I´m inclined to agree, but I have to point out that a level one player character is far stronger than any peasant or average human.
You can cast spells, recover health, use divine powers, hit the enemy where it hurts, and you are skilled in a lot of fields.
Do not let the fact that you have room to growth fool you: you are exceptional from the start.
an example: Abdel Adrian is a level 4 fighter/soldier in the DiA adventure, and he´s a bloody semigod.
Lord Nasher Alagondar is a lvl 7 Knight.
etc.
They're not quite as rare as one might think. You can hardly kick a rock in the Forgotten Realms without hitting someone powerful. Well, at least you won't find a lich in every cellar like in BG2. Probably...?
I´m inclined to agree, but I have to point out that a level one player character is far stronger than any peasant or average human.(...)
LV 0 commoners on Faerun that are ludicrous weak. A house cat could kill a lv 0 commoner easily. A low level ranger has zero chances of hunting a panther(CR = 4). Spells and divine powers are mundane things which exists in Faerun but not in our world. However, access to firearms exists in our world.
IRL a hunter with a .45-70 rifle can easily hunt a Elephant(CR 7) and Neanderthals with spears could hunt Mammoths(CR = 10). And note that I an talking about IRL animals. Arguably, if a Balor exists and appears in our world, he would't be a match to a modern armored vehicle with 30mm autocannons.
Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear.
Would be very harsh... But I can't detail why because I need to maintain PG13 here.
But I an not saying that a succubus familiar for the lv 1 wizard.
Look to NWN1 familiars. If a magician can "tame" and have a high level pseudo dragon familiar which can have epic(+5) natural weapons and able to cast 20d6 cone of fire 5 times per day, he probably can make a succubus his familiar. This would require a "epic familiar" feat or something similar but could be fun.
an example: Abdel Adrian is a level 4 fighter/soldier in the DiA adventure, and he´s a bloody semigod.
Lord Nasher Alagondar is a lvl 7 Knight.
etc.
Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear.
Abdel Adrian is (sadly) the canon baalspawn, the hero of baldur´s gate and its a baalspawn, ergo a Semigod =D
And he is a lvl 4 fighter/soldier in the Dia Adventure ( obviously I´m not going to post a part of a licensed book of an adventure of Wotc). Anyway, that´s simply an example.
an example: Abdel Adrian is a level 4 fighter/soldier in the DiA adventure, and he´s a bloody semigod.
Lord Nasher Alagondar is a lvl 7 Knight.
etc.
Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear.
Abdel Adrian is (sadly) the canon baalspawn, the hero of baldur´s gate and its a baalspawn, ergo a Semigod =D
And he is a lvl 4 fighter/soldier in the Dia Adventure ( obviously I´m not going to post a part of a licensed book of an adventure of Wotc). Anyway, that´s simply an example.
TSR treated the story in a much better way. No way that a lv 4 character can kill characters like Firkraag...
The page 96 of Domains of Dread mentions that Strahd is a 16th level necromancer but before the fall of grave, he was a quoting the book "In life, he was merely a 5th level mage" and the book mentions that 5th mage is something of "mediocre skill" many times, the book itself downplay mages bellow lv 10 many times.
The notion that everyone in Faerun is extremely low level, is something pushed by WoTC on late 3e edition, 4e and 5e.
If you look into Netheril : Empire of Magic, on NPC's section, I will list the first 5 NPC's
Nether(elder) -12th fighter - 8th priest
Nether(younger) - 12th level ranger
Terraseer - 35th level arcanist
Congenio - 20th level arcanist
Ioulaum - 41th level aracnist
No one who holds the title of "archwizard" on Netheril is bellow lv 30. The notion that someone that can't even kill a Brown Bear is godlike is so ....
EDIT : I found a archwizard bellow lv 30. On page 113.
