Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Feedback after nearly 2 playthroughs

So, I want to give my feedback now after finishing the game once and making it nearly to the end a second time.

The 1st time I played on normal with a bard as dark urge. I left every companion with the regular class/subclass and did not respec.
The 2nd time I played on tactician difficulty as shadow heart and changed her to shadow monk/rogue. I also used multi-classing for the other companions without changing their main class.
From the difficulty I have to say that the 2nd run on higher difficulty felt much easier because I used more effective class/subclass combinations. Might be worth to balance the class/subclass skills a bit more (trickery domain, wild magic etc are quite weak)

Here is also the link to my feedback during the early access I will refer to that a few times and write it as quotes: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=798804

So, obviously you know you did a great job, and you deserve all the praise you got. But I want to add my opinion on a couple of things that could be improved (at least in my opinion).

Let’s start with a couple of obvious ones that you probably have already seen here multiple times:

• You probably know about the hiccups in act III. This is also the reason why I stopped playing since a lot of cut scenes did not seem to happen. Many interactions with Orin did not occur and my romance just did not advance. (In both of my playthroughs it never evolved past the first “we are together” scene even with full approval)
• You also probably know of the whole item management issue. It is really a pain to share items among all companies. I also mentioned that already in my early access review.
• I have also seen criticism to the way act III feels. Some players lose motivation when they arrive in Baldurs Gate, and I have to agree completely. For me it was just the difference coming from such an epic location/battle to the city. Moonrise towers and the surrounding area felt like late game with all the shadows, and fighting a god’s chosen and going into underground tempels etc. (It felt comparable the end of Neverwinter nights II with the siege at crossroad’s keep and the battle at Merderlain) And then, you come into the city and you have to discover the whole area again and on first glance the problems seem to be a couple dimensions smaller than before (like killing rats in a cellar). One possible solution to prevent something like that would be to introduce the main city earlier in the game so that you already have seen everything, and you can just go ahead with the quests. (But that is just a recommendation for future games).
• And I also have to agree that the evil playthrough is not really rewarding because you lose a ton of quests, npcs and companions. If you side with the goblins and become a chosen of Shar you get one new companion and a lame armor from Shar for the price of losing 4-5 companions and all the tieflings that give access to more quests and way more items. I wish there were some semi-evil choices that don’t just nuke everyone. (ignoring a quest for that neither feels intended nor satisfying)
  
  
  In my early access feedback I mentioned:
  
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  Time pressure: I really don't like it when the game puts pressure on the player to resolve a certain problem but then encourages the player to explore the world at the same time. Now I have to listen every time to go to a certain place to fix the problem and that it is sooo important that we do it right now, but if I would run there immediately, I would be totally underleveled. And if I explore the world and take my time, I don't seem to have any negative consequences. My opinion is: If there is a time critical problem, it should be possible to solve it immediately. If you want to encourage players to explore, the problem should not be time critical. (Well at least no short-term) In the lore of D&D it says that the time of no return is 1 hour for tadpoles. If you want to satisfy the lore and give the player time to explore you could give Lae'zel (or some other person/goddess) a skill that delays the ceremorphosis for a bit.
  I think you solved this better, and it was clearer now that the tadpole would not transform us, but it still made me try to rest as little as possible in my first playthrough, leading to many missed cutscenes. Not sure how to solve this better. You already have every “expert” telling me that the missing transformation is completely unusual.
  
  Also, from my previous feedback:
  
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  Level Design: You are going a similar way that Original Sin 2 and Dragon Age 3 went, where you present the whole world as a couple of big open world levels. I personally do prefer smaller levels that are connected over a map. Your design gives a feeling that everything interesting is super close together and that you can't really travel further away. It also makes it difficult to create different environments if you want to stay consistent (and logical). I would prefer something like Dragon Age 1 or Neverwinter Nights 2 - Storm of Zehir with a map, travel, locations, random encounters, hidden locations that can only be revealed with a perception check etc. That would feel more like pen and paper and like a big world where not everything is crammed together in one spot. A mix of both ways with some big areas and a lot of small ones might work best.
  I still stand by that opinion. It would just feel more like a pen and paper with a map and travels, and it would make the whole missing cutscene in camp issue easier for you. Also, it would make Minthara look more competent if the druid camp wouldn’t just be a 5 mins foot walk away from her camp.
  
