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I have been running a list in my head and I wanted to get it out here for some feedback and consideration. For some background, I currently have 80+ hours played in the EA and I play a regular D&D pen and paper session weekly (5 hours a session) and have played 2nd, 3rd, 3.5, and 5th edition D&D. Also, i apologize for the formatting being weird or hard to read, I tried to make this easy to read but I am very bad at the formatting on forums like this.


1.Character Creation


There is some barrier that exists here, with certain race/ class combos where the ability score CANNOT be increased, even if there are enough points available for the allocation. I have been blocked at 15, 16, and 17 for various race/ class combos, even wen I have lowered EVERY other ability score to 8. I have 20 points available, then I should be able to take a score to 18. The blockage here makes no sense, and it means I play characters that have 4 14s and they are all copies of each other. I can’t make a big dumb meat shield warrior with 8 int, wis, and cha. In Pen and Paper, having 3 8’s would be a bad idea, but I should still be able to do it.


FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY leave the name blank. I cannot tell you how many times I made a character whose name is Tav. Make it be the last thing to fill out. Have it stay empty to force us to change it prior to loading into the game.

2. World Exploration

The Verticality of the world is amazing. However, it would be useful to have a camera control that moves the view by LEVEL, instead of zooming in and out. I often cannot select a tile to move to on the second floor, because it shows the NPCs/ enemies literally just floating in the air.

The surface stuff is… bad. It’s just bad. This is the main reason I would support the claim that this is a DOS:3 and not a BG3. There is SO much gas and poison clouds and fire and blood to be electrified and everything. It’s just… too damn much.

There need to be expanded options for auto-pause. A character succeeds a perception check, but still just…. Walks right over a trap? Makes zero sense.

The lighting is inconsistent, at best. Every single opponent is ‘concealed by shadows’? Even when they are literally on fire? Even when standing next to a item with light cast upon it? The shadows are too plentiful or are being translated incorrectly.

When you jump, please display some kind of tooltip if the jump will result in the prone condition.

Pathing needs to be looked at. Idk why everyone always runs straight through acid, but… who can be sure.



3. Combat

Cantrips. These are supposed to be synonymous with a fighter swinging a sword. They do a damage die and then that’s it. They should not create flammable surfaces, or ice patches. Firebolt is 1d10. That’s all. Not 1d6 + burning + fire surface.

Jump and disengage are DIFFERENT things. Period. Also, jump is NOT a bonus action. It’s part of the character’s movement.

If you are knocked prone, your turn is not over. You can still take actions, reactions, and bonus actions. And standing up takes ½ your movement. Let us stand up, not WASTE and entire turn.

It would be nice to create some way to do a readied action, I know this is probably wildly complicated, but it would help to ambush a group you are trying to funnel toward you.

Barrels are heavy. I know this is a video game, but “barrelmancy” should not be a thing. A barrel full of juice (just google it) weighs 600 pounds. We should not be able to toss them around. D&D is rooted in SOME semblance of reality. We have carrying capacities. The barrels shouldn’t be so easy to move around/ throw. Also. Exploding barrels? Seriously. One more thing for me to say “DOS:3”

The bonus action shove is a bad design choice – it truly trivializes a lot of things, since everyone can shove as a bonus action. It should be an attack action, thus taking a full action to perform.

I am not entirely sure how to quantify it, but the enemies/ tactics/ abilities really need to be looked at. A level 3 goblin shouldn’t have knockback arrows and exploding arrows. Gnolls shouldn’t be getting 3 attacks/ turn with their bows. Encounter planning was done as a video game, not as a D&D encounter should be designed/ considered. I think someone else on the forums said all the encounters in the game would be classified as very difficult or deadly. There is no ‘easy’ or medium encounters. For a party of 4? It’s A LOT of stuff when its 30 versus 4.


4. Dialogue

Allow us to select dialogue choices outside of us having only one character answer questions. Ie: [SHADOWHEART] [WIS] dialogue so that it more dynamically includes the party, as this is a party-based game. As of right now, it makes playing a low charisma character really not enjoyable. SOLASTA does a decent job there if you’re looking for inspiration.

Spacebar should not select a dialogue. I am skipping the cut scene, not making choices while I hammer away at the spacebar.

