Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Several dicerolls for one outcome is bad

There are 3 main types of play in any DnD game. Social, Combat, and Exploration.

If you are only playtesting the combat than you are only going to have 1/3 of the game complete. So today I wanted to help playtest SOCIAL ENCOUNTERS!

A social encounter much like a combat encounter, should have several different parts and strategies to win. THAT IS NOT THE CASE at this time. Right now you have usually 3 rolls of some sort and a severe consequence. It either results in combat to the death, or a passive group who lets you pass. With only one of these resulting in Xp, and treasure thus punishing a group twice for a passive and or skillful victory.
The character creation you implemented shows me you do take classes, backgrounds, races seriously and want them to be a part of the game in some form. Well you are missing the best way to represent them outside of just what attack they can do. This is the heart of tabletop gaming and the heart of DnD. Playing with your friends.

Every social encounter so far Puts all 4 members as one unit. As a SOLO pawn. The one speaking decides the fate of not only the present party... but the fate of all at the camp. Interesting that they all share the after effect but yet ONLY ONE PLAYER gets to take part in the Social Encounter. This would be bad game mastering at a tabletop. It also feels bad by design... like something is off or missing. Having friends on the headset asking what is going on and how did the roll turn out.

IF you are going to punish the wizard for the rogues bad arcana check. You should consider allowing the Wizard to step forward and make the check himself. Much like in combat when you position players on the field according to their strength and weaknesses… the position in Social Initiative is crucial to success. Especially if your goal is to have a RPG (ROLE PLAYING game)

My suggestion for this fix is to allow character swapping on the fly during social engagement. This should be limited to players who are close enough to hear the engagement. Also we must add a more robust voting feature.

Allow voting to push a player aside with a majority vote. IF 3 players make a choice there should be an animation of the pc stepping back for another pc to choose the popular choice. This could really throw a playful wrench of tug and war amongst roleplaying parties.

Right now every NPC is on the same trust level. There needs to be A formula that helps decide the checks dc. THIS IN TABLETOP IS CALLED ATTITUDE.

Social ATTITUDES. (a system of influence)

Friendly: these creatures will join you on a mission and or offer the best possible bartering. You have advantage ON ALL CHECKS
Helpful: you have an added 1d4 on all check when conversing
Indifferent: Your rolls are normal and this is the most common NPC
Unfriendly: your checks minus 1d4 from all checks during conversation.
Hostile: they attack you immediately when they reach this point (some are ok with knockout)

To do this you need to implement a simple system that allows a feeling of more complex reactive behavior in regards to making a first impression. I believe the simplest way to do that would be tie a background to every NPC in the game. If you are of this background then you should be bumped up one step on the chart. So when usually people are hostile they would be indifferent.

Hobgoblins would likely prefer the soldier background of others. Or their own Race... They would see you will some respect as apposed to an entertainer. This would be a quick way to have an influence system that is not complex. You just add the preferred background to the npc and it should apply automatically in conversation. This would eliminate the need for a fully voiced role of backgrounds since they are affecting every choice. With die rolls and actual mechanics instead of fluff.

Mechanics are what separate dnd from an adult TEA PARTY!

You could then set a background that the npc cannot stand. So a bard with an entertainer background is worse off than a bard with a criminal background when talking with fellow criminals. They would automatically be unfriendly to the bard making his checks harder.

YOU COULD DO THIS WITH, BACKGROUNDS, CLASSES, and RACES. Having preferred depending on the npc. This would allow a Dwarf to seemingly feel more comfortable with dwarves not only in writing and fluff but there would be a mechanic in place to show it.

This would allow character switching during the encounter to shine. The barbarian would know when it is his time to speak. The Bard would now get the majority of conversations but not ALL conversations.

The problem with social encounters is they are deigned for single player and SOLO. While the rest of the game is better in multiplayer or as a Team. IF you want to capture DnD then you have to get social encounters to engage the entire team at play.

Consider allowing social spells to be cast mid conversation as well. With charm affecting their attitude.

To figure out what class they prefer you would need to make the examination feature improved. Right now you examine a creature and instantly know everything about them. I would instead have the examination in combat be tied to creature type like in tabletop. I mean we have those skills for a reason right? Have the examination in social to be Perception. With a perception check in conversation you could learn what class/Background they prefer to speak to.

This would allow strategies to start developing for conversations. You could use these systems to do mass conversations battles. Where both sides are trying to gain influence over the crowd. The one who get them to Helpful first is the victor.

Consider the possibility of making conversations their own game! Otherwise when you finally implement the Bard for us social guys… we are going to have nothing to do but lose xp and gameplay time.

Combat is great... but there is a reason lots of RPG's don't even need it. Allow all 3 types of encounters to stand on their own as strong as COMBAT!

Thank You for your time and I am so happy you are doing BG3!!! I am also glad you asked the community for feedback. I see a lot of people offering great alternatives and suggestions. Who knows what is possible and affordable. Either way The game will be better a year from now that I believe.