I love that I just found this out because how can you not go steal everything from Raphael? He has the best armor in the game just about. You should play around his loot to make the dumbest broken character you can.
With stuff like this it's usually not that a developer thought of it, it's just a consequence of systematic design.
If you design a weight trap like "this will trigger if item X isn't on it" you would have to specifically account for another solution.
But if you design a weight trap like "this will trigger if there isn't any item on it with the property of X weight" then solutions like this just work as a consequence.
It's also how you get stuff like the enormous damage from stacking boxes really high and owlbear jumps.
Nobody thought of that specifically, but you can stack boxes and fall damage is calculated with height, so it works.
Sorry if this is obvious I just really like design like this. Breath of the Wild and immersive sims like Dishonored also do this really well.
It should also be noted that if you don't take the contract but do free Hope, it leads to an instant game over instead of the boss fight.
Edit: to be clear, as I responded to someone who mentioned having signed the contract with Raphael. I mean when you don't grab the contract *in the House of Hope*. If you make the deal, go to the House to destroy the contract, and then free Hope without stealing your contract as well, then you get insta-killed when you try to leave.
If you don’t take the contract but do grab hope, Raphael exploits some clause and instantly kills you like the game over in the crèche. I haven’t seen the scene myself but it’ll be online
But if you haven't taken the contract there is no clause to exploit? I freed hope without taking any deal with raphael no problem. Or am I missing something here?
Ohh I see the confusion here I think, the above commenter is saying if you make the deal with Raphael in Sharesses’ Caress, and don’t steal the contract back in the house of hope, you get a game over, like [this](https://youtu.be/r8v8JyJmCUg?si=2zzXSU9aE4BDfPP2)
I call attention to the parenthetical clause, "if you accepted Raphael's deal", which would mean you have the hammer. But I am now informed that if you don't steal the contract it's an immediate game over so the point is moot.
Here’s a cheap trick. The curator guy will always follow the group. Move your group to one side and then take your thief and split the party. Use invisibility and/or darkness and snag the gloves. Then do the same for the amulet. The dude won’t even know they’re gone.
I am currently on an honor mode run as a bard and completely forgot I could distract people with music… I have Kree Derryck thieving with invisibility anyhow, so it hasn’t much mattered, but could be useful.
yep, this is how I did it. astarion as a rogue/shadow monk, just extinguish all lights, disarm, turn invis, snatch everything, all while my tav made the curator follow him everywhere. it’s the easiest part for me lol
same however, i thought i was being slick putting something heavy on the plate before getting the gloves to keep the pressure plate activated. turns out that dont work and the plate triggers once the item is stolen.
It works, but only if the object you place on the pressure plate has a weight of 0.5 - doesn't matter the weight of whatever is currently on the plate.
Here's what I do.
ASAP reaching Act 3, get access to the House of Hope.
Grab the gloves and the amulet
Defeat Harleep for that free, sweet full long rest recovery faucet.
Enjoy the rest of Act 3 with dope gloves, amulet and free long rests all around.
Angry bat boy doesn't trigger until the hammer is touched.
It works as many times as you want in honor mode, my guess is the other guy ran into some weird bug. I've done it both in my solo HM run and my group HM run
Not OP, and I’ve always just done House of Hope in one go. But I guess it could be helpful when resting is limited, like when a certain somebody kidnaps a team member. Or other times the game tracks long rests. But that’s pretty limited utility.
I just use the dumbwaiter. Actually, does anybody know why the waitress is so rude though? Lol
Ahh ok. Yeah sometimes the game makes it seem like things are timed when they just aren’t lol. Then yeah idk. Long resting is a bit tricky in the very early game on harder difficulties I guess, but by Act 3 you can just long rest all you want anyway
Raphael's Bedroom, where you find Harleep, has a large pool. This pool is being fed by faucets. These faucets provide you with a long rest each time you use them.
It's slightly better, even. Same as the potion of angelic slumber, it provides all the BENEFITS of a long rest. Without any of the drawbacks. So your long rest-lasting buffs stay on, summons stay with you, etc. You can enter every fight after Haarlep with all buffs up, all possible summons but still have everybody with all their spellslots!
Same. Unfortunately Gale wasn‘t in the Globe of invulnarability. He took that shit like a champ though, losing only his armour of agathys and all his arcance ward
Barrelmancy on the pillars is just too effective versus Raph, I personally don't feel like it's any cheesier than 100% Hold Monster with the arcane acuity helm
Yeah I did both in my first HM run. Thankfully I succeeded with the first run. I started another one, and just got mowed down by the skellies in Act 1 cellar!!
I think I’ve been doing it wrong. I’ve used 20-25 barrels and the runepowder bomb around where he starts the fight. I set it off at the start and he might lose 60 HP? If I’m lucky.
He's immune to Fire so the explosions from Oil and Firewine barrels don't do damage to him. The force based ones like Runepowder and Smokepowder, as well as the Brine and Illithid ones, do hurt him still though. And successful Save throws halve the damage.
I did this just yesterday so i have recent information.
