Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough Discussion

[Frindis]

After approximately 62 hours (I said 80 hours but forgot about early access) of playtime, I ventured into Act 2. I did all the side quests I could do, opened every chest I could open, read all the books/notes, explored all I could explore (with the exception of one secret I could not find a way into), and killed everything on the map that I did not like, so let's just say there are not many Goblins left. This game is huuuuuuuuge and it's getting even larger!

It has been a blast of a journey so far. The dialogues, companions, sounds, quests, items, and fights++ have been absolutely awesome. My favorite leisure to do so far in the game is to pick up a lot of stuff and then go through all of them after a couple of fights and explorations. When you get that perfect item for one of your companions, wohoooo!

My favorite item is a weapon for one of my tanks that makes a kind of roaring thunder each time you land a jump and then damages for 1-4 damage on enemies around a 10ft radius. Whoever came up with that weapon deserves a raise, especially considering it's not even a rare weapon!

 

[JarlBSoD]

Just like what became a Civ4 meme:

Spoiler: this occasionally happened

A spearman could defeat a tank, because win % never went fully to 100%—and there were enough 99.9% plays in the community that the 1 in a 1,000 failure would sometimes happen

Spoiler

"Well it could happen in RL to, tanks often drive with top hatches semi open so a spearman could sneak up on one and start poking down the hatches. Not sure how anyone would calculate the % of that ever happening though "]

 

[Frindis]

I just made a person kill himself at the hands of his "employees". That is going down as one of the most satisfying deaths ever. Not to mention this game is...hmm, how can I put it...VERY graphic at times, so there was a lot of blood, ooooh yes, a lot of blood! So when the developers tell you that you have a lot of different ways to go about whatever you might stumble upon, they weren't lying. That said, some of the outcomes do require a pretty hefty roll of the dice, so whenever you do get that sweet 20+ roll....*BIG GRIN*.

I'm not 100% how the roll system works though because I thought a roll 20 would always be a critical success, but I experienced a roll where I had to roll 30, got a 20, and still had no critical success. Some say that roll 20 is not always a critical success and others say Larian did implement it for the game, so I dunno.

 

[Frindis]

Someone else found out Not really that much of a spoiler, but better safe than sorry.

Spoiler: Big Bada Boom

https://twitter.com/x/status/1693641355665592390

View: https://twitter.com/larianstudios/status/1693641355665592390?s=20

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I'm still poodling my way through act 1, grabbing a bit where I can.

Minor annoyances with the UI: Why cant I instantaneously click on one character portrait after another and have it register? Always have to either wait half a second or double click and its annoying. Also party order seems buggy, takes a bit of wangling to set the right order and doesnt always seem to register. Are those me/my PC problems or is it everyone? I think I had similar problems with Divinity OS 2.

My team in some places seem to not set any traps off even if I fail ALL the perception checks and deliberately walk over them. But damn if theres an AOE spell left on the battlefield after a fight they love to walk into it and stand there just taking the pain if I'm not looking.

Also:

Spoiler

In the blighted village I got wiped out at the main entrance by an ambush, decided to find another way in. After that none of the Goblins inside the place seemed to be aggrod. Is it because I spared the Gobbo who had the Gnome tied to the windmill?

Fantastic, fun game and all, but some really obvious parts seem a bit rough so far, or maybe its just something about my hardware causing it.

 

[Frindis]

I'm still poodling my way through act 1, grabbing a bit where I can.

Minor annoyances with the UI: Why cant I instantaneously click on one character portrait after another and have it register? Always have to either wait half a second or double click and its annoying. Also party order seems buggy, takes a bit of wangling to set the right order and doesnt always seem to register. Are those me/my PC problems or is it everyone? I think I had similar problems with Divinity OS 2.

The click-on-characters and chain system worked much better in DOS2, so I was a bit surprised by it being so buggy in this game since the game is built around roughly the same engine. Pretty sure this will get fixed in the first major patch update because those things and how irritating the inventory system is to navigate should be easily fixed. Even the inventory system was better in DOS2 definitive edition, so at least they should know what standard to set.

