Baldur's Gate

[quick bobcat]

I really gave up with the "not missing anything"
This game is too big
you're probably right

[heavy hound]

The fact that most guards are named and have dialogues, however small, anyone could have something relevant for me or not

But sometimes you start killing goblins, and everyone in the goblin camps hate you, and things go down

And for some reason there was a ||sorta tiefling demon in the back room I never found, and he attacks me, i attack him, and I have no idea what his deal was but now he is dead||

Y'know circumstances

[quick bobcat]

Yeah I know

[jaunty basin]

one thing I've always wondered about game storytelling is how much "meaningful choice" ultimately comes down to "these choices open up some content at the cost of locking you out of other content"

it feels like any other result eventually starts to feel fake

[sweet moat]

I ||want to murder him too, now that I'm higher-level and have better stats and equipment. When I first encountered him and his buddies he was waaaaaay too strong, but now I know of a way to get at him and take him down.||

That's nothing, I've got like 1500, I think. It's honestly so much that I simply don't need to collect any more camp supplies at all, but I hate the thought of just leaving them all lying around.

That said, it is weighting me down. I need to use some of them up.

[quick bobcat]

can you leave them at the camp?

[heavy hound]

This items makes me wish I made a eldrich knight spaclised on bows, this sounds perfect for that

[sweet moat]

...Huh, you know, I never thought of that.

But I think you actually can.

[night oracle]

Hmmm. That video I linked earlier. "Monk is the exception because they use dex for their weapon as long as it's not a two hander". I've been using the quarterstaff. Does that count as a two hander?

[sweet moat]

Yes and no, I think. Isn't it versatile?

Versatile means it can be used with one hand or two

[night oracle]

I gotta check

[heavy hound]

Yes, that's correct, versatile means it can be used with either one or two hands

When it's used with two hands the dice goes up by one size

so a longsword can be onehanded for 1d8 or two handed for 1d10

[sweet moat]

Longswords are kind of a waste to have two-handed. You might as well use a greatsword for that.

[night oracle]

Yeah I gave Lae'zel a greatsword

Anyway the TL;DR: I'm not nerfing myself by using these, right?

[quick bobcat]

so I'm playing as astarion as my main character and I just stumbled upon ||a person who as he says 'is looking to kill astarion'||

[heavy hound]

It's a lot more useful on tabletop because you might need to get a hand free very fast to cast spells, throw things, or grapple, in this version they do less micromanaging for that

And grappling outside of pushing isn't really in the game

[sweet moat]

That's true, although in BG3 it's not as useful since you likely won't be using a sword with most casters except the paladin and maybe the cleric or warlock, and even then, casting spells in BG3 doesn't really require a free hand, you just cast it and the character sheathes their weapon automatically, casts the spell, and then takes their weapon back out.

That's actually one of the dumbest things I find about the tabletop combat, where in order to give yourself a free hand to cast a spell with a shield, you have to waste an action in order to drop your weapon, then use a second round to cast the spell, and then waste another action on a third round to pick the weapon back up. That's dumb. It should be a free action to put the weapon aside, then an action to cast the spell, and then another free action to grab the weapon.

[heavy hound]

Dropping something is usually a free action, sheating it is a bonus action IIRC

So it's not as dire

[sweet moat]

Not according to Flitter, at least in the game Rom and I are playing with him. I had to use an action to drop my weapon, and then use another action to pick it back up again.

[quick bobcat]

yikes ||gnolls are disgusting||

[sweet moat]

Yeeeeeeep....

Tough bastards too.

And they looooove their acid arrows and soulbinding (is that what's it's called?).

[desert dove]

I got that bow as a Ranger, it's neat.

[sweet moat]

Holy f*ck, this IS a good bow. Was that a random find?

[desert dove]

I found it in a vendor's inventory, at the front entrance to ||The Grove||.

[sweet moat]

I need to check back with him then, because I didn't see that when I was there.

[heavy hound]

Yeah it's from a vendor

[quick bobcat]

heheh, cute

[sweet moat]

Oddly enough, Shadowheart didn't say this when I recruited Karlach.

[desert dove]

so apparently if you don't do the dungeon, Withers still shows up in your camp after you ||let the Tieflings stop by||.

[kindred talon]

he also apparently allows you to change your class?

[heavy hound]

He does 3 things to my understanding

[sweet moat]

Oh my God, this is a thing you can do?

[heavy hound]

He can respec anyone, your or any other characters
He revives dead characters if you want
He can recuit npcs that fight for you, in the case you murdered/hate all your friends

[kindred talon]

just once

JUST ONCE

I'd like a game where a character has a tail and a cape for the game to properly make the tail and cape interact

[jaunty basin]

but that's haaaaaaard

[kindred talon]

cries in clipping

[glass veldt]

FFXIV handles this by specifically adjusting the model to include an appropriate hole for the tail to go through

[exotic pelican]

It took me hours to get tails and capes to not clip with Skyrim mods. I had to try several combinations and even when I got it to work it wasn't perfect. Humanity hasn't progressed enough for tails and capes in games.

[glass veldt]

Clipping is a weirdly hard problem

[heavy hound]

This happens in not that much gear sadly

I still would like an option to just hide the tail

I'd rather do that than have it clip

[glass veldt]

True, they’ve been inconsistent about it

[quick bobcat]

is it me or this is a ridiculous op ability?

wait what does resistance mean

[heavy hound]

It's widely considered to be the strongest option for barbarian

Yeah

Resistence means you take half damage from that source

Keep in mind, that with normal rage you have resistence to slashing, bludgeoning and piercing, so you are mostly adding the elemental damage to that

It's still very good tho

I picked eagleheart mostly because it's more fun

Also I like the mobility

[sweet moat]

I wish I knew that before I picked Berserker for Karlach.

Still, I'm happy with berserker too, since it gives her an extra bonus action attack.

Also, I just found some +1 scale mail, and guess who's proficient with medium armor? Shadowheart. She now has a whopping 19 AC. :P

It does give her disadvantage on stealth checks, but with BG3, that's not so bad, since she's not the rogue.

[night oracle]

[kindred talon]

to be perfectly honest I feel like a lot of the difficulty comes from the tail pointing out backwards, if it adopted a more downward posture it wouldn't be a perpendular intersection of mesh and probably make collisions easier to handle.

I'm actually doing very well this play through, which is nice

[night oracle]

[kindred talon]

I still don't understand wizards though

[sweet moat]

I killed ||Lump the Enlightened and found a circlet that increases the user's intelligence to 17. Everyone in my party already had 10 or higher, except for Karlach, who had 8. I gave it to her, lol. Not sure if that's quite necessary, but now she doesn't have negatives on anything.||

[heavy hound]

Berserk is also very strong, the bearheart is extremely good for defensive purpose but it doesn't do much offensively

[heavy hound]

What's the confusion?

[kindred talon]

when they run out of spell slots, how do I get them back without long resting?

[heavy hound]

You can't, most classes only get spells slots back with a long rest

[kindred talon]

but... they've got so few

[heavy hound]

You still have cantrips tho, which do scale at lvl 5 and 10

[kindred talon]

oh yeah cantrips

throw a ball of fire and roll a 1 cries

[heavy hound]

You can also get some slots back out of combat once, as a wizard

With arcane recovery

[kindred talon]

mmm

okay

[night oracle]

that was a fun fight

Goblin fort: ||I kinda went around exploring, found Gut's room with the ogress guard, who I killed. The nearby cell had a cage in the air, which when dropped opened a hole in the ground. When going in this hole, I ended up in the pit with the two spiders that the goblins were using to kill prisoners. Even without animal talking, I managed to communicate... then opened the door for them. They immediately started attacking Gut and her other gobbos, joined in, and we killed them all. Which even got an inspiration from Laezel.||

[heavy hound]

Huge item for bararians, wizards, monks...

[sweet moat]

One thing I'm really not liking so far is the loading times. They're horrendous.

[clear yarrow]

Who did you mean by "other tief"

[sweet moat]

Yeah, never mind that, I figured it out.

[clear yarrow]

She's the girl who ||Wants to ride me until I see stars||

[heavy hound]

Okay big question, did any of you give in to learning ||any parasite powers yet?||

I'm holding off for now

[sweet moat]

No, not Karlach, I meant ||Wyll, who has horns on his head, but I didn't realize it was him.||

That being said, enjoy your time with her, lol.

[sweet moat]

I've been resisting.

[night oracle]

||that main goblin boss can fuck right off||

[heavy hound]

The ||demon/tiefling? He's a problem yeah||

Try to use elemental damage that's not fire, he should resist pretty much everything else

[sweet moat]

||All of them can f*ck right off a cliff, lol. I'll be slaughtering each and every one of them from the top down as soon as it's time. Don't care how long it takes me.||

[night oracle]

||I'm pretty much in the process of that. I've killed the drow and priestess already. On the level 5 guy who has like 100000000 strength||

||i'm also half trying to fight in the rafters to push stuff off but it works against me too. Especially that motherfucker has a roar that knocks back everyone and WEEEEsplat||

[sweet moat]

||No idea who that is, but I'm sure I will.||

[night oracle]

||Ah. It's in the direction of saving the druid||

[clear yarrow]

I used gunpowder

[night oracle]

...I wonder if I can go back far enough for that. I tried ||using the gunpowder to open what seems like a path but it did nothing, so there's no gunpowder left||

[kindred talon]

what the fuuuuck

is their a hot key for ending a combat turn?

I keep getting a bug where I lose the UI

[sweet moat]

Spacebar does it for me.

Actually, that reminds me: I really wish there was a way to hold your action in this game, like you can prepare an attack if someone gets to within a certain range or if someone walks into melee range, and then when they do, your character automatically attacks once. Sort of like a reaction, I suppose, but more "active", in that you can plan specific actions with it (like launching a fireball or doing a reckless attack).

