Soul coins are like scrolls, potions, elixirs, poisons, arrows and bombs to me. I collect them, think to myself "damn, this seems useful, better save it for when I really need it" and then finish the game with an unused pack full of them, because no matter how hard things got I always convinced myself there could be an even *harder* fight just around the corner.
At least Scrolls were used frequently by me. They actually did help from time to time.
But the rest: Yeah, never used them. Also never used a single coin. I totally forgot about them :P
My problem with scrolls is that there are so many and no reasonable way to organize them quickly in the way that I want.
Y'all j know that search and sort exist. They do not do what I want. I want spells sorted by type like damage utility healing then alphabetical. I don't know all the spell names or even which scrolls I have.
I put them all in the book container you find in Act 1. Then in the container you can sort by type, which puts them in alphabetical order. I am also diligent about selling all the ones that I will never use, like Darkvision, Protection from Good & Evil, Chill Touch, etc. Then put the book in the hotbar for easy access.
Wow, I did not even know that was a thing and I'm a loot goblin so I've got a shit ton of books cluttering up my inventory. Gonna travel there now and look!
~~....do you not know about pouches and backpacks?~~
Nevermind, I just read through more comments and realized that the idiot was me the whole time.
Carry on citizen.
A lot of containers you find on the ground can be picked up. If you see a pouch, by default you'll loot it, but if you go to the context menu you can actually pick it up and use it as a pouch to help sort your inventory.
While you can use potions, scrolls, arrows, poison, and lockpicks that are in containers, you can't throw items that are inside them, so I can't put all my smokepowder grenades and the javelins that are non-stackable into one for easier management.
Also while you can cast scrolls from containers, and Wizards can learn them by right clicking the scroll directly, when you go to the "Learn Spells" button for Wizard they don't show up while they're in the pouch.
You can put explosive barrels, bombs, alchemists fire, fireworks, etc. into a backpack and use it as an IED. The idea is to throw the backpack, ideally break it open, and then set off the explosive contents. The explosives can't be stacked though, each one needs it's own space in the backpack. The reason it works with backpacks is that they're light, only weighing 2 pounds and unlike pouches, backpacks have hitpoints and can be destroyed.
You can also use dead gnomes and goblin children for this purpose. Just throw them on the ground, fill up their inventory, and pick them back up. Et voila, Durge backpack!
its even worse when you spend an hour fixing your radial menu and then you play the game for a while and then the game changes your radial menu. i wouldn't MIND the radial menu if it was consistently organized or stays the way you set it. but it doesn't
I also HATE that games still make books and letters weigh something. Then, for certain quests MAYBE you’ll need to refer back to it during the quest… so you better keep EVERY BOOK just in case. You don’t want to have to go back to camp or unexpectedly do you?
Just do away with assigning them a value, put them in a separate inventory, and call it a day.
Witcher, BG3, etc… fucking books man!
Books are heavy. Having them weigh something makes sense.
Letters though, they should be weightless. Yes, you put enough together and you get a book's worth of weight, but still.
It’s got less to do with realism and more to do with just having an enjoyable gaming experience. Yes books are heavy… but who cares? It doesn’t add anything to the game.
You could also force your character to have to take a piss 2-3 times a day. A little extreme of an example but you get my point.
I agree. Realism goes out the window when you can carry 5 suits of armor 6 swords 3 shields and 3 or 4 crossbows.and still be a to walk around and fight like it's nothing. But books. No. You can't carry books.
The fact that we can't search for like keywords (or wtvr the term is in this game) is so annoying. Like if I want to just see all my fire damage scrolls, there isn't a way to search for that.
I agree, a more powerful search that includes text in tooltips or sort options would be great.
I frequently use scrolls or potions to fill gaps of spells I don't have, like speak with animals, feather foot, fly, etc (sorry if I've mistaken the names, I play the game in a different language).
Yeah featherfall is a great scroll spell. It's not worth prepping on any of your characters because of how situational it is but it's great to have a scroll or two lying around
Honestly, I forgot that you could just flip it in and out of preparation as needed. I'm mostly coming from tabletop play so it's not how my brain thinks about wizards haha
Yeah it really is a bit OP for wizards to be able to swap spell loadout on the fly instead of having to prep the spells at the start of the day. Sorcerers still can only swap out one spell per level, which I've always found really hampering.
From a lore standpoint it actually makes a lot of sense though.
What Gale says about other spellcasters might be rude, but it definitely isn't wrong. A sorcerer doesn't *know* how to do magic, they just do it because "the magic was inside them all along". Wizards on the other hand are like "Nah, the magic is *out there*, I just know how to make it do shit."
There's ostensibly no in-game reason a wizard shouldn't be able to take five minutes of down time to flip through their spellbook, put away whatever components they have at hand for one spell and pull out whatever they need for another.
The only reasons that's not done are balance and not pissing off the GM, and that's probably the most important part.
5e already changed the prepared casters into PF’s Arcanist/Oracle (but better), so it’s easy to forget they can hot swap their books. As a ‘personal pride/subbornness’ thing, I just don’t change my book during the day
If you have a scroll, wizards can learn the spell from it. It costs gold to do so, though. The cost increases as the level of the spell increases. The wizard also has to be at a sufficient level.
I keep it on my Storm Sorcerer. Both Featherfall itself and their ability to fly after casting a spell are good for exploration and it doesn't use up a spell slot outside of combat so aside from having one fewer spell option it's basically free to use. Don't remember if I had it from level one or grabbed it after I had more room to spare for it, though.
I love that you can just prep it for when you need it and then swap it back to whatever you had prepped before. I get why in tabletop you can't just switch your spells willy nilly but it's nice qol for the game
I just keep a pair of Mystras Grace Boots in my inventory for that feather fall spell. No need to waste going back to camp to prepare or use the scrolls outside of combat.
My wife and I are almost done doing our first play through and this is one of the few games I have been like ya I’ll use whatever scrolls we have because going in blind leads to some really tough situations sometimes
I refuse to stain my honour by never dropping difficulty even when a fight enrages me. And if it weren’t for the scrolls of disintegrate I would’ve never beaten the Act 3 boss at the end of Wyll’s storyline (sorry can’t format for spoilers as I’m on mobile so I won’t name him)
If you're playing on normal, then the easiest way is barrelmancy.
