Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback ------------FEEDBACK FOR THE DEVELOPERS after 150h of play----------------

I've been playing this game for the last two weeks. I have over 100 hours of gameplay under my belt. And I must say that I feel disappointed again. The long-awaited premiere was supposed to be great, but it is as usual.

First things first. I have been playing games for over thirty years and have played practically all of RPGs there: Pathfinder, Divinity, Pillars of eternity, Sword Coast Legends... and also older ones like Temple of Elemental Evil for egzample.

But let's get to the point.
Good sides:
1. Nice graphics. In addition, the use of the third dimension of space - the ability to climb onto any roof or elevation - is an interesting innovation. Thanks to this, the boards became more interesting - although on the other hand sometimes overwhelmingly complicated, such as the Shar temple.
2. Dice rolls - shown in such an engaging way. Finally, someone has solved the issue of skill tests in a way that is not only transparent but also engaging. Way to go. I hope others will follow in your footsteps.
3. Good acting from various characters in the game, solid dialogues - although not extremely good. There are no exceptionally well-handled conflicts or memorable lines of dialogue. But you can see progress compared to other games in this genre.

What I'm disappointed about:
1. Development of character equipment. I played with my team for over seven days, I went through the entire coast, saved the asylum, finished the entire storyline in the temple of Shar... and from the moment I found a two-handed +1 sword at the beginning of the game, I found practically no weapon that was better. Really?
And I usually search practically every crate and every body. Well, I found one - I mean one - slightly better weapon, which seems rather like a joke considering several dozen hours of gameplay and two warriors in the team. Yes. While picking up the next piece of crap, I was snorting with laughter under my breath - that's how ridiculous it is. Is it really so difficult to come up with the idea that in an RPG computer game things are a bit different than in meetings with friends over paper and pencil, and that the AD&D system - which is not suitable for computer games - should be slightly bent? Moreover, the "benefits" of many weapons are so dependent on contextual conditions (the character must be focused, sit in the shade and fart to the left) that it practically excludes any usefulness of such weapons in the game world.
It looks as if you were so sparing the player of any benefits resulting from his or her efforts in the game world that it is unbelievable that someone could take such a path.

2. Character development, which often accomplishes nothing. There's a long wait for the next level in this game. After a week and a half of the game, my characters were only at level six. In such a case, what kind of profession is a new level that gives... nothing more than a slight increase in the number of health points. Really?
This is your approach to RPG games? For my efforts, I get some health points and I can swap spells - that is, I have to delete one - but why if I had chosen them carefully earlier? Plus there is the case of the skills themselves: many of them are subject to conditions that are impossible to meet or are so useless that there is nothing to choose from - it also concerns spells. Take a look at Sword Coast Legends - the game was criticized by dogmatic followers of the D&D system, but the character development in it was excellent. We were waiting for a new level because we had already planned in our heads what interesting and useful skills we would choose. And almost all of them gave real benefits to the player.

3. Inadequate level of difficulty. While those mistakes can be overcome, this mistake cannot. I really carefully completed all the tasks and visited all possible places, and when the final fights in the Shar temple took place, I was surrounded by dozens of opponents, placed in strategic places, knowing a lot of spells, teleporting around the board like hares, and... well, a boss who endlessly uses invisibility. To get through these fights I had to start using a trainer. Well, that makes absolutely no sense. And yet please remember that I am an experienced player.
So I'm asking people who don't have their own private life to refrain from the opinion that I'm some kind of noob, I don't know how to develop a character or I should devote fifteen days of my life to grinding - which, by the way, can't be done much in the game world because whoever gets killed stays dead and the number of quests is also limited.

I think you exaggerated both the number of enemies, their skills and their excessive use of the height dimension in the game world. In addition, the ability to jump practically across the entire battlefield and teleporting enemies creates chaos rather than interesting strategic gameplay. Please remember that until I completed the Temple of Shar, when I was on level six, I was still running around with the sword I found at the beginning of the game. No character development, but a very sudden and rapid increase in the difficulty level of opponents. Really?

