Baldur's Gate 3: Complete Guide - All Quests & Achievements (Act 1)

This Baldur’s Gate 3 series covers how to do all major quests and missable content in order so that all achievements or trophies, choices, and major rewards will be available. We will be striving to get the most optimal or good outcome for all companions, recruit the most allies, obtain all Legendary Weapons and Armor, and have an overall satisfying playthrough. For best results, follow this series from the start of Part 1. Spoilers will be limited to important information and as usual, useful timestamps can be found in the video description. In these earlier videos, I will also be

giving some pointers for newer players that are not as familiar with the mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3. That being said, there should be plenty of useful information for even experienced players with multiple playthroughs. Part 1 of this series will take us through the entirety of Act 1, including the Nautiloid Crash Region, The Underdark, and The Mountain Pass. To start, we are going to play on Tactician Difficulty for the Critical Hit achievement, and choose the custom character origin. I have been told that there is a method to get the “No One Left Behind” achievement with the

Dark Urge Origin. However, because I have not personally tested this, we will not be covering it in this guide series. You can choose whichever starting class and race you want, but I will also be explaining my own playstyle and builds for this character and others as we progress through the game, in case you want to follow along or copy anything. For my part, I will be playing as a High Half-Elf Sorcerer. I went with Sorcerer for multiple reasons. Their primary trait is Charisma, making them good at negotiations, which will make achieving good outcomes much easier.

In addition, Sorcerers gain access to metamagic. More specifically, we will have access to twinned spell, which, when combined with Haste, will make combat encounters MUCH easier starting at level 5. The reason why I chose half-elf is that they get the Civil Militia feature, Which grants proficiency with shields. Humans also get this feature and it is great for spellcasters. I will be taking the utility spell Light as my High Elf cantrip, and for my four sorcerer cantrips I will be getting bone chill, ray of frost, shocking grasp, and fire bolt. For starting spells I will be

taking Mage Armor and Magic Missile. For the subclass, I’ll be going with Storm Sorcery as it is the strongest sorcerer subclass and provides additional combat spells. The Guild Artisan background will provide us with Insight and Persuasion proficiency, both of which will help us in negotiations. If all this stuff is new to you, don’t worry, everything will be explained in due time. For ability points, I have adjusted them so that both Dexterity and Charisma are at 16, and Constitution is at 14. As a Sorcerer, Charisma will determine the effectiveness of our spells. Meanwhile, both Dexterity and

Constitution will improve our survivability. Finally, we will select Skill Proficiencies. Intimidation and Deception are both worth taking. From there, all that’s left is to customize the appearance of both your Character and your Guardian, and venture forth. As a sorcerer, the first thing we will do every adventuring day is use Mage Armor. This will raise our AC or Armor Class up to 16, making us significantly hard to hit with targeted attacks. The spell will use a level 1 spell slot, which we currently have two of. In this first room, we can interact with the Nursery to

perform our first Skill ability check. In this case, it is the investigation skill being used. For any ability check, we roll a 20-sided die, also known as a D20, then add our modifier to get the result. For me, that modifier is 0. If the total is equal to or higher than the particular skill check’s difficulty class, or DC, we will succeed, if it is less than the DC, we fail. In this case, the DC is 10. Don’t worry if you fail this check, as it is ultimately of little importance. We can use the nearby alien

device to restore our spell slots or other resources, then move on to the next room. Feel free to look around and loot bodies and other containers. To highlight things that are generally worth interacting with, hold the Alt button on Keyboard/mouse, or right stick click on a controller. This is a very useful mechanic to start taking advantage of early on. We can activate a lift in this room and ride it up to find a person with an open cranium and this is an opportunity to get a temporary ally, called “Us” that can also be found later

in the game. To get it, you must choose the dialogue option where you try to help, then succeed in one of 3 ability checks. For my character, Dexterity gets the highest bonus, +3, so I will use that to free the brain. Saving “Us” is not required for any achievements, but if you really want this little brain guy as a companion, you can save the game before rolling the ability check. That way, if you fail, you can load that save and try again. This is known as save-scumming, and in order to get All achievements and ideal

outcomes, it may be necessary to do on occasion. That being said, we will play in a way that gives us the best odds of success so that save scumming is rarely needed. After prying the brain free, you can mutilate it to make it more docile, but this is unnecessary. Up ahead we will meet our first major companion, Lae’zel the Githyanki. In addition, after speaking with her, we get our first combat encounter, and this is a good time to explain the basic mechanics. Combat is turn based. The order that characters take their turn in is determined

by their initiative roll. In general, characters with higher dexterity will have higher initiative, and get to go before the characters with lower initiative. Since all my characters are grouped up in the initiative order, their turns take place simultaneously, allowing for better coordination of attacks. During each turn, a character is allowed to move a certain distance, determined by their movement Speed. Generally this is 30 ft. A character also gets 1 Action, which is typically required for primary weapon attacks and most spells, and one bonus action, which is required for more minor actions, such as shove, using

a potion, and jump, although jump also requires 10 ft of movement speed. You can see what resources different abilities require by hovering over them. For this combat encounter, I am going to start by using my two melee fighters to attack different targets, then clean up with my sorcerer, using magic missile. After the fight, we’ll use the restoration device, then continue towards the helm. In this next room there are two unconscious thralls that we can defeat to get some free experience points. In addition, another potential companion, Shadowheart, is trapped in the nearby mindflayer pod. To free

her, head through the door to the east. The first body on the ground has a key which we will use in short order. Near the back end of this area is a console that you can interact with for a short cutscene. There is also a second body with an Eldritch Rune, Which we need to free Shadowheart. You can also grab the green brain jar, which has a purely lore-based use quite a bit later in the game. Returning to the room with Shadowheart, we can open the elaborate reliquary chest with the gold key for some loot,

grab the brain jar, then go to free Shadowheart. To do this, interact with the nearby console and insert the Eldritch Rune. You may want to save before this skill check as failing it could mean losing Shadowheart as a companion. This is very unlikely though, as you only need to meet a DC of 2 to succeed. Once Shadowheart is free, speak with and allow her to join the party. Before moving on, you can open Shadowheart’s spellbook and switch out the Shield of Faith spell with Bless, which is a fantastic support spell for combat. Looking at Bless,

you might notice that it lasts for 10 turns and requires concentration. A character can only concentrate on one spell at a time, so if you cast any other spell that also requires concentration, It will end the previous spell that was being concentrated on. We will also want to prepare the Command Spell on Shadowheart and also have Lae’zel pick up some large objects to use later. Once ready, move south towards the Helm. Here, we will want to have Lae’zel place the large objects she picked up in front of the door, in order to block off any

enemies that may try to come through it. Before going in, we can prepare for combat by entering turn-based mode. On a controller, do this by pressing the right trigger, then selecting the turn-based mode option. This allows us to efficiently use various buff spells or abilities with short durations, such as bless, before entering a combat encounter. For now, all we really have is Shadowheart’s Bless, which can target up to 3 allies. We can then use another character’s action to activate the nearby alien device, replenishing the level 1 spell slot that Shadowheart used to cast Bless. A

good rule To follow is to save the game before every combat encounter, so we will do that here. Next, exit turn-based mode so all characters stay grouped up, then quickly enter the helm through the sphincter door before Bless has a chance to wear off. There is an achievement for defeating Commander Zhalk, the fiend fighting the Mind Flayer, it’s called “Devil’s in the Details”. However, on Tactician difficulty, this will most-likely require some save-scumming. First, we will want to have Lae’zel place the large chest in front of the door, in order to stall the enemies that will

try to come through it, and then move towards Zhalk as quickly as possible. Next, we will want to save, then have Shadowheart cast Command: Drop on Zhalk, and it will need to succeed. If it does not, we will need to revert to the previous save. Once Zhalk drops his Everburn Blade, we can have Lae’zel pick it up and equip it. Then start beating on Zhalk her next turn, while the rest of our party cleans up the weaker enemies, before joining in to help. We will want To save throughout this process, as hitting Zhalk most of

the time will be necessary for success. Also, we need to get the final blow on Zhalk for the achievement. Because of that, it is recommended to save 1 spell slot on our Sorcerer for Magic Missile. At 11 turns remaining before the Nautiloid crashes, two Cambions will enter the turn order. The chest will only block them for 1 or 2 turns. At this point, Zhalk will hopefully be at half health or less. Once Zhalk is down to his last 10 or so points of health, we will want to have our sorcerer basically within reach of the

transponder. We will save the game, then, assuming Zhalk is not defeated by the Mind Flayer, we can finish the job on our sorcerer with a magic missile, then run or fly to the transponder. All it takes is one character interacting with the transponder for everyone to escape. If getting this achievement on tactician proves too annoying or difficult, a similar strategy can be used on a different character with the easiest difficulty setting, and it should be far easier. Just be warned that if you turn the difficulty down to easy on this playthrough to defeat Commander Zhalk,

then continue playing on the same save and turn the difficulty back to Tactician, you won’t be able to get the Critical Hit achievement for beating the game on Tactician. After the cutscene, we’ll awaken to a new adventuring day, so put on any daily buffs, such as mage armor, before continuing. Our first objective will be to recruit all companions in the beach area, starting with Shadowheart nearby. We’ll speak through her dialogue and team up. If you earned enough XP on the Nautiloid, you should reach level 2, which will make the next encounter significantly easier. Shadowheart doesn’t

get much at level 2, but if you are playing a sorcerer you will be able to choose a new spell, and I highly recommend Shield as it’s a great defensive spell. In addition you will get to choose two metamagic options. For this, twin spell is a must, and distant spell also comes in handy. Moving on, feel free to loot the coastline up towards the northeast. You’ll find camping supplies, along with at least one set of thieves' tools. Once ready, we’ll head west for the next combat encounter with some Intellect Devourers. Up to this point we

haven’t been able to initiate combat on our own terms, so let’s quickly cover how to surprise our enemy, which will give us a huge advantage. Get everyone into sneak mode by clicking shift + C on keyboard mouse, or by holding the down button on the d-pad if using a controller. Save the game just in case, then move closer to the enemies. Enter turn-based mode to have better control, then move in for an attack on the enemy while staying out of sight, ranged attacks often work best for this. If you successfully hit the enemy while sneaking,

they and any nearby enemies will get the Surprised condition. Surprise basically causes the affected creature to have their first turn in combat skipped, giving the ambushers a huge advantage. Also note that any allies that are also sneaking will probably not be automatically entered into the combat encounter. You will have to switch over to them and either exit hiding, or launch an attack at the enemy to get them in the turn order. Another tip for combat encounters is to end your turn while staying back and out of sight of enemies. This will force them to waste

their action on dashing in order to close the distance. By making use of surprise mechanics and playing tactically, this otherwise difficult early encounter is handled with relative ease. If you need to heal after the encounter, you can expend a short rest. Short rests heal half of each character’s hitpoint maximum, and restore certain resources depending on the class. One example being the channel divinity charges of a Cleric. You get two short rests per adventuring day, and both are replenished when taking a long rest, but more on that later. Before moving on, make sure to loot the

surrounding bodies and containers As there should be some useful items, such as a potion of speed. Next, we’ll head further west to recruit our second companion, Astarion the Rogue. After a small altercation, Astarion will apologize for the misunderstanding. You can accept Astarion’s apology, or reject it. Accepting his apology will gain approval from Shadowheart, and this is a good time to explain the approval system. Different companions will either approve or disapprove of specific actions you take, most of which occur through dialogue choices. Each companion reacts differently, and for Shadowheart, she approves of discretion above all else.

On the other hand, Astarion mostly approves of cruelty, but regardless, we should be able to get him to tow the line. Ultimately, the approval system is a crucial mechanic in Baldur’s Gate 3, and raising approval with companions will cause them to open up and share personal information about their past, motivations, and willingness to engage in romance. If You are ever worried about how a companion might react to a choice you are about to make, just save the game beforehand so that you can go back if needed. I will do my best to point out key

opportunities for raising companion approval when possible, as well as how to avoid disapproval. Here is where we are at on the map just to help everyone follow along. Before moving on, we can interact with the frightened boar. A successful animal handling check here will result in gaining more approval from Shadowheart. Whenever we do an ability check, we will want to take advantage of the Guidance spell from Shadowheart. It is a cantrip so it will not consume any spell slots, and it adds an additional 4 sided die or D4 to our skill checks, increasing the likelihood

of success. Next, we can briefly move west, jumping down to a secluded area near the coastline. There, a boulder can be shuffled out of the way by Shadowheart to reveal a chest. Inside you’ll Find two potions of speed, valuables, and a map and book from the Harper faction. Be sure to read any books or notes you come across, as they will all contribute to the Bookworm achievement, and can provide important information for quests or add markers on your map for supply caches. Next, we’ll move north into the crashed nautiloid, where an encounter with a dying

Mind Flayer awaits. You can try to learn more about the mind flayer, at the risk of having your brain eaten, or just finish it off instead. I recommend the latter. Loot the mind flayer for a chance at another potion of speed, then move east to find and loot a final mind flayer, at this point you should have a handful of Potions of Speed. These are extremely strong and we can save them for particularly difficult combat encounters. Moving on, we will head north to the Ancient Sigil Circle. Save your game before interacting with it, as this

is where a 3rd companion, Gale, can either be saved or lost at the roll of a die. Depending on your class, You may get to choose a special ability check to save Gale, such as charisma with Sorcerers. Gale is a kind-hearted, if a bit overconfident Wizard that approves of those who make peace, avoid conflict, and help the innocent. In short, he will be very easy to get along with and gain the approval of. After saving Gale, agree to team up and increase his level to 2. As a wizard, subclass selection becomes available at level 2,

and I’ve always liked the Divination Subclass, as it gives access to the Portent subclass feature. Portent gives Gale two pre-rolled D20s that can be used to replace any attack roll or saving throw made by a nearby creature during combat. I also really like taking the Longstrider spell on Gale as soon as possible. This spell can be cast as a ritual. What that means is that if you use it out of combat and while not in turn-based-mode, it does not consume a spell slot. This means Gale can give all his companions and himself the Longstrider buff,

which increases movement speed by 10 ft per turn, And it lasts until taking a long rest. Gale is also a spellcaster without any form of physical armor, so make sure to use Mage Armor on him before moving on. Before finding the last beach-bound companion, we will head a short distance west to loot some goblins. From there, move north. There is a patch of burning ground, which you can either jump over, or neutralize with ice or water. The only thing we want up here at this moment is a shovel, which can be found stuck in a

dirt mound. Shovels allow us to dig up chests from dirt mounds, which often contain useful loot. From there, we will head back east to find Lae’zel, trapped by tieflings and in need of rescue. In order to get the “Leave No One Behind” achievement, we cannot harm the tieflings. So insead, use deception to trick the tieflings into leaving peacefully. Some classes, such as monks, will have access to alternative ability checks in order to resolve things peacefully. In any case, once we’ve peacefully gotten rid of the tieflings, we can free Lae’zel. We can Tell her she needs

to say “please” in order to score some easy approval points with both Astarion and Shadowheart. Afterwards, shoot out the bottom of the trap to free Lae’zel. Shadowheart will disapprove of teaming up with Lae’zel. But there is a pretty simple trick to avoid companion disapproval. Simply take control of the character that will disapprove, ungroup them from the rest of the party (this is done by clicking G on keyboard, or through the party interface when using a controller), and then move them a fair distance from the interaction. Doing so will prevent that companion from registering your actions,

thereby avoiding the loss in approval. Just make sure that you remember to group everyone back up afterwards, so as to keep the party moving as a single unit. When you agree to join forces with Lae’zel, she will tell you to make room in your party. At this point, you can either make room for her, or have her go wait at camp instead. I am going to make room by telling Astarion to Return to camp. Although companions may pout or complain about it, telling them to return to camp will not have any impact on their approval

or anything else for that matter. I had Lae’zel join the party, increased her level to 2, and had Gale cast Longstrider on her. We’ll make sure the party is all grouped up and move east towards the Chapel Ruins. Upon arrival you’ll be accosted by several looters. You can attack them, or talk your way out of the situation. This is a good point to take a long rest, for story and companion approval purposes if nothing else. At the camp, it’s a good idea to speak with your companions. If you speak with Shadowheart and agree that finding

a healer is the top priority, you’ll gain some approval with both Gale and Shadowheart. We can also speak with Shadowheart and choose the “we should get to know each other more” option, then choose “if you’re not comfortable, I won’t press you.” to gain additional approval points. With Astarion, he should offer to stay up and keep watch, picking “Thank you. I’ll sleep better for that.” will get you some approval points with him. With Lae’zel, you can ask her if she knows much about Mind Flayers, and following that, about what happens if a cure isn’t found. Finally,

you can say “That’s not going to happen, We will find a cure.” to get some approval points with her. For Gale, he should start the conversation with “Go to hell”. Responding with “and a good evening to you too.” will get you some approval. When taking a long rest, you can either use camp supplies for a full long rest, or save camp supplies and take a partial long rest instead. For my situation, a partial long rest will be just fine, and we will be taking another long rest soon. A quick bonus tip I have is to

make a manual or permanent save at the start of each adventuring day, they serve as excellent checkpoints to load back to. We will start the new adventuring day by getting all of our buffs in order. Once that is taken care of we will leave camp and venture into the Chapel Ruins. You can shoot down the nearby foundation block with a ranged attack. Don’t enter just yet, but this will open a hole down into the ruins. There is a group of enemies that will need to be taken care of, and we are going to get the

jump on them. Group up around the entrance and have the group enter sneak mode, then toggle turn-based-mode and jump in. We are going to strategically position our characters around the sides of the door so that they stay out of sight. Position the wooden chest in the way of the door so as to block anyone trying to walk in, then save the game and end everyone’s turn. If all goes right, no one will discover your party in the time that passes. At this point, select one of your characters with ranged attack options and hit one of

the enemies from hiding, this will cause all the enemies to be surprised. Next, have another character with the firebolt spell hit the oil barrel just beyond the door. This will cause an explosion that will decimate the enemies numbers and lead to very easy cleanup. There is also another enemy in the chamber to the north that we can get the drop on. In addition, there are plenty of food or camp supplies on the nearby table. Loot all of the fallen enemies, then move to the southernmost room in this area. There are plenty of books to find

and read in this area, but what we are mainly looking for is the lever on the southern wall of the chamber. Pulling it will open a new passage leading to the west, which is where we are heading next. After looting everything in the immediate vicinity of this new area, you’ll want to split off from your group and go through the door to the south. I also recommend saving before doing this. Do not loot the central sarcophagus, as it is trapped. Instead, loot the smaller entombments near the room’s periphery first. One of these containers will Have

