Just added him to a new game I've started. I haven't used him as a
companion before.I have Gale and Lae'zel. I'm playing as a ranger.

Anyone have any tactics tips to using to make him effective. He just
impresses me as a bit on the weak. At what level does he become "deadly"

On Fri, 15 Sep 2023 07:27:26 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
DotNettie wrote:

>Just added him to a new game I've started. I haven't used him as a
>companion before.I have Gale and Lae'zel. I'm playing as a ranger.
>
>Anyone have any tactics tips to using to make him effective. He just
>impresses me as a bit on the weak. At what level does he become "deadly"
>
Almost right away.

1) Sneak attack (as an archer)
``````````````````````````````
Get someone next to his target (melee them) and he can do a ranged sneak
attack. Sneak damage is underwhelming at level 2, but just gets better
and better (2d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 5, and rising). Also, get him to
high ground whenever possible to give him a +2 on his range attacks. The
guy is literally "death from above."

Between he and the melee character, they can deal a lot of damage very
quickly. Especially if it's a raging barbarian doing reckless attacks.

Once he gets the invisibility spell (level 2), he can confer advantage on
this without a spotter. But he won't get level 2 spells until he is 7th
level, so that's a bit of a wait. Since invisibility only lasts rounds
instead of 1 hour as in core 5e, getting advantage in combat is about all
it's good for. You'll probably want to save it for Misty Step (see below)
anyway.

He can do cunning action hide too if he's not in a vision cone. More
advantage, more sneak.

Have other characters blind things and that also confers advantage
(Shadowheart is good for this). More ways to do sneak damage.

2) Defending Astarion
`````````````````````
So now we have to keep him from getting cold cocked by someone.

Get him shield (level 1 spell) as soon as you hit level 3 and he is very
hard to hit. Shield is a reaction. It can be taken any time, even out of
his round. As soon as someone scores a hit he can instantly raise his AC
by 5 points for the entire round. Make sure you have that reaction set to
confirm, because sometimes you may just want to take the damage.

Keep him away from melees because that confers disadvantage on his ranged
attacks. If there's no way to avoid that, melee sneak attack is also
pretty good for murder. I think you can get him Misty Step (level 2
spell) for those situations too, which is an up to 30' teleportation to
any line of sight location.

And absolutely, at level 4, get him the "Lucky" feat, which gives him the
ability (3 times per long rest) to make attackers reroll and confer
advantage on picking and disarming. Save it for crits scored on him. It's
a big deal. Do NOT put his DEX to 18.