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
If you need enchanted weapons to hit him the tank is toast against a balor
Wrong. He has DR 15/cold iron(3.5e), assuming that a heavy crossbow deals d10 damage, Imagine what a 30mm cannon can do. Probably 40 damage per shot on average, and there are 30mm cannons that can fire about 3,900 rounds per minute(GAU-8 Avenger), the cannon can dish so much damage per round that the DR 15 will be worthless.
And if a lot of demon appears, people would figure out that cold iron is the best weapon against then and every military in the world would have "cold iron tip" ammo.
Believe or not, people discussed IRL weapons vs D&D creatures and the general consensus is that a Me 262 or other jets would win against any ancient dragon if they are in a antimagic zone. If the dragons can cast spells like control weather, then the dragon wins.
@SorcererV1ct0r "Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear."
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
@SorcererV1ct0r "Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear."
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
Yup, just recalled my battle with Legendary Bear from RDR2. Brrr, terryfing experience. I was not able to shot the crazy bastard from the distance and when he reached me, poor Arthur Morgan was literally torn to piece. So yeah, bears are not the creature you want to mess with ?
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
There are a LOT of videos of people hunting Bears with spears/bows. People tend to downplay bows and spears too much. A british warbow firing a broad head arrow probably can kill this wild animals.
A video of a Javelin thrower killing a bear with a spear throw.
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
The vast majority of them got drained. The main characteristic of the Spellplague was to drain powerful magical items and artifacts. But this also happened with powerful magic-infused beings. So, a great many of those super-powerful arcanists all got drained and died. The way they killed off the Simbul was so sad. She was one of my all-time best loved NPCs. She died slowly wasting away in Elminster's arms, shifting back and forth between complete madness and being the equivalent of a helpless child.
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
There are a LOT of videos of people hunting Bears with spears/bows. People tend to downplay bows and spears too much. A british warbow firing a broad head arrow probably can kill this wild animals.
A video of a Javelin thrower killing a bear with a spear throw.
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
The vast majority of them got drained. The main characteristic of the Spellplague was to drain powerful magical items and artifacts. But this also happened with powerful magic-infused beings. So, a great many of those super-powerful arcanists all got drained and died. The way they killed off the Simbul was so sad. She was one of my all-time best loved NPCs. She died slowly wasting away in Elminster's arms, shifting back and forth between complete madness and being the equivalent of a helpless child.
Yeah, I think I wrote about this somewhere. Sad indeed, but at least she died saving the love of her life. Fourth edition lore was so bad, that I cannot fathom to this day how could WotC pull off something like this...
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
There are a LOT of videos of people hunting Bears with spears/bows. People tend to downplay bows and spears too much. A british warbow firing a broad head arrow probably can kill this wild animals.
A video of a Javelin thrower killing a bear with a spear throw.
EDIT : You are also downplaying "hunting rifles", a .45-70 rifle a 458 Winchest Magnum is so powerful.
There's also a LOT of documented events where hunter's were killed by bears after having shot them multiple times with guns designed to kill said bears.My personal "favorite" is one where 3 hunters, all armed with guns designed specifically to hunt bears, opened fire on a grizzly simultaneously. The bear lived long enough to run up and grab one of them, drag him away (while the other two are shooting it!), and kill him before dropping dead.
If you feel particularly brave, you can look some historical bear attacks, one of which involved a single bear depopulating a village over time because an entire hunting party couldn't bring it down.
Saying a gun is "so powerful" doesn't mean much when the thing you shoot doesn't die.
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
There are a LOT of videos of people hunting Bears with spears/bows. People tend to downplay bows and spears too much. A british warbow firing a broad head arrow probably can kill this wild animals.
A video of a Javelin thrower killing a bear with a spear throw.
EDIT : You are also downplaying "hunting rifles", a .45-70 rifle a 458 Winchest Magnum is so powerful.
There's also a LOT of documented events where hunter's were killed by bears after having shot them multiple times with guns designed to kill said bears.My personal "favorite" is one where 3 hunters, all armed with guns designed specifically to hunt bears, opened fire on a grizzly simultaneously. The bear lived long enough to run up and grab one of them, drag him away (while the other two are shooting it!), and kill him before dropping dead.
