Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

Right then, this is the next big game for me to get my teeth into so I just wanted to ask if people had any advice for someone going into this pretty much blind.

And I don’t know whether to go for my standard stealthy, quick attacking type of character or something a bit different.

@Thrillho I'm a week deep, about 8hrs and absolutely loving this game. I'm playing blind(ish) with a bit of research on good spells to select when levelling up and which sub-classes are good.

Stealth and quick-attack is my jam as well funnily enough!
I have created a 'Charismatic Rogue' character, which has been awesome so far. I dumped INT and instead started with 17 DEX / 14 CON / 14 CHA.

Then chose a race that was solid enough with persuasion. So I've got all the stealth and sneak attacks, but my character can also be the 'face' for the group and engage in all the conversational checks, using deception/persuasion to talk his way in/out of situations.

I actually restarted about 4 hrs in, just to play from the start again once I understood combat a bit better. My first CRPG, never thought I'd fall for it as much as I have. Closest I played before was Disco Elysium, also really decent.

@Thrillho Me and @Ravix tried to give some general tips/advice on the previous page of this thread that you might want to glance at. I also found a Youtube channel called 'Fextralife' had a lot of quick helpful vids early on.
I think there are tons of different ways you can successfully build your character and the companions can always specialise in areas your character isn't good in. You find a full team of them pretty quickly.

@CJD87 @BearsEatBeets Thanks both. I spent far too long tinkering with my character but eventually settled with the rogue urchin wood elf Silva (forest in Latin).

I didn’t quite get to the end of the prologue last night and combat is a bit overwhelming at the moment but I just need more time to play around with it.

Big thumbs down for not being able to pause the game or cut scenes though. Annoying when I’m trying to play and the baby wakes up crying and I have to leave the game to its own devices.

@Thrillho The no pause isn't ideal I agree. It's not the same, but if you switch to turn-based mode I think your characters will be safe as nothing should happen until you take your turn. At least I believe that's true.

Just started playing this game and as an older gamer who's been around since NES times, I gotta say this is probably the best game I've ever played. It's got so much freedom, awesome rpg mode, and has that tactical Final Fantasy Tactics vibe with turn based combat and all. Good choice Thrillo on the Rogue. I'm still in Act 1 but made Astarian an assassin rogue and he's my number one killer and sneak attack artist lol. I chose to play as an open hand Monk and am loving it. Still in Act 1 and already have 65 hours but would like to eventually play online, thought i've not tried it out yet.

@Thrillho Haha your character looks crisp, nice job ! (Stings a bit though seeing how much better your PS5 experience is vs my Deck playthrough lol)

The lack of pause during cutscenes is certainly annoying, but generally most future scenes are driven by dialogue options - and will organically 'pause' whilst awaiting your response selection.

Combat seems massively overwhelming at first, but honestly it gets easier. I'm playing on the middle/normal difficulty 'balanced' which I feel is giving me a solid challenge but not kneecapping me.

Some general tips - when equipping weapons/armor, always make sure you're putting appropriate items with the right proficiencies. (EG Don't put 'heavy' armor on a character that can only handle 'light armor')

Take your time also, the beauty of the combat is that there is no rush. Positioning is also really key, with high-ground attacks being nearly always preferable.

But my biggest advise - don't do as I did and prevent playing due to wanting to read up on the mechanics... "just play" and get used to it. If something is confusing , or you want tips, I'd suggest reaching out here or via the sub-reddit. IMHO - PushSquare and Reddit have the best communities, with GameFAQs being a pit of toxicity ha

Good luck and keep playing, it really is great

@CJD87 Yeah, I'm just throwing myself into it as trying to figure everything out via guides is just too overwhelming.

I managed to clear the dank crypt last night so have Withers on board now. Still struggling a little with the combat but slowly getting there. Like lots of these games and strategy/RTS games it feels a little clunky/convoluted playing with a controller but I'm sure it will all become more intuitive.

@Thrillho it sounds like you are progressing at a similar way to most new players. I wasn't comfortable until I'd done quite a bit of the early area, long rested a few times at camp to see how storyline advancing works and eventually settled in to quest hunting by talking to random npcs, and exploring without a set goal just to see what I could find in a certain grove area you may or may not have stumbled upon yet.

As for the cutscene pause, there is not really many actual proper cut scenes, most are just dialgue scenes and you can quick save at any moment during those 😄

@Ravix I've done plenty in Emerald Cove and picked up a fair few tasks from there. Just been exploring the Blighted Village and am heading into the goblin camp with Sazza who I freed in the Cove. Had to reload recently after opening a barn with two ogres getting it on

@Bentleyma I'm getting the hang of it. I've subbed Lae'zel and Wyll into my group which has made things seem a bit easier. I'm a bit confused as to why entering combat in stealth only lets me use my main character though.

@Thrillho your other party members will be failing stealth checks, perhaps? Stealth checks happen when you're in the red area, and a good rogue will remain hidden, whereas a giant Gith fighter... might not lol. If you separate yourself from the party you can stealth, and then have them go in after (or before) to create chaos as you sneak around assassinating, otherwise they should at least attempt to crouch if you're hitting down when grouped as a party. If you stay out of the red areas that pop up you will all remain in stealth out of combat st least.

