Yanno, I never thought about players approaching this without having D&D experience… this must be quite overwhelming for them!!
I’ve played D&D across 4-5 editions (depending how you count 3 vs 3.5) and even I make very suboptimal plays compared to some of my buddies. For the folks who step in without any idea of the spells and abilities, it’s gotta be pretty challenging to wrap your head around what spells you should be casting when and what to expect as an effect.
How are y’all making out? I’d guess you’d read the different descriptions of each spell or ability and slowly parse together what works and what doesn’t, but is it too daunting? Do you feel overwhelmed by it? Do you feel like you’re coming to a better understanding as time goes on?
i have (basically) no dnd and i didn’t find the experience very overwhelming. respeccing was a very important mechanic for me as i got to rebuild the character once i understood the class/game better. that being said, i wish the tool tips were a little more fleshed out: spell x has a chance of doing y but never tells me what y even does (or if it does, then they didn’t make it idiot proof)
I broke my own haste concentration at least twice a play session and I’ve been DMing 5e for 6 years at this point. Would have saved me a few wipes on tactician
You have to concentrate on haste now? Back in 3.0-3.5 you cast it and it just worked. Still didn’t allow you to cast two spells, so it seemed pretty useless to most of my characters. Throw it on the dual-vorpal-katana-wielding fighter, and watch her just abuse TF out of Great Cleave.
Yep, most buffs require concentration now. There are a couple exceptions but they’re mostly the weaker buffs like longstrider. In tabletop 5e haste also doesn’t let you cast two spells, , it’s either an extra dash, disengage, hide, or a single weapon attack (no multiattack). Much much stronger in BG3.
If you’re on keyboard (I’m sure controller has it but idk the button) the T key will let you hover over keywords to get more information. Ie, if a spell says it paralyzed the enemy, hitting T will let you mouse over “paralyzed” and read how it prevents the enemies from acting, and makes all melee attacks against them crits.
I have no DnD experience, but I do have DOS2 experience, so as long as I manage to make things go “bang” and send someone flying out of a window, it is fine by me. Said so, after +100h in, I already know how most of the stuff works, even if I don’t really try to use it. After all, there’s nothing that can’t be solved by using three Call Lightning spells of my Storm Sorcerer on the same turn.
But yeah, for someone who doesn’t understand shit but also tries to understand it, it must be overwhelming.
I tried warlock, gave up twice on level 3, decided to play barbarian instead and banish all wizardry except for the cleric to keep it simple. I’m in act 1 and have no idea how far this will work, but so far I’m having fun and the game offers plenty of options to break its ai.
Like my party running around an enemy army stuck in turn based time to set up the perfect ambush.
Do I need to kill Gale to get rid of him once he is in my camp, or can I kick him out? He started getting whiney about his condition and I kept him only because the game insisted he’d be useful.
Thankfully he only eats three items, so beyond that you can pretty much ignore him. Don’t worry about the items he eats just save a couple of items that you would otherwise sell until he eats his third. You’ll get much better items later on in the game without issue.
I had no idea how to lower a targets AC, and I’m in Act 3 on Normal, it’s been tough to say the least. I’m still not 100% sure what saving throws are, nor do I really know how to get Karlach’s AC to go up further as she currently has lower AC that Astarion in my party
You don’t really lower a target’s AC, it usually stays constant. The AC is just the number you have to roll against to hit.
Ie, you roll a 10 on a d20. You have a bonus of +8 to hit. That means you’ll hit the enemy as long as it’s AC is 18 or lower.
Saving throws are the reverse. The enemy who’s getting targeted by a spell gets to roll and add their save bonus to try and beat your spell DC, which is usually somewhere from 15-20 ish.
You don’t really need to know the maths going on, it’s all represented by the % chance that pops up when you go to target something. If a hit says 95% chance, that means you’ll hit as long as you don’t roll a 1 on a d20.
As for Karlach’s AC, that’s just a barbarian thing. Barbarians are usually unarmored, but they get to add their Con stat to their AC as well as their Dex. They have a lot more HP to make up for getting hit more often, and they resist all physical damage while raging so they’re still quite tanky despite having a lower AC.
