Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What do you think? Looking for opinions.

First of all, been playing Baldur's Gate 3 since early release. Love the game, but currently, terrible at playing it but will keep trying.

Second, I am finishing off my Masters in Journalism and have been using D&D as the main subject, as Baldur's Gate 3 is the latest game to follow the ruleset (kinda anyway), it seems like a great subject to cover.
It also gives me an excuse to play the game more

So I am asking people for their opinions with the following questions, I know the success of the game and general fondness it has (bugs and all) but I'm after something more personal and specific from it's fans/players or people who weren't impressed with the final release.
If you'd like to share your thoughts, please answer the questions below.

1. What do you think of BG3?
2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
4. What about the least enjoyable?
5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

Thank you in advanced for anyone who help
Happy Hunting.

1. I think it's great and ambitious. It has truly inspired and emotional moments spread throughout the narrative.

2. I've played since early access, from the very early patches of early access, in fact.

3. As I mentioned above, there are moments in the narrative that are powerful. It manages to elicit emotion, as any good story should. And it manages to "roller-coaster" those emotions, which keeps the tension building more as a set of stairs than a constant slope. In other words, there's time to breathe between the heavier scenes. There's humor mixed in along with tragedy. Additionally, the companions reach moments where they come alive. Much of this is due to the writing, but I the strength of the cinematics is undeniable, as well. The game brings with it a sense of mood that can be felt from behind the keyboard. And finally, I suppose I enjoy the challenge of overcoming obstacles and considering the growth of the characters on a tactical level. Sometimes I wonder if games like this have replaced in us the same feelings the Romans got when they watched gladiators fight in the arena. This, of course, being far better since it's entirely safe, and no one is actually harmed in the combats.
--eta, somehow I forgot to mention the voice acting. It's incredibly strong.

4. There are a few things I don't like. When the characters or bits of the story don't make sense. For instance, Karlach. As a character, most folks seem to really like her. And I can see why. She has a pleasant personality. She's upbeat. She's positive. But it doesn't work for me. I keep thinking to myself, this is a character that spent ten years enslaved in hell, forced to fight in a never-ending war. Somehow she came out of that with a rainbow personality? I don't believe it, simply put. It breaks immersion for me. She should be thoroughly scarred, both inside and out. Damaged, broken even. Her recovery should be her character arc. I also don't like the heavy handed insertion of modern day politics and cultural framing. In my opinion, the story should stay true to the setting, whereas I can feel the social agenda of the writers at every step. That creates a weakness in the overall setting that breaks immersion. Finally, I think there are some questionable mechanics within the game. Strength elixirs, as an example. They're so abundant and last so long, they may as well last forever. Which undermines the character's actual build. I would also point to Haste. While it can be a life-saver in the middle of a tough fight that's gone poorly for the player, it also has a way of trivializing many of the combats.

5. I would like to see Act III revisited by the developers. Currently, it feels underbaked. Like there's missing content, or strings from earlier acts that are simply abandoned. The entire narrative of Act III needs to be strengthened, in my opinion. That said, I would love to see additional content in the form of prequals. A DLC based on the town of Reithwin 100 years in the past, wherein the actions of the characters in that prequal get to be seen in the main game. Or a DLC that follows Shadowheart's original team that went to steal the artifact in the first place. That kind of thing. Earlier stories that set the stage for what happens in BG3.

6. I do not use any mods. Personally, I feel like they're a hassle. Also, they seem to cause bugs and problems throughout the game, especially in the early phases when patches are still being released.

7. I haven't played DnD in years. I don't have much interest in sitting down to a tabletop game these days.

1. What do you think of BG3?
It is a great game, quickly became one of my favoutrites. It is fun to play and the characters are very memorable.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I played EA from Oktober 202o on.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
Making a character, interacting with npcs, exploring the world.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
So far only inventory management

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
More adventures with our characters and the companions, maybe artificer as a class

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
Yes, I do, mostly cosmetic mods and clothing like Basket full of Equipment, Jaheiras and other npcs hair for cpc and I'm trying out some pnp subclasses, that are not in the game

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I play in two DnD campaigns at the moment - a halfelf bardlock in one and a gnome artificer in the other. And a third one based on the first edition rules.
I still play the other BG games and am interested in anything DnD.

1. It's long, with a lot of depth, like playing the witcher 3 game.

2. Early access, I stopped a little after January-ish when the forums were blazing and everyone was asking for the devs to say ANYTHING and we got nothing. After it was just testing and reporting.

3. It's a larian game, so the over all adventure.

4. I think really its because of 5e I'm a 3.5 and later 4e guy and 5e kept the idea of dumbing it down from 4e (if you don't like this phrase just replace it with streamlining) & combining features. Example would be combining level up attribute gain with feats, taking a 3.5 class and cutting it up into sections called subclasses, combined base attack bonus with skill proficiency for main stat, BaB determined when you got additional attacks and what bonus to attack with it, so if you multiclassed a lot with no thought into it or went spellcaster it limited your multi-attack. You also gained additional skill point ranks via leveling up, so both of those went to that. (Ya I'm done trying to explain, I just woke up and don't want to continue the complaint, I'll leave it as is and hope it makes sense).

Anyway combine the annoyance of 5e rules and Larian changing the game to a Larian game LOL, multiattack casters, halflings looking like hobbits, then mix in hollywood explosives. It' like someone put me on a rainbow unicorn in a horse race and I'm like how did I get here?! (I went way off track on that one moving on).

5.Reworked druid wildshape form, the technical problems related to benefiting from multi-classes and feats is a crap show. Remove restriction from deities being only cleric, NO ONE, I MEAN NO ONE is going to play that many runs as a cleric with all those deity choices, its straight up a waste of content to be locked to a single class. Give Dragonborn SOMETHING all they have is a breath attack, along with relocating Dragonborn piercings to horns having all piercings on the front of the face is lame and lazy. Last would probably be modding tools so people can make there own campaign and such would lead to question 6.

6. No, this game has no modding tools, people are not going to be making, quests, there own stories, etc. unlike NwN1 or 2, DoS1 and possibly 2? not sure on the last one.

I've played NwN1, NwN2, NwN MMO version, dungeons and dragons online, I previously played a lot of d&d 3.5 pnp campaigns and one 4e campaign.


Goodluck on your Journalism stuff. wish you the best.

1. What do you think of BG3?
It's complicated. It's a big, ambitious game, and first cRPG of that scale. My feelings on it are mixed - some core features (like cinematics) I find dentrimental to the experience, and wish Larian would explore other avenues for visual storytelling. And while BG3 does a lot, I but too wide with individual elements being quite flawed. That said, I did 120h playthrough and remained interested throughout, so they did something very right.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
Early Access

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
Interactivity - Larian provided with players with variety of "verbs" players can use, and it can be really fun to play around with those.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
"Narrative design" Story issues aside, it is the disconnect between gameplay systems and story the game is telling. In my book it is a cardinal sin for an RPG.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
Just usual Larian post launch support. There is a lot of game - tighten what you have, rather than pile on top of it. Maybe rework the act3 to be more effective, like they did with D:OS2 (allegedly - didn't play before Enhanced Edition)

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
Did one playthrough, so no. I see RPG as interactive fiction, so modding would impact the work. If the game changes substancially before I start my 2nd playthrough, I might still go modless to expereince what Larian has changed. At the moment if I would look for mods they would be QoL (lessen tedium tied to UI management), and combat (make it a bit more tactically interesting)

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
Specifically D&D? No. I usually play around with some kind of RPG though. I started Pathfinder:Wrath of the Reightous just couple days ago.

