Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Which party members will you bring along on your first playthrough? (Includes datamined companions)

I wonder ...
Am i the only one who have problems to create party wich would not include Shadowheart?

I mean, its not like i would want to have her ... just find it kinda hard to find proper replacement. :-/
Tank is easy, Lae'zel, Karlach, probably Minsc, teoreticaly even Shadowheart ...
Dmg is even easier, thats everyone ...
Utility are very acessible, so even tho Astarion and Helya are actualy better, since Expertise is now a thing, you can get trough *most* checks with other characters aswell ...
But healer/support?

I mean, maybe im just missing something.
Yes i know Ranger and Bard technicaly can heal aswell ... and yes, i also know that Shadowheart is not Life cleric, wich would make her much more powerfull ... and also yes, im aware that right now even Gale can technicaly heal.

But it just feels kinda wrong to not have any dedicated class to that role in party, doesnt it?
I mean i would just like to have either Cleric, or Paladin, or Druid ... anything else seems, little odd at best.

I think it was a missed opportunity not to give us a druid companion from the grove. Not Halsi, who should clearly not join our party because he's an archdruid and thus should by all rights be far above our level, but someone from the grove that decided to travel with us for whatever reason. That would have been cool. Also yeah, not having Shadowheart as a dedicated healer is rough. Plus I've found that she is almost as good a rogue as Astarion, thanks to her domain choice.

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I would currently choose Astarion, Lae'zel and Wyll and my MC will be a bard. However, I could swap out Lae'zel for Karlach or, depending on if Haslin is available or not, Haslin. Why Wyll? I realize that he's unpopular, but he has been very useful to me in my play throughs. First, he can cast Hex which makes my Bard's spells more effective, his eldrich blast is very effective and finally the ability of the Imp to turn and stay invisible and scout, attack a weakened foe (or as a distraction) is extremely useful. I would prefer someone else, but his skillset is really useful I've found. As to Astarion, he's usually my highest DPS party member considering everything. He can hide in shadows and take an advantageous attack position, can do scouting, opens every lock, disarms almost every trap and can use every scroll. I've played EA with this combination and have never had one of my party die and I've beaten every enemy in the game so far.

Do I love the personalities? No, I honestly don't. BUT, while I have played with all the characters so far, I honestly don't love any of them.

BTW, I loved Minsc in the first BG, depending on how his character plays, I might have to do without one of the three and have him in my party, he always cracked me up! I really hope that they don't force the game to only 3 characters to go into Act II, I do tend to swap out companions and it would be less fun to not have an extra body or two in camp to occasionally change the dynamic.

I would certainly not mind having Halsin in party, after all he allready travel with us ... it would make much more sense to be if he would be willing to actively participate, than just standing in the camp, waiting for us to report what we discovered. :-/

But even if that wouldnt be an option (wich would also be huge missed opourtunity, and im quite sure lots of people would be quite disapointed, if not mad) ...

Groove is in my honest opinion prefect place for hiring Mercenaries!
Aradin and his whole group are exactly that ... some Tieflings seems to have fighting spirit and may be willing to join us after we secure the passage for the rest ... and some druids might be persuated to help us aswell, to name few, Nettie, Rath, maybe redeemed Kagha?

//Edit:
Unless i remember something incorectly, im affraid that is not how Hex is suppose to work ...
It should only enpowers caster spells.

Wylls Hex = Wylls damage.

So if anything else happened, either i remember something wrong, or it was bug.

There are a ton of good candidates in the grove for traveling companions/party members that aren't Halsin. Khaga comes to mind if you play your cards right, since she can end up repentant, busted down in rank, and possibly exiled. Nettie would also be a good one, IMO. Wish Larian wasn't quite so married to the notion of the Origin system, because there are a lot of NPCs that I could honestly see as potential party members tbh.

//Edit:
Originally Posted by Kethlar
he can cast Hex which makes my Bard's spells more effective
Unless i remember something incorectly, im affraid that is not how Hex is suppose to work ...
It should only enpowers caster spells.

Wylls Hex = Wylls damage. wink

So if anything else happened, either i remember something wrong, or it was bug.

Could be. I remember this was something that I read from someone that was reviewing the Bard class after patch 8 came out.

In my experience, it does seem to help but that could be wishful thinking on my part too. All I can say is that after Wyll casts his Hex spell I don't remember ever missing with my Bard spell right after.

From the D&D 5e ruleset:

Source: Player's Handbook

1st-level enchantment

Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: 90 feet
Components: V, S, M (the petrified eye of a newt)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

You place a curse on a creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on ability checks made with the chosen ability.

If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature.

It doesn't say that only the castor gets this benefit, only that the target has disadvantage on the ability checks made with the chosen ability. So, I am assuming here, but if I was the DM I would allow it that way.

Well i may be reading it wrong ... wouldnt be the first time.

But it clearly says "you" deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage.