​

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The click-on-characters and chain system worked much better in DOS2, so I was a bit surprised by it being so buggy in this game since the game is built around roughly the same engine. Pretty sure this will get fixed in the first major patch update because those things and how irritating the inventory system is to navigate should be easily fixed. Even the inventory system was better in DOS2 definitive edition, so at least they should know what standard to set.

​

I have a memory of the chain system annoying me in OS2 but it didnt bother me as much as here. I played that game long after release though. Sure it will get patched for BG3.

Inventory is clunky, guess I dont expect much from an isometric D&D game that way so its not bothered me too much yet.

 

[mainer]

Minor annoyances with the UI: Why cant I instantaneously click on one character portrait after another and have it register? Always have to either wait half a second or double click and its annoying. Also party order seems buggy, takes a bit of wangling to set the right order and doesnt always seem to register. Are those me/my PC problems or is it everyone? I think I had similar problems with Divinity OS 2.

I've experienced that as well, and personally it feels lie a technical bug (minor, but a bug). Because sometimes I can single click on a character's portrait to select them, other times I have to click multiple times, so it's very inconsistent. I've gotten so I mostly use the F1-F4 keys to select party members. And the "leader" of the party doesn't have to be the top character, it's whoever is selected, and the rest follow behind him/her.

My team in some places seem to not set any traps off even if I fail ALL the perception checks and deliberately walk over them. But damn if theres an AOE spell left on the battlefield after a fight they love to walk into it and stand there just taking the pain if I'm not looking.

I've experienced that as well, failing all perception checks, yet not setting any traps off. I wonder if there is another behind the scenes dice roll for saving against the trap effect? Heavily trapped areas I separate my party (clicking the UI button on lower left) and let the character with the highest perception do a "mine sweep" through the area, then disarm the ones I can. Some traps don't do much damage, but some can wipe your party with a single misstep.

Same after a big battle with acid pools, raging fires, or other hazards remaining. I'll send one party member out to loot bodies and containers and avoid the hazards.

Also:

Spoiler

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Spoiler

I didn't go through the southern gate where the ambush was because someone in my party recognized the ambush. So we snuck in the back way, got up on a roof and ambushed the ambushers. We then snuck north, stacked some crates to access another rooftop and took out the goblins that were torturing the Gnome on the windmill. Once the leader was dead, the rest ran away (except for a few at the west gate for some reason).

I think there are ways to do this area without combat, but since I sided with the Druids, I made the first strike. So many ways to approach situations like this.

Did you find the forge while you were in the Blighted Village?

 

[Sarafan]

Ok guys. I have to recall everything that I said about Sorcerer. Probably I broke the system with this class, so just skip the post if you don't want gameplay mechanic spoilers.

To make Sorcerer powerful I just needed access to Haste spell. Besides longer move range and better armor class it gives a one bonus action every turn. Maybe it doesn't sound too powerful, but in D&D 5e it allows you not only to spend it on direct attack, but also cast an additional spell. And Sorcerer has access to metamagic feats. Pair Haste with Quicken Spell and you can send three Fireballs into your enemies in one round! But there's more! There's a level 2 spell called Hold Person. When successfully cast it paralyses any humanoid even for 10 rounds if they have trouble passing the saving throw. What happens when we pair Haste and Quicken Spell metamagic? Three paralyzed humanoids. Haste and 2xTwinned Spell metamagic? Four paralyzed humanoids. Haste, 2xTwinned Spells and Quicken Spell of Hold Person cast as a third level spell? Six paralyzed humanoids in one round on Sorcerer level 7!

How is this even possible? Twinned Spell metamagic doubles the effect of select spells (the end effect is similar to the effect of two identical spells). Hold Person affects only one humanoid. With Twinned Spell it affects two. But we have Haste that gives us a bonus main action. This means we can cast two Twinned Spell Hold Person thus paralyzing four humanoids. Quicken Spell metamagic adds an occasion to cast another spell as a bonus action. If we heighten it to level 3 (for free!) that means additional two paralyzed enemies. It's possible to make this insane combo on Sorcerer level 7. You can basically freeze all your surrounding (if the enemies are humanoids and you manage to pass their saving throws that is). And if you add a feat that allows you to cast Haste outside combat without using spell slots... I'll also try to experiment and find other effective combinations!

