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

[Deadass]

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.

they also buffed the unarmed strikes from 1d4 to 1d6 starting at level 1 if i remember correctly

 

[Grunker]

Do bards get special ability sounds depending on their instrument

At least from my testing, the drums actually play a drumming sound and the lute plays a string sound.

There's also like a million fucking barks for Vicious Mockery, though they'll still probably get tiresome at some point.

 

[Barbarian]

Is there even a point for a "Magus" like build? I mean a melee caster of some such.

From what I understand most caster classes will barely ever use their melee weapons past a certain level. There are also few to barely any spells which can be applied to weapons.

Correct way to play Eldritch Knight I suppose is a self-buffer who casts some magic missile once in a while. Ditto for Arcane Trickster. Even warlock pact of the blade might feel weird - most of the time eldritch blasting will make more sense than unsheathing your sword?

Even the animations seem to be made towards this: the characters don't hold their weapons when casting. Even sorcerers and wizards have their staff on their backs when they are blasting(something which I aesthetically quite dislike btw).

 

[Grunker]

Is there even a point for a "Magus" like build? I mean a melee caster of some such.

Yes. There's basically two ways of doing it. One is just making a melee with access to buffs (i.e. Eldritch Knight), the other is using stuff like Pact of the Blade as it enables you to use your CHA bonus as the main stat for your weapons (they basically merged Hexblade into Pact of the Blade).

The main benefit is to gain full usage out of melee buffs (Armor of Agathys for locks, for instance) because you're in the frontline, rather than having those very powerful spells be just a defensive layer for a backliner.

I don't know if Eldritch Smite is in the game, but if it is, Lock/Pally will almost assuredly be lightyears above any other character in terms of single target DPS except for single class pallys. I would recommend anyone who wants a challenge to avoid pallys, they are absolutely absurd in 5E and only become worse with locks. At least they made the combo much worse in BG3 since you need 3 levels of lock - in TT you only need 1.

It doesn't seem like they've implemented any of the spellsword subclasses that can basically dualwield magic - that is, use their main attack with a weapon and then a cantrip as a bonus action.

 

[Alex]

I must admit I had no idea anyone actually cared about continuity in Baldur's Gate.

 

[Barbarian]

It doesn't seem like they've implemented any of the spellsword subclasses that can basically dualwield magic - that is, use their main attack with a weapon and then a cantrip as a bonus action.

Eldritch Knight will have such a feature at higher levels(7th if I'm not mistaken). Casting a cantrip as a bonus action I mean.

 

[Grunker]

It doesn't seem like they've implemented any of the spellsword subclasses that can basically dualwield magic - that is, use their main attack with a weapon and then a cantrip as a bonus action.

Eldritch Knight will have such a feature at higher levels(7th if I'm not mistaken). Casting a cantrip as a bonus action I mean.

Ah, you're correct. Then that's also a benefit, as dual-wielding can be underwhelming in 5E.

 

[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.

they also buffed the unarmed strikes from 1d4 to 1d6 starting at level 1 if i remember correctly

Even more incentive to play Monk then. Though I was thinking of picking up a weapon, and only doing the unarmed bonus action.

 

[Barbarian]

I must admit I had no idea anyone actually cared about continuity in Baldur's Gate

Does it even make sense to call it "Baldur's Gate 3" if the game has absolutely no relation to the original plot?

"The Absolute" involves Bhaal as part of a triumvirate of semi-deities. Obviously they thought this wasn't quite enough and added the DU origin.

 

[Grunker]

I must admit I had no idea anyone actually cared about continuity in Baldur's Gate

Does it even make sense to call it "Baldur's Gate 3" if the game has absolutely no relation to the original plot?

"The Absolute" involves Bhaal as part of a triumvirate of semi-deities. Obviously they thought this wasn't quite enough and added the DU origin.

The three main villains are literally each a chosen of each one of the three. If that isn't a strong tie-in, I dunno what is

 

[Barbarian]

It doesn't seem like they've implemented any of the spellsword subclasses that can basically dualwield magic - that is, use their main attack with a weapon and then a cantrip as a bonus action.

Eldritch Knight will have such a feature at higher levels(7th if I'm not mistaken). Casting a cantrip as a bonus action I mean.

Ah, you're correct. Then that's also a benefit, as dual-wielding can be underwhelming in 5E.

You mean as in having a free hand to cast?

This game did away with that completely. You can dual wield or sword and board while casting at will. Also all casting animations seem to have your character with the weapons/shield on your back(which sucks).

