Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Feedback from a filthy casual

If one character is a shameless rip-off or weak homage to a previous character in the same space, then they will Necessarily both be examples of the over-arching and much older character trope which the first character was designed for. That doesn't make the second character any less of a weak copy and poor rip of the first, and does not excuse it from that criticism. If that was the impression and feeling that a player got when experiencing the second character, that's their experience - it's not wrong, and it's perfectly valid for them to report that.

Medusa != Medea. And that is a gross oversimplification of the Morrigan. Samhain, the harvest festival is a blessing from her and the Dagda for example.

I do admit that I was irritated when I made that comment about Orin. Perhaps I should have omitted the comparison and just said that I thought that the characterization was trying too hard to be edgy, over the top, etc..

As a newbie to this game genre and this game in particular, I'd love to see a major re-working / mega-nerf for the entirety of Act 3 (only for the Explorer, lowest difficulty setting). Act 3 feels like it was made by From Soft instead of Larian, with exponential increases in difficulty that can only be solved through extensive cheese based on non-stop googling of how to beat each and every fight / boss encounter. I liked Act 1 and Act 2 as the difficulty ramps made sense and you could kind of muddle your way through it, but Act 3... Basically if someone asks me about this game, it only has two acts and you can stop playing after the second.

It's interesting to note how varied the the responses to BG3's combat have been; some people are immensely frustrated by it and others are claiming that it is too easy. I wonder if this is an inescapable result of merging turn based tactical gaming mechanics into an RPG experience.

Example: I'll run into an encounter that just seems ridiculous - my team gets stunned/charmed/taken out before I can do anything meaningful, or the number of mobs is too high, my miss rates hysterically poor, not enough spells, etc. - and I have to tediously save scum my way through it. Then, later, I will see someone recount the same encounter rolling their eyes about how easy it is because before the fight they just positioned this guy here, that guy there and placed 5 barrels of explosive powder over there and of course they "had the right build".

Now, if I'm approaching this from my RPG perspective, I'm not going to have a meta party composition; I'm going to have a party of characters and class builds that interest me from a story and character development perspective. I'm not going to research fights beforehand; I'm going to explore and react to the unknown as it happens. I'm not going to being carrying around 5 barrels of explosives because if I need to treat encumbrance as a concern, then my group isn't going to be carting around a warehouse's worth of miscellaneous junk at all times.

Long post ahead

Sometimes it's also dumb luck. I've had encounters that are hysterically easy because the enemy had that one special attack that made them a considerable foe, and that special thing... Never got into play.

Sometimes build can matter a lot, especially early. For example: Ethel. Her one "thing" is the clones that have equal attack damage. Enter stage left, a character with magic missile. Worse, *two* characters with magic missile! Fight completely trivialised by a level 1 spell, no cheese!

There's encounters where no AoE means suffering. Encounters where no single burst target damage means suffering. Encounters where losing initiative means suffering. Etc. You're going to hit roadblocks and become a better player for it.

I'm generally satisfied with the difficulty curve. But, I'm trying to teach someone the game now who's doing chemo and isn't a gamer. Just as a bit of enrichment. Well, let me tell you. Eyesight can be quite troublesome in some encounters. She still sometimes clicks on the floor with spells instead of an enemy. I have trouble teaching her positioning -- it just doesn't stick. She's not used to thinking in terms of combat, nevermind strategic combat.

I've tried to limit the party to the same 4 people and no more. I try to explain a lot in simpler terms, like... "Astarion is a rogue, we made him a thief, which means..." doesn't work, so I say "Astarion is our archer and he's really good at hiding".

We've hit a bit of a rough patch currently because she wants to do more things on her own... but keeps running into encounters that are a bit too difficult. She needs a *bit* of help, but not too much. A guide would be annoying. No tips currently means she won't figure out the "trick" to harder fights on her own. It's certainly difficult to hit a sweet spot for everyone.

This is not a fair appraisal. Several people are saying the game is too easy, and they're not prepositioning or using barrels or striking from stealth.

While I don't doubt that some folks do those things, it's not fair to say that they're representative of the crowd that thinks the game is too easy.

It's basically not taking my complaints that the game is too easy seriously. It's saying that I must be metagaming or using exploits or or or...

People have been having mixed feelings about these elements since early access. Most of us enjoy the combat or gameplay 80% of the time, though. I get the impression you don't. The combat is certainly a deal-breaker for some and the goofiness another for others.

Orin is deeply connected to the Dark Urge. She's an antagonist with a very personal rivalry to that background. She's half the villain if you play as anyone else. I don't want to spoil too much, but that's why she's... Like That. A wronged, evil little cousin type who never received half the attention. Now, she has it and you've fallen from grace through her machinations and she's gloating. This is Orin. A jealous, petty and histrionic girl that never quite grew up.

It is possible that they seem representative, because most of the YT video's I looked at , showing how easy the fights are, do contain some or lots of exploits.
Very recently I checked in to YT and there was a livestream going on in honor mode, so I took a peek in it and as I stepped in, the battle at Cazador"s ritual place was busy.
And first action I saw was throwing a superior healing potion in the group of adventurers. Hmmm, honor mode and you do this ?...

Ignoring the barrelmancy tubes, other video's I 've seen mostly display superpowerful players. (incredibly far movement range, 4 or 5 attacks per round doing terrible damage each, and then positioning itself in just that kind of spot where the enemies can't reach it. How they found out that spot was there, is not explained in the video of course.

So this is something that can reinforce the image of which you feel victim.

Personally, I am in the "quite difficult on balanced mode" camp. Whereby I mean boss fights or gangs that are way tougher than the party at the moment of encounter. I've played the game so many times now that the first encounters from act 1 are very easy for me too. But when we get to Githyanky patrol, or even the 3 ogres at Moonhaven, it is still hard.

Part of the difficulty is probably because I prefer the RPG to combat, so my PC usually is a high-charismatic, jack-of-all trades, specialised in disarming traps and finding stuff. Fortunately this can avoid battle in many occasions, but not all, and then it is tough.

On the other hand, I realize the difficulty is also caused by me not understanding all the spells and items as thorough as the combat specialists. So I 'm sure that really knowing all the minute details of what things can do when will make combat much easier. However the ingame help doesn't explain things very well, and I haven't really found motivation to go on internet to search for all the details of so many items , spells, feats and etc...

Let me show you my party at the final encounter in my last PT. It was a dark urge run.
When I read somewhere that they have characters with AC 32, then , yes, this must be a very suboptimal party, and I could probably have made much better choices for easier combat with more knowledge. But , fortunately it got through the encounter.
(Though I had to switch to explorer mode, as you can see from the HP)

That is how it is woth other games as well, it is not unique to BG3. e.g. the Pathfinder Kingmaker, when it launched, some players complained that the highest difficulty is too easy, some players were really struggling on the lowest. Eventually the devs caught on and added a lot of options to the custom setting. There will be always people who, even excluding exploits, are more skilled at using character builds, even single classes.

Customization imo works better than simply using difficulty presents. For now in BG3 unfortunately, even in custom mode, you can only choose a preset for enemies, but maybe they will add more options.

I'd add that BG3 does have some issues, notably lack of poper party control where it adds to the difficulty. Because effectively you either position your party before combat, or you run into combat while your party holds no proper formation, like you are herding a group of chickens.