Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Some of the worst combat I've ever experienced

1. Save-or-die shoving

Not everything should be a race to high ground. Your game is too vertical. I want to win a fight because I built a good character and worked hard to make him stronger.

I don't want to win a fight because I made it to high ground, got a lucky dice roll, and pushed a guy off in to one of the 900 bottomless pits that are always around you no matter where you are in the world. This "save-or-die" mechanic that was prevalent in 3e has been largely removed from 5e because it's /NOT FUN/. I don't know why you put "save-or-die" back in in the form of deadly shoves.

2. Endless ambushes where the enemy outnumbers, out-flanks, and out-high-grounds you

The enemy's party is almost always larger than your party, particularly in the 2nd act, and the enemy almost always starts out in an advantageous tactical position. In short the challenge ratings in the "normal" difficulty setting are all too high.

You should collect data on how many times players have to restore their game from the beginning to the end of the campaign. I have no doubt the figure will astonish you.

If I have to restore my game to win an encounter, the pen-and-paper analog of this that the DM killed his entire party. This obviously should not happen. The user should only ever have to restore on boss encounters, and they should only have to restore on these boss encounters a fraction of the time.

Restoring your game is cheating. It's looking ahead into the future and gaining foreknowledge that you can use in the present moment. I'd like to win encounters based on my wherewithal, not my capacity to restore my game. If you want the user to have to rely heavily on restoring the game, you should just add cheats to your game so that we can cheat more directly.


3. Combat encounters that need dialog rolls to win

There were at least two (so far) combat encounters that were completely impossible without convincing the opponent's party to start killing itself (a premise which is itself ridiculous, incidentally). This is basically more save-or-die nonsense. If you fail your dialog rolls you face insurmountable odds (unless of course you are willing to make the rush to high ground and then save/restore/save/restore/save/restore so that every dice roll is favorable to you).

You shouldn't be rewarding xp for non-combat solutions, either: you don't become a better fighter by avoiding fights.

4. The enemy never makes a mistake

Unlike the player, the enemy always knows where tactical advantages are, the enemy always has ranged weapons, the enemy always has AOE attacks, the enemy always makes the best choices with his turn. This is one of the reasons the encounters are too difficult. You're always encountering perfectly prepared opponents who never make a bad decision and have perfect situational awareness. If you're going to make the enemy perfect in this way, you should reduce the challenge rating for the encounters to compensate.

Baldur's Gate 3 has got to be the least enjoyable combat I've ever experienced in any RPG, and I've been playing and developing RPGs for over 20 years.

Have your party at roughly the same AC* and you may start seeing weird bot decisions. But yeah, if you bumble into every encounter, no scouting, no stealth, it can get rough. You're not supposed to do that unless you're overleveled (or just know what you're up against)

(*My favourite in early access was near full enemy party suicide by moonbeam. Like a line of deranged ducklings)

I have to disagree with you on almost every point and I've been playing on tactician difficulty.

1. Enemies will typically only attempt pushes or shoves on you if you perch yourself on a ledge, I've never seen one go out of there way to shove me to death. I have cheesed a few fights with pushing Enemies to their deaths mostly because they fucked up and gave me too good to be true opportunities, but I largely just don't even use the shove mechanic.

2. Endless ambushes? Are you just running full speed around the map? Are you taking your time? Other than a few scripted encounters, I can't recall a time I've been Ambushed, usually you can see every enemy on the horizon long before they spot you and set up optimal positions or practically choose your battleground.
I've maybe only had to load twice in my whole playthrough due to unexpected mechanics or severe tactical mistakes I've made.

3. This point just sounds like total bait. Have you ever played D&D? You don't get xp by killing anything and everyone you meet. This might explain why you are having such a hard time with this game. Almost every encounter has an innumerable ways in which you can use social skills to gain the upper hand that don't involve the enemies killing themselves if you take the time to talk or come up with a plan. Even on an evil playthrough there's a difference between chaotic evil and chaotic stupid.

4. Pay attention to your enemies, they frequently make mistakes. Especially when it comes to positioning. Sometimes they walk into an oil puddle. Sometimes they climb onto a destructible object to gain the highground, sometimes they walk or stand under things on the ceiling you can shoot that fall onto them. Sometimes they are standing on the edge. The enemies make tons of mistakes when it comes to positioning Especially when they become overzealous attempting to reach a weaker party member. Enemies can also be quite predictable making them incredibly easy to funnel into perfect positions or groupings to cast AOE spells on.

