Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Baldurs Gate 3 is ridiculously hard

I am an avid Baldurs Gate fan that put hundreds of hours into both BG1 and BG2. I think you have done beautiful and amazing things with Baldur's Gate III, however, you have made it ridiculously hard. I have been a game developer for 16 years and this is one of the hardest and most frustrating games I have ever played. I hate to literally save every encounter multiple times as I die and get killed unless I have the perfect rolls continuously. It is not fun. This game should be fun, engaging and balanced You pretty much setup every fight where the enemy has the advantage of high ground, and the AI is brutal! It immediately moves to maximum distance and maximum height where as a player you do not have the benefit of that, or even figuring out optimal move position, as you can't take back your moves (often times accidentally clicking). So every fight feels like the enemy gets initiative, moves to the high ground advantage and just picks you off, typically targeting the weakest character. This has been one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I have ever encountered. But, I am determined. I love Baldur's Gate and believe in it's potential. PLEASE, balance this game to be fun and fair, because right now it is not. I have to tell all of my gamer friends not to spend any time or money on this game as it is so unbalanced and frustrating! Hoping for positive change!

What fights are you having problems with? I know some areas are level based and showing up early just makes it harder on you. The AI does have a problem with targeting the weakest character. Presuming it will be fixed before launch or the combat will be laughably stupid.

This is a guide to custom your difficulty level.

- (Very) Hard : use the rules of D&D

- Normal : use jump to backstab ennemies with your melee. Always go higher.

- Easy : use jump, highground, backstab, dip your weapons, coat them with poison, eat food during combats

- Very easy :use jump, highground, backstab dip, poison, food, shove your ennemies as much as possible, use scrolls, potions, grenades, barrels,..

There's always something more powerfull (and WTF) in BG3. The limit is the explosion of the whole map with barrels.

You should probably think a bit less "strategy". Just go higher before the battle begin and you'll probably win every encounter. Being higher is kind of "god mode".

Maximuuus is right.
The game is hard if you play it like a DnD game.
The game is easy if you cheese the hell out of it.

More advice:
- Multiple alpha strike
Send your party away from the enemy and separate them. One char sneaks to the enemy, goes to a good position and uses the most powerful ability against the enemy. Combat will start. Now select another char (still out of combat) and do the same (sneak to enemy and join combat from a good position with your best attack). Repeat this for every char and don´t forget your summons (warlock imp, ranger animal companion)
- shoot and hide
Use one character with a ranged weapon. Sneak to a position were you can shoot the enemy but you are outside of their vision cone. Shoot them, hide and move a bit. The enemy will just stand there and you can repeat this over and over.

@Maximuuus
> Extra Super Easy: use jump, highground, backstab dip, poison, food, shove your ennemies as much as possible, use scrolls, potions, grenades, barrels, ... and before every conversation sneak the rest of your party (except the talker) to advantage positions in case anything goes wrong.

I think it depends what you compare BG3 to. It is much harder than BG1 and BG2, but that is because enemies in the old games are, to put it bluntly, acting stupid most of the time. Their default action is to attack whichever characters from your party they saw first. On the other hand you have some encounters which can result in a party wipe, if you don't know what abilities & spells the enemies use, such as the infamous mage assassin in the Friendly Arm Inn in BG1, or Kangaxx in BG2.

But I've been playing BG1 and BG2 with the Sword Coast Stratagems mod for years now, and that mod improves enemy actions. They attack whomever has for example the worst armor (which can be very dangerous when facing enemy rogues), and they will switch targets if they cannot do damage. So for me BG3 is just the right challenge: enemies are not acting stupid, but neither do they have instakill abilities like Kangaxx' imprisonment.

For example, I am currently running a party with Wyll and he has a summon imp ability. So I sometimes use that imp to lure enemies to the party, making them abandon their terrain advantage.

This latest patch definitely upped the difficulty a noticeable bit in my experience. The AI are much more aware of the mechanics now and uses them more actively now it seems.

The best thing I've seen the AI do so far: an imp shot at a nautiloid tank, blowing it up to cause me damage.

I'd like to see the NPCs using more advanced tactics like that more often.

Regarding the original question, I'm also curious which fights are causing problems.

I've not found anything in BG3 harder than Kangaxx, the Beholder lair or the Irenicus fights. Kangaxx I simply could not beat until I read up some hints and tricks.

Sure, you're going to get party-wiped, or at least have a lot of resources depleted, the first time you come across some of these foes. But a little preparation - getting the best possible equipment/AC, taking on allies (familiars, sac spiders, Andrick & Brynna, Sazza, Flind/Rugan, Glut), positioning, potions, spell buffs - makes most of them much smoother. And as another poster mentioned, some encounters are just best left until level 4 (spiders, Gith, Minotaurs, Bulette, Kuo-Tua).

The spiders are a good example. If you wander in blind at level 2 with no prep and without having found the Spiderstep boots, yes, you're probably going to struggle. But go in at level 3 or 4 with all your characters having 18+ AC, the Boots, access to Misty Step, the ring of poison resistance and 2/3 potions of same, then sneak around and kill all the eggs, plop down some candles to light your bows on and a barrel to cast Light on, give Lae'zel a potion of hill giant strength/haste and THEN start the fight, it almost feels too easy.

Last night I was trying to do same and got spotted after killing only one batch of eggs, but still managed to take down the matriarch, the other 2 phase spiders and the spiderlings while total party casualties were 10 damage to Shadowheart and 7 to Wyll.

BG3 plays very differently from 1 and 2. If you want some tips on improving your tactics, try watching a couple of vids by, say, Retcon Raider or WolfheartFPS.

