Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback (Spoilers Act 1) Suggestions after 1st Playthrough

Hello all,

** Spoilers all of act 1 **

I have just completed my first play through of act 1 (~40 hours, Halfling Thief, Shadowheart, Gale and Laezel). I realize a lot of this feedback probably has already been raised, and some suggestions may not reflect your own.


Performance/Graphics:
• When first loading into an area, loads each layer individually. The landscape looks naked as the layers slowly start to render. Maybe a solution is slightly longer load screen until at least what is nearby is loaded.
• Moving through indoor areas (within larger outside area) camera becomes difficult to control unless you are 100% zoomed in. Example the goblin camp, the underdark tower... etc.
• Once in a while there will be random lag, the game stutters for a second or two then resumes (made better with patch thus far)
• The frames in the burning village is terrible


Cinematic:
• PC/NPC lips don’t move in a lot of cut-scenes (assuming WIP)
• PC looks like a mannequin standing there, same position (hands on hips), no lips moving (again WIP?)
• PCs/NPC get clipped through bushes, walls, ground… etc. Critical Camera especially
• Crit camera dice covers middle of screen and blocks cinematic.
• PC Combat Circles (green, yellow, red) displayed in cinematic


Dialogue/Choices
• You can repeat the same dialogue which gains affection multiple times (dog, well, Shadowheart in and out of camp)
• Should offer dialogue/choices from everyone in the party/choose the best modified if applies
• Companions with the greatest skill should help in and out of dialogue (Nature for what the monster is, religion for the deity they are worshiping) not just the controlled character


UI:
• Ready a book closes the item UI, makes it hard to read multiple books. Leaving Inventory open would be preferable
• Clicking character portraits sometimes takes multiple or really meaning clicks.
• Very difficult to change position of PCs in the linked list.
• Show how our stats are calculated (AC, Speed, To hit, Spell DC... etc.)
• Show me feats I picked up for my char in the sheet (I don't see Dual Wielded or Great Weapon Master (GWM)
• Resistances says half damage for vulnerable in the tool-tip


Items:
• Key-ring!
• A lot of items don't stack properly (alchemist fire)
• Health potions
• Shared inventory or at least shared carrying capacity.


Game-play:
• Too many empty crates/cases/things. This one might just be me, or WIP but I like to loot everything and 50% of the time the item was empty. I like having them there for the environment, but maybe make some un-lootable?
• Can have multiple crate UI open at once, if I open another, close the last
• Combat log closes in any new area. Leave it open to preferred size
• Making everyone jump over a small gap gets tedious. The work around with the camp is a nice time saver for now.
• When someone spots something, highlight, zoom in on it. Hard to see (i know this one has been mentioned a lot) (Swamp traps I am looking at you)

• Sometimes pathing just stops and you need to jump to fix it.
• Turn based mod never turns on, there is always an interesting convo nearby
• Pass without a trace gives +10 in dialogue checks
• Click ESC after click bedroll in camp makes it so you cannot sleep. (this is known)
• Make a nature check to examine Resistances/Vulnerabilities of creatures. Or learn from experience (if I hit with firebolt and it’s resistant, remember that). Or Update on kill (like a foe codex)

• Long rest anywhere, anytime. (this has been brought up a lot). This removes the need to short rest. This buffs classes like wizzard the rely on LR for spells, and hurts classes like Warlock (though I read they are doing fine). It also takes away any threat when exploring. If you can LR any time, you can go into each fight at full strength which trivializes a lot of fights. I would like to see SR used more and limiting LR.

• Food is too strong. It trivializes the need for healing through spells or through potions. If you play a class that does not rely heavily on bonus action or has multiple BAs, they can just scarf a sausage every round. I would leave food to outside of combat (though this may trivialize the healing from SR, at least SR is still needed to regen abilities)


Combat:
• Remove Environment Effects for cantrips (firebolt, Rof) they make them very strong, and also difficult to control. Example ROF on an enemy engaged with an ally, depending on where the effect lands could knock down your PC. Put cantrips back to original damage.
• The above goes for special arrows. These should be rare and it seems like every goblin has a fire arrow to aoe damage my party.
• The environment (besides massive explosions that 1 shot) are not meaningful damage. You can just walk right through the witches fumes/fire to the bottom, using food to heal up throughout. Perhaps removing/nerfing food would make you actually use some pots/spells to survive these environments, making their damage meaningful

• Rolls should be shown as they would be in tabletop if possible. If I have advantage, show both dice. Same with disadvantage.
• The additions and subtractions to my rolls should have proper indicators of where they come from (DEX, PROF, Great Weapon Master, Weapon (+1))
• Healing word doesn’t show dice rolled
• Concentration checks don’t show a roll in the combat log.

