Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Larian's gimmicks are like an invasive species to an ecosystem

The thread title is a bit sensational and I wouldn't go that far at all, but I get the intent. If none of this is addressed by launch, it might as well be true.

That said, I'm in the camp that thinks realistic tweaks are still possible. Not all of the homebrew is completely bad - I do agree that you should auto fail dex saves if you are knocked down/prone, but I also know that it's only happening right now because being knocked down/prone is currently programmed as being unconscious, considering how it immediately breaks concentration at the same time as well. Larian could go a step further and nerf Fireball and Lightning Bolt to having the same possible damage output as every other damage spell in their spell level, because we all know they're only as powerful as they are in tabletop due to implied traditional reasons. But most of the current homebrew has an overwhelming effect on the combat, and objectively invalidates half of what you can do in the game when one goes into an action economy analysis.

For example, the spell Faerie Fire. An extremely valuable support spell in tabletop, but generally not worth using in BG3. It grants advantage against enemies that fail the saving throw as long as the caster is able to maintain concentration. There are several huge downsides to using it in BG3 that did not exist in tabletop.

1) High ground advantage and backstab advantage are far easier ways to gain advantage without having to use a spell slot, maintain concentration, and hope the enemy fails the dexterity saving throw. Bonus action jump/disengage also existing makes it trivially easy to get high ground/backstab advantage on top of that.
2) Surface effects make it much harder to maintain concentration by potentially forcing you to roll three times before you are able to react to it (the initial attack, the generation of the field under you, and taking that field damage again at the very start of your turn). That's two extra rolls over tabletop, both completely unavoidable with no saving throws to stop that damage.
3) Reactions not existing right now means you have far less possible tools available to prevent taking damage, and thus having to make those concentration rolls.
4) Several other concentration spells ended up being buffed in other ways because of the homebrew design, such as Flaming Sphere, which further discourages the use of Faerie Fire.

Low level DnD is considered the most balanced the game is, but all of this kind of ripped the balance apart. The more astute among you reading this (and probably remember my big thread from a month and a half ago) may realize that what I mentioned above is essentially saying that the current homebrew design has a domino effect on the balance of the rest of the game. It's THAT concept that people take issue with. At the same time, none of what I mentioned are beyond reproach either (compared to, say, proper reactions, which are still up in the air).

(On a different note, classes and archetypes that heavily rely on their unique bonus actions basically get screwed by this new emphasis on bonus action shove and jump/disengage. Classes like Fighter and Ranger that didn't really use bonus actions to begin with got indirectly majorly buffed by their existence, while classes like Bards later would be somewhat nerfed by having to consider their existence or using their bonus action on something like Bardic Inspiration. You can see similar shades of this in the decision to make Druid's wild shape go from being considered a primary action into a bonus action, and the argument there can go both ways. Had it remained a full action, they could immediately bonus action shove in the same turn, taking advantage of a possible higher strength modifier. But Wildshape being a bonus action allows them to attack or cast a spell in the same turn, allowing them to keep up with the rest of the classes in action economy in different ways otherwise.)

Remember that a common statement about DOS2 is that it lets you do anything, not everything. And that's a statement that the DOS2 community takes actual pride in. That really isn't a philosophy that should be taken into DnD combat. Maybe DnD prides itself in its ability to role play in a flexible manner, but I suppose the actual combat rules are at odds with it. Yet universally circumventing or discarding them doesn't seem like a good idea.

One can basically paint this community as engaging in hysterical pessimism, as a certain content creator had poorly decided to do last month. But the people here who argue that everything is fine and dandy and not to question Larian's vision need to realize that all of this is borne out of a certain desire for the game to be better. Understand that the people here WANT to be wrong in the end, and that they want Larian to surprise them. Because nobody should have to describe BG3 in the future with such glaring caveats, like what everyone does with POE2's poorly paced main story, or Kingmaker's kingdom management, and so on.

That said, there is one possible reason why I think these arguments got louder in recent times. A certain other EA game had a big update a few days ago, and there is a realization that BG3 is still capped at level 4 and that all communications known show an intention to keep it that way until the game is finished. For the love of everything that is holy, level 5 should not be gated behind the full release, it is absolutely something that should at least be tested maybe a month or two beforehand. It is not about impatience, it is about knowing what to expect from the entire rest of the game. That single level gives players access to crucial tools that overwhelmingly shift the game's balance in a different way.