If you feel particularly brave, you can look some historical bear attacks, one of which involved a single bear depopulating a village over time because an entire hunting party couldn't bring it down.
Saying a gun is "so powerful" doesn't mean much when the thing you shoot doesn't die.
Many countries and states has retarded gun legislation approved by a bunch of politicians who never steeped in a firing range(but I don't wanna be very off topic), so lawful hunters often are forced to hunt with small caliber firearms. And the notion that every "hunting rifle" is the same is not truth. A hunting rifle can be chambered in .22 LR or in .700 nitro express.
But my point is that lv 0/1 guys on forgotten realms would have any chance against even pet animals.
And this in the sword coast setting. In Dark Sun Setting, even your house pet can have psionic and deal d6 damage with the most basic one.
When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite.
Ed: I forgot, in Volo´s book (if your DM allows it, with I do for example) you can add a cranium rat, a crawling claw, a gazer,...
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
The vast majority of them got drained. The main characteristic of the Spellplague was to drain powerful magical items and artifacts. But this also happened with powerful magic-infused beings. So, a great many of those super-powerful arcanists all got drained and died. The way they killed off the Simbul was so sad. She was one of my all-time best loved NPCs. She died slowly wasting away in Elminster's arms, shifting back and forth between complete madness and being the equivalent of a helpless child.
Yeah, I think I wrote about this somewhere. Sad indeed, but at least she died saving the love of her life. Fourth edition lore was so bad, that I cannot fathom to this day how could WotC pull off something like this...
I know, but she should have died a glorious death as a warrior hero, standing strong against Thay to the end. I was already so very angry at how they killed off the Blackstaff (my #1 beloved FR NPC), and then they went and pulled this on my #2 beloved FR NPC!
Even the gods who died during that time, Mystra, Helm, Eilistraee, all died in ridiculous and pathetic ways, getting conned or tricked into situations that result in their deaths.
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
The vast majority of them got drained. The main characteristic of the Spellplague was to drain powerful magical items and artifacts. But this also happened with powerful magic-infused beings. So, a great many of those super-powerful arcanists all got drained and died. The way they killed off the Simbul was so sad. She was one of my all-time best loved NPCs. She died slowly wasting away in Elminster's arms, shifting back and forth between complete madness and being the equivalent of a helpless child.
Yeah, I think I wrote about this somewhere. Sad indeed, but at least she died saving the love of her life. Fourth edition lore was so bad, that I cannot fathom to this day how could WotC pull off something like this...
I know, but she should have died a glorious death as a warrior hero, standing strong against Thay to the end. I was already so very angry at how they killed off the Blackstaff (my #1 beloved FR NPC), and then they went and pulled this on my #2 beloved FR NPC!
Even the gods who died during that time, Mystra, Helm, Eilistraee, all died in ridiculous and pathetic ways, getting conned or tricked into situations that result in their deaths.
How did they kill Blackstaff? I vaguely remember he had
I don't know how it's like in 4e or 5e Faerun (I stopped following timeline after 3.5), but I have notice overall nerfing in 3rd edition when it comes to most of the more powerful mages. Still there are tons of mages over 20th level in 3ed Faerun and quite a few over 30th (Elminster, Simbul, Larloch, Khelben, Ioulaum, Telamont Tanthul, Szass Tam, couple of Twisted Rune liches, Aumvor the Undying, Qysar Shoon the Demilich - those are just the ones I remember from the top of my head).
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
The vast majority of them got drained. The main characteristic of the Spellplague was to drain powerful magical items and artifacts. But this also happened with powerful magic-infused beings. So, a great many of those super-powerful arcanists all got drained and died. The way they killed off the Simbul was so sad. She was one of my all-time best loved NPCs. She died slowly wasting away in Elminster's arms, shifting back and forth between complete madness and being the equivalent of a helpless child.
