Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough Discussion

[Zed Clampet]

My solo game is on hold for two reasons:

1) V Rising
2) I have to decide whether I'm going any farther in it right now. I've made it to a good place. I've got all the early companions and have killed the Paladins. I'm now going to make copies of this save file so I never have to do the very beginning again. From now on I start from here.

However, I don't like the fact that I'm using mods. I haven't got the balance correct yet, and it just feels pointless like I'm cheating.

 

[Frindis]

Speaking of mods, there is a couple of mods (forgot the names, but easy to find) that let's you get different chests with all the different clothes in the game + some extra. Nice way to add some extra flavor to the party, perhaps make one of the characters look a certain way or maybe a thematic thing going on.

 

[Pifanjr]

I finally got time to play again today. I managed to level everyone up to level 9 right before the final boss fight of Act 2, which was great timing.

Spoiler: Spoiler for boss fight

I didn't do a long rest before starting the boss fight because everyone was still at full health from the last short rest and with the extra spell slots from levelling up I didn't think I'd need to. I spent a bunch of high level spells on buffs before the battle started and managed to sneak a couple of my summons, who hadn't automatically joined the fight, behind some of the enemies. Then I used the last of my high level spells to quickly take out everyone.

At least, that's what I thought. Instead I entered the second phase of the fight with no high level spells left and really no answer to the insanely high defence of the big bad. I just had to slowly chip away at its health while trying to also kill all of the necromites it was summoning. At some point most of my summons were either dead or useless and I wasn't able to kill the necromites before they hatched, so I had to deal with the boss healing like 75% of the damage I was doing each round.

Luckily it focused most of its damage on Karlach, who was only taking half damage due to her rage and could be healed every time she was thrown from the platform in the middle, while spreading the rest of the damage around. None of my party members went down and I managed to get through the last 100 health by using a speed potion on everyone and getting double attacks for 3 turns.

There were definitely some things I could've done better, either in preparation or during the fight, but it all worked out fairly well. I'm now ready for Act 3 with a camp chest filled to the brim with loot to sell.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Zed Clampet I just entered Act 3 and now I understand why you think Monk's are so powerful. I got a pretty thorough ass whooping, with Wyll taken down before he even got a chance to act in the first fight. With how fast monks are and their immunity to difficult terrain it's also really hard to do any crowd control.

It also doesn't help that the Polearm Mastery + Sentinel combination is apparently bugged. Normally you'd get an attack of opportunity when an enemy enters your range (with a polearm that's at 10 feet) and if you hit their speed is set to 0, meaning that if the enemy doesn't have a reach weapon themselves they can't hit you. But in BG3 if an enemy is moving to attack your character with Polearm Mastery + Sentinel they finish their move and thus attack you even if you hit them with your attack of opportunity.
Luckily there seems to be several mods that fix this, though they're kind of janky because they just add a knockback effect instead of actually fixing the issue, which seems to be impossible with the current way the game is made.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Zed Clampet I just entered Act 3 and now I understand why you think Monk's are so powerful. I got a pretty thorough ass whooping, with Wyll taken down before he even got a chance to act in the first fight. With how fast monks are and their immunity to difficult terrain it's also really hard to do any crowd control.

They are kind of impossible to get away from. There was a fight where there was one character we had to take down quickly and he was very far away and up high on a ledge, and I got my monk to him in the first turn. I made it even better by carrying extra consumables that made him even more mobile, like teleportation arrows. Those were very expensive, but they paid off several times.

My monk had a cape that along with his natural evasiveness made him nearly impossible to hit. Guido said he was immortal. Plus you get 4 or 5 attacks per turn, including an optional small one that is AOE.

 

[Pifanjr]

They are kind of impossible to get away from. There was a fight where there was one character we had to take down quickly and he was very far away and up high on a ledge, and I got my monk to him in the first turn. I made it even better by carrying extra consumables that made him even more mobile, like teleportation arrows. Those were very expensive, but they paid off several times.

My monk had a cape that along with his natural evasiveness made him nearly impossible to hit. Guido said he was immortal. Plus you get 4 or 5 attacks per turn, including an optional small one that is AOE.

After getting my ass whooped by monks, I managed to get the drop on three enemies and killed them all before they could even take a single action.

I now run around with 9 summons at all times, which makes positioning everyone a bit of a bother, but it does mean I have a major advantage in regards to the action economy. I could have gotten a tenth if I had gotten the Eldritch Invocation "Minions of Chaos" for Wyll, which I really should have. Maybe I'll stop by Withers and get it when I go back to camp.

 

[Zed Clampet]

After getting my ass whooped by monks, I managed to get the drop on three enemies and killed them all before they could even take a single action.

I now run around with 9 summons at all times, which makes positioning everyone a bit of a bother, but it does mean I have a major advantage in regards to the action economy. I could have gotten a tenth if I had gotten the Eldritch Invocation "Minions of Chaos" for Wyll, which I really should have. Maybe I'll stop by Withers and get it when I go back to camp.

I love summoning, but I didn't really dive too deeply into it. I was only playing 2 of the 4 characters, and the monk can't summon anyone (unless there's a feat for that), but I did carry around "summon elemental" scrolls and used those in the bigger fights.

 

[Zloth]

Wyll got a sword toward the end of act 2 in my game that let him summon some sort of demon - an incubus I think. Having more attacks and things to be attacked certainly helps a lot. Even if summons can't do much damage, they can at least take hits.

Oooo, that guy is going to be rough. SUMMONS! PREPARE FOR GLORY!!

