Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Dishonoredbr]

I picked up the game. Let's see if it's half as good as people say it's.

Orc Ranger , let's go.

 

[Stoned Ape]

I was gifted a copy of this on Steam at Christmas. To be clear, I had no intention of buying it but as I have it I thought it would be a waste not to play the game. Here are my overall thoughts on finishing it.

To be honest it was pretty easy even with unoptimized characters as long as you attack from ambush and get surprise rounds in. Overall, I think the implementation of combat is worse than Solasta's, but the encounters are considerably more diverse in BG3, and some of the boss fights are really fun. I specifically prefer the way Solasta uses light and darkness, the flight/levitation system (and spiderclimb) to the equivalent systems in BG3 (where present). It is fun to hurl enemies around with a Barbarian or knock them off cliffs with Thunderwave, though.

Story wise, it felt a bit off to be killing Illithid from 1st level and visiting the Underdark at 5th. The timeline leading up the the start of the game and throughout the story seems wonky at best. The stuff concerning Moonrise Tower's construction location and what its built on stretches credibility, too. The Emperor's backstory simply doesn't make sense. For example, according to the sequence of events he would have been active during BG1, yet there was no sign of him back then. I don't really know how he ended up back in the sword coast in the first place, TBH.

I dislike that almost every party member (and at least one non-party NPC) try to jump into bed with you even if you only show slight interest in talking to them. It's jarring and feels unnecessary.

The most impressive things about the game are how many different ways there are to solve problems and how creative you can be with the abilities you are given to interact with the diegesis, along with the graphics and voice acting. Some of the visuals look incredible and I generally loved the art direction. The music was of a good standard, though nothing really stuck in my mind (unlike WOTR's soundtrack, which was exceptional).

I feel like there was cut content, for example Isobel had to have something wrong with her due to the circumstances around her resurrection, and Aylin should have the capacity to fall due to just how violent and angry she is. Act 3 overall had a lot of stuff to do, and while most of the party had arcs that worked out, I felt a bit as if my character had more of a supporting role than being centre stage to most of the end-game events. The game did no justice to Viconia or Sarevok and they shouldn't have bothered to include them if they were going to change their motivations and characters to the extent they did (Viconia willing to turn away from Lloth in order to save a baby in the original but now she kidnaps and tortures children, while Sarevok goes from thinking Bhaal was a fool and wanting to usurp him to being his pet).

So, I enjoyed the game in a similar way to enjoying a blockbuster movie, for the spectacle and atmosphere. The story has some pretty big holes and doesn't really make much sense, while the combat is fun (most of the time) but pretty easy.

TLDR;
If someone buys this for you I think you should play it, but I would wait for a sale before buying a copy for yourself IMO

 

[Fedora Master]

3.5 Warlock > 5e Warlock

I miss shitting out black tentacles and fire clouds all day.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

I question the "creativity" factor in which you can solve quests. It's combat or dialogue. How many times do you need to say a crack in the rocks or whatever before the novelty of that wears off. I personally couldn't come up with that many creative ways to handle quests. I think I mentioned this before but in the moonrise prison I tried to help the gnomes escape by stealing the key to their cell from the guard and then using the spell that makes the door unopenable in the main building so they couldn't get in to press the button to open the cell but they kept opening the cell anyway.

If anyone has some examples of really creative/interesting ways they solved quests post them because I didn't see that much

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I miss shitting out black tentacles

I didn't know you swung that way dude

 

[gurugeorge]

Someone's doing an entertaining long-form ongoing analysis of BG3 (plus a bit of context re. the history of D&D etc.) on the Steam Community forum. It's a fun, opinionated read (so much so that I suspect he may be prestigious ) and it's probably going to go on for a few more days.

Let’s Analyze Baldur’s Gate 3 as a game!

 

[Tyranicon]

3.5 Warlock > 5e Warlock

I miss shitting out black tentacles and fire clouds all day.

5e Warlock is literally just a eldritch blast bot.

You're basically a very nice gun.

 

[Desiderius]

Wyll can do so much more than spam shitty Blasts. What are you even doing lol. Never took it never wanted it.

 

[Tyranicon]

Wyll can do so much more than spam shitty Blasts. What are you even doing lol. Never took it never wanted it.

1. I was talking about 5e tabletop rules, not whatever bullshit Larian added.

2. Imagine taking Wyll on your party. Lul.

 

[Haplo]

3.5 Warlock > 5e Warlock

I miss shitting out black tentacles and fire clouds all day.

5e Warlock is literally just a eldritch blast bot.

You're basically a very nice gun.

Fascinating. On my main character Warlock I've only ever used Eldritch Blast to push enemies off cliffs (rarely) and push them back inside Hunger of Hadar (occassionally). There were literally 2 combats where I used it as an active attack method.

 

[Old Hans]

The timeline leading up the the start of the game and throughout the story seems wonky at best.

I get this impression too. I feel like my character woke up on the beach six months later. Everyone is established by the time I wake up.

PS. this game has some of the ugliest armor designs since Dragon Age 1.

 

[vota DC]

Wyll can do so much more than spam shitty Blasts. What are you even doing lol. Never took it never wanted it.

He can smite his enemies and attack 3 times a turn with some levels of paladin.

