@CactuarJoe@meredeth I'm tempted to try it on my M1 MacBook Air since it sounds like it might actually work and I am excited by the novelty of a game that will work on Mac that's not a charming 2.5D indie, but I have so many games I need to play right now.
What kind of character should I play? I was thinking Paladin but I gather that's the most popular class choice and I'm a contrarian. Rogue? Bard? Something weirder? #BaldursGate3
There we go. I'll be going for a more physically offensive Druid build, so she's a former soldier who deserted and went into the wilds. She's practical, experienced, and a bit of a buzzkill. Maybe having a tadpole in her head will teach her to relax <3 #BaldursGate3
I like all the options you get in combat that aren't just "attack". The Pathfinder game I just finished seems pretty limited in comparison. #BaldursGate3
Okay, well, that was a couple hours. Initial impressions: This game runs so much better on my potato than I was expecting. Seriously, I've played games with lower requirements that looked worse, I'm very, very impressed.
It's also a lot better organized and balanced than Pathfinder: WotR was. It's pretty easy to wander into encounters above your level in BG3, but the actual intended-for-your-level encounters have been very fair so far. #BaldursGate3
One thing keeps tripping me up -- In BG3, "skip your turn" is the Y button on my controller. In Pathfinder, the Y button was "open the menu." I have had a couple, shall we say, reflexive accidents in combat :P #BaldursGate3
...I'm probably gonna be comparing this game to Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous a lot. WotR was the first tabletop-based game I'd finished since the first Neverwinter Nights game like a decade ago, so it's gonna be a point of reference for me. #BaldursGate3
Anyway, cast is looking pretty interesting so far, visuals are good, interface... I wish the "highlight interactables" button was a toggle rather than a press, and I can see organizing my quickslots is gonna be a pain, but other than that it's looking pretty good. #BaldursGate3
The downside of not knowing much about this system right now -- I had no idea the goblins might surrender if you took out the leader. I spent most of the fight picking off higher-damage attackers and healers. That fight was a lot harder for me than it had to be :P #BaldursGate3
Man, encounters in this game have a tendency to escalate pretty seriously. Think I might need to back up, see if I've missed something. Feels like I've fallen behind already. #BaldursGate3
Think I might restart as a Rogue. I'm reminded that I rolled like three different characters in Pathfinder before I found one that I liked :P #BaldursGate3
Oh, also, the Rogue. A Halfling Rogue! She abandoned a boring life as a weaver in a Baldurian shop in search of fun and adventure! She's a smartass :D #BaldursGate3
The stealth approach is pretty fun, actually :D In that battle against the thieves in the chapel basement I was able to sneak attack three of them to death, then used the explosive barrel on the others :D #BaldursGate3
...Gale died in a fight and then his spectral self appeared and subjected me to a Magic Tech Support Call ._.;
I like the guy but if the party member with the lowest HP is gonna turn into a necrotic bomb every time he trips and bangs his head, I may have to find another wizard >_> #BaldursGate3
Aw bummer you can't change the appearance of hired characters. I was hoping to do a #DungeonMeshi run later :P Oh well, maybe there's a mod. #BaldursGate3
Did some general poking about in the Goblin Camp, trying to decide on a strategy. Bluffing my way in is probably safest, but I hate to have these critters think I agree with them on anything >_> #BaldursGate3
I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out who in my party does the actual cooking at camp. Right now my best guess is Wyll. A solid cook, but unbearable to be around while he's working. You like that recipe? Let me spend five hours telling the story of where and how I learned it :P #BaldursGate3
Astarion obviously doesn't cook. Shadowheart MIGHT but I suspect she eats out more than she cooks. Gale seems like the kind of guy who gets mad that he has to actually eat to not die. And Lae'zel... Do the Githyanki eat bugs? They seem like they'd eat bugs. #BaldursGate3
My favorite kind of comment thread to read when I start a new game is one of those "What part of [game] did you discover embarassingly late" threads.
I had no idea you could use potions as multitarget heals by throwing them at party members standing in a given area. Apparently you can pick up bodies and use them as improvised weapons. Arrows can flip levers from across the room. If you drop a poison bottle in camp it'll stay until you rest and you can repeatedly dip your weapons. #BaldursGate3
Also I got a critical success on an Athletics check with my Halfling Rogue and the cutscene showed her kicking double doors off their hinges and I can't stop thinking about it and laughing :3 #BaldursGate3
Me: Yes I know Lae'zel is overbearing and rude and kind of an asshole, but I'm sure once we meet other Githyanki it'll turn out they're not all like that.
Finished the Sussur Bark weapon sidequest, went for the dagger. Once it gets outclassed damage-wise I can throw it at people to shut them up :D #BaldursGate3
Now that I'm Lv. 6, I feel like I'm starting to get a handle on things. The early game was a lot harder than where I am right now. Something #BaldursGate3 has in common with #Pathfinder WotR.
