Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Level Cap and Second Chapter for Early Access

Just wondering ; Is the level cap for early access going to stay at 4 until full release? And will Early Access go beyond the first chapter in the New Year?

Played through once and can't wait for new content and a higher level cap.

To answer the second part (concerning chapter two), I believe Larian has said that EA will only chapter one (which we don't have all of yet). I do expect that we will see more of chapter 1 before the end of early access. As to the level cap, I can't speak on that, but I hope we get at least one more level in early access, if only to play with level five abilities

EA for Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2 both were just the first area from what I can recall. Level cap might go up, don't know.

levelcap raised to 5 would help a lot if they want more feedback for the underdark areas, as it stands now its asking for death or having to constantly reload saves to beat some of the lopsided encounters caused by the level cap being at 4

They certainly better - lest they will be putting a poison seed into their game because the only ones who will give feedback on the later content will be the same people who are challenge junkies. As a result, they will end up building a game that caters to them and makes the game inaccessible to everyone else, making the game flop.

I would love to be able to test level 5 - it adds a whole new spell level and some mechanics that would benefit from EA testing.

• 3rd level spells - it's the first level where strong AOEs (damage or control) is introduced. Would also love to see if they implement things like Fly, etc. I would love to see how that balances things out.
• Extra Attacks - unlike previous editions, 5E in PnP is super flexible with extra attacks. You can attack and move in any combination - would love to see if Larian keeps that.

If we look at the past at DOS2 - anything that went through the EA (fort joy) was definitely of higher quality.

I would rather prefer more classes for the EA and focus on base mechanics. The way the game works now makes me warry of playing it further as the balance/action economy is already questionable.

I agree but we really need level 5 as well for the 3rd levels spells.

Mechanics are important. Right now the Abjurer's mechanics are so messed up that it is not worth playing. (Arcane Ward is NOT temp HP).

Follow that up with Fireball being the wizard's power curve jump at level 5. And look at the Abjurer getting access to their key spells for counterspell and display magic.

I think level 5 is one of the most import levels to look at for everything you said.

Wait is that how they are doing it? I was hoping since its a video game that extra attack was like a separate option like an ability where you do a new attack animation and hit twice. If it's the same animation just twice then that absolutely makes melee classes boring and get even more outshined by mages. Essentially auto attacking from beginning to end game with no progression visually unlike mages. That actually gives me pause.

Now i'm on board for to see level 5. I hate when games give bias to mages and refuse to give actual abilities to melee. Pathfinder did that and I hated it. Mages can explode cities but you can swing twice and they wont even make it flashy? That'd be a red flag for me. I haven't even thought about it till now. Thanks I guess.

This is how they should do it. It's unclear how they will do it.

I see three scenarios given BG3's current UI:
1.) The standard "attack" button (that all classes get) is changed for classes with extra attack so that when you click it, you always attack the full # of times. You attack the same target. (Worst option)
2.) A whole new icon "extra attack" is added to the hotbar. When you click this icon (it costs an action), you attack the full # of times. You can target attack multiple people, as long as you can reach all of them without moving, similar to magic missile. (mediocre)
3.) You get an extra attack icon and an "extra attack resource" similar to superiority die but that refreshes per turn (or the button is clickable multiple times per turn). Each click of this "extra attack" icon spends one of those uses. The first click costs an action, but subsequent clicks are free? (good)

Given that other 5e mechanics have been condensed into single buttons (e.g., many maneuvers & sneak attack are activated after a successful hit in 5e, but are chosen before an attack is made in BG3), I'd say that option #2 is most likely.

p.s. there's also the cursed option, where every extra attack you get adds an additional icon to your hotbar xD

If we're going to be limited to Chaoter One for Early Access when is the full product meant to be coming out? Some time in 21 I know. But anything more specific than that?

It was supposed to come out at best after one full year of EA, which means October 2021.
If the entire history of software development taught us something, is that any initial prediction is an optimist prediction, so I'm going to guess early or mid 2022.

That does not solve the issue though. In pnp its fine since you use your imagination. In a video game that is absolutely boring completely unfair compared to mages. I think this is what the devs were talking about early on for adding stuff for melee classes but lets face it regardless of mechanics it's boring. It's a valid concern I share now.

Who knows how much freedom they have from WOTC, but at higher levels prepare to feel bad as a melee and all hail mages. Some things don't work in video games.

And then they "fix" it by adding a hex-like foldout option for all the extra attack icons

November 31, 2021

Yeah, that's true. At the same time I would prefer more classes to have a newer experience. Going through the whole ordeal again just to get LVL5 to see something new is a bit deflating for me I guess its just because the party I would love to try out consists of a paladin, bard, druid and ranger, while cleric and mage are very, very low on my list of things I enjoy to use

But probably from a development perspective getting the fundamentals right going for level 5 would be the right next step having to just spend time on getting the current 6 classes up a level giving more resources to deal with existing issues and getting comparable feedback to the one they had before.

To be honest, they need to fix the bugs and mechanics they have now, not give us new ones... The only new content in early access that I would count on is new classes and races.

I too, would heartily welcome an increase in the level cap and the next chapter to explore. I believe it would be of great benefit to see the possibilities and limits that become available with the fifth level, and it would assist in eliminating flaws and errors that may remain in the finished game, should this proposal not be considered.

I am hoping that they can do it in an elegant way (not too many icons) that can still let us apply proper abilities to attacks (i.e. Battlemaster Menacing Attack X2). I would hate to see games mechanics changed because Larian couldn't figure out an UI issue.

Here's potentially one simple way to do it:

1) Whenever a character with Extra Attack takes an attack action, immediately after, all their non-attack full-actions are greyed out (i.e. spells, channel divinity, etc). All abilities that work with extra attack (i.e. superiority dice) should still work.

2) Some visual indicator should let the player know they have an Extra Attack Action remaining: i.e. below the portrait, the green circle (for action) should be replaced (maybe a white circle for example).* Maybe something non-intrusive around the ability bar to remind you why some abilities are greyed out


* The circles are important to track because you can theoretically action surge after 1 attack, and you'll want a green + white circle to indicate you have a full action + 1 extra attack action. In that unique scenario, your other abilities are no longer greyed out. If you attack again, it burns the extra attack first.

I'd be happy with your example. Although I don't think you're allowed to action surge after 1 attack (when you still have extra attacks remaining). AFAIK, you can only move or perform free actions between extra attacks. As Action Surge costs a bonus action, it would be a greyed-out icon until you spend all your extra attack white circles.

That said, the "white circles" are still necessary as an indicator of how many extra attacks you have left. Hopefully all the greyed out icons would also show why they're greyed out when you hover over them: e.g., "You must use your remaining X extra attacks"