Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback New “lightning” items

Well the items I listed are just common/uncommon which is appropriate for low levels. There are far more if you include rare, very rare, legendary. But even all of the ones I listed could be impactful and useful.

I think the answer is pretty simple; as Swen stated ,their intention was to use the D&D/BG IP to reach a bigger audience and to put their own slant on the BG saga. They could have referenced or even used the source material but they haven't, so we can only assume they no interest in doing so and will continue to do what they are already familiar with. I used to love getting rare items in the original games with the wonderful little bits of background blurb. Even the parchment style interface was a nice touch of immersion. Larian's colour coded weapons just feel like they are from a MMO.

Given Swen's insistence that players want fireworks and explosions, does he also think that a plain +1 weapon or armour is boring? I'd have to hazard a guess at yes.

I’m pretty sure he even said +1 items are boring when they announced the new items in PFH

Yes.
And also no ...

Depends on the item, duh.

That is just matter of taste ...
And also matter of item obviously.

For example, you claimed in other topic that you concider Everburning Blade to be the best 2h weapon in game ...
But that one is totally unapealing to me, especialy compared to some others.

Yeah that is what i call specific argument straight to the point.

I shall keep this part intact ... i wonder why did you merged three items to last row. O_o

Agreed on Adamantine ... i mean i dont think its really "bad", just not as awesome as all those tails we keep rearing say. :-/

Agreed on the robe ... i dont think i have seen any cold damage so far ... on the other hand, there was hardly anything else to wear until Patch 7, so i dont see any harm there.

Neckage from Minotaurs ... i think you are overreacting here ... for one it should be quite obvious to see wich enemy have blunt weapon and therefore is more dangerous to you, for two the only enemy i can think about that is REALLY dangerous to you then are exactly those Minotaurs, maybe Ogres and possibly Bugbears with those Morning Stars ... most others hardly do anything worthy any coment.

This sounds like Vision of the Absolute ... actualy my most used spear (on Shadowheart), since it also have change to Blind your oponent ... you know, causing Distadvantage and also having Advantage against the target ... quite neat in my opinion.
And yes it also make huge damage against ... well, as far as i know it still dont work against spectators, even by tooltip it certainly should ... i would dare to also say that Drider should also be acceptable target (based on datamined look) ... and then there are Phase Spiders, on wich it also dont work yet (or it just didnt when i last tryed). :-/

Broken Flint Flail is in my honest opinion one of best weapons in game, especialy if you combine it with some self-damaging one ... like Loviathar's Kiss for example ... also quite interesting weapon 1d6 Necrotic to EVERYONE around, yes including you, but also givin you resistance ... quite hard to not cause any damage per turn with this toy.

X<50% ... those are big topic and i dont really understand why it bother people so much ...
I love the idea ... i dislike that typical RPG approach to items that they shoul only benefit people in every way ... this is much more interesting to me, you have power and it comes with cost, now you need to try to ballance it out.

Yeah, Magic Missile neckage is OP as fuck ... lets be honest here.
Free cast, or just hard +1 should be enough on this level, doubling the damage without any penality is crazy.

Maybe you didnt notice, but you allready do AoE damage when you jump too close to someone ... and this one isnt even so strong. :-/

Wampira crown is my favourite item for Cleric ... 1d6 isnt any crazy strong healing (unless you use Preserve Life, since then you get 1d6 PER TARGET and that indeed is crazy ).

I dont understand why people mind Kagha neckage ... its great!
Especialy now since it finaly coat both your weapons, not just equiped one. Personaly i like it mostly on Astarion, the synergy with his bite makes it totally worth it.

I didnt find Slippery Chain Shirt in patch 7 sadly.
Wondered if they moved, or removed it.

---

If i would complain about single artefact ...
It would be (besides the fact that Quarterstaves still arent Versatile for some reason) ... Mourning Frost. :-/

Yes ... you totally can, +1 items are right there.

Do you know what "we" (speaking for myself, but im quite sure there is someone thinking the same) like about Larian items the most?
They do work together!
Its not just "now i take this +1 thing, and since now i have +1 to something" ... even tho that is still possibility.
The synergy between them is the fun, thinking about "will this ring benefit more this character or that character ... should i give this item or that item to that first one to get better results".

Personaly i think Lightning items from Patch 7 are great example ... i love those items quite honestly a lot.
Momentum items were, well ... certainly not as awesome, more like "meh" honestly, just bunch of pasive bonuses to turn your allready ridiculously fast Rogue to Flash. Not my style. :-/
And then there is Barbarian armor ... i like that one, mostly for its looks, since i never used litteraly any of its power except for the helmet.