I got Nere out of the cave-in and told him the Myconid Sovereign wanted his head and he was like "you're here to kill me on the orders of a mushroom" and I was like, well if I wasn't before I am now, you made it sound fucking awesome :D #BaldursGate3
Drown are like... if there was an entire society based around tying girls to railroad tracks. Made up entirely of guys with waxed handlebar moustaches, with a religion and hierarchy based around moustache-twirling. Led by the goddess of tying girls to railroad tracks. #BaldursGate3
He actually wasn't too bad. Knowing I needed Bludgeoning damage in advance was the key, I buffed Karlach into the stratosphere and went to town. Didn't even have to use the hammer platform ^^ #BaldursGate3
I'm sorry, Mystra wants Gale to suicide bomb the Absolute? I knew they were divorced I didn't know they were THAT divorced, jesus tap dancing christ #BaldursGate3
I will say, though, it's nice to run into an Unreconstructed Classic Mage, funny hat and beard and all. It's also nice to have a character like that and not have some obnoxious self-referential "we know he looks dumb" wink-wink at the audience quip along with him. They played that scene sincerely and I genuinely appreciate that. #BaldursGate3
In general the AI in #BaldursGate3 isn't bad, but I do wish I could encourage NPC allies to focus on a single target rather than taking potshots at whoever is closest.
It occurs to me that you could do an all-Druid run through #BaldursGate3 without respeccing anyone. You can recruit two Druids, BE a Druid, and then use the Druid hireling. Too bad there are only three Druid subclasses, you'd have to double up on one subclass.
I guess you could do two Circle of Spores, one as a Symbiotic Entity tank and one as a Druid/Necro. Or I think you might be able to do an offensive caster/healer pair with Circle of the Land. Either way, it could work :D #BaldursGate3
I've run around with most of my party members enough that half of them are inviting me off for a romantic evening. It's depressing having to reject so many of them ^^; #BaldursGate3
Y'know, I may have to apologize for giggling a bit at the Owlbear in the D&D movie. Wildshaping into an Owlbear DOES actually solve most of your problems.
Especially when it has the ability to leap halfway across the battlefield in a single move and land with an attack that knocks enemies down. That's hot. #BaldursGate3
Raphael and I really have a very Q/Picard relationship. He shows up, I sigh, he quotes poetry at me, I tell him to cut to the chase. Knew I shoulda made a bald black guy instead, coulda punched him in the nose and been done with it :P #BaldursGate3
Besides, I'm playing a Rogue, prison breaks are totally my character's idiom. Just 'cos I completed it by slaughtering all the guards FIRST and THEN opening the cells, it doesn't mean anything. #BaldursGate3
The more you learn about their backstory, the more hilarious the rivalry between Lae'zel and Shadowheart becomes :D
"Oh, YOU grew up in a religious cult that controlled your every move and tried to mold you into something against your nature? Well I grew up in a MILITARY cult that controlled my every move and tried to mold me into something against my nature. We're totally different!"
Karlach continues to be an absolute menace. With an Elixir of Bloodlust, if she kills an opponent on her turn she can attack up to FIVE TIMES. I gave her the Boots of Speed, too, so she's zipping all over the battlefield picking people off. It's great :D #BaldursGate3
It must be exhausting to be evil. Imagine trying to put together a plan -- for LUNCH, hell, let alone a world domination plot -- with a reasonable chance of success when everyone from the lowest goblin to the second in command thinks THEY should be running things. And they keep KILLING each other trying to do it! You arrive at your conquest target with half the men you started with! Because every Private has been trying to kill their Sargent! No wonder so many Dark Lords go mad. #BaldursGate3
I think I'm gonna respec Shadowheart. Not just for plot reasons, but I'm finding Trickery Domain Cleric to be... Lackluster. In a lotta ways. I really need a healer and buffer, and I'm using almost none of the Domain spells. Though I will admit Dimension Door saved my ass in that last fight. #BaldursGate3
One thing I wish this game had -- a "let me get into your inventory" option for party members not currently in the active party. I forgot who had the Amulet of Speak With Dead and had to disappoint a bunch of my companions by adding and then removing them from my party >_> #BaldursGate3
Man. I made it to Baldur's Gate proper. It's full of cops, conservatives, and robots. The people I LIKE are arguing between nonviolent resistance and EXTREMELY violent resistance. I'm being followed by a shapeshifter who keeps threatening my life.
I'm enjoying The Emperor as a character, he's far more complex than I expected. I do think a lot of what he tells you about himself is, at least in part, manipulation, but a lot of it is honest, too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the honest stuff is manipulation, and vice versa. #BaldursGate3
I wonder if The Emperor notices how... smoothly he steps into the shoes of a ruler. His life in Baldur's Gate was a co-ruler in all but name, but he talks about it like a summer fling.