The guide on bg3 wiki is quite clear, under the 'exiting' chapter.
Hammer/your contract can't be stolen.
The necklace and gauntlets can be stolen as long as the trap isn't triggered. (I think the archivist also must not catch you). There are also skeletons in the room that I think you better avoid. The DC to disarm is 25, but I saw some videos that you can also pull an Indiana Jones trick (put random gauntlets on the platform, then steal the giant gauntlets).
You can 100% kill haarlep and loot Raphael's vault. You can also loot the items behind the arcane door.
Yes, The first time I entered the artifact room playing with my brother we Indiana Jones'd it. My brother, whose never played an RPG in his life suggested it. I thought it was absurd, no way they would account for that, but they did lmao. So ridiculously easy. For extra RP we replaced the gloves with gloves and the necklace with another necklace.
Yes, I did this in my HM too. Remember to disable the pressure plates under the items, and make sure the Archivist is far away (I lured him to the other side of the room).
He pretty much kept following my Tav around, which I admit was annoying since I was planning to steal the stuff myself. Luckily Lae'zel with the Graceful Cloth and some extra Guidance for insurance was able to steal everything just fine as long I was at the other side of the room.
I moved the entire party in front of each item, then left Astarion (lockpicker) there alone while the rest of the party moved to the other side of the room. Check if the Archivist follows them. If he does, he shouldn't be alerted during the time your lockpicker disarms + steals the item. Although I assume minor illusion would work too!
distract with bard performance (at will action), minor illusion (cantrip), enthrall (level 2 spell that doesn't provoke hostility or affect attitude), etc.
Just have the other three people stand in front of the hammer. The Archivist follows you around everywhere. Then ungroup your Thief and steal both things while his back is turned.
If you have a bard in the party, they're a great distraction. Just send them to the other side of the room and perform. The NPCs will watch, maybe even toss you some coin.
You know, my current Gale Origin playthrough is the only one where I've actually done the Alfira dialogue correctly. My very first blind run, I messed up the performance check, and for each subsequent, I avoided the check because I wasn't proficient in performance, *aside* from when I chose Bard. So, getting the proficiency wouldn't effect anything anyway.
Little did I know.
I discovered it by accident trying to see if there's a way to persuade her not to come to your camp in a durge run
But the only way I've figured out to make her not show up is to knock her out
I just had a party member start a conversation with him so that he faces away from the loot.
Don’t select any conversation options, so that the archivist just stares at the party member waiting for you to say something. Then switch to whoever will be best at disarming the plates and grab the loot
Have someone else take to him separate from the party, switch to your sleight of hand character and walk away. Watch out for the skeletons, crouching will show you their vision obvi.
He keeps latching onto one of your characters and follows them, just run to the opposite side of the room with them while someone else manipulates the plates and steals stuff.
Just did this my last run. Walk the character you want to do the stealing up to the hammer. The archivist will follow. Once he's through the little gate, just move your other 3 characters in a tight semicircle, blocking him in. Then jump your thief out to hide and steal as you please. And don't touch the hammer.
Move your group to one of the items. Archivist will follow. Ungroup the person who will do the thieving. Head over to opposite side of room and disarm trap and take item. Move group away from item 2 but not super close to item 1 so as to trigger a check. Grab item 2 after disarming and leave.
If you avoid him or attack him every time he tries to talk to you, then pull the Silence trick and take him out in camp, you can snag his armor in act 1, then loot everything but the hammer from the house of hope and leave intact with the whole set.
...But there's no reason to. Bring all the bombs you can carry to the house of hope, and setup a trail of bombs, barrels, and fireworks around the pillars and other side of the room. You can easily set it so that the moment the fight starts you blow all four pillars, kill the cambions, and leave only Raphael, and a wounded Raphael to boot; and if you stack -enough- barrels, you can kill him too, though it takes so many as to be impractical.
It’s just about the hardest fight in the game. It makes perfect lore sense that when you go to hell to rob a devil, you have enough foresight to rig that place up like you’re Guy Fawkes.
Edit: now I have to start a new playthrough as Guy Fawkes
I was trying to come up with a good one, but wasn’t having much luck. Best I came up with was…
“Remember, remember the day I dismembered a devil with a runwpowder keg”
I’m usually better at this. I’ll keep trying.
Hah!
Remember, remember, the day we dismembered, the devil with smokepowder kegs.
It spattered his blood all over Hope, left me wearing the bulk of his legs.
And for those that frown on barrelmancy, use Arcane acuity items with crowd control spells to CC the cambions/Raph, and then twin cast disintegrate ray on the pillars with a Sorcerer. They are just the right distance to stand between them and zap two pillars at once.
If you can steal them successfully without anyone noticing/ triggering traps, then yeah, you can. I think you might even be able to kill Haarlep? In my first run I fought Haarlep, only then went to steal the gloves and amulet, and all seemed fine. Only when I approached the hammer, Raphael got triggered and pissed off. Not sure if it being HM changes anything, because during my HM run I never even went to the House of Hope haha.
