Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Random items or memorable ones?

On the subject of finding the exact same item in the exact same place, I don't care for it. It diminishes replays and facilitates powergaming (which the latter, I admit, isn't a really big deal in a solo or small group game like this). Certain areas might be scripted to result in loot, but give a little variety on what can found. As for random places, I think it can do done, but might require some effort to make it not feel ridiculous (e.g you find random magic sword and then a quest is set in motion wherein the son of the warrior who it belonged to is out to reclaim it).

At the very least, do away with the flood of magic items everywhere.

A mix of both. I think DOS1 (non-EE atleast) was random but not completly? Like, there were certain weapons that always dropped (or had a reasonable chance to drop) from bosses. Like, wasnt there a 2-hand axe that had like a 80% chance to drop from the Act 1 boss? Its been a few years now since I played.

The second sentence is exactly why the first is false.
Precisely because of the predictability, people (myself included) LOVED to replay these classics over and over with the full knowledge of where to find the most meaningful items, so they could create their ideal "power setup" and experience the game again with it.

Conversely, in games like D:OS 1 and 2 item drops always feel "WHATEVER, it's random stuff and I won't keep it more than one or two levels anyway".
They are not reliably there so any attempt to theorycraft your "big man build" will be a blind bet, they can drop at any given time (even just checking a random crate or a merchant auto-generated inventory) so big achievements and exploration in general don't feel rewarding enough, etc, etc.

I agree. I want to see this again:

If the game is great, you cannot find anything on the first play.
And if the game is great, you don't need the same items each games you are playing...

Random items just sucks, because you never accomplish something, you never have great rewards... because 10 min later you have a better """reward""" after fighting 3 goblins.

Give a gift to your girlfriend 5 times per year and she'll love you.
Give her gifts every 2 days and it's becoming usual and not important.
This is the same.

Wow. I find that shocking. But okay. That's what you prefer. Doesn't mean I said anything false, though.



Agreed.

I don't see any conflict with wanting "big achievements and exploration [to] feel rewarding enough" with having things be a bit random.

All that really matters is that the random +whatever loot is never better than the placed-named loot so that you are never compelled to lose a lore related item to some random drop.

What I mean by "random" isn't finding a sword in a barrel. "Random" as in, you slay the dragon, you get good loot. Which items? Well, roll against the tables. If that's not what D&D5e is doing these days, I'd like to know. Ultimately, not a deal breaker either way. You can still get an item that has a history attached to it (e.g Sting).

I also hope that everything that is good is not buyable in the stores or you have to kill the Mayor to get the Tyr's +3 Vorpal Sword of Truth and Justice.

5e still have loot tables.

I think people are blowing this random items a bit out of proportions. The Divinity games have unique items that are always on the same character, merchant, hidden place or chest. These usually have a lore description too, although not as long as some of the items in older games. Some even get referenced in books in game or by NPCs.

These game also have a Diablo itemization system and shower you with "magical" gear that are mostly useless, but the gameplay of BG3 have shown none of that and enemies loot looks low level D&D appropriate so far.

What about the killer boot Swen had in his inventory?

Improvised Weapon use 1d4 for damage, the boot hit for 3.

NO RANDOM ITEMS

Yes, the D:OS games had unique items . . . and they were completely unimportent because one level later you found something better. I do not remember the name of any such item and often I did not use them because some random stuff was better even at that level.

Lets look at BG2. Very early you can find Lilarcor (greatsword+3, immunity to mind effects) and I usually keep it for large parts of the game. Not 100% sure, but I think the next greatsword+4 you find is in the underdark (except paladin only holy avenger).
Or think of the flail of ages (chance to slow enemy, 3 different types of elemental damage). There was an enemy mage who started combat with all kinds of immunity spells, but he was not immun to all elements. I just hit him all the time for 2 damage and prevented him from casting anything. And its nice to finish trolls without spending resources.

Point is: We remember the items of BG because we know where to find them, what they do and the things we experianced when fighting with them.
We do not remember anything from D:OS because the next orc would drop something better.

I and some other people also like to create characters build around certain items. Here is an example from me from PoE2. This would not be possible in D;OS. There you can only say: Max out stat and skill x, use the random equipment that boosts those stats even more and learn these abilities from books you can find in every shop.
With a complex system like DnD 5E and unique items you can plan interesting characters and even if nobody else cares, you will remember that you backstabbed the overlord of doom with the dagger of deception which you got in the dungeon of darkness by killing the dragon of desaster.

A mixture of both would be great, plenty of memorable items in set places but make the generic loot random.

im also in favor of fixed loot.
Tho its absoluteley not true that fixed items in OS2 were bad.
The shield you get from linder Kemms Vault is pretty hard to beat. Voor de aravel stays relevant for quite a while.
SPear of braccus rex and the tyrants set carries you through act 1 pretty niceley.

Here is one item that is named and is in the same location in BG3

Agreed. I really like small variances in gear, so that you can use what you like longer. Or can upgrade it.

That normal longsword you found early on? Why not being able to take it a smith and pay to have it enchanted? Why not have it grow with you trough deeds (Like Cerra Sumat)?

On one hand I personally feel absolutely NO need for "a mixture of the two". I just flat out prefer fixed loot over the randomized one, period.
I prefer even more when the loot isn't level gated (or worse, level scaled) and when the gap between early game and end game is RELATIVELY limited.

That said, it's not like having ANYTHING randomized would be a deal breaker. it would be more or less fine having a baseline of few random COMMON items (i.e. iron sword, basic leather armor, etc) and then to add on top of that system all the unique and hand placed magical items.

Still, the ideal scenario would be to have every single loot table in the game fixed and every item being where it is for some reason.

So we could finally avoid bullshit like slaining beasts and finding coins, minerals or weapons in their bellies.
Or searching into some commoner house and finding gems, powerful magic weapons, rare alchemical reagents.
Or exploring ruins lost for centuries and finding inside them books about the recent political issues of the region, etc, etc, etc.

There's literally NO drawback in having customized, hand-crafted loot tables in terms of gameplay. Except that someone has to do the work to fill them.

Some randomization would be cool, but yeah the loot should always be relevant to the situation. What I mean is, you might find a +1 weapon on a generic enemy now and then, maybe a flaming sword or some fire arrows or whatever. Not totally random, just instead of like De'Arnise keep in BG2 where there were convenient fire arrows on every box and shelf, you could find them randomly on enemies near the keep. Just small things like that. What I also liked about Bg2 as opposed to most other RPG's is that magic weapons had uses despite not maybe being the most powerful item. That made unique items more unique, you had a reason to save them for certain enemies instead of just choosing the weapon with the most + value and selling everything else.