Baldur's Gate 3

[The Lusophone]

Eldritch blast is probably the best early offensive spell.

[gunnar hendershow]

Once you get Spirit Guardians it's party fucking time.

[jrhodes]

So I've put in about fifteen hours now and I'm really struggling to get into this game. I feel like if I don't save scum, everything just goes to shit really fast.

Some of the battles I win first time, others seem literally impossible and I just have to try and find a way to avoid them.

I'm spending most my time running around the map aimlessly, just hoping to come across a fun mission or something that draws me in and I'm not finding anything.

I think I'm going to take a break and tell myself I'll come back to it...but likely I won't.

[The Lusophone]

7 hours ago, jrhodes said:

So I've put in about fifteen hours now and I'm really struggling to get into this game. I feel like if I don't save scum, everything just goes to shit really fast.

Some of the battles I win first time, others seem literally impossible and I just have to try and find a way to avoid them.

I'm spending most my time running around the map aimlessly, just hoping to come across a fun mission or something that draws me in and I'm not finding anything.

I think I'm going to take a break and tell myself I'll come back to it...but likely I won't.

Honestly, I think I'd have been the same if I wasn't using a mod that gets rid of the companion limit. It does make things easier (though not a cakewalk) but I feel like I've enjoyed the game more by having everyone in my party.

[Toe]

8 hours ago, FestiveJack said:

Honestly, I think I'd have been the same if I wasn't using a mod that gets rid of the companion limit. It does make things easier (though not a cakewalk) but I feel like I've enjoyed the game more by having everyone in my party.

Does the mod interact weird with dialogue and cutscenes?

[The Lusophone]

1 hour ago, Toe said:

Does the mod interact weird with dialogue and cutscenes?

Not overly that I've found. For cutscenes it takes either the nearest people or the top four in your party. Only issue I ran into is there's a point where, very minor Act 1 spoiler:

Spoiler

You have you get on a boat to go somewhere and you can only have four people on it. You just need to dismiss the other party members, then when you get to the other side you go to camp (don't select long rest, select go to camp) you can get them back.

 

[Ruki]

My wife fell victim to the Xbox glitch where she lost all her save data. She just hit level 7 and had about 30 hours

[gunnar hendershow]

So... (Act 3 spoilers)

Spoiler

What is a man supposed to do to not die immediately against Lorroakan? I'm level 11 and he completely wrecks me.

 

[Ruki]

1 hour ago, gunnar hendershow said:

So... (Act 3 spoilers)

  Hide contents

What is a man supposed to do to not die immediately against Lorroakan? I'm level 11 and he completely wrecks me.

 

What did he do again? I don't remember having too much trouble. But probably Counterspell

[gunnar hendershow]

Just now, Ruki said:

What did he do again? I don't remember having too much trouble. But probably Counterspell

Spoiler

So it's not him per se but he has 4 elemental summons that completely wreck my party. Counterspell didn't work when I used it against his lightning spell, but I'll try it at a higher spell level I guess.

He and his allies also wipe out Dame Aylin on round 2 every time because the opening position for the battle is really bad.

 

[Ruki]

54 minutes ago, gunnar hendershow said:

  Hide contents

So it's not him per se but he has 4 elemental summons that completely wreck my party. Counterspell didn't work when I used it against his lightning spell, but I'll try it at a higher spell level I guess.

He and his allies also wipe out Dame Aylin on round 2 every time because the opening position for the battle is really bad.

 

What I did on that fight, if I am remembering correctly, I had Gale and Astarion hiding out on the upper platforms. Fireballs and sneak attacking from safety!

[The Lusophone]

It's 100% worth it multiclassing Astarion into gloomstalker ranger to get dread ambusher as well - I think 5 (or maybe even four) levels of ranger gets you an additional attack too, which is quicker than rogue assassin.

[gunnar hendershow]

While I still haven't gone back to that battle I've been really pleased with how Act 3 has forced me to make better use of the environment around me, learn every nuance of the enemies, make better use of the full spectrum of spells and characters at my disposal, etc. It's a really smart difficulty jump, rewards trial and error immensely.

Spoiler

House of Grief went from super hard to super easy once I just spammed daylight and wall of fire scrolls. Anybody who did get on the stairs with me got pummeled by Karlach.

I realized sneaking up on Cazador was the way to go. By keeping Astarion way behind he was able to stay hidden and hit some of the ghouls, etc. while I had Shadowheart hit Daylight and Spirit Guardians on Cazador - plus a timely Glyph of Warding from my bard.

A level 6 hold monster on both Hellfire Watchers and the Gondians actually being smart with using misty step allowed me to keep Zanner Toobin alive at the Foundry - admittedly save scummed here before a couple turns because of the random nature of the Gondians.

Excited to wrap up this first "do as much as possible" playthrough and go back for a Durge run as a Gloomstalker.

[The Lusophone]

I'm doing something very bold and experimental...

Spoiler

a slightly different monk build!

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Beat my first playthrough

Spoiler

They totally need to nerf Sanctuary in that final battle on the brain. Can get everyone right in the middle and into the portal very quickly by using that and Misty Step. Then use the summoned allies to distract/get wiped out by the various enemies. It's obviously an "intended" strategy given that there's one turn where whoever has the ability to target the brain (I went with The Emperor) can be hit by the enemies so you need the summoned allies well-placed to land hits on enemies to take enough out in advance.

Epilogues were really good and all the characters I wound up recruiting into my party had some very welcome closure. Gonna miss that gang since next time I play through I will be doing some nefarious acts and the pleasant gang will be replaced by some bad folks.

[gunnar hendershow]

Taking a Dark Urge playthrough as a wood elf ranger (specialization Gloomstalker) which does give some interesting dialogue options and has let me already see a lot of "what if?" options that I missed out on in the first playthrough. There's one very difficult thing I'm going to do in this game that I don't want to but know I have to do.

Spoiler

Fight Karlach

Also upped the difficulty to tactician this time around, which does seem to be less forgiving with attack roles but maybe that's just me getting mad that the owlbear wipes my party out in 4 turns.

I will say though, for the early battles I've done in tactician beyond that one, it's really crucial to go into turn based mode with regularity to make sure the party is well positioned at all times. Ranged attackers where possible are hidden and have high ground, melee goes into battle with any necessary buffs, and spellcasters have a chance to make it through a few turns to get off the strong spells before they might need to start healing themselves. Seems like the big jump in difficulty isn't so much what you do in battle, but what you do before each battle to be prepared.