It was solely a matter of time, proper? Whereas technical methods like stacking a thousand explosive barrels or leveraging fall harm for Owlbear elbow drops are spectacular in their very own means, I’ve but to see something actually representing Dungeons & Dragons’ horrifying powergaming underbelly from Baldur’s Gate 3‘s neighborhood. That’s, till now.
In a thread titled “I Assume I Broke Unarmed Strike on Monk. 168-320 DMG per flip”, Reddit person OrkoTheMage has proven their working and—yeah. All of it checks out. This is because of how Bonus Actions work in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the way they work together with the Monk characteristic Flurry of Blows.
Flurry of Blows helps you to spend Ki factors—the Monk’s principal useful resource—to do two Unarmed Strikes as a bonus motion. OrkoTheMage took three ranges into Rogue’s Thief subclass, which grants you one other bonus motion as customary. The Monk subclass Manner of the Open Hand additionally has a characteristic named Wholeness of Physique, which grants you an additional bonus motion for 3 turns.
That is one half of the equation, which results in an already terrifying 8 unarmed strikes in a single spherical. The opposite half comes from a min-maxer’s moist dream of stacking modifiers to amp up these punches:
- The Tavern Brawler feat helps you to add your Energy modifier (which is +6 for OrkoTheMage at 22 Energy) to each hit.
- A stage 6 Manner of the Open Hand characteristic provides 1d4 + Knowledge modifier harm to each unarmed strike.
- A magic merchandise, the Boots of Uninhibited Kushigo, provides that Knowledge modifier once more.
- Lastly, a late recreation magic merchandise from Act 3, the Gloves of Soul Catching, hurl an additional 1d10 pressure harm on prime.
This results in unarmed strikes which deal 1d8 + 1d10 + 1d4 + 18 harm, for a median of 30 a pop. That is round 240 harm a flip as soon as the engine’s up and working. Mystra assist me, my interior energy gamer is drooling.
Whereas a construct like this completely breaks the sport’s meant problem curve over its knee—some extent PC Gamer’s Robin Valentine made some time again—seeing these sorts of fiddly, sweaty, powergaming builds come collectively and click on offers me this sick sense of satisfaction.
Even in tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, I am conceptually obsessive about absurd builds just like the Coffeelock, a Warlock-Sorcerer hybrid that by no means has to sleep. These busted characters converse to the inventiveness of avid gamers once they’re given a rule set to play with.
I do not play these sorts of characters, although, as a result of they’ll spoil the enjoyable on your fellow gamers, and your DM (until you are all min-maxers, through which case, go hog wild). However there is not any one to upset right here, it is a single-player recreation—and since Larian Studios went completely wild with home rule tweaks and magic objects, I’ve acquired a darkish urge for extra.