In some ways, he's not all that different from Gortash, though I think he'd take great offense at the idea. #BaldursGate3
A lot of the conflict in him comes from the fact that he's a member of an inherently tyrannical race -- the illithid's very lifecyle is based around the theft of memories and the imprisonment of thought -- who values freedom so very highly.
I really want to know what would happen if he were forced to make a choice between HIS freedom and the freedom of OTHERS. I don't see him as being particularly altruistic, soooo #BaldursGate3
Weird thing about Act 3 of this game is all the little unfinished plot hooks you can see laid bare. NPCs referencing things that are obvious quest branches, except those quests don't exist. You can wander upon a murder scene with two men comforting a child whose parents were just killed -- but it doesn't lead to anything. Hell, you can find two unique pieces of Infernal metal for Karlach, but they don't do anything. It really stands out, given how complete the first 2 acts felt.
The fun thing about #BaldursGate3 is that you can blow up a fireworks shop and a robot will arrest you for trying to pick something up off the counter.
Like, c'mon Pinocchio I just threw a Fireball at the Whizzy Twizzlers. This is grievous bodily harm AT LEAST. And the guy was an asshole, so malice aforethought! Give me a little credit.
Ugh, I accidentally blew up an exploding barrel and that flipped a switch and killed half the prisoners I was trying to save from the Iron Throne :/ I feel bad about that, but I did save half of them, and that's not nothing. #BaldursGate3
Decided to multiclass my Rogue into Ranger a bit. The last two or three levels of most classes are kinda meh, huh? I feel like spellcasters need them for the spell levels, but martial classes get, like, nothin' for Lv. 11 and 12 :/
Anyway, throwing three levels into Ranger does cost me two feats, but it gets me a whole raft of useful things -- Hunter's Mark, Find Familiar, Enhance Leap (a big deal for a low STR Halfling I can tell you), and Gloomstalker next level :D #baldursgate3
Really my biggest complaint with this game is that often the best strategy is to do every fight twice so you learn what gimmick to prepare for before you go in >_> #BaldursGate3
Woo, blew up the Steel Watcher Foundry! That was a fun sequence, even got to tell Wulbren to fuck off :D Barcus is kind of a dork but he's got the right ideas, he should do fine as a leader. And very few people died! A solid outcome. #BaldursGate3
Through a lot of this game I find myself thinking what my #Pathfinder Lich would think of things. Like, she would've hated Balthazar. She'd have called him an artless tinkerer whose main achievement was finding a good target for a fairly basic life exchange spell.
Right now, though, she'd be thoroughly annoyed. Can you imagine the annoyance of a master Necromancer faced with a serial killer? Ooo, you take people's lives, how scary. Shut up and get on the slab. #BaldursGate3
...Okay I'm pretty sure that was the final boss of one of the previous games I just killed. Bit of a dick, that one.
I did appreciate him being a fairly straightforward stand-up fight, though. His minions weren't too hard to deal with, and although I did burn most of my spell slots it worked out pretty well in the end. #BaldursGate3
That's irritating. Ran into a bug where one of my party members won't follow the leader, had to reload an earlier save and go from there. Lost an hour or so. :/ #BaldursGate3
My GOD Orin was an annoying goddamn fight! "Push these guys off the ledges, oh, except you can't TOUCH THEM" RRGH I spent the whole fight praying a Thundering Arrow would work that turn D:< #BaldursGate3
I can't decide which part of Shar's temple I like better, the callout post for her moon goddess sister, or the anti-masturbation propaganda :D #BaldursGate3
Apparently Gale is one of the party members Orin can kidnap and I'm finding the idea kind of hilarious. Can you imagine the two of them in the same room?
"Bhaal worship, huh? I once thought of worshipping Bhaal, but I was just tooooo smaaaart-" "SHUT UP OR I WILL STAB YOU" "No seriously, I need to eat your boots now or everyone dies."
Shar isn't really the Goddess of Loss. She's the Goddess of Dwelling on Loss, Like Really Stewing On It Until You Convince Yourself This Was All Someone's Fault and They Need to Be Hurt.
