Gaming Baldur's Gate III by Larian Studios (PS5, PC, Mac, Xbox Series X|S)

Massive Spanner said:
There’s a specific sneak attack you can use both melee and ranged. Can’t remember the name. You don’t need to be invisible or pre-battle, you just need advantage on the enemy. That could be by being invisible, hiding, having higher ground, being behind them etc.

You can use it throughout the entire fight if you keep positioning your rogue well. Make sure to equip them with stuff that gives Misty Step, Fly, and Invisible as soon as you get them. They’re invaluable for a rogue.
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Ah ok cheers! I’ll try and work that out. I’m definitely not as strategic as I should be.
 
caid said:
A couple of quests have a timed element with going back to camp pushing time forward. But otherwise i try to do it pretty often. A lot of story content is tied to long rests.
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Laurencio said:
In the beginning, never. Most if Act 1 was a slog because of it. By the time I came into the third act, I did so frequently. I ended up long resting after every big boss battle, when I needed to refresh spell slots or very tough encounters.

There are a handful of situations where if you long rest the game world will move on without you, but those scenarios are often triggered by you being told someone is in imminent danger for some reason or other. A good rule of thumb is if you find out someone is about to die or a situation seems like it is extremely urgent it probably isn't wise to long rest.

On the other hand, a bunch of companion quests don't actually progress until you long rest, so you shouldn't be too greedy with it either. A lot of interesting story elements happen in camp.
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Thanks. I'm going to use it more often. My group has been walking around in awful condition because I've been too worried about using it.
 
Solius said:
What’s everyone’s go to moves/spells? I feel like I should mix it up a bit because I found things that work but I might be missing out on other tactics.

With my rogue I usually either do a distance attack or I use double handed melee to hit twice, followed by two off hand attacks.

Shart is used mainly as a healer/bless but also decent at distance and has a bonus action attack that pulls an enemy in with vines.

Karlach/La’zael have solid athleticism and strength so I always have them in the thick of it and often use action surges to get about 5 attacks in for them per turn which is very helpful.

With Wyll I basically spam Eldritch Blast. It’s accurate and can hit twice which is always good but he lacks a good bonus action so I never get to do anything other than shove afterwards.

Gale is out of my party at the min but I do find him a bit weak. I’ve upgraded him to have some fiercer attacks but not used him yet. And Astorian hasn’t been in my party since early Act 1 since my own character is a rogue. I’ll use him more second play through.
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1) Shadowheart - Create Water
2) Tav (who has Lightning Dragon blood and lots of other buffs that make lightning magic absolutely fecking deadly) - Chain Lightning
3) Laugh at all of the charred bodies floating in a sea of sparks
 
Solius said:
What’s everyone’s go to moves/spells? I feel like I should mix it up a bit because I found things that work but I might be missing out on other tactics.

With my rogue I usually either do a distance attack or I use double handed melee to hit twice, followed by two off hand attacks.

Shart is used mainly as a healer/bless but also decent at distance and has a bonus action attack that pulls an enemy in with vines.

Karlach/La’zael have solid athleticism and strength so I always have them in the thick of it and often use action surges to get about 5 attacks in for them per turn which is very helpful.

With Wyll I basically spam Eldritch Blast. It’s accurate and can hit twice which is always good but he lacks a good bonus action so I never get to do anything other than shove afterwards.

Gale is out of my party at the min but I do find him a bit weak. I’ve upgraded him to have some fiercer attacks but not used him yet. And Astorian hasn’t been in my party since early Act 1 since my own character is a rogue. I’ll use him more second play through.
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Warlocks have a level 1 spell called hex that can be cast with a bonus action. Its good.
I wouldn't say i do anything too fancy. If theres casters / archers up on a tower or something i'll probably jump up and shove them down in amongst the rest of the enemies. Things like wall of fire and blade barrier felt very op at times but i was often wary of using them because characters would walk into them after a fight and die or a guard would walk into them and i'd wind up in a fight with the entire city. I used telekinises, shove and throw a lot. I tried to use the environment in terms of exploding barrels or chandeliers and things like that. I'd probably scan around a bit at the start of the fight and examine a couple of enemies to try and get an idea or two.
 
