Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

I was wondering who might be your romantic interest @KilloWertz.

Which party members do you actually have? I know you have Lae'zel, Astarion and ShadowHeart in your party but... I don't think you've actually mentioned the others on the box/key art and if you've found them or not?

Seems you got through the goblin leaders just fine though! Did you have to fight your way through or manage to get away with your sneaky method with Ragzlin in the end?

@HallowMoonshadow I have all 6 of the origin companions in my party now after getting Karlach this morning. I have Halsin and Scratch back at my camp. I have several side quests still left to do in Act 1, like Lae'zel's main companion quest with the Githyanki Crèche that I kind of unintentionally left until later instead of doing it early.

I did get through all 3 of them without fighting thanks to a YouTube video. I did have to fight my way out after pushing Ragzlin off where he was standing, but I managed. I do have to fight goblins any time I go around their camp and such, which is a bit annoying, but I can travel around them for the most part for the time being.

Oh nice @KilloWertz! Karlach pretty much replaced Lae'Zel in my party as soon as I found her (and I found her surprisingly early too).

The Goblin camp was actually one of the last things I did in the first Act unlike you... Just got sidetracked doing absolutely everything else on the map 😅

Have you been using the Ilithid/Mind flayer tadpoles powers much? I haven't actually touched them at all so far...

@HallowMoonshadow It probably would make sense for me to replace Lae'zel would somebody else now that I have Karlach, but I like that she'd solid at both close combat and ranged combat. Since I gave Lae'zel the Great Weapon Master feat, she can be pretty powerful too.

I am further into Act 1 now and took out a lot more goblins today, so I'm spacing it out some. I'm on my way to Moonrise Towers through the Underdark.

Not really. I looked at the menu and I noticed I had a few upgrades, but I don't think I even did that. I did have Gale absorb one tadpole, but after reading about that, I think that'll be the one and only tadpole I have anyone absorb.

I've stuck with Astarion, ShadowHeart and Karlach since the moment I've got them @KilloWertz and that was about 3 hours in... Only subbing Lae'Zel in for her needed moments about the crèche

I really should probably try a different lineup myself... At least for a little bit. Though making my character a Warlock does mean Wyll's pretty much completely redundant for my party 🤔

... Though I don't quite find him all that interesting yet so it doesn't really seem like that much of a loss!

@HallowMoonshadow That's a female being sexist against females. It must be because you think Astarion is dreamy... Seriously though, it wouldn't matter what I thought if I wasn't joking. lol

I've hardly used Wyll or Gale at all. Obviously I'll use them when I do their personal quest lines, but otherwise I've gotten by without heavy magic.

I do finally have one complaint, and that is it can be easy to get lost and spend quite a bit of time failing to find the way forward. Obviously I'm using the Underdark to get to Moonrise Towers, but I went one way and ended up at the Arcane Tower. I had no idea it was a dead end basically, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to find my way out and move forward after wrapping up everything inside. Turns out that was all a waste of time, so I ended up spending a decent amount of time finding one of the other ways you can go through the Underdark. I still love the game now that I'm on the right track again going another way, but I do hate wasting so much time in a game at times.

@HallowMoonshadow I had Karlach and Lae’Zel as I liked strong character that can bonk bad guys over the head with big swords.

Later on when you can unlock abilities so they can have 3+ goes in a round easily, you can wipe the floor with them.

My Tav was a rogue so I pretty much never used Astarion.

Man, this game is really something. I’ll leave some early impressions when I get a moment.

I take it @Th3solution you can already see why I said in the best games you played of 2024 topic that I would've counted the first act alone as my favourite game of 2024?

Hopefully I'll be getting back into it soon myself and carry on from the start of act 2.

Looking forward to hearing your impressions, what your race, build and class is and so on!

Ah, you're here @Th3solution one of us!

I was going to say "let us know how you get on here and if you do have any questions there's a wealth of players on here that can lend a hand.

But i'd not research too much beyond mechanics (attack rolls, and the like) as everything else is best to discover for yourself."