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  Skill checks:
  Not sure how much effort that is but I would like to see different outcomes based on my dice throw. Like passing with 10 more than required gives you something extra, while failing with 10 or less punishes you.
  This still would be a nice idea but probably too much effort.
  
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  And I still propose a "Continue" button in the launch menu that immediately starts the last save game.
  Crusader king 3 has that and it is just very comfortable.
  
  A couple of new ideas:
• Pushing attack/spells: In my opinion pushing attack is too strong, at least combined with a level design that often has chasms. I think pushing attack should be a regular action instead of bonus.
  Also, both push attack and spells often don’t make too much sense. Why should I be able to use a spell to push Cazador in his gaseous form down a chasm. He could easily just glide back. You have a system like that already implemented for the mindflayers in act III right before the final battle (unless this was a bug). I would use it for every character that is capable of flying, teleporting or has a similar skill. Give them one turn in mid air where they can use a bonus action to come back.
• You have built such great system that can react to so many different variations, you could also maybe add some randomness to the story? Like finding a companion/character at a different location etc. This might increase replayability.
• I think it might also be an idea to have more enemies give up a fight. Especially when their leader is killed. (not for the brainwashed crowd)
• Finally, a conclusion I came to after playing all neverwinter nights, both pathfinder games and bg3:
  D&D has a great lore but the system is made for pen and paper and not for video games. The whole spell/skill per long/short rest system only works because you don’t have as many battles, you have less npcs in the battles and because having something like cooldowns would be really messy in the pen and paper. But as video game there will be more battles and more enemies because that’s how video games work. A game master can hand pick the battles and play intelligent while a game cannot and relies on quantity over quality. I think having cooldowns or mana or a similar system would make the whole game easier to design also again with respect to the camp cut scences.
  So, for the next game stay with a system similar to original sin 2. (If you are allowed)

This got quite long. I hope this can help you. I probably have forgotten a couple of things I had in mind during my playthroughs. I will add them here once I remember them.

Thanks for creating such a great game. I know you are not big on DLCs etc but even if you just create a "buy the delevopers a beer" dlc I would buy it to support you.

So long.

My own experience has been the opposite, I find my 2nd play through to be MUCH harder. The reason for this though I feel is my active effort to truly RP the character and not min/maxing for game mechanics. I am playing this run as a Paladin in the traditional sense. This means a bunch of the companions are not around. Also means I can usually not talk my way through fights because my Paladin does not lie. The result is I find myself in more confrontations since I cannot avoid fighting evil by bluffing my way around it.

Well you used your 2nd playthrough to go more into roleplaying. I did that on my first one and even in my 2nd one I went with a built that could actually fit to shadowheart (shadow monk + rogue) and then just optimized the skills etc.

You just made it it harder for yourself cause you played a very specific type of roleplay. The game still offers all possibilities to make it easier for you.

This is exactly how I first played. Really dislike major time sensitive objectives in open world RPGS. Seems to contradict the ethos of an RPG

Yea I feel that if a creature is capable of flying and isn't stunned, they should be able to fly back up from being pushed off a cliff, otherwise it makes no sense.

Not to mention that under the Gaseous Form spell, the description literally says that [a creature in gas form] can't fall.

I also recall fighting a bunch of humanoid fish people in the Underdark and when I pushed one into the water, he just came right back up. I chalked it up to the fact that since the enemy was a fish it could swim, therefore it made sense and was most likely intended.

Speaking of gas form, does it make much sense that while in gas form, you can still be physically restrained by some attacks? I'm not familiar with DnD so maybe it's an expected mechanics and i just don't know about it, but it did come to me as a surprise that during the final boss battle, the were able to grab and restrain my characters in gas form. It felt counterintuitive to me but if that's the intended interaction then i have no issue with it.

