Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback My Experiance and Suggestions so Far

I played a couple of hours yesterday. For day 1 of an Early Access I was impressed. The game seems well put together and I ran into minimal bugs (for now). Now for my overall feelings and suggestions.

Character Creation. It's fairly basic right now. I feel that it will be worked on and improved as the game is further developed. As it is it functions well enough. I've seen several requests and additions suggested for Character Creation so far and I will echo some of them. Body Type is one such suggestion. I would like to build characters of all shapes and sizes. One of the hallmarks of D&D. The hair selection is is good. Pretty high numbers for day 1 early access. Face types. More Face types please. This goes along with the body type suggestion, and restricting face type to race is a bit underwhelming. Why can't I use elf face number 4 for my Dwarf? The spirit of D&D lies in variety and spice of life. I do hope Starting Equipment choices will be implemented here in character creation. These choices are crucial for some people who like to use alternate builds that don't rely on the base stat for a class (Like STR Rogues, Muscle Wizard, or Dex Fighter or Barbarian). And the last is rolling for stats, but I believe that Larian has already stated or hinted that this is already a possible reality.

The opening mission is well received and welcome. The atmosphere and environment is much more welcoming than the intro is in DoS2. (That ship in DoS2 lost all luster after the first play through in my opinion) The Mindflayer's ship is full of alien vibes and action. It gives a sense of urgency and agency as a tutorial level. The map and layering need some work as my camera often got stuck glued to my feet as I climbed stairs to a new level. I had to "wiggle" the camera around to get it to zoom out as I ascended the stairs. Every enemy was labeled even when I wasn't on that layer of the map. It was disorienting and did little for navigation. I would hate to be a new player and experience this. The opening fights are interesting, but I do suggest giving a tutorial on the Examine mechanic here at the beginning. People who have never played D&D won't know that Imps have resistance to mundane weapons (and some who have played don't know that). The Examine tool is VERY helpful and I use it regularly. Also the Healing Stations are nice, but there is one area in particular that has two that are one doorway apart. It's great for new players to have them around. It's also nice to have the revive scrolls and healing potions, but placing them in the opening area and scattering them around would make them feel worth it as treasure. (I imagine they could be placed around areas where people die the most after that data is compiled.)

After we arrive on the beach (Larian really likes waking up on beaches don't they) the game shifts into the real deal. I've got to test drive all but the Warlock class (but not all the subclasses yet.). So far the game plays fine. The environment is nice and the NPCs (that I have interreacted with so far) are nice. Most of what I have is gameplay suggestions. I love both D&D and DoS2. The overarching problem right now is that this feels like a Divinity game not a D&D adaptation. Some changes are necessary to translate this video game from a table top. Some changes break the conversion pretty hard. D&D 5e is all about the action economy. I shouldn't be able to fire my bow at a distant enemy and then shove an enemy standing 5 feet away from me as a bonus action as an alternate disengage. (I've abused this tactic as a ranger & mage several times and have not failed a shove yet). The action economy of the game need restructuring over all. Spell Inconsistencies also detract from the D&D conversion immersion. Magic missile and Fire Bolt being the same casting limit as spells like Witch Bolt. (120ft range vs a 30ft range for those who don't know). Damage inconsistencies in spells as well. Some maintain their damage dice, but some do not. Like Fire Bolt. I can guess the reason behind Fire Bolt damage die being lowered. As it sets the ground on fire if flammable and often just causes a fire puddle on cast without a flammable surface. This causing extra burn damage and setting the enemy on fire if you're lucky. It's true that Fire Bolt sets flammable surfaces on fire. It's also true that it still does a d10 damage and sets flammable surfaces on fire. Speaking of surfaces, this is one of the reasons this feels like a Divinity game. I understand that this would be a thing. These interactions though come straight out of Divinity. I'm personally on the fence about the subject as I like the emersion of lighting a puddle of grease on fire and watching it burn. I'm not a fan of random oil barrels and scattered puddles of water that are there to be interacted with for the sake of interaction. Why are they there? Did it rain? Did these bandits in a set of ruins strike it rich by finding oil in the crumbling temple? It feels forced as a mechanic. In Divinity we accepted it because that was one of the major gimmicks of the game. Many abilities interacted with it. In BG2 it feels like it was forced because you had it ready to go already so why not? I won't talk about the available classes in this post as I haven't experienced them all yet.

Other small things that I thought of were, fix the pathing please. I'm tired of having to micro manage each movement because they'll run through the fire, thorny vines, acid, oil, and whatever other hazard is scattered about when they have a nice clear path around it. It mostly works but it is not perfect yet. It is one of the more frustrating aspects at the moment.

Please make helmets hideable. Please let us see the rings or necklaces on the character model. Limit ammunition for bows, crossbows, and slings.

These are all the things that I can think of right now. I'll be playing more and later I'll make a post about classes. For now thank you for the opportunity to help develop BG3 and play Early Access. Thank you for the hard work and dedication to the game. I'm sure as time goes on it'll turn into a Game of the Year Contender.