Gee i wonder why ...
It almost seems like the company its trying to produce something the way they imagined it.

And why is that? If you dont mind telling us.
What did you expect, and what disapointed you? As specificly as possible please.

There is really no reason to quote whole post.
Especialy if that include parts you dont even react on. :-/

But dont wory, im aware.

//Edit:
Arent they?
You just equip them ... and thats it.
Everything else is happening automaticly, there is no effect, no difference, just two more numbers in combat log. :-/

I mean, i dont see much difference from their own helmet that gives you +3m of movement on start of first few turns ...
Sword that instead of +1 gives +1d4 Fire ... also automaticly.
Or yet another Sword that instead of +1 or instead of +1d4 Fire ... gives +1d6 Psychical (Sword of Screams).
Or yet another Sword tat instead of those ... gives +1d6 when you are half-dead (Githyanki Weapons).
But hey, to each their own i gues.

By the way ... if i had to gues (and dont take me too seriously)
This was actualy paraphrasing GM4HIM who was repeately complaining about Phalar Aluve (and dont take me litteraly here, i dont remember the exact quote) being "just regular boring +1 Longsword instead of something cool and epic after that tempting cutscene with drawing it out of the stone like Excalibur".

Bcs they litteraly said that they created several new magic items (and now this is a quote) "but nothing as boring as yet another +1 Longsword"

No Rag, these so called <<D&D>> items are bad. Nice effort trying to explain why they good though, but they still bad.
It was already explained why. No point arguing with you.

So what exactly is point of this post?

"Im right bcs im right, and you are wrong bcs i said so" ?
Well ... what can i say other than you have right for your wrong opinion.

Your completely right, these items are amazing. Great. Now move on.

OMG. Is that people's answer for everything? I'm tired of hearing it.

My point was they had a SLEW of magic items they could use so it could have been easier on them. Instead, they are reinventing the wheel at every turn and often it isn't working.

Look at this list. Tell me these weapons are boring:

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/5e_Magical_Weapons

Why waste money and time inventing weapons to see if they work when you have so many at your disposal to choose from?

Well, those are all homebrew weapons – albeit mostly from people who understand 5E and what feels appropriate. It is true that the DMG is a bit lacklustre in the weapon department, especially for low levels, but there’s still plenty that can be extrapolated from there without needing to invent new conditions and mechanics.

Pardon my poor english once again ...
But i thought that "could" mean "having a possibility that you can refuse". O_o

Was i wrong? :-/

While I agree with both you and the OP to an extent, there is no "what D&D is 'supposed' to be." Magic heavy campaigns are just as viable as campaigns where a +1 sword rare and amazing. Nowhere do the rules say that magic items have to be rare (and actually... magic items with properties similar to the ones being found in act 1 are actually labelled as uncommon or even common in the rules).

Boring, no. Too powerful for tier 1 D&D play... most of them. Also, you're complaining about Larian homebrewing things and then you link a 5e homebrew page. That makes ZERO sense.

Lol. Wrong page, dang it. The point is, lots of already made magic weapons and such. Don't need to make more.

And Ragz, why you being all technical? Yes. Larian can do whatever they want. Of course they CAN. They also CAN do other things and I was saying that it would have made their lives easier if they had just used what's already out there, at least for lower level magic items. Save the custom crazy homebrew stuff for later. Don't have it sold at vendors at the beginning.

The point is they're creating more work for themselves than they need to.

Homebrewed magic items are fine, within reason. It's the new mechanics and conditions I'm not that happy about. Why make the game more complicated? There are plenty of other aspects they need to fine tune first.

I'm not saying homebrew items are bad. I'm just saying they don't need to invent EVERY magic item. For lower levels, use stuff already out there.

Example:. You open a chest in the goblin lair behind Ragzlin's throne.

Longsword of Sharpness

When you attack an object with this magic sword and hit, maximize your weapon damage dice against the target.

When you attack a creature with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll, that target takes an extra 14 slashing damage. Then roll another d20. If you roll a 20, you lop off one of the target's limbs, with the effect of such loss determined by the GM. If the creature has no limb to sever, you lop off a portion of its body instead.

In addition, you can speak the sword's command word to cause the blade to shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet. Speaking the command word again or sheathing the sword puts out the light.

Instead of crafting a whole new weapon for Minthara, they could have simply given her a Mace of Terror:

This magic weapon has 3 charges. While holding it, you can use an action and expend 1 charge to release a wave of terror. Each creature of your choice in a 30-foot radius extending from you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. While it is frightened in this way, a creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If it has nowhere it can move, the creature can use the Dodge action. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.