Yeah, I think I wrote about this somewhere. Sad indeed, but at least she died saving the love of her life. Fourth edition lore was so bad, that I cannot fathom to this day how could WotC pull off something like this...
I know, but she should have died a glorious death as a warrior hero, standing strong against Thay to the end. I was already so very angry at how they killed off the Blackstaff (my #1 beloved FR NPC), and then they went and pulled this on my #2 beloved FR NPC!
Even the gods who died during that time, Mystra, Helm, Eilistraee, all died in ridiculous and pathetic ways, getting conned or tricked into situations that result in their deaths.
How did they kill Blackstaff? I vaguely remember he had
died defending some elven city.
He gives his life essence to a magically raised elven city.
It's in the novel "Blackstaff" that is part of the "Wizards" series. It happens just before the Spellplague, but WotC confirmed it was part of their overall plan to get rid of iconic FR NPCs in the transition to 4e.
I know, but she should have died a glorious death as a warrior hero, standing strong against Thay to the end. I was already so very angry at how they killed off the Blackstaff (my #1 beloved FR NPC), and then they went and pulled this on my #2 beloved FR NPC!
Even the gods who died during that time, Mystra, Helm, Eilistraee, all died in ridiculous and pathetic ways, getting conned or tricked into situations that result in their deaths.
And for this I'm glad that 5e threw the 3e-4e transition "stories" in the trash where they belong, and revealed that Mystra, Helm, and Eilistraee all survived.
@SorcererV1ct0r "Many countries and states has retarded gun legislation approved by a bunch of politicians who never steeped in a firing range(but I don't wanna be very off topic), so lawful hunters often are forced to hunt with small caliber firearms. And the notion that every "hunting rifle" is the same is not truth. A hunting rifle can be chambered in .22 LR or in .700 nitro express."
I see you completely ignored when I stated, multiple times, the hunters were using bear guns, which are very large caliber and powerful.
I also don't think using an ableist slur to describe ANYTHING is appropriate.
I dislike these inconsistencies as well, but they are rife within CRPGs. For example - Apparently my fresh Bhaalspawn who has lived his life in Candlekeep is as experienced as Khalid, a fighter who has traveled from Calimshan and is a member of the Harpers.
At some point, you just have accept it comes with the territory.
Well said and a great example. People need to accept that these are games and role playing experiences combined. And sometimes you have to make some sacrifices to get that to work. Otherwise you'd have unfair or imbalanced companion choices.
And IMO, generally these games should sacrifice more towards the game, fairness side, instead of the believability, role-playing side. RPG's with weak story and characters can still succeed imo -- IWD, the Diablo series. But without a foundation of good and fair gameplay, I don't think an RPG with a great story will succeed.
Dunno, I had examples of both.
BG, PoE2, Tyranny, Tales of cold steel, I enjoy both combat and story, I liked Mass effect but despise the continuous FPS combat in small rooms, I have fun with Grandia 3 and Valkiria chronicles 2 but the story was atrocious...
Hello everyone! We hope you’ve recovered from the Panel From Hell. We have a huge, bumper community update for you today. We’re going to talk about Early Access at some length, so get a cup of something ready, and maybe a snack. Nestled in? Let’s go.
What is Early Access? What are your expectations? Everyone has a different answer to this, depending on the experience they’re looking for, or their objectives that lead them to shipping a game into Early Access. Regardless how you define it, buying an Early Access game needs to be an informed decision and today we come here to inform.
We’re going to cover a bunch of topics discussed on the 18th’s Panel From Hell, where Geoff, Swen, Adam and Chris talked in some depth about not just Early Access, but also Avernus, first of the nine hells and the setting of the game’s tutorial.
The full Panel From Hell is a pretty lengthy watch, but it’s just below here.