1. What do you think of BG3?
Amazing but very troubled game, I'd rate it 6/10. Act 3 is in a really bad shape and every patch creates more bugs than it fixes, especially game breaking ones.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I played early access a bit because I loved BG1 and BG2.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
In early access or in the full release? Generally speaking I enjoy the complexity the game has to offer, the crazy amount of content you can discover, the combat, that I react emotionally to all NPCs, the overall design, the amazing voice actors (give those guys a raise!)...

4. What about the least enjoyable?
Game is too easy for my taste on tactician, companions are very well written but I'd prefer some less "over the top" and more "down to earth guys", the oversexualisation of literally everything in the game, the number of bugs, the cut content, the change from daisy to emperor... It feels like the game was dumbed down a bit. The number of companions you can bring and companion management. If have to explain that a bit, the game is designed in such a way that basically every character can add something to dialogues and some are actually needed to move the story forward. In act 1 and 2 that is not really an issue as I can change companions basically when I need to do a long rest anyway. In act 3 however I hop in and out of camp every few minutes to bring the companion combination I think will make most sense for the dialogue.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
Make tactician tactical. Change the camera (see mods). Rework act 3 so that it better connects to act 2, is bit more streamlined and bring back missing content with it. Give me at least one companion who simply was at the wrong place at the wrong time and only wants a cold beer after a day of goblin slaying. I'd appreciate a DLC but don't feel it is needed.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
Yes, native camera tweaks as Larians camera implementation is a hate crime and I get depressions from constantly looking at the floor. Apart from that cosmetic ones like more head options because I don't want to run around ugly. I also added a crafting mod that lets you upgrade your gear because I like the idea and want stuff like the Everburn Blade to stay relevant a bit longer. And I installed the helpers you need to make that stuff work. I also installed Shadowheart and Minthare face mods cause hell, why not? I'm sucker for beautyful girls And a mod that let my recruit Minthara without going murder hobo on the druid groove. In a future playthrough I want to use some class mods, probably 5e spells and probably a difficulty mod, but I try to stay as close as possible for vanilla for now and only use mods that address stuff that really bothers me. Have I mentioned Larians atrocious camera yet?

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I play mostly soulslikes, but I'm fond of the Pathfinder games. Looking forward to rogue trader.

Good luck! I hope it comes out well for you!


I'm deeply disappointed and browned off by what turned out, to me, to be a greatly squandered opportunity delivered atop a mounted of broken promises, transgressed goals and over-pitch with under delivery. The game had, and has, a great wealth of potential, but its positive status is, in my opinion, based on the extreme churning of the hype machine and not on the actual product, which is very close to a garbage fire, should not have been released in this state, and leveraged promises to early adopter fans that they never intended to fulfil in order to draw that support... At the start of the Ea, we bought in on a statement of promises about what they were making; they did not make that game and never intended to, and instead churned out what is really just a bigger, more over-reaching, more slap-dash and undercooked version of their previous game. At this stage, I'm prepared to give it a solid 5.5-6/10 - It's simply mediocre, and not worth the hype engine behind it. Not a 'terrible' game, by any means, but just medicore.


I played from the beginning of EA; I participated in the EA specifically to be a tester and to give feedback constructively, in order to help the game become the best example of itself it could be. I do not feel my efforts were worthwhile, given the delivered product.


The VA put a lot of effort into their work, and deliver excellent performances, even if the modelling and animation tied to those performances leaves much to be desired, and the scrip-writing that they have to work with it pretty abominable.
I appreciate the attempt to make the inclusion of adult material and intimacy in games more socially acceptable, and their attempts to display and represent other relationship dynamics beyond pure couple pairings... unfortunately, they undermine themselves in this endeavour by conducting that representation with harmful stereotypes, poor writing, and by their own inability to treat anything seriously or with respect - turning many things that should not be into jokes and playing scenes for cheap laughs at the expense of the player.


A great many things, such that it is hard to pick just one: Poor story-writing and a plot that is more hole than fabric; having to fight he camera to play the game, having to fight the UI to play the game; the willingness of the game to break immersion for the sake of a cheap laugh, over, and over and over; having a UI that gives me false information about what it is doing or what will happen; having tooltips that give false information about what will happen or how an ability works; having a clunk and dated trade and interaction menu; having a clunky and extremely dated party control mechanism; having party AI and general control issues that you have to fight to prevent them doing stupid things at stupid times, or at either side of dialogues. Overbearing homebrew to the ruleset, so bad that it abolishes actual character and class abilities, in favour of larian's 'Fun'; broken quests and unfinished quest lines that go nowhere because Larian simply forgot to do anything with them... or ran out of time; broken quests and progression points that result in constant non-sequiturs and reactions that do not make sense or don't line up with previous events - bugs perhaps, but in many cases ones that were reported up and down the length of the Ea without being fixed; vestigial systems that were partially designed and put in and then abandoned or forgotten about; and of course, the truly abominable halfling models that could and should be so much better than they are, but which never got improved because at the end of the day, Larian considers short races to be joke characters, and doesn't feel the need to show them any care or respect.


I'd like to see a version of the game that more closely resembles the game that Larian sold me with their initial promises; one that recreates the 5e D&D system in a video game as closely as is realistically feasible - a true 5e rules mode, as it were.
I'd like to see the models for halflings redone and improved - there's a very long thread about this that has attracted majority support and agreement, and has been around for much of the EA without being acknowledged.
I'd like to see the broken quest lines fixed, the unfinished quest lines finished, and the game's general handling to be fixed and improved to the point that quests reliably progress according to your actions.
I'd like the UI, camera and control systems to all be severely improved, or even overhauled, to be user-friendly, intuitive and largely smooth enough that they fade into the background of player awareness while operating the game... like any modern game does and Larian does not.


I do not currently use any mods, as I am still in the process of experiencing the game, and I wish to do so with it standing on its own two feet first.
When I'm done with that, I'll be getting mods to improve the various elements I've mentioned, where I can - I'm keeping an eye on the 5e rules and 5e spells mods, and looking for model improvers for short races.


I've played, and play 5e D&D for many years, and am both a player and a DM; I play in person where possible, and online in one instance.
My main characters are: Wren, halfling bard (college of songbirds); Tess, gnome storm sorcerer; Tarabel, halfling zealot Barbarian; Penny, halfling Alchemist (Mechanist/Blight-Breaker); Satin, human rogue (thief); Niara, human ranger (hunter).

I've played video game utilising 3.5 and 4e, quite extensively as well.
I've also played a bit of Pathfinder, and have played the Kingmaker video game.

1. What do you think of BG3?
Love it!!! It is exactly the type of game I wanted!

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I played early access.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
The cinematic dialogue, the quest design, the map design, being able to customize my pc, and the hand-crafted combat encounters.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
The spell slot/long rest system, encumbrance, and having to wait until late in the game to get most of the good companions.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
I would like an expansion and/or story dlc! For tweaks and extra features I would like them to add the option for the pc to be the character who gets automatic dialogue (instead of a companion) as well as more options added to the Halsin romance. I would also like to have Halsin be a companion earlier in the game (after the party when he joins camp)!

