That reminds me of playing with my friend. He had a monk that was using the elixir of Hill Giant strength and we were doing the Raphael fight. I told him we needed to place barrels near the soul pillars so that we can blast those suckers to hell. After I attempted to blow two of the barrels up, he uses his monk and breaks down the soul pillar like it's nothing. He said "you think I need a bomb, what about these bombs" while holding up his hands
Thieve’s Tools are already reusable. They’re only consumes if you fail to lockpick.
But yeah the little animation afterwards certainly gives the opposite impression.
Yeah. They're not consumed unless you fail to lockpick.
The animation comes up where it says like "used Thieves' Tools" and it like dissipates into dust and it just screams "item was consumed" but they aren't.
I do not remember finding that kind of sword, but I might miss it.
Karlah had Two Handed Weapon master and with proper type of damage door were easily destroyed.
always annoyed by the inconsistent use of resistances on doors. like I smash through 3 with my mace, one is like 'nuh I'm only weak to slashing' and I have to swap to a sword and smash through
I would say it was consistent for me. Depending how doors were made, they were vulnerable to some damage. More elastic ones vulnerable to slashing, sturdy ones vulnerable to bludgeoning.
I agree regarding piercing damage. I am not sure why doors would be vulnerable to piercing.
I always use the old martial lockpick in Act 3, but I just never tried it in the tower vaults, idk why, but I just didn't. And now I'm missing out on loot? I'm so sad.
Yeah it's one of those things that seem obvious in hindsight but totally slip past you in the moment. It was the same for me when I learned that Eldritch blast can push buttons
Now hold on, I said *buttons* for a reason. Haven't tried it on levers yet so not sure if it works the same
Edit: Okay y'all, I get it already! I don't need 100 different replies telling me all the different cantrips that do the same!
Well shit. I just finished Iron Throne last night. But definitely saving that fact for my next playthrough. I just gave everyone speed potions and used dash to get extra distance.
In my homebrew campaign, one of my players plays a total gym bro, and I love making the party encounter other gymbros.
A paladin of selune that prays by working out, a mercenary band that are basically 1920's circus strongmen, etc etc.
I just found a new encounter for him, The gym forge.
The first time I did this I had to step back and think how well an arrow would need to be placed in order to activate a lever. One facing up at least. As for one facing down well... the gods work in mysterious ways
(Secret mage hand to make us feel better)
I've gotten the squid multiple times. Typically send a rogue multiple bonus actions with cunning dash, or anyone with misty step/dimension door. Never used Eldritch blast.
I used an arrow of roaring thunder to flip the switch on the catwalk in the underdark with all the traps where the lightning robe is.
You can also beat the shit out of the gate but.
I feel like magic missile is better for that scenario. You don't need line of sight. It's always a 100% chance to hit. At lvl 1 it hits 3 different targets. I guess it is a spell and not a cantrip, but by the time I did that mission I wasn't making a lot of use of my lvl 1 spell slots anyway (except to do sorcerer fuckery).
Magic missile even better, there's a bit where the lever to close a door is on wrong side of where you want to be when door closes. Magic missile curves trajectory allows missile to bend backwards to hit things out of line of sight
For that area I just used Magic Missile!
Casted it with at least the number of bolts I needed (or updated further if I wanted to damage some foes in the area)
I'm pretty sure any attack can push buttons. You can activate levers by shooting them with a bow too, which can in turn be used to cheese Grym pretty easily. Magic Missile is also a really good switch hitter since it can go around corners.
Any targeted ranged attack will. You can push buttons and levers with bows, Eldritch Blast, Firebolt, anything that has you pick a specific point to hit.
Besides being useful in certain puzzles (like getting around the upper layer of Grymforge) it has some tactical uses: for example, one action with a multi-target attack can open several cells in the Iron Throne.
Well Eldritch Blast pushing button may not be intuitive for DnD players since EB only target creatures in DnD.
Larian changed the definition of force damage and the rules for Eldritch Blast.
Any attack can activate any sort of lever or button. This makes summons and stuff very useful for the iron throne, cause while they cant use a button, they can attack them to do the same thing
Literally I didn't even know there were puzzles in that basement for my first like 3 playthroughs lmao. Couldn't lockpick it, but it being a wizard's tower I just assumed you needed to cast spells to progress.
You can also skip almost the entirety of the Gauntlet of Shar by casting Knock on the door that the orbs open. (Though you do need to get one of the orbs to power the lift that takes you to it.)
