Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@CJD87 for hit chance keep an eye on those percentages and make sure to get the "+ number" in the inventory up, as that is attack roll bonus, the thing that determines hit success (Proficiency in certain weapons and using weapons with a good bonus to attack rolls are what you need to look out for. For example a weapon good damage might actually not be the best one if it has a low percentage to land) If you have great weapon master trait, there is also a toggle in the radial dial for either +5 damage (or something) but a minus to attack roll/hit chance, so you can always flick that bit to off and you still get the extra attack from the trait. It depends how you are building her though, and it could just be a balance thing, as she gets to make a lot of attacks (not sure how Karmic dice work as i've not looked into that) it could also be that she is attacking people in melee that have high melee defence.

Oh it's my game of the year by far, despite loving my time with Zelda and FF16, BG3 just hits different and made me learn a totally new way to play. I imagine Alan Wake 2 could compete in a wildly different way, as the concept and design is right up my alley, I just suck at Survival Horror and have been too busy with BG3, and too scared I'll ruin the experience by being crap at it, to try it out yet 😅

I would say that overall, BG3 is yet to top TW3 for me, but that is only because I really, really favour action and open world games, and the DLC's especially made me such a big fan of the Witcher and that got me into the books too, but BG3 has made me crave its combat encounters in this tactical mode too to be fair, I'm just not really seeking out other DnD experiences yet, but the game itself, I'd definitely play more of.

@CJD87 Did you see the video I posted on the previous page? It was someone talking through all of the different ways people had managed to complete the goblin camp and some of them would never have though of.

Amazing that Larian were able to think of all of those options and manage to implement them all.

@Thrillho Yes I did see your video on the previous page... but I actually stopped watching 10 seconds in, as I didn't want to 'influence' my own forthcoming tackling of the camp! Once my Goblin massacre is complete, I plan to watch in entirety.... and see how lacklustre my own methodology was vs. some of the most creative minds in the community lol.
Hard agree that Larian are geniuses to have integrated so many avenues in this game.

@Ravix Thanks and you were absolutely right re. Lae-Zel...... I had a toggle/ability on that meant her likelihood to connect a hit was reduced, in favor of doing more damage on the occasions she actually does land. Considering many of the current enemies have high armor class, this explains why I seemed to miss majority of hits. I have toggled off for the meantime, and now she is super effective... thanks!

it's my favorite game this year.

Ooooh, I'm so close to the end. I've been dragging it out as long as possible, and there is literally only one quest "steal a githyanki egg" (or maybe two if you include: embrace the tadpole) that will forever sit in my journal unfinished.

The emotional impact of finishing Astarion and Karlach's quest gave me time to pause and reflect back on the game, which has been phenomenal. And last night I went on intending to finish up, but I got a bit sidetracked exploring and found a graveyard that i'd not discovered and then decided to go the tombstones route towards my final destination, just to see how that played out... I was not expecting to meet

😁😁😁

I still need to finish off the final encounters next time I'm on, but there is literally no more to do, and no going back from here 😁

I made it through the Underdark recently having finally cleared the area (including the arcane tower). I didn’t realise hitting the Grymforge from there was the beginning of Act 2; I was expecting some sort of big story event to signal the end of the first act 😁

Instead of plowing on there, I’ve taken a step back and gone to do the mountain pass route and am currently deep into the monastery and looking for the Githyanki crèche.

@Thrillho I wouldn't worry about the act 2 thing, I think that is mostly just the PlayStation console saying it's act 2 at a certain point, when really it's a bit more free form than it can fathom. And yeah, like you are doing, you can still head the other way too and then travel back to the forge to do all that area. I'd say doing the Grymforge section last is more like the proper end of act 1/emergence into act 2, and things will be clearer (or not) when you've done all that 😁 act 2 is technically accessible to you once you are at the forge/mountain pass, I guess, but really that would mean skipping so much content, and it is worth doing all the stuff that is available before actually advancing to the real act 2.

Depending on what you end up doing, it could still be some time before you get to the real act 2 area anyway 😁

Hopefully this comment was mysterious enough 😁😁 but so many times I was like "oh this is just a cool little side bit, I must be close to the next act" before many hours later thinking, "oh, okay that was like a full act worth of content in itself too" 😅

I'm glad I read all this, because I am currently in Grymforge...! I have found the elevator that leads to the Moonrise Tower, but my party were deterred from using this yet until I speak with Nere(?) who is allegedly trapped somewhere due to a rockfall I believe.
My plan was to 'clear' Grymforge and then fast travel back to the surface to do the mountain pas and Githyanki creche.
Once I've done the creche I think I'll be good to go with act 2!

