Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Herumor]

Just keep playing, you're in for a treat.

Given that I've unlocked the entire skill tree, including the advanced skills now, I would say I am on the way to a very interesting ending.

You're not forced into anything, it's all your choice.

Finished the game. Loved it, will formulate my full thoughts later. The ending is certainly bittersweet, and I think I encountered either a bug, or bad writing.

Spoiler

In the end, someone needs to become a mind flayer to dominate the crown - either you, or Orpheus. However, Gale immediately has an alternate proposition - he Mystra akbars himself into the Netherbrain. He's going to die, obviously, but Faerun is a setting with the confirmed afterlife, and he should be getting a fucking hero's welcome in his. Becoming a mind flayer, however, is the end, because mind flayers don't have souls - you hang on for however long you manage to, and then nothing, oblivion. With that in mind, Gale's sacrifice is objectively the best option.
But again - either because of a bug, or because of bad writing, you can't tell Orpheus that there's an alternate path. Gale can still blow himself up (skipping the final boss, presumably), but at this point one of you is already a mind flayer, so there's no fucking point.

In the end I pussied out of becoming a mind flayer and let Orpheus sacrifice his soul, which made me feel a little bit like a scumbag. The game's ending delivered closure for a lot of my followers, but for some reason not Shadowheart, my romance, who got jack shit. But that's alright.

In the end, loved it, very much worth the wait. Gonna play through it again, and wait eagerly for the inevitable enhanced edition.

In regards to the ending:

Becoming a mind flayer isn't the end. You actually get to play as one and the dialogue after the final showdown clearly states you can either lean into becoming the typical mind flayer or stay a rogue, like the Emperor. You have the option to stay in Baldur's Gate and work with him or travel the world and do some good. Sure, you'll eat brains, but there's plenty of villains and scum in the world to serve as your food.

I'm gonna post screenshots for the above stuff I'm talking about so you see what I mean:

Don't click this unless you finished the game

Also, did you like the reveal of who the Emperor was before he became a mind flayer?

 

[Gradenmayer]

From reading this thread it seems like the opposite of the usual D&D games - Monks are basically useless and Paladins curbstomp everything.

Too bad I don't have either in my party

Monks are strong, second only to Barbarians in my experience.

 

[Larianshill]

Spoilers

Spoiler

I didn't mean that it's the end for your character, I'm aware that you can play as a mind flayer for the ending. It's the fact that mind flayers don't have souls or afterlives, and there's no way to unbecome one, I didn't want that fate for my paladin after all the shit that happened. Living in the shadows like the Emperor, being scared shitless of ever falling under the influence of the elder brain, eating people for breakfast... I'm not even going to go into the fact that the mind flayer isn't supposed to be you, it's an entirely new being that replaces you after eating your brain from the inside, for some reason it doesn't apply to you or the Emperor, so whatever.
As for the reveal... I don't have too much of an attachment to the original games, I didn't grow up with them, but I feel like the reveal - as well as the fates of Viconia and Sarevok - will really upset some people on Codex. I also never felt like the Emperor needs a reveal of his identity either, he was interesting enough standing on his own.

 

[Konjad]

I go the boots from the gnome but every time I speak to Gekh it's as if I have never met him. This bug is 3 years old and apparently still not fixed for release.

 

[Zarniwoop]

From reading this thread it seems like the opposite of the usual D&D games - Monks are basically useless and Paladins curbstomp everything.

Too bad I don't have either in my party

Monks are strong, second only to Barbarians in my experience.

But Paladins HULK SMASH and everyone goes flying.

And usually, Monks are stronger than Barbarians. They are ridiculously overpowered in most D&D based games.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

I really hate this trend of every party member has to be fuckable. Just very weird and cringe. A universe where being straight just doesn't exist. You literally can't have a male bro who doesn't want to fuck you. Refuse to use any male party members because I don't roll with faggots in my party.

Blame Bioware and the original Baldurs Gates.

They started this slippery slope.

I don't agree. More of everything in this day and age caters to faggots. Is the fact I can make a female character with a penis bioware's slippery slope. Everything in society has to cater to faggots and weirdo degenerates.

Having a romance is actually realistic like in the original bioware games. If you're spending everyday with someone, adventuring and away from home, romance is likely to develop between opposite genders. What's not realistic or immersive is everyone being a faggot and wanting to fuck the same gender. Being gay and bi is like 10% of the population but that's all that exists in these faggot games

 

[d1r]

Is there another way in into the Shattered Sanctum besides using the Main Gate in the Goblin Camp?

Spoiler

I killed the leaders, but not the Goblins celebrating outside. And I am not able to get through the barrage of goblins waiting for me there, nor do I have enough invisibilty potions left to pass through. Does the Underdark section beneath the Defiled Temple has a connection to the section beneath the Well in the Blighted Village?

 

[Konjad]

If you're spending everyday with someone, adventuring and away from home, romance is likely to develop between opposite genders.

That's not true, there was a girl I travelled to and from university every day, later even two girls, and romance never developed

Spoiler

 

[Turisas]

But Paladins HULK SMASH and everyone goes flying.