[sweet moat]

666

[quick bobcat]

I'm having dreams about this game now lol

[unborn stratus]

post-goblin camp Volo spoilers ||The dude showed up at my camp, I told him about the parasite, and he tried to use a needle to remove it, after failing, he grabbed a fucking ICE PICK and SMASHED IT INTO MY SKULL, making my eye pop out. He gave me a fake eye with THIS SHIT ON IT||

[heavy hound]

I knew it'd ||end in disaster when I let him do it, the eye was just a nice bonus||

[night oracle]

||I chickened out of doing it but I might reconsider now ||

[night oracle]

So after glancing at a "where to find companion" list, I somehow completely missed astarion. Will need to correct that

[quick bobcat]

what's the best Feat for a rogue?

wait you can just straight up upgrade to medium armor with a feat?

huh

this seems very powerful

[night oracle]

For level 4 it's probably the first one. Two more points in sex or whatever other stat for your class is powerful

Dex

(Damn phone)

[jaunty basin]

considering the character customizer, I would've believed that was a real stat if you didn't correct it

[quick bobcat]

how often do you get feats?

[night oracle]

Twice in the whole leveling process I think?

[quick bobcat]

is there any reason to level your main ability on cleric? I feel like it doesn't affect anything

[desert dove]

The game does specify a "fast SSD" as part of the requirements.

[desert dove]

Level 4 / 8 / 12 (and 16 / 20 in tabletop, but this game stops at 12).

[desert dove]

If you mean your WIS stat, it does affect some of your spellcasting. But if you're whomping stuff with a mace, then no, put points into STR instead.

[granite thorn]

Oh the level cap is 12? I guess that makes sense, in the game by level 20 you're strong enough to whack gods

[desert dove]

Yeah, apparently the game was originally going to end at 10, but they bumped it to 12 so that we could get access to 6th level spell slots and that third feat.

[quick bobcat]

thanks!

[quick bobcat]

in the same vein, is it at all useful to level charisma on warlock? Because it seems like it's pretty useless too and I should level dex instead

also why aren't my cantrips affected by the spellcasting ability?

e.g. why doesn't wizard gain extra damage on cantrips from int?

[desert dove]

Oh absolutely. You should immediately take the Agonizing Blast Invocation, because that adds +CHA to the damage of your eldritch blast

[quick bobcat]

oh, I didn't see that

I must've missed it already

what level does that unlock at?

[desert dove]

2

[quick bobcat]

so the only reason it's useful to skill CHA is for the Agonizing Blast invocation?

[desert dove]

Well that and you can get +CHA to all your Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation checks. It's always good to boost your primary class stat to 18 ASAP.

[quick bobcat]

I don't think I care for those that much

[desert dove]

Other Warlock spells will also scale off your CHA

[quick bobcat]

they're for dialogues only anyway

[quick bobcat]

ah. Well I haven't gotten any yet (I'm at level 4)

[desert dove]

Right, but you can bypass entire fights with a good skill check

[quick bobcat]

when do they unlock?

[desert dove]

I think you should have some Level 2 spells that add +CHA damage at level 4.

[quick bobcat]

huh

I don't think any of these benefit from CHA?

(this is at lvl4)

in fact, all these spells are available to like 3/4 of my characters

I've barely gotten any class-specific spells at all

[desert dove]

So, Warlock, Sorcerer, and Wizard mostly share the same spell lists. Certain Warlock subclasses get a few extra spells from other sources, and there's a few warlock-only spells once you hit higher level spell slots.

THe difference is that Warlocks can recover all their spell slots on a Short Rest, which makes up for having so few slots. Also, their spells always cast at the highest level possible.

Wizards have specific spell slots at specific levels, so they're more limited in how often they can cast spells, but they can learn as many spells as they want (just costs gold + having the scroll available).

Sorcerers are kind of a middle ground, but get the advantage of Metamagic that lets them tweak a spell as it's being cast.

[quick bobcat]

anyway, so I just don't see much reason to level charisma other than if I choose the Agonizing Blast invocation

It doesn't improve any spells, it doesn't improve weapon damage. The only thing it improves is dialogue skill checks

doesn't feel very useful

[clear yarrow]

No it improves all spells

Both your to hit and your save DC

(assuming you're a cha caster)

[desert dove]

As far as yoru CHA goes, it also affects your to-hit rolls for spells like eldritch blast. So boosting CHA makes it more likely you hit... yeah, what Tale said

[quick bobcat]

ah

right

[desert dove]

THat's why it's always best to boost your primary stat, especially as a spellcaster.

[clear yarrow]

+5% to hit on everything per +2 cha

[quick bobcat]

I'm wondering if I should re-level Wyll to get the Agonizing Blast invocation instead of the one that lets you summon an imp

[clear yarrow]

Worth

[desert dove]

Yes, definitely

[clear yarrow]

Agonizing blast is a must have basicalyl

[quick bobcat]

oh okay

[desert dove]

If you hit 18 CHA, with Agonizing Blast, his damage changes from 1d10 to 1d10+4, which means your minimum damage is now 5.

[quick bobcat]

maybe I should re-spec Shadowheart too to max out strength or something, because wisdom seems useless

[quick bobcat]

yeah that does sound great

[desert dove]

I think a few of her healing spells scale off WIS, and a couple damage spells are more likely to hit with higher WIS. But if she's mostly your tank, then yeah pump the fuck out of STR and CON instead.

Though I'd personally recommend just hiring a Fighter or getting that barbarian woman instead to be your tank

[quick bobcat]

how can you tell if a spell scales off wis? I don't see any at the moment

I'm assuming her offensive spells get a bonus modifier from wis on attack rolls though

and they are quite strong

[desert dove]

I think my plan is to try taking the druid as a tank, Shadowheart as my healer / off-tank, and Gale as my "blow shit up" mage, while I plink stuff with my Ranger's bow.

[desert dove]

Right, spells are always going to roll your primary stat to-hit.

[quick bobcat]

the thing is that, spells kinda suck in this game because they're an extremely limited resource. You basically have to spend a long rest to be able to use them which in practice means I'm using cantrips or weapons like 90% of the time

and that begs the question: why the hell would I even level attributes that improve attack rolls on spells if I don't even use spells like at all?

maybe it's just an early game thing?

and there's gonna be more spell slots n stuff later? but right now it feels bad

[unborn stratus]

you just gotta long rest more often

the game practically gifts you camp supplies

[quick bobcat]

I haven't long rested once so far and I'm like 20 hours in

[unborn stratus]

and it is more of an early game thing, because as you level you gain additional spell slots

[quick bobcat]

I long rested once, noticed some stuff happened in game that caused me to miss a quest, reloaded and never long rested since

I've been running around with like 0 spell slots and I have to heal from healing potions constantly

[unborn stratus]

jeez

[desert dove]

Welcome to D&D.

This edition is much better than older ones. In older editions, once a Level 1 Wizard cast his two spells, he was done for the day. Had to carry a crossbow if you wanted to do anything else.

[unborn stratus]

this party i have is like full caster mayhem lol so i have to long rest after every few medium-sized fights

[quick bobcat]

yeah like, I dunno, DND is weird

[desert dove]

But yes, as you level up, y ou'll get more spell slots overall, and more powerful spells to use them.

Warlock is just very tight on spell slots, because they get them all back on a Short Rest

[quick bobcat]

I don't like how there's no gear progression, how spells are a very limited resource and how like almost every class shares the same spells

[unborn stratus]

Warlock's main hit spell is free

and you can recast hex so long as your concentration isn't broken

[desert dove]

Most of the problem is that you're getting two/three Arcane spellcasters at the very beginning, and only one Divine (Shadowheart), so things are lopsided until you get the Druid.

Oh yeah, be sure to take advantage of hex on the Warlock, that'll boost damage even more.

[unborn stratus]

yes it's totally fair that my free infinite use cantrip can do a maximum of 16 damage

[desert dove]

And gear progression is a bit slow, yes. You're going to spend the first few levels in regular gear until you get enough gold to buy some magic gear or complete some big quests for better rewards.

Usually around 5th level is when D&D characters start getting more magic items.

[granite thorn]

This is just how d&d is

[desert dove]

Yup. 1st level characters aren't exactly "zero to hero" but it's pretty close. It's a game built around 20 levels of progression, so those first three or four are a bit slow and same-y, but then it goes off like a rocket.

[unborn stratus]

gear progression is more like "your armor has progressively more insane modifiers" rather than "your armor class goes up as you go deeper into the campaign"

[desert dove]

Right. A lot of your gear will be stuff you pick for new abilities rather than pumping your AC.

[granite thorn]

Yeah

[quick bobcat]

yeah which is kind of my problem with it. I guess I'm just not used to a system like DND's

as far as I understand though, armor AC, weapon damage, etc doesn't really go up as you upgrade your gear. You just get extra abilities n such

[desert dove]

Once you get magic items, you'll see some with "+1 AC" or a "+1 weapon" (which affects to-hit & damage both). But mostly you're going to prefer special abilities being added over those. And the +'s will go up as you hit higher levels. But yeah, an AC of 18 is actually really good for D&D.

[unborn stratus]

Ye, it's a system I like a lot because it means less giant numbers to look at (like having 1100 defense and 2175 attack in Monster hunter, for ex.)

It also works well for dice, of course

[desert dove]

Mhm. Plus, your class abilities will really improve as you hit certain milestones.

So for instance, at level 5 a Warlock gets access to 3rd level spells, a sixth Spell Known, and a third Invocation, which opens a lot more flexible options.

[quick bobcat]

oh wait, apparently I already had agonizing blast

does the charisma bonus not show up on the tooltip?

[desert dove]

Hm. I honestly never looked, but I know I was getting the +CHA damage.

Oh that reminds me, as you level up you'll get multiple beams for your eldritch blast, so you can either hit multiple targets at once or blast the hell out of one target.

[quick bobcat]

how can I check?

[desert dove]

Uh, if you're at your camp there should be target dummies you can practice on.

[quick bobcat]

apparently I do 0 damage to all dummies

[desert dove]

Hm.

I'm at work, so I can't pop in and test it, sadly.

