If I recall correctly, psionic backlash can trigger Cull the Weak. Meaning it can effectively kill act 3 spell casters in the 25-30 HP range instantly.
Psionic backlash is vastly underestimated here. The fact it triggers Cull the weak is amazing. It's also worth noting that it could break the concentration of an enemy spell caster which is definitely valuable. If we add the fact that most of your characters who are not melee usually don't have any opportunity to use reactions, I'd consider it definitely A tier if not even S tier possibly.
I use concentrated blast almost exclusively for after they move out of my cloud of daggers or any other immovable concentration area of effect. If I’m fairly sure they won’t run back through that area, might as well get the extra damage for ending the spell with a bonus action concentrated blast rather than gaining nothing when the spell ends when I cast another concentration spell.
Transfuse Heath can be useful on objects , which can’t be healed- like Halsins gate, or Spirit Guardian. Also one additional use is to heal a character who is using Gloves of the Automaton. I think it’s “B” tier - situationally , for specific builds, it’s very good.
That's kinda neat, the AI seems to focus really hard on Halsin's gate and barely attack the party, so that would make Transfuse Health a pretty nice tool to have on hand for that fight.
My favorite strat is using it on togerheart barbarians. You are raging -> take half damage, and with the sword of chaos and cleave twice per action, and the periapt of wound closure, you can heal a ridiculous amount of Hp every turn. Honestly tje best healing build in the game if you get awakened, since it does not cost any resources
About Psionic Overload: If you have a Helldusk armor or other ways to reduce more than 2 damage and psychic resistance, for example Silver Sword of the Astral Plane or an elixir, you can reduce the incoming damage into 0 and have no fear of breaking any concentration or invisibility. And due to circumstances, you can have both of these items as well as the Psionic Overload on act1.
@@davidgomez5032 There is a little trick to get the Helldusk armor in act1. You need to knock down Rafael without starting his cutscene using the camp and silence.
Ability Drain counts as a condition, so you can use it to activate "something happens if you inflict a condition" items, especially arcane synergy for Sword Bards and Paladins
I typically go either for two illithid powers or all of them. Luck of Far Realms is just so good, really hard to pass up, it's cheap, easy to get on all characters. Or I want to utilise Cull the Weak, so then I need all the powers anyway on one character that attacks a lot.
I tend to put two points into beginnings and luck for my other 3 party members and then stack the rest on my character. It might make cull the weak slightly weaker but is major power spike for the team as a whole
I feel like concentration blast is undervalued. You get it so early that it deals a huge percentage of enemy health and doesn't cost a spell slot. That alone is massive. Than becoming a bonus action and triggering cull? A lot of classes could do way worse for a bonus action.
My problem with it is you can only use it as a bonus action if you already have a concentration spell going, which in my experience if I have a con spell up I generally want it up or have use for my con
@cadeb5808 Or alternatively you could use a concentration cantrip just for the purpose of activating it, since it's legitimately one of the best damaging dealer a spellcaster can have in part one and it doesn't cost resources, so it's worth the action investment (and the extra bonus action isn't a big investment as spellcasters especially at low level don't use bonus actions all that much
If you know, there is a battle coming up and you wish to use concentrated blast, have that character cast guidance or a similar can trip that has 10 rounds of concentration and it’s almost like pre-buffing. You walk in with a concentration spell active that you don’t need to keep during the battle so you lose nothing with the concentrated blast.
Concentrated blast is great for characters who WANT to end concentration, for instance you can use it to get rid of hunger of hadar or sleet storm toward the end of a fight so you don’t accidentally hurt your own allies or friendly NPCs after the fight ends
You can end concentration on a spell at any time. If you look in the bottom left corner of the screen you will see a small (and I mean very small) image of the spell you are concentrating on with an X next to it. If you click on the X you will stop concentrating early.
Psionic Backlash is great, because unlike Counterspell, it's free, just reaction, no spell slot used. So basically, if an enemy is casting a spell that you may not want to use Counterspell (because there are limited spell slots), giving damage is still a good thing. Since you can decide if you want to use Counterspell or Psionic Backlash, it's a great way to manage your spell resources. Also, unlike Counterspell, it can trigger in different situations, so there is only Psionic Backlash reaction, which shows, that it's just great to have as a free damage. Since it also triggers Cull the weak, I would say it's more like A or even S tier. For spell casters, there are no great powers, aside general ones that are great for all (beginnings and luck). Reactions are fun thou.
Psionic Overload also activates Balduran's Helm which in turn activates a buncha stuff. You can also use Concentrated Blast at the _end_ of combat, when you just need one more big whack of damage, and your own concentration doesn't matter anymore.
One thing that I personally really love about Ability Drain is that, aside from being completely free and letting you chip away at an enemy's AC over the course of a more 'patient'-style battle, a major benefit that is admittedly niche but very powerful in its niche is that it activates the almonds of any gear effects that might be keyed to trigger 'on applying a condition', allowing you to really get the status effect ball rolling out of control fast for effectively free again. For even more cute cheeky fun, as a multiclassing spore druid main, you can even hit an enemy's Saving Throws with it at zero cost by applying Shillelagh or using one of the weapons that scales off your spellcasting ability modifier, whatever that happens to be at the moment.
Thanks for this list. The only one I disagree with is Stage Fright. It's my favorite. Having multiple characters doing damage to themselves on their turns by missing against high AC tanks is S-tier in my book.
