D&D General BG3 Massive Spoiler Thread

[Scribe]

My computer is a load of garbage, and did have some pretty big performance issues in the first two acts, but nothing so major it significantly reduced my enjoyment of the game. Travelling to the Last Light Inn and, too a lesser extent, the Druid Grove did lower my FPS, but I just had to avoid the areas with a lot of NPCs, and the game would be pretty smooth.

I started Act 3 today, and so far it has been a nightmare. I'm not even in the city proper yet (I'm still in Rivington), and the game has crashed twice. Every other conversation/cutscene takes 5 minutes to load, and the game overall has been running much slower. I'm currently debating whether Act 3 is even playable on my PC. There's just way too many people in the same map. From what I've heard, the performance issues in Act 3 are pretty major for people with far better computers than mine.

I suggest turning off the dynamic crowds if you have it. My performance degraded so much in Act 3's open air zones it was getting tiresome to even load in.

 

[Thunder Brother]

Could always steal the Idol, watch the druids kill the tieflings, then wipe out the druids for being genocidal nutjobs. Then you can agree to Minthara's request since nobody is left anyway!

I could maybe justify that approach. Maybe.

I'll blame Astarion.

"Oh No! Astarion. Why? How could you?"

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Paladins have such strong Main Character Energy I love it.

Yeah initially I was surprised they were so heavily played, because in the EA you basically just had to look at someone funny to break your oath. But it's a lot harder to that as Ancients or Vengeance (Ancients in EA was basically the same as Devotion, break-wise, that is no longer true AFAICT). But playing one they've got a major case of the Commander Shepards, and it works well with the plot.

 

[Scribe]

Yeah initially I was surprised they were so heavily played, because in the EA you basically just had to look at someone funny to break your oath. But it's a lot harder to that as Ancients or Vengeance (Ancients in EA was basically the same as Devotion, break-wise, that is no longer true AFAICT). But playing one they've got a major case of the Commander Shepards, and it works well with the plot.

I dont know that reference, but given the plot, the enemies, the stakes, and all the things going on, if you want to be 'the good guy that does good things and is the hero' while also dropping righteous bursts of damage, its hard to go wrong with Paladin, Folk Hero. (I was swimming in Inspiration).

Now that I've slept on it, thinking about the game its obviously great. I didnt engage with spoilers or reviews, I played it mostly blind and so while I know I missed a ton, I'm going to be able to go back and now start looking at any guides or whatever to see where things could have changed or gone better.

I really liked the game, I really liked the plot/story, I admit I thought I was going to be betrayed in the end but it never happened.

Some of the stuff, I have to wonder how canonical it is, maybe Larian took some liberties, I dont know really without getting into full blown spoilers.

There's likely too much good stuff for me to bother writing it all up. Lets just say this game reignited my passion for D&D/FR, in a way nothing has in well look at the Calendar, probably decades if I'm honest. If Larian does add a DLC or 2, I'm right there for it...assuming its still in the FR/Planescape/Avernus type setting. If they jump into something else (CR) I'm going to be very sad.

With this and Wrath of the Righteous, we have truly been given 2 CRPGs that are experiences we can look back on and continue to enjoy on par with the classics of BG1 and 2.

Minor quibbles, I'm sure with both games, but honestly, I loved my ending with Karlach, the story arcs for Shadowheart and Wyll, Halsin (still horny/bugged? I shot him down completely eventually) and Gale (I reloaded and let him fulfill his destiny) all good stuff.

There's enough I didnt do, I just need to consider how I want to get it done (I want to max my time with Jaheira and Minsc somehow for a "Its BG1 time run) with I guess Gale again as my Edwin...hmm and an evil run, and then a "me and 3 mercenary" run...and then theres the mod side of things which I dove into with BG and NWN back in the day.

Performance in Act 3, was a problem honestly but thats not something I'll blame the game for, I'm on a laptop that is 3 or 4 years out at this point.

Great game.

