Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Ding Dong The Halsin's Dead

OK. I like Halsin, but for those of you who don't, this is for you:



Now, let's just take a look at Halsin for a sec, shall we?

Halsin, First Druid, Accomplished Healer, is level 5 with 94 HP, AC 14, 100 lbs!!!!! Dude! That guy's like 6'5" and built like a linebacker. He should be like 300 lbs.

But I digress.

STR 16
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 16
PROFICIENCY BONUS +3
Initiative +3

Dude is BUILT LIKE A LINEBACKER!!!! STR 16????? PROFICIENCY BONUS +3???? LEVEL 5????

Nope. Uh uh. Sorry. At Level 5, a druid can, at best, have 2 Level 3 spells. That's a weak-butt druid. Accomplished healer my bee-hind. Let's see what kind of healing spells he can know and have prepared at Level 5:

Level 1 - Cure Wounds, Goodberry, Healing Word
Level 2 - Healing Spirit, Lesser Restoration
Level 3 - Revivify

So, he can heal as well as my clerics can by this point in the story and use Revivify. He can end either one disease or one condition afflicting it. The condition can be blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned. WOW! Super awesome accomplished healer!!! [intense sarcasm]

What would I expect after all the hype about Halsin in the game? A druid who can cast at least Level 5 spells so he can cast, at the very least, since he's an accomplished healer and all, Greater Restoration and Mass Cure Wounds and even potentially Reincarnate, if he decided to prepare it. I actually think that if he's an accomplished healer and been alive for over 100 years and been the First Druid of the Emerald Grove the whole time - oh, and by the way, he fought against the Dark Justiciars 100 years ago - and he's the ultimate protector of the grove, the man should even probably be able to cast Level 6 spells so he could use the Heal spell which is like Cure Wounds on crack along with Greater Restoration. Now THAT would be a truly accomplished healer.

What level would he need to be at in order to cast at least these healing spells? Level 9 to cast Level 5 spells and Level 11 for Level 6.

I'm just saying, Halsin needs to be way tougher. And, by the way, he was WAY too easy to kill. I know he was alone and all, and he was fighting against 2 worgs and like 3 goblins and my party of 4, but he's the First Druid of the Emerald Grove. If I'm taking the evil path, he should be the hardest opponent I have to face in the game for EA.

So my suggestion is, Halsin needs some buffing and stat changes. They're all wrong. The man needs some serious spellcasting abilities and special traits. Right now, he doesn't even have all of his racial traits and no feats and his strength is too low. He's just all wrong.

That said, if you are going to keep him weak for video gaming purposes, you have to at least tell me that he was majorly weakened by some sort of poison or evil artifact that caused him to drop like 5 or 6 levels or something. There needs to be some explanation as to why, mechanically, the man is a giant weakling.

That said, it was cool to see him turn from a bear into his elf form after I reduced him to 0 HP in bear form. Then he fought a bit in elf form and returned to bear form when he was getting weaker. His 3 attacks gave him the ability to wipe out goblins pretty quick. I would love to be able to have him as a playable companion. So I guess that's my other suggestion in the post.

But then, if he's a playable companion, then the debuffing explanation would be more appropriate for the game. Halsin was hit by some sort of cursed artifact or Level Drain ancient spell so that he went from like Level 11... or even 15... to Level 5.

It would be awesome if "supposed to be powerfull characters" were really powerfull.

Like Drizzt was in BG1/2 and players that really want to kill them would have to exploit the game.

Like, you know big explosions or shove or throwing him... But Halsin does not have any loot so killing him does not make a lot of sense and he's not powerfull at all despite being the first druid.

I think Nettie would be a better druid companion.
She's less charismatic but it would make sense that Halsin send her with us after the events in the grove.
Ofc players could say yes... Or no ! Especially if she tried to kill him.