[night oracle]

I think in general the target dummies only show 0 damage

[jaunty basin]

this is 100% what would've happened to me

[clear yarrow]

It is not shown but it does work

And somehow I, the classic never rester, has managed to avoid that

THe specific HURRTY UP quests are usually pretty clear that you need to hurry, from what I've seen

[quick bobcat]

Spoiler for Wyll's storyline:
uhmmm ||Wyll just turned into a devil. Was there no way to avoid this without killing Karlach??||

[quick bobcat]

huh, they just let you do that? interesting

[jaunty basin]

it's not a real CRPG if they don't let you do a few stupid things

(if it's the kind of story where you know how to get there early)

[clear yarrow]

Eternally battling

I did have some real hilarious times

As me and Kar show off for SH by hauling barrels of gunpowder into the rafters for tactical advantage in fights

[desert dove]

Man, I had one insanely difficult battle... and realized afterwards that some of the barrels on the upper level were smokepowder (gunpowder). I could've made the fight so much easier with those.

[heavy hound]

I have seen this big talk about skills but IDK if this has been mentioned.
You should aim to have even scores.
The bonus goes up at even scores.
So for example, having a 14 or a 15 in strength count ad a +2 to melee attack rolls.
It's when it goes to 16 that it becomes a +3

A lot of NPC start with odd numbers, so getting attribute points at lvl 4 and putting one in each to even them out is very tempting as an option

[quick bobcat]

Yeah I realized that already

[kindred talon]

is there a way of toggling interactables so they're always visible (rather than holding left alt)?

[desert dove]

I don't think so. And honestly, some rooms would be impossible to navigate with it always-on, there's so much stuff in htem.

[kindred talon]

yeah

the game's pretty good but I wish some of the interiors were less interiorly

[desert dove]

Yeah, that's a common problem with these types of isometric RPGs, too much stuff to navigate around.

I was getting really frustrated yesterday because I wanted to click on someone to take an action, but accidentally clicked next to them & my character cheerfully walked past multiple enemies (taking attacks of Opportunity from them) to get there.

[kindred talon]

After I ||got the bear boi out of the cage we decided to go kill all humans goblins, and I get into a fight immediately outside of the room. But it also pulled in a couple of goblins that had line of sight through a hole in the wall and I basically had to do the whole fight up to priestess gut without short rests||

[desert dove]

[kindred talon]

it's a bit too vertical for a game with no means to actually go up or down levels

[desert dove]

Ugh, yeah, that entire area has too many sightlines enemeis can spot you on & get into combat with.

There's usually ladders or vines to climb, but they can be very difficult to see without spinning the camera like a top.

[kindred talon]

or dark vision

[desert dove]

Mhm

On a related note, ponies have rotted my brain. I was reading a page about making an optimal build, and they mentioned using an ability "to cover your flank" and all I could think of was

[kindred talon]

this game's very hard to play without playing dnd tbh

like I get feats and have no idea what I'm supposed to pick

[heavy hound]

As a character that relies to be 2 meter above someone in order to make one of my strongest moves, please keep the verticality

[quick bobcat]

I just got ||voluntarily beaten by a dude with a kink for that kind of thing while Shadowheart watched and her comments made it clear she enjoyed it||

[heavy hound]

Also that's why misty step is kind of awesome, placing a caster up someplace where melee dudes have a hard time reaching is pretty nice

[heavy hound]

The buff ||you get if you go all the way is pretty awesome too||

Especially as barb, but in general

[quick bobcat]

my companions didn't seem to expect that

[exotic pelican]

Has anyone encountered a use for rope? I keep it in my inventory expecting it to be useful one day.

[desert dove]

I have not, as of yet. I tried to use it to rappel down into a hole during one bit, but it just wouldn't do anything (and my whole party instead plummeted in when I misclicked).

[heavy hound]

Yeah I don't think they account for that sadly

If you want to jump down high places tho, feather fall is a ritual spell

So as long as you prepare it, you can cast it for free and leap down whenever distance assuming you aren't in combat

You can even prepare it on the fly, use it, and change it back

Since they aren't limiting how often you can change your spells

[clear yarrow]

Oh good to know

[desert dove]

I did not have feather fall at the time.

I think after this playthrough, I'll run a evil melee character, and then either a mage or maybe playthrough as Shadowheart.

Apparently there's an Origin that lets you play a custom character, but with its own storyline. However ||it pushes you to make evil choices and gives you some unique dialogues & cutscenes||.

[kindred talon]

I'm not sure if ||I'm supposed to use the mindflayer powers or not||

[desert dove]

I think that's intentional. And I honestly don't know how it's meant to play out. However, at a certain point, ||you get to rip the tadpoles out of other NPCs, and "absorb" them for new bonuses / powers||.

[kindred talon]

||yeah I got that far and I'm just kind of confused. It seems like a massive system to ignore and the game seems to be pushing you towards it narratively but shrug||

[desert dove]

I have a feeling it'll pay off, but yeah, it's super suspicious.

[kindred talon]

doing it? or not doing it?

another thing I don't get... I had the impression that every member of the party gained the same experience (including those not involved) but my characters aren't all leveling at the same time so I guess not

[desert dove]

Doing it, yes.

[quick bobcat]

They are, you just have to add them back to your party and level them up manually

[heavy hound]

Yeah they get caught up when they join you back

Or at least they should

If it's not happening try to dismiss and readd them

[jaunty basin]

oh yeah, some of the few times I save scummed in Planescape were interiors where I was afraid my party would pathfind unexpectedly and get themselves spotted (and this did happen more than once)

[heavy hound]

In this game, when it matters you can get a lot of control of where you step

You can either toggle off group mode so you control each character individually and where they go

[sweet moat]

I kinda wish that, at the camp at least, you could control every character and do all you need to do with them, like level them up and do some inventory swapping, rather than having to switch them out constantly.

[heavy hound]

Or to stealth, you can toggle turn mode, that act like if you are in combat for the purpose of moving around and avoiding patrols

[heavy hound]

Strong agree, there are definitely a few QOL I would like to see added and this is pretty high on the list

[desert dove]

They all get the big quest rewards and (I think) XP from kills, but there are some XP rewards specific characters get when you do things, and I don't know if you get them when they're not in your party.

[sweet moat]

Again, this is the one area where the Pathfinder games actually beat BG3, and that's party management. They have a muuuuuuch better party swapping mechanic in place.

[heavy hound]

Never forget about the switching to turn mode, the hotkey is shift+space

It can save your ass for so many things

An example, in an encounter there was something that was burning, and took some hp damage every turn
I finished the fight in time but the thing was still burning, and I had to prevent to reach zero.

As soon as the fight finished the game went back in free time mode, but I quickly shift+space so I could cast a create water on the thing and put it off before it was too late

It's generally helpful when timing is an issue, some traps are also that way

[sweet moat]

Yeah, I'm genuinely wondering if I should have one of my casters always prepare the Create Water spell, because there's sooooooo many places where there's fire, and it would save me so many headaches and HP if I could just cast that instead of having to throw water bottles all the time.

shivers
Waukeen's Rest suuuucked. So much fire everywhere.

[heavy hound]

That was also annoying

[sweet moat]

It took me quite a few attempts to figure out how to get to the trapped man on the second floor. Finally I just had Wyll misty step through the cracked wall out of frustration, only for me to find out that there was a cleared hallway connecting the smaller building to the main building all along.

[desert dove]

Hmm. That's a good point, I hadn't considered that.

I just always make sure to have Speak With Animals ready, it's amazing.

[desert dove]

Oh nice, I found a list of ways to gain Inspiration (aka a reroll) via the Background you chose at character creation:
https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/943203-baldurs-gate-3-inspiration-inspirational-events-background-how-to-get-gain

[night oracle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O2lkom6L5Q

[quick bobcat]

I'm sorry Tale

[night oracle]

That's the end of his Tale

[sweet moat]

"Oh my God, you killed Tale! You bastard!"

[glossy palm]

Rip dog thing

[quick bobcat]

I'm becoming more and more convinced that going with DND's ruleset for this game was a mistake

It may 'work' for a tabletop game, but it's just downright frustrating in a videogame

[sweet moat]

I think it works well enough, but yeah, the more I play, the more I'm thinking that D:OS 2 is still overall the better game for now, but we'll see as I get further in.

[quick bobcat]

It really is. The more I play the more I notice how much better designed DOS2 was

Divinity's mechanics were just more fun and better fit for a videogame

I understand that they had no real choice, you can't make a baldurs gate game without DND mechanics so I don't blame Larian at all

[sweet moat]

What I really miss is Divinity's sheer combat mobility. I had my characters jumping around, climbing walls, combat-rolling (not really, but it felt like that), setting up sniper positions mid-fight, throwing bombs, teleporting, hovering, and just generally being far more active and fast-paced. Each battle felt like a completely new experience.

Meanwhile with Baldur's Gate 3, there's far less options because it's relying on the D&D system, which is perfectly serviceable and fine, but it relies a lot more on either stealth or brute-forcing the fight, rather than mobility, mid-fight tactical positioning, and planning ahead.

[desert dove]

The trick is that the whole Baldur's Gate franchise has always been a D&D game. WotC wouldn't let someone make a BG game without using the D&D rules.

... my screen didn't scroll.

[sweet moat]

Yeah, that's what Merc said

Lol

[quick bobcat]

yeah, like I said, I understand. I'm not blaming Larian, I know it's not their fault

[sweet moat]

I don't think either of us are saying that BG3 is a bad game by any means. In fact, I think it's a fantastic game, I haven't had this much fun in quite a while. I just think that D:OS 2 is just better overall.

[heavy hound]

To be honest, the mechanics are a large reason as to why I wasn't able to get into DOS2 so to each their own

[sweet moat]

I thought it was the world?

[quick bobcat]

yeah. It's not bad, it's just... not as good

[heavy hound]

The world was neutral

Like, it didn't have time to win me over

To be fair tho, I am already familiar with it which is definitely a big reason as to why I enjoy the ruleset

Also subjectively, I enjoy a more intuitive system

Like, since I alreeady know the philosophy behind it, I know exactly what +2 in dex will give me, without having to go through hoops to figure it out

Since the math behind it is so simple

[quick bobcat]

I loved everything about DOS2: the mechanics, the world, the story, the music - everything. Particularly loved how overly cynical and exaggerated the whole world and lore felt

BG3 for me... well it falls behind in all of those aspects

not to say it's bad, again, but not as good either

[heavy hound]

The gameplay was good but I didn't feel like I was in control of the game, whenever I got something I had a vague sense of what made my character better at but no more than that, which is why I am enjoying the D&D system more, thanks to my familiarity to it.

