Baldur's Gate 3: There's a ghaik in my loot! (Now out on Xbox!)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Baldur's Gate 3: There's a ghaik in my loot! (Now out on Xbox!)

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exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I don't know if you'll ever get a precise figure before Larian announces it themselves, but just going by number of Steam reviews, BG3 is already at ~440,000 only three months after release, having never once gone on sale. Most AAA games have about a 50:1 review to sale ratio, so that would extend to ~22 million sales total. It will probably eclipse Elden Ring (550,000) and CP2077 (600,000) within the next year, which are both confirmed 20+ million sellers, so I think even most conservative estimates would put them in the same neighborhood. Now, I also think the percentage of players who bought BG3 on Steam is probably way higher compared to those other two games, and there were a significant number of EA reviews prior to the full release, but there's no doubt in my mind that it's a megaseller. Even if you go by Steam reviews for Divinity: Original Sin 2 (~150,000 with 7.5 million confirmed sales) and extrapolate, that puts BG3 in ~22mil territory.

exquisite tea fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Dec 9, 2023

# ¿ Dec 9, 2023 19:49

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 06:38

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

There's kind of no point to making a custom Wizard, is there? Sorc does pretty much everything they do but 2x while also acing their speech checks and you gotta play as Gale to get some of the best spellcaster buffs.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2023 22:19

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Monathin posted:

Sorcerers also can't learn spells from scrolls. If you're a Wizard you can just singlehandedly learn like 65% of the spells in the game and have a spell for every occasion. Sorcerer is way more limited.

Can't I just do that by putting 1 point in Wiz though?

# ¿ Dec 9, 2023 22:35

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

One nice thing about starting up a Durge run after so many Act 1 rerolls is that you barely waste time in camp because half your party has either died or deserted.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 00:19

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Trying to do something a little different with Shadowheart this time around. Would it be dumb to have her go 6 War Cleric / 6 Open Hand Monk and just dive into melee with Spirit Guardians, feeding Crusader's Mantle to Lae'zel? Sounds like that could be pretty fun.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 14:54

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Kalas posted:

War Cleric is super bad to combo with Monk specifically, go Storm if you want that offensive oomph, the counter attack reaction is nice.

War Cleric's thing is to burn limited charges for bonus action attacks, monks can do this by just existing all day long.

Thanks, I didn't realize that basically of the War Domain buffs required Concentration. Tempest seems cool but my vision for Shadowheart on this run is kind of as a holy warrior/caster support hybrid who uses her bonus action to knock enemies prone, so I think I might do Light Domain instead. A Light Domain / Shadow Monk hybrid for old Shadowheart would be deliciously thematic but unfortunately it looks like shadow monks just kinda suck in general.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 18:24

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

It's pretty normal to hit Level 12 around the time you actually get to the titular Baldur's Gate, though that can vary depending on how many questgiving NPCs are dead by that point. That's about the same time the game starts throwing incredibly OP endgame loot at you so there's still some fun character progression to be had.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 19:00

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Professor Beetus posted:

Yeah Baldur's Gate 3 does the thing every rpg should do, give you time to enjoy playing with your most powerful tools. So many games give you all your best poo poo right before the end and not a second more, and unless they have a new game plus you never really get a chance to enjoy playing around with your 100% tricked out guys. I thought Act 3 was awesome, I respecced so many times just to play around with different multi-class combos and try different builds based on new magical items I'd found.

If the game was balanced so you hit max level at the high hall it would be a big fumble imo

One thing I would like to see is an NG+ mode where all the gear is normalized to Level 12. Some of the poo poo you find at the very beginning is fun as heck and it would be great if you could just stay in your Lightning set all game if you wanted (you still can but you know what I mean!!!).

# ¿ Dec 10, 2023 19:50

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Played this game for over 270 hours and took countless characters through Act 1, and this was the first time I ever bothered to assemble the frost staff in the Underdark or found those weird little murloc cultists. Insane!