I didn’t realize how powerful stage fright was until this last run. My party is 2 rogues and 2 “tanks” but my tanks have ridiculously high dc. So enemies are basically always missing attack rolls, which means I usually get a free attacks-worth of damage every time they try to hit me. It’s awesome
Man you uploaded this just at the right time for me! Is what I would have said if you uploaded this two days ago. Instead I had to watch two other youtuber's illithid powers videos that weren't as good as this one.
First playthrough was Honor Mode Durge Monk that was trying to be good, but I never got the achievement for completing it on Honor Mode when the credits hit. Current playthrough is Honor Mode Durge Bard that embraces the itch.
as a note about transfuse health, its absolutely absurd on an abjuration wizard because it lets them be the party healer and they dont get focused often because of arcane ward, so it lets you actually use that effective hp well during a fight
YESSSSS i was listening to your earlier tier lists like "why have i never seen an ilithid ranking?" i just loaded my old abandoned save and noticed i had 3 tadpoles, i looked at the abilities like ⁉️ thanks man :D
I never knew about the zaith'isk powers until recently. I'd done the event 3 times but because the first time I let Lae'zel go first, and it kept saying it was killing her, I always assumed it just literally killed whatever character used it, and I never went through the whole thing. 😂
I would love to see you adding the best Illithid powers in future character build videos. For example, if you're buiding a Wizard, these x Illithid powers work best with this build.
An admittedly very niche use case I found with Charm is against attacks like magic missile or scorching ray. If you use it against those spells, you will still get hit by the first 1 or 2 projectiles but that actually stops the caster from finishing the rest of the volley, even on a fail! Again I dont think this changes its value all that much, but it's a cool feature when it comes up.
Transfuse health is I believe pretty useful to use in combinations with items that grant you powers if you're at half health, like that helmet in act 3 that gives you an additional bonus action.
You did repulser dirty. It can trigger "cull the weak" so it can be pretty effectively used to finish off multiple injured enemies. Or just kill an entire swarm of weaker enemies at once. Since cull for the weak allows it to do pretty serious damage. You can't miss with it. How many AOE spells can you use as a bonus action with any build?
i want to note that transfuse health, with some effects that increase healing or add additional healing numbers, can create an infinite healing loop without much cost or setup, thus id say id rank it higher as it actively removes the need for out of combat healing via other limited sources
Psionic Backlash is easily S-Tier IMO. It's best when all four members of your party have it, and it scales with the difficulty of the casters. In some of the later battles you can easily take out a caster just by having everyone in your party react to what might otherwise be a devastating effect. Also in some fights where casters make illusory copies of themselves which just need to be hit once, it can take the illusions out with a single reaction. Also note that it happens before the spell resolves, so if it takes out the caster, the spell they're casting doesn't resolve. Enemy casters often have low HP which makes it even more effective.
I watch your videos regularly and keep thinking “man can i even learn any more about this game?” Well, I had no idea that force tunnel basically just works no matter what since there’s no saving throw. Thanks for teaching me!
Does Ability drain on a shillelagh weapon attack reduce wisdom? If so, it's probably best on a druid who with spells and shillelagh can reduce wisdom significantly.
Once again I learned something that somehow i missed in several run throughs. I never knew what the zathisk could give you and I always use it and don’t know if I ever got the bonus but I suspect I did sometimes but didnt notice the difference. Im eager to check and see what my characters got. Question: what about the astral tadpole powers? they seem to be missing? or is that a Part 2.
You don't take damage from Transfuse health under globe of invulnerability (and maybe otilukes?) which transforms it to be a massive heal for basically no cost. Although if you have globe up you probably don't need the heal anyway
What about survival instinct? I know it’s not unlocked in the normal interface, but it follows all of the other rules of the powers and I find it very useful
Concentrated Blast is great on clerics who have no really good damage cantrips available. They can cast resistance/guidance and concentrated blast instead of e.g. sacred flame. The healing it does also works out well with a Cleric's theme.
Cool combo grab the gloves of martial exertion that give you an action surge plus at the cost of taking some damage, combo that with shield of thralls. Basically get a free attack or spell and stun everything around you and both can be used on short rest really good on a caster.
I went through my first two playthroughs only using a little bit of Illithid powers, but my third time through (Solo Light Cleric), I got all of them, thinking I would try to squeeze a little more potential from the powers I hadn't used before. And oooooooohhhhhh boy, do they make a huge difference. I didn't realize how powerful Cull the Weak and Stage Fright could be, especially when combined with Spirit Guardians and a Wisdom/Concentration Saving Throw Cleric build with the Luminous Armor and Holy Lance Helm. I'm wiping the floor with whole packs of enemies. I'm nearly impossible to hit (Gloves of Dexterity and a +1 Shield plus other +1 AC equipment means AC 22 even without the full Dex Medium Armor), and the enemies are guaranteed to take more damage than they can deal to me. I just stand there, let them fail their attacks and die as soon as they get down to 15 HP. Even when starting with a Dislocated Shoulder, I massacred everyone at Moonrise Towers by myself, not even a summon; they didn't even get close to killing me. I feel like I'm playing on Explorer, and with the lowered enemy HP and Wisdom & Constitution 18 at level 8, I kinda am. EDIT: And Charm really works excellently in a Solo game. It doesn't hit very often, but it can shut down fighter classes, and in Act III, it might even stop two attacks per turn.
