I would like to start by saying that I really love this game and enjoy it very much. Also, beware of spoilers for BG1, 2 and 3, as there will be plenty.
What I want to say might be only my feeling, but part of the reason I post it is my curiosity if other players have similar feeling, that story arch in the first act is a little over the top? What I mean, is that we got group of lvl 1-4 characters, that already have met ilithids (possibly crushing head of one of them), observer, Minotaur, this fungus guys i forgot name of, witch with sodomite dwarf minions, a s**tload of thiefliengs, devil-like creature i also forgot name of, dragon riding offspring of orc and elf and some other crazy stuff I probably forgot to mention. Also, we already visit underdark. Meanwhile, in BG1 until lvl 4 we were fight kobolds and those smurf-like guys, maybe some wolfs, few humanoids and there was a chance to fight one ogre in 1 v 6 fight. Of course we met demi-god, but at this point we were supposed to thing he is normal emo guy who maybe hit a gym a little too often. BG2 started a little more epic, but our heroes were around lvl 10-12 there and still it was much longer until we met illithids and beholders.
Now, I'm not sure, maybe most of you enjoy this higher fantasy pacing of the game, but I, for one, kind of miss this slower beginnings and reaching high-fantasy stuff only later in the game, when i felt like my character achieved it. Of course illithids are crucial for main story, but a lot of things I've mentioned is in side quest and it feels like they could have been used much later in the game just as well. Also, taking into consideration scope of creatures we face in side quests, it feels a little off, that our main antagonists are goblins.
Do you guys think I'm up to something close to your hearts as well, or am I just nostalgic old guy that doesn't understand modern RPG narratives?
Being over the top and not making sense usually means they just want to sell the game to as many people as possible and most of these are zoomers and normies. Not the hardcore D&D guys.
You have to keep in mind that BG1 and 2 were based on ADnD, and BG3 is based on 5e. Heck I have had lvl 3 players take on Young Dragons, so it's not unheard of in 5e to fight "big and interesting things"
To put that into context, a Young Black Dragon is Challenge Rating 7, the same Challenge Rating as a Mind Flayer is in 5e. A minotaur is just CR3, Ogres are CR2. (Challenge Rating is a little weird, but in general a 4 person party should have no problem at all facing one monster of the same CR as their party level)
It's mostly within current Dungeons and Dragons level of opponents to be honest. The Mind Flayers seems to be the "big bad" in this game, so they are introduced early. Most of the other creatures shows up in logical locations with logical companions.
The reason you met so many Tieflings is actually explained, and ties into an event in the Sword Coast known as the Decent into Avernus, where a whole city got pulled into hell. Because of that Tieflings, which aren't an uncommon race by the way, got thrown out of the city, and are exiles. (Hence why all the exiles are Tieflings)
So to me, it's very in line with what I'd expect from DnD 5e to be honest.
You have to keep in mind that BG1 and 2 were based on ADnD, and BG3 is based on 5e. Heck I have had lvl 3 players take on Young Dragons, so it's not unheard of in 5e to fight "big and interesting things"
To put that into context, a Young Black Dragon is Challenge Rating 7, the same Challenge Rating as a Mind Flayer is in 5e. A minotaur is just CR3, Ogres are CR2. (Challenge Rating is a little weird, but in general a 4 person party should have no problem at all facing one monster of the same CR as their party level)
It's mostly within current Dungeons and Dragons level of opponents to be honest. The Mind Flayers seems to be the "big bad" in this game, so they are introduced early. Most of the other creatures shows up in logical locations with logical companions.
The reason you met so many Tieflings is actually explained, and ties into an event in the Sword Coast known as the Decent into Avernus, where a whole city got pulled into hell. Because of that Tieflings, which aren't an uncommon race by the way, got thrown out of the city, and are exiles. (Hence why all the exiles are Tieflings)
So to me, it's very in line with what I'd expect from DnD 5e to be honest.
Agreed.
What alot of non hard core D&D'ers or even casual players who have played all 3 or just this one, don't realize and still some hard cores fail to realize is the vast difference 5e is compared to the ones before it. A massive amount of changes have been implemented, races are different, the cr of all monsters have been reworked. Since BG3 is using 5e it will never be like BG 1 & 2 everythings just to different. Sure it's still D&D but 5e is watered down, super thinned out to make it easier for new players to jump on board. Also 3, and 3.5 were made for world spanning, long running campaigns. 5e isn't really it's made for super short campaigns, do to everyone is busier then they used to be.
Yeah I've had the same feeling, kinda. Even tho I'm not a deeandee player, I like my games slow. It's typical for RPGs however, when you have helping tooltips pop up and get killed by some rats or goats, and 5 hours of playtime later you're expected to kill a god or something. We can hope tho that we barely scratched the surface of the underdark and all this initial epicness is just a flashy intro which can be toned down even more in act 2.
For example, at the start we're flying a illithid ship that some illithids never had a chance to fly, we fly through hell, we witness the fight between an illithid and a demon/thiefling/whateverimnotadndplayer and so on, but right after that we're running around the remains of the crushed ship fighting illithid minions and imps, which as I see it are less important creatures, and right after we escape this starting area it already tones down quite a bit with enemies being mostly humans or goblins, and a couple of ogres to boot. However you get more interesting things if you explore. Pretty much all of the "too much" things you see after this initial moment come from straying from the main quest path and exploring. What I'm trying to say is that if you behave like a naive simpleton and don't explore anything, you won't see much apart from goblins.
Aurgelmir and clavis - thx for explanation. My knowledge of paper DnD stopped at 3. ed. (then i reached 30 y.o., so naturally i lost all friends to play with ). I still miss this lo-fi beginnings, but at least now i know where it comes from.
In all fairness the beginning of the game is mostly window dressing and you aren't actually facing any of the "big enemies", just passing through. Not to mention the Mind Flayer you "kill" early in the game is basically already an agonizing corpse when you meet him (and he still presents a deadly threat to the the player, somewhat).
Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
In all fairness the beginning of the game is mostly window dressing and you aren't actually facing any of the "big enemies", just passing through. Not to mention the Mind Flayer you "kill" early in the game is basically already an agonizing corpse when you meet him (and he still presents a deadly threat to the the player, somewhat).
Yeah, I've found it's a lot easier to just hit the mind flayer itself with a quick spell or attack rather than facing the mind controlled fishers anyway.
). I still miss this lo-fi beginnings, but at least now i know where it comes from.