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
No mods yet!

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I don’t play tabletop. I started WoTR but didn’t finish it.

I bet you could get a phd just from reading the whole back-catalog on the early access and trying to figure out what it all was, or means hehe.

I have no gift for brevity but I'll try as hard as I'm able. I've been waiting a couple months to see what people think and what cutting words might land. Reading everything above and above and above, I can't say I disagree with any of it, although I'll try to give my own take. It won't be concise, since that's just not a thing I've ever been able to do.

I'm a bit of a hermetic person, and so role playing games and games in general are a fun way to interact with other humans, and also serves as a conduit to the broader world. I think I learned much of what I know through gameplay in some form or another, and academia can be that way as well I suppose, and in the larger context BG3 is now inseparable from the Early Access experience. Sort of like just coming out of the woods here, still getting those bearings. I think for starters they should just say EA means Early Access, FR just means Full Release (or Fae'run if you like or Forgotten Realms) but in either case, it isn't' done. That should be the line they tow. Larian I mean.

What we have isn't finished yet, it's just a thing that's out and which had to come out in the way it did, and in the state it did, in order to finance its continued existence. But the promise, that initial promise mentioned elsewhere, should be that this isn't the curtain call. It's just the intermezzo. The first 3 acts off a dress rehearsal to make sure Guffman finds his seat. That's what I'm about right now. Basically just say the EA goes on, and we get new boards, and the promise of some expanded contest (similar to the first BG with the Tales of the Sword Coast) with the full screen on that. I think they just need to say the words, and pretty much all is well. Like very well actually, cause this has not happened for anything I've been into, not this much, in some time now. The moment I mean. The iron is hot! Keep strikin' Larian! Don't let up now!

1. So what do I think of BG3?

Hopeful, somehow, still, though it surprises me to be there. I thought I'd feel more burnt, but instead not quite.

For me BG3 was an absolute gift. 

First let me give you the teaser trailer and more info than you ever wanted to know. At the end of 2019 the following cracked off in rapid succession for me. 5 year relationship fell apart. My best friend since I was 8 years old died from a rare form of appendix cancer right after his 39th Birthday. My father had a stroke. Covid shut down my family business. Lost the family business, a 40 year old local institution, to a fucking micro-organism. Not even, like some strand of RNA, the only thing that could have ended the cater game. Not since the Great War of old, had we seen such a thing. I used to say, 'Hey we might not make much, but at least we're recession proof. I mean people always need to get married and sadly buried right?' but no dice. Failed the DC on the world ending plague. Lost my job. Got diagnosed with a strange condition that I guess I've had since I was little, but was only able to put a name on once the whole world shut down and everything slowed pace enough for that sort of introspection (Here's to any other phantasiacs out there, of whatever stripe! Mine is Hyper, from the Greek preposition meaning 'over' or 'above'... (sidebar: some curious extra meanings for a mini 'hype' train hehe)

????? • (hupér) (governs the genitive, dative and accusative)

(+ genitive)
over, above
farther inland
(nautical, of ships at sea) off of
over, across
beyond
(figurative)
in defense of, on behalf of
for the prosperity or safety of
for, instead of, in the name of; by commission from
as representative of
for, because of, by reason of, on account of


(I guess it's too much, seems apt lol)

Had to move miles and miles away from home. Ended up somewhere, lets just call, not quite as glorious as the previous spot? Like by any fucking stretch. The Shadowlands. Lets just call them the Shadowlands.  

Real valley from the peaks scenario there. Then something totally unpredictable, a ray of just pure fucking unreal wouldn't have seen it coming, Baldur's Gate 3 announcement. Wait, what? My absolute favorite game, that I played I don't even know how many times. Way way too many times. Still too many times. That Baldurs Gate 3? That one. But I'd never heard of Larian. I asked my younger cousin straight up, will they do me dirty? He said, no cuz, Larian will do something with it. It might not be what you want, but it'll be something. They're kinda fun. Alright whatever, I had of course already bought the EA. I bought the EA the second I learned about it. I'd have bought it from anyone anywhere on any platform, it's pure existence, or the promise of one was enough. Baldur's Gate 3!!!

I watched the trailer, got a little choked up.

Sight unseen, swooped it on spec. I'm in! I'm here! I made it!

Somehow, got a little thing to look forward to cause Baldur's Gate is back. Met a gal on the beach that weekend. While walking the dog, she had a dog too. Somehow Baldur's Gate came up out of nowhere, Durlags tower I mean, not this one. What are the odds. A casual turn of phrase like "yeah cause then your best friend dies, and suddenly you're stuck in the middle of Durlag's tower" Like that, unprompted. I had so many things to say when she said that lol. I'd have asked for the number, but my phone was out of batteries, go figure, anyway doesn't really matter. Still don't remember her name have no clue there, but she's a rad human. It was just wow, what a day. Just some cool stranger on the beach who took the time and somehow knew of Baldur's Gate, the OG one? Such a trip. My dad got better and made the recovery. I rescued a greyhound, things were looking good. That's when I started posting here on the regular. So I'm happy to kick around and tell people what I think about BG3, if that's what they're after. Sure I've had some ups and downs since with the game, but I'm in cool a place now with it. I think it can still work so the game can keep going. Like anything worthwhile it needs more love and more suffering and then a little more love after that. But they can do it and they should try.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?

I did a bit of both, meaning I tried in my way to avoid what I always do in such games and play it to death immediately. Instead I tried to focus on permutations of the initial adventure in as many ways as I could think of to see what sort of things they would iterate in the earliest part of the game. I played the full thing out with one character just to see the areas that were included, but intentionally didn't linger there too long. Here I think the XP and lvl cap sort of forced my hand as I would lose interest and kept finding myself wanting to be in Char creation more than the game itself anyway. I was both floored and left wanting much from this game. But yeah, I think it's safe to say I played the shit out of Early Access, and yet somehow managed to be on pins and needles waiting for the full release at the same time. Tough answer I know. For me, Early Access was the experience that I was most interested in though, because I find game design fascinating and enjoy having a place to discuss it, even if at warp speed and a bit over my head. Tried discord couldn't get down. I'm too old perhaps, but a good old fashioned forum, now that's something to vibe on. I can get with that.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

Pure joy? Lae'zel's silver sword and everything she does and says hehe. As I was playing the many permutations and now in Full release, I enjoy catching what I think might be some of the early Lae'zel vs later Lae'zel and thinking they're both in the game still somehow, if not in the same way. I played with Shadowheart as Origin and thought, wait is Lae'zel going soft on me here?' but then I think it must just be the grab bag there. The Chex Mix version. Big high notes for me were mostly in character delivery, particularly the Goblins and Tiefs, each of which have endeared themselves to me so much now that I kinda feel like I know them all personally. Similar to the NPCs in BG1, there were some real standouts among the bit players here. The narrator! I never really needed a set story or a coherent anything to make the EA work, but that is in part because of the way my brain works I guess. Everything for me is already a little disjointed and moving either too fast or too slow at all times anyway, and I see faces in everything. So I had rather hoped EA would be this massive Etch-a-sketch thing, that they would shake up dramatically every few weeks.

