Either. If you hit the enemy it effects the ground they are standing on as well but you can also target the ground so long as the spell doesn’t specify creature(like Sacred Flame).

But, but … the loot.

Sanctuary has had a pretty big buff from the Table Top, from “Wis Save to Attack Target” to “Can’t Attack Target”. It’s so good in fact it has a permanent preperation slot on Shadowheart alongside Command, Guiding Bolt, and Healing Word.

I haven’t added Spike Growth to the mix, but it would be good for the Druid’s concentration. For the most part the strategy above has been one of the opening turns for my party’s Warlock. Pops Haste potion, drops both spells, and uses Repelling Blast to knock enemies in/back in.

Not really an environmental thing but Hunger of Hadar(1/2 Movement & DOT) + Plant Growth (1/4 Movement) is basically a death trap covering a massive area for anything without Freedom of Movement.

Just be careful of candles otherwise your Plant Growth will turn into a massive fire ground hazard rather than Difficult Terrain.

MC: GOO Bladelock 6/Paladin 6 - You need a frontliner and that comp noticeably doesn’t have one.

Shadowheart: Light or Tempest Cleric 11/Druid 1 - Druid lvl adds a ton of spells, Shillelagh, and only delays progression by one lvl. Polymorph the defining spell that made Trickery domain was pretty severely nerfed in game so you will want to change her subclass.

Gale: Conjuration Wizard 12 - Wizards are great and Benign Transportation is super handy.

Astarion: Thief Rogue 3/Swords Bard 7 - Sharpshooter Duel-wield Hand-crossbows. It’s a Machinegun. Plus you end up with a ton skills and Expertise.

This is typically handled by flairs on game specific subreddits pretty handily. I think they are supported on Feddiverse.

I swap party members in and out a lot, mostly for story reasons, but here is how I built them:

• MC: Ancients Paladin 7/Swords Bard 5 - Polearm Master, Sentinel - Lockdown Tank/Support
• Karlach: Wolf Wildheart Barbarian 8/Thief Rogue 4 - Great Weapon Master, Tavern Brawler - Heavy Weapon Beatdown, Advantage Generator, Skill Monkey - MVP build
• Astarion: Thief Rogue 3/Swords Bard 7 - Sharpshooter - Skill Monkey, Machinegun - MVP build
• Gale: Conjuration Wizard 12 - Utility, Control, Haste-bot
• Lae’zel: Eldritch Knight Fighter 11/Rogue 1 - Tavern Brawler, Sentinel - Gith Dragoon - MVP build
• Shadowheart: Light Cleric 11/Druid 1 - Blaster, Support
• Wyll: Fiend Warlock 6/Vengence Paladin 6 - SMITE
• Halsin: Moon Druid 10/Monk 2 - Wildshape Tank
• Jaheira: Land Druid 12 - Blaster, Control
• Minsc: Gloomstalker Ranger 4/Bear Wildheart Barbarian 8 - Tavern Brawler - Improvised Weapons Control Tank

Yes, but if you want the full Bhaalspawn experience you will want to start with the Dark Urge origin.

I won’t say any more than that to avoid spoilers.

Solasta is probably the closest for a 5e based system.

Solid UI for all of 5e’s base actions with popup menus for items and spells. It also has significantly better navigation for vertical movement/aim.

Larian changed Fast Hands to “you can make an additional bonus action”, which makes it pretty insane.

It’s certainly a niche ability, but it does effectively function as a Dash action + bonus action Attack with a +5 bonus to the damage roll and an unlimited # of uses. For races with reduced mobility this is almost the equivalent of gaining Cunning Action Dash with a feat. It can be about as good as the +2 ASI on certain builds.

The bigger issue is that it’s competing with feats like GWM, Sharpshooter, and Tavern Brawler. So it just isn’t worth picking up until much later in the game and only on builds with at least 3 feat selections.

You go Thief Rogue 3 for Athletics Expertise, Cunning Action, and Fast Hands.

