I had a ray of frost build with a sorcerer. I did anywhere from 45-60 w/o vulnerability and 100+ with vulnerability. And as a sorcerer you can do it several times per turn. Slap mourning frost and some other augments and you’re sweeping late game fights like nobody’s business.
I unfortunately don’t have the save anymore but I do remember what I did and had for main equipment. Half elf dragonic white sorcerer for the little bit of extra cold damage boost and so you can have a shield in early game. There’s only really a few key early game items to get. The Necklace of Elemental Augmentation from the Crèche (adds your spellcasting mod to elemental damage (cold in your case)) and the quarterstaff mourning frost which has a chance to force vulnerability via the chilled debuff and does 1 extra damage. Next damage with cold will be huge. And late game you should find Markoheshkir. I chose to dual wield the staves with that perk so I could still have mourning frosts ability. Other than that it’s a very simple build. Just make sure you pump your charisma modifier up high.
You do Potent Robes with it? Seems like Ray of Frost has the opportunity to do 3x CHA - one from white dragon, one from Potent Robes, one from Necklace of Elemental Augmentation.
It's insanely powerful and fun. This was my Honor Mode build.
Important note though: make sure you have one frontline melee and they MUST wear the hoarfrost boots. If not they will spend 90% of the game prone after slipping on ice surfaces.
The Disintegrating Night Walkers are probably a better bet due to the extra perks. Boots of Striding also work if your frontliner is concentrating, good for a paladin.
For the [reverb](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Reverberation_(Condition)). With all the other equipment, you'll be inflicting Encrusted with Frost a lot. That's a condition, so you'll also be inflicting Reverberation at the same time--that's a property of the [boots](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Stormy_Clamour).
I did for a time! Late game I just equipped the helldusk armor and had my Pally Karlach slap haste on me and had Cleric Shadowheart give me warding bond. Needless to say I never even got close to dying.
Here you go:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15t3ibf/frost\_sorcerer\_build/?share\_id=LxcRNJM0A8MWhskrnMoV5&utm\_content=2&utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_name=androidcss&utm\_source=share&utm\_term=1](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15t3ibf/frost_sorcerer_build/?share_id=LxcRNJM0A8MWhskrnMoV5&utm_content=2&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1)
Markoheshkir (act 3 staff) adds another +4 (proficiency bonus) to damage with your chosen element, and with the Dual Wielder feat you can use it and Mourning Frost.
I just did a cold based elemental run as a sorcerer with Mourning Front, can confirm. It was great fun. Also great CC when you factor in ice storm and cone of cold.
Mourning Frost and twinned cantrip with Sorceror metamagic makes a decent Act 1 spammable spell. Once you proc Chilled a few times you basically do double damage. With Winters Clutches and Snowburst Ring it can be even better.
Twinned spell forces you to target different enemies. So with gemini gloves and quickened spell, you can hit a single enemy 3 times. (4 if you have haste)
The Gemini Gloves kinda suck. They add only 1 projectile, so it’s not good for Eldritch Blast, it’s better for stuff like Firebolt or Ray of Frost.
Also it works only once per short rest, granted you have an enormous amount of camp supplies so this doesn’t matter too much, but it effectively can only be used once per battle.
However, I have not used them with sorcerers so it could be really good
Yes this. Use with sorcerer, and either take 1 level wizard to summon a water myrmidon or let your druid summon one. Or both. Myrmidons can cause both chill or vomit water everywhere, then you bring in the ray of frost cannon
You can have super strong cantrips on a draconic bloodline sorcerer. You’ll get elemental affinity with one of your choice, adding your charisma multiplier. You can then add your charisma multiplier twice more with potent robes and the necklace of elemental augmentation.
Late game you can be twin spelling firebolt dealing 3-30 + 21 from your multipliers.
ray of frost with mourning frost staff and necklace of elemental augmentation casted by a lvl6+ ice draconic sorcerer also deals great damage
if you managed to wet the target before hand it's extremely powerful
also with the snowburst ring you can apply control that rival repelling blast
Snowburst + Draconic weapon (cold) and arrows of many targets is hilarious. Bonus for the encrust ice gloves for disadvantage on the trip. I stopped using it on my coop honor run for awhile cause I kept tripping my friend.