This was here allready few times wasnt it? O_o

I would not mind Halsin gets some buff ... i believe that level 15 is kinda too much ... but give him one or two, would make drastical difference between him and our characters, especialy if we will indeed be caped for level 4 for whole Act 1. (As it seems after last PfH) :-/(Wich i still believe is HORRIBLE idea)

On the other hand we dont know how many other problems it would make in the future, since we really do not know the futher story. :-/
And im not talking here about Goblin leaders, wich would also make some troubles.
But about story beyond Act 1 ... since as i stated countless times i believe that will be time when we start recruiting non-tadpoled followers, and once Halsin would be 3times as powerfull as our characters he would automaticly and logicaly be impossible to recruit. And that would be shame.

Looking at this topic, i can only say that *IF* i was from Larian and read it, i would be like:
Sometimes levels have to step aside for story, and this is the case ... deal with it.
So ... sory, but -1 from me.

For this comment, I'm going to respond by giving you a taste of how you treat me. I'm not ACTUALLY being mean or nasty to you. Quite the opposite, I would really like to have decent, friendly conversations with you. That's the only reason I'm taking the time to do this.

I just want you to see how you come across. So, if I offend you, it is only because I am reflecting your style of responses back at you, or at least the way I perceive your responses.


Logically, it only makes sense that if I'm repeating myself, it is only because I must not be getting through to some people. o_o


Finally, we agree on something. :P


And then you ruined it. o_o Almost I gave you a +1, but you decided to become completely illogical there. It is obvious that it ruins the game completely to have Halsin at Level 5 or even lower. Why? Because he is a First Druid and an Accomplished Healer, obviously. :P What more needs to be said? Case closed. Larian should just buff Halsin and be done with it. Then, problem solved. After all, it only makes logical sense that if people are making him out to be some tough druid who is a powerful healer, he should actually be a powerful healer. Right? I mean, it's kind of a duh. o_o


Yes! You are absolutely right. "we dont know" meaning both you and me both do not know the future and what problems it could bring. So why not make a suggestion based on the data we DO have and let Larian decide what they will ACTUALLY implement. :-/

I mean, after all, if neither of us knows the future, why not let people make suggestions about what they'd like to see, and trust that Larian will make the right decisions for the game. You aren't the Baldur's Gate 3 Champion Defender of the game who knows what is to come and can therefore determine what is the right or wrong choice to make for implementation of various game design elements. So, since you aren't that, why do you shoot down everyone else's suggestions since you don't know the future either and you don't know their budget and you don't know their plans, so let me flip this and say, "Maybe it would work better for the future for Halsin to BE buff." You don't know.


Why not talk about them here? Are you afraid your concept of the game might get shattered again by reason and logic. :-/ Why not buff the goblin leaders too. That would make more sense, especially when the game is finally released and we might be at Level 5 or even higher by the time we face them, depending on our choices in the game. o_o


Does it matter that you stated it countless times? I also state things countless times but you ignore it too.

As I also stated countless times, either Larian should make Halsin not recruitable or they should debuff him and give a reason for it. Then, problem solved. There, now it makes sense he's apart of the party and traveling with you. He was Level Drained. :-/


Well, if I was Larian I'd totally disregard everything you have to say because anyone who is a regular fan of cRPGs would say that the emphasis should always be on making story and mechanics align. It is totally immersion breaking when you are playing a game and you are supposed to be fighting a super powerful enemy only to find out that they are not super powerful at all. It was all overrated. How many memes do you see online about how you fight a super powerful boss person, defeat them, and then they join you only to become as weak as a turd? This makes people unhappy.

So, for a cRPG to be truly awesome, story and mechanics need to align. That's what makes the most logical sense. :o

So, *IF* I was from Larian and read your responses, I would be like:
If you want a trash cRPG, then sure, don't bother to align the story with the mechanics. Just keep the two elements separate and see what the majority of players say. This is smart, so deal with it.

So... in reverse... sorry, but -1 from me to you. :P


Do you see how this is seriously offensive to someone? Just because you put your emojis after everything you say, that doesn't make it nice. It makes it sarcastic and even nastier.