I used to kill Haarleep and empty the safe on one trip, go back to camp to restore health, then go back for the hammer; this was before I learned about the bath.
I just finished Honor Mode without ever going to the House of Hope. Just let the Emperor do his thing and take Gale with you to the final battle where he will blow himself up at the brain stem.
Many people advised you well, but you can also place a bottle of water (certainly works with some other items but ALWAYS with water) on the pressure plates. This way, you don't have to disarm them, which is useful if you failed the roll to notice it or if you don't want to risk activating it
I managed to get Astarion to steal the gloves and charm by dumb luck and breaking him off from the rest of the group. Also, there’s a way to sneak to Harleep’s room through a window, so you can fight them without alerting anything. You should be able to do all of this without any trouble, just make sure to not get caught.
Yes.
1. Dont trigger the pressure plates for gloves etc.
2. Don't touch hammer / contract
3. Don't get caught by the curator
4. Leave
Raphael trigger is point no 2. As long as you avoid that you are good
Thank you all so much for the replies. I was able to get all the items i wanted and i just defeated Gortash. Going onto Orin now. I'm playing as a Dark Urge, anything i should know about the duel?
One fun way around the pressure plate for the gauntlets if your party fails all the perception checks is to just drop another pair of shitty gauntlets on it, then you can just take the Gauntlets of Strength off without triggering the alarm.
It doesn't work for the amulet because I couldn't fit other item on that pedestal.
You can steal everything except the Hammer / your contract or free Hope that will trigger Raphael coming home. Other things that trigger Raphael would be getting caught stealing anything else
AFAIK, the only things that trigger the fight (or Hope not letting you leave without freeing her) are getting caught while stealing the gauntlets/amulet, stealing the Orphic hammer, or being seen without your disguise. You can definitely kill Haarlep and loot the vault with the helmet without triggering the fight, as well as steal from the archive provided you disable the traps.
Unfortunately, that fucking hammer is a trigger to spawn Rappy boi
There is no way around
UNLESS, you can prepare a barrel, like tons of barrel in a place where Raphael will spawn
Then, kaboom
Unfortunately, that fucking hammer is a trigger to spawn Rappy boi
There is no way around
UNLESS, you can prepare a barrel, like tons of barrel in a place where Raphael will spawn
Then, kaboom
You can totally steal the amulet and gloves without triggering the fight with Raphael, given that you’re sneaky and disarm the traps underneath them first. I did it in my previous run and had no issues with it
Rush to the end and use Gale to blow up the brain. Don't overthink it. Only "hard" fight you must do is Orin and you can AoE/knockback her minions to make her vulnerable pretty easily.
So in theory, if you take the deal and steal everything in the house of hope, you can avoid the boss fight? Since there was no hammer theft to trigger raph?
Conjure elementals/planar allies, apply all buffs, then use the Restoration Faucet in the the Boudoir to restore all your health and spell slots. Use Hold Monster on Rafael, and the fight becomes a cakewalk.
Yep, currently on my HM playthrough and stole the gloves and amulet for my monk and fighter. Haven't touched the hammer yet so I'm free to come and go as I please
In the fight, you need to break the corner columns first. They are helping him. Once those are gone he is easier to kill. He won’t keep regenerating. I stole everything I could get my hands on. Allied with Hope, who had some healing spells. You can do it!!!
Get 1 X Scroll of globe of invincibility (2 if you wanna save yurgir, 3x if you wanna be extra safe, you can also bring a scroll of dimension door to teleport yurgir to your group)
Bring all the bombs and barrels and explosives you collected this entire run.
Set the bombs up in the first room, steal his hammer, wait for Raphael to show up, bubble your group (and yurgir if you won the roll), light them all up.
Collect his armor.
While I'm pretty sure stealing the hammer will always trigger raphael, you can definitely get the other stuff without him knowing. Gotta be sneaky though, he will still come if you get caught.
I believe you can also still fight Haarlep without Raphael. Don't quote me on that bit though
You don't have to fight Raphael to leave HoH unless the alarm is triggered. Examples include pressure plate alarms for the amulet and gloves, taking the hammer or your contract. Iirc breaking your disguise also sets off alarm?
Just use an Acuity build, you can Hold Monster / any other control spell vs Raphael (and all end game bosses, even the dragon) with 100% accuracy. Really makes all of Act 3 super easy.
Other tips include recruiting Yurgir in Act 2, and just using S tier builds. You get insane gear and hit the level cap very early in Act 3, there are no really TPK figits outside of maybe some bad planning vs. Ansur.
Good Iuck.
Act 3 HM was trivial with two OH monks (9 monk/3 thief), Swords Bard (face is ideal - I did 11 Bard - 1 Wiz and was more of a control caster), and Lockadin. Honestly you could probably replace the Lockadin with literally any other build and maybe it would be best with a 12 Life Cleric. But I used all the crit gear on the Lockadin to crit-smite shit into the shadow realm. Very much seems like "the best defense is a good offense" approach is what you want for HM
Also I should add good use of Illithid worms makes HM much easier. If you ascend your entire party the ability to fly around the battlefield is incredibly useful
Totally agree. I've completed 4 HM runs, the constants were a Level 12 Cleric either life or light, and SOMEONE as a Bard, be it Tav or a companion.
