Baldur's Gate 3

[Fezzik]

EDIT: While I'm here, why would you ever want to not apply bonuses on your rolls? It feels odd to have to opt in to these when there's seemingly no downside to failing a check with a bonus attached.

Some bonuses are basically free, like the Guidance cantrip. Adding that to a roll won't use up any resources. Some of the others however do use things that have a limited supply, like Bardic Inspriration dies or a spell slot for Bless. You need to decide whether the roll is important enough to use that resource, whether you could pass without it, if you could re-roll a bad result with (non Bardic) Inspiration, etc.

Similar situation with some Reactions, they can burn through your Smites/spell slots/etc if you have it set to auto rather than ask/confirm.

I do agree, the game doesn't really explain the mechanics very well for newbies. I was completely reliant on Reddit, the BG3 wiki and the Players Handbook to figure things out.

 

[Meythia]

EDIT: While I'm here, why would you ever want to not apply bonuses on your rolls? It feels odd to have to opt in to these when there's seemingly no downside to failing a check with a bonus attached.

There is so many things that could be changed for QoL, like Guidance always applying to any character that is currently available to activate it as mentioned before.

Then there is the odd thing about far strides and other spells that dont require concentration: use "buff character in camp" and play with 4 differents.
Heroes feast +25hp, Aid +25hp (I think when upcasted), Longstride should also work but too many have access to that.

Then there is things that are not consitently identical:
Moonbeam + reposition Moonbeam
Cloudkill + reposition Cloudkill

Call Lightningt + Recall Lightning
Call Sunbeam + Recall Sunbeam

and the very! odd
Create Flame + Throw Flame

Then you could say "returning Pike please go into my inventory instead of my hand - when I throw other weapons I still have the main weapon available"

 

[Moglet]

Some bonuses are basically free, like the Guidance cantrip. Adding that to a roll won't use up any resources. Some of the others however do use things that have a limited supply, like Bardic Inspriration dies or a spell slot for Bless. You need to decide whether the roll is important enough to use that resource, whether you could pass without it, if you could re-roll a bad result with (non Bardic) Inspiration, etc.

Similar situation with some Reactions, they can burn through your Smites/spell slots/etc if you have it set to auto rather than ask/confirm.

I do agree, the game doesn't really explain the mechanics very well for newbies. I was completely reliant on Reddit, the BG3 wiki and the Players Handbook to figure things out.

Funnily enough we discovered the rolls that use resources when playing last night, so at least that became clear fairly quickly. I'm also enjoying the fact that even with lockpick kits my wife keeps deciding to set fire to things to open them

There is so many things that could be changed for QoL, like Guidance always applying to any character that is currently available to activate it as mentioned before.

Then there is the odd thing about far strides and other spells that dont require concentration: use "buff character in camp" and play with 4 differents.
Heroes feast +25hp, Aid +25hp (I think when upcasted), Longstride should also work but too many have access to that.

Then there is things that are not consitently identical:
Moonbeam + reposition Moonbeam
Cloudkill + reposition Cloudkill

Call Lightningt + Recall Lightning
Call Sunbeam + Recall Sunbeam

and the very! odd
Create Flame + Throw Flame

Then you could say "returning Pike please go into my inventory instead of my hand - when I throw other weapons I still have the main weapon available"

It sounds like I have a lot more to learn yet! We spent ages selling unwanted kit yesterday evening but it was worth it to get some new armour and to get Wither at the camp. I might adjust the difficulty to a custom level so we can re-spec to multi-class now that he's around, as I'm told this can really help.

 

[Meythia]

I might adjust the difficulty to a custom level so we can re-spec to multi-class now that he's around, as I'm told this can really help.

If you just want to experience the story and dont care much about the fighting thats definitly an option to lower the difficulty (or raise your skill levels).
Just to see how much difference there is I looked through the options.
Honour mode 80 rations per long rest
custom lowerst 20 rations per long rest
Honor mode trader modifier (I guess 2.5 more expensive to buy and less on sell)
custom possible down to 1

You can basically long rest after each goblin and gold is something you dont need an eye for.
In my first run I had around 20k gold during act 2 which dissapeared for a bug, then in act3 I again came around 30k gold - this was on tactician difficulty.