So, can we just stop it? Huh? Can we? Please? I'd really like to have pleasant BG3 conversations. You can disagree with me. Lots of people disagree with me. You can even tell me why. Many times, people change my mind when they tell me why about a suggestion I have. Just stop with the indirect insults, for Heaven's Sake. I don't insult you or disrespect you. So, why are you doing so to me?

Depends on point of view ...
I would say that "logical" move would be to search for those previous topics, and continue there.

I believe there is something even in forum rules about creating duplicite topics?
But i gues as long moderators are fine with it, it might be concidered acceptable.

We allready did in the past, several times actualy.
So ... yay, "finally" once again ... i gues.

For you, maybe ... certainly not to me.
And concidering how huge support your previous posts about this topic get (none) ... i believe you are minority here. :-/

Bcs you said so?
In that case, i would recomend to start saving ... buy Larian will probably not come cheap.

Depends on definition ...
In some point of view he allready is powerful healer (through whole EA he is the only one who at least offers you possible solution to your problem, he is able to examine your health by few second magic examination [something even Ethel was unable to do], compared to all other druids he IS stronger than any of them, and finaly no Druid on level 5 have 95 HP [i mean ... Hill Dwarf, with Tough feat, with 20 CON have 68 ... acording to: https://5ehpcalculator.com/ ... so, yeah, he obviously IS stronger] ... can you counter that? ) ...
The problem here is that he is simply not as powerful as YOU want.

I know i am.
This might come as surprise, but that fact is one of reasons i wrote that.

Gladly ...
Data i have say that Halsin is Level 5 bcs Larian wants him to be Level 5 ... and i do believe they have reason for that decision.

What say yours?
And please stick to things we actualy "DO have" as you demanded, instead of usual "obviously it should be as i say".

As far as i know i never even tryed to prevent someone from giving a suggestion ... on the contrary for some others, who would like to prevent me from writing anything.
As i allways say ... im all in for free will.
Im just using my own right to comment on that proposal, nothing more.

In this particular case i even believe that Larian already did make the right decision for the game.

I never claimed any of that ...
So ... im not quite sure why even mention that, its like to say that im not King of the Seven Seas ... or Ruler of the Omicron Persey 8 ... absolutely true, but completely irellevant (and kinda offtopic).

Its a nice title tho, maybe i keep it for some session ... Ragnarok Champion Defender ... sounds good.

I have to ask ... where did that plural go?
Just few words back it was "we do not know" and "netiher of us" ... and sudetly it changed to "you cannot determine".

Should that mean that you can?
What is your title? (Champion Defender is allready taken!)

I do not ... just those i concider bad.
As every responcible adult person participating in Early Acess Feedback should, in my opinion, since AFAIK that is main reason for existence of this forum.

I still can presume, its called common sence.
Usualy if you need some character to be strong, you dont start with making them weak. (and other way around)

I mean they could theoreticaly make Halsin weak at first and realize they would need him stronger later ... but i kinda doubt that they were waiting for us to tell them.

For one, this topic is about Halsin ...
For two, we allready talked about them in that previous topic you created.
For three, if you want to know you can read those reasons in that older topic.
And finaly i dont see much reason to spend time with listing you (again) the same things as last time (when you also didnt accpet them) since you will say you dont want to talk about it anyway, as you did in every other topic when, to use your own words: "your concept of the game might get shattered again by reason and logic".

Funny you mention it ...
If i concider how much you were against last buffing Githyanki Patrol ... and claiming how impossibly hard fight that is ...

Now you want to do the same with another fight.
Curiouser and curiouser.
*Alice

All my reasons are also written in one of those older topics, feel free to search for them.
But lets take one example:
I know you were suggesting that some NPCs will join our party to weight out differences in our strenght ... i dont like that suggestion, since i want to play game where my party will be in center of events, not just some bunch of random guys who are hiding behind big strong NPC and tickling some big strong Boss, so there is more obvious difference between our power.

I DO-NOT-LIKE-THAT-CONCEPT ... simple as that.
Its like eagles in Lord of the Rings ... theoreticaly they could fly with Frodo to the mountain (or as close as possible), but the book would suck.

