Baldur's Gate 3

[MichaelC]

gah. I have a bunch of telekinesis scrolls and I never used the spell and for a long time would forget I had it. Then I ran into an area full of cloudkill where one of the vents was bugged... you could not target it at all... not even visible though it shows up in a perception check. Could not cover it either. So cloudkill wasn't going to kill me unless I lingered, but it was kind of a... I wanted to find the solution to the obstacle before me. And running in and quickly looting was just meh.

So then I realized... wait... could I move it? So using a scroll I cast telekinesis and it was kinda cool. I had not yet seen that spell in action. The chest rose up in the air and tumbled as it travelled to its destination.

So then later, one of my party could not jump the distance and was stuck. I idly wondered if telekinesis would work on a person or creature. I did not use it there, instead I had the stuck character use misty step. But the idea stayed in my head.

So then I was in a fight. One of the enemies was staying far back casting at us. I ended up with my party spread out. I did not want to run to the enemy. Instead, I used telekinesis to bring him near Karlach so she could hit another enemy in front of her then turn to this guy I just moved.

Using telekinesis might seem obvious, but I made a bad assumption. I figured there would be a bunch of limitations on its use like there is on so many other spells and actions. (can't heal npcs! and mage hand has been pretty useless). So now I am thinking about upcoming areas where I can use it.

 

[Ladnil]

You'd love Larian's previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2. Lots and lots of situations in that game where you use spells to move your enemies around strategically

 

[rtrefz]

I only played with TK during the last battle.

Spoiler

Having the emperor toss mind flayers off the roof was a lot of fun!

 

[MichaelC]

It's funny replaying a section of the game and getting different results on ability checks.

This is still my first full run. I restored to an earlier save because of a couple big bugs I encountered. I posted about it earlier in this thread.

Anyway, I just went into the Harper safehouse with Jaheira and failed two... three? insight checks in a row that would have clued my PC into what was happening there. And the response from the NPCs was great. "This time you brough an idiot with you" (said to Jaheira). Jahheira was also doing the SMH "shaking my head".

First time around my PC figured out something was up.

 

[MichaelC]

You'd love Larian's previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2. Lots and lots of situations in that game where you use spells to move your enemies around strategically

I played some of the first game. In fact, that was what got me interested in BG3. I played the other BG1 and 2 and I was not sure I would be interested in a third. But having playing DOS 1 I was looking forward to Larian's environmental mechanics being implemented in BG3... and then that first Panel from Hell demo where they showed us you could push people off ledges... I was sold.

Maybe one day I will get around to DOS 2 but not for awhile still. It is in my library.

 

[MichaelC]

Community update with some fun stats

https://baldursgate3.game/news/community-update-35-baldur-s-gate-3-turns-two_143

 

[technophile]

Given the number of players, how many people replay almost obsessively, etc., it is astonishing to me that fewer than 500 people have found the "adopt a child with Wyll" ending.

Although it is kind of a rare sequence to get it - you have to have Wyll become Duke (and I think the more popular option is definitely to have him stay the Blade of Avernus), be romancing him (and he's one of the less popular options I think), and not send him to Avernus with Karlach (which means letting her die, also not a popular option IME).

Still, <500 players is really low.

 

[rtrefz]

TiL that Boo (Minc's miniature giant space hamster) is immune to throw damage, and can blind opponents for a turn. They built "Go for the eyes Boo!) into the game!

 

[rtrefz]

It's amazing how different playthroughs feel. In this playthrough I kept Jahiera alive and made her a member of the team. This opened a whole new subquest I wasn't expecting.

 

[Ecmaster76]

Spoiler: meme, smol spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxFfldg_e3UrJ-TH-tMKy1gbVf7IeK1G8N

 

[rtrefz]

I rescued Minsc! Now I need to play Sophie's choice and figure out which character I'm going to table. Probably Jahiera.

Looking at my party and the available subquests, I'll need to drop Jahiera if I want to complete them. This will make the party martial heavy.

 

[MichaelC]

I wonder if anyone else turns on all the braziers, torches, sconces, lamps, candles, and what have you when they walk into a room. I just stand there and hit everything with the fire cantrip to light them all.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

I wonder if anyone else turns on all the braziers, torches, sconces, lamps, candles, and what have you when they walk into a room. I just stand there and hit everything with the fire can trip to light them all.

I did that a number of times, but eventually kind of wore out on playing with that particular toy.

 

[Semi On]

I wonder if anyone else turns on all the braziers, torches, sconces, lamps, candles, and what have you when they walk into a room. I just stand there and hit everything with the fire cantrip to light them all.