Considering a character with 16 constitution.
Considering a class that have D8 as hit dices (not the best, not the worst)

At level 4 this characters have 35 HP

Now considering some of the most powerfull monsters...

Minotaurs : 2D12+4 (attack) + 2D8+4 (multi attack) +1D8+4 (jump bonus action) - average damages 38.5/turn

Bulette : 3D6+4 +3D6+4 (jump) + 4D12 +4 (bite) - average damages 59/turn

Those creatures can OS anyone and many other can OS unadvertised weaker characters.

Gnolls archers : 3 * 1D8+3 - average damages 22.5/turn.

I think redcap and other underdark creatures are also very powerfull. And obviously the gith patrol.

Keep in mind we're level 4 and we haven't met ANY really hard bosses...

I guess there are more insta kill in BG3 than in any other D&D games. Hopefully rez scrolls are cheap so it just doesn't matter but if perma death was something in BG3 and if a rez scroll was not so cheap... I guess It would be an issue way more than in the old games.

Which is why I give my party members the Tough feat. There's many encounters where extra hit points make a bigger difference than a +1 to attacks.

One problem, imo, is that the movement system makes it very difficult to scout ahead. Therefore you have to lose and save and reload several of the fights at least once -- often more than once -- to figure out a surival tactic.
Many encounters even seemed totally unwinnable the first time I stumbled into them. After several restarts I know that, with enough foreknowledge, and luck with the dies, it is winnable.
But this method -- having to lose one or more times before being able to win -- IS quite frustrating.

I felt exactly like the OP when I started with Patch 3. I had played all the old games from the 90's and on (BG, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter and the Dragon Age and Pillars games), but this was the hardest and most frustrating game to come into without knowing how to fight properly to begin with. A few You Tube videos and some guide reading and I got much better. However, I don't think making a game with the assumption everyone will research best practices first is the best idea.

I don't do a lot of the cheese - I don't dip (I forget) and I don't jump around all over the place. But I do go for high ground and use magic/scrolls and eat a lot of food. I can now win most fights comfortably outside the Underdark.

For me now it is not the AI advantage that annoys me, it's the RNG. Both with and without weighted dice it still kind of sucks, at least for me anyway. I've never seen so many Critical Misses in a D20 based game (including 5 in a row for my team once) and I swear Shadowheart is cursed - she consistently misses anything whenever the tooltip says 70/75% to hit. This draws the combat out, especially in the bigger fights. The only plus side is the RNG hates the AI as much, so I don't get wiped out in a round when they inevitably win the Initiative roll.

Having to retry some hard fights is normal in a computer game.

The problem is that the game expects the player to cheese the hell out of it.
I mean that it helps a lot to perform actions that no sane GM would ever allow.

Edit: Because the game expects you to act like this, the enemies are very strong.
This means it is very hard if you play like a normal person would.

It's rumored (or maybe confirmed?) that when the game is released out of Early Access there will be a choice of difficulty settings. Presumably we're playing on the "Normal" or "Experienced with DnD games" setting, and there will be an easier setting below that. And something even harder for masochists, or those who already know every encounter inside and out.

So we're playing at an encounter level that gives Larian the best feedback on what is and isn't working with game balance. If it was any easier -- if we were roflstomping every encounter -- they wouldn't have as much player feedback to work with. The current difficulty is also a good way to find out where players have found exploits and other ways to cheese the combat, like the Multiple Alpha Strike mentioned above. And then they can decide to either remove those exploits or leave them in.

Personally, I haven't found the combat super difficult except when I wandered into areas in Act 1 where it's obviously intended to be a geared-up level 4 encounter and I'm not there yet. I'd rather have the game designed this way than with a "flat" difficulty where all encounters are the same, and after reaching level 4 every combat is a cakewalk. It keeps the challenge high.

About the only real frustration I have is with strings of bad RNG rolls, especially with spell attacks. It's a bit immersion-breaking to have the mage or cleric in my party miss spell attacks so often in a row. I guess it's better than having it hit every time and needing to be nerfed for balance, but it still has me yelling at the monitor when it happens.

I don't know, even on first playthrough, I only had problems with attacking grove and spider boss. But it was fun, first experience for a normal level of difficulty is quite decent. Main rule is don't treat it like a board game, treat it like a video game, and then you will quickly understand what's what.

I noticed that for many DnD fans this game seems difficult, a strange coincidence.

Maybe it's easier for DoS fans ?

I'm not a DnD fan nor a DoS fan and I played lots of tactical TB game... the first playthrough was difficult to me.

I guess we have found something.

The first playthrough was difficult for me too. I know nothing about DOS, but I do play DnD regulary and still had problems. It took me a while to learn the mechanics such as high ground, surfaces etc.

Maybe not a coincidence if DnD is all they've ever played.

I played all the early Infinity Engine DnD-based games, but also a bunch of other ones like DOS 1 and 2, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and most recently Wasteland 3. I don't find BG3 especially difficult. Very tough in a few individual encounters but that's expected. Maybe it's a little easier for someone familiar with other game systems.

Except that "Experienced with DnD games" is actually detrimental because to succed you must not play BG3 like a D&D game but more like a turn based Overwatch.

What people call "hard" is basically being the victims of the poor RNG this game is so fond of.

Fights go radically different based on whether you're missing half your attacks or not, which is why uniformly this game is all about every single class playing like a rogue and sneaking around to high ground.