 

[raeven]

Wow it's almost like there are multiple ways to build a character class in this game

 

[Desiderius]

Indeed there are. Amazing how many of the prevailing memes simply suck compared to just playing the class by what seems to be the default of the archetype.

Wet condition? How does it work?

 

[Desiderius]

3.5 Warlock > 5e Warlock

I miss shitting out black tentacles and fire clouds all day.

5e Warlock is literally just a eldritch blast bot.

You're basically a very nice gun.

Fascinating. On my main character Warlock I've only ever used Eldritch Blast to push enemies off cliffs (rarely) and push them back inside Hunger of Hadar (occassionally). There were literally 2 combats where I used it as an active attack method.

Doesn’t fit the archetype at all.

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[MerchantKing]

Someone's doing an entertaining long-form ongoing analysis of BG3 (plus a bit of context re. the history of D&D etc.) on the Steam Community forum. It's a fun, opinionated read (so much so that I suspect he may be prestigious ) and it's probably going to go on for a few more days.

Let’s Analyze Baldur’s Gate 3 as a game!

I walk through, see some cheap horror of mindless servants on operating tables, and then have an abrasive english girl bark "DAMN IT" (earn that paycheck) in my ear over and over as I try to futz with the controls. I have to say, this game is really awkward. I assume most of the development went into the console version, and there was too much time spent on floppy penises to ensure the pc controls were better, but what can you do?

 

[Old Hans]

why is wyll the only npc you try and ignore and not recruit, but he keeps showing acting like he's been in the party all along

 

[Crichton]

why is wyll the only npc you try and ignore and not recruit, but he keeps showing acting like he's been in the party all along

I don't know if something changed in a patch, but I told him to fuck off in my first playthrough and never saw him again. What was surprising to me is that I was able to complete the quest to rescue his father and he never showed up or got mentioned. 99% of game devs would either make him mandatory for the quest or have him pop up whether you'd recruited him or not.

 

[Haplo]

So everyone knows how OP ranged Sword Bards are (largely due to two crazy items from late Act 2 and beginning of Act 3).


But on the melee side, I keep seeing people pushing dual-wielding or single blade dueling on Sword Bards. Cause it fits the archetype and they can get the related combat style abilities.
A mistake IMO. The best martial ability that Sword Bards get is Slashing Fluorish. Clearly OP in its ranged implementation (no shot radius/direction spread limit and you can even target the same enemy twice!).

Much less so in the melee version (effective cleave radius is much smaller then even the graphics indicator - and you often cannot cleave even enemies who are standing very near each other).
So much so that's its terribly unreliable except when you use a Reach weapon (that is glaives, halberds or pikes). Then the cleave radius perhaps doesn't change as much - but becomes much "thicker" - meaning you can cleave the enemy standing behind the enemy you're targetting. Much better, far more reliable.

This means that the best Act 3 melee weapon for the Sword Bard - because it can be used with the broken Bhaalist Armor to double Piercing damage - is the humble Breaching Pikestaff IMO. Or Hellbeard Halberd if you don't get the Bhaalist Armor. Maybe Dancing Breeze glaive if you go for Dex Finesse without the armor (but then did you not Slashing Fluorish prior to Act 3?).

 

[Kiste]

I miss shitting out black tentacles

I didn't know you swung that way dude

It does explain his preoccupation with nogs, though.

 

[Fedora Master]

Wow it's almost like there are multiple ways to build a character class in this game

The problem is, I find, you can get better versions of whatever you're trying to do as a Warlock elsewhere. Pact of the Blade is neat but a pure WL doing it? Eh. Just be a martial class. Blasting is cool and all but why not play a sorcerer instead.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Wow it's almost like there are multiple ways to build a character class in this game

The problem is, I find, you can get better versions of whatever you're trying to do as a Warlock elsewhere. Pact of the Blade is neat but a pure WL doing it? Eh. Just be a martial class. Blasting is cool and all but why not play a sorcerer instead.

I'm playing a Half Orc Warlock seems like ''Comfy class'' so far. You don't have Highs or Lows of a Sorcerer, but you're constantly useful with how good you can make a Eldritch Blast. But no reason to go a pure warlock, their later spells seems pretty mid and they don't get much. A Bard Lock or Sorcer Lock seems way better.

 

[Desiderius]

The whole point of Warlock is the free upcast. You don’t necessarily *need* new spells.

 

[Haplo]

Wow it's almost like there are multiple ways to build a character class in this game

The problem is, I find, you can get better versions of whatever you're trying to do as a Warlock elsewhere. Pact of the Blade is neat but a pure WL doing it? Eh. Just be a martial class. Blasting is cool and all but why not play a sorcerer instead.

A martial class may be stronger in combat eventually (though the difference isn't huge when you account for Arcane Synergy and maybe even eventually Lifedrinker), but cannot control the battlefield since level 3 - and then dominate it since 5.

As for blasting - sure a Sorc will be better at that eventually (but not early game IMO - the capability to cast 2 very best spells in every encounter is great - plus Hunger of Hadar has no competition at the early levels, really), but he's nowhere near as competent as a Blade Warlock at swinging a weapon.
You could just as well say: why play a wizard when a sorcerer is a better blaster?
...only a Warlock actually feels more unique.

Imagine that... classes playing differently.