Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Things you wish you knew starting out

What are some things that you wish you knew when you first started playing the game that would’ve made it easier starting out?

For me, since I’m not too familiar with DND, I didn’t understand armor class, and how important it was. Now my understanding is that enemies need to roll higher than your armor class on a D20 (plus their attack bonus) to be able to hit you. So the higher your AC, the higher your enemies have to roll, and the harder it is to hit you. (Maybe this is wrong too, hopefully not!) But looking back, no wonder my little bard with 13 AC in my early playthroughs was getting absolutely WHOMPED. Understanding AC made me way better in combat.

What about you folks? Stuff you wish you knew starting out?

Speaking of AC there is medium armor later in the game that doesn’t cap your DEX bonus to AC. There are some rogue builds you can make if you start early enough (or respec) that can get pretty fun because of it. It’d probably work for bards too

I played table top AD&D first edition and the Basic-Expert DND long ago. The thing that confused me most in the beginning of BG3 were the spell properties, like concentration and duration. Also the distinction between turns and rounds I knew from the old school DND is no longer strictly used here, so that was confusing also.
For instance we have the mage armor spell and the cleric shield of faith spell which are very similar, but the cleric spell is concentration based and the mage spell isn't, so one kept going on and the other mysteriously disappeared.

After 900+ hrs of playtime, (having bought EA in november 2020) I 'm still struggling with the effects of magic items. Some are so totally designed to work- with certain class/spells combinations, I have trouble to really evaluate what the total combined effect can be.

The effects of magic items? You mean like reverberation, radiant orb, and lightning charges? I still have no idea about what exactly those do, still confused. (I probably should try to dig through the character sheets and stuff to figure that out.)

And yup, I have gotten to act 3 before, and put that armor (that doesn’t cap the dexterity bonus) on my cleric with gloves of dexterity.

(Edit: I started giving classes like bard and wizard one level of cleric to improve their armor classes significantly.)

Yeah, totally agree about the spell concentration thing. It took me a while to figure that one out. I will never waste my concentration slot on Blur again!

I also at first underestimated the importance of the background choice (outlander, urchin, acolyte, etc.) because that is not a re-spec option later on. Many classes do not get to choose a lot of skills, and those backgrounds can be really useful if you pick the right one. Roleplay be damned, now I always choose a background with Sleight of Hand so that I don't have to keep a thief in my party at all times.

Dual wield hand crossbows ... the ability to do a ranged attack as a bonus action is so powerful, especially at lower levels. And, you don't lose the shield bonus while doing it!

I miss having wands. I'd love to get a wand that works as a bonus action, so I won't need to carry dual hand crossbows all the time.

Yes, the effects you mentioned, I find it difficult to evaluate their real impact and decide if this is a better item than another, more simple one.
And there are also those who only take effect after a certain condition, like a critical hit for instance. Is it worthwhile to equip this ? Most items seem to have conditions like that attached, and I find it difficult to compare these against one another and decide which one is best to keep on me.
So most of the time I end up using only straightforward items that don't add all these side conditions. And that's probably not right, espcecially when I read about players doing 50+ damage in one attack.

But I guess I really just want to play and not spend my playing hours trying to figure it all out.
Maybe after a third PT or so, I'll get around to it.

I didn't Long Rest nearly enough. Also I didn't realise how the Shield spell worked, that I could give Gale an actual shield along with it and that he looks very dashing in light armour which is much better option for him until you find an actually good robe. It also took me while to realise that some items build sets that encourage a play style. I adore the one that builds lightning charges.

SAME I also didn’t realize how important long rests are, when I first started!

The ones with the magical conditions work best in sets. For some of the magical effects you'll need stacks of five until something happens, so if you can get those stacks in one or two turns, that's great. If you need the whole battle to build them, it's probably not worth it. The tooltips tell you how much you need.

For crits, attack rolls (both physical and spell attacks) can land crits. If you have a character that can make multiple attacks in one turn, say a fighter, they are more likely to crit than say a wizard who has only one action per turn unaided and might not even always use attack spells. So the crit stuff is probably more helpful for the fighter.

A typical magic item in BG III:

Belt of Indecipherable Synergy: When the wearer has a condition of mental anguish and then strikes an enemy with an unarmed attack while lying prone in a puddle of water, the belt will fly off and wrap the enemy in a thunderous conduit of baleful radiance for up to four rounds or fewer if the enemy succeeds a constitution saving throw with disadvantage followed by a bonus action to disengage.

Honestly, I was already familiar with D&D when I started playing. So even if something was different for 5th edition compared to what I've been most accustom to (3rd edition) it was still familiar enough to figure out quickly.


