Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@Thrillho Good to know. I’ll try to get some game time this week but I have a busy one so I don’t know.

In general do you think Act 3 is longer than Act 2? So far my rough estimation is that Act 1 is about twice as long as Act 2 has been, with my fairly thorough playthrough (trying to see and do everything, although I know I’m missing some small parts). I think I spent around 60-80 hours in Act 1 and have spent 30-50 hours so far in Act 2 (very rough estimates, difficult to be specific due to pausing, time in the menus switching up gear, etc, reloading after deaths, and so on).

I’m just curious as how much more content there is. I heard that Act 3 was quite short and some players felt it was rushed and incomplete at launch. I know they patched some things to make the ending(s) better but not sure how much actual content was added. Also, I do realize Act 3 is really where the final storylines wrap up and so if you didn’t save certain people then obviously they won’t be there to have quests in the end, so that likely is why there’s more variability in how people perceive Act 3…? I’ve saved most people, that I know of, and expect to see a lot of these Tieflings and Gnomes and other NPCs in Baldur’s Gate, so for what it’s worth, I expect I’ll have a lot more mopping up to do.

@Kraven I’ve grown to really like Shadowheart. (Incoming late Act 2 spoiler incoming for her storyline) The Shar temple and Nightsong part of her story really helped endear me more to her. I just had to nudge her slightly to help her realize she needed to show a little mercy, restraint, and perspective. I was able to gain her approval by letting her ultimately decide but she chose to spare Nightsong. I do think now I would consider her a good choice for romance, although Karlach has been a great partner so far. I like how she calls me ‘soldier’ and ‘baby’. 😄

@Th3solution we have a Shart convert! Took your time about it 😛 now you can relax, light some candles, stick on The Cure, My Chemical Romance or whatever the current angsty go to artist is (is there such music any more?) And erm... dye your hair together?

I still can't believe it took you this long, but these are my people so I recognise it well, and knew how to get her to open her up from the start. This is why the game is so f***ing good though, because if you don't do that then the characters will react accordingly and you can piss them off in quite a realistic way and have them be harsh to you because they won't put up with things they don't like.

I always found it funny reading another users playthrough comments where they ended up 'having' to kill a bunch of companions 😂 and it was clear these 'npcs' don't tolerate your sh** like they do in other games haha. Still don't know how he managed to upset so many of them though 😂

@Ravix Wow, yeah I haven’t had to kill any companions (yet?) and have more than I can even give enough attention to. With the addition of Jeheira, I think I might have to neglect Halsin. I don’t have enough time to spend on more than one Druid.

The complex character companions and NPCs are indeed the most satisfying. It’s why I really like Karlach too. She’s such a hothead (quite literally) and rages in battle and when defending others, but is so sweet and kind, always sticking up for the little guy and wanting to save everyone. Gale is great because he’s sort of nerdy but also charming. Lae’Zel is so grumpy, harsh, and aggressive on the outside, but if you react correctly to her she is quite rational and pragmatic and loyal to you.

Even the simple NPCs like Barcus the gnome have become charming fun storylines, all of which was easily missable if I didn’t get him safely off that windmill 90 hours ago way at the beginning of the game! 😅

@Th3solution Act 3 is definitely longer than 2 but probably shorter than 1. It can be a pretty overwhelming area though as you get so many quests etc as there’s so much to wrap up as well as new stuff too.

Act 3 gets a bad rep but I really enjoyed it once I learnt to try and focus on one thing at a time. I think they did have to cram a bit more into it than they wanted but it works well generally and it’s great once you finally fully level your characters.

I've reached Moonrise Towers on my third playthrough and have recruited Minthara for the first time ever. I've had a bit of a chat at camp and given her some gear/levelled her up. She will be the first time using a Paladin also.
I'm guessing it's not wise to walk back into the Tower with her though, so I'll take her along for all the other parts of the Shadowlands I skipped to rush to the Tower.

@BearsEatBeets Yeah, I tried to go back to Moonrise with Minthara and the game actually give you a warning — something like the narrator saying “It might be unwise to bring characters that can be recognized back to Moonrise Tower” while your Tav paused at the entrance and appears to ponder whether to go in. So what I did was take her out and went back with my previous party (except switched in Astarion this time because I wanted to have him meet that particular blood vendor) and it all went smoothly with everyone still thinking I was part of the cult. I don’t know what would happen if I ignored the advice and went in with Minthara but I suspect it would aggro the whole place and pandemonium would ensue. 😂

@Thrillho Ok, thanks — that’s what I gathered from the things I’d read online, that is that Act 3 isn’t quite as massive as the first act but still more than the second.

Just tying to estimate my final playtime and it will likely end up 200 hours or more. 😄

@Th3solution I was certainly around the 150hr mark. And there’s so much I seemingly missed too!