If you made it all the way to the end, you learned we’re aiming to launch Baldur’s Gate 3 into Early Access on September 30. The Steam page has been updated to more accurately describe what we’ll be releasing first. While the content will be limited, there should be enough bells and whistles to make it a fun, engaging experience.
Early Access will feature around 20-25 hours of gameplay in a single play-through, with performance captured dialogues and cut-scenes, voice overs for most dialogs, multiplayer (but no split-screen for now), several translations available (but not all) and an Act 1 story that should feel fulfilling to play through many multiple times, with multiple characters. At the start of Early Access, support for custom characters will consist of 6 classes and 9 races, with several subclasses and subraces included. You won’t be able to play as an origin character yet but you will be able to recruit 5 of them as companions when your journey commences.
Here’s a little about who you’re likely to meet on the road to Baldur’s Gate:
Shadowheart
A loyal cleric of Shar, Shadowheart is the sole survivor of a holy mission undertaken for the Mistress of the Night. She alone must deliver a relic of immense power while threatened by foes on all sides, and a strange, untamed magic burgeoning from within.
Wyll
Noble by birth, Wyll made his name as the heroic 'Blade of Frontiers'. But to become a living legend, he made a bargain with a devil - and he now longs to break free before it consumes him for good.
Lae'zel
Lae'zel is a ferocious warrior, mighty even by the standards of a githyanki crèche. Faced with transforming into the very monster she's sworn to destroy, Lae'zel must prove herself worthy of rejoining her people - if they don't execute her first.
Astarion
Astarion prowled the night as a vampire spawn for centuries, serving a sadistic master until he was snatched away. Now he can walk in the light and has the chance at a new life, but how long can he keep his past buried?
Gale
Gale is a Waterdhavian wizard prodigy whose love for a goddess made him attempt something no mortal should. Blighted by the forbidden magic of ancient Netheril, Gale needs to undo the corruption that is overtaking him, a corruption that threatens to destroy the lives of thousands.
We’ll go into the exact available classes, sub-classes, and races a little closer to launch as we iron out some last-minute content planning, but for now I think the easiest way to open your eyes to just how huge BG3’s EA content is, we’ll compare that content to our previous game’s Early Access, Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Amount of combats: 22 in DOS2 EA vs 80 in BG3 EA
Amount of dialogue lines in english: 17.600 in DOS2 EA vs. 45.980 in BG3 EA
Amount of characters: 142 in DOS2 EA vs. 596 in BG3 EA
Amount of spells/actions: 69 in DOS2 EA vs. 146 in BG3 EA
These numbers are changing continuously as we’re actively developing the game and new content gets introduced daily.
An example of content coming in hot is an Intellect Devourer named ‘us’. The story of how ‘Us’ made it into the game was introduced during the Panel and showcases what’s possible when multiple disciplines at Larian come together. And this is still early footage! It’s only going to get better, and bigger, from here.
You could accurately state that BG3’s EA is 3x larger than DOS2’s EA, but that requires further context. The 3x multiplier essentially translates to density. More permutations. Many more permutations. It’s the deepest game we’ve ever made, and if you’re the type of player who played 100 hours in DOS2, you’ll see entirely different content on your second or third playthrough compared to your first, depending on the decisions you make. We wanted to create real, tangible storylines that permeate throughout happenstance and decision and so if you try out early access, it may be a good idea to try out what happens on an ‘evil’ playthrough and compare that to a ‘good’ playthrough.
Immense Scope
During the panel we gave a couple of examples of how the depth of Baldur’s Gate 3 made our numbers soar. We showcased the spell “Speak with Dead”. A spell that could (and potentially should) be easily sidelined or “gamified” because of the immense scope, but instead we’ve ensured that Speak with Dead is relevant throughout your adventures with every corpse that had something interesting to say. Can’t interrogate the living? Interrogate the dead!
The same goes for animal Handling, something many of you asked about. The skill can be used to calm down an animal, intuit an animal’s intentions, or potentially help tame it. You’ll find plenty of uses for this skill on the road to Baldur’s Gate but that’s not all. There’s also the spell Speak with Animals. During the panel we hinted that good use of these spells or skills could even lead to recruiting an owlbear companion!
