D&D General BG3 and 5E Theories. Top 10.

[cbwjm]

Ironically, not a problem for me in BG3. I also grabbed a friggin' pile of said potions of giant strength before Auntie Ethel, ahem, departed, and my friends and I are quite happy to use potions and save spell slots for actually wrecking faces or solving problems in one fell swoop, depending on circumstances.

Having a Paladin who always has maxed Strength really does make a difference at level 4.

In my case, I'm not hoarding them, I just often forget about them until I die and then look through my stash of potions (other than healing potions which i use somewhat liberally) and scrolls after loading to see what I've got.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well learnt a few more things since my OP. We are hitting skill checks into the 40s now.

Supplies just don't matter on tactician or honor. I just steal them early on later on heroes feast.

I tend to have around 3- 4 combats per long rest.

Exceptions are Goblin camp and Gith Creche. I tend to clear the in one run.

Theoretically you don't even need to long rest outside of story cutscenes.

Current party at level 4.

Tav Fighter battlemaster archer.

Karlach. Berserker throwzerker.

Wyll. Fiendpact chain warlock.

Gale. Lore Bard 4.

All the "good" npcs except Shadowheart. She was very prominent last game along with laezel and asterion for a durge honor mode run.

Going for redemption Durham gane and pity party apology to Gale for detonating him.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Limits the extra action to 1 attack a la 5e Haste, but still allows 2 spells a round.

So turning Haste into a still-busted 3.0 version of the spell for casters, but making it as weak for martials as it is in 5e.

ah, so bringing it in line with WOTC design philosophy.

 

[Zardnaar]

ah, so bringing it in line with WOTC design philosophy.

Martials are kinda more powerful later on.

Twinning haste on martials let's you do things like nuke a boss before they get to go.

He finally battle is also easier with heavy martial focus imho. And the second part of that kill the big bad in a round.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

ah, so bringing it in line with WOTC design philosophy.

Arguably BG3 achieves better martial-caster balance than stock 5E does, but it's a complicated road to get there. They changed a lot of stuff that benefits casters, but they also give martial characters more rules-based options, and frankly a lot of their abilities are just more powerful/reliable than they are in 5E. They also subtly nerfed a lot of spells - nerfing their AOE, their range, what exactly they do and so on - a simple example would be fireball - it has a 13ft radius instead of 20ft, and a 60ft range instead of 150ft. On top of that, the monster design is different to 5E, often with boosted HP values and extra abilities, and the battlefields tend to be very vertical, which combine with the increased options for martial characters who can shove or throw enemies off things or into each other.

Outside of combat, whilst the game makes good use of spells, a lot of the "just bypass a problem" spells are simply not in the game, or have negative consequences, so it often makes more sense to rely on skill and just buff them (the game is pretty generous in terms of letting you buff rolls with spells).

There are also a wide variety of items ranging from the decent to the wildly overpowered, many, maybe most of them not using 5E magic item rules, but instead weird and wild rules Larian have made up (for example, there are no functional, normal, charge-based wands/staves/etc. in the game, but there are ton of items which use new conditions Larian have made up like "Reverberation").

The only class which continues to be worthless except as part of multiclassing is Rogue. None of the changes they've made really help Rogues. Single-classed, their DPR is the worst in the game, and all they really have to offer is Expertise in Sleight of Hand (disarm traps, pick pockets) and Stealth (or another skill of your choice), and Thief gives a free entire bonus action at L3. So a ton of builds have Rogue 3 (Thief) in them, and basically there's never any real point going beyond that in Rogue unless you are trying to make your life harder. The best "Rogue" build is Gloomstalker 5, Fighter 4, Thief 3.

 

[Shardstone]

Arguably BG3 achieves better martial-caster balance than stock 5E does, but it's a complicated road to get there. They changed a lot of stuff that benefits casters, but they also give martial characters more rules-based options, and frankly a lot of their abilities are just more powerful/reliable than they are in 5E. They also subtly nerfed a lot of spells - nerfing their AOE, their range, what exactly they do and so on - a simple example would be fireball - it has a 13ft radius instead of 20ft, and a 60ft range instead of 150ft. On top of that, the monster design is different to 5E, often with boosted HP values and extra abilities, and the battlefields tend to be very vertical, which combine with the increased options for martial characters who can shove or throw enemies off things or into each other.

