Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What's you biggest fear about the final BG3 release?

Ha, with these kinds of mental gymnastics, never say never.

Leucrotta, I'm still not sure what to make of the MtG cards, there are a lot of ways to take the canon in general that have been discussed enough around here. I'm willing to believe that Abdel Adrian is a convienent figure from WotC's canon that they'll use in place of the supposed MC for that story. They like to say that every table has it's own canon, so Abdel is just the one you'll find in Seattle.

Of course that's also why the question of the Bhaalspawn is so interesting in the lead up to BG3. I'd be willing to bet that nowhere in the game is the name Abdel Adrian uttered. We already have a book in the EA, talking about the Bhaalspawn Crisis which dances around the issue, and I think that except for a few important NPCs, that's how most of the world will view the previous games.

She is Edwin when he got turned into a female.

Insert SHOCKED emoticon

As I never used Edwin I couldn't had known ...

However, to keep Viconia safe from rapacious Male Gaze I often gave her the Belt of Sex Change

You should fear that PS5 graphics will look worse than your older pc. Judging by the trailer they reduced gfx quality all the way to "very low" preset for PS5.

which trailer is this?

The only trailer that is (most likely) from a console is the release date trailer. It looks on par with PC at max settings.

First of all hello to the forums! First post here. Came here looking for some constructive discussion after being burned by the official Reddit sub, where anything even remotely negative about the game sends you straight to downvote hell. Hope it's better here!

As for my biggest fear, it's this: I dread that the game will be as combat oriented as it is in the EA. I hope it isn't and EA is so skewed in that direction because Larian wants to test the systems, but their previous games don't inspire much positivity in that regard.

Now I'm not saying that BG1/BG2 weren't combat heavy. They could be and sometimes were. But playing those games, even nowadays, I never feel like *the combat is the game*. Sure it's part of it, but exploration, dialogue, plot, etc. - all that seems to be more important and combat is just something to gel all those things together, add some stakes and make the world a bit more dangerous.

In BG3, at least currently, I feel like the balance is in the opposite direction. Combat *is the game*, and other things are here just to add flavor to it. I don't know if it's the turn based system making encounters needlesly long or Larian insistence or making each encounter "meaningful" (which isn't a bad thing in itself, but - maybe I'm in minority - but I also like some "trash fights" to just play with my skills, learn them and become ready for the important ones - in BG3 every one is an important one and I feel it takes away something from the game or at least make it a bit more "turn based strategy" than RPG).

I really hope that once we get to the city of Baldur's Gate the game gives us more quests that are not only about killing a bunch of mobs in an hour long exhausting combat scenario that I have to reload once or twice to get the hang of. Investigative quests, decision-based quests, quests about aligning myself with various factions and seeing how they think and operate.

I hope I'm not alone.

Actually, I don't entirely agree. In BG3, you can solve many quests without even fighting, and in general, there are numerous dialogue moments with companions and other NPCs in the world. From this perspective, I find it balanced. It seems that your criticism actually stems more from the length and difficulty of the combat. Regarding the length, there's not much that can be done since it's inherent to turn-based combat. As for the difficulty, I must say that currently (as an experienced player of BG and BG2), I find the combat extremely easy or at least much less complex. It's simply a matter of understanding how to position your companions and how to utilize terrain and heights. Furthermore, since it's based on D&D 5E, which is a simplified version, the combat is much easier compared to what happened in BG2 (when enemies had many defensive spells to neutralize and, most importantly, you had no idea what defenses or immunities they had, whereas in BG3, you can simply hover the mouse cursor over to find out everything).

Hi there, and welcome!

I am definitely here for quests and content that aren’t combat focused, and ways of solving quests that avoid or reduce fights. Clearly personal mileage will vary here, though, as I don’t think BG3 does a bad job of this so far, and really like the fact that there are often ways of going about things, or using other skills, to resolve situations (the variety of ways you can go about the raid on the goblin camp is a highlight for me) and am a particular fan of the fact that most fights are meaningful. I’m currently playing Pathfinder WotR, on the other hand, and am finding the sheer number of encounters too often gets tedious.

I’m sure we can agree, though, that as the game progresses we’d like to see different and original kinds of quests rather than more of the same, and that wherever reasonable there should be ways of avoiding a fight, eg by use of diplomacy or subterfuge.

Can you please elaborate?

Maybe I'm not so good about fiding those creative solutions, and I've "only" beaten EA twice now, but I can't see the way to avoid this huge hour-long combat scenario with a horde of goblins. Is there one? Please do tell, I don't fear spoilers.

I was actually a bit disappointed by the "kill the leaders" questline btw. One is easy to kill without alerting everyone (the "witch" that you can trick into helping you and isolate that way), the other - the drow lady - took a bit of gymnastics, but I managed too, but then there's this guy at the throne and I can't think of a way to get rid of him without alerting everyone.

Is there one? Because the way this quest is set up makes me think it should be possible to silently asssasinate all the leaders and then goblins scatter away, but I couldn't find the way.

And thank you for the kind welcome.

It depends on what you are used to I guess. I'm not a big Larian fan, finished DOS1, played a lot of DOS2 with a mate, and they're OK, but I don't really enjoy the terrain / surfaces / height interactions - I actually much prefer thinking about how spells and skills interact than about positioning my characters. Personal preference I guess, and I have to say BG3 is much better than DOS2 in this regard anyway for me.

