Baldur’s Gate 3 ‘Owlbear From the Top Rope’ Deals Enough Damage to Take Down Pretty Much Anything

With Baldur’s Gate 3’s second weekend under its belt players are coming up with even more outside-the-box strategies for doing huge damage in combat. This latest effort, dubbed “Owlbear from the top rope”, causes the most damage we’ve seen in the game so far. Perhaps more damage than even developer Larian intended.

Twitch Streamer Ellohime indulged in a spot of crate-stacking (as Matt Mercer did recently to viral effect when getting to the top of a Baldur’s Gate 3 castle) to get high above his unsuspecting enemies below. From there, Ellohime’s druid shapeshifts into an Owlbear (a druid wildshape form you unlock at level six), already one of the biggest playable bodies in the game, and casts Enlarge to make the Owlbear even bigger.

Here’s the smart bit: the Owlbear’s Crushing Flight attack scales with mass, so the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Crushing Flight negates fall damage, which leaves you free to pretty much nuke an enemy from orbit. The clip (below) shows a whopping 5005kg Owlbear torpedo over 30 meters to deliver an incredible 821 points of bludgeoning damage.

OWLBEAR FROM THE TOP ROPE 800 DMG!

Some asked so....

Crushing Flight = no fall dmg
Stack boxes, climb, shapeshift, enlarge (jump spell if needed)

5005kg from 31.6m = 821 bludg dmg

Just knowing weight/height fall dmg exists has creative implications, have fun with that? pic.twitter.com/ZGFaZKVQ8j

— Ellohime (@EllohimeTwitch) August 10, 2023

The realisation Crushing Flight scales with mass spread within the Baldur’s Gate 3 community since the game came out last week, and players are messing about with the creative implications for combat.

Redditor Fishbleb appears to be the first player to surface the technique with a clip showing an incredible 1,170 points of damage. I’m certainly considering using the ‘Owlbear from the top rope’ tactic for a particular boss I’m struggling to defeat.

While Larian may want to step in to address the damage potential of Crushing Flight, its use here is very Baldur’s Gate 3, which is a sprawling, Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game so freeform even its developers aren’t all sure what’s possible.

You can even play fetch with the dog, something Larian director of publishing, Michael Douse tweeted recently to say he was 99% sure most people at Larian didn’t know about.

I'm like 99% sure most people at Larian didn't even know this lol https://t.co/M4yYP7KDPf

— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) August 9, 2023

Owlbear from the top rope is also very Dungeons & Dragons. Like with Matt Mercer’s crate-stacking trick, the combo is in keeping with the often unpredictable nature of the tabletop game.

One of Baldur’s Gate 3’s greatest strengths is its capacity to make a genuine attempt to answer whatever question the player poses. Can you do this thing you’ve thought of? Baldur’s Gate 3’s various systems combine to create a game that at the very least encourages the player to give pretty much anything a shot, just to see what happens.

There’s so much going on in the virtual world of Baldur’s Gate 3, from a community debate about save scumming to players who are convinced they can “fix” Shadowheart. Find out what we think of the game in IGN’s recently updated Baldur’s Gate 3 review in-progress. Oh, and be careful when you Long Rest in Baldur's Gate 3.

For more info, check out how our guide to building a character in Baldur's Gate 3 as well as our guide to Baldur's Gate 3's races and subraces.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.