I disagree with concentrated blast being D tier, because it doesn’t necessarily take up your concentration slot on something useless. If you use an aoe guaranteed damage effect on your first turn like cloud of daggers or hunger of hadar, then use bonus action concentrated blast to cancel it and do even more guaranteed damage once the enemies move out of the spell radius, then cast another aoe damage spell in the spot they moved to, etc, you can make a guaranteed damage machine that kills most low health enemies within a few turns and significantly depletes the health of the stronger ones. Great for stuff like the goblin camp boss fights. And it even has a chance of healing you! Much more effective usage of concentrated blast than the action: concentration cantrip, bonus action: concentrated blast, like you described in the video. The only risk is that your concentration might be ended before you could use concentrated blast, but even then you still will have gotten the initial effect of the concentration spell that made it good enough to cast anyway. Its less of a build and more of a “get rewarded for something you were going to be doing anyway”
displace is underrated, sorlock eldritch blast build with repelling blast makes great use out of it, plus it also applies a condition for the reverb boots u can proc it a lot of time and the condition i think applies if you just hit them
I, personally, love concentrated blast. But that's because I'll have someone throw a void bulb, pull a bunch of enemies into one place, hit them with Cloud of Daggers for 2 hits-one now and one on their turn, and once everyone is out of the Meat Tornado I hit someone with a mind blast.
I am 3 months late to this, but for anyone looking for a fun build to try, critical hit Palalocks with 'Cull the Weak' and 'Psionic Backlash' is outrageous. One eldritch blast + reaction can apply massive AoE + debuffs, while also causing hordes to blow up in sequence like Chinese fire crackers. Would recommend
Psionic backlash is amazing when being used by a Cull the Weak build because it will effectively kill the caster and stop the cast. Even if it does 0 damage it will trigger Cull the Weak.
I find Stage Fright really great. Specially playing solo honor without companions. Or when using builds like Radiant Orb, that makes the enemies get even -10 on their rolls. Also, Perilous Stakes can be used on the enemy to make them vulnerable to all damage. The extra damage they will take is usually much higher than what they heal.
Other have pointed it out, but I would really put up Psionic Backlash higher. You have the very obvious combo with cull the weak, and if you use it and it kills the opponent you also prevent the spell. In these situations it's straight up a better counterspell. It's especially great if you have it on multiple/all characters, because the damage stacks up really fast. Usually the 4th sometimes 3rd Illithid Power I unlock after Favorable Beginnings, Concentrated Blast and Cull the Weak.
I used displace on a throw-barian and it procs when throwing weapons at enemies. I'm not sure exactly what triggers it, it's possible that it's only when knocking enemies prone, but free damage is free damage. If you're making a throw build pick it up.
I honestly had a lot of fun with Illithid power has a wizard and sorcerer and more recently Ive been playing with the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer mod and it pairs up fantastically with the tadpole powers
If you want Cull the Weak to be less broken, (not instant killing enemies immune to damage, counting as YOU killing them, not breaking invisibility) there's a mod that fixes it, Unofficial Bug Fixer. Also has a bunch of other really nice fixes for items that don't do what they say they do. I would definitely recommend it if you got this ability and are disappointed that it ended up trivializing your honour mode run. The nerf is made up for by a lot of other buffs. My personal favorite is that it fixes Great Weapon Master not applying the +10 damage to some attacks even though it applied -5 to the attack roll, like the pommel strike. Speaking of that interaction, it's pretty remarkable that Larian overlooked this bug for 3 years, it's not like it's some weird interaction, it's like the most basic thing you'd notice within minutes of playtesting a standard fighter at level 4 and somehow still isn't fixed. Now I can't even imagine playing without that mod. It also fixes some of the broken Sentinel/Polearm Master interactions, but I would personally add "Polearm Master Sentinel Fixes" and put it after Unofficial Bug Fixer in the load order since it fixes _all_ the broken interactions and makes it behave pretty much like 5e.
One weird thing I’ve noticed about Displace is that it procs for me on thrown items a lot of the time. I’m not sure if this is exactly intended, since I can’t tell exactly what it’s doing in those situations.
Maybe I am missing something, but isn't Psionic Overload basically just the dip bonus action? That also adds 1d4 fire/ poison damage on each attack (or by using a weapon coating, you could even add more)
Partially correct, and it comes with drawbacks, but it does last the whole turn and doesn’t require a specific surface to dip/set up with. Plus psychic damage can be doubled with the act 2 resonance stone
Well, it is on top of dip / coating for very little extra cost (if you have it as a bonus action). Also works with spell attacks (mostly interesting for eldrich blast & scorching ray). Also you can completely mitigate the self damage if you have one of the "reduce incoming damage -2" armours and psychic resistance (e.g. from the "Silver Sword of the Astral Plane").
hi I've just got to the part of the game were you get your illithid powers as a sneak character what are the most useful for my class I'm using the shadow assassin build Cephalopocalypse made ( very fun ) I'm a little be hesitant coz u cant reset them
Favourable beginnings is great but it's extremely bugged. In dialogues when for example you have 2 options, like deception and intimidation, it applies the bonus to one and not the other
I don't know if this has been patched, I haven't tested it in a while, but throwing damage used to trigger Displace bonus damage if you threw it from high ground, because the extra damage from height counts as falling damage (which makes sense since the item is falling...). If that still works I would use it on a throwing character
Instead of casting a concentration spell and then concentrated blast in the same turn it makes much more sense to use concentrated blast first and then re-cast the concentration spell. Combines quite nicely with bladeward for example.
