I don't know when the best stuff shows up but I do know not to sleep on the blacksmith's forge in the ruined village

shame you don't find enough mithril to do more than 2 weapons before act 2 tho

i used bow of the banshee in all the acts

harold the heavy crossbow

also all the lightning charge set gear

last time the adamantine forge only let me make one thing!! even though i had plenty of stuff for more than that.

booo

we did two, and then didn't find any more stuff

but Karlach had that sword for a looooong time

Ruined village has a grimoire that you can read that teaches you a spell in Act 3 and in Act 1 teaches you to speak to dead without a necklace on for it. You have to pass some will saves though.

Also the flaming sword from the cambion in the tutorial airship.

omg you beat the cambion??

i did (and the illithid) but you don't need to in order to get the sword

the sword is not that great though… like bonkers level 1-3 but the tyr sword is better.

anyway i am asking because i'm on my second playthrough and through the goblin camp and i want to collect all the items before leaving the act.

especially now that gale has been fully fed.

Absolute's Talisman saved my ass a NUMBER OF TIMES

and i just found a necklace that lets you cast guidance i have never had before.

die a lot? just let yourself get carved up by a cult u.u

i do have the absolute brand this time around, and volo eye.

my durge craves punishment, so…

gonna try to do the hag fight later on tonight and hoping the eye will help.

oh right the tyr sword. god I hate that guy and his mighty smite smash

definitely one of the hardest fights i had thusfar (until i switched it up and went in through the roof.)

Blood of lathander and dagger of the undermountain king obviously

And the grymforge armor+helm

You can make 2 of the same armor in the grymforge so I usually do 2 mediums

yeah i tried to make a heavy armor then switch out for medium but maybe two of the same is the way

just did auntie ethel last night, that fight was not as hard as i remembered it (probably because i knocked out the masks beforehand instead of sneaking past them.)

think i might go to the creche next?

get some nice gear there.

i'm doing that a LOT earlier next time i think

then head to the underdark? i'm level 5, and i remember the gith being tough.

but the gear is so nice.

Level 5 is good for crèche imo and you can skip most fights

Also you can get the blood of lathander before you talk to the inquisitor you can just go around him ftr

And buy the knife of the undermountain king or whatever from the dealer there

yeah i gotta make sure i have enough gold before heading up there because the gear. unless i crime it

I only crime if I can save scum bc I'm a coward

i'm playing tactician but not honor mode so scumming is a go.

i also am afraid of the consequences of my actions.

high-five

oh also outside the creche is the lady with the cat's grace armor

egg lady

def crime that off her too it's way too expensive lol

oh i just straight up killed egg lady

DON'T STEAL BABIES FROM PEOPLE

i crimed it

Oh I didn't know this was for playthrough 2 lol. Yes Silver Sword of the Astral Plane is amazing if you can get it.

If you want to mess with the ...everything in Act 1 you can punch out Raph for the Helldusk Armor but if you've already met him I'm pretty sure it's too late to do that

...can you just. knock him unconscious and steal his clothes

because that would be so fucking funny

Yes but you have to sort of avoid his spawn points until you get to, I think, the Mountain Pass and he'll appear in your camp. Then you can stealth up to him and punch him unconscious and take his clothes. I do think this effectively sequence breaks a lot of the act so not something to do on the first playthrough

omg

i have already met raphael so won't be stealing his clothes but it's funny to think about

haarlep have we got a story for YOU

my first time through i didn't do much crime but now that i'm trying it i have to say it really does pay.

stole a bunch of stuff from lady esther and the gith trader. and the blood of lathander :')

update: I cleared the crèche but the trader didn't drop the gloves of dexterity so I had to reload, steal them, and then beat up the inquisitor again.

the things we do for loot.

I'm at Grymforge now and I am about to hit level 7, but I'm pretty sure I was close to level 8 last playthrough so I'm wondering where the missed XP is.

I do have the owlbear cub this time so that's an improvement.

owlbear cub buddies, just got it too

so cute

I hope you talked to it because it's too cute

they're best friends!!

owlbear and Scratch chasinng each other is so cute

I haven't seen that yet

they just do it constantly in my playthrough now... hopeful for you to experience this