Those effects are:

Lighting Charges: Adds +1 to attack rolls and 1 point of Lighting Damage to any attacks you do (Including spells that use attack rolls) while you have any Lightning Charges. When you reach 5 stacks your next attack will deal a bonus 1d8 damage and consume all Lighting Charges.

Radiant Orb: Illuminates the target and the target gets -1 on their attack rolls for each turn remaining (Caps out at 10 turns remaining which means -10 penalty on all their attack rolls. Meaning Luminous Armour + Spirit Guardians is hilariously good at crippling enemies ability to hit you)

Reverberation: Reduces targets Strength, Dexterity and Constitution saving throws by 1 per remaining turn (Caps out at 10 turns remaining meaning -10 Strength and -10 Dexterity which can cripple enemies) when at 5 turns remaining or more, each turn they must roll a Constitution save or they take 1d4 thunder damage, fall prone and remove the Reverberation effect.

Encrusted with Frost: Target has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws. When at 7 or more turns remaining they must roll a Constitution saving throw, if they fail they take 1d4 cold damage and become Frozen (Incapacitated and vulnerable to Bludgeoning, Force and Thunder damage which will deal double damage and shatter them) if they succeed they take 1d2 damage and Encrusted with Frost effect is removed.

Heat: You take 1d4 fire damage each turn, but you get a passive toggle that allows your next spell or attack to deal damage equal to the number of remaining turns of Heat you have and remove the condition. (Caps out at 7 turns remaining for +7 damage. Unfortunately unlike most other sources of damage, this is only used on the first projectile of multi-projectile attacks like Magic Missile/Scorching Ray/Eldritch Blast rather than all of them)

Mental Fatigue: Reduces targets Wisdom, Intelligence and Charisma saving throws by 1 per remaining turn. If the target fails a Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma saving throw while at 5 or more turns remaining, they take 1d4 Psychic damage and remove the condition.

Arcane Acuity: You gain +1 bonus to spell attack rolls and spell DC for each turn remaining. (Caps out at 10 turns remaining for +10 to spell attack rolls and spell DC). Taking damage reduces the number of turns remaining by 2.

Arcane Synergy: Your weapon attacks also gain your Spell Casting Ability Modifier as damage (I.e. A Cleric with 20 Wisdom will get +5 damage on their weapons). This one can get a little strange when multiclassing and/or using classes that don't have an obvious casting stat (Rogue and Fighter use Int. Barbarian uses Chr. Monk uses Wis)

Interesting, thank you, this is very helpful!!

Er, since you’re very knowledgeable about the effects of magical items, do you know what builds they work best with? Like arcane acuity would work best with any spellcaster?

Not something I wish I knew, but something I accidentally found out;

• You can shoot levers to open/close them

Also do not underestimate the utility of all the various "Apply Effect On Hit" items, because you can create a debuff-monster that entirely crowd-controls enemies just by smacking them.

An example of Karlach's (Tiger Barb) numerous debuffs completely locking down bosses just by smacking them with a stick and making a joke out of them;

- Lightning Charges work well on Tempest Cleric build. Watersparkers, Sparkswall, Real Sparky Sparkswall and the level 6 passive from Tempest means you just create water, stand in it and zap enemies to death while constantly pushing them back.

- Radiant Orb works well with Life Cleric. Luminous Armour with Spirit Guardians (Radiant) and dual wielding some weapons (Which will deal bonus Radiant damage after level 8 Life Domain) and just apply mass Radiant Orb to EVERYTHING (Literally everything. All enemies and objects. Honestly, be careful, the game likes to crash when you suddenly apply 10+ stacks of Radiant Orb to 50+ random objects... I know I kept crashing in Morgue in the Mindflayer Colony because there's tons of stuff in that room)

- Reverberation works well with anything that can reliably proc it. Boots of Stormy Clamour is generally the easiest way and it just requires you to apply conditions... So things like the illithid power that debuffs enemies when you attack them, Tiger Barbarian's attack that applies Bleed, any weapon coating etc.

- Encrusted with Frost you'd want to go Cold Dragon Sorcerer and grab the Snowburst Ring which will help lock enemies down even more. Once they're frozen hit them with a (Thunder) Chromatic Orb to shatter them for massive damage.

- Mental Fatigue probably some sort of Bard. Ring of Mental Inhibition, Braindrain Gloves and a combination of Viscious Mockery, various longswords that deal bonus psychic damage (Like the various Gith ones... Or the one literally next to the Braindrain Gloves) and some illithid powers.