About the multiclassing: I personally dont think there is much benefit in doing that, especially eary on.
Better stay on your one class and gain access to higher level spells or inherent stronger skills.
Also at class! level 4 you will gain a "feat" which allows you to for example increase 2 attribute points or be proficient at something you currently are not with - usually I choose to increase my main attribute to 18 here for the better attack rating.
At class! level 5 most classes of physical combat gain the "extra attack" so you can attack twice instead of just once.
Multiclassing delays these bonuses.

About the classes, I guess everyone has their own opinion about them.
I really like the Sorcerer most, but the get the most of the game the main character (in my opinion) needs to be a Bard.
Then having a Druid or Cleric for guidance makes the game a whole lot easier, and also Druid on level 3 learns the most devastating early level spell there is: spike growth - it slows down enemies, has a very large area of effect, and deals enough damage to kill many monsters at that level. Clerics of the Nature Domain also learn this spell. And both of them are wisdom characters which means having either is enough - they will be your "spotter" for traps or hidden things.

 

[Moglet]

If you just want to experience the story and dont care much about the fighting thats definitly an option to lower the difficulty (or raise your skill levels).
Just to see how much difference there is I looked through the options.
Honour mode 80 rations per long rest
custom lowerst 20 rations per long rest
Honor mode trader modifier (I guess 2.5 more expensive to buy and less on sell)
custom possible down to 1

You can basically long rest after each goblin and gold is something you dont need an eye for.
In my first run I had around 20k gold during act 2 which dissapeared for a bug, then in act3 I again came around 30k gold - this was on tactician difficulty.

About the multiclassing: I personally dont think there is much benefit in doing that, especially eary on.
Better stay on your one class and gain access to higher level spells or inherent stronger skills.
Also at class! level 4 you will gain a "feat" which allows you to for example increase 2 attribute points or be proficient at something you currently are not with - usually I choose to increase my main attribute to 18 here for the better attack rating.
At class! level 5 most classes of physical combat gain the "extra attack" so you can attack twice instead of just once.
Multiclassing delays these bonuses.

About the classes, I guess everyone has their own opinion about them.
I really like the Sorcerer most, but the get the most of the game the main character (in my opinion) needs to be a Bard.
Then having a Druid or Cleric for guidance makes the game a whole lot easier, and also Druid on level 3 learns the most devastating early level spell there is: spike growth - it slows down enemies, has a very large area of effect, and deals enough damage to kill many monsters at that level. Clerics of the Nature Domain also learn this spell. And both of them are wisdom characters which means having either is enough - they will be your "spotter" for traps or hidden things.

Interesting, we're already playing on Explorer so should be fine to leave those settings alone from the sound of things. My wife is playing as a Cleric so we've got that covered, I'm playing as a Fighter, but I think we probably need to improve on the ranged attacks as that seems to be where we are suffering a little. Companion-wise we have Astarion and Shadowheart at the minute just because they naturally fell into our party but we really don't need 2 Clerics and I dislike Shadowheart so that feels like a no-brainer to swap.

 

[Meythia]

It actually works:

Getting this weapon off of Voss at the first time meeting him by pure chance.
Use heat metal to make him drop it.
Though this requires knowing he has this sort of weapon

 

[R55NA]

Incredible run, hats off!

 

[Moglet]

Does anyone have any advice on how to clear out the remainder of the Goblin camp after killing the 3 leaders? Everyone is now aggro'd whenever we go anywhere near the place and the sheer number of enemies is overwhelming, even at level 4 the highest damage AoE attack we have only hits for 3-4 per target so we keep getting our asses handed to us.

EDIT: Also when does the fun stuff start? So far combat has been very basic with no real creativity allowed besides burning webs for the spiders or getting higher ground for ranged attacks.

