Baldur's Gate III Announced - ...and it's coming to Google Stadia and PC

[Male Idiot]

You can take a romanced Astarion down into the underdark. Though imagine if your drowette or druegardess brought home a vamp lol.

You can also choose to basically do his Cazador stuff yourself with Minty and take over the city. Or return to the Underdark.

 

[The Fair Lady]

Actually, he outright states he's an adventurer at that point. Paraphrased, "Turns out murder is legal, so long it's the right kind of people." and "It's nice to not be feared. Well, a little fear still."

As for the 7000 spawns you released, you do get a letter from Sebastian in the epilogue describing what happened. As expected, a majority probably died in the Underdark. The few that survived eventually fell under "control" of the other six named spawn. They seemed thankful, at least.

Yes, I know, I did not get the scene myself because I romanced him so I was speaking from what I’d glimpsed online.

Also can’t directly reply so

Prior to knowing how bad Astarion gets post-ritual, Ascending seemed like the lesser of two evils, because it is dealing with one vamp (you think) you know vs literally thousands you don't.

I can understand your logic and it’s fair, they are strangers to you. That said, the other spawn may not all be innocent, but it’s natural that players would want to give them a chance at living freely despite the risks, the same as Astarion. Cheeseknife already explained this better but I just wanted to add in my last two cents.

 

[Right To Bear Blarms]

Finished my honor mode run over the weekend which was also my first time completing the game.

The game has the usual RPG problem where the difficulty is extremely front loaded. If you end up fighting the Githyanki patrol in Act 1 it's gg but once you hit level 5, the enemies never really catch up. The legendary actions that Act 1 bosses have are also particularly brutal considering how weak you are: the second owlbear, the spider queen doing 40 damage every time you kill a little spider, and the fucking inquisitor especially. The only one that comes close (probably never saw half of them due to every Act 2&3 just dying in 1-2 turns) is dueling Orin as durge and her LA doing 250 damage as a reaction..

So much of Act 3 feels like a massive slog. You hit level cap like 10% of the way through and then you're just stuck in fights against 30 guys constantly who just dash around and do nothing or spam Darkness, Invisibility, or Sanctuary to make every encounter take 30 minutes. The House of Grief was absolute mega shit. And what's the reward for recruiting all these groups to your cause? You get the privilege of wasting your actions during the final battle to summon clowns who either die before they get their first turn or just use Dash to immediately run into the closest dragon or group of mind flayers.

 

[Cheeseknife]

House of Hope on Honor Mode wasn't so difficult. I feel like, at max level, things are still a bit too trivial even on higher difficulties. Unfortunately, the damage I did to Raphy early in the game didn't carry over to this fight. He still entered the fight with a full health bar. I accidentally killed Korilla too. I didn't realize she was in range of a Mind Blast.

Also discovered the hard way that Balduran's helmet doesn't protect you from Raphy's stun:

 

[Male Idiot]

A level 20 mod helps a lot with act3.

 

[Soylent Dora]

So much of Act 3 feels like a massive slog. You hit level cap like 10% of the way through and then you're just stuck in fights against 30 guys constantly who just dash around and do nothing or spam Darkness, Invisibility, or Sanctuary to make every encounter take 30 minutes.

I feel the same way. Not gaining any more levels so early in Act 3 does make it feel a bit pointless to keep going. I do love the story, but I love leveling up and fleshing out my build with more gear. It ends up (for me) trying to figure out what I need to do first for my build so I can get the max use out of the equipment.

A level 20 mod helps a lot with act3.

How does this fit into the game? Does it break it at all? Make the scaling ridiculous?

 

[Male Idiot]

I feel the same way. Not gaining any more levels so early in Act 3 does make it feel a bit pointless to keep going. I do love the story, but I love leveling up and fleshing out my build with more gear. It ends up (for me) trying to figure out what I need to do first for my build so I can get the max use out of the equipment.



How does this fit into the game? Does it break it at all? Make the scaling ridiculous?

Not from what I can tell but I played story and normal only. I am no dnd-fu expert.

 

[Cheeseknife]

This ended the fight early. Lorroakan turned into a pile of ash for a quick moment before changing back into a corpse. Not sure why the game did that. And, no, it wasn't for the cutscene where Aylin breaks his back, that cutscene was skipped entirely. Not complaining though.

 

[The Fair Lady]

Is there an official reason they made the level cap so low? You’d think they would’ve at least waited for the last stretch of Act 3 to cut you off. It’s so weird and frustrating to see useless exp pop up after you’ve hit level 12.

 

[TragicTiming]

Is there an official reason they made the level cap so low? You’d think they would’ve at least waited for the last stretch of Act 3 to cut you off. It’s so weird and frustrating to see useless exp pop up after you’ve hit level 12.

I think its due to how much insane shit Wizards and other magical classes get at level 13 and beyond. Level 13 opens up your first 7th level spell slot which gets you things like simulacrum which would be interesting to see, to say the least.

 

[Cheeseknife]

Viconia landed in a very awkward position.

So, this is the bug I encountered last time. If you talk with Viconia after knocking her out, she treats you like you're Tav.

"Shadowheart, go bring yourself back to me!"

Also, Shart fell through the stairs somehow. Was fortunate this didn't end my run.

 

[ZMOT]

Is there an official reason they made the level cap so low? You’d think they would’ve at least waited for the last stretch of Act 3 to cut you off. It’s so weird and frustrating to see useless exp pop up after you’ve hit level 12.

it's build on 5e which starts to massively suck start donkey dick around that level which can't be fixed with a simple homebrew.