I played DnD a bit before, but it has been years. I remember the basic premise of stuff, but absolutely forgot all the little details of things. With that in mind, it really just feels like any other big RPG with classes and skill trees. It feels much less complicated than just about any primarily strategy game (especially things like 4x games), despite definitely fitting into the strategy category. It feels like every system that could be complex and daunting has enough information given and a very intuitive UI that makes it easy to navigate and figure things out on your own.
I have no D&D experience but I have played many MMO and fantasy games before so don’t find it too daunting. Takes a little while to learn what each spells capabilities are and even long to learn it’s synergies with other spells and abilities but eventually it comes along.
Planning on starting a second playthrough now that I know a bit more about the abilities and can build them more appropriately the second time around.
I have 0 dnd experience outside of AD&D decades ago, and this game isn’t very complex at all. Combat definitely isn’t. Strategic, yes, but not complex or overwhelming.
I don’t understand how someone can be overwhelmed by the combat of this game. You can move, and you can do a thing, and some people get a once-per-turn extra thing. It’s every strategy RPG game ever.
I think it’s varied based on classes. A Barbarian or a Rouge play very straightforward - hit things, then hit them again.
For classes like wizards, you suddenly have a ton of options in your disposal, and they all use the same resource (spell slots)
I think it’s easier when you have a lot of abilities that simply go into a cooldown (usually Short or Long cooldowns). That means using one doesn’t come at the expense of the other abilities that you have.
That directly leads to the D: OS system where stacking tons of abilities is the optimal play pattern, which I’m not a huge fan of. Like, if you have a character without Teleport on that game, you’re flat out playing wrong
There’s always a trade-off. I like that DnD is more flexible than when I last played, for wizards/clerics, but trying to solve these game design problems basically always adds complexity.
Yanno, I never thought about players approaching this without having D&D experience… this must be quite overwhelming for them!!
I’ve played D&D across 4-5 editions (depending how you count 3 vs 3.5) and even I make very suboptimal plays compared to some of my buddies. For the folks who step in without any idea of the spells and abilities, it’s gotta be pretty challenging to wrap your head around what spells you should be casting when and what to expect as an effect.
How are y’all making out? I’d guess you’d read the different descriptions of each spell or ability and slowly parse together what works and what doesn’t, but is it too daunting? Do you feel overwhelmed by it? Do you feel like you’re coming to a better understanding as time goes on?
i have (basically) no dnd and i didn’t find the experience very overwhelming. respeccing was a very important mechanic for me as i got to rebuild the character once i understood the class/game better. that being said, i wish the tool tips were a little more fleshed out: spell x has a chance of doing y but never tells me what y even does (or if it does, then they didn’t make it idiot proof)
I would appreciate a warning when you try and use a spell that will break your own concentration.
I broke my own haste concentration at least twice a play session and I’ve been DMing 5e for 6 years at this point. Would have saved me a few wipes on tactician
You have to concentrate on haste now? Back in 3.0-3.5 you cast it and it just worked. Still didn’t allow you to cast two spells, so it seemed pretty useless to most of my characters. Throw it on the dual-vorpal-katana-wielding fighter, and watch her just abuse TF out of Great Cleave.
Yep, most buffs require concentration now. There are a couple exceptions but they’re mostly the weaker buffs like longstrider. In tabletop 5e haste also doesn’t let you cast two spells, , it’s either an extra dash, disengage, hide, or a single weapon attack (no multiattack). Much much stronger in BG3.
Agreed. I’m on the lookout for a mod that does this. Just a popup to verify you intended to break concentration.
If you’re on keyboard (I’m sure controller has it but idk the button) the T key will let you hover over keywords to get more information. Ie, if a spell says it paralyzed the enemy, hitting T will let you mouse over “paralyzed” and read how it prevents the enemies from acting, and makes all melee attacks against them crits.
Add to this: the combat log (bottom right) will tell you the result of every die roll, which removes the mystery of why I KEEP MISSING ALL THE TIME.