But it seems like you're already in the flow of things, so I'll leave you to it 🫡 (remember to sleep and eat at some point 😛)

I’m merely 8 hours along, but this game might become my new obsession.

It’s hard to say though, because I do feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of the game and its mechanics. I’m mostly floating through the early sections, exploring and learning a lot of things on the fly. I am benefiting by having played a little bit of it a year to two ago when I messed around with it briefly. At the time it was intimidating and I opted to come back later, but I think I learned more than I realized because some of the game’s aspects are coming back to me. Also, reading a lot of the tips online have helped, which were not as plentiful right after the game released.

As far as character choice, I felt like I wanted a unique experience from other RPGs I’ve played, so rather than going with a fighter class or mage, all which felt too much like generic roles I’ve done in other games, I went with monk. I liked the looks of a monk build I saw online so I’m a Wood Half-Elf Monk. It’s largely Dex / Wisdom focused, with the Way of the Open Hand subclass.

There’s a lot of moving parts in this game, and the tutorials help, but so many aspects don’t really get good explanations. Still, I’ve been gaming for a lot of years, and some things just are second nature and I’ve figured out a lot on my own. It’s a gamer’s game, for sure. Definitely not for the casuals. Also thanks to those who have offered some tips and little nuggets of advice, many of which have helped the onboarding also.

I was able to defeat Commander Zhalik, which apparently is no small feat, since the trophy for beating him is only at a 28% rate, whereas the trophy for escaping the Nautiloid is at 80%. I’m kicking myself for not checking his body before I skedattled, however. I got too rushed with the other enemies closing in. Apparently he drops a really OP sword for Lae’Zel. Doh! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Despite having some basic idea what I’m doing now, there’s so many mechanics and techniques I’m sure I’m totally doing wrong. I’m playing on the default difficulty, by the way (Balanced I think it’s called). I’m not too proud to turn it down to Explorer later though. But so far, so good.

Current I’m in the Emerald Grove. I have collected Shadowheart, Gale, Asterion, and Wyll, and saved Lea’ Zel. Discovered Withers. So far my favorite member of the party is Gale. Astarion seems interesting as well. I’m not sure about Shadowheart. She’s a little… I don’t know, annoying and snobby. And Lae’Zel is just too gruff and irritable. We’ll see.

On thing I love about the game is the save anywhere status. I’m not reloading saves as a rule, and living with my choices and failures, but still I like having the comfort that I can put it down any time and not lose progress. I don’t know what the difference between regular saves and Quicksaves is. Just the ability to name the save file?
And is there some basic advice about item hoarding? I suppose the only advantage to picking up all the junk is the small price you get when selling the skulls, bones, books, plates, cups, etc.?

Anyway, suffice it so say it’s been a great ride so far. And I know I’m just getting started.

Tagging @Ravix @HallowMoonshadow @Thrillho and anyone else I might have missed who’s curious about my early thoughts.

And Rav, since you had wondered about it — I’ve tried the game for an hour or so on the Portal and it works quite well on it. Since the game doesn’t have any timing based inputs, it really fits the Portal so there’s no consequence if there’s a lag, a stutter, or a disconnect. All the haptics work, even the satisfying little click of the triggers when pulling up the menus. My only complaint would be that the game is so beautiful on my large screen OLED that it’s definitely not as visually striking on the Portal, although it still looks great. There’s just so many intricate details in the environment that the smaller screen misses some of that impact. The text is quite small on the handheld too, and there’s a lot of text in this game. I can read it fine, but it’s something to consider. But yeah, I plan to play some of it on the Portal, but most probably on the TV.

@Th3solution sounds good. I wouldn't worry about the sword, there will be more, and your main tank may change to another character that doesn't need it anyway.

Yeah, I quickly realised easy was too easy after I'd learned the basics of this type of game, but its good it is always there if you ever do need it.

Ah, a fellow monk (my Dark Urge is a Drow Monk/Druid) but I haven't really experimented much with it after my main Sword Bard playthrough. You are probably up to where I left my Dark Urge Playthrough, in fact. Although it's probably best a game not to leave on the backburner for months, as I can't really remember what I was ever building towards 😅 but I do know Gale isn't in my party this time.