[quick bobcat]

it's like the opposite for me with BG3 lol

[heavy hound]

If I spent enough time to become as familiar with it, I might have enjoyed it as much, but I'm not sure, I remember the to hit calculation involving more math

But I might be misremembering

[quick bobcat]

but it's not even that, I could live with that. But the fights feel slow, and very frustrating when everyone misses all the time, especially when spells are very costly

[sweet moat]

I'm also familiar with D&D, and in fact, in some ways, BG3 is helping me become even more familiar with it, since I now have the chance to play different classes far more easily and thus get a feel for what I like. And that's why I feel like, as a combat system, it's perfectly serviceable in a video game and works quite well.

I just...really miss the more action and tactical planning of Divinity.

[quick bobcat]

like the armor system makes sense in a tabletop. It's easy because you don't need to calculate damage and reduction and whatnot. You either do damage or you don't - simple

[sweet moat]

And honestly, I hit waaaaaaay more often in Divinity than in BG3, but in Divinity everyone also had waaaaay more health too.

[quick bobcat]

but in a videogame, which does all the calculations for you, it's VERY frustrating

it sucks when your powerful spells have a 40% chance of landing and you basically just waste all your precious spell slots on nothing

[heavy hound]

Yeah but simplicity offer more than the benefit of being easy to use at the table.

[quick bobcat]

feels like fights are more often than not (quite literally) decided by a roll of the dice

[heavy hound]

namely the fact that it's easly to manipulate in the game

[quick bobcat]

you spells hit and do a lot of damage? Congrats you win! No? Too bad bucko

you gotta run away or reload

[sweet moat]

Welcome to D&D. At least in BG3 you can save-scum, in the tabletop version, you have one shot at everything, and if you fail, you fail.

[heavy hound]

Can't speak for you since we play on diffierent difficulties, but it might very well be also that being more familiar with how the game works is helping me stacking the dice in my favour more often

I don't feel like my fights last long for example

[quick bobcat]

progression is also waaaaay less meaningful because gear doesn't really scale as much with levels so the answer to "damn these enemies are tough, what should I do?" is not guaranteed to be "come back later when you're higher level and better gear"

like even beating level 3 enemies is tough with my full level 4 party

[desert dove]

In those situations, it's often best to find other ways to either improve your chances, or use an alternate means of winning the fight. Never spend a spell on somehting with that low a chance.

[quick bobcat]

then that begs the question of why the heck would you even get powerful spells at all if they're just gonna miss?

the only spell that has reliably worked for me is (surprise) the mage spell that cannot miss

[heavy hound]

A lot of enemies that have high AC have low dex or wis saves, that's on purpose, using spell to disable them or blow them up that bypass the Armor Class is a strategy for those

[desert dove]

Like I said, there are ways to improve those rolls.

Having high ground often helps with ranged attacks.

[quick bobcat]

well then it's extremely unclear how you're meant to be improving your rolls and it's just frustrating no matter how you put it

[night oracle]

I think that's why guides recommend going for the +2 stats as your first feat. Since your hit checks depend on your dex/str whatever, getting it as high as possible early helps with that? I think that's how it works?

[quick bobcat]

I did that

[sweet moat]

Basically this. Whenever possible, I try to find higher ground, and then use a ranged sneak attack strike with my assassin rogue on the toughest enemy I can see before the battle even starts, while everyone else is individually stealthed a little further away from the battle. That way, when battle begins, only one character is actually fighting, allowing me to get at least 2 or 3 more shots off from other stealthed characters from different directions, thus greatly increasing the chances of me winning the fight.

That said, each shot has to hit first.

[quick bobcat]

and it has barely helped at all

feels like my characters also barely do any damage to enemies because there's no obvious gear progression that would give you more damage

[heavy hound]

When you attack anything you have a breakdown as to exactly what goes into the roll, you can figure it out why you have lower or higher chances to hit, get bless on your cleric for big fights and them keep them out of enemies reach to avoid losing concentration it is a good strat to help the whole party hit more often

[desert dove]

Something doesn't sound right here. Gear really isn't the biggest factor in doing damage in D&D, your class abilities should be handling it. If they're not, something else is wrong.

[heavy hound]

There are also specific levels in which you do big jump in powers

[quick bobcat]

my class abilities all kinda suck, they're barely better than when I started at level 1

and they're all the exact same for all my characters

[heavy hound]

LVL 5 for examples is where casters get lvl 3 spells and fighters get an extra attack a turn

LVL 2 spells are also pretty strong

Scorching Ray tends to be a favourite

[sweet moat]

If you really need to get someone who can deal massive damage in rapid succession, get Karlach. Never let her leave your party. She can't use armor so she'll have low AC all the time (this is why spells that grant +2 to AC are great), but she's very tanky with a huge health pool, and she can hit for a lot of damage with a greatsword. Not only that, her rages essentially give her a bonus attack, and she can also do reckless attacks for advantage, which almost always guarantee a hit.

[heavy hound]

For clerics spiritual weapon is a very strong summon you can cast on a bonus action and doesn't require concentration

[quick bobcat]

I have spiritual weapon, I have scorching ray but it barely helps at all!

[desert dove]

If I weren't at work, I'd offer to take a look at your party & see if I can spot any issues.

[quick bobcat]

I was in a fight earlier where spiritual weapon would have a 50% hit chance against some enemies

[night oracle]

That first version sounded like a threat. "So help me, if I wasn't at work I-"

[quick bobcat]

also my party kept getting mud sprayed and all of my attacks were like 20-40% hit chance

like I said, the only thing that carried me through that fight was magic missile, because it can ACTUALLY hit enemies

without any bullshit

and then that leaves me with like 0 spell slots meaning I have to long rest after any moderately hard fight

[night oracle]

I want the ai to not be smart, so I can shove them over cliffs without them doing the same

[heavy hound]

I mean, scorching ray is 3 rays at 1d12 each, which is pretty good.
They have to hit of course but it usually doesn't perform badly, if you are afraid about missing maybe make sure a cleric cast bless before shooting, or disable the enemy in some other way so they are easier to hit.

(Invoke duplicity with Shadowheart can give you advantage)

[sweet moat]

I've never actually been mud sprayed yet. I didn't even know that was a thing.

[quick bobcat]

that was in the ||investigate kagha|| quest

[quick bobcat]

I'll look at bless and stuff, but I dunno, combat has been really frustrating the futher I go

[desert dove]

I may have bypassed that by ||killing the goblin leaders|| because I can't get a quest marker for it.

[heavy hound]

Oh right, consider also magic arrows.
You drop a fair bit of them and can definitely do some tricks on enemies

Especially once you get 2 attacks at lvl 5

[desert dove]

WHat's your main character class (like your personal character)?

[heavy hound]

Throwing a bottle of grease and a fire arrow in the same turn becomes a good strat at that point, or a bottle of water and a lightning arrow

[quick bobcat]

oh yeah, I forgot about those

[quick bobcat]

rogue (astarion)

[desert dove]

Hm. Yeah, Rogue can be tough to actually play, due to their reliance on Stealth mechanics.

[sweet moat]

If you want a free second attack, I'd consider dual-wielding with rogues. Gives you two chances to hit instead of just one, even if the off-hand strike might do less damage.

[quick bobcat]

actually, my rogue is probably the highest damage dealer from the entire party

I'm playing a ranged rogue

[sweet moat]

Ah, so basically the ranger from Divinity.

[quick bobcat]

I usually just make him camp out on some highround, sneak and then sneak attack with the bow

[sweet moat]

Stealth + range.

[quick bobcat]

yup, basically DOS2 ranger

does like the most damage

[sweet moat]

God, the rangers in Divinity were OP as f*ck. I loved them, lol.

[desert dove]

Oh yeah, if you play right, Rogues are combat monsters. But folks who don't maneuver them well tend to get killed quick.

[night oracle]

I think in here you gotta work on the whole disengage/surprise attack thing that rogues can do?

[sweet moat]

I actually discovered the ultimate melee rogue build for tabletop D&D that maximizes damage and makes you very difficult to hit, but it's not possible in BG3.

[weak cedar]

Is the game good masque I’ve been thinking of getting it.

[sweet moat]

It's very good

[night oracle]

It's good, but don't go in expecting D:OS 2 mechanics wise

[desert dove]

Thinking about this, I'm wondering if the enemies you're encountering are ||druids or other spellcasters
||, because they would be most likely to resist your spells.

[desert dove]

I'm really enjoying it, but I'm a D&D nerd, so I like the mechanics. The story is good too, but again, I'm a D&D nerd so I get a lot of the lore bits being dropped.

[weak cedar]

What class did you make?

[sweet moat]

I know enough about the world and lore to help me get by, but I'm no savant.

[desert dove]

I rolled a Dragonborn Ranger, which is working out pretty well.

[sweet moat]

Did they make the ranger good in this game?

Or is it as weird as it is in tabletop?

[weak cedar]

Oooh nice what difficulty is everyone on?

[sweet moat]

I'm playing on Balanced

And I think another reason why Merc is having so hard a time is because he's playing on Tactician, which is hard even for the devs.

[desert dove]

Well, Ranger is pretty much the definition of "jack of all trades, master of none." If you build for ranged combat, they're very good at it, and can at least hold their own in melee, but you really want to disengage and shoot things ASAP. Plus they get a few utility spells.

Balanced, yes.

[desert dove]

Oh crud, I missed that detail. Yeah, Tactician is really for experienced D&D nerds who know how to take advantage of the system.

And it's probably buffing the enemies. No wonder your level 4 party is having trouble with level 3 enemies.

[heavy hound]

Got to a +9 to hit, this is going to be fun to try out

[weak cedar]

I wonder if they would add a harder setting in a patch?

