BG3

[MrBrown]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

But is this true to the extent that you can also get *good* encounter/quest/story/companions outcomes?

Lots of good outcomes include avoiding combat.

But not as a whole up to act2, you'll be skipping a lot stuff if you absolutely avoid combat.

It's a bit misleading, speed runners can reach end of act2 in 8mins, because a lot of the stuff is plain skippable.

[InsaneCommander]

I found out there was another battle in that cave.

Spoiler

And this one had a matriarch. I managed to sneak close to it thanks to the boots I got earlier and hit her with everything I could on the first turn.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I got to the Goblin Camp, saved the Owlbear cub, got a goblin to lick my feet (thanks Tarantino), saved a guy from being tortured, did some handaxeplay, and rescued a bear. Saved the game and later tonight I'm going to finish the job in the camp, or maybe rest first. Oh and I'm at level 5 now which means 3rd level spells and extra attacks. Bard spells seem to be somewhat lacking, reduced direct damage stuff is expected but it's strange that they don't get the Haste or Dispel equivalents.

Still no introduction to the guardian I made at the beginning. If I had to guess I'd say it gets introduced by a Long Rest cutscene and out of the four I've taken the Dark Urge has taken two, Astarion has sucked up one, and Karlach burned up the other.

24 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I found out there was another battle in that cave.

  Reveal hidden contents

And this one had a matriarch. I managed to sneak close to it thanks to the boots I got earlier and hit her with everything I could on the first turn.

 

That's the battle I thought you were talking about. That damn thing loves to teleport and hit you with a very strong ranged attack. If you can't down her on the first turn I'd reccomend retreating to an area you can corner her.

[InsaneCommander]

15 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

That's the battle I thought you were talking about. That damn thing loves to teleport and hit you with a very strong ranged attack. If you can't down her on the first turn I'd reccomend retreating to an area you can corner her.

I didn't kill her in the first turn, but it wasn't that difficult since she stayed close to Karlach and died in the second turn.

Btw, completely forgot about that Guardian. I think I have had two long rests so far. The first one had a cutscene of Astarion walking away and I don't wanna know what happened there. The second was about Wyll. @Bartimaeus will love it.

Edit: Wyll's cutscene was tied to him meeting with Karlach while in my party and she being recruited. It might be different in other circumstances.

Edited August 22, 2023 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I didn't kill her on the first turn, but it wasn't that difficult since she stayed close to Karlach and died in the second turn.

Btw, completely forgot about that Guardian. I think I had two long rests so far. The first one had a cutscene of Astarion walking away and I don't wanna know what happened there. The second was about Wyll. @Bartimaeus will love it.

If you don't close the gap she teleports around and hits you hard with a poison attack, and I think it gives disadvantage on attack rolls to boot. Unironically I think it's the best designed fight so far.

I got that scene with Wyll on my 2nd rest. I think the rests are divided into the prep and the actual rest, with different potential events for each. Wyll's event happens first, then something else can happen when you sleep.

Spoiler

I got a visit from a Butler who instantly reminded be of Cespenar, cementing my belief that Dark Urge is a Bhaalspawn.

 

[Wormerine]

On 8/21/2023 at 1:24 PM, BruceVC said:

But maybe you made your character too hot, how hot are you?

Ok, just got that screenshot, and it is too good not to share:

[HoonDing]

So basically the companions have nothing going for them, except for being really horny?

[BruceVC]

19 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Ok, just got that screenshot, and it is too good not to share:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

I dont know, give me a couple of drinks...some good music...some good laughs...who can say how things will progress 

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

So basically the companions have nothing going for them, except for being really horny?

No, that wouldn't be fair. Each of them has multistaged companion quest, and it seemed they are tied to one major location in the world. It also seems those companion quests have branching paths, providing at least some amound of unique content pay playthrough.

The stories so far, are rather predicable - you watch 1 minut origin intro during the character creation, and you probably can figure out most story beats of each companion.

To me the biggest disappointment comes from how few of the companions there are, and how drastic the contrast is between first act, and... well, I won't say the rest of the game for now, but at least 2nd act. Larian promises a lot in act1, and I don't think the rest of the game quite lives up to the expectation so far.

[Hawke64]

9 hours ago, kanisatha said:

But is this true to the extent that you can also get *good* encounter/quest/story/companions outcomes?

If you mean "good" as an alignment, then, mostly, yes. With a certain disguise it is possible to avoid confrontations with the goblins in Act 1 and the only companion quest (that I remember) that has combat at that point is to defeat 3 devils. Helping the refugees, on the other hand, requires either to rescue the archdruid or to "encourage" his replacement to assist. Not sure about saving the gnomes in Grymforge (I murdered the duergar), but it might be possible.

In Act 2,

Spoiler

most of the encounters are avoidable and some of the bosses can kill themselves if asked to. The prisoners in the tower can be saved if approached from the other side of the wall, the boat chains broken in advance, and the dialogue sped up (skip, skip, skip, 1, skip, skip). Though, I don't think that one can get out of the Creche without at least one battle, saving a certain cleric leads to a large unexpected encounter, and saving the Spirit of the Land has at least 2 battles. The final part of the main quest consists of several encounters of various difficulty and a completely unavoidable multistage battle against a lvl 11 boss who can summon skeletons infinitely.

