Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

Armadon said:

Should I read the 5e edition handbook to get an idea of what to do? I mean it does seem to play like table top but don't know if there are any differences. I'm so used to pathfinder that I'm having trouble grasping 5e in the game.

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It's up to you, the 5e manual has a lot to sift through, but you probably would only need to read through a few key chapters.

So far, bg3 is following up on my biggest complaint of pathfinder kingmaker in that its pretty terrible for planning out characters if you don't already know what you're doing. That COULD just be due to EA though. If you have specific questions you can @ me if you want. I'm by no means a rule master but I've been playing 5e twice a week for almost 4 years now so I have the basics down

OK shoving dudes off cliffs is my new favorite thing.

Armadon said:

Sweeet thanks bro. I leveled to 2 and I didn't really get to pick anything. Are there feats? All I got were more hp and 1 extra use of a spell I believe. Maybe I'm missing a customization button or something. All my dnd knowledge is 3.5 so I'm like flipping out on if I'm missing something.

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You pick a path at level 3 and get more options from there, not sure if "feats" are in the game yet but in 5th edition they are game changers so you can only pick 1-3 depending on what you do every 4 levels or whatever it is.

Depends on the class, but most pick an "archetype" at lvl 3 that help customize your character and give him more abilities.

Clerics pick their archetype at lvl 1, wizards at lvl 2. Warlocks get a minor archetype at 1 and another one at 3

Feats/ability score improvements happen at regular intervals starting at lvl 4 and are usually every 4 lvls but some get them more often (fighters and rogues get a few extra). A lot of the feats from pathfinder/dnd3.5 are just baked into the classes now so you don't need much. Some classes can get away without any.

As far as leveling up goes, I think some options are blocked out in EA, there doesn't seem to be any multiclassing but I know they said it would be a thing at some point. But yeah, some levels feel a little lame, power-wise, especially early on. A lot of DM's will start campaigns (or one shots) out at lvl 5 just because some classes don't really come online for a few levels. You ALWAYS get something when you level, but sometimes it's not really a "fun" improvement

Clicking around in EA. Lots of potential here.

Hit level 4 and yeah same in 5th you get +stats or a feat. They are missing a bunch of feats though Notable Inspiring Leader, Alert, Crossbow Expert, sentinel, skulker, war caster, Heavily Armored, charger, grappler, and sharpshooter. Tough and Great weapon fighter is about the only ones worth getting it seems.

Also anyone know what Lae'zel gets bane when she attacks? Kinda sucks to have your melee fighter get a 1d4 penalty on attack rolls 100% of the time. Oh NM it is the gloves she has, cursed item I guess.

So this is like what, the first 10% of the game?

Seems like they got all the proof of concept stuff done and just gotta hammer it all out now.

Quineloe said:

So this is like what, the first 10% of the game?

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i think i saw something saying it was 25%? but it's hard to tell really because of how much things adjust based on what you do or not. at least in theory, anyway. i haven't seemed to run into anything that drastically changed what was going on, but i haven't gotten too far into it

haven't played yet. I have some thoughts though. I hadn't really put much into it prior...

1. 4 man party. probably a wrong choice. BG was 6. im not really sure why it was 6. pretty sure Dnd was always "balanced" around 4. But it was 6, and they should have kept with that.

2. And with that, companion count. D:OS had 4, D:OS 2 had 6.. BG had 25. BG2 had 16. pathfinder has 12.

3. the "evil" party. is there neutral and good companions in the pipeline you meet along the way?

4. starting at level 1 is a huge mistake. Dnd chars start slow in the first place. Many gamers are not used to such slow progression. The scope of this campaign seems way beyond level 1 characters. Level 1 characters should be killing rats, not intellect devourers, or even bandits and undead in tombs.

Armadon said:

Well I'm a dumbass I thought I could only jump as far as the white circle but I guess you can jump farther then that. Also do caster types need weapons because it seems like you can just use your cantrips forever and they do a descent amount of damage. I'm playing a drow cleric so I get some cantrip that does 1d8 damage every round.

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in 5E, 99.9% of the time, a casters weapon is useless, and for only when they are silenced, or as a tool to smash crates and shit.
5e has an "attunement" system, where a character can only equip 3 magic items. (minor enchanted stuff, doesnt require attunement)
Almost all +fire damage, +2,3,4,5 enchanted weapons/armor etc, are gone.

the AC, etc system is then all rebalanced knowing PC will only have +1 or +2, instead of Pathfinder or 3.5e +25 to hit, or +20 to AC stuff.

