Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Proper rare loot locations and more

The last several patches noticeably increased the amount of rare and/or magical items in the game. I like the diversity we got, but I have several concerns about the implementation:

1. Contextual items placed randomly on the world map.

By contextual here I mean an item with a story, portrayed through either description or its unique properties.

A bad example - The Sparkle Hands (and almost all of the other 'lightning charges themed' items). Why would gloves which have a mention of some Yrre the Sparkstruck in the description casually wait for you in the fetid bog in the middle of nowhere? How does it connect with wooden woads and mud mephits nearby? Why is there a chest here in the first place?
There are a lot of examples like this in the game, to name a few: Speedy Lightfeet (windmill cellar), Haste Helm (blighted village square chest), Hamarhaft (a magical maul in a burnt inn) Circlet of Fire (necromancer's laboratory) and so on and so on.

A good example - Amulet of the Lost Voices. An amulet related to a scribe of the dead which allows you to communicate with the fallen is found in a chest inside the temple of Jergal. It is a perfect fit for this location.

2. Class items are tied to class actions

A bad example: If I am not a bard, I have no use for Blazer of Benevolence, Cap of Curing, Boots of Brilliance. If I am not a barbarian, I have no use for Reason's Grasp. Those items are useless outside of their class and it makes getting them from enemies or treasure chest an irritating rather than rewarding experience.

A good example - Bloodguzzler Garb. Even if this item is barbarian themed, any class can make use of its effect. I can even build a mage armor melee dex-wizard around it. A very good design here.

3. Pixel hunting for magic items.

Having to fully zoom in, then search for a tip of a skeleton's arm popping from the tall grass to loot a magical ring from it is a no go. Containers, or corpses, should be visible to the player, especially when they contain rare items. Or at least there should be a perception check to help you spot those containers.

There are two bad examples I can recall from the memory - A Smuggler's Ring and an Explorer's Ring. Both require exquisite levels of pixel hunting.

4. Quality over quantity.

I'll just quote another user here:


I think if those issues are resolved, then looting and finding treasure in the game would feel much more natural and rewarding.

I agree that it's far better when we get context to magical items, and I'm not a great fan of the lightning items and hope they will be reduced, redesigned or at least renamed in the final game. But to be fair there may be a story for them we will find out more about.


Again, I agree really good magical item design would be items that we can find creative uses for outside their obvious class affinities. But while they should be the minority, I don't mind some items that are good for one class and useless for the others, as long as in the end every class gets its fair share. These can be really rewarding to find if you have someone of the relevant class in your party, and if not then you can just treat them as sellable loot.

Ground is super effective against electric, obviously. The fool took his magic items to one of the few places they wouldn't be of much help.

I disagree with this. I don't want all magic items to be class generic, especially if the items give out unique class-related abilities. It feels cool to get a magic item that's specifically geared toward and usable only by your class, and synergizes with those abilities.

Now, because this is a game and the DM can't tailor magic items for the party, I recognize that there's a chance we get many items that aren't relevant to our party composition. Perhaps Larian could, when we open a chest, check to see our party composition and only give us (or weight more heavily) items that match our classes..?

I think the Pillars of Eternity games did one of the best jobs with giving magic items stories for why they were where they were. I'm sure there were plenty of items that just sort of ended up where they ended up, but I find that there were just as many that had the location be part of the environmental storytelling. Like in the first DLC for Deadfire, you can get the armor of a knight who was frozen outside a portal to the god of cold's realm. That was so incredibly cool. And depending on the choices you made in the first game, you could get the pieces of two swords and reforge them into a bigger, more impressive magical sword. So yeah, more of that in this game would be gangbusters.

There are far too many magic items already. So many that it's impossible to put them in proper context. It's starting to feel like Diablo, or Divinity where gear exists only for an MMO style grind where you are upgrading gear every 5 minutes and selling 90% of it. That's not D&D, nor does a video game need that. It's just an attempt to put "more game" in a game, at the expense of credible world building which might not matter in an MMO but it matters in a story driven single player RPG.

I wish they would show restraint here because more is not better. It's quantity over quality. It's like grabbing a burger at McD rather than eating at an Italian restaurant. I for one am annoyed at being showered with magic items that have weird conditional or nonsensical properties and funny names. In BG1 finding magic items felt really rewarding and special. In BG3 it's just more stuff.

The thing is - we don't even have bard/barbarian companions. If we had, at least we could make some use of the items. It might change after release though, if they add more NPCs to recruit and/or mercenaries.

