Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous vs BG3

Comparing both games having played with both rule sets pathfinder plays off the 3.5 dnd rule set slightly modified so you could call it 3.75. The mechanics have had alot more time in development than 5e. The plus is that brings much much more diversity in character design and progressive options. Down side to the rule set is alot of the classes in pathfinder are not as balanced tuned as 5e your characters using the 5e rule set feel more in line with each other power wise in 5e than they do in pathfinder as time and power goes on.

Same time that being said some of the mechanics in 5e are under tuned and some of the abilities currently in bg3 make it even worst. Duel Wielding in 5e is already weaker than 2 Handed weapon skills this is made more evident the later you play. Additionally BG 3 takes that a step further but not requiring actions to change gear. Something that drastically needs a fix and was ignored in patch 5 despite it being a major detriment to the game as a whole with balance. One of 5E's biggest benefits over the pathfinder system. Additionally they kind of took Wizards and gave them divine spell casting again breaking the rules of the mechanics in all genras of the game. No version of DND has generally allowed wizards to heal without multi-classing.

Graphics Drastically are better in BG3 however at the same time there is a lack of ability to customize your characters size /body type which is a downside this can be done without be commical just by adding body shape varients. Voices are extremely limited and I am a little disappointed by the lack of options for a roll system or the ability to customize your starting equipment. Both games lack in different areas of the character creation in different ways here. However overall the WOTR system currently is much better. Outside physical appearance customization. The portaits are also very limiting in WOTR which is a dissappointement however you can also upload portraits to the game files and get patchs of portraits for it.

Combat the amount of aoe effects / Barrel effects is too high in bg3. Its nice to be able to creatively take advantage of those in some fights but it can be carried too far right now the state of the game is too far status. The Food system made me strait up skip patch 5 as the system for recovery / rest and random encounters is much better than a food system for bg3. I feel a chance at random encounters would be a much better situation to resolve short and long rests than a system with food. The food system IMO is just stupid. Its a time sync that wastes valuable time to be enjoying the game and doing other things. It also removes chances for characters to get some variation and varient loot in there play through. This is something I personally think Larion is squandering adding some random encounters to the resting with a few generic map enviroments would allow characters to get some different stuff in play throughs and allows larion to expand possible items characters can aquiremaking the game feel much more unique than a 1 dimensional play through it currently has with things being static in most cases regarding magical items and fights / locations of fights.

Adding the diversity of random encounters throws off your entire grove and would make barrel mancy as you call it feel less of a thing it also gives them the opportunity to expand on terrain / different situations where encounters could have different advantages and disadvantages to players on the whole having a set of maps that generate randomly to an extent would help a HUGE amount with this It would also take away your ability to prepare for certain encounters.

4 Player party vs 6 player party this is another detriment to BG3 the 4 character party really limits what you can do with the group especially when you factor in mercenarys that were mentions down the road. Which is also in WOTR. Having that option for a custom party and having a 6 character party lets you get those story elements in with other characters and still lets you build the party the way you want. It also helps with having a necessary diversity to deal with different situations and encounters. Thinking of your typical party what comes to mind is wanting that diversity in your setup wanting 1 character to heal, wanting your skill based character in a rogue or a bard, your ranged caster, your melee fighter and your melee tank. + the additional off setting character who might be a ranged dps, a divine caster ect. There is more diversity options for you to customize your party the way you want to build it having a larger group.

Level limits - Right now BG3 doesnt have its maximum level limit additionall 5E is more limited in maximum levels than pathfinder is with a level 20 soft cap and with optional rules level 25+ epic boons. Pathfinder doesnt really have the same limitations as epic levels gives options to go much higher. Which creates obsurdity in creating challenge for characters your talking characters with virtual omni-slash casting wish twice a turn ect. BG 3 having a soft cap of what will probably be 12-16 with full release is kind of good it gives the game options for DLC content. I give BG3 a + for doing this. It also makes multi-classing more viable if they fix the other combat issues.

Back attacks and flanking. This is something else larion needs to address while i dont mind the height advantage personally and ability to take advantage of fights in combat. Combat should still require flanking to get a backstab effect. No Flanking no back stab. WOTR wins that argument.