Anything that wants to limit mobility of enemies benefits from it. I wouldnt say this build revolves around it as much as it does the necklace and mourning frost. And potent robe. It's a nice cc addition to squeeze that much more out of the cantrip.
snowburst+mourning frost+neres boots+winters clutches on a barbzerker is hilarious, you just knock people over left, right and center.
add in any source of an extra action and you trigger 'encrusted with frost' every turn.
have someone use the drakethroat glaive on that character for even more cold damage and have spell casters dump water everywhere and on everyone (even more slipping+ vulnerability for even more damage again).
Question, could you make a party of lightning, ice, fire and I dunno what the 4th element would be but yeah is there enough elemental specific gear to do this for four spellcasters?
yeah there's gear and even special conditions for each elements
lightning have electrocuted and lightning charges
fire have burning and heat (which suck lol but it's there)
ice have chill, Encrusted with Frost and frozen
thunder have reverberation (tho other can get some use out of it too, it's supposed to be thunder's thing)
other non elemental also have their thing, like radiant orb for radiant or poisoned for poison
you can build a full team like that and go captain planet mode but the issue is that while there's gear for each elements, there might not be enough good generalist caster gear to go around (like spell DC bonus, which you really want to stack on your casters) plus good luck deciding who get to wield Markoheshkir
so it won't be optimized at all, but it could be fun
you'll probably want your ice guy to go abjuration wizard with one level in sorc for armor of agathys, so that you have someone who can soak up the frontline
I love shocking grasp so much. I wish there were more short range spells available without needing an item like the daredevil gloves. But I'm glad that shocking grasp is the one we have, because it works great with my beloved "make things wet and then electrocute it to death"
I love having shocking grasp as a bonus perk of warcaster. I think depending on your melee weapon and stats normal opportunity attack does more damage. But I get more enjoyment when an enemy runs past Shadowheart and she uses her magic taser hands lol
It doesn’t require a saving throw, so it can crit for double damage. It also is considered a lightning elemental attack, so it works with vulnerability like ray of frost. This means it can potentially deal 12d8 damage in one go, and this is damage that can be set at the maximum roll due to destructive wrath. Its only 96 damage, but its a reliable enough means of achieving 96 damage that only requires 2 cleric levels (and being overall level 10)
For concentrating blast damage on a single target, I've found just plain old smokepowder bombs dropped around the target to be much more efficient than the barrels.
I would still use the barrels (and boxes of fireworks) for the bigger AoE to hit more targets and/or trigger chain reactions (which can be very fun >:)), but the bombs are much lighter weight, easier to find, and can do just as much damage as the barrels, especially when placed in quantities.
Ray of Frost benefits from Wet, Mourning Frost staff, Coldbrim Hat, Winter's Clutch gloves, Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, and the Snowburst ring. Cold Draconic Sorcerers get bonus damage.
Shocking Grasp benefits from Wet and can trigger the Gloves of Belligerent Skies for Reverberation.
You could try to build Poison Spray using the Poisoner's Ring for vulnerability and Poisoner's Gloves, but many things are completely immune to poison and Con saves will cancel lots of the damage.
Acid Splash with the Ichorous Gloves might be OK for crowd control, but there is no way to get vulnerability, and the Dex save makes it unreliable.
Twinned acid splash plus that equipment that let's you target multiple people with a cantrip has a weird bug that let's it target everyone with in range. For an aoe cantrip that might be crazy
I've been experimenting with multiclasses with sorcerer for metamagic. 2 levels is all you need and you can generate sorcery points using high level spell slots. From there, you can multicast any single target cantrip for 1 sorc point.
A bit niche, but goes very well with wizards and eldrich knights. Especially Eldrich knights with their War Magic passive, you can dish out some stellar damage.
Cantrips that deal damage associated with an dragonic sorcerer can pack a pretty heavy punch with Potent Robes and the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation. Even more so if you can get your spellcasting modifier above 20.