I really want to try an all caster party next. There's so much you could do with that + your sorcerer/warlocks charisma would be great for all the non-combat scenarios. Might be a bit weak at the very begining, but by level 5 they should be absolutely deadly. I found that I relied a lot on the traditional setup the first time out (Tank, Caster, Rogue, Healer), it could be fun having the entire arsenal of spells to play with.
 
Had my second crash. Not sure if this is a widespread issue but very frustrating.

Was in the middle of fighting
That gold thing at the toll house. I’d managed to knock her out of the window and it took off like 500 health, but then the game crashed on me :/
 
Spent over an hour at the camp setting spells, organising inventory and deleting all my radials and tidying them up from scratch.

This is fecking gameplay.
 
Solius said:
Had my second crash. Not sure if this is a widespread issue but very frustrating.

Was in the middle of fighting
That gold thing at the toll house. I’d managed to knock her out of the window and it took off like 500 health, but then the game crashed on me :/
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You talk her into killing herself. Actually, you can convince all three of them to off themselves.
 
This game is really fecking good, huh. Probably the most fun I've had since TW3.
Had a foursome with Shadowheart and some Drow's too. :lol:
 
I think i fecked up my game.
I just killed the Bhaal guy yesterday, and hit lvl 10 after.
Starting to doubt i'll even hit 12 this run, which will make the last fights quite tough.
 
Well into act 2 now and still loving it, but not seen much in the way of NPC's until I got to the first safe area, spent a couple of hours exploring before that I think.

Think I have a team I will stick with of laezel, shart as a paladin, me as a sorcerer and astarion as a rogue, but with levels in other stuff like ranger and maybe fighter. Haven't really had any issues since switching to this.
 
Shane88 said:
I'm torn between her and Lae'zel. This is 2023's Yenn or Triss.

It's early in my game though, my head could be turned by someone else down the road.
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Its funny, I found Laezel annoying from the get-go, then she grew on me immensely and eventually became my ride or die. Testament to the great character development this game has.

I found Shadowheart pretty bland in comparison.
 
pacifictheme said:
Well into act 2 now and still loving it, but not seen much in the way of NPC's until I got to the first safe area, spent a couple of hours exploring before that I think.

Think I have a team I will stick with of laezel, shart as a paladin, me as a sorcerer and astarion as a rogue, but with levels in other stuff like ranger and maybe fighter. Haven't really had any issues since switching to this.
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If you want Astarion to be absolutely beastly, multiclass him as a Rogue(assassin)/Ranger(gloom stalker) and for the final two levels go fighter. He becomes a DPS god that can pretty much solo beefy characters on his first go.
 
Playing this game as a cnut isn't fulfilling, unfortunately. I'm down to Astarion, Minthara and Gale - who is only sticking around because of a charisma check. Everyone else has left because I'm too evil for them, including Shart. I did keep her around but then after Act 2 she said she only wanted to be friends, so I've gone back to a previous save out of spite just to screw her over.

I know that killing everyone in sight or toying with them before sparking them into oblivion is bad for business, but it would have been nice to see some alternative content pop up.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Playing this game as a cnut isn't fulfilling, unfortunately. I'm down to Astarion, Minthara and Gale - who is only sticking around because of a charisma check. Everyone else has left because I'm too evil for them, including Shart. I did keep her around but then after Act 2 she said she only wanted to be friends, so I've gone back to a previous save out of spite just to screw her over.

I know that killing everyone in sight or toying with them before sparking them into oblivion is bad for business, but it would have been nice to see some alternative content pop up.
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Ah that’s a shame. I was looking to play evil second time round.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Playing this game as a cnut isn't fulfilling, unfortunately. I'm down to Astarion, Minthara and Gale - who is only sticking around because of a charisma check. Everyone else has left because I'm too evil for them, including Shart. I did keep her around but then after Act 2 she said she only wanted to be friends, so I've gone back to a previous save out of spite just to screw her over.

I know that killing everyone in sight or toying with them before sparking them into oblivion is bad for business, but it would have been nice to see some alternative content pop up.
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Yeah its one of the few criticisms I have of this game.

In fact the only game I've had a satisfying evil playthrough has been fallout new vegas. Kingdom: Come Deliverance was also pretty damn funny.
 
Solius said:
Ah that’s a shame. I was looking to play evil second time round.
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It's still worth it because there is so much variation but the game just seems severely shorter now because half of the characters who would give me quests are dead :lol: .
 
