Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Impressions after two playthroughs

So I've played through the EA twice now and thought I'd share some high level impressions.

First off - I've had a great time! Both playthroughs were thoroughly enjoyable and I tried out the different NPC's and classes.
There are so many minor hidden details and and things I missed on both playthroughs, so even going back just to finish some leftover stuff I knew was there gave me a few surprises.

Just a few examples:
First run: killed hag with wyvern poison and completely missed the opportunity to spare her with the possible boon of +1 stat.
Second run: forgot to kill the harpies and when I went there to do a clean up after the goblin leaders were killed, the boy was dead and I was too late.
First run: completely missed Khaga's shadow druid quest because I never opened her chest, so missed my chance at Faithwarden on my druid.
Second run: discovered a very well hidden cave in the Underdark with Kua-Toa and a new Lord of Murder.. all praise Boooaaaal!
Second run: Discovered a lot of different ways to enter the Underdark that I missed on the first run

The game is filled with good stuff, so I'll highlight the bad/annoying/unfinished things instead, as these are the things I would like to se changed:

The party controls - I hate the chain system. The number of times it has screwed me over, just because I clicked on a different character and they all started running around like crazy. I have nothing positive to say about it at all. Please let me select my party members like in the predecessors. Also add a "all hide" button.
The delay/lag in character switching (click on a portrait) is super frustrating. Also please remove the delay in being able to control the characters after a climb/jump/whatever. The times I've frantically clicked the ground just because the game isn't registering my clicks due to Tav climbing a ladder or getting back on his feet after a jump is super annoying. Mind you, I don't think the additional time should be removed of getting up, I just want the game to register my actions while the PC is doing his thing.

Interactions with NPC skills: Dice rolls are fine for RNG, but certain checks should be automatic success if you pass a certain threshold. In my first playthrough I managed to to break the door to the burning inn on my fourth attempt with my PC mage with a STR score of 8, while all my other party members had all failed with significantly better STR. All things in life are not random. If your STR is 17, you can open that door.

In conversations, all my party members attributes and skills should be taken into consideration. They are standing right next to me, listening in. They will definitely inform me if they recognize a deadly poison.

Perception checks: If I discover something, please highlight it a bit more. "Hey I found something!" - Oh yea? A grey button on a grey wall in a dark room? Please highlight it longer (preferable until i mouseover it)

HP inflation: My major beef with this is that it makes casters useless at low levels. More detailed posts on this exists.

Jump and backstab: just no.

Barrel cheese: No, you can't carry 10 barrels in your inventory no matter your STR score. Please don't build encounters on cheese. Barrels should not be possible to be in your inventory. Good positioning of a single barrel = all good. Cheesing a fight by brining 10 - not so much.

Inventory management: It's a mess. Like really, just a mess. Pathfinder has a pretty good take on it. And please highlight what is just "vendor trash" - again, Pathfinder does it in a nice way: "A merchant would pay a pretty penny for this object..."
Shared inventory is king - You usually have a face/front character picking up everything. It doesn't mean that the character does all the heavy lifting.
Shared inventory at least as an option!

Advantage: This has been a major topic elsewhere, but the "to hit" bonus of heights is just silly.

Opinions from NPC's: Every NPC has extremely strong opinions about everything, and it's really black and white. They Approve/disapproves all the time, and usually not in a very nuanced way. It's really based on "I'm good/evil". They even butt in on private conversations in camp: Private chat with Wyll: Astarion disapproves!
One of my joys in games like this is the challenge of keeping everyone happy until the end. It adds roleplaying, playing your party members against each other or changing their point of view. That is very difficult if everyone is black or white about everything. If I choose a "sensible" path, both good and evil characters should approve of it, unless they're a chaotic evil murdering machine.
And in a lot of occasions, they really shouldn't have a preference! We're literally trying to find a cure for a tadpole, so everyone should be a little more open minded about the how.

UI - Action bar: Please stop messing with my action bar. I DO NOT want it filled with every usable item I pick up.

Sensible feedback. I agree with a lot of it.

Except the hotbar I want changed into something more organized. I want separate menus or buttons for spells, basic actions, consumables etc. Solasta has a much better organized UI without a hotbar. You can still have a hotbar, but using it for everything is really lazy UI design. I hate how messy it gets and how difficult it is to actually find something in it. Also prepared spells change which is a big reason why spells need their own interface.

I thought the game was fun at first too. But after two playthroughs of EA I can't get over how dumb the combat is with the bomebrew changes and the cheesy exploits.

Btw you can change which things are automatically added to your hotbar in Settings. I only allow spells & abilities to be auto-added.

That said, it'd be much better as a menu(s).

Did not know that, and should be a default setting 😁

Really good feedback.

