D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 will now be releasing August 3rd on PC and September 6th on PS5, increased level cap, race & class details and more

[Ruin Explorer]

Initiative being a d4 roll instead of d20 is kind of crazy. I guess they did it to make you have grouped turns more often (so you can switch between characters), but it also buffs the hell out of Dex and initiative boosts..

Oh my god is that what it is? I kind of assumed it was a d10. That makes Alertness basically an auto-win on initiative.

 

[Ondath]

Initiative being a d4 roll instead of d20 is kind of crazy. I guess they did it to make you have grouped turns more often (so you can switch between characters), but it also buffs the hell out of Dex and initiative boosts..

SO THAT'S WHY EVERYONE WAS ROLLING A 2 OR 3! That is dumb. I dislike it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

SO THAT'S WHY EVERYONE WAS ROLLING A 2 OR 3! That is dumb. I dislike it.

Tbh I think it's significantly less dumb than using a d20, where virtually all initiative modifiers are utterly swamped by the d20 RNG to the point where they're nearly pointless, but I do think a D4 is going to far the other way.

Explains why they changed Advantage of initiative rolls to +3 though - that's actually a massive buff!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Battle Master having to spend their maneuvers before knowing whether they hit is just sad.

It's seriously made me look at Champion. At least they get to jump gooder, no gambling involved.

EK is flatly superior to Champion, just stick to spells with no save or to hit, I can make a list of you want. Also the Jump spell is a ritual and lasts ten rounds, so an EK can cast it on themselves and even others before a fight and make the Champion jump buff look like the bad joke it is.

 

[Ondath]

Tbh I think it's significantly less dumb than using a d20, where virtually all initiative modifiers are utterly swamped by the d20 RNG to the point where they're nearly pointless, but I do think a D4 is going to far the other way.

Explains why they changed Advantage of initiative rolls to +3 though - that's actually a massive buff!

Eh, that swinginess also exists in attack rolls and other ability checks, so I don't mind it that much. Thing is, it shows that there are only 4 initiative positions, since everyone ends up being grouped together one way or another. I'd much have preferred the swinginess to basically being guaranteed that everyone will be grouped together.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Eh, that swinginess also exists in attack rolls and other ability checks, so I don't mind it that much. Thing is, it shows that there are only 4 initiative positions, since everyone ends up being grouped together one way or another. I'd much have preferred the swinginess to basically being guaranteed that everyone will be grouped together.

Not to the same degree. It's not even arguable. It's simple math. With attacks and skills and so on you get proficiency, stat, magic items and a bunch of other bonuses like bless, guidance and so on.

With initiative you get DEX.

That's it, apart from one feat and very rare class features, which, unless you also have high DEX, are basically meaningless because of the RNG. There's a whole extra level of stupidity in that they made it DEX only rather than INT or DEX, presumably solely out of spite towards 4E, which helps make 5E's INT-dumping problem worse.

It's straight up bad design that does not fit well into 5E's design paradigm and makes the game worse on every level - less tactical, less thoughtful, more ludicrous, less possible to influence by good decisions in game or character/class abilities, and so on. It's absolutely one of the worst aspects of 5E and was clearly half-assed, like Hit Dice, another mechanic this game sensibly throws overboard.

Like I said, d4 is going too far but d20 is junk design the way 5E has done it.

5E is also terrible at surprise rounds and the concept of surprise generally. It might be the worst edition of D&D for it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Relating to that fight, my Ranger's Ensnaring Strike finally came in useful, because without a certain someone's big multi-attacks, it wouldn't matter what the others did.

He also did NOT switch targets with his multi-attacks, but kept hitting the original target, even if he downed him on the first hit. Which somehow killed them right away, rather than just adding to their death saves. I found that a bit spiteful.

One thing I've noticed pretty reliably is that if enemies can't easily get to your other characters or can't see them, they absolutely will pound downed characters to full death. Which just makes you go back to camp and talk to Withers but still.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

EK is flatly superior to Champion

Yeah, but taking just 1 level in Wizard is better than 6 levels of EK, so might as well pick any other Fighter subclass. It does have a use for lv11 3rd attack, or if you find an amazing throwing weapon.

the Jump spell is a ritual

Oh damn, I forgot. It's just the one that only lasts 10 turns, that's why I mentally lumped it in with the combat buffs.

Stupid thing is, I have used it, and it's utterly crazy on the warriors, completely replacing Misty Step for positioning needs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yeah, but taking just 1 level in Wizard is better than 6 levels of EK, so might as well pick any other Fighter subclass. It does have a use for lv11 3rd attack, or if you find an amazing throwing weapon.


Oh damn, I forgot. It's just the one that only lasts 10 turns, that's why I mentally lumped it in with the combat buffs.

Stupid thing is, I have used it, and it's utterly crazy on the warriors, completely replacing Misty Step for positioning needs.

Re one level of Wizard that's not actually true, unless you have a ton of INT. You can only prepare INT mod plus Wizard level spells, so like 1 or 2. EK doesn't work like that, just has a small number of spells known, I think 8 by level 11. You don't need any INT at all. You could even dump it.

You'd know way more spells as a Wizard of course but you couldn't use them because they weren't prepared. One level is good for other casters who just want to be able to learn and sub in a spell or two before a specific fight, but not for any other purpose. I guess there's the headband of intellect (Int 17 here) to push it up to a more usable 4 but there are a lot of good hats.

Still there are 5 kinda dead levels from 6-10, so might as well multiclass with something else until 11 them respec back.

 

[Scribe]

Man I'm not even in the 'builds' phase of the game theory crafting. I seem to just be moving at a snails pace compared to you all.