Day 3 of pitching my favorite BG3 creator a new series idea: building a viable honor mode party where all characters have the same Base Class You can do a lot with not only restricting yourself by you trying to use every subclass at least once (except for wizards and clerics lol), but also maybe even having an interesting thematic element for example your four bars could be fitting into the Beatles archetype, and you have to challenge yourself by using a Valor bard when either of the subclasses would probably do better This would also give you an awesome opportunity to talk about what strengths and weaknesses each class brings and how for example some subclasses might be great do better / worse whenever surrounded by other similar team members, finally at the end maybe at the end of each video or after you finish a series you could do a tier list ranking which of them would be the most viable in which of them would be the least viable Thanks for taking the time put of your day to read this, you're a wonderful resource to a lot of people, and I hope you consider this idea as it's one id be super interested in seeing you tackle
Transfuse Health is my favorite one because it lets my abjuration wizard make use of her insane HP pool. Once brought the Cleric back to half health at the cost of 14 actual damage to HP Same reason the Warding Bond shield is so good. It's nice keeping the cleric alive longer so she can heal more
I also really like stage fright because it scratches that itch of doing a big AOE thing that hits a bunch of enemies, without risking hurting my friends with a big ol fireball
Concentrated Blast has a special relationship with Drow/Half-Drow, as they receive the Dancing Lights cantrip (concentration) at level 1 with unlimited casts.
@@gregoryjones9926 Drow and Half-Drow get it as a *racial* ability, meaning even non-spellcaster classes can use it. So a Drow Battlemaster Fighter could concentrate on Dancing Lights.
I have to question the rating for perilous stakes given how vulnerability and resistance works. A character with warding bond gets resistance to all damage with would cancel out the vulnerability from perilous stakes, meaning you're just getting a heal.
A part of these powers kind of feels like a sort of unintended (or not) moral choice system, of do you sacrifice your humanity to gain power to help you defeat the Big Bad.
About the points you made about Luck of the Far Realms - I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to long resting after every battle; the game has absolutely no negative consequences of long resting, and gives incentive to the player to frequently do so by locking some story and romance bits behind night events, and there’s plenty of food in the world that even the double honour cost isn’t a hindrance
You certainly can! And its definitely the optimal way to play BG3. I personally prefer resting less frequently, both because I'm lazy and because I think the challenge is more interesting, but it's very much an increase to the difficulty
Yep you can prevent the damage that way - of course, globe will just win the encounter almost no matter what other abilities you use, so I don't think that really makes them stronger since any fight you use that in will already be won
Can I add a note about Ability Drain; it counts as 'applying a condition". So any item that needs conditions to proc will get triggered by this passive. makes it an S teir in those builds. Edit: also where are the evolved powers?
If I recall correctly, psionic backlash can trigger Cull the Weak. Meaning it can effectively kill act 3 spell casters in the 25-30 HP range instantly.
Yes, it triggers cull the weak, and this is REALLY good, the amount of kills i could get using this interactions is insane
Yup. It also activates before they cast their* spell, effectively acting as a counterspell.
Cull the Weak also procs on the enemies caught in a dying enemy popping, I believe. It's phenomenally powerful under the right circumstances.
@@joeyflat1452 Significantly better than counterspell. These casters won't cast a spell ever again ....
😆
@@joeyflat1452wait, then you can’t use it for breaking concentration?
Psionic Backlash was done absolutely dirty, the amount of times that thing manages to proc Cull of the Weak or break concentrations is amazing
Yeah it's a totally busted combo. It really incites main character energy when a flaming fist caster gets wiped for just slinging a cantrip.
Psionic backlash is vastly underestimated here. The fact it triggers Cull the weak is amazing. It's also worth noting that it could break the concentration of an enemy spell caster which is definitely valuable.
If we add the fact that most of your characters who are not melee usually don't have any opportunity to use reactions, I'd consider it definitely A tier if not even S tier possibly.
I use concentrated blast almost exclusively for after they move out of my cloud of daggers or any other immovable concentration area of effect. If I’m fairly sure they won’t run back through that area, might as well get the extra damage for ending the spell with a bonus action concentrated blast rather than gaining nothing when the spell ends when I cast another concentration spell.
Transfuse Heath can be useful on objects , which can’t be healed- like Halsins gate, or Spirit Guardian. Also one additional use is to heal a character who is using Gloves of the Automaton. I think it’s “B” tier - situationally , for specific builds, it’s very good.
That's kinda neat, the AI seems to focus really hard on Halsin's gate and barely attack the party, so that would make Transfuse Health a pretty nice tool to have on hand for that fight.
My favorite strat is using it on togerheart barbarians. You are raging -> take half damage, and with the sword of chaos and cleave twice per action, and the periapt of wound closure, you can heal a ridiculous amount of Hp every turn. Honestly tje best healing build in the game if you get awakened, since it does not cost any resources
Halsin’s damn portal I swear to god
Its also just a long range help action to get people up. I woulda said its A - S tier honestly, especially as a bonus action
Just use darkness on the portal and no one will attack it
About Psionic Overload: If you have a Helldusk armor or other ways to reduce more than 2 damage and psychic resistance, for example Silver Sword of the Astral Plane or an elixir, you can reduce the incoming damage into 0 and have no fear of breaking any concentration or invisibility. And due to circumstances, you can have both of these items as well as the Psionic Overload on act1.
True! Even without that I tend to think it's just incredible overall though
How do you get 2 damage resistance armor in act 1, or did you just mean arcane ward?
@@davidgomez5032 There is a little trick to get the Helldusk armor in act1. You need to knock down Rafael without starting his cutscene using the camp and silence.
@@davidgomez5032adamantine armor
Don't you also get 2 flat damage resistance from the grymforge heavy armor?
I think Baldur's Gate 3 is a work of art...and your content helps me appreciate it even more. So thanks brudda.
Ability Drain counts as a condition, so you can use it to activate "something happens if you inflict a condition" items, especially arcane synergy for Sword Bards and Paladins
He says that in the Ability Drain explanation!