[sweet moat]

It literally says that it buffs enemies and weakens players, so yes, Tactician is not good for a first-time go at a D&D combat system.

[heavy hound]

Weaken players? I have to check what it changes

[sweet moat]

Well, maybe not weakens players, but it does make them harder to land hits, iirc.

[jaunty basin]

Mercurial, bopping to new p@d — 08/04/2023 5:15 PM
I chose the medium one at first, but after the starting nautiloid section I switched to tactician because it felt too easy

Mercurial, bopping to new p@d — Yesterday at 5:57 PM
Also I really like how tactician difficulty is balanced in this game. It's hard, but fair

[sweet moat]

Also, the nautiloid section is literally the tutorial, it isn't supposed to kill you.

This isn't Elden Ring or Dark Souls

[heavy hound]

Reading around, the differences are
30% more hp for enemies
The enemies tend to target casters more, and generally act smarter
And there are more enviormental hazards

That said the game is new and people might have missied harder to detect differences

Like if they have more AC or more to hit chances, it'll be harder to notice right away

[jaunty basin]

does "proficiency bonus" have anything to do with accuracy/hit chance?

[quick bobcat]

my problem isn't with the difficulty

it's with the core gameplay systems

[sweet moat]

I just realized, this is basically the same thing that Flitter is running for me and Rom. We're playing on a Tactician campaign, but instead of 30% vendor increase, it's 200%, lol.

[jaunty basin]

the actual D&D players started going "oh, Tactician, oof" so that's what I was responding to

[heavy hound]

I think that proficency scaling and hp scaling is same as in balanced

It's in explorer (easy) where you have double proficency and get max hp with every die auatomatically instead of the average

Which is why there are those categories

[sweet moat]

I think no? Isn't it more for saving throws and ability checks?

Unless it's weapon proficiency, in which case it might?

[desert dove]

Proficiency Bonus applies to ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls. Each class has a different progression for this bonus, some get an increase every level, others only get an increase every 3 or 4 levels.

[heavy hound]

proficency applies to everything you are "good" at so if you change proficency, it also applies to weapon attacks

That is not correct, proficency level up at the same interval for every character

Even if you multiclass

A 6th lvl character always has a proficency bonus of +3

I think it's a 5, at 9 at 13 and at 17

[desert dove]

Ah. Tabletop it doesn't.

My bad

[heavy hound]

It does in tabletop too

[desert dove]

[heavy hound]

if you notice all the characters have the same progression

And if you multiclass your proficency stops being tied to your class and starts being tied to your total levels

[desert dove]

I may be thinking of an earlier edition

I'm tired

[heavy hound]

Yes, in 3.5 it was all over the place

When it was called "attack bonus"

Back then it was balanced because spells usually ignored the armor, so didn't need as much to-hit

Also characters got new attacks per turn based on how much attack bonus they had, it was much more complicated

[weak cedar]

How’s work?

[desert dove]

Exhausting. I'm training someone, so I've hit my Social Activity quota for the day about 6 hours ago.

[weak cedar]

[quick bobcat]

WHOOPSIES

[desert dove]

Oh holy shit

[quick bobcat]

chuckles I'm in danger

[heavy hound]

I have no idea what you are doing at lvl 4, but it looks fun

[desert dove]

Yeah, you are way in over your head fighting that at level 4.

[quick bobcat]

oh I just... found an item

I dunno if you guys ran into that quest yet

[granite thorn]

Oh boy that looks awesome
Not at level 4
At level 4 that looks terrifying

Hope you long rested before that

[quick bobcat]

I'm trying my best but it's not looking too hot

it did 3 attacks in one turn

[desert dove]

At least it's not a real ||Beholder||, it's more like one of their lesser offspring, but that's still a terrible thing to fight at that level.

[quick bobcat]

... 5 attacks

[desert dove]

Yeeeeah

[quick bobcat]

wait I just got an idea

what if I summon it right in the middle of the druid grove

[desert dove]

[quick bobcat]

they're gonna help me

[desert dove]

They gonna die

[heavy hound]

Wait fuck, you are summoning that thing?

[quick bobcat]

hey, to my credit, I did manage to get it to half hp

[desert dove]

Okay, that's impressive

[quick bobcat]

uhmm, I think I'm spoiling too much already. You should go see it for yourself

[heavy hound]

Was this about the ||notnecronomicon||??

[quick bobcat]

hmm, no

I dunno what that is

[heavy hound]

Huh

[desert dove]

No, I actually looked that one. It's not nearly as interesting as this.

[desert dove]

Yeah, that's what I thought that was.

[heavy hound]

I read it all, but I need a key to read the rest

[desert dove]

Pretty cool you got it down that low.

[quick bobcat]

managed to get it to 64

[desert dove]

I wasn't able to read it, I need to go back for an item. But mostly likely on this playthrough I'll just destroy it, I'm playing a Good character.

Next time I'm reading that fuckin thing.

[quick bobcat]

died shortly after

I'm gonna try it either in the goblin camp or druid grove

see what happens

[heavy hound]

I don't think I'll finish it and will destroy it when I have access to divine smite, but it was fun up to what I've read

[desert dove]

Apparently any ||Radiant|| damage will do it, so Shadowheart can do it with one of her spells

[heavy hound]

That one spell can'd target non creatures

I tried

[desert dove]

Hm

[quick bobcat]

what's a beholder anyway?

[heavy hound]

You can tell it's ||radiant damage by examining the book, it's the first thing I tried||

Its the same thing but more eyes

And more powerful in general

[quick bobcat]

I wonder if we'll meet any

[heavy hound]

They are usually above lvl 12 content, but they might tone one down a bit from the monster manual so it's lvl appropriate for lvl 12 players

Or maybe they wont tone it down and they put it in there anyway just to fuck with us

[desert dove]

A Beholder is an Aberration (think unnatural horror), basically a floating ball with one eye and mouth up front, and 8 eyestalks around it. Each stalk has a spell-like ability it can cast, and the central eye can project an Anti-Magic Field.

They hate all life, including other Beholders, beleiving every other being in existence is inferior to themselves.

[quick bobcat]

oh wow, god

[desert dove]

Yeah, they are very, very nasty to fight

[quick bobcat]

yeah I noticed ||this one cast a different spell with each stalk||

and it USED EACH ONE EVERY TURN

[desert dove]

Yup. This is a smaller, less powerful version of a Beholder (which is why it's called a Spectator).

[glossy palm]

There on a lot of dnd boxart

[desert dove]

There's a bunch of variants like that.

[glossy palm]

https://tenor.com/view/beholder-monster-dnd-dungeons-and-dragons-gif-14709978

[desert dove]

Yeah, beholders are an iconic D&D monster (and trademarked as such)

[heavy hound]

Yeah beholders might be more iconic than dragons for D&D, ironically

[glossy palm]

Masque remembers the dnd cartoon days lol

[desert dove]

I actually do

[glossy palm]

I bought a shirt with tiamat in that style

https://a.co/d/6Wk77cI

[desert dove]

Venger is the OG one-winged angel.

[sweet moat]

What the absolute shit.

[quick bobcat]

I KNOW

[glossy palm]

Lol. Imagine what will happen if you make a dragon mad

[kindred talon]

not letting us have more than four people in the party is such cruelty

CRUEL

[glossy palm]

Theres mods for that

[jaunty basin]

"Tactician wasn't hard enough, so I summoned a few abominations from the outer planes"

[kindred talon]

this is the worse game of pokemon I've ever played

[quick bobcat]

HEY I didn't know THAT would happen!

[jaunty basin]

I'm not sure I had a whoops moment like that in Planescape

yeah, it wasn't as interested in boss monsters

[quick bobcat]

lol

I broke the game

wow I just one-shotted an entire group of gnolls with 1 bomb

those things are powerful

that was very satisfying

[desert dove]

Yup, smokepowder bombs are awesome.

[quick bobcat]

do you know where I can get more?

are they craftable or buyable?

[desert dove]

So far I've only recieved one as a random drop. I'm assuming you can buy more, I dunno if you can craft any with Alchemy.

[night oracle]

I found a path at some point leading to what I suspected was a ||spider queen area||, but I was still level 2 or 3 at that point and decided that cowardice sounded like a very good idea

[sweet moat]

I don't know where you got yours as a random drop, but I found mine from ||rescuing the Deep Gnome that was strapped to the windmill in the abandoned village.||

Oh, btw, I've noticed a little something odd about the dialogue in the main goblin camp: ||so, at the gate, there's a rather annoying goblin who will tell you to literally rub shit all over your face and then he'll let you in. I winked, then grabbed the shit and threw it in his face instead, and then slaughtered him and the other gate guards without alerting anyone else. However, the odd part is, after I make it into the camp, my companions and the other goblins still react as if I've smeared shit all over my face at the gate.|| Idk if it's a bug or just a weird dialogue hiccup that Larian forgot to account for.

[heavy hound]

Yeah probably a flag that wasn't set up correctly somewhere

Not surprising on release

Things like these were the reason I was considering waiting a few months before playing, they'll probably get caught and patched but it'll take some time

[night oracle]

Yaaaaay got the ||goblin boss bastard|| with very little damage. Got super lucky that his movement failed riiight at the right spot to have me take advantage of it

"Am empty box. If I were a cat, this would be a great find."

[heavy breathing]

[sweet moat]

WHERE. Please tell me.

[quick bobcat]

I looted all that stuff without even killing the boss dude

[sweet moat]

Oh, this is all in the ||goblin fort||?

[quick bobcat]

game's been out for like 4 days and I've already managed to rack up 30 hours

[night oracle]

Yeah it is. I looted the other guys too for some great stuff but all at once from the crates is nice

Also i just now got around to getting Astarion, and...

GOOD LORD he sounds smarmy

[sweet moat]

He very much is

[night oracle]

Oh god getting rewards left and right

[sweet moat]

That's...forward.

[night oracle]

Also I have just discovered the ||BRAINPOWERZ screen||

So yeah, clearing out the ||goblin fort|| leads to maaaaaaaaaany rewards

[sweet moat]

Welp, I know what I'm doing tonight, lol.

