Baldur's Gate 3 announced

[Tamas]

What I can say is that normal difficulty does NOT need min-maxing. If you don't min-max you can have very nice combats right at the difficulty I like - you must use basic tactics, for harder fights utilise terrain even, definitely scrolls and potions and such, but if you put the effort you'll win, if you half-ass it you will still survive, except big fights / bosses. Which is exactly how I like my RPGs.

As I mentioned I am running the basic party I learned from my AD&D days - a fighter, a rogue, a wizard, and a cleric. At level 12 I am finding my fighter (a Champion) (the lizard-y lady) an absolute beast, kitted out in heavy armour and shield but otherwise specced for damage, she is the bulwark of the party. The wizard (my PC) is a DPS machine as it should be and shares minimal crowd-control spells with the cleric, who is the healing machine. The rogue I have turned into a pretty good archer, but his main role is to deal with traps and doors, if that wasn't needed I'd have a second fighter or mage. I am fairly sure I could do much better with the rogue if I micro-managed its sneaking around and stuff.

EDIT: it does NOT need minmaxing

[HVC]

Yup I found him. Went to the ruins with two wizards, a cleric, and a rouge. Probably would have been easier if I found laezal first

My PC is a sorcerer, and I have Gale, the rogue and cleric.  I like that mix.  Two spell casters add a lot of firepower. 

The thing for you to think about is who will best do your dialogue for the persuasion checks. 

If you want to stay with two casters in the party, think of going with the Sorcerer or Wyll the Warlock (or roll your own Warlock).

No need to have a dedicated front line melee character if you don't want one.

Right now going with asterian, laezal, and shadow heart. I let Asturias lie for me a lot . Mainly because I like his dialogue At higher levels I might sub gale in once I can differentiate the two wizards more.

[Grey Fox]

I'd like to read/see a Barb play-through.

[Zanza]

I somehow lack creativity to utilize all the cool ways you can succeed in fights and other challenges in this game. It's amazing how alive the environment is and how diverse the items and skills are.

Currently playing as a fairly vanilla Paladin with Shadowheart, Astarion and Gale. But that standard party is fun nevertheless. But I guess I will replay the game eventually, maybe as an evil character or playing with Dark Urge.

[Sophie Scholl]

I just read through  list of cut content and it breaks my heart how much didn't make it in-game. It also blows my mind with how much *did* still make it in. I restarted (for like the 7th time XD )and I'm currently playing as a High Elf Cleric with a re-specced Shadowheart (now a rogue), Karlach, and Wyll in my party with me. I really, really wish you could have just one more companion as I'd love to add Gale for additional firepower and to unite all of the, more or less, "good" characters in a party.

[Valmy]

I wish you could have 6 in your group. It just kills you can't.

[Sophie Scholl]

Definitely. I'd love to be able to have more in the party. It just feels like you *have* to have certain classes. Which is... annoying. Like, I'd love to play a paladin, but I also don't see what class I could move Karlach to that would make sense from an rp standpoint (I know, personal problem  ). I switched Shadowheart to rogue as I could mentally justify it in terms of her character, Shar being all about darkness and shadows and her having that weird artifact.

[Syt]

I've made it throught he initial old ruins and have entered the Grove.

Not been playing much, because with the heat atm it feels a bit intricate to focus on. Instead I've been playing Dorfromantik while watching a terrible (and terribly entertaining) skeptic podcast about weird phenomena most of the weekend.

I will say I'm quite impressed by the character animations. Coming from BG2 where you have pre-rendered cutscenes with characters seem to move way too much (which was probably just the artists at the time showing off and impressing players) I notice small changes in facial expressions, gestures and movements. It's a bit like what first struck me about Mass Effect 1 & 2's animations during cutscenes (and which made it hard for me to get into the more dated looking Dragon Age Origins which came out around the same time as ME2 and seemed technically quite dated by comparison - something that I softened on when I played it properly years later).

[HVC]

Going by CC suggestion I made a warlock. He's fun. Urchin so can pick locks and sneak. He's a mix of rouge, warrior, and wizard (of sorts). Just hit level three at the end of my day. Trying to decide between having a pet or magical weapon.