a shield, which I will be equipping to my sorcerer. Gale can also make use of the shield. Another of these containers will have a soul coin, which a companion that we have yet to meet can make use of. Once you’ve looted all the surrounding containers, position yourself between the central sarcophagus and the room where the rest of your companions are. Approach the sarcophagus, then enter turn based mode. Loot the engraved key and Watcher’s Guide magic spear from the sarcophagus, then skirt around the grease that appears on the ground, and return to your companions, using dash

if necessary. Upon leaving turn based mode, the room will be inundated with fire and explosions. At this point, we will group the party back up and go through the door to the north, which we now have the key for. To the west is a small room with a sarcophagus where another soul coin can be found. There Is also a book of the dead gods, which if you manage to open and successfully read, will gain some approval with Shadowheart and inspiration for both Gale and Shadowheart. Next up, we’ll have to face off with a group of

skeletons. I am going to position and hide my characters to prepare and get the jump. Once you are ready, enter turn-based mode and have a character interact with the button in the northwest corner of the room. This will open a door to a secret room nearby, as well as unleash a handful of reanimated skeletons. You should be able to get a surprise attack on them to initiate the combat encounter. After the encounter, head into that newly opened room and open the Sarcophagus. We’ll meet a new helpful NPC by the name of Withers. Answer Withers’ question

sufficiently, and he’ll head off to our camp. Before going there ourselves, let’s loot Withers’ sarcophagus for yet another Soul Coin, along with some valuables. In the nearby heavy chest, We will also find The Amulet of Lost Voices, which allows the wearer to cast speak with dead at will. At this point we will take our second Long Rest. The first thing I recommend doing is to take control of Shadowheart and speak with Withers in the west-most room. Ask Withers “what kind of services can a skeleton offer?” then speak through the rest of his dialogue. You should

be able to speak with Withers again and change Shadowheart’s class for 100 gold. You can also do this with any other character. I am going to switch Shadowheart to a Light Domain cleric and optimize her ability score points. Light Domain clerics are all around incredible. The light domain spells, warding flare subclass feature, and radiance of dawn channel divinity that they gain at level two all make for an extremely formidable combatant. After handling that, we can speak with our companions. It doesn’t seem like there is any approval to be gained with Shadowheart, Gale, or Lae’zel, but

all of them should have new things to say. Astarion, on the other hand, will ask how you would want to go out if you were to become a mind flayer. If you say “Not sure. How would you like to go?” then follow it up with “Decapitation sounds good, actually.” you will get some approval points with him. Afterwards, we can take our long rest, and this time I will be using camp supplies to gain all the benefits of a full long rest. After performing our morning rituals, we will fast travel back to the Roadside Cliffs and

head north past a broken carriage. There is a battle up ahead, so I am going to have Shadowheart bless everyone but herself, then have the party climb the nearby hill to the north for a good vantage point. There are quite a few enemies in this encounter, but fortunately we will also have plenty of allies to back us up, so we can lean on them in order to conserve resources, Just do enough to keep them all from dying. The Bugbear is capable of dealing a lot of damage, so I always prioritize defeating him first. Once the

raiding party has been dealt with, visit the nearby Ancient Sigil Circle to activate a new fast travel point. Then, loot all of the bodies for sellable loot and a shield, which we can equip Gale with. Za’krug the Goblin boss should also have the Gloves of Power on him, which are good when equipped by Lae’zel or any other martial class. There are a good deal of important tasks to take care of in the Druid Grove, saving several tieflings among them. A short distance in we will find Zevlor, a tiefling, arguing with a human mercenary by the

name of Aradin. Personally, I used persuasion to resolve the conflict, but whatever you choose to do, try and stay on the tieflings’ good side. Resolving the conflict peacefully will gain us approval from both Shadowheart and Gale. After that, we’ll head up and around the southwest bend to the gate lookout. Here we’ll find Arka, grieving over a fallen ally. Don’t worry, this is one tiefling that cannot be saved, so him dying won’t stop us from getting the “No One Left Behind” achievement. Saying “You need to avenge this - spill some goblin blood” will get us approval

points with both Shadowheart and Lae’zel Next, we’ll head further east to the Grove’s highpoint. Here, we’ll need to save a tiefling, Nadira, from a Bugbear Assassin. Given that it’s only one enemy, I am personally conserving spell slots and other resources for this fight. After defeating the Bugbear, we can speak with Nadira and trick her into giving us another Soul Coin, which will also give us more approval with Shadowheart. At this point we should be able to gain our 3rd level on most if not all characters. I will be taking Thunderwave on my Sorcerer as it’s

a very useful first level spell, and it will help us get an achievement pretty easily later on. I will also be Taking Quickened Spell as my 3rd metamagic option. Full spellcasters, such as sorcerers, wizards, and clerics, gain the ability to cast level 2 spells at level 3. They also gain two level 2 spell slots. And this is a good time to explain how leveled spells work. Leveled spells require a spell slot to cast. A level 2 spell can only be cast with a level 2 spell slot or higher. A level 1 spell, on the other

hand, can be cast with a level 1 spell slot or higher. If you cast a spell using a higher level spell slot, it will often have additional or augmented effects. For example, when we cast magic missile, a level 1 spell, using a level 2 spell slot, it will fire off an additional missile, for a total of 4. That being said, some spells do not grant additional benefits when cast at a higher level, a prime example being mage armor. With that covered, let’s get back on topic. Fighters gain their subclass at level 3, and Battle Master

is, In my opinion, the strongest of the 3. It gives the fighter Manoeuvres, which can have all sorts of special effects. The Manoeuvres I personally like to start off with are Distracting Strike, Precision Attack, and Pushing Attack. That being said, you are free to look through the options and choose whichever ones you like best. For the Cleric, level 3 gives access to new spells and spell slots to cast with. Finally, Gale will get to learn 2 more spells, and I’m going to take and prepare both Misty Step and Shatter, but again, I don’t think either

of these are must-haves. We can Short Rest here if needed, then head north deeper into the grove. A short distance in we’ll find Arron the trader, and we can sell our goods to him. A higher Charisma will get you better prices on purchases, and more money for wares that you are selling. When it comes to selling, any junk, jewels, and common weapons and armor can go. We will hang on to magic items, such as The Watcher’s Guide, as well as any Soul Coins, infernal iron, and elixirs. Also, there is an easy way to accumulate wealth

and magic items, but it’s definitely gaming the system. First, save the game before trying this. Then, what we’ll need to do is toggle on non-lethal attacks in the passives tab. Then, for best results, sneak attack the merchant we want to get loot off of with a character that we aren’t using to interact and buy stuff with. In this case, we will attack Arron with Gale from hiding. At that point, whittle the merchant’s health down until they are knocked out. Just make sure to exclusively use melee attacks once the merchant is at low health as ranged

attacks and spells will kill, even if non-lethal is toggled on. Once the merchant has been knocked out, you can loot back all the items you sold the merchant, plus any unique magic items the merchant had for sale. Note that this cannot be done with all merchants, at least not without incurring backlash from nearby guards, but I’ll be sure to point out any merchants that this can be done with. And don’t worry, so long as the merchant isn’t killed, they will wake back up after the next long rest, And will only be mad at the first

character that attacked them. Personally, I’ll be taking just the magic items to equip my characters, and sending the remaining valuables back to camp. We can always go grab it from the camp stash whenever we need stuff to sell. Moving northwest, we can find and speak with Zevlor in the hideout beyond the stone door. He will task us to both find and speak with Kagha, on behalf of the Tiefling refugees. Right outside of the hideout we can speak with Aradin and learn about an artifact, called The Nightsong. This will start a quest called “Find the Nightsong”.

Up the ladder, to the east, a man named Barth will be threatening Meli, a child tiefling that stole his amulet. To make everyone happy, we first need to say “You better do what he says, boy.” Then succeed on a very easy Persuasion check. And finally, we’ll say “I want an answer - why’d you steal it?” This will result in Meli coming clean, And also have Barth willingly give Meli the amulet out of charity. We can also find Auntie Ethel nearby, and we don’t want to attack her at all, as she has an important quest, which

will come up later. Also, telling her about our tadpole condition will result in disapproval from Shadowheart. That being said, we definitely want to browse her shop. She should have 3 Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength for sale, and these are replenished after each long rest. They are totally worth the gold and greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of strength-based characters, such as Lae’zel. They also last the entire adventuring day. Throughout act 1, we will want to return to Auntie Ethel to get these 3 elixirs after every Long Rest, and use them on our martial characters as part

of our morning preparations. The final important character down in this area is Dammon the blacksmith, and we also want to leave him unharmed. We can ask him about both his craft and his wares, but that’s about all for now. To the northwest is a prison, but it’s best if we avoid going there for now. Instead, find and speak with Zorru nearby. Lae’zel will want to interrogate him, and it is up to you on how much you choose to moderate Lae’zel’s behavior. Lae’zel will disapprove of you stepping in, but Shadowheart will approve. The opposite is true

if you allow Lae’zel to take charge or back her up. If we sneak and break into the storage room behind Zorru, we will find another tiefling by the name of Pandirna. If we are willing to use a second-level spell, we can actually cure Pandirna’s paralysis by casting lesser restoration on her with Shadowheart, but this is not necessary. There is some loot to be found in this room, but it’s totally optional and we won’t lose any achievements if we avoid it. Up to the west we will find another recruitable companion, Wyll the Warlock. To avoid Gale’s

disapproval, we can choose the “I’m looking to cure this infection. I suggest we partner up.” dialogue option. I have no need for a warlock, so I am going to tell Wyll to wait back at camp. We can also speak with Asharak and tell a story to the children. Though, again, totally optional. I have an important warning here, you may notice the “Strange Ox”. Feel free to investigate, just don’t attack or kill the Strange Ox, as this can seriously bug out a companion questline. We will definitely want to go speak with Rolan and his siblings to

the south, and convince them to stay and fight as this is a critical step to getting the “No One Left Behind” achievement. Moving deeper into the grove, be wary of the boy to the east named Mattis. Most of the supposed “magic items” he sells are fake and have no effect whatsoever. In addition, while browsing his wares, a tiefling child will try to pickpocket you and run away. Personally I think it’s best to just avoid the encounter altogether, but if you are in the mood for some shenanigans, then go for it, just try not to make

an enemy of the tieflings in the process. We’ll move on south towards the heart of the grove, where an altercation between the tieflings and druids takes place. After the exchange, we can speak with Locke and Komira, And agree to rescue their child, Arabella. This will get us some approval with Gale. The druids will let us by easily enough, at which point we can make our way west to the sanctuary of the grove. It probably goes without saying, but stealing the Idol of Silvanus from the center of the grove will have negative consequences, and so we

will not be doing that. Lae’zel is going to disapprove of our actions here, so consider leaving her outside for the initial confrontation. Within the sanctuary, we will need to convince Kagha to spare Arabella and let her go free. I suggest saving before any skill checks, as failing badly enough will result in Arabella’s death, which again, would disqualify us from the “No One Left Behind Achievement”. Saving Arabella will gain approval from both Gale and Shadowheart, and disapproval from Lae’zel if she is present. That being said, we can bring Lae’zel back in after Arabella is safe, then

speak with Kagha. Picking the “You’re protecting your own - sometimes cruelty is required.” option will earn Some approval from both Lae’zel and Shadowheart, though probably for different reasons. Kagha will give us an ultimatum to lead the Tieflings out of the grove, to which we can noncommittally reply “Then it seems I’d best speak to Zevlor.” At this point we can speak with Shadowheart about 1, possibly 2 things. First, if she gets frightened by the Wolves in the grove, we can talk to her and say “I’ll try to avoid wolves in the future, where possible.” to earn

some approval. In addition, we can ask her about a mysterious wound that plagues her. Also, once Shadowheart’s approval goes above 40 points, (High) approval, we can initiate a romance with her if we want, and this is a good place to explain romance in Baldur’s Gate 3. Most companions are easy to romance once approval is high enough. But be careful, only so many romances can be maintained in Act 1, and to the best of my knowledge the limit is 2. In addition, pursuing certain romances will immediately close off other specific romances. The most relevant Example is

that romancing Shadowheart (and possibly any other companion besides Lae’zel) will close off the option of romancing Lae’zel. In addition, only one romance can be maintained beyond Act 2, so one romance will need to be chosen well before the end of the game. I can’t say who has the best romance, but I will say that the only companion we need to romance for an Achievement is Karlach, who we haven’t recruited yet, but we’ll get there soon enough. In any case, because of that reason, I will be romancing Karlach in the long-term for this guide series. Fortunately,

initiating a romance with Shadowheart here will not close off the option to romance Karlach. That being said, there is a point later in Act 1 where you can initiate a romance with any companion you are on good terms with. If you want to have as many options as possible there and then, do not initiate a romance with Shadowheart (or other companions) through normal dialogue. Hopefully that was a sufficient explanation on romance, but you Can reach out to me in the comments if you have specific questions. Moving on, at this point, Gale will probably have a

new conversation where we can earn some approval. The options we want to pick when they come up are “That’s very gratifying to hear.” and “I’d be happy to help.” Next, we’ll head northwest into the Servant’s Quarters. In the west corner, behind the bookshelf, is Kagha’s Chest. It can be unlocked with just a 10 DC lockpick check, and inside we’ll find a note and a book. Reading this will give us a lead on where to find evidence that will expose Kagha’s shady dealings. For now, we will bide our time and move northeast to the Druid’s Chambers.

Here we can speak with Nettie the healer. Honesty here is the best option. After explaining the situation, Nettie will bring us to the back room for further assessment. In the conversation that follows, eventually saying “I swear” to Nettie will earn us some approval with Lae’zel And Shadowheart. Following this, we can agree to find Halsin the druid, then return back outside. To the south, we can get Tuffet the bear to move off the lift with a successful animal handling check. This will allow the lift to operate normally. Moving northeast we can meet Volo the bard, and

he will eventually inform us of his intent to visit the Goblin Camp. Moving down a new path to the northeast, we can go down the southern path first to find Alfira, another bard. And it’s a good idea for us to save here because this is an opportunity to gain free proficiency in playing an instrument, which will make getting the Busker achievement a lot easier. To get this proficiency, we want to say “Let me see if I can help.” when it comes up as a dialogue choice. Then say “Hand me that lute. We can perform together.”

Two performance checks will follow, and passing these checks will earn you both the Lute, and the ability to play it, along with some approval from Gale. We can then equip the lute and play it anywhere. When played in populated areas, nearby NPCs will crowd around. If we succeed in the performance check, then one or more of the NPCs will each toss us a coin once we stop playing. Earning 100 gold this way will get us the Busker achievement, and this is most easily done later in the game, during Act 3, but feel free to start

working towards it now. Next, we will head northeast towards the beach, and it’s a good idea for us to save here. A tiefling boy by the name of Mirkon is standing near the water. A pretty rough encounter is coming up, and so we may want to position one or two companions up at the vantage point to the south. I am also going to have Shadowheart cast Bless on multiple allies, including Mirkon. When we speak with Mirkon, we can avoid the trap by saying “You shouldn’t be standing out in the water. It’s dangerous.” then “I don’t

hear anything. Come back to shore.” This will lead into a combat encounter. Like I said before, this encounter is a tough one, so using leveled spells and resources is completely reasonable and probably necessary to save Mirkon. For this fight, it is crucial that we interrupt any harpies singing their Luring Song, as it can cause us, our companions, and even Mirkon, to involuntarily move towards the harpies, and be otherwise incapacitated. Magic Missile is a great option to interrupt a harpies singing, because it has a chance to disrupt the singing with each of the missiles that hit.

Something else to watch out for is any Harpy that blocks Mirkon’s escape route. To prevent them from striking Mirkon as he runs by, they will either need to be defeated or have their reaction spent. This can be accomplished by having a character run in and back out of melee range. That will result in the harpy using its attack of opportunity on one of our characters, rather than Mirkon. As a reminder, we need to save Mirkon in order to get the “No One Left Behind” achievement. After the fight we can speak with Mirkon. If we’re nice,

he will tell us how we can find Another tiefling child named Mol. Gale will also have something to say about the encounter as well. We can explore and loot the beach area if we want, then head back to Arabella’s parents in the grove. Speaking with them, we’ll be rewarded with Komira’s Locket. Up to the west we can find Doni, speaking the passphrase to Doni will get him to reveal a concealed hatch. Inside, we can find Mol. She is willing to trade, and we can even invest in her up and coming business. However, we should also

avoid getting involved in her plot to steal the Idol of Silvanus from the Druids. With that done, we just have one more task to handle at the makeshift prison before leaving the grove. Before going there, we will want to consider ungrouping Lae’zel from the party and leaving her behind a few paces as she will disapprove of what we are about to do. In one of the prison cages we will find Sazza the Goblin, and we must save her to get the “She Cannot Be Caged!” achievement. To do that, we will “step between the crossbow and

the goblin”. We will then Need to talk Arka out of the revenge killing. This will gain approval from both Gale and Shadowheart. Before calling Lae’zel back, we will speak with Sazza and agree to help her escape, then pick the lock, speak with Sazza again, and tell her to follow us. At this point we can group the party back up and jump to a secluded area just east of the prison cages. Here, we’ll find the entrance to an underground escape route. Before doing anything, we will need to deactivate the bear statue guarding the path. To do

that, we can take control of a character that Sazza is not following, split off from the group, and hide. Then, we’ll sneak over to and interact with the Rune of the Bear when the goblins are not looking that way. These goblins will attack us, even if Sazza is with us, so at this point we can just attack them from hiding to get surprise. Overall this encounter is not difficult. Afterwards, we can use a healing spell or throw a healing potion directly on the unconscious Findal to revive him. Just know that if Sazza is within view

we will need to convince him to look the other way. Up to the southeast there is a Rune of the Eagle that we will want to deactivate. There are also a few Oil Barrels that we can pick up and send back to camp for later use. We will want to do this before trying to lockpick or disarm the trapped chest nearby. Within the chest is another magic item, the Nature’s Snare staff. There are also useful items in the other containers nearby. From here, we’ll head to the southern exit, which will lead us outside of the

Druid Grove. Sazza will plan to meet us later, near the goblin camp, before leaving our company for the time being. Next, we will jump up to the rocky hillside towards the south, then head towards the highest point. Upon approaching the campfire, we should meet a new character by the name of Raphael. If he doesn’t show up, make sure all party members are present and try again. Look for the dialogue choice that starts with “You’re mad if…” as this will gain us approval with both Lae’zel and Shadowheart. After the encounter, we can speak with our companions

about Raphael. With Shadowheart, if we say “He’s a devil. We shouldn’t trust him - simple as that.” and then “I’m not going to just change my mind. We can’t trust Raphael.” Shadowheart will approve. With Gale, we can gain some approval by saying “And how do you propose we beat a devil at his own game?” when the option comes up. With Astarion, we can say “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.” then “We’re not his playthings - we’ll show him that.” to gain some approval. With Wyll, we can gain approval by saying

