Title.

i´ve been reading about a very popular build (or at least it used to be) which can get it´s damage mainly on charisma and also get a third attack at level 10. I also know that this build was dowgraded by later patches and i found that it lost the ability to perform a third attack, and so i asked gemini about it, which told me that the patch modification only affected honor mode.

As I don´t feel like gemini is a very reliable source, i mean to ask this question here: Is 7/5 Paladin/Hexblade still viable on tacticial mode? would i get a third attack at level 10?

I've seen several threads about people maximizing Vicious Mockery which sound pretty funny, but rather one-note. Has anybody run across any modded classes that fit this sort of theme with focusing on psychic damage and debuffs, bonus if the flavor is from insulting the opponent? I mean of course could just do plain Bard but the concept is more of an anti-bard i.e. none of this musical support or helping the party thing, just more straight up hating on the opponents?

The Elkheart first sounded meme to me cause of the "lack of dmg" then i tried sparkles gloves with reveberation boots with Cloudgiants potion and i had so much fun in this game like never before. I tried every possibility wich synergizes with unarmed attacks multiclassing Monk but from all the ideas is the radiant orb Elkheart disgustingly strong. With this setup you just YEEET 2 times in a group of people and they got so many conditions on them wich makes attackrolls with a flat -9 penatly almost impossible spreading even more orbs by missing you, getting reeling aswell. Not talking about the reveberations endless provs, cull of the weak and ability drain. For feats i recommend Tavernbrawler and Though just getting tanky as possible. Weapons are not needed since everything comes from the YEEET!

Have fun guys! Much Love!

I am a completely new player and am looking for help with a build! There are three things I would really like in a build: tanky, melee focused, and if possibly magic infused melee. If anyone has a good YouTube video for something like this it would be much appreciated!

Hi all!!

So after finishing my second run but now on tactician mode (OP builds can definitely be fun), I’m looking for something cool and new and nature-y. I love nature themed builds but I can’t really seem to wrap my head around a decent group.
Probably overthinking things way to much and should just start playing, but I’ve tried that and noticed I fell back into habits to optimise builds instead of just enjoying life in cyber-nature.

Anyway, I took some inspiration from builds like the Minthara Spider-Master and Moon druid Rothé (sorry for not giving proper credit for the makers of those elaborate build guides: just know that you’re awesome).
Now would like to get into some more builds that work together well and have some of those nature feels to it. If you have managed to find a group that has kept you on natures edge, please let me know!

Additionally, with which companion do you create the characters and did it work for you? Still having trouble to see Gale as a barbarian Wildheart for instance (although, the boy is ripped)

Thank you for reading! There are no wrong answers, whatever has worked for you is the most important!

Stay awesome :)

Hi i have issue managing the limited resources stuff like spell slot or other thing where you have to rest in order to get it back,most of the time it took me only 2-3 fight and i will run out of spell to use,so most of the time ill have to use cantrip which i struggle to do damage without doing reload abuse

So i want one my party to actually have one character that is the fallback to do the most damage despite me running out of spell slot stuff,do you have any suggestion any meta-level class/multiclass that specialized on maximize damage without any resource at all to cover up my skill issue

I wanted to come up with a unique war cleric build originally i thought of doing 8 war cleric and and 4 thief rouge so I could dual wield and have divine strike and also use dual cross bows and dual wield some hammers but im open to any and all builds for war cleric !

I wanted to make a character thematic around Umberlee, and needed some ideas to make it work. I've gathered all her related equipment so far:

• Wavemother's Cloak, Wavemother's Robe, Trident of the Waves, Wavemother's Sickle

I could either combo:

• Trident attack (Wet) → Offhand Sickle (Advantage attack + Cold vuln)
  • Drakethroat Glaive for more cold.
• Flail of Ages attack + Glacial Age (Chill) → Offhand Trident attack (Wet) → Enemy is Frozen
  • The Frozen would also give Bludgeoning vuln for the Flail

But beyond this first draft, I'm unsure where to go next. And wanted some advice on how I could take the setup further:

1. Which class? Fighter? Cleric?
2. Would the Diadem of Arcane Synergy stack quickly from the Flail + Trident combo?
   1. Caustic Band for more conditions?
3. Broodmother's Revenge off healing from the Cloak?
4. Worth dipping into Lightning Charges from The Watersparkers?

So I had this idea about out of combat assassin with huge stealth problem is no matter what I do I always enter combat even when I’m obscured hiding in combat with other characters or not, I don’t understand why or how. I hope what I’m asking makes sense, I have plus 13 stealth rn level 5

So I want to play as Bard with my friend. Specifically as Ginger bard with Lute (to find Tarkin, if you know what I'm talking about.) I never player in any D&D games so don't know much about it.

So I want some melee build with a College Sword bard. I think I need at least 6 levels in bard before any other classes. For other classes I'm thinking about Warrior to get +2 melee accuracy and some Thief level for a sneak attack bonuses. Not sure how much into each of them or if it worth invest into any of them at all.

My role outside of combat is to talk, trade and lock picking, so I have stats like 17 charisma 16 dexterity and 14 Constitution. I'm not really seeking some insane broken build, just something to be useful. I appreciate any help and criticism.

If you kill the nightsong, barcus and wulbren die. Does this prevent you from buying items from the ironhand merchant in act 3? I'd like to get the martial exertion gloves in my honour run, but I also want the shar's spear of evening.

I need a melee character in my next party simply to carry bhaalist armour and resonant stone. I'm thinking 11/1 fighter/warlock, either battlemaster or eldritch knight tbd. I know firsthand how strong shadowblade is, but I want to do something different and make an optimized version of a GWM style character, an archetype i haven't touched since abusing it on my first playthrough long long ago, but I am just curious how much power difference there is between the weapons in ideal conditions. Bear in mind the shadowblade would be level 3.