Yep, exactly - I talk about this in the video :D
I typically go either for two illithid powers or all of them. Luck of Far Realms is just so good, really hard to pass up, it's cheap, easy to get on all characters. Or I want to utilise Cull the Weak, so then I need all the powers anyway on one character that attacks a lot.
That, with Astarion on a Gloomstalker Ranger/Rogue is nasty.
I tend to put two points into beginnings and luck for my other 3 party members and then stack the rest on my character. It might make cull the weak slightly weaker but is major power spike for the team as a whole
I feel like concentration blast is undervalued. You get it so early that it deals a huge percentage of enemy health and doesn't cost a spell slot. That alone is massive. Than becoming a bonus action and triggering cull? A lot of classes could do way worse for a bonus action.
My problem with it is you can only use it as a bonus action if you already have a concentration spell going,
which in my experience if I have a con spell up I generally want it up or have use for my con
@cadeb5808 Or alternatively you could use a concentration cantrip just for the purpose of activating it, since it's legitimately one of the best damaging dealer a spellcaster can have in part one and it doesn't cost resources, so it's worth the action investment (and the extra bonus action isn't a big investment as spellcasters especially at low level don't use bonus actions all that much
@@sephikong8323Guidance to Concentrated Blast is such a good early game combo i abused it SO hard
If you know, there is a battle coming up and you wish to use concentrated blast, have that character cast guidance or a similar can trip that has 10 rounds of concentration and it’s almost like pre-buffing. You walk in with a concentration spell active that you don’t need to keep during the battle so you lose nothing with the concentrated blast.
Great job, I watch a lot of videos on bg3 and you always teach me multiple things I didn’t know, even after watching vids on the same topic elsewhere.
Concentrated blast is great for characters who WANT to end concentration, for instance you can use it to get rid of hunger of hadar or sleet storm toward the end of a fight so you don’t accidentally hurt your own allies or friendly NPCs after the fight ends
You can end concentration on a spell at any time. If you look in the bottom left corner of the screen you will see a small (and I mean very small) image of the spell you are concentrating on with an X next to it. If you click on the X you will stop concentrating early.
@@matthewbutner8696alternatively, hold Y/triangle on console
Ty guys
@@matthewbutner8696 Yes, but this lets you get a little bit more out of it.
Did anyone decide not messing up with your characters brain?
For my resist durge yes. For my current evil durge? Fuck being sane my character will take every ounce of power he can get
Psionic Backlash is great, because unlike Counterspell, it's free, just reaction, no spell slot used. So basically, if an enemy is casting a spell that you may not want to use Counterspell (because there are limited spell slots), giving damage is still a good thing. Since you can decide if you want to use Counterspell or Psionic Backlash, it's a great way to manage your spell resources. Also, unlike Counterspell, it can trigger in different situations, so there is only Psionic Backlash reaction, which shows, that it's just great to have as a free damage. Since it also triggers Cull the weak, I would say it's more like A or even S tier.
For spell casters, there are no great powers, aside general ones that are great for all (beginnings and luck). Reactions are fun thou.
Psionic Overload also activates Balduran's Helm which in turn activates a buncha stuff.
You can also use Concentrated Blast at the _end_ of combat, when you just need one more big whack of damage, and your own concentration doesn't matter anymore.
One thing that I personally really love about Ability Drain is that, aside from being completely free and letting you chip away at an enemy's AC over the course of a more 'patient'-style battle, a major benefit that is admittedly niche but very powerful in its niche is that it activates the almonds of any gear effects that might be keyed to trigger 'on applying a condition', allowing you to really get the status effect ball rolling out of control fast for effectively free again.
For even more cute cheeky fun, as a multiclassing spore druid main, you can even hit an enemy's Saving Throws with it at zero cost by applying Shillelagh or using one of the weapons that scales off your spellcasting ability modifier, whatever that happens to be at the moment.
Thanks for this list. The only one I disagree with is Stage Fright. It's my favorite. Having multiple characters doing damage to themselves on their turns by missing against high AC tanks is S-tier in my book.
I didn’t realize how powerful stage fright was until this last run. My party is 2 rogues and 2 “tanks” but my tanks have ridiculously high dc.
So enemies are basically always missing attack rolls, which means I usually get a free attacks-worth of damage every time they try to hit me. It’s awesome
This is cool! I didn’t know about the zaithisk effect and am looking forward to unlocking that next playthrough!
I recommend having someone with the resistance cantrip with you
@@seaurchinayano6140 and another with bless
Charmed can work well with the paladin skill that gives enemies disadvantage if they attack anyone other than your paladin.
I gave Gale all the tadpoles, he seems like the one that would abandon humanity for power! :D
That's Astarian for me
@@sterd1149 Karlach too, it is kind of canon (only her and Tav can turn full ilithid), since she wants to escape her inevitable fate
Ah so you created Supreme Strange haha
He's not.
Gale is anti-Tadpole. He's clueless but even he doesn't want brain parasites.
No, his obsession is with the Crown itself.
Man you uploaded this just at the right time for me! Is what I would have said if you uploaded this two days ago. Instead I had to watch two other youtuber's illithid powers videos that weren't as good as this one.
Illithid powered Durge build next 👀
First playthrough was Honor Mode Durge Monk that was trying to be good, but I never got the achievement for completing it on Honor Mode when the credits hit.
Current playthrough is Honor Mode Durge Bard that embraces the itch.
