Good post - well thought through. I agree with some of the claims, not sure about others and I completely disagree with the title of the post.

In general, I wouldn't underestimate the emotional impact of sticking to the 5e rules. DOS games where great but I did not feel as invested in them as I do in this early access. The mere fact that it tries to recreate the tabletop rules adds value in my eyes.

Originally Posted by Milkfred
Dungeons and Dragons 5e is a system designed to be used in a fairly collaborative, friendly manner between humans... one person playing the world (and making sure it all runs smoothly.)

That is very true. It was said on may occasions that the rule set should be treated as guidance more than hard rules. You can't replace a human DM with an algorithm.


Originally Posted by Milkfred
BG3's skill checks.. feel like they fit the mould of succeed or fail....

...it felt like I was being screwed by a dice roll. When I have a +4 modifier, it doesn't feel good to fail a DC10 check. DC20 checks just seem ridiculous. DC 5 feels terrible when you fail. A little bit of randomness is fine, but I think BG3 is bit too heavily loaded towards the dice roll.

And you don't even get experience for making the skill checks either...

I completely understand. It does feel bad failing a skill check. I personally try hard to not frame it as a failure. I try to play along with it (that is how things went down. How would me character react?). I do it because I think it will be a better experience in the long run and I'll experience stories I wouldn't have otherwise (if everything went according to plan). It will also add to replayability.


Originally Posted by Milkfred
I really like the rest mechanic, but it's another of those things that gets smoothed over by a DM. I don't think I can stress enough how much I'd missed on my first playthrough by not going to camp every so often... Winnowing it down to a short rest and a day end is really interesting, but it gets complicated when there's story and character beats tied to it. But without any sort of mechanic, how often should I be going to rest? And what am I missing if I don't?

I would love to see some sort of mechanic tied to the rest. Maybe a day passes everytime you rest and some events happen after some time has passed. Maybe a fatigue mechanism to time the rests. Currently I avoid going to rest just because it feels like cheating resting after every encounter. Considering Larian said a lot happens in the camp I'm probably doing it wrong. btw, I've rested twice and met the demon on my second rest - it felt connected to the story so I have no issues with it.


Originally Posted by Milkfred
...players generally want to experience all the content they can in a single playthrough...

I'm exactly the same, and I'm fighting myself against it. It had been way too many time where I played a game while exploring everything, talking to everyone, checking every barrel, etc.. without fail it always hurt my experience rather than improve it. Everything takes longer so the pacing of the story is off. It drastically reduce the replayability. I appreciate it when games understand that and put in place mechanisms that won't allow me to burn myself on a single playthrough and never touch the game again.


Originally Posted by Milkfred
Wouldn't it feel satisfying if you had a +1 to the Intimidate if you punched out that adventurer or a +1 to the Persuade because you rescued Arabella?

...They wouldn't need to all be positive, of course. But it'd help feel like things were arising as a result of my character's choices and history...

I would love to see this implemented. That will definitely add to the immersion.Btw, are we sure it is not already implemented - by changing the DC - just not visible enough to the player?


Originally Posted by Milkfred
...people wanting an increased party size... feel like you're locked into needing specific characters just to experience content and be ready whatever you might run into

I'm actually on the other side of this issue. I don't feel like managing more inventories and skills, and I think it's perfectly ok NOT to be able to do something you want to do. It devalues my own character when I have every single option available in every playthrough.


Originally Posted by Milkfred
...minor (issues) that can definitely be fixed during the EA period (more loot, ... , XP outside of combat, missing loot from shoving people into pits... )

Not sure how much loot is optimal I just don't want it to become the loot fountain we see in a lot of other games. A lot of useless loot is just clutter and a lot of good loot devalues the loot and removes the excitement of finding something good.
Definitely needs xp for non combat actions.
And I'm perfectly ok with no loot from enemies in pits smile I made a choice I'll bare the consequences smile


I think you've made some very good point here and I hope Larian think about it. However I wouldn't want to make this game resemble DOS even more. It's already too close in my eyes. I think a significantly different game (mechanically and atmosphere wise) will only do Larian good - as it will increase the potential customer base. We can always have DOS3 for those who love that one.

Last edited by Alon Binyamin; 11/10/20 10:59 PM.