Way back in August, a Baldur's Gate 3 player managed to one-shot the final boss of Act 2 by using a mace that deals damage based on how much gold the target has, doing so by reverse-pickpocketing 15,000 sword coast smackeroons into Ketheric Thorm's pocket.
Fast-forward to the present day, and it seems like someone with a far less tactical mind has been foiled by the same weapon, thanks to a stealthy nerf with the mace itself (thanks, Gamesradar). Act 2 spoilers below.
[Act III] I lost 13k gold in the dumbest way possible... from r/BaldursGate3
-Specialist-Spite- threw the mace—called the Twist of Fortune—onto Shadowheart during their playthrough. Unless you have some choice words about Shar worshippers, this shouldn't be a problem, since your enemies will be on the business end of this thing. The Gauntlet of Shar's self-same trial, however, summons a shadowy clone of your whole party—which is where the trouble starts.
- It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
- Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
The Twist of Fortune has a once-per-short rest attack called Blood Money, which—as mentioned—deals 3 piercing damage per 300 gold on the target. "Shadowheart's clone 1-shot my Tav. I knew how she did it, I just never bothered to read the [item description]."
Still, -Specialist-spite- was focused on getting those tasty Umbral Gems for mistress Shar, so they thought nothing of it. Cut to hours later when they open their bags to find they're dead broke.
"That's when I finally read the details of that damned weapon." Turns out, Larian changed the fine print. The Twist of Fortune not only deals damage based on your opponent's gold, it eats that gold, as well. -Specialist-spite- took 129 points of piercing damage with 13,000 gold in damages.
I've done some searching through the game's patches and hotfixes and I can't find any mention of the mace, so this seems like yet another grenade Larian's snuck into the mix like their changes to your character's package. It's kind of fitting, though—they were robbed by the shadow of an agent of Lady Shar, and she is called the Lady of Loss.
The only other mention I can find is this solitary post from about a month ago noting the same change, so it was definitely before Patch 5 which came out at the end of November. As for that Ketheric Thorm strategy, it's still technically viable—you just have to pay the toll.
