Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Ranged & High Ground are Overpowered.

So I am in the courtyard of the Goblin Camp and up in the balcony area where the drunk Goblins are. I attack them, triggering all the outdoor mobs to go hostile. I counted like 20 mobs and my party is just level 3.

1. The AI does not know what to do with you that high up from them. Almost all the melee mobs just stand there, having no idea what to do.
2. I am far enough away from the edge that no ranged mobs can target me so I just focus down the 4 that are up top with me while everyone else just stands around.
3. Once these are cleared, I now just step 10 feet forward to the edge, target a mob, step 10 feet back so I can be attacked. Rise and repeat for each of my players, slowly whittling the pack down.

So, at no point was I in any danger, except from boredom. Larian could have packed that courtyard with 100's of mobs and I would have slowly killed them all and I was just using cantrips and bows.

Game turning into anyone with the high ground wins.

Even after they fix the AI this will be true

1. Larian vastly reduced effective engagement ranges
2. Larian inexplicably made spells and abilities not work if you target a high up creature, despite being in range
3. Height confers a 3:1 mechanical advantage, or, exactly the same thing as being permanently invisible in the tabletop
4. Height nullifies every spell and ability you would normally use to give disadvantage to ranged attackers, there's no point, sources don't stack
5. Larian has carried over the ability to increase your range from Divinity in ADDITION to the MASSIVE to hit and defensive bonuses they've implemented, so you can safely lob bombs and alchemist fire on the hapless enemies below
6. Spells can be fired DOWN but not UP to their full range, because a Sleep Spell that pops into existence at a chosen point suffers the ill effects of gravity for some reason
7. Fighting flying creatures - look at the below screenshot



This mid-AC spectator is as hard to hit as an Iron Golem, because it's slightly above my warlock, and Iron Golem is one of the hardest to hit things a party is likely to ever face in 5th edition. If this were a dragon with 19ac, I should have a 35% chance to hit based on the rules of 5e - but in baldur's gate 3 this character would have a 12% chance to hit!

This really, really hurts the balance of 5e. I don't want another Divinity where we run into certain fights that are higher level and the game just says "nah bro". 5e isn't like that, a level 4 party should have about a 4 in 10 chance of hitting a high AC creature (19ac). It puts them at a serious disadvantage, but it's possible. Having a sub 20% chance is "impossible" territory

I can't wait to see how the fly spell breaks combat. Yes, flying is powerful in tabletop games but it's balanced by a good GM. in BG3, it becomes an instant I Win button.

Frankly, carrying some boxes around is an instant "I Win" button

Strongly Agree with OP.

Advantages for high ground are too drastic. I am unsure of the formulae that Larian uses to determine the hit% in these situations, but it is clearly out of line with 5E rules. Case in point:

Wyll and Gale have identical ACs (14) and spell attack modifiers (+6) Will is placed on high ground and targets Gale with Eldritch Blast and has a calculated 84% chance to hit, with no other modifiers.

Conversely, Gale has a 42% chance to hit Wyll shooting from low ground with Witch Bolt. Again, no other modifiers. See SS's below

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vEw11hRiLWmVeViQNtdTgKm9nUmP-k4u/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Up_DZYeQubnQFcD4vOwsRen_J6kC-V--/view?usp=sharing

Proposed solution: Remove negative/disadvantage modifiers from low ground. Continue to allow high ground to be positive/advantage. Or, at the vary least, make both gameplay options that can be enabled/disabled at user discretion.

Agreed!!

Not sure you know it or not but there is a mega thread talking about backstab/highground advantages here :

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=719930&page=1

You could probably add your thoughts there too.