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

Thanks for making this!

1. Party size. Lots of people asking for 6 character parties.

2. Party control. Movement doesn't need better AI, it needs a root and branch rethink. It's better than DOS but I'm still walking into traps and falling off cliffs. Lots of people asking for this.

3. Okay no one else is asking for this but if a spell's only target is 'self' you shouldn't need to cast and then target. Just cast False Life or similar on self by default.

4. Love the hairstyles and heads but elves need a head that makes them look like something other than 'thin human'. On at lease one head elven noses need to be smaller. The Shadowheart graphic at the top of the forum gets it right but in game her nose is disproportionate to her head.

5. Sorry, don't agree. Please don't de-clutter the world or reduce the number of scrolls -- larian got this one right. Loving the loot lust, glad my level 2 wizard always has something to do.

6. Make it easy to change appearance -- my toon is vain and likes to change hairstyles and makeup often. Please feed her vanity. ( Maybe even include fabric dye -- something that never really happened in DOS2 )

7. Hide the helmet!

Just a few things I don't see on the list yet.

1. We need non-combat XP. This is not something that would be nice; it is downright critical if you want people to use their imagination and try different things.
2. Stealth in combat needs to be fixed. This is probably a tall order since it involves tweaking enemy AI, but it's ridiculous that enemies don't even try to look for the stealthed archer sniping them.
3. Pressing L Alt should highlight containers and objects lying on tables/ surfaces as well, and not just corpses.
4. Sneak Attack should be melded into the normal attack and only show up when the conditions are met. We don't need another button to click.
5. Adjust starting gear/ equipment not just to class but also subclass, background, and other choices made at character creation.

1. Left alt needs to highlight more. Currently it misses a lot.

2. If we arn't getting 5-6 man party. At least allow us customization over one more character.

3. Give me some hotbar customization options (larger, more without scrolling), and stop auto-filling it with useless junk.

4. Differentiate 'free-actions' and 'actions' visually on the hotbar.

5. Allow casting of spells to be target the parties portraits

6. Shove is really OP in certain situations

7. Auto-learning spells on level up feels weird.

Please include "More manual dice rolls added to game. Perhaps option to include combat dice rolls, manual skill checks in open environment, etc." in high frequency requests.

+1 to adding non-combat XP to the list please! There are some great interactions to be had with NPCs, and players should be rewarded for resolving non-combat situations.

I am not sure if a bug or not, but silencing enemies using verbal effects does not stop those effects from continuing to affect players IE: Harpy Songs. I almost died to continual cc when they were sitting in the silence spell. Somehow We could hear them sing through it and in it.

- Please show the dice roll when listening in on a dialogue. Without that, it just looks like there's an awkward pause whenever a party member has to make a roll.

Hey Vometia, I forgot it before: THANK YOU for pinning this post. You're doing a great job!

I'm really looking forward for the complete version of the game, but despite everything I really like the game.
I haven't finished the EA yet, I seem to find myself more concerned about some of the posts around the forums than playing....



I've seen quite a few posts asking and discussing about an open development roadmap.

I know it's early, really early, but yeah, maybe it would be good after consideration of all these points people are suggesting, to post at least a list of what Larian would plan to be working on?

Trying to get in here things I haven't seen in other replies or on the list:

-Open Development Roadmap
-Hide helmet option (seen it about 4~5 times, I'd like it too, hehe)
-short rests in between long rests could be increased to 2 (many people +1'd that if I recall)
-Warlock: Great Old One doesn't have any sub class features. (this was on my first post, b4 I found the feedback tool)
-Have a "pointer" to where we're moving, just saying it's occupied/has not enough space makes it hard to figure out what's the best next position
-Allow vertical angling of the camera. I originally posted this, but I've seen it a few more times. We can't really look up, even from the shoulder camera it still feels like we can't see all we would like to.
-Alignments, there were some posts about choosing alignments. 5e doesn't take alignments too strictly, but it could enrich dialogue and choices.
-Backgrounds should be story-impactful, not only mechanical (saw this a few times)

Here's a small personal request:
-Hexblade warlock and its mellee related invocations.