Ahhh, the early discovery joy, I loved that phase of the game, where everything is new and random and you can discover all kinds of stuff 🤣

I bet whatever happens for you in act one is different on my entire act one, I mean I can already tell as you saved Sazza, whereas I just stopped them killing her unjustly, and then left her there once i had the information I needed 😅 which means we probably made most decisions different. I mean, for one, I accidentally discovered a secret tunnel hidden in the Grove and ended up going on a Goblin killing spree (they started it) but it literally only happened as I was being nosey and just utterly in awe of just being able to do stuff in a way I wanted 😁

@Ravix I hadn’t realised about splitting the party up but found this separately to your post and it makes quite a difference for combat! My party are now level 4 as well which is making combat easier and giving me more options to play with too.

I’ve just finished in the goblin camp and this video popped up on my Twitter feed. So many ways of taking on this area and many of them I would never even have thought of!

I did wonder what that potion the goblin “healer” gave me was meant to do but turns out the sleeping potion does nothing to my wood elf

@Thrillho you finished it? I remember spending days there exploring and going back and to before actually fighting any Goblins 🤣

Did you walk in and just start a fight, or did you chill for a while and check out some random encounters? Or did you not fight the goblins and do the other thing instead? 👀

@Ravix Because I had Sazza with me, I could just waltz into the camp and do what I want.

I had to kill the “healer”. As the sleeping potion didn’t affect me she turned aggressive. She’s meant to look the door beforehand so it’s just you but I snuck the rest of the party in and hid behind her and killed her before she called for reinforcements. Found the secret passage under her room but haven’t explored yet.

Freed the bard, spoke with everyone else, and rescued the bear/druid with the resultant fight.

So I’m just at the point of heading back to the grove to protect them from the goblins but told them I’d help them out in battle.

@Thrillho some of that is similar to mine, then. I think I just blagged my way in, despite killing the guard post, the camp didn't know that was me, so I spent ages just chilling there, discovering anything I could and going back to the Grove to clear up some other stuff, I think.

As the Goblins were having a never ending party, by the time I was ready to launch a full assault/assassinate the leaders, I decided to play music for them, they gathered round listening as Astarion went off to spike the ale. A very cool moment as the music is great and it was quite foreboding as I knew what I was planning to do to them as they watched me in awe.

A couple of my party had to succeed checks about spiking the Ale, I could just flat deny it, but Karlach had to pretend to drink the ale, and give a speech "lets drink until we die" or something like that aha, and also intimidate one once they realised it was spiked, and she basically told one loud accuser that she could always impale him, and he just, gulped, then shouted "oh no, nothing to see here, suspect must have run for it" or something 😅

The main battle was a while after this, as I made my way back inside so I could assassinate and fight my way out against the weaker enemies. I'd also noticed war drums on my way in, so was slyly taking then out from time to time to stop reinforcements 😁

I beat the goblin attack on the grove last night which was pretty tough. I had to restart at one point and swap out Astarion for Wyll as I needed Wyll and Gale for the spells as so much of the combat was more long range.

Lae’zel helped take out the spiders and any other enemies that made it on top with my character helping out with both. His dual wielding short sword/dagger is quite useful for some of those instances.

A 200+ hour twist is my favourite kind of twist. The quest seeking a dragon was both very cool and also very telling. And I was kind of powerless to do anything but go along with the fight. But also, I now kind of can't wait to give someone their long due comeuppance, and this kind of gives me the motivation to do it. I love how much grey area there is in all of the stories though, and it would be easy to argue and take the other characters side, I guess, but I am convinced, and no longer will I put up with it haha.

Don't click the spoiler unless you're basically at the end game or have finished it, as it is late, late game theory/discussion.

Just cleared the 'Hag' fight last night,,, closest I've come to dropping the difficulty down to explorer, but thankfully I prevailed and eventually beat her!

A great fight, and one that totally benefits from preparing adequately. A hideous villain, and testament to the writing/acting (yet again!)

Currently level 4, but wanting to hit level 5 so I can return to the Goblin camp and clear it out... currently the whole camp is full-aggro since I killed one of their leaders lol

@CJD87 Hag quest is what made me first think, yep, this is like TW3 in quality of side content and depth and tone and just ruddy awesomeness 😁

And hahahaha at the camp aggro. Did you at least try to blend in for a while, or just see goblin shoot goblin? 😁😁😁

Love reading back on where people are up to, these areas were literally months ago for me, but still my memories of them are strong.

@Ravix The quality of that sub-quest is amazing... the Hag is so well-written & evil, I genuinely felt amazing finally putting her down! It is a clever fight as it really makes you think... I used Gale's 'magic missile' to target several clones of her once she multiplies, allowing me to easily deduce in 1 turn which is the 'real' target. Also using Shadowheart to cast Silence means she can't use any spells requiring her voice etc. Really smart stuff!

Ahh Goblin camp, bloody hell! I took out Princess Gut easily, and then called upon my 3 ogre friends to support with Drow Ragzlin.... but once you take him out the whole camp goes beserk! So I'll level up to lv5 and then return for Goblin genocide (and rescuing Halsim of course )

Just recruited Karlach and doing a subquest to hunt down some Paladins that want her dead. Also, came across a Vampire hunter looking for Astarion, which is a really cool side story.

Love this game! TOTK was great, but Baldurs is absolutely GOTY in my eyes