This is a list of my observations that highlight some characters, events or situations, which are in dire need of logical adjustments. it's going to be painfully long, though it's still just a scratch on the surface. Main reason for its length, is because I’ll have to postpone playing this game, it’s killing my PC, literally. It wasn't that bad when I started playing it. I think the last update wasn't healthy...
Anyway, buckle up. Wearing a helmet and a cup is optional but recommended.
CHARACTERS
1. Gale - a very confused individual that happened to be in love with a Goddess and then proves to be undeniably gay. Unless that goddess of his is a drag queen, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Please help him to make his mind up.
When you first meet him (as a warlock for example), he asks you if you are a wizard, after you told him that you are a warlock, he asks you if you are a cleric… I thought he was supposed to be the most intelligent of them all, at least the attempt at that is clear enough. Please fix it.
His cravings for powerful artifacts makes him a liability. Yes, you can refuse him but hat’s not the point. It’s just another stretch in failed attempt to enrich the character. It doesn’t make him anymore interesting, just wasteful. This artifact thing is one pull too far and it doesn’t seem to be a necessity.
“I trust you, so you must trust me back. Say nothing, ask nothing, just give me your best weapons and keep hunting for more, or I shall explode and take everyone with me…” Give me a break.
2. Wyll - yet an other confused character. Is he a nobility, a spoiled brat from the high city of Boldur's Gate, or is he some nameless brat from a village, which got burned down by goblins, and whose father couldn't spell?
I don't know how you manage to make this kind of a mess, basically in a single sentence, but it seems that your right hand doesn't know what your left hand is doing...
It would be nice if Wyll kept his eye in his inventory instead of dropping that thing on you after you disband him (same goes for Shadowheart and that gith trinket). That eye has nether sentimental nor any other value to us. You could let us be able to make a ring out of it, or something. A distasteful piece of jewelry, but at least having it will make sense. And it should go together nicely with that necklace you find at hags house.
He makes a lot of disapprovals at the beginning of Hag’s Quest and none of the approvals at the end of it. No explanations either, no comments, nothing. I’d like to know what the hell is going on in his head. He seems reasonable enough, but then he isn’t.
There are a lot of approval/disapproval going on in meager, insignificant situations, when worthy of attention situations are completely ignored. This approval system needs serious balansing.
3. Lae'zel - now this little frog princess is a bit too hard to get, if you wish to keep at least some of your consciousness intact that is. There are definitely some situations that simply cry for her approval to be raised.
For example, when she speaks about her admiration towards you. Or when she tells you how she respects your dumb optimism.
Or if you play as a gith, you may inspire her to high praise inside the ruins, when she compares your words with the words of her beloved queen and calls you “true child of Gith”. This is the best thing you’ll ever hear from her, solid grounds for kudos, right? Nope...
On the other hand, her disapprovals come by packs, some of which seem unreasonable or just not important enough to tip that scale.
One from the top of my head - when you manage to convince the owlbear not to attempt a massacre, she disapproves... Why? I get it, she likes killing things, but this really feels like unnecessary stretch.
(Inside Goblin’s Camp when you attempt the druid’s rescue) Lae'zel speaks of finding Zoru after Zoru has been found, talked to and forgotten. It would be nice if you removed that dialogue from her right after Zoru marks the map.
4. Shadowheart. Unlike Lae'zels, Shadowheart's superiority complex is utterly baseless. It's not a problem, just a fact. The problem is that she allowed to run that arrogant mouth without any repercussions. Not to mention, it's completely unfair to miss iguana, whom you get a chance to put in her place in conversation with Zoru (even if temporarily), and who's already fairly discriminated for economical state of her nose…
She’s also the only one who is sure about providing the cure. Overall, Lai’zels arrogance is justified, Shadowhearts isn’t, and there are no options to grab that tongue of hers and slap her with it.
There’s no middle ground, you either swallow her crap or kill/kick her. I don’t like either options. I want the option where you can try to humble her and if you fail, she lives on her own without you kicking her (she threatens you with it, let's call that bluff, if it is a bluff). But if she comes back, she better do it apologetically.
It's bad enough that they always get the last word, as if they made a compelling or conclusive argument. I'm yet to see any of them make such an argument... And then, there are situations when that arrogance is forced upon you and you have no choice but either to swallow it or just kill everybody. Why are we squeezed between two extremes?
Here is an interesting example, rich on lack of common sense.
If you play as a gith, your first conversation with Shadowheart (by the door to the ruins) may take on an interesting turn very quickly. If you're not in a habit of killing everything that moves or barks at you, you can simply knock her out and be on your merry way. That's what I did. However, I also looted her for her armor and the artifact, dropped some light leather on her (because there might be mosquitoes and I am no monster) and moved on.
When I finally reached the Grove, naturally she was there, playing with the artifact she's not supposed to have and wearing no armor. If the game allows such turn of events, it must adopt it properly. But that's not the worst part.
You can't pass her without triggering the dialogue and the dialogue has only 2 options:
1. Back down before her threat… OR
2. Start the fight. And here comes the retarded part. If you decide to stick a sock in her mouth (again), Wyll takes HER side and the entire grove with him. You just saved the damned place, while she was just sitting there, playing with the toy she doesn't have, yet YOU become the enemy number one... What the hell(s) is going on?
How about adding a 3rd option to ignore her completely? Option to leave without a reply instead of being forced to massacre the entire grove for one arrogant moron. Nothing makes any sense here.
