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

[Zeriel]

Question to people playing the EA. Can we completely respec companions and customize their looks like in Original Sin 2?

Sure hope not. 'respeccing' is the embodiment of decline.

It's declined when it abused, but being able to totally change the class of every companion you get is something I appreciate.

Nope, it's shit. One of the few things deadfiya got right was being able to choose from thematically fitting classes when recruiting a companion.
A companion's class is part of their overall character.

Half of them wouldn't even make sense if their classes were able to be changed due to their stories being so closely linked to their class.

Ok, then when Swen will show us other companions? Because right now there is lewd handholding with Shadowheart and... that's all. There is also gay vampire. Others are so bland no one even remember their names even despite there is almost no content in the game. Noseless chick, some dude and some other dude.

Stuff like this is always cope. "Oh the full game isn't out, you don't know what it contains!" The early content they show is supposed to get you to want to play the rest of the game. If people don't like what is there, it is extremely unlikely that the full game will differ, and that's especially the case with companions.

 

[Grotesque]

How is Swen doing these days?

 

[Larianshill]

Anniversary in two days. Please, Swen, just a crumb of content.

 

[Swen]

Anniversary in two days. Please, Swen, just a crumb of content.

Get hyped son, get hyped.

 

[Infinitron]

Anniversary in two days. Please, Swen, just a crumb of content.

This was posted on September 22nd and nobody noticed, smh

 

[Larianshill]

something positively magical

Not paladin, I take it.

 

[aweigh]

But that way you can create your custom party and still be able to get companion quests. It's the best of both worlds. Who cares if it doesn't make sense? Look at what people are already doing in WOTR. Does Seelah suddenly deciding to become a Skald after being a Paladin for one whole level makes sense? Does Regil deciding to become a Bloodrager out of sudden makes sense? Do multiple people of various backgrounds suddenly deciding to get a little bit of monastic training in order to master mysterious crane style make any sense? If you worry about it you can just choose to not respec them.

Agreed. I had a lot of fun playing through the two Pillars of Eternity games with the mod-tool that lets you respec companions and change their attributes and class to whatever you want. Did the same in Pathfinder 1 as well, with the mod-tool for that game.

You get your custom party plus the story companion content and their presence, it's the best of both worlds. PoE 2 even leaned towards this a bit with the multiple class options available for each companion when you recruit them, so it is obvious that we're not the only people in the world who feel this way.

 

[a good anon]

You get your custom party plus the story companion content and their presence, it's the best of both worlds. PoE 2 even leaned towards this a bit with the multiple class options available for each companion when you recruit them, so it is obvious that we're not the only people in the world who feel this way.

That's a really good point, I forgot about the custom party.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Just because something is immediately convenient to the player it doesn’t necessarily make for a better game in the long run.
In fact it’s often the opposite. Dealing with the restrictions of the hand you’ve been served is precisely what makes some scenarios engaging.

A classic example would be your first descent to Blight Town/Queelag’s lair in Dark Souls. If the game didn’t prevent you from having a convenient way to warp in and out of the area it wouldn’t become so memorable. And getting the Lordvessel for the first time hours later wouldn’t feel a moment of triumph.
That’s one thing a lot of the sequels/derivate got wrong when they started giving the equivalent of the Lordvessel to the player from the get go.

In the same way having unlimited respec or the option to turn your companions in whatever you want gives the player an immediate advantage but in the long run heavily cheapens the value of the "commitment" you put into your decisions while progressing through the game.

 

[gurugeorge]

Just because something is immediately convenient to the player it doesn’t necessarily make for a better game in the long run.
In fact it’s often the opposite. Dealing with the restrictions of the hand you’ve been served is precisely what makes some scenarios engaging.

A classic example would be your first descent to Blight Town/Queelag’s lair in Dark Souls. If the game didn’t prevent you from having a convenient way to warp in and out of the area it wouldn’t become so memorable. And getting the Lordvessel for the first time hours later wouldn’t feel a moment of triumph.
That’s one thing a lot of the sequels/derivate got wrong when they started giving the equivalent of the Lordvessel to the player from the get go.

In the same way having unlimited respec or the option to turn your companions in whatever you want gives the player an immediate advantage but in the long run heavily cheapens the value of the "commitment" you put into your decisions while progressing through the game.

I very much agree with that when it comes to gameplay as such (in terms of C&C, builds and combat), but in terms of UI convenience, I don't think it holds, UI irritations are just irritations with no redeeming gameplay aspect.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I very much agree with that when it comes to gameplay as such (in terms of C&C, builds and combat), but in terms of UI convenience, I don't think it holds, UI irritations are just irritations with no redeeming gameplay aspect.

Eh, ok, I don't disagree ,which is precisely why I've been at war with the Larian chain for years at this point.
But unlimited respec (or its absence) isn't an UI nuisance, it's a deliberate design choice.

Also, this type of argument can apply to the UI as well to some extent: omniscient map markers and GPS may be super-convenient in the short term but they invariably cheapen the exploration and immersion in more ways than one.