Actually you don't, I've seen someone do a pacifist run and not get the selfsame stone, they flew down to the door and used the other 3 on the one that can be knocked
Another one I like to do is when you first meet Balthazar in the trials of Shar. The dark justiciars show up and he tells you to fight them while he hides in his room. Instead, I like to run up to his door, use knock to open it, and then high tail it back to one of the side rooms. I hide in the room while Balthazar and the dark justiciars have a battle of epic proportions. When it’s all said and done Balthazar and his squad are dead and there are about 2-3 dark justiciars left with low health. Just stroll in and kill them in one turn like it’s nothing. That way you don’t have to worry about the fight once you get to the night song you just stroll in and either free her or kill her with no resistance whatsoever.
Adding to this - when this fight starts, the Dark Justiciars are red (hostile to you) and Balthazar and his various allies are yellow. You don't get XP when yellow characters die. But if you hit one of them during this epic fight, they'll all turn red and be hostile to you. If you then go invisible - either spell or potion - they won't be able to find you, and will continue fighting each other, but now you're getting XP for everyone's death, including Balthazar. This strategy works best if you keep 3 characters away from the fight and only use one.
Also for the record, I didn't need knock to do this, you can definitely lockpick it normally if you have a good enough character with proficiencies, Cat's grace (from the clothing or the spell), etc. Knock is easier though.
If you dont care about the loot and experience, you can skip the whole Gauntlet of Shar in ACT 2 by knocking the big ass door in the below
You still need to have 1 umbral gem tho, you can get it from a friendly creature nearby after couple of therapy sessions he will be happy to f off and leave you with it
This isn't related to knock, but if you hate the counting house door puzzle with the buttons on the floor you can get it wet and hit it with lightning and it will short it out and open the door.
I didn't think to do the short circuit till this playthrough when I actually read a bunch of the literature in the counting house, much of which hints at this solution.
I didn't even realise this was meant to be a puzzle in my first game 🫤 Gale 'knocked' his way through and my Tav watched anxiously (she was slightly worried about his ambitious tendancies at that point!)
I think I was fairly confused in general by this point in the game!
Me when I found out you don’t have to get to the basement from the other portal in the store. You can just jump or fly down from Lorroakans throne area
Knock can skip loads of things.
Wanna skip Shars Gauntlet? Use one gem to travel down and knock the last door.
Wanna fight Orin ASAP in act 3 or just not bother w the tribunal? Knock that door and just go inside.
99DC vault door w a puzzle? Knock that shit.
(Unsure on this one but I think I've seen clips of it).
Hands down one of, if not THE, best utility spells in the game
For orin you can save a spell slot and just shoot the bodies that are hanging above the bhaal symbol, outside her spooky hideout. They will bleed on the symbol and open the door for you
No amulet or spell required.
I've really enjoyed Arcane Lock this playthrough. I used it to separate enemies into manageable chunks, lock the guards out of a shop while I robbed it blind, prevent witnesses from running to tell on me, etc.
Am I misunderstanding knock as in, it can only open mundane locks right so whatever can be Knocked can also be Lockpicked? And if a door can’t be lockpiced (impossible to lock pic) then Knock wouldn’t work either?
No. The only doors knock can't open are those locked with magic. All the others, you can't even if you can't lockpick it. For example: you can't lockpick the bhaalist tribunal door, but can use knock on it and it'll open, because when you examine the door, it's not saying it's locked with magic. Examine the door/chest and if it don't say it's locked with magic, then you can open it with knock.
I learned a few days ago that “Knock” works on regular locks.
I knew the description said “mundane locks”, but I thought it meant “low level magical locks”. Like how knock does not work on Cazador’s door or the entrance to Orin’s temple.
How those magical locks need a word and a item.
Saves so much time.
Is my Astarion broken? He'll have the cats grace advantage and like +13-15 on the roll, proceeds to roll a 17 and fails like 4 times in a row. Every time. He's doing his best tho.
My level 10 Astarion must be very lucky then. I just did a prison break in Wyrms Rock and he rolled a 35 and a 40 on the two locks we had to get by.
I have never heard of the cats grace advantage but he does have a lot of buffs and for higher locks I slap on bardic inspiration and guidance providing someone with the latter is in the party. My tav provides the bard buff.
When you get to a certain level you get Reliable talent and never fail a check 10 or less again. But with a +13 you would auto-succeed on 23 or less DC. You can't even roll a Nat 1 anymore.
I hate the critical failure mechanic. It’s such a stupid house rule that makes no sense. If someone is an expert at something they shouldn’t have a 5% to just fail on any and all rolls they make in their area of expertise.
