Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Party Size Discussion

Are they though? That's part of the problem. We've been told that they're going to produce the game however they want and the modders can do whatever they want.

If it is easy for modders to make it a party of six, will they waste their time on it themselves?

But the problem I have is that I hate mods. They cause the computer to crash or the game to crash. When there's an update, it may mess up my save file and I have to start all over again. I don't always trust the site I'm getting the mod from. How do you know there aren't viruses?

And then there is the matter of how the game is not really balanced for a party of six. I mean, I had fun with it even though it was super easy, and some fights were still challenging. However, there are some battles that are just so ridiculously easy because they aren't giving the monsters the proper stats and stuff.

Example, the three devourers after the beach. If I have a party of four customs, those devours are super easy. If it's just me and Shadow heart, it's a little bit more balanced but only because they're just dumb brain dogs. They're not actual devours. If they were real devours, a party of six would be severely challenged even if they're wounded. Resistance to just about any weapon, plus their devour intellect ability, these alone without body thief make them hard for four or five party members. They become ridiculously impossible for two level one characters.

The variable is called DB_Origins_MaxPartySize(1) – and normally has a value of 4. You can change it up to 8. That's literally how easy it is, you don't need modders to work on this. Which means Larian has built the engine and the UI to handle parties of that size. I understand it's so you can have followers etc too, but basically larger parties are effectively already in the game, it just needs to be enabled.

It would be nice if encounters scaled based on party size (in reverse too for people that want to run a smaller party). Hopefully that is something they are working on, assume we will be getting difficulty levels at some point anyway.

Totally agree

Know it has been said before, but it needs to be six. Stay consistent to the IP Larian. Oh right you only want the IP for window dressing.

The idea smaller smaller makes choices matter more, no it doesn't It makes the party more cookie cutter. The limitation means people will select more often, only the top performing classes, rather than adding classes that don't perform as well for fun.

With the 4 limit that pretty much means unless I'm play a cleric myself (which isn't very likely) that that one slot is always filled. So the only factor is am I playing a melee or spell caster myself on the rest of the makeup. If I'm a melee that means 2 spell casters for CERTAIN. If I'm playing a spell caster that means most likely the same, maybe I sub in 1 melee, that most like will be a fighter since our cleric NPC fills the role of a thief for locks and traps just fine.

So the smaller party didn't make my choices more meaningful at all. It basically made me not have a choice at all.

I don't want to have to rely on mods for this. It should be baked in and let players decide and players adjust the difficulty as needed as well.

That is interesting opinion if nothing else ...
I wonder why do we even need arguments for something that is there while nobody (afaik) wanted to change it.

I mean i dont want to say everybody since there is possibikity that i obersighted something ... but as far as i know MOST people here were asking for OPTION ...
There was even some mentions of warning sign.
Wich (sory i have to be the one who tells you) completely negate everything you said bcs once i activate the option its just the same as if i use the mod ... just easier, and with much lesser risk of crashes and corupting files ... basicaly we say by choosing the option "im aware that this will affect my game but i want it anyway".

You do have to wonder how many of these things are already on a list of Gift Bags that Larian will bring out sometime after release.

Im asking this question a lot allready.

Of all the recurring excuses about why a party of four would be great the one that I detest the most is quite possibly "Less slots encourage diversity between playthroughs". No, they fucking don't.
When you have basically no room for any type of role redundancy or for less than optimal classes for your need, more often than not you'll find yourself reserving some crucial slots for the same key companions (or a custom-made equivalent) and constantly excluding the same sub-optimal ones.

And NO, having room only for two characters in my party wouldn't make me wish to play the game six time to experience all the twelve classes, it just makes me look at classes I don't particularly love and say "Well, tough luck, sucker".

We don't even know how many companions are going to be available in Act II and Act III.

This is SO true. You know why Wyll is hardly ever in my party? This. This right here. To me, he's not worth it. Why? He's squishy, doesn't deal much damage, and he can't cast a lot of spells.

You know who else tends to get kicked? Shadowheart. One of THE main people because she has the relic. Why? If I'm a druid. I have healing. Don't need her. Even if I don't have another healer, potions can be thrown and sometimes heal better. Anyone can resurrect.

So, if restricted, bye Shadowheart. This is a shame, because I like her, for the most part. Wyll too, really.

This is why especially I hate party of 4 in Multiplayer. Can't bring ANYONE THEN.

Agreed.

Personaly i hope for none. :-/

There is nothing worse in my experience than companion who joins your party at last moment (even worse is if game FORCES you to take new guy -_- ) and replace someone you allready know, know how to play, and you developed some relationship with. :-/

We should get all companions right from the start, the sooner the better ...

It doesn’t really make any difference when it comes to this topic in particular.
They may be the current five, they could be fifteen.
A small party with little variety of classes, builds and characters across a long-ass CRPG spawning dozens of hours would suck regardless.

Oh gosh! I HOPE they give us lots more companions. I thought you wanted that too.

Ugh! Heck no. Don't lock us in to the same dang 5 companions for the whole game.

I want:

Karlach
Halsin
Maybe even Vengeance and/or the other 3 Masks
Minthara for the evil path
Mercenaries - Custom characters I can bring in later or right from the start
Maybe even Jaheira and/or Minsc

Additional companion options provide more variety and options so that if I am liking a present party member less and less, I can NOT continue with them.

