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GM4Him Offline OP
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Ok, so while writing my fan fiction, the Afflicted, I'm using the 5e rules and stats for combat. What Im learning is that 3-4 characters fits the prologue IF you have the same number of enemies as the game has now AND you use proper stats AND you use proper 5e rules. It works well and is very balanced. If you have 1-2, you will have a hard experience getting through the Prologue and you will likely need to nerf enemies or have fewer.

Then, as I played through the intellect devourer fight after you meet Shadowheart, I learned that 4 character against 3 devourers is suicide UNLESS they don't use Body Thief. Even if they don't use that ability, because you have a tadpole or whatever - btw, why ARE they attacking you...dont they want you to live - the battle is still quite tough with 4 party members IF you use normal stats AND proper rules. So, again, with 1-2 characters, this fight should be suicide unless they are majorly nerfed. Damage Resistance, Intellect Devour, Claws, 22 HP...3 is a bit rough, but again isn't impossible if you have 4.

You need 6 if you use normal stats in the ruins against Marli and Barton, again, unless nerfed, and the skeleton mages too. So, I would say that if you want to play the game the way it should be, you need to have a bigger party. Otherwise, you have to nerf everything.

I am posting this to say, 1 character and Shadowheart should not be pitted against 3 intellect devourers, just like 1 character and Lae'zel should not be pitted against so many imps, etc. BG3 is not geared right now properly within the authentic world of Faerun. It can work well as is, but you need more characters in these fights with true rules and stats for it to really be true to the world.

Oh, and if you do experience right, you gain enough experience to level up BEFORE the devourer fight. Why not let the player do this to help with the devourer fight?

Also, also, if you made the devourer fight based on normal stats and rules, a Long Rest after makes a whole lot more sense because someone in the party is likely going to have been Intellect Devoured. Intellect Devour can completely render a character comatose until they get their intellect healed. So, a long rest would make sense...and maybe some additional explanation as to how they recovered their Intelligence...a Greater Restoration scroll you find by chance somewhere... the tadpole actually heals you... something.

Last edited by GM4Him; 14/06/21 03:58 AM.
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Are you rushing in facing them straight on?
Cause I just took to high ground and used ranged attacks on the intellect devourers solo, and then went up and picked up Astarion. No issues what so ever.

Combat in BG3 so far is very much based on positioning, sneaking in, getting advantage and surprise attackts etc.

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GM4Him Offline OP
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Sorry, let me clarify, I was playing Tabletop D&D using BG3 as my story and encounters. So I played these things out using the genuine D&D 5e rules instead of Larian's nerfs.

So the whole point of the thread is that true D&D stats for intellect devourers and genuine 5e rules would indeed work well with the game if the player had the right party size. Even with 3-4 PCs, 3 intellect devourers would be tough even if the PCs were level 2 by then. It made the fight fun, challenging and exciting.

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Dez Offline
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I think there is a lot of truth to what you're saying. I really feel like the amount of enemies in multiple situations in BG3 feels... Off. ESPECIALLY if you attempt to encounter the intellect devourers without using sneak / height advantage (I got absolutely smacked first time I did it when I just charged at them thinking "ehhh, it's brains. Dafuck is the worst that can happen?").

I mean, hordes of enemies certainly feels like mechanics from DOS2, where I personally felt like it worked out just fine because you have massive amounts of AoE spells and wombo-combos - but from a DnD perspective it feels out of place in BG3 - at least according to my limited knowledge.

I am very new to TT DnD but I do have my own campaign running with 5 friends as players (we've finished out 4th session :D). Their very first combat encounter was a couple of blights (4x 1/4 blights and 1x 1/2 blight - I do not remember the separate name for each type). And even though all players were level 2, the battle took a hilarious amount of time (and oh god, it was an amazing experience). No player was even close to dying, but it was still a good amount of fun and I got some assessments that I am going to use in future combat. I am positively thrilled to see them do their first "boss" encounter! laugh

EDIT: They are making progress, and I almost killed one of my players (unintentionally) with a violent fungus (he had full health...) ... ... He got so spooked that he thought they accidentally got into a high level area when all they did was provoking the shrooms to attack by eldrich blasting some nearby bushes. :']

Last edited by Dez; 16/06/21 01:04 AM.

Hoot hoot, stranger! Fairly new to CRPGs, but I tried my best to provide some feedback regardless! <3 Read it here: My Open Letter to Larian
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The first encounter pretty much sums up the whole gameplay of BG3. You fight "fair" using character abilities on an even ground and you get roflstomped by superior enemies. Then you climb to high ground and they never even get to attack you while you shoot them down. An impossible encounter becomes a trivial one.

They have failed to find that sweet spot where both characters abilities AND terrain awareness and other clever exploits matter.

In that first fight, they could use weaker enemies but place one of them on the high ground so there's still a challenge without an obvious "tactic" trivializing the whole encounter.

The whole high ground mechanic needs a considerable nerf first though.


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