Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

Kajiimagi said:

Loving this game! The polish really shows. My new pally is really kick ass. I have the vampire thief, the geth tank, and that half elf cleric crazy chick so far.

That said, are there book(s) I need to catch up on to make this work have some semblance of sense? I'm going with it as hell I don't have much choice but I don't even recall there being a geth race, or mind flayers coming from parasites, etc so I'm sort of lost. Was that part of the world in planescape and I'm just old man CRS here?

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The super-short version as I recall it: the Gith were slaves of the mind flayers in ancient times, revolted, and fled into the Astral Plane where they split into two cultures, the Githyanki, who went full asshole in their endless crusade against the mind flayers, and the Githzerai, who are more the lawful-neutral monk types. Githyanki are the ones in BG3.

So yeah, they're mostly a Planescape thing (I want to say Planescape: Torment had a Githzerai party member), but they pop up now and then elsewhere.

Oblio said:

I ended up playing a Shielded Dwarf "Light" Cleric with a Charlatan background. I assume it is a bad idea for me to keep Shadowheart around since she is a cleric too?

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You can respec anyone to anything.

ronne said:

Hold person is very situational, but extremely powerful when it's the right time for it. Trying to spam hold person in the Gith stronghold for example is gonna be a bad time.

I think the two most busted things I've stumbled in to far are are the Thief subclass giving you an extra action, and taking a single multiclass level of wizard on your arcane caster letting you scribe scrolls of any level. My bard picked up a single level of wizard and could immediately scribe fireball/haste/ice storm scrolls I had sitting around and can cast them as bard spells lol

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Was thinking of going full Bard with just one level of Wiz in order to get access to the entire Wiz spell catalog BUT- do you use CHA for the wiz spells you cast, or INT? If INT, doesn't seem like it would be worth it...

Arden said:

Was thinking of going full Bard with just one level of Wiz in order to get access to the entire Wiz spell catalog BUT- do you use CHA for the wiz spells you cast, or INT? If INT, doesn't seem like it would be worth it...

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Go sorc then they use cha.

Hatorade said:

Go sorc then they use cha.

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I think the idea would be the ability to scribe scrolls no?

Bard casts wizard spells as a bard near as I can tell and uses CHA for everything

ronne said:

Bard casts wizard spells as a bard near as I can tell and uses CHA for everything

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That's huge. So I can cast Fireball (a level 3 spell) with only 1 level of Wizard? And I cast it as a Bard? If this is the case, I'm immediately rerolling lol

The fact that you find entirely new entrances to different areas through fake walls and such makes me at least mildly intrigued to play through a second time. Im also curious - the "burrows" and shit in treasure rooms etc. Is that like for a Druid to transform into a rat or something and run through it? Or what. Just something else that makes me think about a second run of the game and Im not even out of act 1 cause I have ADHD in this game for some reason.

Oh, and is Pink the best rarity of items in the game? I was under the impression they were all locked away till the end of the game for some reason.

Vorph said:

Anyone have an idea which is the best out of these perks:
Dual Wielder
Lucky
Savage Attacker

Dual Wielder seems unavoidable if the itemization ends up greatly favoring rapiers (the only finesse-but-not-light weapon type) over daggers/scimitars/short swords. In addition to the 1d8 and whatever magic effects you get, there's also the same +1 to AC that taking +2 Con ASI would grant and all you lose is the hp. 12 if the D&D Beyond char sheet is correct for BG3. I think it's pretty unlikely that rapiers will win out over all the other choices, however.

If rapiers aren't clearly superior though, I definitely don't know enough about 5E to say whether Lucky or Savage Attacker offers more benefits. This is for a Rogue 5 / Berserker 5 / Fighter 2, btw.


They've said that the stories play out exactly the same no matter what you do with respecs. I've got a similar dilemma myself. Being a rogue I need another melee to create sneak attack openers for me. Can't decide if I want to just stick with Lae'zel (Battlemaster) or do something weird with Karlach, like a Sword Bard multiclass. Not sure how I feel about drastically changing a character I actually use all the time. 4 characters instead of 6 is so damn restrictive.