Ever heard about 5/5 = 50/50 = 5000/5000 = ... ?
Its the same concept here.
If you make one character stronger ... and then you need to buff everyone else to weight it out, you might aswell keep him as he is, and nothing will change.

Also, im not quite sure that we actualy "might be at level 5 or even higher by the time we face them" ...
On the contrary actualy, especialy since last Pannel from Hells, when Swen specificly said to us that they "didnt decided yet if they will make level 5 part of Act 1" ... not Early Acess, ACT 1!!! ...

That sentence have two explanation ...
- Either Swen expressed himself really poorly.
(Or i understanded him wrong ... since English is not quite my cup of beer ... but concidering this forum im not the only one who understand those words like this so ... well, its one possibility)
- Or they actualy plan to give level cap to every Act so they can easily predict our power for certain encounters.

Oh i never ignore, i disagree but there is difference.

Disagreeing is taking your statement and by arguments and logical conclusion explain why you find it false.
Ignoring is stating "i dont want to talk about this anymore" and leave conversation.

I would expect you to understand this concept.

Or they can simply ignore this topic (just as they did those previous) and keep him as he is.

I mean, you are your own enemy here.
The only reason for Larian to create some reason for halsin "level drain" you sugest ...
Would be to give Halsin "level boost" also you suggest ...

So, if they dont boost him ... there is nothing requiring drain ... everyone (except you apearantly) is happy. O_o

If i remember corectly, i was Tuco (sory if i misstake you for someone else), who demanded that level of NPC should be invisible.

I believe his arguments could be sumarized as:
- level is "out of character" concept and therefore its immersion breaking

The funny part about this is, if he succeed, this topic would never exist ... since you would have litteraly no idea what level Halsin is.
But you are too focused on "just some number floating around his head" and you claim that you are acting in the name of immersion ... well, immerse this: Your character do not see that number. :P

Agreed. (See? It happened again )
But this sounds to me like argument for keeping his strength intact.

NPC Halsin strong > Recruitable Halsin weak -> meme material => people unhappy.
NPC Halsin *not as strong as GM4Him wants him* = Recruitable Halsin -> not meme material => people happy (except GM4Him as it seems).

Well, people do not like being criticised ... i hope this was not suppose to be surprise.

No. O_o
Not at all.

Well, i am often sarcastic ... and since i use emojis to fill my text with tone in wich it was said ... that means my emojis are working.
(Yes, just like right here.)

Well, im affraid not ...
Certainly not until you tell me what *it* is.

I decided to merge this quote since my reactions will be short ... every sentence new line:

I do.
I did.
I do not.
You do, but i dont mind.
I do not.

Looking forward for our single-reply conversation in next topic.
(Yes i was sarcastic again )

And with that, Gm4Him pressed the ignore button.

It's like you just can't stop blatantly disregarding every point I try to make. I went through all that trouble to point out to you how you come across and asked you to stop picking apart everything I say, and you actually picked apart everything I said as opposed to addressing what I was REALLY saying. I was just giving you examples of how you come across. I didn't want you to respond to each line. That's the OPPOSITE of what I was trying to say to you.

So, I'm done with it. Ignore enabled... NOW.

I see ...
Runing again.
And with theratrical pose.

Well, see you on the other side.

You only notice now that Ragnarok derail all discussions he's answering ?

He had always quoted and analysed every sentences individually rather than reacting to the big picture and the meaning of posts. Don't be so surprised, it's not new.

Yeah. I'm done now. It's all good. I ignored him. Now, I don't see his posts. I initiated the Rite of Thorns and now... Sanctuary!

Meanwhile the big picture:


Have you ever tryed to aseble something corectly, when you had half parts deffective? O_o

And its not all discussions ... just those with aproximately 2-5 people.

The problem is: if Halsin were made as powerful, how would.he get captured by low level goblins? He should tear through this entire goblin party without breaking a sweat. Either way, there will be a disconnect.