In the stream, we showed another useful spell in the D&D arsenal - Find Familiar. This spell creates a spirit that takes the form of animal of your choice (Cat, Raven, Spider and more) to serve you as a familiar. The familiar becomes a controllable follower, and can be useful for a number of reasons. Thanks to the spell you can see and hear through the animal, so it's perfect to send it ahead of you and explore the region as a scout. While mostly combat ineffective, familiars can be used to spy and gain insight on situations before you can encounter them. Certain familiars also have other interesting abilities like a cat - who can use a skill to distract guards, making it much easier for your rogue to do what they do best.
The Early Access Experience
Early Access gets you all of the content you’ve seen us playing in our previous live-streams, plus everything we’ve still got to show you, and much more we’ve left for you to discover for yourselves (which is, to be fair, almost everything - we’ve tried to show you as little as possible).
However. September 30 isn’t going to offer a polished experience. Which brings us full circle to the introduction of this update. The purpose of Early Access for us at Larian is to make the game better. We want to iterate on the game, hear your feedback, debate internally and debate with our players. We don’t know how long Baldur’s Gate 3 will be in Early Access, but we do know that all your feedback will make the game so much better and ensure that the 1.0 launch will be so much stronger than if we were to do it just on our own.
If you’re in it for the story, and you’re not interested in providing feedback or navigating some bugs, then Early Access may not be for you. However, know that even if you don’t provide direct feedback, you still help us make the game better by just playing a bit!
How?
Because we’re collecting all kinds of data behind the scenes that inform us how players are playing the game. Heat maps are a good example of this.
The above example is taken from the Early Access of Divinity: Original Sin 2 and allows us to see the difficulty spikes. Literally, where people are dying. If it’s red where it’s not supposed to be red, it means the fight may be too tough. So then we can have a debate, and figure out what to do about it. You don’t need to tell us, you just need to die. I mean… or win. That’s cool too. Heat maps like this are also used to analyze loot distribution, exploration, and loads of other stats that help us to understand how you interact with the world.
The more of you playing in Early Access, the more data points we get to make better decisions about what to change. That’s of course on top of the forum discussions and the feedback we get via other channels. It’s a pretty amazing thing that has historically made our games better.
In case it’s not clear, we all really hope you’ll join us on our Early Access journey, but we want to make sure you know the game won’t be ready yet. If you want a full polished experience, wait until we release version 1.0.
You can read the whole Early Access blurb on the Steam page for more information, but to be honest we pretty much covered it all here.
Also - thanks for all the memes from The Panel From Hell, and thanks for the continued support.
Wrapping up!
OH - there’s one more thing. There won’t be pre-orders for Baldur’s Gate 3 and you do not need to worry about pre ordering to play with everyone else.
You’ll be able to buy it on launch day, and then start playing the content described in this update. There will not be limited quantities of keys.
That’s pretty much everything you need to inform yourself on Early Access. It’s going to be an awesome journey together. We’ll be sharing new content, features, and improvements with you regularly. We’ll be talking directly with you, and hopefully when COVID is done being a total asshole to the world, we’ll meet again at PAX, or EGX, or wherever else! We miss you!
We have more surprises in store for you up to launch. We’ll post a full, extensive breakdown of Early Access Day 1 content closer to launch, but until then stay tuned to our streams and community updates!
@mlnevese nice to hear you are feeling positive. I am also considering early access, but not 100% decided yet as I might just wait until full release so I can get stuck into Baldur’s Gate 3 with no limits ? Temptation might get the better of me though as I am definitely looking forward to it.
Comments
You can cast spells, recover health, use divine powers, hit the enemy where it hurts, and you are skilled in a lot of fields.