C'mon Shar, I'm taking you to therapy. Yes, I'm sure you miss your perfect darkness, it was very important to you. Your therapist says you're in group today, that's worth talking about. #BaldursGate3
Gale's not a bad guy, but he does need someone with a strong grip on their morality standing next to him. Someone willing to whap him with a rolled up newspaper when he starts saying things like, "The POSSIBILITIES!" and "IMAGINE what we could do with that!" #BaldursGate3
I really do like Selune's Spear, and I'd love to use the Divine Intervention weapon, but the Staff of Arcane Blessing is just so amazing on my healer. Superpowered Bless! Combined with Whispering Promise I can drop ENORMOUS attack bonuses on the whole party with really basic spells! Sigh. Maybe next run I'll make Shadowheart a War cleric and actually use some of these neat toys she gets. #BaldursGate3
I was already pretty damn impressed at how the game runs on my absolutely ancient PC, and they can improve it still more? Honest to god I'm not one given to overeffusive praise, but holy shit folks. That's fucking crazy. #BaldursGate3
The Emperor sure is getting bitchy towards the end of the game. I get the impression he's starting to worry we don't need him. Frankly, it's a reasonable fear. Now that I know it isn't HIM actually protecting me, I have no reason to entertain his obvious attempts at manipulation. #BaldursGate3
That said, if he plays nice with Orpheus when we release him, he's perfectly welcome to stay to the end and remain out of the Elder Brain's reach. But after learning about the Knights of the Shield, I don't trust Ol' Squiddy further than I could spit a brick. #BaldursGate3
Ladies and gentlemen, my FOURTH jailbreak of the game! These keep ramping up, I can only assume my next jailbreak will be setting everyone free of planet Earth :P #BaldursGate3
...There are seriously people out there lusting after Raphael? Do they also get the hots for Saul Goodman? Do they salivate reflexively while passing the local used car dealership? #BaldursGate3#ImJustPokingFunIPromise
...Filed under things you couldn't post on Twitter without a clarification and denunciation of violence AND a plea to the FBI not to put you on a list.
Messing around with a new character in the early game because I wanted to try out different classes. It's really kind of shocking how much better the game runs in the first two acts, the city is really resource intensive. #BaldursGate3
I feel like all the (relatively) easily available magic in Faerun should have changed this society far more than it did. Like, apparently cantrips aren't that hard to learn -- imagine a society where, after a few hours' study, you could throw a two-inch ball of fire across the room. It'd be a world where you'd have to assume everyone is armed.
What I'm saying is, I wonder if Baldur's Gate has Concealed Cantrip laws.
Actually, hold up, that's why wizards wear pointy hats. By law, if you're capable of casting magic you are required to wear a pointy hat. That's why wizards get such elaborate pointy hats, they want people to know they're not just some stage conjurer who learned to cast Mage Hand as a gag.
That's why Elminster wears all those medals and things, right? Those are the Faerun version of not just a handgun license, but a license to carry the magical equivalent of a bazooka. "The bearer of this ornate golden chain has been licensed to wield spells with a wide AoE in the Western Heartlands."
Or maybe, "Mystra says I can use my own good judgment with the magic nukes" :P
Actually I think the wildest bit of cheap magic that hasn't changed society is Speak With Animals.
Like, it turns out animals in Faerun are pretty close to sentience. A farmer could go out, pick up a scroll of Speak With Animals, go home, spend a charming day chatting to their ox, and then eat the ox. And nobody would bat an eyelash.
Like, the goblins in the camp in Act 1 were roasting a dwarf. I'm carrying around multiple pigs heads as camp supplies and the parallel didn't really hit me until I got to the city and met a very charming pig who helped me solve a crime.
Eldrich Knight build is coming along, just hit Lv. 5 so things are starting to congeal. Won't really be ready for prime time until Lv. 7 when I get War Magic and can start going Cantrip-Attack-Attack on my turns. #BaldursGate3
So apparently using War Magic limits you to one attack. That's not gonna be a huge deal until around Lv. 10 when I get my third full attack per round -- until then, it's just like replacing an attack with a cantrip. Which, given that I have a number of pieces of equipment that add damage to an attack made after a cantrip, should still work out to higher damage.
Dunno what I'm gonna do at Lv. 10, tho >_> #BaldursGate3
Okay, Necromancer run started. I'm running with a party of all Hirelings, too, so that'll be interesting. I'm going Wizard (Necromancer), Paladin (Oathbreaker), Druid (Circle of Spores) and Bard (College of Valor). Three of four can summon undead, we've got some excellent buffs, and most of the party has heals of some sort so we don't need a dedicated Cleric.
First stop is the Blighted Village, to pick up the Necromancy of Thay tome :D #BaldursGate3
I figure Laios goes Fighter at first, maybe Paladin (since he learns healing abilities later in the story), Senshi is probably just a Fighter, and a very basic one at that. Champion, probably. Chilchuck is a Rogue, of course, Thief subclass. Marcille is the real problem -- in combat she's a bog-standard Fire Evocation mage, but she's also the party's primary healer! Am I gonna have to multiclass her into Cleric? #BaldursGate3
...Also totally just occurred to me that the earlier bit I did about Speak With Animals and eating sentient creatures was totally my inner Laios poking through :P #BaldursGate3#DungeonMeshi
@trixter Yeah! When playing Paladin you choose an Oath as a Subclass, each of which comes with certain behavioral requirements -- For example, Oath of Ancients requires you to seek peace before committing violence, so if you attack a non-hostile entity you'll "break your oath." It strips you of most of your abilities until you pay a fine, but it also unlocks a fourth subclass -- Oathbreaker Paladin! It's very Black Knight-ish ^^b
One more level and I can Mance a Necro! Here's my party -- aw man, that didn't upload in order. Oh well. That's my Bard Brinna, my Druid Eldra, my Paladin Eior, and my Necromancer Pel. #BaldursGate3
Pel's based on my #Pathfinder Necromancer -- well, as far as I can anyway, you can't be a Dhampir in this game -- but the others are new. Brinna's just the default Halfling bard 'cos honestly that's a look. #BaldursGate3
I feel like the biggest problem with Necromancers -- and this isn't just a #BaldursGate3 thing -- is that devs seem uncomfortable allowing them to actually focus on what they do; summoning.