Opposite. I frequently shot everything that was lit with an arrow or similar to put them out. My main team all had night vision and various perks in the dark.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

Oh, I just remembered that I did a ton of lighting in the Solasta games. They're also AD&D 5E, use the same lighting cantrip, and light is really important. My play rule ended up being that every character needed a method to generate light, and then I just reflexively lit up absolutely everything I saw.

 

[Ladnil]

I wish lighting mattered more in BG3. There's a few systems in the game that seem like maybe they were once a bigger part of the gameplay challenge and at some point Larian decided to pull back on them big time. Probably for the best though, in the end. The game doesn't become as big a hit if it's so inaccessible that things like shadow vs light matter a lot, camp supplies are actually scarce, you struggle to get companion approval high enough to see their stories, etc etc. But the remnants of earlier designs are still visible, if you look.

 

[Semi On]

Adding light was useful in certain situations like the Underdark or against certain enemies. There is also some other gear that requires you to be illuminated like Callous Glow and Coruscation ring. Stack those with a weapon that casts light and you can make quick work of fiends, the undead (of which there is a specific, powerful example), etc.

 

[rtrefz]

I'm taking an unplanned break from BG3, due to a PS5 bug that locks the game when you switch characters.

 

[technophile]

I'm making good progress on my Honor Mode Origin Shadowheart run; I'm at the end of Act 2. I was a little nervous about the Moonrise Towers fight after freeing the Nightsong, but it turned out to be kind of a pushover once I walked in, dropped a Cloudkill followed by a 5th level slot Lightning Bolt on the main group, and then mopped up with the martials and summons. The fight at the top of the tower was a little touch and go for a minute but ultimately not too hard. Currently about to walk in on the 3 Musketeers snarking at each other; I do have Gale with me but I'm hoping I can deescalate that situation and kill Ketheric the old fashioned way.

SH is an Oath of Vengeance Paladin 6/Shadow Sorceror 3, which is fun; Shadow Blade is ridiculously good with smites, especially once you get the Resonant Stone and everyone is vulnerable to psychic damage... (that did make fighting the illithids in the colony a bit of a tricky thing though). I'm romancing Lae'zel, who is a default Battlemaster Fighter but using the Invisible glaive (because Advantage on every attack is awesome); Astarion is an Assassin so I can just kick off every fight by dropping the most dangerous target to half hit points in most cases - he's also wearing the Risky Ring because again Advantage on every attack is awesome ; and Gale is default Evoker. I was using Karlach as a Giants barb (which is hilarious; she basically made fighting the Forge golem super trivial by just standing on the stairs and chucking heavy things at him; the "turn any item into a returning weapon with elemental damage" class skill they get is very nice) but my current group has a very nice mix of tank/dps/finishing power/raw crowd control.

I have read the Myrkul fight can be a bear, so I'm a little nervous about that, but I don't really envision any other major scaries until the House of Hope, Iron Throne (if I do it; I may not), the Gortash fight (which I hate even in normal mode), and the final battle.

 

[dancing cow]

I'm taking an unplanned break from BG3, due to a PS5 bug that locks the game when you switch characters.

Turning off performance mode is a potential fix for this issue (worked for me):
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/1nono1q/anyone_else_having_trouble_since_the_latest_update/

 

[rtrefz]

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

 

[technophile]

 

[daldrich]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

 

[Pocky Is God]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

I'm still in Chapter 1 on my third play through, but having just as much fun doing different things. I didn't know I could align myself with the Dueagar against Nere in the Grymforge. That was cool.

 

[rtrefz]

It's incredible! I almost never replay games and I'm on my second play-through. Larian did an excellent job with the story and gameplay.

 

[Semi On]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

If you like those old school CRPGs, it's easily in the top three of all time.

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

Pretty damn solid. I'm only on my third playthrough (one single player run as a Monk, one multiplayer run as a Rogue, current one is a Dark Urge Bard), and while the changes over the last 2.5 years haven't been drastic, the game runs smoother now and has less jank. Plus, it has a mod manager/browser built in, so if you want to try modding it's about as easy as it gets.

If you can somehow wrangle some friends together to play, it's one of the best multiplayer experiences I've had in gaming.

 

[daldrich]

Coolio. Thanks.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

I would argue that it's probably the single best CRPG ever done. I'm not enamored with the 5E ruleset, mostly because character progression is so terribly nerfed in that system, but Larian worked around it by removing the limitation on how many magic items a character can use, and then being very liberal with magic items. So you get a nice satisfying power curve, and then the sheer depth of plot interactivity and levels of choice are fairly crazy. You can approach things in a lot of different ways, and their attention to detail was sometimes almost freakish.

For instance, there's a major fight where the boss starts singing at you. Actual lyrics, the whole bit, to go with a backing song. But if the boss is under a Silence spell, the rest of the music stays, while his part stops. The whole game is like that, where they're tracking little details that you probably won't even notice until you play with another character, and things change in subtle ways.