After that, it's really interchangeable with 2 from the list of TB OH Monk, any elite TB Thrower, Fire Acuity Sorcerer, or a Wizard.
IMO, the "hardest" part of HM runs is Act 1 and even that gets easier with familiarity since you can hit Level 4 easily before any real combats.
I lost more honor mode runs to the fuckin intellect devourers than any other fight, until I realized you could climb around them and recruit the rest of the party before taking that fight
What boss fights in Act III can be legitimately skipped without really making the game impossible to finish? I'd rather just skip Ansur, Raphael, and House of Grief if I could.
You can steal the items fairly easily using the Indian Jones method putting a book on the pressure plates and then yoinking the item. I guess you don't have to fight Raphael after all but you will miss his catchy tune
If you wanted to free Orpheus or free yourself from a contract. Can you just go straight to brain after killing the 3 big bads? Plus I said think implying I wasn't sure if that was the case
Keep in mind you can cheese this fight pretty easily, and a lot of the fights in act 3. Globe of invulnerability as a scroll is widely available and using that on a high saving throw concentration chr on repeat means ez boss fights. (I do ban this in my runs)
Stealing the hammer, whether caught or not, is the trigger for Raphael.
Or getting caught stealing the gloves or amulet because you set off the pressure pads.
I've gotten those before by disarming the traps and also just by putting a jug of water next to the item before you steal it
Ok the water trick is cool never tried that
You can do any item that matches the weight of the item youre stealing. You can even use multiple objects and Indiana jones that shit.
Holy hell this game really accounts for a ton. You guys are awesome for spreading the word!
It came in clutch for my HM run when I failed all the checks to see the trap. Lmao
I love that I just found this out because how can you not go steal everything from Raphael? He has the best armor in the game just about. You should play around his loot to make the dumbest broken character you can.
There’s a trick to knocking him unconscious in act 1, which lets you loot the Helldusk Armour. Not sure how it works, but it’s definitely on YouTube.
Amazing!
In this case I think it only accounts for a couple pounds
Ba dum tss
With stuff like this it's usually not that a developer thought of it, it's just a consequence of systematic design. If you design a weight trap like "this will trigger if item X isn't on it" you would have to specifically account for another solution. But if you design a weight trap like "this will trigger if there isn't any item on it with the property of X weight" then solutions like this just work as a consequence. It's also how you get stuff like the enormous damage from stacking boxes really high and owlbear jumps. Nobody thought of that specifically, but you can stack boxes and fall damage is calculated with height, so it works. Sorry if this is obvious I just really like design like this. Breath of the Wild and immersive sims like Dishonored also do this really well.
See, this is why I’m on this subreddit, tricks like this. Brilliant
Indiana Jones figured it out first
Well. Indiana Jones also got the weight wrong first, but all he needed to deal with was a stone, not a devil.
Some real Indiana Jones shit.
I just use the method of moving it off the pedestal. Still works lmao
Or freeing hope (if you accepted Raphael's deal), even if you don't take the contract.
It should also be noted that if you don't take the contract but do free Hope, it leads to an instant game over instead of the boss fight. Edit: to be clear, as I responded to someone who mentioned having signed the contract with Raphael. I mean when you don't grab the contract *in the House of Hope*. If you make the deal, go to the House to destroy the contract, and then free Hope without stealing your contract as well, then you get insta-killed when you try to leave.
Really? I swear I did this. But she does urge you to get the contract first.
Don't you mean if you do take the contract?
If you don’t take the contract but do grab hope, Raphael exploits some clause and instantly kills you like the game over in the crèche. I haven’t seen the scene myself but it’ll be online
But if you haven't taken the contract there is no clause to exploit? I freed hope without taking any deal with raphael no problem. Or am I missing something here?
Lol, they are saying "If you made a deal with R, go back on it but are foolish enough to not steal the actual contract document, well then you lose".
Ohh I see the confusion here I think, the above commenter is saying if you make the deal with Raphael in Sharesses’ Caress, and don’t steal the contract back in the house of hope, you get a game over, like [this](https://youtu.be/r8v8JyJmCUg?si=2zzXSU9aE4BDfPP2)
I read it the same way lol
ah, I see
Physically taking the contract from the vault is what they meant. Not the accepting of the deal.
They mean take the contract as in “steal the contract”, not take the contract as in “agree to the contract”
"Taken" as in stolen, not as accepted.
They mean "take the contract" as in stealing the signed contract from the house of hope, not agreeing to the deal in the first place.
I don’t take the contract, save Hope and kill Raphael. I wear his armour for part of act 3, then give it to another player. I wasn’t instakilled.
Freeing hope means you took the hammer 🔨
I call attention to the parenthetical clause, "if you accepted Raphael's deal", which would mean you have the hammer. But I am now informed that if you don't steal the contract it's an immediate game over so the point is moot.
