Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Party Size Discussion

That can't be the case. I have seen tons of feedback from players who want a larger party on discord, here on the forums and on reddit. I wouldn't call that negligible cases, but you never know.
It would be far better if Larian came with some actual communication.

Where is the 'five' number coming from? Is that a D&D thing? When I think BG, I think a six-member party.

Basically it’s a way to cover the base party types: tank, healer, rogue, and spell caster and allow for a unique like bard, warlock, etc that don’t fit neatly in the first four.

Ahh, okay. That makes sense.

It's been awhile, but I want to stress how important a party of 6 is to me.

Pathfinder allows party of 6. I like to create custom characters. I can create 4 or 5 custom characters and still have a slot or 2 available to take "origin" characters with me.

DOS 2. I can only have party of 4, so it leaves no room for custom characters and origins. I have to pick one or the other. It would have been nice to have the option of being able to keep Lohse, Beast and Ifan and still add maybe a custom character or 2.

How about a 1 person party in late game?

Something terrible but giving great power, like the path of Swarm-That-Walks from Pathfinder.

I think it’s probably not what you meant, but I *hate* it when a game suddenly forces you to solo fight with a character you’ve basically built as a component of a balanced party. It’s fine if you’re a tankier fighter anyway, but awful if you’re a squishier spell caster or healer type without great damage potential. The very thought gives me traumatic flashbacks of trying to finish SWKoToR with my Jedi Sentinel.

Were you saying, though, that Larian should cater for people who want to solo in the late game with specific feats?

I totally agree. Final Fantasy 14 has certain missions that you MUST solo, and for me they are easy. I'm a healer, so I can pretty easily beat them. My wife, however, is a DPS. Every time we have to solo, she struggles to get through them because either her minions die or she does. It's probably the worst part of that game. Together, her and I are pretty tough, especially when our kids join us. We make a very good party. Solo... No.

Recent post on another thread has me desiring this again. Seriously, Larian. It's already built into your game. Just let us have the ability, even in EA, to make it party of 6 without having to mod the game. PLEASE! party of 4 is SO restrictive for me, especially because I LOVE creating characters and want to have a solid party of 4 customs with at least 1 or 2 origins. PLEASE!

Thanks for keeping it up. I myself am now just too exhausted and jaded by Larian's inconsideration towards us to keep my hope alive. But it is definitely very nice to see some others exhibiting at least some hope for BG3 being what it should be.

#SixParyMembers

It would be nice to have 4+ characters in a party, I agree
As mentioned somewhere by someone, I would love to mix a couple a custom-made characters with origin characters.

But I can understand if it doesn't become a thing. There could be technical and pragmatical issues.
For instance, maybe it would be too difficult to "balance" combat encounters? Which is already not an easy job to do with PnP games.

My issue is that there is a mod for party of 6 that is super simple. You change a number and viola. Party of 6. Larian has developed the game to support it but they are restricting it.

I've played it. It's a lot of fun and the game feels like it was designed for party of 6. Companions talk more with one another as you are traveling, etc. Yes. Combat is easier. Naturally. That can easily be fixed with party of 6 if they allowed it. EASILY fixed.

I hate mods and don't trust websites. My BG3 addiction caused me to compromise on it already because I really wanted to try party of 6. I don't want to do it again, and whenever you mod, the game acts weird and it's a huge hassle when updates occur. I really want them to support it, even if they don't rebalance encounters. Trust me. It's a lot of fun as is with party of 6.

Forced solo sections in this game could backfire. If poorly balanced, there’s big potential for getting softlocked. For example, you’re going to have a really bad time if you’re a Bard and part of the solo section pits you against constructs that are generally immune to psychic damage.

Huh, I thought it’d be the other way around since DPS would kill things much faster. Then again I’m a (mostly retired) Bard main who has cleared an ultimate raid, so there probably isn’t much that fazes me in that game.

I could come back just for the opportunity to see your family in-game. I mostly stopped after clearing Endwalker due to increasing work obligations, which wasn’t too far behind.

+1

Pathfinder WotR has a forced solo section. You can always complete it since it is a stealth section where you get a bonus invisibility spell applied to you. It isn't always about combat.

It is when the game is designed for combat. You can't pass FF14 without fighting.

Now, granted, you could solo BG3 presently if you want. They've kinda built it that way. But I think the point we're making is we don't like solo quests in games like this. You spend the whole game building a powerful Evocation wizard, for example, with lots of damage spells only to be stuck on a solo quest thing where you need to suddenly stealth well and suck at it or you need to tank well and can't or you need to heal and have no ability to do so. Why? You were relying on all your party members to work well together as a unit. You even gave all your healing potions to others thinking you wouldn't need them.

So you built up Lae'zel as your tank, Shadowheart as your healer, you're the wizard, and Astarion the rogue. Now suddenly you are all alone and have no other specialties. Best hope the encounters you are about to face are geared towards your character and not against or you're going to have a real hard time. Meanwhile, if you'd created a rogue, the solo encounters would be easier.

Personally I am completely alright with a party of four.

Naturally I would want to grab every single companion purely for story purposes as I really like all of them. It would make the story a lot more interesting and fulfilling, but it would also feel a tiny bit crowded and less intimate, for me at least. So personally I am perfectly alright with four and really like the intimacy it brings with chosen companions, as it feels to me like I'm establishing a proper relationship with them by choosing who accompanies me along my journey.

As far as technical aspect goes; implementing a party of six is really nothing complex. The UI would just need some simplistic minor additions and slight adjustments to conform to the size of the party (as I've showcased in a feedback thread not related to this), along with increasing the HP of all NPCs in the world to reflect the party size. The cutscenes would be the only thing that would need some work to include six. So it's not really complex, just would take some work to make it look good.

But it's not about whether they can do it, it's about whether they want to do it. Ultimately Larian has a vision for the game and some suggestions fit into their vision while some do not, because we see only a very small piece of it, while they see it in its entirety and everything beyond it. They have envisioned a party of four. Same as they envisioned that Baldur's Gate 3 will be turn-based. Same as they envisioned that Baldur's Gate 3 will have a chain system. Same as they envisioned that BG3 will not feel nor play as BG 1 or 2. It's simply how they envisioned it, which I personally am completely okay with.

This! +100

All this is literally done except increasing enemy HP. If you use the mod, you change the max party size value from 4 to 6, and it works beautifully. 6 characters on 1 screen, inventory works, etc. No work would need to be done. Just let players make the call. And most of us who have tried the mod have even said that we don't care if they tweaked encounters. Let us play party of 6 without changing a single other thing. It's a blast and encounters actually aren't that much easier. In fact, I found the game far less frustrating because I didn't feel like if 1 party member fell I was severely handicapped. 1/6th of a party is a lot less severe than 1/4th.