Current Events > Baldurs Gate 3 seems stupidly awkward to play. Minor spoilers.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Skill issue mate, any questions let me know

What difficulty you on

The "ship" you start on is more complicated than the first bit of the actual game.
Just get through the tutorial and the game starts to make more sense.

Like lots of games like this when you level up you get new abilities which make you loads stronger. The difference between level 1 and level 4 is massive.

The classes are all good but some builds are more complicated than others
Some classes become really strong early and some take longer but by level 5 most classes will attack a few times each turn. Fighters get extra attacks much earlier.
I would really recommend looking up build videos on yt /reddit for the first few levels. You can respec pretty early and as often as you want.

A few things that will make combat easier:
1. Dexterity =initiative, which means you'll move before an enemy. Try and kill /prevent the next enemy from attacking you.

2. Look at the turn order (the pictures at the top in combat). Use this to plan your turns.

3. If you can't kill an enemy, can you stop it attacking you (ie knock it prone) or give it a status effect

4. If you are using a strength weapon, having higher strength = a bigger chance to hit, with dex weapons a higher dex = a bigger chance to hit

5. Higher armour actually means less likely to be hit, not reduced damage.

6. Look at the combat log (on ps5 hold r2 and select it to view whats happened). It'll say your character rolled a number, then it'll add your strength score and weapon score and have a number, it will then say what score the opponent rolls and add their armour score and say if you hit them or not. If you hit it'll then roll your damage score.

Sleep is a useful spell

First, if the game feels difficult just lower the difficulty level.

Second, the games throws a lot of stuff at you in the beginning, but a lot of the fun in the game is learning how to use the system to start wiping the floor with your enemies.

HighSeraph posted...

Sleep is a useful spell

Only for the first two or three levels, really

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Only for the first two or three levels, really

Grease, however...

DrizztLink posted...

Grease, however...

All my homies love grease.

And Ice Knife

EpicMickeyDrew posted...

What difficulty you on

The second one. I cant remember the name. I think its the recommended one. I still want to understand the game mechanics and not have it so easy even if I fuck up I win by default.

Im in bed watching a few vids on the basics so hoping this will help.

Ok one query I have. If theres an action I need to roll to succeed do I need to switch my characters to one of my others if they have more appropriate stats or does it always roll with my best characters stats?

I think some story events force the main character to do the rolls, otherwise its the character that initiates the event doing the rolls.

So like, if you want to disarm a trap always use the character with the highest sleight of hand to do it.

I've never played a CRPG before myself, I did play this for a few hours but other games took priority.

When I restart this, is it better to pick a named story character or create a custom character? I know nothing about what spells and abilities are good.

Tanthalas posted...

I think some story events force the main character to do the rolls, otherwise its the character that initiates the event doing the rolls.

So like, if you want to disarm a trap always use the character with the highest sleight of hand to do it.

I figured that was the case but good to have it confirmed.

I'm actually fairly familiar with how 5e works and even I didn't think about switching to other characters to try and roll until I did it by accident.

Like I was in a cave with some religious paintings on the wall that you can roll a religion check to see if you know anything about. My PC failed, but I happened to have switched to Shadowheart later on and she succeeded. Though the fact that the religions paintings were about the god that directly opposes her own kind of colored the commentary lol

BG3 seems like a lot for someone's first cRPG but it doesn't take much to get familair with the mechanics.

But yeah, one good rule is explore explore explore. You don't wanna just go from one objective straight to the next, you'll miss so much lol

One thing worth mentioning, especially if you aren't familiar with D&D 5th edition rules, is that your characters will experience a massive leap in power at level 5. Spell casters get access to 3rd level spells, including series staples as Fireball(which WotC admits does more damage than it should, but it's an icon so they leave it alone). Martial classes get the 'extra attack' feature, where they make an additional strike when attacking.

So if you ever find yourself stumped with an encounter, or think you might end up at an area a bit too tough for your characters, thing should be different if you do it at level 5.

Rika_Furude posted...

I've never played a CRPG before myself, I did play this for a few hours but other games took priority.

When I restart this, is it better to pick a named story character or create a custom character? I know nothing about what spells and abilities are good.

