Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[abija]

S has enough hardware for 720p or w/e it renders at. Game just isn't optimized at all, on any platform. Not a big deal on PC because most are overkill for what a game like this would need.

 

[Haplo]

Warlock is dreadfully boring.. I had to respec into sorclock. Much better , even if miss my pet.

Also defeated the Hag using silence after 4 tries. How Silence works is by far my favorite implementation of it in a long time in a game.

It's a pity that 5e practically pushed the warlock to the position of a mobile turret spamming eldritch blast.
It's a very good turret, especially in bg3 where you can add your charisma modifier twice when you get the special robe in act 2, but it's still boring as hell.

 

[Rhobar121]

Warlock is dreadfully boring.. I had to respec into sorclock. Much better , even if miss my pet.

Also defeated the Hag using silence after 4 tries. How Silence works is by far my favorite implementation of it in a long time in a game.

It's a pity that 5e practically pushed the warlock to the position of a mobile turret spamming eldritch blast.
It's a very good turret, especially in bg3 where you can add your charisma modifier twice when you get the special robe in act 2, but it's still boring as hell.

You can choose not to use it, but it's like playing Fighter and not using weapons or armor. It's possible, but why?
You can try to make a melee character, but since there is no hexblade available, it will simply be a worse version of a paladin or fighter.
As a reminder, virtually every environmental interaction in the game is a custom rule created by Larian.

 

[Rhobar121]

Desiderius can you enlighten me how I'm wrong. To be clear, I'm talking about the base version of 5e and not the custom rules implemented by Larian.

 

[Desiderius]

CHR to hit and damage, how does it work?

Even if you’re not slaying quite as hard as a Fighter what matters is *being* in melee where you’re in proximity to do nasty short range stuff and trigger Armor of Agathis vs Wet attackers.

Isn’t there a Hexblade in Underdark? There’s plenty of cool shit for the melee Warlock to do, and you can even take the once per rest Bane (but there were a couple other ones I liked better that I’m not remembering) instead of Blast to supplement your two regular auto-upcast spells (melee is well-positioned to get the most out of it).

Blast from melee just isn’t that reliable and damage is even lower than the melee you’re complaining about.

 

[Desiderius]

Desiderius can you enlighten me how I'm wrong. To be clear, I'm talking about the base version of 5e and not the custom rules implemented by Larian.

I’ve only played the Larian version.

The melee pact isn’t well-positioned for blasting and having everything you do go by one stat is always a very powerful effect. It still gets the extra attack too?

Not taking the Blast stuff frees you up to take other things and there are some interesting choices. I remember people talking Blast up and I was just underwhelmed, at least for the set-up on the companion.

Kind of dumb to think you have to take Blast on the Pact designed not to use it then complain that the class is bad/boring. I found it anything but. Good fit with my attacking-heavy teams that like to short rest a lot to recharge weapon abilities.

 

[Rhobar121]

CHR to hit and damage, how does it work?

Even if you’re not slaying quite as hard as a Fighter what matters is *being* in melee where you’re in proximity to do nasty short range stuff and trigger Armor of Agathis vs Wet attackers.

Isn’t there a Hexblade in Underdark? There’s plenty of cool shit for the melee Warlock to do, and you can even take the once per rest Bane (but there were a couple other ones I liked better that I’m not remembering) instead of Blast to supplement your two regular auto-upcast spells (melee is well-positioned to get the most out of it).

Blast from melee just isn’t that reliable and damage is even lower than the melee you’re complaining about.

There is no such thing as wet status in 5e (or at least in the core rules). The implementation in bg3 is 100% Larian's invention.
Not all of the features that make Hexblade so good have been implemented. First of all, you lack profiniency in medium armor, which means you are less durable than the alternatives.

Also, repelling blast is incredibly powerful due to the vertical nature of the game.
The game also allows you to add your charisma modifier twice to damage + you can equip gloves that negate the proximity penalty (+ additional accuracy bonus)

EDIT: I forgot one more thing: 2 melee attacks (2d6 + 3 + 5) vs 3 EB (1d10 + 10 each)

 

[Desiderius]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

 

[Rhobar121]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

 

[Haplo]

Not all of the features that make Hexblade so good have been implemented. First of all, you lack profiniency in medium armor, which means you are less durable than the alternatives.