Companions - Not a fair comparision here as well the game is currently much further along with WOTR. That being said Larion has a very long ways to go to catch up here and I personally feel there is so much opportunity for them to do this better than they currently are. But the characters that do exist are currently better fleshed out on the whole to an extent personality wise. Mounts do give WOTR some edge here as well however to fight back. Also what companions you like and dont like will vary from person to person personally I do not think asterion is my favorite companion so that's a matter of perspective. Like wise with quote "Waifu's". Matter of preferance that varies from person to person. I personally enjoy the stories for shadowheart and Wyll much more overall. #glad to see that shadowheart got some love but its not going to make me play patch 5.

Item state BG3 currently loses drastically. Additionally they need dye options for armor your character you want them to look a certain way its an important option to have. In addition to lack of diversity. Alot of items feel too generic as well like +1 flat bonus items just feel lack luster get more creative please.

Classes / Races - in the end BG3 probably should not try to be Pathfinder with classes but they should be much further along personally I think than they are currently considering both games entered development at the same time. BG3 should be pumping out the base classes like they are hot potatoes and I do think that given the time they have had in comparison to each other the level limits should be alot more in line. If you can hit level 6 off whats available it should be an option. I can get the time needed to work on multi classing but larion should be pumping out a core class /sub class every other month if not every 3rd month at least right now they are way behind based on what we can see in comparison to state of WOTR. Larion puts out 1 class WOTR puts out 3 classes and 15 subclasses in same length of time. Right now they are looking very very bad on this front. It does take time to flesh out but having it there sooner just feels good right now it feels like larion is focusing on things. Not all but a lot of people do not care about as much for early access. Things that get tuned more over time and ignoring larger issues which is why I skipped patch 5 myself all together. But have kept peeking back on. Given context of whats missing from the PHB BG3 should have more races than pathfinder in the end if larion follows through and there is opportunity to do a much better job on this again if they follow through. I will be dissapointed if we dont get Aasimar however despite that I dont see them being a priority to get pushed out. I think dragonborn should be next in line for both body type niche and to see if larion can handle putting out a monstrous race. As it could be very lack luster if they do a shitty job at it.

Good vs Evil - This is probably in the games biggest detriments currently right now BG3 good vs evil does not feel rewarding in any way. These choices should matter way way more there is no real strong feeling benefit to the choice to be evil over good currently. If anything it feels like you lose more by choosing the evil path and you detriment yourself. In some cases it doesnt even feel like the choice you make makes any difference at all its like do you want the cinnimon buns or the apple. Ill take the cinnimon buns...You recieve 1 apple. That is not a choice thats a masked forced decision...LAME. Larion really needs to get its act together on this and I personally would call them out on it especially with the pre-early access push with play the evil path we want to see what happens when people are evil...here I will say larion did a down right toilet job on this so far. Utter Garbage. There are games out there those choices really feel like they matter and that it changes the game this is not one of those situations. It feels like you either did nothing or you just got dumped on for being evil. Losing companions, Losing access to items. Why on earth would you want to be evil when you just lose out more and more in doing so. There are so many opportunities for them to do so much better with this it honestly makes me want to puke a little with just HOW BAD of a job they are doing on it. They could be giving you different Items for joining the dark side changing up your companions making you feel like those choices matter so so much more. Gaining characters like minthra, Kagha ect would make the game feel so much better in place of other existing characters because you chose a different path. Getting different quests from companions having different paths and avenues to visit. Maybe recieving an unholy weapon or getting special rewards for a different choice. Different shops. Different Locations to consider kind of like your home base. Changing the asthetics of things around camp. So many many squandered opportunities here. This is something WOTR has done a much much better job with despite I am not a huge fan of the mythic path system being so previlent in some ways it feels alot more like your choices matter. Choices should matter and there should be rewards and losses depending what path you choose it also again like random encounters adds a tone of replayability taking away from what feels like a forced path through the game. This is something larion really really needs to get there act together on and right now is probably in the top 3 things that really makes it feel like in the end BG3 might long term lose respect of players for doing a very bad job on. Choices feel weak.