It doesnt really matter, although Id recommend a custom character since the party members have excellent voice acting that would be a shame to miss out on (since whoever you play as doesnt talk outside of the occasional comment while wandering around).

If you dont care and do decide to play as an origin character, Id recommend not playing the Dark Urge character for your 1st run. Reason being is that sometimes bad things happen that you might not have control of when you play as them.

Question: I redid the first battle at the helm of the ship. I had all three characters this time which made life a lot easier. Sometimes when I cast a spell with the lady I rescued I couldnt move her the following turn. Is that to be expected? What determines if I can or cant move after doing an action?

SHRlKE posted...

Question: I redid the first battle at the helm of the ship. I had all three characters this time which made life a lot easier. Sometimes when I cast a spell with the lady I rescued I couldnt move her the following turn. Is that to be expected? What determines if I can or cant move after doing an action?

Hm, I don't know exactly what situation you were talking about, short of being caught or prone you should always have movement on your turn. Do you have a video of it? Afaik there's no difficult terrain or anything of the sort that would prevent you from moving on the Nautiloid

SHRlKE posted...

Sometimes when I cast a spell with the lady I rescued I couldnt move her the following turn. Is that to be expected? What determines if I can or cant move after doing an action?

Alright my dude you are being a bit confusing here. You have to understand that subtle differences are important.

"the following turn"
"after doing an action"

So did the turn actually end or did you just complete your action and then return to the same character?

SHRlKE posted...

Question: I redid the first battle at the helm of the ship. I had all three characters this time which made life a lot easier. Sometimes when I cast a spell with the lady I rescued I couldnt move her the following turn. Is that to be expected? What determines if I can or cant move after doing an action?

As far as I know there aren't any actions which take away your next turn. Is it possible that you didn't click End Turn when you were finished moving her the first time, so the game cycled you back over to her in order to do so?

Sorry. I misspoke. To clarify. So Id cast a spell. End the turn. The following turn I couldnt move or perform an action with all my characters after the enemies turn. I did google it and this is possibly a bug on the PS5 version although would like to think it had been patched out by now as this comment is from 2023.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/397566-baldurs-gate-3/80569179

Good news Ive not encountered this issue since reloading my save before the first real fight on the ship. So either I messed something up by accident or it was a one in a million bug. If it happens again Ill let you know.

Back to the game. Ive explored the immediate area where I crash landed and unlocked gale who I absolutely love. Im a little overwhelmed by all the inventory items I have and so many spells and actions to take it. As Im playing on standard is it more a case of picking I build I like the look of rather than NEEDING to worry too much about my party and builds? If thats the case I think Im going to enjoy the game. If I need to get too involved in making a perfect build / synergies party I think I might dip out. I saw when I levelled Gale up I could make him a necromancer subclass. I decided against that as assumed it might bring him into conflict with my main who is a paladin. Is that right or am I over thinking it?

Im now level 2. Is there any benefit to dual classing at all? I seem to recall in BG1 that duel classing Imogen as a mage was pretty much EZ mode although I never got past the first big inn when the main game started and this was over 25 years ago!.

The system is VASTLY different from BG1.

Dual classing here just means you take a level in another class.

So a level 3 Paladin takes one class of Warlock, making him character level 4, 3 Pally/1 Warlock.

You don't lose the old abilities, you just add the new.

Next level you'd be 5, you could take another Pally (4/1), another Warlock (3/2), even a level of Bard (3/1/1).

There's no limit, you get an achievement for being level 1 in all classes at 12.

Stick with single class until 5, though. You can respec at will later, so stay simple for now.

SHRlKE posted...

I saw when I levelled Gale up I could make him a necromancer subclass. I decided against that as assumed it might bring him into conflict with my main who is a paladin. Is that right or am I over thinking it?

Overthinking, class mechanics won't effect character relationships. That's all through actions and dialogue.

However, different classes will have additional dialogue options at times, but 9 times out of 10 that only matters for the player character since they usually do conversations.

SHRlKE posted...

