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I feel like I'm role playing toddlers with noodles. The attack rolls are abysmal I can't hit a barn door in front of me but the enemy decides which freckle on my face they want to put the arrow in. I average about 7 on my attack rolls per battle my enemies average about 13 this is without modifiers. I actively avoid any conflict and am becoming ok with just letting myself be a Mind Flayer at least then I'd be a useful player character.

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Lol, you guys are funny. Please, Larian, keep this difficulty setting as an option at least!

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I think the combat is very enjoyable as it is now.

DOS 2 was far more frustrating to me.

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Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3
I think the combat is very enjoyable as it is now.

DOS 2 was far more frustrating to me.


I'm really curious, what is it you are enjoying about the combat?

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Welcome to 5e.

5e was designed to be easily run & fairly light at the table for a Human DM.

This means, if you do the kite & kill that a Human DM would just have the opponents fall back & regroup for later instead of getting slaughtered piecemeal.

Hunam - 5 goblins (CR 1/4 or 50 XP - so 250 then x2 for numbers for 500) & 2 klaws (CR ~2 ish for the damage & HP, so, about 450 XP - so 900 for both x 1.5 for numbers and you get 1350) for a total of 1850. The threshold for 4 level 1 characters for a Deadly encounter is 400. Level 4 is 2,000. Level 5 jumps to 4,400 because of the second action gained.

Monsters w/reduced HP have negligible impacts on CR calculation, because it's all about expected damage output per round.

Per 5e rules, which this game uses, this fight should kill you 90% of the time, until you get to a party of 4 5th level characters. Then it is 'Hard' which is still "someone should die" territory.

Most encounters are pushing Hard to Deadly constantly.

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I think "Classic" is moderate hard difficulty in D:OS? If so, they will introduce 2 easier settings and one harder one.


Overall a lot of encounters can be massively cheesed with sneaking in, taking high ground and then just machine gunning everything with bows and spells, while pushing off the melees that eventually manage to reach you. Shove is almost criminally powerful for a bonus action and so is Eldritch Blast with repelling invocation - it is pretty good at screwing archers and such. Then, it seems you can practically full rest wherever (which really needs to be fixed, because it's silly you can just full rest in a fortress filled with hostile goblins - let alone it ports you to camp), so you can just brute force things that way - initiating the combat with Shadowheart and other casters you may have at full spell slots makes things a cakewalk.

There are some places where you really don't want to go in guns blazing - like that phase spider cave, that is simply super deadly for level 3 party if you just waltz in the middle of all the phase spiders and ettercaps. You can, though, bait ettercaps separately from spiders it's much easier then - I found that you can do it by intentionally triggering webs, so they come for you.

Same goes for many goblin fights, vast majority of them - you can sneak in, separate party members to take positions on rooftops/ledges/walls and then trigger it, this makes things almost trivial, because by the time their melee fighters manage to get to you - you already pretty much killed most of them.

Last edited by Gaidax; 08/10/20 10:29 PM.
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Originally Posted by Theliel
Welcome to 5e.

5e was designed to be easily run & fairly light at the table for a Human DM.

This means, if you do the kite & kill that a Human DM would just have the opponents fall back & regroup for later instead of getting slaughtered piecemeal.




I agree with the first point, but kiting is pretty hard in 5e unless you're a rogue. If you're trying to move and attack, the enemy can dash to get on top of you, and make it impossible to move away with an AoO - unless you use disengage, but then you can only use a standard move action and the enemy can then just catch back up and start making actual attack actions. That's not true in BG3 because everyone's a rogue now I guess.

The fact is they wouldn't have to crank the enemy count and stats up if the game weren't so poorly considered that any battle can be made trivial using the same small set of exploits.

Hunam #682304 08/10/20 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Hunam
Originally Posted by Tzelanit
I love the challenge. Haven't had any reloads due to deaths yet, but there was one fight where it came close until I figured out a better strategy.
I really hope that whatever this difficulty level is remains the standard difficulty and other options are implemented around it.


