Are you more interested in the story differences or in the gameplay?
From a gameplay perspective the only characters that are really biased towards certain classes are Astarion (weapon attacks >> spells if he ascends), Karlach (soul coins for weapon attacks), and Lae’zel (gith specific weapons). Everyone else should be equally good at anything if you respec them. Personality wise I think Gale as a wizard and Lae’zel as a fighter are extreme matches.
I’ve basically not played druid at all, which is odd given 2 characters are druid by default. Maybe if I continue this run after I get the last achievement.
And finally got my last achievement kill the spider matriarch before any of her eggs hatch . It’s a hidden achievement so maybe difficult to stumble across, but easy if you know what it is. Just have 3 fire arrows and initiate combat. Could be annoying on HM I guess, if you start combat accidentally.
Also, rolled a monk, and god damn are they OP once you get your first feet. Or maybe just strength elixirs are OP. Either way.
I think gear and deliberate playstyle choices make as much a difference as classes. Like, I think a 12 battlemaster fighter felt quite similar to a 5 gloomstalker / 4 assassin / 3 champion melee build in that combat was just getting close and smacking the crap out of guys while a radiating orb light cleric and a full life cleric feel wildly different. And an evocation wizard blasting everything vs spamming hold person is also very different.
Classes that do mechanically feel different but fill the same rolls: paladin vs fighter, throw barbarian vs ranger/rogue/bard archers. I’m a big fan of Astarian as a gloomstalker / assassin, so I think your paladin and ranger choices would work well.
Warlock (like Wyll) and use eldritch blast with the repelling blast eldritch invocation. One shot at the right point and she’s pushed into the nearby chasm to fall to her death for an instakill. Cheesy, but oddly satisfying.
I’m not down on mods, I also like them. And cheat codes. It’s my game, let me play it my way.
I did add mods using the mod manager and those have been fine. One mod allowed up to twentieth level, but not for all abilities above twelfth. I still get hit points, proficiency bonus, spell slots, and gain spells but no higher level spells nor class abilities. One mod gave me xp faster that also gives a feat per level. It hasn’t been a problem and the game has been stable.
I started playing again and it’s been strangely compelling. I’m playing as a warlock, a class I don’t like in 5E for reasons, but have fun with it here. Spamming Eldritch Blast is a lot of fun.
I played the first part with Astorian, Shadowheart, and Karlach. In the first rest, I let Laezel slit my throat, someone used the scroll we get to bring me back and the party killed her. It was really strange having her body lie there in camp. I get that the game turned the body into an object but it would be nice if it would clean that up. Although, now that I think of it, I wonder if I could have had Withers raise her?
That reminds me something I don’t like about games, especially this one where who talks to someone is important. As I’m playing a warlock, charisma is my prime, so for interactions, I get the best choices. What I don’t like, though, is when I click on a dexterity or strength item and it still has me do it, instead of auto switching to the best one for it. Indeed, I had switched off my warlock, forgot, and almost missed an interaction because the character I had picked didn’t have charisma or skills for it.
When I went to the creche, I decided to take Gale, although I find him annoying. I dropped Astarion for him, who I also find annoying. I haven’t gone to the next part yet as I’m trying to finish up a few things here and there.
More things I have done differently.
I found Gabriel faster since I knew where to look. For someone that wanted to find me and wanted to tempt me, they sure are hiding.
I dealt with the hag much differently. In my first play through, I confronted her in the basement with the girl hanging over the chasm. In this one, I attacked the hag in the house. Then it was finding the items I needed, including the raise connor stick.
Due to Laezel attacking me, I don’t like the githyanki, so have pretty much attacked them on sight. I did go to the creche and I’m blasting them away but those doors are really good because each room still allowed me to interact with them as if I hadn’t just killed a dozen of them.
I did find the Blood of Lathander in the secret area. My understanding is that might protect me from the darkness, so that’s a fun new way to go.
I had missed Haldrin in my first game but did rescue him later and in this one.
I tried to put improved (greater) invisibility on Astarion and have him steal the idol but as soon as he touched it, he went visible. WTF? Annoyed that isn’t an option.
I did steal the githyanki egg for the trader above the monastery.
I save the lost Zhentarim caravan only to buy the artist and kill them all after he left.
I don’t like riddles as a general rule. (I could talk about “playing” Box One and maybe in another thread.) Having used riddles from Dragon magazine and books throughout the years, they are either known and so trivial or are unknown and the game stops because players don’t know what to do. At the moment in my weekly RPG games I run, I tell the groups that I’m challenging their characters, not them, so will present a riddle or puzzle and let them try to solve it, but will give hints to what their characters would know to keep going. I bring all of this up because the riddle to get the blood of Lathander? Annoying as hell. Maybe I’m not good at “reading” the game and seeing the clues but I had to look it up. I’m now worried about other things I will miss, which is why I like guide books on big games like this.
That brings me to the UI, journal tracker, and other random things. I might not have noticed it before. The map will point to some quests but not all of them. It will have a diamond and if hovered over, might say, “look for the journal that X wants.” It doesn’t do that for all of the quests or items. Grabbing things or moving things can be a pain. I have definitely exploded things I didn’t mean to because it’s not obvious what has splash or not. I have tried to use my eldritch blast to set things off and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I guess what I’m saying is with no guide book, it would be nice if the interface helped me more. I’m also whining and maybe I need to learn how to use the UI, which seems to take experience. It also takes figuring out a riddle or two or one of their puzzles to know what to look for.