 

[STR3T]

For many, simply wasn’t just Game of the Year…but saw many say Decade and or Lifetime. I’m ver near agreement on the Lifetime and I’ve played the F outta CS2, TF2, other RPG’s etc.

 

[MiguelMC]

How is BG3 these days? Every time I play dnd with my son get the itch to try it out. I did play bg2 in college 20+ years ago.

BG3 is capped at level 12, and as such it really doesn't quite have the pre-battle -> buff -> de-buff -> kill powerful magic casters that mid/end BG2 has (especially with SCS installed).

It does have, however, a nuanced tactical approach to combat, where height matters, where you can throw stuff at your enemies, where you can synergise water/grease (be it in the environment, jars/potions or spells) with electricity/fire spells.

And then? Then you can role-play. Charisma actually matters. You can talk yourself out of situations, or into places. Your dialogue choices will change how you play the game, even as dark urge. And finally you can always be that player, trying to mess up with the DM. The game will let you, and it will try to nudge you, or drop subtle hints it knows you're messing, but in the end it will let you fail on your terms.

It's pretty good, yes.

 

[MichaelC]

It is astonishing how much the game adapts to your actions and conversations.

I have had the game since early access. Each run of act I had been different for me, in small ways, in larger ways.

I have been on my first full run since the game was released. Yeah, I'm very slow. But a few months ago I reverted to an earlier save because I had run into a couple bugs that were bugging me. It meant playing many hours of the game again. And now I am running into different things because I am making different choices in who is with me, a few conversations, and mistakes in combat. And also, I missed a clue in one small quest that this time I caught and followed, allowing me to finally finish it. Damn pigeons.

The murderous dwarf, for instance, was interesting in how it played out because of a mistake I made this time around. first time around I found him at the wine festival and when combat started I was able to counter spell his attempt to leave and then got him and his friends wet and hit them with chain lightning, killing almost all of them in that one round.

But this time around, I misjudged the spell level he was casting and counter spell failed and he got away. But then I found him at another location and we got into it again. But this was riskier because there was his potential victim, paralyzed, and the investigator injured and prone. Fortunately, I was able save both.

I don't know if he can get away again and go to another target if you fail at the second location. I am wondering now if they planned for him to reach all his targets and with potential encounters at each one.

All of these things have to be thought of, then programmed and animated and dialogue written and voice acted and a million other things.

The ambition of this game is simply astonishing. I am very interested in what Larian does next, even if it is yet another fantasy game. I'm hoping they delve into some science fiction or a contemporary setting like an international spy thriller. It will be fantasy, but I can still hope.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

All of these things have to be thought of, then programmed and animated and dialogue written and voice acted and a million other things.

It's astonishing how quickly they shipped that game, considering the sheer amount of content in it. That team must be insanely productive.

 

[MichaelC]

Over 17k boxes in BG3. He tells you exactly how many at the very beginning, then he tells you what he considers "boxes". And then he goes into his methodology for figuring out how many. So, you don't have to watch the whole video, but if you are curious and want to know more, you can.


View: https://youtu.be/Ymkv3GXn8Q0?si=zeAuhYEEtTwfswNZ

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

Over 17k boxes in BG3

6,808 lootable crates. Just crates. Sixty-eight hundred of them.

At least now I know for sure that the loot is random in most of them. I wasn't really clear on whether loot was preplaced or generated, and that video answered that question.... some is fixed, but most is generated.

 

[MichaelC]

oh, don't know if anyone noticed this, but for those of you with steam decks, there is a native steam deck build now.

https://baldursgate3.game/news/hotfix-34-now-live_144

 

[MichaelC]

rofl... so I was casting greater invisibility on astarion so he could um... well, he was feeling shy, yeah that's it, shy! and i had a wild magic surge which cast fog. fog is considered an attack so the friendly npcs caught in it attacked me.

 

[Mental Gear Reduction]

rofl... so I was casting greater invisibility on astarion so he could um... well, he was feeling shy, yeah that's it, shy! and i had a wild magic surge which cast fog. fog is considered an attack so the friendly npcs caught in it attacked me.

That's a classic example of why I never, ever play wild mages.

edit: I a word out.

 

[MichaelC]

Holes in Baldur's Gate 3


View: https://youtube.com/shorts/1rfK5U_-CsQ?si=gD16mgQ7pw2WhJPB

 

[KT421]

That's a classic example of why I never, ever play wild mages.

edit: I a word out.

Wild mages are the best.

I once had the wonderful idea to cast Mage Armor on myself in the middle of the Lower City. No big deal, right?

Wild Magic procced, cast Cats and Dogs on everyone nearby. After the third guardsman in a row came to talk to me about attacking people, the game crashed entirely. Perhaps one of the guards in the queue to arrest me was a dog and the game was not prepared for that?