I'm not sure how you're doing this but I don't equip characters staying at camp.




As 1varangian said, there are so much items now that it would be almost impossible to find a good place for any of them.
I'd personnaly like them to reduce A LOT the number of magical items we can find.

Then of course, having them set in proper locations would make a lot more sense even if it's also cool to sometimes find an item in an unexpected area or on a NPC that shouldn't have it.



I absolutely HATE how Larian is designing "class items" and sets with goofy effects and wierd conditions (50% life, if you heal, if you jump, if you dash, if you stand on electricity,...).

But I like that a few items are class oriented.
I'd love in exemple to find a hat that gives one more bardic die to my bard than an additionnal +1D6 HP when I heal someone with my melee oriented bard...

I had a similar thought and one solution I can think of (if Larian wants to keep all those items) are non-specialized traders like Volo. Volo is not technically a trader, because he doesn't have an entry dialogue line to start a trade. But we can do it through the trade icon on the bottom left of the screen, then we can buy a unique ring he has. There are a lot of characters that seem able enough to posses some powerful items. It would make more sense to corpse-loot or bargain for those, than to have them scattered around the map like spilled popcorn.

Totally agree with the constructive criticism of Larian's loot implementation in BG3. They really do seem to have lost sight of the fact that less is more and the more rewarding for it. If you are habitually showered with magical items it creates a kind of MMO-style item rush and what is exceptional becomes normal. I put this kind of game design down to the fact that they don't really 'get' D&D, it pervades the game as a whole.

This.

Getting showered with magic items feels more like I'm playing a Diablo-style or a D:OS game than an actual cRPG with story focus. It also goes strongly against the spirit of D&D 5e, which aims to reduce the number of magic items-
Also, a lot of the homebrew items don't really fit the setting and/or are extremely specialized.
Some items are, of course, well designed and appropriately placed, but most are not.

The last thing BG3 needs is to become another game with constant item grind like D:OS2.

I wouldnt make bug fuzz about places where we can find items.
After all who would expect The One Ring to be just laying in the mud somewhere in deep cave down under Goblin slum?
Sure it makes more sense if we watch Smeagol tale ... but we dont have that in BG-3 ... so from that perspective it would just be the most powerfull arrefact in the world laying there in the middle of litteral nothing.

Even tho ... cheap fix would be to change that chest into corpse/skeleton of some previous unlucky adventurer.

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As for the magic effect...
Obviously completely disagree with all those peole who just used this topic to complain for bzillionth time about conditions ... personaly i like them ... and just as OP i cheer for their versatility.

As for class specific loot ... cant say im against it, as long as there is some ballance:
Right now we have 9 classes if i remember corectly ... from wich one have 3 items ... one have 1 item ... and 7 have nothing.
Thats hardly ballanced. :-/

What is funny is that that they dont even work with abilities they are empowering ... that Hat is perfect example:
While free heal can seem like effect that never angry anyone ... i dunno how about you but i dont use Bardic Inspiration when my party member gets hurt to heal them... i use it when i either want to ensure they hit, or sucess abilitycheck, or as a prevention to make sure they make saving throw ... and that heal is often wasted.
Cant really say i would mind it, tho it still have its uses ...
But call me old fashioned but i would presume that when artefact is for specific class, and is empowering specific ability ... that it would ACTUALY empowering that ability and its uses.
Like:
Defender Hat add additional +1 when Bardic Inspiration is used for Saving Throw
or
Agressor Hat add additional +1 when BI is used for Attack Roll
or
Skillfull Hat add additinal +1 when BI is used for Ability Check.

Something like that.

Or that Bardic armor that gives you temp HP when you inspire someone (if i remember this corectly) ...
While that is certainly more benefitial ... its benefits goes away once you use Armour of Agathys or have Temp HP boots on your party healer.
And it would be so freaking powerfull and versatike if it would give +1 temp. HP to any effect on wearer instead!

Or those Barbarian gloves that gives Temp. HP when you end your Rage ...
I mean cool shit, Barbarians are raging often so its great to make Rage even better ... problem is that in order to use this item you must willingly end your rage.
So again item is working with specific class ability you must stop using in order to get his benefit.

But there are also good items!
That boots wich add charge to your Bardic Inspiration is perfect!
Shame it dont give you "class specific resource" tho ... to make it more versatile ... (sorcer =sorcery point ... druid = wildshape ... cleric = chanel divinity ... barbarian = rage ... fighter = action surge ... ranger and wizard = spellslot(?) ... rogue nothing i gues no idea really) and make it useable only out of combat for ballance purposes.

