Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Early Access gameplay feedback compendium

If you're going to continue with this whole advantage on hits if you're backstabbing a character, then at least give us a choice to choose the direction our character is facing when we end the turn.

This! So much this! +100 to you my good man/woman! I'm so tired of my characters ending their turn with their back facing the enemy because I don't have any way to specify which direction I want them to face.

Hi there, I tried to wrap up 3 suggestions coming from a old Infinity engine veteran playing the game on stadia.

1 - Combat is time consuming, way too much. I think mostly due to turn-based system which I'll try to get used to as I expected real-time pause way of the series. We should be able to skip some of the parts or try to speed up the process someway. I understand the level of detail put there but spending 40 min or something for a battle is just way too much time for anyone who's playing alone and is just as much interested in exploring the world and storytelling in the game.

2 - For the overall map, consider adding a fixed /isometric render/paperdrawn map as well, or something more artisticly drawn to better express how the Characters would actually see and orient themselves in the world rather than having a constant top down view as they had GPS or something, that I guess it would be kept anyway. Hope it's not too difficult. It would be a nice touch in order to add a more narrative feel rather than the cold satellite top-down MMO style only. Thank you!

3 - Game looks great on map scale but facial/character animation on close up feel cartoonish in comparison even when they're done properly. And by that I mean I can see how the actors are trying to overact on a stage gesturing all the time in order to make the characters to look more "theatrical". Yuck. Nice try, but no thanks. There will be an option to turn off camera angles during dialogues and cutscenes? That acting style would work better as seen by long distance. Sorry, I know a huge amount of work is spent for facial animation and acting, but some people just don't like the feel of it, no matter how good or detailed it may look. Those who feel that to be too cartoonish shouldnt forced to see them and would enjoy the game better in a more distant isometric view. Please consider it, it shouldnt be difficult to option.

Thank you, game looks promising nonetheless.

totally aggree on that. or at least, some way to prevent the all unnecessary waiting.
oh, and the camera following each npc moving around which is dreadful annoying.
Cant believe BG1/2 were from 20 years ago and those were playable faster.

Some good suggestions already in the main post.

My general feedback:
1. I feel pressured doing combat, instead of finding other solution, due to XP rewards.
2. Some elemental cantrips feel overpowered. Fire Bolts applies an extra fire effect which increases the damage to weapon attack levels on low levels.
3. Mage Hand feels overpowered. Due to the combat system (large focus on height and shoving) and too strong an interpretation of the Mage Hand cantrip, this cantrip feel much stronger than it should be.
4. Combat feels unbalance due to Jumping and Disengaging being one bonus action. This also throws some classes out of balance (most notably Rogue). It's to easy to get out of melee range, further increasing the strength of casters.
5. Pathing of party members is frustrating, walking through flames while there is a clear path around. Sometimes they jump, sometimes they don't.
6. Class balance seems somewhat of due to changes in core rules. E.g. Warlock is balanced around 2-3 short rests per long rest. Rogue is balanced around Cunning Action. They don't feel compensated for these loses.
7. Duration of some spells is unclear from description
8. Class advancements are unclear. Because of the changes in the core ruleset (and not all subclasses being available) it is impossible to plan your character without 'wiki' help. (For instance, making a Strength Warlock makes less sense without Pact of the Blade)
9. It feels like certain combat solution are build into the game to be stronger than others and I have to find these, instead of working with the tools I get provided. (Shove, Elemental Damage)
10. In conversation I cannot let another character do an action (e.g. Break Lock [Strenght]

Suggestions:
I like the addition of Weapon Skills. I would like to use them once per Combat and choose my starting weapon(s) to give more freedom in Character Creation.
I would like an option to only get XP rewards for completing quests and not for Combat.
I like to fight as long as I can before going to rest, but is easier for me to rest as often as possible. I would like to be challenged by the game not to rest too often (for instance by getting a reward, like Inspiration are something).
The Mage Hand Shove ability feels like something that an Arcana Trickster should be able to do.

I wonder if it would possible to make enemies move together when their move order is next to each other.