Do not let the fact that you have room to growth fool you: you are exceptional from the start.
an example: Abdel Adrian is a level 4 fighter/soldier in the DiA adventure, and he´s a bloody semigod.
Lord Nasher Alagondar is a lvl 7 Knight.
etc.
LV 0 commoners on Faerun that are ludicrous weak. A house cat could kill a lv 0 commoner easily. A low level ranger has zero chances of hunting a panther(CR = 4). Spells and divine powers are mundane things which exists in Faerun but not in our world. However, access to firearms exists in our world.
IRL a hunter with a .45-70 rifle can easily hunt a Elephant(CR 7) and Neanderthals with spears could hunt Mammoths(CR = 10). And note that I an talking about IRL animals. Arguably, if a Balor exists and appears in our world, he would't be a match to a modern armored vehicle with 30mm autocannons.
I don't know about Abdel. However, Lord Nasher level is lv 12 on 2e and lv 7 fighter/4 divine champion on 3.5e ( https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Nasher_Alagondar )
Sorry but I don't consider someone that can't kill a bear using a arbalest "semigod". The average commoner in IRL medieval times probably could kill this large animals with a heavy crossbow and a hunting spear.
Would be very harsh... But I can't detail why because I need to maintain PG13 here.
But I an not saying that a succubus familiar for the lv 1 wizard.
Look to NWN1 familiars. If a magician can "tame" and have a high level pseudo dragon familiar which can have epic(+5) natural weapons and able to cast 20d6 cone of fire 5 times per day, he probably can make a succubus his familiar. This would require a "epic familiar" feat or something similar but could be fun.
Abdel Adrian is (sadly) the canon baalspawn, the hero of baldur´s gate and its a baalspawn, ergo a Semigod =D
And he is a lvl 4 fighter/soldier in the Dia Adventure ( obviously I´m not going to post a part of a licensed book of an adventure of Wotc). Anyway, that´s simply an example.
TSR treated the story in a much better way. No way that a lv 4 character can kill characters like Firkraag...
The page 96 of Domains of Dread mentions that Strahd is a 16th level necromancer but before the fall of grave, he was a quoting the book "In life, he was merely a 5th level mage" and the book mentions that 5th mage is something of "mediocre skill" many times, the book itself downplay mages bellow lv 10 many times.
The notion that everyone in Faerun is extremely low level, is something pushed by WoTC on late 3e edition, 4e and 5e.
If you look into Netheril : Empire of Magic, on NPC's section, I will list the first 5 NPC's
No one who holds the title of "archwizard" on Netheril is bellow lv 30. The notion that someone that can't even kill a Brown Bear is godlike is so ....
EDIT : I found a archwizard bellow lv 30. On page 113.
I must admit there was some appeal in the fact those character were so goddamn powerful, it makes them feel legendary.
It was also the fun experience being able to kill such a powerful foes as Firkraag or Demogorgon. It was more satysfing than killing any enemy encountered in BG1. That *however* doesn't mean that battles in BG3 won't be any less excited for me.
Wrong. He has DR 15/cold iron(3.5e), assuming that a heavy crossbow deals d10 damage, Imagine what a 30mm cannon can do. Probably 40 damage per shot on average, and there are 30mm cannons that can fire about 3,900 rounds per minute(GAU-8 Avenger), the cannon can dish so much damage per round that the DR 15 will be worthless.
And if a lot of demon appears, people would figure out that cold iron is the best weapon against then and every military in the world would have "cold iron tip" ammo.
Believe or not, people discussed IRL weapons vs D&D creatures and the general consensus is that a Me 262 or other jets would win against any ancient dragon if they are in a antimagic zone. If the dragons can cast spells like control weather, then the dragon wins.
Dude, do you know what bears are capable of irl? I'm surprised anyone can kill a bear something like a spear or bow (maybe with 8 other guys). Modern bear guns (which are capable of dropping elephants) DON'T ALWAYS WORK. Its insane and bears are terrifying. If anything D&D nerfs bears into oblivion. A brown bear should start at dire bear stats and they should get stronger from there. Fun Fact: The oldest known word for "bear" isn't the actual word for bear from that language. It was never spoken out of fear of summoning one. The word that survives translates roughly as "ruin" or "destruction".
