BG3

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

Ketheric Thorm is the main antagonist of the second act (3 acts in total), so it could be said that he is present, though my interactions with the character consisted mostly of Skip, Skip, Skip, Combat, Loot.

Unless there is more content on a different path, I don't think there is much - I just had a brief encounter with famous actor antagonist no. 2 and it already had more breath and depth than Kethric content. Thorm has:

 

Introduction cutscene, where player is tasked with finding a very convenient McGuffin, and than he disappears until it's time to take it down. In both cases, my PC had barely any interaction with him - first cutscene was between him, his lieutenant, and Goblins, and the confrontation was between him and the angel.

Now of course, player could try to see him between those story beats, but I didn't try to do so, and I imagine it would end in a game over.

Sure, most of the act revolves around explaining his overcomplicated backstory, but you want hear J. K. Simmons there. Maybe if all the notes you find were read out by JKS, I would be more favourable towards it.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

10 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Unless there is more content on a different path, I don't think there is much - I just had a brief encounter with famous actor antagonist no. 2 and it already had more breath and depth than Kethric content. Thorm has:

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Introduction cutscene, where player is tasked with finding a very convenient McGuffin, and than he disappears until it's time to take it down. In both cases, my PC had barely any interaction with him - first cutscene was between him, his lieutenant, and Goblins, and the confrontation was between him and the angel.

Now of course, player could try to see him between those story beats, but I didn't try to do so, and I imagine it would end in a game over.

Sure, most of the act revolves around explaining his overcomplicated backstory, but you want hear J. K. Simmons there. Maybe if all the notes you find were read out by JKS, I would be more favourable towards it.

Thorm probably has about as much screen time as most non-companions.

Spoiler

I think, it is possible to take quests from his lieutenant and get an audience with him where he tells the info from the trailer, but yes, considering the number of characters each gets little time, and Thorm in particular has only one story point (his family is mostly dead and he serves Myrkul).

By the way, which antagonist, Orin the Red or Gortash the Archduke Nominee?

 

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

 

  Hide contents

By the way, which antagonist, Orin the Red or Gortash the Archduke Nominee?

 

I was talking about Gortash, and specifically his coronation. At least we had some choices (or an illusion of choices) that we could make. Orin has been popping up as well, which has been fun. Now I have been told that someone in my camp has been replaces - which is potentially exciting. I have been also enjoying following Orin's followers trail of murders.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I had a party, fought some undead, met an older traveler, and took Lae'zel to meet her people. The latter did not go well. Maybe it's because I had one of their bad eggs.

Thots:

-I'm hitting more bugs now, and they're all minor visual stuff. Game has been surprisingly stable for a release version. Oh and one spoiler cutscene after rest played weird because I guess meeting another furry and feathered friend overrode that so they played back to back.

-After hitting level 6 my Swords Bard took a massive leap forward, and Hypnotism is an absolutely busted spell.

-If Astarion had an extra attack he'd be much better. As of now his damage is slacking off compared to other martials and Wyll. 5e Rogues are kind of puzzling designed, Pathfinder 2e did a much better job.

-I can still go back and do the Underdark after going through the mountain pass. For completionist playthroughs that's nice but it looks like there's more to do in the Underdark so maybe I should have done that first.

-Blood of Lathander seems like a great weapon for Shadowheart or Wyll.

-The hardest fights in the new area weren't with the Githyanki leaders, but the undead mob you meet. I had to go back and grab Shadowheart for some radiant damage just to be able to deal with them. Comparatively the Githyanki were much easier, even with their teleports.

[majestic]

3 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

-If Astarion had an extra attack he'd be much better. As of now his damage is slacking off compared to other martials and Wyll. 5e Rogues are kind of puzzling designed, Pathfinder 2e did a much better job.

He's begging you to just turn him into an Assassin/Gloomstalker multiclass and abuse the extra attack stacking. Unless that has been fixed with the recent patch, did not get to play recently.

[InsaneCommander]

I'm still having continuity errors. Several. Or I could just pretend the game lets me lie to Shadowheart about stealing the artifact. I also talked with people about the Absolute and saw a cutscene, so things are finally starting to make sense.

Goblin camp:

Nice how each npc has a unique and funny line. Let's see how tough they are when I start the massacre. They are all aracnophobes and can't handle Gale's familiar, imagine when I turn into a giant one.
 