View: https://youtu.be/X8LlAWQd2hE?si=SVEtuS-W_3HufXJK

 

[Pifanjr]

Wyll got a sword toward the end of act 2 in my game that let him summon some sort of demon - an incubus I think. Having more attacks and things to be attacked certainly helps a lot. Even if summons can't do much damage, they can at least take hits.

Summons are indeed pretty great at taking hits, though a lot of times they just get caught up in a big AoE in my experience.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The first time Shadowheart summoned that angel-type guy (not the one who takes damage every time he causes damage), he missed, I don't know, something like his first 10 attacks. It was crazy. I was actually beginning to think he was bugged. But he did great after that and he has a lot of health, so I don't think he ever died in one of our battles.

 

[Pifanjr]

While summons are great, they're an absolute pain when traversing ladders or anything else that needs to be climbed. For some reason only one character can climb at a time, which isn't that big of a problem with a party of 4, but it becomes much more bothersome when you have 9 extra creatures running around with you.

It's happened multiple times now that some of my summons were left behind because it took them so long to follow me that I had walked out of range and they just stopped moving.

I'm starting to get burned out a bit with how long it takes just to explore every part of the map, but I also don't really want to miss out on any content.

 

[Zed Clampet]

While summons are great, they're an absolute pain when traversing ladders or anything else that needs to be climbed. For some reason only one character can climb at a time, which isn't that big of a problem with a party of 4, but it becomes much more bothersome when you have 9 extra creatures running around with you.

It's happened multiple times now that some of my summons were left behind because it took them so long to follow me that I had walked out of range and they just stopped moving.

I'm starting to get burned out a bit with how long it takes just to explore every part of the map, but I also don't really want to miss out on any content.

Personally, I don't think I could stand exploring with 9 summons, but we long-rested after every major fight, so even our 1 summons wasn't with us most of the time. But when he was, he annoyed the crap out of me, especially when we had to jump to places.

 

[Zloth]

But watching your dog climb down ladders never gets old!

 

[Pifanjr]

But watching your dog climb down ladders never gets old!

I think she prefers to be referred to as Karlach.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I think she prefers to be referred to as Karlach.

HEY! Don't talk about Karlach that way! Granted, she's objectively hideous, but she's so optimistic and enthusiastic...like a puppy. Never mind.

Going to go back into my solo game. Think I'm going to change Karlach's class to either just a regular fighter or to a Paladin.

And I might change my own class from Bard to...anything else. Although his persuasion is out of this world, and I really like that.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I think I just had a bug. I approached the windmill where the gnome was being tortured by the goblins. I convinced them to leave. I go around and turn the windmill off, but the gnome isn't there when I go back around to the front. In the quest menu, it says that he was killed? How? I'm going to reload a save.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I think I just had a bug. I approached the windmill where the gnome was being tortured by the goblins. I convinced them to leave. I go around and turn the windmill off, but the gnome isn't there when I go back around to the front. In the quest menu, it says that he was killed? How? I'm going to reload a save.

I know theres 2 buttons in the windmill and one of them yeets the Gnome off into the distance, maybe you pressed the wrong one by accident?

 

[Frindis]

If the gnome died from the wrong lever, and if I remember correctly, then you should have seen a cutscene with him getting thrown into the distance. Or maybe you turned the right lever and then the other lever and that skipped the cutscene?

Another theory is that Zed is lying, and he killed all the goblins and had his minion eat the gnome. He is playing: "Oh, where did he go, I don't knooooow!"

Ohhh, I just came up with an idea. Zed, you have to try this one: (or I will try at the next restart) Use the Lump's War Horn (the one from the three ogres) and see if they kill him. That would be the definition of evil!

 

[Zed Clampet]

I know theres 2 buttons in the windmill and one of them yeets the Gnome off into the distance, maybe you pressed the wrong one by accident?

If the gnome died from the wrong lever, and if I remember correctly, then you should have seen a cutscene with him getting thrown into the distance. Or maybe you turned the right lever and then the other lever and that skipped the cutscene?

Another theory is that Zed is lying, and he killed all the goblins and had his minion eat the gnome. He is playing: "Oh, where did he go, I don't knooooow!"

Ohhh, I just came up with an idea. Zed, you have to try this one: (or I will try at the next restart) Use the Lump's War Horn (the one from the three ogres) and see if they kill him. That would be the definition of evil!

I guess I got the wrong lever because I clicked on the tag which was nowhere near the actual lever and was bleeding into the other tag. In that case the bug is that I didn't see him fly off. But I'm playing with a bunch of mods, so I can't actually blame the game for anything.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I guess I got the wrong lever because I clicked on the tag which was nowhere near the actual lever and was bleeding into the other tag. In that case the bug is that I didn't see him fly off. But I'm playing with a bunch of mods, so I can't actually blame the game for anything.

The gnome flying part is like a 2 second flash of a dot flying off into the distance after watching the cogs in the windmill speed up, I think it would be easy to miss that part if you were talking to someone while playing co-op. But could be either

 

[Zed Clampet]

The gnome flying part is like a 2 second flash of a dot flying off into the distance after watching the cogs in the windmill speed up, I think it would be easy to miss that part if you were talking to someone while playing co-op. But could be either

No, I was playing solo and actually paying attention for once. There was definitely no scene of him flying off.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

No, I was playing solo and actually paying attention for once. There was definitely no scene of him flying off.

Oops that actually wasnt meant to be a winky face.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Oops that actually wasnt meant to be a winky face.

I'm not really doom-interpreting emojis today.

I quit at this point yesterday, so I'm going to go in and save right before I do the levers and see if he flies off today.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Oops that actually wasnt meant to be a winky face.

*sigh* No, you were right. I probably missed that.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

*sigh* No, you were right. I probably missed that.

Then you interpreted the intention correctly to start with and all is well. Phew.