Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback [Feedback] - 100 hours + SPOILERS 3 playthroughs

Let me just start by saying the game is, in my opinion, fantastic! There are a few criticisms below I'd like to point out and of course it may not align with others' views and possibly some are already in the works. Post will possibly contain SPOILERS that I'll try to tag. If this post is formatted incorrectly, apologies, just know I am forum illiterate.

NOTE: These may or may not contradict some 5e rules. I've played 1e, 2e and 3e so bare with me if I've jumped over a rule here or there. These are just my opinions based on experience.


Character Creation

All seems fine to me here but there are a few potential improvements below.

• Alignment choice option. I can't see why we can't choose something like this as it's always been a core feature. To take it one step further our decisions could affect our alignment a value could be added that is subtracted from or added to for most core decisions made. Thresholds met could raise or lower the alignment and is not something seen in the Baldur's Gate series outside of Fallen Paladins and Throne of Bhaal trials as this was determined by reputation.
• There is some concern revolving around rolling stats. Personally the pick system works for me as down the road I can just see another stat rolling application that saves your best roll as with Baldur's Gate. If this is the case I'd recommend not adding a Store Roll function as with previous Baldur's Gate series as it can cheapen the experience. People may hate on this and maybe there should be an option for both.
• Options for facial customizations. Height / weight would be a dream but I understand that the work involved on various meshes would be time consuming such as armor and weapon scaling.
• Would be interesting to see other races added such as Aasimar seeing as we have their relative Tiefling counterparts (paladins!).

Races

There's not much to be said here outside of elves and half elves are very strong in this game for two reasons.

• Infravision with the amount of darkness in this game they have a substantial chance to hit advantage over most other races.
• Sleep immunity. This is both a curse and a blessing. You cannot do one optional cutscene in the Goblin camp from the Goblin priestess. It's a pretty cool one too with a new face. I don't mind the immunity to sleep but there is a lot of sleep used by enemy casters. Huge benefit.

Classes

Not much to say here. From my experience beast master rangers and warlocks could use a little love but I'm sure it'll be addressed in the future. That being said mages are broken which I'll detail in the spells and abilities category.


Items and Equipment

Just a few notes of some incredibly insane items that should possibly be toned back as well as starting gear for your party / minor issues with stacking.

• Circlet of Intellect - My God this gives a ridiculous stat boost for an act 1 item. Notably I feel Eldritch Knights can greatly appreciate this helm. 18 Intelligence when you can allocate stats elsewhere starting with 8-9 intelligence. Other classes can benefit from the +4 skill boosts from this as well. It just seems so out of place for being as strong as it is.
• Starting with scale mail on a fighter or the Githyanki plate / various others. Already the loot progression feels very slow in act 1. I can't help but feel like act 1 could benefit from more loot progression NOT in terms of scaling up found weapons / armor as +1 is perfectly fine. I would love to see the game start the players out with either no armor and short swords / clubs or at the very least just a set of padded armor. A new armor like a tunic could be added providing next to no protection but high dex modifier. This could made that set of padded / leather armor / ring mail feel like a blessing when found. I know this is likely an unpopular thought but seriously, I've rarely felt excited about things I've picked up rather than to cash out at a trader to eventually purchase the items I find at their store.
• Starting Lae'zel with Githyanki half plate is fine for the intro quest but maybe consider having it be sold by the two Tieflings and found at the smith for an obscene amount of gold. Seriously this thing is STRONG with a nice dex modifier for starting so early.
• Where are all the leather gauntlets? I've seen I think one and it was the enchanted Absolute's Bracer which applies Bane to me constantly due to my lack of faith.
• On hit / getting hit items feel a bit strong (some).
• Not sure how I feel about some of the cantrip / ability weapons. Some seem very strong and should not be useable by certain classes. Some seem fine such as the dancing lights amulet. This helped so much with fights in the dark (spider fight notably). The Tyr's greatsword bonus action is just... wow, I don't know about that one. Don't even get me started on the Misty Step amulet, that seems so powerful to allow avoiding taking a second level spell or throwing it on someone like Shadowheart who cannot get the jump spell.
• Some items, notably thieves tools, healing potions and alchemist fire, do not stack correctly and instead seem to have separate ids assigned. A good example of this is the thieves tools you loot on the ground in the defiled ruins just outside of the door with no lock / handle where the bandits are. The door leads to the undead part of the ruins.

Inventory

The inventory could use a bit of love with the following.

