Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 - tips, tricks & helpful information

[Yosharian]

Lol Monk is probably the class I have the least knowledge of =D

Also Larian is heavily modifying the class so making any assumptions about it is completely pointless

 

[Yosharian]

Hence, you save three skill proficiencies to put in stuff like Perception and flavor skills.

What else would a Bard take though 0_o

 

[whydoibother]

Also Larian is heavily modifying the class so making any assumptions about it is completely pointless

Other than Ki points starting 1 level earlier (so you have 1 more point at all times), I don't see any differences.

 

[processdaemon]

pure class Lore College Bard Dark Urge

Unless I am mistaken, the point of the Dark Urge character might be as a replacement for Lone Wolf runs from DOS2. You kill your party members, and gain power, so you can push through solo. Of course, you can deny the urge, but I think that's the design there.
And since the tadpoles seem like a sort of talent tree, where you gather tadpoles to get bonuses, killing party members for their brainworms is directly an increase of power.
So, along those lines, a bard (party based class) might not be a good fit for the Dark Urge (a solo character, as per my speculation).

It sounds to me from the promo material that you can play it two ways; one exactly as you've described and one where you actively resist it and it becomes harder and harder to control as the game goes on. If the latter is true then you'll probably still be able to hold onto most of your companions, especially since they seem pretty relaxed about your destructive urges so far (when Shadowheart sees DU eating Gale's arm her reaction is basically 'wow that was mean' rather than running for the hills). That could be wishful thinking on my part though since I'm quite interested in doing a dark urge run with at least some companions first.

 

[Grunker]

Hence, you save three skill proficiencies to put in stuff like Perception and flavor skills.

What else would a Bard take though 0_o

Almost every single Bard build I've read recommends taking proficiency in speech skills, and that's also what common logic would dictate. From my EA-testing, I believe this would be just about the most inefficient way to use your skill proficiencies on a bard.

 

[Grunker]

pure class Lore College Bard Dark Urge

Unless I am mistaken, the point of the Dark Urge character might be as a replacement for Lone Wolf runs from DOS2. You kill your party members

That's not at all how I understood it. I understood it as having two branches; one a Lone Wolf branch, and one a "resisting the urge branch"

 

[whydoibother]

pure class Lore College Bard Dark Urge

Unless I am mistaken, the point of the Dark Urge character might be as a replacement for Lone Wolf runs from DOS2. You kill your party members

That's not at all how I understood it. I understood it as having two branches; one a Lone Wolf branch, and one a "resisting the urge branch"

If the Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, or Bhaal himself, it would be funny to go full resist and be a goody paladin. But much more fun to go full embrace, and ascend as God of Murder.

 

[Grunker]

Welp, reading up on Friends on discussion boards rather than the in-game tooltips, one of my assumptions is off. It seems Friends can make NPCs hostile when it wears off. That turns it from extremely useful to barely usable.

pure class Lore College Bard Dark Urge

Unless I am mistaken, the point of the Dark Urge character might be as a replacement for Lone Wolf runs from DOS2. You kill your party members

That's not at all how I understood it. I understood it as having two branches; one a Lone Wolf branch, and one a "resisting the urge branch"

If the Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn, or Bhaal himself, it would be funny to go full resist and be a goody paladin. But much more fun to go full embrace, and ascend as God of Murder.

See this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat..._of_insight_how_resisting_the_dark_urge_will/

It's literally just guesswork how much of a neutral/good playthrough is possible until we know more details :D

 

[Grunker]

Addendum: However we do know that the Dark Urge does take away control from you during "staged scenes" - RPS made mention of them waking up during camp a finding they had murdered someone (no-name NPC, not companion). Which I like, because obviously just being able to completely negate the urge sort of nullifies the reason to play it in the first place. Basically the main point of import here is whether you have to/are meant to kill your companions or not. I don't believe that to be the case.

Another question is obviously whether it prevents you from diplomatic or certain other social relations to towns/factions. That would obviously be important as well.

EDIT: I also believe Larian confirmed that you could do romances as the Dark Urge, just that it would be very difficult, which further underlines the Dark Urge as not being a lone wolf origin necessarily.

 

[jackofshadows]

Welp, reading up on Friends on discussion boards rather than the in-game tooltips, one of my assumptions is off. It seems Friends can make NPCs hostile when it wears off. That turns it from extremely useful to barely usable.

Yeah there's a -10 attitude rollback although not in 100% cases I beleive. Need more testing + they might change it for the release build as many other things. You can still use enchance ability ofc and what I also personally like a lot as I'm going to play Sorcerer is Tides of Chaos feature. If properly balance dialogues and combat encounters it might be used very often for diplomacy. Also I wouldn't say proficiency in diplomatic skills could be excessive because I've seen a few 20 checks already and it's like 1/6 of the game.

 

[Grunker]

I hate that they implemented Guidance the way the did though. It really cheapens their otherwise pretty good skill system.

 

[Grunker]

Also I wouldn't say proficiency in diplomatic skills could be excessive because I've seen a few 20 checks already and it's like 1/6 of the game.

If friends worked the way I thought it did, 20 checks absolutely isn't an argument for having speech proficiency as a bard. With Guidance + Friends + Charisma + Jack of All Trades, you make a 20 check 99% of the time.

The key is to not forget that even though you don't have proficiency, you still get JoaT.

Without Friends, it's definitely another matter, but I'm still tempted not to take speech skill prof.

 

[Yosharian]

Hence, you save three skill proficiencies to put in stuff like Perception and flavor skills.