How much longer is act 2 btw? Or shorter than act 1?

@CJD87 I think it's maybe about the same, possibly slightly shorter, depending. But as you advance both act 2 and 3 can be longer or shorter depending on whether you are mainlining the story or doing everything, or based on how you approach the main area of interest in act 2 (I hung around there for a while as it is strongly hinted at that you don't need to just go and kill stuff. Plus I discovered a bunch of stuff just by exploring) There is also a much more legit point of no return screen in act 2, but you will know when you get there, and it is much further down the line, so just trust the pop up and do everything available in your journal and uncover all the map just to be sure before clicking advance.

Finished! 😁

Phew. What a great experience. Took me longer than Elden Ring, or the Witcher 3 + its DLC's, but I never once fell off it, or lost interest, which is a testament to great games.

I don't know how it only cost like £50, or less with vouchers and PSstars, for months and months of entertainment. Tremendous value 👏

And the music is still playing, the credits still rolling now as the PS5 wants to enter rest mode 😁

To any of the others that finished long before me, care to put in spoilers how your end game went? And did you do the epilogue they added?

Me and @CJD87 in this thread;

This evening I managed to finish of the Githyanki creche section which escalated pretty quickly.

@Thrillho Ha!

I'm currently causing chaos in Grymforge, and actually failing a few dice rolls.... my intent is really to try to avoid 'bloodshed', but these dodgy rolls are leading to all-out massacre!
Once GF is sorted, I'm off to the creche! Looking forward to that as Lae-Zel is a permanent fixture in my party, and keen to see how her quest plays out.

On a side note, I know we all love Astarion (and rightly so).... but over the course of the last 30ish hours I have really begun to appreciate Gale! Genuinely very well written, and a pretty solid character. Far from the 'goody two shoes' I had him pegged as, he proves to be a great addition to my team in terms of skillset and personality.

Potential spoiler - has anyone with Gale in their party seen what happens when he dies?? Very interesting!

I feel I’ve made pretty good progress on this, despite a few days away from it over Crimbo.

I finally finished up in Grymforge. Found the forge itself and defeated the boss without using the hammer (actually not too difficult).

Struggled with the fight against the slavers and Nere so restarted and took the smaller enemies down before blowing up the rocks. Buddied up to Nere after releasing him before surrounding and killing him before he could enter combat.

Have been wandering the shadowlands for a while and been to the Inn. Managed to complete that fight successfully and continuing to explore that whole area now.

And recent things I’ve learnt;

1) You can summon Scratch. Use his ball from the inventory and he appears. The option to do so again will then be on your action wheel.

2) You can fill pouches with explosives, throw them, and fireball them for big damage.

3) Throwing potions revives allies without having to run right up to them.

@Thrillho congratulations, you are now in what I'd call actual proper act 2, nice change of scenery, isn't it? 😁😁 my only tip, listen to what people at the Inn actually said. I know I did, but I also know of other people that went to a certain place and decided it was time to fight everyone right away, before actually doing the entirety of act 2 first lol. It's cool that the game allows it, but there is so much content to take in in the shadow cursed lands, all of its locales and the tower itself before just running in and fighting. For me it was a chapter of undercover work 🧐

@Ravix Yeah, when I left the inn I met the group who were like “let’s get going and end this madness!” while my gang were more “sorry, there are unopened chests out there that need to be found first”.

@Thrillho it's quite an Elden Ring/FromSoft chapter in a way. I found so much out about the history of what heck was actually happening, who all these mysterious deities that we hear about are, and various other things just through exploration and noseyness, reading notes, and chatting to some strange relatives of a certain someone at various points 🤣🤣 snooping at moonrise etc, it is very satisfying in that way.

Let us know when you've met some of the shadow cursed lands more intriguing characters 😁😁

@Ravix I cleared all of the areas I could get to with the basic blessing and have progressed to go deeper into the shadows.

And I met the toll collector who I managed to convince I was there to replace them because they’d got a promotion and they just died instantly instead of having to fight them.

I love reading on Reddit how other people have approached things and how wildly different things can go.

Preordered the physical version for PS5. Sadly, I didn't soon enough to get the first wave, but preordered for the second wave coming in the spring.