Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[d1r]

Man, something I really hope to see is a mod that completely removes any voiced lines of your characters and introduces some kind of soundsets for them. Because it's almost impossible to roleplay a more non-generic character like for example Xzar or Xan if every soundset sounds so god damn generic.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

You provided the reasons the game is bad. I'll provide the reasons it's good.

Reasons BG3 is good:

• If it succeeds, it will forever overshadow the Bioware BG games
• If it fails, it will tarnish the Bioware BG games by association

I prefer to think of BG3 as a win/win situation.

 

[Cryomancer]

• If it succeeds, it will forever overshadow the Bioware BG games
• If it fails, it will tarnish the Bioware BG games by association

Not truth. See fallout. Most normies associate it with BUGThesda's ones.

Pathfinder 1E is ridiculously clunky to play on an actual table. If you use something like Roll20 which calculates everything automatically, it might be a bit better, but I wouldn't torture myself otherwise.

I disagree. Also, you don't need to follow all rules to play a TT game. And PF1e is not that complex. The math is pretty basic. But I an happy with S&W. Just wish that there was "kits" in the game. Tomorrow is my third session.

 

[Lacrymas]

Pathfinder 1E isn't complex, it's bloated. Which is the worst possible way to be.

 

[Ontopoly]

It's time for the rpg-fan/larian-fan to realize that they need to be rpg fans first and larian fans second. If this game has the possibility of bringing decline, and it does, larian cultists need to take the larian drip-feed out and sacrifice a little bit of happiness for the betterment of rpgs. If you want to be a larian fan, go ahead, but at least hold your cultists overlords accountable so that their shit doesn't seep into everything else. I was fine with them bungling around when it was their own universe/series to shit on, but this is a clear attack on a lane they have no business being any where near. Do you guys think it's maliciousness on swens part? Or could it actually just be incompetence. The latter seems hard to believe if it were anyone else, but they've made a reputation of really dumb decisions in their old games so it's actually somewhat believable.

 

[gurugeorge]

It's time for the rpg-fan/larian-fan to realize that they need to be rpg fans first and larian fans second. If this game has the possibility of bringing decline, and it does, larian cultists need to take the larian drip-feed out and sacrifice a little bit of happiness for the betterment of rpgs. If you want to be a larian fan, go ahead, but at least hold your cultists overlords accountable so that their shit doesn't seep into everything else. I was fine with them bungling around when it was their own universe/series to shit on, but this is a clear attack on a lane they have no business being any where near. Do you guys think it's maliciousness on swens part? Or could it actually just be incompetence. The latter seems hard to believe if it were anyone else, but they've made a reputation of really dumb decisions in their old games so it's actually somewhat believable.

Clearly, Larian are not incompetent in any ordinary sense of the term. I think it's more that Sven and his core people share an idiosyncratic idea of what makes for good gameplay. Sometimes their particular flavour pleases the public palate (DivDiv, DOS), sometimes (more often) it misses.

 

[underground nymph]

Larian writing is awful

Any examples from BG3?

The unique thing which I can praise BG3 is graphics and music.

And you refer to the worst example from BG3 — a questionable quality pop-esque song, which shares the same fanbase with Astarion.

 

[Harthwain]

Another valid complain. Larian writing is awful.

You should be glad the writing has been changed. It was really awful before. It also seems to be less D:OS1/D:OS2-esque in terms of tone, which I find to be a positive change as well.

 

[Larianshill]

Any examples from BG3?

I haven't encountered anything that would be decried as "Larian writing" (inappropriate humor). There are, however, certain elements that are a bit questionable.

1) One of the things Larian repeatedly stated while starting the EA is, they're testing the evil path. "Evil paths in a lot of RPGs are bad, and we want to make a good one". So why is the goblin path so shit? Not only you have absolutely no reason to take it, since those people are explicitly your enemies who want you dead, and will kill you if you reveal your identity, but nearly all your companions (except Lae'zel, who doesn't care one way or another, or Astarion, who kinda likes it) hate you for doing it - and remember, those are supposed to be the EVIL companions. People like Wyll and Karlach will outright leave you if you do this. The rewards are lacking too. I guess there's drow sex, but it's not like you know about it beforehand, so it can't be your primary motivation.
2) Kagha is a laughable political cartoon, who hates refugees because she's evil. Note my wording - she's not evil because she hates refugees, it's the other way around. You can persuade her to stop being evil in the span of ten seconds, and her entire character immediately changes.
3) Astarion is clearly some writer's pet. He puts a knife to your neck, and the worst you can do about it is be snappy and sarcastic for two seconds. He also tries to drink your blood in your sleep (something that can kill you, actually), and the worst you can do about it is kick him out of the camp.

 

[underground nymph]

Valid points.
Indeed I felt that siding with drow priestess was kind of pointless, since I didn’t get any benefits from it nor did I understand their agenda anyway.
Kagha’s writers made an attempt though since she at least tries to explain her motivation. But yeah, it falls short after she proceeds being a bitch.
I was surprised I couldn’t start fight in a dialog with Astarion, since this is an option with most of the characters I met. And actually this fucker kills you should you allow him to bite and fail a dice to stop him sucking you dry. And even after that (should anybody apply a scroll of resurrection on your dead body) you just have an option to complain futilely and he is like: ugh sorry mate ;b

 

[AwesomeButton]

Maybe Swen is counting on Drow Sex Hype to popularize the evil path?

 

[Larianshill]

The drow isn't even that good. She has the voice of a chain smoker, and tries to kill you post-coitus, unless you make a persuasion check.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I see from this as well as from other examples, that the cringe has been dialed to 11.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

The drow isn't even that good. She has the voice of a chain smoker, and tries to kill you post-coitus, unless you make a persuasion check.