I still remember the awe of taking everything in the first time, my Act 1 was probably 100 hours and only a small part of that was hoarding a bunch of stuff I wouldn't ever use 😛

What would you say stands out most to you, so far? The game structure? The World? Lore? Characters? Presentation? I probably couldn't put my finger on it, so perhaps it's an unfair question.

To me it felt like all the characters made first impressions, and then evolved as you learn more, understand more, interact more, and that is where it shines, as they aren't just characters in your game, they are people with their own histories, motivations and personalities independent from your personal story. Which is pretty rare for video game "secondary characters"

I hope you found Withers by your own initiative and not a guide. Though, I do feel everything is quite well placed to make the regular inquisitive RPG player find things naturally and in a rewarding way. I remember being intrigued by a big locked door nearly instantly. Can't quite remember if that is linked to that or something else though 😅 I do remember stumbling in on some combat pretty early too, after talking my way out of one situation, it was a trial by fire, so to speak.

I'm probably going to end up loading BG3 to see if I can remember exactly which quest path I was on in the Grove, instead of watching TLoUp2 finale now, aren't I? 🤦‍♂️

I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3 again now. I was in a quest mood and it's a great quest so the backlog is on hold. Again.

I'm a bard this time. Wildly overpowered speech check abilities. I love it because I like to play RPGs lying to people and tricking them and convincing them. I'm really into speech checks. I don't know why.

Started it yesterday morning and I think I'm near the end of the first act. I've played this game twice before, and as with both of those other times I feel like I'm underlevelled all the time. I don't know how. I do absolutely everything and go everywhere. And then I look up on Google what level I should be for a fight that's tough, and it's like two levels higher than I am, and I'm like how?

Although, I've found two quests this time around that I didn't do on either of my other playthroughs so that's probably the answer. I think I must just be missing stuff every time. Regardless, I'm getting through it so it's not the end of the world, I just would like to do a more complete playthrough at some point.

@johncalmc I would say if you've got to the end of act 1 in a day you're probably missing quite a lot 😱 I mean, even if you'd played 24 hours straight, I'd say you'd have to do that 4 more times to get closer to seeing everything.

You might be a very fast and efficient gamer, but I feel there's a lot of stuff that requires not following markers, talking to unmarked NPCs, exploring at random, finding books and notes that lead to quests, that kind of thing, which i imagine would be hard to do at pace.

I genuinely can't imagine it being possible. But I don't want to say "did you see x,y,z" as I wouldn't want to spoil any natural discoveries.

@Ravix Well I did nothing else all day and I've played it twice before so I kinda knew where to go etc. I've got one more thing to do, and then I'm pretty sure I'm ready to leave and go to the next area unless I'm forgetting about anything. That said, I do think I'm missing things, but I'm rubbish at following guides and I don't like it. I did look up on a guide though a rough outline of quests and reading it I think I've done them all and I've explored the whole map.

I have seen at least two things though on this playthrough that I'm sure I never did before. They weren't big things or anything, but there was a whole small area in a basement that I'm sure was totally new to me. It's a strange game in that you can play it repeatedly and see different things. I recall, in my first playthrough two of the party got into a fight and I had to choose a side and we killed the other. Pretty wild actually, but I've never seen that scene on either of my next playthroughs, or even had the argument kick off that starts it.

It should be noted that I also might be misremembering where Act 1 ends. I think it ends when you move from the first place to the second place. So if that's not the end of Act 1, that's where I'm at.

@johncalmc yeah, if you know where you're going it's going to be faster for sure. I was just wondering whether, say if you missed something first time, and you're following a similar path as you know how to do so quickly, that maybe you'd be missing the same things every time by following the same main path that you already travelled, if you see what I mean.

Yeah, I wouldn't follow a guide as guides tend to miss things in favour of being efficient anyway by providing optimal routes, rather than fun exploration.

