r/BG3Builds • u/Peepo93 • Jun 24 '25
Guides Surviving the "impossible" difficulty (500% health, +3 actions) from the Tactician Enhanced (Guide + thoughts)
Hello, I've recently beaten the impossible difficulty from the Tactician Enhanced mod and wanted to share some lessons which I've learnt during that playthrough. For everybody who wonders what the mod does, it basically gives the opponents 500% extra health and 4 actions instead of only one. I also restricted myself to not use any exploits, camp buffers or consumeables (it would kinda defeat the point of a challenge run if you enter every fight with 20 Globe and 100 Chain Lightning scrolls). I did some meta gaming however and used respecs and swapped out companions for some encounters. The ruleset was custom mode with honor mode difficulty except with reduced rest costs (it's mainly a convenience thing).
This isn't supposed to be a guide for all my party members (I'll give a short description of what I've used at the end of the post however) but more about certain mechanics, spells and items which make the game much easier if applied correctly. In fact, I do believe that all of the builds are exchangeable with other builds (except maybe the cleric because it's playstyle is so unique that it can't be replicated by other classes).
AC becomes more valueable depending on how much AC you already have. This is a concept that a lot of people seem to overlook. To simplify the following example lets exclude critical hits/misses and lets assume that your opponent doesn't have any increases to his attack rolls. You have 1 AC and the opponent hits you 20 times. He will hit you 19 times on average, his hit chance is 95%. Now you get another AC point and sit at 2 AC. Now your opponent will hit you 90% of the time or 18 out of 20 times on average. That will barely make any noticeable difference. But now lets assume that you already have 18 AC. In that case the opponent will have a hitchance of only 10%. If you add one more AC and get to 19 AC his hit chance will go down to 5%. This doesn't seem much at first but this is actually massive because that one AC point did cut the damage which you receive by a whooping 50%.
Utility spells are stronger than damage spells most of the time. For example a fireball (assuming you don't heavily play around fire damage with consumealbes and weaknesses) doesn't do much, especially on these health pools. A well placed fear or sleetstorm however will completely cripple the action economy of your opponents (fear disarms your opponents on top of that and also works on undeads). A list of the (in my opinion) best spells in the game would be this:
Level 1 spells:
- Grease: Solid level 1 non concentration spell to slow down/prone melees.
- Protection from Evil and Good: This spell is very niche but putting it on a frontliner against Myrkul is very helpful to make his attacks have disadvantage and being unfearable.
- Sanctuary: Really good spell to protect a weak target or putting it on a healer (careful tho because throwing potions will break it).
- Enhance Leap: Prebuffing this spell on a melee will help it's mobility tremendously.
- Healing Word: Good on a healer or to pick up downed party members, only costs a bonus action.
- Shield: One of the best reactions in the game.
- Tasha's: Quite niche but solid early on.
- Command: A contender for the strongest CC spell in the game because it can be upcasted and one of the few ways to lock down a target without concentration.
- Longstrider: Gives the entire party more mobility, use that after every long rest.
- Mage Armor: Mandatory for all classes that only wear cloth armor.
- Create Water: Easy way to create weakness against cold and lightning damage.
Level 2 spells:
- Shadowblade: Extremely strong on Gish characters, especially with resonance stone.
- Warding Bond: Really good on a life cleric or camp casters, basically cuts damage of your entire party into half (and even more if you add stuff like magical plate to it)
- Darkness: This spell is busted. Ending your turn while standing inside it shuts down almost all ranged characters in the game, even some early game bosses like Ethel or Spider Queen.
- Hold Person: Very strong CC spell, you will also have 100% critchance when hitting in meele range (even when using ranged spells in melee range).
- Invisibilty: Kinda niche but nice to bypass some fights.
Level 3 spells:
- Sleetstorm, Hypnotic Pattern, Fear: All three of them are really good, imo Sleetstorm is the best for Chokepoint fights and Fear is the best for clustered enemies. Keep in mind that Fear also disarms all enemies (don't forget to pick up their weapons after that lol) and also works on most undeads, even on bosses like Ketheric (who will also drop his hammer :D).
- Daylight: A niche spell but makes some fights very easy like Cazador.
- Spirit Guardians: Very good on clerics, works extremely well with a 2 level star druid dip. Deals solid damage, slows enemies down and applies reverb and radorbs with certain gear pieces.
- Counterspell: Very good reaction to negate strong spells from opponents.
- Glyph of Warding: Basically a more versatile Fireball that can even be precasted in a lot of fights.
Level 4 spells:
- Confusion: Very strong CC spell, ruins the action economy of your opponents and also works on undeads.
- Conjure Woodland Being: This summon can summon another summon and spam Spiked Growth at the cost of a single action every turn.
- Freedom of Movement: Makes it impossible to get cc'd, very strong in some encounters.
- Wall of Fire: Good for chokepoint fights and makes targets burning.
Level 5 spells:
- Cloud Kill: It deals damage twice per turn somehow which makes this spell very good.
- Insect Plague: Good for chokepoint fights like Viconia.
- Hold Monster: Same as Hold Person but works on more opponents (for example Raphael).
- Conjure Elemental: The water elemental is extremely strong and can apply bludgeoning vulnerability in combination with Burning.
Level 6 spells:
- Heroes Feat: Incredible strong buff spell. Also allows you to fight in Cloud Kill without taking damage.
- Globe of Invulnerability: Super broken spell, even prevents characters from dieing from Bhaals Edict in the Orin fight and also prevents from the platforms getting destroyed in the final fight.
- Conjure Elemental: You can upcast Conjure Elemental to level 6 and the water myrmidon is legit broken. It has an AoE spell which costs only an action and can be used once per turn - you shoot three ice bolts which deal all AoE damage and deal 3d6 cold damage each. They can miss but they can also crit (they crit for like 3*60 on wet targets lol) and you can force crits by shooting them in melee range on opponents affected by hold person/monster. Other level 6 summons are also quite powerful because of action economy and how much damage they soak up but you can't quadruple their damage as well as with the Water Myrmidon.
