Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback My thoughts as d&d player/dm and BG1-2 fan

Hello everybody! So I've really been enjoying BG3, but I do have some concerns i'd like to share. I don't think my concerns are all that unique but i just wanted to offer my perspective.

Combat:

So first, I think combat as it is, is pretty damn fun and well implemented. There are some things about combat that bother me, I agree with folks who would like the rules to be closer to 5e in regards to cantrips not creating surface effects, shove being an action not a bonus action, and some other issues, but ultimately i'm not worried about that. I think a lot of that can be tweaked in EA, and i'll still enjoy the game if combat stays mostly the same.
I am a fan of combat remaining turn based. I'm not interested in playing an action game, i want turns and rounds just like in 5e. When i played BG1-2 i was one of the people with auto-pause turned on for almost every condition, lol.

The hot bar is currently a pain to manage, and gets full of icons really quick. I'm definitely not into scrolling through pages of hot bar to find the thing i want to use. But again, I'm confident this can be improved in EA.

I can't even figure out how reactions are supposed to work, so that obviously has to be sorted out. I switched out hellish rebuke from my warlock PC because i couldn't figure out how to get it to work at all. I picked riposte for a fighter and similarly couldn't figure it out. There has to be some kind of way to pick a reaction when the conditions for one is met or we're going to miss out on a lot of very cool stuff in the 5e rules.


But here's what really worries me. These things I don't think can be easily addressed at this point, and they are in the exploration and social part of the game.

Exploration: The maps feel like standard video game maps to me and I don't particularly like that. There are few areas where i can just start walking in any direction and explore. It all feels very railroaded and makes the scope seem cramped. I think it would be ridiculous to expect larian to change the map to have the huge open world scope of something like skyrim or red dead redemption 2, but maybe a solution is to make maps that are basically tactical battle maps, and have a world map that links them. The travel time between them could have possible random encounters (combat or social) and would make the world seem bigger and more realistic.

Also, as many others have expressed, the camp doesn't make much sense. I understand its purpose as a story hub, but how am i going from being in a hostile goblin encampment or the underdark to my cute little campground and back? Not realistic and makes it feel more like a standard video game than d&d. Make me have to camp inside the dungeons. Maybe the party can find a good room to barricade for safety, or maybe their rest is interrupted by being discovered by enemies.

Social: I'm only on my 2nd playthrough, but i've saved/reloaded and tried a bunch of different dialogue options and choices. I have to say the writing doesn't feel as good as BG2 or another comparable classic, Planescape Torment. The things that made those games so great was the writing. You really felt invested in the characters and NPCs, and sometimes there were multiple paragraphs of dialog at a time. I know there's likely to be more added, but this doesn't feel like something that can really be fixed in EA. The commitment to voice acting for every line makes this seem extra hard. Anyway, I wish more focus had been placed here. Look at how well a game like Disco Elysium did making writing the absolute primary concern. There's only like a city block, a tiny village, and a little island, but the game is extremely fun and replayable because of the depth of writing. And honestly, that's why most of us who play TTRPGs play them, to collaboratively write a story with the other players and DM. Obviously a video game can't be as collaborative, but BG 1-2 and planescape torment did a great job of making something that felt like playing d&d. When neverwinter nights came an switched the focus to more video game concerns of graphics and real time multiplayer, it was a major bummer for me. I was hoping for a return to that writing focused form with BG3, but it doesn't seem like that's what we're going to get.

also i can't really figure out if guidance is working on my skill checks in dialogue. And like others have said, it would be nice to be able to have all the party members participate in dialogue so you don't end up being forced to make a skill check with a pc that is really bad at it when there's another party member that's proficient.


Anyway, the game is fun, and i'm sure it's going to be improved during EA. I'm satisfied with my purchase, and i'll definitely play through the the EA a couple more times and look forward to the final release.

nobody care

I care. Thanks for your feedback.

"I can't even figure out how reactions are supposed to work" It ends up on the rightmost part of the toolbar. if you double click it, it has a white circle around it showing its active.
I think the camp is fine...no reason you couldn't walk to camp and back as its not that far.
"I have to say the writing doesn't feel as good as.." Have to agree to disagree here.
And guidance is working but that interface and the log need to be better.