Also as far as i know, Hex should most certainly not in any way affect your hit chances. O_o

Maybe you should also include multiclass chars 😏

Anyway, for group. I will play a custom character, not an origin one as I don't see the point in them.

I will probably play a paladin or a multiclass pala/sorc or pala/lock, depending on the subclass choices available. Nit sure about race, depends if we have aasimars or others.

I am leaning on taking Shadowheart, Gale and Karlach with me. Maybe Astarion instead of Karlach or Gale. Maybe Minsc. Not sure yet. I get the feeling we have seen too few from companions in EA.

Correct, the extra necrotic damage helps Wyll but not others!

However, I didn't mean to indicate that it helped my hit chances, only that it lowers the Wisdom saving throw when I use Dissonant Whispers or Tasha's Hideous Laughter my two favorite Bard spells.

Hex applies debuffs to ability checks, not saving throws. It should not affect enemies' abilities to fail your saving throws.
I.e., the enemy would make Perception checks to notice your stealthed characters at disadvantage.

My first run setup will depend on what mods I can get at release. I'll be playing at least 2, possibly as many as 4 custom MCs and a 6 player party. The only companion I'm sure will be in the group is Minsc and thus only voted for him. Whatever slots remain will be between Laz, Karlach and Helia.

1 of the custom MCs will be a Drow Light Cleric and I so I voted cleric. Her husband's class will depend on the rest of the party's setup.

I won't be playing as any Origin companions.

Easy, because you don't need any particular class or party composition to be able to play the game. My favourite party so far is ranger, rogue, sorcerer, wizard. This would still work even if they fix the stealth to properly bring each person into the combat after they make the initial ambush attack. There are plenty of potions in game as well. Crowd control goes a long way in making it so you don't get hit.

the spell tool tips are less than worthless saying one thing at point A and a different thing at point B however currently in the game Hex only adds "damage" to spells cast by the Warlock so if a Warlock hexs a enermy then casts a spell which rolls to hit [so not magic missile] then that spell does an extra D6 should it actually

anyone else casting spells at that enermy may find the hex usful if their spell requires a check for example Gale casts Melf's Acid Arrow and hex makes the enermy less chance to make its save for 1/2 damage

honestly Magic Missile is so OP that no other spell is worth doing for single target damage so Hex really isn't good for anyone but the Warlock and pratically always needed for them to keep up with the damage Sorerers or Wizards put out between rests

Unfortunately, this is not how hex works.
Enemies make Saving Throws, not ability checks, to save for 1/2 damage against spells including Melf's Acid Arrow.

Im aware ...
But that was not the question.

I believe i stated clearly enough that im looking for substitue healer ... and that my preffered classes to that position would be Paladin, Druid, or Cleric.
So while you are right its not required by game ... it is required by me, so anything that would contradict it is useless to me.

Technically most effective way to stop bleeding is to stop heart ... but i wouldnt recomend that.

I'm not disagreeing with you, just trying to understand. If a saving throw is not an ability, how is that different from perception other than saying it's a saving throw? For example, if Strength was hexed and someone attempted a shove then I would assume by your logic that the athletics would be impacted, yet when I do it in the game, if you view the log I believe (unsure) it says that the target passed it's saving throw (or used to or something similar as I haven't done a shove action in awhile).

As I mentioned in my earlier post, in my play of game combat, using hex does seem to help overcome the resistance to a spell that has that attributes saving throw.

Finally, if hex applied only to things like perception, athletics, mobility etc, why not say it applies to skill checks instead of ability checks and then list abilites? If Hex only applies to skills, it seems to me to be a pretty worthless spell. IMO if you hex an attribute, should it not be effected by anything that uses that attribute including a saving throw?

I've thought about this a bit further and I think this is how I will more clearly state my case, at least for how Hex works in BG3.

Hex is placed against an attribute, therefore it seems logical to me that any action that is effected by that attribute will be negatively impacted by the hex. So if Wisdom is hexed, then any action that uses a check against the Wisdom attribute should be effected, which to me, would seem to include the saving throw IF the spell that is used is affected by the targets attribute. It's the attribute that is effected and determines if the spell succeeds.

I absolutely can be wrong about this and it certainly would not be the first time, but as a programmer, unless there is a clear reason to program in an exception, you want to avoid exceptions at all costs. This is just my interpretation of a rule that isn't as clearly written as it could be.

In official 5e rules, saving throws are not ability checks, skills are. It's not about what seems logical, those are the rules. I know that saving throws are governed by abilities, but they are not simple ability checks.

So, skills are ability checks, initiative is an ability(dex) check, but attack rolls and saving throws are their own thing. In exhaustion rules, one level of exhaustion gives you disadvantage on ability checks, but 3 levels of exhaustion give you disadvantage on saving throws and attack rolls.

So either their system uses a different hex, that affects saving throws, or for some reason either shove has the wrong wording, and uses opposing athletics check, that has wrongly written as saving throws.

The title of the thread is
maybe take the dnd rule talk to another thread?