Firstly, I just want to say what a fabulous thread this is. Reading the answers to these questions from some of the people that I’ve come to respect and admire, via having read their opinions across several threads on these forums, is a pure delight. Some of their answers gave concrete words to what had only been vague feelings for me. Thank you Agent Wolfe for asking, and thank you to everyone that has taken the time to answer, whether in many words or few. I will try to be both as thorough and brief as those that have come before. I also stole Icelyn’s color coding, thanks for that visually appealing bit of code.

1. What do you think of BG3?
Of all the questions asked, I think this is by far the most difficult to appropriately answer. Much easier to produce a bulleted list of likes and dislikes, but those are subsequent questions. Therefore I understand this question to be asking me to summarize my thoughts on the game devoid of remarking on specific likes and dislikes. That is markedly not easy. What do I think? I think that for a game that I have such a laundry list of legitimate gripes against, that I sure do spend an awful lot of my free time playing it and or thinking about it. I’m already about halfway through Act 1 of my second playthrough, and I chose to play a character (race/class combination) that, prior to playing BG3, I don’t think I would have ever played at the tabletop. That such is true means that, clearly, Larian did many things right.
I stopped playing DOS:2, PF Kingmaker, and PF WoTR because they became unenjoyably repetitious, unrewardingly difficult, or unnecessarily convoluted. Even with all the complaints I have about BG3, I still never wavered in my desire to see where the story was going to go. Then, I saw where the story went, had a lot of complaints about it, and yet I find myself eager to play through it again with my new character.
So, I think if I was forced to sum up my thoughts in one sentence this is what I would say: Baldur’s Gate 3 is frustratingly awesome.

2. Did you play from early access or did you wait until full release?
I have a really interesting story to tell here. See, I was going to wait until the BG3 full release, and beyond, actually, to read some reviews and see whether it was worth the purchase. Specifically because I didn’t really like DOS:2 and therefore had trepidations about what Larian might do with a D&D based game. I was following it, mind you, talking about it with friends and family, but I wasn’t planning on buying it until I was sure it would be worth the money. Then my son bought it for me as a Christmas gift in December of 2021. So, I played early access starting then.
Part of me wishes I hadn’t. I wish that, because playing early access and having no experience with how that normally works, I went into it with the mistaken impression that my voice would be an important part of how the game developed. You’ve seen this complaint in many places across the boards: it wasn’t. If I had waited until full release, and read reviews, I’m still not sure I would have bought the game, even with how saturated my world wide web feeds were with articles and blogs about it.
I stopped playing early access after I realized that they were not going to increase the level cap, release any more areas, or take any of my, what I thought to be, loud advice about making the game adhere to the pen and paper rules more strictly. Then when the “full release” (aka EA 2.0, more on that later) came out, I figured I’d explore the world and maybe complete a few quests.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable?
For all its failings, which I’ll detail shortly, BG3 does still have the feel of playing D&D in a lot of aspects. It has definitive narrative arcs, albeit some that get a bit lost, or have some sizable holes in them, but story arcs nonetheless. That you can take or leave some of the individual arcs (read: kill companions) and the story continues apace, is an achievement. An achievement that I think is not heralded enough. I read somewhere that you can, quite literally, (or is it figuratively because it’s a game…) kill every NPC, including origin characters, in the game, and still progress through the main narrative quests without problem. That’s something to be lauded. Oh, that just gave me an idea. I wonder if you can kill Withers, because, you know… the ending.
Continuing with the D&D feel, the combat does operate in a way that rings true with the tabletop. I know that there are many that hate turn-based combat, but NOT having turn-based combat is one of the things that I have hated about every other CRPG that was based on the D&D brand. Yes, BG1&2, IWD1&2, Neverwinter(s), DDO, and even PF Kingmaker before they officially adopted somebody else’s mod as official content. D&D, at the tabletop, which for me IS D&D, has always had turn-based combat, and it affects combat viability. Something as simple as high initiative can drastically alter the outcome of combat when it is turn based. That’s what I’ve been used to at the table for 30+ years, and that’s what I like because of it. Real time with pause is not D&D to me. So kudos to Larian for at least sticking with that aspect. If I recall correctly there was a push at one time to lose the turn-based combat. I would enjoy this game far, far less if that aspect was removed.
What’s more, many of the spells bring to life my exact imaginings of how they’d operate when I play at the tabletop. Magic missile, I’m looking at you, quite often actually. Is it just me or are there a very limited number of enemies that have taken the shield spell? Nothing wrong with automatic damage.
If you compile all these things they fit under the header that started with: BG3 feels sufficiently, to me anyway, like playing D&D. I love D&D, and this game does a good job of giving me the feeling of playing it when I can’t be at the actual table with my friends. Which sadly, because trying to wrangle adult human schedules for a three hour sit-down even once a month is like herding cats, is far less often than I’d like.
Some of the things that give it a good feel, but that don’t necessarily have anything to do with D&D are, as others mentioned, the voice acting. High praise there all the way around. The voices bring the characters to life, even “minor” characters like Dammon or some of the goblins before I stabbed them in the back. The graphics! Standing atop some of the vistas and being able to look out at a real 3-dimensional world with light and shadow. That makes the game feel like you’re operating in a real world, of sorts, albeit a magical one. I’m going to complain about the camera in a little bit, but being able to use that camera to see a living, breathing, topographically realistic world is amazing. It’s clear the game developers took their time with a lot of things that had to do with making a visually and auditorily pleasing world. They deserve credit for it.

