Baldurs Gate 3

[BlackMastodon]

Kind of my complaint too. You could pop out and long rest, come in blasting fireballs in every tough fight, but it doesn't seem fair. Basically every long rest I did the whole game, the whole party was pretty much totally spent. I don't really like that the only calibration on the appropriate amount of long rests is just your own intuition about what feels right. I think in BG1 you would get ambushed during long rests seemingly whenever you really needed a peaceful one.

This is kinda how I treated it, but I was also paranoid of the story moving forward while I rested which was based off of a rumor I thought I heard about the Emerald Grove kicking out the Tieflings in Act 1 if you took too long or something, but I'm not sure if that's true. I got. A lot more liberal with my use of long rests halfway through Act 2 but I don't abuse it and basically try to save it for when I'm low on spellslots and such. The camp supplies are so easy to come by that I actually haven't even had to use the Supplies inventory item and just throw food in every time.

The posts above are convincing me to take more rests in a row and see what I'm missing out on.

 

[wankerness]

I got locked out of multiple romance options from never taking long rests in acts 1 and 2, if that kind of thing matters to you. Don't think I missed anything else "important."

 

[Werecow]

There are quite a few dream guardian visits during long rests. They're basically main story progression and background. If someone only does a few rests i'm not sure what the game prioritizes between dream guardian, party member stories, romance stories etc, or what the actual cut off point is when the game will abandon showing each one.
Some of the party member story long rests not only further their character progression, but start up or progress quests as well.

 

[TedEH]

Had a moment where I got an achievement for something, and the text of the achievement gave away that I unknowingly did something the hard way.

Spoiler

I managed to kill the Grymforge guardian monster robot thingie without using the forge itself. The achievement implies you're "meant to" lure him into the center and crush him with the forge, but I did not do this. Instead lured him around in circles and chipped away until it was over. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[BlackMastodon]

Had a moment where I got an achievement for something, and the text of the achievement gave away that I unknowingly did something the hard way.

Spoiler

I managed to kill the Grymforge guardian monster robot thingie without using the forge itself. The achievement implies you're "meant to" lure him into the center and crush him with the forge, but I did not do this. Instead lured him around in circles and chipped away until it was over. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You absolute madlad. I initially started doing it the way you did but figure it out halfway through. I unfortunately did have to save scrub and redo it about 3 times for some reason I don't remember, and realized the first time I did the fight it was glitches and there were no adds, but then the subsequent times it seemed to be working correctly and was more of a pain in the ass.

But hey, ya got a chievo.

 

[wankerness]

You absolute madlad. I initially started doing it the way you did but figure it out halfway through. I unfortunately did have to save scrub and redo it about 3 times for some reason I don't remember, and realized the first time I did the fight it was glitches and there were no adds, but then the subsequent times it seemed to be working correctly and was more of a pain in the ass.

But hey, ya got a chievo.

The game basically told you to do it if you went around reading all the books and tablets or whatever that are in that area, so I just did it as quickly as possible and took off half his health and it was easy. I was mad many hours later (in act 3, so absolutely no way I was going back) when I learned about the achievement!! Thus I had to look at all the subsequent boss kill achievements so I wouldn't miss any of those. I missed that one, the spider matriarch one, and the apostle of myrkul. Oh, and the one to kill that boss guy right at the VERY beginning of the game that you aren't really supposed to be able to seriously fight.

I'm still thinking about this game a lot and I am sure I'll be doing a second playthrough fairly soon. Well, until two games I'm hyped about come out the same day in February.

 

[TedEH]

The game basically told you to do it if you went around reading all the books and tablets or whatever that are in that area

I ended up at the forge before doing any of the weird mushroom people stuff, so I found the book with the instructions aaaaaaafter I'd already killed him. Oh well. I think I also skipped the spider thing near the beginning. Saw spiders. Said nope. Never returned (yet).

 

[Werecow]

I did that technically the hard way as well. I did spot that it was vulnerable to blugeoning damage when heated though, and i'd been carrying around extra great hammers on Lae'zel and Karlach (at first to "open" doors and chests). It went down in two or three turns doing it like that, but that included a hastened Lae'zel with action surge on top, which is always ridiculous against a single enemy.

 

[TedEH]

So I made it to one of the important bits at Moonrise.

Spoiler

Then lost Jaheira in the first floor of the tower. I figured that the dialogue was implying she was joining as a party member, and I know that's supposed to happen eventually, but she died before this could happen, so now she's perma-dead. I have a save from just before the fight, so I cooooould go back, but it was a long fight, and I've been trying not to save-scum away everything that doesn't go exactly right.

 

[narad]

So I made it to one of the important bits at Moonrise.

Spoiler

Then lost Jaheira in the first floor of the tower. I figured that the dialogue was implying she was joining as a party member, and I know that's supposed to happen eventually, but she died before this could happen, so now she's perma-dead. I have a save from just before the fight, so I cooooould go back, but it was a long fight, and I've been trying not to save-scum away everything that doesn't go exactly right.