 

[Fezzik]

Level 5 is the first major spike for combat abilities. Magic users mostly get access to level 3 spells (FIREBALL!), weapon users get extra attack. You start to get more class abilities around that point as well. Other than that you can have fun at any time just by experimenting - mess around with explosives, combo magic (water and freeze/lightning), summons/companions (including the classic enlarged Owlbear), etc.

 

[SDSmurf]

Does anyone have any advice on how to clear out the remainder of the Goblin camp after killing the 3 leaders? Everyone is now aggro'd whenever we go anywhere near the place and the sheer number of enemies is overwhelming

Let the spiders out 😁

 

[Meythia]

Let the spiders out 😁

Requires someone to talk to animals and being convincing, doesnt it?
Otherwise the fun stuff will just be fightint the spiders instead of having the spiders entertain you.

 

[Moglet]

Let the spiders out 😁

I'm not sure we can reach them with everyone aggro'd, and previously any time we've let an animal escape it has immediately attacked us so I'm hesitant

 

[SDSmurf]

Talk to them.

 

[Moglet]

Talk to them.

I don't believe anyone in our party has had the ability to do so yet. We may have a Potion of Animal Speaking between us though, I'll have to check.

 

[Meythia]

I don't believe anyone in our party has had the ability to do so yet. We may have a Potion of Animal Speaking between us though, I'll have to check.

Maybe some kind of general advice.

1. as long as the minimap doesnt have a red glow on the border, you can always use fast travel to get somewhere safe and regroup.
2. as long as the minimap doesnt have a red glow on the border, you can always do a long rest to replenish health and spell slots. usually there is plenty of food available and I dare say I could propaly do a long rest after every single combat.
3. as you seem to have no dedicated charisma character in your party (fighter, cerlic, astarion = rogue, shadowheart = cleric/replaced), make sure the one with the highest bonus in persuasion is the one talking to the trader npcs for the best deal
4. traders are restocking their items on long rests
5. clerics are of the kind of casters that can change their spells outside of combat. they will always have their full potential when you know what is ahead so propably your wife just needs to have a look into the spellbook and see "hey, i do have something that is usefull for our current situation".
6. fights dont need to be fair. The AI can get stuck when it doesnt find a path or desperatly tries to avoid taking damage.
7. line of sight is helping playing unfair, the AI also tries doing just that

availabe when YT has finished processing, 15 minutes of boring to watch combat:


Spike Growth is the main damage spell, everything else is just playing around it and having the enemy run into it for suicid.
druid (spores)
fighter (champion)
cleric (tempest)
rogue (thief)

 

[Grand Prix]

@Moglet Rather than fight your way out of the dungeon, I found it easier to fast travel somewhere, and then attack the goblin camp from the front. The ogre will need to dash to reach you and you'll be picking off goblins in the meantime. If you don't want to cheese it by fast travelling, there are several other exits that bypass the front door. Also, did you free the bear in the jail?

What would also make it easier is to get a barbarian (Karlach) into your party, and pick up and throw goblins at other goblins, knocking them down for crowd control while also killing them. Tavern Brawler feat is the way to go for this. A high strength fighter could also do this, just not as effectively.

Rogues can also be great at trading if you apply expertise in the Persuasion skill. By level 9 your rogue will have 8 points in Persuasion plus their charisma level. This is insanely good, and fits Astarion's character. Only a bard with maxed out charisma and Persuasion expertise could do better.

Also, there's tons of stuff you can do with character builds once you get high enough in level. Currently my Minsc is a battle master fighter with Polearm Master and Sentinel feats. Fights go like this: Enemy approaches Minsc, they get smacked in the face with a halberd as a reaction. If they attack and miss on the next turn, they get hit by a halberd again with the Riposte manoeuvre. Minsc smacks them two times and then uses the haft of the halberd as a bonus action, finally on the 3rd attack he uses the battle master pushing attack to knock them back so they have to approach to get into melee range again (but by this point they are probably dead 🤣). It's awesome.