I've been very vocal in this thread but I did really start with asking how people are getting through the fights. I'd love to know what you did for the goblin gate fight, if you found that challenging? Also how did you find the Gnoll camp or the true soul goblins.

I do really think I'm missing something here.


I've been employing the same handful of tactics for a little while now. I'm a Warlock, and I've got Wyll, Gale, and Astarion with me, so we're 3 casters (but kinda 4 since Astarion is Arcane Trickster.)
Because we're all extremely squishy, I play keep-away. I usually use my hardest hitting spells on what I perceive to be the most dangerous target to take it out of the fight immediately, and then it's a game of cat and mouse as I run away as far as I can, jump up to ledges, whatever I can do to create space. If something gets close, it either gets a push or a thunderwave. I also make a point to move into a ledge that I've jumped up on just a bit in the event that an enemy clambers up there with me. That way, I can give them a shove off the ledge, cause more damage by simply being defensive, and take them out of the fight for a second by knocking them prone. You can also abuse line-of-sight and move around small corners or adjacent rooms and force targets to funnel in toward you. Melee typically heads right for you, and ranged tend to expose themselves to get into position to hurt you.

I don't know if it's supposed to be easier or harder with 3 dedicated spellcasters, but I've been having a good time in every fight looking around the environment for high ground, planning retreat paths, and giving myself as much advantage as possible.

My biggest challenge thus far has been the harpies because they're also ranged, and dive into battle for attacks and retreat with huge movement advantages. And the area is painfully wide open. Almost lost that fight until I switched up my strategy.


I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought.

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I do not think we will have difficulty options until later in the EA.
One of the reasons for an EA is to test difficulty spikes so they need the player´s info to fine-tune different options and choose how to make the game more difficult. But I´m sure we would have it in the full game release.

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Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
Yeah, I'm not finding the game impossible for the most part but I'm getting through most combats by the skin of my teeth at this point.


Sounds about right.

Deemer #682653 09/10/20 02:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Deemer

I agree with the first point, but kiting is pretty hard in 5e unless you're a rogue. If you're trying to move and attack, the enemy can dash to get on top of you, and make it impossible to move away with an AoO - unless you use disengage, but then you can only use a standard move action and the enemy can then just catch back up and start making actual attack actions. That's not true in BG3 because everyone's a rogue now I guess.

The fact is they wouldn't have to crank the enemy count and stats up if the game weren't so poorly considered that any battle can be made trivial using the same small set of exploits.

Sorry, the kiting was BG3. A competent DM would, in fact, have enemies dash. Or run away. Or flank. Or do something.

So far in BG3 they just chase & wind up in the meat grinder.

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I too am enjoying the combat difficulty- use you spells & scrolls wisely - take out the dangerous opponents use grease, ice, flame, sleep & sometimes the dice just don’t go your way.
I lost 2 of 4 characters at goblin gate - reloaded changed the route & took higher ground - kicked butt.

I know a balance is required & we all likely have differing tactics & views but nobody wants a cake walk for combat - just the right level to be challenging without entirely rage quitting level 😉

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Originally Posted by IrenicusBG3
I think the combat is very enjoyable as it is now.

DOS 2 was far more frustrating to me.


I have to agree. I'm finding the combat here sooo much more enjoyable and compelling. DOS had the magic/physical armour and tbh that always annoyed me. I also like the spells in BG3 a lot more than DOS2. And the bonus actions make it much more interesting.

The options for strategy just feels better and more balanced in BG3.

Last edited by moonrisen; 09/10/20 04:00 AM.
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The full game will have options anyhow. I'm at level 3 and haven't encountered anything overly difficult so far.

And I played the beginning hours of the game solo, and only have picked up Lae'zel (denied the others at least for the time being).