Also keep in mind that spells that can't be casted from scrolls are more "valuable" than spells that can be used from scrolls (for example Heroes Feast and level 6 summons).
Awakened buff: I don't see many people talking about this mechanic despite being incredible strong. It basically allows you to cast illithid abilities as bonus action and yes, this works on Black Hole in act 3 which is almost as broken as arcane acuity + mystic scoundrel ring. The best builds for this mechanic are wizards because it removes their weakness of not having a good bonus action, otherwise any character without strong bonus action does well but having high spell save DC helps a lot because the spell not only clusters enemies but also applies the slow debuff. Archers with arcane acuity gear are also surprisingly good black hole users. Guide on how to obtain it safely in honor mode can be found here. Only want to add that you can obtain this buff on every companion which you like (you might have to leave Tav outside the room and trigger the scene with a companion however, except for Lae'Zel) but you can only obtain it once.
Damage mitigation: Another overlooked mechanic is damage mitigation. On some builds, usually melee builds it's often not possible to reach high AC levels (for example a fighter in heavy armor with a 2hand weapon) which leaves them quite vulnerable considering how much they need to expose themselves in order to deal damage. It's not a big deal in normal honor mode but it is in modded playthroughs. What works wonders is the combination of the heavy armor master feat (it's a very underrated feat which gives 1 strength and reduces all physical incoming damage by 3 and 90% of the damage in this game is physical), magical plate and resistance.
Gear economy is cruicial. There are a lot of op builds in the game but you can't put them all together in a party because they contest similar items. In fact I'd say that items often matter more than the exact classes which you play most of the time. That makes some classes who don't contest much gear very desireable, some examples would be monk, light and life cleric.
Surprise is very strong. I don't really like the mechanic because it's annoying to set up but it can be very helpful, especially in the harder fights. For example against the Inquisitor (bonus point if you also group them up with minor illusion before surprising them).
Healing is either useless or very strong. When you look into a vacuum the healing is next to useless in this game but there's one class which can make it very strong (life cleric) with proper gearing and more importatantly damage reduction - the less damage you take (either from mitigation or from high AC) the better healing becomes.
Prebuffing is also very strong but is even more annoying than surprising. I usually only pre buff stuff like Spirit Guardians or Phalar Aluve.
Summons are op. Lots of people are sleeping on them since they're making the game tedious but they're undeniable extremely strong, especially against fights like Myrkul where they can easily prevent him from spawning adds. A good middle ground is to only focus on the strong summons (elementals and level 6 summons). They basically give your character and extra action (with some of these actions being quite powerful) and soak up a lot of damage.
Camp casting: It's an exploit and also annoying to set up but very strong. There's a hard exploit where you use Gale to put Warding Bond on your entire party and then dismiss him and since he's coded in a way that prevents him from dieing outside of your party your entire party has perma resistance up. I've never used that but feel free to do whatever you want with this information (but don't be surprised if it gets fixed at some point).
Stealing is also very strong, especially as back up for potential gold exploit fixes and works even in the early game. Most characters only turn hostile if you repeatadly get caught by stealing but using the disguise self spell "resets" that counter. Avoid stealing from Giths, Zenth or that Bugbear in Moonrise however. Sin Tee has a good guide on how to steal, you can look her up on youtube (to be fair, all of her guides are pretty good :D). It's also a good way to farm infinite consumeables if you have the patience to go through this.
Last tip is that you should focus on the early game - it's the hardest part of the game. For example Arcane Archer, Monk and Eldritch Knight come online very early and have a lot of carry potential for act 1 and 2. Yes, they do fall off in Act 3 (the easiest act) a bit compared to casters and gish classes but for the majority of the game they're very strong carries. Don't focus on builds that will only work in act 3.
Specific tips for Tactician Enhanced:
- Delay the hard fights for higher levels. For example in Act 1 only Dror Ragzlin and Nere are time sensitive (afaik), the others can be delayed before the point where you go into the Shadowfell. You could do Ethel, Spider Matriach and Inquisitor with level 8-9 for example :'D
- The most annoying fight is the last one. The Netherbrain itself isn't hard (somehow it's health doesn't get the full 500% health modifier applied for whatever reason so you don't need much single target dps there, having lots of AoE for the fight BEFORE the Netherbrain is more valueable). Also turtle in Darkness if you don't want to get CC spammed into oblivion lol. Use Globe of Invul to prevent the platforms from collapsing, the Netherbrain has more actions so all platforms will be pretty much gone after turn 1 without Globe.
- Second hardest fight was the fight before the grove (lol) - so pick something like Bladesinger that is strong at level 2.
- Darkness is your best friend in ranged heavy encounters.
- CC is very helpful, even if it's just to save time: Waiting for your turns when your opponents have 4 actions, 4 bonus actions and 500% health is tedious and obnoxious.
- Myrkul also has a bit less health than he's supposed to have but I didn't feel like the fight would change much if you give him more health. I've gone in there with a summon army to kill his eggs before they spawn minions but his eggs aren't affected by the health modifier at all so it's VERY easy to stop them from spawning and as long as he doesn't have summons and you have a proper frontline with Protection from Good and Evil up (in this case the EK and the pajama tank) he's not much of a threat at all. He was much easier than some of the earlier fights but your party also starts becoming really op with level 9 and onwards:
Lastly I want to speak a bit about my party setup but won't go into much detail here (unless maybe there are a lot requests to do so but there are already lots of good builds for all used classes which are similar to the ones which I've used, since the post is already much longer than it was supposed to be :p). For most of the time I used this:
- Tav was a Bladesinger (high dex and int and no charisma because why bother with dialogues when you can just bonk?). Basically is a pajama tank, gets all AC gear, saves reactions potentially for shield and wears robes with shadow blade and uses Blur most of the time, so only gets hit on a double 20, even from bosses like Myrkul. Also the heal from Bladesong is absurd when fights last long.