The extra bonus action is super handy when paired with GWM, Reckless Attack, and Rage. Your first round is: pop Rage, run up and Reckless Attack, and hopefully you crit (happens ~2/3rds of the time, almost every time if Hasted) for the bonus action attack. Berzerker insures you have that BA attack every round, but you get one so often from GWM that I don’t really bother so I would actually recommend Wildheart or Wild Magic instead.

Not procing SA damage doesn’t even matter since the build generally puts out so much damage (80-160/round at lvl 8) that nothing in their vicinity really survives.

Unfortunately the non-Lethal toggle doesn’t work for spells or secondary damage sources like the corrosive ring.

The fight is doable. A Control Wizard/Sorc, Repelling Blast Warlock, or Tavern Brawler Barbarian/Stronk/Fighter/Druid make pretty short work of it by tossing all but 4 (Nere, Thrinn, the Merchant, and the Archer on the high ground) into the lava or off the stage.

Since I got a good Initiative roll my first playthrough, I decided to go back and reload until I got a bad one for this encounter. I didn’t change any of my party, their equipment, or their prepared spells ie the closest I could come to a blind run. Isobel only had 3hp left by the time my party’s initiative came up on the reload I decided to go with.

The encounter was saved entirely by one spell, Sanctuary. Larian changed it from “Wis save to attack targeted creature” to “targeted creature can’t be attacked” and when she tripped on Jahera’s ice it bought me 2 rounds that she couldn’t be targeted. I had been using this busted change to keep Gale alive prior to this.

Party: MC Paladin, Shadowheart, Gale, Karlach.

bg3.wiki is the one I’m using, but it’s still updating post launch.

I don’t recommend using Fextralife.

Current party

• MC: Ancients Paladin 5/Swords Bard 3 - Polearm Master - Tank/Support
• Karlach: Berserker Barbarian 5/Thief Rogue 3 - GWM - Fontline DPR
• Shadowheart: Cleric 8 - Magic Initiate Druid - Support/Control
• Gale: Conjuration Wizard 8 - Control/Blaster
• Wyll: Fiend Warlock 6/Vengence Paladin 2 - SMITE
• Astarion: Thief Rogue 3/Swords Bard 5 - Sharpshooter - Ranged Ambush DPR
• Lae’zel: Eldritch Knight 8 - Tavern Brawler, Sentinel - Thrown Weapon DPR/Zone Control

Karlach’s build is nuts. She’s dealing 80-160 dmg per round when hasted and there just isn’t much that can survive a round next to her. That said I’m considering respecing her to Wild Magic or Wildheart since I’m not using Frenzied Strike that much. She Crits so much that I’ve mostly been using GWM’s bonus action attack and the Jump AOE thunder dmg from the maul I have her using.

Astarion’s is almost as good but CBE’s nerf really hurt. Though with the current stealth mechanics this build could probably solo the game.

Edit: Respeced Lae’zel and just about doubled her DPR. Also adjusted Astarion as Gloomstalker was nerfed from tabletop.

So I managed to do it on my first attempt in Tactician, but I’m a veteran of WotR and Kingmaker’s Unfair difficulty so I know when I have to focus a mage.

Karlach was clutch in this fight. I picked up GWM for her at 4 and kitted her out for move speed/momentum and wisdom saves. She is basically a juggernaut. Between GWM, Frenzy, Haste, and Reckless Attack she deals an average of 60-120 damage per round. There is a maul that applies the Chilled status on hit so he was never even able to heal and went down at the start of round 2. I did get kind of lucky though as she rolled well on initiative and landed two crits.

I’ve played my fair share of PC RPGs (BioWare games, Fallout,…) but never something like this. Is there anything that compares to it? I can imagine it’s a slow pace kind of game?

Pathfinder Kingmaker & WotR, Solasta, Pillars of Eternity, and Planescape Torment to name a few. Nevermind the fact that BG1 and BG2 are also some of the best ever produced in the genre. Oh, and Larian has their own finger on the landscape with Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2, the games which got them the license.