Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General New Player Seeking Help !!!

Greetings !

New player here - I am looking for new player advice. I've decided I am going to roll a half elf Paladin....

What are some new players tips, secrets, advice you guys would be willing to share with me ???

Any and all sincere help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Ted

After two levels of Paladin multiclass into a Bard. At 3rd Bard lvl (5th character lvl) pick Sword or Valour subclass.
This way you will maximise the number of Holy Smite attacks you can have between Long Rests.
Lay on Hands/Channel Oath is not worth it.

I like the paladin class in theory, but found out it was impossible for me to keep my oath. I always glitched at some point. I think your nature really has to be lawful to succeed. So be on your toes for this.
(And I didn't want to continue as oathbreaker palladin)

Talk to everyone and explore everything. There is a lot to find. Speak with Animals is great to have - there are potions for it, use them often. A lot of animals have interesting things to say.
Don't be afraid to try unconventional methods, especially, if you think, a fight is hard.

As for your half elf paladin: That is a great class for your character. Paladins have Charisma as one of their main stats, take Persuasion and any other conversation skill, you can get. You can go a long way with those skills, you can even avoid fights with them (you get the xp for any way to solve a situation, even by talking).

If possible, go in blindly. You might not have the perfect playthrough, but nothing beats the first time experiencing the story and characters, without knowing too much beforehand. I realise, that some stuff probably already is common knowledge, but some hopefully not.

Even in hostile environments: If you meet npcs, that want to talk, let them talk and be open minded, some might give you something useful or have knowledge that can help.

And most important: Have fun.

Be mindful of your stats.

Firstly, most melee weapons require Strength in order to determine their accuracy and damage. Weapons wiith the Finesse tag (Daggers, Rapiers, Shortswords) can also use Dexterity if that is higher than your Strength. All ranged weapons require Dexterity.

As a Paladin, your spells utiilize Charisma (As well as a number of other abilities that Paladins get).

The companions you find at the beginning of the game have classes that also have spells (A Cleric who uses Wisdom for their spells, a Wizard who uses Intelligence for their spells and a Warlock who uses Charisma for their spells)

Secondly, Dexterity is a useful stat to have because it influences your AC (Ability to avoid attacks) as well as your initiative (The order in which characters take actions during combat). As is Constitution as it will affect your total health.

Thirdly, stats directly influence your skills, with some skills being more valuable than others.

The most useful skills are as follows:

Sleight of Hand - Used for unlocking things, disarming traps and pickpocketing - Is based on Dexterity.

Persuasion - Used for persuasive dialogue options to make people friendlier and more helpful - Is based on Charisma

Deception - Used for deceptive dialogue options to make enemies less likely to start fights - Is based on Charisma

Perception - Used to spot hidden objects and traps - Is based on Wisdom

Insight - Used to provide more information about people in dialogues and sometimes open up new insightful dialogue options - Is based on Wisdom

Note: The character you create/select will be the character used for most dialogues so it is generally most important that if you want to utilize things like Persuasion/Deception options then it is that character that needs to have the stats and proficiencies to make the rolls.

As far as general gameplay is concerned;

Talk to everyone you encounter. Also, look to obtain Speak With Animals as a spell and use it to talk to all the animals you encounter too. You will find out lots of information this way as well as obtain lots of quests and secrets.

Consider experimenting with different spells and abilities. Early in the game you'll encounter a strange zombie man called Withers who'll end up in your camp, he will allow you to rebuild your entire character (Including companions) from level 1 for a mere 200g (Which you can pickpocket back off him freely as he doesn't care if you do it) allowing you to reallocate classes, stats and all level ups (Literally everything except appearance and background). So you can use this to change any abilities or spells you are unhappy with (As well as alter some stats for certain characters. Such as making Shadowheart have not garbage stats). Though, do note that as a Paladin, if you break your Oath and become an Oathbreaker you cannot utilize Withers for respecing until you pay 1000g to a mysterious paladin guy to regain your Oath.