To sum up:
While, as usual (wchich concerns all other developers too), you offered nice graphics and some good animations in character dialogues, and even relatively interesting side quests, AS USUAL - you messed up the entire mechanics. Poor character development, lack of stable increase in equipment level, stinginess in the offered weapons and armor features, exaggerated level of enemies compared to what character development offers, and chaos of gameplay instead of strategy and control.

I'm very disappointed because I waited a long time for this game. And honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with you developers that you're so keen on implementing D&D in computer games. When friends meet for a paper-and-pencil RPG session, first of all, they have to roll the dice they have, and secondly, the limitations in the equipment they can find may become secondary to the story being told and meeting with friends. New character traits, even if they are context-dependent, are easier to use in casual conversation than in the computer game world. Forcibly transferring it to a computer is pointless. Finally, please come up with your own system already, the one that provides stable progression and does not scrimp on the benefits the player receives for his hard work. The system must reward us and not make us laugh with its uselessness.

That's it. This game has a few other problems, such as chaos in the quest list, a completely unreadable map or unclear quest markers on the map, but I wrote a long text anyway, so maybe it will be enough.

Unfortunately, I consider my adventure with Baldur's Gate 3 not as engaging fun but as a waste of time.

Well, in my >30 years of gaming experience, the battles in this game, WHICH ARE BUILT ON THE SYSTEM OF DICE ROLLS, are the worst I've seen in any RPG. Though not really difficult for me personally, it was still frustrating and stupid.

It's weird how you liked the rolls but then go on criticizing the battle system in the game. But maybe it's just weird for me, as I'm not familiar with DnD.

This is a really funny feedback and I kinda don't believe what you wrote.
Facts
Divinity and Divine Divinity are insane difficult games I doubt that you ever played them. But both games are between diablo and bg1 as good example of cross playstyle. So it's a totally different game experience from the other's.

I played them a lot both on a f.. NG CD-ROMs and they got destroyed from the usage. And Toe, pathfinder and POE normal difficulty is at the lvl of bg3-s hardest difficulty.
SADLY sword coast legends I could never play It was a console game then it was was on a short time on steam but then they removed it and it's not available on steam epic and gog. But I am intrested. Just because all mentioned games are difficult games so if you had problems with difficulty in bg3 then I am sure. I will enjoy it scl.

Regarding the sword:

Usually in D&D the itemization is exactly like this, I think that Larian did an exceptional job at reproducing the itemization of a TTRPG campaign in this regard as well.

Regarding inadequate difficulty:

D:OS2 had a similar thing going. Act 1 was hard, the moment you finished the ship battle the game was practically ultra easy mode even on tactician difficulty, because it was not properly scaled around the toolkit you get with the mirror and, to a much lesser extent, the ability to get mercs as one trick ponys.

And in my first playthrough of D:OS2 I STILL failed in act 2 and act 3 multiple times - because I didn't learn the toolkit well enough, second run was then ultra easy.

Trick with Larian games is to reframe what it means to play a game. You're not thrown unto railroad tracks but into a sandbox with a lot of amazing toys. "Cheesing" is the normal way to play them, which is something I actually really enjoy, because even back in the late 80s (when I started gaming) thats what we always tried, but it was not that games back in the day were structured around it.

Not entirely sure I agree with what you are saying here. On first read it feels more like the feed back you'd expect from someone who is used to playing MMORPGs, where you can't go more than 10 minutes without getting another level or another piece of gear and the "challenge" is getting to the endgame to play with your mates as fast as possible.

