Baldur’s Gate 3 Discussion Thread (show us your custom character)

[the_matrix_guy]

Here’s my custom half (wood) elf druid. She’s 80/ 20 caster/support. The game is easy enough that you dont need to min/max even on tactican IMO. The rest of my party consisted of Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Astarion. I re spec’d Astarion to be 80/20 — ranger/fighter.

[the_matrix_guy]

Why ranger/fighter vs rogue?
I've been using my main (monk), Karlach, Wyll, and a floater- frequently Shadowheart.

he's a machine in a fight. You can really feel like a classic fantasy ranger with it and be good at it all; archery, dual wielding and a bit of support/utility with certain gear.

Ranger 5 / X Fighter (Ranger stops getting many gains after 5, chose Gloomstalker because you get a very large opening at the start since you're always first and can dish out mad damage). For ranger's weapon style, I went with archery (+2 to ranged rolls) and he's dex based.

Leveled ranger to 5, for my lvl 4 feat I took dual wielding so I could use a longsword and shortsword (for now, best weapons he can use atm). He's wearing scalemail and can't be crit.

Then at 7, 2 fighter levels and fighter gives you another weapon style and I took the two weapon fighting one so I'm actually doing more consistent damage while dual wielding (adds ability modifier to the second weapon instead of it just being base damage).

Been having a lot of fun with it! Playing on Tactician and Astarion with this build was saving my ass a bunch. I started him out as a ranger/rogue until lvl 5, then went pure ranger for the extra attack, then started taking fighter levels past that. At first you wanna take advantage of stealth and light armor but afterwards he can get very high AC and tank with the best of 'em and I just ended up dropping stealth completely because the Gloomstalker benefits don't really matter with stealth compared to rogue where you need advantage. He still has good sleight of hand though to pick locks.

Astarion didn't feel like a vampire as a rogue. too weak a fighter. Vampires are supposed to be formidable fighters, especially an elf vampire. the way i built him, he 100% felt like an elf vampire should. And the animal familiar is a nice touch that also compliments the character and lore in a nice way. My immersiveness was improved as result.

[cellophane]

Here's Hazel- my Way of the Open Hand monk. So far she has been loads of fun to play. Ridiculous movement speed, plenty of attack & CC capability, and more than high enough Dex to take the place of a rogue for lock picking and the like. I've left the other characters with their default builds. I've been trying to avoid spoilers and haven't worried about min/maxing beyond some basic stuff like selecting feats.
Typical party comp is Hazel, Wyll, Karlach, and a floater. Shadowheart & Gale are the most common choice.

I believe the speech bubble above Wyll's head in the last shot is a bug =/ Something to do with his quest line, but I don't know why.

[the_matrix_guy]

cellophane Some people say that Shadowheart is weak but IMO she is OP as hell offensively even under trickery domain (if you use her correctly) andf obviously cleric is one of the most dynamic classes.

But I never swapped any of my party members ...ever. I met Astarion before Gale and I just stuck with him and I think my playthrough was perfect, thats why i havent done a second yet. It was a semi-dark (amoral maybe verging on immoral with Shadowheart... wont say why exactly cause *spoiler* but i think you know why I'm saying this) although i never killed innocents so it was mostly an amoral playthrough

You say you alternated Shadowheart, do you have any other clerics? or you ran without one

[cellophane]

I just swapped Shadowheart for Gale or Minsc or whomever. I admit I'm playing on easy, so the party makeup isn't as important and healing is pretty easy. And clerics can be absolutely ridiculous is played correctly. Spiritual Weapon + Spirit Guardians is a ton of damage.

[the_matrix_guy]

cellophane yes. If you have her become a justiciar under Shar she gets Shadow step which is teleportation into any dark / shade area. I was using the shadow step teleportation + spirit guardians alot as a combo, plus guiding bolts too

[martix_agent]

I heard so many good things about this game, so I bought it....
I am TERRIBLE at this game. The concept of it is very fun, but combat is nothing short of a chore and death happens nearly instantly. The issue is that I don't think I understand how things are working in the background. I get the feeling that people enjoying this have an understanding of what is happening that I do not. It's definitely not a jump in and figure things out sort of game.

[Myrkul]

My understanding is the entire game is based in Dungeons & Dragons 5e, so if you don't have a ton of experience in Dungeons & Dragons it can be A LOT to learn.

[the_matrix_guy]

I havent played the table top for many years i think that you can enjoy it regardless. (And I’ve never played 5th edition.)

The first act is hard, you basically have no ac or health points so there is no room for error. You have to use the terrain tactically (higher terrain advantage) and use first strikes (initiative) then momentum, + potions and items with buffs or modifiers etc to get a battle to go your way. Also other battle tactics like positioning and targeting. You want to kill enemies and remove them from action ASAP, so your party should be targeting 1-2 targets at a time so that you remove their ability to attack you as soon as possible.

On tactician, in the first act, you do die alot and you have to get rolls to go your way. But IMO, the first act is like a training epilogue of sorts. Even the devs alluded to this. That being said, I think a lot of it is intuitive. You have to go in thinking like it’s a real battle and be mindful of every environmental and situational factor. Otherwise, it can be unforgiving.

But once you get the hang of it it becomes very rewarding (at least for me it was playing tactician.) The completion rate on tactician is really low so no matter what anyone tells you: it’s definitely not easy. Some people min/max characters and IMO that kinda breaks the game. But the same is true for any rpg even action rpg’s like skyrim. You can make a game breaking build — but I never found that rewarding, combat wise.

The difficulty is fair though and it forces you to be a better player and fighter.

[BrickHaus]

I'll share mine later. I'm currently running 3 or 4 playthroughs.

But my favorite is my first. A golden Dwarf Bard names Short King. Complete with his patchy beard. I'm having a blast mocking and inspiring my way through act 2.