 

[Moglet]

Maybe some kind of general advice.

1. as long as the minimap doesnt have a red glow on the border, you can always use fast travel to get somewhere safe and regroup.
2. as long as the minimap doesnt have a red glow on the border, you can always do a long rest to replenish health and spell slots. usually there is plenty of food available and I dare say I could propaly do a long rest after every single combat.
3. as you seem to have no dedicated charisma character in your party (fighter, cerlic, astarion = rogue, shadowheart = cleric/replaced), make sure the one with the highest bonus in persuasion is the one talking to the trader npcs for the best deal
4. traders are restocking their items on long rests
5. clerics are of the kind of casters that can change their spells outside of combat. they will always have their full potential when you know what is ahead so propably your wife just needs to have a look into the spellbook and see "hey, i do have something that is usefull for our current situation".
6. fights dont need to be fair. The AI can get stuck when it doesnt find a path or desperatly tries to avoid taking damage.
7. line of sight is helping playing unfair, the AI also tries doing just that

This is very helpful! I think part of the issue might be that my wife has been focusing on healing for her character since that's how she plays FFXIV, and it's really not that beneficial to us at the minute. Trading hasn't been an issue though, we're loaded with gold.

@Moglet Rather than fight your way out of the dungeon, I found it easier to fast travel somewhere, and then attack the goblin camp from the front. The ogre will need to dash to reach you and you'll be picking off goblins in the meantime. If you don't want to cheese it by fast travelling, there are several other exits that bypass the front door. Also, did you free the bear in the jail?

We did free the bear, yes, however that seems to be deep within the stronghold area so isn't much use to us out in the courtyard.

 

[Fezzik]

This sounds familiar. In my case it's over a hundred hours but that's spread out over many different Tavs. I generally get about halfway through Act 2 and decide to restart with another class/race/sex/murderer. Have accepted now that I'll never be finished with this game.

Ok, it’s a bit more than a hundred hours and I still haven’t got to the city

Buying this game was death to the hopes of clearing my backlog.

 

[Meythia]

Ok, it’s a bit more than a hundred hours and I still haven’t got to the city

View attachment 1323871

Buying this game was death to the hopes of clearing my backlog.

Im still finding things I didnt notice before, or didnt succeed in the statcheck to enable them.

Like in act1 the bard in the cove has struggle composing a song.
Okay, yes, fine.
Or you help her and it turns into a full scene.
Or you talk to the animals and they start singing and dancing.

 

[Fezzik]

Im still finding things I didnt notice before, or didnt succeed in the statcheck to enable them.

Like in act1 the bard in the cove has struggle composing a song.
Okay, yes, fine.
Or you help her and it turns into a full scene.
Or you talk to the animals and they start singing and dancing.

The squirrels are too harsh, she’s not that bad a singer.

Speak With Animals really is a must. I generally only pick characters now that have access to the spell. Too annoying otherwise to find myself without a potion (or the ingredients).

 

[Meythia]

The squirrels are too harsh, she’s not that bad a singer.

Speak With Animals really is a must. I generally only pick characters now that have access to the spell. Too annoying otherwise to find myself without a potion (or the ingredients).

In my opinion the main character needs to be a bard to make the most of the game.
Talk to animals
disguise + talk to dead (to talk to the ones you killed)
high charisma for generally good conversation options
extra profeciency rolls for doubling the effect
and either a pretty well round caster (lore) or really good fighter (swords or valor)

gloves of dexterity = 18 dex
headband of intellect = 17 int
the other attributes are base + level

could also use the hat of charisma for +2 but I am not yet at that point of the game again

 

[Fezzik]

I've never got that headband because I can't make myself kill Lump. He's just so funny.
He also survives whenever I've hired him and called him into battle - perhaps I need to pick a tougher fight.

 

[Meythia]

I've never got that headband because I can't make myself kill Lump. He's just so funny.
He also survives whenever I've hired him and called him into battle - perhaps I need to pick a tougher fight.