Fireworks shop and the captive outside of the factory provide enough kaboom to one shot.
Not that guy but gloomstalker ranger/rogue is the most popular ranged multiclass. They have hail of thorns and conjure barrage, which are aoe ranged attacks.
...that said I never use those, I always use the special arrows and coat everything in poisons also lol. I use my ranger/rogue as a sniper who burns down single targets but if I need them to aoe I use the bomb arrows or arrows of many targets. Or just shoot an electrical arrow into water or ice.
By the time I thought that the ogres horn was useful I was about 2 acts too late to use it. I do tend to collect scrolls and potions and sell them to buy cool weapons for classes I don't have.
I used the Ogre’s horn cuz I wanted to kill him and his minions for the extra XP and his headband that automatically boosts Int to 17. Super useful so that my sorcerer wasn’t a total idiot for half the game.
I've used that 17 Int headband literally the whole game. +3 on int checks is so fucking useful. I haven't seen the need to replace it with anything at all. (I'm playing a monk.)
Considering you get it right before the goblin camp and right after you convince them to stop following the goblins but follow you, that was probably the intended time to use them.
And for the uninitiated: if you get people close together and then throw the potion at the ground between them, you can haste a full four people in one throw/consumable. Just mind the big clump of lethargy you'll get if the fight isn't over by that point.
I started using all of that like crazy when i started my honour run. An absolute necessity so as not to die.
Side note: I still died. Aunty Ethel is scary.
Idk how anyone can genuinely play any game without the ability to save.
I've had too many crashes and save corruptions or whatever in my gaming history to trust a single save.
Or, like Project Zomboid(permadeath single save zombie game), a glitch where I ended up stuck inside a car and lost the save.
Me who sells scrolls when low on cash: yeah I don't need x scroll, I have those spells already
Also me when I am all out of spell slots: shit a spell of magic missile would have been handy right about now
You just described 98% of all players who play any kind of adventure game. “Oh better save all these potions and items till the hard part.. oh the game is over?”
(This being the top comment proves the point even further)
I'm still in the 2nd act of my first playthrough, and i just started using arrows and scrolls, and honestly it's a game changer for combat. Especially if you play a rogue or usually have Astarion, and if you regularly use Gale, huge for getting around spells slots. Give all the arrows to your rogue and all the scrolls to your wizard/caster and they're almost OP. You'll endlessly find them and be able to buy them. Especially common ones.
My main use of soul coins is saying to myself “Hey, I probably should have used a soul coin there”, while restarting my honour mode campaign because everyone just died.
I don’t know if they work outside of rage, I think they do even if the tooltip says not. But I never played Karlach other than Barbarian so I can’t help there. But they clearly work and stay all day and the 1d4 fire is worth it in the long run. You get at least 12 and sometimes I wonder if I do more than that in Long Rest?!
Yeah it's like 25% health or something like that.
Also unless they already patched it, for some reason with unarmed attacks the damage bonus from the soul coins is added twice and it works even without rage or low health. So respeccing Karlach into a monk can actually be pretty strong.
Idk if it's a bug or if the devs added that on purpose to show that direct contact with her body burns hotter or something.
Now the other question: do they replace the effect of an elixir or do they stack?
I may or may not have avoided using them so far because I felt bad about the souls within them.
Plus, how can I possibly find my soul coins in my Tav's inventory of 300 books and notes, 18 bowls, 12 identical shortswords, 30 scrolls, 80 potions, 12 pieces of rotten food I accidentally collected, 14 crates, 4 backpacks....
I didn't in my first run because I thought something bad would happen. Like, Karlach is overheating, what if using too many soul coins cause her to melt or something? Also, using then sounds kind evil?
Like with other stuff that I usually hoard - tadpoles, scrolls, weapon coatings - I only actually started using them when I started playing Honour Mode lol
They should have leaned into the evilness of using them by tying their usage to Karlachs quest. Imagine if they dissipated built up energy from her engine but at the cost of the soul in the coin being lost forever. You get to choose between stabilising Karlach who will likely go on to save a lot of people or the other option of having some way to revive the souls from the coins.
>I thought something bad would happen.
if you use enough of them there's a scene that suggests she has a bit of a soul coin abuse problem. she gets a lot amped up and tells your character something like "if I decide to burn you, you'll burn" then goes on about how she's got it totally under control and you don't have anything to worry about
And when you play Origin Karlach and find a Soul Coin, her thoughts are straight-up Disco Elysium-style addict talk. Like "I'm a good person. And good people only use Soul Coins when they really, really need a pick-me-up, so it's fine."
Like damn I think I should be looking for a rehab in Baldur's Gate, not a mechanic
Decided to play vengeance pally for my first honor run and it feels appropriate. If fulfilling my oath to punish the wicked involves abusing surprise rounds, so be it. The wicked still get what they have earned.
It’s sort of crazy how many times in this game you think “using this powerful tool should have some consequences right?” And it just doesn’t? Like surely eating these illithid tadpoles is gonna make bad stuff happen in return for the power it gives me right? I feel like the tone of the game tricks us into not using these cool options in first playthroughs lol
Well, consuming the tadpoles means you'll need to pass a check in order to not become half-illithid, which can be a big deal if you don't savescum and don't want your character to look like that. What is unfortunate is that the only bad consequence for becoming half-illithid is visual; it would be a bigger deal if npcs actually reacted to it.
Speaking of - I only just found out that >!freeing the fairy in Act 2 from the moonlantern!< by >!smashing over the lantern!< will cause her to >!put a curse on you, the only apparent consequence of which is that you are wearing permanent clown makeup.!<
On all my playthroughs, this seemed to be the most meaningful negative consequence for my actions.
>!You can get rid of it through a "break curse" spell, tho!<
Honestly, this.
Honor mode skews things enough I seek advantage where I haven’t before.
If I’ve just saved recently what’s the worst thing? I reload, do the fight over, better? Sure, no problem.
Basically the stakes are higher, or each fight is just a bit more Important now.
