D&D General The longer I play Baldur's Gate 3 ...

[jgsugden]

This problem only exists if you take everything as-is. It isn't hard to nerf some of the items and ideas to fit vanilla 5E or ODND.

At which point they are essentially something else, right?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

More magic items. In this specific case, handing out lots of consumables.
The ability to interact with objects (i.e. exploding barrels).
Three-dimensional terrain (i.e. climbing up to the rafters for a better shot, jumping across chasms). [She thinks the RAW is too punishing in the action economy to perform these stunts.]
Shoving, pushing, etc. [Bonus actions in BG3, so also RAW too punishing in the action economy.]
Multiple objectives (i.e. don't let this prisoner die, stop this enemy from escaping with the McGuffin, etc.) [It's not that we can't do this at the table, it's that we can't reload from the previous save state so the "story" isn't derailed.]

A hypothetical BG3 D&D book should definitely include a section of DM advice and optional rules changes to make all of this stuff more possible.

 

[Retreater]

That's really interesting. Are there examples of this online anywhere?

This guy does an overview of the rules and shows the PDF of the cards. (They are called "improvised weapons" in the game. But some things we'd consider terrain features.)

 

[Burnside]

More magic items. In this specific case, handing out lots of consumables.
The ability to interact with objects (i.e. exploding barrels).
Three-dimensional terrain (i.e. climbing up to the rafters for a better shot, jumping across chasms). [She thinks the RAW is too punishing in the action economy to perform these stunts.]
Shoving, pushing, etc. [Bonus actions in BG3, so also RAW too punishing in the action economy.]
Multiple objectives (i.e. don't let this prisoner die, stop this enemy from escaping with the McGuffin, etc.) [It's not that we can't do this at the table, it's that we can't reload from the previous save state so the "story" isn't derailed.]

Huh.

I actually do tend to throw tons of consumables at my players. I wish they'd use them.

I also tend to place a lot of interactive objects and environmental stuff.

The bonus action throwing and pushing is just something that's fun in a video game but wouldn't be as good at the table. Particularly when the enemies do it.

I actually did essentially let my players reload from a save point in the very first session of 5E I ever DMed, when they TPKed in Cragmaw Cave, as so many have. Good thing they made it even deadlier in the new version.

 

[Retreater]

I actually do tend to throw tons of consumables at my players. I wish they'd use them.

I also tend to place a lot of interactive objects and environmental stuff.

I do as well, or at least I used to until they weren't used. Same thing with awarding Inspiration.
My players tend to get stuck in a play pattern, doing the same attacks all the time. They don't really need to switch up things and try different approaches.
Largely this is because 5e is just so easy by default. And then when I try to ramp up the difficulty, it's a TPK. I rarely get the "we really had to work in that combat and be smart" OR "that really tested our abilities to work together." It's just "everything is dead in a couple rounds" - whether that's monsters or the PCs.

 

[Stormonu]

It would be nice to have all this tidied up in a book, I mean, it's been done before ... even for Diablo.

 

[Osgood]

I definitely think they should ignore the fiddly bits like wrath and lightning charges, but I can see adding special arrows, some of the potions, and the alchemy crafting. I also like jumping being a bonus action (I really liked the mechanics that were introduced early on in the play test where jump distance was based on a check rather than your Strength score of modifier, but I think people hated the idea of jumping as an action, so the baby was throw out with the bath water).

 

[TheSword]

... the more I'm amazed that WotC didn't put out a digital product, like Gale's Guide to the Magic of Baldur's Gate or something, collecting the dozens of new magic items, handful of variant spells, handful of new monsters, etc., from the game. The game stats are already 99% of the way to conventional 5E stats and would need basically a light editing pass to get them ready, and Larian for sure has a bunch of concept art of items that they could use to illustrate the book.

Even if they have a revenue sharing agreement with Larian on this material (which would surprise me), it's a revenue stream for Q1 2024. As far as we know, WotC isn't selling any new books between now and March, other than Book of Many Things, which only accidentally ended up in this quarter.

I think in the early editions it would have been a no-brainer and we probably would have seen multiple supplements, a novel, some minis and an adventure spin-off that probably would have been very naff. Like Pool of Radiance in 3e.

However it just doesn’t seem to be 5e’s style of release to pump out a book of spells, items and rules off the cuff. We’ve had what two books like this in 10 years. I just can’t see them releasing a book like this so close to 5.5 release. It’s an anti-bloat system carefully drip feeding rules in.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It would be nice to have all this tidied up in a book, I mean, it's been done before ... even for Diablo.

View attachment 343622View attachment 343627View attachment 343624View attachment 343629View attachment 343628

I never realized those two Diablo covers went together, and I had both products.

/facepalm

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think in the early editions it would have been a no-brainer and we probably would have seen multiple supplements, a novel, some minis and an adventure spin-off that probably would have been very naff. Like Pool of Radiance in 3e.

However it just doesn’t seem to be 5e’s style of release to pump out a book of spells, items and rules off the cuff. We’ve had what two books like this in 10 years. I just can’t see them releasing a book like this so close to 5.5 release. It’s an anti-bloat system carefully drip feeding rules in.

I think I'd prefer focused supplements rather than the apparent threat of microtransactions as a way to bring in more revenue.

I remember the bad old days of 2E and 3E bloat myself, but "hey, this game is a huge hit and it was created in such a way to get us a large part of the way through our development process for a book based on it" is a pretty conservative bit of additional content. They could even make it digital-only and not have to worry about printing or distribution issues.