When showing the DC, show the actual DC. Then roll the dice and apply our Bonuses. The rolls should be additive. As of right now, it feels like the DCs are all wishy-washy and make no sense.

DC guidelines from the books are:

1. Very Easy-5
2. Easy-10
3. Medium-15
4. Hard-20
5. Very Hard-25
6. Nearly impossible-30



5. Miscellaneous

I know alignment isn’t being a hard rule, but as it stands now, the companions are all kind of on the evil side, except maybe Wyll (who I never use – see below) and possibly Gale. They are not very likeable characters to play with. Shadowheart is annoying and bad at her job. And her stats are silly. Vampire Spawn seems cool, I GUESS, but also… It’s pretty lame because OF COURSE he’s a bisexual predator that plays as being a horny teen vampire. HEAVY EYE ROLL. For gale? Eating the rare magical items? Absolutely lame, in my opinion. Lae’zel is the only person I genuinely am interested in, but she’s also super annoying because unless you’re all about ‘OVERWHELMING POWER’ she’s just not that into you.

EVERY SINGLE TIME I fight the goblins at the druid gate, Wyll dies. Every time. Without fail. I cannot revivy him. I can’t heal him. He’s just… gone. And he’s a warlock. And pact of the blade isn’t available. So why in the HECK is he in melee with everyone? Makes zero sense. Does he seem neat? Sure. But also. You find his eye and try to give it to him, and nothing happens. Bug? Feature? Idk. Try to keep Wyll at a distance or many players will miss out on him – as I’ve said, I literally can’t keep him alive. He tries to solo a worg and 2 goblins on his own. He’s so brave.

5. Notes:

The multiplayer truly feels like playing a D&D session. Communication is awesome with another human to plot and set up fights. The multiplayer part of the game is FAR more enjoyable that the single player at this point. Mostly (for me at least) its one less NPC I have to put up with.

I know that Larian did a good job with this, and overall, I am enjoying the game. But it truly does (after 80 hours) feel like a DOS:3, and not a D&D game.

We can get there. If Sven and the crew really take into account what the actual D&D crowd is/ has been saying, then it’ll go well. they just need to keep in mind that this is indeed a Dungeons and Dragons game, not a Divinity game. As long as they stay true to making it a D&D experience, I am confident the end product will be wonderful.

Thank you all for your time and thank you to the dev team for all the hard work you have done and continue to do.

It would be amazing if we had the option to do local multiplayer and I could create my own party from scratch.

It would also be amazing if the party size was increased to at least 5. As of right now, we are stuck in the Cleric, Fighter, rogue, Wizard camp, and it feels poopy that way. Now, I have made a ranger than seems to fill the role of rogue, and allows for more front-line durability, but that’s kind of a lame fix. We should be able to have greater variance than the classic 4 archetypes.
[u][/u]

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Not sure if you've went through the forum so far but most of what you outlined here was already brought up to their attention multiple times, including in the summary topic linked here:

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=682449&nt=32&page=1

At least the most important parts are here.

Personally, I agree with everything above. I don't think they are all necessary changes like the increased party size for instance. The barrels are making the game way sillier than it should be but it's not game-breaking in the end. They do break the immersion thought.

BG3 doesn't need to be BG2 in 3D, I don't think many people want it. We just expect the game to plunge us in the world of D&D even more than BG2 did 20 years ago. It's all about it.


Alt+ left click in the inventory on an item while the camp stash is opened transfers the item there. Make it a reality.
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I concur, though I'm not wild about the companion situation at all, or the party locking rumored to be a factor. I'd much rather BG2 style NPCs than Dragon Age ones. There's effectively no room for balanced party customization as-is - there's no Respec Mirror to make a companion you actually like into something useful - and adding a feature like that violates some very fundamental D&D things.

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Originally Posted by cannonball


3. Combat

Cantrips. These are supposed to be synonymous with a fighter swinging a sword. They do a damage die and then that’s it. They should not create flammable surfaces, or ice patches. Firebolt is 1d10. That’s all. Not 1d6 + burning + fire surface.

Jump and disengage are DIFFERENT things. Period. Also, jump is NOT a bonus action. It’s part of the character’s movement.

If you are knocked prone, your turn is not over. You can still take actions, reactions, and bonus actions. And standing up takes ½ your movement. Let us stand up, not WASTE and entire turn.

