D&D General BG3 Massive Spoiler Thread

[Demetrios1453]

I am about 2/3rds of the way through Act 2 right now. I haven't done most of the Moonrise area quests or the Gauntlet of Shar, but I've done practically everything else on the map. My party is halfway to level 9. I'm not sure what level I should be right now, but

My custom character is a Githyanki Abjuration Wizard that I'm using as a Gish. If Bladesinger was an option, I definitely would have played that instead, but Abjuration Wizard in medium armor dual wielding magically finesse longswords is the next best thing. Haste has been extremely useful, as have a few of the magic items that increase the viability of this build. I've already gotten my Intelligence up to 20 (start out with 17, increased to 19 at level 4, ate the hag's hair to increase to 20) and have the gloves that increase your Dexterity to 18. I have a 20 for AC (22 with Haste) from Adamantine Scale Mail and the Cloak of Protection. This level I got the dual wielder feat, allowing me to dual wield the two finesse longswords in the game. My current plan for the final feat at level 12 is Medium Armor Master to increase my AC again and finally remove the stealth penalty, but that might change depending on what items I get in the future.

My standard party is Shadowheart (respecced into a Life Cleric, wielding the Blood of Lathander and Shield of Devotion, wearing +1 Plate Armor) and Astarion (Thief subclass, dual wielding magic hand crossbows with Sharpshooter, AC of ). I switch between Lae'zel and Karlach for the party's main frontline fighter. My Lae'zel is an Eldritch Knight that has a 20 for Strength, Great Weapon Master, a 19 for AC (Adamantine Splint plus the Wondrous Gloves) and the Githyanki Greatsword. My Karlach Bear Wildheart has the magical halberd that deals extra lightning damage, the Polearm Master feat, and magical half-plate. Lae'zel has been slightly less useful in combat than Karlach, but I keep using her because my character is romancing her.

Most encounters are pretty easy and I'm playing on the standard difficulty. Next game I'm definitely going to play on Tactician to see how much more difficult it is.

It's interesting - when I first started the game, I was getting very frustrated with how tough a lot of Act 1 fights were; but after I go through them on a second run-through, they're a lot easier. It's not a matter of battle tactics (barrels and the like) but using spells and class features that I hadn't paid much attention to at first. Farstrider, for example, is a game-changer.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It's interesting - when I first started the game, I was getting very frustrated with how tough a lot of Act 1 fights were; but after I go through them on a second run-through, they're a lot easier. It's not a matter of battle tactics (barrels and the like) but using spells and class features that I hadn't paid much attention to at first. Farstrider, for example, is a game-changer.

Some earlier fights were definitely pretty challenging (the Phase Spiders killed me about 10 times before I learned the importance of elixirs, oils, and shooting bridges). In Act 1 there were a handful of other fights that I had to redo several times as well. I have yet to do that yet in Act 2, even with the fights that have been more difficult than the others (tollhouse, Last Light Isobel abduction, protecting Halsin's portal).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Next game I'm definitely going to play on Tactician to see how much more difficult it is.

Still on Act 1 with Tactician but whilst it's harder, it's more in a "You have to blow significantly more resources per fight" way than a "You need much better tactics" kind of way so far. I mean, you do need better tactics, but like, the tactics that would make a fight easy as hell in Normal make a fight perfectly doable in Tactician, just you probably need to use more long-rest resources to pull them off.

Long rests cost double but given how much food you find that seems unlikely to be an issue. Of course it's possible some really high-end fights in Act 2 and beyond will be much harder.

Weirdly Larian said that they'd given enemies loads more things like bombs and special arrows in Tactician, and put more dangerous things around like exploding barrels, and like, half-way through Act 1 I've seen no evidence of either - just a LOT more HP on the enemies and generally they seem to be a little higher level.

 

[Ondath]

Long rests cost double but given how much food you find that seems unlikely to be an issue. Of course it's possible some really high-end fights in Act 2 and beyond will be much harder.