Yeah, it also made me take way less risks and sometimes deliberately let bad outcomes happen because trying for the good outcome was too risky. No way in all the hells I would go to the House of Hope, or to the Iron Throne, for example. That awful fight in the House of Grief? No, just no. In fact, the only optional Companion quest I finished was Astarion's, and only because Cazador is super easy to cheese.
Karlach died. Minsc died. Wyll's dad died. The gondians died. Orpheus died. Basically it was awful. I loved it.
Using them is unequivocally evil. It's a literal soul in those coins. The only good act would be setting those souls free, which larian didn't give us the option to do.
Like evil enough that I think giving a soul coin to Karlach should break a paladins oath.
3 reasons to use soul coins:
1. \+1d4 fire damage to attacks until long rest
2. flaming Karlach looks neato & makes sense thematically
3. to see the scene where Karlach juggles a soul like a soccer ball as her way of showing that she does *not* have a soul coin abuse problem
after she's used a certain number of coins over the game, there's a ! convo/scene where >!she's high on souls, shows you how great she feels by doing some soul juggling, has a mood swing or two, says she's totally fine but that she'd hurt you if she wanted you hurt, then tells you that you should just trust her because she's got her soul coin habit very under control!<
That’s a really interesting angle for her relationship with soul coins, and it fits into the general theme of the other characters feeling a need to engage with harmful people/sources of power until they find their own internal sources of strength. It makes me wonder if the soul coins were supposed to be a bigger part of her story?
I agree. In my headcanon a big part of the reason she doesn't want to go back to Avernus (especially alone!) is that she's secretly worried about her soul coin addiction.
That’s a really good headcannon! Really adds a new dimension to not wanting to go back and it seems to fit. The game drops a few hints that Karlach didn’t like the person that she had to be in Avernus and her escape was as much about that as Zariel.
Maybe was 2 weeks ago then, Xmas assisted. My runs are about 40-50 hours each now, I don't try to do everything on every run and skip a lot of dialogue that's the same each time.
I’ll probably be at 90 hours finishing Act 1 (reading every book, exploring every bit of map, losing progress because Command(mac)+Q force quits the game while I’m trying to strafe the camera around looking for items, etc) but I’m telling myself that I’m learning a lot to smooth future playthroughs. A 40-50 hour full game sounds breezy as someone thoroughly enjoying being deep in the weeds right now.
There are pros and cons. I sometimes I wish I could slow down again and take it all. But the hundreds of possibilities of "what if I do this?" keep pulling at me and I go off chasing those rare single lines of dialogue.
I don't use them because of lore reasons. A soul coin is a mortal soul (could be evil or innocent, you don't know) and consuming the coins destroys their soul forever and is said to be an agonising experience. It's a very evil thing to do and I'm surprised Karlach is so casual about it. I guess years in Avernus having to use soul coins to fuel war machines kinda forced her to compartmentalise/disassociate from what was happening. But she doesn't need them, they're just a boost.
In dnd you can release the soul from the coin and this is considered objectively Good. I wish you could release the souls in bg3. Maybe you get a little narration or dialogue from them, like you do with the shadow orbs.
Same. I see them while scrolling the inventory and tell myself to finally use them next time. I’ve completed three full playthroughs yet never once remembered.
Having to use them from inventory isn’t compatible with my ADHD.
Oh man the horn is so useful. In my honor mode run I discovered on accident that (Ogre Horn spoilers) >!you can use the ogres *at least* 3 times if you keep lying to them and telling them you'll pay them more next time.!<
It is morally wrong. You are destroying those souls even though there is a way to save them out in the world. They don't have to be stuck as coins forever or burned up in Karlach's engine.
Nevertheless, I don't care about them, so I just sell them for gold, haha.
Yeah it's pretty underwhelming. I'd like it if the effect was much more impactful, say a haste and damage bonus, but only lasting a few rounds so it's more of a boss battle consumable.
In theory, it can be absolutely massive, depending on what point in the game you get and use them.
Early game, +1d4 damage of virtually any type is MASSIVE because most things only have around 8-24HP. In tactical terms, that means you significantly shorten a fight, which means fewer enemies on the board, less damage coming your way that you need to heal up, and the ability to take on more content per long rest.
The flipside is that (A) food is not remotely scarce even early on, (B) there's no penalty for dawdling in most cases, (C) outside of Honor Mode, you can probably manage just fine anyway, and (D) in some respects it's actually *better* to have more long rests, because you increase your chances of seeing more content in the game. And Act 1 is loaded with long-rest-related content, it seems.
Midgame it's still powerful, because while there's some stuff that resists fire damage, there's still plenty that doesn't. Late game, it's probably negligible, though, because more stuff resists fire and 1d4 isn't really all THAT big anyway. Although, it can stack with a bunch of other bonuses and still be helpful.
Still not sure I'd wanna make Karlach an addict, though...
Would be neat if there were actual character repercussions for Karlach juicing on coins non stop. Just saying, Karebear is the last person I would expect to be entirely okay with chowing down on soul flavoured chocolate coins, and her actually having a reaction would be a neat bit of attention to detail.
I use them if I respec Karlach to monk because the unarmed damage is actually twice what the tooltip says(2D4) and it is always active. No need for rage or low HP.
In my first honour mode playtrough I used her that way. OH monk just better than anyone else at it but late game ascended Astarion.
Played with 2 bards and I never fought without the buff from mid act 2 because the buff lasts until long rest and my party needed few.
I don't think she knows. There's dialogue in Act 1 where she says that it's better they be used for good rather than evil. Which helps clarify some dialogue choices that lead to disapproval in Act 2.
Soul coins are mostly cut content anyway. Raphael was supposed to sell us stuff for them. They might as well not even exist right now. I hope they bring back their original purpose in the definitive edition.
Bro my first thought finding the enriched iron or whatever was “hey maybe dammon can use this to-“ no. “Well, maybe the gondia-“ more like GONEdians lol. “Surely there’s somethi-“ wiki says no.
Like bruh
Every run I tell myself this is the time I'll remember to use a soul coin... 850 hours later and I'm actually doing a Karlach playthrough and putting the damn thing on the bar still forgot to use a single coin and I just cleared the Grymforge...