“Spare me the parables - I’ve no intention of bargaining with the likes of him.” Lae’zel only offers the opportunity to lose approval when discussing the topic, but no ways to gain approval, so tread carefully. Before leaving this area, we can grab the Silver Pendant off the nearby Skeleton. When equipped, It will allow us to cast the Guidance Cantrip at will. This allows us to use Guidance for skill checks while speaking with Shadowheart, and can be combined with Shadowheart’s enhanced ability spell for a better chance at succeeding on difficult skill checks. At this point, we can

go ahead and take our 3rd Long Rest. There is a lot to discuss with our various companions at this stage. Speaking with Shadowheart, we can get some approval by making a risky play, so saving is recommended. First, we’ll want to say “You know, this could be our last night together.” Then we’ll need to do the Illithid Wisdom skill check to probe her thoughts. If we succeed, we should get a new option “Once this is all over, we should find a tavern and celebrate properly.” and this is what will get us the boost in approval. That

being said, if we fail the Illithid skill check, Shadowheart will become aware of our probing, and will strongly disapprove. When speaking with Astarion, he may attempt to initiate a romance. Certain Dialogue options have the chance to reveal more about Astarion’s nature, if we succeed at a passive insight check. It is up to you if you want to engage in this romance, just keep the discussion from earlier about how romance works in mind. With Lae’zel, she will tell us a little more about the Githyanki, but it won’t get us any approval. If it hasn’t already been

done, we can ask Lae’zel “Are you sure a creche is our only path to a cure?” followed by “That kind of wisdom is very valuable.” to earn some approval. To get some approval with Wyll, we can say “Something’s special about us. Or at least, about our tadpoles.” when the opportunity presents itself. At this point we can also speak with Withers and unlock the ability to recruit Hirelings. These are basically generic companions that can fulfill almost any role in the party, but that serve no significance to the story. After the long rest, we’ll carry out our

morning preparations, And perhaps pay Auntie Ethel another visit for more Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength. Once ready, we’ll head west from the Druid grove. Following the path towards the northwest will lead us to a dying dwarf and his two companions. We can use our ilithid powers here, but it has no benefit here, and we have limited uses of it per day, so we are better off saving it. Eventually we should be presented with several options. Saying “Forget the owlbear. You’re still alive - so go.” will gain approval from Shadowheart. But saying “You need to find

the beast and avenge your brother.” will gain approval from Lae’zel, along with extra bodies to fight the Owlbear. Lae’zel approval is harder to come by, plus the extra help for the owlbear is very nice, so I went with the second option. Before going to the cave, we can loot the dead dwarf and either block out or accept the Mind Flayer parasite that emerges from him. Neither option will have detrimental consequences. We’ll be sure to grab the Shaft of a Broken Spear from the body, then move into The owlbear cave. Speak with Andrick near the cave

entrance and the two will head inside. Once more, we can gain some approval from Lae’zel by choosing to attack the Owlbear when it approaches. Shadowheart, however, will disapprove if she is nearby. In order to get all achievements, and to not be a monster, we need to make sure the owlbear cub survives the encounter, and let it live after the fact. Just focus all attacks on the grown owlbear to make sure it is defeated before either of the NPC allies can kill the cub. Brynna should command the Owlbear to halt on each of her turns, which

will make the encounter much much easier. Once again, we will let the Owlbear cub live when prompted, and this will gain approval with both Gale and Shadowheart. After the fight, we can speak with the two absolute cultists and send them on their way. The Head of a Broken Spear can be taken from the Owlbear and combined with the previously acquired shaft to form the Vision of the Absolute magic spear. Before moving on, we will want to grab the Owlbear Egg and send it back to camp. It is technically in the category of camp supplies, but

has a neat and unique use with a specific NPC we will meet later on. Because of that, we will want to make sure that we don’t use it whenever taking a long rest. The Oak Father’s Embrace magic armor is also on a nearby skeleton. Near the bottom of the cave we’ll find a hidden shrine to Selune, and a magically sealed chest. It’s a good idea for us to save, then jump over to the area with the statue. Moving near the southern wall will trigger a passive perception check, and succeeding will reveal a Selunite Prayer sheet.

We can pick it up, return to the sealed chest, then read the prayer from our inventory to dispel the magic seal. Upon opening the chest, Shadowheart will begin to argue against it. If we ask why, we will be presented with the opportunity to learn a good deal more about her, through an insight check. The DC is fairly high at 15, so it may take some inspiration points or save-scumming. Upon success, Shadowheart will reveal herself as a worshiper of Shar, and it’s best if we let it slide for now. After this revelation, trying to take the

contents of the Selunite chest will prompt a sleight of hand check to hide it from Shadowheart. Failing the check while near Shadowheart will get us disapproval, but failing it while away from her carries no repercussions. Once we’ve learned about Shadowheart’s Shar worship, we will gain new conversation starters and the opportunity to gain a ton of approval. First, we’ll pick the “I want to talk about your Shar worship.” We can follow this with “I have no problems with Shar worshippers, if that’s what concerns you.” It’s a super easy persuasion check that we should have no problem

passing. That alone will get us some approval, but let’s go for more. We will start with “Remind me.”, then “Fascinating. Please, continue.”, followed with “When you put it like that, it seems strangely comforting.” and finally “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sound convincing. You should tell me more some time.” Next, we can say “I want to get to know you more, Shadowheart.” followed by “Tell me something about yourself besides Shar, besides tadpoles.” and finally, “You’ll have to point out night orchids to me if we ever pass some.” Last but not least, we can

ask “Why were you in pain before?” and follow it up with “Is there anything I can do to help with it.” All of that together should raise Shadowheart’s approval of us by a total of 16 points. Next up, we will head northwest of the owlbear cave to find a new furry companion. Scratch the dog will be guarding his fallen master. A successful perception or animal handling check will allow us to befriend the canine. We can pet him and tell him to follow us. When Scratch refuses, we can respond by holding out our hand so he

can follow our scent to camp later. Doing this is necessary for us to get multiple achievements later on. From there, we can jump across the river bed to the north to go find Karlach, Our final recruitable companion for Act 1. We’ll find her up along the river, east from where we crossed over. Along the way we can grab the Toll Collector’s Key. We’ll play nice and agree to team up with Karlach in order to fight the individuals that are hunting her. They’re pretty tough though, and it’s best if we don’t face them just yet. Given

that our party is full, Karlach will head to our camp instead, and now is a good time to show how we can turn Karlach into the strongest character in the game. I had a hard time picking between switching out Gale or Lae’zel for Karlach, and ultimately switched out Lae’zel. This is because, in the near future, we are going to take many actions that Lae’zel will either disapprove of, or be indifferent to. Meanwhile, we will gain a lot of approval with Gale by keeping him in the party. To unlock Karlach’s true potential, we will need to

change her class over to Monk through Withers. For ability points, we will plan to keep Karlach juiced up with Giant Strength Elixirs each day, Because of that, she doesn’t need any points in Strength. We can then redistribute the rest of her points so that she has 16 in Dexterity, 15 in Constitution, and 17 in Wisdom. These may seem somewhat random, but the reasoning behind this distribution will become clear as we progress. All that’s left is to level Karlach up, and take the Way of the Open Hand subclass at level 3. The reason why Karlach is

so strong as a monk is because of a somewhat hidden interaction between Soul Coins and unarmed strikes. When Karlach uses a Soul Coin, she gains the Infernal Fury buff until the next long rest. Even though it is not mentioned in the description, this buff gives Karlach’s unarmed attacks an additional 2d4 fire damage. Combined with the effects from an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength, Karlach’s unarmed strikes deal a whopping 8 to 19 damage, and it’s going to increase significantly at level 4. Leaving the camp, we’re going to backtrack a little bit, jumping back across the river.

Karlach will eventually confront us about not going to fight the people hunting her, but we can just reassure her that we will go do it. Moving on, we will head south towards the Blighted Village. Along the way, we will find an exsanguinated boar. A successful medicine check will reveal that the board was likely killed by a vampire. There are several bodies to scavenge for supplies in this area, and we will want to save before heading west into the village. Upon entry, we will be ambushed by a pack of goblins. To talk our way out of

the fight, we can say “There'll be no skewering happening here. Now let me pass.” This will need to be followed by a successful speech check. Using either Persuasion or Intimidation will increase approval with both Shadowheart and Gale. Upon our arrival at the Blighted Village, we can either lockpick or destroy the nearby chest to get the Haste Helm, which provides the wearer with a substantial boost in movement speed at the start of combat. We may need to speak with Gale and give him a magical artifact. We should give him one we don’t use, such as Dragon’s

Grasp or The Watcher’s Guide, as it will be destroyed and lost forever. On the upside, we will get 10 points of approval with Gale out of the deal. Next, we’ll go to the southwestern house. There, we’ll meet a group of Ogres, led by Lump the Enlightened. Lump the Enlightened has the Warped Headband of Intellect, which is a useful Magic Item. That being said, we can save ourselves from a tough fight right now and make the Ogre’s our formidable allies instead. Not to mention, we can always get the crown from Lump later on. To do this,

we’ll start with a deception check. After that, we can say “I notice you don’t bear a brand of your own.” and then “Forget goblins. You should be fighting for me.” At this point, we can pay Lump 500 gold or entice him with large battles through a difficult persuasion check. The deception path for gaining their alliance is best to be avoided. Persuading the Ogre’s to form an alliance will gain approval with both Shadowheart and Karlach. We can loot the barrels in the southwest corner of the room for some camp supplies, and the bookshelf for a diary

that will trigger a cutscene with Shadowheart when read. Next, we’ll go into the dilapidated potions shop that is right next to the Fast Travel point. There are several useful potions sitting out, including two antidotes, which we will want to grab and save for later use. Afterwards, we can go to the basement through a wooden hatch behind the counter. There are lots of useful potions and alchemy reagents to be looted down here. After stocking up, we’ll pull the lever along the north wall, hidden behind a stack of wooden crates. This will open up a secret path

nearby. Heading down that way, we’ll enter a cave with multiple caskets. All but one of them is trapped and will trigger a very pesky encounter if opened. Because of that, we will only be opening the one casket along the southern rock wall. Inside is the Scroll of Summon Quasit, amongst other items. This scroll summons a unique familiar or companion, and so we don’t want to just use it. Instead, we can Give it to Gale to permanently learn. If your main character is a wizard, they can learn it instead. All we need to do then is

prepare and cast it. Doing so will earn us the “Rude, Crude, and Full of Attitude” achievement, as well as summon Shovel, a Quasit companion. Following along the southern wall, we’ll reach an Ornate Mirror, which we can interact with. To successfully pass the mirror, we can start by telling it our name. Next, we’ll say “Yes, an ally! I’m an ally of your master’s.” Next, we’ll say “Szass Tam is a foul, wretched creature.” and then “To clean a wound?” and finally “I’d look for whatever spell will rid me of this worm in my head.” Passing through the

mirror we will enter a secret lab. There are several items we will want to make sure we grab and keep on hand for future use. The first two are the Scroll of Feather Fall and Basilisk Oil. Next, we’ll grab the Rusted Key from the chamber to the west. In the chest near the stuffed bear are several more useful spell scrolls. Towards the east we will find the Bracers of Defense in a gilded chest, and these are great for Karlach. There Are also plenty of unique books that can be read for progress towards the Bookworm achievement.

Finally, we’ll ungroup from the party and open the iron gate to the east. Enter turn-based mode and grab The Necromancy of Thay book, then use jump and sprint to escape the trapped room before exiting turn-based mode. We can’t use this book right now, but we will definitely want to hang on to it for later use. At this point we can return to the surface level of the Blighted Village. We will find and interact with the water well to the northwest of the fast travel point. Either a successful investigation check or tossing a coin into the

well will allow us to enter the cave system beneath it. The first thing we’ll want to do is travel southwest along the bottom path to a work area. We are mainly after the Spiderstep Boots here, and we will want to equip these to a character with the ability to push enemies, such as Karlach or anyone with the Thunderwave spell. We can save the game, then head northwest deeper into the cave system, while staying Off of the spiderwebs. Having everyone hide is recommended, and the Quasit can also turn invisible or be dismissed. There are 3 Phase

Spiders and two Ettercaps that will need to be eliminated, and we can get surprise on the first group from this vantage point. We will want to hit the Ettercaps with firebolt or some other fire damage to remove the infested condition, which can spread to our melee combatants. This is also the first combat encounter since we recruited Karlach and turned her into the monk, and the amount of damage she can deal in a turn when powered by a soul coin and using flurry of blows is staggering. After the encounter we can loot the surrounding area before

heading further west into the cave, and once again we will want to make sure everyone is sneaking. We’re going to get the “Pest Control” achievement here by punting the Phase Spider Matriarch into the green Chasm below, and it is a good idea for us to save here. I am going to be using Karlach for this as she has Flurry of Blows: Push. What we will need to do is first make sure she has the Spiderstep Boots on. Next, ungroup Karlach from the party, make sure she is hiding, and then wait at the edge of the

spiderweb bridge until the Matriarch walks towards the south end of her patrol path. At this point we can move across the spiderweb bridge and use the rock formation as cover. As soon as the Matriarch turns around, we’ll have Karlach jump to the next spiderweb bridge, just behind the Matriarch, and then enter turn-based mode as soon as possible. We should be able to sneak and position ourselves so that our push attack will push the matriarch into the chasm. Saving once more before attacking is a good idea just in case of a catastrophic failure, where we aren’t

able to get the Matriarch to fall into the Chasm before its first turn. All that’s left is to go for the push attack, in this case a pushing fury of blows. Once the Matriarch has been dealt with, we can have the rest of the party move in to sneak attack the remaining two phase spiders, cleaning up the encounter with relative ease. After the encounter we can take a short rest if needed and otherwise heal up. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but healing potions can actually be thrown on the ground between two or more

characters to heal them all with that single potion, maximizing healing efficiency. Once ready, we’ll head down near the chasm and pick up the Dark Amethyst. We can then go to read the Necromancy of Thay book, and we may want to put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the party, as both Gale and Karlach will disapprove of us reading it. We should keep Shadowheart with us though, as she won’t disapprove, and she can help us with either the Guidance or Resistance cantrips. We will need to insert the Dark Amethyst into the book’s mouth, and

we’ll want to save before proceeding through the following skill checks, as succeeding in them will provide several major benefits. First, we will open the book. Following this, we’ll need to complete a series of Checks. If we are a spellcaster, the example here being a sorcerer, we can perform a series of easier skill checks to read the book. If our class has no arcane aptitude, we will instead need to perform a series of more difficult Wisdom saving throws. If you need to do the saving throws, Shadowheart can help with the Resistance cantrip, which functions similarly to

Guidance, but for saving throws instead of skill checks. Successfully completing all 3 skill checks or saving throws will accomplish multiple things. First off, it will allow our character to cast Speak With Dead at will, without consuming any spell slots and also give us a permanent +1 bonus to Wisdom checks. Secondly, Gale should gain a point of inspiration. And finally, this sets us up to complete multiple related objectives in Act 3 of the game, all of which are beneficial. Next, we’re going to make a small detour to get a very strong pair of magic boots, along

with several other great magic items. We’ll make sure the party is all grouped up, Then cast Featherfall on everyone using the scroll we found earlier. Before featherfall wears off, we’ll jump headlong into the green chasm, which will trigger a cutscene. We’ll want to have everyone hide as soon as the cutscene ends to avoid detection by the nearby minotaurs, which are very strong and should be avoided. Next, we can loot the Poisoner’s Robes off the Phase Spider Matriarch and then start moving south. It is a good idea for us to save, as there is a weakened

minotaur that we can get the drop on in turn-based mode, and defeating it will get us a nice 75 experience points. Around this time we will also receive some incoming telepathic messages, but it’s nothing to get concerned over. If we try to approach the gate to the south we are going to get zapped and die. So instead, we will sneak around the gates with one character, preferably one with ranged attacks. Before stepping on the bridge, ungroup the selected character from the party, hide, and enter turn-based mode. Approach the blood stain on the ground and jump

southwest to the rocky ledge. From here we can easily infiltrate the Selunite outpost, eliminating any Torchstalks in our path from a distance. Once inside, we can destroy the moonstone and open the gate. There are multiple useful items in this outpost, including a basic greatsword that we will want to pick up and save for later use, along with several oil barrels. These will be critical for our success in an upcoming encounter, so it's a good idea for us to distribute as many as we can across the party without getting anyone encumbered. Ideally we will have at

least 9 oil barrels. To that end, an easy way to reduce the amount of weight on a character is by sending all of their camping supplies back to camp. We’ll move into the east room to activate the fast travel point, then use a high strength character like Karlach to jump up into a hidden area. We will want to clear this room of explosive barrels as the opulent chest is trapped. Inside the opulent chest is the Luminous Armor, which I don’t exaggerate in saying is extremely Overpowered and borderline broken on a Light Cleric such as Shadowheart.

