Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Early Access gameplay feedback compendium

Hi here is a few ideas.

Add Asmodeus to be included in the gods clerics can follow. He's a god in 5e. With evil clerics, give them the option to use negative energy so to learn Inflict Wounds instead of Cure. Since there are evil gods available, for the paladin class have an option for an anti-paladin or blackguard. Also add a dragon blood sorcerer as subclass for sorcerers. Here's an idea let players become vampires and assuming their class still works with it they keep their levels - like for instance an evil cleric or sorcerer would still keep their other powers but a Druid or ranger would not as undead are affronts to nature. Since evil clerics can use negative energy from my first idea you can heal your undead characters. Also add an encounter with a Lich and make him ridiculously creepy. I think a touch of the genteel or sophistication juxtaposed with the Lich being what it is would be an interesting combo.

Hi,

I've seen this multiple times: XP from environmental effect kills, ie the stone hanging on a rope, or fire barrel kills.
http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=699906&gonew=1#UNREAD

Thanks

Some sizeable gripes I have:
1.) Very little reaction from the world to events that are going on. Nobody seems to freak out or really care about what's going on in the world. I giant tentacle ship crashed from the sky with Mindflayers, brains and people dropping from the sky and dragons flying around and no one seems to care.
2.) Very little character development with the companions. They go from not really caring about the PC or each other to "let's bang". It's weird. There needs to be significantly more character development, dialogue and relationship building (of both friendship and romance).
3.) All companions are some weird special cases. It's a huge shame because ripping a character out of a world of normalcy and then tossing them into the role of the party would be far more powerful I think. Especially moving from a level 1 character to a level 10 throughout the journey. It seems weird for any of the protagonists to be level 1 characters or to be the starting party. Add in more variety, some visual customization options (not a fan of any female companions) and some normal characters. I sincerely hope the 8 companions we know of aren't it.
4.) More customization or leveling variety. I don't feel anything great from leveling at all (as of level 4).
5.) More non-party camp members.
6.) Camera is very wonky and needs significant improvements to moving around, cinematics, etc.

For a team that I thought had some pretty good writing in the past, I felt like the writing for the EA was the biggest weak spot for BG3 so far.

***FOR CHARACTER CREATOR:
I would say that they could take a few pages from Soul Calibur and Mass Effect: introduce scars on body parts/faces, physique modding (height and width of character), and face/head dimensioning (depth of cheek bones, pouting lips, etc).
This could also be enhanced with a bonus mod (if you buy a "Gold Edition" pre-release persée) that depending on the role, you may gain a single choice among 3 randomly generated features to add to your character, or 1 extra Ability point to spend to give your starter character an extra boost, upon which the option may still be turned down(?). I suggest this because I've had DM's grant bonuses for an interestingly built character where the player cleverly written something that other people don't use or think about. Ie - Half-Orc Monk (they don't get monk class bonuses really so give them a little something to work with).

Why does our map mark exactly where Auntie Ethel's house is, or where the Gith riders are, or where the goblin bosses are before we've even visited the region?

We may hear they're to the south, or west of some mountains, or outside the abandoned village, but that should give us larger circles, approximate areas on our map where they're supposed to be.

Exploration and discovery is entirely removed by placing exact markers on our maps. No one needs it, and it doesn't make sense!

Larger, approximate regions corresponding to the clues we've heard or found about a location, please!!

Thanks so much for a great game, Larian! =)

Dialogue Animations - Way too much movement. Characters are bending at the waist, bobbing their heads, and doing all sorts of over-acting that make the conversations feel staged and forced. Also, expressions are often too exaggerated, such as frowns or frightened faces. These look like children mimicking those expressions instead of a real person expressing subtle emotion. Watch movies on mute for reference of body language and faces (not much movement).

I find that the overall map area / explorer zone is pretty small, you can be anywhere other than the underdark in just under a minute on foot. Temple / grove /blighted town / Goblin area / Gnoll area

I think stretching the map a little and giving us random encounters would be nice.

I may have been unaware if it is in the list, but as of right now, I could not see any mention of this, thus:

Races.
As someone who has been on the scene for dungeons and dragons for round about 18 years, since my first copy of the Advanced monster manual from second edition, to my fourth game in 3.5e, to my disastrous first attempt at 5e due to skipping fourth edition in it's entirety, I have always found the Race list to be one of the most interesting, and thought provoking parts of the rules. From aasimar and Tiefling, to Svirfneblin and Half Orc, the idea of playing such a wide variety of races is what appeals to me the most.

Dnd to me has always asked the question of: What if i was "X race" who did "X Class" in a way that no one has done to my knowledge? In 3.5, it was why i played a Tiefling Cleric, an Aasimar necromancer, and a Halfling Barbarian. Because, as I have heard, creativity breeds innovation. I feel that currently, the line up of Rces is a bit small. Granted, i haven't been able to find a list telling me that these are the only ones, or vice versa, but Githyanki, Human, Elf, Half elf, Drow, Dwarf, Halfing and tiefling are not a lot of races. I'd love to see Dragonborn, Warforged, Gnomes, Half-orcs, there's so many races that are just amazing to have in a campaign. Classes too! lot of classes out there get flack for people thinking they are exploitable, but if you don't break a few eggs, you'll never make a cake. Balancing needs unsteadiness to be achieved, and that is not a bad thing to want.