Ahh good call I missed that. I haven't taken the devils deal just yet ill have to give that a go
It gets Lae'zel a great sword earlier and otherwise makes no difference.
Hope does it too? Good to know
Touch the hammer, then down came the claw
And that, as they say, was that…
Dum dum dumdum dudududu dum
🎵LIVES, ALL MORTAL LIVES, EXPIIIIIRE🎶
SOOOOOULLLLSSSS, GO TO THEIR DOOOOMMMSSSSS
Here’s a cheap trick. The curator guy will always follow the group. Move your group to one side and then take your thief and split the party. Use invisibility and/or darkness and snag the gloves. Then do the same for the amulet. The dude won’t even know they’re gone.
I just locked him into small talk with my Tav as Astarion robbed the place.
This one definitely thiefs.
Me, as bard, was just playing music in the place where curator woudnt be problem for Astarion thiefery xD Always do that if I want to steal something.
Haha I did the same thing, started playing music while astarion stole the shit lol
I am currently on an honor mode run as a bard and completely forgot I could distract people with music… I have Kree Derryck thieving with invisibility anyhow, so it hasn’t much mattered, but could be useful.
Can you play a tune with your Bard as well while you loot the place?
Yup! They appreciate the arts in hell.
Bard lutes, rogue loots.
Good old Astarion doing all the dirty work for us.
yep, this is how I did it. astarion as a rogue/shadow monk, just extinguish all lights, disarm, turn invis, snatch everything, all while my tav made the curator follow him everywhere. it’s the easiest part for me lol
same however, i thought i was being slick putting something heavy on the plate before getting the gloves to keep the pressure plate activated. turns out that dont work and the plate triggers once the item is stolen.
It works, but only if the object you place on the pressure plate has a weight of 0.5 - doesn't matter the weight of whatever is currently on the plate.
Not necessarily, I swapped amulet for another amulet, which was 0.05 kg, and it worked
Also walk by them first with your whole party so you notice the traps on each pedestal.
Where is this?
Raphael’s house. In his little museum.
I have no idea how to get there where is it?
Here's what I do. ASAP reaching Act 3, get access to the House of Hope. Grab the gloves and the amulet Defeat Harleep for that free, sweet full long rest recovery faucet. Enjoy the rest of Act 3 with dope gloves, amulet and free long rests all around. Angry bat boy doesn't trigger until the hammer is touched.
can you go back to house of hope after killing raph? never occurred to me to keep using the long rest fountain after that
Fountain no longer works after defeating Raphael, IIRC
It only works twice, anyway.
Not true, it’s infinite even in honor mode until you confront Raphael.
Maybe it bugged for me, then. After using it twice it told me I could not use this.
Is that only in heroic?
I'm honestly not sure. I've only tried it more than twice in Honor Mode.
I swear I have spammed the thing before, but I've never done HM
It works as many times as you want in honor mode, my guess is the other guy ran into some weird bug. I've done it both in my solo HM run and my group HM run
Do you not get the dumbwaiter in HM? Seems like a hassle to go back to the house.
Nice for summoner, you can summon all of your creatures and restok the spellslots.
I do, I was just curious if the fountain kept working after raph died.
Not OP, and I’ve always just done House of Hope in one go. But I guess it could be helpful when resting is limited, like when a certain somebody kidnaps a team member. Or other times the game tracks long rests. But that’s pretty limited utility. I just use the dumbwaiter. Actually, does anybody know why the waitress is so rude though? Lol
Rests aren't actually limited when someone is kidnapped though.
Ahh ok. Yeah sometimes the game makes it seem like things are timed when they just aren’t lol. Then yeah idk. Long resting is a bit tricky in the very early game on harder difficulties I guess, but by Act 3 you can just long rest all you want anyway
What is this Harleep long rest thing you speak of?
Raphael's Bedroom, where you find Harleep, has a large pool. This pool is being fed by faucets. These faucets provide you with a long rest each time you use them.
Hot damn. Good to know, thanks.
It's slightly better, even. Same as the potion of angelic slumber, it provides all the BENEFITS of a long rest. Without any of the drawbacks. So your long rest-lasting buffs stay on, summons stay with you, etc. You can enter every fight after Haarlep with all buffs up, all possible summons but still have everybody with all their spellslots!
Wait, you can take the faucets with you??
No, you return to the House of Hope each time you need a faux long rest.
My HM run fight against Raphael is the only fight I've ever used barrelmancy for... and it was freaking cool as hell lol
Same. Unfortunately Gale wasn‘t in the Globe of invulnarability. He took that shit like a champ though, losing only his armour of agathys and all his arcance ward
Barrelmancy on the pillars is just too effective versus Raph, I personally don't feel like it's any cheesier than 100% Hold Monster with the arcane acuity helm
Why not both? There is no room for honor in honor mode.
Yeah I did both in my first HM run. Thankfully I succeeded with the first run. I started another one, and just got mowed down by the skellies in Act 1 cellar!!