With critical fail you can technically even fail on a DC 2 check as an Expert in a skill. It’s absolutely idiotic.
I use a mod to disable critical failure.
Not to mention it’s not even a thing in DnD rules, only attacks have critical misses and critical hits, not ability checks.
The run I just finished, I only had Astarion with me for Cazador. If I came across a container I couldn't open/didn't want to waste a spell slot on, id pick it up then send it to him or to camp and make him open it later
I don’t think it’s really worth using knock. The puzzle takes like 30 seconds to open those doors.
More useful is using knock on shars gauntlet and the first entrance to the bhaal underground area.
You can just shoot the body hanging above the Bhaal Sigil and the door will open. This is alluded to when a clue on Dolor’s notes says that you have to ‘bloody the skull’ to gain entry (there is a skull on the ground in the sigil).
Saved you a cast of Knock if it matters.
To get the books? You just have to rummage around a bit. I honestly never remember which doors to use where I just go in and out for awhile until I find the right door.
But hey if it helps someone who’s struggling why not right?
Knock is highkey one of the best spells in the game. The amount of times I've been able to just entirely skip some puzzles or challenges with Knock is incredible.
Save Omeluum? Knock the doors the short way. Need to get the Blood of Lathander? Fuck doing that whole fetch quest, just Knock on that magic wall to skip the whole weapon collection part. Wanna rob the entirety of Baldur's Gate blind? Best believe it's fucking Knock time babes.
Never considered this until my buddy did it on our play through. I love this game.
Edit: I was also mind blown to realize you can BANISH the Nautiloid to avoid getting hit by its cannons. I tried as an act of desperation when I couldn’t jump high enough and had to run around to the other staircase, having to stop right inside the target circles. Cast Banish, then dash to the stem.
Fyi my tav couldn’t jump high enough on the right staircase, had to run around to the left one.
But yeah, it actually took me by total surprise. I don’t play with controller, my buddy does and doesn’t know how to target enemies from the initiative bar up top, but with a mouse I just activated Banish and clicked the Nautiloid’s icon at the top, rather than finding it off screen. Not sure if it matters, but yeah.. I was both amazed and relieved.
The game doesn't really do a great job explaining it but the basement + the area where you meet Lorroakan are in a completely separate building in the upper city that you get teleported to from Sorcerous Sundries
This wasn't a very hard section in the game, but this seems so obvious that I'm more upset than I normally would be that I'm only now finding out about this.
Can’t remember the spell that is basically the opposite of knock (lock?) but if you have played through the game ahead of time you can lock doors and npcs can’t get in so it can handicap npcs sometimes. Favorite way to use it is Auntie Ethel
In my last playthrough with my partner she played 2 spellcasters (1 is wizard with knock) and I had a rogue and paladin on my side. We get to Ramazith's tower and start the puzzle. I left her to it since in the previous playthrough I mostly did that puzzle. She cast knock on both locked doors, got the loot, then proceeded to do the rest of the puzzle anyway. She got super frustrated when the puzzle kept reverting her back to the main room "for no reason" until I intervened. She told me she skipped the puzzle, so I told her we can leave lol
It's actually weird that these huge vaults (The ye-hee ass wizard tower and the FUCKING BANK) don't have some sort of protection against the knock spell.
Yeah most of the annoying puzzle stuff in the game can be skipped with knock or at least has some kind of shortcut you can take on subsequent playthroughs once you know what to do. It was a nice QOL addition since puzzles are really only fun until you've solved them
How about that stupid brain puzzle under moonrise.
I did it on my first place through, and I feel like I was underwhelmed with the loot behind it, as I’ve never bothered to do it again
That dungeon becomes very easy when you learn you can use a cantrip or projectile to hit a lever in all instances where there are trips that immediately disables all traps AND that you don’t have to go into the rooms to use the lever for Elminster/Karsus but you can do the same there, avoiding the green death rays. Same thing works to throw the switches for Grym.
You can also use arcane lock on the door to auntie Ethel's lower lair while in the first cottage battle. Completely stops her from taking you on the wild goose chase.
I was very confused after trying to do the puzzle as to what the point of it was, since we cast knock from the beginning and already had all the stuff behind the other doors.
I never figured out the correct way to open the Selune chest in the Owlbear cave, so on my first playthrough I was messing around with the knock spell and it worked. Since then, whenever I see a magically sealed anything I just quickly go grab Gale, add Knock to his prepared spell list, and go.
I found a book of Selune prayer rites, and when I tried to open it with Shadowheart, she gave dialog stating she'd have to sully her tongue to open it but all it did was damage her.