+1 I care.

I don’t really see a problem in the camping system. My major problem is with the resting system regarding that subject. Takes out resources economy out of the game.

Also care.

Agreed on 80 percent. I also played BG2 in 'turn based mode'

I don't know why they made spells that only have yourself as a target need to cast and then target yourself. Hellish rebuke should just automatically apply. To get it to work cast and then select yourself. Only works on certain sorts of hits -- if you are pushed for example it doesn't kick in.

The maps agreed -- I really miss the BG2 maps but I think Larian is pretty committed to the amusement park style maps.

Agreed the feedback needs to better.

So far I'm happy with the writing but yes, I'm hoping for much more of it. I'm hoping they will trust us to read a wall of text.

On the caretrain.

Agreed on most of these. Good points overall. Not a fan of TB, but I do hope social and exploration get a lot of dev attention.

I also care.



It works like that so that you can't accidentally hit the wrong key and waste your action on a buff you didn't intend to cast. Or so that you can click on it and still think about if you really want to go forward with it.

I'd rather it be like this than the reverse. Especially since I have a tendency to forget what keys do what after I re-arrange everything on level up and need a little time before I fully remember where I put everything.

I feel like this is something that should be optional

I think it's how spells works in their engine. Spells are always in "two parts" - click the icon = first animation / click the target = end of the animation.
As Saurian said, for those specific spells it avoid mistakes.
A few players before EA said that having spells in 2 times like this was really usefull in multiplayer.

That's also probably why they can't add more words during spellcasting.

The EA maps of Larian should be spaced out more. Everything feels so close together. As soon as you move 1 screen, it's a new combat or scene. It's not much just passive exploration.

I would like this, as well. If they chopped up the current map into smaller sections, and you traveled between them on the world map, that would be even better.

Yes. I was originally against the idea of fragmenting the map, but it'd be way better than theme park world.

Totally caring and agreeing on all these points. Especially the writing is worrisome. This is or should be an RPG first and foremost and a combat simulator second. Please focus on the writing a bit more.

One of the main things for which needs to be fixed is the Load times. It takes forever to load or reload a saved game. I've never played a game with such a long load time.

I agree and sympathise on most of these points.

Multiple click spell casting for no reason is silly and needs to go, I feel. I can see people mentioning that it's to help prevent you making mistakes, but I've played plenty of games where they don't do that and it does not cause a problem. There's no rush, be careful and know what you're clicking before you click it. Casting the wrong spell because you didn't read what you were clicking before you clicked it is your own fault as a player - don't put that responsibility on the game designers.

Reactions are an absolute shambles and need to be sorted out, along with returning reactions spells (feather fall, hellish rebuke, and I would say shield, but shield isn't even in this game (!!!) how can they call themselves a D&D game without shield?) back to being so.

I'd also like to see more attention to the game's writing, and the cramped themepark-feeling of the maps is also not ideal.

I don't get the complaints on the map. It's almost as if you guys want loading screens. I really don't understand why chop the map into a different sections.

Might want to start a new thread and include your specs. Loads take maybe 20 seconds for me on my laptop, but it is a gaming laptop. i7, ssd, 1660ti etc.

I'd rather have loading screens than a map where everything is a rock's throw from each other and enemy camps practically sit on one another. Like I said, theme park world. Breaks believability. Open worlds are great, but either you have ridiculous scaling (like in BG3) or huge empty spaces. Fragmented map has neither problem. You can make things realistically far away from each other and not force the player to traverse an empty forest for two hours to reach destination.

Separate locations with movements between them on the global map would definitely be better suited to the dnd game, and would also will be no need in silly fast travel points if the transition to another location is always somewhere nearby.

Loading screens are not a problem, the Larian engine loads small locations from a big ones, loading within one region will be instant.

I mean, I don't think the silly travel point would be needed anyway. At least not in the convoluted magic waypoint way. Either set "safe zones" where you can freely travel from and to (perhaps could be also used for long rest) or just replace the system with the Witcher (and many other games) fast travel system - signposts and implied mundane travel. Mechanically similar or the same, but much better in terms of immersion and worldbuilding.