Lol. Exactly what I've been saying in various threads. The only thing that makes sense is:

1. Minthara and Ragzlin should be tougher, and they helped capture him,
2. They used a magic Level Drain weapon on him,
3. He let himself get caught to learn more about the cult.

One or more of these things should be true and clearly stated in the game.

What's going on with those absurd stats? I really despise this approach of making a low level character more powerful through insane stats that make no sense for a PC race. Talk about a feel bad for players tinkering with their measly point buy trying to assign the best stats for themselves and then seeing this 16 16 16 16 18 nonsense casually slapped on whatever side quest cannon fodder NPC that comes along. Take a look at the Gith patrol stats for confirmation.

Why isn't Halsin higher level instead with normal stats!?? He should be anyway for what he represents in the gameworld. He should be far beyond the party's ability to fight fairly. Let an evil party fight him with help from evil allies, they exist in the story. This design is so lazy! Level 5 leader of a druid circle just so you can 1v1 them... wth seriously Larian? This character design is all over the place mechanically and someone should remind them how D&D works. When you rescue him you could easily strip him of spell slots and HP to put him in a weakened state so he can't just obliterate all the goblins. And preferably he should turn into a bird and escape back to the grove to lick his wounds.

And I really can't take another "I was epicly powerful but got weakened for gameplay purposes" story so let's not go there again.

Imagine a dark-side path choice where you side with the shadow druids, cow the other druids, and your real 'boss fight' for the end of the arc, just when it seems like the grove is going to be a walk-over now, is a furious and righteously indignant Halsin who, his patience exhausted waiting for the right moment, has left his goblin containment (because literaly nothing was stopping him leaving at any time, other than his desire to gather intel) and returned now to reclaim the grove on his own - Because He Can Do So and it takes your whole party plus your shadow-druid colleagues to overpower him + the remaining druids that take arms to support him. That would be so satisfying for an evil-side arc.

OMG YES!!!!! ABSOLUTELY!!!! That would make the evil arc a thousand times better than it already is.

Heck, whether you go the route of siding with shadow druids or goblins, Halsin returns to murder you all, and it's a huge fight in the end to kill him. You could have Minthara and/or Ragzlin and/or Gut on your side and/or even Olodan and Kagha, all fighting against an enraged Level 15 Halsin, or something insane like that. He's tossing goblins around like ragdolls and slashing up bugbears and ogres. He's calling lightning down from the sky and creating earthquakes.

Talk about NATURE'S FURY!!! THAT would be Nature's Fury.

I think a lot of "powerful" creatures are just stat buffed in game as they haven't implemented the higher levels yet.
If they did implement levels beyond 4, there would be an immediate mod to let us (the players) level up beyond 4, and it's quite clear Larian doesn't want that yet.

So see Halsin's buffed up stats and lack of spells as a placeholder.

It's not that his stats are buffed, they're just wrong. They make no sense.

He should look more like this:

Level 10-ish
STR 18
Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 18
Cha 12
PROFICIENCY BONUS +5
Initiative +3

So, with emphasis on strength, con and wisdom, with weaker dex and intelligence and charisma.

Theoreticaly it sounds good ...
It would be perfect for a cinematic ending ...

But practicaly it sounds incredibly boring gamedesign. :-/
Do you realize that your party would be just those lowly suckers that will permanently miss, almost dying after single strike from Halsin and even if they finaly hit, they will give him so "huge damage" he would probably not even notice?

Its the same problem that was mentioned when GM4Him suggested boosting Halsin's level, and adding friendly NPCs to help you first time ...
I mean look ... if you make Halsin level 15 as is suggested here ... he would have acces to level 8 spells ...

To take one example:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/sunburst
Combat started, Halsin casted Sunburst ... your whole party is dead (if i count corectly most of them even if they succed in saving throw).
Fun, right? ... right?