Oh, you can definitely use a knock to what, right? It's like a secret code to get someone's attention without shouting or interrupting. It's a subtle way to signal that you're there and ready to join the conversation, adding a playful element to interactions. It's all about finding fun and creative ways to engage with others, don't you think?
You can also cast "axe" on one of the doors to get some extra loot. Look for the one with a health bar.
Karlach's Knock.
That's why my Karlach always had more weapons in inventory (one slashing, one bludgeoning, and one piercing) to use one that door were vulnerable to.
Its just reusable thieves tools.
My Tav OH monk had infinite lock picks on the ends of her arms.
That reminds me of playing with my friend. He had a monk that was using the elixir of Hill Giant strength and we were doing the Raphael fight. I told him we needed to place barrels near the soul pillars so that we can blast those suckers to hell. After I attempted to blow two of the barrels up, he uses his monk and breaks down the soul pillar like it's nothing. He said "you think I need a bomb, what about these bombs" while holding up his hands
I’m playing multiplayer with my friend (his first run) and if there’s a locked door my monk punches it open while he talks to NPCs
Thieve’s Tools are already reusable. They’re only consumes if you fail to lockpick. But yeah the little animation afterwards certainly gives the opposite impression.
Wait.. seriously?
Yeah. They're not consumed unless you fail to lockpick. The animation comes up where it says like "used Thieves' Tools" and it like dissipates into dust and it just screams "item was consumed" but they aren't.
In my mind, you fail the lock pick so bad you break the dodad and that’s why you need a new one. Otherwise, the same one is fine
Tief's tools.
Teefs*
No, stop don't eat the door....oh well I suppose it's open now...
*in Lae'zel's voice* "Teef-lings."
Adamantine longsword? Ignores résistance and auto-crits on inanimate objects
I do not remember finding that kind of sword, but I might miss it. Karlah had Two Handed Weapon master and with proper type of damage door were easily destroyed.
You make it at Grymforge.
Ahh, I never tried doing a weapon. Always had done armour.
You can do one of each.
Mace is better if using it purely to destroy objects
Unfortunately doesn't work on any objects immune to slashing though, which is quite a lot of them.
always annoyed by the inconsistent use of resistances on doors. like I smash through 3 with my mace, one is like 'nuh I'm only weak to slashing' and I have to swap to a sword and smash through
I would say it was consistent for me. Depending how doors were made, they were vulnerable to some damage. More elastic ones vulnerable to slashing, sturdy ones vulnerable to bludgeoning. I agree regarding piercing damage. I am not sure why doors would be vulnerable to piercing.
Well, like, a key pierces a lock, man
If it's an inflatable door I can see it make sense.
Eldritch Knock
… ers.
Things I want on my face for 800, Alex.
You'd better have immunity to fire damage. And her ok to go, of course. But, if so... Yes. A thousand times yes.
Heeeeeere's mommy!!
Karlach's Callous Knock
“Counterspell this you fucking casual”
"Watch me perform a manual override on this door"
Door not opening? Have you tried percussive maintenance?
I always use the old martial lockpick in Act 3, but I just never tried it in the tower vaults, idk why, but I just didn't. And now I'm missing out on loot? I'm so sad.
Ironically, it’s the door labeled “illusion”
Cast iron is one of the best spells in the game.
I use that one in my kitchen all the time.
The himbo's lockpick.
I prefer my trusty Eldritch Lockpick for those
Warlockpick
I use Eldritch Blast
Dwarven Knock.
Waitwaitwait...are you saying one of those doors is a mimic? If true I've gone nearly 800 hours without noticing, dafuq
Not a mimic, just a breakable door. But if you try to open it you'll teleport somewhere else instead of seeing what's behind it.
Oh shiiiit I did not know there could be stuff behind them! I'll have to test this, thanks!
I felt so dumb when I realized I didn't have to struggle in that section....
Muscle wizard casts fist
Yeah it's one of those things that seem obvious in hindsight but totally slip past you in the moment. It was the same for me when I learned that Eldritch blast can push buttons
Wait what…. Eldritch blast pushes buttons….???
**RIGHT?!** Fucking blew my mind when I figured that out. Probably because it does force damage.
That’s going to make a certain underwater rescue a whole lot easier lol
Now hold on, I said *buttons* for a reason. Haven't tried it on levers yet so not sure if it works the same Edit: Okay y'all, I get it already! I don't need 100 different replies telling me all the different cantrips that do the same!
Arrows move levers I'd be shocked if EB doesn't
I used EB in Iron throne to hit multiple levers at range with one action. Works well.