3) Spells
`````````
Cantrips - Blade Ward and Dancing Lights. Ranged cantrips are useless,
since he's going to sneak bow everything. Blade Ward gives him resistance
(1/2 damage) against common melee damage. I believe Dancing Lights
confers advantage against anything inside it, which you can use if you
can't melee something with another character. Then it's the flavor
cantrip. Mage Hand? Sure. Friends to talk your way out of a theft? Why
not.

Level 1 - Shield, Shield, and Shield. That and Mage Armor. Keep him from
getting hit.

Level 2 - Scorching Ray? By now you should have a handle on this build. I
haven't gotten this far with him so I have little to no advice.

....

So he's best used as a sniper. Really good at it actually. He is far and
away the best companion to do high DC lockpick and trap disarm, but the
sniper ability makes him very deadly.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

I apologize. Some of those spells are on the expanded list and are not
immediately available.

Color Spray is good for blinding things. Advantage. Disguise self is a
ritual and great for stealing things (false identity).

I don't know when you can get Mage Armor from the expanded list, but get
it or get an item.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 9:02:58 AM UTC-7, Zaghadka wrote:
> I apologize. Some of those spells are on the expanded list and are not
> immediately available.
>
> Color Spray is good for blinding things. Advantage. Disguise self is a
> ritual and great for stealing things (false identity).
>
> I don't know when you can get Mage Armor from the expanded list, but get
> it or get an item.

You can have a wizard cast Mage Armor on him - or anyone, but they can't
wear any armor including helms, boots or gloves.

- Justisaur

On 9/15/2023 12:02 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
> I apologize. Some of those spells are on the expanded list and are not
> immediately available.
>
> Color Spray is good for blinding things. Advantage. Disguise self is a
> ritual and great for stealing things (false identity).
>
> I don't know when you can get Mage Armor from the expanded list, but get
> it or get an item.
>

I just got to lev 2 and look forward to what he can start to do at Lev
3. Never occurred to me to dual wield the crossbows,but I think dual
wield comes along a bit later

I dumped the ranger for a bard, so started over again with a bard,
Astarion, Gale and Lae'zel.

Thanks so much for your very helpful post.

D.

On 9/15/2023 1:40 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 4:27:29 AM UTC-7, DotNettie wrote:
>> Just added him to a new game I've started. I haven't used him as a
>> companion before.I have Gale and Lae'zel. I'm playing as a ranger.
>>
>> Anyone have any tactics tips to using to make him effective. He just
>> impresses me as a bit on the weak. At what level does he become "deadly"
>
> If no-one else is using dual hand crossbows, you can have him use those,
> and can use his bonus action to fire the 2nd one.
>
> If you go thief instead of his default of arcane trickster you get an extra
> bonus action which can be used to fire off the secondary again. He
> can't get sneak attack more than once a round, but I found getting it at
> all without someone to stand next to enemies very difficult.
>
> Get sharpshooter at 4th, which gives you a -5 to hit, for +10 damage,
> or skip it until later and change at 3rd to fighter for archery style (+2)
> or ranger gloomstalker for hunter's mark.
>
> Assassin is also good instead of thief, more initial damage, but less
> after.
>
> There's some items that help archery which are good to give him too.
>
> My Theif 4 fighter 4 Astarion dual hand crossbow user was my 2nd
> highest damage dealer.
>
> I will say I enjoy keeping him arcane trickster and swapping him
> in only for stealing, as the spells fog cloud and disguise self make
> him much more effective at it.
>
> - Justisaur

I appreciate you taking the time to give me some tips with Astarion.
Your post was very helpful and I am enjoying playing him at least to Lev
2 so far.

As an aside, in playing the bard, I cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter at the
top of the chapel and had to laugh myself at what the spell did.

Have a great weekend and thanks again.

D.

On Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:44:12 -0700 (PDT), in
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Justisaur wrote:

>On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 9:02:58?AM UTC-7, Zaghadka wrote:
>> I apologize. Some of those spells are on the expanded list and are not
>> immediately available.
>>
>> Color Spray is good for blinding things. Advantage. Disguise self is a
>> ritual and great for stealing things (false identity).
>>
>> I don't know when you can get Mage Armor from the expanded list, but get
>> it or get an item.
>
>You can have a wizard cast Mage Armor on him - or anyone, but they can't
>wear any armor including helms, boots or gloves.
>
Well, boots and gloves aren't a problem in core, nor are hats, but
Larian's gotta Larian.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:40:03 -0700 (PDT), in
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Justisaur wrote:

>On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 4:27:29?AM UTC-7, DotNettie wrote:
>> Just added him to a new game I've started. I haven't used him as a
>> companion before.I have Gale and Lae'zel. I'm playing as a ranger.
>>
>> Anyone have any tactics tips to using to make him effective. He just
>> impresses me as a bit on the weak. At what level does he become "deadly"
>
>If no-one else is using dual hand crossbows, you can have him use those,
>and can use his bonus action to fire the 2nd one.

Do you get sneak damage on *both* crossbows?

Because that ain't core neither, but Larian's gonna Larian.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Saturday, September 16, 2023 at 7:00:52 AM UTC-7, Zaghadka wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:40:03 -0700 (PDT), in
> comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Justisaur wrote:
> >On Friday, September 15, 2023 at 4:27:29?AM UTC-7, DotNettie wrote:
> >> Just added him to a new game I've started. I haven't used him as a
> >> companion before.I have Gale and Lae'zel. I'm playing as a ranger.
> >>
> >> Anyone have any tactics tips to using to make him effective. He just
> >> impresses me as a bit on the weak. At what level does he become "deadly"
> >
> >If no-one else is using dual hand crossbows, you can have him use those,
> >and can use his bonus action to fire the 2nd one.
> Do you get sneak damage on *both* crossbows?
>
> Because that ain't core neither, but Larian's gonna Larian.

No, that's as 5e. Crossbows don't have loading property which slows them
down quite a bit in 5e, so that makes dual ones way better. No dex to damage
either. You do get any other extra damage though, like hunter's mark I think,
ring of +d4 acid, poison I think. Then there's sharpshooter feat for -5 to hit
+10 damage, which by itself quadruples damage from the off hand.
Unfortunately that results in a lot of misses unless you get good
at getting high ground and advantage, which I'm not very good at, so I tend
to turn off a lot. You can always turn it off for the attack action and on for
the bonus action off-hand attacks though that gets pretty fiddly. You can
also use your thief bonus action for an extra off-hand attack, so at level 3
you get 1 attack action and 2 off-hand assuming you didn't use one of the bonus
actions for something else.

If you go fighter 2 after thief 4 archery style gives you +2 to hit which helps
offset the sharpshooter negative, then you also get the action surge for an
extra action bringing you up to 4 attacks on the first round.

I didn't find myself sneak attacking much after I got sharpshooter as the extra
damage from it far outweighed it and the setup required for sneak attacking,
also I had enough special arrows that using one for almost every main
hand attack seemed like a good idea.

- Justisaur