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Baldur's Gate III | OT | Bear in Mind, Your Choices Have Consequences

Spyxos

Member
If i go to mountain pass then act 2 starts?

And if think shadowheart is bugged. I can't seem to get the exclamation mark off. No matter how many times I talk to her, it stays. I think it happened when she saw the wolves. Can I continue playing normally or is she bugged?

 
If i go to mountain pass then act 2 starts?
It's not really Act 2 yet, no. The achievement for leaving Act 1 pops when you enter the Shadowlands, which you can access from either the mountain pass or the Underdark.

Going there will affect a lot of quests though, at least all the ones in the Emerald Grove will complete by themselves one way or another if you haven't dealt with them yet.
 

amigastar

Member
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.
 

Atrus

Gold Member
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.

Exploration, experimenting with combat and dialogue scenarios, not clicking through dialogue, literal playing with the game without any guides or spoilers.

I’m a little into Act 3 with about 120 hours in the game and I manage to still find new things in my other multiplayer game.
 

sertopico

Member
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.
I literally explore everything, read everything, loot all I find to make as much money as possible, and so on. For instance I chose to do underdark AND mountain pass instead of choosing just one. I also first decided to help the captive goblin in the druid camp, go to the goblin camp with no hostiles, save Halsin, then help the grove, do the witch, go back to the goblin camp, kill everybody and finally visit the underdark... So far it took me 47 hours. Also, I like to experiment during fights, so sometimes I just reload to test different strategies...
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.

I've watched a few other people on my Discord play and it's glacial. Picking up literally every item to try and sell (which is gonna come back to burn them later), clicking on literally every object, taking 3x as long as they need in combat to really overthink tactics, reading the combat log to see exactly what happened in each round, etc.

Nothing wrong with any of it but I can see how some folks might take much longer than others. I've got 2 big fights and a finale left in my second playthrough and my Steam tracker says 140 hours total.

I did intentionally skip tons in the first run though. I think the game is better when you do that, honestly I recommend NOT going back now if you're ever planning on playing the game again. Explore deeper in the recesses you didn't the first time and you'll find new stuff for your new party.
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Man, the House of Hope in act 3 was just incredible. Skipped it on my good run, did the thing there on my evil. A boss that sings their own battle theme, amazing. Got some absolutely ridiculous loot for the final fight too, this party is broken.
 

Luipadre

Member
Patch 2 is out!. Lots of controller fixes and improvements just in time for PS5 launch. Im playing with controller so im happy