- Arcane Acuity is best used by Storm Sorcerer. Hat of Storm Scion's Power is pretty great since Storm Sorcerer's level 6 feature means whenever they deal Thunder damage with a spell, they deal AoE thunder damage. So you'll get 2 procs in one. Honestly, toss in Boots of Stormy Clamour and Gloves of Belligerent Skies and you'll also stack Reverberations to high heaven to boot (The only downside is that Sorcerer only has 3 spells that deal Thunder damage... Chromatic Orb, Shatter and Thunderwave so get used to spamming upcasted Chromatic Orb and Shatter...)

Though Arcane Acuity can also be used by Fire Dragon Sorcerers and Evocation Wizards with Hat of Fire Acuity in combination with Scorching Ray.

- Arcane Synergy just works on any character that uses weapons and also has points in their corresponding casting stat. Circlet of Arcane Synergy is honestly one of the strongest items in the game as a result. If only it was possible to get 4 of them so a full team can Arcane Synergy it up...

But to maximize its effectiveness you have things like the 7 Paladin 5 Warlock build where you get 3 attacks (As the extra attack from Pact of the Blade stacks with the extra attack that martial classes get) and triple dip on Chr (Pact weapon from Pact of the Blade makes your weapon use Chr for its attack and damage. Oathbreaker's Aura of Hate and Oath of Vengeance's Inquisitor's Might add bonus damage equal to your Chr modifier. Then Arcane Synergy will add your Chr to your damage a third time).

It also works well with any character using the Infernal Rapier for a similar reason, it will use your casting stat for its attack + damage and then Arcane Synergy will add that same stat as damage again.

- Heat... Kind of just sucks. The way it applies to things makes it kind of mediocre by the time you get items that provide heat. Better off just using Amulet of Elemental Torment and standing in a patch of fire and tossing out Magic Missiles/Scorching Ray and get the 1d4 surface damage on each individual projectile. (Could even try standing in Lava for 10d6 damage per projectile if you're brave enough... Not sure if it works though)

Charisma Based are Like Easy Mode On.haha
I really wish i knew that from the start..
i only get to Try the Palock,Sorlock e Hexa later..

In the first ones i went with Thief/Mage man.. regret it so Much..
The game as a Charisma Character get so much Cooler..
even the interactions yu get are cooler..

Another Thing i wish i Knew from the Start..
the Only good Mage schools are Necro and the Same as Gale..
The Rest its a lot better on Table Top.. Here it sux.

Same Thing with Fighter.. Always go as Battlemaster the rest is disappointing.. no joke.
Especially the Eldrich Knight.. Man in Table Top get so Strong...
Here its A Joke..
Much better make a Palock or Hexablade.

That Warlocks get only two spell slots and can prepare them only on level up. Coming with BG1&2 there were some other rule changes in 5E that I didn't know about, but how Warlock spells work was the one that confused me the most.

Warlock gets even MORE confusing when you drink an extra-level-something-spell potion.

I will disagree with Thorvic on the Eldritch Kinght, though - they are *really* good.

One, everyone and their mother in this game is trying to Disarm you, be it those godawful Githyanki and their shenanigans or Mephits heating metal, it happens all the time. And it's hands down the MOST annoying thing that can happen. Not only are you losing an action, but you have to fiddle with your inventory and rearrange your hotbar, too. Not getting disarmed is a godsend.

Then, Shield, Mirror Image, FireShield makes your fighter ludricously tanky. God forbid you mix it with Abjurer levels. Add Misty Step to always be in range, and Blade Ward for that odd turn that you're not, and a Magic Missile for when there's a bunch of goons with 3HP left.

Lastly. The game's AI has a serious dislike for anyone concentrating, and anyone concentrating on haste specifically is focused down with extreme prejudice. All the while, your Bear Heart Barbarian is ignored entirely because he can't concentrate on anything. So, you can actually use your Eldritch McTankytank to draw aggro.

Well, nothing.

I had watched a couple people play the game already, in my descision to get the game.

So I knew all the basics and was perfectly fine.

Just about anything that I know now, I didn't know when I was getting started. Character builds, combat mechanics, lore, Larian's own particular quirks with writing and gameplay. I was starting at zero, other than a very base knowledge of Dungeons and Dragons as a 'world'. I did know from DnD Online that spells were limited in between rests, so I was at least forwarned there.

Regardless, one particular memory I have is my initial dismissal of 'sneaking' since I thought that I had to enter the sub menus for each character and track down the sneak action individually every time that I wanted to get stealthy. (This was on PS5.) That felt like such a hassle that I became dismissive of stealth as a tactic and defaulted to just fighting anything and everything at all times. I later found that I could use the down arrow on the controller and get my entire party to enter sneak mode all at once. Whoops.