1) If it's the sword from the prologue then I'm not surprised you've not found an upgrade for a long time. It's a very powerful sword for that point in the game, but the first act isn't scaled around you having that item, I skipped it on my Ranger and Cleric and both replaced their main weapon a couple of times in the first act, not to mention several other pieces of gear. The power growth in this game is slow and that isn't a bad thing, there's a ton of optional things to do - things that arent the "main" quest) and then you have the option of rapidly increasing enemy power levels throughout the first act - forcing players to do those optional things, or save scum harder to get the outcomes you need to maximise your XP and gear intake - or making certain aspects of the first act "trivial" for players that did them later than the developers planned. The way it is now, if you choose to do the area to the south first then east then north it's just as challenging to you as someone who started at the north and went round that way.

2) Yeah some classes can be a bit short on choices at certain levels, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a class where you don't get something each level (even if you can't choose it). But the slowness of levels comes back to my point above, the optional order means keeping the right level of challenge for players at all times. I like planning out my characters in detail in computer RPGs, and I'm not finding that this game prevents me from doing that.

3) That fight is a step up in difficulty that is for sure, it's probably the first big fight where there isn't an environmental "trick" to beating it. Took me a few attempts to beat it on the normal (middle) difficulty but I did without having to make it easier, it' does lean much more into the toolkit you bring (that certain Legendary Item you undoubtedly picked up on your way to that fight is really useful in this fight, plus is selecting the right kind of damage and using some good old Crowd Control and positioning). I do agree that its initial challenge is a bit of a leap over what you've had before, but it's certainly not "impossible" at level 6.

There is an encounter in the last act that is way more problematic that this and feels that you need a very specific set of consumables/spells to realistically beat it (the "cheese" tactic), which isn't great game design in all honesty. But that's one fight out of hundreds and in the act that's had the least early access play-testing.

Not sure why you find the map unreadable or the quest markers unclear (they seemed pretty clear to me as to where I needed to go)

In Act 1 there is the Everburn Blade and the Sword Of Tyr - both greatswords. There are also a couple of decent greataxes. I'm just arrived in Moonrise Towers and have a greatsword from the creche and a halberd which I bought recently - both are upgrades from the Act 1 gear.

In EA it was easy enough to be level 5 by the time you meet the githyanki patrol and it still is. It is easy enough to hit level 6 before reaching the shadow-cursed lands, i.e. while still in Act 1 (I hit L6 in the monastery IIRC). How you do 100 hours and are still at level 5 is beyond me.

For someone who claims to have played RPGs for over 30 years you seem somewhat ignorant of the fact that the character progression is largely down to the 5e rules rather than Larian per se.

Your #3 doesn't make sense. You start off by complaining about the 'inadequate level of difficulty' then immediately complain about a fight you could not win. I'm not entirely sure which fight you are describing. The most difficult fight I can think of in the Gauntlet of Shar is with Balthazar in Shadowfell. I certainly can't think of any fight with 'dozens' of enemies.
I haven't entered the Gauntlet yet in this run and I'm currently level 8.

To me the map and mini-map are the best improvements Larian made to the game. The origin DOS-style maps were terrible and completely defeated the purpose of a map.

For me, the most difficult fight was indeed in Shar's temple, more difficult than Raphael or even the final fight.
The thing is, it's not the one OP is talking about, it the one in Act 3 which resolves Shadowheart's story.
Nevertheless, on my second playthrough even this fight was easy enough.

I said about "feature test rolls" not the battles. From my experience in this game there is something wrong with rolls in battles because after hundriets of strikes with a weapon having damage spread like 8-48, ninety percent of damage results were around 10-11. I haven't seen any roll close to the upper limit.
Maybe the case is that almost all enemies have a bunch of resistances - not just one like for example from fire, but mostly all of them. Which is another flaw of this game. Because I'm asking what do I need different spells or weapon types for?

No. I don't agree with you about the dificulty levels.
Divinity games had other flaw which was lots of area spells and a complete mess in combat, and iven if you touchet a burning enemy with your sword you got burning status too - in result you ended hurting your characters ninety percent of times. I disliked it ver much.

He was talking about divinity he meant Divine Divinity or beyond divinity its a 21 and 19 year old games same as temple of elemental evil . And not Divinity Original Sin . Those are all different games. Of course same studio.