Including new stuff and changing stuff around, but doing it at a steady clip, so that at no point could someone with any degree of confidence say they really understood what the main story was, or the thread binding it together. I think the mistake, if there was one, was to show us a rough cut, rather than a bunch of dailies, if that makes sense. Because of the way it was delivered, people would think well this is the story to this point, and you latch on to stuff and really start to lean in. Once it's set that way I mean. I'd have liked them to revisit a few things from earlier on too, so say giving some attention to the initial classes like Rogue and Wizard and Fighter and Ranger that had been there since the start, so sort of complete the circle there. EA I feel is not quite tied up with a nice red ribbon yet, and it really should be because this game if it goes on to have the sort of life I think it might, will be a real testament to the artistic spirit. This is because EA happened when it did, so much loss and troubled times, but games help us solve problems. They teach us how to do that. They're subtle too that way, but it's probably among the best tools we have, because all games are hopeful. You can always win in the game. Even if you have to savescum your ass off or drink every potion. You don't quit. Well yeah of course you do. But then later you reload and give it another go. That's the way shit gets done.

4. What about the least enjoyable?

For the EA- it was the Radio silence. Long stretches with no word or no new word. Angst and the general malaise that sets in when things slow down. For the game the cam controls and party movements stuff. The insufficient number of voices and models and companions which made it harder for me to dive in to the Char creation process to the extent I'd have liked. I think they did it sort of backwards, meaning they should have prioritized the char creation content over the gameplay content as a way to keep people busy and engaged while the content slowly dripped in. Finding a way to do that without breaking the stability of an ongoing save via concurrent builds or something similar. Basically having an overlap between each patch so instead of updating you'd just have both. Even if it means more of the ssd got gobbled up, I'd have liked that.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?

A great deal. For starters what I would absolutely love to see for once, is the full on Player's Handbook caliber Avatar and Portrait Suite that just knocks it out of the park with so many well done faces and animations and cool getups that a player could literally spend the next many years doing nothing but create characters and never get bored hehe. Is that too much? Maybe but consider this - How many people love GI Joe and Barbie and the little Miniatures from D&D and elsewhere and how cool would it be to finally have that where you got the whole table done up with miniatures and custom painted minis, and then that just receives the breath of life from the actors. That's what I want most. Neverwinter came close, but it lacked what I think this game has which is a potentially very engaging and exciting form of turn based combat. Is it there yet? Well probably not, I guess, just judging from what I can see and hear, but it's still got something. It's not at all like BG1 and BG2 in that respect. It's very new there (I mean not new obviously, but the difference is pronounced) still it has that thing where you're pressing into combat and then sort of winging it the way you would in TT session. I think there's a real charm to that. For me what it needs in that arena starts with the camera. Because the game is allowing us to pretend to be the director of our own imagined and play-acted narrative, it makes sense that we can be our own cinematographer too, and for this we must free the eye in the sky. Doing this (and cleaning up the skyboxes) will instantly give the game a whole new dimension which if you are only playing the un-modded version right now you wouldn't get to really see. The game is beautiful, it should be admired, the camera is our window onto this world. Give us clutch controls to feel it out and party formations, things of that sort. And portraits, and more dogs.

6. Do you use any mods? If so, which and why?

The Native Camera Tweaks mod and WASD mod which are essential for me to play the game comfortably for long periods of time.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldur's Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

Not right now! This one has my complete and undivided attention. But yeah, of course, I like 'em all. If it's set in the realms I'll check it out. 


ps. ? oh that does look good! I'll do the same!

Stealing Icelyn’s helpful colour coding …

1. What do you think of BG3?
It’s become my favourite game. For all that it has flaws and issues that are well rehearsed on these forums and I agree with many though by no means all the criticisms that have been levelled at it, for me these are nowhere near sufficient to cancel out all the things that are brilliant about it, or its scale and ambition. And while it’s true that less scale and ambition would have led to a more polished, cohesive experience, personally I think it’s the combination of all the elements of, eg, NPC characterisation, writing, gameplay, quest design and implementation of (a variation of) the D&D ruleset that make BG3 such a fantastic game. Trying to take anything out or cut it down would, I suspect, have a Jenga-like impact and make the game more ordinary and less impressive. But I also think getting it all to come together totally successfully and consistently was always going to be impossible. I’m still glad Larian tried, and love it for the flawed masterpiece I think it is, as well as for the game it clearly tried to be but couldn’t quite pull off. Perhaps when AI takes over the world it’ll create that perfect RPG, as I’m not sure it’s feasible for humans, especially given the economic constraints of game development!

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I bought it on the first day of early access, mainly on the strength of the BG brand though I had watched the first Panel from Hell. IIRC I put in around 700 hours during early access, completing a full playthrough and maybe two for most of the major patches, then just playing around trying things out and providing feedback.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
Cinematic dialogue, the companions, antagonists and lots of other NPCs, most of the voice acting and animation, lots of the story elements and smaller subplots (despite it not all coming together that well), the level of freedom to create our own custom character and have the game respond to them through, eg, class and race dialogue options, the fact that quests were generally different and engaging rather than boring fetch quests, the fact that so many quests ended up related to the main story or could be encountered fairly naturally as we explored, the fact that there were times I had to stop and scratch my head to work out how to complete a quest or solve a puzzle but I never had to resort to a walkthrough or guide (admittedly there were a small number of quests I didn’t complete as a result of my no-Googling policy), the different ambience of the various main maps and just the look and feel of the environments generally, getting to explore Baldur’s Gate city, the fact there were so often various different ways to approach a challenge, the fact there are so many fun systemics that can be used to solve problems and the satisfaction when they come together with the story and roleplay to make a satisfying story (admittedly they also sometimes go off the rails in an immersion-breaking way), the fact that Larian decided to be a permissive DM and let us do fun, silly things even though some players could potentially exploit them if they wanted, the peril and randomness of having a story partly determined by the roll of dice, the combat (despite some niggles) especially the hand-crafted combat making almost all encounters interesting and meaningful, the fact that so many NPCs are individuals rather than, eg, just random townspeople, goblins or shadows, the fact that we got to see the stories of some of the NPCs play out over the game (though admit some kind of petered out) … err, I could go on, but I’d better stop there!

4. What about the least enjoyable?
The bugginess especially in act 3 and especially when it leads to wonky plot and character development (eg companions not responding correctly to what has gone before), the camera that too often makes what could be really fun verticality a complete pain, party inventory management (especially the fact that we can’t access inventories of companions not currently in the party without going through a cumbersome process of dismissing/recruiting companions), missed opportunities to bring our custom characters to life (eg more voiced lines, having opportunities for them to know NPCs or parts of the city), missed opportunities to have a real party adventure feel to the game (eg more companion comments and involvement in events/dialogue, more inter-companion scenes/dialogue in camp), the fact the epilogue felt brief and unsatisfying without giving us the opportunity to see NPCs we’d come to care about or even party members who weren’t with us at the end of the adventure and, in my case, elements of the overall plot not hanging together (or at least I still had many questions!) and some stories feeling unnaturally curtailed, the systemics sometimes leading to immersion breaking oddness (eg with “guards” and animal companions).