In Act 3,

Spoiler

walking into a wrong area without Invisibility can lead to combat and at least at one point there was a mini-boss sitting on the other side of a narrow "bridge" with the Unstoppable status (1HP damage for any hit for 5 hits, cannot be moved) casting Power Word: Kill on the party. The main and companion quests as well require to find and kill several powerful bosses and their support.

I had also forgotten about the tutorial fight against 3 imps and the encounter at the helm (though, one just has to cross the area and interact with the "wheel" there).

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by Hawke64

[majestic]

On 8/21/2023 at 9:51 PM, InsaneCommander said:

The only time a character was in danger was when I opened the barn and interrupted some people that got really angry about it. This was the one battle I wouldn't have minded avoiding. As Shadowheart put it: "Let's just put this behind us. Far behind us."

You can avoid that battle as a bard.

Spoiler

By telling them that you could chronicle their exploits for smut bookshops in Baldur's Gate. The ogre lady is not really into being watched and they just leave.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I cleared out the Goblin camp, one of the three leaders has a bull**** ability that knocks your character(s) into a pit and there are some consequences for killing him. Also, the drow member of the trio is clearly intended to be a companion since she had containers on her that only party members have. I ended up reloading though because I went to rest and got killed. Will redo some of that stuff later.

Class/Companion stuff:

-Karlach continues to impress, throwing goblins around while enraged is just damn funny.

-Wyll with Pact of the Blade is great, two eldritch blasts or two attacks is great and effectively 4x (3x for those without Bards) 3rd level spell slots at level 5 is very nice. Only downside is being in light armor, which hits his AC by 2 compared to my Bard.

-Shadowheart's divine magic is a clincher, Guiding Bolt is an incredibly solid early spell that provides good utility while her healing and support are almost necessary.

-I have not used Gale very much at all, will probably start after my Bard gets his extra attack next level but for now he just doesn't seem like he brings enough to slot out anyone. Laz competes with Karlach who for now edges her out and Astarion is very solid when he can sneak attack and when you need skills.

3 hours ago, majestic said:

You can avoid that battle as a bard.

  Reveal hidden contents

By telling them that you could chronicle their exploits for smut bookshops in Baldur's Gate. The ogre lady is not really into being watched and they just leave.

 

That's what I did.

The bugbear wanting you to chronicle his "virile rutting" before getting shut down by lady ogre's piercing stare was a great moment.

[InsaneCommander]

I had my third long rest and this time I caught Astarion before he could do his thing.

Spoiler

I didn't let him drink my blood. If he is so desperate, he can go ask another one of the companions or lick the floor after a battle, there is plenty of blood on the map.

I visited the tea house and, despite constantly disrespecting aunt Ethel, she only turned hostile when I tried to rob her. Later, after a difficult battle trying to knock some enemies unconscious instead of killing them, I discovered that they killed one of their own with poison. Now I'll have to reload.

As for aunt Ethel,

Spoiler

I'd rather trust Raphael to remove the tadpole, but it seems obvious that nobody will be able to do it, this early in the game at least.

I was planning to romance Karlach, but there was an option that showed up in every Shadowheart dialogue and I got tired of ignoring it, so now it seems we are getting more intimate. I wonder if it will progress since I sent her artifact to camp and then put it in my pocket. That was quite a while ago and she hasn't noticed yet.

[Wormerine]

 

[InsaneCommander]

We are all amateurs.

How to to pickpocket until you have infinite gold, without going to camp:

I tested it and it's so effective that I felt too guilty to steal more than the dyes, which I wouldn't normally spend money on. For truly infinite gold, you'll need to long rest many times and that will affect your quests.

The Dark Urge player that makes all others look like saints:

 

[Bartimaeus]

Some people should not speak on camera, good lord that video was intolerable. On a side-note, you should really manually go into turn-based mode before pickpocketing anybody - makes running away hilariously easy if you get a full turn of movement before the "I've been stolen from!" timer starts to run*. Upon seeing how broken pickpocketing was, I immediately implemented a "I can only steal enchanted and quest items from NPCs where there is no other apparent/satisfactory method of obtaining them" rule, because just stealing everything is incredibly lame and boring.

(e): *Also, you can steal multiple items if necessary/successful before that timer starts to run. And also, the character can't move around while you're in turn-based mode. Overall, it just...doesn't make any sense not to be in turn-based mode.

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

We are all amateurs.

How to to pickpocket until you have infinite gold, without going to camp:

Throughout the whole game, I had more money, than I have things to buy, AND money has weight in this game. Why would I want more of it? Are the no magical debit cards in this game?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I have not stolen **** in this game and I still have too much damn money.

Perhaps the only side to a Dex build is the lower carrying capacity. I am not speaking of gold, which has been relatively light, but of food. I consistently have to stuff my companions with sausage to prevent being encumbered.

