Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Starting Equipment

We should be nekkid.

Oh you were talking about weapons!
I thought you mean we all should be completely naked when the game starts.

In matter of weapons i kinda agree (read as: Dont see any problem ) ...
I allways thought that we were armed bcs concidering that huge amount of dead Mind Flayers (im talking here mostly about cinematic part, before everything goes to ... hells ) they had more pressing matters to do, than unarm us ... but i gues i would not see many problems weapons being droped somewhere (even first weapon being droped just next to our pod) ... after all, they never expected us to get free so why would they care so much?

But i believe this suggestion is not in contradiction with seting starting gear ...
It would simply change from "choose what you are wearing" to "choose what you were wearing, when you were kidnapped" ...
So ...

What would be the point of having the player choose starting gear if the game is just going to take it away immediately and leave you with only starter armor, no weapons or other items.

It just makes the most sense to have the characters start with no weapons and equipment other than armor. If they made us naked, then they'd have to redo cutscenes so that Lae'zel and Shadowheart were also without their armor, and that would be bad.

Nah. In a rush, the mind flayer port magic that ports you into the pods strips you of all potential weapons, but it does not strip you of what you are wearing. So no pack of items, no weapons, and no shields. Then, as you explore the ship, you find some basics in the first two chambers. You know, like you are an escaped prisoner needing to find stuff to help you escape, as the story suggests?

Good question ...

Well, for one, i hope we will be choosing our starting armor aswell ... and as someone mentioned here, some classes really benefits from having certain type of armor (Dex. Based fighter was mentioned if i remember corectly) ... so that would be quite good reason.

Then there is so often coveniently repeated immersion. I mean, i doubt that game would give me some <Ragnarok's Axe> ... but it would be nice to have feeling that *THIS* weapon you are curently wearing is actualy yours.
And, unless you wish to include litteraly every weapon type, there is no better option than choosing starting gear.
I mean, if you read the forum, there are people (plural) who wants this option ... hells, the fact they want it is even reason for this topic to exist.

And last but not least, it adds specific flavor to your character, when they can start as close to your imagination as you want them. :P
For example ... i know it might seem a little wild, but i would like to start my Paladin with a Flail (1d8 Bludgeoning dmg) ... i ofcourse realize that is not most common weapon, but since we do find in EA Longsword, or Battleaxe that both have also 1d8 ... i would dare to say there is nothing preventing my paladin having Flail. :P

We could pick from the most basic equipment in charater creation (Starter gear only, nothing fancy,), and that could be on the first body we find or in a chest in the first room.

So in the equipment part of CC, I could choose to give my Warlock a simple robe (allowing me to replace the padded armour that is the default for Warlocks now with something more in keeping with my characters RP.) and daggers. She wakes up unequipped, has a look around and finds a dead cultist with those items that she can loot and use.

I think that could work, the cultists are insiders, so could have been trusted to carry weapons etc...

Shadowheart could find a sister-cleric who somehow kept their armour and put up a fight before dying, likewise Lazy could loot a killed Githyanki.

Agreed ...
Except that part with robe ... i mean i have zero problems with you picking it, but i would vote against you being striped off it ... for one, while doing that your character would be probably awake (as when tadpolized, unless they wake us up only to enjoy the show ) ...
And fro thwo, it would not make any sence that our character would be striped, while everyone else would keep their equipment. And since Lae'zel have her armor in cinematics, it would need to re-create them once again, wich seem quite pointless for few seconds of naked gameplay.

It does not make sense that you're a prisonner next to a weapon rack...

Choosing our equipment at the character creation allow us to custom our character even more.
In DnD the weapon choice is linked to the character creation (dext/str) and choosing our weapons is the only thing missing to build our charactersi.

It would also allow Larian to explain a bit how weapons work in character creation (strenght based, dexterity based, light, dualwield, and so on...)

And when the character wake up he could just say something like "hopefully my weapons were next to the pod" (ofc something better but you get the idea : he find his weapons right next to the pod but the player does not have to take them).

