Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Tyranicon]

I think what will happen is that the Origin Characters are the only "Protagonist" party members, whilst the rest will be "regular" NPCs.

That's certainly another possibility I hadn't thought of, although I can't really imagine them doing it.
Considering how fond they seem to be of their Origin Character system it seems weird that they'd put in all the effort to create a party member only to neglect what arguably is one of the trademark features for their games.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Yeah, they're fond of it... and right now a shit ton of players are apparently telling them "those people suck".

How sad is it that the only memorable party members in recent years come from Kingmaker?

 

[anvi]

I'm pretty excited to play this game. Although every time I think about it makes me want to play EQ.

YouTube has been pushing EQ content at me lately.

Ewww I wouldn't play the real EQ. Maybe if you have plenty of cash and like the social aspect etc. But I only really like the old EQ which is kinda dead but I mostly play it like a single player game now. I run my own server for just me. Such an amazing massive game. I need other games to give me a casual break

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Yep. And frankly, I like that they’re hostile to you, though I guess a few more characters who are at least civil would probably be a good idea.

Right now, it’s just the Wizard and the black Warlock who are at all nice to you.

 

[anvi]

Caved in and bought the early access. Clocked in 7 hours so far. I don't have much experience with tabletop but few things came to mind.
-Avoiding attacks of opportunity feels too easy since everyone has jump and shove as a bonus action.
-They should rethink the dice rolls in skill and dialogue checks. Too much RNG given it's a linear game at it's base. Rolls like that are fine in tabletop since the GM can always cheat on rolls or improvise, but the critical path here means just more combat if the RNG screws you over. A fate point system that allows you to force one roll after losing several would be a relatively simple fix if you just want to make sure you don't want to piss off an NPC at a particular point.
-Animations are broken more often than not, but when they work they look pretty good. And I like the voice acting for what I've seen.
-I watched a bit of streams before playing and from the looks of it the loot is hand placed. You do start seeing magic items from like level 3 onwards, but they are relatively tame in nature. Necklaces that give a cantrip, speak with a corpse amulet and armor that does 1d6 damage to beasts/undead if they hit you on melee.
-I don't think they limit resting by any means, but given that short and long rest are separate thing they probably will in the release version.
-Installed it on a HDD, loading saves takes forever occasionally, but other than that it seems to run as well. Haven't felt like savescumming as much as I usually do.

That sounds good.

 

[Ramnozack]

Feel sorry for the fools who thought this shit was gonna be good. Knew from the moment they said Larian was making this it was gonna be 'meh' at best.

 

[Gargaune]

How does sneaking work in 5e? I mean right now anyone is Solid Snake as long as he avoids the red cone.

You have a single Stealth skill in 5E and you generally roll it against a creature's Passive Perception if they're just dicking around, or its Perception Check if they're standing guard. Environmental light or noise circumstances may impose Advantage or Disadvantage, but I don't recall anything about an unobstructed cone of vision. Stealth still includes noise, so I imagine you can hear people crawling behind you, at least that's how I treat it.

 

[anvi]

Feel sorry for the fools who thought this shit was gonna be good. Knew from the moment they said Larian was making this it was gonna be 'meh' at best.

Describe the things that are not good enough?

 

[Gyor]

Yep. And frankly, I like that they’re hostile to you, though I guess a few more characters who are at least civil would probably be a good idea.

Right now, it’s just the Wizard and the black Warlock who are at all nice to you.

They only have the Neutral and Evil origin characters in so far, they plan on adding the good origin characters.

 

[Ontopoly]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Not my image but:

A level 4 spider with 138(!) hp because they want to force you to use ~environmental effects~ to beat it. Fuck you Swen, this isn't D&D.

I don't know what they mean by "level", but if it's the monster's challenge rating, those HP are not far off the norm. A CR 4 creature should have around 120 HP (less if it deals high amount of damage).

138 HP is already CR5, which is cut off in your jpg. The Phase Spider Matriarch alone would be very challenging for this level 3 party, but there are a few CR1/8 spiders in the encounter as well.

Info: Each point of CR means that a creature should be a challenging encounter for a party of four to the corresponding level, e.g. a single CR1 creature is a medium encounter for four level 1 characters.

My party EASILY killed an owlbear and her cub with 80+ HP at around the level the player in that screenshot seems to be, so it looks pretty welcome to me.

I haven't used environmental effects yet. Not a single time in 8 hours of gameplay.

(As if 15 hp makes a difference anyway though lol.)

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Caved in and bought the early access. Clocked in 7 hours so far. I don't have much experience with tabletop but few things came to mind.
-Avoiding attacks of opportunity feels too easy since everyone has jump and shove as a bonus action.
-They should rethink the dice rolls in skill and dialogue checks. Too much RNG given it's a linear game at it's base. Rolls like that are fine in tabletop since the GM can always cheat on rolls or improvise, but the critical path here means just more combat if the RNG screws you over. A fate point system that allows you to force one roll after losing several would be a relatively simple fix if you just want to make sure you don't want to piss off an NPC at a particular point.
-Animations are broken more often than not, but when they work they look pretty good. And I like the voice acting for what I've seen.
-I watched a bit of streams before playing and from the looks of it the loot is hand placed. You do start seeing magic items from like level 3 onwards, but they are relatively tame in nature. Necklaces that give a cantrip, speak with a corpse amulet and armor that does 1d6 damage to beasts/undead if they hit you on melee.
-I don't think they limit resting by any means, but given that short and long rest are separate thing they probably will in the release version.
-Installed it on a HDD, loading saves takes forever occasionally, but other than that it seems to run as well. Haven't felt like savescumming as much as I usually do.

Overall I like it. The encounters have probably more vertical differences and oil barrels than a regular D&D 5th edition campaign has, but if their engine is good at those why not have them?