It's very one dimensional combat with an incredible amount of cheese available in terms of consumables and environmental actions like pushing something off a cliff or detonating a barrel doing half the HP of a boss but a spell that uses a spell slot if it's lucky enough to land does around 1/10th their HP at best.

Even without knowing any Larian gimmicks, I didn't think the game was too hard my first walkthrough. Definitely the hag and spider matriarch were difficult without prior knowledge. The gnolls and githyanki were also tough but only because of Larian homebrew.

I guess it wasn't as hard for me because I played the game somewhat straight, meaning I was careful of my spell resources and focused a lot of physical range attacks. I didn't know I could long rest at will so I budgeted my expendable spells. I learned by mistake, just how powerful bows and crossbows were in this game. I may have lucked out a lot on some encounters by getting height advantage without even knowing since I tend to try to find ground that is easily defensible (bottleneck).

Once I learned of all the Larian stuff, the game is a joke. I think the only encounter that is remotely hard is the koa-toa and only because they have a bunch of archers in height advantage and it's hard to get to them since you are surrounded by the others.

But I didn't play only DOS, for me DOS was just another isometry game after PoE. So I don't know, in DOS for me main difference was tactical pause, not fight difficulty.

The most difficult fight in BG3 for me was spider, because "bonuses" don't work. There is a specific mechanic with web and strategy with destruction of eggs. In theory, you can push a spider into a hole (I didn't know this first time), but it doesn't give a 100% guarantee, especially after patch 3. But it's boss so... It's fine. I mean, I think it should be difficult.

LMAO ... Sorry .. you cracked me up !

Looks like these days, this type of thread is getting popular, here's one from steam (although there's lots of emotion/drama in that thread: to me that's the meaning of "cheese" ):
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/3109144584157646562/
I replied few times thinking of helping, but I think the drama was too high.

@maximuus and @Madscientist provided good summary & advise.

The key is positioning and don't keep all those scrolls & potions for the end of the game

This may be the case if they don't play video games and only tabletop, also a lot of groups don't start at low levels because they are "too hard" (more like you can't rush into something and expect to instantly win.) I play DnD but have never played DOS, and usually only play TPS or other types of real time games. I did not find this game difficult on my first playthrough but I tend to play ranged and stealth in most games and am also used to real time tactical positioning. The hardest part of combat for me is having to micromanage the camera so I can see where all the enemies are since there is no Z axis.

Stealth (and ranged) is something I really recommend for anyone having issues with combat, not because the AI is stupid, but because you won't walk into anything before you are ready to deal with it. Also in areas with higher ground, it is often possible to shoot ladders to stop enemies from coming up behind you. Use spells like Web and Grease to keep enemies where you want them or to lump them together so you can set them on fire (with cheese or spells.) Other than this, Maximuuus and Madscientist already gave the best ways to add varying levels of cheese to change difficulty levels.

Nowadays I don't have much problems anymore too. After I learned the mechanics, it became much easier. I never encountered the Kuo-Toa, searched the whole Underdark, but never found them.

I really think that the problem with the difficulty of the game comes from the two VERY unbalanced system they use.

D&D is balanced to be D&D.
Their homebrew are balanced to be powerfull.
But those systems aren't balanced together at all.

Players has to find something in the middle but most D&D things are not powerfull enough while Larian's homebrew looks like "cheese".

How could they create a normal difficulty level arround "cheats" and arround "weak" features/spells/attacks/weapons at the same time ?

A better balance between those mechanics could probably solve many issues with the difficulty and increase our viable/creative solutions to deal with combats. The easiest way is to tone down their homebrew/items/mechanics first. THEN they'll be able to balance monsters.

Missing is something else and according to me, it comes from a bad understanding of the rules of advantage.

Pretty much. I don'y agree on the missing your attacks part, i've played games where missing is basically all you're doing at higher difficulties (Kingmaker), but the rest is pretty much how it is. And i would also add that, for now, every hard encounter is basically the same. At first 'weak' minions standing on highground and spamming ranged aoe spells that deal high dmg/status effects, and then the boss doing the same but with way more hp and in melee range.

If it was the same in DoS i get why people say it gets tiring after a while. It's not there for me yet, but it's pretty stark there are no real tactics, just one way to handle things and having to do it over and over again.

Backstab and highground. I didn’t explore under dark in my playthrough (which I hear is the hardest bit) but all the topside content was a breeze. I died only once when fighting the Hag.

I really don't get the too hard thing.

In my rogue playthrough, I was scouting alone through the underdark and came across the kuo-toa. My rogue solo'd them.

In my fight with Gut, my rogue killed Gut while locked in the room with her while my party took out the other goblins outside the door.

I'm currently playing a beast master ranger, using a raven as a companion. I didn't do any prep work on the spiders. I just rushed in, started the fight and won. I didn't bother breaking the eggs; I fought the little spiders also. My raven companion and Wyll's imp did most of the work with the small spiders.

With the hag, I discovered the fireplace passage. That made her go hostile and attack me. Without landing a single critical, I beat her before she escaped to where she keeps Mayrina prisoner.

I'm not using barrels. I haven't dipped once. I haven't used a single specialty arrow.

Shrug. I get that other people are having problems, but I'm just not seeing it. For what it's worth, I'm really enjoying the combat, and I think it's interesting maneuvering through the terrain.

People are complaining when they miss 3rd attack in a row ...
I never heared anyone complaining about his character just survived double number of those misses in single round.