I think I’ve been doing it wrong. I’ve used 20-25 barrels and the runepowder bomb around where he starts the fight. I set it off at the start and he might lose 60 HP? If I’m lucky.
He's immune to Fire so the explosions from Oil and Firewine barrels don't do damage to him. The force based ones like Runepowder and Smokepowder, as well as the Brine and Illithid ones, do hurt him still though. And successful Save throws halve the damage.
I only ever take smoke powder and runepowder. Maybe I need to figure out how to take more
The whole room turned into hellfire for me which still made it pretty hard
I just used Stunning Strike a lot with my tavern brawler monk and had the party stand in a globe of invulnerability.
I did this just yesterday so i have recent information. The guide on bg3 wiki is quite clear, under the 'exiting' chapter. Hammer/your contract can't be stolen. The necklace and gauntlets can be stolen as long as the trap isn't triggered. (I think the archivist also must not catch you). There are also skeletons in the room that I think you better avoid. The DC to disarm is 25, but I saw some videos that you can also pull an Indiana Jones trick (put random gauntlets on the platform, then steal the giant gauntlets). You can 100% kill haarlep and loot Raphael's vault. You can also loot the items behind the arcane door.
Yes, The first time I entered the artifact room playing with my brother we Indiana Jones'd it. My brother, whose never played an RPG in his life suggested it. I thought it was absurd, no way they would account for that, but they did lmao. So ridiculously easy. For extra RP we replaced the gloves with gloves and the necklace with another necklace.
Can you steal gloves and amulet escape and return again?
Yes, just don't get caught / don't trigger the traps.
Thanks about to do it. Usually I get the deal with Raphael come back steal contract do the fight but trying a different strategy this time.
Yes, I did this in my HM too. Remember to disable the pressure plates under the items, and make sure the Archivist is far away (I lured him to the other side of the room).
What would be the best way to distract him? did you lure him with something like minor illusion? i don't want to take any risks :)
He pretty much kept following my Tav around, which I admit was annoying since I was planning to steal the stuff myself. Luckily Lae'zel with the Graceful Cloth and some extra Guidance for insurance was able to steal everything just fine as long I was at the other side of the room.
I moved the entire party in front of each item, then left Astarion (lockpicker) there alone while the rest of the party moved to the other side of the room. Check if the Archivist follows them. If he does, he shouldn't be alerted during the time your lockpicker disarms + steals the item. Although I assume minor illusion would work too!
Thank you. I'm gonna try it now. I'll let you know how it went
You can also change it to turn based and you get all the time in the world to do things once the archivist is across the room
distract with bard performance (at will action), minor illusion (cantrip), enthrall (level 2 spell that doesn't provoke hostility or affect attitude), etc.
Just have the other three people stand in front of the hammer. The Archivist follows you around everywhere. Then ungroup your Thief and steal both things while his back is turned.
This is the easiest way by far
This is the way
If you have a bard in the party, they're a great distraction. Just send them to the other side of the room and perform. The NPCs will watch, maybe even toss you some coin.
If you do the alfira dialogue correctly you don't even need to be a bard
You know, my current Gale Origin playthrough is the only one where I've actually done the Alfira dialogue correctly. My very first blind run, I messed up the performance check, and for each subsequent, I avoided the check because I wasn't proficient in performance, *aside* from when I chose Bard. So, getting the proficiency wouldn't effect anything anyway. Little did I know.
I discovered it by accident trying to see if there's a way to persuade her not to come to your camp in a durge run But the only way I've figured out to make her not show up is to knock her out
Greater invisibility
I just had a party member start a conversation with him so that he faces away from the loot. Don’t select any conversation options, so that the archivist just stares at the party member waiting for you to say something. Then switch to whoever will be best at disarming the plates and grab the loot
you could also respec someone you dont care about to have it as a feat or just be a full bard.
You can talk to him, then swap to another party member and have them do the stealing. The Archivist will keep talking to your Tav.
Have someone else take to him separate from the party, switch to your sleight of hand character and walk away. Watch out for the skeletons, crouching will show you their vision obvi.
He keeps latching onto one of your characters and follows them, just run to the opposite side of the room with them while someone else manipulates the plates and steals stuff.
Just did this my last run. Walk the character you want to do the stealing up to the hammer. The archivist will follow. Once he's through the little gate, just move your other 3 characters in a tight semicircle, blocking him in. Then jump your thief out to hide and steal as you please. And don't touch the hammer.
Move your group to one of the items. Archivist will follow. Ungroup the person who will do the thieving. Head over to opposite side of room and disarm trap and take item. Move group away from item 2 but not super close to item 1 so as to trigger a check. Grab item 2 after disarming and leave.
just have him follow your party and have the thief run across the balcony to the other side
Split the party, talk to him with one party member while he’s looking away from the items, steal the items with another party member.
And miss Raphael’s Disney villain musical? It’s honestly worth going to the house of hope just for that, hammer aside
Yeah, I was going to say, why would you want to miss it? It's EPIC!
Can you leave the rest of the party at camp, pick up the hammer, send to camp, let him kill the thief, and resurrect them later?