 

[purupuru]

Why do you even care about companion quests if the first thing you do with companions is to butcher their backgrounds with full custom builds? In RPGs a character's class is very much what they are. If you just want the exp you can simply take the companions for their specific quests and then ignore them. Deadfire did this right because it gave you options that kinda made sense, if it allowed you to make Aloth a barbarian that would be pure decline.

 

[gurugeorge]

I very much agree with that when it comes to gameplay as such (in terms of C&C, builds and combat), but in terms of UI convenience, I don't think it holds, UI irritations are just irritations with no redeeming gameplay aspect.

Eh, ok, I don't disagree ,which is precisely why I've been at war with the Larian chain for years at this point.
But unlimited respec (or its absence) isn't an UI nuisance, it's a deliberate design choice.

Also, this type of argument can apply to the UI as well to some extent: omniscient map markers and GPS may be super-convenient in the short term but they invariably cheapen the exploration and immersion in more ways than one.

Yeah I agree that you should be limited to the type of thing your in-game character would know. I still don't understand why they don't have map shops in games, with maps that are somewhat informative but not that detailed (like the maps in Thief for example), that would give the right balance between convenience and immersion. Compasses are ok, because there have always been compasses - but you should have to buy one

As to unlimited respecs, I think that the first time you play a game you should be limited (I think one meta respec should be allowed, because one doesn't always understand a new system until one has played it for a while, and often things that look tempting logically from their descriptions aren't very well implemented, which you only discover a bit later), but once you've played a game once, the whole thing should (optionally) be open to you, unlimited respecs, developer console and all, because at that point the story is known, you're not really discovering anything new (apart from maybe alternative paths through some bits of the story), and at that point you're more interested in buildfaggery and perfecting your combat.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if you want to respec, use cheats. Because that's what it is, a cheat.
Tired of cheats being presented as 'QoL features'

yea you know what else is a quality of life feature? Being immune to damage.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

In the same way having unlimited respec or the option to turn your companions in whatever you want gives the player an immediate advantage but in the long run heavily cheapens the value of the "commitment" you put into your decisions while progressing through the game.

But it adds replayability. Ever game with full party creation can start completely different. Meanwhile the first act of WoTR will always feel similar due to players having access to a limited number of companions.

if you want to respec, use cheats. Because that's what it is, a cheat.
Tired of cheats being presented as 'QoL features'

yea you know what else is a quality of life feature? Being immune to damage.

It's more than a cheat. In DOS:2 you could also customize your companions look so if you thought a certain character looked ugly you could tweak his look a bit.

 

[Mortmal]

In the same way having unlimited respec or the option to turn your companions in whatever you want gives the player an immediate advantage but in the long run heavily cheapens the value of the "commitment" you put into your decisions while progressing through the game.

But it adds replayability. Ever game with full party creation can start completely different. Meanwhile the first act of WoTR will always feel similar due to players having access to a limited number of companions.

if you want to respec, use cheats. Because that's what it is, a cheat.
Tired of cheats being presented as 'QoL features'

yea you know what else is a quality of life feature? Being immune to damage.

It's more than a cheat. In DOS:2 you could also customize your companions look so if you thought a certain character looked ugly you could tweak his look a bit.

5E there's not that many options, and everything is at least playable. You arent going to multiclass much either, its simply not worth it except the sorcadin sorlock exploits who arent going to be included.

 

[Fedora Master]

How can you even fuck up your build in 5E to begin with?

 

[Grotesque]

I support respec with the ability to only respec the previous 2 levels

 

[Divine Blessing]

if u dont want to fly respec, than simply dont.

dont call for the it-will-cost-us-a-raidtier character integrity nonsense, cuz the exclusively affected ones wont care (else they probably wouldnt respec)

 

[Thonius]

Respec makes sense in the game with lots of classes and subclasses and enormous length ( and often bugged class features cough cough pathfinder), games with build porn etc. Just for your sanity. Here tho? It's hard to mess up your build since you got like 2 options tops at level up. Also I bet we'll get companion for every possible class. So you'll be able to murder your doppelganger.

 

[Ontopoly]

Some people might just really hate their class. Who cares if they messed it up or not, they certainly don't.

 

[Larianshill]

How can you even fuck up your build in 5E to begin with?

You could play a sorcerer.

 

[Fedora Master]

How can you even fuck up your build in 5E to begin with?

You could play a sorcerer.

I was going to rate you HOW DARE YOU but then I remembered this is 5E and they butchered the class, so... yea.

 

[Cryomancer]

How can you even fuck up your build in 5E to begin with?

You could play a sorcerer.

I was going to rate you HOW DARE YOU but then I remembered this is 5E and they butchered the class, so... yea.

LOL. 5E and PF2E ruined everything magical.

Edit : Sorry for posting here without being binged into the discussion. I confused this with the solasta thread.

 

[Poseidon00]

LOL. 5E ruined everything

Yes