I get why, additional characters on the field can be a very powerful thing. But the real issue is that they don't know what to do with Necromancers OUTSIDE that.
Evocation Wizards can cast fat AoEs at Lv. 1, but Necro doesn't get the most basic of summons until Lv. 5. At least gimme an undead bird or rat!
There's also the fact that Necromantic summons often have other costs associated with them -- dead bodies, usually -- but they don't get much additional benefit to offset that.
My actual dream Necromancer would be a class that can raise an enemy from the dead with all their abilities and stats intact. I recognize that would be a pain to balance, but it would be so much fun. #BaldursGate3
I'd also love a high-level Necromancy spell that lets me splice monsters together Frankenstein-style. I think that would be awesome :D And SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING than the Necro-flavor Fireball and Necro-flavor Disintegrate we get instead. #BaldursGate3
So here's a fun discovery -- if you knock a trader/merchant out with Non-Lethal damage instead of killing them, you can loot their entire inventory instead of just whatever they drop. Work that toggle, children. #BaldursGate3
It's really shocking how much of a difference Lv. 5 makes. Martial classes get an additional attack, spellcasters get a whole new spell level and TWO new slots... Stuff that was challenging at Lv. 4 is kind of a cakewalk at Lv. 5.
The disparity is the closest thing I think #BaldursGate3 has to an actual balance issue - feels like some classes double in strength just from that one level.
So you can steal a wand that will raise a zombie from a corpse, but it only lasts ten turns and can only use Bash and some basic maneuvering abilities.
Am I crazy? Shouldn't this have been like a first or second level Necromancy spell by default? Wouldn't that be more thematically appropriate than random Poison damage and temp HP? #BaldursGate3
-The Spellsparkler is a staff that gives you Lightning Charges whenever you deal damage -- these add Lightning damage to every attack.
-Gloves of Belligerent Skies adds 2 stacks of Reverberation whenever you deal Lightning damage. A target with 5 stacks of Reverberation gets knocked down.
-Magic Missile hits multiple times, and each hit triggers both items. So not only are you dealing boosted damage, you're almost certain to knock the enemy prone :D
This is especially fun for Necromancers! Ghouls have a very powerful special attack they can only use on Prone enemies. Oh look at that, I can knock one enemy on their butt per round for super cheap :D #BaldursGate3
One day I'm gonna figure out how to stick to one character at a time. It is not THIS day, but :P
By which I mean my Eldrich Knight has just learned that the Diadem of Arcane Synergy activates whenever you apply a status to anyone, not just enemies. Daredevil Gloves applies a status to you whenever you're within 3m of an enemy. It's pretty much permanent Arcane Synergy :D #BaldursGate3
Oh also, Boots of Stormy Clamour makes the Spellsparkler/Gloves of Belligerent Skies combo much more consistent. Reliably strikes enemies prone in two or three hits of Magic Missile :D #BaldursGate3
The best part of using Hirelings as a Necromancer is that story-wise, they're victims of the Absolute that Withers plucks out of the Fugue Plane for you. So they're not only undead, they're sentient undead who actually WANT to work for you! No control magic necessary! I don't know why more Necromancers don't do that. There should be Necromancer Hiring Fairs on the Fugue Plane. #BaldursGate3
You pick apart corpses and animate them? That's cute. My undead are unionized and get a mandatory six weeks off a year. After ten years they retire to a nice little Negative Energy demiplane. It's like a spa for the undead.
Myrkul? Oh fuck that guy, he runs a sweatshop. Thirty cents an hour and you have to rent your own corpse back from him for fifteen. #BaldursGate3
Myrkul's totally a trust fund baby CEO. Was gifted his power by the last guy to hold his position, spent his entire life before that basically fucking around. Got into power and immediately made stupid changes that negatively affected everyone who used the service he was supposed to be managing. Spent decades having petty arguments with other, similarly pathetic powerful men instead of doing anything useful. Someone take Myrkul to the guillotine. #BaldursGate3
Oh also, I never did post a picture of my Eldrich Knight, did I? I didn't have a strong idea of what she should look like so I went with Samus Aran. #BaldursGate3
Why is Karlach awesome? Because when you tell her you found the material needed to repair the Infernal Engine in her chest, which threatens to burn her alive and makes it impossible for her to touch another living creature, she shouts, "YES! I'm going to get a HUG! SOON!" :D #BaldursGate3
@trixter She's so very touch-starved and I'm over here fantasy Faerun-googling stuff like "Does the Druid's Grove treat burns" and "asbestos overcoat good for hugging?"
