Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback +1 Equipment ... crafted rather than buyed.

Hello there once again.

I was just reading some article about "best weapons for each class" ... and there was even some tips for GM, where those weapons could be found ...
+1 / +2 weapons was quite low on the list, wich kinda surprised me, but that is not the point here ... BUT!!! Tip for GM was "any skillful blacksmith should be able to craft, or upgrade regular weapon to +1" ...

And i must say i love the idea and would like to see it in game.

Look at it now ...
You reach your first town, Druid Grove ... you talk to your FIRST VENDOR EVER in this game (i dont count skeleton, since he is not a vendor ... he just "can trade" if you know what i mean) ... and he allready offers you some +1 weapons and amor ...
Not sure how about you, but it seems cheap to me ... like why there even exist some regular armor, if magical one is so easily accessible? :-/
I mean yes, it cost quite some serious money ... but we steal it anyway, so w/e i gues.

What i would like to see would be option for the Tiefling Blacksmith to upgrade our equipment to +1.
(For some price, ofcourse ... maybe later in game, when we will find properly equipped Blacksmith, in Baldur's Gate for example, he should be able to upgrade it to +2 ... and maybe in final act, when we will find some master Blacksmith, wich by the way should be Dwarf :P , he coould be even able to upgrade it to +3.)
I can see few benefits in this:
- He would finaly feel more like blacksmith, rather than arms and armor vendor.
- We would not be able to steal the equipment.
(I mean we would probably steal the money anyway, but you get me right? )
- We would not be limited by weapons Vendors will be offering.
(This is quite important to me honestly, i incredibly dislike Dwarves using Swords ... in my eyes the only weapon any Dwarf would wear is either Hammer, Axe, or Warpick.)
- +1 Equipment would not feel so cheap, since we would not see bzillion types in every single vendor offering.
- On the other hand +1 Equipment would become much more accessible for our party.
- We would rely much less on equipment drops.

- And finaly (and i understand that this is the part, when it become quite discutable) ... we could potentialy get option to upgrade (for incerased price ofcourse) our magical equipment.


I would like to know your opinions.

Especialy for the last point ...
Personaly i would like to keep my Adamantine Armor, or Githyanki Armor (and weapons) as long as possible, and this seems to me like one of posible ways to achieve that.
On the other hand im not entirely sure how OP would it feels. :-/

I was also thinking about some diceroll where every time we would give Blacksmith any magical equipment, we would need to roll if the enchantment will be damaged (and dissapear from the weapon) or if the weapon will even survive the proces.

But please, tell me your opinions, tell me your ideas.

What option would you prefer? single choice
	I would NOT like Blacksmith to upgrade our gear at all, vendors are just fine.
	I like this idea, and want Blacksmith to upgrade all my gear.
	I like this idea, and want Blacksmith to upgrade only non-magical gear.
	I like this idea, and want Blacksmith to upgrade all my gear, but i want to roll if the enchantment will survive the process.
	I like this idea, and want Blacksmith to upgrade all my gear, but i want to roll if the gear itself will survive the process.
Votes accepted starting: 07/01/22 10:44 AM
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I would like for vendors that either as an individual or in partnership with two or more individuals, could reasonably be thought to supply the physical craftsmanship and the enchanting skill needed to upgrade weapons to certain thresholds... but I think also that Damon, in particular, makes a point of noting that he really does not have a good set up here, and barely even has metal that he feels comfortable calling steel to work with. He may have the skill needed too create or improve base level enchantments, but he absolutely cannot do it here, I feel. We shouldn't be seeing +1 gear as generic merchant fare in Act 1 at all, only finding and earning/winning/finding them as loot.

I agree vendors shouldn't have +1 items that early especially when it's supposed to be a refugee shelter.

What they should have is basic level Breastplates, Chain Mail, Splint Mail etc.

