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

[whydoibother]

ironically, this game is like the poster child of why item rarity colours are a sham and totally superflous in a game with good itemization

Even in Divinity OS games, you'd often keep a very basic item around, if it gave you the right spell. I kept those meme teleport gloves from the crocodiles all game long, and they drop from what could be your very first fight after the tutorial.

DOS2 literally made me quit due to its atrocious item design. I just wrote about it in the other thread

Armor values growing with item level, and item level itself rapidly growing with character level, meant you were constantly replacing shit.
The gloves in question were in DOS1, not DOS2. But even in DOS2, I'd keep some necklace that let me have enough pyro to cast my spark or whatever. Some item which has that one attribute I need, so I don't replace it with an item which technically has 900% more value on it.

 

[whydoibother]

Lots of missing info on tooltips. For instance weapon coatings - how many rounds/attacks do they last?

Not enough, poison wears off between fights.

At any rate, either the half-orc racial ability about crits doesn't work, or it doesn't show in the combat log. The extra dice doesn't display there. I haven't played enough to check if it actually does the damage.

 

[lukaszek]

finally made it to some settlement. dropping dos thievery is such a decline

 

[whydoibother]

finally made it to some settlement. dropping dos thievery is such a decline

If you want to relive the good old DOS days, make sure to steal 4-5 crates from the town. You can then build yourself a tower, climb on top of it, and shoot at melee enemies who don't know how to siege your castle.
Of course, when the fighting is done, gather your boxes and move to the next fight.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Has anyone played with the Sorrow Glaive, its Thorn Whips Bonus Action spell and Polearm Master feat?
Can you reliably pull enemies into Polearm Master Reaction AoO attack reach to score an extra attack this way?

I'm a bit torn which feat to pick first: Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master (would be particularly neat versus Held or Sleeping enemies) or maybe Sentinel...

Might pick all 3 eventually...

That Thorn Whips is not a reliable pulling source and even you pull AoO does not trigger.

Polearm mastery first, then Sentinel and pick GWM the last. Guarantied crit is nice but it is very situational (unless you abuse Drow poison)
Sentinel with Polearm mastery is really fun, especially if you control the are with some aoes. You can always push back enemies if they somehow manage to get near.

 

[Cyberarmy]

finally made it to some settlement. dropping dos thievery is such a decline

It is kinda the same? And we got more toys to play with even. Minor illusion, familars call, darkness, cloud.
We only have to roll for pickpocketing

 

[Shrimp]

ironically, this game is like the poster child of why item rarity colours are a sham and totally superflous in a game with good itemization

Even in Divinity OS games, you'd often keep a very basic item around, if it gave you the right spell. I kept those meme teleport gloves from the crocodiles all game long, and they drop from what could be your very first fight after the tutorial.

DOS2 literally made me quit due to its atrocious item design. I just wrote about it in the other thread

Armor values growing with item level, and item level itself rapidly growing with character level, meant you were constantly replacing shit.
The gloves in question were in DOS1, not DOS2. But even in DOS2, I'd keep some necklace that let me have enough pyro to cast my spark or whatever. Some item which has that one attribute I need, so I don't replace it with an item which technically has 900% more value on it.

The teleportation gloves were definitely a DOS2 thing and not DOS1. DOS1 gave you the teleporter pyramids for teleportation shenanigans instead
That being said I also remember keeping lots of random equipment pieces around in DOS2 just for the one ability they gave. Whenever I founded something with marginally better stats I often had to dip 1 or 2 points into one of the many magic skills just to get the ability I had lost.
By the end of most playthroughs I think half of my characters were dipping into nearly every skill tree just for all sorts of teleports, jumps and generally OP self-buffs like the action surge equivalent from the rogue(?) skill school

 

[Mojobeard]

Finally got to Baldur's Gate.
The main plot has been mostly what I figured, the Absolute could only be the one big fat obvious thing no one conveniently mentions.

And I thought I missed Raphael's quest, as the guy he wanted me to kill died in one and a half rounds, I thought it was some random encounter. Even the displacer beast basically suicided. I kept searching the place afterwards and was very confused.

 

[whydoibother]

And I thought I missed Raphael's quest, as the guy he wanted me to kill died in one and a half rounds, I thought it was some random encounter. Even the displacer beast basically suicided. I kept searching the place afterwards and was very confused.

Unless you play on very easy, or got very lucky, or cheased it very hard without even talking to the guy, I don't believe you. That fight absolutely lasts longer than a round, especially if you approach it the indented way, and the guy is above you in ambush.
Also he references Raphael and his contract multiple times in his dialogue.

Finally got to Baldur's Gate.

Does the game lag in the city? That's my fear now.

 

[Grunker]

I think the game os laughably easy and even I think the devil fight is one of the combat highlights. Think I reloaded two times

 

[Barbarian]

ITT "tactician" should have been normal mode. Can't imagine the popamole that lower difficulties must be.

 

[Shrimp]

I think the game os laughably easy and even I think the devil fight is one of the combat highlights. Think I reloaded two times

I'm playing on normal difficulty so FWIW I don't know how big of a difference Tactician makes, but the fight with Raphael struck me as one of the encounters where you easily can get overwhelmed due to the amount of mid-level goons you're facing, especially if you get some unlucky rolls in the first round of combat.
In my playthrough Hold Monster ended up being the key to the encounter. His low WIS ended up being his downfall and he never got to attack once.

 

[Mojobeard]

And I thought I missed Raphael's quest, as the guy he wanted me to kill died in one and a half rounds, I thought it was some random encounter. Even the displacer beast basically suicided. I kept searching the place afterwards and was very confused.