It would be nice to create some way to do a readied action, I know this is probably wildly complicated, but it would help to ambush a group you are trying to funnel toward you.

Barrels are heavy. I know this is a video game, but “barrelmancy” should not be a thing. A barrel full of juice (just google it) weighs 600 pounds. We should not be able to toss them around. D&D is rooted in SOME semblance of reality. We have carrying capacities. The barrels shouldn’t be so easy to move around/ throw. Also. Exploding barrels? Seriously. One more thing for me to say “DOS:3”

The bonus action shove is a bad design choice – it truly trivializes a lot of things, since everyone can shove as a bonus action. It should be an attack action, thus taking a full action to perform.

I am not entirely sure how to quantify it, but the enemies/ tactics/ abilities really need to be looked at. A level 3 goblin shouldn’t have knockback arrows and exploding arrows. Gnolls shouldn’t be getting 3 attacks/ turn with their bows. Encounter planning was done as a video game, not as a D&D encounter should be designed/ considered. I think someone else on the forums said all the encounters in the game would be classified as very difficult or deadly. There is no ‘easy’ or medium encounters. For a party of 4? It’s A LOT of stuff when its 30 versus 4.

My thoughts exactly.

Combat in BG3 almost always degenerates into king of the hill where it's just a race to the massively overpowered high ground and Shove your enemies down. Frontline fighters aren't even a thing as they have to jump away from surfaces every turn, and can't hold anyone in place anyway.

I'm mostly annoyed with every goblin spamming elemental and knockback arrows, fire, acid.. phase spiders now spit pools of poison. Free portable fireballs everywhere. Every enemy is so special with all kinds of gear, melee and ranged, teleports. Where are the minions? Half the goblins should be simple grunts with nothing but a dull sword. Maybe then an alchemist with fire, or a chieftain would stand out...


Last edited by 1varangian; 27/10/20 09:32 PM.
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Could not, Possibly, agree More with the OP. And, yes... there are MANY that want BG3 to be "BG2 in 3D" - Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 were two of the Most Popular and Widely played video games EVER, are Still being played over 20 years after release, and are The singular reason THIS game is being created. The worlds were VAST, the party composition with damn near Infinite variability and there were so many different paths to explore that it was nearly impossible to keep track of. I have No interest in the simple plagiarism of the Baldur's Gate name just so Bobby can make a WOWIE ZOWIE AIN'T I KEWL!!! game that people will play only because they <think> they are buying a Baldur's Gate title. I don't care about Bobby's future prospects, at all, don't care if all his HEY NEATO!!! "special effects" help him pad his resume for future job surfing and have very little interest in financially supporting him while he "experiments". I haven't been 12 for a long time and neither have the Significant Majority of players that will consider buying this game.

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I also agree with OP...
Another useless +1


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+1. Def feels like DOS3 with Larian trying to put elements of 5e in. Should feel like BG3 and 5e with the Larian touch.

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Nice post OP, I agree there is too much clutter in combat. Crates, exploding barrels, surfaces and so on. I would also like to add that advantage is way too OP pretty much everything that matters is to climb higher, backstab or cheese the hell out of it and shove everything off a cliff. More realistic combat tactics are simply not viable.

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Point buy system limits in 15 max per attribute. That’s why you only gonna get 17 at maximum with the race modifier (high elves caping at 17 in dex for instance). That’s the only thing I do not agree with OP

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+1 to most of this, except:
Originally Posted by cannonball
For some background, I currently have 80+ hours played in the EA and I play a regular D&D pen and paper session weekly (5 hours a session) and have played 2nd, 3rd, 3.5, and 5th edition D&D.
1.Character Creation
There is some barrier that exists here, with certain race/ class combos where the ability score CANNOT be increased, even if there are enough points available for the allocation. I have been blocked at 15, 16, and 17 for various race/ class combos, even wen I have lowered EVERY other ability score to 8. I have 20 points available, then I should be able to take a score to 18. The blockage here makes no sense, and it means I play characters that have 4 14s and they are all copies of each other. I can’t make a big dumb meat shield warrior with 8 int, wis, and cha. In Pen and Paper, having 3 8’s would be a bad idea, but I should still be able to do it.

I assume you never do point buy in your PnP d&d sessions..? 5e RAW caps point-buy ability scores at 15 and racial bonuses can then bring this up to 17. It also doesn't set rules for scores lower than 8 (8 costs 0 points, so there is not really a reason to go below 8). This is why you have been blocked.