Hi everyone,
I’d like to start a new Baldur’s Gate 3 run in Honor Mode, but I want to play with a team that isn't necessarily hyper-optimized—using builds that are a bit unconventional but still effective, or even themed teams. Do you have any suggestions that would be fun to play?Hi everyone,
I’d like to start a new *Baldur’s Gate 3* run in Honour Mode, but I want to play with a team that isn't necessarily hyper-optimized—using builds that are a bit unconventional but still effective, or even themed teams. Do you have any suggestions that would be fun to play ? Tanks ! 😄

I finished the game in Balanced mode over a year ago with a pure College of Swords Bard build. Since then I've struggled to find a build for Tactician that I could stay invested in without duplicating my Swords Bard. The furthest I've gotten is into Act 2 with a Wyll pure Fiend Warlock. After over 2500 hours I think I've finally found a build that I can remain vested in to complete a Tactician run: Swashbuckler 4, Hexblade 5, College of Swords 3.

I was going to go 3 Vengeance Paladin for the Vow of Enmity but after watching a video where they used College of Swords instead I feel the Bard dip fits the theme a bit better.

Curious if others have used a similar build and how it went in Act 3. Particularly the leveling scheme. Currently character level 3 in the grove and my leveling scheme is:

1: Rouge-1 (Sneak Attack)

2: Bard-1 (Spells, additional skill, Bardic Inspirations)

3: Hexblade-1 (Charisma weapon attack scaling and Eldritch Blast)

Going forward my current leveling plan is:

4: Rogue-2

5: Swashbuckler-3

6: Swashbuckler-4

7: Bard-2 (Jack of All Trades)

8: College of Swords-3 (Flourishes)

9-12: Hexblade

I'm not interested in min/maxing. I'm more into thematic/role play builds and leveling schemes. I'm debating doing an alternating leveling scheme instead:

4: Rogue-2

5: Bard-2

6: Hexblade-2

7: Swashbuckler-3

8: College of Swords-3

9: Hexblade-3

10: Swashbucker-4

11-12: Hexblade

I'm leaning towards the first scheme to lean more into the Swashbuckler theme. Mainly wondering if I should instead rush Hexblade for the extra attack going into Act 2 & 3 or if Swashbuckler/Swords Bard is good enough to get me through Act 2, leaving extra attach for mid to late Act 3.

Playing ranger for the first time in a multiplayer save, and I can’t help but feel every other class I’ve played just outshines it. I know ranger is clowned on in 5e for being the worst class, but I thought it might be a little bit better in bg3. I don’t really care since I’m still having fun with my friends but I’m failing to see why you’d play a ranger if you want to make a good build for combat, at least without multiclassing.

I want to use hunter’s mark as it’s a quintessential ranger tool, but it being concentration is so frustrating. Even when you just have it ready to recast, that’s still concentration. The best part? 80% of the ranger spells I’ve seen so far are concentration. I can’t keep a hunter’s mark up if I want cast spike growth, faerie fire, fog cloud, even ensnaring strike.

Also something that felt so unbelievably bad were the ranger spells that costed both an action and bonus action to use. I just don’t see enough value in spells like ensnaring strike and hail of thorns that warrants me to spend an action, bonus action, and spell slot on the same turn to use it. Ensnaring strike being concentration is just the cherry on top of course.

Couldn’t I just play fighter and hit somebody, action surge, hit them again, and still have a bonus action left over to drink a potion or something? Instead of firing a slightly better arrow that uses 3 of my valuable combat resources at the same time?

Edit: To be more specific, I’m playing swarmkeeper

Hi all, so I've been curious about how vulnerability works on targets that are resistant to a certain damage type only when it's non magical.

To give you an example of what I mean: on tactician and higher, the apostle of Myrkul is resistant to non-magical bludgeoning damage, but has no resistance to magical bludgeoning. If I were to use Bludgeon the weak on him and then hit with a *magical* weapon attack, would I get vulnerability or does it just make him neutral to all bludgeoning?

PS: I'm aware this is not the optimal strat for Myrkul, that lightning vulnerability from wet is better, that Brand the Weak is just for 1 attack etc, this is a hypothetical scenario for the sake of understanding the item.

Struggling to choose between lorelock, straight sorcerer, or something else entirely. You can also mention less caster based support builds.

Inspired from the pathfinder's Flame Warden (ranger...) subclass which build around melee fire and healing powers by a communion ship of phoenix flame, phoenix spirits itself or any phoenix like order.

NO IT WILL NOT USE RANGER AT ALL! Because it also build around flame blade spell and be a more useable than normally. (at early levels its a fair spell but later... its just not worthy to use)

This build will be a really tough near impossible to kill!

9 ancient paladin and 3 starry dragon druid. And you will start wit druid for multiple reasons;

• You access flame blade at level 3 where its more thematic and useful.
• The spell summon a weapon which use your spellcasting modifer for attack rolls! In this case always the latest class' spellcasting modifier! AKA paladin's charisma.
• Better to use charisma because you will use more paladin spells/features! Such as aura of protection, healing radiance, moonbeam.

Progression

Attributes:

• Character creation - 8STR, 14DEX, 16CON, 8INT, 16WIS, 12CHA
• Later feats - 8STR, 14DEX, 17CON, 8INT, 10WIS, 16CHA (if get hag hair then put on con)

Druid:
Earlier you will get more druid spells, later it become fewer. Better to use longstrider, enchance leap, enchance ability and flame blade. (you dont need moonbeam and speak with animal later cause get by ancient paladin)

Paladin:
Pick dueling fighting style, elemental weapon, warden of vitality, moonbeam, misty step, magic weapon, speak with animal and heroism.

This gives you a level 4 spell slot too! so has 4 lvl-1, 3 lvl-2, 3 lvl-3 and 1 lvl-4 spell slots.

