Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General A Few Questions From Someone Who Hasn't Played since EA Launched

I’d be down for the hard difficulty reducing the available food in the game by half. Or I guess just doubling the food costs or halving the food’s effectiveness might be easier ways to get the same effect.

Will the make a difference in the long run? Probably not, but it would spice up the early game at least.

As it is I already play the game resting as seldom as possible. Usually I’m at least level 3, if not 4, before I take my first long rest, so they’d really need to limit resources to actually make a tangible difference.

Latest community update on Steam has a GIF shwoing a solo Monk slapping a Dracolich (your average Dracolich would be CR 20)

This combined with a level 1 Legendary Blood War Veteran origin companion shows a big disconnect between rules / game world logic and storytelling.

Seems like Larian is trying too hard to be "EPIC AND STUFF".

I still remember how badass I felt after repelling the goblin attack on Targos in the beginning of Icewind Dale 2.

You do not need to fight Liches, Demon Princes and Ancient Red Dragons to feel "cool", if done right, a goblin warband fight can be "epic".

To be fair, it’s impossible to meet Karlach at level 1, as you hit level 2 automatically when you end the tutorial if not during. So Karlach will be at least a level 2 (more likely 3 or 4) legendary Blood War veteran when you meet her.

Cool, still too low. A random Babau would squeeze juice out of a level 4 character, but a Legendary Blood War Veteran should have experience acting as a shock troop alongside legions of Gelugons fighting vs Vrocks, Hezrous and Glabrezus.

And also, you can actually choose an origin character as your main hero, so naturally you will start at level 1.

Yeah, that’s true. I always forget that playing as the origin companions is an option, and it’s the option which makes them origin companions at all.

Yes I actually think this is quite a serious issue in terms of creating a major disconnect between the level of the players and the kind of threat you're facing - no idea how they'll solve that one. Most likely they won't or it will be the tadpole adding effective levels of power to your party.

Going back to a question that was asked earlier - can I echo that. Is it still the case that any class can use scrolls? Because that feels like a clear issue that needs fixing (I could be convinced to allow an exception for Revivify)

1) How do you know its a solo Monk?
The camera can just be close, others can just be far, or it can be just critical hit camera ... i mean, there is no interface to indicate anything.

2) How do you know its a Dracolich?
(Seriously i dont know)
Cant dragon skeleton be used by some Necromancer? O_o

Didnt she mention something about different situation?

I beleive her words were something like:
"Back in avernus i had fire runing trough my weins, now ... i can only rely on my muscle."

I guess the idea is that in the Blood War Karlach was superpowered in some way by Zariel or just being in Avernus, which she no longer will be once she deserts? I'll admit I think we have too many companions/origins who were powerful and no longer are for one reason or another (as long as it is one reason or another - I'll be even more disappointed if it turns out everyone is just nerfed by the tadpoles). We now have Karlach, Gale and Wyll in that position, plus presumably Minsc and Jaheira (going from the comics, Minsc or his copy reappeared at a lower level when his statue was awakened, I can't imagine what the rationale will be for her).

I can see the temptation to structure the stories this way, given that for both companions and player characters I do want an interesting back-story to uncover and resolve, and if the character has lived an interesting enough life to make for a thrilling yarn it then starts getting hard to explain why they never got above level 1. But still, the writers have given themselves some extra work to do to make these stories genuinely distinct.

I do think that as companions, at least, this can be partly addressed by having us meet characters at higher levels as was mentioned above, making the problem at least a bit less obvious when we're not playing multiple origins in a game, though it's going to need more than that to really convince me this was the right way to go.

Honestly, the powerful character starting at level 1 never really bothers me - it's just a convention of the genre. Take POE2 for instance - you finish POE1 as like a 15th level badass or whatever, only to wake up on a ship back at level 1. It's just how it works. For me, arguing that for reasons, the character shouldn't start the game at level 1 is like complaining the character doesn't have to stop to take a leak behind a tree every few hours.

I’m of the same mindset. The level backstory disconnect is solved for me with one word: “meh” 🤷🏻‍♂️

Im quite sure that nobody was actually.

- Shadowheart had her memory wiped ...
If this isnt reason to have zero experience, i dont know what is.
- Astarion (imho) never had any to begin with ...
I mean, he was a noble, all his work was to show up on a Ball, charm some other noble ... and drag them to his master lair.
- Gale have orb in his chest, that consumes magic ...
My headcannon here is that the experience drained quite a lot of his own casting abilities.
- Wyll ... well, i still dont believe he did anything he say ...
IMHO he is just fraud, he never saved anyone, he is no hero ... Mizora imho just send around some tails about his heroic deeds.
- Lae'zel? Well, Lae'zel is still a child, she didnt even finish her mature ritual (hunting a Mind Flayer) ...
So basicaly, there still isnt anything to loose.