Propably lure all the hyenas in the north together, they can dish out some damage with their bloodboiling rage skill.

 

[Grand Prix]

Ok, it’s a bit more than a hundred hours and I still haven’t got to the city

View attachment 1323871

Buying this game was death to the hopes of clearing my backlog.

I'll just say this, Act III is amazing. In my first play through I probably spent the same amount of time in Act III as I and II combined. Make sure Jaheira survives Act II though, you'll need her to be alive to get access to a hilarious companion.

 

[Meythia]

paladin critical strike + damage rerolling looks irritating:

This is even bigger than my screen resolution can draw (on console ...) and you cant scroll

Edit: now I have really come to appreciate a cleric with "command". In act 3 you can collect many items with +spelldifficulty which even enables 100% chance against bosses.
I didnt consider this in my previous game, but it is a nice different approach to playing a nuke party.

 

[Fezzik]

No BG3 expansions/DLC/sequel from Larian. Sounds like a big dispute with Wizards/Hasbro.

They've hinted at something sci-fi for their next project. I only bought this one for the DnD setting but I am still interested in what they come up with.

 

[Tornado]

Maybe Microsoft can give them Fallout

 

[Fezzik]

A year with the game and I’ve only just discovered the joys of necromancy. It becomes especially good when you spec a couple of the companions that way as well - my own personal army of the dead and decaying.

 

[Grand Prix]

If you haven't tried a Drow character yet, do it, the character interactions are awesome.

Anyone have any interesting builds they want to share?

One of my Dark Urge murder machines was 5 levels of Thief Rogue, 2 Levels of Fighter and 5 levels of Gloomstalker. Why Thief instead of Assassin? Because she wielded finesse longswords and the Dancing Breeze glaive with Great Weapon Master, she could chain together 4 to 5 attacks in the first turn without anything extra like Haste or Bloodlust elixirs. Adding Action Surge to it makes the build even more insane. This build doesn't really come "online" until level 8 though, with 3 Thief and 5 Gloomstalker. But I played her as pure Thief Rogue (with GWM still) until then. It had a very interesting boom-and-zoom kind of playstyle with one massive hit, disengaging and dashing away if it didn't kill.

Also made an Eldritch Knight/Abjuration Wizard that only relies on Intelligence for attacks with a staff AND spells. The Magic Initiate: Druid feat is currently bugged in that the Shillelagh cantrip you get from it will have your staff or club use the spellcasting stat of the class you grabbed the feat with. So you can make a wizard in robes that can bonk people with his staff while being just as effective at range with damaging cantrips and spells, you're just limited to 4th level spells. A Paladin Wizard would be able to learn and cast the Artistry of War spell with a 5th level spellslot.

These both rely on making a deal with Auntie Ethel of course, to bring the main stat up to 20 while still grabbing a feat.

I'm also experimenting with Flame Blade builds, this thing can do comparable damage to GWM. With exploits you can even have permanent Flame Blades, which can be used as a Warlock pact weapon, or give two of them to a strength Fighter for extra crispiness. The Elemental Adept: Fire feat also works with it, making it ignore fire resistance. Even if you don't have the dual wielding fighting style, you can put the Knife of the Undermountain King in your offhand to re-roll damage dice that land on 1 or 2, and Flame Blade has a crap-ton of damage dice... 🤣 I suspect Patch 7 will remove permanent Flame Blade, but it could still be fun with a Spores Druid.

 

[Grand Prix]

I can confirm that the Magic Initiate Shillelagh bug and the glitched Flame Blade you can get from the Druid Tiefling hireling both still work in Patch 7 for PC. SAD Wizards and Paladins/Sorcadins for everyone! If you don't mind being limited to staves.

Flame Blade is incredibly thematic on my Tiefling Fiend Warlock character so I'm glad that still works, but I feel that Fiend Warlocks (and probably Sorcerers) should have access to Flame Blade in their spell list. I understand that's a DnD rules thing, but still.