That's why you go barbadin.

 

[Larianshill]

Is there another way in into the Shattered Sanctum besides using the Main Gate in the Goblin Camp?

Spoiler

I killed the leaders, but not the Goblins celebrating outside. And I am not able to get through the barrage of goblins waiting for me there, nor do I have enough invisibilty potions left to pass through. Does the Underdark section beneath the Defiled Temple has a connection to the section beneath the Well in the Blighted Village?

Yes, everything is connected, you can just go through one of the other billion Underdark entrances.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Really disappointed by astral plane part of the creche quest

Spoiler

It seemed like it would be a pretty impactful moment considering the goddess of the Githyanki ordered you around, and it was a moment to confront your obviously evil guardian. You couldn't actually kill the guardian though, and if you try your reasoning is always because the Githyanki queen told you to. And the guardian hints at important secrets and then says "You're not ready...." I hate this arbitrary mystery plotline and it's frustrating when you have what should be a serious confrontation with the nature of what's going and instead it's just hand-waved away.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So how many tadpoles can you safely insert before you turn into the octopus or the game considers you one or the main quest gets canceled or something? Because some abilities are cool. And I got 6 of them now.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

If you're spending everyday with someone, adventuring and away from home, romance is likely to develop between opposite genders.

That's not true, there was a girl I travelled to and from university every day, later even two girls, and romance never developed

Spoiler

I was in the military and on deployments men and women fucked all the time. Men didn't decide to fag out because they were on a mission together

 

[The_Mask]

So how many tadpoles can you safely insert before you turn into the octopus or the game considers you one or the main quest gets canceled or something? Because some abilities are cool. And I got 6 of them now.

You're a fucking octodad at this point. Might even be looking to octo-grand-dad. ROFL

 

[Lyric Suite]

Navigating the world in this game is starting to become an obnoxious chore. You have to constantly pan the camera around which doesn't completement point and click movement at all. This is NWN2 all over again.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, i tried to join in on the steam forum gay shit outrage and i got temporarily banned for questioning BLM orthodoxy of all things (first time i ever got banned on the steam forum). It's uncunny how EVERY hall monitor position is filled by an SJW scumbag. I was banned for making an "inflammatory" comment but it's fine for lefturds to call people racist and bigots for asking to make it at least less ridicolous that every NPC wants to fuck you instantly, male or female. Nothing inflammatory about calling people names i guess, as long as leftists do it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

You're a fucking octodad at this point. Might even be looking to octo-grand-dad. ROFL

Well the quest is still like get the tadpole out and don't make it more powerful so nothing changed there and my char still looks normal.
That's why I'm asking. Is there a limit or something?

 

[gurugeorge]

Curious to know re. the swamp, did anybody not pass a check, and still saw the place as a sunny wetland with "sheep"? I guess the "sheep" attack you at some point? Or does the illusion carry on to Auntie's place being a nice tea house or something?

The redcaps are Auntie's bodyguards of sorts. They're vicious, yes. Also don't forget to interact with the monster hunter.

What I meant was, the way I did it as a Paladin (Oath of Ancients) I got a check that revealed the truth as soon as I crossed into the zone and the look of the whole place changed, so I never actually saw the "sheep," I only saw and killed them as redcaps. I was wondering how long the illusion of a nice wetland is sustained, and if the "teahouse" ever looks like a normal, nice place until some point (and if so what does it look like as that) - or whether you're forced into having the illusion dispelled at some point pretty quickly after you enter the area, and if so at what point.

 

[Grunker]

From reading this thread it seems like the opposite of the usual D&D games - Monks are basically useless and Paladins curbstomp everything.

Too bad I don't have either in my party

Monks useless? In 5E yes, but in BG3 - hell no. They’re absurdly strong.

From reading this thread it seems like the opposite of the usual D&D games - Monks are basically useless and Paladins curbstomp everything.

Too bad I don't have either in my party

Monks are strong, second only to Barbarians in my experience.

But Paladins HULK SMASH and everyone goes flying.

And usually, Monks are stronger than Barbarians. They are ridiculously overpowered in most D&D based games.

nigga wat? Where do you get this from? Monks are notoriously horrible in 3E and 5E. It’s why Larian buffed them to begin with

 

[Reinhardt]

You're watching women who managed to make millions by not even whoring themselves, but whoring a virtual avatar. It's as if you were able to become rich by having your character in BG3 fuck the frog and Gale and whatever else you fucked by this point. They're probably in top 0,001% females in terms of IQ, and well suited to playing RPGs. If you managed to create a fake character that was able to make 5 million dollars from retarded simps irl, then you can make a fake character that will be able to kill some fake monsters in a video game.


That's assuming they're even actually women, I'd bet a lot of these vtubers are actually trannies or dudes with voice changers.

The vtubers currently playing BG3 on Twitch are mostly in the ~100 viewers range. They aren't making millions.

Egirl has 14000+ viewers. Random male has 8.500+ viewers. So there are viewers. Some players have <30 viewers, probably theirs normal viewers are playing BG3 and don't want spoilers.

those in 0-5 viewers range are probably advertised by codex. oh, wait, codex approved are playing overwatch...