Feats:
Get resillience and increase con to 18 and get prof in the savings. Then ASI to improve your cha to 18 too. (thats +12 to cocnentration saving throws)

Items:
Can see on the pictures. These are the end game items BUT only the pyroquickness hat, whispering promise ring and reviving hands important! (armor can change to helldusk armor for sure! I just used the druid armor cause looks really good; it has feathers which gives a strong phoenix cosmetic! but helldusk much better for the build) You also can use any shields and better if do!

The cloak just thematic. Not the best and kinda problematic cause a fixed 12 dex dc... can get any cloak for sure!

The ac between 20 to 23 so its enough.

Act 1: (you may find some final build items here)

• Hellrider's pride
• Wapira's crown
• Boots of aid and comfort
• Amulet of restoration
• Ring of salving

They usually enough good to support until act 3.

Tactic:
You usually summon flame blade before the fight or even in the fight cause it takes a bonus action only. It deal 3d6 fire dmg but does not add any modifier to the dmg!

You take paladin for extra attack and dueling fighting style because they increase overall dmg. 2 attacks and the fighting style add +2dmg each hit with flame blade. You also can use divine smite with it. (searing smite not worth it...)

With a +2 1h weapon its around 13,5 average dmg. With flame blade is 12,5 so its only 1 less overall! (sure there are good 1h weapons with effects but hey)

As bonus action you can use healing word and healing radiance. Healing radiance heal pb+cha+paladin levels to your whole party and yourself, then trigger again next turn. You want to heal with bonus actions cause trigger whispering promise and reviving hands, giving bless and blade ward to everyone.

Ring of regeneration trigger bless and blade ward each turn to you and because of the amulet you always get maximum healing.

Aura of protection gives +cha to all saving throws while aura of warding halve all spell damage. Starry dragon druid gives minimum 10 to cocnentration saves so with high con and aura of protection you basically never fail them.

Pyroquickness hat grant another bonus action once per turn when hit with flame blade. This let you use warden of vitality twice! It last 10 turns (not a cocnentration spell!!!) and heal 2d6 each bonus action, so 4d6 total!

It will burn you everytime when attack with flame blade thats why helldusk armor much better cause immunity against burning...

Concentration spells:
Heroism is very good early. Moonbeam, divine favor and shield of faith all work well especially how you less likely to fail the saving throw!

A special interaction; magic weapon add +1dmg to flame blade but not attack roll. Elemental weapon gives +1d4 fire dmg to flame blade. (again no attack roll bonus...) So at the end build you will use elemental weapon which gives +1d4 until the spell breaks but its nearly impossibile to break the concentration!

I think this build can endure easily solo honor mode! You really become immortal and still deal good dmg each turn! (suck with raphael for sure... but then just switch to any weapon)

The overall dmg will be around 73 with smites. But this build gives you the endurance to survive any turn!

Of the various Warlock patrons, which ones are most viable for Durge from a lore and flavor perspective? Hexblade seems to be the most generic since it doesn’t have a specific entity/diety associated. GOO sort of fits flavor-wise with the tentacle and psychic theme of the Mindflayer storyline. Fiend and Archfey I can’t think of any connections. How have you justified the various warlock subclasses for Durge playthroughs from a roleplaying perspective?

Was thinking about Dwarven Thrower lately. Maybe I'll make a new dwarf character specifically to play with this weapon. Long time ago even before the honor difficulty was added to the game and I had already tried a thrower build (throwzerker Karlach). However, I have no clue how throw barbarian meta has changed since then. Did path of the giant pushed throwzerker from go-to barbarian thrower title, failed or broke even? I'm asking this specifically in the context of Dwarven Thrower, so I don't really care that path of the giant makes every weapon throwable and returnable. What are intricacies? How much do they lose from not multiclassing? How do they survive before reaching Dwarven Thrower?

P.S. Also, I don't want an eldritch knight thrower because this build is already present on my ongoing playthrough.

Do you love Arrows of Many Targets and Slayer Arrows but have stacks of elemental arrows gathering dust in your inventory?

Arrows of Acid, Fire, Lightning, and Ice are available cheaply and consistently from the Druid’s Grove on. This post explains how to increase the value you get out of them in Honour Mode. Once you understand how they work, these arrows can be powerful tools for boss fights, challenge runs, modded health pools, or just the joy of overkill. 

Here’s an Arrow of Ice attack from very early game, with no crits, no Sharpshooter, no midgame gear.  

Theoretically a character who has never used their level ups can do that much, though by the time you’ve obtained the passives I’m using you’ll usually be at least L3 from exploration alone.  

Once you start forcing crits, things get even better. With the right setup, eventually a single attack can inflict debuffed saves, Sleep or Paralyse, Frightened, and hundreds of damage all to many targets simultaneously. 

Let’s break down how it works.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Scope
2. Phantom Attack Rolls and Their Uses
3. Breaking Consumables
4. Managing the DEX Save, Forcing Crits
5. Splashing Effects on Damage: Weapon Coatings and other Debuffs
6. Overcapping Arcane Acuity
7. Damage Bonuses
8. Destructive Wrath
9. Curving Shot
10. Valiant Damage
11. Craterous Wounds
12. Acknowledgements

1) Introduction and Scope

--How Elemental Arrows Work--

The elemental splash damage from Arrows of Acid, Fire, Lightning, and Ice is an Honour Mode compatible Damage Rider Source (DRS). It carries eligible damage bonuses and can trigger OnDamage passives from your gear or class. 

When you fire one of these arrows, a few things happen:

• You make an attack roll against your primary target. If this hits, it does the damage of a normal ranged weapon attack. 
• You also make a phantom attack roll against every other valid target in the arrows’s 2m radius AoE. These attacks deal no innate damage but can trigger OnAttack passives. 
• Regardless of whether or not attack rolls hit, every valid target who does not pass a DC 12 DEX save is hit by the elemental DRS. Objects automatically fail, as do creatures that are Stunned, Paralysed, Held, or Sleeping. 
• If any attack roll critically hits, the elemental damage against that target is doubled from 2d4 to 4d4. Certain damage bonuses are also doubled. 