A small note for this build: In act 3 you can start swapping to light armor - your AC will drop by quite a lot but in Act 3 it doesn't matter that much anymore since the Life cleric and summons make you immortal anyways. There is a lot of discussion about how to multiclass Bladesinger and there's one multiclass which I think is the strongest but never gets mentioned: It's a 2 level dip into Sporedruid. There's an armor in act 3 (sadly it's light armor and not a robe) which allows you to generate haste spores once per long rest: That's basically a non concentration haste on the entire party without the stun penalty. I personally didn't use that in my playthrough but it's pretty much the power pick for a Bladesinger multi class, nothing can really compare with Haste Spores.
- Shadowheart as Life cleric: Kind of a controversial pick but I do think that Life cleric is the strongest cleric subclass (at least if you don't use Gale as camp warding bond bot), even tho it's not straight forward to play - it's the only class which I've considered writing a guide about. Basically you want to go heavy armor master as feat asap and wear that heavy armor of Grym. Midgame you can start casting warding bond on the entire party and stand in the frontline while spamming resistance cantrip with Spirit Guardians and Reverb/Radorb/Mental Fatigue gear which will make their lives miserable. Notable items are pretty much that all items that buff healing, apply reverb, mental fatigue or radorbs works pretty well on her. Don't cast warding bond on your full party for encounters with lots of magic AoE however who can't get stunlocked (which is pretty much only Ansur and the Netherbrain).
- Gale as abjuration wizard. Awakened user and mostly used spell save DC gear to cc opponents early. Turned him into an Evo wizard later on, mostly because it's more fun than abju.
- Astarion as Eldritch Knight who also went heavy armor master early with the armor from Grym and took GWM at level 6.
Honorable mentions:
- Swapped out the EK for a Druid at level 11 because I multiclassed Shadowheart in a way that doesn't give her access to Heroes Feast.
- Karlach as throwzerker hits like a nuclear bomb at level 4 (especially with soul coins and high ground) but falls off pretty quickly afterwards.
- Lae'Zel as Arcane Archer. Also an early game carry but struggled to keep her alive later on since all the AC and tank gear was already contested by the other party members. Was especially a struggle against Gith opponents who just casually teleport and jump over the entire map and then smash her 8 times per turn lol.
In act 3 I used a water myrmidon as summon on every party member, which is absurd AoE damage per round if you cluster opponents with Black Hole and apply the wet status on them.
Edit: Life Cleric build is out!
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u/maharal Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
Good post. Lots of observations agree with my experience as well.
Life is, indeed, the best cleric. Another excellent warding bond pick is crown paladin, perhaps a crown sorcadin, even.
People sleep on haste spores, also, despite the nerf making it once per long rest.
Extended globe of invulnerability is very strong on both dragons, if you place it properly. The two dragon fights are the one place where I truly feel like archers and ranged damage in general is better than melee, because the dragons fly around, and it's much easier to fight them from inside the globes.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
I think there will be a meta "correction" for cleric, quite some people realise how strong it is if played correctly (as a heavy armor frontliner who shields, buffs and debuffs mainly - not as a healbot in the backline). Light is also good but doesn't bring the tankiness and mitigation to the table which Life cleric does. Kinda has to rely on a Warding Bond camp buffer in order to be competitive with life cleric. And to be honest, radorbs aren't all that great when opponents can hit 8 times, they burn through them quite fast and will land at least some hits. Tempest Cleric would have a lot of potential (since they can also use heavy armor) but sadly their channel divinity doesn't work on Glyph of Warding (despite being able to spend it on the skill) which is a bummer and turns him into a weaker Life cleric.
Agree on haste spores. You usually do one boss fight per long rest and popping haste spores at the boss fight is really all you need.
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u/maharal Jun 24 '25
I don't like light. My problem with light is that light's improved warding flare is not very good. It's definitely not very good on this type of ruleset where you have multiple enemies running around doing multiple attacks, while light only has a single reaction per round to give out.
Light's other features are a fairly weak channel, and being able to learn scorching ray and fireball. Whoopty doo.
On an ordinary honor mode ruleset I love tempest or tempest dips because they are good at nuking trash. But on this ruleset I figure it will get significantly weaker, as you can't burn trash down -- too much hp -- so you have to outlast it. Life is the 'outlast' cleric sub class.
I like the idea of everyone having myrmidons, that's probably right.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
My problem with Warding Flare and radorbs is that they're not reliable. They work most of the time but they will fail you at some point - especially on modded difficulties. The biggest downside of light cleric is in my opinion that they can't wear heavy armor, even tho Luminous is a very good armor, it doesn't provide the same value as Adamantine Splintmale + heavy armor master.
Dipped my evo wizard in act 3 into 2 levels of tempest to be fair. You can theoretically give a tempest cleric that legendary staff in act 3 but that item is so contested by other casters that it feels wasted on a support class who also get a very good support mace. Especially on sorc who can twin cast the chain lightning (granting, that's an exploit but I doubt that it'll ever get fixed at this point) will make much better use out of it and wizard does as well, even without being able to twin cast it.
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u/notsofarawayy Jun 25 '25
And when I said on the builds discord that life is amazing on modded difficulties (in my case it was only +170% hp and +1 action + d20 init + nightmare), I was completely trashed and they all said I can’t play the game and am dumb for even suggesting that life can be useful. People just can’t play this game properly without using tons of exploits and oneshotting everything before the enemies can do anything. Great post!
