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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   2230 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 11, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Talk about your Baldur's Gate 3 characters!

I'm playing a Way of the Open Hand monk. Reached level 4 and picked Athlete as the feat. His armor class is pretty crazy - 19. Due to getting Dexterity up to 18 and using gloves that give +2 AC to unarmored characters.

I'm going to play him as a good person mostly, an enlightened monk who mainly uses non-deadly means. That's why he's equipped with a quarterstaff instead of a slightly more damaging sharp weapon. :)

Dwarf Male Tempest Cleric, somewhere in the LG/NG/LN range (though certainly not a pacifist, especially against the traditional enemies of dwarves and clerics), up to level 6 so far.

The emphasis on verticality has made for some very fun thunderwaves, and spirit guardians + spiritual weapon remains excellent even after the changes to both spells.

I think that is a really interesting component of the game as well. Makes all of the movement abilities like psionic jump and mist walk feel rewarding and fun. I also quickly regretted not picking up feather fall thinking there would likely be no opportunity to use it.

Dwarves! My next playthrough might be with a pint sized person. Maybe a LOTR-inspired Halfling.

What's the relation between thunder attacks and verticality? Enemies get pushed off ledges?

I just respecced Shadowheart to be a tempest cleric, but haven't had a chance to test out her thunder spells yet. I'm hoping she won't get hit by her own lightning magic, hah. I've put her in heavy armor.

One thing disappointed me a little about the verticality in this game. Even if you push an enemy to get them to fall 10 meters and land on their back, they only take ~2 hp damage. It should scale upward much more than that IMO.

Based on the recent community update they did, the only thing less popular than the short folk (halflings, gnomes, dwarves) were Githyanki, so absolutely give em' some love.

Yup, thunderwave shoves then if they fail the save. Really easily to avoid hitting hit by your own stuff as a Cleric, unless you go light cleric you don't have anything with quite the radius of a fireball to worry about.

Yeah, the normal damage isn't great, but lots of instakill things you can shove them into. Otherwise mostly nice to make their ranged have disadvantage or force their melee to run back up.

I'll just ask this here because you're higher level than me, though anyone is welcome to answer:

I started the game on explorer difficulty because I wanted to reduce the amount of loading saves and retrying fights I'd have to do. But after getting to level 4 I felt confident. Turned it up to balanced right before a fight. Lost 1/3 of my hp on each character because easy-mode gives a huge hp boost (in addition to better hit rolls) and balanced doesn't give anything like that. Got my ass kicked in the fight. Retried and took the high ground and succeeded. But one of my characters got downed twice, and I had to use many potions. One time Wyll got taken from full hp to 0 in a single attack. Dang.

This was the gnoll/Missing Shipment fight with quite a few enemies and a boss gnoll with really high hp. Is this supposed to be a particularly difficult fight or do I just suck at the game? :)

It's not an easy fight, but it isn't one of the ones that felt particularly difficult (I've run into about 3 really rough ones so far).

Glad you figured out the high ground, though, it makes a big difference in a lot of these fights. Positioning and getting the drop on enemies is essential. Also, there's 1 fight in the first zone that I would very much not advise until you hit level 5, so heads up if you run into a brick wall.

One thing that may help-

While Warlocks and Wizards do not normally have shield proficiency, humans in BG3 get it as a racial. Great idea to slap a shield on Wyll and Gale, 2 AC goes a long way.

Approx where is this really tough fight in the first zone?

I will definitely be more keen on gaining high ground and stealth opportunities from now on. :) And I've got hex on Wyll so I'll examine the toughest enemies, hex an ability, and then target that weakness with a spell or weapon action to gain Advantage.

I've got a shield on Gale. The +2 AC seems to remain even though I've got his ranged weapon active. On Wyll I'm using the flaming greatsword (pact bound), so I'll have to find a decent one handed weapon for him first. He definitely got hit harder than the others due to only having 14 AC.

I also noticed the importance of Initiative. When I respecced Shadowheart I put her dexterity at 10 because I wanted her in heavy armour which rules out any dex bonus to AC. But every enemy gets to act before her, lol.

Approx where is this really tough fight in the first zone?

The northwestern corner of the first map. Bit of a doozy.

Assuming that's the gith gang. They wiped the floor with my party. I loaded and succeeded with dialogue checks instead. Got over 300 xp, but it would have been fun to kill them and get their stuff too. Maybe next playthrough. :)

Edit: I don't like how enemies get 3 attacks per turn. If that's a feature for the rest of the game... I'll be sad.

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