 

[Reinhardt]

first time was the phase spider cave and the associated quests

there are quests?! i just killed thingy and looted robe.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I never liked monks because it's eastern shit and wtf is that crap doing to muh European medieval fantasy?

Keep that shit to oriental settings.

 

[gurugeorge]

But Paladins HULK SMASH and everyone goes flying.

That's why you go barbadin.

I was wondering about that, about multiclassing my Oath of Ancients Paladin into a few levels of Barb at lvl 6. How does it work? I mean presumably you can't cast your Pally spells while raging but you can still do Divine Smites (even though they take up spell slots)? If so it's very tempting to have some super-oomphy two-handed goodness. Reckless Divine Smites must be something to behold.

But I do find that he sometimes does a bit of clutch healing in really tough fights, which is useful versatility and support, so I dunno. It's not like Divine Smite is weak, but you know how it is, you always want MOAR POWAH!!!!

I'm reminded of my first impressions - not having the info to plan ahead is probably the worst thing about the game (apart from the faggotry). It wouldn't be so bad except that they've changed a lot of things and tweaked things here and there. (Speaking of which, stricter 5e mods are appearing on Nexus, I will definitely try to mod as full authentic 5e as possible if I do a second playthrough. I understand that Larian tweaked it to make it more "fun" and I accept it in the spirit it's offered, but I'd like to see a stricter approach.)

 

[Grunker]

I'd appreciate opinions on this opinion of a good friend, a real old-school gamer guy.

I’m also enjoying BG3, though I could do with less cutscenes with everyone holding their hands to their temple while squinting. I went with Gale, and am currently having Astarion, Shadowheart and Karlach alongside. I’ve been finding that I absolutely need a rogue, despite the fact that he’s hard to keep happy. I’m thinking of switching out the cleric for either Wyll or Lae’zel, though. The thing is when I need the cleric, I really need her; otherwise her place in the combat queue is largely a waste of time. I did find out, however, that her illusion divine ability that gives folks advantage within 3 meters is a huge difference maker in combat.

I made it a point never to play past the druid grove in early access, so, thankfully, all of this is new to me. They also changed a lot of the early stages, which was a nice surprise. I’m still a bit confused as to whether I should be fighting the goblins, trying to command them, or just avoid them, which bugs me. Like at the deep gnome watermill thing, avoiding the fight is pretty easy, but the old DnD player in me is very uncomfortable with leaving a goblin force at my back. But, on the other hand, if I go 100% goblin-death, am I going to walk into a situation later one where there are 250 of them at the keep, all hostile? It’s realistic—how would you know if you were really there?—but at the same time a bit frustrating.

I think a better CRPG design decision would be to make the early stage of the game revolve around 3-5 related quests and not, as here, 20. Like with Cyberpunk, I’m finding it a bit overwhelming. Maybe this is just me, though. I try not to meta-game and play as if I was in the shoes of my PC, but with BG3 this is especially difficult.

I also think that Gale’s arcane hunger mechanic is broken. He never seems to actually suffer the condition, even though the journal has been updated to reflect it’s time to eat another magic item. Are you familiar with the similar hunger mechanic is Mask of the Betrayer? There, I felt under pressure, the clock was ticking, it was anxiety-making. Here, it’s just, I don’t know, a gimmick that is negligible, especially considering the large number of very minorly enchanted items set along your path.

Dead wrong about pretty much everything, but the real tell-tale sign is the Cleric take. It’s pretty bad. They have some downright fantastic spells. I suspect he’s trying to have SH be a melee cleric, which she isn’t. She’s a caster. I mean he’s spending her concentration on the illusion instead of bless. So it’s hardly surprising he finds clerics less useful.

The ironic thing is that SH has a dog shit subclass yet is still good because Cleric is good.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I never liked monks because it's eastern shit and wtf is that crap doing to muh European medieval fantasy?

Keep that shit to oriental settings.

Martial arts films were popular enough in the 1970s to create a concept for the monk class, introduced alongside assassins in Supplement II: Blackmoor in 1975. AD&D 1st edition incorporated the new classes (thief, paladin, monk, assassin, druid) introduced in the OD&D supplements, as well as few of its own (ranger, illusionist, and optional bard). However, the monk class never fit well with the implied setting of D&D and the game's other inspirations, so Gary Gygax was pleased to have the monk class included in the 1985 hardcover rulebook Oriental Adventures, which was an attempt at creating a D&D/AD&D variant taking inspiration from eastern Asia (primarily Japan, secondarily China, and not much from anywhere else), and noted that he intended to exclude the monk class from a prospective 2nd edition of AD&D. David Zeb Cook ultimately designed AD&D 2nd edition, released in 1989, and did indeed exclude the monk class, so that it only appeared as a regular character class in two out of six editions of D&D/AD&D. Though in 1985 a similar mystic class had been introduced as an option in BECMI D&D's 'Black Box' Master Rules boxset, and it would remain as an option in the 1991 D&D Rules Cyclopedia compilation.