Keep in mind spells that require Concentration. Many persistent spells have a mechanic known as Concentration. You can only Concentrate on one spell at a time so only one of these spells can be active per character. In addition, when taking damage you will have to make a Concentration check (Based off your Constitution saves) to remain Concentrating and if you fail the spell will stop. So while these spells can be powerful, you do need to keep their limitations in mind. Also, when concentrating on a spell, there will be a small icon in the bottom left corner of the UI, which you can right click (Or some console equivalent) to stop concentrating on the spell at will, this can be useful if you have finished a combat and no longer need a giant fiery wall of death in your path.

For extra power, think about Multiclassing;

Paladin has some potent multiclass combinations. Such as obtaining 5 levels of Warlock to obtain Pact of Blades and Deepened Pact (The former lets you make any melee weapon you are wielding use Charisma for its attack and damage instead of Strength, allowing you to focus entirely on Charisma as a stat. The latter provides an extra attack which stacks with Paladin's level 5 extra attack to enable one of the few ways to attack 3 times per action)

Paladin can also be combined with Bard or Sorcerer to obtain more spell slots and spells (As both Bard and Sorcerer also use Charisma for their spells) allowing more options in combat or simply more spell slots to use on Divine Smite (One of Paladin's strongest abilities)

If I recall correctly, a half-elf of the "high" variety gets to choose a racial cantrip. The default is fire bolt, which is useful for setting things on fire, but I recommend switching this to Friends, which is extremely helpful in dialogs. It will reduce your need for high charisma, and let you put more points in strength or dexterity for fighting.

And you will need one shovel.

Another lesson I learned, is to make a save before going to bed. Strangely enough the game autosaves when you wake up. It would better do so before you go to sleep, because cutscenses kick in, when you don't expect them, during the night. And you may want to go back to review them or do something else than you did. Especially in the first PT's, when you don't know what's happening. So, make a campsite save before turning in for the night.

Talk to everyones
Many books, letters, and notes have clues and useful info. Some don’t. Ones with gold border are important to the story.
There is an abundance of food, scrolls, potions, and magic items to be found, so explore and search crated, barrels, sacks, the dead etc.
If combat results confuse you check the combat log as your fights happen, the log will explain why the results occurred and you will learn and understand the system.
Examine your enemies stats at the beginning of the battles as it will provide useful information about their strengths and weaknesses.
Many combat encounters may feel overly difficult at first but there are always multiple ways to defeat the enemy don’t be discouraged if you have to reload and try again. Also don’t be afraid to resort to a fighting withdrawal. Enemies often start with advantageous positions but will abandon them to pursue you and thus become more vulnerable.

play the game in story mode for the first run and single player gives the best chance to actually finish it... once you have a full run under your belt THEN think about doing half the other stuff

Good advice. Being a stubborn donkey I decided Honour Mode or bust - took me half a year to finish the game

Eh... I was fine playing on Normal for a first run-through. I had a few TPKs but it was a fun level of challenge (I speak as someone with a few years' experience in D&D though). I wouldn't knock story mode, but I also wouldn't automatically advise it for everyone, especially if you're not sure you're going to do multiple runs. It took me about 150 hours to complete my first run IIRC, so that's a lot of game time.

As a total beginner I also started with the balanced mode and finished that way. You can always temporarily switch to expplorer mode when you hit a boss-fight that you can't handle.( Your party then basically doubles its hitpoints to give you an easier time) afterwards you can reset to balanced.
Note : if you run in explorer mode, you're not allowed to multiclass when you level up.

Or you go Custom mode, select Explorer rules and Multiclass.

Honestly, I'd only recommend a new player stay away from Honour Mode.

All other modes, even Tactician aren't too bad. So long as you regularly save, you always have the option of loading an older save prior to a difficult fight and using Withers to change some skills/spells or simply return to camp to swap companions for someone better suited to a particular fight.

Meaning you rarely ever face a wall you can't do anything about, you always have options (Of course, you can just push the difficulty down and brute force through... However this won't help you figure out how to perform better like actually changing your approach to problems to see what things are more or less effective)

Thanks Everyone that replied !!! I read every reply and will try to utilize as applicable.