Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Lack of information in Character Creation

I am not sure how accurate the Wikis are at this stage and I shouldn't need to use a 3rd party to get this information anyway.

Why is the information in character creation so sparse? What do I get at higher levels? What proficiencies and skills carry over if I take a class after 1st level? I have no idea. How do spellcaster level and slots work with multiclassing? Look it up online, because the game doesn't tell you.

And why when levelling up is there an auto selection feature that you cannot turn off and which doesn't even clearly communicate what has been autoselected for you? For example, I found, to my annoyance, that my level 3 bard had expertise in performance and persuasion, not stealth and sleight of hand, the latter two being far more important not to fail and not having a cantrip that gives you advantage. I didn't realise that it was autoselected, because it was under the "class tab" on level up, which I had no intention of changing, not a separate skills tab.

If I am not playing story mode, this shouldn't even be the default option, let alone something you cannot turn off. To be honest, almost no one should be using this option. Making choices when levelling is fun and understanding mechanics as features are added incrementally is how players can best learn about the ruleset. A new player is much more likely to understand their class if they had to select their abilities after reading their description rather than just having them chosen for them without any input on the part of the player.

I and many other players are perfectly capable of handling the mechanical complexity of 5E without all the unnecessary handholding. Withholding information when you have homebrewed the rules and when prior DND games largely use very different (and usually more complex) rulesets is an active hinderance for players who could use the information to improve their enjoyment of the game by being more engaged in building their character. If I can handle the character creation screen for Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, I can deal with 5E, so long as I am actually given basic information about multiclassing and features acquired at higher levels. If Solasta can do this, BG3 can. Level progression wasn't something players were forced to read, but it was easily accessible to those players who wanted to.

Unfortunately, it's the reality of a game based on a very deep tabletop RPG. Pathfinder tried to have a lot of information in-game and while it's awesome, there's so much that it can get insanely overwhelming. I think Larian wanted to keep it simple for those that were new, and figured the people wanting to get into it would either google, or replay a bunch. I imagine that's also why respeccing is so cheap

I can sorta understand that but Larian also changed a lot of things from base 5e, so it's not clear exactly what you are signing up for even with knowledge of 5e. Which you shouldn't have to have going into a game IMO-the game should provide adequate documentation within the game for you to make your own informed decisions. The 2e and 3.x Infinity Engine and Aurora/Electron games were better at this, despite the latter edition being infamously more complicated.

What's worse is that the character creation screen of the release version is somehow worse than the EA one when it comes to both navigation and the auto-select stuff. The skills stuff got me too, just like OP and I have been playing since the beginning of EA.

But you can avoid overwhelming players simply by not requiring them to read and understand the mechanics. There is no need to prevent them from doing so. I don't mind autoleveling and premade characters for those who want it (which the Pathfinder games had), but there is no good reason for the "Its a surprise" approach for everyone else. No, I don't want my character build to be a surprise. I want it to be something I can actually plan for, and I don't regard respec as an adequate substitute.

Some information is just flat out MISSING.

I was doing a race comparison to see just how badly humans got shafted with the latest change to their racial abilities. The races seemed oddly even until I realized Elves and Drow are completely missing Keen Senses and Mask of the Wild from their "Racial Features" or "Sub-Race Features". Perception and Stealth Proficiencies are very relevant and alone as strong as the extra skill humans get. They do have them but it's not listed where it should be. Drow don't have Dancing Lights listed.

All racial features gained at later levels are completely missing. How hard can it be to add a few more lines? Hide them under a "Gained at later levels" tab if you don't want character creation to be too daunting for new players.

This seems really sloppy for a game that has been in development for six years, and Early Access for two with tons of feedback on such things.

A visual skill tree is definitely needed. As it is now, you just pick whatever sounds the coolest, cross your fingers and hope it doesn't suck as you level up.

Less information is good we don't want people have to much to read. At least that's the agenda nowadays when trying to reach a bigger audience and gaming becoming more popular. This happened to a lot of games and got replaced with more handholding. We also have to be fair here and take in consideration that this was also always a big turn off for many people to not play a CRPG. "Why do I have to read so much to know what I'm playing..." and so on. So I understand why they did it but yeah it's witholding some important informations which are still in the game. I think this was also one of the reason why race differences got toned down, religion for clerics isn't connected to domains anymore and Paladins aren't connected to their deity at all. Espacially for the last two points I hope for a patch or at least a mod.

This would bother me less is respeccing could be done at will and at no cost…

As i mentioned here before UI as well as Character creation are much better done in PF:WotR. Larian shoud have copied that.

There's no excuse for the lack of future class progression details being presented at every level up. Solasta did this with like 1% of the budget Larian has.