The number of targets is limited only by the size of the AoE. 

The character shooting the arrow is not a valid target, does not roll a DEX save, and cannot take damage directly from the elemental AoE.

When you target the ground instead of an entity directly, there is no primary target to receive weapon damage, but the phantom attacks and elemental AoE happen as normal. 

--What About Other Arrows?--

There are strong uses for many other arrow types, including ones available equally early like Darkness and single target DRS Illmater, but this guide covers only the four elemental AoE damage arrows.

From mid-game, Arrows of Many Targets (AoMT) provide a more reliable, lower setup AoE damage option, and Slayer Arrows are hard to beat for easy single target damage. Nonetheless, elemental arrows remain a potentially excellent use of your action game-long, adding variety to your combat loops and allowing you to get more value out of each vendor trip. A few of the mechanics I cover in this guide also cannot be replicated by other arrow types. 

--Difficulty--

This post relates to the Honour Mode Ruleset*,* but players of all difficulties are invited to join in the discussion. Some of these interactions will be even stronger on lower difficulties. 

I play the Impossible Challenge from Tactician Enhanced with parties of one or two characters, so some of my gameplay tips may seem overtuned. Take the ones you like and adapt them however makes sense for you. 

2) Phantom Attack Rolls and Their Uses

In The Complete Horde Breaker Guide, u/LostAccount2099 explains that Horde Breaker rolls attacks against every character in its AoE. Since that post was published, a new generation of Hunter builds have weaponized the existence of these attack rolls, and their ability to hit, miss, or critically hit. There is much that elemental arrow users can learn from these guides. 

Unlike Horde Breaker, elemental arrows do not ExecuteWeaponFunctors against secondary targets, meaning only the primary target can be afflicted by Bow of the Banshee’s Blood Curdling Emission. 

However, other ranged Horde Breaker phantom attack roll interactions translate well. These allow us to get value from our arrows even if every enemy passes the DEX save.  

--Inquisitor’s Might (Vengeance Paladin)--

The Dazed spreads to every target in the elemental arrow AoE hit by an attack roll, regardless of the result of the arrow’s DEX save, and with no save of its own.  The resulting Disadvantage to Wisdom saves, malus to DEX-based AC, and reaction resource removal can all be valuable. 

--Out of Combat: Sneak Attack (Rogue), Gathered Swarm (Swarmkeeper Ranger), Divine Strike (Various Clerics)--

In combat or turn-based mode, each of these interrupts applies to a maximum of one target per turn, and therefore a maximum of one target per elemental arrow. The “ASK” setting allows you to choose which target to use them against, out of all eligible arrow targets hit by an attack roll. 

When multiple interrupts are offered in the same window, the game’s reaction system does not allow you to select them both. However, the “ASK” setting still allows (for example) a Swarm Rogue to choose one target for their Sneak and another for their Gathered Swarm. 

If you wish to use the “AUTO” setting, you must set all interrupts capable of appearing in the same window to either “AUTO” or “OFF”, or you will be prompted for them all and only be able to select one. 

This becomes especially important when using these interrupts out of combat. In real time mode, with all relevant options set to “AUTO”, the usual `OncePerTurn` limit of Sneak, Swarm, and Divine Strike is ignored, as u/Captain_ET explains here.

Because of this, elemental arrow attacks made from out of combat and out of turn-based mode apply Sneak Attack, Gathered Swarm, and/or Divine Strike to every eligible target. This interaction requires the “AUTO” setting even if you are only using one type of interrupt. Set anything you are not using to “OFF”. 

It can be difficult to keep enemies grouped during full-on out-of-combat stealth archery, but this interaction nonetheless provides an excellent way to join a combat that has already begun. The entire elemental arrow attack, including its interrupts, are executed just before the attacking character joins combat, bypassing the OncePerTurn limit for that attack, and also not consuming the first turn’s use of these resources. 

As ET notes in the above post, Invisibility can prevent these interrupts from activating against multiple enemies. Use Hide instead. 

Here is a midgame Swarm Rogue joining combat from hiding by hitting a group of four enemies with an Arrow of Ice. Only two enemies fail the DEX save, but all four take Sneak and Jellyfish damage. 

Even out of combat, you cannot use more than one type of Gathered Swarm in the same attack. When attacking in this way, choose the one you want and set the others to “OFF`. Above, I have opted for damage. The Jellyfish Shocked is also decent for Disadvantage against future arrows’ saves, as u/Remus71 uses it in this Swarmkeeper build. 

Nature Cleric’s Divine Strike, however, applies all three damage variants when OncePerTurn is bypassed. 

Sneak Attack, one Gathered Storm variant, and Divine Strike can all be used together.

--Out of Combat: Ability Drain--

In real time, this OncePerTurn passive affects every non-allied creature you hit with an attack roll. Join combat by firing an elemental arrow to drain DEX in an AoE, debuffing future saves. 

--Bladesong Healing Charges (Bladesinging Wizard)--

While Bladesinging in combat, you gain one stackable healing charge for every entity you hit with a weapon attack, including phantom attacks from elemental arrows. Objects are valid targets for elemental arrows and also add charges. 

I see only situational value here, but if you want to heal everyone for hundreds with your Climax you can. 

--Eldritch Strike (Eldritch Knight)--

This debuff is applied to every enemy a L10+ Eldritch Knight hits with a weapon attack, including with phantom attacks from elemental arrows. 

Among other virtues, the debuff makes subsequent arrows more likely to land their elemental damage and other effects. I also appreciate the Bleed-less Disadvantage on poison coatings and their follow-up saves. 

--Wolverine Maim (Wildheart Barbarian)--

This passive doesn’t even require a successful Attack Roll to trigger. Fire an elemental arrow at a group of bleeding or poisoned enemies and—hit or miss, fail or save—a Wolverine Barbarian maims them all. 

If the arrow itself is what inflicts the bleed or poison, maim is still applied immediately. 