Behind the DC20 locked gate nearby there is another chest with a DC15 lock on it. Inside is the Helmet of Smiting, which is specific to Paladins and honestly not that great. Moving on, we will head north, back out of the outpost. Moving towards the west we will find a magic sword planted in stone. Either Religion or Strength can be used to try and pull the sword free, and everyone in the party can take a crack at it. Because of that, it is unlikely that inspiration or save scumming will be necessary. It’s called Phalar Aluve and

it’s a neat magic sword, but not really one that we can make use of. Next up, we’ll save the game, then head north down the inclined path. We should clear the timmask spores with ranged attacks to prevent confusion, then send one character out ahead of the pack. Karlach is a good choice since monks have great mobility. Be ready to steer clear of a monster burrowing underground, getting to the side of the ramp. The game should automatically switch to turn-based mode, and we will end everyone’s turn once we are positioned and ready. Once the Bulette is

on the field we can use Karlach to stack all the oil barrels that we have around it in a circle. After that, we will disengage and retreat, using step of the wind: dash if necessary. We will then use a character with firebolt to set off the oil barrels. 9 Oil barrels appears to be just enough to defeat the Bulette in a single strike, or make it so weak that one or two casts of Magic Missile will finish the job. If needed, consider using a potion of speed on 1 or more characters to ensure the Bulette

is defeated before it takes its turn. We really want to take the Bulette out as quickly as possible, because it is a tank that can deal extreme amounts of damage. In addition, it will retreat and burrow back under the ground within 2 or 3 rounds of combat, only to heal and later emerge at other locations. Defeating the Bulette will give us a nice 150 XP and it will also drop the Bloodguzzler Garb, which we can put on Karlach. Afterwards, we will continue north, clearing out the field of Firestalks and Timmask spores in our way. Across

the field, to the northwest, we will arrive at the Myconid Colony. Although uncanny, these humanoid fungi are easy enough to make peace with through various skill checks. Peacefully resolving the encounter will gain us approval with Gale, Shadowheart, and Karlach. Moving into the colony, we will activate the fast travel point, then move up towards the Sovereign. Along the way, we can speak with Thulla, a Deep Gnome that has been poisoned. Thanks to the antidotes we picked up earlier, we should be able to cure her, gaining more approval from Gale and Karlach. In addition, if we agree

to help rescue Thula’s fellow gnomes she will give us the Boots of Speed, which are great on just about any character. They essentially allow the wearer to do an enhanced dash for a bonus action, rather than an action. Just ahead, we can talk with the Sovereign Spaw and agree to help defeat the Duergar. We won’t be doing this until a bit later, but we can accept the quest now without issue. Before leaving here, We can grab one last useful magic item from Blurg to the east. It’s best if we limit our interactions to trading for

now. Specifically, we will want the Psychic Spark necklace, which will boost the Magic Missile spell for the wearer. We will resume our journeys in the underdark later on. For now, let’s fast travel back to the Blighted Village. If you need to take a long rest, you can, but I still have enough resources to keep going, and I like to make the Soul Coins last as long as possible, given that they are very limited. If you are taking a long rest now, just skip ahead in the timestamps to the next long rest and come back to

this point in the video after. We will next head into the northeast building after picking the locked door. Many of the containers in this workshop contain thieves’ tools and trap disarm toolkits. Just be wary of the Wooden Chest on the ground level as it is trapped. If the trap is set off it will destroy the ladder nearby, so it’s wise for us To climb the ladder and loot the top area first. There is a smoke powder barrel that we will definitely want to grab and save for later. Within the locked wooden chest there is a

piece of Infernal Iron, which we will need for Karlach’s personal quest. Within the trapped chest is the Highcliff’s Blueprints, and we can read it to start the “Finish the Masterwork Weapon” quest. Once we get the required Sussar Bark we can return to the forge here to make the weapon. Moving on, we’ll save the game, then move west to the Windmill. For the purpose of gaining more allies, we need to rescue the gnome in distress, and diplomacy is our best option here. We will want to say “Release the Gnome at once”. We can use our illithid

power here for an easy skill check, but we are better off saving it for an encounter that is coming up. Any of the other skill checks can work, and if we have a Potion of Mind Reading, we can perform a relatively easy Detect Thoughts Skill check. Succeeding in it will open up a new dialogue option to peacefully resolve the encounter, and unlock the “No Penny Required” achievement if we haven’t gotten it already. Afterwards, we can head around to the back of the windmill and go down the Wooden Hatch. We can grab the Speedy Lightfeet boots

from the chest. This is medium armor, so Shadowheart is the only character currently in our group that can use it. We can also grab a Smokepowder Satchel from the Heavy Backpack. Be very careful at this next step. Returning to the surface, we will need to pull the ‘Brake’ Lever to stop the windmill from spinning. Pulling the ‘Release’ Lever will result in a funny cutscene, but will also kill our Gnome friend. After stopping the windmill, we can go speak with the Gnome, Barcus Wroot, and free him. He will be a little cranky and frustrated, but showing

kindness is the way to go. Barcus will offer up his heavy backpack, which we already found, and explain his current situation before leaving. We will Catch up with him later, for now, we should have gotten enough experience to reach level 4. Level 4 is a big milestone, as each character will get to choose a Feat, along with other upgrades. As a sorcerer, we get to learn a new cantrip, and unless you don’t already have light, there aren’t any that we absolutely need, so I’ll just be taking minor illusion. Spells are a different story, and I’ll

be taking Misty Step, which is very useful. Moving on to feats, you might feel overwhelmed by the many options. Out of them all, Alert is one of the most immediately useful, as it will prevent us from ever being surprised, and almost always allow us to go first in combat, which is a huge advantage. There are a few exceptions to this, but for Sorcerer, Alert is definitely the way to go. Moving on to Gale, we can learn the Light Cantrip. For spells, Enhance Leap is another very useful spell that can be cast as a ritual, where

it does not take a spell slot when cast outside of combat. Shield is also very nice to have, and we’ll want to have that prepared. Again, Alert is probably The best option for our Feat, in fact, multiple characters having Alert compounds the benefit, as it will put them next to each other in the turn-order, allowing for coordinated tactics. For Shadowheart, we can learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip, which comes in handy if we ever need to pass an intimidation check on her. We will also be taking the Alert feat. And finally we have Karlach. We will NOT

be taking the Alert feat on her. Instead, we want the Tavern Brawler feat. This essentially doubles the effect of our strength modifier for all attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes. We can also add a point to Constitution, rounding it up from 15 to an even 16, which will raise our modifier for that stat from +2 to +3. Before moving on, we will make a quick stop at the Emerald Grove. When speaking with Dammon, he’ll recognize the Infernal Engine in Karlach’s chest. Given the piece of infernal iron we found earlier, Dammon can improve the infernal

engine. This will give Karlach the Heart of Iron feature, Granting her advantage on saving throws against being charmed. We will also gain 10 points of approval with her, and can get another 10 points by speaking with her and saying “I still can’t touch you, though...” followed by “Of course I do.” Doing this may limit our romance options with some other characters, however, so keep that in mind. Around this time, Gale will also need to consume another magic artifact. Once again, we will need to give up a magic item to be destroyed, such as The Watcher’s

Guide. And once again, we will get 10 points of approval with Gale for doing it, as well as progress his quest. We can return to the Blighted Village and exit to the north. There is some noise coming from the building to the east, and we will want to save before investigating, and you should know that this encounter is entirely optional, with the reward being limited to around 100 XP and a couple hundred gold. We can choose to enter the hut, but doing so will get us disapproval from both Karlach and Shadowheart, so we might want

to move them back a good distance before doing that, then bring Them back mid dialogue. This combat encounter can be handled with mostly cantrips and a couple flurry of blows from Karlach. Followed by a round of healing potions for anyone that was damaged. We can get a +1 Dagger to the north by passing one of 3 skill checks, then continue moving northwest. If we succeed in a survival check near the bridge, a diggable mound of dirt will appear. Even if we fail the check, we can manually dig in that area with a shovel to get

the chest anyways. Moving further north, we’ll jump across the broken bridge. Around this point Gale will require a 3rd magic item to consume. Fortunately, this is the last one we will need to give him, and I am going to give up the Helm of Smiting. Afterwards, Gale will have more to say. We can say “Go on. You’re among friends.” to gain some approval. Following this, we will eventually need to say “We’ve come this far together and we’ll continue on together. That is how it will be.” in order to keep Gale from leaving the party permanently.

There is also a chance that Gale does not ask for a magical artifact at this time. If that happens, don’t worry, it just means he will ask later on. Once that is resolved, we can head along the eastern road, stumbling upon a gruesome scene. We will want to strike the initial Hyena to stop it from turning into a Gnoll. We will also want to target and kill the one standing Hyena from running to grab reinforcements, which would make this encounter significantly more difficult, and this must be done on the first turn of combat. The remaining

Hyenas are fairly easy to deal with, as long as it’s done before they can transform into gnolls. Hyenas drop Hyena Ears, which can be turned into additional potions of speed. To do this, pick up all the ears, then pull up the inventory screen and navigate to the Alchemy tab. We can click “Extract All Ingredients”, then open the Potions drop down and find Potion of Speed. It requires the Ashes of Hyena Ear and Any Salt. At this point we should be able to craft 1 or 2, But we will be getting more Hyena Ears as we

continue adventuring. We’ll make sure to loot and read the Shipment Orders, which are found on the Dead Caravan Agent, starting the “Find the Missing Shipment” quest. Next, we will hide and sneak our way up north to get the drop on several gnolls. Once again, we will want to make sure we pick up all of those valuable Hyena Ears, then continue northeast. There is another pack of Gnolls to the north, attacking a pair of Humans. This fight can be fairly difficult. However, we can make it much easier. First, we should have the entire party enter hiding.

We can then move all of our ranged attackers to the elevated position towards the northeast, and attack the gnolls from hiding to gain surprise. We just want to make sure we don’t attack the Gnoll named Flind. This is because we can gain Flind, the Gnoll Warlord as a temporary ally if we avoid attacking her and also stand near her, and we will do this with Karlach. On the first turn That Flind is not surprised, she will engage in a conversation of sorts with whoever is nearest to her. What we want to do is “search her

mind for the source of the Voice.” next, we will “Explore her memories, seeking a nearby target for the hunger.” and finally, we can do an Illithid Wisdom check “You are of the same pack - command her to devour the other gnolls.” Doing this will make the fight far easier, allowing us to conserve resources. Once we are down to the last 1 or 2 enemies, we can start chipping away at Flind while she is distracted by those remaining enemies. After the fight, we will be approached by Rugan, one of the few survivors from the caravan. We

should stay on good terms with him for now, and he will tell us how to access a hidden underground hub nearby. At that point, if we succeed on an intimidation check, we can also get some extra gold from Rugan with no negative consequences. There are many Gnoll ears to be looted off the surrounding bodies. There are also 2 magic items to be had, Those being the Speedy Reply and Shattered Flail. Next, we will want to save the game, then distract Rugan and Olly by playing our instrument while standing a fair distance away from the Caravan

Strongbox. We should be able sneak with Karlach, steal the lockbox, then quickly return to camp to avoid turning Rugan hostile. For now, we do not want to open the lockbox. At this point we can move west towards Waukeen’s Rest, activating the nearby fast travel point. It is not necessary, but the non-combat encounter at Waukeen’s Rest is relevant to Wyll’s story, so we can trade him out for Shadowheart before continuing. I opted not to do this, as it seemed to complicate the sequence of events and caused me to miss out on additional approval with Karlach and

Gale. Moving into Waukeen’s rest, we’ll find that the entire complex has been set ablaze. It is best if we get a strength-based character, such as Karlach, to help break down the main entrance. If Wyll is in the party, he can open the door on his own, without the need of a skill check. We will need to rush up to the top floor and break down the broken door to the east. This will free Counsellor Florrick, an essential character. We will then want to wait for everyone to clear the area, before blasting away the broken door

to the west with ranged attacks. This will cause the building to start burning in earnest, and so we will want to complete these next steps in turn-based mode. First, we can use step of the wind dash on Karlach and hop towards Benryn, and free him from the wreckage. We can then say “Come on, follow me.” Next, we will bust down the broken door directly to the south to open an escape path for Benryn. There is also a magic item in the room to the north, which is also engulfed in flames. We can use ray of

frost on Gale and any other spellcaster with the attack to temporarily douse the flames, allowing Karlach to jump in and pick up the locked chest containing the magic item, it’s in the northwest corner of the room. Once everyone is in a safe space, we can escape with Benryn out the south door to safety. We can ask Benryn about a dowry to start a very small side quest related to it. Heading downstairs, we can talk to Counselor Florrick, and agree to rescue the kidnapped Duke Ravengard. This will gain us approval with Gale and Karlach, along with

our choice of rare magic weapon. Personally I think the Spellsparkler is the best choice. It synergizes with Magic Missile to deal a lot of additional damage. We can also lockpick or punch open the chest that we pulled from the fire earlier. Inside we is the Hamarhraft magic maul. Next, we can go grab the dowry from the small building to the northwest. We will need to interact with the stack of hay and succeed on a perception check to get it. Once we have the Dowry, we can return it to Benryn to complete his quest. Now we’ll

head into the building further to the northwest. Upon entering, We will need to say the passphrase that Rugan gave us to a sentry standing guard. We can then enter the basement through the nearby hatch. There are plenty of camp supplies scattered throughout this room. Once ready, we’ll head through the locked wardrobe into a hideout. The first thing we will want to do here is go speak with Zarys. We can go ahead and give her the Caravan Lockbox for now, as we’ll be getting it back in moment. Next, we will go speak with Oskar Fevras, and

agree to buying his freedom. Next, we’ll speak with Brem, and ask him about buying Fevras. We can talk him down from his starting 1000 gold price point to a more acceptable 600 gold. This will get us some approval with Gale and Karlach. We can get a bit more, but we may want to send Shadowheart to stand a fair distance away, to avoid disapproval from her. Speaking with Oskar, we can spare him another 200 gold to gain more approval with our kindhearted companions. Now that Oskar is free, we can set about getting our money back and

a lot of useful Smokepowder Barrels. First, we can sell whatever items we want to Brem in order to recoup our gold, and we will also want to grab a potion of invisibility off of him if we don’t already have one. We can then turn on non-lethal damage and save the game, then position Gale up behind Zarys. Finally we will have Gale enter hiding and then go to turn-based mode. We will also want to have everyone else hiding so that we can get surprise, although for some reason this doesn’t always work consistently. Karlach can start things

off by knocking out Brem. Gale can follow by launching Zarys off the high point with thunderwave. This should put her within a few HP of being knocked out. From here, we will just start knocking everyone unconscious with Karlach’s punches. Once that is done, we can reclaim all the stuff we sold to Brem, as well as some new and useful magic items, especially those gloves of thievery. We can also get the strongbox back from Zarys, And loot everything that isn’t nailed down, including the 10 or 11 smokepowder barrels. Afterwards, we can speak with Rugan and free

him. Next we are going to head north, deeper into the Zhentarim hideout, to get some choice items. Before entering hostile territory we will have Karlach hide, Gale cast enhanced leap on Karlach, and we will also have Karlach take the potion of invisibility. We should enter turn-based mode right after doing this, then have Shadowheart cast Guidance on Karlach, and use Step of the Wind Dash on Karlach. This will allow us to jump very far up to 10 times in a single turn. Saving frequently is a good idea here, in case things go sideways. We will need

to lockpick a 20 DC lock to access the room to the northeast. Inside we will find our first very rare item, the Abyss Beckoners, which are unfortunately not that good for anyone in our group. There is a second room to the west, with a DC 15 lock in the way. There are two chests here, And both are trapped. Rather than stick around trying to safely open them, we can just pick both up, then exit turn-based mode and quickly return to camp. After regrouping with the rest of the party, we can disarm and unlock the chests.

One of the chests will contain some valuables, whereas the other will contain a piece of infernal iron and more gold. Dammon won’t be able to use the infernal iron until we get to act 2, so we’ll just hold onto it for now. The last thing we are going to do before a long rest is take down those pesky false Paladin’s of Tyr. We will move east from Waukeen’s Rest, crossing over a battle scarred bridge. We can then sneak onto the roof of the Paladin’s base of operations to get the drop on them. There is also

a Soul Coin on the ground up here, and if we pick it, we will get some new dialogue with Karlach. To get some approval with Karlach, we can say “Intriguing. Next time we’re in battle, we’ll make sure you get one.” Anders is the biggest threat in this combat encounter, and while we can talk with him to initiate the fight, we are much better off getting surprise instead. While normally fairly difficult, we should be strong enough to handle this fight with relative ease, even if the game bugs out a little and doesn’t give us surprise. Afterwards,

Karlach will come speak with us, then proceed to tear the place apart while leaving behind a trail of fire. This is a good time for us to get everyone else out, so as to avoid collateral damage. We can loot the nearby gnoll bodies for Hyena Ears and activate the fast travel point to the northwest while Karlach wears herself out. Once Karlach calms down a little, we can speak with her and say “Hot.” to get more approval. After the fires are all out, we can go loot all the bodies, getting the Sword of Justice magic greatsword

from Anders. We can also loot a good amount of camp supplies from the surrounding boxes and containers. We can then go into the basement through the wooden hatch. The key we got quite a bit earlier before recruiting Karlach should open up the pair of doors down here. There is a lot of loot in this area, but most of the good stuff is behind a secret door. To open it, we will have to have a character sit in each of the stone chairs. A third can jump into the newly accessible room, avoiding the pressure plate trap

that would otherwise fill this area with poison. The one magic item we can get here are the Gloves of Heroism, stashed within a wooden chest. These are meant to be worn by a Paladin and are especially good on Oath of Vengeance Paladins. After sufficiently looting this area, we can return to camp for a well-deserved long rest. Wyll is going to confront Karlach. To resolve things, we will want to say “You’ve got it all wrong…” followed by “Stand down. You saw what I saw…” and finally “Gods, you’re stubborn. Karlach’s not a devil, and you know it.”

Everyone nearby will approve of this. Once everyone is settled down, we can speak with Karlach about Wyll, and with Wyll about Duke Ravengard’s abduction. Saying “Then the choice is clear: we should rescue Duke Ravengard.” will earn us some approval. To earn more approval, we can ask Wyll what it was like being the son of Duke, and follow it up with “Good wine? I’ll toast to that.” We can also ask Wyll how he became the Blade of the Frontiers, and follow it with “What act could be finer than saving a life? You must have felt proud.”

At this point, if we speak with Astarion, he will inform us of his condition, which we will let slide for now. After taking a full long rest, we can speak with Wyll to get some ominous foreshadowing of things to come. Scratch the dog should also have shown up at our camp, and we can pet him to earn some approval with any nearby companions, besides Astarion. At this point, I am going to give everyone Longstrider with Gale, and save a spell Slot by having Gale cast Mage Armor on my sorcerer, then switch him out for Lae’zel.