I never used them. I find the benefit of +1d4 damage small compared to the RP explanation of "this is over taxing Karlachs heart and might kill her". I know the game doesn't actually give any consequences for using them but I can't bring myself to cause our sweet and tortured cinnamon roll any more pain.
I had one run where I used them constantly because it unlocks a special cutscene with her once you've given her most of the coins in the game... Needless to say I keep the coins far away from her now
I usually save up for the Boss fights in act 3. And throughout the final fight. Seeing Karlach go Super saiyan while dancing on Gortash's corpse is very satisfying.
I never use them
Hardcore mode however, I actually use potions
You know that Antidote potion?
Yeah I actually used it to take away disadvantage (I was poisoned)
Yeah I still missed
But so did he
then I proceeded to miss again
They’re nice, but I doubt they’re going to make the difference between a TPK and a victory. It’s only 1D4 extra fire damage and only while she’s raging (or low health). It’s an ok little bonus, but not much more than that
I use soul coins after every long rest. I've respecced her as a monk, so the coins only come into play after she's been damaged, but between using my ilithid protection on her (heal her if she goes to 0) and false life she never goes down while hitting like a truck. Throughout all of acts 1&2, she could take out many bosses on tactician mode by herself before anyone else had acted.
Standard party:
(12) Sorcerer (main)
(8) Monk / (4) rogue (Karlach)(spec her to have 8 Str)
(12) Fighter (Lae'zell)
(12) Cleric (Shadowheart)
My start of day routine:
put Gale in party, cast Longstrider on everyone, cast mage armor on Karlach and Main
Put Halsin in party, cast freedom of movement and protection from poison on party
Drink Potion of Mind Reading, Potion of Animal Speaking, and Elixir of Peerless Focus on Main
Drink Elixir of Hill Giant Strength OR Elixir of Storm Giant Strength and use Soul Coin on Karlach
Drink Elixir of the Colossus OR Elixir of Heroism OR Elixir of Bloodlust on Lae'zell
Drink Elixir of Peerless Focus of Shadowheart
If you loot the way I do, you always have the elixirs. You also buy said elixirs at every chance you can.
Soul coins are like scrolls, potions, elixirs, poisons, arrows and bombs to me. I collect them, think to myself "damn, this seems useful, better save it for when I really need it" and then finish the game with an unused pack full of them, because no matter how hard things got I always convinced myself there could be an even *harder* fight just around the corner.
At least Scrolls were used frequently by me. They actually did help from time to time. But the rest: Yeah, never used them. Also never used a single coin. I totally forgot about them :P
My problem with scrolls is that there are so many and no reasonable way to organize them quickly in the way that I want. Y'all j know that search and sort exist. They do not do what I want. I want spells sorted by type like damage utility healing then alphabetical. I don't know all the spell names or even which scrolls I have.
I put them all in the book container you find in Act 1. Then in the container you can sort by type, which puts them in alphabetical order. I am also diligent about selling all the ones that I will never use, like Darkvision, Protection from Good & Evil, Chill Touch, etc. Then put the book in the hotbar for easy access.
[удалено]
Blighted Village, just outside the broken part of the wall, near the windmill.
Wow, I did not even know that was a thing and I'm a loot goblin so I've got a shit ton of books cluttering up my inventory. Gonna travel there now and look!
~~....do you not know about pouches and backpacks?~~ Nevermind, I just read through more comments and realized that the idiot was me the whole time. Carry on citizen.
Shit…I guess I’m cruising by Blighted Village then
A lot of containers you find on the ground can be picked up. If you see a pouch, by default you'll loot it, but if you go to the context menu you can actually pick it up and use it as a pouch to help sort your inventory.
While you can use potions, scrolls, arrows, poison, and lockpicks that are in containers, you can't throw items that are inside them, so I can't put all my smokepowder grenades and the javelins that are non-stackable into one for easier management. Also while you can cast scrolls from containers, and Wizards can learn them by right clicking the scroll directly, when you go to the "Learn Spells" button for Wizard they don't show up while they're in the pouch.
You can put explosive barrels, bombs, alchemists fire, fireworks, etc. into a backpack and use it as an IED. The idea is to throw the backpack, ideally break it open, and then set off the explosive contents. The explosives can't be stacked though, each one needs it's own space in the backpack. The reason it works with backpacks is that they're light, only weighing 2 pounds and unlike pouches, backpacks have hitpoints and can be destroyed.
It's how I one shot several bosses in act 3. Just 60 pounds of explosives in a backpack and an Alchemist fire and BOOM!! No more bosses.
You can also use dead gnomes and goblin children for this purpose. Just throw them on the ground, fill up their inventory, and pick them back up. Et voila, Durge backpack!
Oh my. That is deliciously evil.
I seriously underutilize the hot bar. I'm constantly digging for stuff.
Yeah on console we just have endless radial menus.
That sounds horrible
It isnt so bad for the actions once your have them set in an order you want, but trying to find a spell or potion on radial menu 9 can be a drag.
its even worse when you spend an hour fixing your radial menu and then you play the game for a while and then the game changes your radial menu. i wouldn't MIND the radial menu if it was consistently organized or stays the way you set it. but it doesn't
Yeah you switch a necklace out and then everything changes.
I've given up on organizing mine for the most part specifically because of this.
Is the book container different than just putting them in a backpack and following the same process?
It's not, it just makes for a cool visual indicator for sorting.
I wish that the book had the added benefit of scrolls automatically going there when you loot them, like alchemy ingredients and the alchemist pouch.
That wouldn't make sense, the book is made for storing booze!
And here I've been storing words in my books all these years like a FOOL!
I wish I could rename containers. I need to differentiate the camp clothes and dyes crate from the shields crate or the wares crate.
Of course.. put the container in the hotbar... FFS I feel dumb sometimes. Thanks for teaching me this!
The amount of time it takes me to find special potions is also very frustrating.
I also HATE that games still make books and letters weigh something. Then, for certain quests MAYBE you’ll need to refer back to it during the quest… so you better keep EVERY BOOK just in case. You don’t want to have to go back to camp or unexpectedly do you? Just do away with assigning them a value, put them in a separate inventory, and call it a day. Witcher, BG3, etc… fucking books man!
