Baldurs Gate 3

[TedEH]

Well, I gave up on Jaheira. Retried the fight, she died anyway. So I move on. It's not meant to be. I've saved right after the bit where

Spoiler

you learn that the person in the spiky orb thing is actually a flayer, and you have to "evolve" your parasite. I tried to say no, but failed the almost-impossible roll because I already used too many of the tadpole powers. Which, now that I think about it, that really explains why the dream person kept strongly encouraging you to use them.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I can't believe it took me 12 levels to finally remember to use a Potion of Bloodlust with Karlach. She absolutely wrecks with the extra action after getting a kill, and I was out of rages for that encounter. Orin is about to have a terrible day.

 

[Werecow]

I can't believe it took me 12 levels to finally remember to use a Potion of Bloodlust with Karlach. She absolutely wrecks with the extra action after getting a kill, and I was out of rages for that encounter. Orin is about to have a terrible day.

I've actually never noticed that type of potion! Looks like it gives a full action rather than just an attack?
When i was learning the game I made the mistake of giving Karlach the Great Weapon feat, which gives an extra attack (after killing) in the form of a bonus action. But then realised Karlach can use her bonus action as an attack every turn anyway while raging. Oops. I was hoping it'd stack with her rage.


I understand why people say how simplified 5e rules are now. I must admit i miss 3/3.5 rules. Mainly because as a Wizard, so many spells just result in either advantage as a buff, or disadvantage as a debuff. The older rules had so many unique effects for each spell. Also, so many spells are concentration based now, and it's so easy to get concentration broken. It just has the effect on me of never really using any of them, or if i need to cast haste on a fighter, leaving my wizard right out of the fight. I'm sure that's not the desired effect they wanted when changing the rules, but it seems like the only sensible way of using magic.
3 & 3.5 based games had so many tactical options with spells. I really miss that.

 

[TedEH]

I'm approaching the 130 hour mark and I think I'm starting to understand why people say the third act has some pacing issues. Acts 1 and 2 felt like they had a very direct and clear path through them, some clear goals, etc. It's not that act 3 doesn't have goals, but the sense of urgency is a little weird. So much just wandering around wrapping up little things or wondering where time is best spent. The individual side-stories themselves are still good, it's just the overarching sense of what drives you to them seems weaker than earlier. Especially when you're 130 hours in. For most "long games" I've played, this is usually about when things start getting focused and wrapping up, but instead it got kinda less focused.

 

[wankerness]

I'm approaching the 130 hour mark and I think I'm starting to understand why people say the third act has some pacing issues. Acts 1 and 2 felt like they had a very direct and clear path through them, some clear goals, etc. It's not that act 3 doesn't have goals, but the sense of urgency is a little weird. So much just wandering around wrapping up little things or wondering where time is best spent. The individual side-stories themselves are still good, it's just the overarching sense of what drives you to them seems weaker than earlier. Especially when you're 130 hours in. For most "long games" I've played, this is usually about when things start getting focused and wrapping up, but instead it got kinda less focused.

I think the root of this issue, if you consider it one (I didn't really), is that the game has WAY too many gigantic variables for what the situation is in act III. Like, it's very possible to get to act three with only one or two of the companions alive! So, they kind of had to have modular chunks of plot available so those who had been too evil in their playthrough or otherwise "screwed up" would still have content, and then they also had to have the resolution of the main plot. So if you ended up with ALL your party members still alive and with you, you end up having a TON of these modular "sidequests" to do and it feels like the world-threatening emergency is just on hold for a while as you deal with all these comparatively minor concerns. Not to mention there are a ton of sidequests that are only available if you did the first part in act 1 or act 2 a certain way, or they're only available if X NPC is still alive, etc. I think the more you did "right" in the playthrough the more overwhelming and clunky the pacing in Act 3 will feel.

This all said I think act 3 was great, especially with Jaheira and Minsck (I assume you're locked out of having him cause you f'd up Jaheira). I think the first two are more of a standard linear adventure quest thing, while the third is just a huge collection of payoffs to all the previous stuff.