Unless you play on very easy, or got very lucky, or cheased it very hard without even talking to the guy, I don't believe you. That fight absolutely lasts longer than a round, especially if you approach it the indented way, and the guy is above you in ambush.
Also he references Raphael and his contract multiple times in his dialogue.

Finally got to Baldur's Gate.

Does the game lag in the city? That's my fear now.

Well he didn't have time to reference any contract, he threw some bombs and laughed. My melees crit all these types of enemies to death quick, I can start any fight with 5 attacks per round, down to "only" 3 for subsequent rounds. And they were demons so they're blinded by the Lathander mace for advantage, add Bless to that, and not much they're going to do. Then it was just clearing out the rest of the trash. Cleared act 2's boss as expediently.
And I never go the intended way, whatever that is, I invested into jumping for a reason.

And no, hasn't been laggy. Performance has stayed decent, besides the level up screen that turns my fans into a jet.

 

[Grunker]

Framerate takes a nosedive in the city, yes. My 3080 ran Max Settings at 90+ fps all the way til bg proper (so after Wyrm’s Crossing). There it is 30-60

 

[Shrimp]

ITT "tactician" should have been normal mode. Can't imagine the popamole that lower difficulties must be.

I'm in a Discord server with a couple of people I know from outside the RPG gaming sphere and one of them had bought the game because he had seen and heard everyone talk about it. He ended up uninstalling and refunding about two hours in because he apparently got absolutely bodied by the fight with three looters/bandits in some abandoned ruins at the start of act 1 a short distance from where you recruit Gale.
I spoke with a different guy who was talking about the Balthazar fight being an uphill battle for him, but after we'd been chatting back and forth for a bit it turned out he had no idea about his cleric's Turn Undead ability, nor did it seem like he truly understood the power of roll modifying spells like Bless; he was just using his cleric as a Cure Wounds field medic.

Don't underestimate just how much of a difference simply having rudimentary knowledge of the systems makes.
People like most of the posters on this site will probably be able to stroll through most of the game, but for the uninitiated simply learning the game and its underlying systems is already a struggle in itself.
Now remember these types of people are the ones games are made for

 

[whydoibother]

He ended up uninstalling and refunding about two hours in because he apparently got absolutely bodied by the fight with three looters/bandits in some abandoned ruins at the start of act 1 a short distance from where you recruit Gale.

How? Can't you just right click enemies with your part and win that fight?
And it has such an obvious setup with the "shoot chain, rock drops". And you can skip it via dialogue. And you can push one guy off the cliff with stealth. And you can talk with 1 party members, while the others hide in the bushes and enter combat from stealth.
Its literally a battle against 4 low level bodies you control, vs 4 low level bodies the AI controls, and you have potions while they don't. How do you lose, just hit them with the staff, man. Just have Gale beat them with his staff.

 

[Shrimp]

He ended up uninstalling and refunding about two hours in because he apparently got absolutely bodied by the fight with three looters/bandits in some abandoned ruins at the start of act 1 a short distance from where you recruit Gale.

How? Can't you just right click enemies with your part and win that fight?
And it has such an obvious setup with the "shoot chain, rock drops". And you can skip it via dialogue. And you can push one guy off the cliff with stealth. And you can talk with 1 party members, while the others hide in the bushes and enter combat from stealth.
Its literally a battle against 4 low level bodies you control, vs 4 low level bodies the AI controls, and you have potions while they don't. How do you lose, just hit them with the staff, man. Just have Gale beat them with his staff.

Beats me. I only saw the messages the following day and since he'd already uninstalled it at that point I didn't get a chance to see what was going on.

 

[Mojobeard]

Framerate takes a nosedive in the city, yes. My 3080 ran Max Settings at 90+ fps all the way til bg proper (so after Wyrm’s Crossing). There it is 30-60

I did lock my framerate to 60 just to avoid any more extra heat generation, plus don't see the point of having higher fps in a turn based game, which is why it's probably still "smooth" for me.

 

[lukaszek]

finally made it to some settlement. dropping dos thievery is such a decline

It is kinda the same? And we got more toys to play with even. Minor illusion, familars call, darkness, cloud.
We only have to roll for pickpocketing

in dos and underrail stolen goods progresses bar unique to each target, preventing you from stealing too much.
For example you cant visit a merchant every few hours and steal everything

 

[whydoibother]

finally made it to some settlement. dropping dos thievery is such a decline

It is kinda the same? And we got more toys to play with even. Minor illusion, familars call, darkness, cloud.
We only have to roll for pickpocketing

in dos and underrail stolen goods progresses bar unique to each target, preventing you from stealing too much.
For example you cant visit a merchant every few hours and steal everything

I don't remember in which game that was, but you could stealth near a merchant, cast some mind altering spell, the merchant attacks nearby guards, and they kill him. You can then loot his inventory all legally.

 

[Yosharian]

does anyone have Polearm Master and a TRIDENT? Trying to find out if the feat is compatible with that weapon type. Tried testing it but I couldn't figure out how to spawn an enemy in.

 

[Mojobeard]

I've come around to liking the humor. It's so overly cringe, reddit as you might call it, that it warps back to being funny again.

 

[_V_]

So is there any list of what enemies I can throw and what enemies I can't throw? Karlach has 19 strength and cannot throw a 75kg githyanki with frenzied throw... (Haven't tried it with a strength/colossus potion.)

 

[Kem0sabe]

Did you guys clear the zent trade outpost or agree to take the package to baldurs gate?

 

[Grunker]

Did you guys clear the zent trade outpost or agree to take the package to baldurs gate?

I didn't even find it