 

[Grunker]

It doesn't seem like they've implemented any of the spellsword subclasses that can basically dualwield magic - that is, use their main attack with a weapon and then a cantrip as a bonus action.

Eldritch Knight will have such a feature at higher levels(7th if I'm not mistaken). Casting a cantrip as a bonus action I mean.

Ah, you're correct. Then that's also a benefit, as dual-wielding can be underwhelming in 5E.

You mean as in having a free hand to cast?

This game did away with that completely. You can dual wield or sword and board while casting at will. Also all casting animations seem to have your character with the weapons/shield on your back(which sucks).

That's exactly my point - that you don't need a free hand, so you can two-handed or sword n' board and use a cantrip. Getting to cantrip as a BA is essentially dual-wielding, meaning the EK gets to have "three hands", essentially.

Dualwielding wouldn't work, as using the offhand is a BA just like using the cantrip.

 

[whydoibother]

The three main villains are literally each a chosen of each one of the three. If that isn't a strong tie-in, I dunno what is

The mindflayer hivemind seems like the main villain. There's also the devil/demon/whatever is the difference that offers you assistance, and seems like he could be a vector of power and a big baddie.

 

[Grunker]

The three main villains are literally each a chosen of each one of the three. If that isn't a strong tie-in, I dunno what is

The mindflayer hivemind seems like the main villain. There's also the devil/demon/whatever is the difference that offers you assistance, and seems like he could be a vector of power and a big baddie.

I was referring to Gortash, Orin and Thorm. Whether or not it's correct to call them main villains they're the chosen of the three and take up a massive part of the VA power budget. I don't think Larian need much more tie in than that to justify the monicker in their own mind.

 

[Alex]

I must admit I had no idea anyone actually cared about continuity in Baldur's Gate

Does it even make sense to call it "Baldur's Gate 3" if the game has absolutely no relation to the original plot? (...)

Well... They did do it with Torment, so why not? But really, my point was that I was actually surprised, not that I think it is a bad idea.

"The Absolute" involves Bhaal as part of a triumvirate of semi-deities. Obviously they thought this wasn't quite enough and added the DU origin.

I don't know what most of the non common parlance words here mean. Playing as Dark Underlord sounds interesting, though.

(...) the other is using stuff like Pact of the Blade as it enables you to use your CHA bonus as the main stat for your weapons (they basically merged Hexblade into Pact of the Blade). (...)

I remember when muscle wizard was the silliest thing around.

 

[Grunker]

I remember when muscle wizard was the silliest thing around.

Pact of the Blade is decidedly not a muscle-wizard. Strength is literally its most useless stat.

Also, muscle-wizard has been a thing since 1981 when the gish were invented. It's literally the word we ended up using for the hybrid throughout all editions.

 

[Alex]

I remember when muscle wizard was the silliest thing around.

Pact of the Blade is decidedly not a muscle-wizard. Strength is literally its most useless stat.

Also, muscle-wizard has been a thing since 1981 when the gish were invented. It's literally the word we ended up using for the hybrid throughout all editions.

By "muscle wizard" I meant having strength affect spellcasting, not having it be useful to wizards in some way. It is as silly as, say, charisma affecting spellcasting. But not as silly as it affecting to-hit chance and damage for weapons.

 

[Grunker]

I remember when muscle wizard was the silliest thing around.

Pact of the Blade is decidedly not a muscle-wizard. Strength is literally its most useless stat.

Also, muscle-wizard has been a thing since 1981 when the gish were invented. It's literally the word we ended up using for the hybrid throughout all editions.

By "muscle wizard" I meant having strength affect spellcasting

I don't think there's anything to that effect in BG3

 

[Alex]

I remember when muscle wizard was the silliest thing around.

Pact of the Blade is decidedly not a muscle-wizard. Strength is literally its most useless stat.

Also, muscle-wizard has been a thing since 1981 when the gish were invented. It's literally the word we ended up using for the hybrid throughout all editions.

By "muscle wizard" I meant having strength affect spellcasting

I don't think there's anything to that effect in BG3

Yes, my point is that it has something sillier.

Edit: To be clear, I am not blaming BG3 for that, as I expect that came from 5e. I was just making a comment, not criticising the game.

 

[Saravan]

Saravan are you still maintaining the document? Do you know how advantage works in BG3? In Solasta they wisely changed the rules so you sum up total amounts of adv and disad and then retain whatever has most counts, as the TT rules (where any adv cancels any disadv and vice versa) is purely a question of upkeep costs, which are non-existant on a PC.

