Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Pre-Release Thread [EARLY ACCESS RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Elex]

Bard is the best as face.

Why is bard > other charisma classes?

TL; DR in 5e you can play with a mono class group or mix with no real limit or problem.

4 bards? Can do all
4 paladins? They suck at ranged but no problem.
4 clerics? A-men Easy mode.
4 wizards? If you win initiative there is no hope for the enemy.
4 warlocks? I guess you really like eldritch blast.
Etc

I'm officially on board with 4-man party given 5E class flexibility.

Bards have expertise and a lot of social interaction spells.

 

[Jarpie]

Doesn't Sawyer like 5E? sounds like it's a ruleset he would come up with.

 

[underground nymph]

Did they announce start date of early access yet?

 

[Elex]

fuck this big parties are fun. not only in terms of char building, and dressing up, but their personalities and banter and stuff.

only 4 chars already killing half of my fun.

They are fun but also extremely powerfull.

For example 6 paladins at level 15 can deal 72d8 radiant damage to Tiamat with their smite (12 lvl 4 smite) : the average damage of a d8 is 4.5 so 324 damage, and you should also add the weapon damage +stat + others bonus.

tiamat have 615 HP if tiamat is lucky can survive 3 turns.

And they still have resource for kill the tarrasque after that.

Tarrasque and tiamat are CR 30 monster.

 

[Shadenuat]

thats tiamat problems

 

[Elex]

Doesn't Sawyer like 5E? sounds like it's a ruleset he would come up with.

Sawyer sound more like 4e, 4e is the prefectly balanced D&D edition that nobody liked.

 

[Dodo1610]

Did they announce start date of early access yet?

in a couple of months, so this summer.

 

[Jimmious]

Honestly the more I think about it, the more I don't get why they are meddling (AGAIN) with the initiative system.
Why change a basic feature that distinguishes the "dexterity based" classes?
It's really the main thing that bothers me a lot. I can live with 4 PCs, even if I'd have preferred more.

 

[Harthwain]

Honestly the more I think about it, the more I don't get why they are meddling (AGAIN) with the initiative system.
Why change a basic feature that distinguishes the "dexterity based" classes?
It's really the main thing that bothers me a lot. I can live with 4 PCs, even if I'd have preferred more.

Here's why:

“Combat works on a simultaneous turn-based method, which basically means it was their turn, it’s now my turn,” as Larian CEO and game director Swen Vincke put it in a press demo. “This is a change that we did to the system which leads to quite a lot of gameplay opportunities. It lets us do quite big battles, as you will see later,” Vincke continued.

 

[rhollis]

Honestly the more I think about it, the more I don't get why they are meddling (AGAIN) with the initiative system.
Why change a basic feature that distinguishes the "dexterity based" classes?
It's really the main thing that bothers me a lot. I can live with 4 PCs, even if I'd have preferred more.

Here's why:

“Combat works on a simultaneous turn-based method, which basically means it was their turn, it’s now my turn,” as Larian CEO and game director Swen Vincke put it in a press demo. “This is a change that we did to the system which leads to quite a lot of gameplay opportunities. It lets us do quite big battles, as you will see later,” Vincke continued.

Agree w/ Harthwain. Take a look at this footage: https://youtu.be/IZ0LJ5BqYrk?t=142

 

[Riddler]

The more I think about it the more I become convinced that unless they change the initiative system the game will be an irredeemable pile of shit, unless you play without companions that is.

What's wrong with the initiative system?

DnD already has issues with the immense advantage that winning initiative is. Given the crazy capabilities you get after a few levels, combat is already relatively binary but formalizing this by declaring that one team completely wins initiative in every fight? That's just retardation.

Have you ever played XCOM? Every fight once you reach mid level and beyond will be even worse than getting a perfect ambush in lategame XCOM.

This goes doubly if you are intending to play on any higher difficulty level. It is design for story mode.

 

[getter77]

In a better world where their latest Kickstarter had already fully delivered and they were amiable to the licensing and whatnot in good faith, the likes of Spellbound Kingdoms strikes me as a far more apt candidate to get grafted onto the Larian chassis of D:OS 2 in terms of playing to existing strengths and points of design emphasis than we have wound up with in terms of Baldur's Gate and D&D crossing over from tabletop P&P.

As is, they have a steep and perilous road to traverse ahead on Early Access---needs to be far more bold and comprehensive than any of their prior endeavors thus far and hopefully the community can at least manage to prevail on a better than 4 party size among the myriad aspects that spur to wince rather than excite or stoke a sense of adventurous wonder.

 

[Thunar]

A standard initative mod would be pretty easy to do I'd imagine.

 

[rhollis]

The more I think about it the more I become convinced that unless they change the initiative system the game will be an irredeemable pile of shit, unless you play without companions that is.

What's wrong with the initiative system?

DnD already has issues with the immense advantage that winning initiative is. Given the crazy capabilities you get after a few levels, combat is already relatively binary but formalizing this by declaring that one team completely wins initiative in every fight? That's just retardation.

