Larian Banner: Baldur's Gate Patch 9
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3
Joined: Oct 2020
Zirrix Offline OP
stranger
OP Offline
stranger
Joined: Oct 2020
SPOILERS below! Didn't fit in the title.

Hey, not sure how exactly to word this. Does anyone else get the feeling that story encounters are extremely unbalanced and unfair? I'm at level 3 right now and none of the story beats are accessible to me. I came across the Phase Spider Matriarch, absolutely annihilated me. I tried going to find the Githyanki patrol, but they're all a level above me and basically instantly destroy my party. I stumbled across Auntie's encounter, and that's definitely a no. When all else failed I made my way to the goblin camp and managed to kill the priestess boss, but only just barely. When I saw how many enemies there were around Razlig's room, I knew I was in for trouble. I don't know if you can avoid that fight with the persuasion check after he finds out you killed the Mind Flayer, but on my two attempts I failed it. To then be immediately swarmed by like 5 archers, a ranger who summons a worg, two gobbos who won't stop firebombing me, and a boss equal to my level who has action surge, almost one-shot my fighter with a normal attack and has a shockwave that pushes everyone into the spider pit where they die of fall damage. Am I missing something here? It's pretty frustrating that I can't progress any part of the story. Are there enough sidequests that I'm missing that could get me to level 4? If not, I think there's an issue with encounter balancing and action economy.

Joined: Oct 2020
L
member
Offline
member
L
Joined: Oct 2020
The current challenge level seems good to me.

Joined: Feb 2020
Location: Belgium
veteran
Offline
veteran
Joined: Feb 2020
Location: Belgium
Many encounters are very hard to me.
I'm not a D&D veteran but I'm absolutely not a noob in D&D and TB RPG but here it's very complicated.
I have to long rest everytime because I have to use every spells and abilities...

Combat is designed for a party of 6, not a party of 4.


French Speaking Youtube Channel with a lot of BG3 videos : https://www.youtube.com/c/maximuuus
Joined: Oct 2020
old hand
Offline
old hand
Joined: Oct 2020
So for the fight where they are in the room with the dead illithid, I crawled up the ladder outside the room on the platform, cast grease on the doorway leading into it, and then sneak attack bow shot the weakest one and killed him and remained hidden and got another sneak attack shot off. After that, they came around the corner and the AI hates things like grease, so they just bunched up at the doorway. I cast bless on everyone and then used the illithid power to create an inky cloud, obscuring us all and giving them disadvantage on attacks. I would then cycle my guys out, 1 by 1, to shoot out of hiding and go back into the cloud. When they were grouped id throw ice and poison down (not fire because it burns the grease away,thats only if they walk onto it). When the hobgoblin came out, I cast hold person on him (dropping the bless, both concentration) and murdered him.

I think I got hit 3 times or something. Gotta play with the environment and bottlenecking. If there are a lot of archers, use the illithid reflect power, it works against the bottles they throw too so theyll fire bomb and poison and acid themselves chucking stuff at you.


What is the problem you are solving? Does your proposed change solve the problem? Is your change feasible? What else will be affected by your change? Will your change impact revenue? Does your change align with the goals and strategies of the organizations (Larian, WotC)?
Joined: Oct 2020
I
stranger
Offline
stranger
I
Joined: Oct 2020
All fights have been tough but doable, but I am a tactical game player and D&D/DOS veteran and watch the environment closely.

This game would be absolutely brutal to a new player, especially if you wander too far outside of your level range or visit an area too early. Some of the best spells for casters are crowd control and area denial, versus pure damage spells as a tip.