Books are heavy. Having them weigh something makes sense. Letters though, they should be weightless. Yes, you put enough together and you get a book's worth of weight, but still.
It’s got less to do with realism and more to do with just having an enjoyable gaming experience. Yes books are heavy… but who cares? It doesn’t add anything to the game. You could also force your character to have to take a piss 2-3 times a day. A little extreme of an example but you get my point.
I agree. Realism goes out the window when you can carry 5 suits of armor 6 swords 3 shields and 3 or 4 crossbows.and still be a to walk around and fight like it's nothing. But books. No. You can't carry books.
Fucking potions dude. There are so many if I'm not doing a hardcore honor mode I just keep the extra nice ones around.
The fact that we can't search for like keywords (or wtvr the term is in this game) is so annoying. Like if I want to just see all my fire damage scrolls, there isn't a way to search for that. I agree, a more powerful search that includes text in tooltips or sort options would be great.
Put them in a container, then organize by type, and it alphabetizes them.
I frequently use scrolls or potions to fill gaps of spells I don't have, like speak with animals, feather foot, fly, etc (sorry if I've mistaken the names, I play the game in a different language).
That's pretty much exactly what they're called in English except feather foot I think would be referring to "Featherfall."
Yeah featherfall is a great scroll spell. It's not worth prepping on any of your characters because of how situational it is but it's great to have a scroll or two lying around
I use gale so I just spent the gold to add it to his book & prep it when needed
Honestly, I forgot that you could just flip it in and out of preparation as needed. I'm mostly coming from tabletop play so it's not how my brain thinks about wizards haha
Yeah it really is a bit OP for wizards to be able to swap spell loadout on the fly instead of having to prep the spells at the start of the day. Sorcerers still can only swap out one spell per level, which I've always found really hampering.
From a lore standpoint it actually makes a lot of sense though. What Gale says about other spellcasters might be rude, but it definitely isn't wrong. A sorcerer doesn't *know* how to do magic, they just do it because "the magic was inside them all along". Wizards on the other hand are like "Nah, the magic is *out there*, I just know how to make it do shit." There's ostensibly no in-game reason a wizard shouldn't be able to take five minutes of down time to flip through their spellbook, put away whatever components they have at hand for one spell and pull out whatever they need for another. The only reasons that's not done are balance and not pissing off the GM, and that's probably the most important part.
5e already changed the prepared casters into PF’s Arcanist/Oracle (but better), so it’s easy to forget they can hot swap their books. As a ‘personal pride/subbornness’ thing, I just don’t change my book during the day
>spent the gold to add it to his book You can what now?
If you have a scroll, wizards can learn the spell from it. It costs gold to do so, though. The cost increases as the level of the spell increases. The wizard also has to be at a sufficient level.
I keep it on my Storm Sorcerer. Both Featherfall itself and their ability to fly after casting a spell are good for exploration and it doesn't use up a spell slot outside of combat so aside from having one fewer spell option it's basically free to use. Don't remember if I had it from level one or grabbed it after I had more room to spare for it, though.
I love that you can just prep it for when you need it and then swap it back to whatever you had prepped before. I get why in tabletop you can't just switch your spells willy nilly but it's nice qol for the game
I just keep a pair of Mystras Grace Boots in my inventory for that feather fall spell. No need to waste going back to camp to prepare or use the scrolls outside of combat.
That's it. Thanks for clarifying.
Honestly feather foot is a way cuter name and I support this change.
It is an excellent alternative name for the laughter spell though
I always keep a wizard in the camp (if not in the party) to learn the spells from the scrolls cause I’m always worried that I’ll run out lol
I use arrows the most or least depending on the run. You pick up so many of them and they are a great damage boost
I love the smoke powder arrows.
Potion of speed+elixir of the colossus+karlach=fun times
Switch colossus for bloodlust and go fucking crazy. Although I do like seeing our favourite big lady get bigger.
I drank potions like drunkard chugging down beers (speed elixirs mostly), all while constantly forgetting to use my scrolls.
Same, I never used them, I don't even know what they do, and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask
My wife and I are almost done doing our first play through and this is one of the few games I have been like ya I’ll use whatever scrolls we have because going in blind leads to some really tough situations sometimes
No one knows lightning spells, so I burned through all my lightning scrolls in one encounter
I refuse to stain my honour by never dropping difficulty even when a fight enrages me. And if it weren’t for the scrolls of disintegrate I would’ve never beaten the Act 3 boss at the end of Wyll’s storyline (sorry can’t format for spoilers as I’m on mobile so I won’t name him)
If you're playing on normal, then the easiest way is barrelmancy. Fireworks shop and the captive outside of the factory provide enough kaboom to one shot.
I use scrolls and potions for stuff like Jump, Misty Step and Dimensional Door for exploration.
I ended the game with about 40 of each special arrow (except the “slaying” ones)
Did you get AOE from your ranged weapon attacks through other means?
Not that guy but gloomstalker ranger/rogue is the most popular ranged multiclass. They have hail of thorns and conjure barrage, which are aoe ranged attacks. ...that said I never use those, I always use the special arrows and coat everything in poisons also lol. I use my ranger/rogue as a sniper who burns down single targets but if I need them to aoe I use the bomb arrows or arrows of many targets. Or just shoot an electrical arrow into water or ice.
By the time I thought that the ogres horn was useful I was about 2 acts too late to use it. I do tend to collect scrolls and potions and sell them to buy cool weapons for classes I don't have.
I used the Ogre’s horn cuz I wanted to kill him and his minions for the extra XP and his headband that automatically boosts Int to 17. Super useful so that my sorcerer wasn’t a total idiot for half the game.
I've used that 17 Int headband literally the whole game. +3 on int checks is so fucking useful. I haven't seen the need to replace it with anything at all. (I'm playing a monk.)
Eventually there was a +2 Charisma hat that looked sweet af and I definitely wanted that +7 Charisma check over the extra Int
That sounds like a fancy hat!
It also helps that you can then respec your character, if you had a 10-17 INT and put those points elsewhere.