The mace regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

Proficiency with a mace allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Both perfectly good magic weapons. No need to reinvent the wheel and craft all these kinda weird ones.

"If you're enemy is burning, this weapon does 1d4 additional damage."

Um. So I first have to set them on fire and THEN it actually does more damage? How often are enemies on fire? No thank you. The weapon I speak of was better when it actually just did normal attacks and damage but had a chance to set opponents on fire. Now THAT was cool. Hit enemy, and they burst into flames. I miss that axe. Good early patch weapon. One of the best.

Very Rare...Tier 3 magic item. Definitely not suitable for a tier 1 party.


Rare...Tier 2 magic item. Also not suitable for a tier 1 party.

Like it or not, forgettable items. Nobody in 5 years is going to remember these. Let alone after 1 year probably lol. It just so mundanely boring and doesn't fit the forgotten realms universe. My opinion anyways.
I can still clearly remember all the cool magical items from BG2. That tells a lot.

My first suggestion to Larian. Get rid of <color codded rarity> magical items. Its either badass rare magical OR not.
There. 75% of junk magical stuff gone. Use those for DOS3.

That just isn't D&D. All magic items aren't badass.

I don't know. I don't really like the conditional items, at least for the most part.

I don't want to hop on one leg to make my boots work, you know? This isn't hopscotch. It's like being at half your hit points for your items to work. That's not fun.

That said, I love Minthara's mace. Coating someone in Faerie Fire, that's interesting. And I'm okay with the ritual dagger, the one that gives a bonus if it does damage.

There's a fine line between interesting and annoying, though.

Example:

1. An item that immediately gives you a heal if your hit points go below fifty percent. Good. Useful. I can see why someone made that item.

2. An item that gives you an extra bonus action if your hit points go below fifty percent. Not good. In fact, it's just weird. Why would someone incentivize you to be below half your hit points? You don't want to be below half your hit points. That's a bad thing. And then some goofy item comes along trying to incentivize you to do that? What the heck? There may as well be an item giving you a +1 Str, but only if you don't have any gold in your party.

Really, I'm mostly upset about the Adamantine Forge. What a mistake. Those items look great, but the effect is terrible. Someone really needs to get a better sense of what kind of items work well in DnD.

Right now it's a hot mess.

I just wanted to see you say it. :3

It honestly quite surprise me that you dont understand them ...
I mean you are writing fanfiction, dont you?
You could easily just copy whole passages from other stories and save lot of work ... instead you are creating your own plots and solutions (im guessing here, didnt read a single line honestly) ... why would you do that when you dont have to?

Maaaaaybe bcs you wanted to create your own story?
Maaaaaaybe bcs you wanted to have your own mark on it?
Maaaaaaaybe those things fits better your vision for the story?

Why is that so hard to imagine they simply feel the same about the game THEY are making?

But conditions make magic items more situational and less generic, that is what many (and i admit, that i dont know how many) modern games concider fun.

Create the right opourtunity and release the hell ...
In my opinion, much better feeling than being 5% more effective all the time without any effort. :-/

It doesnt really matter if you do A before B ... as long as one will be finished before release.

That is the neat part ...

With right artefacts, almost all the time.
Without them, almost never.

You can think about it as puzzle ... if you pick right parts, they fit together perfectly and you can create something really good in the end.
Sure, you can also try to force wrong pieces together and create HUUUUUUGE mess.

Flat damage boost, or passive effects would be as entertaining as puzzle with straight edges and no picture on them.

Yup ...
For example it tells us you are suffering huge effect of memory optimism. :-/
But on the other hand, it also tells us that you really liked the game a lot ... and kinda cant swallow the fact that this isnt the same. :-/

Disagree ...

I had a lot of fun trying to ballance my Warlock on patch 5 so i keep myself half dead, and outside the constant danger of dying ...
The trick lays within temporary hit point (wich if my observation is right, finaly stack in Patch 7 ... and wich if im not misstaken should not count to the 50% hp formula )

Agreed ...
But this was unavoidable problem.

Since day one we were told that Adamantine Forge will be part of Act 1 ...
I said that those items will either be incredibly powerfull for low level adventurers ... like so powerfull so there will be little to none reason to wear anything else. :-/ Wich would be really bad design in my eyes.
Or those items will be incredibly weak for an "adamantine" ... since that is so legendary and epic material, so anything but COMPLETELY FUCKING OP would be disapointing.

I wonder if that would be received better if they would rename the armor to be from some other material ...
You know what i mean right? Like fool's gold.