 

[TedEH]

I think I'm past the "what am I even supposed to be doing" stage, now that I've killed two of the three boss people. But I still have a kidnapped companion, Jaheira and Minsc are dead, and Gale ran away at some point (presumably also dead) because I accidentally recruited him too late in the game and I think it fast-forwarded his story past critical moments I would have needed to keep him around.

 

[wankerness]

I think I'm past the "what am I even supposed to be doing" stage, now that I've killed two of the three boss people. But I still have a kidnapped companion, Jaheira and Minsc are dead, and Gale ran away at some point (presumably also dead) because I accidentally recruited him too late in the game and I think it fast-forwarded his story past critical moments I would have needed to keep him around.

Wow, you screwed up big!

Fortunately those hirelings or whatever they called are overpowered. They have no personality, but they're just as good as the "real" characters, moreso in a way cause you can choose their specialization instead of being stuck with the default garbage specs that a couple of the characters have if you don't know any better.

I'm very curious how the real end-game plays out if Gale "ran away." Since you could just

Spoiler

nuke the world with Gale and "win" instantly (albeit with killing yourself and everyone you know)

. I wonder if he comes back to do that!

 

[TedEH]

Everyone I've got is max level at this point though, and has been for a while. I don't really feel under-powered. My avatar character does all the ranged stuff + half-illithid + dread ambusher means I can usually nuke 3 enemies on the first round. Karlach is a tank. I've found weapons that seem to work well for me. I figured out a way to get Laezel to be able to do up to 9 attacks in one turn, so you just give her a strong two-hand weapon and go to town. Then Shadowheart mostly heals and the spirit guardians cast at a high enough level do crowd control. This strategy has gotten me through almost all of act 3. Plus 3 characters have the psy backlash reaction thing, and those same three have the "enemy auto-dies if they drop below one of your skills" or whatever it is.

I think mostly it's story-wise I've messed up. But to their credit, it compensates well. I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for google or forums or whatever that Gale exists, or that I was supposed to be able to recruit the others.

 

[Werecow]

I think mostly it's story-wise I've messed up. But to their credit, it compensates well. I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for google or forums or whatever that Gale exists, or that I was supposed to be able to recruit the others.

Not really messed up, as the game is about making it your own, and it evolves around you. But the characters you're missing provide quite a lot of entertainment in the game. I think the people you're missing are all the ones that have made me properly laugh at certain scenes and interactions actually. You might get an unintentionally darker ending (especially if you hear from Gale), but who knows, people are always posting about unusual ways things pan out in this game.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I'm only doing the quest lines for the 3 that I keep in my party: Karlach, Shadowheart, and Wyll. I'm ignoring Astarion's and Gale's quests until s future playthrough.

Also it seems they fixed shield bash? I at least got it to trigger against a particularly large and beefy murdering man, though it missed each time. But at least it made a sound effect and told me I missed, so it probably works.

 

[Werecow]

I'm only doing the quest lines for the 3 that I keep in my party: Karlach, Shadowheart, and Wyll. I'm ignoring Astarion's and Gale's quests until s future playthrough.

Also it seems they fixed shield bash? I at least got it to trigger against a particularly large and beefy murdering man, though it missed each time. But at least it made a sound effect and told me I missed, so it probably works.

Yeh, shield bash was fixed on the last big content patch i think. I've been giving my game a little break after reading that it also introduced some bugs at the same time.

I've managed to time my playthroughs where both times i've reached Act 3, a big but buggy patch comes out I restarted the first time, trying to resist the urge now. They did a new epilogue last time though, and i was worried i wouldn't get it.

 

[TedEH]

I thought Astarion's side quest was a pretty fun section. I've been doing the ones that I have available, given who I have left (lol). Noticing a bit of a theme though, in terms of their reactions to completing those side-quests.

