Baldurs Gate 3

[Jastall]

I burned out on WoR after about 20 hours. Honestly Divinity 2 kind of ruined other CRPGs for me. WoR is a perfectly okay game and better than Kingmaker but it still has a lot of problems.

-Most of the companions are uninteresting or don't become interesting for like 30 hours.
-Pathfinder mechanics do the game a huge disservice in so many ways, big and small. Even with the option to heal conditions on resting, it's just so much tedium of monsters draining your party or requiring X spell.
-related to that, the buffing meta is so degenerate I genuinely can't believe so many people still enjoy this after 20 years of 3rd edition. It's terrible.
-Crusade Mode has potential but at present is atrocious, it's basically the worst possible Heroes of Might and Magic clone with unbalanced and uninteresting monsters/abilities/mechanics.
-Mythic paths are a mess since you can't get some of the cool ones until the game is almost over.
-The actual kingdom management is insanely tedious.
-This is more personal, but being partially voiced (like 10%? maybe 20%?) actually bothers me a lot. If something is voiced, you know it is important. It makes everything else feels like a cheap budget game in 2021.


The game has great music and a lot of great environments. The story is pretty generic but it's not bad, and there are some genuinely good elements and decisions. Unfortunately PoE 1+2 and Divinity 2 are just better in basically every way.

- - - Updated - - -



Yeah it's a big problem. BG3 will almost certainly be better than WoR because it has a bigger budget, better production values, and a better story. Also 5e mechanics are less cumbersome and annoying

BUT they are still pretty bad for a video game. Resting is such an idiotic and unfun mechanic. It was bad in Pillars too, but at least that custom system was less bad overall with monster design and super tedium that only grognards could truly enjoy. And Divinity just has better mechanics, abilities, and gameplay than any d20 system. Stuff that works fine in tabletop just doesn't work as well in video games imo

Mechanically Divinity 2 blows most CRPGs out of the water, save PoE 1 and 2 for me. But then it makes loads of other mistakes that make me not like it as much as I perhaps should, mostly in terms of the world and characters not interesting me in the slightest, plus the sometimes totally bullshit encounter design that favors cheesy metagaming more than anything else.

Still I totally agree about D&D mechanics translating poorly to video games. It made sense back in Baldur's Gate days where we had fewer frames of reference, but now tons of traditional D&D mechanics are outdated as fuck and survive mostly by inertia IMO. Some people just can't get enough of Vancian magic or non-casters being stat bots with no actual abilities.

[Kathandira]

For the discussion regarding multi-classing in 5e. Here is the Bard/Fighter/Warlock I am currently playing.

If I got to start all over, I would not have picked up Warlock Initiate. I planned on building a bard/fighter, but I wanted Hex. To my surprise, the DM forced me to take on a Patron. I had no intentions of having one, but I was forced to do so. So I decided to lean into it, and add Warlock the build.

I'm not trying to say that Multi-Classing is possible and/or overpowered in all cases. But you can do some pretty neat things if you do it well.

Rufous Calypte (both breeds of Hummingbird) plays as a Tanky Duelist with mind affecting spell casting

https://ddb.ac/characters/28372243/ma3rL3

There are a few homebrew things that my DM allowed. First, it is a homebrew variant of an Aarakocra. He is a hummingbird, which makes him smaller than usual. He stands at 1'8" tall. Because of this, we gave him a walking speed of 10. He mainly flies just as a hummingbird would though.


Trash Man Rapier is my Pact weapon, so it gets a special extra damage when I attack with it of 1d8 necrotic when I hit.
(When I have a Potion of Speed active, and use Action Surge, it can be a 4 attack round, and each of those applying the +1d8.)

And also, Chitin Breastplate, which is a light breastplate, with a +6 AC bonus.

I was also given Enlarge/Reduce and Stinking Cloud as a once per day spell cast due to interactions with my Patron.

[quras]

For the discussion regarding multi-classing in 5e. Here is the Bard/Fighter/Warlock I am currently playing.

If I got to start all over, I would not have picked up Warlock Initiate. I planned on building a bard/fighter, but I wanted Hex. To my surprise, the DM forced me to take on a Patron. I had no intentions of having one, but I was forced to do so. So I decided to lean into it, and add Warlock the build.

I'm not trying to say that Multi-Classing is possible and/or overpowered in all cases. But you can do some pretty neat things if you do it well.

Rufous Calypte (both breeds of Hummingbird) plays as a Tanky Duelist with mind affecting spell casting

https://ddb.ac/characters/28372243/ma3rL3

There are a few homebrew things that my DM allowed. First, it is a homebrew variant of an Aarakocra. He is a hummingbird, which makes him smaller than usual. He stands at 1'8" tall. Because of this, we gave him a walking speed of 10. He mainly flies just as a hummingbird would though.


Trash Man Rapier is my Pact weapon, so it gets a special extra damage when I attack with it of 1d8 necrotic when I hit.
(When I have a Potion of Speed active, and use Action Surge, it can be a 4 attack round, and each of those applying the +1d8.)

And also, Chitin Breastplate, which is a light breastplate, with a +6 AC bonus.

I was also given Enlarge/Reduce and Stinking Cloud as a once per day spell cast due to interactions with my Patron.