I think you need to take it slower and rethink your mindset, or just play on story mode if you want to wipe the floor with everything and know you are going to "win" everything.

The only thing I agree with is the damn Shove and pushing in general which has plagued the game since EA.

Even when I'm trying to use Thunderwave to just disengage from enemies, they get yeeted what looks like 60ft. to insta-kill chasms found everywhere. And then I have to reload to get the loot, or because my party getting insta-killed is just too annoying. The 5e push distance of Thunderwave is 10ft. Shove is 5ft. Those distances make sense and would cut 75% of the cheap instant kills.

Funnily enough, when I TRY to do an insta-kill yeet with Telekinesis, which costs a 5th level spell slot, it just fails. Bonus Action kills, 5th level spell does not. Seems a little backwards to me.

The raft fight before Grymforge has always been the most annoying offender. And they didn't bother changing it. Shove, Thunder arrow, insta-kill galore. If you're going to have insta-kill Bonus Actions in the game, you HAVE to provide means to defend against them. That means cutting the distances so that defensive positioning away from ledges actually does something.

No such thing. I am playing on tactician and I never use shove. You don't even need it. Also no illithid powers as I am playing good.


Again, it's helpful but not critical. There are very few encounters where you are not aware that combat is going to happen and so should be able to position ranged attackers appropriately.

It's really just as important to force your enemy to expose themselves by line of sighting them.


Again, you don't need shove, so just don't use it.


What difficulty are you playing on? Try an easier difficulty if that is a problem.

Also I have only reloaded when I misclicked something. So far no wipes, had a close call at the start, but good now.


Here is the rub though - maybe you are having issues because you have not mastered all the systems involved in the game. The encounters are playing out the way they are commensurate with your current level of experience with the game according to the difficulty you selected. I am assuming you are going with tactician but who knows...


If that is your rule then you should apply it to yourself. However it's a computer game and misclicks happen. Where a DM you would have a chance to correct something if you misspoke - the only thing you can do with a game is restore.


The Gnolls don't require that - like I said I am not using Illithid powers so I had to just beat The Flind down.

What other encounter did you mean?

Honestly if you are so dependent on EVERY dice roll then there is something seriously wrong with your strategy, or builds, or loadout, or buffs, or something. That's just crazy.

You win by overcoming challenges, which often involves evading, tricking, defeating or outsmarting more powerful enemies. This is an old standard in D&D going back to Gygax. I am actually shocked anyone would think this given the traditions of this game. Killing isn't required, but it obviously more profitable.


None of this is accurate. Sometimes enemies act in surprisingly clever ways but if you understand your action economy, line of sight, enemy limitations and vulnerabilities then you can get the enemy to make all kind of mistakes. An aggressive enemy will follow you into dumb places.


Yeah, it's not for everyone. A game like this only comes along once in a lifetime. I am endlessly grateful that somebody built a game for the Nerds of the world, who enjoy complex systems.

Swen left the Push Shove Spam just like he left all the Barrels XD. It's also Larian Doctrine now just like the Party Size Limit from D:OS.

I'm about 50 hours in right now and I've only lost a life to a shove once, and even then I still won the fight. It was the ship battle in the Underdark which is heavily designed around the option of knocking people into the water. It's kind of that fight's gimmick. Knocking people into the water was a valid combat strategy during boarding maneuvers.

Except.. tactically speaking, there should be a way to position yourself to avoid being insta-killed by a Bonus Action. Taking AoO's as you position yourself to make sure you don't get insta-killed should be the tactical play here. Getting randomly slapped to death without any means to avoid it is not tactically valid or a fun mechanic in a game.

Secondly, falling in water should not be an instant death. Let's say in that fight it is because of underwater monsters and getting completely lost. If someone's body is lost forever or eaten, it should not conveniently teleport to your camp. This kind of videogamey nonsense that conflicts with storytelling and makes permanent deaths "funny" or "inconvenient" does not belong in an RPG, for me. Then we get Withers at camp to facilitate this cheap rez/respec rumba as well so the "gamey stuff" is as loud as it can be.

I guess I just want the game to be a bit more serious about death and less convenient.