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Originally Posted by GM4Him
I am noticing a lot of similarities in story. Not cool.

It is the third game in the series...

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I like the work they did on hair. The new hairstyles are most welcome. Still, it doesn't look like any work was done to make them compatible with long-eared characters, which is a shame, because the clipping is very noticeable on at least half of the hairstyles. I would have rather had the existing ones polished out so they worked with elves etc than a bunch of new hairstles that are similarly mostly incompatible.

Bard and Gnome are welcome additions even if they are pretty near the bottom of the list in terms of my personal preferences. I think that leaves half orcs, duergar, and maybe (ugh) dragonborn for races and paladin and monk for classes before we have everything?

Not crazy about 'swarm ai' and reactions though.

Was hoping for more story content, playable origins, or a new party member, personally. I don't know how much bards and gnomes are going to hold my attention contentwise for another playthrough.

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Got to level 3 and saw exactly how Combat Inspiration works. The AC increase effect is merged with the saving throw effect toggle. Also worth noting that upon gifting a Bardic/Combat Inspiration die to a party member, some of the toggles are turned on by default. This means that depending on the initiative order, you can have an enemy do something that immediately eats the inspiration die (like triggering an opportunity attack) before that party member's turn rolls around for you to get the chance to turn off the undesirable toggles.

You can also have a situation where you are intending to give that combat inspiration die to a party member for the sole purpose of trying to save them from an incoming attack with the AC increase effect, but the saving throw/AC increase effect is actually toggled off by default, so it's not going to help at all against enemies that are between the Bard and the recipient in the initiative order.

Either way, I got to see my major concerns for now, so I think I'll just stop and wait for the full game.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/07/22 04:27 AM.
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You can switch to people out of turn order though right? Maybe I'm not following you

Last edited by Sozz; 08/07/22 04:45 AM.
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Originally Posted by Sozz
You can switch to people out of turn order though right? Maybe I'm not following you

Can you actually turn off toggles for other characters even when it's not their turn? If so, that makes this less bad.

EDIT: Just tested the above, you cannot view active toggles on another character if it's not their turn, meaning you cannot toggle things on/off until their turn rolls around.

Though playing through BG3 again is reminding me of why I really shouldn't bother to progress much further until the full game is out. I did a full playthrough on patch 3 and that's enough to see much of the story that's been released thus far. All that's left for me to see is Grymforge, but it's not worth the mechanical frustration when I know the game isn't finished yet. Sure, I could go with the whole testing angle, but eh, all it does is remind me that QA isn't my thing.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/07/22 06:24 AM.
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Apparently Bardic Inspiration does have some degree of selectiveness to it. Using these toggles you can choose whether it can be used for attack, saving throws, or skill checks. Or turn them off and save it for later.

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Bard + Gnome = great

A live band = good... I voted for you Hunter 😊

Swam Ai = average, the game will need more Ram for those battles

86G patch = for fuck sake get it together please


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Originally Posted by GM4Him
I've got a beef about that scene now.

Playing DOS 2. Meet Sebille. She somehow puts a needle to my throat.

Seriously? I wish I hadn't played DOS 2 now. You did the same exact thing with Sebille and Astarion? MC meets Rogue Elf. Rogue Elf viciously, for no real reason, puts blade to throat. Other companions do nothing. Not even a flinch to help. Same as BG3 prior to this patch.

At least Astarion apologizes.

I'm with the change the whole Astarion meet and greet scene now after that. It's too similar, and it just makes people want to kill him. It also doesn't make a lot of sense. He saw us on the ship. He assumes we're with the mind flayers. So, he tries to singlehandedly accost us to get answers? Maybe if we were alone, that makes sense, but with SH and possibly others? No. If he was outnumbered, it makes no sense. He should be more friendly and try to sweet talk answers out of us... Or something. I don't know. Just something different.

I am noticing a lot of similarities in story. Not cool.

MC captured and on ship. Something goes wrong. MC must escape boat, but fails to do so. Miraculous something saves MC from death. MC starts on beach and works their way about. Meets companions one by one. One elf rogue puts blade to throat and threatens. Wizard seems friendly but arrogant and condescending, like Fane.

Sigh.

Having SH react to Astarion is at least something. I am happy with that. It's just... Why almost make it identical. It's really too similar.

Expertise is awesome, though. Thank you for that Larian. Finally!

That's not the only thing they recycled from Sebille for Astarion.


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Oh hey, this looks interesting.

[Linked Image from cdn.discordapp.com]

EDIT: Oh neat, another softlocking dialogue option in the Grove, this time with the tiefling archer who wants you to wager 10 gold for the survival of the group.

Also, damn near every major conversation seems to have a Bard dialogue option.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/07/22 08:10 AM.
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Originally Posted by Drath Malorn
Feature : Expertise is now a thing. At least for Bard, but presumably Rogues will get it too.

Awesome.

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Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Also, damn near every major conversation seems to have a Bard dialogue option.

Each new class added has increasingly more and more class-specific unique dialogues added, each one more than the last, because each new added class has to be bigger and better than the last, or so goes Larian's thinking. This was warned about way, way back, and it's only been shown correct with each update, unfortunately. the 'original' classes and races are left in the wake of the ever-increasing curve of class-locked special dialogues and actions provided for each new addition.