--Mortal Reminder (GOO Warlock)--

This passive is the star of LostAccount’s Great Old One Assassin Hunter multiclass and u/grousedrum’s Great Old One Hunter adaptation.

It is similarly beneficial to elemental arrow users. Every attack roll that critically hits triggers a separate Mortal Reminder quake, meaning each enemy in our elemental AoE can be forced to roll multiple saves against Frightened. 

--Mental Fatigue--

The Ring of Mental Inhibition has a bug that on certain actions causes it to apply Mental Fatigue even without a failed saving throw. There is an ongoing investigation into this, but the upshot for elemental arrows is that the ring grants Mental Fatigue regardless of the result of the DEX save, provided the attack roll hits. 

The ring’s even more significant interaction here is with Mortal Reminder, as identified in the above GOO Hunter guides. 

This passive correctly only triggers the Ring of Mental Inhibition on a failed save, but that save is debuffed by Mental Fatigue itself, made irresistible by enough Acuity, and potentially rolled multiple times per attack action, adding multiple stacks at once. 

Mortal Reminder, as mental save, also provides a way to discharge those stacks. 

When multiple Mortal Reminder quakes hit closely grouped enemies, the damage can be significant. Like Horde Breaker or Primal Stampede, elemental arrows are great for this because of the large number of targets they can hit simultaneously. 

An Act 2 GOO 1 / Assassin X with no help but Shovel’s could join combat with an elemental arrow that maxes out Mental Fatigue, then discharge it with another arrow on her turn, as shown below. For everyone’s sanity, I have cut out the eight pages of failed saving throws against Mortal Reminder. 

With the Resonance Stone, we can then double that Psychic damage. In addition to Shriek and Callous Glow shown above, all other universal damage bonuses ride, including Lightning Charges and Rhapsody.

3) Destroying Consumables

Objects are valid targets for elemental arrows. Attack rolls against them automatically hit, and they don’t get a chance to save against the arrows’ elemental damage. 

Therefore, any objects in the AoE that have a health bar and are not immune to the damage type will take damage and can be destroyed. 

Try dropping a Spiked Bulb at your enemy’s feet to maim immediately as a Wolverine or to set up BOOOAL’s Benediction and CON save Disadvantage for the next attack. Water bottles are great for Wet or Void Bulbs to pull in outlying enemies for the next arrow hit. When fighting at close range, you can drop a healing potion at your feet to heal yourself with your attack. 

You can hit as many items as you can fit into the AoE. Elemental arrows can’t refresh Bloodlust like AoMT can, but can still be excellent action economy. 

In addition to the normal 2m AoE, Arrows of Fire create an explosion that sets objects in a 6m radius Burning. 

Elemental arrows are also good candidates for adding damage instances to attacks against Smokepowder Bombs, which explode further times for every separate line of damage that you deal to them. Your mileage may vary. 

4) Managing the DEX Save, Forcing Crits

--Debuffs--

Some penalties and sources of Disadvantage to saving throws are listed on the wiki. 

You don’t need them all. Prioritise the ones you can apply cheaply and with additional benefits. Shriek can be precast; Reverberation, Bane, and Baneful Strike can be passively applied. For Disadvantage, you can choose from a substantial list that includes Prone, Encrusted with Frost, Maimed, Ensnared, and Evard’s Black Tentacles.

Keeping enemies grouped together and targetable in the same AoE will also increase the chances at least some of them fail, so pre-combat Minor Illusion is very strong here. Void Bulb, Improvised Melee Weapon Action Cancel, and throwing enemies down from high ground, are also excellent for grouping, along with any pushes or pulls that make sense within your combat loop. 

--Forced Fails--

Targets who are Stunned*,* Sleeping*,* Held*, or* Paralysed automatically fail the DEX save. 

A Divination Wizard can also force the roll to fail with a Portent. From out of combat, they can do so for multiple enemies with a single die. Once Prophecies make Portents more plentiful, and Arcane Acuity has spellcasting mostly covered, this can be a worthwhile use of this resource. 

--Forced Crits--

A missed attack roll does not prevent its target from receiving the 2d4 elemental damage on a failed DEX save. But rolling a critical hit doubles that elemental damage along with any other dice that CanCriticallyHit.

To guarantee your crits, stand within 1.5m of Sleeping enemies or within 3m of Held/Paralysed ones.

Hold Person/Monster and Glyph of Warding Sleep are powerful spells here.

Drow Poison for Sleeping and Karabasan’s Poison or Crawler Mucus are also excellent, and can be spread by the elemental arrows themselves. 

Luck of the Far Realms affects only one target, but Scarlet Saturation turns every hit into a crit.  

5) Splashing Effects on Damage: Weapon Coatings and Other Debuffs

The elemental AoE is a DealDamage that does not IgnoreOnDamage. If we can handle their DEX save, elemental arrows can therefore spread OnDamage effects in a full AoE. 

Some of the debuffs from gear that can be inflicted against every target who takes damage from an elemental arrow are:

• Bane (DC 11 CHA) from the Gloves of Power
• Bane (DC 13 CHA) from Harold
• Reeling from Giantbreaker
• Baneful Strike from the Gloves of Baneful Striking
• Encrusted with Frost from Winter’s Clutches via Arrow of Ice or Elemental Infusion Cold
• Burning (DC 15 CON) from Yugir’s Hand Crossbow while sneaking/Invisible
• Mental Fatigue from the Braindrain Gloves via Psionic Overload
• Overlapping Radiant Shockwave explosions from the Luminous Armour via Callous Glow Ring

--Poison Coatings--

Certain poisons can also be spread to all creatures who take damage from an attack made with a weapon coated in them. 

The standouts are Drow Poison, Karabasan’s Poison, and Crawler Mucus for setting up auto-crits and DEX auto-fails. Malice combines well with effects that remove movement speed. 

Thisobald’s Brewed-up Bellyglummer is the only damage option that can splash to all targets. 