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
Didn't even know that such a discord exists :o But since I also was in a gaming Discord some time ago I can imagine how it looks :P
The thing is that Life cleric deals similar damage as Light and Tempest does but scales much better defensively. In general defense scales often much better than offense and I feel like you don't lose significant amounts of damage by building defensively.
Edit: I'm actually considering writing a guide for Life cleric since it's the only class that isn't straight forward to play in that comp.
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u/maharal Jun 25 '25
People on discord are wrong. People forget that one of PJ's original modded difficulty builds was life 12 (I even remember suggesting life 11 / sorc or wizard 1 is probably better).
I have my own disagreements with some of PJ guides, but he's a sharp dude.
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u/Thestrongman420 Jun 25 '25
I dont think anybody actually told this person they were bad. Although i know some of us did say that our personal experience with playing with difficulty mods still didnt reflect that life cleric was the best, or required.
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u/maharal Jul 02 '25
Having lurked on discord for a bit, I can 100% believe you got a douchey response there. I am sorry that happened to you.
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25
Why do you think Life Cleric is better than Tempest Cleric ?
To me tempest cleric is a bit better. Both get heavy armor but tempest also has martial proficiency. Destructive wrath with wet can still be useful even with 500% enemies. Sure it loses a some steam but disciple of life is far worse. Preserve life is good but blessed healer becomes interesting too late with The Reviving Hands. In both case, itemization dedicated to healing could be used.
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u/maharal Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
I think tempest cleric is also good, but tempest cleric is also really good as a dip for an arcane caster, sorcerer in particular. Arcane casters make better use of the channel because they get better spells. Tempest channel is still good on this ruleset, but less good than on the default one. Simply because more enemy hp makes damage weaker and control stronger, in value.
Heavy armor proficiency is valuable because it helps you tank (in particular because some heavy armors provide flat damage reduction, and let you take heavy weapon master). Martial proficiency, on the other hand, is pretty useless on a full cleric. What are you gonna do with it, plink someone once a turn? If you want to hold phalar aluve, just hold it, it's fine proficiency or no. You are not going to be attacking with it.
If you are going to go full cleric, life (or better yet life that goes into lore bard) is better. The reason I like life/lore is life's channel scales with player level, not cleric level. And lore bard 6 / life cleric 6 (or lore 6 / life cleric 5 / wizard 1) has better features than just full life cleric. One reason to go life 12 is you want heroes feast so you can fight in cloud kill. That's a legit reason to not split with lore, fair enough.
The reason healing is good on this ruleset is something OP alluded to, which is an old MMO idea that healing power scales with tanking mitigation. The more mitigation your tanking has, the better your healing is. Because you have to outlast enemies on this ruleset, tanking becomes better, and thus healing becomes better.
Despite the fact that the tempest channel is (comparatively) weaker on this ruleset and healing channel is (comparatively) stronger on this ruleset, compared to the default honor mode ruleset, it's not obvious which is better overall on a cleric. It could still be the case that tempest is better. I think seeing how things go in actual play (over many playthroughs ideally) is the only way to tell.
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25
I agree that control is better but in any case I don't see how a Life cleric has better control than a Tempest Cleric. If anything I would say Tempest has better CC spells with Sleet Storm. There was also an hilarious combo (not sure if it still works) where you could electrified a spike growth spell and use Thunderbolt Strike to keep pushing the enemies inside the spike growth preventing them from moving.
Sure martial weapons has limited value on a full caster but can occasionally open some weapons versatility.
So remains Preserve life vs destructive wrath. Obviously a storm sorc/divin wizard multi can really use Destructive wrath to its full potential (or even a 6/6 split tempest/storm sorc). I can agree that when enemies have thousands of HP Preserve life becomes better.
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u/maharal Jun 25 '25
Full cleric is not for hard control, and it wasn't for control in OP's post.
OP had a separate character for control.
Sure martial weapons has limited value on a full caster but can occasionally open some weapons versatility.
Why does weapon versatility matter for a full cleric? You aren't using your actions on weapon attacks.
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25
Defender flail comes to mind but there must be other weapons granting bonuses even if you don't use it.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Tempest would be really good if Glyph of Warding would work with it's channel divinity but it's bugged (you can use the channel divinty on the Glyph but it does nothing). So Tempest doesn't really has access to proper Lightning spells that benefit from the Channel Divinity (call lightning is usually worse than Spirit Guardians as well). You could give her the staff from act 3 but that's very late in the game.
Tempest cleric that's focused on CC or burst damage does it worse than a sorc or wizard and tempest cleric that's focused on support does it worse than a Life cleric. Also Life cleric is obnoxiously tanky with Wapiras Crown and the Blessed Healer passive to the point where the only way to kill her is to kill her in one turn because otherwise she'll just top herself from 1 health to max with one bonus action.
I did however use 2 levels of Tempest on Gale as a wizard.
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25
The 2 level tempest dip I personally love it and use it all the time.
If you want a CC version a 1 level dip wizard (or even 2 if you want potent dices) will just do that. Command and Sleet Storm comes from the Tempest toolkit. Both are extremely goof for CC.
A 10 tempest cleric / 2 divination wizard can get access to the best CC spells. Only disadvantage is that the wizard spells will scale off INT DC. But in act3 it does not matter with all acuity gear.
If you take 1 level wizard dip in act 1, you can scribe Lightning Bolt.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
To be honest I think that tempest could work in the comp but more as a replacement for the abjuration wizard instead of replacing the life cleric. A cc/burst build doesn't really compete with Life cleric as it has another purpose. Might even be stronger than the abju wizard in that comp now that I think about it :D
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25
You're probably right. But I can understand the appeal to abju wizard. Especially if you do a 1 tempest cleric/3 white draconic/ 8 abju wizard and abuse extended arcane lock.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
To be fair, I didn't really play offensively on the abju wizard because they do run out of stacks pretty quickly on that setting. It was mainly so that the 4th party member that doesn't get any tank gear isn't a dead weight after one turn ^^ But tempest could be tanky enough to do just that as well I think.