 

[Pifanjr]

Ok guys. I have to recall everything that I said about Sorcerer. Probably I broke the system with this class, so just skip the post if you don't want gameplay mechanic spoilers.

To make Sorcerer powerful I just needed access to Haste spell. Besides longer move range and better armor class it gives a one bonus action every turn. Maybe it doesn't sound too powerful, but in D&D 5e it allows you not only to spend it on direct attack, but also cast an additional spell. And Sorcerer has access to metamagic feats. Pair Haste with Quicken Spell and you can send three Fireballs into your enemies in one round! But there's more! There's a level 2 spell called Hold Person. When successfully cast it paralyses any humanoid even for 10 rounds if they have trouble passing the saving throw. What happens when we pair Haste and Quicken Spell metamagic? Three paralyzed humanoids. Haste and 2xTwinned Spell metamagic? Four paralyzed humanoids. Haste, 2xTwinned Spells and Quicken Spell of Hold Person cast as a third level spell? Six paralyzed humanoids in one round on Sorcerer level 7!

How is this even possible? Twinned Spell metamagic doubles the effect of select spells (the end effect is similar to the effect of two identical spells). Hold Person affects only one humanoid. With Twinned Spell it affects two. But we have Haste that gives us a bonus main action. This means we can cast two Twinned Spell Hold Person thus paralyzing four humanoids. Quicken Spell metamagic adds an occasion to cast another spell as a bonus action. If we heighten it to level 3 (for free!) that means additional two paralyzed enemies. It's possible to make this insane combo on Sorcerer level 7. You can basically freeze all your surrounding (if the enemies are humanoids and you manage to pass their saving throws that is). And if you add a feat that allows you to cast Haste outside combat without using spell slots... I'll also try to experiment and find other effective combinations!

Wouldn't that mean you burn through all your spell slots in a single fight, leaving your sorcerer to take pot shots with a crossbow for the rest of the dungeon?

D&D has had a "problem" with magic users being overpowered for a long time because DMs typically let their players long rest before the magic users have run out of spell slots. They become a lot less overpowered if they are forced to conserve spell slots for future encounters, which you see on low levels when spell casters don't have enough spell slots to make it through a typical adventuring day yet. In contrast, martial characters typically do consistent amounts of damage as long as they have HP left, which is much easier to restore during and in between encounters than spell slots.

 

[Sarafan]

Wouldn't that mean you burn through all your spell slots in a single fight, leaving your sorcerer to take pot shots with a crossbow for the rest of the dungeon?

That's the price unfortunately. But locations where you can't rest are quite rare (at least for now), so it's barely a problem. The camp supplies are also plenty, so why not take the occasion and blow everything up? Hold Person also exposes targets to critical strikes. My Astarion wields a weapon in each hand. He's capable of dealing 50+ HP damage in one turn against paralyzed targets.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I thought having supplies was a really good solution to the old BG thing where you could mostly just sleep every time you used a spell because it didnt affect anything. Turns out theres so many supplies laying around its almost pointless having them in the game. Could be I'm just not far enough in yet, but seems that way so far.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've experienced that as well, and personally it feels lie a technical bug (minor, but a bug). Because sometimes I can single click on a character's portrait to select them, other times I have to click multiple times, so it's very inconsistent. I've gotten so I mostly use the F1-F4 keys to select party members. And the "leader" of the party doesn't have to be the top character, it's whoever is selected, and the rest follow behind him/her.


I've experienced that as well, failing all perception checks, yet not setting any traps off. I wonder if there is another behind the scenes dice roll for saving against the trap effect? Heavily trapped areas I separate my party (clicking the UI button on lower left) and let the character with the highest perception do a "mine sweep" through the area, then disarm the ones I can. Some traps don't do much damage, but some can wipe your party with a single misstep.

Same after a big battle with acid pools, raging fires, or other hazards remaining. I'll send one party member out to loot bodies and containers and avoid the hazards.

Weirdly enough, I managed to get half an hour in yesterday and the character portrait and order organization seemed to be working almost perfectly. So could be an intermittent bug that only happens in certain locations. Either that or there was a minor patch that solved the problem at some point in the last day or two.