You can play a Gith or even Shield Dwarf -> Armor problem solved. Also a single level in a large number of classes will solve this too.
And yeah, as Desiderius wrote, the NPC Lock doesn't come with Medium Armor Profi, but does have Shield Profi, so ends up with similar AC. Although it prevents him from using GWM, which is my preferred playstyle.

Also, repelling blast is incredibly powerful due to the vertical nature of the game.
The game also allows you to add your charisma modifier twice to damage + you can equip gloves that negate the proximity penalty (+ additional accuracy bonus)

EDIT: I forgot one more thing: 2 melee attacks (2d6 + 3 + 5) vs 3 EB (1d10 + 10 each)

Yeah, I did take Repelling Blast, its sometimes usefull - less for verticality, more to push enemies (back) into hazard zones, such as HoH (but have not taken Agonizing, I'm using Blasts occassionally for forced movement, not for damage).

 

[Haplo]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

If you're using a greatsword, then you should calculate +10 damage per hit from GWM. And frequent Bonus Action attacks.
Later enchantment bonuses, up to +3, and probably 2-5 different extra damage riders attached.

Haste is nerfed for martial combat in Honor mode only, so below that you're also getting more weapon attacks (and probably multiclass to a martial to achieve baseline 3 attacks as well).
I'd say below Honor mode EB can't really compete damage-wise with GWM. In Honor mode, perhaps (but I still like it much less).

Then you can multiclass to a Bard or Barbarian... and have melee attacks damage 2-3 enemies with each swing...

 

[Yosharian]

You can easily complete the game on Tactician/Honour using nothing but EB.

 

[Haplo]

I'm not saying its bad. Just not necessarily best. And not fun for me (except for the occassional push).

 

[Rhobar121]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

If you're using a greatsword, then you should calculate +10 damage per hit from GWM. And frequent Bonus Action attacks.
Later enchantment bonuses, up to +3, and probably 2-5 different extra damage riders attached.

Haste is nerfed for martial combat in Honor mode only, so below that you're also getting more weapon attacks (and probably multiclass to a martial to achieve baseline 3 attacks as well).
I'd say below Honor mode EB can't really compete damage-wise with GWM. In Honor mode, perhaps (but I still like it much less).

Then you can multiclass to a Bard or Barbarian... and have melee attacks damage 2-3 enemies with each swing...

GWM does not equal +10 dmg, especially when you are not able to provide 100% advantage.
The higher AC the enemy has, the smaller the profit from GWM.
What's the point of talking about anything other than the highest level of difficulty? The game is still very simple if you know what you're doing.

 

[raeven]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

If you're using a greatsword, then you should calculate +10 damage per hit from GWM. And frequent Bonus Action attacks.
Later enchantment bonuses, up to +3, and probably 2-5 different extra damage riders attached.

Haste is nerfed for martial combat in Honor mode only, so below that you're also getting more weapon attacks (and probably multiclass to a martial to achieve baseline 3 attacks as well).
I'd say below Honor mode EB can't really compete damage-wise with GWM. In Honor mode, perhaps (but I still like it much less).

Then you can multiclass to a Bard or Barbarian... and have melee attacks damage 2-3 enemies with each swing...

GWM does not equal +10 dmg, especially when you are not able to provide 100% advantage.
The higher AC the enemy has, the smaller the profit from GWM.
What's the point of talking about anything other than the highest level of difficulty? The game is still very simple if you know what you're doing.

Honour mode has some legit tough fights. Although the game gives you far too many resources, broadly speaking.

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times. Had to hastily alt-f4 and rethink my approach. Good fun tho.

 

[HumanMaleFighter]

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times.

The issue is the new forced-instakill mechanic that they added in honor mode. Basically, you need to kill Orin fast or have a lot of summons on hand, otherwise your party will be killed essentially out of combat by a curse. Orin herself is easy to stun, hold, or knock prone. An Air Myrmidon can take her, one on one.

