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

[Saravan]

What is fucking wrong with that character sexualization in Dragon Age and BG3? I have bad feeling that BG3 will be another Dragon Age Inqusition for sure.

Didn't I see you jerking off to Kingmaker like yesterday? You know the game that has an Orc and Elf girl offering unsolicited threesome? This is why I can't take you guys seriously. The same design sins by mother Russia game is praised while simultaneously berated by Larian. At least be consistent.

Didn't know a text sex scene compared to heavily marketed fully mo-capped sex scenes with multiple positions and sexual preference c&c. Let me know when WotR has body pillows for their glistening vampires.

What a shitty argument.

The principle is exactly the same, this is only a difference of budget and highlights your hypocrisy. Both are absolute decline, all you have done is decide to suck one dick and forego the other when I know for a fact that Swen's penis is as succulent as Regongar's.

You're thinking in binary if you don't think there are different levels of degeneracy and that less degeneracy is preferable to more degeneracy.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to announce the gold medalist in mental gymnastics:

Is it mental gymnastics to recognize that some things are worse than others now?

Minesweeper and dos2 both suck. Don't ask me to tell you wish one sucks more, because that would be mental gymnastics.

It's ok Onto, it's no homo as long as the gay orgy happens by text.

 

[Cryomancer]

While vampirism and lichdom are very nice high level aspirations I find basic necromancy to be very underdeveloped in games. Baldur's Gate 3 is going in the right direction by allowing you talk to the dead.

Except BG3 and Arcanum, I don't remember any game which allow you to speak with the dead. Anyone killed a companion and used it on the companion? I will not download a extremely heavy game only to test it but am curious about if Astarion will have anything to say after dying a painful death. Astarion is so awful that I and Larianshill which disagrees in 99,9999% of things agree that he deserve to die in the most painful way possible.

About being high level stuff, DDO allows you to become a lich or vampire at lv 3. Only for Wizards, Warlocks needs to wait till lv 15 spell to become undead. Which is nonsensical. Low hit dice/low level creatures inflicted with vampirism become a vampire spawn, not a true vampire. That said, one thing Larian deserves praising. Astarion is a vampire spawn, not a true vampire. Which is far more appropriated for a low level environment. If will have single summon BS and other stuff ruining other aspects of necromancy, IDK but anyway modders will fix it.

Don't worry it there's no ammunition in any of the pics.

I was in my home. I will not load a 175 lbf crossbow only to take a picture. As for firearms, was after firing in the firing range. I love firearms so much, sadly I live in a country with draconian gun laws. Most civilian owned firearms are illegal

-----------

One thing which I really wanna to see in BG3 is psionics. Except by mods like PRC for NWN1 and in Dark Sun : Shattered Lands/Wake of the Ravager, there is any D&D game with psionics? Considering how aberrations are common in BG3 and mindflayers will not be a side enemy like on BG2:SoA, but a main part of the plot(at least according to current information). Why not introduce psionics in BG3?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Well, we had a short honeymoon with the last patch about the marginal improvement introduced, but it's time to back to some relentless bitching.

I have to say that another thing of the game that is genuinely starting to grind on my nerves is how Larian is almost regularly disregarding the canonical stats/abilities for the monsters they are using.

Some get buffed with powers they shouldn't have, some get nerfed significantly, lose special powers, don't show any sign of their typical resistances or immunities, etc.
This is happening over and over across the entire portion of the game available so far. Phase spiders that are gifted ranged AOE venom spit when they should just attack in melee (which is two times as bizarre, given that D&D DOES offer spiders that canonically have ranged attacks), Minotaurs that don't "charge" in a straight line but do hulk jumping and ground stomping instead, mud mephits and wood woads gimped to the point of being husks of what they were supposed to be, etc.

It feels almost like people at Larian after negotiating and getting the official D&D license one morning woke up decided that they feel only contempt and disdain for it. "Fuck this shit, we'll do our own bestiary" or something.

Just for the record, an update about this pile of shit.

- brought up this topic on the official forum and it got almost unanimous support.
- brought up this topic on the Steam forum and got a whole lot of smug idiots thinking they were making a super-brilliant point by stressing that "the DM Manual says the dungeon master can change whatever he wants", "Canonical stats monsters are there just to be tweaked by the most creative players", "You have to unimaginative to stick to the rules, we humans operating at peak creativity". "I trust Larian with my onw life and think they can improve every monster in the game by using their gimmick" etc, etc, etc.
Guess I won't manage to make this idea gain any traction there. Also fairly confident that reddit would be the same but worse, so I won't even bother trying.