@@daltonsibley794same. Durge-Flayer Bardlock. Basically makes the other characters irrelevant.
as a note about transfuse health, its absolutely absurd on an abjuration wizard because it lets them be the party healer and they dont get focused often because of arcane ward, so it lets you actually use that effective hp well during a fight
w00t! Been waiting for this one from you! :)
YESSSSS i was listening to your earlier tier lists like "why have i never seen an ilithid ranking?" i just loaded my old abandoned save and noticed i had 3 tadpoles, i looked at the abilities like ⁉️ thanks man :D
Cant wait for part 2!
You finally did it, my prayers have been answered! Thanks Cephalo!🙏❤️
Most hardcore BG3 fans are wondering why he have not yet made one.
I never knew about the zaith'isk powers until recently. I'd done the event 3 times but because the first time I let Lae'zel go first, and it kept saying it was killing her, I always assumed it just literally killed whatever character used it, and I never went through the whole thing. 😂
Notably, Displace does apply a condition any time you move an opponent, which can be relevant for some items.
I would love to see you adding the best Illithid powers in future character build videos. For example, if you're buiding a Wizard, these x Illithid powers work best with this build.
Awakened makes some powers so powerful, while other times they are useless. Definitely curious to see if I’m not using any of the great ones.
Mind Blast as a bonus action is so busted I love it
An admittedly very niche use case I found with Charm is against attacks like magic missile or scorching ray. If you use it against those spells, you will still get hit by the first 1 or 2 projectiles but that actually stops the caster from finishing the rest of the volley, even on a fail! Again I dont think this changes its value all that much, but it's a cool feature when it comes up.
Wow this has definitely been a long time coming
Transfuse health is I believe pretty useful to use in combinations with items that grant you powers if you're at half health, like that helmet in act 3 that gives you an additional bonus action.
One thing I like concentrated blast for is using decent AOE spells like cloud of daggers and then just using the blast once enemies move out of it 😅
You did repulser dirty.
It can trigger "cull the weak" so it can be pretty effectively used to finish off multiple injured enemies.
Or just kill an entire swarm of weaker enemies at once. Since cull for the weak allows it to do pretty serious damage.
You can't miss with it. How many AOE spells can you use as a bonus action with any build?
I love shield of thralls on scratch or a familiar and having them kamikaze into a group of enemies
i want to note that transfuse health, with some effects that increase healing or add additional healing numbers, can create an infinite healing loop without much cost or setup, thus id say id rank it higher as it actively removes the need for out of combat healing via other limited sources
I'd love your thoughts on how to prioritize unlocking powers on multiple characters vs. just one.
Me too, especially with honor mode in mind. Love the video by the way Cephalopocalypse, very helpful.
The best use of Transfuse Health is activating Helmet of Grit conveniently after a rest.
Great video, keep up the great work.
Psionic Backlash is easily S-Tier IMO. It's best when all four members of your party have it, and it scales with the difficulty of the casters. In some of the later battles you can easily take out a caster just by having everyone in your party react to what might otherwise be a devastating effect. Also in some fights where casters make illusory copies of themselves which just need to be hit once, it can take the illusions out with a single reaction. Also note that it happens before the spell resolves, so if it takes out the caster, the spell they're casting doesn't resolve. Enemy casters often have low HP which makes it even more effective.
Also, no saving throw, it just happens. Guaranteed damage on a reaction is never bad.
I watch your videos regularly and keep thinking “man can i even learn any more about this game?” Well, I had no idea that force tunnel basically just works no matter what since there’s no saving throw. Thanks for teaching me!
Bro Psionic Backlash literally CARRIED me in the fight against Aunti Ethel
YAY Thank you @cephalopocalypse! Been waiting on this one
Does Ability drain on a shillelagh weapon attack reduce wisdom? If so, it's probably best on a druid who with spells and shillelagh can reduce wisdom significantly.
It sure does! Check out my recent guide "Explode brains with the genius fighter" to see that mechanic really abused :D
Once again I learned something that somehow i missed in several run throughs. I never knew what the zathisk could give you and I always use it and don’t know if I ever got the bonus but I suspect I did sometimes but didnt notice the difference. Im eager to check and see what my characters got.
Question: what about the astral tadpole powers? they seem to be missing? or is that a Part 2.
That will be part 2 (coming tomorrow)!
@@Cephalopocalypse excellent, thanks!
I am guilty with building around Concentrated Blast obsessively, precasting guidance just for that purpose
@@cannyvalley8522 why precast guidance when you could be precasting resistance
You don't take damage from Transfuse health under globe of invulnerability (and maybe otilukes?) which transforms it to be a massive heal for basically no cost. Although if you have globe up you probably don't need the heal anyway
I literally googled if you had made this video yesterday... and here it is!
What about survival instinct? I know it’s not unlocked in the normal interface, but it follows all of the other rules of the powers and I find it very useful
Displace is good on repulsing blast warlocks, and in the right scenario can be enough to really stick it to those other enemies
Good shit. Liked, commented, and finally subbed. Should have done it sooner.
Concentrated Blast is great on clerics who have no really good damage cantrips available. They can cast resistance/guidance and concentrated blast instead of e.g. sacred flame. The healing it does also works out well with a Cleric's theme.
Cool combo grab the gloves of martial exertion that give you an action surge plus at the cost of taking some damage, combo that with shield of thralls. Basically get a free attack or spell and stun everything around you and both can be used on short rest really good on a caster.
Psionic Overload with Magic Missile + Psychic Spark + added damage buffs is insane.
