Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough Discussion

[Kaamos_Llama]

Regarding that gem that fits into something, I suspect it's the book on dentistry that I posted a few months ago.

It is, I found the book but not the gem the first time through.

Playing on Tactician vs normal isnt as hard as I thought it would be so long as I'm exploring everything and gearing up properly. Seems if you make use of all the items and potions available as well as being levelled up its balanced pretty well. I wonder if they adjusted the difficulty or I'm just better prepared this time, some of the fights I remember having to think about are much easier than the first time around on 'normal' difficulty.

Spoiler: Act One Spoilers

Found an interesting little note in the swamp regarding Kagha and solved the Druids circle/Tiefling problem differently than before. Having a high charisma character with Persuasion and all we convinced her she was in the wrong and the Shadow Druids went down very easily. For some reason theres a time limit on picking up the loot after the fight, after about a minute if I tried to loot the corpses it would aggro Kagha and she just attacks without any option to talk, which is really weird considering how thankful she was for us to save her. None of the loot piles were red text and I tried multiple times.

Auntie Ethel was the toughest fight so far but not too bad with Speed potions, I had my Sorcerer knock down the mirror images with Magic Missiles and Karlach as a Berserker hits hard and several times a turn with the potion. I left the Mayrina quest unfinished this time, Zombie husband probably isnt the best kind of long term solution for a relationship, I wonder how that will play out later in Baldurs Gate.

Next session I'm going to save scum and drink some of the potions in Ethels lair and see if they do anything.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Its funny becaus

It is, I found the book but not the gem the first time through.

Playing on Tactician vs normal isnt as hard as I thought it would be so long as I'm exploring everything and gearing up properly. Seems if you make use of all the items and potions available as well as being levelled up its balanced pretty well. I wonder if they adjusted the difficulty or I'm just better prepared this time, some of the fights I remember having to think about are much easier than the first time around on 'normal' difficulty.

Spoiler: Act One Spoilers

Found an interesting little note in the swamp regarding Kagha and solved the Druids circle/Tiefling problem differently than before. Having a high charisma character with Persuasion and all we convinced her she was in the wrong and the Shadow Druids went down very easily. For some reason theres a time limit on picking up the loot after the fight, after about a minute if I tried to loot the corpses it would aggro Kagha and she just attacks without any option to talk, which is really weird considering how thankful she was for us to save her. None of the loot piles were red text and I tried multiple times.

Auntie Ethel was the toughest fight so far but not too bad with Speed potions, I had my Sorcerer knock down the mirror images with Magic Missiles and Karlach as a Berserker hits hard and several times a turn with the potion. I left the Mayrina quest unfinished this time, Zombie husband probably isnt the best kind of long term solution for a relationship, I wonder how that will play out later in Baldurs Gate.

Next session I'm going to save scum and drink some of the potions in Ethels lair and see if they do anything.

I love Karlach's character. Her voice actor does an amazing job. Unfortunately, I haven't tried playing her much because I'm not sure how to use a barbarian. It feels like the fighter class, with all its extra attacks, just does the melee a lot better, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with her.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I love Karlach's character. Her voice actor does an amazing job. Unfortunately, I haven't tried playing her much because I'm not sure how to use a barbarian. It feels like the fighter class, with all its extra attacks, just does the melee a lot better, and I'm not exactly sure what to do with her.

You might be right that fighter is better overall, I havent used Laezel very much, I just prefer Karlachs character and I dont feel like having 2 pure melee characters in a party of 4 at the moment.

Where I'm at the Barbarian Berserker sub-class gets an option to use the bonus action as an extra attack when shes in Frenzy, so she hits twice in one turn as a base. Using a 2 handed weapon combined with the Great Weapon Master feat which gives you an extra attack every time you kill or hit a critical, the single target damage output is pretty good.

The GWM feat also gives you a toggleable passive skill option to hit for 10 extra damage but with a -5 chance to hit. With Reckless attack theres advantage to hit and it mitigates the reduced chance to hit from the feat debuff, although it also gives disadvantage to defence.

Its working quite well in act 1, not sure how it progresses later on and what other skills there are to unlock yet.

 

[Pifanjr]

Playing on Tactician vs normal isnt as hard as I thought it would be so long as I'm exploring everything and gearing up properly. Seems if you make use of all the items and potions available

You use consumables? In act 1? I could never, I need to hoard them. I only used a couple of healing potions. Maybe one or two special arrows to test them out.

Only now that I'm in Act 2 do I occasionally throw an alchemist fire. Though I did drink one of the elixirs I had multiple of, but it did feel like I kind of wasted it.

 

[Zed Clampet]

You use consumables? In act 1? I could never, I need to hoard them. I only used a couple of healing potions. Maybe one or two special arrows to test them out.

Only now that I'm in Act 2 do I occasionally throw an alchemist fire. Though I did drink one of the elixirs I had multiple of, but it did feel like I kind of wasted it.

