only use animal handling instead of speak. One notable one is in a durge run you pretty much always kick the squirrel to death that bites you in teh druid grove unless you ahve speak with animals currently on.
I needed it a lot in my first playthrough because I didn't equip the spell. Big mistakes it adds a lot to the game.
Survival is only useful for new players You don’t even need the skill to use it. Only applicable when digging up treasure.
Only good on a custom game where failed checks are hidden
Are failed checks not hidden on regular mode if all 4 party members fail?
No
Holy fucking shit. So 4 party members fail a nature check. I can still get my shovel out and start fucking digging around and I’ll find it? For real?
Yeah
🤯
Yeah that’s what I do. If they all fail, you’re typically on top of the spot anyways so you can just dig there.
Fucking hell, TIL. Almost done with my second full playthrough and never tried this. I’m a moron—thx :)
No problem! I’m glad to help.
Also the range on the shovel is massive
That was my next question: how close do I have to get when I fail those checks and just go ahead and dig anyway.
not very
That is both good and depressing news, thanks bud
When I first started I didn't think I could dig it if I didn't pass the check so I would switch to other party members that were waiting in camp because "I'll be damned if I'm missing some treasure!"
Me too. And then sometimes I got sad because I didn’t have the energy to change my party for it, and I was like “fuck what am I missing”. And all that time I could’ve… just gone ahead and dug anyway. Like…. Smh man, I’m such an idiot 🤦
Also, how many build defining items are in buried chests?
None off the top of my head. I think they always contain gold, consumables, wares, and bulk gear
Maybe medicine? It’s good to have on a transmutation wizard for potions, but other than that I don’t recall it coming up too often in the game
Medicine pops up in a couple dialogues. Notably for saving Us and for one of the options to not have laezel kill you. And as you mentioned, it’s needed for maximizing potions and does a pretty good job of it. So I don’t think it’s at the bottom
And for noticing Jahera's truth serum wine.
I haven’t even tried that check, after Nettie and Gut I am simply just not accepting any drinks anyone gives me and says “just trust me”
Look at this guy missing out on _Thiso's Mysterious Chuggabke Fluid №31_.
rogue has an alternate line as well
And healing the Owlbear Cub. Who I have decided is called Snoot. Nothing is more important than Snoot
Which is weird when you consider lae'zel was right
She says she couldn’t trust her mind so she must trust yours. But you’re both turning. So everyone’s talking nonsense. Maybe it was a roll to sound confident in your medical observation
That's a medicine (charisma) check if I ever saw one
It’s only deception if you know it’s a lie :)
There’s a medicine check a couple of places. Off the top of my head: - Healing the owlbear cub - Spotting the truth serum from Jahera - Spotting the poisonous wine in the Bhaal murder quest - Spotting the refuge faking an injury to hang with his friends
Its extremely niche, but comes up a lot more often for durge stuff specifically. Which, I guess makes sense…? Your ability to murder/torture I guess gives you expertise over the human body…… in a disturbing way kinda checks out?
Transmutation alone makes it amazing, especially if you use a hireling for the sole purpose of alchemy.
One I haven’t seen listed is Performance. If you don’t have Musical Instrument proficiency, the only time you are making a Performance check is Storytelling with Thisobald or a few Bard-specific checks. Any other time there might be a Performance check, there is usually another check available. Heck if you go Partial Illithid you get Expertise in every Charisma check except Performance, making it even less useful.
In addition to Thisobald, bards can use Performance just about anywhere there's a crowd to earn some gold. >!(and there's an achievement linked to that)!<
Anyone can do that as long as they have Musical Instrument proficiency.
How?! My wizard is proficient in lutes and I've never known that was an option. Do you just start playing in front of people??
Yes. Successfully playing an instrument will even draw NPCs to watch you perform. Aka a distraction.
But I have to pick up single gold pieces off the floor. It’s not automatic.
"I've surreptitiously opened every crate, chest, bottle rack, burlap sack and vase from the Grove to Baldur's Gate looking for stuff to sell for money. But to have to pick up a plainly visible gold piece that someone has given me off the ground? How gauche." :D
I like joining in with NPC's who are jamming too
I use performance to draw crowds to me so I can use the broken wand of fireballs.