Sorry guys, I tried to push BG3 in a good direction, but there's no salvation against the slave mentality of groupies. Ask Rusty.
Fuck you too, by the way.

Dear Swen,

I wrote you but you still ain't replying.
I left my forum name, my discord, and my twitter handle at the bottom.

 

[Harthwain]

Except BG3 and Arcanum, I don't remember any game which allow you to speak with the dead.

In Icewind Dale 2 there was a priest of Myrkul (Koluhm) who can speak with the spirit of a dead Goblin, if your characters can understand the language (any drow, duergar, dwarf, elf or half-orc will do) it is possible to translate his speech for information, which is a nice role playing opportunity. Icewind Dale series has a bunch of such stuff hidden both games (I think it is much more elaborate in Icewind Dale 2). It's a shame such approach didn't get much more focus.

One thing which I really wanna to see in BG3 is psionics. Except by mods like PRC for NWN1 and in Dark Sun : Shattered Lands/Wake of the Ravager, there is any D&D game with psionics? Considering how aberrations are common in BG3 and mindflayers will not be a side enemy like on BG2:SoA, but a main part of the plot(at least according to current information). Why not introduce psionics in BG3?

Could you remind me what psionics can do? By that, I mean non-combat-wise.

 

[Yosharian]

Because, sadly, nobody has the time and resources anymore to write and voice-act a bunch of dialogue that half the players won't see

 

[Efe]

would have meant something if they made it necromancer only.
right now you just wear and amulet and do it, no necromancer identity in that.

 

[Harthwain]

Because, sadly, nobody has the time and resources anymore to write and voice-act a bunch of dialogue that half the players won't see

That's the problem when going with the hand-crafted route (and the reason why I always advocate for more systemic approach to game design). But I think the real reason for not doing it is because a lot of developers don't even think about the possibilities.

 

[NJClaw]

Codex fundraiser to buy it and gift to Victor when?

Thanks guys. I would love to get a free target to my crossbow. Or use it as a target in the firing range

my crossbow and I in the firing range

Victor, what the fuck are you doing? You're not proficient with half of those weapons, ffs! Just spam your cantrips instead!

 

[Reinhardt]

Icewind Dale series has a bunch of such stuff hidden both games (I think it is much more elaborate in Icewind Dale 2). It's a shame such approach didn't get much more focus.

And then you leave starting village...

 

[fantadomat]

Codex fundraiser to buy it and gift to Victor when?

Thanks guys. I would love to get a free target to my crossbow. Or use it as a target in the firing range

my crossbow and I in the firing range

Bbbbut muh based slav devs

Adapting a TT western made adventure path. They still the unique relative big devs which has OHK spells and other cool stuff in their games. I prefer vampírism over lichdoom but OwlCat is the unique major dev bringing lichdoom to their game. I don't see it in a game since might & magic viii : day of the destroyer. Swen is worse than Sawyer in his hatred for fun stuff.

You want to upgrade your crossbow to shoot dildos ?

 

[jackofshadows]

Well, we had a short honeymoon with the last patch about the marginal improvement introduced, but it's time to back to some relentless bitching.

I have to say that another thing of the game that is genuinely starting to grind on my nerves is how Larian is almost regularly disregarding the canonical stats/abilities for the monsters they are using.

Some get buffed with powers they shouldn't have, some get nerfed significantly, lose special powers, don't show any sign of their typical resistances or immunities, etc.
This is happening over and over across the entire portion of the game available so far. Phase spiders that are gifted ranged AOE venom spit when they should just attack in melee (which is two times as bizarre, given that D&D DOES offer spiders that canonically have ranged attacks), Minotaurs that don't "charge" in a straight line but do hulk jumping and ground stomping instead, mud mephits and wood woads gimped to the point of being husks of what they were supposed to be, etc.

It feels almost like people at Larian after negotiating and getting the official D&D license one morning woke up decided that they feel only contempt and disdain for it. "Fuck this shit, we'll do our own bestiary" or something.