[night oracle]

It ain't easy. Many a save scum

[night oracle]

Gee, i TOTALLY didn't see ||these skeletal corpses rising up as soon as i click on something specific|| coming a mile away...

[sweet moat]

Oh shit. I just found ||an entrance to the friggin' UNDERDARK under the goblin fort. With warnings from long-dead Selunites to stay the everliving F*CK away. And yet I'm supposed to go here to find that "Nightsong" item.||

What did I just get myself into?

[unborn stratus]

Welcome to ||Act 2||

[sweet moat]

I don't think I'm supposed to be here yet. I haven't even cleared the ||goblin fort|| yet.

[sweet moat]

...This game is actually gonna make me kill ||two goblin kids in order to free Halsin||, is it?

Welp, time to go Anakin up in this bitch.

Although...

Shadowheart doesn't like it if we hurt ||kids, even goblin ones||.

What to do?

[kindred talon]

start wearing black and tell her that you'll bring order to your new empire

Peace to Faerun

I've played the game for 53 hours and tbh I'm not sure I really like it

Like it's fun, but there's times where it feels like I'm missing something that a DM would probably not let me miss or they would talior the difficulty to what the party was actually capable of handling

[sweet moat]

Well, they can't account for everything.

They're game devs, not DMs.

[kindred talon]

I mean, I'm aware

[sweet moat]

Alright, Halsin is freed, and now he wants me to kill all the goblins. I left him in the prison area though because I don't want to have to babysit him while I try to do this delicately.

It's time to earn my assassin's degree in goblin anatomy.

[heavy hound]

Ok so, ||I did kill a spectator and it lets me cast "speak with dead" on it, this is going to be fun||

Underdark spoilers

Boo, ||nothing to say, hopefully other creatures similar to that can talk tho||

[glossy palm]

https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-expansion-interview/

[sweet moat]

The game literally just finished, give them a couple weeks guys, lol.

[sweet moat]

Two ||goblin bosses down (the hobgoblin and the drow), one to go. Idk what y'all are talking about, the only hard one was the hobgoblin so far. The drow lady went down in two rounds.||

[sweet moat]

Aaaaand done. Degree earned.

[kindred talon]

well. I killed them. I killed them all.

[night oracle]

||The hobgoblin hits like a truck and seems to swing more often than you since he's level 5. A string of bad luck will annihilate ya||

[sweet moat]

||Yeah, two of my characters were at death saves towards the end, but one thing I found helped was having one guy in the rafters raining cantrips down at the enemies from above, having Karlach solo all the weaker enemies, and having everyone else focus on the big guy. Eventually, he starts to get so frenzied that he'll actually attack his own people. Also, fun fact, you can long-rest inside the temple after you've cleared out the goblins, the ones outside won't give a shit, lol. Of course, that still makes the battle outside only slightly less painful. I tried to do it last night, but I realized soon enough that it was gonna take a while, so I saved it for today.||

Also, ||destroy all the wardrums at the start fof combat. Matter of fact, make that the combat initiation. It'll stop the goblins from calling friends.||

[night oracle]

||I'd already killed the entire rest of the goblins inside the building so those wardrums did nothing. For my successful playthrough, i had my entire team up in the rafters raining stuff down and if anyone came up, Lae'zel was ready to push them. Only hobgolin made it and he ran out of movement before being able to attack. Pushed him, and then shot him while he was still prone. I took no damage from him. Cleaned up everyone else easy||

||in fact I streamed it to no audience on twitch but I should have it up on there ||

[night oracle]

https://vxtwitter.com/luxthos/status/1688707081489076224

[clear yarrow]

Welp

I'm frustrated

[sweet moat]

What's wrong, Tale?

[weak cedar]

https://twitter.com/baldursgate3/status/1688920498695028736? @desert dove

Baldur's Gate 3 (@baldursgate3)

PSA: You can hit switches with ranged weapons. Ding.

Likes

1412

Retweets

127

▶ Play video

Twitter · Aug 8, 2023, 2:30 PM

[heavy hound]

Oh, that would have been nice to know before I did the puzzle I just did

I had to short rest to be able to use mage hand

[quick bobcat]

there's a surprising amount of things you can shoot

I watched a tips video and just then realized you could've ||shot that stone on a rope at the crypt entrance to kill the dwarf and human instantly if you didn't manage to persuade them||

[heavy hound]

You can also throw stuff on pressure plates to set off traps from a distance

That's definitely the Divinity DNA, you can tell it's the same studios

[quick bobcat]

also if you place an item on poison traps, they won't activate

[desert dove]

I don't think they're actually kids, just really excitable. That said, you don't have to kill them, you can succeed at some skill checks to make them open the cage, or just use your POWERZ to make them obey you.

||Then Halsin will kill them for you.||

[desert dove]

I was level 3 during the fight, and I only managed to win once I started ||knocking goblins into the spider pits||.

[night oracle]

I love how different all of our solutions are

[quick bobcat]

I haven't fought them yet, but I'm considering ||summoning the spectator and just running away and hiding||

[night oracle]

I ||got into goblin priestess' room and killed the ogre there, opened the cell and knocked down a cage which created a hole. I went down the hole and found myself in that spider pit Masque just mentioned. Somehow the spiders were smart enough and I was able to communicate with them even without animal talk abilities, so I allied with them... unlocked the door with thieves tools and unleashed the two spiders on the Priestess||

[quick bobcat]

that'll be two birds with one stone

[desert dove]

God, I never even thought about that, I figured they wouldn't be intelligent enough to talk to.

[night oracle]

I was fully expecting a fight

But then they started chatting and i ||mimicked what they did and they were chill, and pointed towards the door||

[sweet moat]

Actually, they are kids. One of the random conversations that the goblin warrior next to them will have is asking them if they "want to grow up weak".

[desert dove]

On that note, I let the priestess ||drug me|| just to see what would happen, wound up ||in that cell in chains, but was able to make a DEX save to dislocate my wrists to get free, then stealthed out of the room||. Came back later to kill those two, after I found Halsin & he wanted the bosses dead.

[weak cedar]

What level are you now masque.

[sweet moat]

Also, it's kinda in your best interest to kill them, because A) Shadowheart actually doesn't care as much as I thought she would (or maybe she was just too far away), and B) they will run to get help if you don't get them fast enough.

[quick bobcat]

oh goodness, I totally forgot I had ||Lump's war horn item|| as well. This might be the perfect opportunity to use it

[desert dove]

I hit Level 4 on Sunday, that's the last time I got to play.

[weak cedar]

Nice

[quick bobcat]

I wonder if I'll be able to use it after I'm done with the goblin camp or not

[night oracle]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1892004750?t=00h51m30s @desert dove that section in particular from the ||cell onwards||

[quick bobcat]

or if I should stop saving it

[desert dove]

I'll have to check that out later, when I'm not at work, but it sounds like a blast.

Also, I'm looking forward to figuring out WTF was up with the ||Strange Ox|| from the druid grove, I expect I'll run into them again later.

[night oracle]

Oh I see, I think it's because I am an ||outlander and had animal handling to a minor degree?||

[desert dove]

Ooh, that could be it

[kindred talon]

||the strange ox is actually you, the player character, after you’re thrown back in time at the end of act 2|| /s

[desert dove]

That's probably why I couldn't make the wolf in the druid grove like me. 😦

[heavy hound]

Oh worth mentioning, if you don't want to murder someone, you can enable non lethal damage

[sweet moat]

I had a hilarious moment picking off some of the goblins in that blacksmithing area of the sanctum. There was always one goblin who would go to the edge of a hole to piss into it, so I used Karlach to shove him right into the chasm. That killed him, and then three other goblins on the other side of the hole decided they didn't like to see that so they attacked me. I then picked each one of them off, but then I realized I did all of that without even alerting the goblin smiths literally five feet away. So, to deal with the smiths, I walked over to the goblin that was hanging over the edge of the chasm in a cage, decided "f*ck that guy, sorry", and shot the trapped cage door, blowing him up and causing the smiths to attack. After killing the smiths, a goblin guard walked in...only to remind me grumpily not to take any items.

I was literally standing in the pool of five to six goblins' worth of blood, and she only cared about me opening a crate.

[heavy hound]

That will work only with melee attacks tho

[desert dove]

Yup, I did that with the tieflings that had Lae'zel in a cage.

Then I looted them while they were unconscious.

Oh, and wandering around the druid grove, I accidentally "stole" an item by clicking on it, and had to give it back to the druid that saw me, with amusing dialogue about my terrible thieving skills.

[sweet moat]

Hilariously, you could've actually used this moment to have another one of your characters sneak up behind the druid while you were talking to them and rob them blind.

[desert dove]

Sadly, I do not have a rogue in my current party.

I might skill Sleight Of Hand in my next playthrough, for exactly such an occasion.

[sweet moat]

You should. If not your main character, then Asterion. Rogues are OP in this game, easily dealing with traps, doors, chests, and stealth problems of all kinds.

And trust me, there are some traps that hurt.

[desert dove]

... now I wonder if you can pull the Fallout/Skyrim trick of reverse-pickpocketing explosives/poison into NPCs pockets to kill them.

[kindred talon]

I wish the party was big enough for him

It’s hard

Four peeps is hard

[sweet moat]

It really is.

Well, in this game, anyway.

It was more balanced for four people in D:OS 2.

[kindred talon]

I need gale vecause gale is fun

[desert dove]

My plan is to be good this playthrough, and evil the next one.

So next game, my party will be me as the Dark Urge, Astarion, the Drow lady, and someone else who doesn't care if I'm evil. Possibly a henchman, since the rest seem to be at least semi-good.

[kindred talon]

I need devil girl becxauee she’s fun

[sweet moat]

And again, to sing the praises of the Pathfinder games and their party mechanics, you can have six people in your party.

[kindred talon]

Etc

[desert dove]

Oh, and next playthrough, the druid grove gets burned to the ground. Because Evil.

[sweet moat]

Karlach is never leaving my party. Gale is a good guy, but he's a chore to babysit and keep alive (whether through combat or ||his condition||).