How nice would it be for some players to kill Astarion but meet a Rogue or hire a Custom Rogue at the Grove. Some people, like my wife, hate Lae'zel and Shadowheart. It'd be nice to have some other cleric and fighter options.

And Karlach is my MOST coveted hopeful companion option right now. I REALLY want them to add her as a potential.

But, you know, I'd like to be able to recruit even a few odd ones, like Bernard, the automaton. Once you convince him you're Lenore, you can convince him to be in your party.

Or what about Thrinn if you take the Absolute path... or Nere, though I can't stand him personally?

Yeah, no. How many companions we have to choose from has a considerable bearing on party size. If anything, the more options, which I want, the more a party of 6 is important so you aren't SUPER limited on who you can have with you.

I do ...
But i want them to be spreaded around Act 1 ... prefferable would be exclusively!

But yes, i certainly want that too ...
I want AT LEAST single Origin character per class ... i mean i would probably not play them, certainly not all of them even tho i may try some ... but still want option to pick to my party whatever the hells i want ... not just what im offered.
And it aply to Early Acess aswell ... maybe even more than full release ... i just want to test and see synergy between Barbarian, Sorcerer, Druid and Ranger ... the only way to get that right now is to make custom party. Wich completely differs your experience.

Also in my honest opinion the absolute basic should be two (one good and one evil) per class ... or at least some replacement if the character leave you (i mean right now the only way to have Warlock in your party is to play good guy ... ugh) ... OR and that would be also quite nice, some dialogue options that would keep the character in your group, even if your basic Aligments are incompatible ... i would sign my soul to Swen ... i mean Devil ... for some really good Coruption (ok, or redemption) arcs for companions. :3

I would certainly not mind mercenaries in Act 1 allready ...
For example that Zentharim guy, you can make a deal with when you save his ass from Gnols ... and a little later from his previous boss ... that seem like perfect candidate for being Sword (or dagger & bow?) for hire ...
Or Aradin (and basicaly everyone from his group) ...
There should be possible to persuate Nettie to go with you search for Halsin ...
I would not even mind if some of Tieflings would be hireable. :3 Especialy Lakrissa.
(Just for the context ... the joke is that "krysa" in my language means "rat" )

In context to previous quotes:
How horrible it would be if those players would either had to play Rogue themselves, or wait for it til Act 3? :-/

That is what im against, especialy if that would be some kind of companion that you HAVE TO take with you (seen that before in some games) ... this model "Hi, im nobody you know, but now you believe me that im important for the story, so even tho you allready have your own party from thrusted, sometimes even loved, equipped and in all other ways prepared adventurers ... pick one to kick out and take me instead! I can promise i shall judge every decision you make from now on." -_-

Yeah, that i would like too ...
Bernard would be indeed great companion, and he dont even need to talk, since his programing dont gave him own will. Perfect!

Especialy the Absolute path seems to be in critical need for own set of companions, since except Astarion nobody seems to be willing to walk it.

Very good to know, but how does one access this variable to change its value? Is that a complicated process, especially in the context of people like me who are not at all versed in coding?

It's a matter of going to a website, download the tool. Load a save file into the tool, scroll for the value, and change it. There are step by step instructions.

BUT your game will know you've done it and tell you that you're using a modded save, and if your computer is like mine it might crash your game more frequently.

Others didn't seem to have crashing problems, though.

Some random thoughts on things I've seen posted here lately.

I'm not sure if we will have them for Act 1, but Larian did confirm they are going to have some kind of "hired mercenary" system for basic class access without forcing players to use the Origin companions.

I "believe" last we heard was 8 Origin companions for release. The remaining 3 possibly already known, I won't say here. While I personally am not a fan of the Origin companions idea overall, I would like to see at least 1 per class if they are going that route though. Hired mercenary's may be able to be custom built for max potential but lack the side quests and extras that fully developed companions come with(Origin or not). I'm generally always for more options.

On "repeatability"... I'm sure someone can call up the exact statistics and prove me right/wrong whatever, but I believe I can safely say most people don't even completely finish a single play through of most their games. 4 or 6 players per group at 8 Origins means you need 2 runs at least regardless to see everything.

As to the OP 4 v 6 debate. I believe some of the complaints elsewhere about classes being more diluted and generalized, ie everybody has bonus action stealth/can use scrolls/etc are directly related to the decision to go with a 4 player party coupled with not wanting to "force" multiplayer players into a "last guy to join has to play the healer" type situation. A party of 6 means you don't NEED to min/max quite so much and can afford to try adding characters who maybe wouldn't be quite so optimal.

both pathfinder kingmaker and wrath of the righteous allows us to play with all companions in 1 single playthrough. it's player choice who they want to bring them along and never lock them out so that you have to play 2nd playthrough. i like that idea. i concur. a party of 6 provide players more flexibility in how we want to play the game. we can even pick support classes as main hero if we so choose and not forced into having a min/max party. having more options means game will be more fun.

thing is i kinda feel larian design always wanted to give players some artificial difficulty and challenge by restricting players with 4 characters and then proceed with bombarding players with outnumbered foes. and the only method to play it is that players have to resort to terrain/height/shove/barrel exploits to win battles. i say larian should forget their old formula. pathfinder has difficulty without having to resorts to exploits. the way to bypass pathfinder difficulty is to learn the rules and mechanic.

Aha! So it is your save file that gets changed, not the game files directly. And I suppose that carries over into additional future saves you create?