Now, should Larian change this to allow higher (or lower) scores? Eh maybe sure. But currently they are following 5e rules.

2.) I am fine with cantrips causing surfaces. They just should do either damage or surface effects. They should also allow saves for taking 0 damage from the surface, and this save should only have to be made once (unless you choose to stay in the fire at the end of your turn). E.g., "If you end your turn in fire or you move through fire, make a save."

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I totally agree.
They are missing the point and I begin to regret to have paid for the first time of my life for an EA. I feel like I gave undeserved credits.

I agree with the OP too.
One of the massive problem with Larian is their will to transpose the DOS2 gameplay in BG3. The barrelmancy is a typical example of why it can't work.

DOS 2 was a little "absurd" universe, one where moving barrels everywhere and becoming the king of barrels explosions could be acceptable but BG3 is more of a "serious" universe.
You can't imagine reading a forgotten realms novel like "And then Drizzt Do Urden send away 6 barrels of oil he carry on him before sending a stupid candle on it, burning all his ennemies to death"
or even "After the ennemies saw him, Drizzt decided to let them move first. The first ennemy climb a a cliff and send a fire arrow on him, the second ennemy jump on him and shove him to the ground, the third ennemy rush on him and hit him twice and then the last ennemy jump on him and shove him again. Finally, Drizzt decided to fight back. He jumped to leave the pit where he was and attacks one of his ennemy once, then, hurt and burning, Drizzt decided to stay still and wait again because it was only fair to fight this way and far more strategic."
It's absurd, it's DOS, not BG.

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I enjoy the game for what it is. The 5e rules they are incorporating have adapted the Divinity Combat to be more rigid and specialized, yet still being dynamic enough to not need a Tank, Healer, DPS generic trinity.

Bug and balance fixes to the 5e rules they did apply should be made, such as offhand getting proficiency for anyone regardless of what class passives and skills have been selected, or silence and devil's sight being fixed to work appropriately.

5e with Larian touch is exactly what we have. Larian's touch is surface effect combat, as evident in DOS1 and 2, which were the corner stone to a lot of the combat. Now that they did that you all want to tell Larian what their touch and flare should be, so you will never be happy unless it is exactly how you DM your own TT games. Yet it has been confessed there are often house rules and leeway made by each DM, so this is Larian's adaptation of the rules to fit their module.

More balance I would agree with would be issue with the action vs bonus action on shove or how jump/disengage works may warrant splitting the skills. Food is acceptable, but I see how long/short rest is trivialized in the game. Question is, does a game without random encounters need short/long rest? Will more restrictions be a boon to the gamers, or is that just adding a layer of complication that is negative in quality of life.

If anything short/long rest can be addressed in difficulty modes that restrict how often that can happen. I don't believe 5e purism would be healthy for the game, but I understand the loyalty many of you have to the rules, since D&D is run like a bible for some otherwise creativity gets out of hand and your game sessions turn into clown fiestas.

This is not a dynamic environment and it is carefully scripted. Balance should always be considered, but Larian has the control of this gaming session and your creativity is limited, so the PHB is not required to call the BS flag on the people next to you doing something out of hand.

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Originally Posted by CMF
I enjoy the game for what it is. The 5e rules they are incorporating have adapted the Divinity Combat to be more rigid and specialized, yet still being dynamic enough to not need a Tank, Healer, DPS generic trinity.

Bug and balance fixes to the 5e rules they did apply should be made, such as offhand getting proficiency for anyone regardless of what class passives and skills have been selected, or silence and devil's sight being fixed to work appropriately.

5e with Larian touch is exactly what we have. Larian's touch is surface effect combat, as evident in DOS1 and 2, which were the corner stone to a lot of the combat. Now that they did that you all want to tell Larian what their touch and flare should be, so you will never be happy unless it is exactly how you DM your own TT games. Yet it has been confessed there are often house rules and leeway made by each DM, so this is Larian's adaptation of the rules to fit their module.

More balance I would agree with would be issue with the action vs bonus action on shove or how jump/disengage works may warrant splitting the skills. Food is acceptable, but I see how long/short rest is trivialized in the game. Question is, does a game without random encounters need short/long rest? Will more restrictions be a boon to the gamers, or is that just adding a layer of complication that is negative in quality of life.