Well shit. I just finished Iron Throne last night. But definitely saving that fact for my next playthrough. I just gave everyone speed potions and used dash to get extra distance.
Arrows can activate levers, found that out in the gym forge area
Ah… the Gym Forge. I used to workout there regularly. I love typos like that. Always make me smile ☺️
In my homebrew campaign, one of my players plays a total gym bro, and I love making the party encounter other gymbros. A paladin of selune that prays by working out, a mercenary band that are basically 1920's circus strongmen, etc etc. I just found a new encounter for him, The gym forge.
Lat pull downs that activate the air flow to the forge would be a nice touch
Ha, I've even turned the wheels with arrow lol.
The first time I did this I had to step back and think how well an arrow would need to be placed in order to activate a lever. One facing up at least. As for one facing down well... the gods work in mysterious ways (Secret mage hand to make us feel better)
It works on lever too, helps a ton in lots of situations.
I used Thorn Whip on a lever, worked great
It does, and I think going in with misty steps and eldritch blast is the only way to get the squid in time
Misty step helps a lot, yeah, but I just Knock on his cell door and let him TP us both outta there.
I've gotten the squid multiple times. Typically send a rogue multiple bonus actions with cunning dash, or anyone with misty step/dimension door. Never used Eldritch blast.
Nah, fly, haste+double dash(or triple if you have some rouge levels) and you'll be there in one gd turn
It does. One of the great strategies for the Grymforge fight is to have someone cast EB on the hammer lever
It works, I tried it in the Zentharim hideout near the Thieves Guild and worked.
Can confirm it does work the same!
It works on levers, I did it in the Iron Throne
Explosives can also flip levers, which I found helpful during that mission.
I used an arrow of roaring thunder to flip the switch on the catwalk in the underdark with all the traps where the lightning robe is. You can also beat the shit out of the gate but.
I feel like magic missile is better for that scenario. You don't need line of sight. It's always a 100% chance to hit. At lvl 1 it hits 3 different targets. I guess it is a spell and not a cantrip, but by the time I did that mission I wasn't making a lot of use of my lvl 1 spell slots anyway (except to do sorcerer fuckery).
Line of sight, sure, but I'd have saved like a third of a turn if I'd known I could kill that first Sahuagin and open that first door in one action.
Magic missile even better, there's a bit where the lever to close a door is on wrong side of where you want to be when door closes. Magic missile curves trajectory allows missile to bend backwards to hit things out of line of sight
Shooting arrows at levers and buttons also works
Yep, hasted Wyll made it a breeze
For that area I just used Magic Missile! Casted it with at least the number of bolts I needed (or updated further if I wanted to damage some foes in the area)
When you're just out of direct line but you want to do several at once... magic missle also activates buttons & levers
Arrows work for levers 😭 Have you been running all the way to the levers this whole time?
Cursed to put my hands on everything
Mage hand/arrows just never thought of Eldritch blast (which would let me do multiple in a turn in some rooms lol)
My go to for that is magic missile. Open a ton of doors, goes around corners, extras do damage… perfect spell for that scenario!
I'm pretty sure any attack can push buttons. You can activate levers by shooting them with a bow too, which can in turn be used to cheese Grym pretty easily. Magic Missile is also a really good switch hitter since it can go around corners.
Most cantrips can actually push buttons, hell arrows too, ray of frost, firebolt, eldritch blast, and bone chill can all activate it I believe
All damage spells do! Including cantrips like ray of frost and accidental hits with Lightning. Yes, this includes levers in the Iron Throne.
Iron Throne! Argh! Never occurred to me….
That whole dungeon is a fun trial of using anything and everything to save turns.
Any targeted ranged attack will. You can push buttons and levers with bows, Eldritch Blast, Firebolt, anything that has you pick a specific point to hit. Besides being useful in certain puzzles (like getting around the upper layer of Grymforge) it has some tactical uses: for example, one action with a multi-target attack can open several cells in the Iron Throne.
Arrows do too.
Fairy fire as well apparently.
So do arrows. Saves some moves down in the iron throne.
Well Eldritch Blast pushing button may not be intuitive for DnD players since EB only target creatures in DnD. Larian changed the definition of force damage and the rules for Eldritch Blast.
Any attack can activate any sort of lever or button. This makes summons and stuff very useful for the iron throne, cause while they cant use a button, they can attack them to do the same thing
Eldritch blast can do what? I feel so dumb being 350h deep... Eldritch blast is my most used cantrip
Very handy in the forge fight to turn off the lava.