You call this later as "pile of shit" but to be fair: why any non-tabletop player should give a fuck about that? Also, have you played Solasta? In case you haven't I can tell you that following tabletop's rules carefully is what primarily made the game too easy and in turn, boring as hell.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

You call this later as "pile of shit" but to be fair: why any non-tabletop player should give a fuck about that? Also, have you played Solasta? In case you haven't I can tell you that following tabletop's rules carefully is what primarily made the game too easy and in turn, boring as hell.

I called it a pile of shit in a self deprecating way, but let me be clear:I still think there’s value in sticking to a canonical bestiary under several metrics. Consistency, internal coherence, familiarity with a consequent increase in believability, etc.
I also still think that any appeal to the “golden rule” to be able to change anything at will is quite frankly idiotic to the point of semi-retardation.

Also, yes, I played Solasta and *mechanically* I loved it.
Not sure why it should matter here since

1) Solasta is a made-up new setting without any canonical bestiary it needs to adhere to.
2) what you are complaining about sounds encounter design, which is related more to how you chose, position and combine enemies than anything else.

 

[jackofshadows]

I called it a pile of shit in a self deprecating way, but let me be clear:I still think there’s value in sticking to a canonical bestiary under several metrics. Consistency, internal coherence, familiarity with a consequent increase in believability, etc.

In other words, muh FR lore. Don't make me laugh.

1) Solasta is a made-up new setting without any canonical bestiary it needs to adhere to.

See above.

2) what you are complaining about sounds encounter design, which is related more to how you chose, position and combine enemies than anything else.

Not quite. Both. You obviously can have the same encounter design (which itself isn't horrible in Solasta) but increase/decrease the difficulty via mob stats/abilities alteration as Larian are doing.

 

[copebot]

Most of Solasta's monsters are in the monstrous manual, just not Soraks. They also don't abide by the CR guidelines or the "adventuring day" guidelines. Most of the time when DMs want to 'break' those guidelines they tend to make things harsher rather than easier, such as adding more varied encounters, punishing long rests with high difficulty random encounters, and so on. Solasta being too easy past a certain point isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters but to how it rations out encounters and the 'adventuring day.'

Failure to just use the license IS a design mistake on the part of the BG3 team. But it's also traditional for the BG series, which also obviously ignored lots of things about 2E. Dicking with the monster math in a systematic way IS stupid, especially because you can just accomplish similar effects by adding and subtracting units from the encounters. Larding on HP buffers to all enemies IS stupid, lowing armor class across the board IS stupid... it has all kinds of dumb knock on effects to class roles/balance and ability balance that you would otherwise avoid.

Quite simply, a lot of monsters are tuned to create situations in which it is statistically likely that things that 'feel' right and cool will happen in the encounter. A fighter will be likely to cut the goblin's head off even without a crit. If he misses, he can use his action surge to make the kill very likely. If you lard on extra HP the beefy fighter can easily crit the first time on the goblin, not kill the goblin, use the action surge, hit again, and still not kill the goblin. That is a LAME outcome that sucks.

 

[Grunker]

Solasta being too easy past a certain point isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters but to how it rations out encounters and the 'adventuring day.'

This is just not true, as I discussed extensively in the Solasta thread. After someone made the same claim there, I played entire maps without long resting once - 5, 6 sometimes 8+ encounters without playing in some autistic manner, cheesing anything or hell even playing that carefully.

The game is ridicoulously easy, and the accessibility of resting isn't the explanation.

More likely, it's that they were so blinded by their 5E-adherence that they forgot the player had a reload-button. Not that you're gonna use it much playing Solasta.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

In other words, muh FR lore. Don't make me laugh.

I can make you cry, if you wish.

And no, I don't give a shit about the "lore" in itself. And i don't even have a strong attachment to the 5th edition in itself (in fact, the more I learn about it, the more I find it a bit... dull).
It's a matter of consistency. I don't even need to be familiar with a setting to want a game licensed on it to respect its boundaries.

And YES, you can act as a smug prick as much as you want, but consistency is important.

 

[copebot]

Solasta being too easy past a certain point isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters but to how it rations out encounters and the 'adventuring day.'

This is just not true, as I discussed extensively in the Solasta thread. After someone made the same claim there, I played entire maps without long resting once - 5, 6 sometimes 8+ encounters without playing in some autistic manner, cheesing anything or hell even playing that carefully.

The game is ridicoulously easy, and the accessibility of resting isn't the explanation.

More likely, it's that they were so blinded by their 5E-adherence that they forgot the player had a reload-button. Not that you're gonna use it much playing Solasta.

