Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Game Modes

I sure hope there isn't a secret ending with so many hard to get and arbitrary requirements as another recent CRPG. I don't even think it was possible without a guide with how many steps and soft lock there were.

I fully expect BG3 to have at least one or two secret, hard to get endings. But it shouldn't be a huge deal as there will likely be plenty other endings to go for.

In an ideal world, every ending would be its own utterly unique and difficult to replicate “secret ending.”

Just because a certain part of the audience won't use an option doesnt mean it shouldn't be included. The game has lots of options thst vast majority of players won't use. That's a weak argument. Adding the option of '5e Standard Rules' does not harm those who dont want to use it all. In fact, Im sure more people will use that option than those who would choose the hardest mode, play certain races, certain classes, or romance certain characters.

Also saying modders will do it is not helpful. I'm not paying modders 100$. I'm paying Larian 100$. They matter, mods don't... even if I do use them since modders owe me crap.

Larian did make the claim originally that the game would be 95% 5e compliant. They seemingly failed to live up to that (though the game can still be fun as most dnd crpgs dont). It's one of multiple reasons I was and am looking forward to bg3.

So, yeah, I dont expect it, but it be hella nice if they added the option for a 'dnd 5e standard' mode.

Heck, heres a pie in the sky never gonna happen suggestion: Optional modes to play in 2e like the originals or even a 3e mode. Those are over the top wishes, but asking for a more hardcore 5e mode isn't.

Options are always good, and larian brags about options fir bg3.

Tbf, by definition, adding 5e Standard Rules would take more dev time and actively harm those who don't want to use it :v) Because it takes away from other things that are more in line with Larian's vision and broadly appealing. It's also significantly more work than dialing numbers for a difficulty and adding a few barrels, particularly as most of that is likely done by script and based on a % increase. Races/classes are just part of the core game regardless so sort of a poor thing to argue in general, same with romance, and I'm not at all convinced a 5e mode would have more converts than any of the above. Regardless, it's clearly not what Larian wants or is going for, so it's sort of moot.

I really think this wouldn't have become such a hot button issue if they hadn't waited until a month before release for people to find out about the changes.

These changes are almost certainly not "last minute," their internal play testers would have been using them for months, if not longer.

If when they gave us Grymforge, they would have also announced "we've determined from our own testing and from EA telemetry that many of the core 5e rules don't work quite as well in the context of what we're trying to build. We know there will be strong feelings about this, so we're adding some additional content to EA, as well as the new homebrew changes, so you can get a feel for them," if they tried it like that, the response would have been the same, at first at least, but people would be playing Grymforge and because that would be fresh and new the rules changes would've have landed like they did.

By creating a situation where there's almost no context other than stuff noticed in PFH and by youtubers, it's just speculation and a feedback loop of frustration. I think introducing the changes as payable with new content would have been way smarter

What's really frustrating is that the secret ending really gave so much more context to the Villains actions and their motivations. If you skipped all of that, she was just sort of this mysterious figure that spouted some nonsense at the very end of the game.

I can't imagine BG3 will have something quite as in-depth.

I guarantee more people would play a more strigent 5e mode than play dragonborn, halflings, gnomes, and half orcs combined. Or will play warlocks, sorcerors, druids, rangers, or monks combined. Ordinance the bottom half least popular romance options. Core rules, by definition, are part of the core game. Without them there'd be nothing to play. Lol

Adding the option for star/hp rolls for example would effect ZERO people who don't choose. Changing racial stat points affects EVERYONE.

Why are people defending the lack of options when larian brags about giving options and originally bragged about "95% compliance".

A lot of people won't choose easy or 'tactitian' mode. Guess they should bother. Might as well get rid of all races but humans. All classes but fighter,mage rogue, and clear. Only give access to swords. Etc. Etc.

I can probably agree about the races you mentioned except dragonborns. Sure they're bad now but I don't think Larian are finished balancing the game for release. The classes that have terrible bonuses will most likely get some boosts, and especially dragonborns, I think Larian will be keen to motivate people to play that race so I wouldn't be surprised if at release or after one of the early patches dragonborns become one of the most desirable races. But I definitely can't agree with you on the classes. Warlocks and sorcerers especially are key cornerstones of most parties in my experience because they can not only serve as the party's spellcaster but also as the party's negotiator...someone who is extremely good at speech solves A LOT of problems in D&D. And for BG3 that can only be the player character as party members can't take the lead role in a lot of conversations, only in very scripted scenarios like Lae'zel talking to the Githyankis. And especially in a game like this with so many speech options charisma based characters and skill monkeys will probably be the most popular. And I definitely don't think bards will be more popular. For the dark urge origin though I think rogue is by far the best class to go with since dark urge is clearly related in some way to Bhaal and all the boons of Bhaal will most likely be made for rogues(especially the cape that was shown by Fextralife as only obtainable by the dark urge...that is 1,000,000% a boon of Bhaal who himself in life was a shapeshifting rogue assassin.

As for rolling for stats or HP, I don't know...years ago Larian said they were planning to do it but no word recently so it's unclear if maybe they're still working on it or if that has been scrapped and will never be put in the game.

As for the difficulties and difficulties I think you grossly underestimate the popularity of both easy and hard modes. A LOT of players gravitate either towards always playing on the hardest possible settings or the easiest. In the balance of things I would not be surprised if fewer play on normal than Exploration and Tactician combined even if Normal has the highest count of any individual difficulty players.

Totally agree. I have no idea how typical I am, but with most games, I generally start in story mode, just to get a sense of all the systems, understand how everything works, etc., then mostly at normal, and eventually only do one or two playthroughs in hard mode just to get a sense of what's considered "hard". Then after that, almost always in story mode because at that point I'm just trying to see what happens with choices I didn't make in earlier playthroughs