Baldur's Gate III

You can definitely leave some quests behind. I never did the Githyanki creche stuff or the mountain pass. Shit, I never even recruited Gale (I tried, but I failed the strength check to pull him out of the portal). I could have save scummed until I succeeded, but I decided just to roll with it (no pun intended). This is absolutely a game that expects you to be comfortable with not seeing everything and not succeeding at everything. I think that is really cool and I think more game devs could stand to learn from the example.

agreed, super cool game design it's almost not even tempting to roll back to a previous save, I only do it when I stumble into a battle I was in no way prepared for and get absolutely murdered or like when I found Jaheira(!) and then minutes later huge surprise fight and she along with all the harpers are dead, could have just moved along but that sucks, do over please

I really need to get the obsessive "have to see everything, no stone unturned" thing out my head. I did it with Elden Ring on first playthrough which meant there wasn't much else left to explore on subsequent runs

I also need to get out the habit of save scumming quite so much. I don't do it that often, mind you, but sometimes I just want the thing to happen, you know.

Nobody is interested in me romantically right now.

There is something about dice-rolling that "really kinda works" in the context of irl D&D but is frustrating in the context of a video game RPG; it runs counterintuitive to the pleasure centres that are triggered by completism. I save-scummed (once) last night when Gale didn't read a scary book right the first time and the internet said that was that, the book was shut. Fuck that! I re-loaded and re-rolled and read the book and now Gale is a lich or something

There is something about dice-rolling that "really kinda works" in the context of irl D&D but is frustrating in the context of a video game RPG

This is a really interesting point and I'm not exactly sure why, I guess we want to see the real dice? but also there are rolls behind the dm screen irl, do we trust humans over computers? kind of the same question I've had playing poker online

can we trust computers to play a game of chance or is that a strictly human thing

xp haha FGTI I got to that bit last night, and I used Gale! I can't read the rest of it? It's still an open quest and hints I might be able to. Maybe another character could give it a go?

You've got that "Karmic Dice" feature that I don't completely understand

Karmic Dice is just a setting to prevent a run of consecutive low rolls, like a DM who fudges the outcome if you keep rolling poorly.

Turns out it wasn't a bug. Sussur Tree bark wilts in daylight

It's stuff like this and the gnome catapult that keep me reading this thread vicariously.

@ dl apparently if you don’t pass three consecutive dice rolls then nope the benefit is closed to you

Gale’s annoying, tho. He asks to eat and I can’t see the details of what artifact he wants, so I wave him away to contemplate what to feed him, but if you wave him thrice then he leaves, so…

I’ve spent too much of feeding him learny scrolls to dismiss him tho, I have archmage plans for him

Last night I played a couple hours and was visited by a dream visitor who I since subsequently read up on, and yes this game is insane

I think karmic dice tries to offset runs of high and low rolls, which can mean that you pass a bunch of easy checks with 17s and 18s that were way higher than the roll you actually needed, and then arbitrarily fail another easy check because the game thinks you must be due a 2

Most people seem to turn it off

These characters all seem to have:

- An addiction which makes them rather needy and dependent on some hard-to-find substance or artefact which they invariably shove into their chests
- A back story involving a cruel oppressor whom they're running away from

I'm halfway through chapter 3 and have reached the hard-capped level, all the fight encounters have been pretty easy now that everyone in the party has a million powers but the game is still fun and interesting

To satisfy your meatworld thirst: https://www.polygon.com/23879237/baldurs-gate-voice-cast-high-roller-dnd-stream

Curious to know what Shadowheart's actress's accent is -- Northernish?

Shadowheart? I'd say RP really

Ah, I thought I recognised the actor Jennifer English's name - she also is the voice of Latenna in Elden Ring. I have no idea why I looked this up previously. Maybe because it's quite distinct

Mm had a save game data crash or something… reinstalling? I hope I win it back. Dunno if I’ll start again otherwise

The servers were down last night and it wouldn't let anyone connect. I got around it by switching off 'connect to internet' on my PS5

Yeah it started working again for me. I met Karlach and decided that I’d had enough of this ineffective party and I’m gonna respec Shadowheart with that Wilson dude to make her actually useful

I'm playing as a wizard, so I respecced Gale to a Bard and swapped Astarion for him.
Now I've got me, Karlach, Gale and Shadowheart, but I'm worried I have too many rangey heal casters and only one tanky melee person.

Shadowheart is a pretty good healer but she takes so much damage, I find myself spending enough potions and spells keeping her health up as seems worth it.

Killed Minthara by Thuderwaving her into a Cloud of Daggers, now I want a four-caster team.

Is Shadowheart viable? I have her as a support healer in my party with Karlach and Astarion (I'm playing as a sorcerer), but in tougher fights she ends up not contributing much (maybe I'm just being tactically stupid). I think I saw somewhere that she has some decent offensive spells too and that I should grind a little to level her up first?

