Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback I'm done.

As the subject says: I'm fucking done with this game. I've been playing RPGs (and, for that matter, D&D) for nearly thirty years, and I was *so* excited for this to come out. Hell, I even purchased it pretty early in EA just because I wanted to see what Larian would do with it. I didn't play *much* of it, then, because there were some major bugs and technical shortcomings that ruined the experience for me--but that's fine: it was in early access; I knew to expect ample flaws, unbalanced encounters, and so forth.

I was MAD psyched for the full version to release--and for the first fifteen hours or so, I absolutely loved it. Until I began to realize how fucking horrible the combat was.

I love the story. I love the characters. I love everything about this game *but* the combat, and it utterly ruins the experience because even though I try to avoid combat as much as possible, apparently a pacifist/stealth run simply isn't possible--which I find hilarious since Larian has been bragging about the "endless" potential ways of playing. Bullshit.

The "Balanced" difficulty is INCREDIBLY UNbalanced. I have a level 5, well-balanced party, and I still get my shit kicked in 9 out of 10 times. I'm really experienced in turn-based RPGs, and have been known to take waaaaaaaaaaay too much time planning multiple moves ahead as if I'm playing chess. But no matter what I do, no matter what character I use or how heavily kitted-out they are, I get party wiped because every goddamned enemy even *one* level higher than my party one-shots any of them. I'm mainly thinking of those fucking gnolls and githyanki.

So I dropped the difficulty to the lowest setting and guess what? Same results. Literally, same results. My attacks do 2 damage, the enemy's does 10. Oh, and they each have *three* fucking attacks per turn to my *1*. What the hell? I don't know if it's because of this "karmic dice" horseshit (turning it off doesn't seem to make any difference) or something I'm not getting, but I just don't care enough to find out.

I'm out. I will never purchase another Larian title again.

Yeah, it's not a problem of the game, I can tell you that.

If people are managing just fine in Tactician, you are just doing something poorly to have your ass kicked "on the regular" in "Balanced".
And Story mode remains an option, anyway.

P.S. It would help at least offer some context, to know at what point of the game you are crossing these "unfair" encounters, anyway.
This would read like a textbook "I fought the Githyanki patrol at level 2"... Except you claim to be level 5 with the entire party, so it can't really be that.

My man is still getting wiped on story mode. I suggest going after encounters your level or lower if it’s that challenging.

You are inexperienced - that's all. There are systems, and there is a learning curve. There are ways to learn them quickly, or you can quit.

If you change your mind, head to the Larian Discord, you can ask questions, jump into a game with others. There are options.

https://discord.gg/larianstudios

It’s hard to recommend any assistance when you don’t express where you are having difficulty. Both those fights you mentioned can be challenging if you just rush right in, but can be rendered quite simple if you use the terrain well.

In general, asking for help instead of just throwing your hands up will serve you well.

No one here has played actual D&D other than the OP, I am fully convinced at this point.

Not like it would matter, anyway.
Nothing of what he's saying is strictly related to how much D&D he (or anyone else) played before, and if anything he's the one who sounds like the he' struggling with understanding what he's playing now.

You really must be doing something horribly wrong. Maybe it's something you overlooked, like everyone's wearing armor they're not proficient with or something?

I'm roughly at the same spot as you, and the game really hasn't been that difficult. If you played e.g. DOS1/DOS2 or PF:Kingmaker/WOTR, all those games were much, much rougher in the beginning.

This game is sufficiently different from D&D that differences can still be felt quite strongly. And yes, Karmic Dice are absolutely a major problem and one that Larian still refuses to speak honestly about beyond just throwing out vague statements about "trusting the dice"...which is absolute BS, Karmic Dice are as much about punishing competent players as they are about helping the inept and in the end they don't feel great for anyone. But the game is worth taking the time to get used to its quirks...after disabling Karmic Dice of course. I think the major difference between BG3 and D&D is realizing that you have to plan or re-shape your builds around the insanely powerful items the game hands out...the kind of stuff that most tabletop D&D DMs would have a stroke over at the mere thought of handing them to a player...that is what Withers is there for and why the game allows respecing which would otherwise be considered sacrilege in D&D. But I digress, D&D is hardly holy...if it was multiclassing would never have been allowed to exist, and it's not the only issue. Still, the game is very good, and it is worth taking the time to get used to.

I play on Balanced and had no problems so far and I wouldn't say, that I'm the best or most tactic focused gamer out there.
I didn't encounter anything like enemies do more damage than me. And some classes have more than one attack after a certain point, that is totally normal.
Maybe if you tell us, which fights were problematic for you, we can offer some help here.

I went through Act 2 way too fast. It's the setting, I didn't go looking around for people to assist. Haven't done a single side quest; and everyone was sad. Shadowheart got killed, Halsin was too sad..