[Solmyr]

If you want a bigger party, then this mod works pretty well: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/327

You don't need to use the exe tweak if you don't play multiplayer, just put the mod into the installation Mods folder.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've been doing what I often do with these games, which is start a bunch of different characters and run through the first few hours trying to figure what to go with.  Monk and storm sorcerer have been faves so far, but I think I've settled on running with my College of Lore Bard.  Takes care of pretty much all the skill checks singlehandedly plus full casting plus a ton of useful support abilities.  Currently with Laezel, Wyll, Shadowheart.  Not sure if optimal but Shadowheart seems essential (cleric kit too good to go without) and the repartee between Wyll and Laezel is hilarious. 

[Valmy]

If you want a bigger party, then this mod works pretty well: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/327

You don't need to use the exe tweak if you don't play multiplayer, just put the mod into the installation Mods folder.

I'll think about it. The problem with such a brute force solution is I am pretty sure the game is balanced and designed for four characters.

When they reduced the character count from 8 in the old AD&D video games to 6 in Baldur's Gate it was annoying, I gotten used to 8 being the number (granted it was 6 PCs plus two NPCs you would recruit). But it was workable, you could still cover your base needs and had a few spots to experiment a bit with different combinations. But 4?

Maybe this is just a matter of different editions of D&D. In the early days I think it was assumed you would have a large number of players at the table.

The original Ravenloft module called for 6-8 players + DM:



While Curse of Strahd, in 5th Edition, is for 4-6 Players.

So maybe back in first edition the ideal party was 8, but now it is 4 and that is why the PCs are all super heroes now.

[The Minsky Moment]

The focus of old school 1e was treasure hunting and resource management.  Battling monsters, while unavoidable, was not the point; wandering monsters in particular were an evil to be avoided if possible. Dungeons had to be explored in multiple trips to refit, replenish rations and supplies, replace dead hirelings.  Tenser's floating disk, a spell rarely if ever implemented in a Crpg, was an essential utility, because you needed some way to haul out the masses of cheap copper and silver coins that made up the bulk of found treasure, coins you needed to hire and replace the hirelings and henchmen you needed to keep your fragile low-to-mid level crew alive.

That model doesn't translate that cleanly to a cprg nor does it attract a mass gaming audience as easily as heroic epic fantasy.  For the latter, the squishiness and weakness of 1-3 level AD&D characters is a bug not feature.  Knowing that a stray orc arrow could take out any 1st level PC at any time encourages a certain style of play not conducive to what CRPG designers are trying to do.  That's what the roguelike category is for.

I like what I've seen of the 5e rules, I think it captures much of the essential "soul" of AD&D.  But if we are being honest, there is a lot of 4e in substance that has been nicely dressed up.  Each class core has a series of things it can do constantly, such as cantrips or extra attacks; things it can do X time per short rest, and abilities that require long rest, mirroring the at will, encounter, and daily division of 4e powers; there is also a discernible distinction of  utility and combat abilities.  5e does a much better job of packaging the schema in a more immersive way, but the substance at its core is easy to see.

[Valmy]

Sure and that works better for a CRPG I guess. I just don't like that for my TTRPG games. I want my characters squishy and players terrified. I like 2nd Edition much better.

One thing more CRPG centric I have noticed is that in many ways BG3 is a step back to 2000s. We have a silent protagonist, we have more generic conversation animations. It isn't really cinematic outside of a few cutscenes. And you know what? Nobody really gives a shit. I hope other RPG studios take notice that the sacrifices to gameplay that were made to have a fully voiced protagonist and cinematic everything were wasted resources.

Players want more options, more gameplay, you can save that money for the fully voiced protagonist and the cinematic conversations.

[Solmyr]

Sure and that works better for a CRPG I guess. I just don't like that for my TTRPG games. I want my characters squishy and players terrified.

You'll probably want Warhammer or Call of Cthulhu then. Even in AD&D 2e, once the characters got over those first few levels, they'd become virtually unstoppable (in 2e, spellcasters more than anyone else).