They really did that well in the witcher 3. There you had to explore to find Ciri.
In cyberpunk it is again bad, because you are dying and need to find a solution fast but you still have time to flirt with Panam. (And the relic malfunction always happend when the fights were over ;))



True. The fish people in Baldurs Gate had the same mechanic. Even though I find reappearing in the same turn a bit too fast. Let them use a bonus/move action during their next turn to resurface.

While I have only tried the potion of gaseous form once I was bitterly disappointed with it. I drank the potion while surrounded by Meenlocks. The intent being to get away from the demons and get to a vantage point where I could use an area of affect attack against them. As soon as I drink the potion though, and tried to float past them, they immediately attacked me as I was floating by them, and I took damage which was annoying to say the least, and not what I was expected, since I was supposed to be in gaseous form, so that’s something Larian Studios needs to take a look at.

To be fair, in the description of Gaseous Form (the spell), it says that it makes the creature "very hard to damage," not immune to damage.

But yea, personally imo being a gas should at least make you immune to most types of cc, but from my experience that's not really the case.

I haven't read the whole thread, but this is an excellent suggestion!


I still don't understand this one. Inventory management in this game is a joy. I have pretty much all the tools I need. The only thing missing is labeling containers.

Think of the following situation: I find an item for companion X. But companion X is not in my party. So I have to go to camp, run to companion Y make them leave my party, then run to companion X, add them to my party, give them the item, make them leave my party again, run to companion Y, add to my party again and then leave camp.

It gets a lot worse if I have items in my group's travel chest or want to compare items across all companions.

The easiest solution would just be: Once I am in camp, I can access all inventorys (indepentenly if the companions are in my party or not) plus the groups chest at the same time. This way I can properly compare all items on each companion and don't have to run a marathon in the meantime.

I agree with all the points raised.

Regarding "continue" button:

Startup of the game with all the splash screens takes too long anyway. I know there is a mod, but I still don't have all the Steam achievements, so using mods is a no-no for me currently.

I mean, everyone and their brother knows that this game is by Larian Studios, so having the option to simply load at least directly into main menu would help a lot.

Yes that is exactly my opinion. If there is already a mod for it then clearly some people want it.

"Cazador suddenly remembered he can turn into mist and fly, so he'll no longer give up the ghost if he falls into a chasm."

Yaaay thank you!

Now add it to everyone else that can fly, teleport, dimension door, misty step etc.


One thing I forgot:

Why is it impossible to use sneak attack with unarmed attack? Is there any reason or is that a bug? (I think if you attack normally you can trigger it, but there is no dedicated button like for ranged or melee weapon)

This is one that folk have debated about on and off regularly over 5e's lifespan. Formally speaking, gaseous form does not make you immune to grapple and restrain - if it did, it would say so. It also doesn't give you free escapes from those conditions; again, if it did, it would say. Consider Freedom of Movement as a comparison; FoM specifically has a clause that lets you spend a small amount of movement to escape from non-magical grapples and restrains. Gaseous form hasn't got any such clause, so mechanically it does not. You should be able to escape from the grapple in all the normal ways (ability checks, teleports, force movements etc.), but even if you wanted to leverage the 'squeeze through small gaps' element of the spell, when you're grappled your speed is zero, so you can't move away in order to slip out.

How do we rationalise this, is the main question. The way I look at it is this: you are still yourself; you have a gas-like form and it's enough to make you able to squishy and deform through gaps, and to float and drift around, but you're still more or less your own shape, and you still have physical presence, which is why you can still be hurt. People can't pass swords through you; you're not actually a mist, you're a person with features similar to one. This means that someone can still grab your wrist or wrap their arms about your waist; you'll feel soft and cloud-like, perhaps, but you're still tangible enough for them to do so, and you still need to escape being grabbed like that as a single discrete entity with a body needs to do.

That's my reasoning to justify the RAW formalities of the spell at least.