So start Act 3, and I seriously struggled. Tav was rather underleveled; it was a serious struggle for a bit to catch up. I noticed later that I went into the city 'the wrong way' and it showed; my Tav suddenly knew all kinds of things that she should have picked up earlier. Regardless, Tav knew what she was doing, but I wasn't. There were also a few sequences in camp where you're forced to fight before you rest; and I was thoroughly beaten down at that point. I try to go as long as I can without resting, but that bit me in the behind so hard.

I'm about ready todo the last quests. I spent some time in

Which looked *awesome*, I got more and more scared for the final boss.... Well that was done in no-time. I made to manage my resources for the 'all hell breaks loose' thing that thye kept alluding to, but beat that fight no worries on the first try.

But I become more and more fluent in the game, as well. I understand how things work with sneak and ambush and so forth. So now I can snipe enire rooms before bringing in the rest of the group to mop up.

I Play on tactician and I'm actually a bit dissapointed that the combat so far is too easy -_- played early Access and watched some YouTube though, there are already many guides there, worth the watch , you probably don't get a mechanic or two. Quick advice - try to get advantage on enemies, don't heal during battle but ress asap with ranged heal/ help/ potions throw, try to use bonus actions (potions?) Each turn, go higher ground with ranged, make sure everyone Has proficiencies to use their gear, not just weapons but gloves etc. Too

There was a point when I almost felt like the OP. You get used to the way combat works and things will get better if you adapt the way you play.

However, there's certainly a progression curve in the game that's similar to that in the DOS games, in that if you do not do almost everything you will end up being underleveled at some point. This also has the side effect that almost no fight ever will be easy, they all tend to be at the limits of your current ability unless you're good enough to play on Tactician but don't. This is a serious drawback for non-completionists and people who like to avoid fights, since as opposed to what Larian has been saying, I have yet to see XP being given for diplomatic solutions that even remotely match what you get by fighting.

Furthermore, there is an absolutely dramatic difficulty difference between combat encounters where you can ambush the enemies and those where you either can't, or wouldn't because of roleplaying. With the result that I dread every talk with people of uncertain disposition. And I think in a roleplaying game it should not be like that.

The OP is talking through his arse. The post is all about him - nothing about his PC or who is in the party; nothing about weapons and equipment used; no examples of tough fights; nothing about his approach to a fight, etc.

I played through EA once and I'm currently in Act 1, Balanced difficulty, and will probably do the Blighted Village today. I've played lots of CRPGs over the years so I understand how to build a party and individual characters. In EA I found the two hardest fights were the Hag and the Githyanki patrol. A couple of others like the spider matriarch and maybe one or two in the Underdark were tricky. I may struggle a bit more with this party as I'm playing a bard which I don't really know about plus I have Wyll in the party and I know even less about playing a warlock.

If a fight goes badly I look to what I did wrong rather than blame Larian (and I am not a Larian fan). I have more problems in fight due to the Karmic dice nonsense (I currently have it turned off but I'm not convinced this is any better).

Okay folks, we already have a thread talking about difficulty balance over at https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=877683.

It's of course the OP's choice if they want to quit the game rather than seek advice on approach and tactics from those of us who aren't having the same problems. I'd suggest we see if they come back and say they're interested in that before continuing this thread further.

And I shouldn't need to say: if we are going to keep going with this thread, keep it friendly.

On one hand, OP sounds arrogant AF, on the other hand, it's true that enemies have an easy time oneshotting you out of the blue, and that your attacks end to be consistently very weak.

That’s not true for me. My current party of

Custom Storm Sorcerer
Custom Open Hand Monk
Wyll
Karlach

Is face rolling enemies.

I tried a few fights on Tactician (my normal mode) and then on Balanced because I had to replay long scenes and wanted to spare me time (mostly to get rid of shiny benefits, like the glowing weapons from the cloister, as I hate visible magical effects), and Balanced is much easier and fights are relaxed. In the fight against the Gith inquisitor for example I had to use all I had on Tactitian and had one dead after the fight, on Balanced I got out of it nearly unscratched. However Tactitian is also quite manageable most of the fights.

If things go wrong, it is mostly a question of initiative. I wiped one time so far in the game (I'm only at start of Act 2), when the Gith captain in the cloister attacked and several adds game in. Two chars were dead at start of second turn, no one face rolls enemies with 2 at 30% hp against 8. Second trial was totally different, 3 of my group went first and the fight was easy. So Mr. Random won/lost the fight.

Okay, I'm going to lock this thread given it seems to be prompting a duplicate discussion with the thread I linked to above ( https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=877683).

Let's keep discussion of the difficulty level balance there.