Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The Circlet of Fire

It's just a trip, cause any of the Named items mentioned in the first couple posts would likely be a session/adventure defining acquisition in TT. You know, where like the whole Campaign is probably called "The Circlet of Fire" just cause it's such a badass piece of equipment hehe.

The Book of Artifacts (1993) was probably my favorite sourcebook (I think it was the first AD&D 2e book I ever bought, before the PHB even) and a lot of items in BG3 just feel way more like artifacts to me. The sorts of things that'd have like a full page spread with an illustration and a 2,000 word legendary description attached to them. But then when you pick up something like at lvl 4 and are using in combination with a couple other similar items on a single character, and then each PC in the party has that sort of thing going on, it tips the scales quite a bit.

The thing is though, that I love some of these things. The gear is fun, and if used more in isolation I think they're quite clever in how they can make the tactics of a given encounter really start to hum. An actual DM would be able to scale these drops on the fly, or tamp down the frequency, or create situations where the players have to sell or give up some of their stuff after being handed a killer new boon like that, but the computer can't I guess, and a lot of this stuff is in fixed locations too. The encounters and drops aren't dynamic in that way, so they become campaign exploits and encounter busters more readily than they would if this was pen and paper. It's kind of a curious thing, because we know how challenge and difficulty is often handled so differently in CRPG than in TT and probably will be here as well. In CRPG (BG tradition anyway) it's not the substantive loot or specific encounter that changes, but rather things like general enemy AI improvements or special enemy bonuses vs PC nerfs handicaps as a way to keep it even, which is a very different approach. Meaning in TT, they'd probably just remove like half of this enchanted loot, but do that in a difficulty setting for BG3 and I think players would be annoyed by that. Or like if they teased it with one hand EA and then just instantly took it away with the other hand when the thing drops in full. I think they kinda have to assume that players will be using all the stuff they hand out, and not self restricting by ignoring high value loot. I mean who does that? Some might impose limits on themselves, but I think most won't, and so yeah, it becomes an issue pretty quickly probably.

It's a bit like playing BG1 and avoiding the Paws of the Cheetah because it makes kiting too easy, or just never casting the spell Haste because it distorts so much. Very hard to resist those sorts of temptations and the game design shouldn't expect us to, cause that's the DMs job to determine what's just right and what's too much. BG2 scaled somewhat better with stuff like that, but in BG1 there were quite a few story mode type items of that sort. It's a bit of a cautionary tale there about what happens when you go that route. Like having to build out a whole new "Masochist" level difficulty setting, that makes the Enemies beyond nuts - to accommodate a Wand of Paralysis that you handed out way too early, rather than just removing the Wand. Or pushing it out further into the campaign to fix the real issue there. I guess it comes down to what meta they're after here. But yeah, in TT, you'd probably have a whole adventure where the potion alone would be a session defining item use and the thing we talk about round the campfire after lol.

ps. just to keep with the BG1 examples, there are instances where I think they can do this stuff but also have it work out much smoother. The Ring of Holiness (Honorary Ring of Sune) was one of these I think, where they more or less realized that their implementation of the rules and the encounters they designed needed the player to get a big boost, so they gave that to the divine caster. Basically an extra spell slot at each spell lvl 1-4, and then the whole rest of the game is themed around Priests that are significantly better than a more by the book implementation. Once you get that item (which was major plot point 1) the game assumes the party has it and is using it for everything, every encounter, for the duration. Same deal with the Paws of the Cheetah or that first Haste scroll (which had no serious downside like draining years off your life lol). From then on out the game assumes the player is just using it constantly, and all the encounters now have to play off it as part of the dynamic. So in that sense, it's like yes if hand out an item that gives a big bonus early that bonus needs to carry the through line and stitch it in till the end of the campaign, or until its arbitrarily taken away (annoying) or something better/more entertaining conflicts with it (preferable to the DM stealing their cool gift back from the PCs, but still tricky to execute well). Not sure what they should do. Once you tease it you gotta keep it right?