Cantrips in 5e scale with CHARACTER level, not class. Was a huge buff, esp for multiclassing.

Cleric spiritual weapon at 2nd level, and spirit guardians 3rd level are their bread and butter.

bare in mind, this is pnp. might be changes for vidya.

Watching cohh play... hes talking to a merchant, and Im seeing magic items with added fire damage, armor giving abilties, and no mention of attunement anywhere. so, idk, loot might be more abundant as gamers are more used to, vs the much rarer loot in 5e pnp.

Caliane said:

in 5E, 99.9% of the time, a casters weapon is useless, and for only when they are silenced, or as a tool to smash crates and shit.
5e has an "attunement" system, where a character can only equip 3 magic items. (minor enchanted stuff, doesnt require attunement)
Almost all +fire damage, +2,3,4,5 enchanted weapons/armor etc, are gone.

the AC, etc system is then all rebalanced knowing PC will only have +1 or +2, instead of Pathfinder or 3.5e +25 to hit, or +20 to AC stuff.

Cantrips in 5e scale with CHARACTER level, not class. Was a huge buff, esp for multiclassing.

Cleric spiritual weapon at 2nd level, and spirit guardians 3rd level are their bread and butter.

bare in mind, this is pnp. might be changes for vidya.

Watching cohh play... hes talking to a merchant, and Im seeing magic items with added fire damage, armor giving abilties, and no mention of attunement anywhere. so, idk, loot might be more abundant as gamers are more used to, vs the much rarer loot in 5e pnp.

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Baseline 5e is designed as a "low magic" system, which is pretty silly considering how much magic is flying around...

That being said the rules are set up so that DM's can put whatever kind of magic items in their games. If they want a low magic world, that's default, bit if they want to give their lvl 1 players some artefacts, well... You can do that too. Just gotta build the encounters knowing they have that stuff.

Baseline I think there's only like 2 or 3 weapons that have + element damage, but the tools are in the DM's guide to properly Homebrew whatever item you want. I'm currently rocking a +2 maul that does 2d6 bludgeoning and 2d6 lightning damage AND is a +2 implement so my spell DC is higher. I asked dm for a cool lightning hammer cuz I'm a dwarf and Thor is my hero and he handed it to me and called it the electrocutioner

I don't know if the companions available are evil so much as douches. It looks like there is potential for you to play as one of the companions given the options in the character generator, which would help with the whole 4 person limit for parties.

The 'low magic' 5e is driven largely by Chris Perkins is it not? Its somewhat nice in that there are a lot more character abilities that are core to the narrative, but annoying in that you are running around in a magical world with not much in the way of actual magic unless you are a spellchucker. In my current tabletop campaign I'm playing a human rogue in a party that is otherwise made up elves and such. I end up having to use a seeing-eye monk to guide me towards the fight.

Qhue said:

I don't know if the companions available are evil so much as douches. It looks like there is potential for you to play as one of the companions given the options in the character generator, which would help with the whole 4 person limit for parties.

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If you look at character sheet it tells you, cleric is evil for example.

Caliane said:

haven't played yet. I have some thoughts though. I hadn't really put much into it prior...

1. 4 man party. probably a wrong choice. BG was 6. im not really sure why it was 6. pretty sure Dnd was always "balanced" around 4. But it was 6, and they should have kept with that.

2. And with that, companion count. D:OS had 4, D:OS 2 had 6.. BG had 25. BG2 had 16. pathfinder has 12.

3. the "evil" party. is there neutral and good companions in the pipeline you meet along the way?

4. starting at level 1 is a huge mistake. Dnd chars start slow in the first place. Many gamers are not used to such slow progression. The scope of this campaign seems way beyond level 1 characters. Level 1 characters should be killing rats, not intellect devourers, or even bandits and undead in tombs.

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I wouldn't want them to start you at something higher than level 1, players wouldn't know what to make of that, it goes against everything people understand about video games. You always start at level 1.

Hatorade said:

If you look at character sheet it tells you, cleric is evil for example.

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Ahh I hadn't noticed that. Obviously the Githyanki chick is super evil and Astarion seems to be a vampire... Gale seems to be a Dorian knockoff, only a womanizer.

Hatorade said:

If you look at character sheet it tells you, cleric is evil for example.

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That's not exactly true. 5e has gotten away from alignment. Shadowheart's diety, Shar, is evil, but that doesn't necessarily mean shadowheart herself is evil. I haven't actually found any notations of alignment other than mentioning very specific entities like gods and patrons.