Suggestions for game balancing.
I have played pen and paper (PnP) Ad&D for over 30 years and used version 1, 2 and 3.5 rules. I am very protective of the franchise and the brand and am always concerned about the integrity of any interpretation of this awesome game in computer form. For these reasons I am compelled to put forward my views.
In general I would like Larian to consider addressing some issues that IMO reduces the difficulty of the game and which I believe may adversely affect game balance which could lead to a reduction in player satisfaction leading to a reduction with repeat playability of the BG3 product. Further, observed trends on youtube may also influence build options and reduce the diversity of builds, inadvertently harming the reputation of the AD&D franchise as a vast and customizable gaming system.
In brief, the PnP form of the game historically allowed a human Dungeon Master (DM) to modify a game how they saw fit, this naturally led to altering the rules to prevent imbalance to ensure a challenging role play environment for players by keeping players engaged and on the edge of their seats at all times. The challenge for computer games trying to emulate such an experience is the limitation of lacking a real time human DM to adjudicate the game accordingly to what the players actions are. Thus eliminating game breaking decisions for the players own good. When players devise ways and means to remove a challenge it is the DM's job to limit those actions to ensure the players don't inadvertently ruin their own experience by being too clever. This is what a good DM must do.
I have observed recently a growing list of solo play through videos on youtube show casing tactician mode and the ease of exploiting elements found within the game to essentially remove and/or circumvent challenges. This post is not intended to list every issue and the scope of this post will only look at ranged combat and sneak attacks. Things done within the spirit of the intended physics of the gaming engine/environment (what the AI DM would allow) and not those such as what are used by Speed runners, that is to say to exploit coding errors to finish the game early. I will only say it is sad to see people pay for a game to finish it in 3 minutes, but they probably like paying for a movie and only watching the end scene, so. GG.
The main concern i have is the publication of solo play through's informing newcomers or people without knowledge of the core rules how to complete the game in a way that removes the challenge. The natural tendency of less knowing players is usually to take a cookie cutter approach to success by exploiting META options either in building a toon or replicating a certain method or playstyle. I have seen this done too many times over decades of gaming to accept any argument that this does not happen. The cookie cutter player will research solo playthroughs and copy what they are doing and complete the game without ever being provided challenging game play or even understanding how or why they are successful. This I fear may lead to dissatisfaction and complaints about a lack of challenging content even on tactician mode and reduced repeat playability.
The issues observed
Dex based builds making a mockery of the game by combining high AC with ranged combat using arrows of many targets.
Ways to balance dex based builds exploiting extremely high AC in combination with AOE arrows.
There are three medium armors in the game with no dex cap which are providing an unrealistic AC much higher to the comparative heavy armor when they are introduced during the game. Essentially this unrealistic AC is requiring enemies on tactician to roll a natural 20 to hit, combined with karma dice this would lead to easy mode game play.
Solutions
Cap all medium armor dex bonus back to +2 as per the core v5 rules, or alternatively reduce the armor bonus of medium armor that has no dex cap to lower values i.e. drop the base AC from 17 to 15 etc to offset the dex bonus from expected values in between expected Dex 20-24 (+6/+8). An example, the armor of agility provides a base AC of 17, then add +6/+7/+8 from 20/22/24 Dex (for a dex based build), and the armor provides 23/24/25 base AC. Compare that to heavy Helldusk legendary armor that provides only 21 AC. For real?
Disallow ranged combat to obtain an AC bonus from an equipped shield. Currently using a bow with a shield equipped you are still obtaining the AC bonus from the shield. This defies physic's to be able to hold a bow with 2 hands and also use a shield. Easy fix.
Tactician mode to remove karma dice to ensure more extreme game play and dice results. Enough said on that.
With the changes above implemented you would see a reduction of AC from unrealistically high values to more reasonable values, ie. from 29+ AC to around 24-25 AC. This would then be comparative with using Helldusk heavy armor with the Heavy shield that gives combined 24 AC and ensure for challenging game play for either str and dex based builds and would balance this out.
General combat
Tactician mode is way too easy for veteran players, you need to double the Hit points of all enemies. Tactician mode should be party killer mode, not make a mockery of Larian mode.
