Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Alright this is fairly spoiler free , so my ocd ass is almost done with everything in act 1 (atleast that I know of, I’ve not been trying to spoiler myself). This includes multiple reloads on a shitty slow pc because I have a mental illness and need to see all the outcomes from any decision point I reach (I literally spent 3 hours on nere just to test every outcome I could think of) (also why do save games take forever to load for this jfc).

so basically, what do you recommend I go to next, the mountain pass/ gith stuff, or the shadow area by grymforge? Maybe I’m wrong but seems like whichever I pick is going to take me down a very different gameplay path. My party just hit lvl 6 and is very karlach reliant (if there’s a shoving achievement I should be reaching it soon)
You need Jesus brother.
 
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Talos

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Some interesting stats.


9846d1a69b5524b8b88d64011772b48469bf36f5.jpg
 
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Burns

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My Party is level 6 and I am in the Moonrise Tower Area.

I've been bouncing around to the different companions and trying to get a better feel for what is strong. My impressions so far:

Best to Worst
1. Fighter, Battle Master: She can attack like 6 times in a round, if you blow some cool downs. She just straight up solo's the biggest bad on the field, or wipes out a horde.
2. Barbarian, Berserker: Great mobility with Jumps, good damage & damage resistance with Frenzy. Almost on the Battle Master's level, just can't attack quite as many times.
3. Druid, Moon: The shape shifting is super strong. Great damage and survivability.
4. Warlock, Old One: Decent, consist damage with Mind Blast. Decent Utility and crowd control. The ability to fling enemies around and knock them off ledges with Mind Blast is pretty useful.
5. Wizard: Only used the Gale variant. Probably has the highest ceiling in terms of power, but many of the abilities are also confusing and hard to use. It is going to take some time and practice to use at the full potential.
6. Cleric: Only used the Shadowheart variant. Seems ok, but the fact that you have to long rest to cast your heals is counter intuitive, because you have to long rest to heal anyways.
7. Rogue, Thief: I don't get it. I must be doing something wrong, because the Rogue feels so weak in fights compared to everyone else. Sure, you have incredible mobility, but if all that adds up to one 15 damage "sneak attack" well, big deal... He is basically my rez bitch, that goes around lifting party members that have fallen.

Admittedly, this game is deep and sometimes I feel like I am not using some of the classes fully/correctly. There is a learning curve here.

Still need to try Monk, Paladin, Bard, Ranger, & Sorcerer.
This looks about right for the 4 classes I have been running (up to level 8): Battle Master, Div Wizard, Lore Bard Face, Tempest Cleric, in that order. Both Wizard and Cleric can fuck shit up, but I run out of spells on the Cleric the most (and never use a heal, outside of the 30 yard range one to stop someone from dying). The bard can ace almost any talking challenges and it decent utility in fights. Once I got the good mace in Act 2, the cleric got better as she has the highest AC by far, and can now knock back whomever she hits with melee (for free, once per turn), with the level 8 class ability.
 

Burns

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Some interesting stats.


9846d1a69b5524b8b88d64011772b48469bf36f5.jpg
I mean, I got the credits to roll in Act 2... so does that count for "finishing" the game, if people rushed to that "ending"?
 

Harshaw

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I mean, I got the credits to roll in Act 2... so does that count for "finishing" the game, if people rushed to that "ending"?
There are a lot of streamers that just buy it and blow through the game for content.
 

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
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I just learned that the original release date from Larian was moved up to the beginning of this month because Starfield decided to release on the same day as this. Then, after the reviews came out for this - Starfield dev said to not let BG3 influence your perception of what the "standard" in the game industry for an RPG (paraphrased). Others parroted.

Well if that shit doesnt give me an a 5D view of what to expect from Starfield, or rather, how little I should expect from Starfield. Oof.
Well, to be honest, did anyone expect the level of story telling and role playing (or even the same kind of narrative) from First/Third Person shooter/econ/flying Space Exploration game (Skyrim meets Mass Effect meets No Mans Sky) as they did from a party-centric isometric turn-based combat medieval fantasy D&D-based RPG (Baldur's Gate/D:OS et al)?