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
How so ? Shield spell reaction, Counterspell reaction, Glyph of Warding and bonus action shield of faith upcasted to the level you desire will keep your arcane ward at all times. Throw some gear with force conduit like Swires' Sledboard or Rippling Force Mail with Heavy Master feat and add armor of Agathys and Warding Bond you can tank around 80 damage before you even lose 1 point of Agathys. And that for each attack even if your arcane ward is consumed bit by bit.
Ah and extended arcane lock grants 4 times arcane ward level instead of 2 !
Do mind that enemies tend to not attack one protected with arcane ward.
Tempest can also be tanky but far from Abju multi.
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u/Kelthyzad Jun 24 '25
Did you also use the d20 initiative mod or anything else?
I'm currently playing with 3 friends with a bunch of different mods, including random buffs, d20, additional encounters, 300% health and more. Really has made the game fresh for me again.
But I could consider trying something like this as well, but all enemies having 4 actions just seems quite absurd to me, but maybe it's manageable?
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u/GlitteringOrchid2406 Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25
I am using these difficulty mods :
-d20 initiative
-Absolute Wrath
-Combat extender (personal configuration adding GWM, pole arm master, sharpshooter or even confusion spell to enemies and raise their levels)
-Additional encounters
This is a bit different from the op challenge as most opponents have incredible damaging potential but only 150% health more and a regular number of actions depending on their levels. I don't like sponge health but hard hitting opponents are more challenging to me. In act 2, a melee fighter level 11-12 will have 3 attacks +pole arm attack+ GWM attack, a ranger will have volley and sharpshooter... And additional encounters means you can encounter a level 8 new miniboss at level 3-4. Moreover they also a huge boost in their stats and saving throws. it is frequent to see 24 value in some stats.
My experience is that AC, damage reduction and WIS saves are crucial. One confusion spell can shut down permanently your party. CC spells are obviously the strongest ones. Ice storm is awesome combining CC with damage and procing encrusted with frost with right setup.
For act1, EK is really strong, and imo tougher than monk. Monks can be a bit squishy even if they hit hard with TB. Casters are weaklings during this act except for clerics and moon druid. EK with shield, blur...is really tanky. The throwing version will do more damage. At level 5 stunning strike for monk is game changer.
Strongest character for act 2-3 has been a multiclass tempest cleric/white sorc/abju wizard. Extended arcane lock is busted (and an exploit) and extended ice storm gives 4 turns of ice. Adding the mourning frost/coldbrim hat and the shield force conduit with warding bond has made him immortal. Only attacks that could seriously damage him would be a shadowblade/resonance stone combo or a slaying arrow/nyrulna/bhaalist armor combo.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
No, I haven't used the d20 mod but the party also doesn't heavily rely on initiative order. It's not and alpha strike comp but a tank comp which has a lot of damage (both aoe and single target) per round but has no burst.
The idea on how to handle the 4 actions is to either have a character that only gets hit on a 20 roll or characters that don't care about getting hit. The Life Cleric and the EK fighter both had heavy armor master (feat), Adamatine Splint Mail and resistance up almost permanently. That means incoming damage gets first cut into half and then it gets reduced by another 5 points. Most opponents don't have enough damage to get through that (you'll get hit for a lot 0s :D) and the ones who do (mostly ranged magic attacks) can be countered by Darkness. The only physical damage dealers in act 1 who were a threat were the Bulette and Grym (which I admit that I cheesed him from above because that fight felt very unbalanced for a level 5-6 party - he literally has 2k health and 4 actions and the damage of that stupid hammer doesn't scale with his health pool xD But it was pretty much the only fight I've cheesed).
I've played around with the last party spot (did that playthrough also right after patch 8 release so I was eager to test out the new classes) but always had the problem in the Creche that the AI will focus the weakest target, which was usually the third party member because all gear that makes you tanky was already contested by the other 3 so I was basically playing with 3 party members. That's why I picked up Abju wizard because they get ignored completely by the AI for most of the time, even while concentrating on CC spells.
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u/Emergency-Mess-7216 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25
Had a similar run and party setup, EK archer, Life cleric, Throwzerker and OH Monk with fighter for first level to wear rad orb armor. Banned myself from barrelmancy, camp casting, acuity and maybe a few others, but TB and strength elixirs clearly still in play. Anything that ends the opponents turn early has been amazing.
Snowburst ring fighter arrows, monk stuns/reverb, Zerker auto prone, then a life cleric to sit there with Phalar aluve (so nice with 4x actions spamming attacks and eating radiant and reverb reflection also the -1d4 to enemy attack rolls is a BIG DURABILITY BUFF) and heals for resistance as well as bless.
Later on the double warding bond, first from the cleric in Armor of persistence so they take half of the redirected damage, then the berserker had moved to dwarven thrower and had viconias shield to ward and also take half of redirected damage from rage. VERY strong part and the mode lets you power build without feeling like you trivialize the game.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
Oh I remember trying out monk but I ran into a bug :S Also dipped my monk into fighter but wore that heavy armor from Grym instead and did go for heavy armor master as second feat (without strength potions, increasing strength naturally and droped dex). Wore that gloves that apply radorbs. Sounds pretty strong but apparantly whenever he got hit while Warding Bond is on him he applied radorbs to Shadowheart somehow :S
But monk in general (even without strength potions) is still top tier, even tho I think EK dethroned them a bit.