Since I've played DoS2 in Tactician Mode, I think nothing could be more difficult than fighting a lvl 15 boss when you are 5 levels under. Man, DoS2 on tactician mode gave me a lot of rage quits and screams and anything in my range I could throw at my TV. Ofc I didn't throw anything at my TV, but God knows the unraveling rage I felt whenever things gone (very) wrong in my gameplay. For me, BG3 is being difficult for most people only because of bad RNG when casting spells: same thing usually happens to me as I don't have luck with RNG most of the time.
Honestly, if you think BG3 is hard then you never really played a real difficult game.
Besides all the rage I felt playing DoS2 in tactician mode, dude, I absolutely LOVE that game. It is unfair at some moments, but at the same time the feeling you get when you beat some really hard fight is priceless.

Ofc there are some fights in BG3 that you aren't meant to encounter when low level, but this is what makes this game versatile: you can try even if you are underleveled. As I said, it may be unfair, but when you are victorious you don't even think about the unfairness nor the bad dice rolls.

Hard? BG3 is hard?....man have you ever played a single game of DnD? Have you ever had a lvl 4 character see an adult dragon an actually fight and win?
Really, how do you mean it's hard? "Oh I have bad RNG", yeah...true. But even if you had the best RNG, if you are a lvl 2 character and you are trying to fight 10 goblins in a true DnD session, you are going to be wiped. There are a lot of rules that go both ways in combat that are not yet implemented (I hope it's something that will be implemented), like flanking that would make every single battle with a lot of enemies really hard.

SO, if you want an easy game, go play something you don't have to think a lot. If you have 16years of game development and think BG3 is hard....man...what are you programing?

BG3 has it's flaws. I have a lot of things that I want to see how they will implement and honestly, it'll make the game probably 3x more hard and those are things that are almost necessary for DnD.

The curious thing is: BG3 is indeed balanced at some point. Dude, come on: the funniest thing I've saw happening in this game was when my boyfriend literally pushed the Hag down into the abyss with his tadpole skill. Man, we laughed for 5 minutes straight cuz even Sven couldn't do it. The funniest thing is that could easily happen with us as well if the enemy has a push/pull skill.

You don't need to get perfect rolls everytime since the enemies also miss their hits on you. You can't expect to easily win a fight against a Minotaur when it is lvl 5 and you are lvl 3. BG3 is not a MMORPG where you can win regardless your strategy, BG3 is based on a tabletop system and every single level counts, including the strategy you choose to follow.

Yesterday I've had a boss fight at Curse of Strahd tabletop session. We were at level 5, and if we were only one level above, we certainly would be creating new characters for the next session. This is why I'm saying: every single level counts in your fights.

Based on my experience with DoS2, I think we are playing on Normal-to-Hard difficulty setting on BG3. Enemies are smart and they use scenario elements against us in some fights, and usually attack our weaker party member randomly. If we were experiencing a Tactician Mode-like setting, I'd say enemies would fully focus on our weaker party members first, using scenario elements, scrolls and any environment shenanigans to completely wipe our chances of victory.

The AI can read our thoughts on Tactician Mode, dude, I'm saying this cuz I've been through it twice.

I'm pretty sure there'll be one or two levels of difficulty both lower and higher. I saw a Josh Sawyer video and he said to remember the EA fans were not likely to be the typical player because they were the biggest fans, early adopters and those who were willing to really understand the mechanics. You have to make a game for all the 'normies' too if you want to be successful. I'm sure there'll be a level difficulty for those that find it too tough now.

Reading a lot of the replies and the other threads in this forum I think people actually think the priority is to make it as close to 5e as possible, no homebrew. While I can't speak for WotC obviously, I'm pretty sure this is not the case. I'm pretty sure the priority is to sell as many copies and introduce as many people to the basic concept and world as possible. If they lose a few purists along then way so be it.

When Neverwinter Nights came out lots of people complained about the liberties it took. But it sold a lot and spawned 2 expansions and a sequel which also spawned two expansions. It did what it was supposed to do, made a lot of money and introduced a lot of people to dnd that wouldn't have been introduced.

That's why I don't think backstab and height advantage will go. It's a nice simple way for someone unfamiliar with the rules of dnd and unwilling to learn them all for a videogame to 'game' the system and enjoy it.

It definitely would be nice if you could actually turn these off as a difficulty slider for people who want it. I hope, actually, that they give a lot of options in difficulty that you can customise. That would be cool.

I totally agree with OP on this one, I’m finding the combat very frustrating and not very fun.

I see a lot of people putting out the advice: backstab, high-ground, scrolls! ...but this is supposed to be a ROLE-PLAYING game. I don’t want to have to resort to playing all of my characters like a ranged-rogue. I want to use all of my characters unique spells and skills!

And, I mean, at least in my experience the RNG during combat is so unfavorable towards the player. During dialog choices it feels a bit better, but definitely not combat. I’ve missed so many “85% chance to hit” shots that I now consider 85% to be more like 30% and anything below 60% to just being an automatic miss.

...and you know this would be okay if it also applied to the enemy AI but it absolutely does not. They have way better accuracy and damage.

Just tonight I was trying to take the goblin camp...I had the high ground with an 85% chance to hit using my Warlock’s Eldritch Blast. It missed 3 times in a row and when it finally connected it only did 3 damage. On the next turn a level 2 goblin from a lower position sniped me for 8 hit points and caused my character to fall off a cliff instantly killing me.

Like...I have never had anywhere CLOSE to that same kind of luck on my turns. It shouldn’t be this frustrating to fight a bunch of low level goblins.