Back to the game. Ive explored the immediate area where I crash landed and unlocked gale who I absolutely love. Im a little overwhelmed by all the inventory items I have and so many spells and actions to take it. As Im playing on standard is it more a case of picking I build I like the look of rather than NEEDING to worry too much about my party and builds? If thats the case I think Im going to enjoy the game. If I need to get too involved in making a perfect build / synergies party I think I might dip out. I saw when I levelled Gale up I could make him a necromancer subclass. I decided against that as assumed it might bring him into conflict with my main who is a paladin. Is that right or am I over thinking it?

Im now level 2. Is there any benefit to dual classing at all? I seem to recall in BG1 that duel classing Imogen as a mage was pretty much EZ mode although I never got past the first big inn when the main game started and this was over 25 years ago!.

Lotta questions here but assuming you're on Balanced difficulty (I think you said that earlier?) there's absolutely no need for optimal builds, in fact you could just level up every character from 1 to 12 and take all the default options and be pretty much just fine. There's tons of fun gear combos to discover but they're definitely not mandatory.

Multi classing can be beneficial later in the game but you should almost always stay in your initial class until level 6 or 7. The game is balanced around getting fairly big power spikes at class levels 4 5 and 6 and if you delay those spikes by adding other classes the game gets harder for no reason as the enemies will have access to those power spikes and you won't.

Ok thanks all. Im just playing to have fun and not over think the build choices too much which is what usually bums me out on games like this in the past.

Even if you irrevocably fuck up a build, respec is extremely easy in this game.

You could be level 12 as a Sorcerer, reroll into a Barbarian, and be set to go in like ten minutes.

Even for companions.

The only thing you can't change is race/gender, everything else including stats is fair game.

Ok Ive played some more. Almost got killed in the crypts near the start to the magic Skeletons. Then recused the green lady. I forgot her name. And just past the battle with the goblins. Im enjoying it. I really dont like the green lady. Shes just typical tribal war war Id kill you if I didnt need you archetype 101.

Gale is probably my fave at the moment. Its hard who to cut from my party at the moment.

Oh also I notice I can steal when I got past the goblin battle. Is that going to cause me issues as a paladin? I tried it and nothing bad seems to have happened.

Also any downside to leaving people in the camp? Will they get annoyed and leave?

As for funny story. Breaking into the keep I smashed pillar breaking the floor. I thought I was meant to use the rope to climb down but I threw it ontop of the crane and now I cant get it down lmao. Was there a way to climb down using the rope I missed?

If you don't like a character give it time, all of them go through a lot of growth.

Except Gale, he's gonna Gale around no matter what anyone says.

SHRlKE posted...

Ok Ive played some more. Almost got killed in the crypts near the start to the magic Skeletons. Then recused the green lady. I forgot her name. And just past the battle with the goblins. Im enjoying it. I really dont like the green lady. Shes just typical tribal war war Id kill you if I didnt need you archetype 101.

Gale is probably my fave at the moment. Its hard who to cut from my party at the moment.

Like Drizzt mentions, she goes through a lot of character growth as the story goes on.

Oh also I notice I can steal when I got past the goblin battle. Is that going to cause me issues as a paladin? I tried it and nothing bad seems to have happened.

It might be bad if youre stealing from non-evil characters. Im not 100% sure on that. Whatever the case, you can get around it by having your paladin wait at camp or far away from who youre stealing from and having another character steal for you. And that goes for a bunch of other oath breaking actions.

Also any downside to leaving people in the camp? Will they get annoyed and leave?

No. They do get involved in certain side missions/areas (which are typically obvious, like Laezel with anything Githyanki related) so you might miss out on stuff by not bringing them, but they wont leave your camp if you dont bring them.

As for funny story. Breaking into the keep I smashed pillar breaking the floor. I thought I was meant to use the rope to climb down o I threw it onto of the crane and now I cant get it down lmao. Was there a way to climb down using the rope I missed?

I dont think so. I think you cant get that rope back lol. Thankfully I dont think rope has any real use for anything.

SHRlKE posted...

Was there a way to climb down using the rope I missed?

Literally Jump into the hole.

As in have one character use the jump skill and aim for the hole.

A LOT of common-sense stuff like that which doesn't work in other games does work in this one.

Assuming you mean that place just outside the crash site.

DrizztLink posted...

A LOT of common-sense stuff like that which doesn't work in other games does work in this one.