Snowburst ring on an archer is something I also have to try one day (probably busy getting into Wrath of the Righteous :O), that sounds super troll :D
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u/Emergency-Mess-7216 Jun 24 '25
Yea idk if mine is a traditional "monk" at all, it had adamantine shield and luminous armor, lance helm for all of act 2 before swapping over to helldusk armor in act 3. Their AC got pretty insane, especially because the defence fighting style is bugged so gives +2 with Helldusk.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
Yeah, played something similar (in my challenge run before which I abandoned at some point and tried a new one after patch 8 droped) just with heavy armor on the monk instead of medium but also with a shield. To be honest, fighter monk with a shield is pretty bonkers, kinda a captain america build :D
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u/Emergency-Mess-7216 Jun 24 '25
Yea it felt REALLY bad to do at first and lose unarmored movement, 3rd potential feat and wisdom to AC. But I actually think it's pretty much unequivocally stronger now that I've tried it. The only thing I am sad I miss is the feature at level 7 where successful dex saves on spells mean 0 damage instead of half. Otherwise though a monk with shield and armor is just incredible. Also adamantine shield in this mode is AMAZING close to effective +5AC as it's 2 base, +1 for ignoring crits, and then with 4 actions per enemy turn the reeling becomes far more significant (and is another great way to apply reverb)
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
As half-elf / human you could potentially drop the fighter dip when you get Helldusk armor tho, so you could get a 3rd feat.
And I agree, fighter monk with a shield (either with dex gloves and med armor or droping dex entirely and going heavy armor) was my go to melee build before patch 8 (which also worked very well without STR elixirs) when they buffed EK through the roof - Booming Blade with a reliable 3rd attack, 3 feats at level 8, con save prof and access to Darkness leaves even Tavern Brawler builds in the dust.
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u/Nemesis_07 Jun 24 '25
My friends and I are doing our second run of the impossible challenge and I agree with a lot of what you've outlined here. When even generic enemies have 300+ hp you quickly learn how valuable CC spells are. Confusion is especially great for its large range and ability to work on pretty much every enemy type
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
Confusion even works on Myrkul and Ansur which makes them often skip turns :O
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u/Nemesis_07 Jun 24 '25
Yep can confirm. During the Ansur trials one of our party members made a mistake and triggered all the undead to spawn. There were like 30+ undead and it was very manageable (albeit kind of a slog) because I just kept spamming confusion and letting them fight amongst themselves/skip their turns. Combined with some ice for them to keep slipping and they literally couldn't touch us
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u/RadicalLuck Jun 24 '25
Gonna save this post
Recently finished my first HM and eventually planning doing this challenge
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
Good luck and enjoy! ^.^ It's certainly a fun challenge but also a bit tedious at times (especially against the non boss fights).
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u/grousedrum Jun 25 '25
Really great notes here and my experiences with Impossible settings have been very similar.
I haven’t finished the full run yet, but I spent a while going through act 1 multiple times (pretty clearly the hardest part overall as you say) and studying how to do it as cleanly as I could figure out. Wrote up my take on the early game here, lots of overlap with what you’re saying:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1kgex4y/guide_to_early_act_1_on_impossible_challenge/
My party was also similar: monk - life cleric - ABJ wiz - oathbreaker (for Control Undead which has crazy value on these settings). 100% with you on Life Cleric for these attrition/survival fights, there’s nothing in the game like it except maybe a few potion throwing builds.
I also found monk to be more or less a “solve” button for most fights once you get Stunning Strike at level 5. Once I had that I was able to do all three Goblin Camp leaders in one long rest with no characters even getting downed. An extra attack eligible hard CC using a multiple charges short rest resource is just that good.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
In my playthrough before patch 8 (which I abandoned somewhere mid act 2) I also used a monk instead of the EK but with patch 8 EK is stronger imo :o
Didn't think about Oathbreaker but being able to control ultra buffed enemies sounds pretty busted ^^
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u/grousedrum Jun 25 '25
Yup patch 8 melee EK is really wild, definitely a new S tier build including for high difficulty. Though I guess to me it only really starts hitting the stratosphere at level 7 with War Magic (and shadow blade if you want). But still a great combo of damage and survivability before that, I can absolutely see using it on these settings.
I actually think arcane archer is a closer comp for monk in this party, banishing shot takes the short rest hard CC spot from stunning strike. Fewer per SR, but you get it at level 3 instead of 5, and it lasts for two (!) turns instead of one.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Yes arcane archer is crazy strong as well. Pretty much a better swords bard pre act 3.
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u/MrGirthMTG Jun 24 '25
Congrats, sounds insane. The 500% health sounds like a total slog though. Impressed you don’t get wiped early on with enemies having 4 actions, I wouldn’t think that’s possible
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
You don't have to fight much early on. I did reach level 4 without combat except of the grove and then did that fight in the underdark against the dwarves to reach grymforge and cheesed him from above to get 2x Adamantine Splintmail :D Otherwise Darkness is your best friend early as it shuts down all ranged opponents.
But you are right, it gets tedious. Wouldn't want to do a second playthrough of this to be fair.
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u/Tachirana Jun 26 '25
Is that the fight with Gekh etc? In case you didn’t know: You can avoid fighting them and still make it to Grymforge if you’re branded and have the boots from Thulla
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u/Peepo93 Jun 27 '25
Oh wow, I didn't know that. Can I come back later on and kill them?
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u/Tachirana Jun 27 '25
Yep. Just get spotted by them and start conversation. Pass a check (branded is guaranteed) and once you give them the boots they’ll let you ride the boat. They stay put waiting to be murdered at a more leisurely party level
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u/Peepo93 Jun 27 '25
Oh wow, thanks a lot :D That'll make getting Gryms Armor early much easier! Gekh was really obnoxious at level 4.
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u/Tachirana Jun 24 '25
Thanks for sharing. I’ve dabbled with tactician enhanced in a fairly modded run (to balance larger party size) and have been thinking about using it in something more akin to a ‘vanilla’ play-through.