That's attributed to "Not Abiding By the CR Guidelines," as in having many areas with nothing but encounters that would be rated trivial or medium at best. There are also some areas in which things may be 'hard' or 'deadly' encounters but it's likely to be the single encounter that you face.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Solasta being too easy past a certain point isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters but to how it rations out encounters and the 'adventuring day.'

This is just not true, as I discussed extensively in the Solasta thread. After someone made the same claim there, I played entire maps without long resting once - 5, 6 sometimes 8+ encounters without playing in some autistic manner, cheesing anything or hell even playing that carefully.

The game is ridicoulously easy, and the accessibility of resting isn't the explanation.

More likely, it's that they were so blinded by their 5E-adherence that they forgot the player had a reload-button. Not that you're gonna use it much playing Solasta.

That sounds like complete logical jump. if the game is too easy (and yes, Solasta got definitely too easy after a while) is not because "They followed the rules too much" but because they didn't design their encounters to be challenging enough.
Insisting on that claim would imply that there are not rules-adhering ways to increase the difficult... When in fact there would be plenty: adding more enemies, replacing them with stronger ones, making the battlefield less favorable to the player, etc, etc.

 

[Grunker]

Solasta being too easy past a certain point isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters but to how it rations out encounters and the 'adventuring day.'

This is just not true, as I discussed extensively in the Solasta thread. After someone made the same claim there, I played entire maps without long resting once - 5, 6 sometimes 8+ encounters without playing in some autistic manner, cheesing anything or hell even playing that carefully.

The game is ridicoulously easy, and the accessibility of resting isn't the explanation.

More likely, it's that they were so blinded by their 5E-adherence that they forgot the player had a reload-button. Not that you're gonna use it much playing Solasta.

That's attributed to "Not Abiding By the CR Guidelines," as in having many areas with nothing but encounters that would be rated trivial or medium at best. There are also some areas in which things may be 'hard' or 'deadly' encounters but it's likely to be the single encounter that you face.

So what you're saying is that it's

isn't so much related to how it uses the monsters

copebot indeed

What about the decision to have the final boss be an ineffective caster while giving the party the assistance of two dragons in that fight? Is that also a factor of "Not Abiding By the CR Guidelines"?

Solasta's encounter design or rather monster placement is atrocious. Not doing some 5E-element right has nothing to do with it.

 

[Grunker]

Tuco Benedicto Pacifico: If you apply the CR-guidelines to a video game odds are you will get a very easy video game. Why? Because P&P-difficulty isn't designed with a reload-button in mind.

And I mean, it's not like the CR-guidelines even work in P&P anyway. Any GM worth his salt will setup encounters with no regard for that stuff. Those numbers only exist to help complete newbies who need some kind of handholding when designing encounters - for good reason.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

that they forgot the player had a reload-button

 

[Grunker]

that they forgot the player had a reload-button

I'm not talking about savescumming. I'm talking about the fact that P&P encounters generally have to be completed in the first try

 

[Swen]

Looks like Tuco will only be satisfied if literally everything in BG3 will be exactly as he wishes... will never happen Tuco my boy.

You're not a professioanl dev, leave the real game development to the GOATs of the CRPG genre, Larian studios.

 

[Larianshill]

Meanwhile, someplace not here...

Spoiler

 

[Cryomancer]

Larding on HP buffers to all enemies IS stupid, lowing armor class across the board IS stupid...

Well said.

ffs! Just spam your cantrips instead!

Honestly, never liked much the at will cantrips, nor the idea of cantrips in the first place. I think that at will stuff is based on 4E and we all know that the unique good 4E is GURPS 4th edition. D&D 4E is an example of what NOT to do with a tabletop game. Low level magic users should run out of spells quickly and resort to a simple weapon, like a crossbow, darts or a dagger. Unlimited casting for a mere lv 1 caster is not something which I like.

Because P&P-difficulty isn't designed with a reload-button in mind.

And 5E has a bias in favor of the players with the CR of monsters. Liches which could wipe out a epic level party in 3E now despite being CR 22 monsters, a party of lv 13 can defeat one with no problem.

leave the real game development to the GOATs of the CRPG genre, OwlCat games.

Fixed for you. Only game journos and modernfags likes Larian games.

Meanwhile, someplace not here...

I don't use chan. Looks like for you, everyone who dislikes a low level adventure starting more epic than hordes of the underdark and mask of the betrayer combined is I...