Risky ring is way too powerful; it isn't even an exotic or legendary item and is more powerful than the Killer Sweetheart ring or Surgeons Subjugation amulet. The Risky ring breaks the game for both melee, ranged including sneak attacks, period. Risky ring effect should be capped at 1 use per short rest or long rest similar to Killer Sweetheart ring or Surgeons Subjugation amulet. Simply a ridiculous item that once equipped makes the game a total joke to play, period.
Ranged abuse whether as a Sneak Attack (SA) or not.
I understand Larian has had problems implementing ranged combat especially SA ranged combat since beta, I can clear a room of enemy and the AI doesn't react well at all. Personally, I don't find that playstyle rewarding or entertaining but from a game balance view, the enemy AI needs a much harsher and aggressive response by at least automatically determining the direction an attack comes from and will auto calculate the distance based on predicting approx location using expected ranges for ranged weapons, then actual do something about it, not just stand there like a brainless zombie getting chewed up.
Enemy clusters lack casters. A recent playthrough of BG2 enhanced edition impressed me with how many casters with each enemy cluster and their use of Crowd Control (CC) spells to disrupt party tactics, whether hold person, confusion etc. This is an important aspect of game play missing throughout BG3, which leads to easy mode tactics. At least on Tactician mode more enemy clusters with casters using spells to disrupt tactics using CC and dispel magic would be a welcomed challenge.
Invisibility and the risky ring providing advantage affecting sneak attacks and removing the reason to use stealth ability
The spell-like ability, potion or spell Invisibility is outperforming its level 2 expectation and is being abused beyond belief. In solo tactician, combined with sneak attacks or simply wanting to dump aggro, the low-level spell-effect is clearly providing a very high level of performance. This needs to be addressed. This will lead onto my observation of sneak attack proccing from invisibility and not from the hide action is an oversight next.
Risky ring provides a permanent advantage thus allowing permanent sneak attacks without using a hide action, Similarly, using invisibility does the same thing. Do I need to say any more on this? Getting the benefit of sneak attack damage without the penalty of using a hide action enables the full use of unimpeded movement and is broken, broken, broken and broken. What is the point of having a hide action? IMO it is to ensure actions are used in a turn, meaning to degrade the DPS output of a toon to offset the SA damage bonus. Having movement actions to enter sneak mode means tactical movement and clever game play. By removing that aspect for sneak attack builds you allow an unbalanced advantage for builds relying on sneak attack and thus reducing the challenge of the game without any penalties designed to enable sneak attack using movement actions.
Refer to my comments above re: risky ring to reduce the efficacy for sneak attacks.
Marquee fights
Certain fights are the focal point of game advancement and should be extremely complex and difficult to complete. For example, the Raphael fight in hell. It looks like Wizards of the Coast (WoTC) have dumbed down a lot of monsters in v5. Compare all Baatezu in v1 or v2 rules ALL Devils had innate detect invisibility castable once every round of combat. In v5 they don't!!!!! LMAO. Devils/Demons, all extraplanar creatures fought on their home plane have historically been the most difficult fights for any adventurer. Looking at the methods used to solo the Rapheal fight on tactician, again a simple spell like invisibility has made a mockery of the game, notwithstanding the abuse of high AC dex ranged builds with arrow of many targets etc. Refer to my comment re: abusing invisibility and high dex builds above. The supra-intelligent Devil Rapheal, son of Mephistopheles the Arch devil of the 8th layer can't detect Invisibility? C'mon, and what's with the Cambions, favorites of Grizzit, not Mephistopheles and not found in abundance on the 8th layer of Hell (Mephistopheles layer) and why are they in the service of Rapheal? You could have chosen a devil type, at least on tactician mode, that were a lot smarter and tougher by substituting them with stronger Devils and/or allowing them to cast debuffs, detect invisibility. and to deconstruct a party defense. Surely, Raphael in his house he has better defenses set up to automatically trigger. Why dont those pillars have an anti-magic aura? or cast random hidden symbols on the ground that dispel magic or damage to break caster concentration? or to summon more devils, i think alot could be done for the Raphael fight in general, at the very least on tactician. I recall we used to have the rule back in the day that all extraplanar had their Hit points doubled on their home plane. Raphaels Hit points should at least be 1200+. this is just one example of one marquee battle but it is an important test case for many others.
I'll wrap things up here, otherwise, totally love the game, onto my 5th playthrough and still can't get enough, keep up the excellent work at Larian, peace.
Last edited by Dis'Mael; 30/09/23 02:25 PM.