But even if he would have all spellslots abowe level 2 depleted ...
He would still be ridiculously tough. :-/
I dont even know what forms he would be able to take on such levels, but i dare to presume it would be something much more powerfull that his curent bear.
I know that GM4Him suggested that other NPCs can help us take him down, and they should be boosted too, to ballance out his power ... but it just dont seem fun to me ...
Example again: (all numbers are chosen just for explanation purposes)
Combat started ... you give him 1d8 (Cantrip), astarion will give him 1d8+2d6+DexMod (dunno, ranged Sneak attack), laezel will give him 2d6+1d4 (ever burning blade), Shadowheart will do nothing bcs you really do want to save your spellslots for healing in this fight.
Then Kagha came to scene, she is level 13 ... since she was in the Grove this whole time, she have no reason to have spellslots depleted ... so she casts 7th level Firestorm ... and gives him 7d10 damage ...
(Wich if i count corectly means that she just single handedly give Halsin aproximately double damage than your own party ... is that really fun? :-/ Woulnt be easier to just hide somewhere in the corner and skip through that fight, since you dont really do anything anyway? )
Then another NPC step up and do the same to diminish your value even futher. -_-

(Besides i dont really see any reason to give him such level in the frist place if he would be "weakened" and his spellslots used, since then he is simply the same Halsin as we have now, with just adjusted statistics, as we have now )

Not to even mention that with all those characters it would take ages for you to at least get your turn. :-/
I mean, agro whole Goblin camp can be quite tedious, not bcs its anyhow hard fight ... but bcs it takes quite long before you can do something ... but in that scenario you at least reduce your enemies, so your turn gets faster and faster ... here they would be friendly.

Halsin would be the proper evil path boss fight, yes.

The druids represent the most powerful good or non-evil faction in act I (act II?). The controversy with the Tieflings doesn't seem all that important anyway. Eliminating the circle for the evil faction seems more significant.

I still think stats in general need buffing. It should go something like this:

All tieflings and druids = Level 3 or less

Nettie and Rath = Level 4, so roughly on par with the PC party or slightly weaker than the party by the end of EA

Kagha and Zevlor = Level 6, because Rath wouldn't even challenge Kagha, but kinda sorta debated it, or so it seems. So she should be maybe a level or 2 above him. Zevlor and Kagha seem more like peers in EA, and Zevlor is. Hellrider Exile, so we know he helped defend Elturel in Avernus and became a Hellrider at that time. He should not be easy to kill. Man was fighting devil's and such for who knows how long.

Gut = Level 6. She seems the weakest of the Goblin Bosses, but she's supposed to be a Mighty Booyahg who can put limbs back on - an exaggeration I'm sure, but she should still be tougher.

Olodan, Ragzlin and Minthara should probably be Level 7 or 8.

Halsin should then be Level 10 minimum. This would be assuming Halsin is just a small time First Druid and not really an arch druid. He's just the best and wisest. I could maybe believe that. But still, based on story, Level 10 or 11 would fit much better.

Oh, but wait! How will anyone defeat any of these powerful characters?

The way that makes sense. You don't 1v1 them like in most video games where somehow the weak hero is able to still defeat the insanely powerful enemy in unbelievable 1v1 combat.

You gain allies to help you, like gaining Halsin as an ally against Ragzlin and Minthara and Gut. You do quests like fight the Hag to gain more experience and higher levels so you stand a better chance in the fight. You get Rath and other druids to help you against Kagha and Olodan, or you turn Kagha against Olodan and gain yet another more powerful ally to make the battle less difficult.

You find ways to weaken your super tough enemies, like setting traps. Larian could provide special ways to help damage them more powerfully, such as - wait, they already have some of these kinds of things in the game - drop chandeliers on boss enemy's heads to pin them down for a turn or two while you wail on them.

There are so many things you can do to make fights more even without making it so that these supposed bosses are so weak and easy for a party of 4 to kill. Right now, as it stands, the last several times I reached Ragzlin and Gut, and even Minthara, the fights were so easy I barely broke a sweat. The Githyanki Patrol fight was WAY more hard than these three supposedly tough bosses.

Anyway, it can be done, and I'm REALLY hoping Larian does something to make them more true stat-wise to their characters. Then I hope they sculpt the game around this so that we have to do some thinking to overcome the challenges that they should be.