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

[Reinhardt]

Just let’s be honest, it is not an RPGs that you’re after, but rather a build porn.

It's not even build porn. Victor is an easy man to satisfy.

Can necromancer at level 1 cast Epic Ray of Necromancy which deals 1293d81 damage and can one shot ELDER DRAGON GODS and summon 48d56 Greater Power Liches per level which is a CR9001 monster (like on Liches & Necromancers R E T U R N I N G 2.0)? If yes, game is awesome. If no, game is shit and necromancer is NERFED even worse than warlock on NWN2.

But it's only true if ELDER DRAGON GODS can cast

Super Epic Ray of Necromancy

which deals 1293d82 damage.
Victor wants ELDER DRAGON GODS to be DANGEROUS!

Think you're missing a die or two though.

Wait until level 2. Our game is serious.

 

[Bara]

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

To be fair they did print 3.5 on the books for the updated versions.

Spoiler

 

[Sharpedge]

Just let’s be honest, it is not an RPGs that you’re after, but rather a build porn.

It's not even build porn. Victor is an easy man to satisfy.

Can necromancer at level 1 cast Epic Ray of Necromancy which deals 1293d81 damage and can one shot ELDER DRAGON GODS and summon 48d56 Greater Power Liches per level which is a CR9001 monster (like on Liches & Necromancers R E T U R N I N G 2.0)? If yes, game is awesome. If no, game is shit and necromancer is NERFED even worse than warlock on NWN2.

Clearly DOS 2 is the perfect game for him, where Necromancers can do 307k damage in a single spell!

 

[gurugeorge]

Just let’s be honest, it is not an RPGs that you’re after, but rather a build porn.

It's not even build porn. Victor is an easy man to satisfy.

Can necromancer at level 1 cast Epic Ray of Necromancy which deals 1293d81 damage and can one shot ELDER DRAGON GODS and summon 48d56 Greater Power Liches per level which is a CR9001 monster (like on Liches & Necromancers R E T U R N I N G 2.0)? If yes, game is awesome. If no, game is shit and necromancer is NERFED even worse than warlock on NWN2.

Clearly DOS 2 is the perfect game for him, where Necromancers can do 307k damage in a single spell!

God I so hate those outlines. Why does every fucking game these days have those annoying outlines?

 

[Lacrymas]

God I so hate those outlines. Why does every fucking game these days have those annoying outlines?

To better facilitate the console port.

 

[Shrimp]

FWIW I'm pretty sure you can disable the outlines. At least that's something.

 

[Desiderius]

Just let’s be honest... Story and writing are extremely amateurish and childish in PF. Yeah, experimenting with builds is fun, but other aspects are very far away from what I would call a good RPG.

No, unexpectedly they aren’t*. Writing is consistently incisive and unladen with the (baselessly) knowing irony shading into terror of offending that overburdens Western (I.e. Larian) writing. There’s no Regill (or Nenio!) in LarianLand, nor could there be. Too many writers with sticks (and worse) up their Astarions.

As with the people who’ve multiclassed themselves into suckitude thinking they were playing 3E, you’re seeing what you expected/feared to see instead of what is there.

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

* - except in the sense that when the pros are professing bullshit a little amateur enthusiasm is just what is necessary.

 

[Desiderius]

"Isn't Chalice a faithful adaptation of 3.5?"

No. But, it's closer than most. And, it does have the type of spirit and udnerstanding.

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

Where did the .5 come from?

 

[NJClaw]

"Isn't Chalice a faithful adaptation of 3.5?"

No. But, it's closer than most. And, it does have the type of spirit and udnerstanding.

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

Where did the .5 come from?

WotC wanted money, but didn't feel like working on a new edition, so they just slapped a new coat of paint on what they already had and published it again under a new name, supposedly to fix various issues. 3rd edition had also been around for only 3 years, so they really couldn't come up with an entirely new edition without causing a massive uproar in their customer base.

 

[Larianshill]

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

But that's wrong, you absolute dumbfuck.

 

[Raghar]

"Isn't Chalice a faithful adaptation of 3.5?"

No. But, it's closer than most. And, it does have the type of spirit and udnerstanding.

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

Where did the .5 come from?

They repaired 3E, and called the result 3.5E.

 

[underground nymph]

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

Maybe, but this doesn’t redeem PFKM’s very poor writing quality.

 

[gurugeorge]

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

Maybe, but this doesn’t redeem PFKM’s very poor writing quality.

Eh? It's no worse than yer average for this type of game, and at times it's pretty good. If you mean it's got lots of woke crap, I agree there, but it's mostly superficial genuflection and takes a back seat to the story and character development, which are actually good in places, and even slightly subversive of wokeness, at least the older versions of wokeness like classic Feminism (e.g. Valerie eventually accepts her beauty and stops fretting about people "defining her" by it; Amiri's annoyingness has a tragic backstory, and her arc has a potentially really sad ending if you make certain decisions). The story overall is pretty epic, and really quite dark in places.

Sounds like the next game is worse in some of those areas (which is only to be expected), but PF:K isn't that bad. I remember bracing myself at first, but being pleasantly surprised as the game unfolded.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

Nah, right or wrong that a conclusion may be, "Let's be honest" is usually a short hand for "I know that you sad sacks of shit don't want to hear this but it needs to be said and you especially need to hear it".

