…I totally forgot a major part of this. Use your mind whammy to convince the Head Gnoll that it should eat its packmates and you’ll gain a powerful ally for the fight.
Yeah, I did that with the Head Gnoll. I haven’t blown the horn yet.
Red Dead Redemption is terrible about dragging you along. BG3 is nowhere near a bad as RDR2. I got a refund for RDR2. That sucked.
You’ve got to have conflict to drive a story. No conflict means no protagonist. You may not have a choice of how you got into this mess, but you have lots of options about how you react to it. I can’t recall the last game I played that was so good at that.
I’m looking forward to an evil playthrough - I can tell that it’s going to be a very different experience.
Which ones are you thinking of?
Me too! I’ve been juggling my allies and pulling the greyer ones towards being Good. I am very early on in that process and I don’t know if I’ll be successful with all of them (have had some close calls already) but it’s playing out in a really cool way and I’m really excited to see where it goes. At the same time I can’t help but to already be thinking about my evil playthrough. I can’t decide between the melee build I mentioned above, or a necromancer.
I feel like a necromancer fits the idea of corrupting the party members to evil better. On the other hand the melee build fits the Dark Urge better. On the third hand, isn’t the “canon” Dark Urge a dragonborn sorcerer?
Oooh! Sounds like Swen confirmed modding tools will come after the PS5 release in an interview somewhere (not sure where)
Regarding the Gnolls. By approaching from a different direction I was able to get out of it without fighting. If you approach via the cave as I originally was, you don’t have that option or at least I didn’t.
Laughing at all the people planning Evil second runs. Same here. It’s the obvious “How do I make this very different” choice but still funny to see.
I’ll be trading in my gnome thief lady for… Spore Druid, maybe? Raising the dead and infecting people? Luring companions to be their worst selves? I’ll have to decide on the race when the time comes but it probably won’t be another short one. Not sure I could vibe with an eeevvviiiilllll halfling.
Wasteland 3, Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, Cyberpunk 2077, Wasteland 2, Divinity Orignal Sin 1, Solasta (I love this game), Miasma Chronicles (I thought this was great!), both Pathfinders. . . and you can say that most have major conflict at the beginning, sure, but soon afterward you’re left with more agency. . . but, that’s just the way it seems to me. The game just does not feel very open world. . . but right now I’m in the Underdark, which, pretty much by definition is not exactly open.
But, when you really think about it, if you had a parasite in you’re head, and just survived a crash after being abducted. . . you’d probably not like it either. So, maybe the feeling is just good realism. I don’t know. I’m still playing. . .
It’s just not as “mind-blowing” as all that. I think the Miasma Chronicles is a better game, But not as much of an RPG. And much shorter.
I’ve played most of these and don’t really agree. Or maybe have a different impression on what you’re looking for. You could waste time futzing about, poking your head into random places and maybe finding someone with a quest marker but the story didn’t advance until you did what you were told to do. Also, I don’t think that BG3 ever suggested that it was a true open world game in the model of the Bethesda ones.
BG3 feels like a tabletop game where the DM will let you solve “How to stop the Orc army” in a ton of different ways (open combat, diplomacy, assassination, lure a dragon onto them, cash bribes, etc) but want you playing “How to stop the Orc army” and not “Well, I want to try to open a yoga studio” or “Let’s see what in THAT direction instead”.
As a DM, I can respect that focus. I also know a number of players are REALLY into “I need my agency to create the world myself” and get upset if you’d rather not spend the evening watching them do random stuff so there’s obviously a market for that. I don’t think there’s a wrong answer but I agree that BG3 isn’t that kind of game and not a good fit for someone seeking that kind of game play. If you don’t want to have an adventure about the mindflayer menace threatening the Sword Coast and just want to traipse around the countryside looking for mountain-holes with chests in them, then you don’t want what BG3 is offering.
I can see your point with the Bethesda titles, in that you can usually just ignore the main quest entirely and still have plenty to do, which isn’t the case in BG3, but the others (that I’ve played, at least) feel pretty comparable in terms of locking you into a particular origin. Wasteland 2 even locks you into working for a specific faction, and I don’t think ever gives you any options about that - is it possible to stop being a Ranger in that game and still finish it? Cyberpunk has the three different opening depending on your character’s background, but after you get through the prologue, there’s not much distinction between them other than giving you an occasional extra dialogue option.
Solasta was a fun game and 5e’s better (or more faithfully) than BG3 5e’s but it was a total by-the-numbers Save the World campaign that didn’t deviate much. There also wasn’t much wandering about since the overworld map was “I’m at A and can go to B, C or D represented by dots and will wait to see if we have a random encounter and how much food we ate”.
That’s precisely why I was tempted to go Ranger, Halfling, get the cat familiar, get the Hunter ability that lets you hit multiple opponents in melee.
In one of these games the first thing that happens is that your brain is infected by a parasite that will destroy your personality if left unchecked, you are beset by visions of a figure that claims to be taking part in a righteous conflict and needs your help to do so, and you are given a number of leads to resolve your brain situation but each requires you to assist a different (potentially conflicting) faction.
The other game is Baldur’s Gate 3.
Not trying to pile on, I swear, but I also can’t agree on many of those. I mean I was playing another Pathfinder: WoTR campaign right before BG3 released and I’m just not seeing much more agency. It’s literally the same sort of thing - a “DnD” campaign module. Heck, Act II is pretty much a straight line march from one town to another 
.
Which is not meant to argue with how you feel about BG3 - it’s perfectly reasonable if you’re a little underwhelmed after the hype. I’m having fun myself, but I’m not yet ready to crown it the CRPG ‘King of Kings’.
Are there any timed quests in BG3? In the sense that are there quests that if I say, Camp too many times without finishing, they fail? No need for details just wondering if that is something I should be concerned bout.
Yes, at least one. You’ll get a verbal nudge warning (“Time might be running out…”) if you don’t stay focused and take too many rest breaks.
I’ll be doing this with a bard for high charisma and talky expertise. I’m sure Karlach and Gale will abandon me (if I let them just walk away from la familia), but Astarion and Shadowheart should be fine. I’m curious whether Wyll can be turned evil.
I’m envisioning it being myself, Astarion, Shadowheart and Vae’zel or else Evil Paladin Drow-Lady from the Goblin Camp. In part because I’ve largely ignored Vae this game, murdered Astarion and need Shadowheart for you-know-what.
I assume you need to let him kill Karlach and then rub it in until the guilt turns him evil.