D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access

Nymrod · Oct 22, 2020

Paul Farquhar said:
It's not that difficult to mod the PC to pretty much anything in the game. But the plot/dialogue will likely not make sense.

Yup. You can add multiple tags easily though so if there are interactions to backgrounds you could easily make someone be both a Sage and a Noble for instance. Modders are already working on the game though so I expect by the time it is out of EA there will be a lot of mods already.

MNblockhead · Oct 24, 2020

Anyone else finding Baldur's Gate more deadly than actual 5e sessions?

I think this is because:

It is a sandbox, you can easily get in above your head. Which I like.
You are not let through level-appropriate encounters, which I also like, but think may frustrate many. I get a little frustrated when I spend a lot of time on an encounter that goes to combat that I can't win and have to go back to an early save and try to go somewhere else.
You can build your own party. You are stuck with the characters available, who are all squishy. I didn't know what I was doing when I started and I managed to get my Gith companion killed and am playing a wizard, so I have no real fighters in my party. I'm almost tempted to start over with a fighter build, even though I like playing wizards. But I would be happy with Gale as the party wizard.
Not a merciful DM. I like how the enemies will actually continue to attack downed characters. Too often in live games of 5e, DMs don't do this.
I just really suck. I tend to do well tactically in D&D games and my players in particular make it challenging to challenge them in 5e. I like to blame my suckitude on items 1 through 4. I'm just not doing well in combat. It is leading me to play more of a social and stealth game. While I like but Baldur's Gate really isn't the ideal explore, stealth, social game. Much of the fun is the tactical, turn-based, combat which I love, esp for its 5e feel. But, man, I'm tired of having to go back to previous saves after an hour or two of failing to win a combat encounter and then having to go find a more appropriate encounter.

Iry · Oct 24, 2020

MNblockhead said:
Anyone else finding Baldur's Gate more deadly than actual 5e sessions?

The fights vary dramatically with how you use the terrain.

Walk towards the enemy? The fight is several times harder than backing away from the enemy and leading them into your trap. This has been the case with Larian games since ~~DOS1~~Divine Divinity, and in many ways it's a good thing since it heavily rewards good tactical thinking. But it's also somewhat bad because tactical thinking is so effective it can turn a brutally hard fight into a cakewalk, and vice versa.

Larian games have never been especially balanced. It's always been a sort of "Pick Your Own Difficulty."

Paul Farquhar · Oct 24, 2020

Backing away from the enemy and hitting them with ranged weapons/spells is an effective tactic in PnP too - it's just that most DMs don't scatter barrels of flammable oil all over their dungeons!

The enemy AI in BG3 is pretty aggressive - it tends to focus fire on the softest target until it is dead - pretty much like PCs do. But I don't find combat in BG3 particularly difficult - I remember BG1 being tougher, with is ambushes by bandit archers; kobold commandos with fire arrows; and vampire wolves immune to your weapons whilst you are 1st/2nd level and an understaffed party (the enhanced edition softened those early encounters).

But the difficulty sliders are currently disabled.

Nymrod · Oct 24, 2020

BG1 kobolds were horribly overgeared for when you encountered them. BG3 indeed is mostly about using the terrain. Heck at the current levels available, the terrain features just straight up have more damage potential than what the PCs can do.

Burnside · Oct 24, 2020

It took me a while to figure it out, but Mage Hand can shove people. And there is a bug which allows it to make infinite attempts at doing so on its turn. So having your Mage Hand fly up to foes who have perched in an elevated area and repeatedly shoving them until they topple to their death is one of the most devastating tactics in the game right now.

Nymrod · Oct 24, 2020

Btw I absolutely love that I can remake one of my earliest D&D characters, a dwarven lady of Haela Brightaxe. Battle Master with a Greatsword, Cleric Initiate, gorgeous red beard.

cmad1977 · Oct 24, 2020

Nymrod said:
BG1 kobolds were horribly overgeared for when you encountered them. BG3 indeed is mostly about using the terrain. Heck at the current levels available, the terrain features just straight up have more damage potential than what the PCs can do.

The AI intentionally targeted a statue with what I THINK was the shatter spell and it toppled onto my party killing 2 of them.

I was impressed.

Nymrod · Oct 24, 2020

cmad1977 said:
The AI intentionally targeted a statue with what I THINK was the shatter spell and it toppled onto my party killing 2 of them.

I was impressed.

No need for a shatter. Shove is ridiculously OP.
Honestly both disengage and shove should not be bonus actions

Iry · Oct 25, 2020

Nymrod said:
Honestly both disengage and shove should not be bonus actions

They shouldn't be. But there is something so viscerally satisfying about missing an attack, then shoving them out of pure spite.

D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access

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