Our relationship with Gale should be exceptional at this point, which is more than enough. We can level up Lae’zel and either give her the Alert or Great Weapon Master feat. I will be giving her the Alert feat first, and get Great Weapon Master later, upon reaching level 6. As soon as we leave camp, Shadowheart will want to speak with us. She will tell us about her goals, and we can respond with “Thank you for sharing.” to get some easy approval. After this, we can head to Auntie Ethel at the Druid Grove to pick up those

Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength, as well as a potion of Invisibility if we don’t already have one. We are going to use it to get a Legendary Greatsword for Lae’zel, and this is sort of an exploit and I’ve decided that it is worth doing. Check the pinned comment for this video as I will immediately update it if this exploit ever gets patched out of the game. Doing this exploit has both positives and negatives. Clearly, The Legendary Greatsword is a positive, and it’s perfect for Lae’zel. Also, the quest to get this sword the normal way can

bug out in other ways, making the sword unobtainable. Doing this will prevent that from happening. Finally, by the time we can get this sword through normal means, we will likely have a better sword, and probably won’t have Lae’zel in the party anymore, so in my opinion, this is her time to shine with it. The only real negatives are that doing this exploit may require a bit of save-scumming before success, but we can do some things to improve our odds. It also causes Lae’zel to have some new dialogue that normally doesn’t become available until Act 3,

which can be confusing, but we will avoid that dialogue interaction. All that said, doing this won’t lock us off from any major questlines, allies, or achievements. If you don’t want to do this exploit, you don’t have to, and it won’t meaningfully alter your playthrough. For everyone else, the first thing we’ll need to do for this sword is have Lae’zel stay at camp, don’t worry, this is just until we get the sword. If we have her in the party when we do this, she will turn hostile. We will then want to go speak with Withers and

recruit a hireling. We need a fighter, and at the time of making this video it takes like half a minute for the game to leave the recruitment screen when you click “venture forth”, so just be patient. As a bonus, recruiting a hireling will give us the “Outsourcing” achievement. When we go to level them up, we’ll need to take the Battle Master subclass with Disarming Attack as one of the maneuvers and Precision Attack as the other. For the feat, we will want to get an ability score improvement and increase strength to 18 and Dexterity to 14.

Next, we will travel to Waukeen’s Rest and move a short distance west. We can speak with Ellyka nearby, but unfortunately there is no way to gain her as an ally. We will head down to the south side of the bridge and, after a cutscene, plan our attack, starting with saving the game. For anyone opting not to do this, you can go ahead and just confront the Githyanki head-on, and skip to the next timestamp. Entering turn-based mode, we will position everyone in a square formation. Next, we’ll have Shadowheart cast Bless on the fighter, and anyone else.

We will also have the fighter use an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength, and trust me it’s worth it. Finally, we should be able to throw a potion of invisibility at the center of our party, turning everyone invisible. Next, we will exit turn-based mode, have everyone hide, quickly move towards Kith’rak Voss, the one with the Legendary Sword, and then enter turn-based mode. Using Precision Attack should increase our chance to hit all the way up to 98%. All that’s left to do is save, then hit Voss with a Disarming Attack. We should be able to see if

Voss failed the saving throw Against the disarming attack and dropped the Legendary Sword the moment before the dialogue encounter starts. If he doesn’t drop it, we will need to load back to the previous save and try again. In theory, we should have right around a 25% chance of success. In practice, I got the sword to drop 7 times out of 23 attempts, which is around a 30% rate of success. This is a lot better than using Command Drop with Shadowheart, which only has a 9% chance of success, but seemed to be much less in practice.

Once we see that the weapon has dropped, we will immediately want to save the game. Believe it or not, we can actually peacefully get out of this fight and still earn all the associated XP, as long as we pass a series of skill checks. We can start with any of the skill checks besides sleight of hand, and fighters have a special option to just bypass this first skill check. Next, we’ll say “You’ll need to start from the beginning…” and follow it with an Arcana skill check. After succeeding in this, we’ll follow it with a Wisdom

skill check. Finally, We will go with the intimidation option, and success in this will earn some approval from Shadowheart. Surprisingly, Lae’zel would also approve of this if she were here. The game might act a little buggy after the confrontation. The githyanki will be hostile and start to attack, but will leave shortly after, granting us all the XP we would get for defeating them, while sparing our resources. If we made Voss drop his weapon, we can pick it up, the Legendary Silver Sword of the Astral Plane is ours for the taking. Understandably, this weapon only reaches

its full potential when wielded by a Githyanki. Fortunately we have Lae’zel to fill that role. We can speak with and dismiss the hireling, then return to camp. Now here is the spoilery part related to the Silver Sword. When speaking to Lae’zel, we will have the option to talk to her about it. This dialogue was intended for Act 3 of the game, so it probably won’t make sense, and can also lead to some pretty big spoilers. Because of that, We are best off avoiding that line of discussion for now. However, we can tell Lae’zel about the

encounter with Kith’rak Voss, and then get her back in the party and equip her with the Silver Sword, bringing her damage per attack up considerably. There is one last thing to account for this sequence skip of sorts. When we leave camp with Lae’zel, we do not want to speak with her as she will have a dialogue icon above her head. This is just about the silver sword, and we can turn it back to being an optional dialogue if we just return to camp, and then leave once more. Okay, with all of that out of the

way, we can loot the nearby flaming fists for some sellable loot. We will want to avoid going west for now, as that will trigger some story advancements that we are not yet ready for. Instead, we will fast travel to the Blighted Village, and move south-southeast. Here we will find Auntie Ethel arguing with two men. We can say “How about you all just calm down.” Followed by “Ethel, what did you do to their sister?” to earn some approval with Karlach. Following this, we will speak with Demir and Johl. If we ask for more information, we will

get several new dialogue options. If we say “Let me- I’ll bring Mayrina Home '' it will get us approval from Karlach, but disapproval from Lae’zel and Shadowheart. If we say “You’re on your own. I have enough problems.” we will get approval from both Lae’zel and Shadowheart. Likewise, if we have access to the Sorcerer-specific option, it can be followed by “Trust a more experienced soul. I’ll find your sister.” to get approval from Shadowheart and Lae’zel. Unfortunately, regardless of our choices, there is no saving these two brothers from their own recklessness. We will move southwest to activate

the fast travel point for this area. That being said, we won’t actually want to confront Auntie Ethel at her tea-house until after we reach level 5. A short distance in we can attempt a skill check to reveal the true nature of this apparent Paradise. Sorcerers will have the option to do an easier skill check, whereas non-arcane classes will have to settle for a DC20 investigation check. The best part about succeeding here is that we will get a pretty funny interaction up ahead and can gain some approval out of it. Upon success, we will see that

this is actually a swamp. Continuing west, we will run into some redcaps. We can speak with one and “Take a deep breath and say ‘BAA’.” to get some approval with Shadowheart and Karlach. We can actually repeat this interaction once more for even more approval. Moving further west, stay out of the water to avoid traps and the damage over time that results. If you do get hit by traps, use a healing potion to stop the bleeding. At this point my approval with Shadowheart is maxed out. Once our approval is maxed with a companion, we will no

longer be notified if and when they approve of our actions. In any case, we can go ahead and take out the Redcaps. If we position well and gain surprise, the Redcaps will hardly have time to do anything before we are able To clean them up with Karlach and Lae’zel. A little further west we will activate the Riverside Teahouse fast travel point, and discover evidence of Demir’s demise. We will come back here once we’ve gotten a little stronger, and I’ll take a moment here to stress that we must conserve resources so that we have some Ki

points on Karlach, 3 sorcery points, and Lae’zel’s Soulbreaker at that time, which will be before our next long rest. For now, let’s head east, while doing our best to avoid stepping in deep water, which is full of traps. After jumping across some stones, we should arrive at a decrepit druid sanctuary. We will want to save here, and it’s also a good idea to equip Karlach with the Ring of Flinging. Once again, we will want to get surprise on the enemies here. The Mud Mephits are the biggest and most annoying threats, as they can summon additional

Mephits. They also explode upon death, so we want to avoid melee if possible. Magic missile definitely comes in handy here, Helping us clean up the partially damaged and/or distant Mephits. Also, I’m planning on taking a short rest after this encounter, and so will be using resources that recharge on a short rest, such as Ki points, Superiority Dice, and Channel Divinity. After the encounter, we can take a short rest if needed, then loot one of the Wood Woads to get a magic shield. In addition, we can find the Sparkle Hands in the nearby chest. I prefer

to use these on Karlach over the Bracers of defense, as they further increase her already amazing damage potential. Finally, we can loot and read the Letter to Kagha stashed in a hidden Wooden Crevice, and this will progress the “Investigate Kagha” quest. Back at the grove, we can use a Potion of Animal Speaking and talk to Timber the squirrel for a fun interaction on our way to the grove’s sanctuary. Within the Sanctuary, we will confront Kagha with the evidence we found, triggering a cutscene. During this, we will want to say “Take this letter, Rath. It will

explain everything.” Afterwards, we will have one of 2 choices, so you may want to wait and watch this next part before doing anything. For one outcome, we can use either detect thoughts or persuasion to convince Kagha to mend her ways. If we do this, Kagha will fight with us against the Shadow Druids. If we make this choice, we can ultimately get the title or tag of Faithwarden, as well as the Pale Oak Rare Magic Staff. On the other hand, we can just fight Kagha, defeating her along with the Shadow Druids. This is the less noble

outcome, but we can get the Broodmother’s Revenge Necklace from Kagha, which is pretty good on martial characters, and will only get better in late game. HOWEVER, there is what I would call a secret 3rd outcome, where we get the Necklace, Staff, and title of Faithwarden. It will just cost us 200 gold if we are not already a druid. To do this, first we will need to convince Kagha to mend her ways, and fight the Shadow Druids. Following this, we will need to make sure Kagha dies during The combat encounter that ensues. Even if we are

the ones that deal the final blow to Kagah, at least at the time of making this video, the other friendly druids don’t seem to take notice or care. We can use a potion of speed to hasten the heavy hitters, making the task much easier. After Kagha is dead, we will want to loot the Broodmother’s Revenge necklace off of her during combat, then clean up the remaining enemies. Right after the fight, we will need to go to Withers and change the class of our main character or avatar to druid. Once we’ve done that, we can return

to the grove and speak with Rath. In Kagha’s absence, he will pronounce us Faithwarden and give us the Pale Oak Staff. Afterwards, we can return to Withers and change our class back from Druid, and reapply our buffs. Make sure to get back the same skill proficiencies that we had before the switch, and also raise the primary stat, in the case of a Sorcerer, Charisma, to +17. Trust me this will make sense later on. Before we leave the druid grove, we can report the news to Zevlor, then agree to eliminate the goblin Threat. We will be

rewarded with the Hellrider’s Pride gloves, which we can equip on Shadowheart. We can also go up the nearby ladder, meet Lakrisa, and make a bet concerning the Goblins. Speaking of Goblins, it’s about time we went to deal with them. After fast traveling to the Blighted Village, we will head west. Across the bridge, we will meet up with Sazza. If we allow her to run ahead of us, she’ll talk to the other goblins for us. As we turn north and head towards the Goblin Camp entrance, there will be a cutscene. Afterwards, we may need to defuse

tensions between Shadowheart and Lae’zel before heading into the Goblin Camp. Since we already have Shadowheart at max approval, we can bring in Astarion here to get some approval with him, but it’s not really necessary. There are several things we will want to do in the outer area of the Goblin Camp, before moving to the interior. To start, Grat the Trader actually has some pretty nice items, such as the Returning Pike, Swirsey Shoes, Boots of Aid and Comfort, and Gloves of Archery. For now, I am just going To sell him anything I wouldn’t be sad about

losing, with the plan to knock him out later. Next, we will send Karlach a short distance away, then check on Volo. Saying “Boo! Get off the stage!” will get us approval with Lae’zel and Astarion, but disapproval with Karlach if she’s nearby. We can leave behind Astarion and Lae’zel, then find a group of Gobin Children around a body up to the east. If we speak to the Goblin named “Eight” and ask him what the man did to deserve his treatment, we can follow it up with “Sorry for your loss.” to get some approval with Karlach. This

will get disapproval from both Astarion and Lae’zel if they are around. Afterwards, we can call everyone back and approach Crusher. To gain a nice amount of approval with everyone, we will say “I don’t just think so; it’s a fact.” followed by the intimidation check “How about you kiss my feet instead”, and finally “You better kiss my foot. Now.” We can also get a really good ring here. We will follow Crusher out to the entrance bridge of the camp. Once completely outside, we’ll hide and take him out with a couple of punches. We can get Crusher’s

Ring off the body, and this is actually one of the best rings for a martial class, as it gives an extra 10 feet of movement speed. Next, we’ll return near the fast travel point and make our way up the ladders to a grassy plateau. We’ll have to watch out for traps, but there is a locked chest we can open to get the Glowing Shield, which is pretty nice. We can then move northwest and dig up a chest, before entering hiding, and jump down a fair distance away from the sleeping bugbears. Speaking with Booyahg Piddle to

the south, we can get a funny interaction. Given that we are eventually going to eliminate everyone out here, we can start by having Karlach sneakily punch all the goblins and bugbears up here. Next, we will want to use a Potion of Animal Speaking if we haven’t already, Then go speak with Krolla near the camp’s entrance, eventually telling her “This is cruel. I won’t be part of it.” After that, we will want to speak with the Owlbear cub, telling it we have a camp where it can stay. We can then speak with Krolla again, and say

“I’m leaving - and the owlbear’s coming with me.” following this, we’ll need to succeed in an intimidation or persuasion check to guarantee the Owlbear’s safety. At this point, we’re going to go back to camp to swap Astarion out for Shadowheart. The goal here is to get some XP by wiping out the goblins in the camp’s exterior, get the headband of intellect from Lump, and get all our stuff back from the trader. All while conserving resources. To do that, we will have everyone but Lae’zel move to the top area of the ruins. We will make sure

Lae’zel has Lump’s Warhorn, along with plenty of mobility items equipped. Because she has the Alert feat, she should also be going first in combat. It’s a good idea to save here, then we can use Her githyanki psionics: jump, and, with non-lethal toggled on, we will knock the trader unconscious. At the start of combat, we can grab all our stuff off the trader, use Lump’s warhorn, then jump up to the elevated area behind the trader. At this point we can get into combat on our other characters. Karlach can do massive ranged damage by throwing the returning

pike at enemies below her. As combat goes on, we can get Lae’zel back to the rest of the group, and have her chip in with ranged bow attacks. We will eventually need to turn on Lump and the other Ogre’s part way through the combat. Once Lump is defeated, we can get the Headband of Intellect from him, and this will make Shadowheart’s firebolt cantrip more effective. Now we can enter the main temple, where Sazza will be waiting to introduce us. We will catch up with her later, but we have some other tasks that need tending to

first. First, we will go to the southwest corner and speak with Roah Moonglow. We can sell her a bunch of stuff to get gold and perhaps a set of Chain Mail +1 for Lae’zel. We will also want to grab another potion of invisibility and save it for later. Afterwards, we can go ahead and save, then knock the trader out, along with her fellow guards and the Goblin that patrols this area. We just need to make sure the Goblin doesn’t bang on the drum nearby, or we will be in a lot of trouble. Also, we really

want to make sure we don’t kill Roah Moonglow or her guards, as she can return later in the game. We can break down the door that the guards were in front of to get more explosive barrels, along with gold from a nearby chest. In the room to the north is the entrance to the Priestess Quarters. After defeating the Ogre standing guard, we can grab the Amulet of Misty step from a chest in the southern room, which we will want to save for a specific encounter before our next long rest. Down the path to the east

is a room with a puzzle. It can be solved by turning the Stone Discs so that all The dark circles are in the small circle of light on the southern disc. Solving the puzzle will open up a secret tunnel that leads to the Selunite outpost in the Underdark, which is pretty neat. We will be heading back to the underdark soon, but for now let’s finish up in the Goblin Camp. In the southeast corner of the shattered sanctum, we’ll find a prisoner being tortured. If we succeed in a high deception check, the guards will just leave.

Then, we can free and question the prisoner. A little further north, we’ll find Abdirak, and can engage in his services. We can get a great perk here if we put on a good show. We will let Abdirak know that we are curious, then face the wall. We can respond to the hits with either performance or intimidation checks. If we succeed on them all, we will get the Loviatar’s Love condition, which is permanent and provides bonuses at low health. After that, we can go find Volo one room over. We will just need to convince Gribbo to

leave, Then open Volo’s Cage. In exchange for freeing him, Volo is willing to join our camp. Moving to the back of the southernmost room, we can lockpick a door to the treasure chamber, where we’ll find several magic items, an infernal iron, and about 500 gold. To get a little more XP, we can save, go to the west room of the Sanctum, defeat the nearby goblins, and free Brakkal, a Goblin that hasn’t fallen for the absolute. We will just need to disarm the trap on the cage first. We can also go interact with Dror Ragzlin to

the northeast, but it isn’t necessary. If you do go for it, make sure to save beforehand, as the encounter can turn hostile. We will eventually make our way over to the northeast corner of the sanctum, leave Lae’zel a bit back, and speak to Minthara. To get the “She Cannot Be Caged!” achievement, we will need to save Sazza by saying “She’s telling the truth. She didn’t know.” This will gain approval from Karlach and disapproval from Lae’zel if she’s nearby. We will also get the Assassin’s Touch magic dagger. We will then want to move Karlach a fair

distance away, before telling Minthara “I’ll get it done.” Karlach will severely disapprove of this if she is nearby when we say this. The only reason we are doing this is to eventually get the “She Cannot Be Caged!” achievement, which means we can’t do anything to hurt Sazza. After Minthara leaves, we can hide and open the nearby Gilded Chest for The Watersparkers Boots. After reassuring Karlach that we have a plan to save the grove, we’ll head east into the Worg Pens. Here, we'll defeat the Goblins and free the Bear from the prison cell. We need to

make sure the Goblin kids don’t escape, as they will go alert the rest of the Goblin camp. The bear turns out to be Halsin, leader of the druid grove, and after the fight we can agree to rescue the grove. At this point we should be at level 5, and we get some major upgrades here. First, on sorcerer we should definitely learn the Haste spell. Using it with the twinned spell metamagic, we can buff up both Karlach and Lae’zel for big fights. This will be even better now that Karlach and Lae’zel are both getting the extra

attack feature. In addition, Monks get the stunning strike attack at level 5, which is great for boss fights. Lae’zel will also be getting misty step as a racial feature, and we will want to save this for a specific encounter before our next long rest. Finally, we are getting Spirit Guardians and Fireball on Shadowheart, both of which are incredible spells. Rescuing the grove will require a long rest first, so before doing that, let’s use the rest of our resources to go take care of Auntie Ethel. Just southwest of the Riverside Teahouse fast travel point is a

Gur named Gandrel. For now, we will make sure not to tell him where to find Astarion, which will gain some approval from Karlach. Further northwest is Auntie Ethel’s Teahouse. We can leave Lae’zel a short distance back, then speak with Auntie Ethel. Before we say anything to her, we can hit the trade option and buy another 3 Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength. We could get the Hag’s Eye here through specific dialogue choices, which is a permanent condition, but in my opinion the benefits are not worth the costs. So instead, we can refuse to apologize to Ethel,

then say “That’s Mayrina? I have some bad news for her.” and follow it up with “Auntie Ethel killed your brothers.” This will gain approval from Karlach and disapproval from Lae’zel if she’s nearby. Our goal here, as usual, is to gain the most benefits possible, as well as save everyone we can, and this will require fulfilling a specific set of circumstances. Once the fight starts, we will want to damage the hag until she is at low health, then let her live and escape down into her lair on her turn. After scavenging for useful potions, we will

follow the Hag into her lair. There is a gnarled wooden door within the first room. We will need to persuade the door to open for us, at which point it will be revealed as nothing more than an illusion that we can walk through. The overgrown tunnel has multiple enemies in it, but they are really just brainwashed victims. Because of that, we can group up and throw down a potion of invisibility to turn us all invisible. We can then sneak past them and jump through a waterfall to the west, quickly moving further in to avoid detection.