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
Bug fixes of course, plus ideally tweaks to address the other stuff I said I wasn’t keen on. And I’d love any story DLC or expansions. Additional races/classes I’m sure I’d also enjoy, though frankly the core game gives me plenty to be getting on with there.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
No mods yet. While Larian are still regularly releasing patches and updates I’ll stick with the vanilla game.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I don’t play tabletop. I have played other cRPGs set in the FRs: both original BG games when they came out (and I’ve replayed them fairly often over the years), IWD, NWN 1&2 and Planescape: Torment. Until BG3 came along, though, my favourite fantasy RPG was Dragon Age: Origins.

1. What do you think of BG3?

Absolutely loved it (pun intended, apologies).

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?

About 300 hours in early access.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

To my surprise, the companions. I don’t usually care that much for companions and often build my own when given the option. But I became really attached to Wyll and Karlach, and getting to adventure with Minsc and Jaheira again brought a big smile to my face.

4. What about the least enjoyable?

The difficulty is definitely off. I’ve heard many anecdotes from people who find the game very difficult, but if you are a half-way decent tactician and know how to stack synergies, the game becomes too breezy. My monk could just stun most bosses, so many late game bosses died in two turns without getting to preform a single attack.

That said, this wasn’t a deal breaker and I still had a great time.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?

I feel BG3 is a complete game. Performance updates and patches are all I think it needs. I’m more interested in what Larian is doing next. In the meantime, BG3 is going to keep me entertained for years to come.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?

No. I might look for a balance mod at some point, but right now I’m playing a multiplayer campaign so I’m going to leave the game vanilla until we finish, and that will be a while.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

I am a DM and build my own campaigns in a bespoke homebrew setting called Frontier Continent.

1. What do you think of BG3?
I don't know what I think about it yet, as I'm still in Act 2. Nothing that I can verbalise at this point.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
EA, from the very early days, although I got fed up with how the community's feedback was handled and stopped playing about 1.5 years before this so-called "release".

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
I've noticed that, when I play BG3, it feels like I'm playtesting my own custom campaign. A lot of stuff is still broken, but sometimes things do work as they are expected to. Every time it happens, that's an enjoyable moment.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
I'll second most, if not all, of what Niara has mentioned, vide supra. In addition to that, how shall I put this... it appears that I dislike the game developer company more than I dislike the game itself. This is the first Larian's game I ever played (for longer than 5 minutes, that is), so I had no idea what to expect when I was jumping onto the hype train when EA version has been made available.
The hardest hit for me was the overall feeling of immaturity. More often than I'd like the writing is so cringe that it feels like a theatrical play written and performed by primary school students in a kindergarten. Everything is over the top from the very beginning, yet a lot of stuff is nothing but a Potemkin village. The game tries to overwhelm the player with the plot of ludicrous proportions (similar to how many real world religious cults operate), yet it delivers very little when it comes to actual delivery. I don't like my intelligence being insulted in such a primitive second-hand manner.

Apart from that, I find many design and business decisions made by Larian to be at least questionable, if not outright insulting (mostly the latter). By no means comprehensive, in no particular order:

• Overall plot, or at least a significant part of it has been recycled from their previous product, D:OS 2.
• The game engine was repurposed from their previous project, as well. Understandable, but because of this some worst aspects of DOS2 have migrated into BG3 - "toilet chain" party movement system and the absence of day/night cycle are probably the most visible ones.
• Release strategy was again repurposed from DOS2. Instead of releasing a product of proper quality, Larian released what I'd call "Early Access 2". Which is: Act 1 is pretty well polished because it had 3 years of EA, and the rest of the game being a bloody mess. Now, 10+ million players will have to wait for about 1 year for the game to become somewhat worthy of its name, if past experience is any indication...

... and many others.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
Add? Ready action and Shove Prone. After playing Solasta which has them implemented, I often find myself constrained by their absence in BG3, infuriatingly so.
Having said that, there are lots of things I'd like to see gone. These are the so called "larianisms" - changes in the 5e ruleset introduced by devs. Their main purpose seems to be equalisation of all character classes and races (DOS2 was class-less, and this is the way Larian likes things to be), but there are many other aspects as well. If you have ever visited this forum during EA, you would know them very well: ridiculous Shove arcs in the style of Wyle E. Coyote, ridiculous Jump trajectories that turn STR 20 characters into Jedi knights, the fact that a throwable can be thrown twice as far as arrows from Longbow can fly (and with perfect precision, at that), Spirit Guardians lasting 10 turns instead of 10 minutes... I can go on forever, but it's already past midnight here, so I have to be brief.
(I'm not trying to say that 5e is perfect, but it's a fairly balanced ruleset. Only a handful of Larian's changes make sense from my viewpoint.)

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
Currently - no. I'm waiting for good de-larianising mods that would bring the ruleset closer to what it was supposed to be. If only mods could also fix bad writing...

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I've only participated in a pnp campaign once, some 20 years ago.
On PC, played pretty much everything DnD-related starting with BG1 (and even some earlier titles, such as "Eye Of Beholder"). That is, BG 1&2, IWD 1&2, NWN 1&2 (with all official campaigns, and some unofficial ones), PS:T, TOEE. Also tried DnD Online, I think. Oh, and of course Solasta.

You are very welcome. Always a pleasure to help.

1. Probably the best game I've ever played, replacing BG2.
2. No I waited until people started walkthroughs of the full game, and watched a couple of those, to see how the actual gameplay is.
3. Uh, basically everything.
4. Romances, I guess. I avoid them. None of the options interest me. I've decided as far as games are concerned, Aerie is my forever girl.
5. There wont be DLCs and besides, I hate the very idea with a passion. If at all, I would want full expansions, just like BG1 and BG2 got them, and a followup game BG4.
6. No mods yet.
7. I dont have access to a tabletop group.

1. What do you think of BG3?

>> I think it's the best RPG of the decade. It's RPG-par excellence.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?

>> Play from early access, loved it since early access.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

>> That the world recognize who/what my Tav is. That the skill checks matters enough to make individual playthrough different. Out of the Box reactivity, no other game has ever done before.

4. What about the least enjoyable?

>> Performance issue (Vulkan keep crashing, Larian pls FSR2)

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?

>> More DLC, either expansion of the current campaign, or entirely new campaign.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?

>> I have never used mods, but if I were to install mods I probably gonna install dice mods.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

>> Video games? I play them all (infinity engine games), I have never play Table Top DnD, DnD as a game never introduced nor part of the culture where I live.

1. What do you think of BG3?

It's good that there are such games. It's good that in 2023 there are still such games again. The game has a lot of potential, they can do even better.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?

From the official release. However, I think the game will still get a lot of changes. So I do not know what to consider a release.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

The world is not empty, the world is diverse, there are many events

4. What about the least enjoyable?

The third act is... raw, patchy in places, insufficiently coordinated

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?

Fix minor bugs. Adjust the weight of the characters. Clean up the jumping mechanics. Correct illusions. Clean up the online game. DLC? Well... The larva does not make the continuation logical. But you can make more partners, and give some of them a long plot part

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?

I'm using a mod to increase the squad. I don't know if it will work correctly after the patch.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

Neverwinter Nights a very, very long time ago

1. What do you think of BG3?
Nearly 400 hours and I can say it's a great game. There are still things I haven't yet discovered, paths not taken.
It's absolutely beautiful and while not a master in my eyes, it's certainly a jack of trades.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
By pure luck did I start up my PC a few days after release and saw the game was released from EA.
That was a most beautiful surprise.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
Quite hard to say just 1: The graphics, voice acting, character customization, amount and quality of content are the things that instantly come to me when I think of BG3.
Honorable mentions on the motion capture of...