Most honor mode fights were trivial. Orin's was the toughest, but only because she was getting an awful lot of support from Bhaal in the form of that annoying curse.

 

[Rhobar121]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

If you're using a greatsword, then you should calculate +10 damage per hit from GWM. And frequent Bonus Action attacks.
Later enchantment bonuses, up to +3, and probably 2-5 different extra damage riders attached.

Haste is nerfed for martial combat in Honor mode only, so below that you're also getting more weapon attacks (and probably multiclass to a martial to achieve baseline 3 attacks as well).
I'd say below Honor mode EB can't really compete damage-wise with GWM. In Honor mode, perhaps (but I still like it much less).

Then you can multiclass to a Bard or Barbarian... and have melee attacks damage 2-3 enemies with each swing...

GWM does not equal +10 dmg, especially when you are not able to provide 100% advantage.
The higher AC the enemy has, the smaller the profit from GWM.
What's the point of talking about anything other than the highest level of difficulty? The game is still very simple if you know what you're doing.

Honour mode has some legit tough fights. Although the game gives you far too many resources, broadly speaking.

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times. Had to hastily alt-f4 and rethink my approach. Good fun tho.

I added scalable HP and damage to every enemy in the game.
In practice, every level 10 enemy has 300% HP and +20 damage.
Normally something like this would break the game and make it unplayable.
Not only did it not happen, but apart from a few fights, the difficulty level is ok. The problem is fights where enemies have multiple damage rolls with one attack (magic missiles are the biggest problem here). Nevertheless, it is still at a reasonable level.

 

[Haplo]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

If you're using a greatsword, then you should calculate +10 damage per hit from GWM. And frequent Bonus Action attacks.
Later enchantment bonuses, up to +3, and probably 2-5 different extra damage riders attached.

Haste is nerfed for martial combat in Honor mode only, so below that you're also getting more weapon attacks (and probably multiclass to a martial to achieve baseline 3 attacks as well).
I'd say below Honor mode EB can't really compete damage-wise with GWM. In Honor mode, perhaps (but I still like it much less).

Then you can multiclass to a Bard or Barbarian... and have melee attacks damage 2-3 enemies with each swing...

GWM does not equal +10 dmg, especially when you are not able to provide 100% advantage.
The higher AC the enemy has, the smaller the profit from GWM.
What's the point of talking about anything other than the highest level of difficulty? The game is still very simple if you know what you're doing.

Why I wouldn't have Advantage nearly 100% of the time? Maybe except when my char is under enemy CC?

I use buffs, multiclassed to Oath of Devotion Paladin with Sacred Weapon and generally have near full accuracy with GWM. YMMV. Though most parties can use CC, buffs and oils in order to greatly improve the odds of landing hits (autohits when enemy is sleeping or held - so GWM is 100% profit then).
Another option is going Tiger Barb and getting Strenght AB bonus twice versus bleeding enemies.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I added scalable HP and damage to every enemy in the game.

You modded it in?

 

[Yosharian]

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times.

The issue is the new forced-instakill mechanic that they added in honor mode. Basically, you need to kill Orin fast or have a lot of summons on hand, otherwise your party will be killed essentially out of combat by a curse. Orin herself is easy to stun, hold, or knock prone. An Air Myrmidon can take her, one on one.

Most honor mode fights were trivial. Orin's was the toughest, but only because she was getting an awful lot of support from Bhaal in the form of that annoying curse.

Isn't there any way to remove it/counter it?

 

[HumanMaleFighter]

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times.

The issue is the new forced-instakill mechanic that they added in honor mode. Basically, you need to kill Orin fast or have a lot of summons on hand, otherwise your party will be killed essentially out of combat by a curse. Orin herself is easy to stun, hold, or knock prone. An Air Myrmidon can take her, one on one.

Most honor mode fights were trivial. Orin's was the toughest, but only because she was getting an awful lot of support from Bhaal in the form of that annoying curse.

Isn't there any way to remove it/counter it?