Some of my thoughts:

Short Rests
The fact that you only get one short rest per day is a little odd to me. I think it would be great to have a little window above each character portrait when selecting a short rest to choose how many hit die to spend on healing; that way when it gets to higher levels, if you just need to top up your party's HP you can do so, and still save some hit dice for another short rest if you need one after an additional fight.
The intention may be to have a long rest after tough combats but when it seems so quick to run from one encounter to another, I rather feel the in-game days are very short. After finishing a long rest, if you run into another encounter you may be tempted to have another long rest after to have the party on top form, while they only covered a very short distance over the supposed course of a day.

Dialogue Options
While more difficult to implement, I would love to see more options in dialogue. There are so many occasions where an option I want to take, that seems obvious to me, isn't available. An example of this is (spoiler) These seem like fairly obvious options that people would want to take, and they aren't available, forcing some players to behave in a way they don't want to. Also, while I haven't reached the point yet, I've seen elsewhere someone complain that

Quest Notes
Something a lot of D&D players will do during a session is take a lot of notes. Is there a place for this in game currently? If there is I've missed it (apologies if it's an obvious thing!) but it would be great, in addition to the summary of quests the game gives you in your journal when you accept or advance them, to make any additional notes you wanted.

Also, so far I completely agree with all the compiled requests/themes in the original post of this thread - thanks for setting it up!

I'd like more scars-more faces with scars ranging from thin lines (shadowheart) to... well, far more substantial ones. I think how it's working right now is the few scars you have are worked into the face texture itself, instead of an overlay like tattoos, so I fear this may be too much work.

Hello, I joined the forums to voice a few things both positive and construtive, I hope I communicate this well :

1/ As I've been discussing with friends who also played, and it looks like it needs more tooltips and tutorials for basic game lexicon.
This became clear when no one was understanding "saving throws" and how they were different from "ability checks" while relying on basically the same stats.
I had no trouble explaining, however, it's a standalone game, and should communicate it's mechanics without relying on prior knowledge of the DnD books, that's just not cool for newcomers who come from Larian games, not DnD.
In short : Lexicon ? Index of terms ? I don't like it, but I am damn happy when there is one right where I need it

2/ Future me problem I guess :
Please keep turn based mode in, it's an accessibility issue as far as I'm concerned. RTwP just busts my wrists, I only have been able to play another game (Pathfinder crpg) since they put turn based combat in it.
I used to think RTwP was accessible, turns out pain coming up while in short game sessions (less than 2H) is an indicator that it may not be as accessible as I also thought at the time.
It takes more time to play a fight, sure, but at least, it's possible to play it.
I'm all for RTwP to be in for anybody who wants/needs it too, just please don't let it be the reason some of us can't play the game.

3/ Just a nitpick, but I really feel bad when I have a critical miss on a 100% attack, as a DnD player, I get it that my best shot (attack with advantage) will always be 99.75%
(for those who like probabilities : P(A∩B) with both A and B defined as "rolling a 1 on the dice" = 0.0025)
I understand that I can always fail, and I'd like that to be reflected, it's just frustrating to fail when the UI tells you it's not possible ^^

Thanks for the work and implementing easy feedback places like here !

So in camp and have conversation with Shadowheart. Basic flow goes a couple of questions and I know she is done telling me all she wants to tell me, BUT instead of letting me end it I must choose to intimidate her or use the tadpole to get it from here. Why can't I just let it go?

You actually can already. Hold CTRL and hover the mouse over a target after making your actions for the turn, and you will end the turn in the direction you want.

In addition to my previous points:

Spells: Please, for the love of all that is and isn't holy, alphabetize the spells in the character sheet and spellbook.

Edit: I have set up a separate post for discussion on these and other feedback/suggestions I have here.

I'm not sure how to properly explain this, so I'm just gonna give an example: In the temple of selune where Raghzlin is, I was standing at bottom level, so the level where the throne is. during the fight against him, I wanted to shoot magic missile up all the way to a goblin that was standing on the beams above the room. Well, there is no button that allows me to adjust the camera so that it shows me this upper level with the beams, where the goblin was standing, so I could not shoot him.
A button that would allow me to adjust the camera up or down, instead of just left and right, would be amazing for a game that has so much (awesome) verticality.