As I said it before, the game gets hard when you play it as a D&D game.
Engaging enemies in melee without dipping, and things like cleave which does not exist in D&D the way Larian implemented it, without jumping behind someone to backstab, without using nonsense Larian grenades, without WMD barrels, without shoving being the main damage dealer and without having everyone being ranged and climb as high as possible or stealthing even though they suck at stealth which does not matter because of the short vision cones.

Obviously you never played games like Ninja Gaiden or Dark Souls. There are difficult fights, but I would say this game isn't even as hard as DOS2. Either way, more than likely, they will have difficulty modes in the live version.

4 companions is abit shit. Change it to 6 for cake. <link removed by Mod>

I’m doing that now and it’s fun because there’s more banter going on. I also find it comical they stand in a bowling pin triangle formation. I keep waiting for a big boulder to stomp them.

Hmm...I should go visit those guys smuggling the chest...

Tend to agree with this.

I found combat either too hard or too easy.

Too hard when you played "normally" ie as you would the first time you walked in there without exploiting the mechanics - you frequently get disadvantage of low ground, grenades getting lobbed and taking damage 2 or 3 times from it, missing many attacks with <45% chance to hit, missing spells due to low ground disadvantage etc.

Too easy when you knew what was coming, carefully positioned your party and/or used known exploits - high ground advantage (suddenly your to hit chance is 95% ffs!), just eat a pig's head after getting shot by a duergar with 3 attacks (!), shove people off things for 3 x damage you could do with your weapon etc.

I'm not sure either experience was optimal. I feel like with a well balanced, robust party not every encounter should have you in mortal peril!

Well, I am currently playing a druid, and she has been using shapeshifting, spells and melee in various encounters. Out of this, the only thing she isn't that good is melee, because her stat distribution is fitting a spellcaster more, and also because I'm not very good with melee classes in general. A bit ironic, because a lot of time in cRPGs people recommend fighters as easy to play, but it isn't so for me.

So far my experience with the druid that they are very flexible and open up a lot of possibilities for the party. Of course what works depends on the companions, not only their strengths, but also weaknesses. For example, my current party has two characters vulnerable to sleep, so they occassionaly get knocked out. And since one of them is Laezel, that can pose some problems in melee. Though the sleeping animation is kind of cute, lol.

That's not really related to this thread but Shillelagh allow you to use weapons with your wisdom (shillelagh or flame blade - 1H + shield or dualwield).
Druids are really not so bad in melee.

But I am at playing melee characters. So it balances out.

I find BG3 combat very easy really but of course it is some messed up version of 5e (if even that).

Coming from playing so many different TTRPG's since the 80's (D&D being the main one since 2nd ed on up) this is simple. NOW if you think BG3 is hard, for those who have not tried playing TT D&D I suggest, if possible, you do. Then we can talk and compare.

You're kidding right? There's an insane amount of cheese and gimmicks that is beyond ridiculous. Of course i wasn't expecting anything near challenging since it's Larian.

I think this game has just right difficulty level. You can make it so much easier if you start abusing potion of hill giants, speed potions and invisibility potions. Also stealth is broken. You can just kill everything with one character and stealth. Just go behind wall or rock and shoot arrows, go hide, shoot arrows etc. Enemies just eat those arrows and be like "What's that? Arrow to the head? Just another day, nothing to be worried about.".

For how homo they are about stealing good game strategies, you'd think they could implement them to at least build a more challenging AI.

it is good when it is hard and nice when it requires strategy but it must not be unfairly difficult and it can be varied

You don't really have to use this.
Just care about backstab and highground (the intended basics) and really, the game is easy with a party of 4.

I recently ended a playthrough with a solo druid.
Except the 10 firsts hours, it's the only challenge I have ever had and it's doable without potion of hill giant or exploiting hide...

As soon as you know the basics you understand how bad the balance is. The difficulty of some encounters only exist because a few ennemies have WTF features and can OS your characters... nothing more.
Strategy is close to 0 in this game.

The harder combats would be a joke if we could reach level 5.

Please be a little more careful about the words you choose to express negativity.

How do you manage the Fights in the Underdark with a solo Druid?

Go to YouTube, type "sin tee" in search bar and watch his most recent video. It's super easy especially if you prepare before the fights.

I thought the game was pretty challenging on my 1st playthrough. On my second it was trivial. Somethings that need to change;

You should not be able to use the camera to scout through closed doors. Those bad guys inside should be able to jump me the second I open the door and I should be able to spy on them by panning the camera through the door. Same thing with secret rooms. It kinda defeats the purpose of a secret room when you can see the room through the wall.

You should not be able to gain advantage for having the high ground or by standing behind an enemy. Having free advantage all the time completely breaks the 5e rules set and makes stuff like Sneak Attack completely broken.

You should not be able to surprise almost every encounter by attacking them while they are in conversation with another character.

Starting the fight with 1 character while the other 3 hide in the shadows or in the rafters is REALLY cheesy and that tactic can be used on almost every encounter. You basically get a free opening attack with 3 out of 4 party members. I think its ok that this is a strategy, but enemies need a LOT more health so that your alpha strike does not remove half the enemies in the encounter before they get to act.

@Rippley

So basically you want to take Rogues main attacking style away and leave him with nothing but regular attack. Rogues don't even get second attack at 5th level. Damn, that's cold, I'd hate be a rogue!

In every game there are ways to "cheat" and make the game easy. It's on you to decide whether you want to be a cheater. In real life you can stab someone in the back, you just have to decide do you want to be that kind of person.