If you recruit Wyll prior the conversation, you can knock her out again and move on with your life. Funny enough, she appears at your camp later, threatening you (again). Even an idiot would have learned by now, but not her… Convincing her to act reasonably without bowing down is a challenge, so a fight might take place and here is the extension of the retarded part from the grove. Any companion that isn’t in your party takes HER side… She came to kill you and your companion, who might have never seen her before takes her side. This is beyond ridiculous... Please fix this nonsense.
In her opening speech at the Seluna’s Temple, the intimidation requirement is 16 for a gith warrior, who’s supposed to be intimidating just by being present… Persuasion on this character is bellow 0, so the chances of success are even slimmer. You want to show her as a brave bird, I understand, however, after being knocked out twice by this particular gith, even an idiot should know better by now.
She constantly expresses her dislike of everything Selunas. I get it, she worships the opposite side, but for cry out loud, give me an option to tell her to shut the hell up! I don't give a damn about Seluna or any other religion in game or outside of it, but even I can't stand that constant bitching. And if Gale is with you, he's being silent... Why? Let him to tell her to shut up, I don't care, just make it happened before I broke my game in the attempt to choke her with her own braid and hang her as a piñata for goblins.
I am not asking to adjust the character, you want her like this, that’s fine. And I'm sure it took great deal to create someone THAT unpleasant, It’s rare for the game to have such an arrogant fool for one of the main characters. They are much more common in RL then fictions. I just want a range of ways to deal with this, especially when you play as a Gith or a Drow, for these guys don't take crap lightly. You show this in one situation and completely abandon it in others. Consistency & balance please.
One more thing on this subject, only with Lae'zel this time. When you play as an elf, you don't take her crap on subordinate after conversation with Zoru. When you play as a drow, however, with the same racial superiority complex as Gith, you swallow it... I thought there would be something like "Hush, monkey, or I'll put you back into that cage where I found you" or something of the sort, but no! Your proud drow has only 2 options, turn it into a joke or submit... Ew...
BATTLE
If you initiate the fight, you should be able to strike first, even if you are the slowest and the dumbest of them all. This is how you initiate fight, by throwing the first punch. If you press the button "Attack", you should be attacking, not the one who's being attacked.
Ogres. Missing an ogre 3 times in a row at the range of 1.5m with a sword is... well... ridiculous. Same happened with bows & spells at appropriate range... These freaking ogres are miraculously agile... I mean, how can you miss anything of that size? Even if you're completely blind, you hear it's stomping, you throw something in that direction, you're bound to hit it! But not here. And it's constant. I miss ogres a lot with spells, arrows, swords, hummers, freaking bombs... Something should be done about this in the name of common sense if nothing else.
Acid. Utterly unnecessary, messy, neither effective nor interesting, which feels out of place. They just leave these permanent, disgusting green stains on the ground, which you have to go around every time you’re in the area. Color me conservative, but I don’t think goblins should be intelligent enough to make chemical weaponry either. There are enough of things you can throw and miss the ogres with already, acid is just extra, and a poor taste too.
Now, this is a more of a question – HOW? Some enemies have a tendency to hit you 3-4 times in a row. Gnolls and the gith for exsample. I made a ranger specially for the purpose of seeing how the damn gnolls manage to shoot 2-3 times in a raw... The mystery remains. The gith are no better. I've seen their archer teleporting, shooting his crossbow twice then using another spell... It's 4 actions/bonus actions in one go. The mighty Baretha (may she rest in pieces) manages to hit twice, then she uses charge and hits again, which usually takes Lae’zel down (who faces the enemy with her back after that cut scene). If the giths start that fight, chances are they finish it quickly.
Learning Spells. I'm curious, when you are a wizard with a scroll in your hands, whom do you pay in order to learn that spell? Is there a pocket tutor I'm neglecting?
Weapons. All weapons have the same reach. Melee - 1.5 m (with one exception), spells (farthest) and bows 18 m. Now think about it, the dagger and the spear have the same reach... Am I the only one who's hurting here? The real spear has one advantage over other melee weapons, anyone care to guess what it is? And why do you need spears there anyway, it's the most uninteresting and poorly made weapon in the game and just as necessary as the acid...
The dagger may have the same reach as short sword, but that's it. The long bow has a longer reach then short bow and much longer then the reach of a crossbow. The crossbow carries a punch at a short distance, so it can have higher dmg (arguably still), but it can't shoot as far as the bow can and even less so accurately. I understand you simplify things for yourselves, but you already have spells with different range of impact, why not do everything right then?
QUESTS
The Hag Quest.
Perception Check at the beginning is utterly useless, it doesn’t change a thing, nor do the choices in the dialogue… You could live 2 options, help the hag or help the brothers, because there’s nothing else to it, at all. A lot of body movements and an illusion of choices when there are none.
Whether the hag kills brothers right in front of you, or you find them dead in the swamp later, there’s no dialogue on the subject after, your character acts as if they have no clue what happened to them.
The Devil Quest.
The paladin claims that it was the tifling who brought the gnolls around. That’s the only thing that got me involved.
By speaking with the dead, you confirm that it were paladins who defeated the gnolls.
When speak to the tifling, there is not a single question about the god-damned gnolls, only utterly irreverent ones. “Ooo, I’ve been to the Hells recently, fabulous place, and those shoes you have are fantaristic!” Where is my freaking gun...
And if for hell knows what reason you take the side of a tifling, everybody joyfully approves and no one knows exactly why... What a mess of a quest.
BROKEN
Spiders at the Goblins Camp drool at the "closed" door even when it's wide opened. So much for having 8 eyes, ey? I thought the idea was for you to release the beasties, so they would help you fight the goblins, guess I overestimated something here...
Well, that's enough for now. I hope that at least some of it isn't written in vain.