I dare to disagree here a little ...
I mean it would not make sence in common aspect, but in our situation? I dont see any problem in our weapons lay next to the pod ...
I mean if Githyanki would not attack the Nautiloid, we would be magicaly paralized in our pods and there was nothing we could do to get to those weapons, if i get Lae'zel confused look after her pod was opened right, we were even unconcious while they were closed.
Sure, Mind Flayers do have slaves who could clean up ... but since they are not even walking on the floor, there is litteraly zero reason for them (except compulsive urge to clean up ... wich they obviously dont have, since they didnt clean up those corpses around ) to collect those weapons and get them elsewhere.
I mean sure, it may seem like classical "bad guy make stupid decision that turned against him" scenario ...

And honestly i agree with you that there is no need to "collect" weapons if we will have them one second after game starts.
But i would not mind either, bcs i dont think any of those options would be categorized as "do not make sence" ...

And totally agree with that option to explain weapons, that is great opourtunity larian should not miss.

So, I can see that standpoint in other games, but that's really not an issue in this one. Even with a basic weapon, if you start with the one that you feel your character would use, you're probably going to be using that weapon until you find a magical version, which won't be until the Druid Grove, at the earliest. If I make a fighter that uses a warhammer, which statistically is identical to a longsword, with the exception that it does bashing damage, I'm going to be using that warhammer until I find a magical warhammer. Fighter is actually a perfect example for why I wrote this post in the first place.

Say I create an elven fighter that starts the game with 16 dexterity and 8 Strength. I envision him as a light armor wearing duelist who uses a rapier, but physically he isn't that strong. Then my character starts the game with Scalemail and a longsword.

I'd be doing 1d10-1 damage, because of my low strength score, with an AC of 14 with a stealth disadvantage. Since there's no option to wield the longsword one handed without holding a shield (which is another issue entirely), I don't get the benefit of my dueling fighting style.

Now, if I started with a rapier and leather armor, I would be doing 1d8+5 damage, using my dexterity instead of strength, and benefiting from my dueling fighting style which adds +2 damage when wielding a weapon one handed with no weapon in my off hand. My AC with leather armor would still be 14, however I wouldn't suffer from disadvantage to my stealth checks. Now that may seem like "min-maxing" but if you've ever played Fifth Edition D&D you'd know that you get choices in your starting gear specifically for the reason of having equipment that matches your playstyle.

Basically what I'm getting at is that having the wrong gear on your character can seriously impact your playstyle, and it doesn't make sense that your character starts with a bunch of gear if it's gear that they wouldn't have used to begin with.

As for how I think they should fix it, just give a few options. They don't even have to be great options, as long as it fits the playstyle for your character. Fighters for example could have the option for leather armor, Scale mail, or chainmail. Weapons could be longsword or shortsword. They don't even need to give you the best possible options (like rapier for a DEX character), as long as you have options. I understand that "you'll find weapons in the starting area," but that's also not an excuse for not being able to set your character up the way that they would be at the start of the game. My 9 STR fighter with a high dex and the two weapon fighting style is not going to be swinging a longsword around with two hands.

Understandable, though mechanically speaking, Shadowheart having armor that inhibits stealth isn't that big of a deal. Her urchin background gives stealth proficiency and as a trickery cleric she picks up pass without trace (+10 to all stealth checks) at lvl 3. That more than covers the armor penalty to stealth.

...That's, like, one hour into the game at most?
And except for longbow and few other, you have several chances to find pretty much the entire range of common weapons before that point, too.

Lost Soul created a mod that allow you to choose your starting equipment.
I tried it yesterday, it work well.

https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/357

I personnaly think it is a bit "OP" as is. Metal gloves and boots gives bonuses. So is the drow armor.
I'd like better if boots/gloves choices were only cosmetic and if we only had the basic armor choices but it is still better than native.

It should be possible to create "training" gear with skins that are already in the game.

My mod also has an optional version that really is OP. You can start with magic weapons!

I hope larian does implement the option of choosing your starting equipment. If not I'll continue to use my mod.