Baldur's gate 3 is way too heavy, the balance is wrong at the back and front, way too heavy

Look here the other thread about difficulty

Short version:
- The game is hard if you play it like a DnD game
- The game is easy if you abuse all the stuff that Larian changed compared to DnD

Yea, the game is a cake a walk if you hide, attack, hide. The enemies are too stupid to properly perceive the player and their perception field is too narrow. But even the stealth system has issues, detection is global and neutral/friendly creatures are able to break you out of stealth. 5e as a whole made magical gear common and a necessity to be able to play balanced, However Larian has made those far and few between and are "cursed" in the sense that they are detrimental as well.

It's because is not an actual D&D game, you have to play it like a Larian Gimmickfest. Barrelmancer, Throwmancer or Stealthmancer. Don't forget to always climb the high ground lol.

This. Pretty much all fights can be solo'd, except for that one creature down under that heals out of combat.

Stealth is actually a thing as an opener for classes that have bonuses ( Rogue and Ranger come to mind ), the main issue here is that it can be used infinitely and breaks the enemy A.I. when you enter combat and use it again after every attack from long range. It could be easily fixed if it was a full action instead of bonus action for example ( That way the player decides wether is better to hide or attack in his turn ) but i still believe they should change the A.I. to move where the last attack came from so the player is at least forced to move around. The way it is atm this cheese can be used even by a 3 year old.


All classes aren't supposed to be able to backstab, that's another big issue that trivializes the whole Class System which is almost as fake as the one they have in DOS2. You even have backstabbing bears here.

Again Larian, Stealth should not the Invisible Spell and enemies shouldn't be able to detect Invisible characters even if they are close to each other. Invisibility should be voided by any action or by taking dmg and should only be allowed for scouting areas ahead because it still gonna give you the first action advantage. So no placing 9000 barrels or crates while invisible either since each placement should count as an actual action.

We talked about this a lot... But the help action in RAW also allow players to distract ennemies to offer an advantage to other characters.
The flanking rules could also do the job, such as faery fire, inviibility and/or hide...

There should have many ways to offer advantages to rogue's sneak attack instead of one that is obviously better than anything else.

You mean Bulette?

Someone soloed it too ... 2:47 (Not mine video. :-/ )

I generally don't think the balance is too bad (at least not to the point where only exploits can win). The only "larian mechanic" that I really felt like I needed to use is the high ground advantage and backstab - mainly because even if you don't use it, the enemy will still do it.

There was another thread on the forums discussing the Gith Patrol fight, where someone claimed the fight was nigh impossible without all sorts of exploits (which was contrary to my experience). I ended up recording a couple of videos with a pretty sub-optimized, no-exploit party just to see if it was really the case (since I believed that fight was far from impossible).

That same unoptimized, derpy team basically 100%ed the game and every encounter the same way.

In my experience, outside of some insanely bad initiative RNG, every fight is pretty winnable, especially when you start getting more and more magical items.


For context, when I say no exploit for the Gith Fight, I did use backstab and high ground, but not the following:

• No pre-position (running the chained party right in)
• No pre-buffing (outside of Aid, which is an always cast because it lasts forever)
• No usage of psionic powers
• No 1-time consumables (i.e. haste potion, wyvern poison)
• No munching of food mid-fight
• Very limited magical items (Sword of Justice and a headband on a Gale who already had 18 INT)

Edited: I just realize this post might sound a bit like a "git gud" post, and that really isn't my intention. It's just that I think it's just important to distinguish that the current difficulty isn't impossible and cheese-only. I'd be happy to see a wide range of difficulty added to the game, I just hope Larian doesn't tone it down for the harder ones.

Because if you don't use it, the ennemy will still do it ? Or because GWM would suck without it ?

Ennemies are really bad at exploiting those mechanics. They just rush highround without anything in mind and if they sometimes try to backstab, it's not really common.
If they are running behind, you'll always have an AOO with advantage. You're AOO safe because you're explotiing a bug, saving in the same time your bonus action to take as much healing potions as necessary...

Honnestly backstab and highground are the most usual OP mechanics in the game... and you have to exploit them to succeed.
This is the minimum requirement and if a strategy game with tons of spells, features and so-called "choices" turns arround 2 mechanics, I call this a bad balance.

If they fix the AOO exploit, it's done for newcomers and the difficulty will increase a lot - even for us that have played for hours.
And I hope they'll fix it because this is just non sense.

I remember a post like that he rushed to the patrol and couldn't defeat it. The game has level based areas, so it'll be harder if you go their early.

I'm going to guess you was level 4 when going the patrol, not 2.

In the specific thread I linked to, the OP was trying to do it with a level 4 party. I don't recall the thread where someone was trying it at level 2 - but you'll kind of have REALLY go out of your way to get the the patrol prior to 3. I normally hit level 3 by the time I make it into the Druid Grove for the first time (if I do the ruins).

For the run I did in my video, I was level 4 - I chose to do the Gnolls/Flind fight right before the Gith Patrol, which had levelled me up from 3 to 4.

Side note, I will 100% take some form of level based encounters over the Skyrim "everyone scales to your level" system, which is 100% immersion breaking for me.

It is totally fine if you can find some enemies where you have to come back later while others are easy if you find them while you have some levels more.

good examples: Gothic1+2, Risen: You can go almost everywhere from the start, but almost everything can kill you. Through experiance YOU become stronger and you can explore more areas.
bad example: Oblivion: After beating tons of demons you face bandits in epic equipment and goblins are almost impossible to beat. It was one of the few games I quit because game mechanics were too frustrating.