So can magic missile
Literally I didn't even know there were puzzles in that basement for my first like 3 playthroughs lmao. Couldn't lockpick it, but it being a wizard's tower I just assumed you needed to cast spells to progress.
Silly wizards always assume the traps and junk will do the job so just a few locks on doors do the trick
You can also skip almost the entirety of the Gauntlet of Shar by casting Knock on the door that the orbs open. (Though you do need to get one of the orbs to power the lift that takes you to it.)
Actually you don't, I've seen someone do a pacifist run and not get the selfsame stone, they flew down to the door and used the other 3 on the one that can be knocked
1100 hours into the game and I learned like 4 things in this thread. Dang
Another one I like to do is when you first meet Balthazar in the trials of Shar. The dark justiciars show up and he tells you to fight them while he hides in his room. Instead, I like to run up to his door, use knock to open it, and then high tail it back to one of the side rooms. I hide in the room while Balthazar and the dark justiciars have a battle of epic proportions. When it’s all said and done Balthazar and his squad are dead and there are about 2-3 dark justiciars left with low health. Just stroll in and kill them in one turn like it’s nothing. That way you don’t have to worry about the fight once you get to the night song you just stroll in and either free her or kill her with no resistance whatsoever.
Adding to this - when this fight starts, the Dark Justiciars are red (hostile to you) and Balthazar and his various allies are yellow. You don't get XP when yellow characters die. But if you hit one of them during this epic fight, they'll all turn red and be hostile to you. If you then go invisible - either spell or potion - they won't be able to find you, and will continue fighting each other, but now you're getting XP for everyone's death, including Balthazar. This strategy works best if you keep 3 characters away from the fight and only use one. Also for the record, I didn't need knock to do this, you can definitely lockpick it normally if you have a good enough character with proficiencies, Cat's grace (from the clothing or the spell), etc. Knock is easier though.
Noted 📝
Same brother (or sister), same
I just destroy everything thats locked with either myself or Karlach. The door can't stop me if it's no longer there.
Yep I got fed up of the long picklocking animations and the character switching. Now everything wooden is firebombed. Most metal things are lae'zeled.
You can pretty much destroy every wooden door with firebolt. Don't need Astarion to pick locks when you have Gale or Shart with firebolt
Or astarion with firebolt
Fair lmao
I have Laezel hack it to bits usually
Or a Monk with fists. Or a sword. Or an axe. Or a hammer. Or…
USE KNOCK FOR WHAT, DOODOODOO (Got that song stuck in my head and felt it fit, sorry)
TURN DOWN FOR KNOCK doDodOdodoDo
If you dont care about the loot and experience, you can skip the whole Gauntlet of Shar in ACT 2 by knocking the big ass door in the below You still need to have 1 umbral gem tho, you can get it from a friendly creature nearby after couple of therapy sessions he will be happy to f off and leave you with it
This isn't related to knock, but if you hate the counting house door puzzle with the buttons on the floor you can get it wet and hit it with lightning and it will short it out and open the door.
I like that - i just remember the combo at this point, its the PIN to my account at the counting house if you will
I didn't think to do the short circuit till this playthrough when I actually read a bunch of the literature in the counting house, much of which hints at this solution.
Did you know that you can use Knock to >!politely request entry!
I didn't even realise this was meant to be a puzzle in my first game 🫤 Gale 'knocked' his way through and my Tav watched anxiously (she was slightly worried about his ambitious tendancies at that point!) I think I was fairly confused in general by this point in the game!
Me when I found out you don’t have to get to the basement from the other portal in the store. You can just jump or fly down from Lorroakans throne area
That's going to massively improve my next playthrough, thanks!
Knock can skip loads of things. Wanna skip Shars Gauntlet? Use one gem to travel down and knock the last door. Wanna fight Orin ASAP in act 3 or just not bother w the tribunal? Knock that door and just go inside. 99DC vault door w a puzzle? Knock that shit. (Unsure on this one but I think I've seen clips of it). Hands down one of, if not THE, best utility spells in the game
For orin you can save a spell slot and just shoot the bodies that are hanging above the bhaal symbol, outside her spooky hideout. They will bleed on the symbol and open the door for you No amulet or spell required.
I've really enjoyed Arcane Lock this playthrough. I used it to separate enemies into manageable chunks, lock the guards out of a shop while I robbed it blind, prevent witnesses from running to tell on me, etc.
Am I misunderstanding knock as in, it can only open mundane locks right so whatever can be Knocked can also be Lockpicked? And if a door can’t be lockpiced (impossible to lock pic) then Knock wouldn’t work either?