Oh I think you misunderstood me, this is not my document it’s just something I found while browsing Larian forums. I believe it’s crossposted from BG3 reddit.

No idea about advantages I never played EA to avoid spoilers.

 

[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

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

Yeah Perception is obvious.

From what I've read, Acrobatics is more or less useless. Athletics has some checks but that's hardly the domain of a caster - the fighter types will have that covered.

Stealth - fine I guess.

 

[notpl]

Fextra are content parasites.

Yes. Always half-baked shit as far as I can tell, jumping on every new release bandwagon, disgusting.

This kid puts in a lot of effort :

https://www.aestusguides.com/guides/baldur-s-gate-3-class-tier-list-and-guide

Not sure if the game warrants these great analysis, but to be fair I did the same with the original games when I was a teenager and they were much more simplistic in many ways (oh no). I like what I've seen of 5e so far, seems better than 3e and Pathfinder (can't stand the AC and AB stacking, plus the buffs, blech). I haven't played it much but it does seem like Solasta does the system better, we'll have to see how things stand independantly of presentation and narrative.

Some of the balance changes Larian have made here are insane. Thief rogues can make TWF attacks with their second bonus action? What on earth?

On the other hand, rogues are quite weak RAW in 5e, so all this really does is give you a reason to use one in the first place, when otherwise they would be strictly inferior to fighters or paladins as damage-dealers. So maybe it works out in the end? This guide makes a thief rogue/ranger multiclass sound quite interesting, for example, when otherwise I would never consider either of those classes let alone a combination of the two.

 

[Saravan]

Fextra are content parasites.

Yes. Always half-baked shit as far as I can tell, jumping on every new release bandwagon, disgusting.

This kid puts in a lot of effort :

https://www.aestusguides.com/guides/baldur-s-gate-3-class-tier-list-and-guide

Not sure if the game warrants these great analysis, but to be fair I did the same with the original games when I was a teenager and they were much more simplistic in many ways (oh no). I like what I've seen of 5e so far, seems better than 3e and Pathfinder (can't stand the AC and AB stacking, plus the buffs, blech). I haven't played it much but it does seem like Solasta does the system better, we'll have to see how things stand independantly of presentation and narrative.

Some of the balance changes Larian have made here are insane. Thief rogues can make TWF attacks with their second bonus action? What on earth?

On the other hand, rogues are quite weak RAW in 5e, so all this really does is give you a reason to use one in the first place, when otherwise they would be strictly inferior to fighters or paladins as damage-dealers. So maybe it works out in the end? This guide makes a thief rogue/ranger multiclass sound quite interesting, for example, when otherwise I would never consider either of those classes let alone a combination of the two.

I think some changes to make Rogues and Rangers have a better use case is fine. I found the changes to the benefit of casters the most insane, and of course the whole debacle of streamlining races so they end up being cosmetic choices. Also indirectly nerfing humans, the most based race.

 

[jackofshadows]

re: Guidance don't forget there's an amulet very early with it which can be used whenever by anybody.

 

[notpl]

Fextra are content parasites.

Yes. Always half-baked shit as far as I can tell, jumping on every new release bandwagon, disgusting.

This kid puts in a lot of effort :

https://www.aestusguides.com/guides/baldur-s-gate-3-class-tier-list-and-guide

Not sure if the game warrants these great analysis, but to be fair I did the same with the original games when I was a teenager and they were much more simplistic in many ways (oh no). I like what I've seen of 5e so far, seems better than 3e and Pathfinder (can't stand the AC and AB stacking, plus the buffs, blech). I haven't played it much but it does seem like Solasta does the system better, we'll have to see how things stand independantly of presentation and narrative.

Some of the balance changes Larian have made here are insane. Thief rogues can make TWF attacks with their second bonus action? What on earth?

On the other hand, rogues are quite weak RAW in 5e, so all this really does is give you a reason to use one in the first place, when otherwise they would be strictly inferior to fighters or paladins as damage-dealers. So maybe it works out in the end? This guide makes a thief rogue/ranger multiclass sound quite interesting, for example, when otherwise I would never consider either of those classes let alone a combination of the two.

I think some changes to make Rogues and Rangers have a better use case is fine. I found the changes to the benefit of casters the most insane, and of course the whole debacle of streamlining races so they end up being cosmetic choices. Also indirectly nerfing humans, the most based race.

Maybe *choking back laughter* they'll properly restrict access to camping/rests, so that *eyes crossed, foam spewing from mouth at this point* casters aren't in such an advantageous position all the time.