CONTROLLER
  • Radials
    • The shortcut menu and character selection are now accessible from the Action Radial menu.
    • Added Fast Travel to the character radial menu.
    • Added shortcut prompts to the Jump and Hide actions on the Action Radial menu.
    • Added a short delay to stick input after selecting an Action in the radial menus to avoid accidentally selecting something immediately after that or moving the camera.
    • Limited the maximum number of radial menus.
    • Fixed ritual spells not being marked as such on the Action Radial menu. We promise, they don't cost a spell slot!
    • Fixed tooltips showing up in the Action Radial menu even if you have nothing selected.
    • Added additional error messages for the radial menus.
    • Added more detailed warning messages on controller to indicate why you can't perform a certain spell or action.
    • Spell variants will now be placed at the top of the Action Radial menu instead of in the next available free slot, making it more consistent and user-friendly.
    • Added a missing icon for Heal in the radial menu.
  • Character Sheet
    • Made several improvements to the Character Sheet, for example by adding zoom capability; updating the style of lists, the XP bar, and equipment slots; and adding an indicator for the
    • character's main Ability.
    • Fixed the Light Source menu not filtering light sources properly.
    • Added a brief description of what reactions are.
    • Fixed the abbreviations for Abilities not fitting properly in Russian.
    • Fixed some clipping and overlapping in the Character Sheet.
    • Moved the Consume action to the context menu and restored the Equip action as the default in the inventory panel.
    • Fixed the prompt to toggle tooltips showing in the Character Sheet filters, and fixed the background of the slots increasing if the text on them is long.
    • Fixed Character Sheet navigation issues when using filters.
    • Equipping an item via the equipment slot pop-up in the Character Sheet will no longer close the pop-up immediately.
    • Repositioned tooltips slightly when checking equipment slots.
    • Fixed some missing tooltips in the Character Sheet.
  • World Interaction
    • Added information about the state of containers (e.g. if they're empty) to the Active Search menu.
    • Fixed a small issue in cursor error messages.
    • Fixed the ping action not exiting the ping state on Left Stick Press.
    • Fixed the Examine panel on objects or characters with multiple resistances not scrolling properly.
    • Made it possible to select and inspect more items in the Examine panel, like item descriptions and conditions.
    • Fixed some portraits missing in the Examine panel and polished the selector.
    • Fixed the context menu not being navigable using the D-pad.
  • HUD
    • Fixed issues with overlapping text and UI fading in the Party Line and the Resource Bar.
    • Fixed an issue preventing you from grouping or splitting summons when you only have one party member available.
    • Removed arrow icons from D-pad button prompts.
    • Updated button prompts and made them look consistent.
    • Added a background image for Luck Points to match the other resources.
    • Fixed the Long Rest button prompts falling off the edge of the screen or overlapping other button prompts, particularly in translated languages.
    • Fixed the button prompts overlapping the Resource Bar in Turn-Based Mode.
    • Cleaned up button prompts at the bottom of the screen to make them more consistent.
    • Made improvements to the action resource bar, such as position and colour changes. Also reworked the movement indicator to account for larger numbers, and increased icon width to avoid stretching.
  • Spells
    • Fixed not being able to cast a spell with variants from a spell scroll.
    • Fixed some overflowing text in the Spellbook for translated languages.
    • Tweaked the appearance of default spells in the Prepared Spells section of the Spellbook so they don't look inaccessible.
    • Added more information to the Spellbook about when you can and cannot change your spells, even if you're not a spellcasting class.
  • Combat
    • Made it more obvious if you're low on health at the start of your turn in combat.
    • Fixed not being able to attack stalactites with ranged spells.
    • Tweaked the Reactions UI.
    • Added surface information to the cursor on controller, rearranged some of the cursor target details, added a new overlay for surfaces when D-pad is pressed down, and added the Actions prompt
    • in combat.
    • Improved readability in the Combat Log by reducing empty space and tightening up the list.
    • Made reactions that are turned off still readable and gave them a greyed out icon.
  • Tooltips
    • Adjusted some margins and sizes in tooltips to avoid issues like damage text getting cut off.
    • Improved the tooltips: added new icons; tidied them up with new font sizes and placement; fixed the Inspect prompt; added the right colour and icon for the Equipped line; and added a new
    • frame, footer, and header style.
    • Tooltip prompts now show if they're enabled or not.
    • Tweaked the placement of tooltips for open containers.
    • Fixed tooltips showing up in dialogue while the dialogue options are still hidden.
    • Fixed the width of pinned tooltips changing when selected.
  • Trading
    • Pressing your cancel button will now close the filter pop-up in the Trade UI.
    • Fixed the trade button prompts overlapping the split item button prompts.
    • Fixed the trader attitude not showing up in the Trade window.
  • Character Creation, Level Up
    • You can now rotate and zoom in and out on your character in Character Creation when you're choosing a name.
    • You can now access multiplayer settings during Character Creation as well.
    • Fixed scrolling with controller in the Prepare Spells section of Level Up.
    • Fixed characters in Character Creation sometimes getting obscured by tooltips on controller.
    • Added a grid icon and button prompt on Character Creation options that open up a grid for selection (like when choosing colours) on controller.
    • On splitscreen, if one player is watching an Origin character's introduction and another is zooming in and out and spinning their character around in Character Creation, that second person's
    • button prompts will no longer affect the Origin character's introduction.
    • Spell tooltips in Character Creation will now always show up in the same horizontal alignment.
    • Fixed the alignment of chevrons in the Character Creator.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Fixed the Enter Invite Code textbox for Direct Connect getting cleared when you deselect it.
    • Made general visual improvements to the controller UI.
    • Fixed scrolling and cropped text in the Journal.
    • Added information about how long you need to press-and-hold.
    • Fixed some issues with navigating the Dialogue History UI.
    • Updated the layout of the Save/Load window, added in-game locations for quicksaves and autosaves, and made it possible to see longer savegame names.
    • Adjusted line heights in the multiplayer lobby and Options menus to save space and reduce the need to scroll.
These are the controller improvements. Gonna test it soon
 

iorek21

Member
So, I’m on Act 3 and got a small doubt that I couldn’t find on Reddit or whatever:

Orin just kidnapped one of my companions and she gave me a choice to kill Gortash in order to save the said companion. I plan to refuse the offer, can I still save the companion or it’s done?