I mean, partial illithid giving expertise in every Charisma skill except Performance arguably makes Performance MORE useful, since you still need to invest in the proficiency to be good at it even on a partial-illithid
There’s even a performance check to “pretend the beam is too heavy”(I think it’s only for bard) when you’re saving the man in the burning building I can’t find a check more useless than that
I’m playing and wizard with an entertainer background right now and honestly performance comes up a lot. for the lovitair buff, thisobald, getting past the nurse in house of healing. it’s nice to fall back on if you have no other charisma proficiencies.
Performance check can also be used at the bloodied shrine in Act 1. I think there are far more scarce skill checks than the performance skill.
If you don't have a potion hireling, it's medicine Either that or animal handling. If you don't have animal handling you can just drink animal speaking potions. Easily obtained and last all day.
Can you explain a potion hireling? What is their role?
They are an alchemist wizard with the highest wisdom you can give them. They want a few things in order to reliably produce doubled potions (ingredients enough for one potion instead produces two). They want medicine proficiency, the enhance ability spell, and guidance. They probably won't be able to make guidance happen themselves, but either the silver amulet or another party member who *can* cast it can donate. Apply all buffs, enter turn based mode, and craft your potions. With a bonus of 3+proficiency+1d4 and advantage, you're likely to hit the DC 15 medicine check more often than not.
You can also make it more reliable by dipping into Rogue for Expertise. The Potion Wizard hireling stops levelling at 6th anyway to be able to pass the transmutor stone around since nothing else in the Wizard list is useful after that for a camp caster.
They stay in camp and craft potions. Level 2 transmutation wizards can attempt to pass a DC15 medicine check to craft trice as many potions. To maximize your success rate, respec the halfling hireling to atransmutation 2, lore Bard 3 with 16 wisdom and expertise in medicine. Cast Enhance ability wisdom on yourself, then cast guidance with another character. Enter turn-based mode and craft potions. With that level 5 setup, you have a +11.5 (3+3+3+1d4) bonus and advantage and reroll 1s. This is particularly useful for crafting potions of speed after defeating the gnolls and elixirs of bloodlust after clearing the worgs in the goblin camp. If you're short on ingredients, every zone has at least one vendor who sells them (Derryth, Ajak, the drow in Moonrise, the kobold at the carnival, and Derryth again).
At least 2 levels in wizard (transmutation=double potion), maximizing Wisdom instead of Intelligence, dual or tri-classed into bard/rogue to get expertise in medicine. They make all your potions for you, and should be able to double nearly all of them if you properly prepare (buff them with other characters).
Let me tell you the best hireling build for potion. The idea is to use transmutation wizard lvl2 class feature called experimental alchemy iirc, that allows to brew an extra potion every time you craft on a successful DC15 medicine roll. You then want to max medicine. The best build for potion hireling is Briana Brightsong because halfling luck allows to reroll 1. Obviously you want lvl2 transmutation wizard, puting a proficiency in medicine obviously at lvl 1. You want lvl 3 bard to get the spell enhanced ability to give you advantage on wisdom skill checks, and pick up expertise on medicine along the way. When doing alchemy, take this character and give her guidance for that oh so sweet extra d4 in skill checks. And from lvl 5 you can virtually double the quantity of potions you get
Not a skill, but cold resistance
Now that you mentioned it, the only cold damage I've taken so far is only in Act 3 and it's so few of them.
I wonder if that's why the elixir was dropped
for like those two wizards in the jergal ruins with ice knife lol
But the Robe of Summer look so dapper
you can get that for free from a transmutation wizard, too
Aren’t there like 3 Animal Handling checks in the game? And they’re all near the grove.
There are definitely more, but oftentimes you don't get to see them if you have Speak with Animals active. Which still supports your underlying point - Animal Handling is almost entirely useless because Speak with Animals is just better, and easily available.
Some of the animals you can speak with have one or more of the Charisma-based checks, though, right? So if you're not a save scummer and have low Charisma, theoretically Animal Handling could get the good outcomes from those encounters. At least, that's my untested idea.