263 hours into my first play through and this is the first im hearing about there actually being a point to those unreasonably high checks lol
I went through my first two playthroughs only using a little bit of Illithid powers, but my third time through (Solo Light Cleric), I got all of them, thinking I would try to squeeze a little more potential from the powers I hadn't used before. And oooooooohhhhhh boy, do they make a huge difference. I didn't realize how powerful Cull the Weak and Stage Fright could be, especially when combined with Spirit Guardians and a Wisdom/Concentration Saving Throw Cleric build with the Luminous Armor and Holy Lance Helm. I'm wiping the floor with whole packs of enemies. I'm nearly impossible to hit (Gloves of Dexterity and a +1 Shield plus other +1 AC equipment means AC 22 even without the full Dex Medium Armor), and the enemies are guaranteed to take more damage than they can deal to me. I just stand there, let them fail their attacks and die as soon as they get down to 15 HP. Even when starting with a Dislocated Shoulder, I massacred everyone at Moonrise Towers by myself, not even a summon; they didn't even get close to killing me. I feel like I'm playing on Explorer, and with the lowered enemy HP and Wisdom & Constitution 18 at level 8, I kinda am.
EDIT: And Charm really works excellently in a Solo game. It doesn't hit very often, but it can shut down fighter classes, and in Act III, it might even stop two attacks per turn.
I disagree with concentrated blast being D tier, because it doesn’t necessarily take up your concentration slot on something useless. If you use an aoe guaranteed damage effect on your first turn like cloud of daggers or hunger of hadar, then use bonus action concentrated blast to cancel it and do even more guaranteed damage once the enemies move out of the spell radius, then cast another aoe damage spell in the spot they moved to, etc, you can make a guaranteed damage machine that kills most low health enemies within a few turns and significantly depletes the health of the stronger ones. Great for stuff like the goblin camp boss fights. And it even has a chance of healing you! Much more effective usage of concentrated blast than the action: concentration cantrip, bonus action: concentrated blast, like you described in the video. The only risk is that your concentration might be ended before you could use concentrated blast, but even then you still will have gotten the initial effect of the concentration spell that made it good enough to cast anyway. Its less of a build and more of a “get rewarded for something you were going to be doing anyway”
I adjusted it in part 2 actually!
displace is underrated, sorlock eldritch blast build with repelling blast makes great use out of it, plus it also applies a condition for the reverb boots u can proc it a lot of time and the condition i think applies if you just hit them
Thanks, can’t wait for the next one.
Perilous Stakes triggers on repelling blast for some reason. Total blast on my CC warlock
I, personally, love concentrated blast. But that's because I'll have someone throw a void bulb, pull a bunch of enemies into one place, hit them with Cloud of Daggers for 2 hits-one now and one on their turn, and once everyone is out of the Meat Tornado I hit someone with a mind blast.
I am 3 months late to this, but for anyone looking for a fun build to try, critical hit Palalocks with 'Cull the Weak' and 'Psionic Backlash' is outrageous. One eldritch blast + reaction can apply massive AoE + debuffs, while also causing hordes to blow up in sequence like Chinese fire crackers. Would recommend
Psionic backlash is amazing when being used by a Cull the Weak build because it will effectively kill the caster and stop the cast. Even if it does 0 damage it will trigger Cull the Weak.
I find Stage Fright really great. Specially playing solo honor without companions. Or when using builds like Radiant Orb, that makes the enemies get even -10 on their rolls.
Also, Perilous Stakes can be used on the enemy to make them vulnerable to all damage. The extra damage they will take is usually much higher than what they heal.
Sadly, perilous stakes can't be used on enemies in honour mode
Other have pointed it out, but I would really put up Psionic Backlash higher. You have the very obvious combo with cull the weak, and if you use it and it kills the opponent you also prevent the spell. In these situations it's straight up a better counterspell. It's especially great if you have it on multiple/all characters, because the damage stacks up really fast. Usually the 4th sometimes 3rd Illithid Power I unlock after Favorable Beginnings, Concentrated Blast and Cull the Weak.
I need a good sorcerer/paladin build please
I used displace on a throw-barian and it procs when throwing weapons at enemies. I'm not sure exactly what triggers it, it's possible that it's only when knocking enemies prone, but free damage is free damage. If you're making a throw build pick it up.
I honestly had a lot of fun with Illithid power has a wizard and sorcerer and more recently Ive been playing with the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer mod and it pairs up fantastically with the tadpole powers
You can also use transfuse health while in a globe of invulnerability to just heal without any penalties.
If you want Cull the Weak to be less broken, (not instant killing enemies immune to damage, counting as YOU killing them, not breaking invisibility) there's a mod that fixes it, Unofficial Bug Fixer. Also has a bunch of other really nice fixes for items that don't do what they say they do. I would definitely recommend it if you got this ability and are disappointed that it ended up trivializing your honour mode run. The nerf is made up for by a lot of other buffs. My personal favorite is that it fixes Great Weapon Master not applying the +10 damage to some attacks even though it applied -5 to the attack roll, like the pommel strike. Speaking of that interaction, it's pretty remarkable that Larian overlooked this bug for 3 years, it's not like it's some weird interaction, it's like the most basic thing you'd notice within minutes of playtesting a standard fighter at level 4 and somehow still isn't fixed. Now I can't even imagine playing without that mod. It also fixes some of the broken Sentinel/Polearm Master interactions, but I would personally add "Polearm Master Sentinel Fixes" and put it after Unofficial Bug Fixer in the load order since it fixes _all_ the broken interactions and makes it behave pretty much like 5e.
One weird thing I’ve noticed about Displace is that it procs for me on thrown items a lot of the time. I’m not sure if this is exactly intended, since I can’t tell exactly what it’s doing in those situations.