It's ironic that the negative things about this game mostly come from them implementing 5e too accurately.

That said, I'm getting used to the RNG and it doesn't feel as imbalanced as it did in the beginning now that I expect it.

 

[NJClaw]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

You are right, people here say they enjoy TB only because of Larian. You got me with your undeniable facts and logic.

I definitely am an eternal and unbreakable fan of Larian. It only took me 5 years to manage to finish the first chapter of D:OS due to how boring it was.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

Pro tip: classifying everyone who likes the game as a Larian cultist makes you look pretty unreasonable when people who used to shit on Larian all the time in the BG3 thread (like me) are saying it's almost nothing like their previous games.

It's more like you're an anti-Larian cultist than anything.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

ITT people who've never played the game and can't even explain what they're upset about (other than the fact that it isn't a direct continuation of Throne of Bhaal apparently) call everyone who bought early access and are posting their opinions about it shills or cultists lol.

Most of you need to go back to the BG3 thread and post your rants there because unless you're willing to shell out for the game or discuss the actual features and how they play to people who have, you're just off topic.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Not sure if I am the only one here, but I would love to see how the characters from the older games would look like in this game. Especially Xan and mommy Jaheira.

Sexmods will fix it.

 

[Catacombs]

Don't you fucking get me started...

Game?

 

[Gargaune]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

How many DMs don't homebrew spell X or skill Y at their own tables? It's basically the same thing. Look, I've been gleefully vomiting "it's not Baldur's Gate" all over these threads, but beyond that the game looks pretty good. Hell, biggest stick in my ass is having to wait another year to play it.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Don't you fucking get me started...

Game?

Temple of Elemental Evil.

 

[Ontopoly]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

You are right, people here say they enjoy TB only because of Larian. You got me with your undeniable facts and logic.

I definitely am an eternal and unbreakable fan of Larian. It only took me 5 years to manage to finish the first chapter of D:OS due to how boring it was.

I'd like you to get rid of that Ontopolover tag.

 

[Gargaune]

Don't you fucking get me started...

Game?

What, in the screenshot? The Temple of Elemental Evil.

Edit: Got beat to it.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Also... you do realize that BioWare took its fair share of liberties while adapting AD&D for Baldur's Gate, right? Does that ruin the game for you? If not, why would the same exact thing ruing BG3?

I'm fine with liberties, although larian is inept and every decision they are allowed to make will surely bring the game further into decline. It's not about the liberties, it's about larian cultist's tendency of being hypocrits and changing their opinions based simply off of what larian does. They use to say going tb is better and valid because it is more inline with dnd but they won't repeat what they use to say now that papa swen said something else. Since you support the cultists, you are held responsible for the stupid shit they say

How many DMs don't homebrew spell X or skill Y at their own tables? It's basically the same thing. Look, I've been gleefully vomiting "it's not Baldur's Gate" all over these threads, but beyond that the game looks pretty good. Hell, biggest stick in my ass is having to wait another year to play it.

Yup. Same here.

Compare this to NWN and there is no comparison. This is easily one of the most faithful implementations of a D&D to ever be mainstream.

The amount of effort they put into adding things from the original BG (like party banter idles), implementing improvements from later games and simulating 5e itself is, frankly, impressive.

And for all the people complaining about instability: I have had one crash and that was due to my alt-tabbing. This is more stable than most Obsidian games at release.

The more I play it, the more optimistic I get. There's still the chance major woke plotlines will emerge or they'll mess up with the story, but I like the game so far. I like the story. The characters at the start, while not exactly likable, are at least interesting and optional. I like the crazy bitch priestess though lol

It's a good game so far. That may chap your ass if you're as invested in hating the game as some people seem to be, but it's my opinion.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Hotfix downloaded earlier. Will play and see if it improved performance.

edit: marked improvement, especially with load times. They still take about a minute on my ssd though.

 

[Mortmal]

Not my image but:

A level 4 spider with 138(!) hp because they want to force you to use ~environmental effects~ to beat it. Fuck you Swen, this isn't D&D.

I don't know what they mean by "level", but if it's the monster's challenge rating, those HP are not far off the norm. A CR 4 creature should have around 120 HP (less if it deals high amount of damage).

138 HP is already CR5, which is cut off in your jpg. The Phase Spider Matriarch alone would be very challenging for this level 3 party, but there are a few CR1/8 spiders in the encounter as well.

Info: Each point of CR means that a creature should be a challenging encounter for a party of four to the corresponding level, e.g. a single CR1 creature is a medium encounter for four level 1 characters.

My party EASILY killed an owlbear and her cub with 80+ HP at around the level the player in that screenshot seems to be, so it looks pretty welcome to me.

I haven't used environmental effects yet. Not a single time in 8 hours of gameplay.

(As if 15 hp makes a difference anyway though lol.)

Every encounters rate as hard or deadly , keep in mind deadly means one character may die , it does not mean TPK .This spider fight is likely 2X 3X deadly. Its too hard for normies, but same normies would probably have a seizure and bite their tongues if playing KOTC2 .
For me combat was just fine, if you use envirnoment and place the characters correctly on roofs and high ground.Ended at level 4 on way to 5 , probably cause of too much rat diplomacy.

 

[Ontopoly]

Its too hard for normies, but same normies would probably have a seizure and bite their tongues if playing KOTC2 .

It doesn't take a normie to have a seizure and bite their tongues when playing kotc2

 

[Mortmal]

Its too hard for normies, but same normies would probably have a seizure and bite their tongues if playing KOTC2 .

It doesn't take a normie to have a seizure and bite their tongues when playing kotc2

True that ,kotc 2 make everything feels like a breeze, that game flayed our skin to the bone.