That means I had fought packs of four bandits alone (haste potion, luring them through a doorway "decorated" with acid).

Soloing so long also means I tried to use the environment in more creative ways, e.g. like this (possible crypth/Chapel spoiler): http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=680547#Post680547

Our last combats as pack of two was taking out the 3-4 gnolls near the inn in the Northwest (luring them to the archway of the inn, grease scrolling it). After that we took out the gnoll horde with the help of fire wine barrels (laying a large fire and then climbing the ladder to shoot them from above). https://i.imgur.com/yjGXucS.jpg

My main has an AC of 17 though, same for Lae'zel (she basically has the same stats, and build; Fighters with the defensive style).

I'm sure the harder fights are yet to come though. I was able to talk myself out of the Goblin village fight, for instance. As an ado, leveling on this happens way fast in comparison to the originals...


Last edited by Sven_; 09/10/20 08:32 AM.
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So im in the goblin base where halsin is, and I have just rescued him, but this means you need to kill all three goblin bosses and the drow chick to get out, im a drow and got in by talking my way in, this was fine.

Its fighting the endless hordes of 8 or 10 gobbos with that warhammer hobgoblin guy im having an issue with, last night I finally beat him by shoving him off the roof rafters, I had my character and shadowheart hiding in the roof shoving goblins off as they got up the ladder, the rest of my team were all killed.

Im a fighter so my sneak is shitty, I dont have a rogue either and it wont really help either, the damage these gobbos do kill my party members either in one shot or two. Most of my party is put to sleep or hit with fire bombs and necrosis clouds.

I rested and then had to get through the throne room where the other boss was, All members of my team were murdered before my 2nd turn. I reloaded to try again and the same thing happened, there is just too many of them. If they hit the war drums, you are absolutely in the shit, as even more gobbos from other rooms pour in.

I unfortunately had no saves before entering the area, so I just restarted a new character to make different choices.

Last edited by Ocean_Potion; 09/10/20 07:38 AM.
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Yes, combat is far more enjoyable than DOS2.

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I am perfectly fine at this point, I carried every weapon armor and misc item and sold them, i found the secret weapon in druid grove but otherwise did not bought any item from any shop yet still i can manage.

I may be too early but 2 phase spiders gave me hard time cause i was lacking range and Wizard miss every stuff. Because Humans are the only race that can't see in dark in 5e... every other race has it laugh

If you find it difficult, always sneak ahead, use consumables, hide and ambush, i believe it's just a learning curve. It fits my 5e games i played and GM'ed currently. I wasn't expect to beat owlbear for instance at level 3.


He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.

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I have been finding the game too difficult for me. And frustrating, which is an emotion I never do well with.

I don't want the game nerfed into the ground (don't worry people who like the current difficulty, I am rooting for you to get all the hard and ironman modes you want. I know we don't all play the same way, or enjoy the same things!)... What I want is a nerfed into the ground mode where I can enjoy the story without feeling like I'm always needing a long rest after a single combat. Also, I get really tired of always fluffing dice rolls in conversation, I'm trying to get into the habit of always F5ing before a conversation, but that's not always possible anyway. And the load times make save scumming annoying to the extreme.

Z.

Last edited by Zandilar; 09/10/20 12:03 PM.
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The combat seems good to me, no issues here at all. The only TPK I have had yet is the undeads in the crypt and that was because I stupidly cast fog cloud and block my own view.

My only complaint about combat is that rogues seem to not add much to combat. It seems that sneak attack is much harder to get than in table top.

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Personally I find a combat enjoyable, maybe a bit too easy even, although that would be solved by the "tactician" equivalent down the line I guess.
That being said, I believe some combats are too hard for the "classic" difficulty level. Namely Gnolls, and most of the Riverside Teahouse area. It's not insanely hard, but feels more at home at tactician difficulty level, not classic.

Last edited by Bearhugger; 09/10/20 03:57 PM.
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