Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Railroading and realism

I have played table top D&D since Gary Gynax and Ed Greenwood made it in 1976. Yes, I am an ancient one Two things trouble me about BG3.
#1 - You have a few choices but they aren't really choices. There was one part where I had to talk to a hobgoblin and I had to make a Perception or Deception roll and failed that roll and got attacked and killed eight times. This should not be. Any good Dungeon Master or D&D table top player will tell you that this is called "railroading" and it ruins immersion and roleplaying for the game. If your entire livelihood depends on THIS ONE ROLL .. that's not D&D. That's gambling. This isn't a Craps Shoot, it's an RPG game. I'm not saying that if you make bad decisions you don't pay the price. What I'm saying is you can't have entire story arcs go only one direction all because you failed ONE roll of a d20. For instance, if you need to get into a room that has a locked door and there is no key or weak wall to break, or you can't break down the door and what you need to complete a quest is behind that door, you can't rely on this all or nothing lockpick roll (especially if you have no Rogue). Otherwise, you're party can't progress or, like in the hobgoblin case, you get killed over and over again until you somehow succeed that roll.
#2 - Realism is a thing. True, we are dealing with magic, monsters, and fantasy elements but unless an alarm is raised or someone runs for help, if you kill a small group of goblins in a secluded room in the lower regions of an abandoned keep, unless one of them escapes to get help or somehow raises an alarm, the entire keep won't be alerted to your presence. This happened in the goblin camp (spoiler alert). My party killed the goblins in the room, Five and Three did NOT make it to the door to get help, we saved the druid, and the entire goblin camp and every enemy in it all came to attack us as soon as we got in sight. This was frustrating and unrealistic. Goblins don't have that good of hearing. There is no realistic way that goblins 300 feet away can hear a battle through thick stone walls and understand they have intruders and need to attack them. Otherwise, every time you killed anything in the first room of a dungeon you would have a few precious moments to catch your breath before the ENTIRE undead army with it's lich necromancer leader and five bosses would all congregate towards that first room to attack you.
Otherwise, I like what you've done. It looks great, feels great, and I look forward to the things you will develop with it!

I'll second this. Greybeards gotta stick together.

#1 seems to be more an issue with the game difficulty and not the one roll. Or not necessarily even the difficulty, as apparently there are a great many people that can exploit the ruleset and make every fight rather a breeze. I daresay Larian simply does a bad job at explaining things to the player, how to deal with issues that arise through combat.

#2 is certainly a debatable thing. I am not that far, but I suppose if the captured Druid is seen walking free, the whole camp would indeed turn hostile? But there could be bugs with that I suppose. You could argue though that fighting noises in a cave or building with explosions, fire and the general clang and screaming would alert quite the neighbourhood. It sure is inconsistent, as you explained in your example, but I suppose this is just a way how Larian balances engagements.

A situation about realism just came up today when I was playing. I need to kill a boss and she is in a corner room with only two guards (one is also a boss). I go to attack the first boss (so I only have to deal with three enemies - trying to play it smart), got the surprise roll, but SOMEHOW, five goblins also joined the fight from the large front room that was over 100 ft away without any alarms or any other way to alert them. No, the druid is not with me. Only me and my three companions. To prove how far away the five goblins were in the large front room, it took them three or more turns (full movement speed) to reach my party. By the time "reinforcements" reached us, we had already killed one goblin, almost had the goblin boss dead, and the drow was already hit as well. ALSO, the three goblins in the room RIGHT NEXT TO THE ROOM WE WERE FIGHTING IN did not aggro or join the fight. How is it five goblins from over 100 FT away joined the fight but the three in the room right next to us did not?

Do you have an example of a game that showcases what you are looking for?

I agree to 1 and have to inform you that number 2 is a bug or I have expiranced a bug where no alarm was raised.
I have killed everything the children and the worgs, wargs or dogs or what ever they are. No alarm at all.
But you are right.

Question is why cant I talk to the boss and enrage him or use my tadpole or other skills in to tricking him to attack me? Why the shoehorning? I have a magic gua´uld worm in my head that can control others. Why not use him to let others attack me and give me the "self defense" option.

On point 2, I assume your talking about 3 and 5 in the room with Halsin? If that's the case I can confirm its possible to clear that room and free him without making the rest of the keep hostile. Either someone did escape, there's a wardrum somewhere in there (although I don't recall one), in conversation you asked Halsin to follow you (he actually suggests he doesn't immediately follow, saying doing so will likely make the whole keep hostile), you made them hostile in another way, or its a bug. But you CAN clear that (and most) rooms in the goblin camp provided your careful and destroy any wardrums, without triggering the rest of the goblins.

Apart from wardrums, someone escaping to alert others, and going with Halsin, the only way to alert the whole keep and camp that I'm aware of is to kill all three leaders.

Oh this sounds like a bug indeed, though. I was able to fight Goblins room by room.