Last edited by iMage; 10/10/20 05:41 AM.
Joined: Oct 2020
E
stranger
Offline
stranger
E
Joined: Oct 2020
At first I thought the same thing but as I play more and more I find I can take on like 10-12 enemies at a time with my 4 party members with no rests between encounters. took out all the goblins in the entrance area in one gigantic melee no reloads or save scuming either just lots of jumping and using high ground. jumping and ethereal step make a huge difference. the more mobile you are the better. their is a necklace that has ethereal step. The warrior companion is amazing with it and her jump ability. can close the distance on pesky casters and archers pretty easy. there is also a ring in game that add 3 meters more to your movement that makes a big difference too. As I said the learning curve seems really steep but just try things out find what works for you

edit for spelling**

Last edited by Elor; 10/10/20 05:49 AM.
Joined: Oct 2020
M
stranger
Offline
stranger
M
Joined: Oct 2020
First off: Yes, you can be level 4 by the time you are in the goblin camp. You can also finish the entire Early Access at level 4. A Lot of the xp is in killing things though, Especially all the smaller encounters in the abandoned little town you go through.

For that fight specifically, remember that you can push people too, and you never HAVE to be near the spider pit if you don't want to wink The spiders will enjoy any which meal they can get.

As for the game being too hard. I could imagine it being too hard for people, especially people that haven't played a whole lot of cRPG's in the past. I think most of what's causing the current difficulty is that DnD's armor system (AC ratings) doesn't really gel well with Larians unavoidable ground-effects. Low level dnd characters survive by virtue of not getting hit a lot. For fighters this means wearing a lot of armor and putting points in constitution, for mages it means staying out of harms way, and blasting away anything that comes close. Unavoidable damage that ignores AC ratings is therefor a bit painful.

My advice is to pay a little more attention to line of sight, if you're struggling with archers, it might be a good idea to pop a smoke-cloud of some sort over your party, and have your ranged characters pop in and out of it's cover. Have your melee characters ready to intercept and push away any annoying enemy frontliners. As always, kill the 'problems' to your tactics first.

Hope that helps!

Joined: Aug 2020
enthusiast
Offline
enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2020
I have a metric ton of 5e experience and CRPG experience.

Honestly the level of difficulty is in a decent sweet spot right now....if you know the rules, mechanics, and certain abuses (Wizards learning Healing Word, the power of gaining Advantage with GWM).

In 5e, Action Economy is king. That means the side that wins tends to be the side that can take more Actions. You're almost always outnumbered, so the enemy has more Actions by default than you. So how do you make that easier?

Summons. Absolutely everyone should have some sort of summon, even if it's just a Find Familiar spell. Raven Blindness is amazing and broken AF. Spammable zero cost Blindness spell with a huge movement ability? Yup. Much more importantly, every attack against your summon is one less attack against you. My Giant Spider from my Beast Master Ranger has something like 39 health, which is more than anyone in my party even at level 4.

Any spell or ability that causes the enemy to waste their Action is the name of the game. The Giant Spider's Web attack to cause the Enwebbed effect (really just Restrained by the rules of 5e) is a perfect example of this. I am trading the Action of my Giant Spider, for the Action of the enemy. My spider *could* cause like 4 damage....or it can make an enemy waste their turn instead of doing 20+ damage. It also provides instant Advantage to the rest of my party, which is the second tip...

In 5e, party synergy is Queen. One party member granting Advantage on a target to the rest of the party is critical. That means Sneak Attack for the Rogue, much higher hit chance for the GWM Fighter, and an almost guaranteed hit from the Warlock with Agonizing Blast + Hex. The corollary to this is denying your enemy synergy. A target has a bunch of armor + a shield? Don't waste your time with Attack spells/abilities. Start hitting them with Status effects like Frightened and Save spells like Shatter.


All that said, I am glad about the level of difficulty. I want a spiritual successor to BG, not DoS 3 the D&D DLC. This isn't me trying to gatekeep. I slogged through BG 2 not having a clue how any of the rules worked, often having to lower the difficulty. Based on Larian's previous EA work, this is approximately the "Hard" difficulty for the eventual released game. So having a hard time is to be expected.

Joined: Oct 2020
member
Offline
member
Joined: Oct 2020
I'm seeing lot's of good advice in this thread but, OP, you're not alone. I've been making my way through but I've been finding it very daunting and the level of micromanaging required to win kind of drains the fun for me. (I still love the game, just not in love with the current gameplay balance.) I've been finding success with using a lot of crowd control and trying to position larger fights in a choke point or places where I can get the higher ground. To be fair, I'm also running with an awful party composition because I dislike the tank and healer we have with EA.