I'm very impressed so far, bugs and slight deviations aside, I'm pretty squarely impressed with the detail and care Larian has taken to re-create this world. And having played the original baldur's gate, and it's sequel, along with icewind dale, and temple of elemental evil, neverwinter nights, and neverwinter nights 2, I'm expecting great things.Divinity was a pretty solid game, gave good memories. i'm expecting the same here.

I don't mind smaller map areas, if there are multiple zones like Baldurs Gate.

They're planning on having at least the PHB races (plus githyanki) available at launch, and I believe they're planning on releasing them gradually throughout early access. Classes and subclasses, as well.

As I've been playing, a few more things have come to me.

Bartering: This is a homebrew rule, but I have a feeling it's not only at my table. Every player wants to get a deal or convince a merchant their item is more valuable. Giving the ability to roll Deception or Persuasion when speaking to a merchant would be a nice addition. It might be a good idea to restrict it to a single item, and bulk purchases (for example, if you're buying out their entire stock of 6 or more of a particular potion).

Inventory Management: Currently, inventory management takes up a lot of time. It would be helpful if junk items were automatically tagged as wares. And speaking of wares, adding things to wares should be easier. It would be helpful if there was an "Add to Wares" button you could click so that you could just select items, rather than having to right click each one individually. This would make inventory management much quicker.

Item Value Disconnect: The value of items when you're buying and selling don't correspond with the tooltips. You can count on a significant markdown for anything you're selling, and a significant markup for anything you're purchasing. The tooltip should correspond with the actual price.

Selling Wares: A bulk "Sell All Wares" button should be available in the barter screen, like Skyrim's "Sell All Junk". Again, this would help speed things up so you can get back to the game.

Voice Acting: If Minsc and Boo show up (I believe they're canonically still alive as of a Storm King's Thunder tie-in comic run), Boo should be voice acted by Matthew Mercer (as he was in a D&D Live 2019 game).

Rules

Item Rarity: Currently, potions don't have a rarity attached to them. This would help to determine their value and... well... rarity.

Item Values: According to the Basic Rules (I couldn't find it in the DMG or PHB), art objects, gems, and trade goods always sell for their full value. Equipment sells for 50% value. Magic items follow the rules set out below. It may be too much behind the scenes dice rolling to use the Xanathar rules. But, if it's possible, it would give more variation, and sometimes great deals or total rip-offs.

Magic Item Cost: Magic items don't always seem to have the appropriate values associated with them. Common items, like particular potions, should only cost between 50 and 100 gp (with potions of healing specifically listed as 50 gp in the PHB). Uncommon, like the +1 weapons should be between 101 and 500 gp. Rare are 501 to 5,000, very rare are 5,001 to 50,000, and legendary are 50,001+ gp. Xanathar's Guide gives further specifications (under Downtime Activities in Chapter 2, and Variant Rules in Appendix A) for item rarity (Downtime) and some particular potions and levels of spell scrolls (Variant).

Pillars of Play: I believe this has been mentioned, but XP should be awarded for all three pillars of play. Not just combat, but also exploration and social. Talking your way out of a combat encounter should be an option in some cases, and reward XP as though you'd killed all of the enemies. Bartering (my point above) shouldn't reward XP - it's not "you get XP any time you roll the dice" - but if you successfully talk Kagha down from killing/imprisoning the little girl (as an example which I've yet to accomplish), there should be a reward.

Verticality: Verticality has been touted as one of the big things about this. I know we're early on, but there should be better ways to use it. A distance when jumping down to a lower elevation, so you know if you're likely to take damage or if it's going to be no problem, would be immensely helpful. Also, climbing, ropes, and the climber's kit should be added/implemented. A difficult climb may require an Athletics check, which could be negated if you have the climber's kit.

Edit: I have set up a separate post for discussion on these and other feedback/suggestions I have here.

I would love to see Tabaxi or Leonin as playable races and Blood Hunters as class.

Baldurs Gate Soul

The game definitely has a D&D core in it and has lots of potential.


My only major feedback would be (and this is not a post to create another BG2), but that the game still needs its own unique Baldurs Gate 'soul' which affects every part of the game. At the moment unfortunately, because of how much was used from the DOS games (items, UI, placeholders, some music and audio, use of environments (exploding surfaces everywhere), certain character traits etc.) it feels a bit too much for me like a DOS game with Baldurs Gate trying to find itself inside of it. My suggestion would be to find the 'essence' of the Baldurs Gate soul that you want to game to have and work it into each area of the game, so that it ends up feeling like a unique IP and not like DOS IP with BG trying to find itself in it. I would really like to see this affect the UI (give it that more classical old school design), the dialog (much more dialog and richness there so that the game has lots of depth, and old school dialog boxes instead of white text), characters (unique and rich characters), d&d party comradery, less over the top environmental effects (not having surfaces everywhere), the music (its own unique feel and theme)

Otherwise its looking great.