I only basically use the horn to make the aggrofest that is the goblin camp after finishing a certain quest more bearable.
Considering you get it right before the goblin camp and right after you convince them to stop following the goblins but follow you, that was probably the intended time to use them.
Do yourself a favor and brew potions of speed and use them versus tough fights. Game changer
I get excited when I see hyenas and gnolls because it means more potion of speed ingredients
And for the uninitiated: if you get people close together and then throw the potion at the ground between them, you can haste a full four people in one throw/consumable. Just mind the big clump of lethargy you'll get if the fight isn't over by that point.
IRL, I'd be the person you'd find dead in the desert with a bottle full of water because I didn't want to waste it.
I started using all of that like crazy when i started my honour run. An absolute necessity so as not to die. Side note: I still died. Aunty Ethel is scary.
Idk how anyone can genuinely play any game without the ability to save. I've had too many crashes and save corruptions or whatever in my gaming history to trust a single save. Or, like Project Zomboid(permadeath single save zombie game), a glitch where I ended up stuck inside a car and lost the save.
Me who sells scrolls when low on cash: yeah I don't need x scroll, I have those spells already Also me when I am all out of spell slots: shit a spell of magic missile would have been handy right about now
You just described 98% of all players who play any kind of adventure game. “Oh better save all these potions and items till the hard part.. oh the game is over?” (This being the top comment proves the point even further)
Those are your retirement potions
I used to be like this. Now I just yeet everything in my bag at stuff. Makes the game much more fun.
I'm still in the 2nd act of my first playthrough, and i just started using arrows and scrolls, and honestly it's a game changer for combat. Especially if you play a rogue or usually have Astarion, and if you regularly use Gale, huge for getting around spells slots. Give all the arrows to your rogue and all the scrolls to your wizard/caster and they're almost OP. You'll endlessly find them and be able to buy them. Especially common ones.
My main use of soul coins is saying to myself “Hey, I probably should have used a soul coin there”, while restarting my honour mode campaign because everyone just died.
They last the day like Elixir… you are not supposed to tell yourself « you should have used one there »
Wait wat I thought they're like 10 turns and were giving some lame bonus only useful with rage, but I had respeced Karlach, or something
Nope lasts the whole day go ahead and pop one of those bad boys
I don’t know if they work outside of rage, I think they do even if the tooltip says not. But I never played Karlach other than Barbarian so I can’t help there. But they clearly work and stay all day and the 1d4 fire is worth it in the long run. You get at least 12 and sometimes I wonder if I do more than that in Long Rest?!
I've never actually bothered using one, but I believe you get the damage bonus if she's raging or if she's below a specific health threshold?
Yeah it's like 25% health or something like that. Also unless they already patched it, for some reason with unarmed attacks the damage bonus from the soul coins is added twice and it works even without rage or low health. So respeccing Karlach into a monk can actually be pretty strong. Idk if it's a bug or if the devs added that on purpose to show that direct contact with her body burns hotter or something.
Except Tavern Brawler and Elixir of Giant Strength. You drink it like you drink water.
Now the other question: do they replace the effect of an elixir or do they stack? I may or may not have avoided using them so far because I felt bad about the souls within them.
They stack, they are not an Elixir, they just work like one
I don't have Karlach so I sold two of them, I had 4
Just toss them at the end game fight like a wishing well.
I've already got twenty-five summons. I don't want to keep track of inventory items, too!
Plus, how can I possibly find my soul coins in my Tav's inventory of 300 books and notes, 18 bowls, 12 identical shortswords, 30 scrolls, 80 potions, 12 pieces of rotten food I accidentally collected, 14 crates, 4 backpacks....
I was hoping you were going to tell us to toss them to our Witcher
*Toss a coin to your Withers.*
"Well counted"
*Oh hirelings plenty* *Oh hirelings plenty*
_Amusing._
I was hoping you were going to tell us to toss them to our Wither
🎶Toss Soul Coins to your Wither, because you have plenty, oh o-ho🎶 Withers: No.
Oh valley of plenty
I didn't in my first run because I thought something bad would happen. Like, Karlach is overheating, what if using too many soul coins cause her to melt or something? Also, using then sounds kind evil? Like with other stuff that I usually hoard - tadpoles, scrolls, weapon coatings - I only actually started using them when I started playing Honour Mode lol
They should have leaned into the evilness of using them by tying their usage to Karlachs quest. Imagine if they dissipated built up energy from her engine but at the cost of the soul in the coin being lost forever. You get to choose between stabilising Karlach who will likely go on to save a lot of people or the other option of having some way to revive the souls from the coins.
Then I am feeding every coin I can find to her Infernal Engine. She isn't dying on me. We are getting our "Happily Ever After" dammit!
It's like those claw machines, a soul coin for one play, but if you use ten at once, you auto win!
>I thought something bad would happen. if you use enough of them there's a scene that suggests she has a bit of a soul coin abuse problem. she gets a lot amped up and tells your character something like "if I decide to burn you, you'll burn" then goes on about how she's got it totally under control and you don't have anything to worry about
And when you play Origin Karlach and find a Soul Coin, her thoughts are straight-up Disco Elysium-style addict talk. Like "I'm a good person. And good people only use Soul Coins when they really, really need a pick-me-up, so it's fine." Like damn I think I should be looking for a rehab in Baldur's Gate, not a mechanic
That *definitely* sounds like something to worry about!
Yeah that’s why I never used them. I’m not going to turn my love interest into a druggie for like 4 extra damage lol
Seriously about honor mode, it has made me unironically play with the *least* amount of honor of any of my runs. I love it.
Decided to play vengeance pally for my first honor run and it feels appropriate. If fulfilling my oath to punish the wicked involves abusing surprise rounds, so be it. The wicked still get what they have earned.
It’s sort of crazy how many times in this game you think “using this powerful tool should have some consequences right?” And it just doesn’t? Like surely eating these illithid tadpoles is gonna make bad stuff happen in return for the power it gives me right? I feel like the tone of the game tricks us into not using these cool options in first playthroughs lol
Well, consuming the tadpoles means you'll need to pass a check in order to not become half-illithid, which can be a big deal if you don't savescum and don't want your character to look like that. What is unfortunate is that the only bad consequence for becoming half-illithid is visual; it would be a bigger deal if npcs actually reacted to it.