 

[Desiderius]

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

I know

No. You don't.

If we didn't want to hear baselessly condescending/dismissive takes do you really think we'd be at the Kotex?

 

[Desiderius]

“let’s be honest” is a tell that you’re talking out of your ass.

Maybe, but this doesn’t redeem PFKM’s very poor writing quality.

No specifics not serious.

The writing quality is all over the place, but when it's good it's sublime. Every character in BG3 looks constipated. The sheer variety in the Pathfinders is a breath of fresh air and it may well be a product of the amateurishness you foolishly deride but they end up sending up all kinds of things that badly need sending up and they're right on the nose when they do it.

 

[underground nymph]

If you mean it's got lots of woke crap

Not really, I don’t even remember any tbh.

I am talking about characters, their stories, how they behave, overall plot and side quests. The moment I couldn’t bear PFKM anymore was.. the party that Linzy made for Ekundayo to cheer him up. It somehow reminded me that I am as a grown man doing something wrong with my life. Terrible feeling. I’d like to avoid it in the future.

 

[Reinhardt]

Linzi was first companion in any game i actrually wanted to kill.

 

[Spectacle]

"Isn't Chalice a faithful adaptation of 3.5?"

No. But, it's closer than most. And, it does have the type of spirit and udnerstanding.

And, stop saying '3.5'. That just dumb. It is 3rd edition. Period.

Where did the .5 come from?

It was added when they revised the original 3rd edition rules in 2003.

 

[Desiderius]

If you mean it's got lots of woke crap

Not really, I don’t even remember any tbh.

I am talking about characters, their stories, how they behave, overall plot and side quests. The moment I couldn’t bear PFKM anymore was.. the party that Linzy made for Ekundayo to cheer him up. It somehow reminded me that I am as a grown man doing something wrong with my life. Terrible feeling. I’d like to avoid it in the future.

Yeah, that sucked. Chick writers get all woozy thinking about taming that subsaharan manliness. You'll have some of that. Underlying theme of his quest is solidly trad with the perceptive characterization of Ntavi of the principal threat to functional femininity (the bartender chick) doing it's work inspiring dominant masculinity. Which fits well with the gameplay since Ekun is dominant with that armor (that you get from helping the bartender chick) and that pet (which is the ultimate purpose of the party).

 

[Gargaune]

Maybe, but this doesn’t redeem PFKM’s very poor writing quality.

PFKM's core writing is perfectly solid. The antagonist is practically a rebagged Irenicus, an instance of hubris, overreach and punishment, but her ambitions are more coherent even if she doesn't have Warner's wonderful thespian rendition. The plot also has an excellent progression from the mundane to the epic, with a recurring "clash of kings" motif that only crystalises in retrospective, and manages to eschew the Chosen One trope altogether. The companions are mostly dull and perfunctory, but whatever.

 

[Pink Eye]

Where have I seen the blood splat with the number in it before? Runescape or something?

From Dark Sun: Shattered Lands:

Spoiler

Dark Sun is one of Pierre's favorite games. He also wrote a little review for the game on his webiste too. From the hotkey system to enemy design - he takes a lot of inspiration from those games. For Pete's Sake it's no coincidence that it uses the exact control scheme as the Dark Sun games did. There's also a a genie that can be found in the sequel, which is very reminiscent of the one from Shattered Lands. It gives you identical wishes. There's even a spider queen to be found in both Chalice games. It's pretty great.

KoTC2 are extremely powerful too. For example, monks at max level can deal 5 attacks per round with flurry of blows, each one doing 3d8 damage. If he has +6 STR which a monk sould have at this level even without magical enchantment, he would dish 15 (d8 + 6) damage in a single round or 157.5 average damage( 15 * [4.5 + 6] ).

Isn't Chalice a faithful adaptation of 3.5? Are you really arguing that monks in 3.5 are strong, or at least stronger than their 5E version?

Not really. The Knights of the Chalice system takes a lot of divergence from the ruleset to better fit into a video game. Differences can be found here. The coolest change is how spell slots work. Instead of every spell having its own slot. It's now that each group of spells all consume a slot. So, for example, level one spells will all have a limited amount of casts per day. So if you cast sleep, you're using up slots for the other level one spells as well. This is pretty good, because you don't have to deal with memorizing individual spells. This allows you to naturally get access to more spells. Another thing is that it makes it simple to organize them on the menu.

Spoiler

 

[Desiderius]

I mean that's just spontaneous casting.

 

[Pink Eye]

The same applies to sorcerers, wizards, mage knights, druids, clerics, psionicists, bard, and warlocks.

 

[hell bovine]

PFKM's core writing is perfectly solid. The antagonist is practically a rebagged Irenicus, an instance of hubris, overreach and punishment, but her ambitions are more coherent even if she doesn't have Warner's wonderful thespian rendition.

You forgot the part where you redeem the rebagged Irenicus with the power of love, just so you can kill the other bad guy in the game.

Good old fashioned monster slaying is just too old school nowadays. I expect BG3 will raise the stakes even more, if the illithid dream lover is an indication.