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#765500 17/03/21 09:33 PM
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Having played through the avilable content once and getting every class to level 4, and I have some feedback I would like to give.

Let's start with races.

Halfling:
Lucky does not appear to be working with attack rolls as it should. I'm getting about as many critical misses as I should without it, and there is nothing in the dice log about my '1's being rerolled. Now it could be that my sample size isn't large enough, but I haven't seen a single '1' rolled for any ability checks in conversation or in my dice log for saving throws (I walked in and out of Twisting Vines about 100 times, seeing a '20' 6 times, and a '1' 0 times). So I guess it works for those, but with no mention of the dice being rerolled behind the scenes for either of these scenarios, which would be a nice addition in my opinion.

Human:
Please add variant human as the default, if not as an option. Standard Human is terrible from a power gamer perspective and there is currently no reason what so ever to pick human as your race for any class (They're obviously never terrible, I'm being hyperbolic, but being a outshone in every scenario is pretty much the same as being bad).


Classes

Fighter (Battle Master):
The options for Maneuvers feel a little bit limited since a lot of the really good ones (Lunge, Sweeping and Trip attacks) have been moved to weapons as their special move, is there maybe a way to allow Battle Masters to gain these as Maneuvers or allow them to expend superiority dice to use those moves additional times?

Ranger
Thank you so much for making rangers closer to the unearthed arcana ranger than the base PHB one, and with some improved spells like Good Berry (We'll come back to some problems with this spell later) they are now actually a viable party member!

Rogue
I don't really know where to start with rogues, there's quite a few things that don't feel good (Like backstabbing) or clunky (Like how sneak attack is a separate attack action). A lot of the issues has to do with general game mechanics and I intend to come back to game mechanics in it's own section. But the rogues playstyle feels compromised by what everyone can do now and giving Thieves a second bonus action doesn't really feel like a good compensation when you at the same time lose the ability of using items (Like spell scrolls when you reach level 13, throwing grenades, etc), opening locks and disarming traps as a bonus action. 2 offhand attacks are nice, but offhand attacks have another problem altogether: they can't proc sneak attack. What's the point of having a chance to only do 1d4 extra damage a turn, rogues don't even get the fighting style that lets them add their dex modifier to the damage roll (the tooltip says it does, but the dice log shows it's damage is what it should be). Overall, the class feels very weak outside of abusing the current backstab/high ground mechanics, both of which don't feel very good as they are, but enough about that for now.


Spells

Good Berry:
Being buffed from 1hp, to 1d4hp makes this a really nice spell that can conjure mini potions for the party! Felt amazing until I realised I spent a spell slot to make something I find everywhere. If food is changed to only be usable outside of combat, but Good Berries still functions as mini potions, this will be a really nice spell.

Hold Person:
Hold Person is supposed to be resisted at the end of the targets turn, not at the start. This Gives enemies 2 chances to resist the spell before they get a turn, when it should only be 1. While I haven't tested it, this probably extends to most of the spells that share this behavior (Blindness, Ray of Enfeeblement, etc).


Items

Armor:
Heavy armor options are severely lacking. We've got access to a Githyanki Half Plates (750 gp in PHB) and +1 Scale Mail from Dammon, by the time we reach the druid grove, but not even a single Chain mail (75 gp) or Splint (200 gp)? Feels a bit armorist :P

Food:
From a gameplay perspective, food is too plentiful to be used in combat as mini potions. I'm sure eating a carrot every 6 seconds is extremely healthy, but from a roleplay perspective that seems a bit extreme, not to mention this is in the middle of what is supposed to be a stressful situation. It also takes away a nice niche you've potentially given to Good Berry.


Mechanics

Backstabbing:
Backstabbing feels strong to the point of being ridiculous. I really liked it in DOS, but I think part of why it felt so good there was because the playstyle around daggers as a weapon was balanced around it and was unique to that weapon type and you'd combo it with skills a lot of the time. Here it gets repetitive and annoying fast, since every melee character wants to do it. Maybe this is supposed to be a replacement for flanking, but flanking is already very strong and I know a lot of DMs who either don't play with flanking or have nerfed it to a '+2 to hit' for this reason. I feel like advantage on attacks should be hard to come by or be part of a classes' kit, the bonus from backstabbing doesn't even require two characters to team up to acquire like with flanking, all you need to do is spend a little bit of your movement or a bonus action to jump over, it just doesn't feel right.

High Ground
Similar to backstabbing, I feel like advantage on attacks should be hard to come by or be part of a classes' kit.

Mobility in combat
Everyone can disengage as a bonus action, taking away part of what made the rogue have a unique playstyle (I may be a little bit biased). But it does cause problems in terms of how enemies move as well, enemies can simply ignore my front line and head straight for the squishies by just expending a bonus action. If a fighter wants to run over and smash a wizard, he should be fine with taking an attack of opportunity or two. Similarly, if a wizard wants to escape from melee combat he should do so either as an action, or by using a 2nd level or higher spell slot casting Misty Step, that spell exists for a reason.


Companions

Stat Lines:
Would it be possible for us to change the starting statlines of our companions when we pick them up? some of them are rather limit in terms of advancement options.

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Hi Imber,

Thanks to share your feedback with us. 100% agree with you.

I'm always happy to read another feedback like yours about advantages, food, actions and bonus actions.

Maybe you could add your voices about backstab and highground here ?
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=719930&page=13

I'll try soon to create statistics out of this thread. The more voices, the best.

Last edited by Maximuuus; 17/03/21 09:57 PM.

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+13. I agree with literally every word you said except for a single sentence of your mobility paragraph.