Was the basement the book based quest? I remember a certain basement and a very interesting book.

There's tonnes of hidden areas though, which is what makes it fun to just randomly explore away from quest markers. I know when I break out of jail there's a stone door that leads to a random area, and I don't think it's ever marked for a quest going that way 😅 but I imagine going the other way with a different allegiance is also possible too.

I think I actually found Ethel's place in my first playthrough after having missed her in the grove. Which is probably not the optimal way to do it but it made for some surprising events 😅

I swear it probably took me that long to just do the creche area and its related content on the route toeards it, I think there was a large outer building and puzzles once there, and then a set of quests within once you get in too.

I do play games slowly though, regardless, so 😁

As for my exploration into an old save, I feel I now have a grasp on what I was doing. I'd encouraged the death of a little girl (bad Dark Urge, bad) and I've unlocked a new quest I'd not seen because of it. Which means I probably don't have to go to a swamp (I still might just to get the lore and fight some stuff) but the given quest is one I want to see through as it's a suitably deadly and efficient solution to a problem.

I'd also annoyed Mol, so decided I might as well push it to see what happens, and I ended up in jail. A jail I know too well.

Can't remember if I'm helping Pandora or not, she just screams for guards if I enter that room, which I did from the other side during my escape. I know there's that extra door to explore more too, but I'm not sure I'll bother with that this playthrough.

Don't know if I'm helping Szaza or not 🤔

I'll probably leave the grove 'as is' for now, as I've yet to explore beyond that area yet, and I think there's quite a lot to see.

@Ravix The basement was part of the lost cargo quest where there's a merchant and stuff down there. I've played it twice and missed that both times. I don't know how.

And yeah it's a total concern of mine that knowing where to go because of what I did last time means that I'll probably miss the same things that I missed last time. I have tried to go everywhere and I keep talking to people.

I'm always just concerned I'm never at the right level. Weirdly, this doesn't happen the further the game goes. On both my previous playthroughs, I found that by the time I got to Act 3 I'm overlevelled for every quest based on what guides say. So I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I'm better at finding everything in the later areas.

@johncalmc I'm determined to get to the bottom of it now 😅 I can't see why you'd be underlevelled. Do you pick one route or do you do both

The Underdark and the Mountain Pass when travelling to Moonrise Tower? I know it's possible to do both, as I did that, but I can't quite remember the ins and outs of it as its been quite a long time.

Both routes have plenty of combat opportunities though, so you'd expect to level up there.

@Ravix “What would you say stands out most to you, so far? The game structure? The World? Lore? Characters? Presentation?”
Yeah, that’s a tough one, as the whole package is the impressive part — The fact it has such high quality presentation but also extremely deep mechanics and lore. But I’d say the openness and branching paths and dialogue is the most impressive part to me that I don’t see in other games apart from Detroit Become Human and other story centric games. The branching narrative options and extremely deep mechanics of builds and how to approach the gameplay. That’s what sets it apart from others I’ve played.

The characters aren’t extraordinary, although they are growing on me, and eventually I think I’ll grow attached, but so far they’re relatively standard fantasy characters.

I do think the actual main story is just okay right now. The tadpoles in the brain thing is a little weird and maybe it’s because this is my first Baldur’s Gate game, but the set-up isn’t necessarily what I like about the game. It’s fine and it serves as a good way to connect to the cast with this shared conflict of being infected with this alien species(?), or whatever it is.

“I hope you found Withers by your own initiative and not a guide.”
Yes, I did find him on my own! Just exploring around and opening doors. 😄 Astarion is a fantastic lock picker.

I’m actually surprised how quickly I’m able to access respeccing as a result. I barely have started my build and don’t really know exactly how to develop everyone, much less have any gold to spare to use his services. 😅

@johncalmc I’m new to the game, but is it possible that because you’re talking/charming yourself out of a lot of conflicts that you’re avoiding fights and not getting as much XP and therefore leveling up slower? It’s a concern I have about games that allow me to bypass combat because I worry that if I do that too much that I’ll rob myself of much needed experience for leveling.