Baldur’s Gate 3 - Discussion post #1

I chopped off Games hand and he never joined the party, but I still get comments from the others about him haha

I've reposted acts 1 and 2, 3 times now, haven't finished 3 yet.

Yeah, I'm almost done bg3, just in time for starfield, but I wish there was some downtime so I could start a fresh bg1/2 run.

Still haven’t had mine

But I’m hoping it will be a hot one (literally)

I see that as the opposite of a problem. Play it once and do a lot of things, then you play it again and it’s like 80% a new game? Fuck yes.

Just keep playing and replaying until that new factor goes way down.

I initially had the same worry. The game becomes a lot more enjoyable if you take a hard roleplaying approach: only do what your character would do, not what a completionist good two shoes would do. From early in my first playthrough, I had already decided that I was going to do a few more. So, it doesn't feel like it matters if you really obviously miss some content.

I played through act 1 and then restarted because I wanted to try another build. I thought I had done everything and discovered all I could, but boy was I wrong. Maybe I’m just a noob, but there was so much more I hadn’t discovered in my first run.

My biggest complaint is that we can’t just let a more appropriate character take over a conversation. One of my clumsy, dim-witted brawler friends runs ahead by one pixel triggering a cutscene, and I can’t jump in mid-conversation to smooth things over with my bardic talent. This is our most common reason for loading a previous save.

Yeah, we were running into this in my game with my buddy; I'm definitely the dumbass running ahead because I've got stealth and dex for scouting, but invisible cutscene/conversation triggers keep catching us and my dunce of a character gets stuck talking to the punters. It's kind of frustrating that the game encourages players to specialize in that way, but then makes it rather hard to take full advantage of that specialization if you don't set up the encounter absolutely perfectly.

The other one where that happens is that when a combat encounter ends with dialogue - first Auntie Ethel fight, say - the game picks the character who had the last turn as who Auntie is talking to when the conversation starts. In that case, it's almost always the party member doing big damage that pushed her past the damage threshold, and they're generally not built for talking to people.

Those get even more frustrating because there's an interface option to swap who's talking, but it doesn't seem to actually work in the majority of important conversations. It's only when talking to filler characters that I can hot-swap who's talking. I'd also love if, in addition to that button working more consistently - it'd tell you if someone in the party has 'unique' dialogue options for that moment. I think that having the whole party participate in conversations is chaotic and hard to implement in multiplayer - but a better capture of how those same interactions 'would' play out in a D&D game.

Second biggest complaint is the number of things that you can mis-click to destroy your character’s reputation. I’d love to be able to opt-in to an “are you sure” dialog when you accidentally click a random item on the floor while moving around.

It's very frustrating to get a whole faction pissed at you due to misclicking some 'owned' container or accidentally dragging a barrel. Gith creche was a nightmare for that, because every room and hallway is decorated with owned containers. Some measure to make it harder to accidentally loot someone's mold cheese while they're standing right in front of you would be really valuable.

My main character is a Gloomstalker 3/Assassin 3/Shadow Monk 6 mix, but after finally getting enough Monk levels and gear to want to use only fists I discovered they don't work with the Gloomstalker extra attack, so I might change to just Assassin/Monk.

Character one I won't name because of spoilers is Eldritch Knight 5/Druid of the Land 7 because I wanted to keep them a fighter/druid for lore reasons. It's surprisingly decent to have access to Extra Attack, Shield and Magic Missile though. Obviously not an inherently powerful combo, but good enough.

Character two I won't name for spoiler reasons is Berserker Barbarian 3/Hunter Ranger 3/Champion Fighter 6 because I wanted them to be a Berserking Ranger for lore reasons and Battle Master felt too complex for that character. It does what you would expect, which is hit stuff hard and not much else.

I respecced Shadowheart to Life Cleric 1 and the rest in Lore Bard. Not really an odd multiclass but it's very powerful. Bless, Guidance, Heavy Armor, the Life Cleric healing buff plus the full bard experience.

I got a Paladin Valor Bard (2/10) and a Light Cleric Thief (8/4).

How can you not like Gale? He's adorably charming. I find it hard not to take him and actually do some stuff with someone else, but then... I have that issue with them all because they are indeed all interesting and fun to be around. I can't even choose a favorite, which was always easy in past games like BG1/2, Torment, and NWN (Minsc, Morte, Deekin).

Yes! The companions are so good that for the first time in a game like this I could decide on a core party for my first play through. I’ve always been able to eliminate a lot of characters as boring or not my speed, but not in this game. I got as far as the crèche in act 1.5 before I got too frustrated with it and installed a party size mod so I can just bring them all with me

Yeah, the farther I play the more bugs I experience. Act3 has had tons, there's been a few reloads because something didn't happen that was supposed to. It was the same for DOS2 though.

Multi into Barbarian and just go hard on throwing motherfuckers at other motherfuckers! You can just pick up an enemy and yeet them directly off a cliff, or into other characters, if they're small enough and your strength is good enough.

Just go and do something, then go back to the main story. Find your rhythm of fun.

What village in act one? 😅

I mean you can always "save scum" (not judging it, it's a single player game, do whatever you like, I do it too). But the inspiration is just a way to do it from within the rules of the game. Same as having Advantage. It's just another resource for you to manage.

Same way with not long resting after every battle.