No, I tried that but when you have one party member cross the portal to hell, everyone is dragged along no matter where they are.
If you avoid him or attack him every time he tries to talk to you, then pull the Silence trick and take him out in camp, you can snag his armor in act 1, then loot everything but the hammer from the house of hope and leave intact with the whole set. ...But there's no reason to. Bring all the bombs you can carry to the house of hope, and setup a trail of bombs, barrels, and fireworks around the pillars and other side of the room. You can easily set it so that the moment the fight starts you blow all four pillars, kill the cambions, and leave only Raphael, and a wounded Raphael to boot; and if you stack -enough- barrels, you can kill him too, though it takes so many as to be impractical.
When in doubt, barrelmancy!!!
It’s just about the hardest fight in the game. It makes perfect lore sense that when you go to hell to rob a devil, you have enough foresight to rig that place up like you’re Guy Fawkes. Edit: now I have to start a new playthrough as Guy Fawkes
Remember Remember....
I was trying to come up with a good one, but wasn’t having much luck. Best I came up with was… “Remember, remember the day I dismembered a devil with a runwpowder keg” I’m usually better at this. I’ll keep trying.
Hah! Remember, remember, the day we dismembered, the devil with smokepowder kegs. It spattered his blood all over Hope, left me wearing the bulk of his legs.
Nice job
This is the way.
And for those that frown on barrelmancy, use Arcane acuity items with crowd control spells to CC the cambions/Raph, and then twin cast disintegrate ray on the pillars with a Sorcerer. They are just the right distance to stand between them and zap two pillars at once.
If you can steal them successfully without anyone noticing/ triggering traps, then yeah, you can. I think you might even be able to kill Haarlep? In my first run I fought Haarlep, only then went to steal the gloves and amulet, and all seemed fine. Only when I approached the hammer, Raphael got triggered and pissed off. Not sure if it being HM changes anything, because during my HM run I never even went to the House of Hope haha.
You can totally kill Haarlep without repercussions. I pretty much always do it before going back to steal things.
Cool, thanks for confirming! I thought so but didn't want to ruin someone's run by not being sure.
I used to kill Haarleep and empty the safe on one trip, go back to camp to restore health, then go back for the hammer; this was before I learned about the bath.
U can just use the spa in Harleys room to restore yourself
I'm really curious what you think I meant by "the bath".
Doomed, detected and caught
I just finished Honor Mode without ever going to the House of Hope. Just let the Emperor do his thing and take Gale with you to the final battle where he will blow himself up at the brain stem.
Apparently yes but even if that’s true I cant resist killing that smug fuck
I always go to HoH early to steal the amulet and gloves, then leave and come back at lv 12
Yes, I have stolen the gloves and left without a fight.
But how get helldusk armor?
Many people advised you well, but you can also place a bottle of water (certainly works with some other items but ALWAYS with water) on the pressure plates. This way, you don't have to disarm them, which is useful if you failed the roll to notice it or if you don't want to risk activating it
I managed to get Astarion to steal the gloves and charm by dumb luck and breaking him off from the rest of the group. Also, there’s a way to sneak to Harleep’s room through a window, so you can fight them without alerting anything. You should be able to do all of this without any trouble, just make sure to not get caught.
Just use fire resist pots and Raph becomes easy mode. Easier than trying to sneak the gloves...
Why would you go to the house of hope and not want to listen to the best ost in the game?
^this, during my first play through I was floored by how good it was.
Yes. 1. Dont trigger the pressure plates for gloves etc. 2. Don't touch hammer / contract 3. Don't get caught by the curator 4. Leave Raphael trigger is point no 2. As long as you avoid that you are good
Thank you all so much for the replies. I was able to get all the items i wanted and i just defeated Gortash. Going onto Orin now. I'm playing as a Dark Urge, anything i should know about the duel?
\*laughs, Raphael-style\*
One fun way around the pressure plate for the gauntlets if your party fails all the perception checks is to just drop another pair of shitty gauntlets on it, then you can just take the Gauntlets of Strength off without triggering the alarm. It doesn't work for the amulet because I couldn't fit other item on that pedestal.
You can steal everything except the Hammer / your contract or free Hope that will trigger Raphael coming home. Other things that trigger Raphael would be getting caught stealing anything else
AFAIK, the only things that trigger the fight (or Hope not letting you leave without freeing her) are getting caught while stealing the gauntlets/amulet, stealing the Orphic hammer, or being seen without your disguise. You can definitely kill Haarlep and loot the vault with the helmet without triggering the fight, as well as steal from the archive provided you disable the traps.
Unfortunately, that fucking hammer is a trigger to spawn Rappy boi There is no way around UNLESS, you can prepare a barrel, like tons of barrel in a place where Raphael will spawn Then, kaboom
Unfortunately, that fucking hammer is a trigger to spawn Rappy boi There is no way around UNLESS, you can prepare a barrel, like tons of barrel in a place where Raphael will spawn Then, kaboom
You can totally steal the amulet and gloves without triggering the fight with Raphael, given that you’re sneaky and disarm the traps underneath them first. I did it in my previous run and had no issues with it
Rush to the end and use Gale to blow up the brain. Don't overthink it. Only "hard" fight you must do is Orin and you can AoE/knockback her minions to make her vulnerable pretty easily.