1. I would not at all mind a complete removal of all surface hazards!

2. When jumping down, an indication on height would stop accidentall deaths

3. Related to 2. The camera does not handle the height differences good. My lord is it annoying

4. Pause death rolls on conversations! Being stuck in a semi-cinematic and choosing between missing half of it to change char or risk a companion dying is annoying

5. If surface hazards stay to some extent (please just remove them) make the AI smarter. They really should not walk willingly into known hazards

This is no pressing issue, but a part of the romance scene with Astarion is a bit weird. You go to bed, then you go to him and then he just stands there, with his ARMOUR on, and after we had sex, he just stands there again, with his armour on..... just a bit weird and less romantic than I had hoped.... why not let us chill at the waterfall with a picknick, or go for a walk at the river..... instead of standing in front of a random tree and doing nothing

Link to my Criticism with in depth: http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=699896#Post699896

One Liners detailing my concerns:

1. The current Narrator is not a story teller.
2. Real Time with Pause Option.
3. Bring back Fog of War. Not just on the Map.
4. Select All Adventurers to make the same command to everyone.
5. Starting Area needs to be changed.
6. Better Music for certain things. Such as Intro and Battles.
7. Conversation History.
8. Reading Books and Page Length.
9. Max Party Increase to 6.
10. Sleeping / Camping where you are instead of travelling back to the same camp site.
11. Character Data and Inventory Page layout changes. It's Ugly.
12. The Dice. RNG. It's bad. Remove most of it. Make it stat driven (CHA, INT, STR, Etc based on the choice.)
13. Loot and Being a Thief. Don't stop my actions with dialog.

Super job compiling everything. Ive been putting my thoughts/suggestions here:

http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=695664#Post695664

Do I need to copy them to this thread too?

The game is doing a great job of capturing the feel of a d&d world. I just have some suggestions to amplify that mainly in regards to characters / companion relationships / dialog / ui design

Suggestions:

1. Make the characters who can join your party have lots of interest and depth with their own unique personalities and intricacies (at the moment they feel a bit one dimensional and too similar in their thoughts and attitudes and personalities)
2. In a d&d game, yes you will have characters who disagree with you, but by and large you want to have a party where you feel that comraderie and that you're all together and on the same side. Right now it feels as if every character hates you and you don't get that sense of fellowship and comraderie.
3. I'm not sure if this is because of the animation voice capturing, but I would like to see far more dialog from the characters instead of the simple one liners we see now. That will add to the above points.
4. Also linked up to that, can you please add a lot of atmosphere to the dialog boxes and ui design in general. Baldurs gate always had this classic old type of feel to their interface / dialog boxes etc. Would be great to feed in that rich atmosphere at the UI level instead of the bland white font text we see now.

I personally feel this is getting lots of things right but ultimately it is going to come down to a great story, interesting lovable characters, comraderie and atmosphere to make a great Baldurs Gate 3 (see something like Critical Role's campaigns and why they are so successful).

Thanks.

I would like to see less development time spent on ‘origin’ style special player characters and more companions that are not player options. There’s a happy medium somewhere between fully fleshed out possible protagonist party members and generic mercenary characters. Baldur’s Gate was known for having tons of party options and party members with their own goals that could join and leave on their own. Icewind Dale was the series for when you just wanted to play through a campaign without the party personalities.

I think this because I think many players will opt for a custom player character, just my opinion.

Shove/Jump/Disengage as bonus actions feels a bit too strong and it’s even more frustrating when the enemies abuse it as well.

High ground and backstabbing advantage are technically too good. Low ground causing disadvantage and high ground providing advantage is the equivalent of fighting blind at the moment which is overly harsh in my opinion.

Double check the encounter difficulties. Most of the encounters rank as deadly when I checked against the tabletop guidelines.

Oh and bring back the BG paper doll for gear management. I found it clunky pulling up the bags and then having to switch to the character view. More boring but useful magic items like rings of resistance and protection.

A quick search trough the forum and making sure it isn't already in the master post :

People and I expeced to use rope for climbing or at least going down when we saw it as loot