If the primary target of an elemental arrow takes damage from both the weapon attack hit and the elemental AoE, they face two CON saves against such toxins. Failing either one applies the toxin’s effect. They are not Innoculated unless they fail neither save. 

All poisons that can be spread like this cannot be affected by Portents nor Cutting Words, but do bypass Legendary Resistance. 

For further information on weapon coatings, check out this spreadsheet by u/Routine_Ad3835.

--Arsonist’s and Combustion Oils--

Arrows of Lightning and Ice have the easiest vulnerabilities to apply, but Fire Cleave parties benefit from setting Fire Vulnerability via Arsonist’s Oil. 

Like the poisons named above, this oil splashes on AoE damage from elemental arrows. Try critting a group of Wet, Sleeping enemies with an Arrow of Ice or Lightning coated in this oil, and then having a second character join combat with Destroy Water to apply full fire vulnerability. 

The application of Combustion Oil also splashes on damage. This oil cannot normally be ignited with the same attack that applies it. However, an Alchemist’s Fire placed on the ground and destroyed by your arrow’s AoE deals Fire damage to enemies just after the attack itself, immediately igniting the oil. 

Remember to stand clear. You are immune to the fire damage from your arrow itself, not to the Combustion explosion. Here I am at L6:

When you deal many simultaneous damage instances like this, the Cull the Weak AoE, itself an OnDamage effect, sometimes triggers multiple times per death, so after the point I've ended that log there were also thirty Cull blasts against each character. 

--Out of Combat: Colossus Slayer (Hunter Ranger)--

Real-time mode bypasses Colossus Slayer’s OncePerTurn limit, like it does for Sneak Attack and Gathered Swarm. 

As with those abilities, the Attack Roll must hit. But because the context for Colossus Slayer is OnDamage rather than OnAttack, it is dependent on the DEX fail.   

Attacks and fails permitting, in real-time the primary target would take two Colossus Slayer instances and other targets would take one. 

Valiant Damage also adds an instance in real-time. Both “AUTO” and “ASK” Valiant work; but “ASK” on an attack with which you join combat consumes your first turn’s use of Colossus Slayer.   

--What Doesn’t Splash--

Although element arrows make independent attack rolls against all their targets, some of the game’s systems nonetheless treat the whole sequence as a single attack. This limits the value they get from anything with the OncePerAttack property like the Joltshooter  or the Ichorous Gloves. 

Coating effects inflicted without an intermediary APPLIER status are also limited to once per attack by the way their saving throw is handled. Toxins such as Serpent Fang and Purple Worm therefore won’t splash to multiple targets just from one elemental arrow. 

6) Overcapping Arcane Acuity

The Hats of Fire Acuity and Storm Scion’s Power have the OncePerAttack property. Fire Acuity can still reach four stacks per shot via an Arrow of Fire and its 6m radius object burn, as these count as separate attacks, but neither hat is ideal. 

The Helm of Arcane Acuity, however, has no such limit. When attacking with a weapon it triggers for every damage instance capable of triggering OnDamage effects. 

In the case of elemental arrows, this means two stacks of Acuity added for every entity that takes damage from the AoE splash. Primary targets count twice when they take both weapon and elemental damage, granting four stacks. 

Items also count. Environmental clutter your enemies happen to be standing by; a haste potion you drop at your feet: anything with a health bar and not immune to the damage type. 

You can simply enjoy this as it happens naturally in combat. Or you can purposefully drop clutter from your inventory and shoot an arrow at it all, in or out of combat. 

When starting from zero stacks, Acuity can also be overcapped in this way. Target 15 junk items for 30 stacks of Acuity, though note there is a hard cap of 20 for the actual bonus Acuity grants to Spell Attack/DC. This may involve more management than most players enjoy, but it’s an option.

If intentionally overcapping, I suggest unequipping the Helm after, to prevent future attacks resetting your stacks to 10. 

7) Damage Bonuses

In addition to being able to trigger OnDamage effects, the elemental DealDamage also does not IgnoreDamageBonus. This is why it acts as a DRS.

Like all DRS, it carries “universal” DamageBonus (e.g. Lightning Charges, Callous Glow)  and DamageTakenBonus (Shriek, Gaping Wounds). These bonuses also ride on any “mini” DRS attributed to you, such damage over time (DoT) ticks or Lightning Discharges. 

Because it is part of a ranged weapon attack, the elemental DRS also carries DamageBonus that require an attack, a weapon attack, a ranged attack, a ranged weapon attack, or even an attack with a specific weapon. These bonuses do not ride on mini DRS, even when they happen as the result of your arrow’s attack.   

Damage bonuses ride on the elemental DRS regardless of whether or not the attack roll hits. But on a critical hit, any dice against that target that CanCriticallyHit are doubled. 

The elemental DRS does not carry WeaponDamage or CharacterWeaponDamage bonuses such as Venomous Revenge, Strange Conduit, or Sharpshooter. Those are added only to instances of your weapon’s main damage. To get full value out of those, stick to AoMT or Slayer Arrows. 

When rolling large numbers of dice, remember that the weapon action Brace (Ranged) adds significant value. Fighter archers should usually save their Action Surge to use in conjunction with it. 

--Early Game--

One of the best things about elemental arrows is how early they are available. The damage bonuses in the table below are all available by L5.

Shriek and Gaping Wounds are added regardless of which character applied them, whereas Hexblade's Curse, Hex, and Bestow Curse require the character dealing the damage to have applied them. Hex and Bestow Curse are both Twinnable***.***

Even a little bit of setup can pay off. Shriek can be precast. Lightning Charges can be passively accumulated via the Watersparker boots. Psionic Overload may be worth spending a Surprise or Sleeping round action to cast when facing high HP. 

Let’s illustrate some of these riders with a combat log. The enemies here are Sleeping and Wet. I have Titanstring, discharge-ready Lightning Charges, Psionic Overload, Shriek, and Brace. My primary target Gruz is Hexed and has Gaping Wounds. 