This seems a little neurotic to me

But we aren't playing Tactician, so it doesn't matter for us, I guess.

After I finish my solo game, I may start another game in Tactician. Probably will wait awhile before doing that, though.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

You use consumables? In act 1? I could never, I need to hoard them. I only used a couple of healing potions. Maybe one or two special arrows to test them out.

Only now that I'm in Act 2 do I occasionally throw an alchemist fire. Though I did drink one of the elixirs I had multiple of, but it did feel like I kind of wasted it.

I have 3 or 4 speed potions on each character still, there were I think 3 in Auntie Ethels house alone. To be fair I'll only use them in a fight Ive lost once or twice already. I went to the Zhentarim cave with the Gnolls a bit too early and used one there and it was enough to get through.

 

[Zloth]

I think @Kaamos_Llama has the right idea. If you're going to be thinking a lot about your character builds, doing most every quest, poking around to find the hidden areas, and so on then you're going to need tactician difficulty to make the fights at all challenging.

I've been staying away from those speed potions. I should really start using them at the end of the bigger battles, but I worry that the end won't really be the end and I'll be staring down two bosses with half my characters in "lethargic" state.

There are a few items in the game that radiate effects. For instance, some flower things down in the Underdark turn off magic. They seem like something that could prove exceedingly useful later on, but I sure don't want to keep them around, so I sent them back to camp. Now, whenever characters/pets happen to walk by certain camp chests, they get the 'anti-magic' glow and effect! I've never seen a game do that before!

 

[Frindis]

Playing on Tactician vs normal isnt as hard as I thought it would be so long as I'm exploring everything and gearing up properly. Seems if you make use of all the items and potions available as well as being levelled up its balanced pretty well. I wonder if they adjusted the difficulty or I'm just better prepared this time, some of the fights I remember having to think about are much easier than the first time around on 'normal' difficulty.

There are differences like camp supply, enemy HP, enemies being more strategic and more mechanics with bosses, but for the most part it is basically normal +. If normal was cut out, I don't really think it would have mattered that much for new players. I could remember wrong here though, it is a long time since I played on normal. I do know that the difficulty spike from Tactical to Honor mode (or tactical + one could say) is much higher, but also here the experience from tactical helps immensely with the preparation. So I guess the normal mob fights in honor mode is not that much harder, the bosses are, but it is really the permadeath that is the small inconvenience.

I have 3 or 4 speed potions on each character still, there were I think 3 in Auntie Ethels house alone. To be fair I'll only use them in a fight Ive lost once or twice already. I went to the Zhentarim cave with the Gnolls a bit too early and used one there and it was enough to get through.

Whaaaat!? You have been stealing potions from Auntie Ethel? She's just a sweet old lady! You would think living in a tiny, tiny moldy house would be enough, but oh no. In comes @Kaamos_Llama and steals stuff from her poor wooden shelves. Ethel is probably in great despair now, ripping locks of her hair and cursing you.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

There are differences like camp supply, enemy HP, enemies being more strategic and more mechanics with bosses, but for the most part it is basically normal +. If normal was cut out, I don't really think it would have mattered that much for new players. I could remember wrong here though, it is a long time since I played on normal. I do know that the difficulty spike from Tactical to Honor mode (or tactical + one could say) is much higher, but also here the experience from tactical helps immensely with the preparation. So I guess the normal mob fights in honor mode is not that much harder, the bosses are, but it is really the permadeath that is the small inconvenience.

Yea the permadeath is the thing that scares me about Honor mode, could try thinking of it like a 100 hour run based game I guess.

Whaaaat!? You have been stealing potions from Auntie Ethel? She's just a sweet old lady! You would think living in a tiny, tiny moldy house would be enough, but oh no. In comes @Kaamos_Llama and steals stuff from her poor wooden shelves. Ethel is probably in great despair now, ripping locks of her hair and cursing you.

Sweet old lady with strength of 18. Hmm!

 

[Frindis]

Yea the permadeath is the thing that scares me about Honor mode, could try thinking of it like a 100 hour run based game I guess.

Jupp, it's definitely scary at times, but that is also why it is such an epic journey aka as you put it: "100 hour run based game". Think of that Act 2 fight, how you have to prepare for it, think about tactics beforehand and then you finally go down to the fight. It is nerve wrecking, but MAN do you feel like a fighter when you get through it! I had so many near deaths on my journey, so many stories to remember and when I was at the final fight, the whole thing felt like I had been playing a different game.

For me particularly it is the sweaty palms and that rush you feel when in a real tight squeeze that puts the cherry on top. The longer you journey with your group, the harder it is to acknowledge that this might just be the last time you see them, but that also means you are going to fight with all you have before taking the last breath.

There is also those close encounters with mechanics you have forgotten about in the earlier runs that makes for some hilarious encounters. When you get into that "oh, nooooooooo" situation and just have to wing it because you made a giant kakapo.