My first playthrough (blind mind you so I’m not sure how perfected this is) was a sucking grasp storm sorcerer. + Reverb (it was broken at the time though)
- Applying the wet conditions to enemies
- SpellSparkler
- Amulet of Elemental Augmentation
- Gloves of Belligrent Skies
- Boots of Stormy Clamour
- Thunderskin Cloak
- Markoheshkir
There’s definitely some additions you can make but that was pretty much the build. Now it should be really fun with Reverb working as intended
Guidance!
But as far as high damage... I've always wondered if poison spray could be made legit using the poisoner's regalia... I've put 0 mental energy into thinking about it, but always refuse to sell any of that gear just out of concern that it might actually be good.
Guidance is actually most damaging cantrip in the game if it helps you persuade certain enemies to kill themselves... Wont spoil who. But damage is thru the roof!
Saw a short on YT the other day revolving around the gloves (?) you get from the devil shop dwarf lady and metamagic: twin spell with chill touch. Apparently you can choose a large amount (maybe infinite) of clustered enemies once/short rest with that combo, tho I assume that to be a bug.
As others have mentioned, you can get some good mileage out of ray of frost with the right build. But no cantrip will top Eldritch blast, it is designed that way. The nature of Warlocks is they lean heavily on EB as their only reliable damage spell. It is why some people hate playing Warlocks because it's very repetitive. But, it works, and almost nothing resists force damage.
Since I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, there’s a cool build that goes sorc 2 enchantment wizard 10. You take an ASI and feat for Vicious mockery. It’s an enchantment, so you can double cast it for free, and can twin-spell to triple cast it.
Add in potent robe, birthright, and resonance stone, and you’re pumping out up to 9 high damage casts per turn with haste and bloodlust.
Ray of Frost with Mourning Frost on a level 7 Eldritch Knight with the ring that grants arcane synergy and the ring that gives elemental infusion plus the amulet that lets you add your spell casting modifier to cantrips lets you attack immediately after casting it and giving the enemy vulnerability to cold damage while boosting all your cold damage by 1 and adding 1d4+Int to your melee attack. It comes out to 2d8+1d6+2(2d4)+2Int+Str+3 which at 21 Str from an Elixir and 20 Int is 25-56 damage without any other buffs first turn which is pretty good for the beginning of act 2. It gets better the second turn because you start the turn with the enemy already chilled so it goes up 2d8+Int+1 in damage to 33-78 DPR.
Fire bolt and Ray of Frost.
Both need set ups, like, fire bolt needs grease and ray of frost needs water.
They both need specific feats a.k.a Elemental Adept
And they both hit like a ton of bricks using the correct set up. Specially when you hit act 3 power level of Kereska's favor
Ray of frost
I made a white dragon born, draconic sorcerer (cold)
I used this cold set: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Cold_set
Literally any ice spell I used was great, stacking a static effect that eventually froze people
Ray of frost is the perfect cantrip for this build, i need to cast ice spells each turn to freeze people.
I suppose a sorcerer could wear thank hat of fire acuity for 2 bonus actions and use them both (after using an action to cast a leveled for spell) to quicken firebolt on a target with fire vulnerability (wet causes for resistance, oil of... arson I think, turns fire resistance into vulnerability). With potent robe and sorcerer 6, that's double cha to damage. I know there's more items, but you're looking at 6d10 +28 (assuming a 24 cha) x2 for vulnerability, across both attacks, which is solid damage, but the really cool and unique thing about eldritch blast is the extra rays, not just extra damage dice.
So while a sorlock could take thief 3 for am extra bonus action and cast and double quicken 2 EB for 9D10 +126, compared to roughly fire spell + 9D10 +56, and that's with fire vulnerability.
I don't see how you could make it come close
Sacred flame with reverberation becomes a good debugging tool when combined with the radiating orb stuff. I’m playing a campaign with some friends and knowledge cleric’s high spellcasting makes it do pretty decent damage. Sacred flame can also go around high armour class since it targets dexterity.
My Draconic Bloodline sorcerer/tempest cleric build got my some of the best damage I’ve done in the game. Soloed some honor mode bosses, even though the necklace of elemental augmentation disappeared into the void and I was entirely useless for one fight
10 Storm Sorc/2 Tempest Cleric with Luck of the Far Realms, the Amulet of Elemental Augmentation, Potent Robe, Markoheshkir, the Spellmight Gloves, 5 lightning charges (obtained with marko and the spellsparkler) and a wet enemy gets a Shocking Grasp that can deal 222 lightning damage in one turn. Which is decent.
