Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Barrelmancy is Dead - c'est la vie.

It's interesting and confusing to me that you're saying not using those things improved your experience, which is exactly the point.

Many people also see part of the game as a challenge to overcome, using the rules of the game. By having these cheese tactics in place it removes that challenge.

You see removing/toning down these features as ruining someone else's fun, but having it in there actually affects people's fun too. Building a barbarian that does tons of damage doesn't feel so badass anymore when in that same universe anyone can just blow each other up with tons of free explosives everywhere.


You explain why it is so yourself partially. It is a fantasy world so we'll say it's fine they make that stuff.

If there was so much explosive material around and everyone has magic pockets, there would be little need for knights with swords or even wizards that can conjure up a fireball. You could just bring explosive barrels, roll them at the enemy and throw a firebolt cantrip. It makes all classes unnecessary and the world less believable.

Something similar to oil should be rare and expensive. This is more like gunpowder, which should be even more rare. Believability tends to be stretched in fantasy, but there is a limit to where it starts to damage immersion.

Are you still sure about this when the highest difficulty comes around and you can't get past a certain encounter that has explosive barrels right next to it? Is someone who has trouble on their first playthrough sure about this? You have 411 hours into this game, it's easy for you to know the intention now, but someone who plays it for the first time doesn't know this. Having spent time researching and creating your first very cool character, only to find out that everyone with explosive barrels is more effective is a very disappointing experience.

Having to put in effort makes it more rewarding, which = more fun.

I don't know if you play D&D, but finding a barrel of explosives can be really cool. Then figuring out a way to bring it along can be really cool when you blow up a camp of orcs or something. Now imagine that every encounter the DM describes what you see and then says there is an explosive barrel in the middle of it. You stop exploding them because the third time it's already stopped being fun, but the DM keeps telling you about them. You'd start to roll your eyes a lot. That's what it currently feels like.

This has nothing to do with puritans, you can have explosives in 5e. It's about people who want to actually have their choices matter and the world to be believable.

Nope, the option is shoved in your face so much that it doesn't feel clever anymore. It feels like it's what the designers wanted you to do.

When you can do the second, the first option doesn't feel good/clever anymore. Challenge/effort makes things rewarding. Additionally, an explosive barrel that you brought from town to the other kind of the map also doesn't feel like it's what the designers meant for you to do, but rather something you came up with and is specific to your gaming experience.

Your whole problem with not understanding this is in what it feels like to do these things for most people. You feel it's fun to just try different things. Other people think it's fun to come up with clever strategies and outsmart the game, or to be challenged. Being "clever" in this game is too easy, because everything is just allowed. Constraints breed creativity. Someone who came up with really cool party tactics can actually be disappointed when they find out that barrelmancy (or shoving everything for that matter) is just better. It's fine if it's there, but it needs to be balanced around other choices.