Larian could take inspiration from DAI and use "slightly approves," "approves," and "greatly approves." This would allow companions to have strong or weak opinions about things. The game might actually be doing this already in secret, but it'd be nice if we as the player were informed about this.

Agreed that other companions shouldn't approve/disapprove of choices made during private conversations. Unless they're explicitly eavesdropping, as SH does sometimes.

Did you find all four entrances? ;D

Both spectators? The hidden basement in the tower?



Yeah, I use F1-F4 to select party members because clicking on them doesn't seem to work half the time. We definitely need a stealth-all button that applies to companions/pets/familiars as well.

The number of times I have for no reason I can see attacked empty air because of a misclick kills me.


Passive checks, I agree, I wish Larian would make use of these more. They are covered in the PHB and they used these in DOS/DOS2




Perception checks: If I discover something, please highlight it a bit more. "Hey I found something!" - Oh yea? A grey button on a grey wall in a dark room? Please highlight it longer (preferable until i mouseover it) [/quote]

They said they are working on these, so we should see something between now and full release.


This and the ability to throw creatures into the ceiling, or across the room at other mobs and do horrific damage without any kind of check other than having 16 str. You can kill all the Cambions on the ship and the Mindflayer this way. I discourage this in my multiplayer games. Like I get you could throw a Goblin, or an intellect devourer. But there would still be some sort of athletics/grapple check. A level 1 should not be able to throw a level 6-8 around like that and kill them.


really good Feedback, we def need more like this. make sure you check out Multiplayer as well and provide feedback on that. You can find groups at https://discord.gg/jeFUyj4E

Multiplayer is a blast.

Thanks for taking your time to write down your feedback, a good read!

I take it that you missed the part where each companion has their own unique agenda. Just because they are grouped with you doesn't mean they are going to take care of you.


Like several other complaints it removes another aspect of D&D world. Encumbrance is another one of those management mechanics that has been in D&D since it's beginning.


Rule #1 of combat... whoever holds the higher ground has the advantage. Just ask Anakin


It's not black or white, good or evil. Each are different with their own agendas, perceptions, beliefs that guide their own motives and aligning your decisions with those is what affects whether they approve of your decisions or not.

One can also argue that they should be pragmatic enough to not allow you to drag the entire party into trouble just because.

The fact that they currently don't is probably due to the assumption that you can split them up at any time, so it'd be weird to have them contributing to skill checks when they're halfway across the map. But this is probably the only possible advantage to using the chain system to bypass that sort of thing, chained companions should assist in skill checks because if they're too far from each other, they can't be chained to begin with.

Granted, I'd rather chaining be done away with entirely, and allow all party members to contribute if they're within a certain distance.

Temple, zhent and hag's lair. Which is the fourth? Jumping from spider lair?

Bottle and Underdark spectators.

Which basement? Might have missed it

Own agenda, sure, but that's not what's happening. Opinion and agenda is one thing, just being a stupid bystander is another.

Shared inventory doesn't negate encumbrance. Again, Pathfinder handles it very well.

Regarding banter: if what you describe was true it wouldn't be a problem. The problem is that in its current form is just black or white.

Yes, spider lair.

In the tower

Good feedback. Maybe Larian could see fit to engage with the online community once in a blue moon to announce which feedback is being addressed/considered for implementation so we wouldn't have to scream into the voice endlessly about terrible mechanics like the party control system.

Will check that out! Missed that one!

Oh, and one thing I completely forgot:

I've had a lot of flying beards (dwarf main), mind flayer tentacles and tieflings tails living their own lives, even after the deaths of said mind flayer/tieflings. Definitely needs some attention

They said their next Community Update will talk about exactly this.

I have hope...

Any idea when this will be? Or yet to be announced?

No announced date, other than 'soon'. Jess typically posts an announcement in the Latest News forums once a new community update goes live, with the occassional someone else. Regardless, that's a place to keep an eye out for news, alternatively the news channel on Discord if that's more up your alley

I have been thinking about this but after doing a few playthroughs I feel like there would be an outcry as this would actually cause more cons than pros if you really think about it. I will point out the most likely one or 2 that I see.

When sneaking around you see an overlay of red that indicates what will cause need for hide rolls/spotted. So typically you have to be very careful and sometimes move in a pinpoint precision path. With how the companions move as a group you would almost never be able to manage this properly without going turn by turn movement at which point you can make everyone hide on their turn to begin with.

The other point, and this is merely assuming that you were thinking a hide all would result in only the lead having to roll hide/sneak rolls when the reality is every character would need to roll. Now do you honestly expect Gale to be all that effective at sneaking? Or Lae'Zel in her metallic armor? They will be blowing your cover constantly causing you even more frustration.