Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback I hope they don't make every single encounter a major challenge

I mean I don't mind the game being designed around either way honestly, but I have played games that have dynamically managed the level range, and NO, that does by no means guarantee a victory. Just because you are all the same level, does not take into account elites, or other more powerful version of combatants that are still at your level, but could kick you ass. A perfect example is the spider cave battle with the patriarch, which honestly, I though was one of the most challenging fights in the game. They were the same level, and that fight could wipe out your party in any round if it got the right rolls.

I'm sure it can be done well. I just don't trust Larian to do very much well these days. I like to scout things out, decide that something is too difficult right now and either come back later or do research on whatever it is I'm fighting so I get an edge. If everything scales with your level, the former doesn't really work.

Haha. 3 out of my 6 playthroughs have been with naked MCs. In one during patch 2, I didn't even level them up beyond 2.


We'll see what patch 4 brings, but as of now, this game's capacity for cheese is still endless. You can make it more challenging for yourself by coloring within the lines, but the lines aren't a barrier, at least not yet. You can color outside of them. I can solo the phase spiders with a level 2 Lae'zel.

That is you opinion, in mine they are doing a very good job, and since it is only like what 4 months in alpha, they have room to fine tune issues. It is way to early to state that Larian is just doing a terrible job. Maybe if things haven't been addressed in like 6 months I may start to change my opinion. But overall, I am very happy with the direction of the game besides some little issues with mechanics.

I never said that they're doing a terrible job; there's no need to put words in my mouth. I am, however, quite familiar with the design and development process; I'm not new to dealing with prototypes. Based on what I've seen of them in the past and with BG3, I don't trust them to do a good job. I hope they surprise me.

I'm going to say that in D:OS2, the balance was literally designed under the assumption that you'd be doing all possible content in order to even keep up with the level curve, because I remember that even being 1 level below the enemy target basically resulted in what appears to be a -20% damage penalty to your attacks (and I think being above them in level conferred a similar damage bonus). Granted, this was in the vanilla version, I don't recall if the Definitive Edition scaled that back. It was possible to leave for Act 3 very early in D:OS2, but you were highly encouraged to do everything possible, or else you'd enter Act 3 being like 3 levels behind every enemy. And if you didn't have a save game back in Act 2, you might as well have restarted the game, because Act 3 surprisingly enough was not really designed for heavy cheese (overall lack of barrels, for one).

I would hope that this wouldn't be a problem in BG3 since it runs on entirely different damage calculations, but at the same time we're locked to level 4 and we don't know how enemies later in the game would be scaled.

Completely agree with OP.

But given DOS2 design was the complete opposite (in part because you cannot backtrack and there are no random encounters), I have little hope we will see that in BG3.



I played the Definitive Edition and the level curve was very harsh. I would even say the game is pseudo-nonlinear given that you can only pick enemies one level above you which leads to a very linear pathway. Never really understood the praise for DOS2.

BG3 so far grants you some non-linearity, but if we are not backtracking I don't think Larian will include low level foes going forward.

Yeah, most people say D:OS2 peaked in Act 2 which was the most open and free-form act in the game, but in reality you had a very non-linear path through the entire act, literally to the point where maps exist showing what level range you're expected to be to tackle most content throughout that act. If you tried to tackle other locations way ahead of time, it was usually to open up as many teleport locations as possible and attempt to get an early head start ahead of the level curve through non-combat exploration EXP.

Agreed. I recall one point during that act, where I was running out of things I could beat, so I could get that extra level, so I could actually get around the map.
I think the witch in BG3 is very difficult to beat at level 4, and before I knew of the level cap being 4, I was going around trying to find something that could make us advance, so I could return to her. That's not good gameplay, unless you like MMO grind, and your immersion is not broken by "Hey, we'll be back to fight you once we've toughnened ourselves up some!" There could be some dynamic balancing, like encounters in NWN would scale with the levels.