" damage spread like 8-48, ninety percent of damage results were around 10-11." My party's weapons range somewhere between 6-27 (rough guess) and hitting for 10-11 is very common. Bigger hits are not uncommon.

"Maybe the case is that almost all enemies have a bunch of resistances". It's simple enough to right-click and examine an enemy to see what its defences and whatnot are.

Sorry if I sound rude, but from what I am reading, you don't come over as an experienced player in any way. At the very least not experienced with CRPGs, maybe MMOs?

1. The way itemization goes in DnD, it is your gear, that really makes you powerful. As in real life, you stick a long time with what you have. Later on the itemization becomes a problem, because you get ridiculously powerful. Apart from that you can get some pretty amazing gear in act 1, if you are actually thorough, like the Blood of Lathander, Aluvae, Light of Creation, Spellsparker and so on.

2. Character development depends a lot on your class, some are outright boring (which is not the same es weak), others offer stuff at pretty much every level and you have multiclassing, which is absolutely bonkers in this game. Dare I suggest investing more time in game mechanics and less in looting vases? Games like BG3 life from experimenting and respeccing is very, very cheap.

3. If anything the game is to easy. The battle you are mentioning is kinda annoying, but it is over in a few turns, if you actually use the mechanics available to you. The way to do this is sneak into a better position and make use of your skills. I'm pretty much a noob regarding these games but could do it second try. An experienced player should have no problem at all.

I mean, you have every right to be disappointed, but at least be it for real reasons and not because of overlooking most of the stuff while being "extreme thorough"

"Usually in D&D the itemization is exactly like this, I think that Larian did an exceptional job at reproducing the itemization of a TTRPG campaign in this regard as well."

That is exactly what I'm saying. Read my feedback again. Table top rules shouldn't be transfered to a computer game like this. The rules, what we can do, the amount of fights and enemies... - everything is different. In table top game you do not need to focus on your character progres so much. And you need to stick to phisical objects you have - meaning dices you have.

"Not entirely sure I agree with what you are saying here. On first read it feels more like the feed back you'd expect from someone who is used to playing MMORPGs, where you can't go more than 10 minutes without getting another level or another piece of gear and the "challenge" is getting to the endgame to play with your mates as fast as possible."

No. I didn't say that. I don't expect the game to give me next level every ten minutes. And I wasn't complaiining about the long waiting time for the next level. BUT what I want to have is real bennefit from leveling up when it comes.

"He was talking about divinity he meant Divine Divinity or beyond divinity its a 21 and 19 year old games same as temple of elemental evil . And not Divinity Original Sin . Those are all different games. Of course same studio."

Oh, sorry. My mistake.

"Maybe the case is that almost all enemies have a bunch of resistances". It's simple enough to right-click and examine an enemy to see what its defences and whatnot are."

Yes I know that. That is why I'm saying this. I've checked this a lot of times.

"Sorry if I sound rude, but from what I am reading, you don't come over as an experienced player in any way. At the very least not experienced with CRPGs, maybe MMOs?"

You sound more like you didn't understand what I wrote.

"1. The way itemization goes in DnD, it is your gear, that really makes you powerful. As in real life, you stick a long time with what you have. Later on the itemization becomes a problem, because you get ridiculously powerful. Apart from that you can get some pretty amazing gear in act 1, if you are actually thorough, like the Blood of Lathander, Aluvae, Light of Creation, Spellsparker and so on."

I won't be arguing about that. I have omited only one side-plot from act 1 which was the cave from the well - the spiders were too powerful for me at that time. There was really nothing left in act one so... or we played different games or you are boasting too much.

"2. Character development depends a lot on your class, some are outright boring (which is not the same es weak), others offer stuff at pretty much every level and you have multiclassing, which is absolutely bonkers in this game. Dare I suggest investing more time in game mechanics and less in looting vases? Games like BG3 life from experimenting and respeccing is very, very cheap."