I didn't see the comments but they are probably trying to manage expectations given the runaway success of BG3. And I mean, who would initially would want to go first in this race? But we'll see if first was better in case; it may very well be given the quality of the product. I expect Starfield to have more legs but that's based on it having more content. It could be a XBOX vs PS5 approach with two very different audiences.

They are completely different genres and vehicles for telling stories. Mass Effect was great. Baldur's Gate 1&2 were great. Skyrim/Morrowind were great. They are all different things.
 
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Daidraco

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Well, to be honest, did anyone expect the level of story telling and role playing (or even the same kind of narrative) from First/Third Person shooter/econ/flying Space Exploration game (Skyrim meets Mass Effect meets No Mans Sky) as they did from a party-centric isometric turn-based combat medieval fantasy D&D-based RPG (Baldur's Gate/D:OS et al)?

I didn't see the comments but they are probably trying to manage expectations given the runaway success of BG3. And I mean, who would initially would want to go first in this race? But we'll see if first was better in case; it may very well be given the quality of the product. I expect Starfield to have more legs but that's based on it having more content. It could be a XBOX vs PS5 approach with two very different audiences.

They are completely different genres and vehicles for telling stories. Mass Effect was great. Baldur's Gate 1&2 were great. Skyrim/Morrowind were great. They are all different things.
Completely fair take. But when speaking of audiences, someone in marketing must have thought they need to plop down Starfield on the same release date as BG3 and use their name brand to stomp out the success of this game. Why would they do that? Starfields release date isnt exactly a "special" date. Larian isnt exactly a small studio either, but if I was Bethesda, I would be intimidated by what Larian Studios just put out. Especially with zero microtransactions and very little bugs. Both of which we know Starfield is going to have enmasse.
 

j00t

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Anyone running Rangers? Is Gloomstalker or Hunter actually decent? I don't want to go with the Beast Master pet class one.
specifically beastmasters were the worst class in 5e, but they've made some adjustments to that so it's not NEARLY as bad as it used to be. on top of that, larian made even more adjustments. gloomstalker is sort of a ranger with the rogue's assassin subclass, no sneak attacks but can function pretty similarly. hunter is decent. my only experience with bg3's rangers are my beastmaster that i'm playing in my multiplayer game and i'm very happy with him, especially with the itemization. (spellthief bow that you can buy in the druid grove is really nice). they also let your pet benefit from your hunter's mark.
 

j00t

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When making max damage builds, don't forget that the extra attack from warlock Deepened Pact stacks with Extra Attack from any other class.
wait, really? in tabletop that SPECIFICALLY mentions that extra attack doesn't stack with ANYTHING. the only way to get more than 2 attacks with a single action is to have a lvl 11 fighter.
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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wait, really? in tabletop that SPECIFICALLY mentions that extra attack doesn't stack with ANYTHING. the only way to get more than 2 attacks with a single action is to have a lvl 11 fighter.

War cleric extra strikes stack too.

Beastmaster rangers are just a minion with some okay ranged attacks - the real character is the spider with unlimited webs that don't require concentration. Enemies will never move again
 

j00t

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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War cleric extra strikes stack too.

Beastmaster rangers are just a minion with some okay ranged attacks - the real character is the spider with unlimited webs that don't require concentration. Enemies will never move again
clerics don't get extra strikes, divine strike does an extra d8 of damage on a single weapon attack per turn
 

ronne

Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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clerics don't get extra strikes, divine strike does an extra d8 of damage on a single weapon attack per turn

They do if you get the war domain, they get per short rest charges for an extra swing
 

Jackie Treehorn

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Well this game is pissing me off. Its crashing non stop.
There are two binaries (at least for the GOG version.)

I had a couple of crashes early on, but then I started using the DX11 executable and it seems to be far less crashy. Rarely ever get crashes.
 
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j00t

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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They do if you get the war domain, they get per short rest charges for an extra swing
in table top "extra attack" does not stack with anything. meaning, 1 action, multiple attacks. so, the warlock extra attack invocation is identical to the fighter/ranger/paladin/barbarian extra attack. there is nothing that causes a single action to give more than 2 attacks outside of the fighters lvl 11 and lvl 17 version of extra attack

in tabletop, war clerics get divine strike at lvl 8 that adds a d8 of damage to a single weapon attack (caster focused clerics at lvl 8 add their wisdom bonus to damage cantrips). i haven't played war cleric in bg3, so i wasn't aware that they changed it. how does it work?
 

Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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wait, really? in tabletop that SPECIFICALLY mentions that extra attack doesn't stack with ANYTHING. the only way to get more than 2 attacks with a single action is to have a lvl 11 fighter.
Yeah, that was the second reason (behind realizing how bad it is to play non-CHA main on your first playthrough) I started over. Now I'm playing a bard who'll eventually convert over to 6 Swords / 1 Wizard / 5 Warlock. Bard as dps is not impressive at all while leveling though, so I think the way to go if you don't mind completely changing your kit with a respec is 6 Lore Bard to get Fireball -> 1 Wiz -> 4 Bard. At least that way I get the full support benefits and some fairly decent spellcasting, instead of rather anemic melee/ranged dmg.

Thinking I might have fucked up by taking Wood Elf for the movement and perception prof though, as I'm going to be stuck with not being able to wield anything better than a longsword. Should probably have gone Wood Half-elf to be able to use pike/halberd/glaive if there's any really good endgame ones. Plus I can't use shields while leveling either so I'm realizing that was a pretty major mistake now.

how does it work?
 

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
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Completely fair take. But when speaking of audiences, someone in marketing must have thought they need to plop down Starfield on the same release date as BG3 and use their name brand to stomp out the success of this game. Why would they do that? Starfields release date isnt exactly a "special" date. Larian isnt exactly a small studio either, but if I was Bethesda, I would be intimidated by what Larian Studios just put out. Especially with zero microtransactions and very little bugs. Both of which we know Starfield is going to have enmasse.
It is a special day: Its a long holiday weekend in the US, Memorial day.


BGS games bugs are normally part of the fun but they don't normally have MS putting and extra 10 months of Dev Time into the game; who know what we are going to get this time re: level of bugs? And Microtransactions may or may not be a big part of the game, it surely isn't going to be Activision/Bungie levels of Cash Shop. Bethesda did start the whole paid DLC gravy train with "Horse Armor", though. Part of the "In game purchases" disclaimer is the whatever thing so Mod makers can get paid.

I appreciate the BG3 love but ease up on the stick a little bit, DD.
 
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j00t

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Yeah, that was the second reason (behind realizing how bad it is to play non-CHA main on your first playthrough) I started over. Now I'm playing a bard who'll eventually convert over to 6 Swords / 1 Wizard / 5 Warlock. Bard as dps is not impressive at all while leveling though, so I think the way to go if you don't mind completely changing your kit with a respec is 6 Lore Bard to get Fireball -> 1 Wiz -> 4 Bard. At least that way I get the full support benefits and some fairly decent spellcasting, instead of rather anemic melee/ranged dmg.

Thinking I might have fucked up by taking Wood Elf for the movement and perception prof though, as I'm going to be stuck with not being able to wield anything better than a longsword. Should probably have gone Wood Half-elf to be able to use pike/halberd/glaive if there's any really good endgame ones. Plus I can't use shields while leveling either so I'm realizing that was a pretty major mistake now.


Oooh I see, it let's you make a main hand attack as a bonus action. I was specifically the thirsting blade invocation which acts as the "extra attack" feature. The extra attack feature given from multiple sources simply takes the most effective version. So if you have extra attack from a paladin at lvl5, and thirsting blade from warlock lvl5, your attack action only has 2 attacks, not 3.
 

Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Oooh I see, it let's you make a main hand attack as a bonus action. I was specifically the thirsting blade invocation which acts as the "extra attack" feature. The extra attack feature given from multiple sources simply takes the most effective version. So if you have extra attack from a paladin at lvl5, and thirsting blade from warlock lvl5, your attack action only has 2 attacks, not 3.
Ah, well in Larian's house rules normal Extra Attack doesn't stack from multiple sources, but warlock Deepened Pact does stack with it.

And now that I think about it, I guess it's not that big a deal being a wood elf. I was forgetting that Pact of the Blade grants proficiency with whatever weapon you bind to the warlock. Even more reason to not respec until level 12 though, and it still kind of sucks not being able to use a shield as a support bard.