I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Having the experience of the UI is helping. Knowing a few things about what is coming helps.
I have the mod that let’s me go to level twenty. With the xp multiplier, I am max level. It’s nice I can go to Withers and redo if I want but I haven’t so far.
I have Shadowheart as a Cleric19/Pal1.
Myself as a War12/Sor8.
Gale as a Wiz20.
Karlach as a Bar12/Fight(EK)8.
I like this because the fights can still be tough but I have options.
I did have the blood of lathander and didn’t need the lantern. I attacked the drider and got that lantern and released the pixie in it.
I still make the goblin go into the darkness after he tries to send the creature out there.
Somehow I missed the Inn and went to the House of Pain but the back side to where the Shar Trials are. I did all of the Shar trials then went to the Shadow Plane. I did not realize that the only way Shadowheart could become a Dark Justicar is by killing the Nightsong. As with Lae’zel, I said no to Shadowheart and we had to fight. It was quite tough at the levels because Shadowheart charmed Karlach and I had to fight those two. I did win.
I went back to the Inn but Jaheira isn’t around?? If it weren’t for the Harper that greeted me, this would be a tiefling place of refuge, again, and not a Harper stronghold.
The cleric wasn’t there in her room, probably because I already freed the Nightsong.
I did have the infernal iron needed for Dammon to fix Karlach. I really want to see her good ending but don’t know if she ever gets to stay on the material plane or the only choice is to go with her??
I have a lot more people to rescue in the tower.
I’m enjoying it a lot more than I thought. I listen to cut scenes without skipping them. I have skipped a few rolls when I really wanted to open a lock and used up all my lockpicks. Although, now that I have Astarion in my group, that won’t be a problem.
Even though I saw Wyll outside of the druid grove, apparently as with my first playthrough, since I never talked to him after that, he’s not in the camp, so not an option for me. As my main is a warlock, that’s fine, although respeccing him as a bard might have been fun.
So now, I have Astarion as a Rogue20. (I will have to verify that.)
Myself as a War12/Sor8.
Gale as a Wiz20.
Karlach as a Bar12/Fight(EK)8.
I’m planning on going the long way around the the tower to see what else is in the darkness that I might have missed before. Not sure if I want to do the interior of the House of Pain or not, having seen it before.
Sounds like you’re having fun. The game really lets the player explore different story paths. Just remember, there’s no “correct” story line, just do whatever is organic for your character. And let the dungeon master game adjust to your actions.
I’m currently waiting for the next big patch to release to play again.
I am enjoying it a lot more than I expected since the core of it is the same.
I’m impressed there is another patch! Wow! Oooo, I also want to try some of those. Hexblade, Arcane Archer, Shadow Magic, Bladesinging, maybe even Drunken Master!
Correction: My Astarion is Rogue15/Ranger5.
I am finding an interesting annoyance with 5E. Extra Attacks are a class ability, rather than how 3E/PF1 handles it. So even though Karlach is Barb15/Fighter(EK)5, she has two attacks. I expect her to have at least three if not four.
I finished a few quests I hadn’t done before, such as the person wanting to punish the bartender. I admit, I wanted that person in my party to see what he is.
I finally made it to Moonrise Tower and found Jaheria attacking it. I wanted to be able to explore and talk to people in there, possibly save some characters in quests I have, before that happened. I guess once the Nightsong is freed, that must not be an option, darn it.
I wonder if this means the ability to see the brain and have Gale detonate for one ending is off the table now that the siege is happening?
I don’t like the “relationship system” that is in the game. Maybe because of how tied to the dialog options it is. I don’t like it because the system rating seems to be based on my words, not my actions. I will often try a response and it looks like I’m agreeing with someone but then I turn around and attack them. Attacking them and helping the person doesn’t give me a relationship boost (or hit) with the NPCs as much as dialog. Maybe I’m wrong but in my current game, I’m still neutral with all of them, which seems strange to me.
These are quibbles as I do like the game. I think I’m at 150 hours, low for many I’m sure, but high for me. That’s top ten game time for me.
Casters get higher level slots to use to fill with the up to sixth level spells. No higher spells were added that I remember. I think Fighters get that fourth Extra Attack. I think Sneak Attack improves. It’s a weird hodge podge of implemented abilities.
Baldur’s Gate patch 8 has dropped. And it is a big one. 12 new sublcasses, modding support, bug fixes, tweaks…all sorts of stuff including (I read somewhere) a much more extensive epilogue with over 3,000 differences portrayed depending on choices you made while playing.
This is the last content patch Larian will make for Baldur’s Gate 3. There may still be some bug fixes here and there but this is basically the game in its final form. It’ll be up to modders to make new content (looking forward to that).
I think this is worth another play-through now (daunting as that prospect is).
“Outside of minor bug fixing, Patch 8 will be the last game patch to introduce new content,” the studio said. “That means we won’t be adding any new narrative content or significant changes to storylines, Origin characters, or companions. We’ve told our stories the way we needed to tell them, and tried our best to make them impactful and engaging, and we’re continuing to get better at handling our own chaos so that we can continue to create more chaos in the future.”
ETA: Here are the 12 new subclasses (which I think brings the total to 46 in the game):
Path of the Giant Barbarian
College of Glamour Bard
Death Domain Cleric
Circle of Stars Druid
Arcane Archer Fighter
Way of the Drunken Master Monk
Oath of the Crown Paladin
Swarmkeeper Ranger
Swashbuckler Rogue
Shadow Magic Sorcerer
Hexblade Warlock
Bladesinging Wizard
