I almost feel like this report is a bit self-indulgent, given that I have very little extra to add beyond my previous Patch thoughts over the last couple of years. However, I thought it would be remiss of me not to post something!
So, for starters, this is definitely the most fun patch I've played to date (the Sorcerer, Bard & Paladin Patches were definitely the highlights for me), with the addition of Paladin, a rudimentary Reaction System & Level 5 being the obvious highlights (charring enemies with a Fireball never gets old
). I really don't have anything bad to say about BG3 at this point, as I feel that its all pretty much down to balancing and polishing between now and August. With that in mind, though, there were a few things I wanted to bring up, specifically.
Long Resting: At the moment I still feel like its way too easy to Long-rest in the game, so I'd love to see that get some balance passes. Obviously, tying the cost and availability of Long-rests to the Game's difficulty settings would be a good place to start. Beyond that, though, I feel that Camp Supplies should all have lower values, and be a bit more scarce within the game-world. I'd also like to see the cost of Long-Resting be tied to the party size, current party level & the camp location (more hospitable parts of the map might have a lower cost, for instance). Last of all, I'd like for the Mini-camps to be much more restricted in who & what you can access. These should only contain your current Party Members *and* anyone that has plot relevant dialogue.
Character Creator: At this point its all about adding more options to the character creator for v1.0....both in terms of physical appearance & possible background information. I don't want every character I create to be from Baldur's Gate
.
Reaction System: As with the Character Creator, its really all about adding more actions and abilities to the Reaction System. Though a slight refinement of the UI for the reaction system would also be great.
Paladins & Oaths: I really think that the tenets of a Paladin's Oath (whether Devotion or Ancients) needs to be clearly laid out during character creation. Actions or dialogue that might lead to breaking your oath should be properly sign-posted to the player (at least at lower difficulties). I'd also like to see the addition of a difficult speech check as a means of avoiding an Oath-break (getting more difficult with each new transgression), & perhaps a loss of XP or some other penalty if you do end up as an Oath-breaker. Likewise, restoring your Oath should require much more than a gold payment. At the very least, an equally difficult speech check should be required, and again perhaps some kind of short-term penalty, like XP loss or fulfillment of a specific goal to get your Oath back.
Last of all, even if its purely for flavour, I'd love to have the Option to pick a Deity for my Paladin-one appropriate to the type of Paladin I am-during character creation. Obviously, if it also added more dialogue options and/or an extra tenet for my oath, that'd also be cool....but might be too much to ask at this late juncture.
My last comment/suggestion is that I'd love to have the scene with the fishermen trying to help the Mind Flayer added back into the game. Its not a deal-breaker or anything, it'd just be great to have back.
Marcus.