[desert dove]

I've yet to meet Karlach. Probably second thing I do next time I get to play (first is clearing out the mini-dungeon where Withers was hanging out).

Also, I'm absolutely going to try and romance both Shadowheart and Haslin this time through, if I can.

[sweet moat]

Also, two somewhat spoiler-y things: 1) ||did Lae'zel try to kill you guys in your sleep yet? And if so, what did you do?|| And 2) ||did you let Volo, ahem, perform surgery on your eye? Assuming you saved him, that is.||

[desert dove]

1. ||She tried to kill me personally, but I talked her out of it.||
   2 ||Haven't met him yet.||

[quick bobcat]

has anyone killed the ||hag|| yet?

[desert dove]

No, but I did accidentally run into a bunch of ||harpies|| that kicked my ass.

[quick bobcat]

those weren't so bad

I managed to take them on

[sweet moat]

If you mean ||Auntie Whats-Her-Name||, I met her as she was arguing with the two men, but not yet. The swamps were too tough for me when I first ran into them (level 2). Now that I'm more prepared and with better equipment, I'm gonna head there after I finish up with the goblins.

[quick bobcat]

I recommend lvl4 or above

[sweet moat]

Well I am level 4, hopefully soon to be level 5 after I deal with the last few remaining goblins.

[quick bobcat]

oh wow, you're that close to getting level 5 already?

huh

I'm still a ways away

[sweet moat]

But that big group out in front of the ruins...oof, gonna need to get smart with that.

[desert dove]

If you mean ||the front courtyard|| they were noncombative to me. I don't know if that's because I bluffed my way past the ones in the ||ruined village|| or if that's just the default.

[kindred talon]

I like gale, he’s fun

Funny comments

[sweet moat]

Nah, every goblin is hostile to me because I murdered ||all three leaders||.

[desert dove]

Gale is adorkable.

[desert dove]

Oooh, yes, that'll do it. If you don't want to fight your way out, ||you can portal out via the fast-travel points||.

[sweet moat]

He's very fun to have around, and he's one of the actually good guys too, he's just...incredibly weak and he ||eats magic items.||

[kindred talon]

He’s a growing boy and needs his nutrients

[quick bobcat]

okay WHAT. THIS MAKES NO SENSE

... why??

[kindred talon]

He’s not that weak you just have to keep him in the back and use grease and such

[sweet moat]

You don't need to spoil that, fast travel isn't a spoiler. :P

In any case, that's the chicken's way out, and these goblins have more than earned what they'll be receiving tonight. I just need to figure out a good tactical position rather than just bum-rushing out of the door. Are there any other entrances to the ruins?

[quick bobcat]

I just wondered into ||this camp (that is full of people, mind you) and why the heck does oil literally instantly explode as soon as I step onto it?? Why is the whole camp full of explosive barrels?!||

[kindred talon]

Wyl is fun too but I’m already so faster heavy

Are you playing as katchuch?

[desert dove]

Eh, some folks feel like it's cheating, so I did that spoiler as an option.

[kindred talon]

She’s hot

Very hot

Actually she’s on fire

[sweet moat]

"...Karlach, you idiot...bleeeeh..."
dies

[quick bobcat]

has anyone been inside that camp yet?

[desert dove]

To blow up people walking into the camp.

[quick bobcat]

like this makes literally 0 sense

[quick bobcat]

and blow themselves to smithereens?

[sweet moat]

You'll find out why there's so many explosive barrels after you do their quest.

[glossy palm]

Really hope theres multiple endings in this

At least one evil one

[sweet moat]

There is

[quick bobcat]

how come they walk over the oil just fine, but as soon as I as much as breath on it, it explodes?

[sweet moat]

Because Karlach is on fire.

[kindred talon]

She’s hit

[quick bobcat]

but I don't have karlach in my party!!

[sweet moat]

...Oh.

[kindred talon]

Huh

[sweet moat]

Uuuuh

...Huh.

[desert dove]

There's literally an Origin as "The Dark Urge" which encourages you to be evil throughout your playthrough, with unique dialogue options and cutscenes, apparently. So I expect there is.

[sweet moat]

Idk then

[quick bobcat]

it happens when astarion walks over it

astarion is hot, but he's not THAT hot

like cmon

[desert dove]

That's because he's h- Dammit

[kindred talon]

Uh

I think vampires burn if they’re wet

[sweet moat]

...Wat.

[desert dove]

No, that's the Wicked Witch of the West.

You may be thinking of holy water.

[kindred talon]

I definitely remember him taking damage from the river

[quick bobcat]

yeah it only happens with astarion

what??????

[desert dove]

Also, in some traditions, vampires cannot cross running water

[quick bobcat]

I just tried with wyll, gale and shadowheart

none of them triggered it

[desert dove]

Okay, so you need him to jump over the explosives then.

[quick bobcat]

I tried. It does NOT work

[desert dove]

Maybe he's carrying something with a fire effect? Otherwise, it's just... him.

[quick bobcat]

the only thing I discovered that works is throwing water bottles everywhere

[desert dove]

create water

[kindred talon]

Weird

[sweet moat]

Yet another reason for me to not have Asterion in my party (the other being that I'm already a much better rogue so he's kinda pointless).

[kindred talon]

You’re a rogue?

[glossy palm]

Hopefully that means i can assist evil creatures as well lol

[kindred talon]

Incidentally

Does the color of the characters icon indicate their alignment?

[sweet moat]

Yeah, I'm a Dragonborn rogue

[sweet moat]

Wdym?

[desert dove]

There's actually an option in Act 1 to ||side with the goblins, recruit an evil Drow to your party, and burn a druid grove to the ground.||

So yeah, you can be fucking evil if you want. Some companions will leave you over it, others will be fine with it.

[glossy palm]

Fun

[kindred talon]

Some are red some are blue

[desert dove]

That... is a very good question. I dont' know.

[glossy palm]

Im gonna assume the illithids will show up again later in other acts but for now ill not worry about them

[sweet moat]

I never noticed this.

[quick bobcat]

apparently there's also the option of ||pointing the drow towards the grove which results in a massive siege||?

[desert dove]

Speaking of which, apparently there's a way to get a Game Over in the first five minutes after the ||Nautiloid|| crashes.

[quick bobcat]

someone suggested to ||cause the siege and then release the spectator in the middle of the mayhem|| for some fun

[sweet moat]

Of course there is, lol

[sweet moat]

I've heard about this, actually. And there's also the option of ||then going back to the grove and telling the druids that the Drow is on her way, so you can then ambush her forces with the druids.||

[quick bobcat]

oooh

[kindred talon]

I’m pretty sure you can get game over before the tutorial ends

[quick bobcat]

wow there are a lot of options in this game huh

[kindred talon]

There’s a lot to do

[quick bobcat]

I'm still thinking where to release my 'beast' at

I need suggestions

[kindred talon]

And it makes me sad because I don’t know if I’d feel like doing another run of it

What beast

[quick bobcat]

uhh it's a little spoilery. If you haven't done the quest yet then I don't wanna say

[kindred talon]

Go on

[quick bobcat]

were you at the hyena and gnoll area?

[heavy hound]

Do you have boots that electrify stuff you are standing in or shit?

[kindred talon]

Yeah

[heavy hound]

That's the only thing I can think of

[quick bobcat]

no, I only have the spider boots

[kindred talon]

I made gale eat his own boots

[quick bobcat]

yeah so have you completed the quest that you get from that area?

[kindred talon]

No

Well

No

[quick bobcat]

you wanna do that first then

[heavy hound]

Weird, I did walk on oil no problem, probably can jump it tho

[quick bobcat]

I tried jumping

it did not work

[kindred talon]

I ||got the box but the dude died and talk to the dead didn’t provide very useful information||

[quick bobcat]

only bottles of water worked

[kindred talon]

Idk where to delivery it to

[night oracle]

1. ||talked her out of it||
2. ||I chickened out of it but i have seen later what the result is so i'll let him ||

[quick bobcat]

I just opened the box like a real rogue

did you just grab the whole chest or something?

must be heavy

[kindred talon]

Yeah

I had my hot devil girlfriend pick it up

[desert dove]

That reminds me, I'm still carrying around brains in jars from the tutorial, in the hopes they're useful later.

[kindred talon]

I sold them to the hobbit

[quick bobcat]

yeah just crack it open. I don't think you're meant to deliver it anywhere? (I could be dead wrong about this)

but I assure you it's gonna be more fun if you have a look inside

[sweet moat]

Hey same here. I'm also carrying around some of those throwable items from the tutorial too.

Packrats united

[kindred talon]

I’d have to bring the rogue out for that which is annoying

[quick bobcat]

Well I mean if you really don't wanna then I can show you what happened to me

[desert dove]

I keep getting Encumbered and having to throw shit at my other party members for them to carry.

[quick bobcat]

time to sell some stuff then

[desert dove]

Difficult to do in a dungeon.

I need to store some stuff in my camp, probably.

Like, I probably don't need to actually carry all those Camp Supplies with me.

[sweet moat]

This is why I split the load. Have one person be the guy who sells stuff and collects all the treasure (Wyll), have one person who carries all the heavier items in case the seller gets too encumbered (Karlach), have one person who has all the books and papers and quest items (also Karlach), have one person who has all the alchemical ingredients (Shadowheart), and then there's the guy who has all the potions (my main character).

[desert dove]

Oh god, right, i can't resist picking up every book I see.

[sweet moat]

You actually don't. You can store them in the main chest at camp (usually located near Shadowheart) and the game will treat that as being in your inventory while at camp.

[desert dove]

[desert dove]

Good to know!

[quick bobcat]

Aw I thought I could force Oskar to draw a portrait of myself but the game didn't let me :(

(At the zhenarim basement)

[quick bobcat]

Oh yeah I send all my camp supplies to.. camp

I have like 2000 and they're way too heavy

[sweet moat]

I wish there was a button to immediately swap out items from chest to inventory and vice versa, rather than having to drag stuff all the time (I know there's the "take all" button, but sometimes that's not as useful as you might think because that also takes all the junk items).