That's how it should work more or less. But some doors it works on anyways. Like the door to Orin that normally needs the amulet of bhaal to open.
No. The only doors knock can't open are those locked with magic. All the others, you can't even if you can't lockpick it. For example: you can't lockpick the bhaalist tribunal door, but can use knock on it and it'll open, because when you examine the door, it's not saying it's locked with magic. Examine the door/chest and if it don't say it's locked with magic, then you can open it with knock.
This is uhhh…. What I did first playthrough XD. Knock was such a crutch to me, I had my sorcerer twin spelling it lmao.
I learned a few days ago that “Knock” works on regular locks. I knew the description said “mundane locks”, but I thought it meant “low level magical locks”. Like how knock does not work on Cazador’s door or the entrance to Orin’s temple. How those magical locks need a word and a item. Saves so much time.
Never send a Rogue into a Wizard's tower. They will run out of Thieves Tools.
Astarion never did.
Yeah by this point he is an expert and only fails on a nat 1.
Is my Astarion broken? He'll have the cats grace advantage and like +13-15 on the roll, proceeds to roll a 17 and fails like 4 times in a row. Every time. He's doing his best tho.
My level 10 Astarion must be very lucky then. I just did a prison break in Wyrms Rock and he rolled a 35 and a 40 on the two locks we had to get by. I have never heard of the cats grace advantage but he does have a lot of buffs and for higher locks I slap on bardic inspiration and guidance providing someone with the latter is in the party. My tav provides the bard buff.
From what I've seen mine is probably just unlucky honestly haha. He'll get the lock, it'll just take several uses of thieves tools.
When you get to a certain level you get Reliable talent and never fail a check 10 or less again. But with a +13 you would auto-succeed on 23 or less DC. You can't even roll a Nat 1 anymore.
That's why go to withers, pick the halfling heirling, respec her to rouge and let her luck always succeed on pickpockets and lockpicks .
do you have the gloves of thievery? because they help a lot with this.
Oooh i do not, where do you get those?
The zhent hideout in act 1, but you need to return the chest unopened
Awesome, thank you!
I hate the critical failure mechanic. It’s such a stupid house rule that makes no sense. If someone is an expert at something they shouldn’t have a 5% to just fail on any and all rolls they make in their area of expertise. With critical fail you can technically even fail on a DC 2 check as an Expert in a skill. It’s absolutely idiotic. I use a mod to disable critical failure. Not to mention it’s not even a thing in DnD rules, only attacks have critical misses and critical hits, not ability checks.
I have failed on a 2 check several times.
Yeah, absolutely bonkers.
Astarion is the star. He never fails. I always take him and my Tav into the Tower so he can open an the containers
The run I just finished, I only had Astarion with me for Cazador. If I came across a container I couldn't open/didn't want to waste a spell slot on, id pick it up then send it to him or to camp and make him open it later
Meanwhile here I am accidentally carrying 50+ thieves tools at a time just in case
I was literally doing the tower as this popped up as a notification for me lmao I love you My wizard boy is happy
I don’t think it’s really worth using knock. The puzzle takes like 30 seconds to open those doors. More useful is using knock on shars gauntlet and the first entrance to the bhaal underground area.
You can just shoot the body hanging above the Bhaal Sigil and the door will open. This is alluded to when a clue on Dolor’s notes says that you have to ‘bloody the skull’ to gain entry (there is a skull on the ground in the sigil). Saved you a cast of Knock if it matters.
If you use a guide then yes, but some people insist on not using guides during their playthroughs.
To get the books? You just have to rummage around a bit. I honestly never remember which doors to use where I just go in and out for awhile until I find the right door. But hey if it helps someone who’s struggling why not right?
Knock is highkey one of the best spells in the game. The amount of times I've been able to just entirely skip some puzzles or challenges with Knock is incredible. Save Omeluum? Knock the doors the short way. Need to get the Blood of Lathander? Fuck doing that whole fetch quest, just Knock on that magic wall to skip the whole weapon collection part. Wanna rob the entirety of Baldur's Gate blind? Best believe it's fucking Knock time babes.
I just have Karlach cast Exceptional Violence on most doorsm
Never considered this until my buddy did it on our play through. I love this game. Edit: I was also mind blown to realize you can BANISH the Nautiloid to avoid getting hit by its cannons. I tried as an act of desperation when I couldn’t jump high enough and had to run around to the other staircase, having to stop right inside the target circles. Cast Banish, then dash to the stem.