Outside of combat, whilst the game makes good use of spells, a lot of the "just bypass a problem" spells are simply not in the game, or have negative consequences, so it often makes more sense to rely on skill and just buff them (the game is pretty generous in terms of letting you buff rolls with spells).

There are also a wide variety of items ranging from the decent to the wildly overpowered, many, maybe most of them not using 5E magic item rules, but instead weird and wild rules Larian have made up (for example, there are no functional, normal, charge-based wands/staves/etc. in the game, but there are ton of items which use new conditions Larian have made up like "Reverberation").

The only class which continues to be worthless except as part of multiclassing is Rogue. None of the changes they've made really help Rogues. Single-classed, their DPR is the worst in the game, and all they really have to offer is Expertise in Sleight of Hand (disarm traps, pick pockets) and Stealth (or another skill of your choice), and Thief gives a free entire bonus action at L3. So a ton of builds have Rogue 3 (Thief) in them, and basically there's never any real point going beyond that in Rogue unless you are trying to make your life harder. The best "Rogue" build is Gloomstalker 5, Fighter 4, Thief 3.

You live!

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I was wondering if BG3 players have a preferred party composition they like to use most of the time. After many hours of playing mine is --

Swords Bard 10/Fighter 1/Wizard 1 (sharpshooter feat) (Astarion)
Light Domain Cleric 12 (radiating orb and/or reverberation gear) (Shadowheart)
Berserker Barbarian 5/Fighter 4/Rogue 3 (tavern brawler feat) (Karlach)
Draconic Sorcerer 10/Fiend Warlock 2 (potent robe) (Wyll)

I am working through my first tactician run and am in Act 3. It is going pretty well. Not sure if I have the nerve to try honor mode.

I wouldn't say I have a preferred party comp yet, but I do feel like Tav "should" be some kind of Bard, and favor using Shadowheart as some kind of Cleric (I believe I have her as a Nature Cleric in my furthest-along file) and Karlach as a Barbarian-plus-something.

The main comp a friend of mine and I have been using is GOO Bladelock (me), Ancients Paladin (him), BM Lae'zel (he's usually managing her), and Diviner Gale (me). When Lae'zel runs out of dice or Gale runs out of slots, we swap in Bear Totem Karlach or Nature Cleric Shadowheart respectively. Now that we've got Halsin as well, and potentially Minthara down the line (since we should have done what's necessary to save her without betraying the tieflings), that presents a third fallback option. I think I'll either respec or normally pick up a level of Cleric, mostly for the shield proficiency rather than medium armor per se (though that would let me drop to only 14 Dex without issue.) Probably Knowledge, or Light.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Arguably BG3 achieves better martial-caster balance than stock 5E does, but it's a complicated road to get there.

Yep. BG3:

1. Showers players in magic items, especially ones that are more useful for non-full-caster characters.
2. Invented a bunch of new mechanics that add both depth and utility to weapon-focused characters.
3. Cuts out a decent portion of the problematic spells, or actually gives them nasty consequences, so they're a lot less powerful.

The design still ends up favoring long-rest casters because, with rare exceptions (e.g. rescuing that mage guy who went off to save his siblings/friends), time pressure isn't a significant issue. But it's about as mitigated as it can be while preserving most existing mechanics as much as possible.

 

[Gladius Legis]

There are also a wide variety of items ranging from the decent to the wildly overpowered, many, maybe most of them not using 5E magic item rules, but instead weird and wild rules Larian have made up (for example, there are no functional, normal, charge-based wands/staves/etc. in the game, but there are ton of items which use new conditions Larian have made up like "Reverberation").

Scrapping attunement entirely also really helps.

 

[Gladius Legis]

ah, so bringing it in line with WOTC design philosophy.

To be fair, certain martials can still use that 1 attack from HM Haste effectively. Hunter Rangers with Volley/Whirlwind (which counts as one attack in BG3 rather than a whole action and thus does not suck), Tiger Barbarians, Paladins with smites to use, mainly. Or anyone with Arrows of Many Targets on hand.