Have you ever played XCOM? Every fight once you reach mid level and beyond will be even worse than getting a perfect ambush in lategame XCOM.

This goes doubly if you are intending to play on any higher difficulty level. It is design for story mode.

Why can't they balance it so you don't win initiative every encounter? These level 1 mobs roll 41 initiative: https://youtu.be/IZ0LJ5BqYrk?t=131

Maybe the threat of losing initiative encourages players to set up stealth ambushes, which would seem to improve gameplay.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Brand new footage of the new Baldur's Gate. Can't wait!

 

[Riddler]

The more I think about it the more I become convinced that unless they change the initiative system the game will be an irredeemable pile of shit, unless you play without companions that is.

What's wrong with the initiative system?

DnD already has issues with the immense advantage that winning initiative is. Given the crazy capabilities you get after a few levels, combat is already relatively binary but formalizing this by declaring that one team completely wins initiative in every fight? That's just retardation.

Have you ever played XCOM? Every fight once you reach mid level and beyond will be even worse than getting a perfect ambush in lategame XCOM.

This goes doubly if you are intending to play on any higher difficulty level. It is design for story mode.

Why can't they balance it so you don't win initiative every encounter? These level 1 mobs roll 41 initiative: https://youtu.be/IZ0LJ5BqYrk?t=131

Maybe the threat of losing initiative encourages players to set up stealth ambushes, which would seem to improve gameplay.

It leads to degenerate unfun behaviour.

The thing is that it won't just be a threat, it will force players into a very narrow window of gameplay choices. You will have to set up ambushes or reload until you win initiative.

Furthermore it will force(or very strongly encourage) you into more or less the exact same series of actions every combat because you won't have to adjust to who's going when in the initiative order.

 

[FranticDistortion]

Brand new footage of the new Baldur's Gate. Can't wait!

* Dedicated Dark critically missed with his post and it appeared in a completely different thread *

 

[rhollis]

The more I think about it the more I become convinced that unless they change the initiative system the game will be an irredeemable pile of shit, unless you play without companions that is.

What's wrong with the initiative system?

DnD already has issues with the immense advantage that winning initiative is. Given the crazy capabilities you get after a few levels, combat is already relatively binary but formalizing this by declaring that one team completely wins initiative in every fight? That's just retardation.

Have you ever played XCOM? Every fight once you reach mid level and beyond will be even worse than getting a perfect ambush in lategame XCOM.

This goes doubly if you are intending to play on any higher difficulty level. It is design for story mode.

Why can't they balance it so you don't win initiative every encounter? These level 1 mobs roll 41 initiative: https://youtu.be/IZ0LJ5BqYrk?t=131

Maybe the threat of losing initiative encourages players to set up stealth ambushes, which would seem to improve gameplay.

It leads to degenerate unfun behaviour.

The thing is that it won't just be a threat, it will force players into a very narrow window of gameplay choices. You will have to set up ambushes or reload until you win initiative.

Furthermore it will force(or very strongly encourage) you into more or less the exact same series of actions every combat because you won't have to adjust to who's going when in the initiative order.

Makes sense. BG3 initiative system will be beneficial in terms of encounter pacing but will lead to less interesting strategic decisions.

 

[Jedi Exile]

I've just watched the presentation in full. The game in its current state is a broken mess. Still it looks promising and fun, the worst thing now is lots of D:OS 2 assets which were re-used, I hope it will be changed during development. Maybe it was going to be D:OS 3 originally and then Swen changed it into BG3 when he obtained the license because it will guarantee more sales? Dragon Age look may indicate they are going for the BioWare old fanbase. I fear that competition with Kingmaker will negatively impact development and may force Swen to release the game in an unfinished state (or it will delay the game as it happened with Alpha Protocol).

 

[Elex]

so descent into avernus is a true prequel.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Brand new footage of the new Baldur's Gate. Can't wait!

This looks so much better than Kingmaker holy shit.

 

[Grotesque]

 

[rhollis]

Dragon Age look may indicate they are going for the BioWare old fanbase.

I think Larian is using BG3 to build their AAA "cinematics" expertise to do just that on their next title. Reading between the lines in interviews would suggest they are iterating their way to full BioWare status and next one up will be a huge non-fantasy RPG with mainstream appeal.

I fear that competition with Kingmaker will negatively impact development and may force Swen to release the game in an unfinished state (or it will delay the game as it happened with Alpha Protocol).

Wouldn't most people buying WotR pick up BG3 if it's any good? Seems like WotR will have a more niche audience than BG3.

 

[Elex]

Makes sense. BG3 initiative system will be beneficial in terms of encounter pacing but will lead to less interesting strategic decisions.

i don't see the pacing benefit.
Because when you fight a massive number of enemies you will have to wait 5-6 minutes before you can move again.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Baldur's Gates 3 looks even shittier than I imagined.