Blacksmiths upgrading items into +1, +2 or +3 should be a special rare instance instead of the main way to upgrade your gear. It feels more ARPG like Diablo than D&D. The main way to find your equipment should be to find it as loot from bosses or get it as a reward for a special quest. It would be nice to be able to upgrade your favourite weapon to keep it relevant for longer though.

+1

An addition: an opportunity to upgrade your favorite weapon AND/or armor. I did like what they did with the sussur bark (despite the fact I totally missed the quest in my playthrough. :P )

Interesting idea but mayby add something to the reqirements like you need some materials (limited supply of them available so u need to make some choice )to upgrade item not just gold, or at first u need to deliver some tools to blacksmith to unlock that upgrade option.
+1 seems not that impactfull but +2 should not be available at druid grove.
Anyway i still hope for some items rework like xeonide that is +0 blue / rare item ...
Mayby some expanded options to sussur bark quest option, too couse tbh just dagger , sickle and greatsword seems a bit limited, where is typical sword, axe, a bit more just melee weapons in it would be nice.

Dont focus too hard on Damon ...
That was just an example, since i dont know about any other Blacksmith in Act 1

What i actualy want to talk about is idea of upgrading gear by Blacksmiths as in general ...

It can easily be changed to
- Nothing in Act 1 ...
- some properly equipped Blacksmith in Baldurs Gate givin you +1 things in Act 2 ...
- some properly equipped Blacksmith in Act 3 givin you +2 things ...
- And you never find anyone who would be even able to create you +3, since those are too rare.

Not just weapons, armor too ...
I mean ... feel free to disagee with me ... but i cant quite imagine Shadowheart, or Lae'zel to siply sell their amor, or weapons (especialy for Lae'zel and ESPECIALY for Githyanki weapons, wich by the way i stil hope he get as a starting weapon ... no enchantment, just the skin) off and feel completely fine about it.

Right now, almost any 2H seems better (at least to me) than Githyanki ...
And once you get halfplate +1 Lae'zel would need to wawe goodbye to her armor too ...

Similar to Shadowheart, her armor is even weaker in matter of AC ... yet it represents her Goddess, so i cant quite imagine she would throw it away.

Or Druid for example, i know that right know Druids can equip litteraly anything (metal Armor especialy) ... but they should not be able to, at least not without consequences ...
So Larian would either keep this "oversight" there ...
Or implement whole bunch of non-metal armors just for Druids ...
Or simply allow us to upgrade Hide Armour we allready have. :P

Yup why not.

First step is having an idea ...
Second step is implementing it ...
Third step is ballancing it.

Agreed.
I never even wanted that.

But as i said, ballance is matter of later parts of potential development.

While that is a little offtopic, this would no longer be a problem if we would get this option. ^_^

While i agree ... (and while even this is a little offtopic)
I believe this was decision made for Ballancing stuff. :-/

Maybe someone in Larian get the feeling that having silencing weapon and a Shield would be a little too much, so they decided to use only 2H weapon and weakest (1d4) 1H weapons that are there.
But i agree, that they should "at least" allow us to make more 2H variation.

I would adore a way to upgrade gear to keep it viable later in the game. I hate finding an armor look or a cool weapon that I like and having to ditch it because its stats are too weak.

I love the idea and it is actually such a nostalgia element from classics like Neverwinter Nights, where we had a smith that could upgrade some equipment in each town. By the way there was another restriction for enchantments in the main campain. You needed to bring +1/+2/+3... weapon to the smith. You would lose that bonus, but would get some fancy magical property in return. And in Hordes of the Underdark there was a famous master smith that would add enchantments to your weapon again and again for a good price. I loved how I could bring him some weapon I just liked from aesthetic point of view and turn it into an Ultra-Mega God-killing weapon.

I remembered this coment yesterday ...
And i would like to present yet another idea ... there is fully equipped (even tho a little rusty) blacksmith workshop in Blighted Village!