4. What about the least enjoyable?
If this were my first play through I might say something different, but multiple play through have really opened my eyes to the issues surrounding the companions.
I could type a book about it, but I want to remain as brief as I can.

- Interactions can feel superficial.
- Character development is not explored deeply enough on most companions, making them 1D.
- Not enough banter.
- Not enough companion interjection during dialogue. When there is, it oft feels abrupt and unnatural.
- Some approval decisions can feel out of place/atypical of the companion/random.
- Overall presence of companions falls flat. If I come to the end of a book or game and don't feel a thing for them, then it's a failure of writing I feel.
- Companion cutscenes/personal quests are disproportionately weighted between acts and because of this events of scenes can be missed leading to further disconnect and later on confusion of companion subplots.

My biggest gripes...
Astarion? Karlach? Wyll? Mizora? Halsin?
*These are critiques. I adore the companions still.


5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
- Higher difficulty mode
- Transmog
- More Dice! I hear there are mods, but I'd like to see what Larian would throw out there.
- New Companion (preferably things of the nature of Dwarves/Half-Orc/male Drow)
- I'd like to see my shield :<
- I'd like an option that only moves the camera in combat if the enemy/character is out of the player's current FoV.
- I'd like an option that in combat we can set to turn off friendly fire or click-through our allies. I have killed many Spirit Weapons because the raycast is so close to an enemy. Or a warning I'm targeting friendly.
- I'd like if there were an audio option that is not based off of the player's current camera location. For example if I'm edge panning far from the party and party banter is going on I will miss out on the banter. An issue I had with DoS.
- More banter.
- Epilogues for each of our companions. And not just written epilogues, but actual content.
- I don't know all the ending, but the ending is so terribly abrupt. If not an epilogue, then by gods something more substantial.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
I don't. I have trust issues after losing several hours in the hotfix save issue haha. More seriously, I enjoy playing a game through the developer's vision.
But further down the road which may be several play throughs later, I will see what aesthetic mods there are. Particularly eye color and texture mods if those exist yet.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
I don't do DnD, in fact I'm entirely unfamiliar with that world and its rules. Though I'm a big fan of Obsidian, Larian, BioWare.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

The myconids. I just love hanging with the fungi. There is always someone moving around going somewhere, each one has its own personality label, and they all glow with beautiful colors. I loved all the dialogs with Spaw.

1. What do you think of BG3?

GOTY, BG3 is evolving not RPGs only, but stale AAA gaming in general.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?

Had 1 EA playthrough back when it just released, then waited until full version.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?

General Gameplay. It is just very satisfying for me. DnD 5E ruleset. Exploration. Freedom and player agency to do things as I like, with different outcomes depending on choices (and dice rolls). Race / class based choices and reactions. Companions are fun. VA is phenomenal, visuals are great, HDR is done well. Environmental sound design / effects are very good, 3D audio implementation is very well done and as a result - the game has Atmosphere, which is a huge achievement in modern-day gaming. Dark Souls-like maps full of interconnected passageways, the world feels alive and makes sense, makes you WANT to explore, because it's interesting and rewarding. Encounter design - every battle feels unique and hand-crafted.

4. What about the least enjoyable?

I'm playing on PS5, so - Camera / gamepad implementation, performance issues, general UI and inventory management are plain bad. The main story. Cringe "plot twists", especially concerning our "protector". Baddies fall short of BG2 antagonists, cats and pigeons in this game are more charismatic than big bads. No idea how they managed to fail with baddies when companions are so good. Party banter is non existent. Music is mostly annoying, sometimes not, and very rarely enjoyable. There are only 2 tracks I liked.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?

I'd love to have 1 addition sublcass for each class, and another big "Act 1 - like" map to explore, with level cap increase to 14-15? There are no proper dungeon crawls in a DND game - so something like Spellhold would be great.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?

No mods on PS5, but I would definitely use some QoL and simple cosmetic mods.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?

Played ALL of DND computer RPGs released after 1998. Favorites - BG2, IWD2, NWN2.

Firstly, I just want to say what a fabulous thread this is. Reading the answers to these questions from some of the people that I’ve come to respect and admire, via having read their opinions across several threads on these forums, is a pure delight. Some of their answers gave concrete words to what had only been vague feelings for me. Thank you Agent Wolfe for asking, and thank you to everyone that has taken the time to answer, whether in many words or few. I will try to be both as thorough and brief as those that have come before. I also stole Icelyn’s color coding, thanks for that visually appealing bit of code.