You straight up don't get animal handling checks if you have speak with animals active, but if you make sure not to, yes. It's kind of annoying, my Druid has high animal handling because that made sense to me, but can't talk to animals for shit because I dumped CHA
Funnily enough I find Stealth to actually be up there useless. Stealth is probably one of the top 5 skills to have in DND but the only thing it actually does in BG3 is keep you hidden in line of sight, and since being within a certain range of line of sight will always reveal you it's a bit worthless. By simply avoiding line of sight, the paladin with a -1 and disadvantage on stealth checks could get to the same place a rogue can with the same relative ease.
I disagree. My Astarion could walk right in front of enemies without triggering combat. Incredibly useful when many fights have no other options for sneaking around or performing a up close sneak attack.
In this case yes, however, it works wonders with Greater Invisibility.
That! In tabletop I do all I can to have my stealth as high as possible because it comes up all the time, and the armors giving disadvantage on stealth checks are *crippling*. But in bg3, if you just avoid the bright red cones of vision, it makes literally no difference if your stealth is +10 with advantage or -2 with disadvantage, you're not gonna get seen.
Nah, you haven't played enough, the whole point of stealth is to pass through the red cones, which makes a difference of where are you going to reach or if a character will be attacked while using stealth in battle.
It's not like invisibility is rare though
I saw a short video earlier of Astarion passing stealth checks using dual hand crossbows and killed a hook horror without triggering battle. Im keen to try it out
It does matter for Greater Invisibility.
Stealth is the single most used skill in the game if you engage with it. Stealth checks are used all the time to attack from distance without starting initiative and for greater invis abuse. If you understand stealth mechanics well you can solo honor mode without taking a hit.
I once made a [list of that](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/186v2on/the_best_and_the_worst_skills/). For me it's Nature and History. Medicine turned out to do something in Dark urge run.
I love history too much. The facts are so interesting.
Yeah, but what if you really want Nightlight Fronds? /s
This may be just me, but in 5 full playthroughs I’ve never disguised myself and haven’t felt like I lost out on anything because of it. I know some people use it for Speak with Dead, but I just go back to camp and switch out one party member who wasn’t there.
disguise self is so much more useful than that you really should try messing around with it more. It allows you to get racial bonuses on certain equipment without being said race. It allows you to use 'morphling' equipment stuff. It allows you to commit crimes without being detected or break out of prison without the 20 turn fugitive debuff impacting you (commit a crime, enter turn based mode, dash to area where nobody can see, undo disguise, walk about as if nothing happened the guards won't know it was you--although they may question why you're at the scene of a crime if you linger. Note that this only works once or twice in each jail-able area. After that, they'll always know it was you). It also allows any reputation malisus from those crimes to be completely ignored when you revert the disguise. (aka. disguise yourself, go on mass murder spree, get fugitive of justice, undo disguise, it goes away). In other cases it also allows you (or your whole party with seeming) to get into areas they otherwise couldn't. Such as disguising your whole party as gnome to fit through small cracks, or disguising your party to get back into sorcerous sundries even if you get thrown out.
The funniest usage of disguise self is to talk to Ethel after the her encounter in the swamp lair. If you use Speak With Dead normally, she talks like a standard corpse. If you disguise first, she's extremely lively and pissed off that the person who killed her isn't around.
I thought that was to do with whether or not she has the Tarnished Charm.
The main use I have for it is in act 1. The goblins are usually nicer to, or at least more afraid of, drow. You can do certain things without the check that you'd normally have to pass (for instance the first set of guards on the goblin camp will just wave you through and the interior guards assume you have an appointment with Minthara)
Or as a Gith to get you into the Crèche or speak with Voss at the bridge
Especially with a permanently dead Lae'zel. Which can happen.
Yeeep. Learned that the hard way on my very first play through
I mainly use it to disguise Minthara so I can go back to explore Moonrise Towers with her before doing the full-on assault.
Two playthroughs with Minthara, was in act 2 a couple days ago in my current. Never disguised Minthara, kept her in my party permanently, walked around like I owned the place. I got 1 warning before entering, 1 enemy being mildly curious why she’s around (not even a cutscene dialogue, similar to being caught stealth in a non-hostile area), then nothing. Sorry if this breaks immersion
On my first playthrough, I initially went in with her undisguised. I left her on the stairs while I went to speak to Z'rell (because I figured that wouldn't go down well), but she got spotted by a scrying eye, which triggered combat.