4. What about the least enjoyable?
I’m guessing this will not come as a shock to anyone, but a lot of the things I don’t like about this game have to do with things that divert away from the pen and paper rules and tabletop expectations. At some point, maybe as part of the “Definitive Edition” (more on that later) I’d like there just to be a toggle-able “D&D RAW” mode. Since there isn’t, here are my complaints, in no particular order.
-Character Creation-
The fact that you can’t actually roll dice to create character stats really bothers me. This is, again, one of those areas where Larian either thought the balance curve would be thrown off if players were able to roll stats, or that casual gamers who didn’t know anything about D&D might be overwhelmed by the prospect. Which is the worst of poppycock, for two reasons. Firstly, because the game IS DESIGNED with rolling for stats as one of the methods of character creation. It is balanced with that method in mind. Secondly, because rolling for stats could have just been an option. For those that didn’t want to roll for stats, just give them the standard array and off they go.
Another thing about character creation that I don’t like, that has made the rounds around the forum, is the fact that they removed all the species’ bonuses for whatever reason. Ergo, elves are supposed to get a +2 to Dexterity. No, not in BG3.To me that removes the power of the diversity of the races. If no race is mechanically any different than all the rest, the only applicable difference between them is aesthetic, which is pointless. Celebrating diversity doesn’t mean making everybody the same. It means celebrating the fact that they have real differences.
Point being, I have always liked the way you can customize a character using the D&D rules. Larian decided they didn’t. It bothers me. Next…

-Shove!-
Oy. Just, oy.

Part and parcel of Shove, but also its own entity: -allocation of action economy-
Ergo actions and bonus actions, when, how many, what you can do with them, etcetera. Why is it that if a character is dropped to zero hit points, and then they are healed, they can’t act normally? That’s not how it works in the rulebooks. I mean, please don’t tell me that it’s because of some attempt at verisimilitude, because, again, SHOVE! The game’s operation of the Shove action (which is what it is supposed to be) defies the laws of physics, the rules as written, and even just normal expectation. Yet, when a character stands up, healed, after having been unconscious for the nonce, they can’t take a full retinue of actions? Come on Larian, you either want things to operate somewhat like real life, or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
Speaking of having it both ways…

-The fact that some narrative content is tied to the quantity of long rests you take?!-
I cannot fathom this at all. In the beginning of the game several of the companions urge you with all sincerity to rest as little as possible because you might turn into a mind-flayer at any moment. This fits very well with the story’s implied urgency, and connects the game to its D&D roots. At the tabletop if your party is taking a long rest after every even remotely difficult encounter, your DM is likely to send a “random” encounter at you while you attempt to rest. Yet, here, in this video game where companion characters urge you to NOT rest, if you don’t long rest like, what, I don’t know, 39 times during Act I alone, you are likely to miss a bunch of story content. Ridiculous. Speaking of narrative content…