Yup, just recalled my battle with Legendary Bear from RDR2. Brrr, terryfing experience. I was not able to shot the crazy bastard from the distance and when he reached me, poor Arthur Morgan was literally torn to piece. So yeah, bears are not the creature you want to mess with ?
There are a LOT of videos of people hunting Bears with spears/bows. People tend to downplay bows and spears too much. A british warbow firing a broad head arrow probably can kill this wild animals.
A video of a Javelin thrower killing a bear with a spear throw.
EDIT : You are also downplaying "hunting rifles", a .45-70 rifle a 458 Winchest Magnum is so powerful.
Key words from that video: "hunter" and "former javelin competitor".
So by no means a run-of-the-mill commoner (who likely wouldn't have access to that kind of weapon) and likely not a 1st level character either.
Yeah, I think I wrote about this somewhere. Sad indeed, but at least she died saving the love of her life. Fourth edition lore was so bad, that I cannot fathom to this day how could WotC pull off something like this...
There's also a LOT of documented events where hunter's were killed by bears after having shot them multiple times with guns designed to kill said bears.My personal "favorite" is one where 3 hunters, all armed with guns designed specifically to hunt bears, opened fire on a grizzly simultaneously. The bear lived long enough to run up and grab one of them, drag him away (while the other two are shooting it!), and kill him before dropping dead.
If you feel particularly brave, you can look some historical bear attacks, one of which involved a single bear depopulating a village over time because an entire hunting party couldn't bring it down.
Saying a gun is "so powerful" doesn't mean much when the thing you shoot doesn't die.
Many countries and states has retarded gun legislation approved by a bunch of politicians who never steeped in a firing range(but I don't wanna be very off topic), so lawful hunters often are forced to hunt with small caliber firearms. And the notion that every "hunting rifle" is the same is not truth. A hunting rifle can be chambered in .22 LR or in .700 nitro express.
But my point is that lv 0/1 guys on forgotten realms would have any chance against even pet animals.
And this in the sword coast setting. In Dark Sun Setting, even your house pet can have psionic and deal d6 damage with the most basic one.
Pact of the Chain warlocks can:
When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms: imp, pseudodragon, quasit, or sprite.
Ed: I forgot, in Volo´s book (if your DM allows it, with I do for example) you can add a cranium rat, a crawling claw, a gazer,...
Even the gods who died during that time, Mystra, Helm, Eilistraee, all died in ridiculous and pathetic ways, getting conned or tricked into situations that result in their deaths.
How did they kill Blackstaff? I vaguely remember he had
And for this I'm glad that 5e threw the 3e-4e transition "stories" in the trash where they belong, and revealed that Mystra, Helm, and Eilistraee all survived.
I see you completely ignored when I stated, multiple times, the hunters were using bear guns, which are very large caliber and powerful.
I also don't think using an ableist slur to describe ANYTHING is appropriate.
Well said and a great example. People need to accept that these are games and role playing experiences combined. And sometimes you have to make some sacrifices to get that to work. Otherwise you'd have unfair or imbalanced companion choices.
And IMO, generally these games should sacrifice more towards the game, fairness side, instead of the believability, role-playing side. RPG's with weak story and characters can still succeed imo -- IWD, the Diablo series. But without a foundation of good and fair gameplay, I don't think an RPG with a great story will succeed.
at that point i may as well be playing a more game play focused genre. when i come to an rpg for the story telling.
BG, PoE2, Tyranny, Tales of cold steel, I enjoy both combat and story, I liked Mass effect but despise the continuous FPS combat in small rooms, I have fun with Grandia 3 and Valkiria chronicles 2 but the story was atrocious...
https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1086940/view/4360001904749548891