Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback (SPOILER) Necromancy of Thay is a BIG let down.

Think about it. You go to the basement of a ruined building in a goblin ridden town. You find a hidden passage. You negotiate with a mirror. (A mirror! Who can WIN the argument by the way!) You explore a crypt like lab, you pick the foreboding lock, you steal the book you escape the self closing door, you hunt for clues, you jump in a well, you reload you game repeat- I mean you defeat like seven spiders on your first try, you find a Kaju monster spider, you die- imean you defeat by completely legitimate means, you find the Dark Crystal like in the one 80s movie, you pick that crystal in that stupid book, THEN you pass 3, THREE, wisdom checks in a row which require a 10 then a 15 then a 20!!! You finally get the sucker to work for you THEN

You only get a Speak with Dead spell that you ALREADY HAVE from a necklace that is one-thousand times easier to get in the first dungeon of the whole game.

WHAT?!?

(any thoughts on the subject welcome, but still, why is Larian toying with me?)

Maybe you might not want to pass all the checks.
Maybe you will suddenly be on a path to being a phylactery sauce.
Maybe it's intended.


Well what did we do?

Read D&D lore on the "Pale Master". This book in EA may not be the final purpose, maybe just wishful thinking.

I thought the main purpose of the book was being food for Gale, anyway.

EDIT. But no, seriously, I can see the reason for the disappointment.

I'm thinking that besides the speak with dead spell, one of the checks is for a higher level spell that's not in game yet, and the other check is for some event that we'll see later in the full game.

I also thought it was a rather underwhelming reward. If the Speak with Dead spell was a reward just for assembling the book then I suppose it'd be a fitting reward since it requires you to explore two separate optional areas as well as defeat one of the more dangerous monsters in the first act of the game. The spell by itself would be a neat little reward since it'd give one of your characters permanent accessibility to the spell meaning you wouldn't have to carry the amulet from the very first dungeon around for the entirety of the game.

...But this is not the case. Instead the spell is locked behind three brutal DCs that you only get one attempt at. Failing at any point makes you unable to retry deciphering the book and gives you a permanent negative status effect. I suppose you could just leave the book in your inventory until later in the game where you might have access to more skill modifiers, proficiency bonuses and so on. But I feel that the longer you hold onto the book the less meaningful the reward becomes since it means you'd have to continue relying on the amulet or a cleric.

I think they either should reduce the brutality of the skill checks or add a greater reward for passing all 3 checks. However this seems like a bad course of action since they seem to want to avoid situations that'd leave to save scumming (I'm basing this on the recent IGN interview where Swen Vincke talked about their analytics picking up quest locations where they find a lot of players reloading their saves) which many players will feel compelled to if the reward is too lucrative.

Another option you have when opening the book is giving it to one of your companions instead. Some of them will accept the book, but I don't know if this actually does anything. Their dialogue seems to imply that they'll keep it for later, but I didn't choose this option during my playthrough so I don't know if this leads to them eventually uncovering the book's secrets somewhere down the line.

All things considered I feel like the book and its associated quest remains shrouded in mystery. I suppose it's fitting for the book, but I'd really like to know what exactly all the fuzz is about.

Yeah, I want some real Necromancy, not just a spell that can't even make corpses talk if they don't want to.

I can certainly confrim that you will get Speak with Dead even if you pass only one wisdom check ...
I have the feeling that you will get it even if you fail even first wisdom check, but im not exactly sure about that one right now. :-/

Therefore i dare to presume that its only first of possible rewards ... that is not yet implemented.
Either that, or you need to have (again not yet implemented) Necromancer specialization to get its full potential.

Yeah it was. Hoping it will have other uses later


Given that the name is supposed to make one think of the Necromonicon sounds like it could be a way let someone dual class as a warlock. Hmmm. Who am I am speaking to?

Hmm, interesting. If it actually has additional rewards locked behind the second and third checks then I can definitely get behind.
Considering there's a penalty for also failing the same skill checks that gradually increase in difficulty I think it'd definitely add a solid sense of "how far are you willing to go?" It's an evil tome after all.

Evil is realtive therm. :P

Hmm yeah was tempted to make a cleric of the necromancy god and see if that made any difference (similar to some of the other gods special options usually just letting you bypass charisma checks) but its so much work and time to get through the game up to that point for something that is likely just not fully implemented and besides I like worshipping a Spider Queen of the Demonweb Pits even if it seems that none of the cleric features are implemented like deity specific spells and seems like most of the domains aren't even implemented then again I'm not familiar with 5e DnD I got more into Pathfinder when that came out the cleric class in that is so much more in depth like 12 deities each with their own specific mix of domains/spells/weapon proficiencies and role play potential. Its just too bad Pathfinder: KIngmaker doesn't have Co-Op.

Necromancy of Thay book is a big let down if Larian Studios is going to make us go though this much trouble to pass all of the cheeks than they need to give us something like a unique spell you can't get from levelling up

Oh yeaaaaaah that was to this point ingame by far the greatest disappointment I had.

^
At least for a couple of minutes.
Cause the "EA" hope was rekindled quite quickly - this is not the finished version.
If that is not a placeholder, it will be this games biggest Meme disappointment for years to come!

" Hey remember that one time you finally opened the Necromancy book of Thay? "


Even just killing that Tiefling runaway for Zariels homies got us a reward more in the class of things I expected.

If it turns out to be an Artifact that keeps rewarding and those checks were for attunement, it would be a lot cooler.

It feels like this more like an artifact for some of our companions (who can also be played as protagonists in the final version), not the custom MC. For example, to Gale the book is just another magic slurpy, but for Astarion it's so important that there are upcoming cutscenes of him interacting with it and trying to learn its secrets. At first I thought "ah, good old Astarion being the power-hungry lil sucker". However, after a second run I suspect that he is hoping to find a way to un-undead himself (after all, the wizard who owned the place was hellbent on achieving true resurrection, not just making zombies) - and the book plays a major role in his playthrough.

Ooh, I like that theory. It's a better explanation than Astarion being power hungry, desperate and a little stupid - which he is, don't get me wrong, but his desire for the book seems disproportionate to anything we know about its importance.

It would be indeed more rewarding if we wouldnt get the neclace in the very beginning in a hard to miss location

I think it actually has something to do with a companion not in the game yet. I remember reading about it while trying trying to get more proof of class and race of that companion to no avail.

Well, 3rd level spells aren't implemented yet. And the granddaddy necromancy spell Animate Dead is 3rd level. So perhaps the book grants speak with dead with the first check, and Animate dead with the 2nd & or 3rd check. If Larian doesn't do that then I will just feed it to Gale.