1. What do you think of BG3?
Of all the questions asked, I think this is by far the most difficult to appropriately answer. Much easier to produce a bulleted list of likes and dislikes, but those are subsequent questions. Therefore I understand this question to be asking me to summarize my thoughts on the game devoid of remarking on specific likes and dislikes. That is markedly not easy. What do I think? I think that for a game that I have such a laundry list of legitimate gripes against, that I sure do spend an awful lot of my free time playing it and or thinking about it. I’m already about halfway through Act 1 of my second playthrough, and I chose to play a character (race/class combination) that, prior to playing BG3, I don’t think I would have ever played at the tabletop. That such is true means that, clearly, Larian did many things right.
I stopped playing DOS:2, PF Kingmaker, and PF WoTR because they became unenjoyably repetitious, unrewardingly difficult, or unnecessarily convoluted. Even with all the complaints I have about BG3, I still never wavered in my desire to see where the story was going to go. Then, I saw where the story went, had a lot of complaints about it, and yet I find myself eager to play through it again with my new character.
So, I think if I was forced to sum up my thoughts in one sentence this is what I would say: Baldur’s Gate 3 is frustratingly awesome.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I have a really interesting story to tell here. See, I was going to wait until the BG3 full release, and beyond, actually, to read some reviews and see whether it was worth the purchase. Specifically because I didn’t really like DOS:2 and therefore had trepidations about what Larian might do with a D&D based game. I was following it, mind you, talking about it with friends and family, but I wasn’t planning on buying it until I was sure it would be worth the money. Then my son bought it for me as a Christmas gift in December of 2021. So, I played early access starting then.
Part of me wishes I hadn’t. I wish that, because playing early access and having no experience with how that normally works, I went into it with the mistaken impression that my voice would be an important part of how the game developed. You’ve seen this complaint in many places across the boards: it wasn’t. If I had waited until full release, and read reviews, I’m still not sure I would have bought the game, even with how saturated my world wide web feeds were with articles and blogs about it.
I stopped playing early access after I realized that they were not going to increase the level cap, release any more areas, or take any of my, what I thought to be, loud advice about making the game adhere to the pen and paper rules more strictly. Then when the “full release” (aka EA 2.0, more on that later) came out, I figured I’d explore the world and maybe complete a few quests.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
For all its failings, which I’ll detail shortly, BG3 does still have the feel of playing D&D in a lot of aspects. It has definitive narrative arcs, albeit some that get a bit lost, or have some sizable holes in them, but story arcs nonetheless. That you can take or leave some of the individual arcs (read: kill companions) and the story continues apace, is an achievement. An achievement that I think is not heralded enough. I read somewhere that you can, quite literally, (or is it figuratively because it’s a game…) kill every NPC, including origin characters, in the game, and still progress through the main narrative quests without problem. That’s something to be lauded. Oh, that just gave me an idea. I wonder if you can kill Withers, because, you know… the ending.
Continuing with the D&D feel, the combat does operate in a way that rings true with the tabletop. I know that there are many that hate turn-based combat, but NOT having turn-based combat is one of the things that I have hated about every other CRPG that was based on the D&D brand. Yes, BG1&2, IWD1&2, Neverwinter(s), DDO, and even PF Kingmaker before they officially adopted somebody else’s mod as official content. D&D, at the tabletop, which for me IS D&D, has always had turn-based combat, and it affects combat viability. Something as simple as high initiative can drastically alter the outcome of combat when it is turn based. That’s what I’ve been used to at the table for 30+ years, and that’s what I like because of it. Real time with pause is not D&D to me. So kudos to Larian for at least sticking with that aspect. If I recall correctly there was a push at one time to lose the turn-based combat. I would enjoy this game far, far less if that aspect was removed.
What’s more, many of the spells bring to life my exact imaginings of how they’d operate when I play at the tabletop. Magic missile, I’m looking at you, quite often actually. Is it just me or are there a very limited number of enemies that have taken the shield spell? Nothing wrong with automatic damage.
If you compile all these things they fit under the header that started with: BG3 feels sufficiently, to me anyway, like playing D&D. I love D&D, and this game does a good job of giving me the feeling of playing it when I can’t be at the actual table with my friends. Which sadly, because trying to wrangle adult human schedules for a three hour sit-down even once a month is like herding cats, is far less often than I’d like.
Some of the things that give it a good feel, but that don’t necessarily have anything to do with D&D are, as others mentioned, the voice acting. High praise there all the way around. The voices bring the characters to life, even “minor” characters like Dammon or some of the goblins before I stabbed them in the back. The graphics! Standing atop some of the vistas and being able to look out at a real 3-dimensional world with light and shadow. That makes the game feel like you’re operating in a real world, of sorts, albeit a magical one. I’m going to complain about the camera in a little bit, but being able to use that camera to see a living, breathing, topographically realistic world is amazing. It’s clear the game developers took their time with a lot of things that had to do with making a visually and auditorily pleasing world. They deserve credit for it.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
I’m guessing this will not come as a shock to anyone, but a lot of the things I don’t like about this game have to do with things that divert away from the pen and paper rules and tabletop expectations. At some point, maybe as part of the “Definitive Edition” (more on that later) I’d like there just to be a toggle-able “D&D RAW” mode. Since there isn’t, here are my complaints, in no particular order.
-Character Creation-
The fact that you can’t actually roll dice to create character stats really bothers me. This is, again, one of those areas where Larian either thought the balance curve would be thrown off if players were able to roll stats, or that casual gamers who didn’t know anything about D&D might be overwhelmed by the prospect. Which is the worst of poppycock, for two reasons. Firstly, because the game IS DESIGNED with rolling for stats as one of the methods of character creation. It is balanced with that method in mind. Secondly, because rolling for stats could have just been an option. For those that didn’t want to roll for stats, just give them the standard array and off they go.
Another thing about character creation that I don’t like, that has made the rounds around the forum, is the fact that they removed all the species’ bonuses for whatever reason. Ergo, elves are supposed to get a +2 to Dexterity. No, not in BG3.To me that removes the power of the diversity of the races. If no race is mechanically any different than all the rest, the only applicable difference between them is aesthetic, which is pointless. Celebrating diversity doesn’t mean making everybody the same. It means celebrating the fact that they have real differences.
Point being, I have always liked the way you can customize a character using the D&D rules. Larian decided they didn’t. It bothers me. Next…

-Shove!-
Oy. Just, oy.

Part and parcel of Shove, but also its own entity: -allocation of action economy-
Ergo actions and bonus actions, when, how many, what you can do with them, etcetera. Why is it that if a character is dropped to zero hit points, and then they are healed, they can’t act normally? That’s not how it works in the rulebooks. I mean, please don’t tell me that it’s because of some attempt at verisimilitude, because, again, SHOVE! The game’s operation of the Shove action (which is what it is supposed to be) defies the laws of physics, the rules as written, and even just normal expectation. Yet, when a character stands up, healed, after having been unconscious for the nonce, they can’t take a full retinue of actions? Come on Larian, you either want things to operate somewhat like real life, or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Speaking of having it both ways…

-The fact that some narrative content is tied to the quantity of long rests you take?!-
I cannot fathom this at all. In the beginning of the game several of the companions urge you with all sincerity to rest as little as possible because you might turn into a mind-flayer at any moment. This fits very well with the story’s implied urgency, and connects the game to its D&D roots. At the tabletop if your party is taking a long rest after every even remotely difficult encounter, your DM is likely to send a “random” encounter at you while you attempt to rest. Yet, here, in this video game where companion characters urge you to NOT rest, if you don’t long rest like, what, I don’t know, 39 times during Act I alone, you are likely to miss a bunch of story content. Ridiculous. Speaking of narrative content…

-Way too many plot inconsistencies and holes-
I cannot imagine the geometry of the web of interconnected storylines that game developers had to try to keep track of, and account for. I’m sure it was/is daunting. Yet even so, if you are going to attempt to produce something as narratively ambitious in scope as this game wants to be, you’d better get it right, because the errors become glaring and off-putting when you don’t. Non-player characters commenting on things that “happened” that haven’t really happened yet is totally immersion breaking. I’ve also got a personal gripe with how some of the mechanical elements of important story moments take place. I mentioned this in another thread somewhere, but when I went in to rescue Gale from the blood-suited one, upon freeing him he was level 2 and only had 14hp and minimal spells/spell slots. I realized, almost immediately, that the reason had to be because my main character was a wizard, and so I had left Gale at camp permanently, and the game only levels up camp characters when they join your party. In that story scenario Gale was in the initiative as an ally, but was not technically part of my party, and therefore did not trigger the level up. This creates a scenario where if a player wants to make sure all their camp companions stay on level with them, they’ll have to dismiss their current party and add the other companions just to level them. That’s stupid, and annoying. I realize that being in charge of how companions level is important, but it should be able to be instigated in an easier way. Off the top of my head, make them pop up the little exclamation point over their head at camp saying they want to talk to you, and then just make “Level up” one of the dialogue options. Small digression, but it does fit under the umbrella of narrative issues.

-Magic Items-
There are WAY too many of these in the game, and they are way too weird. Momentum? Lightning charges? Dafuq? Strange combinations of a little bonus here and a little adjustment there? This is something that is not often brought up, but somebody, or somebodies, had to sit around and come up with all those weird magical items and then code them into the game? For my money, all of the time they spent crafting all that magical weirdness would have been much better spent polishing the narrative web! Not to mention that they just completely abandoned the RAW attunement mechanics, which I think makes magic items a more enjoyable part of the game, because of the challenge of managing them. If the developers had just taken the magic items out of the sourcebooks verbatim, they’d have had much less time to spend coming up with “cool” magic items of their own. The way magic items are implemented now it’s clear that they want players to search for the perfect “kit” that synergizes all items to a specific purpose. With the way inventory management doesn’t work, that’s a headache inducing exercise. Once again, I’d have much preferred a D&D RAW approach here.
Speaking of inventory management.