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 00:24

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I think if you�re a Swords Bard your ultimate goal is the rapier from Act 3, in which case you probably want to take dueling style anyway. Of course you could always just respec further on down the line.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 09:47

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

The legendary action for Adamantine Forge is super challenging for its level and would probably be an Honor Mode killer if throwbarb didn't make a complete mockery of it. Twincast Haste on my Sorc and Karlach and it was Welcome to the Prone Zone. Boy did it feel good finally getting some decent heavy armor for Lae'zel.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 13:11

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Command: Drop or Disarming Attack will let you wipe Anders, paladins can't smite crap without a weapon. Can be a risky fight but worth it for the sword if you're using Lae'zel. Probably one of the safer options at Level 3.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 14:25

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

The Everburn Blade is nice to have early on but it's not quite as OP as you might think because it has no weapon enchantment and is essentially just a permanent 1d4 fire damage added to a regular 2H sword. Convenient but there are other ways of making that happen.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 15:01

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

My backup plan is usually just to hit the thing until it dies.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 15:42

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I'm finding that Ray of Frost is a nice little Dragonborn Sorc cantrip because you can get that staff from Underdark and the gloves from the mountain pass vendor for extra frost vulnerability. Just got done fighting Grym and he wasn't even able to make it to his marked target thanks to the movement reduction.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 16:44

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I know that you don't need to find Dammon in Act 1 either, he'll be just fine if you wait to give him all the infernal iron in Act 2. Don't think you'll get the romance if Karlach's engine isn't fully tuned up by Act 3 though.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 16:55

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

No you have to cool her off in Act 1 and try to kiss her for the romance to activate.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 17:56

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Yes. The whole Underdark. If you don't know what that is, look harder!

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 18:45

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

You can do the whole of the Underdark and Grymforge without advancing the Grove storyline, it's the Mountain Pass you gotta watch out for.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 18:49

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Monathin posted:

You can do all the Underdark for sure but going to Grymforge triggers the Grove the same as going to the Mountain Pass does, I'm like 90% sure.

No, it's taking the elevator up from Grymforge that triggers it. You can do all the quests in there safely without advancing the Grove questline.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 19:12

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I think the biggest theoretical drawback to doing a Lone Wolf run in this game would be only having 1/4 of the perception checks. You'd be blowing yourself up on a whole lot of traps. Soloing encounters seems more than doable though, I've seen solo Open Hand Monks just steamroll everything.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 19:48

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

All the NPCs in an area dramatically dying again upon load is definitely something I've noticed happening a lot more.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 22:51

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

If you're ever worried about BG3 not saving frequently enough, my recommendation would just be to play in Honor Mode. Now the game will save after every single little thing you do!!

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 23:04

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Snake Maze posted:

Yeah, if you get there as a Githyanki and you don't have the artifact at all (because you haven't recruited or killed Shadowheart) you can just play along and be ordered to retrieve the artifact.

It's a little tricky because Voss really wants an excuse to kill you (telling him about your parasite makes them attack, saying you're lost makes them attack, approaching with non-githyanki party members makes them attack unless you pass a check, etc) but but you can get through with no checks at all if you say you're from the creche, he just tells you to find the artifact and flies off.

That�s really cool. I got through this part recently as a githyanki and even though I didn�t learn anything about the artifact yet, I still had to bluff my way through because Shadowheart was in my party. If you can get through the speech checks then it is a nice bit of XP at level 3, literally half a bar just for saying �yup well I�ll keep an eye out see ya� lmao

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 04:43

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Alternating between my Durge Drow Monk and Githyanki Sorc honor mode runs. Monk is OP on its own but twinhasted Lae'zel and Tavern Brawler Karlach have made an Absolute mockery of everything in Act 1. I am a bit worried about how this comp with fare against the creche but I believe Bae'zel and myself will prove to be the stronger githyanki in the end.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 11:41

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

TIL that you actually get the Survival Instinct illithid power from passing the checks with Omeluum, rather than it just being a thing that happens after meeting the Dream Visitor.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 14:08

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

I think owlbear is actually one of the most doable fights at Level 3/4. If you're looking for a summary of which encounters are the most beatable before Level 5 from easiest to hardest, I'd go with...