Also, do I have a time limit for it? This feels like a quest for “Point of no return”, but I still have so much to do.
 

Gorgon

Member
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.

I'm about 45-50 hours in, just entered the Shadowlands (will turn back before reaching the "other side"), and still have a couple of quests left to do in act 1 before I move to act 2. Dude, you must have missed a bunch of content.
 

geary

Member
I've played 44 hours and i'm at the end of Act 2 with level 8 1/3.
I'm curious what makes people taking 60 hours in those 2 Acts.
Just got the achivement for finishing Act 2 and on the save file it says i have 72 hours, while on steam i have 93 hours. I have a single playthrough and didnt played in EA.
 

amigastar

Member
I'm about 45-50 hours in, just entered the Shadowlands (will turn back before reaching the "other side"), and still have a couple of quests left to do in act 1 before I move to act 2. Dude, you must have missed a bunch of content.
Actually, I've noticed that i could advance to Baldurs Gate on the west side of the map but i still have missions to do on the Act 2 map, so yeah maybe i'm not really at the End of Act 2.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Which difficulty should I choose, starting on saturday?

I like hard games and normally don't make a second run.

100% go tactician (hard) then. It's honestly not even that much harder if you're not rushing. I'm in the final battle now and I'm absurdly overpowered, nothing can touch me.

So, I’m on Act 3 and got a small doubt that I couldn’t find on Reddit or whatever:

Orin just kidnapped one of my companions and she gave me a choice to kill Gortash in order to save the said companion. I plan to refuse the offer, can I still save the companion or it’s done?

Also, do I have a time limit for it? This feels like a quest for “Point of no return”, but I still have so much to do.

It depends on what you've already done, and a skill check. There's a certain somebody else you can kill which will upset her if you do. Huge spoilers on who if it isn't clear: Sarevok. If you've killed them already, and refuse to kill Gortash, your companion is probably a gonner when you get there but you might be able to pass a skill check before the battle to stop a sacrifice. I didn't.

It's not time limited, no, and it's not a point of no return either. The only point of no return now is a very obvious one at the end.
 
Any idea why sometimes I'm failing a "shove" action (against goblins, of all things), and the log shows a DC of zero for the Athletics test?
 

lefty1117

Gold Member
Congrats to you Sven on likely GOTY award now that we are seeing the Skyfield scores

xmwIxy9.jpg
 

JMZ555

Member
Just completed, happy with the endings I got thankfully.
Ending was a little bit short and i wish more side characters got time.
Got my moneys worth for sure, With Easy access I got 185 hours showing on steam.
I feel I did most of the side stuff, game just had so many secrets and so much to explore i know i missed a few.
Game of year easily for me.

My party was paladin OOV 2H weapon and Karlach 2H as front line, Shadowheart in middle as Healer/support/sleight of hand expert and gale at back as ranged. This felt great and I pretty much one shot nearly all encounters, albeit with few touch and go moments.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
We outta here.

P1Ru9u4.png


That was run #2, full evil dark urge, which actually has less of a completion rate on Steam overall. Hope people go through that route eventually because it's VERY related to the core plot. Apparently a run resisting the urge is even better.

148 hours over 4 weeks, average of 5.2 hours a day (somehow with a job, going out at weekends and my fiancé not calling off the wedding). I've not fallen in love so hard with a game since... I don't know when. An instant top ten of all time for me. Cannot wait to get stuck into a third playthrough when they drop the definitive edition, but for now, it's time to rest.

... Until Starfield.
 

calistan

Member
I feel like I need to level up when a battle hands me my ass, but it's often a matter of tactics. Like when you first meet
Balthazar in Shar's Temple
. The fight involves a load of these orb things that spawn undead soldiers, more orbs, and one major undead with a ton of health.