Definitely going to respec someone into an alchemy whore (i.e. Transmutation Wizard) though. Was originally going to be Wyll, since Astarion had an unfortunate accident, but maybe it's better to just get a hireling from Withers.

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the dual wielder feat exists almost exclusively for strength based dual wielding. for dex based, taking 2 points in dex is better (unless you already have 20 dex) because you get the same +1 to AC as the dual wielder feat, +1 to damage to ALL dex weapons (which will bring the average damage of a short sword/scimitar up to the same average damage of a rapier), and then a +1 to attack with all dex weapons that you're proficient in. so if you are dex based, don't worry about the dual wielder feat, just get two-weapon fighting from the fighter and work on getting feats/ASI that you care about.

it is ENTIRELY possible that there are some awesome rapiers in this game that might make you want to specifically pick up dual wielder, but if that happens you can just respec.

also, i'm just rereading what you said

there's also the same +1 to AC that taking +2 Con ASI would grant and all you lose is the hp.

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i just want to make sure i understand you correctly... the dual wielder feat gives you +1 to AC and allows you to dual wield non-light weapons. taking 2 points in CON will give you 1 hp per level (retroactively) and add +1 to your con saves. dex is what adds to your AC, as long as you aren't wearing armor that would inhibit that. medium armor only allows 2 bonus armor from dex (14-15 dex) and heavy armor won't allow any AC bonus from dex.

sleevedraw said:

Yes, although College of Lore Bards can pick up a largeish pool of Wizard spells with Magical Secrets at level 6, and Fireball is one of them.

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True- but it seems like just the ability to scribe scrolls alone makes 1 level of Wiz worth it. You could basically turn your Bard into a Wiz with just 1 Wiz level. You'd miss out on the class/subclass features of the Wiz, but the benefits of being a Bard more than make up for that imo.

Edit: Basically, I could take college of Swords with my Bard and 1 level of Wiz and then get the following:

1. Get all the martial benefits of a Swords Bard, the Fighting Style, and the special attacks using Bardic Inspiriation
2. Have access to all Wizard spells and the ability to scribe scrolls and cast Wizard spells with my Bard level and primary ability (CHA)
3. Be able to pick locks/disarm traps with my high DEX and Sleight of Hand skill
4. Be the face of the party with a high CHA and a huge skill set of knowledge and dialog skills

I mean, tell me if I am miscalculating something, but it seems like going this route would allow me to ditch both a rogue and an arcane caster and just use the bard for those features. Then I would be free to fill my party with a cleric and two pure DPS/fun classes.

Randin said:

The super-short version as I recall it: the Gith were slaves of the mind flayers in ancient times, revolted, and fled into the Astral Plane where they split into two cultures, the Githyanki, who went full asshole in their endless crusade against the mind flayers, and the Githzerai, who are more the lawful-neutral monk types. Githyanki are the ones in BG3.

So yeah, they're mostly a Planescape thing (I want to say Planescape: Torment had a Githzerai party member), but they pop up now and then elsewhere.

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the gith can be involved anytime the illithids are, so it's not just planescape. there was a point in time when the illithid basically ruled all the planes but the gith rose up and were able to fight them to near extinction. the gith queen made a pact with tiamat (because tiamat hated illithids too. pretty much everyone does) and allowed the githyanki to ride red dragons, which was one of the main ways they were able to fight the illithid.

the illithid are interesting villains specifically because they raise the question of whether or not it's moral to commit genocide. on the face of it, you want to say no, genocide is terrible. but if even 1 illithid survives they pose a very real, very serious threat. even your most morally staunch protector is like, naw, we gotta murder all them tentacles. the githyanki are cruel and harsh, but they aren't exactly evil, specifically because their entire purpose is the eradication of illithids in order to save the entire realm of existence from them. they aren't interested in conquest, outside of the illithids, so while they wouldn't think twice about killing innocent villagers, they have no interest in doing so (unless they have reason to believe they are hiding illithids).