WOW thats some busted homebrew but if everyone at the tables gets the same treatment and your DM allows it, thats a really cool setup.

[Kathandira]

WOW thats some busted homebrew but if everyone at the tables gets the same treatment and your DM allows it, that's a really cool setup.

Yeah, he awards players neat homebrew things. Usually it is a blessing and a curse though lol. For a very long time, I was only allowed a D4 weapon damage, and D4 necrotic on my Pact weapon because of my size, but at levevl 15, he bumped it up since my damage was starting to lag behind due to a weak weapon.

The Chitin breastplate was made for a few of us, but I really focused on upping my AC as our Tank. All in all, I can end up with over 40 AC after using abilities if I am lucky. Static 30, potential of +10 from Defensive Flourish, +2 from Potion of Speed (I bought 30 of them). i figure on average I would get around a +7 with those combined putting me at 37AC.

Enlarge/Reduce and Stinking Cloud were given for RP reasons. I would use Disguise Self pretty often to reduce my size to 8" for being sneaky and scouting. So he ended up giving me Reduce as well as another way to do the things I often do. Stinking Cloud was given because of the curse of my Patron. It is an Arch Fey who is the lord of garbage. My character has a stench that cannot be cleaned. And if I am submerged in water, I leak out a filthy muck. Was quite the issue in a bath house when it was first discovered lol. So he gave me these spells since it made sense for me to be able to further my control over these traits.

[quras]

Yeah, ....SNIP...

Like I hinted at, broke as hell but as long as all the players get that treatment and the DM knows what he is getting into and allows it. It's a cool setup.

But back to BG3.
As long as it sticks closer to 5e rules than not, I think this will be a solid D&D game. So far, it's got a solid base and only a few areas I can complain about (like the AOEs they give to so many mobs and the newer battlemaster moves they handed out to everyone proficient in a weapon) but overall.

Larian seems to have their head in a decent direction.

I've very interested in how will the handle bard abilities that like cutting words that work on roll through a reaction.

[Makabreska]

New interview. Most of it is general dev philosophy, but they do confirm multi-classing finally.

[dlld]

Sorta came out of nowhere

[Makabreska]

Good news - new update with new class.

Bad news - game unlikely to be released in 2022.

[dlld]

Good news - new update with new class.

Bad news - game unlikely to be released in 2022.

Speaking of that I just read the community post

"but right now our expectation is that Baldur’s Gate 3 will release out of Early Access in 2023."

[Hobbidaggy]

That trailer was very….amateur. It just felt so fan-made and the walking in the first few seconds was so unnatural and looked out of place.

Hopefully they refine it and make the game more polished by the release next year

[Orby]

Barbarian Dwarf here I come

Speaking of that I just read the community post

"but right now our expectation is that Baldur’s Gate 3 will release out of Early Access in 2023."

Summer 2023? good lord I will be 40 years old

[Makabreska]

So salty it wont be released this year, most likely. Currently replaying Original Sin 2, but it pales in comparison to BG3.

[Orby]

So salty it wont be released this year, most likely. Currently replaying Original Sin 2, but it pales in comparison to BG3.

I got so many games to catch up on completing so I am fine with this. Gotta hop into Pilliars of Eternity and finish that too, maybe I'll have time to replay the old Baldurs Gate games again, its been so long :P

[Proskill]

i just reinstalled after the barbarian update. why are spell icons so low res?? got everything on max

also screen tearing eventhough i got triple buffering on. dafuq is this shit

[quras]

SNIP.... dafuq is this shit

I'm going to go with "Early Access" and not a fully released game.

Some have issues, some don't but the game is still a year or so away and they got a lot to still fix and do.

[Proskill]

I'm going to go with "Early Access" and not a fully released game.

Some have issues, some don't but the game is still a year or so away and they got a lot to still fix and do.

sure, i get it, but it was fine before

[Raidoser]

...Still I totally agree about D&D mechanics translating poorly to video games. It made sense back in Baldur's Gate days where we had fewer frames of reference, but now tons of traditional D&D mechanics are outdated as fuck and survive mostly by inertia IMO. Some people just can't get enough of Vancian magic or non-casters being stat bots with no actual abilities.

Pathfinder games (Kingmaker and Wrath of the righteous) are very nice as a melee character you can have some active skill to use who can make a world of difference in fight, NWN 1 with PRC module also has "maneuver" (not sure of the name) who act the same way.

PRC link : http://nwnprc.com/manual/
Pathfinder Combat maneuver : https://pathfinderkingmaker.fandom.c...mbat_Maneuvers (they're is also some feat that alter them or greater version of them).

Without these i would have never touched a melee character again, because like you said being just a stat bot with auto attack is just boring and it doesn't help when you make a melee crit/sneak attack build to just only encounter enemy who are immun to it... (NWN2 and Mask of the betrayer)

[Orby]

So 2023 game release confirmed then.

Cool, so I was 15 when the first game game out and I remember my dad buying me it, now I am going to be 40 years old on the release of the 3rd game.... fuck I am old

[Rustedsaint]

Patch 8 soon, with another interview
Wonder what we will be getting this time

[Makabreska]

Patch 8 soon, with another interview
Wonder what we will be getting this time

I think we are only missing monks and bards at this point.