I got wiped out there, so I went off and did other things, came back a level higher. This time I spread my party out before the fight started, where I knew the orbs would spawn, and I was able to destroy the orbs as soon as they appeared. The big guy never even showed up, and the whole thing was over really quickly. My level had nothing to do with it, I just found out the best / cheesiest tactic.

Currently stuck on another fight at the end of that area, but I know the secret is probably in finding something that the AI can't respond to. I can't decide if it's great design pushing me towards those things, or if the game is just so impossibly wide that there's inevitably a cheese solution for everything that the designers couldn't lock players out of.
 

StereoVsn

Member
he echoes a lot of my personal tastes as well.

WotR may not be as production quality as Bg3, and is certainly more complex, but is the better cROG overall for it's depth and incredible systems. The mythic path system
for example letting you become an unstoppable force of destruction towards the end of the game is an incredible power trip fantasy, and makes the game go from a 9 to a 10/10.

BG3 is also a 10/10 for different reasons, it's reactivity, it's scope, its production value and overall package. It's quite unfair to compare them tbh.

BG3 is a lot more accessible and simplified rules for the average player, WoTR is for the hardcore / niche players that want genuine bone crush difficulty but near perfectly balanced execution of it. If you really do your homework on Pathfinder you can play a very deep run
Yeah, for all the production value of BG3, I still love WotR progression and battle system (especially spellcasting) better overall (got to have a mod for buffing though).

Its a real power trip when you bring the wrath of God (ie yourself) on the enemy.
 

StereoVsn

Member
I feel like I need to level up when a battle hands me my ass, but it's often a matter of tactics. Like when you first meet
Balthazar in Shar's Temple
. The fight involves a load of these orb things that spawn undead soldiers, more orbs, and one major undead with a ton of health.

I got wiped out there, so I went off and did other things, came back a level higher. This time I spread my party out before the fight started, where I knew the orbs would spawn, and I was able to destroy the orbs as soon as they appeared. The big guy never even showed up, and the whole thing was over really quickly. My level had nothing to do with it, I just found out the best / cheesiest tactic.

Currently stuck on another fight at the end of that area, but I know the secret is probably in finding something that the AI can't respond to. I can't decide if it's great design pushing me towards those things, or if the game is just so impossibly wide that there's inevitably a cheese solution for everything that the designers couldn't lock players out of.
The secret is clearly building a mile high tower of crates and jumping down from it in owl bear druid form.

Alternatively, sneak in 100K gold into big bad's inventory and use a special mace that does more damage the more gold enemy has.

Finally, bring 100 explosive barrels and stage the battlefield. Then a single fire bolt will help. 😉

Play like Larian meant it in all it's deranged DM form!
 
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Man patch 2 is not nearly is big as they were making it seem it was gonnah be. Lots of bug fixes, but only karlach's epilogue? I'm glad I stopped at act 3 now that I know there arent epilogues...

still epic game Larian is killing it patch 2 came way quicker than I thought it would
 

Doom85

Member
Only Act 1 anyway, don’t rush the game lol

Oh trust me, I intend to do my best to leave no stone unturned. I know it’s impossible to see everything in one play through, but I still intend to discover as much as I can.

Confused Steve Brule GIF by MOODMAN
Confused Mountain GIF by Lidl Voyages


Not to mention I’ll be doing several playthroughs:

-my main one will be my dwarf rogue Anna, who was my first character I played in an actual D&D game
-a gnome warlock
-a tiefling monk
-a hobbit Barbarian
(and a ton of other ones, LOL, I’m sure I’ll eventually want to take a break from the game after beating it a few times, but I’m sure I’ll come back)
-I want to go for the “have a level in each class” trophy, and I know there’s an easy way to do it by just getting a hireling at Level 12, but I want to do it with my actual character. I’ll be naming the character Absurd, as a D&D Youtuber named Puffin Forest once ran a character named Absurd and would only take one level per class (I need to check if he ever specified Absurd’s race). I’ll probably make the first level Warlock, as unless they changed it, the 5E rules state Eldritch Blast gets increased uses per turn based on character level and not specifically the class level

Yeah, this game is going to dominate my free time for a good while.