Oh, and I played on Normal, with a group of

Paladin (Ancients) - Tav
Gale - no respec
Karlach - Great Sword most of the time, Berserker
Shadowheart - Thief (4) / Life (8) - I didnt want to miss out on the Feat at 4, and by the end she was putting out a ton of healing if needed, dropping silences, picking any door I needed, dropping special arrows (Darkness/Thunder/Disruption) or throwing Smokepowders. A glue character.

I absolutely missed out on gear choices, and I'm quite sure there is nothing 'optimal' about what I was doing, but Gale did huge work with counterspell later in the game, rendering many fights dead simple, Tav/Karlach killed most things, and yeah Shadowheart just kept things flowing.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Some of the stuff, I have to wonder how canonical it is, maybe Larian took some liberties, I dont know really without getting into full blown spoilers.

I've not come across anything that really triggered my "THAT'S NOT CANON!!!" or "THAT'S NOT RIGHT!" instinct, apart from the presentation of a couple of the gods and their followers, which was a little shallower and narrower than one might want.

Spoiler for Act 3 but if you don't rescue 100% of the Gond worshippers - and it's barely physically possible to do so, I'm not even sure how you'd do it with one of the fights because the Gond guys will literally intentionally stand in explosions they could move out of to suicide - hell one of them intentionally ran into an explosion to die, after I'd thrown him clear! - the lead Gond guy gives a speech about how the worship of Gond will die out, and I'm like, you in Baldur's Gate right, because Lantan is still a thing... but it's unqualified and it's a weird thing to write. That's honestly the only lore thing that rose to the level of bothering me.

I know WotC technically define what's canon, but I'd actually a couple of WotC's own adventures are bit more off from what I'd think of as mainstream FR canon (even in 5E), particularly elements of Rime of the Frostmaiden, but I haven't read them in enough detail to back that argument up, it's just a vibe.

I dont know that reference

Commander Shepard is the main character in Mass Effect. Paladin gives you a lot of Commander Shepard-esque "I'm taking charge of the situation"-type lines. Even some of the [Paladin][Deception] lines are very much the way Commander Shepard tends to lie to people (bluster, not subtlety).

I really liked the plot/story, I admit I thought I was going to be betrayed in the end but it never happened.

I have to admit I've been slightly disappointed by the lack of betrayal. I felt like the Dragon Age games did a really good job with companions sort of "going renegade" if you didn't do what they wanted (particularly the underrated DA2), and obviously avoiding spoilers but they feature one heck of a betrayal - arguably multiple ones.

 

[Scribe]

I dont know if it was just me, but I

100% thought the Emperor was going to turn on me, or turn out to be a puppet of the Absolute.

 

[MarkB]

Yeah initially I was surprised they were so heavily played, because in the EA you basically just had to look at someone funny to break your oath. But it's a lot harder to that as Ancients or Vengeance (Ancients in EA was basically the same as Devotion, break-wise, that is no longer true AFAICT). But playing one they've got a major case of the Commander Shepards, and it works well with the plot.

I think it's pretty simple, really - as the character who's going to be leading the party into a room and leading the party in dialogue, you want a class that can take a punch, and that's good at talking to people. Paladin is the most obviously appropriate to cover those roles.

 

[Reynard]

What are the chances that the Zhents are going to come after me for pilfering everything from their underdark stockpile?

 

[Thunder Brother]

Yeah initially I was surprised they were so heavily played, because in the EA you basically just had to look at someone funny to break your oath. But it's a lot harder to that as Ancients or Vengeance (Ancients in EA was basically the same as Devotion, break-wise, that is no longer true AFAICT). But playing one they've got a major case of the Commander Shepards, and it works well with the plot.

I completed my first playthrough as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin and never once had an issue with my oath. I thought maybe that approving the death of 5000 vampire spawn during Astarion's quest would trigger it. But nope, greater good I guess.

Also it's really f*cking fun to smite things. The game has been a real treat for a forever DM.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I suggest turning off the dynamic crowds if you have it. My performance degraded so much in Act 3's open air zones it was getting tiresome to even load in.

I already turned that off when I started having problems at Last Light. It slightly improved the game's performance and made loading/saving faster, but it's still having a really hard time with high-population areas. I've turned all of the graphics settings to the lowest available options, too. Thanks for trying to help, though.