- Looter camp and ancient ruins
- Fight outside the grove
- Encounters within grove (bugbear assassin, goblins, harpies)
- Risen Road gnolls
- Tyr's Paladins
- Mephits in Putrid Bog
- Owlbear Cave
- Spider Cave & Matriarch
- Beginning Underdark quests (minotaurs, duergar, etc.)
- Blighted Village (without speech checks)
- Encounters outside Goblin Camp
- Beholder (this is actually hella easy if you avoid getting surprised)
- Auntie Ethel
- Arcane Tower

Those should get you to Level 5 or thereabouts. Anything I didn't mention (Goblin Camp, Grymforge, Gnoll Cave, Githyanki Patrol) I'd wait until Level 5 or after to do.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 15:27

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Shadowheart shouldn't be able to get a new haircut in HM.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 16:45

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Lae'zel could make a pretty fun monk since that's what all those githyanki assholes from A3 are. Only problem is you miss out on all her awesome 2H swords but not an issue if you already have a fighter or paladin.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 18:14

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Revived companions will only get a bonus action on the first turn after being ressed. You can use that to drink a potion, or hide, or otherwise escape to safety unless you're one of the chosen few who get an attack on bonus action.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 18:57

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

My second time on the final battle was so easy because my main was a Tavern Brawler Karlach. Leap up into the portal, chuck 5 spears, boom headshot! I didn't even have to bring anybody else through.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 19:22

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Haven't experienced that but have seen these bugs since the last patch:

- Enemies will dramatically die again upon reloading an already cleared area.
- Mobs will take a long time to move and sometimes the attack animation won't play for a long time, or at all
- Playable characters will freeze on their turn until reloading
- Scrying eyes become immune to all damage and can't be hurt unless pushed off of something

Also for some reason a random druid attacked me in the Grove long after resolving the entire conflict, after Kagha was dead. The other druids were hostile to him, though.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 19:31

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

A goblin guard yelled at me for charming him in the middle of getting myself whipped and now I'm not sure if my PC has Loviatar's Love or not.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 20:03

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Ginette Reno posted:

Have finished the starting area on my honour mode run (Goblins/Hag/etc).

Impressions of updated bosses: Spider's ability was interesting but I killed it before it had a chance to use it. Hag's upgraded ability made that fight trickier but I solved for that by mostly avoiding casting spells at her. The Owlbear fight was pretty nasty. Two Owlbears at low levels (plus they zerk) = tough. I had two die during that fight but finished it. Those were the only three bosses so far that I've seen that had upgraded abilities. Nothing in the goblin camp did.

Overall, not too bad so far. We'll see how I fare at the Underdark/Creche. I have hit level 5 which in my previous playthroughs basically was the point where the game started to become really easy due to the power spike at that level, so I'm curious whether the Honour mode changes to bosses/abilities will give me a harder time this time around.

I think Grym is the most challenging fight in Act 1 for the sheer number of things that can go wrong. If you have a melee-centric party then you need a good solution for his legendary action.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2023 21:38

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Frenzy Barbs make the best throwers because their bonus action can knock enemies prone, which is just too clutch for many situations. 3 points in Thief will also get you an extra bonus action so you can use it on turn 1.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 08:02

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Going 5 Barb / 4 Eldritch Knight for weapon bond is good for that awkward phase where Returning Pike damage starts to peter out but before you get the endgame trident in Act 3.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 12:00

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

Well I just RIP'd my sorc run in the dumbest way possible. Got down into the Zhentarim hideout, failed an intimidation check, then my entire party got lit up by oil barrel explosions on the first turn before I could act. 25 hours gone in a flash. It was all going so well, too. Nothing to be done but immediately start up another campaign. :negative:

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 14:54

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

The "good route" for recruiting Minthara already existed, Larian just made it so you don't need to enter turn-based mode with a Level 5 Barbarian carrying a polymorphed Minty to do it.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2023 17:42

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

You're not playing on a platter drive, are you? I imagine this game would destroy conventional HDDs.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2023 00:46

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 06:38

exquisite tea: Apr 21, 2007; Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."

If you're a githyanki then going directly to the patrol is actually a pretty smart move on Honor Mode. Very easy DC if you choose to speak for Lae'zel and then you get about half a bar at Level 3 just for saying "nope haven't seen the artifact, guess I'll just keep looking." If you fail for any reason though, certain death.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2023 13:42

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Baldur's Gate 3: There's a ghaik in my loot! (Now out on Xbox!)

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