The combat in EA is certainly not easy for me, but it's also not really that hard. Certainly much better than DOS2 which seemed lke pulling teeth sometimes. It's in the mids for the most part and I'm ok with that, it just takes way too long I think.

With that in mind, I positively hate the golem encounter in the forge. Those kind of puzzle combat scenarios annoy me to no end. Again, maybe I didn't get it, but making the guy stand over the hammer and having to do that multiple times was tedious as hell and required multiple reloads, even mid-fight - which I really try to avoid normally.

I have played their titles, but I am generally more passionate about real-time with pause (RTwP) CRPGs, particularly the two Baldur's Gate games. Positioning is indeed a crucial tactical component in CRPG combat, especially in turn-based (TB) ones.

Combat with the golem can be considered a gimmick fight. I understand that it may not be to everyone's liking, but it is a unique fight compared to the standard combats in the game.

I dare to presume you are talking about horde celebrating outside of temple?

You can poison their drink ...
That will straight forward kill aproximately 3/4 of them, and give serious damage to others ... have good excuse prepared tho, bcs they will suspect you.

Or, if you dont like this approach ... you dont really need to confront them in the first place.
When you get in, they are friendly ... when you get out, you can fast travel back to Druids Grove without encountering them ... and if you are one of us, who dislike fast traveling from anywhere, all you need to do is keep exploring futher until you find way to the Underdark ... where is another portal.

I wonder wich gymnastic it was ...
Either you can kill her inside the base and just try really hard to not engage with other groups, and not let them sound the alarm drum.
Or you can pretend you will join her attack on the Grove, and betray her there ...

Neither will alert the others.

Dror Ragzlin, huh?

There is no way, or at least to my knowledge nobody managed to find any way in last two years, it was subject of many criticism ...
But it seems like all goblins in camp just somehow know when he stops breathing. :-/

I had the same feeling, but maybe they are saving it for full release.

As Ragnarok said, there’s no need to engage the goblins outside if they’re friendly on the way in as you can exit through the temple and Underdark, carefully sneak past them if you exit via the broken wall up top, or just fast travel (though personally I try to only do that when I know there’s a clear path to a portal).

I do agree with everyone who complains that all the goblins turn hostile immediately after killing Dror Ragzlin, and think that this should only happen if you leave and return or after a long rest or something like that, but it is still possible to sneak out using the rafters and thereby avoid most of the hostile goblins left inside after he and those immediately around him are dead.

It’s not easy, but I think with a party with stealth/invisibility options (plus use of spells like misty step or jump for added mobility) can indeed run this as a reasonably sneaky assassination mission which is great fun. Though I do agree that a few tweaks, and particularly a delay in remaining goblins turning hostile after Ragzlin is dead would make it even better.

Or if Goblins manage to sound the Alarm ...
That would make perfect sense.

Or if there would be some roleplay explanation about how they know.
I mean, i wouldnt really mind if all goblins would turn hostile after Ragzlin death, what pisses me off the most is that i didnt expected that to happen.
So, some short cinematic saying something like:
"As Ragzlin draw his last breath, you realize something is different, you felt presence of his parasite disapearing from your mind ... Goblin Horde will know what happened!"

And voila! Cheap, lazy solution.

Sadly not even close to as much as one would expect ...
Since many places on rafters (not all of them, but still many) are concidered to be in full light (wich dont make any sense) ... its those places, where are fire braziers hanged under the rafter ...

Sadly, the game is only trying to look like 3D (as was mentioned countless times in last 2,5y) ... but for many mechanics it isnt in fact.
So things have shape of cylinder, rather than sphere ... if you know what i mean.

In other words, that Brazier simply shine trough the girder.

My biggest fear is that the final game released will not incorporate QUIVERS and SCABBARDS for weapons and arrows. This is an absolute game-breaker for me. I understand it's rough for the animators, BUT that is the job. No scabbards and quivers? No money from me.

There's either something wrong with your eyesight, or you watched it in 240p.

Look at shadowheart face and armor in that trailer @ 1:06 and compare it with any random shadowheart dialogue video on YT (or just boot up the game on max settings) and tell me it looks the same.

One thing that @Domoslaf mentions about the game being combat focused. I find it annoying that many(not all) of the peaceful solutions don't appear to grant XP. To max out your levels you have to murderhobo.

I never murderhobo, but as long as I fight when I’m attacked I’ve never struggled to reach level 5 well before the end of EA. Sure you maybe can level more quickly by killing everything, but as long as all that results in is hitting the level cap earlier in the game then personally I’d not find that a disincentive to finding peaceful solutions. In fact, I much prefer to spread my levelling over the course of the game and find it boring to max out too soon.

Not that I’d object to more XP for peaceful solutions, or a different approach to XP altogether that awards it for quests rather than kills, I just don’t feel that the current approach is enough to warp my roleplay in favour of violence, or to make me feel like I’m underlevelled if I don’t kill stuff.

Ok I did word that odd. =) My point is that the reward for combat is better than that for role playing and skews the game (IMO) to the kill em all and ask questions when they are dead play type (i mean why not? Larian is the Oprah of giving out speak with dead lol)... I do like leveling up as soon as possible to be honest, but I am not a fan of killing everything in sight. I recon that makes me more in the middle ground on this. That little plus sign gives me such a dopamine hit =)

Edit: so yeah one of my fears is that they will not balance these different play styles.