I remember there being one in D:OS 2, and I was disappointed that there doesn't seem to be one in BG3.

[night oracle]

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1688684944925614080

PC Gamer (@pcgamer)

Step 1: Respec every character into a ranger. Step 2: Have every ranger summon a bear. Step 3: Play Baldur's Gate 3 as four bears. https://t.co/azvKdkHw0m

Likes

2198

Retweets

212

▶ Play video

Twitter · Aug 7, 2023, 10:53 PM

[glossy palm]

This also works as 4 moon druids

[night oracle]

https://twitter.com/larianstudios/status/1688939842804015104

Larian Studios (@larianstudios)

Hotfix #2 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3.

This hotfix tackles almost 300 bugs and issues, including giving Gnome Sorcerers back their underwear.

Read more: https://t.co/78A00vizcg

Likes

1812

Retweets

167

Twitter · Aug 8, 2023, 3:46 PM

[jaunty basin]

yet more Planescape flashbacks

[heavy hound]

It's kind of funny because the game keeps telling me I need to infiltrate the cult, and so far I'm just tearing each cultist limb from limb

IDK if they knew I was a barbarian when they sent me

I could carefully plan a way to bring them down from the inside, but I could also carefully line my greatsword to their head and hit really hard

[quick bobcat]

okay turns out you can deliver it too. And you have to deliver it unopened

so the choice is up to you

[heavy hound]

So far the funniest comment about this was
Me :||They seemed to think they own me, I begged to differ||
Npc: ||That didn't look like begging||

[night oracle]

"Penises C and D no longer clip through some githyanki clothing."

[sweet moat]

Not even just Planescape, I do this with every RPG I play.

[jaunty basin]

ah, most of the ones I played have a single shared inventory

[sweet moat]

[quick bobcat]

what does ||consuming other tadpoles|| actually give you?

[jaunty basin]

context is for the weak

[night oracle]

||BRAINPOWERZ||

[quick bobcat]

So you can influence more npcs basically? Or what else do you mean?

[night oracle]

It's an entire new window of stuff

[desert dove]

Litereally a completely different set of abilities.

[night oracle]

||I tried the charge knockback one, that was fun as hell||

[quick bobcat]

Wait it gives new abilities??

[night oracle]

[quick bobcat]

I only ||consumed 1 so far|| and haven't noticed anything yet

[night oracle]

Same? I think i saw the option on the upper right or something? Check some other pages. Journal maybe?

[quick bobcat]

also did I just ||skip the entire moon dial puzzle by noticing a hidden lever on a wall||??

or do they do something else?

[night oracle]

Not sure i've done that so

[desert dove]

I think the lever is for after you solve the puzzle, lets you open and close the door.

[quick bobcat]

so it was already in the correct position or something?

I didn't even touch them

I should mention that my party only noticed it through perception checks

[desert dove]

I supposed it's possible.

[heavy hound]

They become available when this menu appears, I have zero awareness skills IRL so that might have been there from the 1st minute, no way to tell, I noticed it at some point.

[desert dove]

Pretty sure that doesn't appear until you have your first one, possibly second.

[quick bobcat]

I just noticed that like a minute before you sent your message

[heavy hound]

For your character it's your choice, others will happily jump at the opportunity, others need to be convinced

[quick bobcat]

Oh turns out I have 2, I got another way earlier from ||the gnoll leader||

[heavy hound]

Make sure you have the right character you want to learn the ability for selected

[quick bobcat]

I have a feeling that choosing to ||consume tadpoles|| will influence the ending in a bad way

Or something

[heavy hound]

Or maybe in a good way

Who knows

A little hunger for power never hurt anybody

[sweet moat]

I'm actually quite impressed. Absolutely nobody knows the full story of the game yet. Nobody has beaten the game or seen the ending. I don't think anyone's even made it to act 3.

This game be B E E G

[heavy hound]

Some people I'm sure did
None here tho

[sweet moat]

If they did, there have been absolutely no spoilers anywhere.

[quick bobcat]

figured it out: turns out I had a torch in my offhand

[sweet moat]

Womp womp

[desert dove]

Well, at least that solves it.

[jaunty basin]

checks video

yeah it ain't rendering a torch

that sucks

[sweet moat]

Yeah, there are a couple rendering issues I've noticed. One common issue I'm having is when I'm moving items around in my inventory, sometimes the item I've moved won't render in its new spot until I get out of the inventory and then get back in.

[heavy hound]

There is this UI element to figure out when a torch is activated, but yeah, harder to spot than a guy with a torch out

[quick bobcat]

It's only visible if you have your weapons out

It's just weird that the oil explodes even if your weapons are sheathed

[sweet moat]

Very minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but can I just say how much I don't like the "health bar" in the UI? That big round character portrait just gets covered by a flat red filter, and it's so...boring. I hope they make that better at some point.

[quick bobcat]

lol I let the spiders out

they are fighting the goblibs for me

[desert dove]

Yeah, it's a bit of an odd choice. Hopefully they offer an alternate.

[jaunty basin]

"Larger Giant Spider"? that's gotta violate some adjectives rule

[sweet moat]

"Greater Giant Spider" might've been better

[jaunty basin]

Supergiant Spider

soon to be a Brown Dwarf Spider

[kindred talon]

Australian House Spider

[sweet moat]

Again, D:OS 2 had a better health bar system. It was very plain to see under each character portrait, it didn't take up much space at all, and when it went down, you could even see it smoothly slide back to its lower position, rather than just jumping straight to where it needs to be.

Most of the BG3 UI is great, but it's just this one thing that irks me.

[quick bobcat]

wasn't it the same in dos2?

[sweet moat]

Not even close

This was the UI in D:OS 2

(Ignore the guy there, I'm just taking an example screenshot from a random video.)

[quick bobcat]

Oh

It was on the bottom

[night oracle]

Spiderbros!

[quick bobcat]

is there no way to kill the scrying eye?

[night oracle]

The one near the ||drow||? If that's the one, i killed it

[quick bobcat]

I seem to do 0 damage to it

[heavy hound]

Check its resistences

With right click/examine

[desert dove]

I think I killed it with eldritch blast.

[sweet moat]

I literally just shot an arrow at it and it blew up.

[kindred talon]

well

this is fucking awful

||I go all the way through after the hag, get her down to 14 hp, there's dialogue and I let her 'get away' (I misunderstood the options) and all I get was 20 xp. wtf||

[sweet moat]

RIP

[quick bobcat]

I would've just reloaded at that point

[kindred talon]

honestly you're right

[desert dove]

That's worth save scumming for.

[kindred talon]

oh my god

I teleported at the end of the dungeon and inspired Kal

I get 50 exp for that

[sweet moat]

Wat.

[kindred talon]

something about 'walking on air'

but still

there's a circle of mushrooms that ports you out of the dungeon

let's try this again lol

[quick bobcat]

uh oh, looks like companions don't all level equally

I won a fight with 2 dead and they didn't get some of the xp for it

[heavy hound]

Yeah inspiration triggers give a small bonus of exp to that companion, that's the only thing they differ I seem to gather

[quick bobcat]

ah

that might be it then

[heavy hound]

The others should be right behind with the level

[quick bobcat]

would "protect from good and evil" make me completely immune to all attacks of spectators? It says it protects from attacks of aberrations

[kindred talon]

I have no idea

I think this is what I dislike about this game, it's hard to tell what the fuck it's talking about sometimes. Apparently ||protection from good and evil allows you to don one of the hag's cursed masks and not be taking control of but that's very situational||

[heavy hound]

If it works like in the tabletop, they have disadvantage when attacking you

Also would automatically protect you from any form of charm

Well from those creature types at any rate

[quick bobcat]

apparently my eldritch blast can be cast twice in the same turn now

why is that?

also wow, my cantrips do double the damage now

[exotic pelican]

Some spells upgrade as you level

[quick bobcat]

where can I see what levels up and when?

it certainly wasn't on the levelup screen

but wow, level 5 is a big powerspike huh?

I'm finally getting better spells and feel measurably stronger

[heavy hound]

Yeah I mentioned that, at lvl 5 all damage cantrips upgrade

It's a bit like fighters get 2 attacks

Also yeah, lvl 3 spells are huge

Lightning Strike and fireballs are especially destructive

This is the reason it's not recommended to multiclass before level 5

You kinda want that extra power as soon as possible

[quick bobcat]

I didn't get double attack on my rogue

[heavy hound]

The upgrade progression for rogues is getting gradually more and more dices on their sneak attack

Which is why it's really important to stack the one dice they get in their favour, because if they don't get at least one hit in a turn, they don't get in their sneak attack

Assuming they kept the same dice from tabletop, this is their progression

[night oracle]

I'm already feeling my monk's unarmed attack's power. Three hits that tend to hover around 7 per hit so far is STRONK

[quick bobcat]

ah. So you really gotta take advantage of that sneak attack huh

[heavy hound]

It's a lot of damage

As I said tho, you don't necessarily have to have advantage (even tho it's ideal since a miss is a lot of lost DPS that turn) but having an ally threatening the enemy is enough to guarantee the extra damage

As long as you hit

[sweet moat]

Oh wow, if you're allowed four ability score improvements or feats in 12 levels, then I'll still be able to take two feats after I get my dexterity score to 20.

[heavy hound]

I think that in the game, no matter what each class get only 3 upgrades/feats

I might be wrong tho

[quick bobcat]

3d6 is a heck of a ton of extra damage

but you really need those sneak attacks though

It's just weird that nowhere in the game does it say how and what abilities have improved

I would have no idea if you hadn't told me

What else scales with levels?

So far I see that cantrips either double or get 2 uses and rogue gets a big bonus on the sneak attack

What does cleric, mage and warlock get?

[heavy hound]

The proficency bonus and the hp, of course

cantrips for them too, and lvl 3 spells

[quick bobcat]

Ah right the proficiency also goes up

[heavy hound]

Warlock get a second attack if they are a pact of the blade dude

[quick bobcat]

That's nice, I'll miss less

[quick bobcat]

No, mine is the imp pact

My imp got 2 attacks

[heavy hound]

chain

[quick bobcat]

That it did say