If anything short/long rest can be addressed in difficulty modes that restrict how often that can happen. I don't believe 5e purism would be healthy for the game, but I understand the loyalty many of you have to the rules, since D&D is run like a bible for some otherwise creativity gets out of hand and your game sessions turn into clown fiestas.

This is not a dynamic environment and it is carefully scripted. Balance should always be considered, but Larian has the control of this gaming session and your creativity is limited, so the PHB is not required to call the BS flag on the people next to you doing something out of hand.

5e with Larian touch would be nice, problem is that currently it is more like the other way around. It would also be nice if Larian could step out of their comfort zone and let DOS go for a while because if these are their house rules they are a bit too liberal.

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Originally Posted by cannonball
If you are knocked prone, your turn is not over. You can still take actions, reactions, and bonus actions. And standing up takes ½ your movement. Let us stand up, not WASTE an entire turn.

Yes, the prone thing was so confusing for me. I slipped on my own ice and my turn just ended with no actions and no movement. I thought this was a bug. It never even OCCURRED to me that this could be intentional.

That makes no sense. People can move and even FIGHT from a prone position.

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Originally Posted by eLeF
Originally Posted by CMF
I enjoy the game for what it is. The 5e rules they are incorporating have adapted the Divinity Combat to be more rigid and specialized, yet still being dynamic enough to not need a Tank, Healer, DPS generic trinity.

Bug and balance fixes to the 5e rules they did apply should be made, such as offhand getting proficiency for anyone regardless of what class passives and skills have been selected, or silence and devil's sight being fixed to work appropriately.

5e with Larian touch is exactly what we have. Larian's touch is surface effect combat, as evident in DOS1 and 2, which were the corner stone to a lot of the combat. Now that they did that you all want to tell Larian what their touch and flare should be, so you will never be happy unless it is exactly how you DM your own TT games. Yet it has been confessed there are often house rules and leeway made by each DM, so this is Larian's adaptation of the rules to fit their module.

More balance I would agree with would be issue with the action vs bonus action on shove or how jump/disengage works may warrant splitting the skills. Food is acceptable, but I see how long/short rest is trivialized in the game. Question is, does a game without random encounters need short/long rest? Will more restrictions be a boon to the gamers, or is that just adding a layer of complication that is negative in quality of life.

If anything short/long rest can be addressed in difficulty modes that restrict how often that can happen. I don't believe 5e purism would be healthy for the game, but I understand the loyalty many of you have to the rules, since D&D is run like a bible for some otherwise creativity gets out of hand and your game sessions turn into clown fiestas.

This is not a dynamic environment and it is carefully scripted. Balance should always be considered, but Larian has the control of this gaming session and your creativity is limited, so the PHB is not required to call the BS flag on the people next to you doing something out of hand.

5e with Larian touch would be nice, problem is that currently it is more like the other way around. It would also be nice if Larian could step out of their comfort zone and let DOS go for a while because if these are their house rules they are a bit too liberal.

The problem with confirmation bias is that you can find it everywhere you look. A lot of people came in wanting x, but expecting y, and what do you know, they found y. It's hilarious, and popcorn worthy to watch them circle the wagons on someone that disagrees, especially if it happens to be someone that never played y. So far I've been told that I can't cite story reasons for things that happen in the game, despite the game explaining to us that something is up. Talk to Volo in the Grove about the goblins if you want a precise example of what I'm talking about. Then there's "barrelmancy". Ok, it's funny to read, but this is something that people act like it never happened in games before Divinity. I'd imagine they'd be shocked to learn that it not only has, but predates Larian by years. Then there's the "rule lawyers" that don't understand the rules, but just know that Larian got it wrong.

Some things they do have wrong: Being able to change armor in combat springs to mind. Other things seem a whole lot more like "but I don't like that someone else can, or will do this, so it needs to be removed". Things like save scumming? They'll sing the praises of BG 1 and 2 all day long, but "conveniently" forget that that's where people that do save scum a lot learned it, or, at least, that's the original origin of the Save Scummer's Guild of Planet Earth motto, Trademark pending. "Save early, save often, save before and save after". Why did BioWare want people making all these saves? So that if things went sideways, they could reload, w/out losing a few hours of gametime in the process. This, like the "camp abuse" thing are things that are well within their control to eliminate, all they have to do is not do it, but that's not enough, it has to affect everyone, or they haven't lawyered their rules appropriately. They're not unique here, you can find them anywhere save mechanics are included in games.