Not to mention her oily unkept hair.
What a filthy bitch.

 

[Cryomancer]

Did Larian confirmed all PHB subclasses? I an curious if they will ruin necromancy, conjuration and alteration specialization more than 5e already ruined.

 

[Reinhardt]

you allow him to bite and fail a dice to stop him sucking you dry.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

 

[Larianshill]

Did Larian confirmed all PHB subclasses?

No, they didn't. I explicitly doubt that Great Old One warlock will make it in. It'll probably be replaced by Leviathan Warlock.

 

[Lacrymas]

I think they said they will include everything from the PHB.

 

[jackofshadows]

1) One of the things Larian repeatedly stated while starting the EA is, they're testing the evil path. "Evil paths in a lot of RPGs are bad, and we want to make a good one". So why is the goblin path so shit? Not only you have absolutely no reason to take it, since those people are explicitly your enemies who want you dead, and will kill you if you reveal your identity, but nearly all your companions (except Lae'zel, who doesn't care one way or another, or Astarion, who kinda likes it) hate you for doing it - and remember, those are supposed to be the EVIL companions. People like Wyll and Karlach will outright leave you if you do this. The rewards are lacking too. I guess there's drow sex, but it's not like you know about it beforehand, so it can't be your primary motivation.

I also 'like' how they decided to tone the cuntness of evil companions down after feedback. Sure their attitude was cringy at times but it also had give some feel of their agency and could lead to natural leadership struggle.

 

[Cryomancer]

I explicitly doubt that Great Old One warlock will make it in. It'll probably be replaced by Leviathan Warlock.

Leviathan? It is similar to the fathomless? IMO GOO WLK on this game would be awful.

I think they said they will include everything from the PHB.

You are right in many points, but honestly. I believe that Larianshill knows more about Larian games. Also, I an praying to Mystra that Larian will NOT include necromancy, alteration and conjuration schools specializations in this game. This spell schools can only experience their full glory on games based on older rulesets like Pathfinder Wrath of The righteous. Just imagine playing a lv 10 necromancer on BG3 with extremely slow animations, only low CR undead and no OHK spells. It would be so boring... Larian will gonna try to make less boring and you will end up with DOS2 style """"necromancy""" which is even more boring.

Larian should let modders to put this subclasses into the game.

 

[Anonona]

I think they said they will include everything from the PHB.

Seems so. I searched and found this AMA on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fhk1u3/im_swen_vincke_creative_director_at_larian/?sort=top

Redittor ->"Will all 5e Classes be available at launch?"

Larian_NickP ->Yes, all classes from 5e Player’s Handbook will be included at launch. In Early Access you’ll be able to play as a Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock or Wizard.

 

[Larianshill]

I think the only companion they really toned down was Shadowheart. And while I do feel they went a little bit overboard with her, they did good things too. She now plainly states that if you want her to like you, you need to stop prying and asking unsolicited questions. This is something that should be spelled out, because how unusual that approach is in RPGs.

Leviathan? It is similar to the fathomless?

Yes, I was thinking Fathomless.

Yes, all classes from 5e Player’s Handbook will be included at launch.

It says "all classes". It doesn't say "all subclasses". I very much doubt that Champion Fighter, Divination Wizard, GOO Warlock are going to get even close to the release version.

 

[Anonona]

Also, I an praying to Mystra that Larian will NOT include necromancy, alteration and conjuration schools specializations in this game.

They probably will. It would be strange for them to take out whole schools of magic, specially when adapting 5E. Though I'll say if those schools suck is more an issue with 5E itself than Larian.

Larian will try to make less boring and you will end up with DOS2 style """"necromancy""".

Although we already discussed this topic, I'll reiterate that Necromancy in DOS2 is different but pretty sweet and probably one of the most powerful magic schools in that game. Not all games have to follow the same definitions of how a magic school should be, as D&D itself also presents many changes and departures from the "original" inspirations, so to speak. Hell, if they had just called Necromancy "Witchcraft" as the first DOS you probably wouldn't be complaining about it or calling it boring.

On tabletop, many DM forces you to treat a undead army as a single entity, eg - if your army has 50% chance of hitting and deals d10 damage, assume that half of your skeleton archers hit and each one dealt 5.5 damage, that way, even a army of 100+ undeads will not slow down the game. And in video games, you can speed up animations from minions. I use it when playing Kingmaker on turn based mode. Same with conjurers.

Is quite a lot easier to make this abstraction on TT than on a videogames. I'll doubt even Solasta would try to add Necromancy as you describe as it would mean that they had to somehow be able to visually represent a whole army and make it fit in the carefully designed levels with tight spaces, vertical movement and the like. Plus add that BG3 will probably not have speed up animation options due to multiplayer, and it makes it even more impossible. Pathfinder does not have this problem as it is single player, most combat takes places in quite a lot bigger and simpler spaces, which makes having armies more reasonable and easier to control and is RTWP.

 

[Anonona]

It says "all classes". It doesn't say "all subclasses". I very much doubt that Champion Fighter, Divination Wizard, GOO Warlock are going to get even close to the release version.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/fhq9cq/compiled_baldurs_gate_ama_20200313/

Another AMA

Will all 5e Classes be available at launch?

NickP: Yes, all classes from 5e Player’s Handbook will be included at launch. In Early Access you’ll be able to play as a Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock or Wizard.

Does that include paths, subclasses, etc?

NickP: Yep

If they changed their minds, or they are being tricky and refering only to the EA classes with the the second answers, I don't know.

 

[Lacrymas]

Re: Necromancy - I'd say Grim Harvest is the culprit why it's so underwhelming. I'd make it so that it's a bonus action that makes your next damaging move heal you, and it can only be used an X amount of times per day.