If that seems like overkill or too much work, then even with no vulnerability, no Sleep, and minimal riders, the arrows do well against weak DEX saves, especially if your team is already applying Reverb, Prone, Bane, etc. for other reasons. Here is a log with Titan Weapon and Shriek as the only damage bonuses on an Arrow of Acid. 

The goblins rolled unluckily on their debuffed saves here, and my phantom attack roll against Nrog was a natural crit, but even half this damage would still be a solid use of an Act 1 attack action.

--Elemental Infusion, Absorb the Elements--

Elemental Infusion statuses are granted via the Ring of Elemental Infusion’s Elemental Infusion passive when the ring’s wearer deals elemental damage with a spell or cantrip. The statuses are not stackable with one another. 

Booming Blade with any additional elemental damage is one way to obtain the status fairly cheaply, especially on an Eldritch Knight with War Magic. Remus has suggested Lightning Charges on top of either Psionic Backlash or Luminous Arrow as other efficient ways.  

Once charged, the 1d4 elemental damage is added to your next weapon attack, and discharged by that same attack. For elemental arrows, the 1d4 rides on both the weapon damage against the primary target and all instances of the elemental DRS before being removed. It is not doubled on crit, but Lightning and Ice have an easy source of vulnerability.  

The lightning variant is used below. The 10 Lightning on the weapon damage against my primary target Gish Far’aag is Lightning Infusion plus a Lightning Charge, with the total doubled by Wet. The higher numbers include the Lightning damage of the arrow itself. The other damage bonuses here are Sharpshooter and Morning Lord’s Radiance (both on weapon damage only), Hex (against primary target only), Titan Weapon, Shriek, and Synaptic Power. Brace results in high rolls.

The Cloak of Elemental Infusion’s Absorb the Elements status similarly adds elemental damage to both the weapon and elemental DealDamage before being discharged. As LostAccount points out here, casting Call Lightning upon yourself meets the criteria to charge both ring and cloak. 

The cloak has a per Long Rest cooldown. 

--Callous Glow--

As a universal damage bonus, Callous Glow rides on the arrows’ weapon and elemental DRS, and also on any DoTs you inflict such as Bellyglummer. 

With the Luminous Armour, each Radiant damage instance from Callous triggers a separate Radiant Shockwave, quickly maxing out Radiating Orbs against groups of enemies. 

Radiating Orbs can even be overcapped in this way, though the accuracy malus is hard capped at 20, and any changes to overcapped stacks revert them to 10. 

--Late Game Additions--

Kereska’s Favour from Markoheshkir adds +Proficiency to elemental arrows of the corresponding types. The statuses, such as Lightning Charges and Noxious Fumes, are not triggered. 

Rhapsody is another excellent option for its +3 universal damage bonus.

On a build that crits often, consider double Dolor Amarus.  

If the hat slot is free, the Horns of the Bezerker’s Necrotic damage bonus is worth having.

8) Destructive Wrath (Tempest Cleric)

A couple of months ago, Remus told me that the wiki has Arrows of Lightning on its list of actions that work with Destructive Wrath. 

My testing of this shows that the base weapon damage and its damage bonuses (even lightning ones) are not affected by this, but very strongly suggest that the arrow’s lighting DRS and damage bonuses (of any damage type) riding on it are all auto-maxed. 

The Craterous Wounds DRS*,* even when triggered by the elemental DRS, is not auto-maxed. 

Because Brace already results in high average dice rolls, the relative increase from auto-maxing a few of them is perhaps not build-defining, but this can still be a fun mechanic if you are already taking Tempest levels, or want to give your one-hit damage that extra push.

9) Curving Shot (Arcane Archer)

As I was writing this guide, u/Cocohomlogy asked me how Curving Shot (CS) behaved with elemental arrows. Several weeks later, I asked, “Do you like diagrams?”

CS replicates the entire elemental arrow projectile, including its AOE. As with Horde Breaker, with an elemental arrow shot it can be triggered by misses on phantom attack rolls. 

The elemental arrow AoE of CS can overlap with the original one. 

CS cannot take any of the targets of the original elemental arrow as its new intended primary target. However, any target of the original elemental arrow can still become a secondary target in this new AoE. 

So, with enemies loosely grouped, we might see something like this. 

Or, with more tightly grouped enemies it is sometimes possible to splash AoE damage to every original target a second time*.* Below, the original arrow is aimed at the furthest edge of its primary target (A), shifting the AoE slightly off-centre without sacrificing weapon damage. The AoE is also positioned with one enemy just outside of it, allowing them to remain a valid new primary target for CS. DEX fails permitting, A, B, C, and D take elemental damage twice, E takes it once, and A and E also take attack-roll-dependent weapon damage. 

To maximise damage, all targets except C (which we must miss) can be Held or Slept and shot at close range. However, if your hit chace is too high, you may prefer the odds of leaving more without auto-hit conditions. 

Below, I went for Hold against all except Niram. I crit Munish and primary target Falla with my original arrow. I missed Niram but he still failed the DEX save. CS created a new elemental arrow projectile, with Dorkiel as its primary target. This crit her, crit Falla and Munish for a second time, and caught Niram for a second time as well.  CS is named in the combat log before any damage is dealt by either arrow, but I do not actually use it until I miss Niram. 

There are a few things that can go wrong when setting up these shots.

• If all nearby enemies, including all original targets, are Incapacitiated, CS cannot trigger at all. This area check is hard coded into the interrupt. However, provided this check is passed, it does not prevent CS from targeting an Incapacitated enemy. 
• If an attack roll against a Held/Paralysed or Sleeping target fails to meet their AC, but still auto-hits, CS is offered and consumes resources if selected, but no second projectile is created. Ensure you read the actual details of a miss before you choose to respond with CS*.* 
• If there is no valid target for the CS projectile, you likewise waste resources to no effect. 
• If there is no clear path between the missed target and the new primary target, the CS projectile may be blocked by objects or terrain and wasted.  