I found that Shadowheart didn't really get good until I hit Act 2 (which felt thematically appropriate), where her Turn Undead ability and the various kinds of radiant damage spells become extremely useful (Spirit Guardians is particularly great)

Also, Guiding Bolt wherever possible

I re-statted Shadowheart to have more focus on just WIS, STR and CON so she could hold her own in physical fights a bit better but yeah by Act 2 she has a lot of spell slots and a lot of enemies that are prone to getting mulched by just standing near her.

So much of her stuff requires concentration you just have to be careful you're picking the right one for the current encounter

I respec’d Shadowheart away from trickery and more toward “healing” both to zup up her heals and to give her heavy armour proficiency. Slapped a scale mail on her and I think she’ll be having an easier time now

Gonna keep my party basic basic for now (paladin rogue cleric wizard)… Astarion even as a thief is just too powerful a ranger/sneak attacker to let go, even if I’m not as tanky as I’d like

Also respec’d my pally main to get him 2H proficiency (I had picked duelist). A greatsword is smitier than etc etc

Something I didn’t realize is that making Gale an evocation specialist, apparently, eliminates friendly fire problems? Maybe I might cast that thunder wave thing without just hitting my own folks, now?

God the thunderwave thing is so dangerous. But when it works, it works

Shadow heart is so good in act two (especially if you found a certain weapon right at the end of act 1). Spiritual weapon, raise undead, spirit guardian, even the melee necro spell at higher spell slots. Bless is a great spell. Feel like it would be very hard to play without her utility.

But yeah, that particular weapon…. It can trivilialise many act 2 encounters.

I've not got to Act 2 yet but I can imgaine her daylight spell will come in useful for it

Full version for Mac tomorrow, hopefully companions won't run right into my Cloud of Daggers after combat ends now.

Oh god that is so annoying. There needs to be a dismiss spell button

Had a real problem with my characters running straight into bibberbang at every given opportunity

There needs to be a dismiss spell button

There is, active concentration spells appear in circles near the hotbar, with little Xs on them to end them.

But when you kill the last bad guy your companions will immediately trot toward you like puppies, so you're in a bit of a race there.

Thank you!

Shadow heart is so good in act two (especially if you found a certain weapon right at the end of act 1)

finding this is the first time I had to look up a guide, on account of I completely missed the ceremonial mace and there is no way I would have ever thought to check all of those shitty drunk kobolds for it, and I also missed the statue puzzle somehow despite looting that room pretty thoroughly

gotta stop checking pots and burlap sacks and start checking statues I guess

but I must check the burlap sacks! honestly the loot I am most excited about lately is new clothes, there should be way more outfits imo, though it is funny to switch around people's underwear and unique pants

This game is intense, I feel like “I’m finally reading Ulysses” except “I’m finally deeply immersing myself in D&D mechanics”

I read ahead, and I’m sticking with story mode, I don’t wanna subject my crew to the challenges at the expense of multiclassing

I think I'd be a lot further through this game if I didn't feel compelled to check every burlap sack and crate, looting every glass bottle and bundle of rags I see until I'm encumbered, then try to work out what to do with it all.

Incidentally, I don't know why sometimes I go to examine and loot a crate only for me to pick up the whole crate and put it in my inventory. Sometimes I don't realise this because, well, I'm in a place with a whole bunch of crates, and then I wonder why I'm walking around all encumbered.

I had to take a break from this after getting so annoyed at being stuck in what seemed like a game breaking situation.

Ended up loading the earliest save I had that was at the beginning of the dungeon and high tailing it out of there. Still had some weird shit happen teleporting out. Instead of getting “you cannot teleport from this location”, my main character was getting “this character cannot teleport in their current condition”. They didn’t have any strange status effects on them. Looked it up online, and apparently having one of your characters shove the problem one fixes it. OK, lol. It worked.

Anyway, started cleaning up other quests in Act I and II and crossing my fingers I don’t suffer the same problems when I return. Pretty sure that area’s mandatory for plot progression.

Great game, but this kinda stuff can really ruin the fun.

The dank crypt area is discussed here and elsewhere as being the hardest part of the game, not only is it “a tough fight to begin with” but also the player’s unfamiliarity with the mechanics of it

When I had Shadowheart separated from my party after falling through a pit, I couldn’t rest, couldn’t figure out how to save her, but at the time, I didn’t even know inventory management :/

I definitely prefer the combat in DOS2, which in BG3 feels a lot more restrictive. OTOH, I now understand spell slots.

Act 3, just hit level 11. Cannot stress how much fun the spellcasters become as you level up. Shadow heart is a beast, while a station who was my mid game beast has suddenly become the least powerful in the party.

Also want to clarify, I only romanced the emperor for the achievement……

*astarion