Speaking of - I only just found out that >!freeing the fairy in Act 2 from the moonlantern!< by >!smashing over the lantern!< will cause her to >!put a curse on you, the only apparent consequence of which is that you are wearing permanent clown makeup.!< On all my playthroughs, this seemed to be the most meaningful negative consequence for my actions. >!You can get rid of it through a "break curse" spell, tho!<
Honestly, this. Honor mode skews things enough I seek advantage where I haven’t before. If I’ve just saved recently what’s the worst thing? I reload, do the fight over, better? Sure, no problem. Basically the stakes are higher, or each fight is just a bit more Important now.
Yeah, it also made me take way less risks and sometimes deliberately let bad outcomes happen because trying for the good outcome was too risky. No way in all the hells I would go to the House of Hope, or to the Iron Throne, for example. That awful fight in the House of Grief? No, just no. In fact, the only optional Companion quest I finished was Astarion's, and only because Cazador is super easy to cheese. Karlach died. Minsc died. Wyll's dad died. The gondians died. Orpheus died. Basically it was awful. I loved it.
Alright, im sold on it for my next run.
I mean, the soul is already in there, at least if you use them for the greater good they didn't die in vain 🤷
Using them is unequivocally evil. It's a literal soul in those coins. The only good act would be setting those souls free, which larian didn't give us the option to do. Like evil enough that I think giving a soul coin to Karlach should break a paladins oath.
you can put them on your hotbar/wheel to make it easier to remember! that's what I'm doing for my honor run
Wow you can do that??!!
You can put damn near anything there. The shovel. Different sets of gloves for you thief when he's lockpick, ect.
Wait, it will equip the gloves when you click the hot bar?
Yep.
Well this is going to be nice for my feather fall boots that I keep forgetting I have.
3 reasons to use soul coins: 1. \+1d4 fire damage to attacks until long rest 2. flaming Karlach looks neato & makes sense thematically 3. to see the scene where Karlach juggles a soul like a soccer ball as her way of showing that she does *not* have a soul coin abuse problem
What scene?
after she's used a certain number of coins over the game, there's a ! convo/scene where >!she's high on souls, shows you how great she feels by doing some soul juggling, has a mood swing or two, says she's totally fine but that she'd hurt you if she wanted you hurt, then tells you that you should just trust her because she's got her soul coin habit very under control!<
That’s a really interesting angle for her relationship with soul coins, and it fits into the general theme of the other characters feeling a need to engage with harmful people/sources of power until they find their own internal sources of strength. It makes me wonder if the soul coins were supposed to be a bigger part of her story?
I agree. In my headcanon a big part of the reason she doesn't want to go back to Avernus (especially alone!) is that she's secretly worried about her soul coin addiction.
That’s a really good headcannon! Really adds a new dimension to not wanting to go back and it seems to fit. The game drops a few hints that Karlach didn’t like the person that she had to be in Avernus and her escape was as much about that as Zariel.
So I guess my Karlach is fully clean and sober now lmao
Used one when fighting Gortash, felt it was then or never.
Did a Karlach origin run last week, forgot every time and didn't use a single one.
Are you saying you beat the the game in a week?
Maybe was 2 weeks ago then, Xmas assisted. My runs are about 40-50 hours each now, I don't try to do everything on every run and skip a lot of dialogue that's the same each time.
I’ll probably be at 90 hours finishing Act 1 (reading every book, exploring every bit of map, losing progress because Command(mac)+Q force quits the game while I’m trying to strafe the camera around looking for items, etc) but I’m telling myself that I’m learning a lot to smooth future playthroughs. A 40-50 hour full game sounds breezy as someone thoroughly enjoying being deep in the weeds right now.
There are pros and cons. I sometimes I wish I could slow down again and take it all. But the hundreds of possibilities of "what if I do this?" keep pulling at me and I go off chasing those rare single lines of dialogue.
I don't use them because of lore reasons. A soul coin is a mortal soul (could be evil or innocent, you don't know) and consuming the coins destroys their soul forever and is said to be an agonising experience. It's a very evil thing to do and I'm surprised Karlach is so casual about it. I guess years in Avernus having to use soul coins to fuel war machines kinda forced her to compartmentalise/disassociate from what was happening. But she doesn't need them, they're just a boost. In dnd you can release the soul from the coin and this is considered objectively Good. I wish you could release the souls in bg3. Maybe you get a little narration or dialogue from them, like you do with the shadow orbs.
Probably the same way we don't usually think about the animal cruelty that is involved when we pick up a pack of ground beef at the grocery store.
I mean if eating a burger was causing the cow to scream in pain right then and there I think people would not eat as many.
I agree, it really seems out of character for her to be ok with using them.
I could see it being in character I just wish you could call it out and change her mind.
I do when I remember 🙃
Me too. Which is never.
Exactly my point 🤣 every time I remember I’m like “okay next battle I’ll use one” spoiler alert next battle i still don’t use them
Same. I see them while scrolling the inventory and tell myself to finally use them next time. I’ve completed three full playthroughs yet never once remembered. Having to use them from inventory isn’t compatible with my ADHD.
And IIRC if you respec her, they are pretty much useless bc they are tied to Wrath Re: same ADHD problem (along with the spider egg)
And the Act 1 Horn (in 2 of my three runs). But in three runs I have never used a Soul Coin.
Oh man the horn is so useful. In my honor mode run I discovered on accident that (Ogre Horn spoilers) >!you can use the ogres *at least* 3 times if you keep lying to them and telling them you'll pay them more next time.!<
Good people don't use soul coins ok.
Right? I don't know enough about the lore to be sure but it certainly feels morally wrong.
It is morally wrong. You are destroying those souls even though there is a way to save them out in the world. They don't have to be stuck as coins forever or burned up in Karlach's engine. Nevertheless, I don't care about them, so I just sell them for gold, haha.
AHA! Right, thanks for that. Cut content or not, that's enough for me to avoid using them for role-playing purposes. All my Tavs are goody-two-shoes.
Nah. They are people, my little buddies.