Joined: Aug 2020
veteran
Offline
veteran
Joined: Aug 2020
I am definitely struggling with the combat too. It took me like, two or three tries to fight the goblins outside the goblin camp and two tries to beat the Phase Spider Matriarch. I am not super tactically minded and don't have a lot of 5e experience, so I'm not good at exploiting weaknesses or anything like that. Most of my big combats end by the skin of my teeth after having pulled out every spell and ability I have.

Joined: Jun 2019
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Jun 2019
Doom here, ( best gamer ever, super dungeon master, 50 yr old So ive played it ALL) oH did I mention Im the best lover too?

Yea the combat is very daunting, and all the AOE spamming the enemies do, not to mention, as soon as combat starts , its like playing a master chess player.. takes the fun out of it for me. Shit Dark Souls 3 is enough of a pain in the ass, So no your not alone.

Did I mention I was the best lover ever?

smile

- Doom


DRAGON FIRE-AND DOOM Dragons? Splendid things, lad-so long as ye look upon them only in tapestries, or in the masks worn at revels, or from about three realms off...
Astragarl Hornwood, Mage of Elembar - Year of the Tusk
Joined: Oct 2020
F
apprentice
Offline
apprentice
F
Joined: Oct 2020
I find alot of the encounters pretty hard as well. I feel like I have have to open up with the hardest hitting broadside I can muster up, because once the enemies get thier turn, at least one of my guys goes down.

The ground aoe spam is a bit tedious as well. I have also noticed that my team misses...alot. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

But having every fight, a desperate fight to survive drains my fun a little.

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Oct 2020
They had to make the encounters way harder than they would be in a well-balanced game to account for all of the outrageous cheesing you can do. Ranged characters can stealth between each action, you can chuck infinite oil barrels at the enemy team and blast them to Avernus, spam knockdown by comboing arrows and Ray of Frost, deck your mages out in heavy plate, infinite kiting due to the broken bonus action system, and much much more.

Last edited by Deemer; 10/10/20 08:02 AM.
Joined: Oct 2020
L
member
Offline
member
L
Joined: Oct 2020

Originally Posted by pinklily
I'm also running with an awful party composition

Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
I am not super tactically minded and don't have a lot of 5e experience, so I'm not good at exploiting weaknesses or anything like that.
Sounds like you two should be having trouble. The balance is good, besides some silly AOE issues. What's needed is an easy setting, which there will be of course.

Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
Most of my big combats end by the skin of my teeth after having pulled out every spell and ability I have.
As it should be, in my opinion.

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Oct 2020
Originally Posted by Labayu
Sounds like you two should be having trouble. The balance is good, besides some silly AOE issues. What's needed is an easy setting, which there will be of course.



The balance is abysmal, easily the worst of any CRPG-style game I've played in the last decade besides DIVOS and DIVOS2 (POE, Tyranny, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Numenera, Shadowrun, and even Wasteland which is saying something). The game is a cheesefest and desperately needs some tightening. I want to feel like I'm winning fights because I'm being smart about positioning, resource management, and proper tactics not because 'haha explosions go brrrrrrr'

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Oct 2020
Some of the things i learned from the game is never fight fair.

Use terrain, high ground is awesome. Crowd control spells are great. Concentrate your fire, it is better to do 1 hit point of damage if it kills an enemy, then 12 hp of damage and it doesn't kill an enemy. The fewer "guns" firing back at you the better, and an enemy with 1 hp still hits as hard as an enemy at full hp. using terrain to block line of sight from enemies forcing them to come to you and often enemies are spread out so they will rush towards you together but arrive in a staggered fashion. This means you can concentrate fire on a few enemies with a few attacks in return. Also you ranged party members can move out from cover attack and then move back into cover to get a few attacks in on approaching enemies. If you run into melee centric enemies attack with range than run away, this strings the enemy along getting more attacks in before they close the distance. Remember that shove is a bonus action so pushing people off ledges can give you tactical advantages without costing you your turn.