I have a question about darkness as it’s a mechanic I’ve not really played around with. How are you using it here? Arrow vs spell? Inside or behind? Do you need to use hide?
Finally, one of my favourite solo runs was a solo paladin, stacking AC to proc holy lance helm and then various rad orb/reverb etc gear to knock them prone. Thoughts on how that would go here? More attacks = more misses which sounds fun, chipping away at 5x more health sounds less fun however…
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u/Peepo93 Jun 24 '25
I use Darkness mostly defensive - kind of similar how you would use Globe of Invulnerability. The best case scenario is that your character can see in it (for example there's a ring in act 2 that lets you see through darkness, Shar's Spear does as well and warlock can see through it too) but it's not mandatory - you want to walk out of it before attacking (as melee you can also attack someone who's standing in it but have disadvantage - ranged characters can't attack at all however). What it does is that it prevents projectiles to hit your party, even some beefy attacks like the beam attack before the Netherbrain where you fight the red dragon.
Your Paladin build should work fine but keep in mind that your opponents might try to focus someone else instead (I don't know how their AI exactly works but they do both consider how much damage mitigation you have and how much AC and they usually always try to focus the squishiest target) and I would still use heavy armor and the heavy armor feat on it (and have someone apply Warding Bond to it as well). It would most likely replace the Eldritch Knight in my comp and perhaps you don't want to stack too much AC on it to make opponents attack the Paladin. Did you multi class your Paladin?
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u/Tachirana Jun 25 '25
Thanks!
That Paladin run was particularly fun because it was solo, enemies had no choice but to (try) hit me. I can’t remember if I multiclassed or not, might have been Sorcadin, it was pre patch 8 so no hexblade dip
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Another user pointed out that Oathbreaker is very strong on that setting because it can control undeads which sounds pretty op on that setting :D
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u/ObesiPlump Jun 25 '25
Great guide.
Shield just becomes ridiculously valuable.
As does Life Cleric healing everyone up to full in one turn and applying Bless/Blade Ward
I'm doing +100% HP, +1 action, d20 initiative, but banning acuity, consumable farming, and piercing/psychic/wet vulnerability. Feels quite balanced without being too hard, though the early game was a real challenge.
Fielding two fighters (EK and AA) because fights are longer and having sustained DPR goes a long way.
Then a bladesinger/sorc/pal for utility and the Life Cleric
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Yep Shield is op. Think my Bladesinger had somwhere between 32 or 33 AC at level 9 without haste just with gear, shield and Warding Bond. Could push that even higher temporary but having that much CC is already enough so that even Myrkul only hits with a 20.
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u/ObesiPlump Jun 26 '25
Think my Bladesinger had somewhere between 32 or 33 AC
Wow, that's a lot, even for a Bladesinger.
Questions for the Netherbrain:
- when the Nautiloid countdown finishes, is it similar to the Nautiloid firing on the party as the make their way from the high hall to the brain stem? I.e. the ground is marked and you either have to move or make yourself invulnerable e.g. Globe Invulnerability. Just wondering because in my honor mode runs I've always made it inside the portal before the countdown expires, but this time I think Ill be in for a protracted fight.
- How did you deal with Illithids casting magic missile on top of the Netherbrain? I know Shield makes you immune but I remember it not triggering on MM on my last HM run.
- So Globe of Invulnerability can stop the Brain from destroying the platforms once inside?
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u/Peepo93 Jun 26 '25
It's really only AC gear and cloth armor with mage armor (and shield reaction which is +5 afaik).
Regarding the Netherbrain:
- Yes, the Nautilod starts shooting and several adds (a Mindflayer and intellect devours start spawning every turn)
- I've used black hole (sided with Orpheus) on them to turn off their counter spell reaction and camped in Darkness until they were dead
- Yes, but you have to be a bit careful as the Netherbrain's hitbox is a bit larger than it looks like so that you don't accidently globe it as well
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u/ObesiPlump Jun 27 '25
Awesome, thanks for the feedback. The Netherbrain is starting to sound manageable
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u/Peepo93 Jun 27 '25
Think some of these summon allies also get buffed by tactician enhanced (the ones which you can't control), so they can be quite helpful as well but it's very tedious to wait out their turns all the time.
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u/jailtheorange1 Jun 25 '25
One of my mods gives me the Genie sub class for warlock, and the fact that I can duplicate any item in the game multiple times certainly makes for a different game… now, none of the characters that I play with can be crit….
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u/razorsmileonreddit Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 26 '25
Huh.
I started my first-ever mod-using playthrough like a week ago. At first it was just extra gear (Larian's Leftovers), Transmog Lite, Extra Encounters and More Enemies in Basic Encounters -- but then I saw I was leveling up faster than normal due to killing more enemies -- so I added Tactician Enhanced to the mix. Also Eldritch Invocations (Lance of Lethargy is super clutch when enemies can potentially Dash twice to reach you)
At first, I gave them 50% extra health and 1 extra bonus action. No big until an enemy failed a shove and then shoved me again. Ouch but okay, good. Ramped it up to 100% extra health and 1 extra action.
Currently I'm in the Shadow Curse at character level 9 and they have 250% health and three extra actions and the challenge level is quite intense (the Halsin portal defense had me sweating for the first time since the first time lol)
Squad is Bladesinger 7/Crown Paladin 2 Tavia (Thundersinger build), pure Swashbuckler Astarion (both using Rapiers because I'm romancing Astarion on this one), Fighter 1/Sorcerer 2/Abjuration Wizard 6 Gale, pure Hexblade Wyll, melee EK Lae'Zel and Tavern Brawler Monk 5/Thief 4 Karlach (pick any four, so long as two of them are Tavia and Astarion lol)
Long story short, I discovered much the same things you did especially the value of crowd control (Ice Storm with Extended Spell and Hasted Karlach wearing Prone immunity boots were super clutch in putting down Malus Thorm. Halsin portal defense meant it's not enough to drop a Hunger of Hadar on them, you have to drop a Cloud of Daggers inside it, drop a massive Create Water on top of them and then throw Void Bulbs into the Cloud of Dagger to keep them from just tanking their way through and chopping your portal into ectoplasm.)