You can mostly equip fitting weapons quite soon, at least in EA. I don't know wether it stays in release but I presume it will. You can loot several handaxes, a fighting axe, some crossbows and a shortsword on the ship, the latter is ok for a Dex based char. You can loot a rapier shortly after the fight against the three brainies in the first part of the destroyed ship (which is a breeze with you and Shadowheart equipped with crossbows). That is at the end of lvl 1, start of lvl 2. The fights anyway are so easy till then that any weapon is ok. You get a shield for you, an AC 14 scale armor for Shadowheart and a leather armor without stealth disadvantage for Astarion after the fight in the ruins, still early lvl 2. I don't see the starting equipment as a problem.

Yep, I’m in this camp too. I don’t mind if it takes me a while to find equipment or items that suit my character, and would even go so far as to say I like having a build up to it. And being stuck with sub-optimal gear to begin with would potentially give some additional motivation to explore in the early game, eg to break into the ruins to find resources as Shadowheart still suggests if we don’t free her from her pod.

Admittedly, it’s a bit odd to wake up carrying stuff that my character wouldn’t have used, but like others I’d be perfectly happy if I just started with no weapons (or even items) at all and had to find them as I went. Obviously that wouldn’t make sense in every starting scenario, but being snatched by mindflayers makes it not unreasonable.

How so?

In opening cinematic (attack on Yartar ... > this one <, time 3:00) we clearly see Nautiloid snatching people as they are, including clothing and armor (there are three armoured guards) ...

I’m perfectly happy to handwave weapon removal as a side function of the teleportation or as part of pre-tadpole insertion prisoner processing. Or to leave as is and just ignore the anomaly of my Dex-based paladin carrying a longsword. Or indeed to have us able to pick starting gear. My point is merely that Larian needn’t bother with the extra work involved in the latter for my sake, as it just isn’t important to me.

Clearly it is for some folk, while others are more like me. Just putting my preference out there so it can be balanced against other feedback.

The extra work on starting gear would help improve the role play experience by a lot. One of the cRPG's core features is the character creation, many cRPG fans put a lot of times, hours, into character creation.

Besides, the starting gear matter can be solved in a very cheap way, which is to make everyone every class start with casual clothing. Because the player char Tav is a Baldurian who got kidnapped during a normal day. There is no good reason behind for a high dex low str fighter to wear scale armor during a normal day. But he or she wearing just some normal shirt on that normal day would be most logical.

As for the starting weapon, just place a few weapons on the ground or some dead corpses or some chest in the tutorial chapter for player to loot.

I think Ioci's idea is actually really good. It would help add to the feeling of peril on the nautiloid ship as well. If they're not going to let us choose our starting equipment, then just give us a selection of items we can find in the early sections of the nautiloid and have us start with literally nothing. The thing that irks me about the current starting equipment situation is that it feels like just another way that Larian is disregarding our roleplay of our charcters and imposing on us what they think our characters shouldbe.

I think that starting items should be part of the Character build at the beginning, then you start out without it and find it during your escape from the ship. It's a small thing but one that as others have mentioned just adds to the immersion. To me this is a normal CRPG trope that actually works


Larian's attention to detail is oddly inconsistent when it comes to equipment in BG3 as opposed to DOS2. D&D 5th ed reduced the dependency on magical equipment in determining level strength (for those that are unfamiliar earlier editions assumed a minimum amount of magical items as part of the character's natural level progression) and personally I liked that change, to me it makes magical weapons more ummm... magical :P
However I would have thought that Larian would have brought some of that item creativity so prevalent and enjoyable in the DOS series to this game, at least a little bit, but they just haven't and it's a bit disappointing. It's more work and not exactly in the normal D&D5th style but imagine the increased level of immersion when your character who is going to be stuck with non-magical armor or sword for five levels instead has something cool looking with a vey minor but noticeable "perk" like Fur Lined Leather - no adding to AC but a -10% Damage from Cold attacks or Fancy Long sword - no additional Damage but +1 Charisma Checks. This kind of stuff is the backbone of DOS equipment and while D&D5th doesn't have this it very well could, and probably should, and I think it would be a real benefit.