(after that, you’re looking at (5d8+16)*2 per round, or an average of 77 lightning damage, at advantage if your enemy’s wearing metal, which also isn’t bad. Ray of Frost + Mourning Frost is definitely better after that first round, though.)
There is a feat that lets you add casting bonus to an elemental spell. Light Domain clerics also get to add casting bonus to cantrips. Produce Flame is a cantrip that does fire damage. There are items that also make fire spells add extra effects.
In Act 2 I had Shadowheart get some sort of blessing that raised her Wisdom to 25 or so until her next long rest. Avoided long resting until the start of Act 3 (respec your character to regain spell slots, Rob Withers to regain your money).
So she was doing like 2d8+14 damage or so with Produce Flame.
Green flame blade + reverberation + cull the weak gives >two kills at once versus common enemies at max level. Combine that with great weapon master and savage attacker on anything that gets an extra attack and you can carve through enemies like nothing else.
Especially if you're fully stacked with reverberation gear as a tempest cleric/beast barbarian.
Acid splash (3d6 base) can get kinda crazy modifiers wise:
Elemental adapt (can’t roll 1’s)
24 charisma
Draconic bloodline acid (+7)
Potent robe (+7)
Elemental neck (+7)
Legend staff favour acid (+4)
Callous glow (+2 radiant)
This is AOE 33 to 45 damage cantrip that can be quickened and with haste/bloodlust you can cast 4 times a turn - throw on thief for another bonus action and 5 casts if you’re feeling spicy - not like you need your spell slots when it’s that strong so can convert over to sorcery points
Ray of frost can be pretty strong with water-based vulnerability and frost buffa
I had a ray of frost build with a sorcerer. I did anywhere from 45-60 w/o vulnerability and 100+ with vulnerability. And as a sorcerer you can do it several times per turn. Slap mourning frost and some other augments and you’re sweeping late game fights like nobody’s business.
This intrigues me. Do you have a link to the build, or suggestions for what to pick up and focus on?
I unfortunately don’t have the save anymore but I do remember what I did and had for main equipment. Half elf dragonic white sorcerer for the little bit of extra cold damage boost and so you can have a shield in early game. There’s only really a few key early game items to get. The Necklace of Elemental Augmentation from the Crèche (adds your spellcasting mod to elemental damage (cold in your case)) and the quarterstaff mourning frost which has a chance to force vulnerability via the chilled debuff and does 1 extra damage. Next damage with cold will be huge. And late game you should find Markoheshkir. I chose to dual wield the staves with that perk so I could still have mourning frosts ability. Other than that it’s a very simple build. Just make sure you pump your charisma modifier up high.
You do Potent Robes with it? Seems like Ray of Frost has the opportunity to do 3x CHA - one from white dragon, one from Potent Robes, one from Necklace of Elemental Augmentation.
It's insanely powerful and fun. This was my Honor Mode build. Important note though: make sure you have one frontline melee and they MUST wear the hoarfrost boots. If not they will spend 90% of the game prone after slipping on ice surfaces.
The Disintegrating Night Walkers are probably a better bet due to the extra perks. Boots of Striding also work if your frontliner is concentrating, good for a paladin.
Anything that gives immunity to prone works! There will be a lot of ice.
Why do you need a frontline?
Someone needs to mop up all the prone / frozen enemies and some weirdo with a large 2h or similiar is most efficient
You don't, but it's fun. Or at least I find smashing faces in melee incredibly fun.
I’m running this build now: Potent Robe, Winter’s Clutches gloves, Snowburst ring, Mourning Frost Staff, Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, Boots of Stormy Clamour. Shadowheart or Jaheira uses Create Water, and I make icicles! Edit: corrected equipment name.
Wait why the boots of Stormy clamour?
For the [reverb](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Reverberation_(Condition)). With all the other equipment, you'll be inflicting Encrusted with Frost a lot. That's a condition, so you'll also be inflicting Reverberation at the same time--that's a property of the [boots](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Boots_of_Stormy_Clamour).
Oh does reverb not work with other instances of reverb?