Spoiler

I found the forge and some designs, haven solved that quest yet. I've yet to explore the whole map so I'm kind of wandering around letting things happen without chasing any particular quests. There was a basement somewhere in the village where all of my characters failed a perception check, so its possible there was something in there that I've now missed. I'm trying not to be too completionist about things as I think I'll be back at some point in other runs to see how things work out if I make different choices.

 

[JarlBSoD]

Spoiler: Hillarious

Boss encounter, can't be bothered, rush in with barbarian, push boss in to the abyss in turn 1. Profit!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Spoiler: Hillarious

Boss encounter, can't be bothered, rush in with barbarian, push boss in to the abyss in turn 1. Profit!

Spoiler

Do you lose out on any equipment the boss might drop or does it spawn next to the edge somewhere?

 

[Pifanjr]

I thought having supplies was a really good solution to the old BG thing where you could mostly just sleep every time you used a spell because it didnt affect anything. Turns out theres so many supplies laying around its almost pointless having them in the game. Could be I'm just not far enough in yet, but seems that way so far.

I wonder if they'll tweak that in an upcoming patch, or give an option to decrease the amount of supplies you find (or increase the amount you need for a long rest).

 

[JarlBSoD]

Spoiler

Do you lose out on any equipment the boss might drop or does it spawn next to the edge somewhere?

Spoiler

You lose out sadly

 

[Frindis]

Spoiler: How I kicked Gerringothe Thorms butt

Put one of my characters in stealth and went up the ladder while Thorm was facing the ledge. Then I used an arrow of roaring thunder that pushed him off the edge and my lovely Karlach finished him off with a couple of smashes into his face.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I wonder if they'll tweak that in an upcoming patch, or give an option to decrease the amount of supplies you find (or increase the amount you need for a long rest).

Maybe. Seems to me its one of the things they would have refined in early access so I somehow doubt it. It would be pretty annoying to not be able to rest whenever you needed to heal or restore spells, to the point where you might need to reload much earlier saves.

Spoiler

You lose out sadly

Spoiler

Can't have everything I guess. Great that its possible to do things like that though

 

[Sarafan]

I discovered a major combo for Lae'zel. On level 7 she has two main attacks. If you cast Haste on her, she gets another one. That's three. If you pick Great Weapon Master feat she can perform another one as a bonus action when an enemy was killed by a previous attack or critical success was rolled. So that's four attacks. Now use Action Surge class action and you'll get additional two attacks. That's six attacks! Now why not finish all of this with a Pommel Strike? It's not a full-fledged attack, but it's an attack after all with additional effect. Seven attacks in one round? Lae'zel must be proud...

 

[mainer]

Those of you playing or following probably already know this, but the first major patch released yesterday, fixing over 1000 bugs, balancing, and flow issues. It's a fairly large patch coming in at almost 2.5 GB. Full patch notes from Larian's site:

Patch #1 Now Live!

<p>Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.</p>

baldursgate3.game

I haven't had any major issues myself, outside of a couple UI quirks and some quirky camera angles, none of which affected my game in a negative way.

 

[Zloth]

That makes Egosoft's recent patch notes look small!

BTW, the achievement list for Solasta shows what people have been rolling up. Players don't have to play what they rolled and some of the classes weren't even there when the game first appeared, but it's still interesting that Solasta's MOST popular class is the Cleric at 54.7%! Paladin is 4th.

 

[Zloth]

View: https://youtu.be/BghWdi0pCo4?si=yziCaqVBw4DOshnA


P.S. Amelia Tyler has been big in Larion games. She played the main character if you picked a female in Divinity Original Sin 2 and played Malady in Divinity 2. Jennifer English seems to have been the voice behind my alluring chest video from Divinity 2, too.

 

[JarlBSoD]

Got to act 3 yesterday and oh boi did the performance tank haaaard. Realy hope they fix it soon

 

[Frindis]

Got to act 3 yesterday and oh boi did the performance tank haaaard. Realy hope they fix it soon

While I have not read through the community update thoroughly to avoid any possible spoilers, I noticed they mentioned fixing some of the major issues with act 3. Since patch 2 is around the corner, it might be better to wait a little before venturing any further into act 3. Their latest community update: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=888581#Post888581