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

[Demetrios1453]

Gave Shadowhart the heavy armor feat and magic shield and magic armor and now she’s a tank.

I'm thinking about respecing her to War Cleric and doing something like that.

 

[Synthil]

I'm thinking about respecing her to War Cleric and doing something like that.

I did just that. Trickery is a pretty useless domain.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I'm thinking about respecing her to War Cleric and doing something like that.

I switched her to Life. I need heals. And between her as a tank and the Barb and Rogue (turned Bard) and my Sorc laying down pain, I’m good for damage output.

 

[jgsugden]

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

I'd say that D&D puts the onus on the DM, just as with stealth, for figuring out how to manage all the little conditional things that change the equation. Both stealth and surprise tend to be areas where more precise rules can be abused and busted. The ones that most complain about their vagugeness tend to be the players that want to be able to know whether they'll succeed in their stealth and surprise by gaming the system ... and the vagueness results in a lack of clarity. That puts the DM in a rough spot, sometimes, which is one reason some DMs do not like it, but there is no right answer out there in tabletop. You just have to select one of the least offensive answers.

For BG3, they do not get that freedom. Computers do not do vague well. They made stealth more precise with the vision cones, but they also left surprise somewhat random, it seems. I've duplicated the same approach after a save and seen it be a surprise once, and not a surprise another time. It encouraged me to go a different route than assassin for Butterion.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I dia

I'd say that D&D puts the onus on the DM, just as with stealth, for figuring out how to manage all the little conditional things that change the equation. Both stealth and surprise tend to be areas where more precise rules can be abused and busted. The ones that most complain about their vagugeness tend to be the players that want to be able to know whether they'll succeed in their stealth and surprise by gaming the system ... and the vagueness results in a lack of clarity. That puts the DM in a rough spot, sometimes, which is one reason some DMs do not like it, but there is no right answer out there in tabletop. You just have to select one of the least offensive answers.

For BG3, they do not get that freedom. Computers do not do vague well. They made stealth more precise with the vision cones, but they also left surprise somewhat random, it seems. I've duplicated the same approach after a save and seen it be a surprise once, and not a surprise another time. It encouraged me to go a different route than assassin for Butterion.

It seems bizarre to characterize wanting rules to lead to predictable results as "gaming the system". On the contrary - reliable and transparent rules which don't require DM hemming and hawing typically result in players very much not "gaming the system" in my experience of many TTRPGs. Players just want an ambush to be an actual ambush - hardly unreasonable. 5Es Surprise system is almost uniquely bad, and it's bad for everyone as it provides results which are unsatisfying, counterintuitive and often downright confusing, whilst not even being particularly fast. It's not in-line with 5Es generally user-friendly approach and seems like a weird and unasked-for compromise, and also relies on bizarre Crawfordian takes on "natural language". In the end as you point out DMs frequently just overrule, house-rule or ignore it.

So of course it's not changing for 2024!

It's fascinating how good BG3 is at accidentally highlighting issues with 5E's design, even as it makes wacky choices of its own.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I'm going to try how the game feels with a d20 initiative roll instead of the default d4.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm going to try how the game feels with a d20 initiative roll instead of the default d4.

I presume there's a mod for that? It should be instructive if nothing else.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I presume there's a mod for that? It should be instructive if nothing else.

There is True Initiative (D20 Initiative Rolls) but now that he confirmed that it just works, I'm going to edit the change in myself, just so I know exactly what's in the file.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Oh wow I see that's very simple, you could change it to anything, trivially.

 

[Scribe]

I looked into the modding years ago, and it did seem very straight forward.

I'm sure someone has done it already, but if not, I'll eventually get my true calling into the game.

Oath of Conquest.