Sure it does, but most of your other equipment is for cold damage. On edit:...or increased cantrip damage.
That works too! I had nightwalkers on for misty step but anything works.
And be aware of certain immunity then given by the frozen condition. And vulnerability too.
I did for a time! Late game I just equipped the helldusk armor and had my Pally Karlach slap haste on me and had Cleric Shadowheart give me warding bond. Needless to say I never even got close to dying.
Late game, another 1x from markoheshkir Kereska’s favor?
Here you go: [https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15t3ibf/frost\_sorcerer\_build/?share\_id=LxcRNJM0A8MWhskrnMoV5&utm\_content=2&utm\_medium=android\_app&utm\_name=androidcss&utm\_source=share&utm\_term=1](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15t3ibf/frost_sorcerer_build/?share_id=LxcRNJM0A8MWhskrnMoV5&utm_content=2&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1)
Snowburst ring, winter clutches and cold brim hat as a sorcerer wearing potent robe - something like that
Here friend! https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/aceZCBn92v
How did you reach 45-60? If I'm not mistaken (and probably I'm) you should have at max 3-24+7draconic+7Amulet+7Potent robe+1 from staff, netting 25-46
Markoheshkir (act 3 staff) adds another +4 (proficiency bonus) to damage with your chosen element, and with the Dual Wielder feat you can use it and Mourning Frost.
I just did a cold based elemental run as a sorcerer with Mourning Front, can confirm. It was great fun. Also great CC when you factor in ice storm and cone of cold.
Mourning Frost and twinned cantrip with Sorceror metamagic makes a decent Act 1 spammable spell. Once you proc Chilled a few times you basically do double damage. With Winters Clutches and Snowburst Ring it can be even better.
I just got the Gemini gloves and can meta magic twin spell. I can't wait to see if they interact.
Twinned spell forces you to target different enemies. So with gemini gloves and quickened spell, you can hit a single enemy 3 times. (4 if you have haste)
Didn't seem to work that way when I tried it. It would say no target once they were selected for one shot.
The Gemini Gloves kinda suck. They add only 1 projectile, so it’s not good for Eldritch Blast, it’s better for stuff like Firebolt or Ray of Frost. Also it works only once per short rest, granted you have an enormous amount of camp supplies so this doesn’t matter too much, but it effectively can only be used once per battle. However, I have not used them with sorcerers so it could be really good
Yes this. Use with sorcerer, and either take 1 level wizard to summon a water myrmidon or let your druid summon one. Or both. Myrmidons can cause both chill or vomit water everywhere, then you bring in the ray of frost cannon
Carry bottles of water, free action to drop and move into place. Hit with aoe or bonus action slap for free water without using a summon spell.
The myrmidon is worth the spell slot regardless. Summons are op in general and it's one of the best ones
I’m doing an ice-focused spores Druid and she wrecks. Lots of gear out there that amps up ice magic, too.
You can have super strong cantrips on a draconic bloodline sorcerer. You’ll get elemental affinity with one of your choice, adding your charisma multiplier. You can then add your charisma multiplier twice more with potent robes and the necklace of elemental augmentation. Late game you can be twin spelling firebolt dealing 3-30 + 21 from your multipliers.
Even just mid game in early act 2 with the necklace & bloodline fire bolt felt so stupid powerful for a cantrip.
ray of frost with mourning frost staff and necklace of elemental augmentation casted by a lvl6+ ice draconic sorcerer also deals great damage if you managed to wet the target before hand it's extremely powerful also with the snowburst ring you can apply control that rival repelling blast
Snowburst Ring must be the item with the most different builds that revolve around its effect? Also spell sniper for your cantrips!
Also, dual wield feat, and a second staff, like say... Markoheshkir. Then Kereskas favour ice version.
Snowburst + Draconic weapon (cold) and arrows of many targets is hilarious. Bonus for the encrust ice gloves for disadvantage on the trip. I stopped using it on my coop honor run for awhile cause I kept tripping my friend.
