Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General 27 Hours, 1 Completion: My Suggestions

I am currently 27 hours into this game and have started a few different games with Warlock, Cleric, Ranger and Rogue. The game has some great moments and I am loving it so far.



I love how every conversation with characters is like a cutscene and that you can interact with almost any NPC. I love how many options you have ingame, and that you can ignore or help whatever people you like, and this will impact the story that is being told. There is a lot of great things in this game and I want to make that clear before I mention some things I don't like, and even hate,



First of all, I dislike only having one short rest for every long rest. The number feels too small, and I feel like I'm desperately trying to find ways not to short rest after a fight because I don't want to waste it and have to take another long rest after.

I dislike reactions being an automatic feature that you switch on and off. Reactions in D&D 5e are a very important resource in combat and have to be managed well, a lot of the time you may want to ignore an attack of opportunity in order to save your reaction for something else (a counter spell on a high level spell for example). Not having the option to turn on prompts for taking reactions feels like you've ripped a huge feature of D&D away, and made reactions less fun.

I do not like how sneak attack is handled right now, it isn't clear when sneak attack can be used and it has just straight up been implemented incorrectly from how it works in D&D. Currently, if I choose the sneak attack option on an enemy and miss my attack, I can no longer choose to sneak attack with my offhand. Sneak attack is a on hit affect that occurs once per turn after hitting an enemy, if I miss my attack it should still be available for my offhand attack or reaction attack that round. I need to be able to sneak attack whenever I hit someone, if the conditions are met.

I feel that some of these cantrips that are used to gain advantages in conversations with NPCs (friends and thaumaturgy) are currently too difficult to use. From what I have experienced, you have to use these cantrips before a dialogue in order to gain their benefits, I never saw any option in my dialogue to, for example, cast thaumaturgy and then try to intimidate the NPC. If I'm going to intimidate an NPC, I want the added option to cast thaumaturgy in the dialogue in order to gain advantage on my role. I don't want to have to pre-emptively cast these cantrips before every conversation in case I need them.

Ok, now on to the thing I absolutely hate in this game. Cantrips creating surfaces, remove this immediately! This is by far the worst change made to this game, and completely ruins cantrips for me. I do not find this addition to cantrips fun, at all. It breaks the mechanics of a level 0, spammable spell. If I cast firebolt, the enemy now has to stand in fire, if I cast ray of frosh, the enemy now has to stand on ice, etc, etc. Even when using these spells on enemies, I do not enjoy it. It gets even worst when you realise that even if you miss the spell, it still creates a surface beneath them. Missed with firebolt? That's ok because they are still standing in the fire you made. Missed with ray of frost? That's ok because they still failed their saving throw and slipped over that ice. This surface feature makes using cantrips way better than using weapons. If you miss with a weapon, you do nothing that round. If you miss with a cantrip, at least you can set them on fire, knock them prone, reduce their armour, etc. There is a reason these cantrips don't do anything extra in D&D, and it should stay that way in BG3.



Onto my suggestions:
1. Short rests should be increased to 2 per long rest,
2. Players should have the option to turn on prompts for reactions. This will let the player choose to speed up combat with automatic reactions, or play strategically and choose when to use reactions.
3. Sneak attack can now be turned on and off. When turned on, the next time you hit a creature, sneak attack with be applied if the conditions are met. You don't necessarily have to add a prompt to this one either. Sneak attack doesn't usually need to be strategically used as much as reactions. But, you can add prompts if other people feel I am wrong here.
4. Better sneak attack UI. Perhaps you mouse cursor with change to something if you have sneak attack. Perhaps there will be text somewhere telling you that you have sneak attack.
5. Players can now cast spells like friends, thaumaturgy and charm person when in a conversation. It will be an option alongside the dialogue options if they wish to use them.
6. Cantrips no longer create surfaces. Firebolt is reverted back to its D&D version (1d10 damage).

In terms of my suggestion on removing surfaces from cantrips. I think if Larian desperately want them to have surfaces, then they should at least remove them from attack rolls. This will mean that if a player attacks with a cantrips, and shoots a firebolt at an enemy, it will not create a surface. On a hit it does 1d10 damage and on a miss it does nothing. If a player just uses a cantrip on an unoccupied space, then it would create a surface; so firebolt creates a fire, and ray of frost creates ice. This removes the ridiculous surfaces on a hit or miss, but keeps in the surface mechanic. I would still not like cantrips creating surfaces, but at least it makes them a bit more equal to weapon attacks.



Keep up the great work Larian. The game is starting to look amazing. I hope these suggestion have been constructive and helpful.

Yes, please remove the surface effects from cantrips. I'm worried by the amount of surfaces because they cheapen the point of casters, in general. Why bring a caster with Sleet Storm? Why not just use your Surface Effect Catapult - er - I mean archer?

1. There is NO LIMIT on how many short rests you can take in D&D 5e; they aren't ONLY used to heal hit points (there are a number of classes and features that recover uses at short rests, regardless if you heal hit points or not). As such there shouldn't even be a limit on how many short rests you can take between long rests.
2. I completely agree.
3. I completely agree.
4. I completely agree.
5. I completely agree.
6. I completely agree (and firmly believe that if they want cantrips to be able to create surfaces, it should ONLY happen when targeting an unoccupied space); I actually don't mind having non-cantrips creating surfaces (because those aren't at-will).

Well said. I’ve been waiting for spells to show up in dialogue, but seems like it’s not in (yet)
I would also increase short rests to two per long rest, so I wouldn’t have to take a long rest so often.

+1 on all accounts

Definitely agree on cantrips. So annoying to also have your front line next to an enemy, you cast a cantrip and now your frontline is on fire as well as the enemy. Unless it's an AOE spell so it shouldn't act like one.

Another solution to the issue with surfaces would be to add a game mode that was more in line with 5e. No surfaces from cantrips or arrows, and no bonus action shove or disengage etc. I really can't believe this would require much coding at all. Options are always a good way to make everyone happy.

I also agree with the awfull surface system.
They need to reduce it everywhere because it's all but RP.
This is not DoS and surfaces shouldn't appear everywhere in every combat...

About the rest... My main concern is not the number but the fact I have to sleep after each battle because I have not enough spell and ability left to deal with the next combat.
The solution is to implement a party of 6... Combats will be a little bit easier but also a little bit faster (because you'll kilo ennemies faster). You wouldn't have to spend everything you have and you'll keep more spells/abilities left after a battle to deal with the next combat...

I agree with everything except 3. Sneak attack should be automatic if conditions are met and you hit, making it something you turn on and off is unnecessary extra management.


5. This is already coming. See 44:05

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/763351879




This is a hundred hour game, as it is playtesting is a nightmare which has to be done by AI. You can't have two fundamentally different game systems sit side-by-side, it will make balancing take double the time and resources.

I agree as well, I would like to add one thing that parallels the cantrips, and that is the enemies spamming arrows that explode acid everywhere, fire, a couple different fog affects that don't go away. Shit I feel like im fighting Elminster or Mystra herself, I understand its EA , I hope they dial this back, or at least save it for hardcore mode