By the way, I finished DOS1, but I never finished DOS2. The extreme stat inflation basically forced you to do all encounters in a specific order. There were moments where it was very helpful to solve quests in a specific way to maximize exp early because one level more can make a huge difference in some encounters. I also disliked random equipment and that the whole map was filled with necrofire or similar stuff after every battle.
From my point of view BG3 is a step in the right direction, but the step is not far enough.

Honestly I think this is beyond redemption. When you want to use spells, attacks, and tactics to defeat your enemies like in D&D 5e, you should play Solasta.

When you want to have fun using Barrelmancy, Backstab Stealthing, Pit Shoving, and High Ground Jumping, then Baldur's Gate III is the game for you.

Well, for me the easiest of the previously challenging fights was with a druid party (level 3) against the redcaps. Found a narrow path, then shifted the druid in spider form and cast web, started combat via ranged attack and then kept plinking away. It took some time, as the ranged hit chance was mediocre, but the spider can keep spamming web indefinitely. I had to use one of those void bulbs to keep them in the webs, but that is because I didn't have any characters with thunderwave or repelling blast. So I don't think you need backstab etc. when it comes to level-appropriate content. However, currently the characters are locked at level 4, while I suspect the githyanki & underdark are level 5 content.

Now druid no. 2 is on the way, but this time Wyll wisely chose repelling blast.

Oop the way you typed it sounded like the link led to a vid.

What? Backstab is just Larians take on the flanking rules.

By the rules, [i]no[/] class is supposed to be able to backstab. Backstabbing is something Larian has added, not something they've moved from one class to all.

I actually think it's Larian's implementation on the combat facing rules (from chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). Basically, shield bonus only applies to attacks from the front or the same side of the shield, and attacks from behind have advantage.

It's an obscure variant rule that few tables actually use, but it's technically a legit D&D 5e mechanic.

The simpler answer to this sentence is "play like a fighter, exploit dual wield" and before you get conjure flame blade, just play longbow wood elf with moonbeam in the meantime.

You could go through sin tee's videos and they're all the same thing. Either abuse flame axe+ offhand with fire dip for huge burst damage from dual wield, play a caster with fire ray helm and force missile necklace, or a battlemaster 2H build. Doesn't matter the class, basically plays the same because the balance of actual class skills, and particularly how worthless most spells outside force missile/fire ray/inflict wounds are, and the fact the only utility spell you get to use courtesy of the trash Concentration mechanic is Bless because Bless makes a huge different in landing non-martial attacks.

The spell casting in this game is totally horrendous gameplay. Even the melee is not that much more interesting even if it's supremely better.

Divinity by far had a far better repertoire of spells and combat. The sheer variety of melee attacks and spell combos isn't even close compared to this snoozefest of "single ability per turn that, if not a melee backstab, may probably miss 40-50% of the time" is among the worst design decisions in place.

Honestly there is a fair learning curve here. Just going in clueless tends to end very poorly. On my first playthrough I died, a LOT however it should be noted that said playthrough was on and older patch so my "first" time experience is of little value in this instance, that being said as compared with before.. it's quite a bit easier than it was.

A key part of the optional facing rules is that creatures, as a reaction, can rotate themselves in response to enemy movement and thus prevent backstabs.
Additionally, at least how I'd read it, when you move from the front of an enemy to the back, you'd provoke an AoO because you are moving out of the enemy's reach/threatened zone.

Neither of which Larian has implemented.

The game still does not make a serious effort to teach new players how to play it. The difficulty scale is going to be way off depending on experience or familiarity. The game assumes that we already know Dungeons and Dragons, otherwise virtually none of the information presented at character creation would make much sense. But it also builds off a familiarity with DOS systems, such that even someone who already knows D&D or BG1/2 pretty well may still struggle with it. Not to harp on it again, but in 4 major patches since EA began, the Prologue/Tutorial on the Nautiloid has remained basically unchanged. By now that part of the game should be like a masterwork in introductions to gameplay lol.

I think what is needed is a low pressure combat environment with no rewards, where the new player can figure out what's going on at whatever pace they might need.

In BG1 this was handled pretty effectively before even leaving Candlekeep, when the PC was approached by the Gatewarden and asked if they wanted to train in group combat...

"I've arsked Obe the illusionist to run through a few simulations fer ye down in the storage cellars. Just follow me this way an' I'll unlock the door fer ye..."

The PC then fights a series of illusionary monsters of different types in a progressively more challenging group combat scenario. They join a fight ongoing with a ready-made party covering all the basic classes and abilities. It happens in a discrete area detached from the rest of the main game so the player doesn't get to keep any of the experience or items from the encounters in the trainer. It was a simple way for the new player to learn how to navigate the game's combat systems and also basic stuff like equipment and consumables via the pre-built party or from the magical chest in the middle of the warehouse gauntlet. The player could finish till the end or stop at any point if they got bored, and they couldn't actually be killed since it was all an illusion without real consequences outside of the training.

Something like that could easily happen as a narrative conceit in the Grove, where Wyll is already training the Tieflings how to fight. That's a bit far into the game for a combat tutorial, but it could at least serve as a practice zone. That would give Larian somewhere to show off monster types or environmental effects and the like, in a low pressure arena type setting. I think the illusions idea is an easy one, just because it's been done before doesn't mean its a bad call. They need a place where they can really do up a tips and tricks type trainer with focused attention on all the systems we have available in this game. Done with slightly less urgency than would be suggested by a crashing spelljammer ship in the cold open.

and what are these things?

what skill does he have in the video? Thief ? and which talent did he choose? which level is he and where did he get the invisibility potions from?