The supplies had started becoming a problem for me towards the end of Act 1 - mostly because there aren't that many occasions to buy supplies until you've cleared the situation with the Grove and Goblins. After that, it's a breeze though - I just send whatever food comes my way back to my camp, and I haven't needed to buy supplies in a very, very long time.

I've finally had the full-on sex scene with Shadowheart, and it was pretty nice. I honestly think they managed to capture a satisfactory middle between offering fun and, let's be honest, wish fulfilment-y scene and actually thoughtful content that ties sexuality to the character arcs. With all the hype after the Halsin bear sex scene, people were acting as if we'd get hardcore pornography in our action-adventure RPG. Obviously that's not the case, but I was happy to see that the game did not shy away from natural, intimate moments where nudity and the like is present. It felt less like an American production and more like a French art movie. Also, the actors are talking about how nice the experience of mocapping those scenes was, with full-on intimacy consultants being on set, and honestly the fact that the actors were comfortable creating this content puts my mind at ease.

In contrast, there are two drow twins in Wyrm's Crossing's "festhall" (to use the AD&D 1E term, lol) and they were clearly written for titillation. They're just there as two hot people who want to bone your character and cross off a few fetishes while doing it. Some companions can even join in, making this essentially the equivalent to Dragon Age: Origins's own brothel scene. The fact that this obvious titillation content was also entirely in darkness made me think that the content was at cross-purposes a bit. It felt a bit like the DM threw in some spicy ideas for the episode where the party visits a brothel, but then a player gets too into one of the options the DM put, so now the DM awkwardly (and quickly) describes the PC's misadventures and tries to steer the game to a more comfortable area.

 

[Mull Ponders]

Patch 2 broke me, can't load any saved games. Can start a new one and those saves work. I was 70 hours in, trying to be a completionist, about to finish Act 1, and this happens. Hopefully they fix it, if not this could be the end for me. Not really into replays.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

With all the hype after the Halsin bear sex scene, people were acting as if we'd get hardcore pornography in our action-adventure RPG.

What's particularly funny is none of the sex scenes so far have been remotely as pornographic as the Ryder-Harper sex scene in Mass Effect: Andromeda, which I think like three people saw but I was one of them oh my god. Jeez. I did not need to see Ryder's pumping ass like I was on Pornhub.

The fact that this obvious titillation content was also entirely in darkness made me think that the content was at cross-purposes a bit. It felt a bit like the DM threw in some spicy ideas for the episode where the party visits a brothel, but then a player gets too into one of the options the DM put, so now the DM awkwardly (and quickly) describes the PC's misadventures and tries to steer the game to a more comfortable area.

I suspect the animators were like, "You want us to account for how many different potential companions? Look mate this would take more effort than animating several entire end sequences for the game!", and thus to prevent them blowing (ahem) like 1/4 of the entire Act 3 animation budget it on it, they just went with a cheap out.

 

[Scribe]

Patch 2 broke me, can't load any saved games. Can start a new one and those saves work. I was 70 hours in, trying to be a completionist, about to finish Act 1, and this happens. Hopefully they fix it, if not this could be the end for me. Not really into replays.

Oh man, let me see if I can load in...

 

[DarkCrisis]

So I’m trying to free some Deep Gnome slaves and I’m talking to the slaver Drow Wizard and I tell him I killed his friends and he’s next… and Karlach didn’t like that? What?

Also earlier I got a Dagger that causes Silence in a hit and wooo did that mess that Drow Wizard up. Wasn’t even a fight.

 

[Synthil]

Weirdly Larian said that they'd given enemies loads more things like bombs and special arrows in Tactician, and put more dangerous things around like exploding barrels, and like, half-way through Act 1 I've seen no evidence of either - just a LOT more HP on the enemies and generally they seem to be a little higher level.

I've only tried tactician shortly but the intellect devourers on the beach got a ranged attack for example.

 

[wicked cool]

Question on voices
I have created a male voiced character and want to use the same voice on a second character as I like his voices reactions but it’s hard to tell in character creation and I don’t know which 1 I chose

Other than trial and error is there a way in game files to see which voice I chose?