 

[wankerness]

I think I did every single character's sidequest on my playthrough cause I reloaded saves the couple of times I inadvertently did something that would have locked me out. Act 3 has some seriously gnarly bosses and a I THINK a few of them are specifically linked to sidequests (Wyll, Astarion and Shadowheart especially). At least, I think you can skip the bosses in house of hope and house of grief or whatever the heck they're called.

The one think I think I locked out was maybe the end of Laezel's quest? I didn't free the imprisoned dude and she was pissed. I am not sure if there was something else that would have happened if I had.

 

[TedEH]

The one think I think I locked out was maybe the end of Laezel's quest? I didn't free the imprisoned dude and she was pissed.

I haven't done that either. I wonder if that goes any different if you don't do Wyll's stuff, and don't end up getting some of the story reveals that come with that.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Don't remember if it was covered already here, but apparently the console versions will be getting mod support sometime this year? This is great news since I feel like so much exp is wasted in Act 3 since I've been level 12 since like the 30-40% mark (I assume). Would be great to multiclass or hopefully have a good mod that opens the level cap to at least 15 or something. It would also be more incentive to do other characters' storylines since this playthrough I've largely left Astarion, Gale, and Lae'zel untouched.

 

[wankerness]

Don't remember if it was covered already here, but apparently the console versions will be getting mod support sometime this year? This is great news since I feel like so much exp is wasted in Act 3 since I've been level 12 since like the 30-40% mark (I assume). Would be great to multiclass or hopefully have a good mod that opens the level cap to at least 15 or something. It would also be more incentive to do other characters' storylines since this playthrough I've largely left Astarion, Gale, and Lae'zel untouched.

Hmm. As a PS5 user I assume this will not really affect us - the mod support for Skyrim is absolute dogshit compared to xbox, which IIRC can use pretty much anything. Sony has/had some stupid rule where mods couldn't use any original assets (to keep porn off the platform, presumably), and couldn't be over 1 gig in size. So basically any good mods were not an option. Hopefully Sony backs off those policies for this or it will probably be an equal waste of time.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Didn't see this thread before. I'm late to the party, but with the benefit of skipping a lot of annoying early bugs it sounds like. Got a Gith sword bard/paladin multiclass to the end of A2 then restarted on tactician because I was finding the combat too easy. Party is my Gith sword bard, Laezel, Karlach, Gale. Beastly cleave team. I managed to recruit Minthara in A2 the first time through by leaving her unconscious in A1 (thanks Reddit) but she is cartoonishly evil and not especially powerful.

Elixir of Giant Strength is hot shit, honestly kind of broken. I'm miserly with my rests so I have more than enough to have them up on Karlach and Lae'zel constantly. Haste is really good (duh). "Until Long Rest" spells (Longstrider, Resist Poison, Freedom of Movement) are really good. Elixir of Bloodlust is ridiculous on Dual-Wielding Sword Bard. Concentration sucks but Slow, Hold Person, and Hold Monster are still really good. Summon Greater Elemental rules, Air is my favorite. Healing spells are a waste of actions in combat, but I respec Shadowheart to Life and let her top the squad up in camp to stretch my rests even further.

Hardest fights so far have been the Duergar lake ambush, tower entrance, and fucking exploding asshole trees and mud mephits. Big bosses (Hag, Spider Queen, Dror-Razglin, Spectator, Avatar of Myrkul) did not impress on Balanced, but we will see what Tactician has in store, I'm parked outside the gobbo camp at level 4 currently.

Busy with real life shit rn but looking forward to getting back into my tactician run. I botched a few things the first time around, including letting all the prisoners in Moonrise die (though I kept Jaheira alive). After I wrap that run up I'll probably take a crack at Honor mode.

 

[Werecow]

I'd been mulling over attempting an evil run (as Dark Urge), but patch 7 is adding extra evil content and endings apparently, so i guess i'll wait for that. Thing is, i've always had trouble doing evil runs in RPGs, especially when it comes to being shit to favourite party members as well. So i guess i'll see what happens.