Okay the portal fight in the shadowlands is awesome with this Necromancer party. I'm up to ten active summons so I wasn't actually outnumbered on the field until the birds came in, and by then I had a full firing line set up with my Skeleton Archers. Half the enemies were entangled by Plant Growth or Hypnotised and my Skellies picked the small fry off while my Necromancer's stupidly buff Magic Missile exploded people. That was hilarious :D #BaldursGate3
Y'know, I know I get Ghouls next level. And I know they're powerful, what with the Prone attack and the paralyzing touch. But it's gonna be hard to give up my Skelly Artillery. :/ #BaldursGate3
Not looking forward to the next part of the game. You have to put Shadowheart in your party or she leaves, so I either reskill her to fit my Necro party (which feels wrong -- Shadowheart would NOT be a Bard) or suffer through a big long section of the game with an incorrect party build (which is the RPG equivalent to the squeaky noise styrofoam makes). :/ #BaldursGate3
New tease from the devs says they're adding new epilogue content, can't decide if I'm glad or not that I haven't actually finished a run yet :p #BaldursGate3
>You can no longer loot the entire inventory of unconscious traders - instead you have access to a limited selection, as with dead traders. Nice try, pacifists.
...Huh, looks like you might be able to recruit Minthara if you knocked her out rather than killing her at the Goblin Camp. Wonder if she'll still join if you sided with the Grove. It'd be nice to not have to choose between her and Halsin. #BaldursGate3
Oh hey, here's a fun bug I found this morning. Hit the doppelganger trial and my PC's double was my PREVIOUS CHARACTER.
Well, at least the head was -- my first character was a Halfling Rogue, this enemy was a Human Fighter just like the PC. Just swapped the heads. Wild :P #BaldursGate3
Taking Balthazar out with my Necromancer was really satisfying. Why wait for the final confrontation with him? Open the door, call him a hack, and sic your skeletons on him. Knock knock, dipshit. #BaldursGate3
Also he had a key piece of Necro equipment, so now all my undead are resistant to physical damage and my Pally can summon a dead 'un, too. Thanks a bunch, y'creepy bastard. #BaldursGate3
(Seriously though, Balthazar was a finger painter. Not only was his Greatest Work basically just a bigger version of Warding Bond, the hardest part would've been stumbling on an immortal to target it on. Like, never mind that he's more interested in splashing gore around than actually creating useful minions, never mind that his personal combat potential is ~nil, never mind that he DIDN'T EVEN BUFF HIS GHOULS. The thing he's proudest of was mostly a lucky happenstance!)
So fifty hours into my Necromancer run, I have learned that not only do you not actually need a BODY to raise the dead, but in fact all you need is one single bone. Which are littered ALL OVER THE PLACE. I've been carrying WHOLE CORPSES AROUND >:/ #BaldursGate3
Heh, I forgot I kept Us from the Nautiloid alive. So that's another summon. Also I feel more comfortable expending corpses on Fungal Zombies now that I know I can raise Skeletons from any ol' bone. So that's four more summons. :3 #BaldursGate3
I'm likin' the mobility of Flying Ghouls, I'm not all that impressed with the damage. For how hard it can be to inflict Prone, you'd think you'd get more out of it :/ #BaldursGate3
Finally made it to the Lower City as my Necro. First order of business: kill Carrion and get the endgame Necro staff, Spore Armor, and fancy torch <3 #BaldursGate3
I'm a leeeettle concerned that the first time I rested in the city all the corpses I left out converted into pouches. I hope I can find an area like the Grand Mausoleum, or we're gonna run low on resources really fast >_> #BaldursGate3
Really the most damning thing about Balthazar's "Masterwork" is that Lorroakan of all people figured out how to do exactly the same thing. Like, congrats Balthazar, you're exactly on the level of a pathetic putz who squats in someone else's tower and can barely pull off a simulacra. Good job. #BaldursGate3
So I have the Staff of Cherished Necromancy now, and I'm having to rethink my build. See, the Spellsparkler setup doesn't work without the Spellsparkler staff, so now I'm building around the Life Essence effect of the Necro staff, which lets me cast a spell for free if I finish an enemy with a Necromancy spell. ...Which seem to be slightly bugged? There's supposed to be a time limit on the free spell, but the turn counter doesn't tick down. Bugged in my favor, at least :P #BaldursGate3
Anyway it combines great with the Armor of the Sporekeeper I got from the same fight. The Armor lets you spread different kinds of spores onto the battlefield, including frickin' HASTE SPORES. You can just drop an AOE Haste cloud that stays there for a couple rounds. The effect on characters only lasts one turn, but there's no post-Haste lethargy and nothing preventing you from just walking through the cloud again on your next turn. #BaldursGate3