I remember having a mild mindblown moment for this when I killed that spider boss and found a great big hole in the ground. It didn't automatically give you the option to jump in when you hovered over it, so I thought for sure it was either set decoration or just a death pit, but I had slow fall so I cast it on everyone and manually jumped. And that's how I got to the Underdark at level three.

I really need to finish this game, I barely scratched the surface.

Im hoping in the grove I can unload some of my inventory. I must have like 100+ items. Is there a safe way of knowing what I can and cant sell? What might be important to quests / crafting later? For example I must have 15 or so books. Do I need to keep these? What about random things like broken loots or crystals?

Quest related items have the orange outline, you cannot sell them even after you are done with them but you can YEET them somewhere.

90% of the items that aren't equipment and consumables (potions/poison/throwables/etc), are pretty much pointless and meant for selling.

You can definitely sell the books (unless they are orange), broken lutes, and crystals.

Son_Goku_X posted...

90% of the items that aren't equipment and consumables (potions/poison/throwables/etc), are pretty much pointless and meant for selling.

whats the 10% of items which arent pointless?

There are some equipment like a spear or a staff that comes in broken or seperate pieces IIRC, it looks like a useless item at first glance.

There are several merchants in the Grove.

I'd swing by there as soon as you can.

Speaking of merchants, I'll agree with TC in saying that the bartering system made no sense to me. Like I can tell there's some kind of system where you can use your Charisma skills to get a better price, but I could not tell you how it worked

The game is overwhelming at first, but the problem is you are letting yourself be overwhelmed vs just going with the flow. My wife is playing, my 17yo daughter has played it through twice, and I just found out my brother in law is playing it. These are not hard core gamers at all and never complained.

You are getting through the game, and you are slowly learning the admittedly complex systems. Just keep going.

SHRlKE posted...

Im hoping in the grove I can unload some of my inventory. I must have like 100+ items. Is there a safe way of knowing what I can and cant sell? What might be important to quests / crafting later? For example I must have 15 or so books. Do I need to keep these? What about random things like broken loots or crystals?

You can always leave anything that might be worth keeping in your camp chest.

If you pick up empty backpacks you can use these to sort your inventory.
On your inventory screen, press square then click on open a backpack in your inventory then press R1 and you can move stuff into these backpacks.

If you put a camp supply bag in your camp chest you can transfer all your food into this one bag.

After about 60 hours my inventory was a mess and took about an hour to organise. So I'd try and keep on top of it or you'll never get it organised.

Cool. Thanks guys. Finally what does add to wares mean in the inventory screen?

SHRlKE posted...

Cool. Thanks guys. Finally what does add to wares mean in the inventory screen?

Wares are basically just vendor trash. When you're selling to a merchant, there's a button you can click to sell all wares at once.

Yeah, wares just lets you tag vendor trash for quick selling.

Another idea to help you out is to pack food into a container for easy dumping into your camp chest. Remember that you can fast travel to your camp without resting. It's a fast travel target. So whenever you feel overencumbered with stuff you can pop into camp, dump your food and wares, and keep exploring.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

Wares are basically just vendor trash. When you're selling to a merchant, there's a button you can click to sell all wares at once.

Oh my fucking god, I'd have loved to have known this <_<

pegusus123456 posted...

Speaking of merchants, I'll agree with TC in saying that the bartering system made no sense to me. Like I can tell there's some kind of system where you can use your Charisma skills to get a better price, but I could not tell you how it worked

Theres 3 things that affect your discount. 1st 2 are your Charisma and Persuasion skills. You dont have to do anything to trigger it, just having them at a higher value will lead to a better discount.

The 3rd is their attitude. That is always set at 0 at 1st, and the way you raise it is by going to the barter tab and giving away higher value than what youre getting back. And you can give away items or gold without taking anything back. That said, the value you have to give to reach 100 attitude goes up the higher your character level. There is an exploit that can be used to circumvent this though (its by respeccing and staying at level 1 while raise it by however much you want to). You can also get an attitude bump for some of them by completing a quest that theyre either involved in or theyre in support of (like I think Damons in will go up a bit if you help the Tieflings against the goblins.

Gonna play some more tomorrow so bump I guess.