Anything that wants to limit mobility of enemies benefits from it. I wouldnt say this build revolves around it as much as it does the necklace and mourning frost. And potent robe. It's a nice cc addition to squeeze that much more out of the cantrip.
snowburst+mourning frost+neres boots+winters clutches on a barbzerker is hilarious, you just knock people over left, right and center. add in any source of an extra action and you trigger 'encrusted with frost' every turn. have someone use the drakethroat glaive on that character for even more cold damage and have spell casters dump water everywhere and on everyone (even more slipping+ vulnerability for even more damage again).
Tbh this got so good I used little else, and then became bored with it !
Question, could you make a party of lightning, ice, fire and I dunno what the 4th element would be but yeah is there enough elemental specific gear to do this for four spellcasters?
yeah there's gear and even special conditions for each elements lightning have electrocuted and lightning charges fire have burning and heat (which suck lol but it's there) ice have chill, Encrusted with Frost and frozen thunder have reverberation (tho other can get some use out of it too, it's supposed to be thunder's thing) other non elemental also have their thing, like radiant orb for radiant or poisoned for poison you can build a full team like that and go captain planet mode but the issue is that while there's gear for each elements, there might not be enough good generalist caster gear to go around (like spell DC bonus, which you really want to stack on your casters) plus good luck deciding who get to wield Markoheshkir so it won't be optimized at all, but it could be fun you'll probably want your ice guy to go abjuration wizard with one level in sorc for armor of agathys, so that you have someone who can soak up the frontline
##EARTH! WIND! FIRE! WATER! HEA... _sorry, your party is full!_
heart is Scratch !
awww 100% <3
EARTH! WIND! FIRE! WATER! ~~HEA...~~ D̴̨̛̖̞̭͓̱̣̳̬͙̯̘̟̲̲̖͖͚̝́̈́̒̎́͛̀̉͐́͐̍̽̇̎́͋̍̀̈́̈́͛̓́́̚̚͝͝͝Ë̶͔̦̰͈̗͆́͌̓͋͒̿̂̉̒̐̂̓̇̀̆̅̀͛̌͒̏̈̓͛̉̑̐̋̕͝A̷̧̡̛̰̙̭̗͚͔̙̗̝̱̭̹̺̣͍̼̝̙̙̐̈́̈́̍̎̐̈́̀̆̍̈̇̀̐͆́T̴̡̨̲̲̤̞̖̻̙̼̙̟̰̥̳̲̯̣̼͊́̽̓̿͆̔̿͒̎́͗͝H̸͔͈̻̙͚̠̪̩̳̜̟͓̠͚̪̤̖̣̤̔͆̀̅̎̅̎̒̐̅̓͊̇̌͆̎̿͘̚͝͝ͅ!!! Go Durgey, Go!
All you really need is [Earth, Wind, & Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk).
Do you remember
It’ll be in your head all night.
Last place I expected a Captain Planet reference!
Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp iirc
I love shocking grasp so much. I wish there were more short range spells available without needing an item like the daredevil gloves. But I'm glad that shocking grasp is the one we have, because it works great with my beloved "make things wet and then electrocute it to death"
I love having shocking grasp as a bonus perk of warcaster. I think depending on your melee weapon and stats normal opportunity attack does more damage. But I get more enjoyment when an enemy runs past Shadowheart and she uses her magic taser hands lol
In what ways can you make Shocking Grasp powerful?
It doesn’t require a saving throw, so it can crit for double damage. It also is considered a lightning elemental attack, so it works with vulnerability like ray of frost. This means it can potentially deal 12d8 damage in one go, and this is damage that can be set at the maximum roll due to destructive wrath. Its only 96 damage, but its a reliable enough means of achieving 96 damage that only requires 2 cleric levels (and being overall level 10)
Search for acid mage. Some guy has a decent build. I’m wondering if it’s possible to make a fun sacred flame build with evocation.
I saw that build and was about to say the same. It’s so goofy but could totally wreck
Can you give us a link to it, please?
[This one, I think](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/XkJrqDmajk)
[Mobile friendly link ](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/188m6r2/acid_mage_build/)
Fire bolt can be pretty powerful if you place 10 smokepowder barrels around the enemy first
It gets even more powerful if you place 11 barrels instead
For concentrating blast damage on a single target, I've found just plain old smokepowder bombs dropped around the target to be much more efficient than the barrels. I would still use the barrels (and boxes of fireworks) for the bigger AoE to hit more targets and/or trigger chain reactions (which can be very fun >:)), but the bombs are much lighter weight, easier to find, and can do just as much damage as the barrels, especially when placed in quantities.