Once I get my final spell level on Pel, her typical turn is gonna look like Black Hole → Circle of Death → Circle of Death or Dethrone :D #BaldursGate3
So my Necromancer's setup is more or less complete, I'm happy with what I've got. It's my Spore Druid who's proving fussy. See for most of the game I've been running them as a secondarily melee fighter - Symbiotic Entity gives them good bulk and Shillelagh is enough of a buff to make them hit pretty hard. But it's not holding up to late-game encounters #BaldursGate3
Druid only gets one attack, is the crux of the issue. Shillelagh works great on Torches, and now that I have the Torch of Revocation I can hit for like 40 damage a strike, which is GOOD, but my Paladin gets two, sometimes three attacks a round! Never mind if she Smites or, God forbid, is Hasted or using an Elixir of Bloodlust. I mean, as a more well-rounded defensive option I don't EXPECT Druid to hit that hard, but the gap is pretty extreme. #BaldursGate3
I've tried my Druid as a spellcaster, too, but Druids just don't get the oomph, and it just means she's competing with my Necro rather than my Paladin. The other option is to focus on support, but most of her support options are mirrored in the Bard I'm using! Hhgh. I don't MIND having such a flexible character in the party, but not being able to focus her build on something makes me ITCH. #BaldursGate3
Beating the shit out of Raphael was somehow even MORE satisfying this time. That smug shit shows up to the fight with half a dozen allies but this time I outnumbered him >:D
While his Cambions were trying to whittle down my Ghouls, I managed to catch him with Otto's Irresistible Dance AND THEN Hold Monster AND THEN got a Paralysis proc off a Ghoul! Poor bastard didn't even get to transform :D #BaldursGate3
I feel like Necromancers often don't have a particularly strong class identity. They're summoners, yeah, but the real question about any pet class is, what do you do AFTER you summon? Is the summon the support and the PC goes into attack mode after calling them? Is the summon the offense and the PC the support? If both the PC and the pet are offensive or both defensive, how do they compliment each other? #BaldursGate3
With this game, I feel like Necromancers don't synergize very well with their own pets. You get Ghouls that can paralyze, but spellcasters don't get any benefit from that beyond an enemy missing a turn or two. Skeleton Archers are solid long-range offense units, but being ranged offense units themselves Necromancers don't really NEED more of that. And Zombies have the interesting side effect of self-propagating mid-battle, but they require significant babying to be effective. #baldursGate3
Part of the problem is that, outside of summoning, Necromancers are a lot like Evokers -- ranged damage units that use powerful single-target spells and large AoEs. What Necros really NEED is either more meat shield summons, beefy Mummy-type undead like you get from Create Undead, or undead that buff the Necromancer specifically.
...Actually, given how many enemies in #BaldursGate3 are resistant or immune to Necrotic damage, one that suppresses Necrotic resistance would be really useful.
It's just weird how underpowered Necromancer can be, given the costs associated with it. You have to have actual bodies to raise, and the corpses you create in fights don't persist after a Long Rest, so every day you're starting from scratch. Most buff skills either don't work on Undead, or are single-target, and thus unsuitable for a half-dozen summons. Not to mention that, since Necro doesn't get Spell Sculptor, Circle of Death's huge AoE can be really hard to use effectively. #BaldursGate3
Anyway the practical upshot of all of this is that DEBUFFS are actually the way to go when you're Mancing a Necro. So I'm rethinking my Paladin -- she's a great offensive engine, but doesn't really bring much to the Necro Army beyond Aura of Protection. The question is, replace her with what?
So that's today's thought to mull over :P #BaldursGate3
...Y'know, I think Wildheart Barbarian may actually be a better buffer for Undead than an Oathbreaker Paladin. Huh.
Two out of three Paladin Auras just straight up don't work on Undead. Meanwhile, Wolf Rage gets you an extra 3m/10ft of movement and automatic Advantage on attack roles against enemies near the Barb. Plus you can take Elk Aspect for MORE movement speed.
Honestly, if I were going to throw a mono-class undead summoner into an otherwise "normal" party, I'd go with a Circle of Spores Druid. Wizard Necro does get stronger undead, but even with the one-more-per-spell perk, Spores gets WAY more. And it's basically self-sufficient-- buffs and crowd control from the special armor, debuffs and offense from the Druid spellbook, and like a half-dozen other summons to fill gaps! #BaldursGate3
Really wish I'd gotten a screenshot of Lucretious calling Pel beautiful. For multiple reasons.