Spoiler

I poisoned the booze and rushed inside. I robbed the Zhentarim vendor (I did the same in their hideout) and didn't care if I ended up with a lot of gold, it was very satisfactory, especially when they made all those comments people who have been robbed do, which are hilarious in their case. “Gotta be more evidence.” Really? Who are you gonna call, the Flaming Fist?

I didn't kill the criminals in the hideout because I wanna gain entrance to their base in Baldur's Gate. Let's hope they don't do anything too bad until that moment comes.

I'll have to kill everyone in the Goblin camp, but I'll try to knock the children out. Not sure if that is good or bad. Perhaps they can leave with the guy who didn't convert to the Absolute.

I also met a BDSM guy, a pity Lae'zel wasn’t there. She might have accepted his offer, unlike my character.

7 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

The PC's facial animations are still ridiculous and it would have been better if the camera was pointing where the PC was looking at and shown only their back and shoulders.

This makes me regret every screenshot during cutscenes. It's almost as if the pc is a self aware AI and is reacting to the expressions she makes in disgust and shame.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

He's begging you to just turn him into an Assassin/Gloomstalker multiclass and abuse the extra attack stacking. Unless that has been fixed with the recent patch, did not get to play recently.

Rangers kind of suck in 5e so I wrote them off. How does/did this combo work?

[InsaneCommander]

'We owe them a huge debt': Baldur's Gate 3 lead writer hopes they did '90s BioWare proud

[majestic]

3 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Rangers kind of suck in 5e so I wrote them off. How does/did this combo work?

I was thinking of something else with the extra attack stacking (watched way too many videos recently, I guess), but that doesn't change the idea that Astarion is better off as an Assassin/Gloomstalker.

8/17/14/10/16/8, Ranger(6), Rogue(4), Fighter(2) or 5/5/2 for an extra sneak die, doesn't really matter. You can start with Ranger or Rogue depending on your preferences, going Ranger(5) first gets you the extra attack, then add Rogue until Assassin. Dual wield hand crossbows. Get Hunter's Mark and Sharpshooter (+10 damage on attacks).

Gloomstalkers get the WIS bonus to initiative on attacks from stealth and can hide as a bonus action (well, like Rogues) and deal bonus damage too. Assassin makes sure all surprise round attacks are critical hits, and you reset your actions once the first actual round of combat begins. You basically end encounters on your opening burst. Sprinkle with extra Fighter levels for action surge.

Gameplay is pretty much about picking a nice vantage point and shift+del enemies. Takes level 8 to really take off. Note that you can technically use any ranged or melee weapon, hand-crossbows are just a nice way to get another attack to use with Sharpshooter. You can also make that work with less critting but more consistent regular damage by going Thief. Thief's, uhm, extra bonus action extends to shooting an off-hand hand-crossbow a second time.

Stats aren't set in stone either if you don't like the 8s, but we're talking about respeccing Astarion in the face of a Bard party leader, so who needs CHA on Astarion.

Edited August 27, 2023 by majestic
double trouble

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I'm still having continuity errors. Several.

Welcome to Act2. Fun starts once you leave well tested EA area. By know I just accepted that characters will be acting weird. During my last game session, Baldur’s  Gate Laez expressed her relieve that we are finally nearing Moonrise Tower… Honey, I know you haven’t been in the party much, but I think you missed out on some major events.

[HoonDing]

This just in: Gaider likes it.

[Humanoid]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

You can start with Ranger or Rogue depending on your preferences

Fortunately the patch has fixed it so that you still get martial weapon proficiency by multiclassing into Ranger, previously it was a tradeoff where starting Rogue gives an extra skill proficiency but loses martial weapons. More relevant now too since Sharpshooter has been fixed as to properly apply the hit penalty to off-hand shots.

But yeah, as someone who always plays rogues in RPGs (well, for about 20 years, I was a Sorcerer in BG2), 5E is doing its damndest to make me drop that habit. I just despise having to put all my eggs into one big sneak attack basket.

6 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Rangers kind of suck in 5e so I wrote them off. How does/did this combo work?

The key thing is that in 5E, the default ability to dual-wield only applies to melee weapons. BG3 lets you do it with any one-handed weapon which opens up this possibility.

Funny thing is that in 5E you do take a feat (Crossbow Expert) to enable this build, but ironically it's not to dual-wield hand crossbows. Instead the feat allows you to shoot it with one hand, transfer it to the other hand, and shoot it again. Therefore BG3 isn't even simply ignoring a feat requirement, but instead doing its own thing completely.