 

[Cheeseknife]

Yes, I know, I did not get the scene myself because I romanced him so I was speaking from what I’d glimpsed online.

Also can’t directly reply so

I can understand your logic and it’s fair, they are strangers to you. That said, the other spawn may not all be innocent, but it’s natural that players would want to give them a chance at living freely despite the risks, the same as Astarion. Cheeseknife already explained this better but I just wanted to add in my last two cents.

 

[Kane Lives]

I think its due to how much insane shit Wizards and other magical classes get at level 13 and beyond. Level 13 opens up your first 7th level spell slot which gets you things like simulacrum which would be interesting to see, to say the least.

Aye. To give you a glimpse of what fuckery 7th levels could do, per 5e PHB alone:
Plane Shift, basically teleports you and your party to another plane of existence entirely
Mirage Arcane, basically the Sunlit Wetland spell/glamour, where you make an entire area look like another thing entirely.
Teleport. Think of all those waypoint sigils you have. Now imagine you can simply teleport yourself right into a boss room with just this spell.

Mind, Larian could just cut all these spells and leave us with just the direct damage ones, but it'd leave quite a bit of schools hollow (Conjuration mainly, but Transmutation has a lot of these fuckery too)

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

Ascended Astarion is bad because:

1. Killing others solely to benefit yourself is evil.
2. Justifying it by saying they're better off dead is dishonest.

"Good" Astarion still brutally murders Cazador in the most unsettling and visceral scene I've yet encountered in the game, so it's not like he doesn't get what he originally wanted.

View attachment 5646180
Viconia landed in a very awkward position.

View attachment 5646183View attachment 5646196
So, this is the bug I encountered last time. If you talk with Viconia after knocking her out, she treats you like you're Tav.

View attachment 5646186
"Shadowheart, go bring yourself back to me!"

View attachment 5646190
Also, Shart fell through the stairs somehow. Was fortunate this didn't end my run.

Is this whole area bugged? My experience after killing Viconia involved her coming back to life and looping through her pre-battle dialogue. I blasted her corpse a few times and she stayed dead. Was glad I didn't have to repeat that fight.

I was expecting Shadowheart's little tranny friend Nocturne to become a camp follower, but nope, guess they weren't as close as they claimed to be.

 

[Neurotic]

View attachment 5646830

Sometimes none of the dialogue choices hit quite right for the character, so you have to pick "close enough" and imagine it being said through gritted teeth.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

They changed Gortash's letters to Franc Peartree to remove the gayness and people are butthurt.

New:
View attachment 5640462
View attachment 5640463

Old:
View attachment 5640464
View attachment 5640466

Salt:
View attachment 5640489
View attachment 5640490
View attachment 5640492
View attachment 5640495

See, to me this strikes me as less "removing gayness" than "removing retardation." I know this isn't a realistic setting, but even still someone like Gortash, who's presenting as a law-and-order type, wouldn't be so stupid as to write to someone who isn't even a firm ally saying things like "I AM AN EVIL PERSON AND WANT TO SOW CHAOS." He'd be more politic, like in the revised letters.

 

[Cheeseknife]

Is this whole area bugged? My experience after killing Viconia involved her coming back to life and looping through her pre-battle dialogue. I blasted her corpse a few times and she stayed dead. Was glad I didn't have to repeat that fight.

I was expecting Shadowheart's little tranny friend Nocturne to become a camp follower, but nope, guess they weren't as close as they claimed to be.

Seems to be after the most recent hotfixes. It's a shame because I was hoping there'd be something unique for a Shart Origin playthough, but I guess I'll have to miss out. I'm running "no alphabets" so Nocturne is still a guy, fully voiced by an AI. You can actually tell, though, the mod doesn't do a very good job with it. Still, better than the tranny.

 

[Right To Bear Blarms]

Is there an official reason they made the level cap so low? You’d think they would’ve at least waited for the last stretch of Act 3 to cut you off. It’s so weird and frustrating to see useless exp pop up after you’ve hit level 12.

Like others mentioned with the spells, the action economy just swings wildly in the favor of players and to make encounters last more than one turn they would need to be made tedious as fuck.
The game already does this with the amount Sanctuary and Darkness in Act 3 but every fight would have to have 4 guys spamming Dominate Person or other CC to keep at least one of your characters out of the fight every turn. My MC was asleep for the entire duration of the Cazador fight but even with 3 characters he was dead before being able to start the ritual. Every humanoid boss would have to be immune to prone and all mental effects so that they got even a single turn in a 3 round fight. 5e just becomes catastrophically unfun at 13 and beyond and you can already start to see it at 12.
Even the harder optional bosses like Raphael and Ansur are just going in there and casting Globe of Invulnerability, Planar Binding or Hold Monster respectively, and then just mopping up.

EDIT:
On top of all that, you can already have a Light Cleric at your camp give your entire party Heroes Feast, Freedom of Movement, Aid, and Longstrider every day. So not only are you shitting on everything in one turn you're now immune to: fear, paralyze, poison, difficult terrain, and disease. While also having: 35 extra health on everyone, advantage on all wisdom saves, and practically limitless movement (God forbid anyone in your party is half illithid so they just fly anywhere for free).

 

[Mega Black]

Good" Astarion still brutally murders Cazador in the most unsettling and visceral scene I've yet encountered in the game, so it's not like he doesn't get what he originally wanted.

You felt like it was unsettling? I thought it was pretty cathartic.

Hate the faggot all you want but honestly his VA deserved that award. The crying scream he unleashes after killing Cazadore is on point.