-Way too many plot inconsistencies and holes-
I cannot imagine the geometry of the web of interconnected storylines that game developers had to try to keep track of, and account for. I’m sure it was/is daunting. Yet even so, if you are going to attempt to produce something as narratively ambitious in scope as this game wants to be, you’d better get it right, because the errors become glaring and off-putting when you don’t. Non-player characters commenting on things that “happened” that haven’t really happened yet is totally immersion breaking. I’ve also got a personal gripe with how some of the mechanical elements of important story moments take place. I mentioned this in another thread somewhere, but when I went in to rescue Gale from the blood-suited one, upon freeing him he was level 2 and only had 14hp and minimal spells/spell slots. I realized, almost immediately, that the reason had to be because my main character was a wizard, and so I had left Gale at camp permanently, and the game only levels up camp characters when they join your party. In that story scenario Gale was in the initiative as an ally, but was not technically part of my party, and therefore did not trigger the level up. This creates a scenario where if a player wants to make sure all their camp companions stay on level with them, they’ll have to dismiss their current party and add the other companions just to level them. That’s stupid, and annoying. I realize that being in charge of how companions level is important, but it should be able to be instigated in an easier way. Off the top of my head, make them pop up the little exclamation point over their head at camp saying they want to talk to you, and then just make “Level up” one of the dialogue options. Small digression, but it does fit under the umbrella of narrative issues.

-Magic Items-
There are WAY too many of these in the game, and they are way too weird. Momentum? Lightning charges? Dafuq? Strange combinations of a little bonus here and a little adjustment there? This is something that is not often brought up, but somebody, or somebodies, had to sit around and come up with all those weird magical items and then code them into the game? For my money, all of the time they spent crafting all that magical weirdness would have been much better spent polishing the narrative web! Not to mention that they just completely abandoned the RAW attunement mechanics, which I think makes magic items a more enjoyable part of the game, because of the challenge of managing them. If the developers had just taken the magic items out of the sourcebooks verbatim, they’d have had much less time to spend coming up with “cool” magic items of their own. The way magic items are implemented now it’s clear that they want players to search for the perfect “kit” that synergizes all items to a specific purpose. With the way inventory management doesn’t work, that’s a headache inducing exercise. Once again, I’d have much preferred a D&D RAW approach here.
Speaking of inventory management.

-Inventory Management-
This is well documented. It’s a shart-show. Now made all the worse by having companions that leave your party handing over darn near everything in their freaking inventory to you. What am I pack mule now? The game encourages you to loot containers, bodies, chests, and baskets, but then your inventory looks like a rainbow wall of items, many of which, in the end, turned out to not be useful at all. Heaven forbid, though, you pick up an item that’s quest related, not realize it, sell it, and then the person you sold it to is no longer available because you switched acts. Inventory needs an overhaul. I’d say I spent at least 20-30% of my playtime managing inventory. If I wanted to play “Baldur’s Pack Organizer 3,” I’d have bought that game.

Okay, as promised: -the camera-
Ye demi-gods! The camera. I know I praised how the camera allows for some beautiful vista views before, but the routine interaction of the camera to the environment is troublesome at best. I cannot tell you the number of times I wanted to click on a space on the floor on the other side of a door, and instead my character went and closed or opened the door instead. Or how many times I’ve tried to target something in combat, only to realize I needed to do a massive camera swivel just to get the system to recognize that, yes, indeed, I am within range and have line of sight to that target. One of the worst culprits as far as the camera is concerned is verticality. I just love going up a set of stairs to nowhere, it’s so fun. Toggling the overhead view is rarely helpful, especially with the verticality issues. It’s a well-known issue. I just think it’s one that is so tied to the engine of the game that Larian doesn’t have the time or energy to work on a complete overhaul. I know there are mods, but modding the game until we are out of what I like to call EA 2.0 is not advisable, because any update or hotfix could break the mod. Ergo I don’t plan on adding any mods for quite some time.
Speaking of…

As promised: -Early Access 2.0-
Yeah, you heard me, that’s what we’re all in, whether anyone admits it or not. The number of patches and hotfixes coming out will remain steady for at least another year, if not longer. If Larian’s past is any indicator of their future. Did anyone even read the entirety of the list for the Patch 3 update? It’s a ghastly tome of corrections, and they’ve added a completely new feature to the game, “the magic mirror.” A feature added because of player feedback. Do you know when gaming studios add features due to player feedback? It’s called early access. Now, I know that modern gamers fully expect there to be updates after a game releases into the wild, but an update with that many adjustments plus new added features??!! We’re clearly another full calendar year away from the actual “full release” of this game. We’re all still guinea pigs, and the people who are waiting for the “Definitive Edition” will actually play the game as it’s meant to be. That’s why the name of such editions is “definitive;” they define what the game was supposed to be. “Is this the real game now, finally?” They’ll ask. “Yes, it’s definitive.”
Right now, though, it’s definitively not great. It needs work. Thankfully, they are working on it. As patches and hotfixes clearly indicate. I’m grateful for that. I’m glad Larian is standing behind their product and admitting, “yeah, it could have been better,” and then working to make it so.
Speaking of making it better…