What else would a Bard take though 0_o

Almost every single Bard build I've read recommends taking proficiency in speech skills, and that's also what common logic would dictate. From my EA-testing, I believe this would be just about the most inefficient way to use your skill proficiencies on a bard.

Yes I got that part Grunk, my question is what other skills would you take instead

 

[whydoibother]

I hate that they implemented Guidance the way the did though. It really cheapens their otherwise pretty good skill system.

You mean that its too good, and you always want it up at all times?

 

[Grunker]

Hence, you save three skill proficiencies to put in stuff like Perception and flavor skills.

What else would a Bard take though 0_o

Almost every single Bard build I've read recommends taking proficiency in speech skills, and that's also what common logic would dictate. From my EA-testing, I believe this would be just about the most inefficient way to use your skill proficiencies on a bard.

Yes I got that part Grunk, my question is what other skills would you take instead

Perception was ultrauseful in my testing. You can cover all the flavor-skills. It's easier to pick up one of the two essential combat skills (Acro or Athle). Heck, why not do Stealth? The entire goal was to basically cover all skills checks

 

[Grunker]

I hate that they implemented Guidance the way the did though. It really cheapens their otherwise pretty good skill system.

You mean that its too good, and you always want it up at all times?

Yes. If you have Guidance in your party, you get a +1d4 bonus to every single skill check you make. Except passive checks, unless you're a massive sperg who keeps a 100% uptime. But all active checks will have a +1d4, which is basically expertise on every skill.

 

[whydoibother]

I hate that they implemented Guidance the way the did though. It really cheapens their otherwise pretty good skill system.

You mean that its too good, and you always want it up at all times?

Yes. If you have Guidance in your party, you get a +1d4 bonus to every single skill check you make. Except passive checks, unless you're a massive sperg who keeps a 100% uptime. But all active checks will have a +1d4, which is basically expertise on every skill.

This combined with Concentration means your cleric can't have fun.

 

[Barbarian]

Addendum: However we do know that the Dark Urge does take away control from you during "staged scenes" - RPS made mention of them waking up during camp a finding they had murdered someone (no-name NPC, not companion). Which I like, because obviously just being able to completely negate the urge sort of nullifies the reason to play it in the first place. Basically the main point of import here is whether you have to/are meant to kill your companions or not. I don't believe that to be the case.

Another question is obviously whether it prevents you from diplomatic or certain other social relations to towns/factions. That would obviously be important as well.

EDIT: I also believe Larian confirmed that you could do romances as the Dark Urge, just that it would be very difficult, which further underlines the Dark Urge as not being a lone wolf origin necessarily.

I'm also interested on how deep they will go with unique/alternative choices regarding the origin.

Will the absolute worshippers recognize you as "the chosen one" for instance? Will "true souls" like Minthara and Gut understand you are something else when they interact with your tadpole?

ITT, also very strange that a Baldurian serial killer who may or may not be Bhaal himself is canonically a dragonborn sorcerer. Barely makes sense.

 

[whydoibother]

ITT, also very strange that a Baldurian serial killer who may or may not be Bhaal himself is canonically a dragonborn sorcerer. Barely makes ense.

When did Dragonborn come to this plane? Before or after Bhaal split himself into his "children"? As in, can a dragonborn even be a Bhaalspawn?

 

[Barbarian]

I mean, this hulking albino draconid was stalking the streets and stealthly killing people with chromatic orbs and fireballs?

 

[Grunker]

I hate that they implemented Guidance the way the did though. It really cheapens their otherwise pretty good skill system.

You mean that its too good, and you always want it up at all times?

Yes. If you have Guidance in your party, you get a +1d4 bonus to every single skill check you make. Except passive checks, unless you're a massive sperg who keeps a 100% uptime. But all active checks will have a +1d4, which is basically expertise on every skill.

This combined with Concentration means your cleric can't have fun.

No? You just don't use it in battle.

 

[Grunker]

ITT, also very strange that a Baldurian serial killer who may or may not be Bhaal himself is canonically a dragonborn sorcerer. Barely makes ense.

As in, can a dragonborn even be a Bhaalspawn?

No, they can't be.

 

[whydoibother]

No? You just don't use it in battle.

But you can't use Shield of Faith, etc, with it. These buffs last a whole long rest, iirc.
Edit: Even shorter duration spells, like Bless, can last you 2-3 close encounters. Imagine this scenario:

• you enter a fight, and bless
• midway through the fight, the enemy gives up, and you can have a dialogue
• you cast guidance, which breaks your bless
• in the dialogue, you choose to renew the fighting
• you lost your bless

Pretty sure there were encounters like this in Act 1. Fight-Talk-Fight isn't unusual. Or even Fight-Examine-Fight. Fight-climb a rope-Fight.

 

[Grunker]

No? You just don't use it in battle.

But you can't use Shield of Faith, etc, with it. These buffs last a whole long rest, iirc.

My point is that this seems very unlikely to have practical ramifications except in the very specific instance where you: 1) Cast your slot-consuming Concentration spell before a skill check, 2) force yourself not to long rest before needing that slot.

Inside the actual game, I have trouble seeing this being issue. You have to both have used your desired slot before casting Guidance AND be unwilling to rest to get it back. As Clerics will mostly use their Concentration for Bless even far into the game, the likelyhood of you even strictly needing to long rest for that Conc-slot, even after a battle or two, is unlikely.

 

[bobocrunch]

Do bards get special ability sounds depending on their instrument