Next, we’ll have to navigate a gauntlet of traps. The easiest way I’ve found of doing this is to have everyone jump down to this first vine, group up, and then throw down a potion of featherfall, or cast it with a spell scroll. Either way, we can then have everyone jump down straight to the end of the traps, avoiding all of them. Once everyone is there, we can short rest if available and save the game. We are going for the best outcome here, and that will require some sneaky tactics. We will have Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Karlach

stay back and hidden. With just our main character, we will enter the heart of the lair to confront the Hag. In order for all Of this to work, we will need to be at the start of the turn order when combat begins. With a high dexterity and the Alert feat, that should be accomplished fairly consistently. Once that is done, we can save the game, then plan our next move. We will equip Karlach with the Amulet of Misty Step, and Lae’zel with the Silver Pendant. Keeping everyone hidden and separated, then position Shadowheart so that she is

close enough to cast guiding bolt on Auntie Ethel, but still a fair distance back. We will now try to stun Auntie Ethel with both Karlach and Lae’zel. A potion of invisibility to turn them both invisible will reduce the chance of needing to save-scum, but isn’t 100% necessary. Depending on where Auntie Ethel is looking, even misty step might not be necessary. Starting with Lae’zel, we’ll sneak around Auntie Ethel to get within close distance, using misty step if necessary. We can then use the Soulbreaker attack to enter combat and hit her with it, regardless of our turn

order. If that fails to stun the Hag, We can repeat the process with Karlach’s stunning strike. Once we’ve successfully stunned the hag, we can cast twinned haste on both Lae’zel and Karlach. Our goal here is to severely damage, but not kill, the hag. We will also want to move both Karlach and Lae’zel just a few steps away from the hag at the end of their turns. A bonus will be if we can also cast Guidance on our main character with Lae’zel. We want the hag to have around 20 HP or less at the start of

her next turn, but the closer to 0 health, the better. We will also want to make sure our main character is the closest one to the hag before her next turn. If the hag is damaged badly enough, she will try to bargain with us on her turn. The specific state we are trying to get to is where Shadowheart is not stuck in the conversation where the Hag is bargaining, and can instead act freely. We will want to save once we’ve gotten that set of circumstances, in case something goes wrong. Next, we will speak with the

Hag, starting with “What I want is Mayrina - alive and Free.” We will then want to pass the Intimidation check “If you want to live, hand over Mayrina and this power. Right now.” Succeeding on this check will get us approval from both Karlach and Lae’zel. Right after succeeding we will switch over to Shadowheart, quickly select the piece of Hag Hair that gives us our primary stat, for Sorcerer that is Charisma, and then eliminate Auntie Ethel with a guiding bolt. Once we’ve pulled off that crazy set of circumstances, we will definitely want to make a save,

and probably consume the Hag Hair on our main character.. Lae’zel may come on to us at this point if we speak with her, so long as we haven’t spent an evening with anyone else yet, and it is up to us if we want to engage or not. Doing this will close off any potential romance with Shadowheart, and possibly other companions, so it may be best to just not speak with Lae’zel for now, as we can always bring the subject up later. Speaking with Mayrina, we can question her decision-making, But kindness is always a good way

to go with these things. Mayrina will offer us her locket, and I am not sure if taking it is a good or bad thing, but it is not really useful as a piece of equipment or for selling, so I told Mayrina to keep it. Going through the wooden door to the north, there are several things we will want to grab, including a Potion of Speed, The Ever-Seeing Eye, Bitter Divorce, and Staff of Crones. There are also more useful potions in the nearby Wicker Chest. We can use the nearby mushroom circle to return to the surface,

and head a short distance north to join Mayrina at her husband’s coffin. If we tell Mayrina about the Bitter Divorce Wand, we can then point it at the coffin to bring him back. Giving Mayrina the wand will earn some approval with Karlach and finish up Mayrina’s quest in act one. We still have a couple loose ends to tie up here though. Returning to the Hag’s lair, we can speak with and free the few of her victims that are, for the most part, still mentally and physically intact. Those being Efrin the Dwarf, Lorin the Wood Elf,

and the Halfling known as “Mask of Regret”. We can speak with the other “Mask” NPCs, but unfortunately, they are all too far gone, and cannot be saved. We can now return to camp and speak with Volo. If we allow him to examine us, he will start working on a possible cure for the tadpole, and also give us the Blazer of Benevolence. If Gale has not already requested a 3rd magic item, he should at this point, and I am going to give him the Spiderstep boots, which we won’t have any more use for. Again, we will

say “Go on. You’re among friends.” to earn some approval, and then eventually say we will continue on together. We’re finally ready to first equip the Silver Pendant, then take a long rest. After a cutscene, we must pass either a persuasion or medicine check with Lae’zel in order to keep everyone alive, and this is where that Silver Pendant comes in handy, allowing us to cast Guidance. This will be followed by another fairly important sequence, which I won’t spoil, But play it however you want, there are no wrong choices to be made. And here’s a quick warning

to wait on morning preparations after the long rest. The next morning we can speak with Volo to get a useful upgrade. Doing so will result in disapproval from Lae’zel, Karlach, and Astarion, however. Fortunately, we can avoid that disapproval by getting them all in the party and having them leave camp while we undergo Volo’s operation. At the end of it, we will get Volo’s Ersatz Eye, which will slightly alter our appearance, and permanently grant us See Invisibility, which is extremely useful. What we do next depends on how we want to handle companion romance, and which companions

we want to romance. This will require a bit of spoilers, but I think the tradeoff is worth it. At the Tiefling Party, which will occur after we defend the grove, Wyll is the only companion that we can initiate a romance with and then still initiate a romance with a second companion. If we want to maintain a romance between any other two characters going into Act 2, Such as Karlach and Shadowheart, it would be necessary to initiate a romance with both before defending the druid grove from the Goblin Raid. That being said, if we want to

have the option of romancing any of our companions during the Tiefling Party, and again, we can only pick one and get permanently closed off from romancing any other companions (besides Wyll), then we must avoid initiating a romance with any companions before defending the druid grove. For the purpose of this guide series, I am going to assume that most people will want to maintain a romance with both Karlach and Shadowheart. To that end, let’s cover the remaining Long Rests we will need to complete before returning to the Druid Grove. We will also want the Silver Pendant

equipped for these long rests. For the first of these Long Rests, which should center around Wyll and Karlach, we will want to say “Just who in the Nine Hells are you?”. We can then say “You better not lay a damned finger on Karlach.” to get approval from any nearby companions. After Mizora leaves, we can speak to Karlach and say “He’s a good man. Maybe the best of us.” to get more approval if it isn’t already maxed. We can also speak to Wyll, eventually telling him “You should get out of this pact.” and “We can beat

her, if we put our worms together.” to gain a good amount of approval. Finally, we can explore any remaining dialogue options with Wyll, being either neutral or flattering, to get even more approval. If you’ve been following this walkthrough closely, approval with Wyll should be nearly maxed out, despite being stuck at camp the entire time. When we go to bed, there will be another encounter with the Dream Visitor. This encounter may play out slightly differently depending on if we’ve opened ourselves up to any Mind Flayer Parasites. The next morning, we can speak with our companions about

the dream visitor. With Lae’zel, we can say “I distrust the visitor, too…” for more approval from her. The next Long Rest will start uneventfully, but there will be an encounter with Astarion once we go to bed. To get the “Just a Nibble” achievement here, we will need to start by saying “Why didn’t you tell me?” followed by “I do. I believe you.” and then “Fine. But not a drop more than you need.” All of this will get us approval. In order to avoid dying, we will need to pass an easy persuasion or less easy strength

check. We can speak with Astarion the next morning and learn more about his condition. If you want to romance just a single Companion, or if you specifically want to romance Wyll, then don’t take any more Long Rests before defending the Druid Grove. If you do want to romance any other two companions, such as Shadowheart and Karlack, make sure to initiate a romance with whoever your second romance choice is through dialogue before the next Long Rest. With Shadowheart, that dialogue option is “I can’t help but feel you and I might have missed a chance to connect.”

followed by “I’d like that. Just lead the way.” If you have questions on how to romance another companion, feel free to ask in the comments, and I will do my best to help. After doing that, the next one or two Long Rests should be when the Act 1 romance scenes with Karlach and Shadowheart (or another compatible companion) occur. Around this time, if we’re romancing Karlach, we can say “I’d like to try cooling you down somehow…” then hit her with a Ray of Frost to get a small additional romance scene. We can also speak with any

other companion we romanced about the time spent together. Also around this time, Scratch will bring us a ball. Passing one of the skill checks will get us the ball. We can then throw it for Scratch to earn the “Fetch Quest” achievement. If you are avoiding any Romance before defending the Druid Grove, then this will occur after the Tiefling Party or one of the Long Rests thereafter. At this point, we will go ahead and defend the Druid Grove. As far as preparing for the day, This is going to be a pretty short one, only lasting for

the battle at the grove. Because of that, I will only be using one Elixir of Hill Giant Strength on Karlach, and will not be using another on Lae’zel, nor will I be using a Soul Coin on Karlach. We can also bring a few barrels of explosives with us. Upon leaving camp, Shadowheart will want to share an important memory with us via tadpole connection. A successful passive religion check will result in additional information regarding the memory, but it is not critical that we succeed. Saying “Thank you for sharing that with me.” will earn us more approval,

if it isn’t already maxed out. Arriving at the druid grove, we can warn Zevlor of the impending Goblin raid, and we will want to make sure we side with Zevlor. We can plan for the attack by planting Oil Barrels and perhaps even a few Smokepowder barrels at specific locations. It is in our best interest to save some smokepowder barrels for future use, although we should have plenty stocked up at this point. Arka is in the biggest danger here, so we will want to prepare Sanctuary on Shadowheart, and position her next to Arka. We can save,

then interact with the War Horn. When speaking to Minthara, we will say “No. This grove is under my protection.” We will want to start the battle by setting off as many explosive barrels as possible, as well as having Shadowheart cast Sanctuary on Arka, to prevent her from being killed by one of the spiders. After that, we can use everything we have to clean up the remaining attackers. Once the goblin raiding party has been wiped out, Zevlor will give a speech and Halsin will return. Halsin will speak to us, and we can inform Halsin of Kagha’s

death, and plan for what comes next. Also, at this point we can’t go back to the Goblin Camp, as Sazza will be there and also hostile. For her associated achievement, we need to make sure she stays alive. We’ll make sure to loot everything off of Minthara, then go to the grove’s Sanctuary for our reward. Rath will give us the Rune of the Wolf when spoken to, and we can go to the northern chambers to use it. We can also grab the Mindflayer Parasite Specimen while here and decide whether to open our mind to it, which

will allow us to start upgrading our Illithid powers. Some of our companions will definitely disapprove of it, and we can always do it later. Back to the issue at hand, we can insert the Rune of the Wolf into the empty socket, then activate all four runes to reveal a staircase to a hidden vault. Within the vault we will find the Robe of Summer, Sorrow, a rare magic glaive, and other useful supplies. Once we’re ready for the tiefling party, we can take our long rest. This is where anyone that did not initiate any companion romance up

to this point can make all romance options for Act 1 available. To do this, we will need to speak with our companions in a specific order, Picking specific dialogue options, and equipping the Silver Pendant is a good idea too. We will need to start by speaking with Wyll, first saying “Are you all right?”, followed by “We have won this day! Danger is for tomorrow.” and then “I want to dance with you.” This will earn us some approval. Following this, we need to pass a Persuasion check with Wyll in order to initiate a romance with him.

Next, we will speak with Gale, and start by saying “I’m sure you’re welcome.” followed by “I like the sound of ‘magical.’ What do you have planned?”. We can then go to Lae’zel and say “You might still persuade me to share the night with you instead.” Karlach is up next, and we will say “I’d really like that.” Astarion is the second to last, and we’ll have to start with “It’s not that bad. Think of all the goblins you killed.” Following that, we will “Take his bottle and try the wine.” and then say “Knowing you, it probably

is.” To earn some approval we can say “Maybe. If you say ‘please’” We will then need to pass a persuasion check, and respond with “Good boy!...” Last but not least, we can speak with Shadowheart, and start with “Refugees?” followed by “Are you worried Shar won’t approve?” then “I’d be glad to.” and “Maybe those plans could change, for the right person…” and finally “I’ll find you later, once the camp’s asleep.” If you want to have all act 1 romance scenes available on a single save file, you can create a manual save here and label it accordingly.

We can then speak with all the other people at camp if we want. Once we decide to go to bed, we will get to pick who it is that we want to spend the night with. For the purposes of this guide series and getting all achievements, we will be picking Karlach. The only choices we need to stay away from during the romance scene are those that imply we are not romantically interested in Karlach. Besides those, we can play it however we want. For those of us that already initiated companion romances before defending the Druid Grove,

we’ll be given the option to think about any of the characters we are Successfully maintaining a romantic relationship with. After the long rest, Halsin will speak to us, helping us plan our next steps. Saying “I never thought I’d say this, but it sounds like the Underdark is the safer route.” will get us approval with Shadowheart if it isn’t already maxed out. We can then agree to Halsin joining the camp, which is necessary for a major quest down the road. Before moving on let’s go ahead and cover the remaining Long Rests in Act 1 for story

and achievement purposes, so that we can then take Long Rests whenever needed for resources, without worrying about missing something important. The next long rest will feature an altercation between Shadowheart and Lae’zel. We will need to succeed on a persuasion check with Shadowheart, or else Lae’zel will be permanently lost as a companion. The morning after, we can speak with both Shadowheart and Lae’zel about the commotion, but they should start getting along better at this point. At the next long rest, we will be approached by the Owlbear Cub when we go to bed. We will first need

to succeed on an Animal Handling check, and saving is recommended. Then, we can fetch a piece of food and toss it to the owlbear. This will get us approval with our nearby companions. The cub will run away, but don’t worry, that’s normal. Moving on to the penultimate Long Rest, the owlbear cub will return once more, and this time we can perform either a survival or medicine check to heal it. Success here will guarantee that the Owlbear cub joins the camp. Just one more left. After going to bed for this final Long Rest, we’ll be awakened

by a sound, which we will need to hurry towards. After calling out to the two pets, we can perform an animal handling check to learn about their budding friendship. We can then pet Scratch, and following this, pet the Owlbear Cub. Doing so will unlock the “You Have Two Hands for a Reason” achievement. The next morning, Scratch will bring us a bone if he hasn’t already, and he will Start bringing us more things every so often. At this point, we should also get the Find Familiar: Scratch spell. Which can summon Scratch once per short rest as

a companion with a talent for finding secrets. And don’t worry, if Scratch is defeated in combat, he won’t actually die, and can be resummoned after a short rest. With that all taken care of, we can go ahead and prepare for the day, then fast travel to the Myconid Colony in the Underdark. The first thing we’ll do is speak with Blurg. We can start with “I’ve never heard of the Society of Brilliance.” and follow it with “A mind flayer infected me with a tadpole.” then explain the whole story. At this point we’ll be introduced to a

new NPC by the name of Omeluum. If we speak peacefully with Omeluum, they will eventually give us a quest. While here, we can also check if Blurg has any Hill Giant Fingers, which can be used to make more elixirs of Hill Giant Strength. Moving southwest, Sovereign Glut will ask if they can join us on our quest to defeat the Duergar invaders. We can speak with Derryth Bonecloak, and agree to help find her husband Baelen. She sells some useful items that we will want, such as the Caustic Band, Ring of Jumping, and any Elixirs of Giant

Strength. Moving on, we can find Baelen to the west. There will be some bibberbangs along the way, and a combination of firebolt and ray of frost can deal with the obstacle quickly. We will want to avoid destroying any of the bibberbangs down the vines and to the north, however, as Baelen is stuck right in the middle of them. He will warn us as we approach, and we can send Karlach to get his pack. We can jump up on the rocks jutting out from the western wall to avoid the bibberbangs, then jump directly where Baelen’s pack

is. All that is left to do is to throw it near him, then retrace our steps back to safety. While here, we can also get the rare and valuable Noblestalk Mushroom, Of which there is only one in the entire Underdark. The single noblestalk is sitting near the northeast cave wall. We can enter turn-based mode, use the Jump spell on Karlach, and use Step of the Wind: Dash on Karlach to make reaching the Noblestalk without setting off any Bibberbangs far easier. We will discuss who the Noblestalk can be given to later in this video, and the

consequences of each choice. So, for now, we do not want to give it to anyone. We can speak with Baelen for a small reward, then group back up and return south. Moving southwest we’ll need to defeat several Hook Horrors, and getting the jump on them is definitely recommended, and I cannot emphasize enough how powerful Karlach is with the Returning Pike here. There is also a mad drow by the name of Filro, and we will need to defeat him. He will drop a scribbled note referring to the Adamantine Forge, as well as an Ice Crystal, which

is a crafting component for a very rare magic staff. Running along the bark to the northeast we can take a piece of Sussar Tree Bark. We will find a tombstone to the south, but we should leave it alone for the time being, at least if we want to get a unique and hidden interaction later on. Moving northeast we can look over the beach where the Duergar attacked. We will leave Karlach up here to provide cover with her returning pike, while we move the rest of the party towards the beach. We will be confronted by Gekh

Coal at the beach. We can convince him that we are an ally, and even show him that we have the boots he is looking for. We can then clear the area and have Karlach dispatch Gekh from a safe distance with the Returning Pike, using a potion of speed if necessary. At this point, we can have the rest of the party move in to help damage, reveal, and push the remaining duergar into the open where Karlach can hit them. Gekh drops the Exterminator Axe when defeated. After Sovereign Glut sees that the Duergar are all gone, he

will ask us to help defeat the current Ruling Sovereign back at the Myconid colony. Instead of that, I put an end to Sovereign Glut. After grouping back up, we’ll head down to the beach, activate the fast travel point, then continue moving southeast. After jumping a small gap, we will go up the staircase to the southwest. This area is under protection by arcane turrets, but we can lower these defenses by activating the power generator on the bottom floor. As a Monk, Karlach is the best choice for this task. We can separate her from the group and

hide. Entering turn-based mode, we’ll Dash, then use Step of the Wind: Dash. This will allow us to jump a total of 15 times in a single turn, which we can use to move south, past all of the arcane turrets. We can then hop along the giant mushrooms to the west, eventually reaching the lower garden area of the Arcane Tower. We will want to grab a Sussur Bloom from under the nearby tree, then enter the Arcane Tower. We can insert the Sussar Blossom into the Power generator to activate the arcane elevator and lower the tower's defenses.