Thanks for listening.

It doesn't quite feel like BG. I haven't played far but in the original games you were surrounded by signs you are in the DND universe like in the second game there's a temple district that had temples for all the major good gods. So far this feels like DOS but with a mod.

I think Sneak Attack should be a toggle ability like Attacks of Opportunity.

The way Sneak Attack is currently implemented is confusing for people familiar with D&D 5e and those unfimiliar with D&D. For those familiar with D&D 5e, it's confusing because it doesn't not function in the same way it does in the tabletop game (my main gripe with it) and for new players, they are using the Sneak Attack abilities when the target isn't eligeable for Sneak Attack and not realising.

How Sneak Attack is currently implemted nerfs the way it is inteneded to function in tabletop and requires the player to select a seperate attack option specifically for Sneak Attack, twhich further clutters the hotbar. A simple fix (that would make it function as it does in the tabletop game, reduce confusion and hotbar clutter) would be to add it to the toggler bar with Attacks of Opportunity, having Sneak Attack damage be automatically applied to the next successful hit against an eligable target while Sneak Attack is toggled on once during that turn.

This cleaner option, means players are less likely to miss out on their Sneak Attack damage (as it is in tabletop) and allows more tactical control in how Sneak Attack is used, while also being less confusing for both new and experienced players.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=701645#Post701645

30 hours in a game:
- Please, give more traders! At least whatever travelling merchant who will visit my camp randomly on a long rest! I have killed druids(technically, it was a self-defense), put all the goblins to knife(sorry, there can be no witnesses of a drow killing drow). Druid camp is empty, goblin camp is empty, cocky green guys left, guys with burning house left, refugees from druids camp left....only the ogres in the village and a crazy hag in the swamp are left to entertain me, and no one wants to buy my stuff!
- I can mark stuff as wares, but can't offer all wares
- I expected a 1000hp ogre with "Ze Finah Bozz" name at the Mountain Pass and other end-of-early-access-content spots. Or a Magick Cock. Or a talking rat. Or literally whatever fun thing! I love the idea of REALLY tough enemy so we can entertain ourselves while waiting for Act 2 to come. And maybe earn an achievement for killing it?
- Inside a goblin fortress I managed to get into a fight with Absolute's Commander(whatever tough red guy in a throne room) when I was inside the prison with spiders, 2 floors below them. That was not fun at all.
- The black warlock guy is too cocky. I understand that rogue elf kinda have to be edgy, but 2 companions who smell their own farts is kinda too much.
- Super-duper forbidden necromancy book that asks for 2 impossible skillchecks and rewards you with a "Speak with the dead" spell that you already have is the worst. I had to kill a giant spider for this thing, come on!
- 6 man party is a GARBAGE idea. The game is meant to beaten at least 2 times.

In general, with all the animation bugs and rare UI crashes, I am pissing myself in excitement. The game is super cool.
Only one thing bothers me.
I love to kill folks, steal their stuff, and sell it for fancy swords.
Give. More. Traders!

I've been playing for about 40 hours and this is some of the things I would like to point out for now:

1)No Shield spell: this is a very useful abjuration spell both for wizards and eldritch knights. It is used as a reaction so there's a lot of potential with this one, it should be added to the game.

2)SCAG content: does Larian intend to include content from scag (like the wizard cantrips ex.: green flame blade, booming blade)? if not they should consider it.

3)Class Specific Spells: self explanatory, but right now in EA the wizard can learn and cast spells from the cleric list for example... I believe this subtracts and confuses the propper experience of playing the different classes.

be back to share more later, the game is really enjoyable and fun.

24 hours for the 1st Act. Great Show!

played Baldurs gate and tales of the sword coast 20 years ago. this really feels like a modernized baldurs gate! Sometimes the combat was very hard, but in the end I am happy with the difficulty, had to come back later and plan better!

Some things I found today:

1. The sickle of BOOOAL seems really bad. Especially if you consider it is given to you by a god. I mean 1d4 damage? Come on. Even the normal sickles you get from the redcaps deal 2d4 damage each. And here I was planning to preach slaughter in the name of the god of fishy murder.

2. In the lab below the blighted village to many of the walls vanish, to let you see through. It gets to the point, where I have a really hard time interacting with some items, because the walls will vanish to show you the room next to it.

3. I walked with my character through the waterfall in the goblin-camp, but other goblins still referenced the shit I smeared in my face. I think this should clean it.

Inventory tabs? Autosort? One of my biggest issues with prior Larian games is the inventory which is more a chore than anything. Ways to sort it would go a long way!

I have to voice again: Cutscenes. This isn't to knock Larian or the work put in, and I'm aware we're far from launch, but they're in a very, very bad spot right now. They're buggy, the animations are very bad right now, placement is very bad and in some cases (like night with Shadowheart) they look like Andromeda levels of cringe. I'm sure they're separate teams, but this needs a ton of love.