Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Diseases in the game

In RPG games, there is often the possibility of injury or Diseases requiring treatment. For example, in the Elder Scrolls series of games.

https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Diseases_(Skyrim)

How do you feel about the idea of ​​viral diseases in BG3? Are they needed?

So that you can wear a mask and get vaccinated in the game

...

There are diseases ...
If you step on any trap in Swamp, you get bleeding effect ... if you step into the water while you are bleeding, the wound start to rot (or something simmilar) wich gives you stat debuffs. :P

Getting a "rot" disease for 60 seconds is ridiculous.

It's also mechanically not interesting as it doesn't add anything to the game. You just stand still for a minute and wait for it to go away before going in combat or initiating dialogue. So it actually creates player downtime rather than being an interesting mechanic. You don't actively avoid diseases or bring cures because it's only an annoying minor inconvenience if you get infected.

By changing diseases into quick videogamey debuffs, Larian also made their cures obsolete. You don't need Lesser Restoration when you can just wait 60 boring seconds instead and save the spell slot. You don't ever need the Medicine skill which exists precisely for this. A skilled healer won't have a purpose, so why even play one?

Disease per definition should be a long term debuff to be interesting and meaningful. Diseases work well together with the concept of Long Rests and time passing. If only Long Rest would actually work as intended instead of just being a free ability reset button. An meaningful consequence from being diseased would be to replace the diseased party member with another while they recover, or to seek a healer.

A good example of how Larian tweaking the D&D ruleset here and there to make it more "videogame" causes a domino effect where big chunks of the game are rendered weird and meaningless.

+1

Specifically, many diseases progress (getting worse or getting better depending on a Con ST) after a long rest. This could actually work with Larian's free-long-rest-button, because long resting would risk your diseased characters getting worse. This would impose soft restrictions on soft resting, where players could be encouraged to continue adventuring to look for an item/npc that has higher level healing. Basically a mini-version of the Tadpole issue, except long resting actually affects its progression.

Well, if there were diseases, at least the Potion of Vitality would have some real use. I don't think Larian would implement Exhaustion, which is one of its primary functions beside boosting hp gain when using Hit Dice. Larian doesn't seem to want to challenge the player, challenge would likely be considered 'not fun' by their target audience. I mean, it's not like there's a 2nd level spell, copious scrolls, and even an amulet that would remove disease just like that.

I wouldn't mind seeing diseases in the game since there are spells and potions that remove them. Also there are some abilities/items that make you immune as well, currently none of this has any point.

If you are wanting this to mimic real world issues, then no thanks. The media keeps riling up the frothing idiots on both sides (because apparently no one can be somewhere in the middle) of this stupid "debate" and I am sick of hearing about it. Don't want that crap in the game.

This would be great.

I wish they would. Would help a lot to know when to rest since there is no immersion when it comes to time passing. Of course they would need to change when we can talk to companions for this to work and probably have it as a difficulty option so those who prefer easy mode didn't have to deal with it.

Yeah they're underestimating players.

Not everyone wants a brainless fun romp that just involves scrambling to high ground and pushing enemies down on repeat without any considerations beyond the encounter at hand.

Resource management and diseases etc. "unfun" things make the game feel more immersive like a real adventure. But I don't think they're going to understand that. Perhaps data shows that 60% of players prefer a brainless fun romp and find challenge frustrating. Most AAA games are dumbed down like that. What happened to the Dragon Age franchise. Origins already had MMO-like cooldowns and a per-encounter design but the combat still felt tactical and party based. DA2 and Inquisition on the other hand are already completely dumbed down into a brainless button mashing MMO style mess with insane visual clutter and huge numbers flying overhead.

But it could have been such a bold political performance by Larian! While the rest of the studios are adding transgender characters and all that kind of stuff to the game, Larian can go even further on the modern agenda and introduce a disease similar to Covid-19 into the game. To highlight the importance of vaccination in a gamified way!

no

Oh god, please no 'lock-down' grove because of new infectious 'absolute' disease raging in the goblin population, ... or wait ...
hmmmmmm never considered the current plot could be so easily related to the pandemic.

Wow, politics, transgender and covid, this thread is going places. And of course ES.

I add Bobby Kotick to the thread.

As far as diseases go Pathfinder has it covered, with enemies putting your heroes for a week or two after every hit. If I ever want to experience that tedium again, I will give WotR a go.

Cyberpunk 2077 took care of transgender stuff.

Lets do something very pervertic. I suggested Group Sex to Larian. Casual Sex, couple goes, finish and run back.

Indeed. That's the exact reason all these "controversies" have been popping up over the last decade. If your goal is to find a connection, it's very easy to invent one just by using the right words. Our brains are designed to look for patterns, after all.
It does seem like the OP is attempting to spark something by bringing up politics apropos of nothing. It's rather strange.

On the main topic, diseases are one of those "immersive" elements that sounds nice, but doesn't add much in practice. In a game like Skyrim, they are so insignificant you won't know you have one until you scroll through the status screen. More potent diseases, like in Pathfinder, can be annoying early on (ah, ghoul fever when you're too low-level to have restoration spells), but quickly become just another debuff to remove. They don't add any interesting gameplay options or considerations. Try not to get hit, or you might become infected? You were trying not to get hit anyway.

Great idea!

Why are we allowed to enter the grove when we defeat the goblins. There may be a pandemic of a terrible disease and a lockdown in the grove, and we need to get vaccinated in another location, at the witch in the swamp, for example!

ok, time to stop feeding the trolls, guys an gals

Keep your crap politics out of this.

Poisons work better at higher levels imo because these are fast enough to affect characters in combat. Then it becomes a tactical decision: do I spend an action to take an anti-toxin/cast a cure poison spell, or do I keep attacking hoping to kill the enemy before I succumb to the poison?

A point to consider is that at least two classes gain immuity to disease, the paladin and the monk. Those abilities become pointless if the devs fail to implement a meaningful duration and progression for diseases in general. Additionally, the diseases in the Forgotten Realms are rarely as simple as a cold. Lycanthropy, mummy rot, and other potentially worse than fatal magical diseases also exist. Granted, I don't expect them to impelemet every possible disaease one can catch in the Realms, but I do believe the effort would improve the game.