-Level Cap-
The current level cap seems absurdly arbitrary. Thirteen is exactly halfway through what the DMG refers to as the ”Masters of the Realm” tier of play. I’ve mentioned this in other threads as well, but the grandiosity of some of the endgame villains, as well as the scope of the ramifications of those battles and choices made elsewhere, is on par with top tier play. If you want the characters to feel like Masters of the World then they should actually be of a level where they can alter world events. Overthrowing a bloody warship sized Elder Brain that is equipped with a legendary artifact level magic item is absolutely Master of the World level stuff. If I were DMing this campaign and threw a party of level thirteen people into that scenario, they’d gather torches and pitchforks and run me out of town.
I’m of a mind that Larian just decided thirteen was the end point because a lot of the classes get features at 14, 15, and 16 that would be much harder to implement. Although why they would worry about what the books say at that point is beyond me. They haven’t worried about what the books say anywhere else.

That is, I know, a healthy list of complaints. Therefore, I feel it is vastly important after having thrown down that dirty laundry list of gripes to remind everyone that I, for all those faults, still very much enjoy the game overall. Is it perfect? Is any game? No. Is it above average? Yes, in many ways. Also, no, it isn’t, in many ways. It’s a work in progress, and it is a work that is progressing. Be glad of it. Play it for what it is, and let’s all continue discussing what doesn’t work with the hopes that it will improve accordingly.

5. What would you like to see added? Any DLC, tweaks or extra features?
As indicated above, I am in desperate desire of a “D&D RAW” mode toggle button. Whether that happens as Larian officially adopts Zerd’s RAW mod, after it’s complete and thoroughly bug-tested, or they come up with it on their own, I don’t care, but give me what I, and many others, thought you were making from the very beginning: a D&D video game. As is we have a “sort of D&Desque” video game. It’s D&D-ish enough that it takes a dull fingernail to that itch, but I’m looking for a bear claw back scratcher.
I would hope there’s no DLC. The game is complete. It just needs polishing, LOTS of polishing. If they can get it polished that will be enough. I wouldn’t mind, as others have suggested, perhaps a Baldur’s Gate 2.5 where we get to play through some of the lead up stories to this story. Or even a Baldur’s Gate 4, where we have to deal with the aftermath of this story and try to help a mostly destroyed city with a power vacuum rebuild from the devastation.

6. Do you use any mods? If so which and why?
As mentioned, no, and I won’t until there is a solid indication that no more patches or hotfixes are on the horizon. While we’re in EA 2.0, I won’t be modding the game. However much I’d like to.

7. Do you play any other kind of D&D, Baldur's Gate or Forgotten Realm games/campaigns?
So, that’s a loaded question, partially because you didn’t make a distinction between computer games and tabletop. I currently DM a D&D game and am a player in another, albeit in home crafted worlds, but for both games we play using the D&D 5e ruleset. As mentioned elsewhere within my answers, I’ve played just about every D&D-ish game there is, and I’m talking about going all the way back to games like Bard’s Tale. I have not, though, played Planescape Torment, or the Tomb of Elemental Evil. For whatever reason, I avoided those games. I may play them yet, but I haven’t. Ever hear of a seriously crappy game called D&D Daggerdale? Yeah, I even played that one. You want to talk about an atrocious game, that’s definitely one. Perhaps it’s because of my lengthy experience with D&D based CRPGs that I feel so strongly about BG3. Like, I think it was Niara, said upthread, this game has such outstanding potential, but massively under-delivers. That’s disappointing, but it’s just good enough to keep me playing, and for that reason it proves itself better than the smattering of games I tried, and never finished.

TL;DR version: BG3 isn’t bad, it’s D&D-ish enough to keep me entertained, but it could have been one of the best games of all time! Seeing that missed potential, I believe, is what makes so many people so passionate about what doesn’t work.