Grease + firebolt is a great combo that can turn the tide of battle. Do not underestimate it.

Joined: Oct 2020
L
member
Offline
member
L
Joined: Oct 2020
Originally Posted by Deemer
I want to feel like I'm winning fights because I'm being smart about positioning, resource management, and proper tactics not because 'haha explosions go brrrrrrr'
I think what you're referring to would mostly be solved by sticking closer to the 5e rules and toning down all the AOE stuff.

Joined: Oct 2020
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Oct 2020
Problem is, the game is somewhat balanced for now... but balanced for all the nonsense that is BG3 for now : everyone having access to spell scrolls, bugs making wizards able to learn cleric spells, surfaces everywhere, barrels which don't even weight that much compared to DOS so you can carry them with you for all the fights... Plus the disengage/jump being bonus action to everyone, which makes things even more unbalanced in regards to what the 5e ruleset is.

If they start fixing this mess and move closer to the tabletop version (and I hope they'll do, as this is Early Access for a reason), the combat will become unbalanced and very punishing. In D&D5, you don't send a party of 4 into a 10+ group of enemies. Unless you want a TPK. D&D5, as someone said already, is all about action economy. That's why when you begin to face huge solitary monsters (like Dragons), they have both lair and legendary actions they can use freely, so they can do something more than just one time per whole round of combat.

Take away the scrolls for everyone / surfaces / disengage for everyone on a bonus action, and the spider matriarch fight becomes unbeatable. Problem is, if you don't take away those things, BG3 will stay closer to DOS than D&D5.

Last edited by Temperance; 10/10/20 08:16 AM.
Joined: Oct 2020
M
stranger
Offline
stranger
M
Joined: Oct 2020
Originally Posted by Myrnodyn
As for the game being too hard. I could imagine it being too hard for people, especially people that haven't played a whole lot of cRPG's in the past. I think most of what's causing the current difficulty is that DnD's armor system (AC ratings) doesn't really gel well with Larians unavoidable ground-effects. Low level dnd characters survive by virtue of not getting hit a lot. For fighters this means wearing a lot of armor and putting points in constitution, for mages it means staying out of harms way, and blasting away anything that comes close. Unavoidable damage that ignores AC ratings is therefor a bit painful.


This! I've not had any problems with the battles so far. I played from start to druid grove without taking a full rest. This includes the ruins and the harpy fight in the druid grove itself. It's though but not that bad. The ground effects are a pain in the backside though. I know that's what Larian is known for and everything, but losing 2 points of AC for walking through a puddle of acid is seriously crippling! I'm also not sure about the logic behind this pools of fire, I've lost so much health to those!

I'm also wondering how much those effects have helped me though. I play a mage, together with Gale you can basically lock any enemies that try to get close to you down by using ray of frost. Even if it misses and doesn't do any damage the chance is very high the enemy you where shooting at falls over. When that happens it's a ripe sneak attack target. So, yeah, needs a LOT of tuning.

Joined: Oct 2020
apprentice
Offline
apprentice
Joined: Oct 2020
I've played most of the way through both solo and multiplayer and found it extremely easy. Experience with 5e and games of this type make all the encounters in this game trivial to be honest. Haven't had to save and reload a single combat encounter.

Ranger/rogue/wizard/cleric in multiplayer.

Not doing anything cheesy, just playing well.

Spiders was easy because they tend to stand on the 4hp webs you can destroy, they take huge falling damage. Colossus slayer on my ranger really takes a toll on the big spider, and it's not even working properly and rolling it's added damage every hit like it should.

Goblins was easy because most of them have 12 hp or so, easily one shot by all 3 damage characters, the rogue could practically one shot the 50hp boss with a strong hit.

We even fought the goblins around the windmill and killed most of them before we realised you could kill the leader to end the encounter. Thunder wave is exceptionally strong against large groups who cluster together.

All the bombs and bulbs, throwables in general, really even the odds. They're very strong.

Page 1 of 3 1 2 3

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5