I was multiple 10s of hours into gameplay before I figured out you could "Short Rest". I had been using food to heal up. Even after discovering it, I still tend to save it for an emergency. I've seen "but ground effects aren't DnD"? I linked to a video from Outside Xtra for that one. Maybe you've heard of Merilwyn's Meatgrinder? Two ground effect spells in one encounter, in an actual PnP game, the absolute horror. Someone was going on about dropping rocks on someone. Admittedly, I'm far from an expert in every encounter in the game, but I found one place where I could do that, well, two, but it was way more effective at the door to the temple than it was against the ogres... It didn't seem to do much to them at all, except make 'em mad, anyway.

Then there's the house rules argument. The problem, of course, is that WotC has to approve everything that gets into the game, and they are quite heavy handed when it comes to that, in case nobody's noticed all the PC changes they've been making to games, including things like Magic the Gathering. It's a talking point, I guess, but it ignores the fact that if it's in game, it's been approved.

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" It would also be nice if Larian could step out of their comfort zone and let DOS go for a while..."

That's exactly how it feels right now, they know their formula works and they have the WotC approval so there's no reason for them to change that .

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Originally Posted by robertthebard
The problem with confirmation bias is that you can find it everywhere you look. A lot of people came in wanting x, but expecting y, and what do you know, they found y. It's hilarious, and popcorn worthy to watch them circle the wagons on someone that disagrees, especially if it happens to be someone that never played y. So far I've been told that I can't cite story reasons for things that happen in the game, despite the game explaining to us that something is up. Talk to Volo in the Grove about the goblins if you want a precise example of what I'm talking about. Then there's "barrelmancy". Ok, it's funny to read, but this is something that people act like it never happened in games before Divinity. I'd imagine they'd be shocked to learn that it not only has, but predates Larian by years. Then there's the "rule lawyers" that don't understand the rules, but just know that Larian got it wrong.

Some things they do have wrong: Being able to change armor in combat springs to mind. Other things seem a whole lot more like "but I don't like that someone else can, or will do this, so it needs to be removed". Things like save scumming? They'll sing the praises of BG 1 and 2 all day long, but "conveniently" forget that that's where people that do save scum a lot learned it, or, at least, that's the original origin of the Save Scummer's Guild of Planet Earth motto, Trademark pending. "Save early, save often, save before and save after". Why did BioWare want people making all these saves? So that if things went sideways, they could reload, w/out losing a few hours of gametime in the process. This, like the "camp abuse" thing are things that are well within their control to eliminate, all they have to do is not do it, but that's not enough, it has to affect everyone, or they haven't lawyered their rules appropriately. They're not unique here, you can find them anywhere save mechanics are included in games.

I was multiple 10s of hours into gameplay before I figured out you could "Short Rest". I had been using food to heal up. Even after discovering it, I still tend to save it for an emergency. I've seen "but ground effects aren't DnD"? I linked to a video from Outside Xtra for that one. Maybe you've heard of Merilwyn's Meatgrinder? Two ground effect spells in one encounter, in an actual PnP game, the absolute horror. Someone was going on about dropping rocks on someone. Admittedly, I'm far from an expert in every encounter in the game, but I found one place where I could do that, well, two, but it was way more effective at the door to the temple than it was against the ogres... It didn't seem to do much to them at all, except make 'em mad, anyway.

Then there's the house rules argument. The problem, of course, is that WotC has to approve everything that gets into the game, and they are quite heavy handed when it comes to that, in case nobody's noticed all the PC changes they've been making to games, including things like Magic the Gathering. It's a talking point, I guess, but it ignores the fact that if it's in game, it's been approved.

Save scumming shouldn't bother people. That's a player's choice that doesn't affect the game itself (and is very Baldur's Gate). Not sure why you associate save scumming with barrelmancy. A 5e game should at least have the illusion of realism, and players carrying (and tossing) multiple large barrels that would weigh 100+ lbs each... that flies in the face of (fake) realism. You can't even pretend your characters can do that unless this is a cartoon. It removes all narrative weight from the story. Also, the game will by necessity be balanced for exploding barrels making them mandatory for proper play.

