D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access

Baldur's Gate III is now available for early access on Steam and on Stadia.

I couldn't get the Steam version working on my Mac, but the Stadia version works just fine. The opening tutorial level is pretty gruesome (at one point I had to squish somebody's brain) and the mind flayer airship you're trying to escape from beings to mind the movie Aliens a lot.

Character creation is quick and easy, although options in the early access are limited. The gameplay is like Divinity Original Sin 2 with the 5E rules layered over it. I've only played an hour or so of the game, and as an early access game, it is occasionally a bit buggy, but nothing showstopping (yet).

This isn't a review (I haven't played enough of it to do that, and I don't think it's fair to review an early access version anyway); it's mainly just an alert to the few people who don't already know it's available. If any such person exists!

 

[Nymrod]

I decided that since this wasn't going to be a full playthough I would just pick something for testing purposes (Shield Dwarf Ranger) and play it through to the end of the chapter.

I've switched between a half-elf cleric of Selune, a tiefling fiend warlock and now I think I've finally decided to play an Eldritch Knight (likely human). I do hope we get to play Clerics of Tymora (I'm not up to speed with 5E FR, Tymora IS still around right?)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've switched between a half-elf cleric of Selune, a tiefling fiend warlock and now I think I've finally decided to play an Eldritch Knight (likely human). I do hope we get to play Clerics of Tymora (I'm not up to speed with 5E FR, Tymora IS still around right?)

They could have a write-in option! Trickery domain works for her.

There are some oddities on the currently available selection. Myrkul? No Lathander?

For those not in early access, here is the list of currently selectable deities:

Selune
Shar
Tempus
Tyr
Bane
Helm
Myrkul
Ilmater
Mystra
Oghma
Kelemvor
Bhaal
Moradin
Corellon Larethian
Garl Glittergold
Yondalla
Lolth
Laduguer
Vlaakith
Eilistraee

Couple of thoughts on that list: Light, Life and Trickery domains are in, War, Knowledge and Death would be needed to cover the canonical domains of all those deities.

There appears to be one deity for each non-human race. Gnomes aren't in yet, but we can assume they will be added later. More surprising is Laduguer, a duegar deity. They go with the "Dwair-gar" pronunciation in the VO. No Orcish deity, does that suggest half orcs won't make the cut? No Bahamut or Tiamat either.

 

[Demetrios1453]

They could have a write-in option! Trickery domain works for her.

There are some oddities on the currently available selection. Myrkul? No Lathander?

For those not in early access, here is the list of currently selectable deities:

Selune
Shar
Tempus
Tyr
Bane
Helm
Myrkul
Ilmater
Mystra
Oghma
Kelemvor
Bhaal
Moradin
Corellon Larethian
Garl Glittergold
Yondalla
Lolth
Laduguer
Vlaakith
Eilistraee

Couple of thoughts on that list: Light, Life and Trickery domains are in, War, Knowledge and Death would be needed to cover the canonical domains of all those deities.

There appears to be one deity for each non-human race. Gnomes aren't in yet, but we can assume they will be added later. More surprising is Laduguer, a duegar deity. They go with the "Dwair-gar" pronunciation in the VO. No Orcish deity, does that suggest half orcs won't make the cut? No Bahamut or Tiamat either.

I'm guessing that gnomes are to be implemented relatively soon, while half-orcs and dragonborn are further off.

I also assume more deities will likely be added later, especially the more prominent missing ones. Probably not the full list, but at enough to cover the major and better-known deities. I assume Larian has already gotten quite a bit of feedback on which ones should be included! My guess is that many of the order choices already in, like Myrkul, are there for story reasons...

 

[Nardgrog]

For me, the game is too early to play. I'll be holding off a few months before I dip back into it. The writing at times is good. The way how the mind flayer and tadpoles interact with players and how the player reacts to being controlled is spot on and will help me to be a better GM.

I'm not seeing the humor that endeared Larian to me as a studio. And when looking at BG and BGII, there was plenty of humor present. So I am hoping more of the "miniature giant space hamster" type of jokes are in the game more than the everything will die and land in ruin that the current game has given me the vibe with playing a few hours in.

I'm more interested in trying out a Paladin that is currently on hold and having more spells being available to cast as divine.

 

[Nymrod]

Heck I'd say the DEFAULT deity of an adventuring cleric in the Realms should be either Tymora or Lathander. And they are both missing? Just weird.

 

[Burnside]

Is there a way to ready an action in combat?

 

[cbwjm]

I'm going to wait until this is released rather than early access, looking forward to it though. I'm hoping the ranger changes make it into 5e, really hoping that they will be in Tasha's because it fixes a lot of what people consider an issue with the ranger (at least with the natural explorer and favoured enemy abilities). I can implement the changes myself, but since my friends and I use DnD beyond, I'd like them to be available in there, though I guess I can create them as feats and just give them in addition to the standard ranger bonuses.

 

[Azzy]

I'm guessing that gnomes are to be implemented relatively soon

Will they have to wait until the PHB2?

 

[Azzy]

I'm going to wait until this is released rather than early access, looking forward to it though. I'm hoping the ranger changes make it into 5e, really hoping that they will be in Tasha's because it fixes a lot of what people consider an issue with the ranger (at least with the natural explorer and favoured enemy abilities). I can implement the changes myself, but since my friends and I use DnD beyond, I'd like them to be available in there, though I guess I can create them as feats and just give them in addition to the standard ranger bonuses.

Can you give a summary of the changes?

 

[cbwjm]

Can you give a summary of the changes?

These are the main changes, very reminiscent of some of the ideas from Mike Mearls in his happy fun hour so he clearly took his ideas with him when they started work on the game. True strike has apparently also been updated to last for 2 rounds apply advantage to all of your attack rolls instead of your next one, though the Badlur's Gate 3 Wiki (Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki - Baldurs Gate 3) doesn't mention it.

I'm not sure what the Bounty Hunter ability that makes it harder for creatures you restrain to escape but I'd probably say that they have disadvantage on rolls to escape.

Favoured Enemy
When you create a Ranger, you must choose one of the following Favored Enemies, this allows the Ranger to gain certain Proficiency or learn a new Spell.

• Bounty Hunter: Gain Proficiency in Investigation and learn the Thieves' Cant passive. Creatures you Restrain have a harder time escaping.
• Keeper of the Veil: Gain Proficiency in Arcana, and can cast Protection from Evil and Good.
• Mage Breaker: Gain Proficiency with Arcana and the True Strike cantrip. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this Spell
• Ranger Knight: Gain Proficiency with History and Heavy Armour.
• Sanctified Stalker: Gain Proficiency in Religion and the Sacred Flame Cantrip. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this Spell

Natural Explorer
When you create a Ranger, you must choose one of the following types of Natural Explorer, this allows the Ranger to increase the amount of skills at his/her disposal.

• Beast Tamer: You can cast Find Familiar as a ritual.
• Urban Tracker: You gain Proficiency with the disguise kits and thieves' tools.
• Wasteland Wanderer: Cold: Gain resistance to Cold damage, taking only half from it.
• Wasteland Wanderer: Fire: Gain resistance to Fire, only taking half damage from it.
• Wasteland Wanderer: Poison: Gain resistance to Poison and take only half damage from it.