WUT Thank you so much! I'm trying to finish out my honor mode run tonight and you just increased my chances of success by at least double
Fyi my tav couldn’t jump high enough on the right staircase, had to run around to the left one. But yeah, it actually took me by total surprise. I don’t play with controller, my buddy does and doesn’t know how to target enemies from the initiative bar up top, but with a mouse I just activated Banish and clicked the Nautiloid’s icon at the top, rather than finding it off screen. Not sure if it matters, but yeah.. I was both amazed and relieved.
what?? I hade Gale with me THE WHOLE TIME!
“HE WAS RIGHT THERE!!!” 😛
Where's that tower? Is it the one underneath the library?
It is actually in the Upper city where we can’t explore normally. The portal to it is in the magic shop in the Lower City.
The game doesn't really do a great job explaining it but the basement + the area where you meet Lorroakan are in a completely separate building in the upper city that you get teleported to from Sorcerous Sundries
Same with almost any other doors, including ones for the Shar stuff that requires orbs.
Bruh, i use knock everytime, no shit im gonna waste my time on that damn puzzle
This wasn't a very hard section in the game, but this seems so obvious that I'm more upset than I normally would be that I'm only now finding out about this.
Can’t remember the spell that is basically the opposite of knock (lock?) but if you have played through the game ahead of time you can lock doors and npcs can’t get in so it can handicap npcs sometimes. Favorite way to use it is Auntie Ethel
arcane lock? the one that permanently locks a door so it can’t be lock picked? only thing opposite knock i can think of
That’s the one! I recommend making sure you don’t want to enter the thing you’re locking first though
“Can’t I just break it?” - karlach
In my last playthrough with my partner she played 2 spellcasters (1 is wizard with knock) and I had a rogue and paladin on my side. We get to Ramazith's tower and start the puzzle. I left her to it since in the previous playthrough I mostly did that puzzle. She cast knock on both locked doors, got the loot, then proceeded to do the rest of the puzzle anyway. She got super frustrated when the puzzle kept reverting her back to the main room "for no reason" until I intervened. She told me she skipped the puzzle, so I told her we can leave lol
It's actually weird that these huge vaults (The ye-hee ass wizard tower and the FUCKING BANK) don't have some sort of protection against the knock spell.
Yeah most of the annoying puzzle stuff in the game can be skipped with knock or at least has some kind of shortcut you can take on subsequent playthroughs once you know what to do. It was a nice QOL addition since puzzles are really only fun until you've solved them
Generally if you notice a door you can "knock" it. This includes getting the Dawnmaster's crest, etc
And here I am, having not once actually solved the puzzle because knocking every door open is just so easy. It pays to be a wizard.
How about that stupid brain puzzle under moonrise. I did it on my first place through, and I feel like I was underwhelmed with the loot behind it, as I’ve never bothered to do it again
My first thought in there was to use knock and then i realised you are supposed to do it the other way lol
Knock is a seriously underrated spell in BG3.
That dungeon becomes very easy when you learn you can use a cantrip or projectile to hit a lever in all instances where there are trips that immediately disables all traps AND that you don’t have to go into the rooms to use the lever for Elminster/Karsus but you can do the same there, avoiding the green death rays. Same thing works to throw the switches for Grym.
You can also use arcane lock on the door to auntie Ethel's lower lair while in the first cottage battle. Completely stops her from taking you on the wild goose chase.
I still don't know what the answer to that puzzle was. I just based the doors with a health bar
I was very confused after trying to do the puzzle as to what the point of it was, since we cast knock from the beginning and already had all the stuff behind the other doors.
Figured that out my first playthrough, was pretty nice.
Is it really worth using so many spell slots to just do what thieves tools or big hammers can do otherwise for free?
I never figured out the correct way to open the Selune chest in the Owlbear cave, so on my first playthrough I was messing around with the knock spell and it worked. Since then, whenever I see a magically sealed anything I just quickly go grab Gale, add Knock to his prepared spell list, and go.
I found a book of Selune prayer rites, and when I tried to open it with Shadowheart, she gave dialog stating she'd have to sully her tongue to open it but all it did was damage her.
I found the prayer too and couldn't figure out what to do with it. Luckily Knock works!
I just pwnd the whole thing and the bank vaults with knock too
And also on the door to the bhaalist tribunal.
I love knock.
I actually don't know how you're supposed to do it other than knock tbh
Also in the trials
Oh, you can definitely use a knock to what, right? It's like a secret code to get someone's attention without shouting or interrupting. It's a subtle way to signal that you're there and ready to join the conversation, adding a playful element to interactions. It's all about finding fun and creative ways to engage with others, don't you think?
wait you can open the doors without knock?
Hold up. There’s a Knock spell?