At this point, we can bring the rest of the party into the tower, through an open window near the main entrance. We will descend two floors on the elevator to meet back up with Karlach. On this bottom level, there is a chest containing the Uncovered Mysteries rare magic necklace. Also, be sure to check the barrels and crates in this tower, as they can contain useful potions. The rows of books on bookshelves can also contain spell scrolls. Ascending one floor, we will find the mushrooms we need for Omeluum’s quest. The Timaask Spores in the northwest corner

of the room, and the Tongues of Madness in the southeast. There is also a threadbare book on a shelf along the west wall that we must read, it should say “How can I trust? How will I ever know?” This is the first of several command phrases that we will want our character to read before going to the top floor. Ascending another floor, we will be back on the entrance level, where we can loot the Crates for potions or ingredients. There is the “Evil’s Ascent” book sitting on a stand in the northeast corner, and it will

give us another command phrase when read. In addition, there is the Chest of the Mundane sitting on the northern balcony. The contents appear to be mundane things, but are actually revealed to be magical when looted. This includes the Mystra’s Grace boots, which will allow us to cast Feather Fall at will. The Chest of the Mundane is certainly an interesting enough item to be sent back to camp. Going to the next floor up, we’ll find the Mage’s Friend in a bedside chest, a useful Magic Ring for certain skill checks. This tower also contains many unique books,

all of which will contribute to the “Bookworm” achievement. There are several other tasks for us on this floor. On a table near the elevator is a Torn-Out Paper, containing another command phrase. Right next to it is a githyanki text cipher, which we will want to both read and pick up. In the southeast corner we will want to read the “To the Grey” page on the ground, “The Roads to Darkness” and the Handwritten Letter on the table, as well as the Engraved Githyanki Disc up on the shelf. Upon reading it, Lae’zel will speak to us, and

we should convince her to tell us what it says, and then to consider what it could mean if true. After this, we will want to save the game, just in case we missed something, then take the elevator to the top floor. When spoken to by Bernard, we should recognize the stanza and reply with ‘Or art thou friend, a rescue from my lonely wake?’. Be careful when reading command phrases to Bernard, as the wrong one can turn him hostile. The phrase beginning with “The silence stretches on…” will have Bernard give us a hug. The phrase beginning

with “How can I trust?...” will have Bernard give us the Guiding Light Ring. The final phrase is one we probably shouldn’t speak. “There is a light in every living thing.” will turn Bernard and the nearby sets of animated armor hostile. Bernard drops a unique magic halberd, Light of Creation, when defeated, but we don’t actually have to defeat or make Bernard permanently hostile to get the halberd. Instead, we can first equip Shadowheart with the Guiding Light Ring. This will reveal a button on the elevator that takes us to the basement level. Once the whole group is

there, we can ungroup Shadowheart and return to the top floor alone. After saving the game, we can use Command: Drop on Bernard. It has a good chance of succeeding, which will result in the Light of Creation halberd being dropped. We can then pick it up, which will cause everyone to become temporarily hostile. However, we will simply disengage and return to the basement, fleeing from combat if necessary. In my case, this just ended the combat and returned Bernard and the others to neutral status. Within the basement we will find more books and spell scrolls, along with

some Basilisk Oil, which we will want to save for later. There is also The Sparkswall magic ring In a gilded chest and the Staff of Arcane Blessing leaning against a shelf nearby, which is great on Shadowheart and really buffs the power of her Bless spell. Next, we’ll fast travel to the Selunite Outpost, then exit through the window to the west. We will want any characters without the Alert Feat, such as Karlach, to stay back and in hiding here, as there is an unavoidable ambush to the southwest. Quickly saving, we can head further west, springing the

trap. After a short cutscene, we will face off with a Spectator. This is another boss that we really want to stun before it gets its own turn. That is because the Spectator will call in reinforcements at the first opportunity. Upon defeat, the Spectator will drop the very rare Spectator Eyes necklace. At this point, we can throw a basilisk oil onto the nearby petrified drow with 20 HP to free him. He is very likely to turn hostile in any exchanges that follow, and that suits us just fine. Upon defeat, he will drop The Blast Pendant necklace,

Memory Shard, and Icy Helve. The Icy Helve is the second Component we’ve gotten now for the Icy weapon, and we will be getting the final piece very soon. One last thing, down to the northwest, past several clouds of noxious fumes, we can burn through some webs and lockpick a chest to get some Drow Studded Leather Armour. To complete the masterwork weapon quest, we will want to make sure we have a regular greatsword on hand, then fast travel to the Blighted Village. Going to the blacksmith's forge, we can activate the Melting Furnace, then stoke the flames

with the Bellows. We will next need to insert the Sussar Bark into the furnace, and follow it with a dagger, sickle, or greatsword. After a cutscene, we will get the completed Sussar weapon, as well as some experience for completing the quest. For a bit of an easter egg, if we read the Handwritten Note at the Arcane Tower, we can actually return to the tombstone just south of the Sussar Tree fast travel point for a new interaction. If we have some Autumncrocus we can place it near the tombstone in memory of Lenore’s best dog. To my

knowledge, that is the majority of important things to do in this section of the Underdark. We won’t want to speak with anyone back at the Myconid Colony until just after a long rest, but feel free to explore anywhere else you’d like, then take a long rest to get back resources. Given that we already long-rested through all major events, we shouldn’t have anything new to do. After the long rest we can return to the Myconid Colony and speak with Sovereign Spaw, we want to choose the specific dialogue choice “The duergar are slain; the rot has been

purged.” as this will give us a very useful buff. We can also accept the Sovereign’s request for us to go deal with a Drow named Nere. Take note of the Bliss Spores, which will add 1d6 to basically any d20 rolls we make before our next long rest, which is great. Next, we’ll want to equip both the Headband of Intellect, and the Mage’s Friend Ring. We will then go speak with Omeluum, letting them know we found the mushrooms they were Looking for. Drinking the potion, we will need to make a series of saving throws, and Shadowheart

can help out here with the Resistance Cantrip. Succeeding all the saving throws will negate any negative effects, and instead will result in the unlocking of a new mind flayer power. It is called Survival Instinct and can be used once per short rest to protect a creature against being knocked unconscious for 3 turns. Because of the failure, Omeluum will consider giving us a Ring of Mind-Shielding, but requires some convincing. To peacefully gain the ring, we can say “How about I tell you more about that nautiloid? Every last detail.” and must follow it by succeeding in either

a performance or intelligence skill check. After that, we will be able to purchase some useful magic items from Omeluum, including a Pearl of Power Amulet, Boots of Stormy Clamour, and Ring of Salving. To the west, we can speak with Derryth to get the Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo, and we will also Need to decide who to give the Noblestalk Mushroom to. Giving it to Baelen will return him to his old abusive self, so we probably don’t want to do that. Giving the Noblestalk to Shadowheart will help her memories begin returning, and open up the possibility of

some further story developments for her later on. Giving the Noblestalk to Derryth will earn her gratitude, and she will be able to sell 3 more Noblestalks when we meet her in Act 3. From what I have seen, if we give Derryth the Noblestalk in Act 1, it is likely that we will not be able to give Shadowheart one of the new Noblestalks we are able to purchase from Derryth in Act 3. Because of that, the best option for anyone interested in Shadowheart’s story would be to give it to her instead of Derryth. That being said,

at the time of making this video, there is a trick that we can do to give it to both Shadowheart and Derryth. Check the pinned comment as I will update it if this bug gets patched, and in that case I would suggest giving the lone Noblestalk to Shadowheart if you really care about her storyline, or Derryth if you really want her shop to be fully functional in Act 3. In any case, the way we can do this is by speaking with Shadowheart while we have the Noblestalk in our inventory. We can then say “You should

eat the noblestalk, Shadowheart - perhaps it could restore your memories.” Before saying anything else, we can switch control to one of our other companions, and send the Noblestalk back to camp. Right after, we will switch back to our MC and pick either the Persuasion or Intimidation check. Upon success, Shadowheart will act as if she ate the Noblestalk and update her quest accordingly. We can then go back to our camp and grab the Noblestalk from our stash. A good way of checking if the exploit still works is by speaking with Shadowheart. If everything worked out, we

should not have the option of telling her to eat the Noblestalk. At that point, we can give the Noblestalk to Derryth. Be warned, if we pickpocket the Noblestalk back out of her inventory, it will be as if we never gave it to her at all. Within the now-opened cave to our immediate north, we’ll find a drow Body. The final component of the craftable weapon, Icy Metal, can be looted off the body, along with a book on Flumph Mating Rituals. An investigation check will reveal the true, coded contents of the book. Combining the 3 Icy components

will craft the very rare magic staff, Mourning Frost. It can be nice on Shadowheart to give her the Ray of Frost cantrip, but I’m not sure it beats the benefits provided by the Staff of Arcane Blessing. We’ll be sure to loot everything else in this cave, including the Rare Magic hood, Shadow of Menzoberranzan, then fast travel to the Underdark - Beach. There, we’ll want to save, then take the Underdark Duergar Boat across the lake. We will be intercepted by another boat full of Duergar, and can use the information we got from Gekh to pass without

incident. Upon our arrival to the Grymforge, we can pretend to be true-souls, and decline the request for gold that follows. I also want to give a warning, that upon our arrival here, we will be on a timer of sorts To free True Soul Nere. We will need to free and deal with him before leaving this area or taking a long rest, otherwise he could die, which will result in the Deep Gnome slaves being lost. Once free to move around, we go to an elevated spot a short distance south, enter turn-based mode, then cast a spell

like summon familiar: scratch or any other leveled spell. As a Storm Sorcerer, this will allow us to use tempestuous magic: flight to fly up to the elevated ledge nearby. You may need to use Tactical Camera, which can be toggled with the O key, to be able to see the ledge and fly to it. Up here, we’ll find an Idol of Shar, along with a chest containing The Protecty Sparkswall rare magic robes. It is very good and thematically fitting for a Storm Sorcerer, and pairs exceptionally well with The Spellsparkler staff. We can fast travel to Grymforge

to get back down, and give the Idol of Shar to Shadowheart for some unique dialogue, along with a massive boost in approval if it’s not already maxed. Next, we can equip the Headband of Intellect, then speak with Stonemason Kith to the north. If we agree to help him, then pass all 3 of the following skill checks, he will give us a free piece of Infernal alloy, which I believe is similar to infernal iron. We can also trade with Kith, and he occasionally has useful stuff on offer. Moving further north, we can loot Dark Justiciar skeletons

for some unique items, also triggering an interaction with Shadowheart. Avoid saying they are better off dead if you want to avoid some major disapproval. Further north, we’ll find Herdmaster Skarjall. We can agree to help him get the Rothes working, then, after succeeding in an animal handling check, encourage the Rothes to turn on the Dwarves. While they have sellable loot, none of the dwarves have anything unique, so pushing them off the edge is a completely valid strategy. We will just need to be careful not to end up on the receiving end of that tactic. Afterwards, we

can interact with the Rothe and have them destroy the rubble. This path leads to the Adamantine Forge, which we will go to after dealing with Nere. For now, If we back track a short distance, then move out west, we’ll come to a ledge overlooking 3 chests. These are all mimics, and we can use the Returning Pike on Karlach to make short work of them from this vantage point. We will just want to step back from the ledge before ending our turn, to avoid getting lashed by any of the mimics. If they end up hiding behind

walls, magic missile can be used to clean them up. There is also a locked and trapped chest to the north, across a gap, and it contains the Real Sparky Sparkswall Shield. We can then circle around to the south to safely reach that area. One of the mimics will contain the Wondrous Gloves. We can then interact with a toy chest at the bottom of this area to reveal a trapped chest that we will want to equip the Gloves of Thievery to disarm. The chest will contain a Scroll of Evidence, which contains some interesting information. Moving a

short distance east of the fast travel point, then turning north, we can speak with the dwarves near a bunch of gnome bodies. We can then perform a couple skill checks to get the Fetish of Callarduran Smoothhands, a magic ring without setting off any alarms. Next, we can unlock the door to the east and click the button in the northeast corner, opening a secret passage. Walking into the next room, we’ll be ambushed by several Ochre Jellies. While easy to hit, they are fairly tanky and can hit hard. It is best to take them down one at

a time, then retreat to cover to avoid their attacks. After the fight, we can move up to the northeast, and make use of that rare ring we just got. Before entering the contemplation chamber, we will ungroup from the party, equip the ring, turn ourselves invisible, then sneak up and around the Gnome named Philomeen to steal the Runepowder Barrel. Philomeen will be left with no other option than to let us have it. After a short conversation, she should leave without further incident. This Runepowder Barrel is basically a Nuke, and could come in handy at some point.

But for now I’ll just send it back to camp. South of the fast travel point we can speak with Elder Brithvar. We will need to make sure we move close to him before initiating a conversation, or else he may bug out and refuse to speak with us. We can use a combination of deception and persuasion checks to form an alliance against True Soul Nere. Brithvar will ask us to eliminate the scrying eye, but as far as I can tell this is unnecessary. Further south we can speak with Sergeant Thrinn and give her the Boots of

Speed, don’t worry, we will be getting these back in a moment. We can then either get the Bracing Band or Armor of the Uninhibited Kushigo. Neither are particularly good, but I went with the armor given that it is part of a set. Next, we will ungroup one character from the party, and have them go to camp alone to grab a smokepowder barrel. We will place it Near the rubble, short rest if needed, save, and blow it up. After blowing open the rubble, Nere will emerge. We will tell him to stop killing the gnomes, then say

“That’s your cue, Brithvar. It’s time you got paid.” and side with Brithvar. At the start of combat we can cast twin haste on Karlach and Lae’zel to help them take down threats faster. We will want to prioritize defeating or stunning the Mind Masters, as they can dominate our characters, which is really detrimental. Nere takes priority if he is going before Karlach in the turn order. With haste and action surge, Lae’zel should be able to take him down in a single turn. Also, don’t stand near the lava or other edges, as that is a good way

for us to get instant killed. After the first fight, Brithvar will try to extort us. We can either do some skill checks for a fair deal and the freedom of the gnomes, Or we can just attack him. Given that he and his fellow rebels have some unique magic items, I went with the latter. There is also no need to wait until after the initial bout ends to do this, we can just start attacking them once Nere’s forces are almost entirely defeated. Once all fighting has ceased, we can speak with Barcus Wroot, and convince him to

rest at our camp. We can also speak with Beldron to witness a happy reunion, and agree to free Wulbren from Moonrise Towers. There are a ton of magic items scattered across the bodies, including the Bow of the Banshee, Jorgoral’s Greatsword, Shining Staver-of-Skulls, Cap of Wrath, Deep Delver, Ring of Absolute Force, Boots of Speed, Nere’s Head, Sword of Screams, and the Disintegrating Night Walkers, which are a great mobility item. There is also a Broken Moonlantern, which we can investigate for information, but is otherwise unimportant to succeed in. We can also cross the chamber to the southwest

and go out the Doors on the other side to catch a glimpse of a future destination. East of the fast travel point, we will need to defeat some remaining Duergar, then speak with Skickpit and tell him to join the others at the dig site. If you want to fully explore the long route to the adamantine forge, return to the path that was opened by the Rothes, north of the fast travel point. But I am going to simplify this section by having Karlach go solo to grab the bare essentials. Starting at the dig site, we can

cross a beam over a stream of magma, then jump east up to an elevated area. From there, we can jump north up to an even higher area, and continue moving north until reaching a pair of iron doors. After picking the lock, we can move to the back of this room and loot a Shield Mould off the skeleton there. If we go through the locked doors to the south we will trigger a combat encounter that I personally prefer to avoid. In any case, we can return south, use the feather fall boots, then jump back down to

where we came From. We’ll grab the Splint Mould, then head south west to activate the fast travel point here. Only two pieces of gear can be made from the Adamantine Forge, and I will be getting a shield and the Splint armor. Given that, we just need to get some mithral to make the armor with. For that, we will start by heading southwest, and dispatching the sets of animated armor. By the way, I am a huge fan of chucking them into the lava below. Afterwards, we can send one character to harvest the mithral vein located west

of the lava Karlach can make use of the featherfall boots again here, jumping south down to the ruins in the middle of a lava lake, where an adamantine chest is located. Once we crack the DC20 lock we will be rewarded with a Magic and Sentient Amulet that has specific benefits for Monks. We can fight the roaming Lava Elementa if we want, but it doesn’t drop anything unique, and we’ve got some tough fights ahead. Next, we can save, then regroup at the fast travel point and head down the central staircase towards The forge. Half way down

there is a path leading northeast to a second Mithral vein. We will want to be careful as there is an ambush here. It’s a good idea to send one character with the Alert feat in while everyone else hangs back. Once the ambushers emerge, we can have the rest of the party join the fray. The mephits explode, so we will want to stick to ranged attacks when possible. Also, some will use the heat metal spell against us, which can make us drop our weapons. Because of that, we’ll want to make sure we don’t leave our legendary

sword behind. After the fight, we can harvest the mithral, and we should also be getting to level 6 right about now. At this level, storm Sorcerers get access to several spells for free, including Thunderwave. Because of this, we can switch out Thunderwave as a learned spell for something else, such as counterspell. We also learn one additional spell of our choice, as usual, and Lightning Bolt is always nice to have on hand. Shadowheart will gain an additional channel divinity charge, as well as Improved Warding Flare. As a monk, Karlach gets a huge upgrade at level 6.