[InsaneCommander]

More Auntie Ethel:
 

Spoiler

This was the worst part of the game so far. The companions insisted on entering poison clouds and stepping on the fire traps inside.

Fighting against the masked people again was terrible, but I learned a new trick: start a fight with one character while the enemies are looking away and the rest of the party can freely approach them and have a free melee turn. If you surprise them but they see you, you won’t be able to come any closer than what you can walk in a turn. Anyway, I attacked the healer first and then the psychic damage one next.

Gale’s cat familiar was the mvp, dealing a total of 10 damage against the archer and also helping destroy the hag’s clones later, including one with an opportunity attack in her turn, before anyone in my party acted. Most of the time the enemies ignore the familiar, even with the meow ability, so it’s free damage.

Gale also used the illusion cantrip that looks like a cat so all that was left was for my Druid to turn into one too, but I went with the badger to knock the masked people prone and teleport across the chasm in the hag battle. Not sure why the masked guys guys were so powerful. They started the turn prone and could still attack, they have counter-attack and overpowered abilities.

And once again, Karlach deals the finishing blow: 

Spoiler

This was not the first roll. Of course I rolled a 1 and a 3 first and had to use an inspiration to get the 20.

14 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Throughout the whole game, I had more money, than I have things to buy, AND money has weight in this game. Why would I want more of it? Are the no magical debit cards in this game?

I already have plenty, even without pickpocketing. I will do it for fun and roleplaying, since my character is kleptomaniac. Auntie Ethel found out quickly.

Just now, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I have not stolen **** in this game and I still have too much damn money.

Perhaps the only side to a Dex build is the lower carrying capacity. I am not speaking of gold, which has been relatively light, but of food. I consistently have to stuff my companions with sausage to prevent being encumbered.

I send all food to camp immediately. You can use what is in the traveler's chest when resting, it doesn't need to be in the inventory.

[Wormerine]

9 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I am not speaking of gold, which has been relatively light, but of food. I consistently have to stuff my companions with sausage to prevent being encumbered.

There is absolutely no reason to carry food. Send it to camp. They will be displayed on rest UI anyway. 

[Hurlshort]

I have no idea why they didn't just make it so food automatically goes to camp, though.

[majestic]

Probably for the same reason they can't do decent camera angles or make exploration be anything but a pain in the ass, or have a loot highlight key that only highlights half the loot.

The first one is pretyt subjective, the other really is an issue, and yes, run down clothes in a freaking wardrobe is loot.

[InsaneCommander]

I must have made the wrong choices in dialogue and exploration because the game just gave me two spoilers in a Gale cutscene. It was as if I knew about the artifact and the Absolute:

Spoiler

He said that the if it was not for the artifact's protection, he would have died by now or be under the Absolute's control. But I never heard anything about this. I do have an idea about it from the time I played early access, but in this pt I avoided pressing Shadowheart about the artifact, so I never heard anything about it. And I'm trying not to use the tadpole's powers, so I never talked to anyone about the Absolute, much less know what the artifact is supposed to do.

Also: I had the artifact with me and Shadowheart didn't care. She even implied she had told me about it when I tried to open it.

Maybe I'm actually a hireling and I don't know. The companions must be meeting and discussing these important matters while I sleep?

23 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

I have no idea why they didn't just make it so food automatically goes to camp, though.

Apparently, you can consume some of the drinks. But it doesn't say what the effect would be.

15 minutes ago, majestic said:

Probably for the same reason they can't do decent camera angles or make exploration be anything but a pain in the ass, or have a loot highlight key that only highlights half the loot.

I had missed the +2 Sleight of Hand/+2 Stealth ring and only found out about it when watching a youtube video about pickpocketing.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

I have no idea why they didn't just make it so food automatically goes to camp, though.

Because otherwise the whole system might as well be completely removed? What if you want to equip salami as your weapon? There is also an achievement for fighting people while being drunk - for that one needs wine in their inventory.

It is still streamlined from EA - there the food in the camp storage wouldn't regiester. So you would still send camp to food, but everyonce in a while go to the chest and take some if you were short.

[majestic]

11 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Because otherwise the whole system might as well be completely removed?

That should be game design 101 since the mid 90ies, but it keeps creeping back into games: if any given game system is just there to gobble up inventory space and removing the player hassle results in it no longer being considered worthwhile, it is probably not worthwhile to begin with and should be removed.

That includes needing food or drink outside of survival games where it is a core mechanic (this one in particular was replaced by a much better well rested or food bonus mechanic a long, long time ago), vendors having limited gold and currency having weight, all of which this game does for no reason.

17 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Some people should not speak on camera, good lord that video was intolerable.

Quoted for truth. That is just one giant wall of text, only in spoken form. It is somewhat impressive how much he can talk without pausing, but it is just one stream of words with such a lack of inflection and (stress) pitch that it might well be read by some text-to-speech engine. Yikes.

Edited August 24, 2023 by majestic