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A Baldur's Gate 3 player is brute-forcing their way through the RPG's hardest difficulty mode by using dozens of summons to soak up anything The Absolute can throw at them.
In a post on Reddit (via PC Gamer), one player showed off a screen literally filled with summons. There are so many allied units on the screen that it's hard to place the entire party (consisting of Tav, Karlach, Shadowheart, and Minsc) amid the hordes of elementals and undead.
At the core of this strategy is the Druid class, specifically a 'Circle of the Spores' subclass, which at Level 6 grants players the ability to cast Fungal Infestation, a spell that turns a corpse into a mushroom-ravaged zombie, and can be cast up to four times per Long Rest. With Karlach and Minsc both respecced as 9th Level Druids (presumably to grant access to the powerful Contagion and Cloudkill spells) and Shadowheart at 6th level, that's 12 summons before we've even started.
Article continues belowMinsc and Karlach are also both 3rd Level Clerics, granting them the ability to summon a Myrmidon, three Undead, two mephits, a Dryad, a Wood Woad, a flame sphere and a Spirit Weapon each. That's 10 more summons each, with the addition of Scratch, Boo, and Shadow and a Cambion from their held items. Minsc also takes the Spider Egg to grant five spider summons, taking us to 41 summons. Ironically, Shadowheart isn't a Cleric in this build. Instead, she's a Necromancer, maxing out at 17 summons in addition to her four Spore Zombies, for a total of 59.
Finally, we come to Tav, who is a Wizard/Cleric hybrid who's been hoovering up Scrolls. With Shovel and Us both along for the ride, they can summon 13 units at once, taking our total to 72. But what hasn't been taken into account is that there are several ways in which characters can re-cast their spells. Consumables like Potion of Angelic Healing, or a trip to Raphael's bathtub in the House of Hope, both grant the effects of a Long Rest, replenishing spell slots and allowing for the conjuration of even more Spore Zombies. Our intrepid player says they gave up after summoning around 28 of these shambling fungal corpses in total. That took their eventual party size to 92 once they'd factored in their four characters, though if you really optimized your Rests, there's a chance that the hard limit is far higher than that.
This is the kind of thing that's possible in Baldur's Gate 3, but would be truly miserable in D&D itself. Thankfully, it's not really possible, as several of these spells require Concentration in the tabletop game, so only one of them can work at once. I also think that any Dungeon Master worth their salt would immediately start killing off the likes of Connor, Us, Shovel, and yes, even Scratch and Boo if one of their players started hoarding summons like this - if nothing else, the initiative order would surely be utter chaos.
