Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Can we PLEASE start getting CANONICAL monsters in the game?

+1, I'm down for a "Core" implementation of the Monster statistics. I think more than anything, this is a symptom of not having all of the 5E combat system properly implemented for BG3.

Example - the MM Phase Spider is essentially the tutorial monster for Readied Actions - without this system in place, their Ethereal Jaunt is MUCH harder to counter. Probably why Larian decided to implement Phase Spiders in the same way Owlcast did with Kingmaker (making phasing a teleport). I think most of us are the same page in terms of hoping that Larian will just implement all the combat systems fully.


However, I'm also down for them buffing by adding abilities to monsters for difficulties higher than Core. I think there should be a Core difficulty where Monsters are implemented accurately, but would love to see additional abilities added to enemies in higher difficulties (this is much better than simply bloating Damage/AC/HP IMO).

In general, the Monsters in the MM are balanced towards a no-magicial-gear party, and are underpowered even then. You can in theory increase encounter difficulty by bloating stats or adding numbers, but this usually just leads to tedium as oppose to challenge since the player's strategies are not challenged with proper counterplay or variables (which incidentally was my biggest problem with Solasta's endgame). You're still using a failing strategy, and just hoping bigger numbers can lead to more challenge.


I know what you're going for using the term "canonical", but as tabletop player, it's just funny to see it used this way (as in, having a true-to-book stat block be the defining factor of an canonical implementation). In most general tables (including Wizard's own Adventurer's League), flagging to your DM that a monster they're running is not using "canonical" stats/abilities would get you branded as a cheater and might even get you kicked out of the table. This isn't just a DM is always right thing either - there's a whole culture/philosophy around not-metagaming in table-top. I.e. the players are NOT supposed to know the monster statistics and abilities (outside of what their character discovers). Sometimes to the detriment to the fun of the game IMO.