-Inventory Management-
This is well documented. It’s a shart-show. Now made all the worse by having companions that leave your party handing over darn near everything in their freaking inventory to you. What am I pack mule now? The game encourages you to loot containers, bodies, chests, and baskets, but then your inventory looks like a rainbow wall of items, many of which, in the end, turned out to not be useful at all. Heaven forbid, though, you pick up an item that’s quest related, not realize it, sell it, and then the person you sold it to is no longer available because you switched acts. Inventory needs an overhaul. I’d say I spent at least 20-30% of my playtime managing inventory. If I wanted to play “Baldur’s Pack Organizer 3,” I’d have bought that game.

Okay, as promised: -the camera-
Ye demi-gods! The camera. I know I praised how the camera allows for some beautiful vista views before, but the routine interaction of the camera to the environment is troublesome at best. I cannot tell you the number of times I wanted to click on a space on the floor on the other side of a door, and instead my character went and closed or opened the door instead. Or how many times I’ve tried to target something in combat, only to realize I needed to do a massive camera swivel just to get the system to recognize that, yes, indeed, I am within range and have line of sight to that target. One of the worst culprits as far as the camera is concerned is verticality. I just love going up a set of stairs to nowhere, it’s so fun. Toggling the overhead view is rarely helpful, especially with the verticality issues. It’s a well-known issue. I just think it’s one that is so tied to the engine of the game that Larian doesn’t have the time or energy to work on a complete overhaul. I know there are mods, but modding the game until we are out of what I like to call EA 2.0 is not advisable, because any update or hotfix could break the mod. Ergo I don’t plan on adding any mods for quite some time.
Speaking of…

As promised: -Early Access 2.0-
Yeah, you heard me, that’s what we’re all in, whether anyone admits it or not. The number of patches and hotfixes coming out will remain steady for at least another year, if not longer. If Larian’s past is any indicator of their future. Did anyone even read the entirety of the list for the Patch 3 update? It’s a ghastly tome of corrections, and they’ve added a completely new feature to the game, “the magic mirror.” A feature added because of player feedback. Do you know when gaming studios add features due to player feedback? It’s called early access. Now, I know that modern gamers fully expect there to be updates after a game releases into the wild, but an update with that many adjustments plus new added features??!! We’re clearly another full calendar year away from the actual “full release” of this game. We’re all still guinea pigs, and the people who are waiting for the “Definitive Edition” will actually play the game as it’s meant to be. That’s why the name of such editions is “definitive;” they define what the game was supposed to be. “Is this the real game now, finally?” They’ll ask. “Yes, it’s definitive.”
Right now, though, it’s definitively not great. It needs work. Thankfully, they are working on it. As patches and hotfixes clearly indicate. I’m grateful for that. I’m glad Larian is standing behind their product and admitting, “yeah, it could have been better,” and then working to make it so.
Speaking of making it better…

-Level Cap-
The current level cap seems absurdly arbitrary. Thirteen is exactly halfway through what the DMG refers to as the ”Masters of the Realm” tier of play. I’ve mentioned this in other threads as well, but the grandiosity of some of the endgame villains, as well as the scope of the ramifications of those battles and choices made elsewhere, is on par with top tier play. If you want the characters to feel like Masters of the World then they should actually be of a level where they can alter world events. Overthrowing a bloody warship sized Elder Brain that is equipped with a legendary artifact level magic item is absolutely Master of the World level stuff. If I were DMing this campaign and threw a party of level thirteen people into that scenario, they’d gather torches and pitchforks and run me out of town.
I’m of a mind that Larian just decided thirteen was the end point because a lot of the classes get features at 14, 15, and 16 that would be much harder to implement. Although why they would worry about what the books say at that point is beyond me. They haven’t worried about what the books say anywhere else.

That is, I know, a healthy list of complaints. Therefore, I feel it is vastly important after having thrown down that dirty laundry list of gripes to remind everyone that I, for all those faults, still very much enjoy the game overall. Is it perfect? Is any game? No. Is it above average? Yes, in many ways. Also, no, it isn’t, in many ways. It’s a work in progress, and it is a work that is progressing. Be glad of it. Play it for what it is, and let’s all continue discussing what doesn’t work with the hopes that it will improve accordingly.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
As indicated above, I am in desperate desire of a “D&D RAW” mode toggle button. Whether that happens as Larian officially adopts Zerd’s RAW mod, after it’s complete and thoroughly bug-tested, or they come up with it on their own, I don’t care, but give me what I, and many others, thought you were making from the very beginning: a D&D video game. As is we have a “sort of D&Desque” video game. It’s D&D-ish enough that it takes a dull fingernail to that itch, but I’m looking for a bear claw back scratcher.
I would hope there’s no DLC. The game is complete. It just needs polishing, LOTS of polishing. If they can get it polished that will be enough. I wouldn’t mind, as others have suggested, perhaps a Baldur’s Gate 2.5 where we get to play through some of the lead up stories to this story. Or even a Baldur’s Gate 4, where we have to deal with the aftermath of this story and try to help a mostly destroyed city with a power vacuum rebuild from the devastation.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
As mentioned, no, and I won’t until there is a solid indication that no more patches or hotfixes are on the horizon. While we’re in EA 2.0, I won’t be modding the game. However much I’d like to.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldur's Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
So, that’s a loaded question, partially because you didn’t make a distinction between computer games and tabletop. I currently DM a D&D game and am a player in another, albeit in home crafted worlds, but for both games we play using the D&D 5e ruleset. As mentioned elsewhere within my answers, I’ve played just about every D&D-ish game there is, and I’m talking about going all the way back to games like Bard’s Tale. I have not, though, played Planescape Torment, or the Tomb of Elemental Evil. For whatever reason, I avoided those games. I may play them yet, but I haven’t. Ever hear of a seriously crappy game called D&D Daggerdale? Yeah, I even played that one. You want to talk about an atrocious game, that’s definitely one. Perhaps it’s because of my lengthy experience with D&D based CRPGs that I feel so strongly about BG3. Like, I think it was Niara, said upthread, this game has such outstanding potential, but massively under-delivers. That’s disappointing, but it’s just good enough to keep me playing, and for that reason it proves itself better than the smattering of games I tried, and never finished.

TL;DR version: BG3 isn’t bad, it’s D&D-ish enough to keep me entertained, but it could have been one of the best games of all time! Seeing that missed potential, I believe, is what makes so many people so passionate about what doesn’t work.

1. What do you think of BG3?
Its a very good game overshadowed by heavy narrative issues inherent in the later stages of it, both main and side/companion quests. Given enough time, I hope they look into this. If they do, BG3 will be one of my all time favorites.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
150 hours EA. Then bought the game an extra three times for my friends.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
The companions, combat, voice acting and graphics.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
Act 3. Just in general. I basically create a new character everytime I get to it. The city is a mess to navigate, its themes are not interesting and I find myself simply sticking to whatever remaining companion quests I have just to blast through them to get to the ending.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
Expanded romances for Minthara and Halsin. A Citadel type DLC from Mass Effect. But I would prefer lots of polish before looking into something like that.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
No, waiting until the final 'patch' to start messing around on that front, or at least until the patches become less frequent. It might take years but still.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldurs Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
Im assuming this is referring to tabletop, the closest experience I have with that is Warhammer Fantasy RPG and like maybe 2 D&D sessions because no one seems to stick around to complete them.