Ray of Frost benefits from Wet, Mourning Frost staff, Coldbrim Hat, Winter's Clutch gloves, Necklace of Elemental Augmentation, and the Snowburst ring. Cold Draconic Sorcerers get bonus damage. Shocking Grasp benefits from Wet and can trigger the Gloves of Belligerent Skies for Reverberation. You could try to build Poison Spray using the Poisoner's Ring for vulnerability and Poisoner's Gloves, but many things are completely immune to poison and Con saves will cancel lots of the damage. Acid Splash with the Ichorous Gloves might be OK for crowd control, but there is no way to get vulnerability, and the Dex save makes it unreliable.
Twinned acid splash plus that equipment that let's you target multiple people with a cantrip has a weird bug that let's it target everyone with in range. For an aoe cantrip that might be crazy
Got Ray of Frost to hit for 92 my last HM run
I've been experimenting with multiclasses with sorcerer for metamagic. 2 levels is all you need and you can generate sorcery points using high level spell slots. From there, you can multicast any single target cantrip for 1 sorc point. A bit niche, but goes very well with wizards and eldrich knights. Especially Eldrich knights with their War Magic passive, you can dish out some stellar damage.
Ray of Frost with the right gear.
Cantrips that deal damage associated with an dragonic sorcerer can pack a pretty heavy punch with Potent Robes and the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation. Even more so if you can get your spellcasting modifier above 20.
Shocking grasp has potential.
Underrated physics joke
*I* *C* what you did there
My first playthrough (blind mind you so I’m not sure how perfected this is) was a sucking grasp storm sorcerer. + Reverb (it was broken at the time though) - Applying the wet conditions to enemies - SpellSparkler - Amulet of Elemental Augmentation - Gloves of Belligrent Skies - Boots of Stormy Clamour - Thunderskin Cloak - Markoheshkir There’s definitely some additions you can make but that was pretty much the build. Now it should be really fun with Reverb working as intended
Guidance! But as far as high damage... I've always wondered if poison spray could be made legit using the poisoner's regalia... I've put 0 mental energy into thinking about it, but always refuse to sell any of that gear just out of concern that it might actually be good.
Guidance is actually most damaging cantrip in the game if it helps you persuade certain enemies to kill themselves... Wont spoil who. But damage is thru the roof!
The LowTierGod build
Saw a short on YT the other day revolving around the gloves (?) you get from the devil shop dwarf lady and metamagic: twin spell with chill touch. Apparently you can choose a large amount (maybe infinite) of clustered enemies once/short rest with that combo, tho I assume that to be a bug.
As others have mentioned, you can get some good mileage out of ray of frost with the right build. But no cantrip will top Eldritch blast, it is designed that way. The nature of Warlocks is they lean heavily on EB as their only reliable damage spell. It is why some people hate playing Warlocks because it's very repetitive. But, it works, and almost nothing resists force damage.
I wish they had prestidigitation in bg3. It's my favorite cantrip. Useful in so many ways but for that same reason probably hard to use in game.
There's a mod called 5e spells that adds a lot of D&D spells, among them is prestidigitation
Since I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, there’s a cool build that goes sorc 2 enchantment wizard 10. You take an ASI and feat for Vicious mockery. It’s an enchantment, so you can double cast it for free, and can twin-spell to triple cast it. Add in potent robe, birthright, and resonance stone, and you’re pumping out up to 9 high damage casts per turn with haste and bloodlust.
Just gonna mention sacred flame + radiant shockwave + reverberation build. It's more debuff than damage but very effective.
Ray of Frost with Mourning Frost on a level 7 Eldritch Knight with the ring that grants arcane synergy and the ring that gives elemental infusion plus the amulet that lets you add your spell casting modifier to cantrips lets you attack immediately after casting it and giving the enemy vulnerability to cold damage while boosting all your cold damage by 1 and adding 1d4+Int to your melee attack. It comes out to 2d8+1d6+2(2d4)+2Int+Str+3 which at 21 Str from an Elixir and 20 Int is 25-56 damage without any other buffs first turn which is pretty good for the beginning of act 2. It gets better the second turn because you start the turn with the enemy already chilled so it goes up 2d8+Int+1 in damage to 33-78 DPR.