- Karlach had power from Zariel ... now she dont.
This seems quite self explanatory aswell.

- Minsc was a stone ...
Same story as Shadowheart. He kept his memories, but his skills got a little rusty.

- Halsin ...
No matter what people say about his level and title, he was obviously leader bcs people concidered him fair, wise, and knowledgable ... not bcs his power.

- Minthara ...
In the land of blind, one-eyed man is a King.
Minthara was never particulary strong imho, she is just stonger than Goblins wich is all she needed.

So the only companion that seems a bit weird is Jaheira ...
But its quite possible that she is not even tadpoled. :-/

I'm 80% sure nobody was, but think there remains a risk that the tadpole is going to be a factor. Hopefully not, and I don't think it will be, but I know folk have argued otherwise.

Though with respect to Gale, I think his nerfing was possibly due to Mystra being pissed off at him rather than a side-effect of the orb. At least, that's what I infer from this spoiler tagged conversation. (I happened to have this screenshotted from a previous discussion that touched on this this topic.)

Due to bounded accuracy in 5e, an army or even a large squad composed of mainly level 2-3 characters will do perfectly fine against a smaller number of higher-CR creatures (e.g., Babaus or Vrocks). So imo it's not too unbelievable that Blood-War-Karlach is only level 3. And temporary weakness due to the physical stress of being abducted and having a tadpole implanted into ones brain can then explain a further decrease to level 1 =effectively a couple levels of exhaustion. If Karlach is supposed to be strong enough to take on demons by herself(?), that's different...

Not that I think there will actually be in-game (& believable) reasons why all of the cast is de-powered to levels 1-3, but Karlach at least isn't too offputting to me.

I am quite the opposite - power gain in PoEs always rang very false to me. Convention of the genre is a right way to put it, but it doesn't necessarily make it inappropriate. How gameplay loop and our identity in BG1&2 is tied is one of the reason I would put it higher than many other titles. There is cohesion in there, that others RPGs lack. In case of PoE2 reset to level1 is just another thing that make me wish that Deadfire had a new protagonist.

Now, I would be interested in seeing RPG, that would focus more on horizontal, rather than vertical progression, but it is not really possible for D&D based title. Still, if you are stuck with mechanics, I think you should write around them, not write story and characters unappropriate to the mechanics.

One of the reasons I'm so stoked for July to hurry up and start and end is to dig into questions like this. There are so many teases of subplots in EA, some we see a little more of than others, and for each of those subplots, the Zhents, Raphael, companions' issues, how many different paths through each of those plots will there be? Either this is going to be a tremendous let down, or we'll be playing this game for years and still finding new content.

Interesting ...
I dont think i ever seen this before.

Scandinavians don’t sleep during the summer, so they got extra time to add tons of sub plots before release 🤣🌞

A colossal green statue squashed your main hero to death along with Caed Nua. Goddess Woedica returns hero’s soul from the wheel, literally resurrecting the dead protagonist, if he agrees to pursue the green statue. Sooo it is “some” explanation as to why the hero loses all XP in the sequel

Also, the green statue actually rips away part of your soul, which is the main reason you drop to level 1. (and the goddess who revives you is Berath, not Woedica)

Me too! I've found the hints at so many stories so tantalising, I can't wait to find out more about them all. The ones you mention, then I'm really looking forward to finding out more about the sisterhood of hags, the Ironhand gnomes' takeover plan, what really did happen at Moonhaven, how the tieflings from the grove get on in Baldur's Gate (it was good to spot some of them in the recent trailer), hopefully getting to that Sharran temple in Grymforge Nere was trying to get to, plus the quests that started and never finished in EA like finding out what happened to Duke Ravengard and the Nightsong. I even want to find out what happens to the irritating artist we can rescue from the Zhentarim.

Regarding the reset to level 1 I cheerfully admit to inconsistency. I don't at all mind Shepard and gang being reset to level 1 in each ME game, and I'm perfectly happy to just accept Halsin and even Jaheira at, say, level 5 even though she in particular should probably be higher, without any implication or explanation of them having lost power - I'll accept that's just the level they've reached for the purposes of this particular story. And in principle I don't mind having characters whose back story is that they used to be powerful and are now less so. The thing that's making me itch is that so many of the companions' stories are following that same pattern, which makes it feel a bit artificial. I hope at least that Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Astarion don't get stories like that and we can assume that our travels with them are the first time they've really had chance to progress.

And I'm aware that we've probably diverted away from the topic of this thread. As long as the OP doesn't mind and their questions have been answered it's probably not doing any harm, though it could make it difficult to find the next time we end up talking about this again as I'm sure we will. I might do some thread splitting and merging to create a companion feedback megathread if the topic keeps popping up everywhere as it understandably is at the moment given the news. I'll see how things go tomorrow.