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Is it just me, or has enemy AI gotten even more devious? During the goblin assault on the Druid Grove when you arrive for the first time, I had noted enemies using bonus action shove to wake up sleeping allies, when you would normally require the full action Aid ability for that. There was also one situation where my Bard had gotten KO'd by an enemy, and the enemy proceeded to use bonus action shove to throw his unconscious body out of range of cure wounds and score an automatic death saving throw failure. Thankfully Shadowheart had Healing Word.

Originally Posted by Niara
Each new class added has increasingly more and more class-specific unique dialogues added, each one more than the last, because each new added class has to be bigger and better than the last, or so goes Larian's thinking. This was warned about way, way back, and it's only been shown correct with each update, unfortunately. the 'original' classes and races are left in the wake of the ever-increasing curve of class-locked special dialogues and actions provided for each new addition.

I suppose this is true. Bard seems to be on another level in regards to this, though. I absolutely cannot imagine other classes touching the sheer amount of options that Bards seemingly have, let alone Monk or Paladin.

I've only played up to preparing to leave the Grove for the Goblin Camp, and it feels like I've seen far more conversations with bard dialogue options than those without. Bard even gets one when talking to Kagha. In earlier patches with the Bard mod, they also got one when talking to Auntie Ethel. A good chunk of them ALSO result in exclusive skill checks on top of that - which by the way Bard near effortlessly passes.

[Linked Image from cdn.discordapp.com]

[Linked Image from cdn.discordapp.com]

[Linked Image from cdn.discordapp.com]

[Linked Image from cdn.discordapp.com]

Oh yeah, a tip? Make your Bard learn Speak with Animals. It's no longer a concentration spell, and with a cheap level 1 spell slot, you get to speak with all animals until the next long rest.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 08/07/22 10:25 AM.
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I finally managed to watch the PfH - did it on Wolfhearts chanel. I was glad, that I could just fast forward some things - I'm really not into metal and would have liked the bard class represented by someone like Alina Gingertail, who is the perfect real life bard for this occasion imo, but I guess, if one of your workers has a band, you use them (and I'm happy for the metal fans of course, of whom there are a lot among roleplayers).

As I said, I'm happy about my favorite class, the bard, and about playable gnomes. And is it just me or are gnomes much better proportioned than halflings? I'm curious, what Niara has to say about that. I haven't yet downloaded the patch, since I do want to finish my hexblade playthrough, since I have to deinstall the mod before downloading the patch, so I only saw, what was in the gameplay videos by Larian.
It's nice to have more options in the cc, but not so nice, that there are still no reactions. I was really hoping, they would impliment them. Thanks to Saito HIkari for pointing so many gameplay issues out.
And it looks, as if some things are very buggy right now, so I might wait until the first hotfix comes out.

Edit: I love that you can choose an instrument and play with npcs and/or party members. Nice feature.

Edit 2: Just saw Niaras post and her view of the gnomes, so taht is answered.

Edit 3 (sorry for the many edits): Why is Volo in this panel? According to D&D Wiki, he is a wizard - and we do have a real bard in the game already. So why not use Alfira?

Last edited by fylimar; 08/07/22 12:52 PM.

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Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Oh yeah, a tip? Make your Bard learn Speak with Animals. It's no longer a concentration spell, and with a cheap level 1 spell slot, you get to speak with all animals until the next long rest.
Yay! celebrate

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I just watched the PfH and its fantastic woehoe

Just 3 questions:
- Can rock gnomes make rock music?
- Can bards make enemy heads explode with music?
- Can rock gnome bards make enemy head explode with rock music headbanging



Oh, and I almost forgot: Can we finally get proper reactions please ??? oops


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Originally Posted by Niara
Originally Posted by Saito Hikari
Also, damn near every major conversation seems to have a Bard dialogue option.

Each new class added has increasingly more and more class-specific unique dialogues added, each one more than the last, because each new added class has to be bigger and better than the last, or so goes Larian's thinking. This was warned about way, way back, and it's only been shown correct with each update, unfortunately. the 'original' classes and races are left in the wake of the ever-increasing curve of class-locked special dialogues and actions provided for each new addition.
It is incredibly vexing to see a very roleplay-heavy class like *cleric* get left in the dust. But not only do they get comparatively fewer dialogue options, but 90% of them are just cleverly disguised uses of the [good cleric] and [evil cleric] tag.

IIRC the only deity choice your companions ever react to is Shar, Selune and Mystra. You'd think someone might care if you started spouting off the dogma of one of the more 'controversial' deities to worship in Toril, like one of the Dead Three or Lolth, but party members couldn't care less, and npcs similarly rarely notice.

The only time I felt like I was roleplaying a character with an appropriate amount of religious-related dialogue for a cleric was playing a Drow cleric of Lolth, and that kinda feels like cheating to say so since most of those dialogue options were linked to race, not class. Roll up a non-drow cleric of the spider queen and all that immersive cleric-y dialogue dries up immediately.

Similarly, the Selune/Shar dialogue is mostly linked to stuff Shadowheart's in. If she's not in your party you lose so much of that.

Last edited by Leucrotta; 08/07/22 01:11 PM.
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