Mobility in combat
I haven't seen evidence that enemies in general can disengage as a bonus action. Goblins can, but this matches 5e and is part of their nimbleness. And so can the jumping enemies (bulette, minotaur, owlbear, and I guess the phase spiders count?). Most enemies we face in the game will probably provoke AoOs; it's just that this Act has a high amount of goblins and jumping enemies. That said, I fully support separating jump & disengage and making disengage a standard action. Jump can be a bonus action or just part of movement, honestly whatever at this point.

Armor
I'll emphasize your section on Armor, as I do in every post that mentions armor. The armor we get in BG3 is totally wack. Larian seems to believe that heavy armor should be reserved for later levels, whereas top-tier (even magical) light armor can be given out early. This. Is. Incorrect! Each category of armor has different tiers within that category, and we should gain access to the same tiers of different armor at the same time.
Roughly:
Tier 1 (level 1 characters): Padded/Leather (Light), Hide/Chain Shirt (Medium), Ring/Chain Mail (Heavy)
Tier 2 (levels ~2-3): Studded Leather (Light), Scale Mail/Breastplate (Medium), Splint (Heavy)
Tier 3 (levels ~3-5): Drow Leather/Studded Leather +1, Half-Plate (Medium), Plate (Heavy)
Tier 4+: Increasingly magical items of each armor category.
FIGHTERS AND PALADINS SHOULD (have the option to) START OUT WITH CHAIN MAIL

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What i find funny is that they haven't added a single piece of magic heavy armor yet so that some chars can actually get some use out of those useless feats and profficiencies. But you have these ultra rare cheat items:

1.- Warped Headband of Intellect

2.- Disintegrating Night Walkers

3.- The Sapphire Spark

Last edited by JDCrenton; 17/03/21 10:37 PM.
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Originally Posted by JDCrenton
2.- Disintegrating Night Walkers
300+ hours ...
And i dint seen them even once so far. O_o

Last edited by RagnarokCzD; 18/03/21 12:22 AM.

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Originally Posted by mrfuji3
+13. I agree with literally every word you said except for a single sentence of your mobility paragraph.

Mobility in combat
I haven't seen evidence that enemies in general can disengage as a bonus action. Goblins can, but this matches 5e and is part of their nimbleness. And so can the jumping enemies (bulette, minotaur, owlbear, and I guess the phase spiders count?). Most enemies we face in the game will probably provoke AoOs; it's just that this Act has a high amount of goblins and jumping enemies. That said, I fully support separating jump & disengage and making disengage a standard action. Jump can be a bonus action or just part of movement, honestly whatever at this point.

I've had the humans outside the ruins disengage on me, but I feel like it's not common just because the AI doesn't optimise for it.


Originally Posted by JDCrenton
What i find funny is that they haven't added a single piece of magic heavy armor yet so that some chars can actually get some use out of those useless feats and profficiencies. But you have these ultra rare cheat items:

1.- Warped Headband of Intellect

2.- Disintegrating Night Walkers

3.- The Sapphire Spark

I'm honestly fine with broken items like that, being able to plan a build around them for a second or third playthrough adds a lot of interesting replayability.

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Originally Posted by Imber
I've had the humans outside the ruins disengage on me, but I feel like it's not common just because the AI doesn't optimise for it.
Ah, interesting. Do you know if they took a standard action in addition to that, or did it look like disengage was their full action?

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I concur on the disengage and mobility. First, Mobile is a "I just wasted a feat and all I got was this status effect" choice. Second, it's goofy that the only way to move away from an enemy without giving them an opening is to turn your back to the enemy and telegraph "I AM ABOUT TO JUMP", and do an exaggerated Olympic style leap. It feels like this should be the thing that provokes AoO, not prevent it... Next you'll tell me the only way to prevent AoC is to strip off your armor and clothes and rub your flesh against the enemy blades for safety.

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Originally Posted by Gassygunslinger
it's goofy that the only way to move away from an enemy without giving them an opening is to turn your back to the enemy and telegraph "I AM ABOUT TO JUMP", and do an exaggerated Olympic style leap.
I lol'ed.

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Good points in the OP.

Larian's house rules on Backstab, Disengage, High Ground, Food etc. keep coming up again and again in feedback but unfortunately they are neither commenting nor explaining why they feel these are needed.

I don't want to change companions stats myself but I want them to be fixed to not suck as character builds, and to reflect them more accurately. E.g. Shadowheart does not have 8 Int. She speaks eloquently and seems quite knowledgeable about mind flayers and tadpoles and things. Should be 12 but even 10 would be more believable.

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+100.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Good post.

Originally Posted by 1varangian
Good points in the OP.

Larian's house rules on Backstab, Disengage, High Ground, Food etc. keep coming up again and again in feedback but unfortunately they are neither commenting nor explaining why they feel these are needed.

I don't want to change companions stats myself but I want them to be fixed to not suck as character builds, and to reflect them more accurately. E.g. Shadowheart does not have 8 Int. She speaks eloquently and seems quite knowledgeable about mind flayers and tadpoles and things. Should be 12 but even 10 would be more believable.

I was thinking the same about Shadowheart. Who rolled those stats and thought it fit her character? I also have an issue with her strength. Why do low, and she starts with melee weapon and shield with no Finesse and ranged item. Took me a bit to realize why she sucked in melee combat for awhile.

In the art of the game, she is depicted with a spear, and she seems strong. So why so weak?

And food. That bugs me. A bonus actions to eat a whole block of cheese? And food should never be for HP recovery. You get plenty of potions too, so it isn't even necessary.

And honestly, 90% of my feedback would really be unnecessary if they just stuck to 5e rules. I feel like I'm always trying to work with what they have, but the truth is the game would benefit so much if they didn't have all their strange house rules.

Last edited by GM4Him; 20/03/21 07:49 AM.

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