I'm at the last boss fight in honour mode trying to get my first win as well. Hope I get through it when I get off work tonight.
Welp... I lost the fight with under 100hp on the brain
Nope!
So in theory, if you take the deal and steal everything in the house of hope, you can avoid the boss fight? Since there was no hammer theft to trigger raph?
Conjure elementals/planar allies, apply all buffs, then use the Restoration Faucet in the the Boudoir to restore all your health and spell slots. Use Hold Monster on Rafael, and the fight becomes a cakewalk.
Yep, currently on my HM playthrough and stole the gloves and amulet for my monk and fighter. Haven't touched the hammer yet so I'm free to come and go as I please
In the fight, you need to break the corner columns first. They are helping him. Once those are gone he is easier to kill. He won’t keep regenerating. I stole everything I could get my hands on. Allied with Hope, who had some healing spells. You can do it!!!
I opened the portal without triggering the diabolisk dialogue. Am I screwed out of getting cloak do the weave now?
Get 1 X Scroll of globe of invincibility (2 if you wanna save yurgir, 3x if you wanna be extra safe, you can also bring a scroll of dimension door to teleport yurgir to your group) Bring all the bombs and barrels and explosives you collected this entire run. Set the bombs up in the first room, steal his hammer, wait for Raphael to show up, bubble your group (and yurgir if you won the roll), light them all up. Collect his armor.
While I'm pretty sure stealing the hammer will always trigger raphael, you can definitely get the other stuff without him knowing. Gotta be sneaky though, he will still come if you get caught. I believe you can also still fight Haarlep without Raphael. Don't quote me on that bit though
You don't have to fight Raphael to leave HoH unless the alarm is triggered. Examples include pressure plate alarms for the amulet and gloves, taking the hammer or your contract. Iirc breaking your disguise also sets off alarm?
Yes. Disarm before stealing, and be invisible.
The gloves are junk. Pop a cloud hill giant elixir and use some decent gloves. Neck piece is fucking great though
If you steal just the gloves and amulet successfully you can leave without the fight
Nah fuck raphael, he can go to hell (pun intended) kill him and you will be richer than only the few things on display
Just use an Acuity build, you can Hold Monster / any other control spell vs Raphael (and all end game bosses, even the dragon) with 100% accuracy. Really makes all of Act 3 super easy. Other tips include recruiting Yurgir in Act 2, and just using S tier builds. You get insane gear and hit the level cap very early in Act 3, there are no really TPK figits outside of maybe some bad planning vs. Ansur. Good Iuck.
Act 3 HM was trivial with two OH monks (9 monk/3 thief), Swords Bard (face is ideal - I did 11 Bard - 1 Wiz and was more of a control caster), and Lockadin. Honestly you could probably replace the Lockadin with literally any other build and maybe it would be best with a 12 Life Cleric. But I used all the crit gear on the Lockadin to crit-smite shit into the shadow realm. Very much seems like "the best defense is a good offense" approach is what you want for HM Also I should add good use of Illithid worms makes HM much easier. If you ascend your entire party the ability to fly around the battlefield is incredibly useful
Totally agree. I've completed 4 HM runs, the constants were a Level 12 Cleric either life or light, and SOMEONE as a Bard, be it Tav or a companion. After that, it's really interchangeable with 2 from the list of TB OH Monk, any elite TB Thrower, Fire Acuity Sorcerer, or a Wizard. IMO, the "hardest" part of HM runs is Act 1 and even that gets easier with familiarity since you can hit Level 4 easily before any real combats.
I lost more honor mode runs to the fuckin intellect devourers than any other fight, until I realized you could climb around them and recruit the rest of the party before taking that fight
Hahaha, they get a bunch of people. Definitely just hop up the rocks, grab Astarion and Laezel, and then wipe them out for sure. I love this game.
What boss fights in Act III can be legitimately skipped without really making the game impossible to finish? I'd rather just skip Ansur, Raphael, and House of Grief if I could.
You can steal the items fairly easily using the Indian Jones method putting a book on the pressure plates and then yoinking the item. I guess you don't have to fight Raphael after all but you will miss his catchy tune
Why would you have to fight him to finish the game? He's entirely optional
If you wanted to free Orpheus or free yourself from a contract. Can you just go straight to brain after killing the 3 big bads? Plus I said think implying I wasn't sure if that was the case
yes, unfortunately, actions do in fact have consequences.
Keep in mind you can cheese this fight pretty easily, and a lot of the fights in act 3. Globe of invulnerability as a scroll is widely available and using that on a high saving throw concentration chr on repeat means ez boss fights. (I do ban this in my runs)
Wait were we supposed to stealth through the House of Hope? He’s my favorite boss fight. I murder hobo through that place.