Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Opinions on Items

I have noticed that D&D 5E seems to have skipped over a lot of the original D&D material regarding the creation of magic items. I think it is helpful to know how such items are made in the first place, so that placement within an adventure area makes sense in context. In most cases, creation of any magic item is an expensive and time consuming process, and creation of a permanent magic item requires the very highest level spells. Given the costly nature of creation in D&D, magic items should be fairly rare and highly valued. Here is an excerpt from the AD&D DMG:

"For example, a player character wizard of 15th level desires to make a ring of
spell storing. He or she commissions a platinumsmith to fashion a ring of
the finest quality, and pays 5,000 g.p. for materials and labor. He or she
then casts the enchant an item spell according to the PLAYERS HAND.
BOOK instructions. As DM, you now inform him or her that in order to
contain and accept the spells he or she desires to store in the device, a
scroll bearing the desired spells must be scribed, then a permanency spell
cast upon the scroll, then the scroll must be merged with the ring by some
means (typically a wish spell). As all of that could not be done in time, the
ring would have to be prepared with the enchant an item spell again."

And there was another example for an Illusionist:

"Thus, with a great expense in time, money and preparation, major creation, alter
reality and true sight spells, and an unflawed gem worth not less than
10,000 g.p., an illusionist might be able to create a gem of seeing."

This is true. Build focus in bg3 is shifted towards items, but to be honest - I played EA from the first patch when it was not a thing, and without these items, progression and character-building would be extremely shallow for me. I am also familiar with D&D in general, apart from BG 3, and its character progression and builds variation are far more rigid than in DOS 1 or 2. And by "far" I mean by an order of magnitude. The only thing that keeps it interesting for me is multiclassing in the original D&D, but there is no confirmation about multiclassing yet, I believe. All classes by themselves are often so balanced by Wizards of the coast that they become dull. Maybe this opinion is unpopular, but it looks like they need these items to achieve the same level of strategic variability as in previous Larian games.

I really like how magic Items feel in D&D. They are crafted for a purpose and have impact when you find them. For that I absolutely hate what Larian have done and how magic items feel in BG3. The magic is largely gone in favor of "collect the set" and "keep upgrading" generic tropes from grindy MMO's.

I especially hate the conditional crap that doesn't even do anything unless X or Y. Who makes an Axe that only activates when the wielder is hurt? Can a weapon get any more counterintuitive?

No, video games don't need the constant gear grind. Video games, RPG's especially, also benefit from magic items actually feeling special and magical. 5e purposefully moved away from powerful gear in favor of characters feeling like they matter. That characters are powerful, not items. Such a smart move. Larian are going directly against that by already introducing a "lightning set" that defines how a character plays more than their abilities do. And making pools of water everywhere to electrocute your opponents is VERY much a gamey gimmick rather than cool RPG combat.