Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Anyone else get decision paralysis?

Firstly, I tend to not be a min/maxer and more go for what will be fun/role play stuff. That being said, I still get totally paralyzed by choice! PART of me does sometimes lean toward min/maxing.

I just re-spec'd my level 5 Bard like 4 times (kept re-loading and starting over). Firstly I decided I liked College of Lore better than College of Valor (which is what I had taken initially). Then I realized that by doing that I would get Intimidation so I shouldn't have taken it as a starting skill. I also decided to even out my stats by lowering Int and Wis so I could raise strength and not have a -1, which I wasn't I wanted to but decided I'd rather have 3 no bonus skills instead of a +1 and a -1.

Choosing cantrips and spells is also agonizing for me! Some seem SO niche that they feel like a waste, but then again maybe I'm not seeing how useful they will be!

While I'm having a BLAST with this game I've also realized I'm quite bad at it, lol. I noticed that Wyll had a skill which gave him a better AC if he was wearing no armor and yet I had him wearing armor the whole time. When I initially created my bard I was confused that I already had Performance and yet it was available as a skill I could take too. Same with some of the others where they already have proficiency with certain armors and yet they can still take the skill to gain that proficiency. Does doubling up like that give MORE bonuses or something?

I finally settled on a Bard respec I *think* I like so we will see but now I'm tempted to respec ALL the NPCs, and yet all those decisions is ALSO daunting. I'm overwhelmed by choices but that's also a good problem to have in some ways. This is definitely one of my favorite games I've ever played.

Oh yeah, and then there's the whole "To Illithid power or not." Again part of me is like "If not you're just missing out on cool powers" but the roleplay streak in me is like "No way. That feels like a thing I WOULD NOT DO. I ain't collaborating with this brain parasite!"

I'm not sure what I'm looking for with this post. I don't know if there's any advice that can really help, though feel free if something comes to mind. Just thinking out loud I suppose!

Pro tip - you don't need to reload or start over to respec, you can respec at your camp unlimited number of times for a mere 100 gold each time.

Sorcerers, Warlocks and Paladins can match bards if all you want on your player character is speech skills, on my dark urge sorc I just have to forego one speech proficiency as the background is forced with medicine instead, but for plain Tav you can have deception, persuasion, insight and intimidation, and an additional skill based on racial, or a whole category of skills if you pick githyanki race. Also at 20 Cha you get +5, which you can have by level 4 if you take the ethel reward, exception for Paladins I wouldn't go above 16 CHA as you want 20 in Str.

I settled on Drow for perception and because I didn't need the extra high elf cantrip, so the superior darkvision, faerie fire and darkvision are more useful (Only needed to use faerie fire to kill the bulette so far).

Regarding warlocks, Wyll is already solid as a pact of the blade one as he can use light armour and shields, while humans are generally weak, it works well for pact of the blade so he can melee when needed.

I definitely get quite a bit of choice paralysis myself. There are so many good options, it's hard to settle on one. I have the same issue with my character and with selecting items I want to use.

And I get what you mean about min/maxing. A big part of me wants to play a certain character and not worry about what's "best." But another part of me is all like, well, I would be just a smidge more effective if I...

Yeah that's what I did. Just paid 100 but then restarted it 4 times because I kept changing my mind.

I’ve been playing D&D for a long time, and have DM’d for many people with bad option paralysis. My best advice- accept you will make mistakes and just dive in.

There is a lot to know in D&D, and you aren’t going to get it right the first try. That’s fine. This game is very forgiving with respecing, so if you find you are not using a spell or ability you can always change it out later without issue.

Dive in!

I have this "issue" as well. There is just sooo much. I just started act 2 after 65 hours lol.
Gotta train yourself to get into the mindset to not rly min/max atm. Downsides make it not worth it imo. Its hard to find balance here.
Looking up so much info made this harder as well.
I will get bette at this from now on..i think.
GL HF

Btw: i respecced from bard to ranger. Made things a lot clearer and easier. And while i really liked bard, i am loving the ranger more.

No.

Not really. I chose a single cleric level to get heavy armour and martial weapons, then went bard for the persuasion roleplay ( intending to keep everyone as happy as possible ). Chose college of swords to compliment the cleric martial features in melee, while using magic out of melee.

Unless some aspect of the story persuades me otherwise, I will probably stick with bard, although I will admit that there are many interesting multiclass possibilities, which make pure single-class builds more difficult to justify. In bg3 even full casters can choose 1 level of another class without losing access to level 6 spells, and if there are enough level 6 spell scrolls, another couple of multiclass levels are a possibility.

I think I have more trouble deciding how to choose my other active party members; likely I will let the story progress decide.

I don't have choice paralysis exactly because of the respecc possibility. So I can try and change and make experiments, instead of musing for hours what of the choices I should choose because they were definite.

I can recommend doing multiple parallel playthroughs. That way you can both experiment and learn to live with your choices, which is gratifying by itself. An unforseen side effect in my case was that my one character can discover things that are useful for the other character to know.

Chronic. Restartitis.

I'm far into act 3 and need to fight the restart urge and just wait for a second playthrough because respec doesn't allow me to change my race and my drow sorc can't use shields bah.

I dread respec'cing at 12th level, so many previous levels.

I respec'ced everyone as some point:

- Bungled Gale's spells midway and he lost some important ones I had learned from levelling up. But just sucked it up and it worked out.

- Shadowheart got Dex improved and with Skilled feat, was able to thief again.

- Turned Jaheria into an Eldritch knight / druid. It actually works!

- Haven't touched MC, some items have made ability score choices redundant, but those scores served him well in low-mid levels.

- Minsc is the last to do. He's currently a Str ranger, but I'm going to multi him Str Barbarian/Ranger. That said, the roster is already over-brimming.

I’ve been wondering if I should make Jaheira a fighter/druid for old time’s sake, but I’m not sure if heavy armor is worth giving up level 6 spells (or level 5 if I want to be an EK).

I made her an EK6/Dru6 generalist. She's primarily a two-weapon fighter who casts Hold person or Mirror image as a bonus action on a weapon hit. Armed with the better longswords and later on a legendary dagger, and Adamantine splint. Man, those suits served the party well right through to mid-late Act 3.

Nothing special, but she was great against Bhaalists. Tactician doesn't buff everything, so her Hold person's often had a good target, and with Astarion around, was murder.

Her spell layout is adventure support and a bit of CC. Actually, it was her Sleetstorm that won a certain epic battle in a corner of Baldur's Gate.

I already have Halsin a druid 12, so making her different wasn't a hard decision. Actually, going nostalgic opened my eyes to the various builds possible. I like learning the intricacies of suboptimal builds and making them work.

Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll make her a fighter 2 / druid (land, arctic) 10.

She will be a tanky caster who can action Durge our spells occasionally. Is it the best use for her? Who cares!?