this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Baldur's Gate 3
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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)
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magic feels really bad in this system early on when all they canreally do is spam cantrip after missing all their spells
plus healing spells feel very weak compared to potions
Potions got Buffed in the game iirc normaly drinking one I an Action not a bonusaction
That is correct. Although many, many tables have that as a homebrew rule too.
That's correct that it's considered an action in 5e. The idea is that your turn represents about 6 seconds. Bonus actions tend to be quick nearly instant actions or things that can be done while taking your action at the same time. And downing 8 ounces of liquid typically takes some time and can be distracting. But in a lot of games (The ones I run included) house rule potions as bonus actions because it's just more fun to keep the game moving. BG3 does a lot of things that are more house-rule type things meant to do this exact thing. It keeps the game moving giving you more time for the fun parts of DnD. They give you access to a lot of spells earlier and make them easier to use to get rid of that early-level slog that's common in most games. I personally love those early levels as it gives you a chance to develop your character before making them a straight-up killing machine. But that's not really how video games are built, so I'm really happy with the streamlining they've done in the game. There's even some stuff I'm going to bring into my own future games.
There's also the fact that generally DND magic has every spell as a bespoke effect. There's not an underlying system you can reason about. You're not really expected to make your own spells. You don't really tweak the ones you get very much. What can you do with a 4th level slot vs 5th? You can kind of infer from the examples, and maybe there's details in the DMG somewhere , but it's not foregrounded.
They also are very, well, mechanical rather than magical. You declare you're casting, check off the spell slot, and the spell just happens. Some people might prefer this taste, but it makes it feel very mundane and bland to me . Compare like Mage (awakening, 2e) where you're always looking for ways to stretch how far your spells can go, balancing risk, and looking for thematic boosts.
The "looking for ways to stretch how far your spells can go" bit from Mage always struck me as "playing mother-may-I with the Storyteller." I really prefer it as a player when my abilities do what they say they do, and as a DM when my players' abilities don't require me to make too many judgment calls, which can lead to players who are more persuasive IRL getting their way more often than players who aren't.
I think I meant more about "I can take a -6 on the roll to affect all the guys and risk it not working" or "I'll risk three dice on paradox" for stretching your spells rather than "I can totally cure cancer with life 2, right??"
DND doesn't really have much tactical depth for the spells. They do what they say and always work (unless saved against). You never get the "I don't know if I have another spell on me!" trope.
What you meant I think shows up in DND too. Players being like "can I use mage hand to swing a sword?" or "can I use create water to drown him?" That's more an annoying player problem, but I see what you mean about some systems enable it more than others.
You'd probably really dislike Fate, then, where it's almost entirely based on what the table agrees makes sense for your free form written character traits.