• Consider adding a sort feature per each characters inventory. Currently we sort all character inventories.
• Multiple selection of items to transfer to camp or another character. Currently right clicking and "Send to charname" is very annoying. With the amount of loot in game over-encumbered or selling can be such a chore. I spend a lot of time doing this and it would be nice to see some multiple transfer options rather than one at a time. IF this is already in the game and I've missed it that's on me. I have not seen this yet however.
• Looting is awkward. It would be nice to not have to loot each corpse individual or each item individually. It would be nice to have a nearby loot option available to quickly pick up items within a certain radius. Previous Baldur's Gate games had this option and it would be great for quality of life.
• Ability to see empty vases / boxes before looting. I know this one is a stretch but the idea that I am opening every box to find one with some wine to sell can be a bit monotonous.
• Consider adding a separate hotbar for consumables and healing potions. Currently the action bar can become cluttered with multiple consumables. It would be nice to keep this tidy by having separate action bars and saving the main action bar for spells and abilities.
• When reaching 0 healing potions or other consumables the action disappears from the hotbar. It would be nice to have a grayed out or a 0 beside the item and not have it leave the bar. I often times see my potions when picked up in another action bar slot all together.
• Consider implementing a keyring for keys. There are a lot of keys in the game thus far which is great! The issue is determining which you are sending to camp or which you should hold onto. It would be nice to implement a keyring or even just a collectables tab in the journal. The keys as is just add clutter to the inventory.
• It would be nice to have an icon beside items whose only purpose is to be sold. Dragon Age 2 had a great feature that listed items as junk. Currently I am unsure if I'm selling potential quest items due to the flavor text on some rings, amulets and other various items. I usually just sell all of it but it would be a good quality of life feature to implement.

Selling to Traders

I've added a separate category for this one as there are a few inventory issues that apply only when selling items.

• Currently the best seller is the highest charisma. The issue with this is that when I talk to a trader with someone like Shadowheart 14 charisma Lae'zel could be holding all the heavy stuff. Trading everything to Shadowheart after leaving the trading window is monotonous. I feel as though the person who initiates the selling should be in charge of all gold gains. This would simplify matters and waste less time as we'll likely just be selling with the highest charisma the slow way.
• Ability to send items to camp during trade window does not seem to be working.
• Consider a mass sell option for wares. I'm not sure the purpose of the send to wares function. I could be blind but I don't see any option to mass sell or sell all wares. It makes for a slow experience double clicking or drag and dropping all items separately.
• Ability to split items while selling. Sometimes I want to keep just one scroll but I have 3. I need to back out of the trading window, trade one to another character after selling then proceed to sell the excess.

Combat

All in all I LOVE the combat in this game but there are a few exploits to fix and some improvements that could be made.

• It would be nice to see the benefits and penalties from flank, high-ground, vision etc. Currently we see the green and red arrows to show the penalties and benefits but to go a step further providing us the numbers could give us a better idea if jumping to high-ground or using a light spell gives enough benefit in combat.
• Non-intelligent enemies gunning for my homie Gale or the lowest armor class. Seriously those phase spiders? It's an infinite clown fiesta of reviving and watching him down again completely surrounded by tiny phase spiders. Poor guy. It would make more sense for intelligent enemies to make this distinction. This can also be exploited creating a soft AC high hp character to simply take the fire. Reflective shield can give so much use with this or using on being hit items.
• It could just be me but it feels as though dexterity plays less of a role in determining initiative. Highest dexterity 18 +4 modifier always goes last in my experience. It could be chalked up to awful luck.
• High ground may be too strong?
• Certain exploits such as familiar spamming into enemies while avoiding combat (should be a cast a day like beast master summon) OR automatically puts the caster into combat to avoid casting again OR have a maximum range / distance between the familiar and caster.
• Hide is fundamentally broken as seen in some YouTube videos. You can essentially have the enemies do absolutely nothing all fight. It has an Elder Scrolls "Must have been the wind" feel about it. Maybe a round cooldown on it after breaking? Maybe consecutive hide checks when done every round make it increasingly more difficult to hide again via increased vision cones until eventually it is impossible. Alternatively you could make this an action that cannot benefit from extra actions OR have it use up movement points. It would hurt rogues but it would fundamentally cheese the game being like it is.

Fighting Styles

Two notable fighting styles that could use some tweaking and/or love.

Archery

• It's just weak. There's not enough actions or gain from using a bow and unless you're high ground you'll miss A LOT even with 18 dex.
• It would be nice to see the ability to rapid fire much like the Gnoll Hunters have. Their poisoned arrows + 2-3 shots a round is insane. The player characters / NPCS using archery could benefit from this. Maybe a 3 times per day ability or something or have it in the ranger spell tree. I'm not sure which option is best balance wise.

Dual Wielding
This really only applies to fighters or non dexterity based classes that do not benefit from finesse.

• The off-hand being tied to a bonus action destroys the usefulness of using two weapons. You'd be better off using a greatsword, sword and board or a single weapon because you constantly need to reposition with jump, use bonus action spells or healing potions.
• Investing in dual wield feats come at a heavy price. Level 4 loss of some good ability feats for the potential to generally hit with one weapon or waste repositioning / healing bonus action. I think greatsword is just much better and dual wield are not worth it for Strength based characters.
• Not much gained damage unless dexterity based on finesse.