I'd heard that if you kill all of her chanting flunkies first, then the curse goes away and Orin's "unstoppable" boon is removed -- but I tried that (by aggravating the chanters and then forcing them off the ledge with smokepowder arrows, shoves, and telekinesis) and it didn't work for me.

The first time around, I survived by the skin of my teeth, by killing my own summons, including Scratch, and by reviving companions with scrolls and then killing them. Orin was stun-locked the entire time, but "unstoppable-12" was on, so the fight lasted a while and my primary enemy was the curse.. Second time around, I wasn't surprised by the mechanic, so it was a lot easier.

 

[Rhobar121]

I added scalable HP and damage to every enemy in the game.

You modded it in?

I actually modified the mod. I don't feel like analyzing game files to know what variables to edit.
It works quite well. I simply added +100% HP to every enemy in the game and an additional 15% bonus per level (except the first).
It was worse with dmg because it was difficult to choose the scaling to make the early game playable.
So enemies at level 5 deal an additional 10 damage and at level 10 they deal an additional 21 damage.
I haven't beaten the whole game yet, but so far it's pretty good.
The only problem are spells like magic missiles. 21 damage per missile is a bit much, but luckily there are not that many enemies who use it, so it's not a big problem.
The solution to this problem would be to manually edit individual spells, which I don't want to do.

By far the hardest fight is fighting the bandits in the ruins, mainly because they live long enough to be a threat due to their increased HP.
Apart from this, there is no major threat in Act 1 as long as you play tactically.
In the second act, the only problem was Yugir, but this fight can be problematic even in the base game.

 

[Desiderius]

You can easily complete the game on Tactician/Honour using nothing but EB.

And solo Sorc can kite Siroccos or whatever in P:K. I’d rather slay.

 

[Desiderius]

That isn’t how the math works out.

You can Bind any weapon, and can’t use high ground (or Stealth) to help the Blasts connect from melee. The Warlock in BG3 is human so comes with Light Armor and Shield Prof*. There’s plenty of ways to get his AC up if you want that but with Armor of Agathis he doesn’t mind getting hit so there you can use danage resistances (the Armor gives temp hp itself). If Armor isn’t up Pact also gives temp hp for killing stuff. Ends up being non-issue.

I think I took super Blindsight and the Deception/Persuasion one which both ended up being great instead of Blast which wasn’t needed. If you want to push stuff just use Shove on strong companion.

* - I think I had him using the Lightning Shield thingie from Underdark? Maybe the Entangling Bash Proc Shield. Haven’t played in a while.

I brought him along at least for the Inspiration re-rolls and it was great. A lot of play to it.

That's exactly how it works.
It's literally 14 vs 15 average damage with 2 vs 3 attacks.
This is all without taking into account damage types, where there are much fewer enemies that are resistant to force damage than physical damage.
Also when using a shield the average damage will be lower in melee combat. For comparison, I chose the greatsword which has the highest average damage of all weapons.
This too without adding haste. Currently haste will give you a max of 1 melee attack but will still allow you to cast EB again so it's 3 vs 6 where the EB advantage is even more absurd.

Warlock also starts with light armor as a base. Human is not needed for this.

Growing up on MMOs brain-damaged a lot of people. For me procs, bonuses, and weapon abilities are at least as important as damage but even there EB just wasn’t competitive.

I could see it being decent supplementary damage for a caster Lock I guess where you could position yourself to land it more reliably and positioning games can be fun but it just doesn’t go with what that Pact is doing and BG3 gives it a lot of support because companion.

 

[raeven]

The fight with Orin kicked my ass a few times.

The issue is the new forced-instakill mechanic that they added in honor mode. Basically, you need to kill Orin fast or have a lot of summons on hand, otherwise your party will be killed essentially out of combat by a curse. Orin herself is easy to stun, hold, or knock prone. An Air Myrmidon can take her, one on one.

Most honor mode fights were trivial. Orin's was the toughest, but only because she was getting an awful lot of support from Bhaal in the form of that annoying curse.

Does that include the the elder fight brain too, or did you skip it with a gale-bomb?