[the_matrix_guy]

Short King … lol 😂 good name

[cellophane]

I heard so many good things about this game, so I bought it....
I am TERRIBLE at this game. The concept of it is very fun, but combat is nothing short of a chore and death happens nearly instantly. The issue is that I don't think I understand how things are working in the background. I get the feeling that people enjoying this have an understanding of what is happening that I do not. It's definitely not a jump in and figure things out sort of game.

What difficulty are you playing on? I'm lame and went with easy (i.e. Explorer) and it has been a breeze, other than one or two fights where my strategy was fubar. A reload solved that.

What is your main character?

Some tips in general from playing other Larian games:

• Focus Fire (I'm bad at this)
• Use Crowd Control (Polymorph, Charm, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, etc)
• Adjust the difficulty if you need to. The story and world is worth seeing, even if it isn't a Dark Souls level playthough.
• Use the environment to your advantage. If someone is standing in water- use lightning on them. There are also some destructible elements in the environment that you can drop on enemies (statues etc.)
• Scrolls & potions are amazing, even on easy mode.

As Myrkul mentioned- it is based on DnD 5e (with a few tweaks), and knowing that helps. I haven't played DnD, but I have a general familiarity with the rule-set & abilities which probably does help some. I also tend to prefer this type of game over CoD and the like.

[cellophane]

You can change the difficulty anytime in the options.

The Hag cave is rough. I'm pretty sure that was one of the last things I did in Act 1, and I think I just ran through as fast as I could, then took a short rest once I passed through the poison.

[the_matrix_guy]

The gas in the cave comes out of vents on the floor. Walk near the gas cloud with all party members one at a time, you will get a perception check, not everyone will pass the perception check and find them but chances are someone will. Once you find them you can throw any item at the vent to block the gas. The gas dissipates afterwards.

[the_matrix_guy]

Eventually I had to plan an incursion into the goblin encampment after I assassinated their leaders to prevent them from raiding the grove. Naturally, they turned against me after killing their leaders. The boss fight v. The hag seems more daunting than it is at first. Have you gotten to the boss fight itself? Or you are having trouble getting passed the traps / gas clouds? For the gas clouds, you need to block the gas vents that spew the toxic flammable gas.

[the_matrix_guy]

martix_agent

Stealth mode is important in certain areas. There are areas where you have to eliminate enemies and enemy groups sequentially and not simultaneously -- otherwise you'll face insurmountable odds. In the first act against the goblins, I feel like Larian intended you to play these areas using alot of stealth hence the sleeping goblins you can catch off guard and the different enemy groupins that don't call on each other for reinforcements. In stealth mode, pay attention to the enemy vision cones in red:




For the besieged village, dont go in through this main entrance:



Keep going around and enter from the side, then sneak through the courtyard (with the well and tree) and eliminate the goblins using stealth.

--------------
If you look closely here the other party members are opposite of Astarion inside the building, and I'm getting ready to target the goblins atop both buildings:



Then for the camp commander (where they have the guy tied up to the windmill) I just used surface spells in the stairs (bottleneck) and lured them out:



Same as the main entrance to the goblin encampment:



But you get the idea, you gotta use the environment and position your party tactfully, it'll be fun cause you know that if you F up, it's game over. Thats part of the fun for me.

[BrickHaus]

I have bad luck doing that dual roof attack. Seems super logical. But I pushed the bolywags off the roof, and the fall damage didn't kill them. Then they proceeded to burn the ladder, and hit me with ray of sickness from the ground. Lol

Long story short. I have better luck hiding in the building with all 4 guys. And straight murdering the one in the building. Then forcing the 4 on the roof to come after me.

[the_matrix_guy]

BrickHaus

Those goblin warlocks are tough. You gotta kill them first.

That’s what’s so awesome about this game people come up with all kinds of ways to succeed. One of my favorite fights in the game was against the Hobgoblin (goblin leader) Dror Ragzlin. I was actually having difficulty with it on tactician given all the goblin reinforcements and Dror Ragzlin himself is a mean SOB. The battle was nothing short of epic, it left all party members hanging by a thread. I managed to succeed by luring him out into the area that’s above the dungeon with the giant spider and managed to push him off the ledge and into the dungeon while I took care of most of the goblins. But he manages to kill the spider after 3-4 turns and kicks open the dungeon door (quite epically), he took about a 80% health hit fighting the spide. He gets massive movement ability — he can make his way up the stairs and rejoins the fight in only 1 turn. I was like “WTF!”. And I managed to kill him but just barely.

But man I wish I would’ve recorded it. The whole fight was so epic. One of my most memorable, cinematic gaming moments in any RPG ever, rivaling TW3.

But when I discussed it with my friends, they said that they cheesed it by turning invisible with a potion and pushing him into the abyss. I didn’t even think of doing that. Given how hard a time I was having, I must’ve died 10 times, I probably would’ve done it — but I’m glad I pushed through till I came up with a winning strategy. I tried luring him behind his little stage /amphitheater, but he kicked my party’s ass each time, even though I struck first while he was sitting in his throne. He would climb the ladder and they would destroy my ass every time. Then i tried the other way into the front area like I mentioned

[the_matrix_guy]

LMAO I actually found some screens of that battle v. Dror Ragzlin. I didn't take that many, I was too concentrated trying to beat his ass:


There are actually two spiders in that dungeon now that I look closely, hmm didn't remember that, but somehow after he killed them, he then makes his way back to the second level (from the main gate of the dungeon and up the stairs in one turn!) not sure if that's a bug or WTF



And then when I killed him, I think I even double fist pump'd in joy like a little lame boy. He gets 97 HP on tactician. Most if not all the enemies have more HP on Tactician. Ketheric Thorm in Myrkul form get 297 HP.