WotC World Reveal of Baldur's Gate 3

At PAX East today, gameplay footage of Baldur's Gate 3 was revealed for the first time by Larian Studios.

According to PC Gamer, the Early Access version of the game will launch this year with five characters:

• Wyll, Human Warlock
• Shadowheart, Half-elf Cleric
• Lae'zel, Githyanki Fighter
• Gale, Human Wizard
• Astarion, Elven Vampire Spawn Rogue

And you'll be able to create characters using these six classes:

• Fighter (Battle Master, Eldritch Knight)
• Wizard (Evocation, Abjuration)
• Rogue (Arcane Trickster, Thief)
• Ranger (Hunter, Beast Master)
• Cleric (Life, Light, Trickery)
• Warlock (Fiend, Great One)

15 races include (amongst others):

• Elves
• Dwarves
• Humans
• Githyanki
• Drow
• Tieflings
• Vampire Spawn

 

[Gradine]

That is normally how low level fights go in D&D. It normally speeds up. Particularly if you do things properly like how Swen did the second time where the fight took no time at all.

It also didn't help that he missed two 90% hit chances that first fight

 

[slobster]

It also didn't help that he missed two 90% hit chances that first fight

I'm waiting for them to institute the ability to switch the dice you are using for rolls during the game, put dice in the "time out jar" if they are giving low rolls, and argue with the CPU that "the dice fell on the edge" when you get a bad roll in an important situation.

Until they institute that functionality, It Just Isn't D&D.

 

[Horwath]

The depth and complexity and range of possible bonus actions simply would not work in RTwP without heavily simplifying or flat out erasing them.

Lets try this.
Will get rid of Dash action and have it available to all as default movement.

You have 6 seconds per turn.
1 Action,
1 Bonus action,
And what ever time is left for movement.

lets say that 2 sec move is 30ft of default race speed. That gives 90ft in 6 seconds(free bonus dash for all )

Now you only need duration for Action and bonus action:
2+2, 2,5+1,5, 3+1... does not need to be even 4 sec total, but we use it as a measure vs movement.

Then, when you start your Action, you get a cooldown before you can start another Action. Default D&D would be 6 seconds from start to start.

Same with Bonus action.

Reaction would be auto-pause when trigger happens so you can decide to take it or not.

 

[Horwath]

Hey now, don't forget:
1. Select character with stealth capability
2. Hide
3. Run up to enemy mob
4. Backstab
5. Run away until the mob is off screen
6. Repeat 2-5

Hey, you just described my 5E Wood elf rogue(assassin). Hahaha.

 

[Ristamar]

RTwP would be possible in BG3, but I believe the real time aspect would largely be superfluous. More importantly, it would erroneously imply that real-time is a viable and optimal method of play when it's often a false choice.

RTwP mixed well with BG1 due to the lack of complexity and moment-to-moment choices inherent to low level 2e combat. The bulk of the battles could be handled by your melee and ranged units with a smattering of spells. It was enjoyable without having to pause frequently through the bulk of the game.

The same cannot be said for BG2 mostly due to the proliferation of high-level casting. The constant cycle of buffs and debuffs combined with often lethal spell effects meant a near constant need to pause, evaluate, and react.

Players that tried to casually play out encounters in BG2 by frequently staying real time often bounced hard off the system in frustration. The game was designed to be constantly micromanaged despite the option of real time combat.

 

[Gradine]

Lets try this.
Will get rid of Dash action and have it available to all as default movement.

You have 6 seconds per turn.
1 Action,
1 Bonus action,
And what ever time is left for movement.

lets say that 2 sec move is 30ft of default race speed. That gives 90ft in 6 seconds(free bonus dash for all )

Now you only need duration for Action and bonus action:
2+2, 2,5+1,5, 3+1... does not need to be even 4 sec total, but we use it as a measure vs movement.

Then, when you start your Action, you get a cooldown before you can start another Action. Default D&D would be 6 seconds from start to start.

Same with Bonus action.

Reaction would be auto-pause when trigger happens so you can decide to take it or not.

Or, instead of doing all this unnecessarily complicated (and actually quite limiting) programming and gameplay modification, we, and hear me out, accomplish all this much more simply and with much more moment-to-moment player agency by using turn based combat?

 

[MarkB]

The same cannot be said for BG2 mostly due to the proliferation of high-level casting. The constant cycle of buffs and debuffs combined with often lethal spell effects meant a near constant need to pause, evaluate, and react.

Yeah, I still remember those fights - the degree of defensive-vs-offensive-spell arms race was just ridiculous at the higher levels. Like, take down the enemy wizard's spell-turning this round, so you can take out his spell resistance next round, then his damage resistance, then finally start throwing spells and attacks that can actually damage him - and make darn sure that you're pausing to select and cast exactly the correct spell each round, because if he gets through your defenses first, it's Save-or-Die time.

Thankfully, 5e doesn't go for that level of stacked defenses, so at least we don't have that to look forward to in this game.

 

[Horwath]

Predicting movement of enemies and allies is also important in turn-based combat, which is based on D&D, which is a turn-based game ...

yeah to a very limited degree.

You CANNOT miss AoE, You CANNOT hit your allies by mistake.

Every action is 100% secured(outside attack roll/save RNGesus)

 

[ddaley]

Mearls could literally have Larian Studios elevate D&D to the next level, but instead he chooses to enforce them to adhere to the 5e ruleset to the T.

Uh, many people are excited about this fact. If it doesn't appeal to you, then fine... don't play it. My bet is that it'll be highly successful and highly enjoyable for many people.

 

[Gladius Legis]

yeah to a very limited degree.

You CANNOT miss AoE, You CANNOT hit your allies by mistake.

Every action is 100% secured(outside attack roll/save RNGesus)

So ... just like D&D, which is the basis for BG3. I really don't see the problem.

If I want to play a game where AoEs missing or friendly firing are a factor, I'll play an actual action-RPG that's explicitly designed to take that sort of thing into account.