EDIT: Also, WotC likely spent most of their "approval" time going over the Forgotten Realms and how to handle their property. It is highly unlikely that someone from the small WotC staff is combing over every proposed rules change at Larian. The rules will only be evaluated by WotC at a broad level, and likely only a few times a year, if that.

Last edited by Traycor; 27/10/20 11:14 PM.
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On the character creator, that is core. You can't invest in an attribute beyond 15 and need to rely on racials to get to 16 or 17. Most games I've seen ignore this rule, but that is how it is supposed to be played.

That said I do think the game needs to be more transparent with your ability scores. It should show you which ones are getting your racial bonus and how many points you've invested into each attribute. I know I got a little confused at first because I didn't realize that the attribute total included your racial bonus already.

Aside from that I agree with a lot of your points, but disagree on the idea of surfaces and explosions not being very DnD. I've definitely played pen and paper games where players asked the DM if they could use their frost spell to freeze a puddle of water to make enemies slip or throw a fire blast to ignite some alcohol to make some enemies explode. Pulling off wacky tactics with creative applications of your abilities is an instrumental part of the pen and paper experience and a huge part of why D:OS2 is so beloved. The game was able to capture the sort of spur of the moment "not technically RAW" plays that pen and paper allows that video games usually can't.

Plus so far BG3 isn't nearly as bad about it as D:OS2 was. Larian reigned themselves in. Not every fight involves copious amounts of fire everywhere, which is a good thing.

I also feel like if someone wants to spend an hour dragging barrels around to make a massive explosion and kill something they probably shouldn't have they should be allowed to do that. This is a very pen and paper thing to do. The only thing I'd change is maybe let NPCs notice you're stacking barrels around them and react to that in some way. Or have someone get mad at you for running off with a barrel full of booze. I know I'd be pretty miffed if I saw someone do that!

Last edited by SaurianDruid; 27/10/20 11:38 PM.
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Originally Posted by SaurianDruid
I also feel like if someone wants to spend an hour dragging barrels around to make a massive explosion and kill something they probably shouldn't have they should be allowed to do that. This is a very pen and paper thing to do. The only thing I'd change is maybe let NPCs notice you're stacking barrels around them and react to that in some way. Or have someone get mad at you for running off with a barrel full of booze. I know I'd be pretty miffed if I saw someone do that!

Or they could address the fact that 1 cubic meter of water weights a ton (not hyperbole, I mean a literal TON) and that not even an ogre would be able to launch full barrels approaching that volume around up to meters away as if they were stones, let alone humans and co.

When "sticking to a degree of realism and common sense" and "fixing a potential exploit" can be solved in one shot. A proper matter of killing two birds with a stone.

Last edited by Tuco; 27/10/20 11:48 PM.

Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN
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It is Very simple: so far, there is NOTHING about this game that is "Baldur's Gate". If the title of the game was, say... "Darkstorm" (instead of "Baldur's Gate 3"), NO ONE would make ANY connection to BG1 or BG2, whatsoever. Fallout 3 had more of a Fallout 1 and 2 feel than this does to Baldur's Gate and that was a COMPLETE paradigm shift in video game style from its prequels. This game is spammy, wantonly ignores a Stunning amount of D&D "rules", throws in effects and "barrel nonsense" like an eight year old swinging at a pinata and is massively linear, limiting player choice from the very beginning of character creation to the end of the Alpha. The OP is SPOT ON and, due to space/time limitations on his post, didn't list Dozens to Hundreds More examples of, "Man... guys... what the hell...?". Getting misnamed name "Tav" is just One, Excellent, example and there are Dozens more - So Far (we haven't even seen what else is cooking for later "chapters"). And, they Can Stop It - right now, in Alpha, they have a chance to stop this focus on cleverness and "BOOM WOWIE ZOWIE!" effects (does dash Really need some MAGICAL MYSTICAL POWERFUL I'M DOING SOMETHING, MOMMY, COME SEE!!! visual "artistry"?) and make it the tactical, realistic D&D experience that both follows and enhances its Baldur's Gate predecessors in a way that the Larian engine Clearly is capable of being. Stop being clever and be GOOD instead. You can either be Michael Jordan or you can be some clever street dribble master that never gets off his neighborhood court - not both.

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