[MrBrown]

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

This just in: Gaider likes it.

Not surprised. BG3 has the sort of snarky smartass dialogue he likes.

[Gromnir]

6 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

'We owe them a huge debt': Baldur's Gate 3 lead writer hopes they did '90s BioWare proud

lukas kristjanson was just laid off by bioware.

the perversity of the universe tends towards the maximum

 

[Deadly_Nightshade]

It looks like additional content is likely.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

20 minutes ago, Deadly_Nightshade said:

It looks like additional content is likely.

Both of the DOS games got a large content drop with their enhanced editions a year or so after release, it would not be a surprise if the same thing happenens here. Would be kind of funny if Larian ends up rewriting the final act for two games in a row.

[MrBrown]

5th ed items and infinite respeccing.

[InsaneCommander]

RIP Minthara. You looked like a very interesting npc. For the few minutes you were in the game. Moonbeam did wonders as usual.

I’m cleaning the goblin camp and had some funny interactions with the BDSM guy. Since Karlach had expressed some interested in his “penance”, I let her have it. There was some exclusive dialogue for Barbarians.
 

Spoiler

Shadowheart loved every moment (although not as much as Karlach) of it and it seems she did not make any advances on me because she might be more interested in Karlach. Or so it would be, if companions could have relationships with each other.

Karlach ended up with a buff that gives +2 to attack and wisdom saving throws if under 30% of hp.

After that I decided to give the guy a taste of his own medicine and… he actually allowed it. Despite his complaining, I kept hitting him and he didn’t turn hostile. Well, until he was about to die. Then he ran away and called a goblin guard. I killed both since he was a torturer. Who knows what he would do later?

The battles were some of the best so far. Plenty of exploding barrels, enemies moving into a combination of grease/web/cloak of daggers/moonbeam (or Call Lightning) and my first fireball killed five guys (who were enwebbed) at the same time. That is how it should be.

[MrBrown]

Finished the game. Was ok. Last levels had some stupid stuff. Skipped probably over half of act3 because I couldn't be bothered.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I explored the underdark, helped some mushroom people with an evil dwarf problem, killed an evil mushroom guy, climbed a tree, met a nice mindflayer, and ran away from a wizard tower.

So far the Underdark feels easier than the mountain pass (well Githyanki creche) and Auntie Ethel's hut. There is a lot more here though, the mountain pass is essentials just Lae'zel's quest and a fight with some undead while the Underdark feels like half of the first map in terms of things to do. The exploding or toxic mushrooms are bull****.

[Bartimaeus]

I've continued to play little bits here and there, not making a ton of progress but a little. I finally went to camp once and Astarion and Lae'zel seem to already have the hots for me real bad, and it's kind of skeeving me out. Like...guys, I just met you. Today. Literally today. Could we, like...not?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've continued to play little bits here and there, not making a ton of progress but a little. I finally went to camp once and Astarion and Lae'zel seem to already have the hots for me real bad, and it's kind of skeeving me out. Like...guys, I just met you. Today. Literally today. Could we, like...not?

I think it makes sense for Astarion and Karlach to be very horny, they did spend a very long time not being able to do.....well anything really. Gale, Lae'zel, and Wyll are excessively horny though, of those maybe Gale has a reason to be because he's got another looming death besides the tadpole that should be turning him into a tentacle monster.

Shadowheart is the most normal among the group, and when....well I won't spoil anything but that should be a big alarm.

[HoonDing]

Larian make Bioware look like reactionaries.

[InsaneCommander]

Strange, none of the companions warmed up to me that fast.

But now I told Karlach I wanted to find a way to cool her off and now she won't rejoin the party. She just says "I'm waiting" and there is no more dialogue or the option to rejoin. I guess I shouldn't have picked the more daring romance options just before that. She literally can't think about anything else now.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I've continued to play little bits here and there, not making a ton of progress but a little. I finally went to camp once and Astarion and Lae'zel seem to already have the hots for me real bad, and it's kind of skeeving me out. Like...guys, I just met you. Today. Literally today. Could we, like...not?

And to think Lae'zel started the day saying: "Abomination, this is your end."

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

But now I told Karlach I wanted to find a way to cool her off and now she won't rejoin the party.

Throw some water at her.

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

And to think Lae'zel started the day saying: "Abomination, this is your end."

You naughty Lae'zel