Shardstone
Hero
What elements does she usually ask for?
D&D General The longer I play Baldur's Gate 3 ...
- Thread starter Whizbang Dustyboots
- Start date
DarkCrisis
Takhisis' (& Soth's) favorite
One thing I always found funny about BG1-3 is the characters are just filled to bursting with magic items. Need a legendary piece of armor? I've got 10! How about the Weapons of the Gods! I've got one of each! I have more resurrection scrolls than was probably ever produced in the past 1000 years! And I'm level 12!
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Some of that early on is to deal with Gale's addiction, given that Larian didn't know how many players were going to clear the map in Act I before moving on. But yeah, there's also some definite subtle commentary about danger levels, 5E healing and how much fun it is to get magic items versus yet another goblin shortbow. (So. many. shortbows.)
I have a decent selection of 3D scenery (and decently painted to boot!) Obviously it can't compare to the programmers at Larian Studios, but it's not half bad. Players complain that it "gets in the way" and never interact with it.
One thing Dragonbane does is to have terrain feature cards where the players know beforehand how the terrain can be interacted with. I'm thinking of doing something like that to make some suggestions - and maybe it will open up other opportunities as they grow more accustomed to it.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
That's really interesting. Are there examples of this online anywhere?
Yeah - even if nobody knows whether creators can use Astarion or Gale, there is plenty of BG3-related stuff that there's no doubt is fair game - Shar, Duke Ravenguard/Flaming Fist, Baldur's Gate, etc. Plus characters from the earlier games who appear in this one (avoiding spoilers) have also been used in DMsGuild products before.
Shardstone
Hero
IMO I think this proves a lesson that, even though BG3 is a video game, magic items IMO don't unbalance characters that much. In my experience, giving even T1 characters legendary items doesn't drastically change the game, but it does change the nature of the "high moments" experienced within the game.
A Fighter with a vorpal sword at 3rd level is still 3rd level. There's a 5% chance they cut off the werewolf boss's head, but a high chance the werewolf kills them first. Having between 24-30 HP total is a strong limitation, and this limitation lasts up through T2 and enters T3.
Only things like the Ring of Three Wishes etc, legit campaign breakers, really throw off the balance ultra hard.
That being said, T3 and beyond (which BG3 only has two levels of) compounds with magic items due to the power of the spells a lot of characters gain access too, and because T3 characters can sometimes even punch up +10 their level in terms of CR.
I also think the abundance of magic items is there for players who feel they need "something to play for" after hitting the level cap fairly early in Act 3 as a lot of folks will. The crazy amount of late game items is a way of making players feel like their characters are improving without having to deal with the headaches of implementing tier 3 levels into the game.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I would bet money that Larian knows all about the Epic6 play model during late 3E.
More magic items. In this specific case, handing out lots of consumables.
The ability to interact with objects (i.e. exploding barrels).
Three-dimensional terrain (i.e. climbing up to the rafters for a better shot, jumping across chasms). [She thinks the RAW is too punishing in the action economy to perform these stunts.]
Shoving, pushing, etc. [Bonus actions in BG3, so also RAW too punishing in the action economy.]
Multiple objectives (i.e. don't let this prisoner die, stop this enemy from escaping with the McGuffin, etc.) [It's not that we can't do this at the table, it's that we can't reload from the previous save state so the "story" isn't derailed.]