And another personal request I think has zero chance of being fulfilled:
-Could we turn into werewolves? Love werewolves.

PS: Been writing this for a while, some suggestions may be repeated.

EDIT: Alignments!!!!

1. Dash should be a full action, leaving Uncanny Action: Dash a Bonus Action, so Rogues can Dash and still have a full action in the same turn.

2. Jump needs to use all movement when performed.

3. Jump should not be a disengage (acts like normal movement). Add Acrobatics to roll out of combat based on skill check Dexterity vs the AoO attack performed.

4. Shove should be a attack action, not a bonus action. Other feats/ect can turn it into a bonus action.

Here's one someone else did, which I agree with:

All Death Saving Throws for PC's should be rolled manually. Force the game into turn-based mode for the dying character and all nearby characters if a character is making death saves during exploration or other non-combat situations.

EDIT: This does not apply to automatic failures from taking damage, nor to any automatic successes.

***

Allow for the creation of a "Custom" Background: You can pick any two skills, or possibly one skill and one tool proficiency (which really only means Thieves Tools at this time.) The UI for this is something similar you'll need anyway for the Bard class, which gives you proficiency in any three skills.

***

Standard Human is not worth using, because almost no decent build is going to need a +1 in three different ability scores. You made the Ranger different, surely you can do SOMETHING for the Standard Human.

Alternatively, even if the Feats aren't ready yet, add in the Variant Human for the +2 to two ability scores of your choice, and a bonus skill proficiency, and add the level 1 Feat feature in a later update.

From a personal perspective I'd also like to see this: I dunno how it fits in with D&D since, well, I don't really know anything about D&D (so I'm grateful to those who do!) but I've often thought that RPGs in general can be too combat-focussed for my tastes. XP from non-combat stuff goes some way to addressing that.

More catching up tomorrow. My brain needs a rest!

I'm aware it's been said before, but I just want to add my voice to those who are requesting a better party-based dialogue system as written in the quote below. That's really the one thing that is preventing this game from being truly great. D&D is about party cooperation.

I'm really liking the game so far, great job. My recommendations at the moment are:

1) PoE 1 and 2 did make me feel sooner that I was a part of a living and breathing larger world. For the most part, in the first few hours of this game, such references are limited to a few references to the city of Baldur's Gate.

2) Please have a world map to travel on, like in BG 1&2 and the POE games... don't do each chapter as a massive map like in DOS 1 & 2... just please don't... it felt way too gamey (e.g., stage 1, stage 2, stage 3...)

3) At times the Chapter 1 map feels so large and so many pathway options it is overwhelming. In line with my 2nd comment above, I recommend Larian consider splitting the map into two different maps and putting them on a world map as two different areas.

4) I don't think jumping should allow players to move farther in a turn than running. This encourages players to jump whenever they move, which IMO takes away some of the traditional D&D immersion.

5) I was able to cheese the combat by hiding in stealth, shooting to engage the enemy in combat, and then going back into stealth at the end of my combat turn. If you engage the enemy like that outside of their line of sight, they won't see you and will just stay still during their turn. One would think that the AI would at least have the enemy either run to cover or (for beasts, perhaps) run in the direction of the shot.

- As much as I love how OP it is, we shouldn't be able to short/long rest near enemies, especially since long rest takes us back to camp.

- Speaking of, the teleportation system also feels OP. I get it frees up a lot of time, but it got me out of several sticky situations when it shouldn't have (shouldn't be able to teleport out of the goblin castle/temple/whatever)

- Running around naked elicited no response from anyone. Seems everyone is cool with my now a stripper as a side gig tiefling

Hmmm....

I like the jump/disengage combo...I see I might be in the minority.

I like that "hide" is an option.

I intensely dislike how easily killable the "familiars" are

Please don't make my followers walk into snares/traps/fire while following me when I didn't do that.

I think that heals (low level heals) should be available to non-clerics.

A couple of other suggestions I've seen:

- Allow us to set our NPC companions' stats. That way, if we'd like to, say, make Astarian an Eldritch Scoundrel rogue, he can actually have the Intelligence to make that viable. Poor, dumb vampire.