And to you and @BearsEatBeets , I feel I kind of messed up act 2 as I stayed the hell away from Moonrise Tower as the game felt to me to be saying not to go there. So I only arrived very late on in the act and it felt kind of out place to have not been there already.

@Thrillho I do agree they narratively speaking, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to even enter Moonrise, much less come and go. So I could see why someone would think that they need to mop up everything else on the map first. But as it turns out, you are free to roam in and out (at least I was) as long as you don’t cause trouble. I think (not confirmed, but I tried it once and decided against it) that you can even fight and kill Moonrise inhabitants, such as in the prison area, and still be accepted to explore around the upper levels. I could be wrong about that though.

The other confusing thing about Act 2 is the link between the Shar temple and Moonrise. You can lock yourself into the end of the Act by completing the Shar storyline stuff. The game does give a warning, but it’s actually counter to what you’d think — you can come and go from Moonrise, but you have to be careful not to finish Shar trials until you’re ready to commit to the ending, which is on the opposite side of the map.

@Th3solution That's cool that the game gives you a warning. I intimidated the prison guard to let me just walk Minthara out but I gathered it wouldn't be smart to try it again with everyone upstairs.
On both my previous playthroughs I took every character to the 'blood vendor' and I'm pretty sure I finished both runs without barely using the special potions you get as I would want to save them for the best time to use them and then forget I had them.
I agree with both @Thrillho and yourself the game doesn't make it too obvious (until Last Light hints at it a bit) that you could freely go there. Most games don't let you just stroll in and out of an enemy stronghold.
I can confirm that you can free the prisoners and kill everyone down there and still come back and wander above. You just have to make sure none of those eyes or any other enemy calls reinforcements. I always take out those eyes first, ideally sneakily before starting combat with the rest. I usually go into turn-based mode somewhere quiet and get one of my strong characters to throw them into the bottomless pits to insta-kill them without anyone seeing.
Similar to the Goblin camp where you can wander freely at first, you often have the ability to kill small groups without alerting the rest as long you close doors and keep fights contained to that area.

Seeing the discussion about the size of Act 3, I would agree it's smaller than Act 1 but bigger than Act 2. I'd say it's closer to the size of 1 than 3 though. With the 2 main areas and also the underground bits, the 'secret' prison and the vast amount of buildings to enter there is a lot of content in Act 3.
With regard to performance there, I did notice some very sluggish bits when I opened the action wheel on my second playthrough that I didn't with my first. After a while though I noticed it mainly occurred when I pressed R1 whilst over an enemy. If I pressed it in a neutral area or over the character in turn it was fine.
One other thing I discovered that helps is not to have to many save files. With too many I find you can get that slow texture load issue but deleting some would resolve it. I like to save frequently (especially on this Tactician run) keeping a few back-ups so every once in a while I'll delete some I no longer need.

@BearsEatBeets Thanks for that info. I’ll have to try deleting some save files. I have over 20 files, I’m sure, and I can probably get by with fewer. I’ll also have to pay attention to the action wheel thing. How about any lagging of the descriptor window when you’re in the character menus or supply menu and hover over an item of equipment? Another time I notice it is random dice rolls where sometimes there’s a small lag after clicking the roll button until the dice animate. Then sometimes they roll immediately.

@Th3solution I forgot about the item menu thing. I only seem to get issues with it when trading. The window displaying info compared to what my character has equipped will sometimes not appear for certain random items but work fine for other things, or appear laggy like you mention. Don't know what causes that or how to help it but I don't get it too often.
It's strange I never experienced that or the action wheel issue on my first playthrough several patches back. I'm guessing all the fixes maybe caused a few minor new issues.

I've not come across any issues with the dice animations on any of my playthroughs though, that's a odd one.

@BearsEatBeets Yes, when trading it’s at its worst with the lagging, or even complete lack of the item window popping up. I have found if you click the R3 to turn the description windows off and then on again then the window will pop up right away. Weird.

Another one that comes to mind is when I separate one or more characters wandering off on their own far away from the group then when I try to switch back to another character in the group it’s a really long black screen pause. So long sometimes that I think the game has crashed. So I avoid getting people too far apart unless I have to.

One of the most annoying glitches though is items in the world, usually it’s one of those underground chests that we discovered and dug up, and the prompt to open it won’t show up even though I’m standing right next to it. I have to run around the chest for a couple minutes until I randomly hit the perfect micro-position where the open prompt pops up and allows me to open it. Sometimes I have to rotate through all my characters trying to get someone for which the game will allow me to open it.

And that’s interesting some of these things weren’t problems before. I suppose every time they add something in a patch update, it can always cause another little bug or glitch. With a game this large they just had to eventually stop trying to patch it and it was never going to run perfectly.