Kaos said:
Yeah its one of the few criticisms I have of this game.

In fact the only game I've had a satisfying evil playthrough has been fallout new vegas. Kingdom: Come Deliverance was also pretty damn funny.
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You can play K:CD as a cnut?! I might need to go back to that game. I was waiting for the second one where I assume pre-game you lose all of your skills after a night out with an extravagant monk results in blunt force trauma to Henry's skull.
 
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is pretty good for an evil playthrough. Lich was fantastic - up until the final ~10% where it got a bit stupid in places.

As for BG3 I am currently on my own evil playthrough as a Dark Urge BardBarian, Tactician difficulty. Having almost completed an evil run before (I got to early/mid act3 and parked it due to bugs) its true that there is a lot less content compared with a good run. I am also mildly disappointed by how few Dark Urge moments I have had so far. Hoping act 3 will have more though.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever played (maybe played but never liked?) a CRPG but with all the noise surrounding it, it just feels like something I’ll fall in love with - hoping that is the case. The only issue that with games that are rated this highly (same with Elden Ring) their prices never fecking drop so may be a long while for me.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
It's still worth it because there is so much variation but the game just seems severely shorter now because half of the characters who would give me quests are dead :lol: .
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Yeah, that's what i wrote in my previous post. I am just lvl 10, and i am not many big fights away from brain boy.
Shadowheart left me too, because she didn't get to go to her temple, so i have the same companions as you, plus Jaheira, she joined after most of my evil stuff.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
Playing this game as a cnut isn't fulfilling, unfortunately. I'm down to Astarion, Minthara and Gale - who is only sticking around because of a charisma check. Everyone else has left because I'm too evil for them, including Shart. I did keep her around but then after Act 2 she said she only wanted to be friends, so I've gone back to a previous save out of spite just to screw her over.

I know that killing everyone in sight or toying with them before sparking them into oblivion is bad for business, but it would have been nice to see some alternative content pop up.
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On my moustache twirlingly evil cnut save, Shadowheart was just as evil as my character and had max approval where even Minthara was like "steady now" with some of the evil goings on.

If you go full evil with Shadowheart, she fully devotes to Shar, becomes a dark justiciar, eventually becomes leader of the Sharrans, murders her parents, murders Nightsong (daughter of Selune), defiles a shrine of Selune with Nightsong's blood and fecks you in front of it.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
It's still worth it because there is so much variation but the game just seems severely shorter now because half of the characters who would give me quests are dead :lol: .
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I did laugh at the 'party' at the end of act 2. Halsin hiding in a corner on his own vs about 40 random people in a good playthrough.
I managed to keep most of the allies somehow. Gotten a quest update that halsin has left my group about 5 times but hes still there.
 
caid said:
I did laugh at the 'party' at the end of act 2. Halsin hiding in a corner on his own vs about 40 random people in a good playthrough.
I managed to keep most of the allies somehow. Gotten a quest update that halsin has left my group about 5 times but hes still there.
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If Halsin is even alive, you're not doing an evil playthrough!
 
Mr Pigeon said:
You can play K:CD as a cnut?! I might need to go back to that game. I was waiting for the second one where I assume pre-game you lose all of your skills after a night out with an extravagant monk results in blunt force trauma to Henry's skull.
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There's no morality system, it's just hilarious being an absolute cnut. I especially loved being able to murder all my friends after being reuinted with them later in the game, and cheating everyone I meet.
 
Kaos said:
There's no morality system, it's just hilarious being an absolute cnut. I especially loved being able to murder all my friends after being reuinted with them later in the game, and cheating everyone I meet.
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Name checks out.
 