- Double-press spacebar to end combat turns, either by default or as an option. Depending on your desk setup, it can be very easy to smack the bar by accident.

- Shared party inventory. I know Larian really loves making players manage each character's inventories separately, for some reason, but it's unnecessary busy work. And especially so if they increase the party size as I hope they do.

After finishing up the current early access, it's very easy to agree with everyone on cantrips shouldn't have surfaces. A lot of the harder fights became trivial when using frost ray has a high chance to slip someone right as it hits them, knocking them prone instantly, sometimes getting some enemies trapped cause they keep failing the check( Since the surface is just a bit wider then them, they still need to make 1-2 checks before they can leave unless they jump.) Some surfaces also don't seem to ever go away, the Brine bombs being a bad one since it hurts on walking. Else then that, I just have a couple suggestions for other things.

1. Warlock GOO subclass 1st level feature, or the current lack of one. Since telepathy might be kinda hard to use since it's a ribbon feature, Why not just let it give you a bonus use of the tadpole power, since it already uses a form of telepathy and wouldn't be a stretch to call it an eldritch ability.

2. Weapon selection on Character creation. Only cause if you build your character around a certain weapon, it sucks to hope you can find what you need eventually.

3. The entangled roots, and how lethal they are outside combat. I'm completely fine with people getting trapped in them, but not if they also hurt you outside combat. They also make you make a saving throw a little too often, with almost having a full party wipe cause I was running by and the AI walked into them. Have the damage effect just be a combat thing, since outta combat most characters aren't gonna rip themselves out and get hurt anyways.

4. This one is a spoiler so

The beauty of the table top is that it lends itself to interpretation and improvisation. The DM can wave a role if the player proves sufficiently clever and no video game yet possesses such flexibility. Computer games should play to their strengths, instead of rolling for persuasion or knowledge, reduce it to pass fail. If someone in the party possesses the required proficiency let it ride. If it is an NPC rather than the player, let their chance of assisting be dependent upon how invested they are in the outcome (is it their own quest? is it one they care even care about?) and their relationship with the player. That is sort of how real people interact anyway. Besides, on the table top, a failed roll stops nothing. Someone with a similar skill, or another skill but similar aims, can try again. That isn't an option in games like these, and shouldn't be because it would make the challenge feel redundant if one simply failed and NPCs always salvaged the situation for them (victory is meaningless without the possibility of failure). DnD is a deterministic game, help make the player's choices meaningful.

Second, the dice which are used in DnD were chosen, I imagine, according to two basic criteria: How well they roll on a physical surface and second how greatly they allow for variation. This studio should work with the strengths that digital systems have. Reduce everything to equivalent fractions. A 65% chance to hit doesn't need to be processed on a 1-100 scale. Reduce it to three parts, two of which result in success and then players won't run into nearly as many unlikely outcomes when they attempt an action. Round up where you need to in order to make it work, keeping it in the player's favor since the developers control literally every other aspect of the game except for the player's actions (and even those are heavily influenced by what that developers allow). Many developers will boast how their random number generators are accurate in 3,000, or 10,000 rolls but the truth of the matter is no player is ever going to track more than 100, and more than likely will make their judgment on 20. If you are going to use percentiles to help guide player decisions you should do everything you can to make them dead accurate. We have all played X Com right? We all have our own (numerous) experiences of such egregious bullshit it made us set down our controllers in disgust however much we enjoyed the game. One can accept losing do to poor coordination or inferior tactics, but losing when you have done everything right except getting a few rolls you needed is always bitter.

Item descriptions: please Larian, make item descriptions longer, more immersive and contain a fair chunk of lore, like it was in BG1 and BG2. When I'm looking at the description of simple battleaxe or longsword, I literally want to cry. This was one of those little details that really made previous games shine. This was also the thing that was bugging me in Divinity Original Sin series, but I hoped it will be taken care in BG3.

It is not uncommon for DM's to give out xp based on interactions, but I would just suggest that it not be too much. Just use it as a slight reward to show people that they did something cool using text, instead of an attack. I dont' know how you have the questlines set though. I would 100% be behind giving the exp that would be lost from not murder hoboing.