it's one of the areas in which 5e shines, that they've mostly done away with alignment outside of certain places like the hells and the heavens that are intrinsically tied to aspects of alignment. it allows for a lot more nuanced interpretation on characters. though, let's not start the discussion on wizards of the coasts take on "oh orcs and draw aren't evil, they are actually the most morally righteous among us" nonsense. Grabbit Allworth knows what i'm talking about

also everyone talking about karlach, and honestly just barbs in general. wildheart is extremely strong, don't hate on it just because everyone says how wonderful berserker is. berserker IS great, especially since there's no exhaustion in this game (which in table top was THE reason not to waste time with berserker). bear totem.. uh.... heart... is the best tank in all of dnd. bg3 did lose some of the ancillary stuff that added to out of combat benefits to bear totem, but they also buffed the other animals as well. tiger being able to cleave every round is pretty great, especially with some of the weapons that are in the game. i'm not saying don't be a zerker, it's a significant upgrade to the table top, i'm just saying don't ignore the other subclasses

sleevedraw said:

Yeah. I'm still a novice at this whole thing. I think if you are rolling College of Valor or College of Swords, that probably makes perfect sense.

With College of Lore, I seem to be squishy, so I was thinking about doing 1 level of multiclass in Fighter to pick up proficiency for heavier armor and maybe Archery.

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i haven't noticed with bg3, but in table top you need a certain amount of strength to even wear heavy armor (15 strength for plate, for example). i THINK that'd be fine, just pay attention that when you multiclass, you lose some of the proficiency's that the class you are multiclassing into gets. to multiclass into fighter you need 13 str or dex, and you gain light and medium armor, shields, simple and martial weapons. you DO NOT gain heavy armor. but if you are going archery, you'd be using dex and could be fine using medium armor

Was reading some stuff and apparently you don't get a feat for every 4 levels. You get it at 4 levels of a class. So if you multi-class just one level, you lose out on your final feat. Just a heads up. Most likely you gain more from that 1 level in a class than you lose though. Other than a star bump.

TJT said:

As much as I want to like Trickery Domain Cleric its looking like War or Tempest is the way to go for Shadowheart.

Thoughts?

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so, here's my thing. if you're going to cleric, then cleric. i USUALLY make her a life cleric, but i'm using myself (vengeance pally), karlach, shadowheart and gale, so i don't really need her as a frontline fighter. i just gave her some good cantrips and have her heal when i need it, otherwise chucking firebolts and sacred flames. that being said, if you need more of a frontline fighter, yes war cleric is pretty great. tempest cleric is good, too, but my personal experience is limited to my homegame where i only took it for the channel divinity for my storm sorc so i can do max damage on lightning bolt/chain lightning

Harshaw said:

Was reading some stuff and apparently you don't get a feat for every 4 levels. You get it at 4 levels of a class. So if you multi-class just one level, you lose out on your final feat. Just a heads up. Most likely you gain more from that 1 level in a class than you lose though. Other than a star bump.

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oh, yeah, i meant to mention that. casters benefit the least from multiclassing because they miss out on higher level spells. if you're going to lvl 20 you can take a dip here and there but since the lvl cap is 12, multiclassing basically forces you to miss lvl 6 spells.

also, in tabletop, rogues and fighters get more feats. fighters get them at 4, 6, 8, and 12, rogues get them at 4, 8, 10, and 12. is that the same in bg3 or did they just make it 4, 8, 12 like everyone else?

Githyanki and Illithids are in BG2 too, when you go to the Underdark. You start on a Githyanki ship or palace or something.

Daidraco said:

The fact that you find entirely new entrances to different areas through fake walls and such makes me at least mildly intrigued to play through a second time. Im also curious - the "burrows" and shit in treasure rooms etc. Is that like for a Druid to transform into a rat or something and run through it? Or what. Just something else that makes me think about a second run of the game and Im not even out of act 1 cause I have ADHD in this game for some reason.

Oh, and is Pink the best rarity of items in the game? I was under the impression they were all locked away till the end of the game for some reason.

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Yes, that is what burrows are for. I took Gas Form on my MC Sorc just to test it. Thus far all of the ones I have gone through have other entrances accessible through normal means.