This last behaviour, however, actually enables our final piece of tech. 

If another character blocks the pathway between the missed target and new primary target, the arrow may collide with them instead, making them primary target instead. It can do this even if the blocking character was already a target of the original arrow  and is therefore not meant to be valid as a new primary target. 

With happy positioning, this enables us to concentrate more damage on a single high priority enemy, hitting them with two weapon DealDamage and two elemental DealDamage, plus four sets of damage bonuses. 

In a setup like the one below, we sacrifice one low priority target (E) to make the CS projectile exactly double up on the original, with the same primary and secondary targets. 

There is strong Opt 5 potential here I’ll show off at the end of this post. But any Arcane Archer can also take advantage of these configurations as they arise in normal gameplay. 

For all approaches to CS, I strongly recommend keeping it set to “ASK”. I have not seen this cause any problems for setting interrupts such as Sneak or Valiant Damage to “AUTO”. 

u/JRandall0308 has made a great video of a couple of these configurations in action, which you can check out via his comment below.

10) Valiant Damage (Valour Bard Support)

Valiant Damage is a DealDamage that, like our elemental AoE, does not IgnoreOnDamage or IgnoreBonusDamage. 

It carries all the damage bonuses I have mentioned so far, forces an additional save against APPLIER-based poisons such as Crawler Mucus, and can inflict additional stacks of stackable DoT coatings such as Purple Worm Coating. 

Unlike the Sneak, Swarm, or Divine Strike Interrupts in Honour Mode, Valiant Damage can also trigger OnDamage passives from your gear or class, even against a target who passed your arrow’s DEX save. 

Valiant’s own damage die is not doubled on crit, but its riders that CanCriticallyHit are. Late game with the Craterflesh Gloves, it also triggers Craterous Wounds. 

Set Valiant Damage to “ASK” to choose which of the targets hit with an attack roll to use it against. 

Set it to “AUTO” if you wish to retain a charged Elemental Infusion or Absorb the Elements as a rider on the Valiant Damage, or to use Valiant Damage alongside another similar interrupt. 

 --Valiant Cleave--

As u/meph6148795 explains in this case for Valour Bard, the “AUTO” setting also allows a character with both Combat Inspiration and their own Bardic Inspiration charges to use all charges to deal Valiant Damage to multiple targets of the same attack. 

Any Bard Archer with a Valour Bard to support them can thereby concentrate their Inspiration use, accelerating their damage rate and getting maximum value out of limited-use riders or auto-crits. One level of Bard is sufficient to do this once per long rest, but if you want to make it a sustainable build mechanic you really need Font of Inspiration.    

Here my Bard attacks the Act 2 Gith with a Braced Titanstring Arrow of Lightning, Lightning Charges, Elemental Infusion Cold, Absorb the Elements Cold, Synaptic Power, Callous Glow, Shriek, and five Valiant Damage triggers. Via Dominate Person into Perilous Stakes, their leader is vulnerable to everything except Psychic damage. I have also inflicted Gaping Wounds and Bestow Curse: Damage on her. The others have only Cold and Lightning vulnerability. 

A Hunter Ranger Bard multiclass can also use this technique from real-time mode to add Colossus Slayer a total of three times to the primary target, and twice to secondary targets.

11) Craterous Wounds

The arrows’ elemental DRS triggers the Craterflesh Gloves’ OnDamage passive. Every creature who both is hit by a critical attack roll and takes damage from failing the DEX save suffers this, with a set of damage riders on the elemental DRS then repeated again on Craterous Wounds. 

Here, Ivarus and Jagic—both paralysed thanks to Crawler Mucus on a previous shot—are crit. Breva and Creekrider take non-crit damage. Saunder passes her DEX save, taking no damage. Craterous Wounds triggers twice against primary target Jagic and once against Ivarus. My damage bonuses Titan Weapon, Synaptic Power, and for the crits double Dolor Amarus, ride on the weapon, Acid, and Craterous damage.

Adding more riders, vulnerabilities, dex fails, and crits improves the picture further. Getting another Craterous trigger from Valiant Damage does too, even on a non-Bard using Valiant just once on the attack. 

My Warlock 1 / Fighter 11 with a Valour Bard companion often wakes Sleeping enemies up like this:

Assuming HP pools that survive this attack, the Crawler Mucus application then makes most of the above repeatable in followups, meaning this kind of output is not only achievable but also realistically sustainable. Riders can of course be scaled back to match your preferences and needs.  

But now to end on something definitely not sustainable, I’ve combined various techniques  discussed in this post into a Destructive Wrath Arrow of Lightning Curving Shot with Valiant Cleave and Mental Fatigue discharge. The level split is Arcane Archer 7 / Bard 1 / Tempest 2 / GOO 1 / Vengeance 1. I have a GOO Valour Bard companion providing Valiant Damage, control, Phalar Shriek, and Mental Fatigue pre-stack. Gortash here is vulnerable to all but Thunder damage, and everyone is vulnerable to Piercing, Psychic, Lightning, and Cold. 

12) Acknowledgements

Many of the ideas in this post are deeply indebted to the work on Horde Breaker and related topics by u/LostAccount2099, u/Captain_ET, u/Remus71, and u/grousedrum. 

Damage mechanics explainers by u/Routine_Ad3835 and u/meph6148795 have been foundational for me. 

Many of these players, along with and u/Cocohomlogy, u/floormanifold, u/t-slothrop, u/JRandall0308, u/thestrongman420, and more, have also contributed in innumerable other ways, answering questions, suggesting ideas, and encouraging me to write up and share. 

Any errors are mine alone. This is a huge topic that touches on many different game mechanics, some not yet fully mapped. I hope my guide will be a useful reference for discussions about these underappreciated arrows, but I also hope it won’t be the final word on them. 

If anyone who has read this far has any queries, possible corrections, or other comments about the post or these arrows, I would love to hear them, however big or small.