@Th3solution There's a quick fix for the chest issue (I get it all the time too). As soon as you have dug up the chest press L3, this keeps your character still but moves the cursor and it should recognise the chest straight away. Pressing L3 again will return to manually moving your character. I find it handy to help search areas for small things that don't always show up if you are not standing in quite the right spot.
Not sure if this has already been mentioned but while wandering, if all 4 of your group suddenly fail a survival check, you can just pull out your shovel anyway and try digging around. I find it often works first try. I add the shovel to the action wheel as it can happen a lot.

@BearsEatBeets Great advice, both 👍🏼

@Kraven I was wondering how your playthrough was coming along. I saw your comment last weekend in WAYP where you mentioned this playthrough has been really good for you and you were making good progress with your Dwarf monk. Have you reached Act3?

I have just completed Act 2 and so was interested to compare notes. You mentioned you’ve been playing a little more ‘’morally grey’ type of character this time. How’s it going? What kind of issues did you end up with in Act 2? For example did you save Last Light Inn or help Halsin rescue Thaniel? How about the Shar temple, how did you approach that ending? Does your heart still belong to our favorite High-Elf Cleric Shar disciple or have you experimented with romancing someone else?

As for me, I am continuing to have a great time and was surprised how I was able to defeat the final Act 2 boss on my first attempt. I’m a monk as well and I’m really having fun with it. Currently level 9.

@HallowMoonshadow How about you, Foxy? Have you made any more progress in BG3? A few months ago you had finished Act1 and were planning to get back to it later after clearing some other games. Have you caught the BG3 bug again?

Edit: I did see your comment about wanting to jump straight into Hollow Knight Silksong at launch, so I suspect that will dominate your attention. 😄

@Th3solution My playthrough is going quite well; thanks for asking! I’m not in Act 3 yet, but I’ll probably be there by the end of this weekend.

As of right now, I am a level 8 dwarven monk/fighter and it has been a blast. When I play my cards right, I can generally attack 4-5x at once, and typically always retaliate when an enemy misses - and they usually do.

So far, I managed to save the Last Light Inn, but it was a difficult fight in terms of protecting Isobel and not letting her get abducted, but I pulled it off. I also helped Haslin rescue Thaniel without the portal being destroyed. That was rough. I was surprised that Thaniel was actually Oliver - I didn’t put the appearances together, but it makes sense. It’s really cool that Haslin becomes a permanent member of your party - I wasn’t expecting that!

In the House of Healing I managed to convince the nurses to kill each other. That was satisfying. And somehow, I made Malus Thorm kill himself. Also, I persuaded the toll collector, Gerringothe Thorm, in to basically realizing that enough is enough. She dispersed, and I managed to get all the coin littered throughout the building. There was some awesome loot there too! Another quest I did, involving He Who Was, I considered it best to side with him during the process, although he knew by the end of it that I thought he was a freak.

As for the Shar temple, I’m currently working my way through that as we speak. I think I’m midway through. I’m not sure how I’ll approach it, but I’ll more than likely do what I think is best for Shadowheart, and what she wants. My heart will always belong to her, but I won’t lie, Kar’lach’s fiery passion has me tempted. Bad.

That’s awesome you managed to beat the Act 2 boss first try! I’m hoping my breach into Moonrise Tower will be rather successful. I feel like it will be because all of the side quests I’m doing is actually leading me into secret passageways (I think) that will help me rescue people and safely navigate the area as best as I can!

@Kraven Yeah, actually one of the hardest parts to Act 2 for me was saving the Gnomes and Tieflings at Moonrise. I had to reload that part a couple times. I eventually was able to break them out and let them successfully escape and meet them back at Last Light Inn. It was really tricky though, There’s probably an easier way to do it than what I did, and maybe just fighting your way out with them is overall easier, but I wanted to do it stealthily without a fight and was finally able to accomplish it.

All of your playthrough sounds familiar with mine. There’s some great side quests and storylines. You can just mainline it to Moonrise, but there’s so many things to see and do. Sounds like you still have quite a bit to do if you’ve yet to get to Moonrise yet. And yeah, having Halsin in the party is really fun and he has some useful spells and of course his animal forms can be really fun to play with. I just use him part time though, as I find his personality a little dry compared to my preferred party of SH, Karlach, and Gale with occasional Minthara or Lae’Zel thrown in as well.

Are you using Illithid powers?
I’ve consumed a couple of them but haven’t fully committed. I’ve convinced Karlach to be open to the idea but the rest of the party is reluctant to use them.

Unfortunately I haven't touched it since.

As I mentioned in the chat thread I've been in Japan the past month and a half.

And Silksong has got me good right now.

I do plan on getting back to it don't you worry... Just might take a while