Spells and Abilities

• Mages should not be able to learn cleric spells. Could potentially render a cleric completely useless especially because it shares spell slots with wizard spells despite not gaining the benefit of a wisdom modifier. Spells like healing spells (healing word) provide a wizard a bonus action that seems very strong... If this rolls into the druid spells as well you could potentially have a broken class. Wizards are already very strong with great potential, please don't make them too strong!
• Spells should have a selector for different levels. On most mages / clerics there is an abundance of spells litering the action bar. Warriors and other classes do not share the same issue (currently).

Skills

Consider adding a bit more out of conversation use to these. Medicine would be a nice skill to implement into crafting or even medical kits like Dragon Age Origins.


Feats and Leveling

• Show upcoming level bonuses and talents / feats. Hard to plan a path with consecutive upcoming levels conflicting with build. That or allow for class rerolls for gold that increases every respec.
• Feats are showing up that aren't needed. For example Weapon Master for ranger. Rangers are already proficient with shortswords. Why do they have the option to select this? Rangers are also proficient with certain kinds of armor yet there is an option to select the feat a second time. This can lead to confusion for newer players causing them to select a feat that may be gained in the future OR has already been learned by the class natively.
• It would be nice to see the NPCS choose their own specializations. Feats or spells should not be chosen by the NPC as the player needs some customizations. Some may not like this suggestion so best to go with the masses decision on this one!

NPCs

The characters are phenomenal and VERY well written. At first I wasn't sure I'd like the romance options and I know they take a lot of flak but I'll leave my feedback below.

Gale
My homie who always approves of my good natured decisions and damn he loves to die! I wish he didn't have to consume all the good stuff though... Maybe consider tweaking this to +1 items as well? I can buy those.

Astarion
I don't use him much at all except to unlock but he's a well developed character and certainly fills a niche role. Looking forward to his upcoming story developments.

Wyll
Not going to lie, he's very forgetable. He's the best default for selling items but I can't see why I would take him over Gale for the roles they fill. Mages op. I hope there are some upcoming story developments that make this guy someone memorable.

Lae'zal
This character. She's always the one to carry my party with that two hander. Some might not like her personality but I think you've nailed it. She's unique and I like the way she's written staying true to her race. I'm so interested in seeing her character develop!

Shadowheart
I thought at first I was going to chase down Lae'zel but wow, Shadowheart caught me off guard. She has a very interesting and mysterious story to her and I think easily the most fleshed out companion on the team. The voice actress is also incredible! Kudos! I can't wait to see how she develops.

Future companions
Please consider adding more. Whoever is writing these dialogues is doing a fantastic job developing unique characters. I would love to get to know more companions of different classes / races. I hope there are varying types such as inherently good males and females as well as inherently evil ones. There is so much potential going forward so please don't stop!


Interactions, Encounters and Conversation

• Random encounters with enemies would be awesome. Currently I feel too much like battles are simply planned out and scripted to happen. I can go a while without a decent fight and I'd love to see even camp attacks of some sort. Something that throws me off guard and keeps me actively fighting or on my toes. Potential portal stone encounters upon fast travel would be a good means of reducing fast traveling frequency forcing the player to choose to take the risk. To prevent the reloading cheese you could up the frequency each time a player fast travels until eventually the encounters become inevitable.
• Consider allowing NPCs within radius to answer die rolls or interject their thoughts either actively or passively. They could also show signs that they will or won't approve of your choices.

The Camp!

• Long rest is so strong and always useable after a fight. It doesn't make sense to have spell slots or abilities rely on this. Short rest cooldowns are pointless because you can just long rest instead. Consider adding an in game timer cooldown based on real time. An hour? 3 hours? It forces the player to either just sit there boringly or actually attempt fights at a disadvantage. I know I'd be in the latter category.
• Non-party characters do not rest on full rest. I feel like this should apply to all characters. It is annoying needing to rest multiple times for each character out of party.

Bugs

Infinite approval in two situations.

• When telling Shadowheart to point out night orchids should we see them on our journeys. This option can be selected upon leaving conversation multiple times always granting approval.
• When you pet the dog. Shadowheart, Wyl and Gale can recieve multiple approvals each time you pet the dog. This may have already been mentioned in the forums elsewhere.

Disabling cross saves option does not do anything.

Non-party characters do not rest on full rest. I feel like this should apply to all characters. It is annoying needing to rest multiple times for each character out of party.


Closing Thoughts

I thought purchasing an early access Baldur's Gate 3 would be a bad idea but the only bad thing thus far has been the feeling that I will be waiting for the final release. I'm so stoked to see what you all come up with. You've truly done the series justice so far following 19 years of waiting for the sequel and even if none of these improvements are made I'm sure it will be an enjoyable experience. Take your time and make it the best you can as I've purchased Divinity Original Sin 2 to stave off my cravings in the meantime.

Keep up the good work!

I agree with your Post.

Random encountered would be Nice when doing a Portal travel aswell. Like bandits Camping the Portal stones or so.

That's a really good idea. I'll add it to encounters. It would limit fast travel to some extent which would be welcoming!

Yeah I agree with this post as well. Making it to where leveled spells don't take up multiple slots based on the level of it would be nice as well you should just select the spell and choose what level of it you want to cast and that spell only take up one slot.