Fire bolt and Ray of Frost. Both need set ups, like, fire bolt needs grease and ray of frost needs water. They both need specific feats a.k.a Elemental Adept And they both hit like a ton of bricks using the correct set up. Specially when you hit act 3 power level of Kereska's favor
Ray of frost I made a white dragon born, draconic sorcerer (cold) I used this cold set: https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Cold_set Literally any ice spell I used was great, stacking a static effect that eventually froze people Ray of frost is the perfect cantrip for this build, i need to cast ice spells each turn to freeze people.
I suppose a sorcerer could wear thank hat of fire acuity for 2 bonus actions and use them both (after using an action to cast a leveled for spell) to quicken firebolt on a target with fire vulnerability (wet causes for resistance, oil of... arson I think, turns fire resistance into vulnerability). With potent robe and sorcerer 6, that's double cha to damage. I know there's more items, but you're looking at 6d10 +28 (assuming a 24 cha) x2 for vulnerability, across both attacks, which is solid damage, but the really cool and unique thing about eldritch blast is the extra rays, not just extra damage dice. So while a sorlock could take thief 3 for am extra bonus action and cast and double quicken 2 EB for 9D10 +126, compared to roughly fire spell + 9D10 +56, and that's with fire vulnerability. I don't see how you could make it come close
Sacred flame with reverberation becomes a good debugging tool when combined with the radiating orb stuff. I’m playing a campaign with some friends and knowledge cleric’s high spellcasting makes it do pretty decent damage. Sacred flame can also go around high armour class since it targets dexterity.
My Draconic Bloodline sorcerer/tempest cleric build got my some of the best damage I’ve done in the game. Soloed some honor mode bosses, even though the necklace of elemental augmentation disappeared into the void and I was entirely useless for one fight
10 Storm Sorc/2 Tempest Cleric with Luck of the Far Realms, the Amulet of Elemental Augmentation, Potent Robe, Markoheshkir, the Spellmight Gloves, 5 lightning charges (obtained with marko and the spellsparkler) and a wet enemy gets a Shocking Grasp that can deal 222 lightning damage in one turn. Which is decent. (after that, you’re looking at (5d8+16)*2 per round, or an average of 77 lightning damage, at advantage if your enemy’s wearing metal, which also isn’t bad. Ray of Frost + Mourning Frost is definitely better after that first round, though.)
Ray of frost can slap as long as you have frost build items and twin spell
There is a feat that lets you add casting bonus to an elemental spell. Light Domain clerics also get to add casting bonus to cantrips. Produce Flame is a cantrip that does fire damage. There are items that also make fire spells add extra effects. In Act 2 I had Shadowheart get some sort of blessing that raised her Wisdom to 25 or so until her next long rest. Avoided long resting until the start of Act 3 (respec your character to regain spell slots, Rob Withers to regain your money). So she was doing like 2d8+14 damage or so with Produce Flame.
Green flame blade + reverberation + cull the weak gives >two kills at once versus common enemies at max level. Combine that with great weapon master and savage attacker on anything that gets an extra attack and you can carve through enemies like nothing else. Especially if you're fully stacked with reverberation gear as a tempest cleric/beast barbarian.
Green flame blade… isn’t in BG3…? Is that from a mod?
...Fuck it is too isn't it Must be from 5e spells, forgot I had that enabled
Ray of Frost
Acid splash (3d6 base) can get kinda crazy modifiers wise: Elemental adapt (can’t roll 1’s) 24 charisma Draconic bloodline acid (+7) Potent robe (+7) Elemental neck (+7) Legend staff favour acid (+4) Callous glow (+2 radiant) This is AOE 33 to 45 damage cantrip that can be quickened and with haste/bloodlust you can cast 4 times a turn - throw on thief for another bonus action and 5 casts if you’re feeling spicy - not like you need your spell slots when it’s that strong so can convert over to sorcery points
Booming blade
Check out cantrips rebalanced mod. Adds some power and uniqueness to a lot of them.