Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General am i supposed to do ALL side content?

im in act one with about 40 hours of gameplay. level 6, and explored most of the underdark, and could now proceed to act 2.
however, i still have the entire northern region of the map completely unexplored.
i never went past the bridge where raphael appears. and i don't really have any reason to. my adventures just didn't bring me there naturally.
i would probably end up level 7 or 8 if i did more content, in a game where the level cap is 12. and im only 1/3 into the game.

so should i just go on and ignore that? so i have more content to explore on another playthrough?
i also feel like it breaks the flow of the story. my group now went from the grove, to the blighted village, to goblin camp, underdark, etc. as the story kept progressing and they found more clues to solve their "situation".
now i should only proceed to moonrise towers, or whatever it's called, there's really no reason why my characters would go all the way back out and go do some random side content in another part of the map, you know what i mean?
the only clue that would bring me to that part is the lae'zel quest. however, we already figured out the tadpole is magic and can't be removed by normal means, and our objective is certainly not the creche.

thoughts?

You can skip it. Nothing really important there, although Ugly Yellow Toad will keep on whinning. But she will grow out of it. Eventually ...
Yeah, take that route on another playthrough.

…….. The creche isn’t side content. You shouldn’t skip it. It leads to major plot developments. Plus you will gain a full level while there.

1) No, you don't need to do all the side content.

2) Leveling slows down as you increase in level. Doing ALL side content (And killing every enemy) you reach Act 2 at around level 7-8 and reach level 10 by Act 3. It's only in Act 3 when you can hit level 12 early and still have some content left to do (At which point you get to use your full build which isn't a major downside)

As far as the northern part of the bridge... There's a companion to find there, some story to discover and the creche which provides a MASSIVE plot element as well as a plethora of useful items. So... Well worth checking out.

In my opinion you will be underleveled in Act 2 if you skip the creche/cloister Rosemorn. Does not count in Tactician (and of course not in Easy/Normal) but in Honour mode it does. There are two fights a bit difficult in Rosemorn, but you get precious xp and some good items. I also question myself, why would you want to avoid content in a game you play because of the content? There is nothing in Act 2 which will be not there if you stayed in Act 1 a bit longer.

Rosemorn Monastary map gives 5-7k XP. That's one level. YMMV but it allows me to enter Shadowlands very deep into 6th, and I level up on the way to Moonrise or the Inn. There are several quests I do skip in Act 1, so maybe finishing Act 1 on 7th is possible.
In short - I do not think that skipping that map and entering Act 2 early in 6th lvl leaves one underleveled. In Act 2 there is a tonload of easy XP around, you rake up two levels without really noticing. Shadow Cursed Ravens are the easiest XP in the game - just
Lay'zel whinning aside the Mountain Pass map is irrelevant to the main story.

If you have to do something, you will usually find out. You will also get warnings if progressing the story cuts you off from finishing quests in the previous area or if you are too low in level to enter a new one. That being said, skipping things also influences the story and skipping things a character shows strong interest in, influences their story.

well, because not taking a choice *is* a choice and it should lead to more content. for example if you explored everything and found auntie ethel and decided to kill her, im assuming it would lead to a different outcome rather than not having ever met her.
assuming she has a part in other acts. but anyway, you get the example. also i don't wanna burn through all the content in one single playthrough.
"you can't see all the content in one playthrough" yes you can. you might not see all the outcomes, but you can see all the content. say, i go to the grove. and decide to help the tieflings. im not gonna see the content related to finishing the rite of thorns, but on another playthrough, i will already know that the content is there. there's not gonna be any novelty of exploring etc... basically i will see the same content but just take another choice instead. that's my logic anyway.

If you have some painting skills, the portrait in the creche is worth doing, ha ha.

Purely from a roll-playing standpoint you don't have to go to the creche. You also don't have to go to the grymforge... in both cases you pass up experience and some good loot if you skip though.

Ok, I see. I stopped my first release campaign with lvl 10 at the start of Act 3 due to the disappointing design, now in Honour mode I'm lvl 12 relatively early in Act 3, and I'm glad I took all xp I got as early as possible. But it's a bit of a problem that I never played the difficult Act 3 encounters before. If you are planning such a run, you should play the whole game before in normal modes (I obviously violated my own advice, but anyway ...). There are two difficult fights in the creche, one of them (Captain) was one of the two wipes of my first playthrough. You should try them before trying Honour mode. I could not bear more than two playthroughs, but maybe you are different.

The party will be only underlevelled for in act two if you skip the creche. Act three grants so much experience that the party will hit the max level anyway.

In my experience, doing everything until act 2 is optimal. Act 3 is so filled with free XP that you can get away by doing barely more than the required quests then rush the final boss.

I'm no genius but getting to Moonrise Towers on Hard with 3-member lvl 6 party was not particularly exacting. But it was not the first time I got there.
I will repeat myself - IMO skipping that whole map will not hamstring the party much, if at all. In Act 2 there is lots of XP. And not all must come from combat - several powerfull foes can be "defeated" with Charisma Checks :P