• Disengage should be a separate action. This makes jump crazy strong, nerfs rogues, buffs ranged (BA disengage and shoot) and nerfs melee (AOO)
• With push and jump why ever take an opportunity attack?
• Jump should be free requiring movement based on strength, does not disengage though.
• Jump movement is really strong right now. If you have a strong character and can't reach a foe, just jump to makeup a lot of distance.
• Climbing ladders doesn’t cost movement

• Push way too strong! It is crazy crazy fun, but makes a LOT of fights trivial (just shove them into the abyss). It definitely shouldn't be a bonus and the enemy should get some check to resist as well as the PC to hit.

• Fog Cloud, darkness… etc is very strong. You can sit in and move in and out and the enemy AI does not know how to handle that

• Downed PCs should not be brought back to 1hp with help. It should stabilize them (with medicine check). To raise a dying/stabilized PC you need healing (not food!) or break combat.

• Ranged attacks from lower elevation should not be at disadvantage. Higher advantage makes sense. Spells however should not be affected.
• The game for ranged and casters becomes basically a battle for the elevation
• Spells and Ranged attacks that say "Too High!" to hit. This is confusing and it is very hard to tell if you got closer could you hit the target. Elevation is very hard to deal with, maybe just show the distance to the target and why you can't hit it.

• Difficulty is very skewed. Some fights are too easy, some too hard. I hope Act 1 will get you to Level 5 because some of those fights with multi attack are rough
• Combat turns are bit too fast (enemies). Hard to tell what is going on
• Combat turns can be really slow (Planning next movement), some even take minutes to figure out what exactly they can do (Roah Moonglow Zentarim trader thought about misty step for a good 3 minutes)
• Enemies have unlimited special arrows, scrolls/spell slots? This is
• Enemies seek out lower AC PCs. Even taking OP attacks plural to get to them. Poor Gale!

• If you are not too careful with your turn, you can easily skip a PC in a round if they are going before/after another PC. Not sure if this is just me clicking too much, but seems to happen once in a while if I am not too careful with PCs who are one after another in Initiative.

• Going Prone ends my turn? Slipping on ice or falling just ends the turn. This shouldn’t happen. Should cost ½ movement to stand up. If you don’t have half movement then you can still do stuff from the ground, just disadvantage.

• Better indication for when we are in darkness, dim, light… Also Light does not work to eliminate these states. There needs to be better indicator or the current light level, who can see and who can't. The only time you can actually see is when you try to attack (engulfed in shadow) but it needs to be generally accessible on the main UI (perhaps on the character portraits (debuff)).

• Missing a shield goblin or The boss mechanical guy causes the enemy to attack out (Riposte I assume?). But there is no roll for the attack that missed, there is no mention of riposte. You just miss you attack on your turn and take damage. There needs to be better feedback for these reactions.

• Offhand Weapon don't Get attribute (Dex, str) to hit, but they do get them for the damage? I think this is backwards unless you have the Feat

• Change the Backstab advantage to Flanking. 1 on 1 melee fight you should not play ring around the opponent to gain advantage.


Classes:
• Rogue
o Rogue feels gimped with everyone getting disengage Bonus Action.
o Sneak attack dice seem very streaky since you multiply the damage of a d6 rather than how many d6 you roll. Revert this back to Nd6 rather than 1d6*N.
o Sneak attack should not be an action (Melee and ranged) and should be determined. Limit to only once per turn.

• Wizard
o Can learn any spell seems pretty OP. Limit to wizzard spell list
o I am not sure Mirror Image is correctly implemented. It lowers your chance to hit, just makes AC higher of the target effectively. Misses (even below AC=10+Dex of image) destroys an image. Reach the AC (modified by Mirror Image) and you will always hit the target. I don't mind this implementation (seems weaker than regular Mirror Image) but simpler to implement in a video game.
o Deflecting projectiles (Gale) does not seem to damage the foes in return?

• Cleric
o Invoke duplicity has no use, never takes enemy hits, and the model really makes me sad. This needs an overhaul
o Pass without a trace gives +10 in dialogue checks
o With food and help action resing PCs, it really nerfs clerics hard.


• Warrior
o Battlemaster gets less enticing when you can shove as a bonus.
o Riposte broke in combat log, need more information on miss, reaction and reaction strike.
o Great Weapon Master rolls are confusing: shows -4 rather than +1 Weapon and -5 GWM
o Sometimes when I rest Eldrithc knight (laezel) doesn’t get all spell slots back.