I was searching for this video just yesterday
Maybe I am missing something, but isn't Psionic Overload basically just the dip bonus action? That also adds 1d4 fire/ poison damage on each attack (or by using a weapon coating, you could even add more)
Partially correct, and it comes with drawbacks, but it does last the whole turn and doesn’t require a specific surface to dip/set up with.
Plus psychic damage can be doubled with the act 2 resonance stone
Well, it is on top of dip / coating for very little extra cost (if you have it as a bonus action).
Also works with spell attacks (mostly interesting for eldrich blast & scorching ray).
Also you can completely mitigate the self damage if you have one of the "reduce incoming damage -2" armours and psychic resistance (e.g. from the "Silver Sword of the Astral Plane").
hi I've just got to the part of the game were you get your illithid powers as a sneak character what are the most useful for my class I'm using the shadow assassin build Cephalopocalypse made ( very fun ) I'm a little be hesitant coz u cant reset them
Perilious stakes might be a good pairing with sanctuary user life cleric
Favourable beginnings is great but it's extremely bugged. In dialogues when for example you have 2 options, like deception and intimidation, it applies the bonus to one and not the other
I don't know if this has been patched, I haven't tested it in a while, but throwing damage used to trigger Displace bonus damage if you threw it from high ground, because the extra damage from height counts as falling damage (which makes sense since the item is falling...). If that still works I would use it on a throwing character
Any opinions on which characters benefit the most from the tadpoles? Melee? Casters? Archers?
Now the question is what build best utilizes illithid powers?
Would repulsor or force tunnel trigger displacer if they went off a ledge? Seems like that would stack damage pretty good for a bonus action.
Love repulsor for when there are a lot of undead fortitude enemies, ice storm repulsor usually ends combat
Instead of casting a concentration spell and then concentrated blast in the same turn it makes much more sense to use concentrated blast first and then re-cast the concentration spell.
Combines quite nicely with bladeward for example.
Day 3 of pitching my favorite BG3 creator a new series idea: building a viable honor mode party where all characters have the same Base Class
You can do a lot with not only restricting yourself by you trying to use every subclass at least once (except for wizards and clerics lol), but also maybe even having an interesting thematic element for example your four bars could be fitting into the Beatles archetype, and you have to challenge yourself by using a Valor bard when either of the subclasses would probably do better
This would also give you an awesome opportunity to talk about what strengths and weaknesses each class brings and how for example some subclasses might be great do better / worse whenever surrounded by other similar team members, finally at the end maybe at the end of each video or after you finish a series you could do a tier list ranking which of them would be the most viable in which of them would be the least viable
Thanks for taking the time put of your day to read this, you're a wonderful resource to a lot of people, and I hope you consider this idea as it's one id be super interested in seeing you tackle
There are some classes, for example, a party of barbarians can beat the game as a challenge, but it's very far from optimisation
Transfuse Health is my favorite one because it lets my abjuration wizard make use of her insane HP pool. Once brought the Cleric back to half health at the cost of 14 actual damage to HP
Same reason the Warding Bond shield is so good. It's nice keeping the cleric alive longer so she can heal more
I also really like stage fright because it scratches that itch of doing a big AOE thing that hits a bunch of enemies, without risking hurting my friends with a big ol fireball
Tadpole time baybeeee
Concentrated Blast has a special relationship with Drow/Half-Drow, as they receive the Dancing Lights cantrip (concentration) at level 1 with unlimited casts.
Are there other concentration cantrips? Noob asking
@@gregoryjones9926Guidance, resistance, true strike
@@gregoryjones9926 Resistance and Guidance as well which Clerics and Druids get
@@gregoberski5897 so what's special about dancing light
@@gregoryjones9926 Drow and Half-Drow get it as a *racial* ability, meaning even non-spellcaster classes can use it. So a Drow Battlemaster Fighter could concentrate on Dancing Lights.
Does Psionic Overload work with magic missile spam?
I have to question the rating for perilous stakes given how vulnerability and resistance works. A character with warding bond gets resistance to all damage with would cancel out the vulnerability from perilous stakes, meaning you're just getting a heal.
perilous states can be useful when you use it on enemies, it can let enemies vulnerable to all the damage
This is for honor mode. You can only use it on your teammates in honor mode it’s garbage
A part of these powers kind of feels like a sort of unintended (or not) moral choice system, of do you sacrifice your humanity to gain power to help you defeat the Big Bad.
Warlocks do that shit all the time, dunno why this is too crazy in comparison
About the points you made about Luck of the Far Realms - I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to long resting after every battle; the game has absolutely no negative consequences of long resting, and gives incentive to the player to frequently do so by locking some story and romance bits behind night events, and there’s plenty of food in the world that even the double honour cost isn’t a hindrance
You certainly can! And its definitely the optimal way to play BG3. I personally prefer resting less frequently, both because I'm lazy and because I think the challenge is more interesting, but it's very much an increase to the difficulty
@@Cephalopocalypse ah I see, the reasoning wasn’t clear to me at first but if it’s a personal preference then carry on 😄
Is there a story consequence for using them??
Do you think fighter/warlock would work trying to make a dark knight build that isn’t just warlock/paladin
Another great video! Keep up the good work. You could do a race/racial feature tier list if you haven’t already
what about perilous stakes and transfuse health in globe of invuln
Yep you can prevent the damage that way - of course, globe will just win the encounter almost no matter what other abilities you use, so I don't think that really makes them stronger since any fight you use that in will already be won
How long have I been playing this game and never knew about the zaithisk bonus... 😅😭
Can I add a note about Ability Drain; it counts as 'applying a condition". So any item that needs conditions to proc will get triggered by this passive. makes it an S teir in those builds.
Edit: also where are the evolved powers?