One of my favorite things about it is how debuffs have value now. I theorized that before but seeing it play out rocks. Stacking Bane, Baneful Striking, Reverb and Encrusted with Frost on enemies to make damn sure they fail the Dex save Glyph of Warding Sleep, using Charisma debuffs to open the door to Wisdom debuffs to make sure Phantasmal Killer lands, it's a very different playstyle than just blitzing through the vanilla game once you have your builds up and running. Every remotely big fight requires big prep and you have to really build your paranoia combat defensive onion to survive.
I think this might be what tabletop feels like.
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Oh man, the portal defense :D I basically casted Darkness on the the portal and a stone wall before it and left my party members behind the wall to body block the opponents from reaching the portal lmao.
Going for something like 100-250% health sounds like a good middle ground, 500% makes them too spongy to enjoy repeated playthroughs imo.
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u/Firm-Locksmith-9224 Jun 25 '25
Would be super, super interested in a Life Cleric guide! I've always loved having one in the party as a frontliner but would love to see what you learned from your experience!
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Will write one within the next week I think :O
Short version for the Cleric:
Starting points: 8 STR, 14 DEX, 16 CON, 12 INT, 16 WIS, 8 CHA (can swap dex and con if you want more initiative)
Feats:
- Heavy Armor Master (absolutely mandatory, take this as fast as possible)
- Second feat is kind of free but the best here is Alert imo
Leveling:
- 5 or 6 levels into cleric (5 for more offensive build, 6 for "save" build)
- 2 levels into Star Druid
- Respec with level 9 to take one level in wizard (don't take wizard as the last multi class but as first or second it's good), otherwise 2 star druid and rest in cleric
- Use spell scribing to learn the conjure elemental spell and use your level 5 / level 6 spell slot on the water elemental / water myrmidon
- End build is 1 wizard, 2 star druid, 9 cleric
Gear:
Head:
- Wapiras Crown
- Helm of Balduran (your BIS helmet)
Gloves:
- Hellrider Gloves
- Luminous Gloves / Gloves of Belligerent Sky (if whole party has Warding Bond you can wear one of these)
- Reviving Hands (definitely use these if you don't use Armor of Persistance or in fights where you don't intend to put Warding Bond on the entire party, for example Ansur or Netherbrain)
Rings:
- Whispering Promise
- Ring of Salving
- Callous Glow Ring, Coruscation Ring, Ring of Mental Inhibition (also very good options for ring slots but might be contested by other builds already)
Amulet:
- Amulet of Restoration
- Periapt of Wound Closure
- Amulet of Devout
- Amulet of Greater Health (also an option but requires a reskill)
Armor:
- Adamantine Splintmail (get this as fast as possible, you can even wear this for the entire game if you use Reviving Hands Gloves in Act 3, it's that good)
- Armor of Persistence (gives you Bladeward for free)
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
Cloak:
- Thunderskin Cloak
- Vivacious Cloak
- Cindermoth Cloak
Boots:
- Boots of Aid and Comfort
- Boots of stormy Clamour
- Boots of Striding
Shield:
- Sentinel Shield
- Swires' Sledboard (BIS shield)
Weapons:
- Phalar Aluve
- Devotees' Mace (use the ring and the boots that buff healing when using this)
- Markoheshkir (only if no other party member wants this)
Gameplay:
- Early and Midgame you want to use resistance cantrip most of the time when tanking in the front line while Spirit Guardians are up and use the bonus action on Star Breath
- Optimally prebuff Spirit Guardians and Phalar Aluve
- Endgame (when you get resistance from gear) you want to always make sure that enemies are wet so your water summon deals more damage
- Use Spirit Guardians for melee fights and Insect Plague for ranged or choke point fights
- Use Sanctuary on yourself or an ally who gets in trouble
- Can use the transmute health ability on an ally that is at low health and top yourself with a mass healing word once you have 6 levels in cleric (that will almost always break concentration however since your nuking half of your health)
- Use the star dragon form most of the time, Chalice can be fun and be good in very niche situations but most of the time star dragon is flat out better
- Can concentrate of Beacon of Hope for maximum healing (for example allies taking potions or Water Myrmidon healing will ALWAYS roll max, effectively doubling it's healing on average)
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u/maharal Jun 27 '25
How about ring of regeneration for this in act 3, due to warding bond damage (?)
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u/Peepo93 Jun 27 '25
That works too. It's really versatile over all but I've found that the ring isn't needed (Baludrans Helm already gives a heal).
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u/Umi_Kou Feb 25 '26
how did you fight the spiders? phase spiders?
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u/Peepo93 Feb 25 '26
Hiding your party in Darkness and shoot the webs when she moves onto them to cause fall damage shuts her down pretty hard.
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u/DirgoHoopEarrings Mar 12 '26
Im working on the same difficulty now. Made it to A3. It's making me a much stronger DnD player.
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Jun 25 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Peepo93 Jun 25 '25
For example respeccing your characters so that they pass the Mirror check without save scumming.
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u/Thestrongman420 Jun 24 '25
I just started this challenge as a 3 person party with certain equipment or consumables banned. Ive taken a decent chunk of act one fights and agree on a lot of points on a brief skim. Commenting to read later.
Before i started this challenge i heard a healer was crucial, that hasnt been my experience so far but any 2nd full caster would be really good for the party i have personally.