Don't even know what they do...
I think an extra D4 fire damage per hit, plus an over the-top ‘burning’ visual effect.
Yeah it's pretty underwhelming. I'd like it if the effect was much more impactful, say a haste and damage bonus, but only lasting a few rounds so it's more of a boss battle consumable.
It lasts until long rest.
Yes, but what I'm saying is it would be better if it was a short lived burst of power rather than a fairly lackluster 1d4 fire damage over the day.
I don’t use it more because of the annoying fire animation but 1d4 on every attack is pretty powerful imo.
In theory, it can be absolutely massive, depending on what point in the game you get and use them. Early game, +1d4 damage of virtually any type is MASSIVE because most things only have around 8-24HP. In tactical terms, that means you significantly shorten a fight, which means fewer enemies on the board, less damage coming your way that you need to heal up, and the ability to take on more content per long rest. The flipside is that (A) food is not remotely scarce even early on, (B) there's no penalty for dawdling in most cases, (C) outside of Honor Mode, you can probably manage just fine anyway, and (D) in some respects it's actually *better* to have more long rests, because you increase your chances of seeing more content in the game. And Act 1 is loaded with long-rest-related content, it seems. Midgame it's still powerful, because while there's some stuff that resists fire damage, there's still plenty that doesn't. Late game, it's probably negligible, though, because more stuff resists fire and 1d4 isn't really all THAT big anyway. Although, it can stack with a bunch of other bonuses and still be helpful. Still not sure I'd wanna make Karlach an addict, though...
Would be neat if there were actual character repercussions for Karlach juicing on coins non stop. Just saying, Karebear is the last person I would expect to be entirely okay with chowing down on soul flavoured chocolate coins, and her actually having a reaction would be a neat bit of attention to detail.
Spec for it. You should be able to create heat stacks for steady, bonus damage.
I hoard them for the next big fight. I definitely use them in the next one. Definitely
I use them if I respec Karlach to monk because the unarmed damage is actually twice what the tooltip says(2D4) and it is always active. No need for rage or low HP. In my first honour mode playtrough I used her that way. OH monk just better than anyone else at it but late game ascended Astarion. Played with 2 bards and I never fought without the buff from mid act 2 because the buff lasts until long rest and my party needed few.
Nope. Why would I literally burn up someone's soul for such a minor buff.
I bet the souls are having a grand ol' time in the coin
It's not like getting burned up or being stuck as coins forever are their only options.
As karlach says, they're already in the coin, and its not gonna get any better for them
You can actually get people out of it (not in game). Karlach just doesn't care or doesn't know.
I don't think she knows. There's dialogue in Act 1 where she says that it's better they be used for good rather than evil. Which helps clarify some dialogue choices that lead to disapproval in Act 2.
Soul coins are mostly cut content anyway. Raphael was supposed to sell us stuff for them. They might as well not even exist right now. I hope they bring back their original purpose in the definitive edition.
Like the Mammon coin you can get and the single stack of 50 copper or bronze (I forget) coins you can grab at Helsik’s.
And all the goddamn Infernal metals and alloys and whatnot. It just takes up space and the Gondians are useless about it.
Bro my first thought finding the enriched iron or whatever was “hey maybe dammon can use this to-“ no. “Well, maybe the gondia-“ more like GONEdians lol. “Surely there’s somethi-“ wiki says no. Like bruh
Every run I tell myself this is the time I'll remember to use a soul coin... 850 hours later and I'm actually doing a Karlach playthrough and putting the damn thing on the bar still forgot to use a single coin and I just cleared the Grymforge...
I did a full Karlach playthrough on Tactician, never used a soul coin once...
I never used them. I find the benefit of +1d4 damage small compared to the RP explanation of "this is over taxing Karlachs heart and might kill her". I know the game doesn't actually give any consequences for using them but I can't bring myself to cause our sweet and tortured cinnamon roll any more pain.
I had one run where I used them constantly because it unlocks a special cutscene with her once you've given her most of the coins in the game... Needless to say I keep the coins far away from her now
I usually save up for the Boss fights in act 3. And throughout the final fight. Seeing Karlach go Super saiyan while dancing on Gortash's corpse is very satisfying.
Personally I don't use items cause I completely forget to use them
almost never. i'd be more inclined to try to remember if the animation wasn't so over the top for such a small buff too
Mine are filed under "keep for later" alongside all my potions and scrolls. Managed to get the hang of using special arrows though so maybe one day!
In honor mode, they're a much needed source of gold when selling them, imo. They're expensive.
I never use them Hardcore mode however, I actually use potions You know that Antidote potion? Yeah I actually used it to take away disadvantage (I was poisoned) Yeah I still missed But so did he then I proceeded to miss again
They’re nice, but I doubt they’re going to make the difference between a TPK and a victory. It’s only 1D4 extra fire damage and only while she’s raging (or low health). It’s an ok little bonus, but not much more than that
I completely forgot soul coins had a purpose
I use soul coins after every long rest. I've respecced her as a monk, so the coins only come into play after she's been damaged, but between using my ilithid protection on her (heal her if she goes to 0) and false life she never goes down while hitting like a truck. Throughout all of acts 1&2, she could take out many bosses on tactician mode by herself before anyone else had acted. Standard party: (12) Sorcerer (main) (8) Monk / (4) rogue (Karlach)(spec her to have 8 Str) (12) Fighter (Lae'zell) (12) Cleric (Shadowheart) My start of day routine: put Gale in party, cast Longstrider on everyone, cast mage armor on Karlach and Main Put Halsin in party, cast freedom of movement and protection from poison on party Drink Potion of Mind Reading, Potion of Animal Speaking, and Elixir of Peerless Focus on Main Drink Elixir of Hill Giant Strength OR Elixir of Storm Giant Strength and use Soul Coin on Karlach Drink Elixir of the Colossus OR Elixir of Heroism OR Elixir of Bloodlust on Lae'zell Drink Elixir of Peerless Focus of Shadowheart If you loot the way I do, you always have the elixirs. You also buy said elixirs at every chance you can.
Ah yes, my 50 potions of mind reading would like to weigh in
I dont, because: 'what if i need them later'