I mean, A) I took the Astral-Touched Tadpole, so she's very much not and B) I think that's the first time anyone's said that to Pel in either game I've played her in. I think she'd be touched. #BaldursGate3
Pretty sure Lucretious would be the only Necromancer in the game Pel would actually like. Balthazar was gross, Ketheric was a dabbler, Cazador was a clown, and Myrkul's work is impressive but the man himself? Absolute tool.
Meanwhile Lucretious uses Necromancy for entertainment! What a genuinely unique idea! I think Pel would find it a little unprofessional, but actually inspired. #BaldursGate3
Uuuuugh, got a crash RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the big fight at the Sharran temple. -_- I was doing so well, too! Got like three or four Paralysis procs off of my Ghoul attacks, took out the leader on the first bloody round, then I targeted a group with Hold Person, interrupted their AoE Darkness on my main group (only had like a 40% chance to work! But it did!)
And then it crashed.
Suppose all that good luck was begging for it, huh? :P #BaldursGate3
Whoops, crashed again. I think the problem is we're riiiiiight up against what my very outdated video card can handle. Trying to keep track of all my summons (well over a dozen now) AND the eighteen~ish enemies in this battle is just hard for it.
Also we're getting towards the end of the game and there's just a lot to keep track of. Entering the Lower City triggers eight minutes worth of loading now, it's rough. #BaldursGate3
(to be clear this isn't a complaint against the game, it's frankly a miracle it runs as well as it does on my decade? or so? old PC and I'm still impressed)
Okay my curiosity and impatience got the better of me. I loaded up the fight I couldn't get past with my Necro. Used to be, when I tried to interrupt or break concentration on someone casting Darkness, the game would crash. But I've done both and no crash! If I can finish this fight, I'm declaring it fixed :D #BaldursGate3
I'm gonna cry, it takes like no time at all to load the Lower City. And it looks gorgeous with all the video settings up on high, even with my 30~ish undead compatriots.
Video games are good you guys T_T T_T T_T #BaldursGate3
The real tragedy is I've only got one or two quests left to do before the end of the game. I often get "I don't want it to end" syndrome towards the end of games and the three-week break I had enforced by corrupted video files is making it hit particularly hard this time. #BaldursGate3
I figure she kills the Elder Brain, first of all. The death of the tadpole allows the necromantic magic that made her a Lich to reassert itself, and she erupts out of the Chionthar with the Crown of Karsus and returns to the Astral Plane to reclaim the Eternity and her phylactery.
Six months later, she comes back for the party, to have a serious discussion with Withers nee Jergal :P #BaldursGate3
I hope the DLC they're teasing at the end is fighting Vlaakith in the Astral Plane, I think that'd be awesome. And an excuse for more Spelljammers :D :D #BaldursGate3
But yes! Good job Larian! Excellent work. Will definitely pick up any expansion they'd care to produce, #BaldursGate3 was absolutely the best game I played in 2023 ^^
First job, rescue Shadowheart in the most annoying way possible -- walk past her pod without talking to her, then come back with the key :3 #BaldursGate3
Also I got Shadowheart to drink wine with me at the post-Goblin-crushing celebration and then asked if she was worried Shar would be mad at her and ha ha she thinks SHE is gonna corrupt ME, that's adorable :D #BaldursGate3
My Eldrich Knight run turned into my roleplay run. I especially like her relationship with Gale, which from his perspective is her constantly holding him back from attempting greatness, while from HER perspective it's the magical version of "What have you got there?" "A KNIFE" "NO!!" #BaldursGate3
Gale: It's always "Gale, don't lick the outlet," and "Gale, don't open that cursed book," and "Gale, don't stick your fingers in the toaster." Nobody ever says, "How was the cursed book, Gale. Was it fun? It looked fun." T_T #BaldursGate3
EK: "Young lady you are going to sit down and work through your childhood trauma while considering the impact your imperialistic culture has on others or I will TURN THIS PARTY AROUND AND GO HOME."
Was thinkin' about what each of the companion's favorite foods would be, and it occurs to me that Karlach would be an absolute fiend for bar food. Buffalo wings, onion rings, cheeseburger -- oh man, she'd be amazing at food challenges. Karlach would be the person rolling up to the Undefeated Six Foot Tall Hamburger Challenge -- y'know, the one with like nine patties and an entire box of cheese slices on it -- and be like "What's up, I'm here to ruin your whole financial quarter." #BaldursGate3
AND I saved all the Gondians in the first and second levels of the Steel Watcher factory! I teleported the suicidal little bastards into the rafters with Dimension Door :D :D :D #BaldursGate3
Genuinely shocked there doesn't seem to be an Achievement for that. I would certainly call keeping those self-destructive twerps from encircling an exploding Steel Watcher with all the enthusiasm of a pyromaniac lemming a fucking achievement.#BaldursGate3
Killing Raphael is always gratifying. It is always acceptable, reasonable even, to burglarize his house and murder him with barrels of explosives. #BaldursGate3
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