@Wolfenring

Literally every question you have is answered in the video. He is 4th level Wood Elf thief and he took moderately armored feat instead of ability increase at 4th level because that way he could increase his dexterity to 18 and get to wear medium armor to get AC to 17. You get penalty to stealth from wearing medium armor but he said that he doesn't care because he doesn't use stealth.

Anyways, how can you even play the game if you didn't get those answers from watching the video? I mean those answers literally hits you in the face and you didn't get them, lord have mercy.

Penalty to stealth is mitigated by wood elf anyways and the guy abuses invis pots as well, so who needs stealth when you have true invis to guarantee surprise attacks and first turn from backstab. Potion of Speed on top to get an extra turn over the enemy as they derp around plotting next turn. Brilliant combat design.

About high ground and backstab ...
Im not sure what game it was, but in some i read one tip in loading screen stuck in my head:
Whenever possible, try to bypass the enemy's defences and attack from the side, history will not ask how heroic your failed frontal attack looked.

I presume he just jumped to 2:47

@Zenith

Except you can get same AC of 17 from wearing studded leather armor +1 which you can get in EA and don't have to get any penalty to stealth. Or from wearing robe and casting mage armor scroll.

Its also written in the link I posted.
short and incomplete list:
- When there is some shadow/darkness: shoot at the enemy, hide and move a bit, repeat. When enemies cannot see you they just do nothing and wait to be killed.
- Drop some explosive barrels near the enemy, then blow them up.
- Attack enemies from behind to get backstab advantage. Jump behind them if walking would provoke AoO.
- When using ranged attacks always shoot from above to get hight advantage.
- Place your party away from the enemy and unchain them. The first char sneaks to the enemy and uses his best ability from a good position from stealth. Then the second char sneaks to the enemy and uses the best ability from a good position from stealth. And so on, don´t forget summons or animal companions.
- Every char has a candle. Dropping, igniting and picking it up is a free action. Dip your weapon in the candle for extra fire damage. Always pick it up so you do not forget it. Dipping a weapon breaks stealth so be careful if you start combat this way.
- Shove enemies off the map. When they cannot see you (stealth or invisible) shove has 100% success chance. You miss the loot though.

There are more things, but these things make the game pathetically easy.

i don't understand english, so translate everything here with google translate but thanks for the help

thank you, it's just stupid if you have to translate everything into German and then back into English to ask. but thank you already.
I still have a problem somehow the invisibility potions seem to be very rare, but in the video he uses them more often or .. the villain's exact tactics I still have a hard time the way he plays it.

@Wolfenring

When you drink potion of speed you get haste. Haste has these effects, "Target's speed is doubled. It also gains a +2 bonus to AC, advantage to Dex. saves and 1 additional action." so you get one extra main hand attack.

You can buy invisibility potions from Auntie Ethel from Druid Grove and Roah Moonglow from Shattered Sanctum (Goblin camp). When you take long rest, merchants usually replenish their stock so you can buy more potions after resting.

Can you change the language setting in BG3 or how do you manage to play it if you don't understand english?

I play the game in german and my steam account is set to german.
I am not sure were I could change the language of the game.
Do I have to do it in the steam settings?

Apart from the bugs I have posted, the german translation is good.

yes for me it's not a problem in german but on the video it wasn't in german so i struggled a bit, but now i found it with me.
As I understand now, he takes the invisibility potion in the first fight at the beginning with a main attack and so the opponent is surprised so he can attack again after the end of his round, and in the second he takes the speed potion and therefore has another action free . I'm slowly getting behind it, still having a hard time surprising the opponents. Do you have any tips?

but to be surprised you have to attack it from behind or from the side, so it doesn't matter what kind of attack or does it have to be the main attack?

can I let opponents look in a different direction so that I can attack covertly without being discovered?

I guess surprize means only that you attack first before the enemy detects you.

Unless the fight starts after a conversation, you should always be able to surprize the enemy.

yes you would think, somehow I almost never manage


Is there actually a possibility to realign your skills and talents or do you have to start a new game every time, especially with regard to early access, if you have an advantage then you could test more.

I do not think that you can change skills or talents in DnD 5E.
You can learn new ones, but you cannot change the ones you have.

Die deutsche Sprache in BG 3 hat RTL II Niveau

You are probably right, I didn't actually know of that rule myself.

Its not only an issue with teaching players how to Larian cheese, many people, especially fans of older BG games, do not want to play a bunny hopping fortnite character, no matter how well the game explains it.

Too bad you need to leave alive the sadistic hag or the slavetrader halfling to keep access to OP options. I chose to wreck them like the shitheads they are and deserve. Game was a lot harder as a result, but nothing Lazael or Shadowheart (aka Inflict Wounds lady) can't fix.

A lot of the conversational perks of charisma also revolve around letting villains get off easy, so you don't feel rewarded for passing charisma skill checks.

Apparently for Larian, a D&D ruleset is whatever they feel like it so no surprises here. I know that in 5e for they changed it to Sneak Attacks for Rogues instead of having an official backstab ability since it's the most dumbed down ruleset but i still don't agree how they implemented the whole flanking system in this game. A lot of stuff needs a massive nerf ( Height Advantage, Stealth ) and particularly changing a bunch of bonus actions to full actions ( Jump, Hide ). Cause i don't see them deleting the massive amount of grenades, projectiles, healing sources and barrels anyway.

The whole "Not adjusted for Newbies" thing could easily be fixed with a complete scripted combat tutorial that can be unchecked/untoggled by players the second time they start a new game. Personally I prefer discovering stuff instead of being spoonfed like a whiny baby all the time, specially in crpgs. I still don't like how insanely easy and exploitable this game is atm.