Unarmed attacks are now considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances, and we can toggle passives that add additional necrotic, psychic, or radiant damage to each punch. We also get wholeness of body, which we can use once per short rest to really crank up our damage potential. Fighters like Lae’zel gain an extra feat at level 6, and we’ll be taking Great Weapon Master, or Alert, whichever one we don’t already have. To prepare for the upcoming boss fight, and to get the “A Grym Fate” achievement, we will want to equip Lae’zel with a two-handed Blunt Weapon,

and the Hammarhraft is a good choice. Next, we’ll move everyone down to the Forge. We can insert the Splint Mould into the Mould Chamber, then put a piece of Mithral Ore in the crucible. Once everyone is a safe distance back, We can pull the Forge Lever. Because the crucible is cold, the only effect this will have is to lower the platform. We definitely want to wait on opening the lava valve until we are ready for a fight, and positioning is really important here. Lae’zel and Karlach should be positioned up on the platform near the lava

tube. Shadowheart can stand near the valve. And we will want to move to a position as far away as possible on our sorcerer. Before doing that, we can enter turn-based mode and cast twin haste on both Karlach and Lae’zel. In addition, Shadowheart can give everyone the upgraded bless thanks to her staff. Once that is done, we will position our sorcerer far from Karlach and Lae’zel, near the Forge Lever, then pass one turn. At this point, we will save the game in case things go catastrophically wrong. Finally, we can use Wholeness of Body on Karlach, then

direct Shadowheart to open the valve and start the fight. To begin, we can use two Flurry of Blows: Topple on the Grym, to hopefully knock it prone. It is immune to stun, so stunning strikes are wasted on it. Assuming it is knocked prone, we will proceed to hit the Grym as many times as possible. We need to defeat it without the use of the Forge Hammer in order to get the associated achievement. To that end, we will next hit the Grym with Lae’zel. We can toggle on the All In passive to deal more damage, but

it will lower our chance to hit. This can be compensated for by using something like an oil of accuracy, as well as the Precision Attack maneuver. If we do this all correctly and most or all of our attacks hit, we can defeat the Grym before it even has a chance to act and make our lives miserable. It drops the Very Rare Grymskull Helm when defeated, which is great on Lae’zel. In addition, we can have Shadowheart open the lava valve back up, then pull the Forge Lever with another character. This will craft a specific item depending

on what mould we used. In our case, it was the Splint armor. The Adamantine Splint armor is very rare heavy armor, and an incredible upgrade for Lae’zel. We can make one more piece of Adamantine gear, and while the Medium Scale armor is certainly good, I actually prefer the Luminous armor on Shadowheart. So I will instead be making an Adamantine Shield for Shadowheart to use. We can pull the mould ejection lever, insert the desired mould, put a piece of mithral in the crucible, then repeat the smithing process. At this point we can return to the Myconid

Colony and report our success to both Thulla and the Sovereign. We will be rewarded with the Envoy’s Amulet. We will also get the title of Kin Spirit if we tell the Sovereign that we’ve defeated Sovereign Glut, though I am not entirely sure what that does. We can go ahead and take another long rest. There, we can speak with Barcus Wroot, and assure him that we will both rescue his friend Wulbren, and stop the destructive plot of the Ironhand Gnomes. Our next major destination is The Mountain Pass, but there is a somewhat hidden location In the

Underdark that was previously overlooked, so let’s go there first. We will start at the Underdark - Beach fast travel point and head south to the Torchstalk field, near the Arcane Tower. Heading east across the field, we can spot a climbable cragged rock across a small chasm. We will want to destroy the torchstalk sitting near the cragged rock, then jump across and head on down to the Festering Cove. Quick note, as far as I know, this area is completely separate and has no bearing on the rest of the game, so you can play it however you

want. We’ll want to equip the Headband of Intellect before proceeding. This small location is populated with a clan of Kuo-Toa. If we pass a DC 20 Arcana check, we will then have the option of a new persuasion check. Passing that check, we can decide the fate of BOOOAL and the Kuo-Toa. Saying “I’ll just kill you and claim it for myself.” will earn approval with everyone and make for an easier encounter. Defeating BOOOAL will lead to a new conversation with the potential for some funny companion comments. Regardless of what we say, the Kuo-Toa will remain dedicated

to exercising violence in our name. We can have our cake and eat it too by knocking everyone unconscious with non-lethal attacks. Pooldripp the Zealous will have the Rare Magic Sickle of BOOOAL. Before leaving, we can jump across the mushrooms to the northeast, after clearing away the Torchstalks, and open or smash the trapped chest to get the Slippery Chain Shirt. We can reach the Mountain Pass by fast traveling to Waukeen’s Rest, and heading west, past the location where we previously encountered Kith’rak Voss and his Githyanki Knights. A short distance into the Mountain Pass, Lae’zel will speak

with us, and we can agree to her request. A little further north, we can find Lady Esther near a small camp. Before exchanging any words, it’s a good idea to trade and buy any useful potions. As for unique magic items, we will be getting those in a moment. After telling her story, Lady Esther will ask us to retrieve a Githyanki egg from the creche. Somewhat predictably, Lae’zel will not be a fan of this idea. If we have it, we can “produce the owlbear egg.” instead, and perform a skill check to have Esther accept it in

place of the githyanki egg. Alternatively, we could say “My friend is right: what you suggest is revolting and you need to die.” This will get us 1 point of approval from Lae’zel, but turn Esther permanently hostile, so I would say the Owlbear Egg path is preferable. In either case, we will want to use non-lethal attacks to knock out Esther. The really useful items we can get off of her are the Gloves of Cinder and Sizzle and The Graceful Cloth, both of which are pretty great on Karlach, and the Periapt of Wound Closure, which is great

on any character in need of a lot of healing. That being said, there is an argument to be made that the Sparkle Hands are better than the Gloves of Cinder. If we want, there are several undead that can be fought to the west. We can enter hiding, and watch out for the repulsion mines as we move in to get the drop on them. The Death Shepards are the highest priority targets, since they can revive dead allies. Ideally, after initiating surprise, we can use Shadowheart’s Radiance of the Dawn ability to wipe out most of the undead.

Then clean up with Karlach and Lae’zel before the stragglers have a chance to react. Before leaving, we can grab the plate armor off of the Zealots, which sell for a good amount of coin. Further west is another entrance to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, so we won’t be heading that way, at least not for now. We will instead backtrack a short distance, before heading north towards a large cable cart. If we pass a strength check to get the Cable Cart moving, it will make the trip down to the monastery quicker, otherwise we can just walk and hop

our way down the side path. Also, everyone can take a crack at this skill check and we will Definitely want to keep our inspiration points for a skill challenge up ahead. Moving further northeast, we will arrive at the Rosymorn Monastery. Soon after, we will catch our first glimpse of the Githyanki inhabiting it. After a cutscene, we can jump into the monastery through a broken window to the west. Be warned that killing the Kobolds here with fire damage will cause them to explode. To get around this issue with Karlach, we can toggle non-lethal, so that they

are just Knocked out, and do not explode. One of the Kobold Looter’s will have the Ceremonial Mace, which we need to solve a puzzle coming up. Moving further north, we will exit back out of the Monastery, then jump and climb our way up to the rooftops. There are multiple Gremishka waiting in ambush, beyond the wooden barricade and through the door to the west. We don’t have to fight them, but they aren’t too difficult, so long as we can get surprise, Or at least avoid being surprised, and refrain from casting spells around them. Afterwards, we will

move further east, jump a gap, and climb up the vines to the south. This will put us in contact with two Giant Eagles, which we can use animal handling to avoid fighting. Personally, I like to fight these eagles, because they drop the materials used to make potions of flying, which are very useful. We might even want to leave the Ancient Giant Eagle alive long enough to call in more Giant Ealges for more XP and more Feathers. That being said, there are a lot of eagles that will join the fight, and it can make for a

dodgy encounter, especially if we stand near any high ledges to get knocked off from. Once the eagles have been dealt with, we can grab the Ceremonial Warhammer, which is sitting in the giant nest. We will ungroup Karlach from the party, then send everyone else down the vines we previously climbed up. We can then use the featherfall boots on Karlach and jump east To a painted chest containing the Holy Lance Helm, which is pretty good on Shadowheart. Next, we’ll jump down near the crumbling wall and regroup. Breaking through the wall, we’ll find a Guardian of Faith

standing sentry over the Ceremonial Battleaxe. I’ve found the best way to deal with the Guardian is by having Shadowheart cast Sacred Flame on it repeatedly, from a distance, while everyone else stays out of combat. Once the guardian is down, we can grab the Ceremonial Battleaxe, then head west, past the climbable vines, and over the gap. To the north is the room where we will make use of the ceremonial weapons we’ve gathered, placing them on the appropriate pedestals. The mace goes to the southeast, warhammer to the northeast, and battleaxe to the southwest. Completing this puzzle will

give us the Morninglord’s Radiance until our next long rest, and will open the nearby chamber, allowing us to grab the Dawnmaster’s Crest, which we will want to hang onto for later use. There is also an Old Key nearby that we can grab, though I am not sure what it’s supposed to be used for. Once we’ve finished exploring the Monastery, we can return near the room with the Guardian of Faith, then hop down the ruined staircase nearby. We’ll break through the barricade, then head for the Monastery’s entrance. Entering the Creche, we will be stopped by a

githyanki standing guard. We can allow Lae’zel to answer, which will get approval from Lae’zel and disapproval from Shadowheart, but we get so much approval from Shadowheart that it probably doesn’t matter. Moving ahead, we will eventually reach a junction, with a fast travel point to the east. We can go south from there to find a Githyanki Merchant, and this is one of those Merchants that we can knock out. She has some really good magic items, such as the Daredevil Gloves, Gloves of Dexterity, and Amulet of Branding. Returning to the junction, we can find the Classroom to

the north. We can talk down the instructor here from killing Youth Varrl, if we manage to succeed on a DC 21 persuasion check. Afterwards, we can speak with Varrl and persuade him to part with another disc of Githyanki text on Prince Orpheus. We can then ask Lae’zel about it for more approval. We can also talk to her about the training room, and say “That’s… incredible. I have no doubt they deserved it.” for more approval. To the west of the junction, there is a portrait of Vlaakith, which we can draw on if we don’t mind some

disapproval from Lae’zel. To the northwest is the Hatchery. We can go speak with Varsh Ko’kuu, and he may tell us to leave. Even so, if we speak to him again we can try to persuade him to willingly give us the egg. After succeeding at the persuasion, we can say “I’ll find another creche. One that’s more forgiving.” to earn approval from Lae’zel, among other companions. This will get us a pair of boots that grant immunity to acid, allowing us to safely retrieve the lone egg. We have the option of crushing the egg, but we should probably

just pick it up and send it back to camp. Afterwards, we can speak with Lae’zel about the hatchery for even more approval. Leaving the hatchery, we can find the Zaith’isk in the room at the end of the southwest hallway. Once there, we’ll need to speak with the Ghustil. Allowing Lae’zel to take the lead will get us some more approval. We will want Shadowheart to have Enhance Ability and for Karlach to have the Silver Pendant equipped. This is so that we can get both guidance and advantage on the skill checks to come. Upon interacting with the

Zaith’isk, we should save, then we can allow Lae’zel to take the lead for even more approval, and we will avoid getting any detrimental effects on our MC. This is probably the worst skill challenge in the game, because it basically requires A natural 20 or critical success to succeed on most of the checks, and there are real negative consequences for failing the checks, so save scumming is almost always necessary. That being said, if we Persuade Lae’zel to leave the Zaith’isk at the first chance, we will get approval, and she will not suffer any permanent side effects.

To put it bluntly, the longer Lae’zel stays in the Zaith’isk, the more negative and permanent conditions she will receive. If we don’t convince Lae’zel to leave the Zaith’isk until the final set of dialogue options, there will be a DC30 arcana skill check to draw on a new Illithid power. For most, the only way to succeed here is by rolling a natural 20, a critical success. If we do succeed, we will get the Awakened feature, which allows the use of all Illithid Powers as a bonus action. It’s really nice if we use Illithid Powers. That being

said, Lae’zel will suffer from Weakened Intelligence and Weakened Wisdom. Because I don’t use Illithid Powers, I persuaded Lae’zel to leave the Zaith’isk as soon as possible. But choose however you want here, besides Lae’zel getting a few reduced stats that aren’t important for the fighter class, getting the Awakened power won’t interfere with anything else. What is very important is to save the game immediately after we successfully get the outcome we want, so that we don’t have to do it again if something else goes wrong. Regardless of our choice, we will need to use deception on the

Ghustil to avoid a combat encounter. Afterwards, we can speak with Lae’zel and agree to go see the inquisitor. For that, we will return to the fast travel point and go down the hall to the northeast. After a short cutscene, we will need to get the Gith Shard from Kith’rak Therezzyn. If we just show her the Artifact, she will open the way to the Inquisitor. We will gain approval from Lae’zel and disapproval from basically everyone else, but that will be easy enough to recover. Upon our arrival at the Inquisitor’s chamber, We can prepare for combat before

speaking with him. Entering turn-based mode, we can cast twin haste on Lae’zel and Karlach, and Spirit Guardians on Shadowheart. Speaking with the Inquisitor, we will want to start with “Shouldn’t you be more concerned with the mind flayer invasion?” followed by “How will this weapon stop the Mind Flayers?” and “I won’t let you take it.” When Lae’zel contests this decision, we can say “Remember the Zaith’isk? These gith can’t be trusted.” Gaining approval from everyone. Finally, we can say “We are keeping the artefact.” We can use brand the weak on the Inquisitor, making him weak to Bludgeoning

damage from Karlach’s attacks. Even without that, this fight is pretty easy with the amount of damage we are capable of in a single turn. After the fight, Vlaakith will show up and Lae’zel will approve of us kneeling in respect. Following this, we will want to say “Neither. It is mine by rights.” As a side note, If we start questioning Vlaakith’s godhood, she will instantly kill all of us, which can be funny to experience as long as a save is made beforehand. That aside, we can basically lie and say “I will do as you wish.” for

more approval from Lae’zel, and a small bit of disapproval from Karlach and Shadowheart, but again, we can get that back. Let’s use the planecaster before looting the place, just to get it out of the way. We can loot the area here, finding another githyanki disc on one of the bodies. Once ready, we will enter the beckoning cave. Despite what we’ve said to Vlaakith, we can use diplomacy and learn a lot during this interaction. If we betray the Dream Visitor when given the option, it won’t kill them, but it will sew more distrust. Instead, we can

refuse to betray the Dream Visitor, then learn more about Vlaakith’s deceptions. Afterwards, we will want to tell Lae’zel “Actually, I learned a few things. Your queen is lying to you.” and then open our mind to Lae’zel so she can see for herself. After leaving the prism, we can speak with Lae’zel again and say “An impressive show of faith…” to earn more approval. We will also be getting to 7th Level around this time. For sorcerers, ice storm can be a very useful spell. Shadowheart will gain Wall of Fire as one of her Domain Spells, which is

very strong in certain encounters. Lae’zel will gain two more maneuvers, and I like Manoeuvering Attack and Trip Attack. Finally, as a monk, Karlach will gain some new defensive features. Now onto the looting. This area has quite a few magic items. In the central room there is the Circlet of Psionic Revenge alongside a Potion of Angelic Slumber, Diadem of Arcane Synergy, Strange Conduit Ring, which can be good on Lae’zel when she is concentrating on the Hunter’s Mark spell granted by The Grymskull Helm, and Gloves of Belligerent Skies, which are very good on Shadowheart. In the east

room we’ll find the Necklace of Elemental Augmentation and The Skinburster. Finally, in the west room are the Hoarfrost Boots. There are also two statues that we can interact with. We will need to turn each one 3 times. The statue on the left is rusty, and so requires a very high strength check to turn. Even if we fail, we can use the grease spell or throw a bottle of grease on the statue to get it unstuck. After turning each statue 3 times, a passage will open to a secret chamber. Beyond this first barrier, there are traps

that will fling us into a chasm if not carefully disarmed, and we’ll want to ungroup the party and do this in turn-based mode. After disarming the first trap, we’ll need to bypass the second barrier by going through a small cave. We can destroy the energy source along the way, but will want to disarm the next trap before regrouping with the party. The last energy source we’ll need to destroy is off the side of the path, partway down in the chasm. Once we’ve gotten past all the defenses, we will arrive at the holding chamber for the

Legendary Mace, Blood of Lathander. If we just take the Mace, it will trigger a self-destruct sequence that we will need to either stop by destroying the four Solar Machines that rise up from the surrounding chasm, or otherwise escape from the Monastery before it implodes. Alternatively, we can interact with the Crest Panel and insert the Dawnmaster’s Crest that we got earlier, which will allow the Blood of Lathander to be claimed without consequence. Either way, we will get the Achievement “Taking Blood”. The Blood of Lathander might not be as good for hitting stuff as the Silver Sword,

but it is very good on Shadowheart, especially in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, where we will be heading soon. We could fast travel out of this chamber to the Trielta Crags, but there are still some unique items we can get here. First, if we head back to the Inquisitor’s chamber and leave through the southern exit, We will encounter Kith’rak Therezzyn. She will drop the Soulbreaker Greatsword when defeated. Over in the Infirmary, we will find Gish Umr’a’ac, who will drop the ring of elemental infusion when defeated, as well as The Ghustil, who will drop the Aberration Hunters’ Amulet.

Finally, near the main entrance, we’ll find Gish Far’aag, who will drop the Ring of Arcane Synergy. On top of all that, we will get around 1200 experience in total if we go around and defeat all the Githyanki in the creche. That being said, anything beyond grabbing the Blood of Lathander is completely optional and will have no impact on the story or achievements if we don’t do it. We will need to complete a long rest before leaving Mountain Pass, though, so we might as well get some loot and XP out of our remaining resources. Once ready

to take a long rest, we will fast travel to the Underdark Grymforge, which is intentionally in a different region. This should trigger a long rest, and once we go to bed, an encounter with Kith’rak Voss. This is a pivotal moment in Lae’zel’s story, and where we can get the Achievement relating to her. If Lae’zel has seen enough evidence of Vlaakith’s deception, we can allow her to take the lead, and she will listen to Voss’s proposition. Eventually, we’ll get multiple dialogue options. Again, if Lae’zel has enough distrust in Vlaakith, we can let her decide the path

forward for herself. Otherwise, we will want to push her towards siding with Voss. Upon forming an alliance with Voss, we will unlock “The Lich-Queen’s Wrath” achievement. We can speak with Lae’zel about the encounter after Voss leaves, and at this point, our approval rating with her should be maxed out. The next morning, we can leave camp, which will transport us to the Grymforge. From there, we can head east to the Wrought Iron Gate, and take it to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, progressing the story into Act 2. That will have to wait until the next part of this

series, but in the meantime, We’ve done basically everything important in Act 1, to the point where you can explore freely. Just avoid killing any friendly NPCs. Speaking of which, the merchants should all have restocked and with better items now that we are level 7. If you have any questions, you can reach out in the comments, where I will do my best to help. If you want to watch part 2, you can find it over on my channel, and if you’re new, consider subscribing, you’re helping me feed my cat, her name’s Marshmallow. Have a great day,

if you’re here today, have a great Wednesday, and as always, thanks for watching.