How would you (people) like it in form of a Quest?
Just imagine ...
After you clean up whole Blighted Willage, you can return to Damon ... ask him if he would be able to upgrade some of your gear to +1 ... he say something like that he could, but he dont have proper tools ... you can tell him about the workshop ... and he agrees that he will meet you there and upgrade something for you (for a price) ... after the item is done, bunch of goblins (some kind of patrol or w/e) get inside and you have to fight ... when fight is done, Damon tell you that going outside was a misstake and he will rather return to the Grove ... if you speak with him again, he say something like "im not going outside again, unless goblins will be dealt with, and even then we will leave ... but come see me in Baldur's Gate and maybe we figure out something"?

Seems like quite good idea to me.
So im looking forward for first person who explains me why it isnt. xD

First

I like the idea to “unlock” an NPC who can upgrade items by finishing a quest. But what you suggest is a quest that promises the player a reward only to tell him at the very end that he isn’t getting anything for his efforts until Chapter 2!

On top of that, this quest line is pretty restrictive. To get +1 Items the player would need to:

- Discover the forge in the basement of the Blighted Village, which can be easily missed if one doesn’t explore the area thoroughly.
- Having to kill the Goblin Ambushers even if he successfully managed to talk them down, because there’s no way they’re letting the Tiefling smith pass through.
Or that the smith would enter a village full of hostile Goblins in the first place.
- Not siding with the Goblins, because that results in the death of the smith. Meaning that there’s even less reason to take the evil route.
- Not killing the Goblin leaders before solving this quest, because that results in the smith leaving.

I like the idea of visiting an NPC to upgrade weapons and armors. But there should be multiple such NPCs in the first chapter so that you don’t screw yourself for simply completing a quest. Alternatively, if there’s only a single NPC who is able to do this, he or she should be a camp follower. Preferably one who’s almost impossible to miss or even joins your camp automatically when take a long rest for the very first time. There can still be a quest that must be completed first, but it should be really hard to miss. Because this is an important feature.

What? No!

See? The reward is right there.

The point of that fight after work is to explain why is he willing to craft us single item only.
Since people were not exactly happy about previous suggestion with empowering items.

Yup ...
But those are consequences of our choices ... i mean, in my very first play i decided to join Zevlor and attack Kagha straight at our first meeting.
I cut myself from conciderable amount of content ... but it was my own choice.

Also, concidering how easy it is to find "some" +1 weapon right now ...
I would say that this is more quest for people who want to create some kind of weapon they see fitting more to their character, than those that are right now offered.
(Again, its based on the fact that by the poll people didnt like the idea of upgrading items via Blacksmith.)

And finaly ...
Nobody say that Larian "cant" add some Bugbear Blacksmith to Goblins who will be able to do the same. :P
After all ... they certainly get their armor from somewhere. So it would make sence.

Me too ...
That was the original idea, but it seems that we are minority here. :-/

This isnt easy to react on ...
While i would probably not mind multiple such NPCs ... i dont quite see the reason, yes you can screw yourself ... but that is the story with consequences.

In my eyes, it would be much better if there would be single NPC ... who in case of death (based on quests, not bcs you simply killed him to loot his corpse ) is replaced with diferent NPC ...
I mean Damon may be dead ... but the forge is still right there.

Since i totally hate the idea of camp followers ...
Especialy vendoring camp followers ...
And extra especialy vendoring camp follower providing covenient immersion breaking buffs ... wich fully equipped forge that is traveling through space and time would certainly be!

For those reasons ... no, no, no, and thousand more times NO! :-/
I would rather not have option to upgrade my armor, than have my suggestion defiled by such thing.

Depends ...

If that would mean for Larian to remove all +1 gear from Vendors ... i would rather see the unlimited (but expensive) upgrades suggestion, than this one. :-/

But if things stay as they are now, this would help you just to get some kind of flavour ... just option to get weapon fiting to your character, but that Vendors dont offer ... like staff for your monk, battleaxe for your Dwarf, or mace for Shadowheart ...