Spellcasting:
• Better information for spells: Range (self is never listed), how many rounds it lasts (i know this is on the icon but in the tooltip helps as well).
• “Too High”. We need a better way to tell vertical distance to gauge whether or not it is worth to move closer to reach.
• High/Low ground should not effect spells.

Companions:
• Quest log blocks Gales quest, can’t scroll that low.
• I can repeat Shadowhearts dialogue infinitely. In camp and out.

Magic Items:
• The description for the gauntlets with bane is like reading a riddle. No idea it would give me bane from the description
• Poisoners robes deals the 1d4 no matter what, even if we miss/the enemy save.
• Circlet of blasting is OP. Maybe add 1 extra missile to each cast of magic missile? Or 1 extra damage (1d4+2)?
• Sickle of BOOAL Description of magic item is not shown. Also advantage against bleeding targets, how does one make a target bleed if not a Kua-Toa?

Quests:
• Rescuing grand duke broken. Says I didn’t rescue anyone but I Broke in and saved her.
• Path to the guy who wants the dowry broken in the burning house is broken, need 2 jumps to get across the bottom floor.
• 2nd Hag fight, broken (this is know)
• Killing the devil quest (for the Tyr guys) doesn’t complete the correct sub quest
• I snuck up on Salauzon and now he is bugged in the Zent hideout. Then no one wants to talk to me in the Zent hideout.
• Saved/Followed Sazza, but Brynna and Rodrick are for some reason enemies in the goblin camp. They aggro and so does the entire goblin camp.
• Moon puzzle textures don’t fully load.
• The mushroom picker. The poison is not even strong enough to kill the 8hp npc, just turn on Turn based and heal him once through the damage. Home free!
• Ruined Tower dog food button makes you go to lower level to push
• Ruined Tower Elevator buttons are mislabeled at the top? One says UP and one says To TOP, but I just went up, unless this is a huge circular elevator?

bamp

Very well stated! +1 Agreed

Food isn't too strong, if they nerf food then you cannot mix and match your party match up. I prefer how Larian makes their games because they let you play *your* way. If you want to ignore food and bring a cleric with you all the time, go for it, but I want to play a lot of different classes in multiple playthroughs. If they makes it so you MUST bring a certain class, then you have no choice but to play the same way, every single time...

Please don't suggest changes that make people play exactly the same way to proceed in game.

While I agree with you that limiting our choices in how we play the game is a bad thing, I think that food does exactly that IMO.

The abundance food in the game and healing strength it provides is being used in two situations:
1. In combat, whenever you are missing health and have a free bonus action (not many classes have a consistent use of bonus action every turn that is not on a limited resource) then you eat some food to heal
2. Outside of combat you can eat as much food as you want to heal back to full

This actually affects many aspects of the game, and allows us to use food instead of some of the following limited resources:
1. Class healing like was already pointed out, but not just Cleric. This also reduces the viability of Bard, Druid, Paladin, Ranger. They each get healing in their kit, but less need to use them because everyone has a food as a BA
2. Scrolls with healing spells.
3. Bonus action healing from limited resources (Fighter Second Wind, Healing Potions)
4. Damage reduction/resistant spells (temp HP, resistances, potions...). Why use an action, BA or reaction to limit damage to you or a PC when you can use them instead to damage the enemy and Bonus Action to heal with food.
5. Short Rests! They become more pointless (already are becomes you can LR whenever) because you don't need to spend "hit dice", you can just eat 20 potatoes.

The only place food can't be used (AFAIK, didn't try) is to get fallen PCs up. But then the issue with the help action arises, you can keep your limited resources (potion and spells), use an action to help the PC to 1HP and then just use food if they don't go down again.

A common gripe with the game is that enemies seem to have unlimited spell slots (constantly casting sleep, or heals) and special arrows (fire arrows at your grouped PCs. Now imagine if the enemies could also abuse food the way PCs can:
- Regular melee/ranged Goblin has 12 health
- You hit him for 6.
- He uses his action to try and hit you, eats one of his unlimited potatoes and heals for 4.

You can see how this would become a nightmare, and that is currently how easily a PC can abuse food.

I think this is a very good post, which adresses a lot of painpoints in the game.

However i do not agree that food is too strong. For me it is needed to stay alive, even with a cleric.
You allready give a solution too. If they would remove food, or make it so that you can only use it out of combat, they have to remove or reduce all the aoe arrows from enemies too or this game will become too hard.

Agreed with much, specially the rest and elevation stuff

I agree that there are many issues with enemy AI combat (infinite special arrows/spells, always targeting low AC/Health PCs, always running for high ground/backstab advantage). However making scarfing food every bonus action is not a solution, it causes many more problems to other aspects of the game.