Excited Friday GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Man patch 2 is not nearly is big as they were making it seem it was gonnah be. Lots of bug fixes, but only karlach's epilogue? I'm glad I stopped at act 3 now that I know there arent epilogues...

still epic game Larian is killing it patch 2 came way quicker than I thought it would

They said it was only going to be Karlach before the patch dropped. Clickbait headlines reposting the news took that part out sadly. I reloaded my good guy save to check it out and it's kinda cheesy, but decent, although jarring in that the new epilogue doesn't really interact with the rest of the things going on in the ending. Elaborating requires spoilers...

I'd romanced Shadowheart, but you can now decide to join Karlach in Avernus to keep her company and you just... go, with no reaction from other companions.

Don't get me wrong, game's already an all-time favourite but if people are bothered about a long, elaborate, multi part epilogue - wait a year or so and check back.
 

Fools idol

Banned
so on my current playthrough, I decided I would tke the time to do all side content etc. I got to last light and the sleeping bard guy Art.... his quest is bugged I think.

Halsin got killed in combat by the angel wings guy, and now when I talk to art after finding 'his item' the game just ... doesn't let me talk to him like its bugged out. Halsin's crispy corpse chilling in the corner of the room, pretty funny
 

calistan

Member
so on my current playthrough, I decided I would tke the time to do all side content etc. I got to last light and the sleeping bard guy Art.... his quest is bugged I think.

Halsin got killed in combat by the angel wings guy, and now when I talk to art after finding 'his item' the game just ... doesn't let me talk to him like its bugged out. Halsin's crispy corpse chilling in the corner of the room, pretty funny
I think I missed the option to have Halsin in my party. When I first rescued him he said he'd tag along but he wouldn't be able to control his bear form, and much goblin death would ensue. So I said okay, sit this one out, and went off to do things my own way (failed at stealth, not a single living thing left in the goblin camp anyway).

Now I'm at Moonrise Tower and he's been hanging round my camp for ages, but I don't get the option to ask him to join me. All I can do is chat with him.
 
I’ll probably make the first level Warlock, as unless they changed it, the 5E rules state Eldritch Blast gets increased uses per turn based on character level and not specifically the class level
Yeah that's how it works in the game as well.
I'll probably start with Fighter first, Warlock second when I go for this achievement, for the heavy armour and CON saves proficiencies.
 

FireFly

Member
so on my current playthrough, I decided I would tke the time to do all side content etc. I got to last light and the sleeping bard guy Art.... his quest is bugged I think.

Halsin got killed in combat by the angel wings guy, and now when I talk to art after finding 'his item' the game just ... doesn't let me talk to him like its bugged out. Halsin's crispy corpse chilling in the corner of the room, pretty funny
Not sure if you should be able to complete that part without Halsin, but the follow up quest requires Halsin, unfortunately.

I think I missed the option to have Halsin in my party. When I first rescued him he said he'd tag along but he wouldn't be able to control his bear form, and much goblin death would ensue. So I said okay, sit this one out, and went off to do things my own way (failed at stealth, not a single living thing left in the goblin camp anyway).

Now I'm at Moonrise Tower and he's been hanging round my camp for ages, but I don't get the option to ask him to join me. All I can do is chat with him.
You needed to complete the mentioned Art quest.
 

SCB3

Member
Holy shit finding a Code for the PC version is kinda hard, looks to be sold out everywhere
 
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Demption

Member
How is the local co op in this? Can u both save ur characters and have impact on the story etc? Kinda lost how co op is handeld in these games. Planning on buying on ps5
 

Raphael

Member
100% go tactician (hard) then. It's honestly not even that much harder if you're not rushing. I'm in the final battle now and I'm absurdly overpowered, nothing can touch me.



It depends on what you've already done, and a skill check. There's a certain somebody else you can kill which will upset her if you do. Huge spoilers on who if it isn't clear: Sarevok. If you've killed them already, and refuse to kill Gortash, your companion is probably a gonner when you get there but you might be able to pass a skill check before the battle to stop a sacrifice. I didn't.

It's not time limited, no, and it's not a point of no return either. The only point of no return now is a very obvious one at the end.

I second going for tactician. Playing on normal and i have plenty of options to optimize but i dont even bother as its a breeze.

Next runs will do tactician for sure.


On another note, where is fsr2. Was supposed to be here along the console release. The performance on the deck could use some help.
 
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