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!

 

[SirGrotius]

Did a quick search on this thread but did not see "apple" come up and "Mac" is too short to be searchable...so, is this playable on Mac? I'm not familiar with this other platform, Stadia?, people are referencing. I feel as though I'm asking the most obvious question!!

 

[Azzy]

Did a quick search on this thread but did not see "apple" come up and "Mac" is too short to be searchable...so, is this playable on Mac?

I'm not sure about the early access of the game, but I believe so. The the final release will be playable on a Mac (according to the system requirements for the game on Steam).

I'm not familiar with this other platform, Stadia?, people are referencing. I feel as though I'm asking the most obvious question!!

Stadia is weird. It's not so much a platform but a streaming service for games. It allows you to play games without downloading them and can be used on a computer regardless of OS and on some phones and mobile devices.

 

[MarkB]

Did a quick search on this thread but did not see "apple" come up and "Mac" is too short to be searchable...so, is this playable on Mac? I'm not familiar with this other platform, Stadia?, people are referencing. I feel as though I'm asking the most obvious question!!

Stadia is Google's streaming gaming service. Essentially, the game runs on their server, controlled by you, and the sound and video is sent to your computer.

Since it's browser based it runs on most platforms, including Mac, but you need a decent internet connection.

 

[cbwjm]

Did a quick search on this thread but did not see "apple" come up and "Mac" is too short to be searchable...so, is this playable on Mac? I'm not familiar with this other platform, Stadia?, people are referencing. I feel as though I'm asking the most obvious question!!

Just had a look on steam, looks to be available on Mac OS X.

 

[Leatherhead]

Shadowheart rocks. But she also dies, a lot, sadly. I saw a post from Larian saying she was the only NPC to die more frequently than the main PC...

Shadowheart is the perfect example of a horribly built character.
She isn't good as a frontliner, due to dumping DEX and having only a smattering of Con. Which is a big problem considering she is one of two "tankish" NPCs that the game gives you.
She isn't good at ranged combat either, due to her ranged attack of choice being Sacred Flame; Low CR creatures have disproportionally high DEX scores, and the spell doesn't do a lot of damage or have a great range to begin with. She would be better off chucking javelins (if they existed)

Also her death saving throw dice are cursed. I swear she just flat out fails more often than other characters for some reason. It might be bias, but it could be a bug.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The AI will usually attack the target with the lowest AC, so pumping up AC (e.g. Shield of Faith, Mirror Image) discourages the AI from attacking you at all. If you lower the designated tank's AC - e.g. don't use a shield - you encourage the AI to attack them instead. Meanwhile, cleric is best used as a healer.

 

[MarkB]

Shadowheart is the perfect example of a horribly built character.
She isn't good as a frontliner, due to dumping DEX and having only a smattering of Con. Which is a big problem considering she is one of two "tankish" NPCs that the game gives you.
She isn't good at ranged combat either, due to her ranged attack of choice being Sacred Flame; Low CR creatures have disproportionally high DEX scores, and the spell doesn't do a lot of damage or have a great range to begin with. She would be better off chucking javelins (if they existed)

Also her death saving throw dice are cursed. I swear she just flat out fails more often than other characters for some reason. It might be bias, but it could be a bug.

In my first run, after I killed Lae'zel to spare the tieflings, I gave Shadowheart her armour. That helped a bit. It is tough to find affordable heavier armour in the early game.

 

[Nymrod]

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

It's certainly part of the balancing needed. And yeah I also think that the verisimilitude of the game, which is supposed to be a focus given the level of detail, is suffering from way too many barrels of flammable oil.

Anyone familiar with previous Larian EA's, what is the plan? Will they be adding more content gradually or will they patch to the game proper when they are ready for release?

 

[MarkB]

Anyone familiar with previous Larian EA's, what is the plan? Will they be adding more content gradually or will they patch to the game proper when they are ready for release?

Adding content gradually. The whole point of Early Access is to playtest new aspects of the game as they're added.

 

[jgsugden]

So far I've failed every death saving throw I've rolled.