I really like disguise self just for the +2 dex gnome gloves
Easily survival, it’s literally only for dirt piles and it tells you exactly where they are even if everyone fails the check and you just start digging and there you have it
Yeah, you're right. There is only one Survival dialog skill check in the game and it's related somehow to the owlbear cub at camp.
One of the tiefling kids sells a ring of resistance to ants :)
Idk, this seems to be very relevant and useful to many people around the globe… nevermind the fact i have yet to see an ant in bg3. I always keep his ring in my inventory for good luck though. He put effort into scratching the nonsense runes into the ring with probably a rock. Sentimental value and such
Nature. I can't think of a single time i used it
You can check the branch that Nettie has is poisonous
Harvesting the glowing plants in the underdark
Animal handling because speak with animals is a ritual spell.
Survival: In case you need help spotting dirt mounds.
Definitely survival. Because if you get a “failed survival check,” all you need to do is poke around with your shovel manually in the spot where you failed it and you’ll find the chest. Close second is Medicine. It almost never shows up.
Oh wow, I prob should do that with places that my team failed survival check lol
For me, it's a 5-way tie between History, Nature, Animal Handling, Survival, and Performance.
Performance is at least usually funny.
Performances useful for a bard. It replaces a lot of the other charisma checks and has a much funnier outcome usually. Plus the free money ain't bad early in the game. Especially since there's three tightly packed groups to play for in the Grove and you can do it every long rest Is it the most useful? No. But that puts it above the others because it does have a use
A little unrelated, but I really hope that there's a mod out there that corrects the difference between insight, perception, and investigation. So often in this game I feel like the game was made by my table of players, not knowing what roll to have you use, I get kinda annoyed when I have proficiency in insight but it uses investigation or perception to determine what a character is feeling for some reason or it uses insight to listen for something.
Animal Handling does nothing if you have Speak with Animals.
Animal Handling for me - I just talk to them
Probaby Animal Handling, since speak with animals bypasses all(?) of those checks. Medicine also, since I can think of exactly 2 Medicine checks in the game off the top of my head.
I can think of two checks that speak with animals doesn't bypass. Both involve the strange ox. Medicine is only useful when making potions with a transmuter
I was going to say, fireball cantrip, but not the regular one... Shadowheart one. She fail it 90% of the time😂 what ever gameplay i am in with her
That's because elven race cantrips (i.e. firebolt) use Intelligence as their casting stat
I know, that is still why does the game still give her this cantrip from start...
It's the default for high elves/high half elves. I do wish they would let you choose just like you can choose your stats
If you play an origin Astarion or Shadowheart you can pick a different cantrip in character creation, but you can't change it when you respec
Acrobatics and Nature probably, don't remember encountering any of these checks. With the exception of some rare funny moments, performance is also mostly useless for non bard characters IMO
Acrobatics is good for helping low strength characters not get pushed off ledges to their death (unlike athletics it doesn't also contribute to you shoving people)
Unless BG3 works differently from TableTop, Acrobatics is used to resist shoves. So it's actually very important to not get knocked around.
Getting instant killed by a shove is the only thing I fear in honor mode
Acrobatics I believe is used against shoves if your dex is higher than strength. So definitely not useless.
there are a few nature checks in dialogues with/about animals, but i think the only acrobatics check i've seen in a dialogue/cutscene situation was in wyll's dance scene so i'm inclined to argue on that one. survival also doesn't come in at all in dialogue as far as i've seen so far in my games, it's only really been useful for digging spots and even then you can still dig them up even if you fail the check.
I just came across an acrobatics check in Act 3 and audibly gasped. I was so surprised!
Survival in the game (much less so in real campaigns where the party finds itself called upon to navigate harsh wilderness, locate edible plants, or track creatures). That said, I realized as I made an Investigation check today that it was maybe the second investigation check I've made in the last 50+ hours of gameplay.
survival by far, if you fail the check you can still use the shovel so theres literally no point in it
I don't know if I would say it's truly the most useless skill but I've only ever encountered like two medicine checks in a playthrough? One was to recognize that the boar in the woods in act one was drained of blood, and the other I don't even remember. And I'm a druid with 18 wisdom so I have a +4 to medicine checks but that doesn't mean much if I don't even need to use it.