Don't agree. I had two figters, a mage and a rouge in my team. All of them had poor features at leveling up and all of them got only some hit points at some levels. Compare this with what you could have in Swoard Coast Legends.

"3. If anything the game is to easy. The battle you are mentioning is kinda annoying, but it is over in a few turns, "

If you ended the batle with Yurgir in "a few turns" you are definitely confabulating. There are plenty of topics in the net with people complaining about this boss and the fight. I killed it only because I've red some tips from the net about throwing at him a gas bomb - which is not logical in any way.
Off course you can make the fight a lot easer by talking the boss to kill his minions but the plea stands.

One more thing. It's nice that the developers gave us the opportunity to use the third dimension, but when implementing this solution, they got too excited about it. That's typical. How many times have I seen something like this in games. As a result, all these opponents placed on beams, platforms, corners of the ceiling... look absolutely weird. Nobody walks like that. As a result, the seams are coming out, it feels like we are dealing with a puzzle prepared by the game creator and not with the real situation in the game world. Hence, this next fight after killing Yourgir irritated me so much that I turned off the game and I don't want to come back to it for now. I'm not tempted by character development, or chaotic fights with teleporting enemies and my characters jumping around the battlefield like frogs, or a story whose plot threads have escaped me.
Of course, I realize that no one will do anything about it. These are shortcomings and incorrect assumptions that are too deeply embedded in the game. Unfortunately.
But I hope Larians wil hear me out and think twice developing their next game. There are people who are not pleased with their new game and they have reasonable reasons for that.

As I understand it from reading your original post, your main complaint is that the amount of power you gain per time invested isnt high enough - be that through new gear or new levels (in this case for the long waits between levels you want big steps up in power, but you can also have the same effect via frequent level gains for small steps in power). My point was that steep (or large) increases in power (vs time spent) is a core part of MMOs as they want you to get to the end-game/the latest stuff so you can play with everyone else and not feel "left behind". In non-MMO RPGs (like Baulders Gate) the focus is far more centered on your journey via the story and exploration of the (open (ish)) world and therefore a much lower increase in power per time spent is for the better as it keeps the challenge for the current act fairly consistent no matter the order you approach things in (as there's no set sequence you are required to tackle things in.


Or maybe there some things you've missed and you didnt realise? Did you get the sword from the Paladins of Tyr? (that would be a good item for your other fighter for example) Or the sword from the stone in the Underdark? There is also a legendary quality mace you can pick up in the Mountain Pass (granted that's probably not going to be so good for your party unless one of your fighters is dual wielding or using a shield and main hand combo - but it is very useful to have in act 2)


What would a "good" feature be?

Also you get more hit points at every level, depending on your class it depends how much - Fighters get 6 + constitution modifier, Wizards 4 + constitution modifier and Rogues 5 + constitution modifier - not some levels.

So far not one person seems to understand what you wrote rather than what you wrote being incorrect in any way, shape or form.

If the spiders were too difficult then go back later once you have gained a level. That fight is difficult but there are several things which can be done to make it easier.

You can talk Yurgir into killing himself as well as his minions. There are lots of vids on YT of people defeating Yurgir and his minions. Is this the fight you were referring to when you said "dozens of opponents"?

Average enemies do not "have a bunch of resistances". They may have a few but they are only resistances not immunities.

As has already been said, what you get at level up is mostly down to 5e rules, including the number of HP you get being dictated by the class.

"I had two figters, a mage and a rouge in my team. All of them had poor features at leveling up"
By level 5 all your party will have chosen a subclass and a feat or ability score increase. Your mage will have several more spells of various levels; the fighters and the rogue will have received more actions and passives; the rogue's sneak attack damage will have increased twice; and the two fighters each got an extra attack.
Unless I am missing something, at no level (1-12) does any of those classes receive only HP increases.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Fighter

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Wizard

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Rogue

I took it meaning that at some levels you only get HP, that is no feats or skills etc.

Ah yes.. sorry, can see that now and agree that's probably what he meant (rather than how I read it)