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There is one more thing that kinda bothers me about artefacts tho ... and this seems like as good place as any to mention it.
I often have feeling that item slot and item effect dont corespond well.
(Will add links later its pain format this on phone.)

For example those Barbarian gloves ...
That effect would fit me better on Helmet (you stopped raging -> you are calm ... therefore head do the work here)
Or on Armor (you got temp. hitpoints -> you are more durable ... armor makes you more durable)
Cant really grasp that concept Gloves having anything to do with either.

Or there are another gloves that give you free jump when you sprint.
I mean COME ON you do both wirh your legs and feets ... why cant that be boots?

There are also those Bardic boots.
I mean this isnt exactly wrong ... but unless that Bard play with his feets, its still feels a little weird.

+1

+1 but I can also imagine some cases where the loot might be a bit more varied, for example a dragon's hoard, bandit den, or the gobbo treasure room in the Shattered Sanctum - in those cases they could add loot that doesn't match the area theme but still makes logical sense.

Some items can have multiple owners or even can be divided into several parts like Equalizer from bg2

Another +1 from me. Really hoping that this is just because Larian want to try out ideas and get feedback in EA and will be scaled right back on full release.


Agreed. There’s already the Vision of the Absolute spear, which I see as an example of good story telling for an item, and the three-part cold staff in the Underdark, which is less so but at least the owners are linked. Very happy with magic items you have to construct like this, even if I’ve ended up selling them in most playthroughs. But again, not too many!

Also I think that it's good to have powerful or interesting class/race-specific items, like moonblades or carsomyr for example. I like to build a new character around such item. Especially when it makes underpowered class good

I also agree that there are too many magic items in the game already. Shops should not sell random +1 items and restock them every day. BG1 was great, even BG2 (especially ToB) had too many epic items.

Currently money is a non issue in this game (if you exploit trade mechanics), so you just rest until you are geared up.

That mention of Moonblades reminds me of Xan's huge BG1 Moonblade fail hehe. Like way to take an awesome item idea and totally brick it, by having it tied exclusively to the game's least desirable NPC companion lol. Sure, the convo option to tell him off immediately was fun, but then you're just looking at the Moonblade like 'damn, too bad.' They could have just as easily made that blade a special thing that any Elf Wizard can get, or somehow build off the idea beyond a singular one off. Then again I guess they make up for it by the Ring of Holiness being in the same room. That item was totally OP but also a great compromise. I guess recognizing that Priests were sort of lame in 2e at lower levels even with the better xp table, they gave us a badass boost to spellcasting right away making it much simpler to justify having a bless spell or something, instead of just command command all day long. I actually kind of like that approach, to boost the game via conceits like powerful enchanted rings or amulets that make the system a bit more serviceable in a video game format. As long as they don't go so wild with it that you get like an Edwin Amulet, where that companion instantly eclipses everyone else just cause his special flare item is so kick ass. All the BG1 NPCs had something totally OP about them whether with an item or a special ability or crazy stat, but I didn't mind that so much cause it felt like a way to justify the gaminess with an appeal to an in-Universe rationale.

I think enchanted magical items and artifacts are great fun. The Book of Artifacts was always my favorite sourcebook I think, just all the Dragon's Orbs, lay it on me! But I do think they're missing an opportunity to make regular equipment more fun, especially in the first act but also over the long haul. I'd prefer regular equipment to be more about visual variety rather than stat boosting. They could easily set up a campaign where the player boosts their way through Fine, Keen, Masterwork, Exotic etc or various other ways to iterate non-enchanted stuff like in the older D&D tomes. Those always felt like something well suited to a computer game where you're constantly coming across loot. The idea of then enchanting regular equipment and having that be the means to acquire something like a +1 is also cool, because then it gives the player some aesthetic control along the way. I can imagine lots of ways this game could be handled where first act closes with the player finding a +1 anything and feeling totally stoked. But you have to pace it out for that to work. Right now you can get a flaming enchanted greatsword at lvl1 before even leaving the prologue hehe.

NOOOO!!!! I loved Xan. I can't remember whether he was any actual use, but he was worth it for the gloom alone.

They can't lorewise: "A moonblade passes down from parent to child. The sword chooses its bearer and remains bonded to that person for life". Also attunement process require you to be in throne room of elves, only for elf or half-elf and have certain personality.
Although this can be a very interesting quest for a bladesinger

agree on all the points OP made.