V.O. said:
If Halsin is even alive, you're not doing an evil playthrough!
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Yeah, that choice didn't really work out. I wanted to take the grove for the shadow druids but Kagha just wouldn't take my help, so i killed her. Stole the druid idol thing which made the druids run around murdering theiflings, so there wasn't much druid grove left to raid by the time i got to goblin camp to be honest. I poisoned the goblins at the party because you can, tried to get priestess gut to help me but was playing a drow so i was immune to sleep and she just attacked me, so i killed her. Got caught stealing dror ragzlin's stuff, so i killed him. Told Minthara where the druids were because raiding the grove for a weapon i had in my back pocket seemed funny. I chickened out at the last minute basically. I'd been using Wyll and Karlach a lot because i hadn't used them much in my first playthrough and still had halsin (thought he might enjoy the raid). Getting minthara to charge into a minefield to attack an army of druids (hopefully killing a few in the process) felt evil enough.
The only things left alive at the end of act 1 for me were the goblin sazza (busy cowering in a corner while her mates died after dror ragzlin), the zentharim at the goblin camp (took off before the murder spree), Halsin and a couple of other druids. And the pit spiders, they did good work for me. Evil plant and some druegar mercs survived my visit to the underdark.
I was going to try and keep Jaheira in Act 2 and probably could have but kind of killed her on a whim. I guess she would have found out about me murdering isobel sooner or later.
I've just reached Lower City in Act 3 and hit level 11. I'm currently sleeping with all of Karlach, Lae'zel, Halsin and Mizora. Shart dumped me. Astarian is strangely grumpy with me. Gale's hand remains in camp storage if he ever shows up (pretty safe to say he wont at this point)

I have another playthrough near the end of act 1 where i did the more traditional thing but thats basically stuck on a save with me in combat with Scratch who i refuse to hurt.
 
Yeah I heard the evil playthrough is very unfulfilling and half cooked compared to the good one. Pretty sure it was the same in Divinity 2 at launch and they made a lot of changes for the definitive edition.

that said, dark urge sounds fun, and there’s so much variation anyway depending on the race, background, and class you pick that every playthrough seems to go completely different anyway. There were loads of choices or missed checks in my game I could’ve made really different. But it does seem like siding with the goblin camp is overly restrictive.
 
I accidentally pissed off the dog in Act 1 but went non lethal to just knock it out. Never saw it again.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Yeah I heard the evil playthrough is very unfulfilling and half cooked compared to the good one. Pretty sure it was the same in Divinity 2 at launch and they made a lot of changes for the definitive edition.

that said, dark urge sounds fun, and there’s so much variation anyway depending on the race background, and class you pick that every playthrough seems to go completely different anyway. There were loads of choices in my game I could’ve made really different. But it does seem like siding with the goblin camp is overly restrictive.
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From what i've seen on Reddit, playing a good durge seems to be the "best" choice, aparantly that has something to do with the first BG games.
Have no clue about those, or how playing durge works, but i am considering being a good durge pally on my next playthrough.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Yeah I heard the evil playthrough is very unfulfilling and half cooked compared to the good one. Pretty sure it was the same in Divinity 2 at launch and they made a lot of changes for the definitive edition.

that said, dark urge sounds fun, and there’s so much variation anyway depending on the race background, and class you pick that every playthrough seems to go completely different anyway. There were loads of choices in my game I could’ve made really different. But it does seem like siding with the goblin camp is overly restrictive.
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I think the evil playthrough involves killing everything you meet without exception. The world being a bit bare afterwards seems appropriate. I'm not sure its meant to be fulfilling. Mind you i get that thats a worse experience than the alternative.
 
Grylte said:
From what i've seen on Reddit, playing a good durge seems to be the "best" choice, aparantly that has something to do with the first BG games.
Have no clue about those, or how playing durge works, but i am considering being a good durge pally on my next playthrough.
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First playthrough was as a good durge. Had no idea what it was when i started just thought i'd try it. Its definitely worth playing
 
caid said:
I think the evil playthrough involves killing everything you meet without exception. The world being a bit bare afterwards seems appropriate. I'm not sure its meant to be fulfilling. Mind you i get that thats a worse experience than the alternative.
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Yeah I guess so. I think stuff like siding with the goblin camp over the tieflings shouldn’t be so restrictive though. That’s a legit choice the game forces you to make as a pivotal one so it doesn’t really make sense that one locks you out of so much content vs the other.
 
Solius said:
I accidentally pissed off the dog in Act 1 but went non lethal to just knock it out. Never saw it again.
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I avoided his little corner of the map for all of act 1 on my evil playthrough. Picked him up just at the end.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Yeah I guess so. I think stuff like siding with the goblin camp over the tieflings shouldn’t be so restrictive though. That’s a legit choice the game forces you to make as a pivotal one so it doesn’t really make sense that one locks you out of so much content vs the other.
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More goblin content in later acts would be nice
 
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