Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Solo Ranger Run *SPOILERS*

Hi All:

I recently completed an EA run with a single character (Halfling Ranger Beast Master) on Stadia. The following are a few suggestions and bugs that I encountered in my run.

First off I want to go over the summon animal spell that Beast Master gives you. I was very disappointed that the Giant Spider greatly outclassed all of the other choices. With 32 HP the highest armor class and I believe the best attack roll modifier, it was hard to justify summoning anything else. The spider tanked better then the bear, does more consistent damage then the wolf and its jump is almost equivalent to the birds fly. For me all of the animals should be superior in each of there own areas of expertise and the spider took away form that situational mastery that this system could provide.

One exploit I did find with the summoning animal as well is that there was no restriction on casts. As a solo character this allowed me to cast a spider, sneak it into combat and attack, then summon it again disengaging the other from combat sneak that one into combat attack, rinse and repeat. As long as my ranger was far enough away and never entered combat the stream of spiders would eventually take down any foe. My suggestion here is to make this spell one use every short rest, the ability would still be strong, but not be exploitable like this.

There were a few bugs I encountered as well on my run. The first was with the now it seems infamous Gale quest. This was a bit different though then the bug I saw on the forums. I killed Gale with the attack box as soon as I met him. He never went to my camp and he never joined my party. I completed his death quest got the scroll, but could not target him at that point or raise him with the party scroll. Nothing ever happened after the two days he said but I don't know if he was just lying.

Another party bug was when I killed a party member at the camp. There corpses stay permanently there and I get notifications on there approval. I don't mind the corpses because it was a very evil run (yes I did kill all of the party NPCs), but I did mind the approval/disapprovals notifications. If you intentionally kill a party member I would expect you do not care what they think anymore.

Finally the last bug that I encountered was because I was a halfling. I have much respect for the work that Larian has done with dynamic camera for shorter characters but I did encounter lots of in ground shots and characters looking a but to far down (looking into the floor). I assume this is very much known by the team and is a work in progress. Non halfling camera a bugs with the camera getting caught in the ceiling of caves was also pretty annoying. Keep fighting Camera team I believe in you guys!

Over all though I did enjoy my solo run. You might not be able to do every encounter choice since you have a bit less power, but most everything was completable with enough strategizing (and spider spamming )

Please comment with thoughts, no thoughts are unwelcome,

Forrest

I'm also playing ranger solo right now, the animal companion definitely needs changes, Very exploitable currently. I think I'd much prefere If you couldn't summon a companion, but instead chose one to have as a permanent pet, that couldn't be changed, this way you could make much more thematic characters and the animal companion would be more meaningful, also once dead only make it come back after long rest. And of course, balance them properly so that spider is not allways the pick

The camera problem is definitely universal, not only on halflings. It clips under ground or in a wall or just points in a weird direction. It's a mess.

The current out of combat system where you can faff around in real time without a care is SUPER exploitable. Combat should force all characters into turn based mode regardless of where they are, or at LEAST within a big radius around all involved in combat. You can literally engage one character in combat and go around sneaking and pushing enemies off buildings etc. without getting engaged.

I was just looking at ranger animal companions and thought exactly what you did, that spider is OP and that it needs a short or long rest cooldown. in 5e i believe the animal companions have 4hp per ranger level so all would have 12 hp starting at lvl 3 when you get them which makes alot more sense

Yeah I agree. I think a permanent or semi-permanent choice would be more thematic and a better role play experience. Maybe you can choose your first animal and subsequent animals you tame from animals you encounter. Hopefully the current system is more of a place holder.

I kind of like the different types of animals with different HP totals. That being said having 12 HP sounds more like the power level where they should be. Maybe you just don't get the Bear and Spider until later.

Right now there's only really one option for a Beast Master, since Larian has decided to drastically deviate from 5e rules (shocker). You have a choice between 0 CR beasts (Raven with 1 HP, WTF) to a 1 CR über spider beast companion.

5e rules for ranger companion:
It's has a 1/4 CR or lower.
Medium size or smaller.
Add your proficiency bonus to their AC, attack and damage rolls.
Also add your proficiency bonus to skills and saves they're proficient in.
And their HP total is their normal max total, or 4 times your level, whichever is higher.

Larian ignores virtually all these rules with their beast master, ranger companion.

Do you have nothing better to do than to whine on these forums all day about the game not being close enough to 5e? Every time I see your name I know it's just going to be more petulant whinging that the game isn't finished yet

Yup. EA or not, I am not a fan of what is already in the game. This is a forum to discus the game, specifically titled suggestions and feedback. Which is what I am doing. I am not a fanboy of 5e, but I'll admit after 45 years of evolution, it's a fairly balanced gameplay experience. I think 5e is a little lean on character choice and diversity of skills and feats, and prefer Pathfinder 2e's approach to more unique character design. But I digress, I played and loved the original BG games when they came out, and was excited when BG3 was announced. I was also excited Larian was the studio taking on the project too. After playing this EA version of the game, I am not impressed. But I hope the feedback of others and myself included will make this a game I'll actually enjoying playing. Which is the whole point of a suggestions and feedback forum for an EA game. As someone who was an actual alpha and beta tester almost 30 years ago, primarily with RPG's and CRPG's I believe I actually have some inciteful and constructive feedback about the current state of this game, and balance issues.

I'm with you here.
Don't really understand why they change things that work.