I don't think it's exactly save scum cheating to save someone from their suicidal AI, completely outside of both your control and how they would behave in character, and preventing it from depriving you of some pretty significant later game content. On that battle I also had to reload a couple times -- the first time thinking, oh, that character won't be perma-dead, and then deciding not to risk it, but still have some difficulty framing the entire battle as a "save that character" objective, and not simply the fairly difficult fight that it is.

 

[Werecow]

You can convince her to join you in that fight, and you get to directly control her as a follower, rather than her be just an allied NPC in the combat. It must be a nightmare if she just runs into all the AOE spells going off. For most of the initial assault i just had her wait outside.

 

[TedEH]

to save someone from their suicidal AI

I was in control - So the failure is my failure, not the AI.

 

[narad]

I was in control - So the failure is my failure, not the AI.

Well still don't be so hard on yourself tbh, that may have been the only battle in the entire game that I save scummed. Nothing else coming to mind, and it's precisely because it doesn't really seem like the way the designers wanted the story to play out, nor is it a very fitting death scenario for that character.

There's always the perma-death difficulty mode for your next playthrough ;-)

 

[TedEH]

I suppose I could consider the same-scumming thing to be a workaround for how if this was an actual dnd rules tabletop type thing, I assume that there wouldn't be an arbitrary distinction between who can and can't be revived based on a technicality about who is or isn't flagged in a video-game-y way as a party member vs. "controllable but not technically part of your camp despite you having made that offer via dialogue 10 minutes ago".

 

[TedEH]

Also, my "rescue Halsin" quest seems to have bugged at some point. I did all the things, but it claims I bailed on the mission without asking for help. Steam forums suggest that it's just a janky thing that happens if you talk to people in the wrong order after you rescue the grove.

 

[wankerness]

Jaheira seems to be the party member that's given the most content in act 3, like, civilian interactions seem to give you more context and dialogue if you have her with you. Plus, I'm not sure you can recruit another new party member in act 3 if she's not with you, and she's got her own questline. So yeah, save scum or you'll miss a lot of stuff.

I might suggest respeccing her to some other class though, having a second druid is boring.

EDIT: What do you mean his quest bugged? Did you actually get him as a party member, or did it bug out so he never became a regular party member? Did he leave your camp? I think as long as you have him still it doesn't matter that much, I don't remember anything major happening in that quest. I feel like I cured some guy that was in the inn and cursed or something and then that person also became an interactable NPC but that was about it. Reading online after that big battle in Light's Hope, I got really lucky, seems like a LOT of important NPCs can get killed there if you're not careful, and somehow I stumbled my way through it without any deaths besides like, one irrelevant NPC.

Halsin was my least favorite character regardless. Creepy horny guy.

 

[BlackMastodon]

It must be a nightmare if she just runs into all the AOE spells going off.

It was. That's why I gave up eventually and just let her stay dead. Next playthrough we'll see what I can do.

I suppose I could consider the same-scumming thing to be a workaround for how if this was an actual dnd rules tabletop type thing, I assume that there wouldn't be an arbitrary distinction between who can and can't be revived based on a technicality about who is or isn't flagged in a video-game-y way as a party member vs. "controllable but not technically part of your camp despite you having made that offer via dialogue 10 minutes ago".

I really wish the game let you use revivify scrolls on NPCs, seems really silly that it only works on your party members.

I'm still plugging away at it and just hit lvl 12 earlier this week but didn't have time in the night to go through and level everyone. I also haven't fought any of the big bads yet, so I'm kinda expecting to absolutely ruin their days nie that I'm at max level. Should be fun.

But that being said, absolutely don't sweat it if you missed out on a quest line, unless you plan on never playing it again and really wanted to see how something would play out. There's so much content that you'll easily make up for lost exp on one's you missed.

 

[wankerness]

It was. That's why I gave up eventually and just let her stay dead. Next playthrough we'll see what I can do.

I can't remember the exact setup of that battle anymore, but I feel like the first time I stumbled into it, I walked into the midst of it already occurring from the ground floor and there was basically no way I could get to the melee and kill all dangerous NPCs/heal her without her dying first. The second time I like, went outside and went in an upper story window or something and ambushed the unfriendly NPCs so I had killed half of them before Jaheira even had the chance to kamikazee herself. So, I think I ended up having to throw one little heal at her and that was it.

 

[Werecow]

Yeh, i find it incredibly strange that they have two druids as party members, and no Bard. I think Alfira would have made a better party member and character arc than Halsin.

I actually can't think of another DnD game that doesn't have a recruitable Bard.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Yeh, i find it incredibly strange that they have two druids as party members, and no Bard. I think Alfira would have made a better party member and character arc than Halsin.

I actually can't think of another DnD game that doesn't have a recruitable Bard.

I really really thought that Alfira would be a recruitable bard, fully agree that it's weird she isn't.