I have no DnD experience, but I do have DOS2 experience, so as long as I manage to make things go “bang” and send someone flying out of a window, it is fine by me. Said so, after +100h in, I already know how most of the stuff works, even if I don’t really try to use it. After all, there’s nothing that can’t be solved by using three Call Lightning spells of my Storm Sorcerer on the same turn.
But yeah, for someone who doesn’t understand shit but also tries to understand it, it must be overwhelming.
I tried warlock, gave up twice on level 3, decided to play barbarian instead and banish all wizardry except for the cleric to keep it simple. I’m in act 1 and have no idea how far this will work, but so far I’m having fun and the game offers plenty of options to break its ai. Like my party running around an enemy army stuck in turn based time to set up the perfect ambush.
Do I need to kill Gale to get rid of him once he is in my camp, or can I kick him out? He started getting whiney about his condition and I kept him only because the game insisted he’d be useful.
Thankfully he only eats three items, so beyond that you can pretty much ignore him. Don’t worry about the items he eats just save a couple of items that you would otherwise sell until he eats his third. You’ll get much better items later on in the game without issue.
I had no idea how to lower a targets AC, and I’m in Act 3 on Normal, it’s been tough to say the least. I’m still not 100% sure what saving throws are, nor do I really know how to get Karlach’s AC to go up further as she currently has lower AC that Astarion in my party
You don’t really lower a target’s AC, it usually stays constant. The AC is just the number you have to roll against to hit.
Ie, you roll a 10 on a d20. You have a bonus of +8 to hit. That means you’ll hit the enemy as long as it’s AC is 18 or lower.
Saving throws are the reverse. The enemy who’s getting targeted by a spell gets to roll and add their save bonus to try and beat your spell DC, which is usually somewhere from 15-20 ish.
You don’t really need to know the maths going on, it’s all represented by the % chance that pops up when you go to target something. If a hit says 95% chance, that means you’ll hit as long as you don’t roll a 1 on a d20.
As for Karlach’s AC, that’s just a barbarian thing. Barbarians are usually unarmored, but they get to add their Con stat to their AC as well as their Dex. They have a lot more HP to make up for getting hit more often, and they resist all physical damage while raging so they’re still quite tanky despite having a lower AC.
thank you for explaining all that! that really helped understand stuff a lot better
No problem, feel free to ask if there’s anything else that isn’t clear, it’s a complex game
I played DnD a bit before, but it has been years. I remember the basic premise of stuff, but absolutely forgot all the little details of things. With that in mind, it really just feels like any other big RPG with classes and skill trees. It feels much less complicated than just about any primarily strategy game (especially things like 4x games), despite definitely fitting into the strategy category. It feels like every system that could be complex and daunting has enough information given and a very intuitive UI that makes it easy to navigate and figure things out on your own.
I have no D&D experience but I have played many MMO and fantasy games before so don’t find it too daunting. Takes a little while to learn what each spells capabilities are and even long to learn it’s synergies with other spells and abilities but eventually it comes along.
Planning on starting a second playthrough now that I know a bit more about the abilities and can build them more appropriately the second time around.
I have 0 dnd experience outside of AD&D decades ago, and this game isn’t very complex at all. Combat definitely isn’t. Strategic, yes, but not complex or overwhelming.
I don’t understand how someone can be overwhelmed by the combat of this game. You can move, and you can do a thing, and some people get a once-per-turn extra thing. It’s every strategy RPG game ever.
I think it’s varied based on classes. A Barbarian or a Rouge play very straightforward - hit things, then hit them again.
For classes like wizards, you suddenly have a ton of options in your disposal, and they all use the same resource (spell slots)
I think it’s easier when you have a lot of abilities that simply go into a cooldown (usually Short or Long cooldowns). That means using one doesn’t come at the expense of the other abilities that you have.
That directly leads to the D: OS system where stacking tons of abilities is the optimal play pattern, which I’m not a huge fan of. Like, if you have a character without Teleport on that game, you’re flat out playing wrong
There’s always a trade-off. I like that DnD is more flexible than when I last played, for wizards/clerics, but trying to solve these game design problems basically always adds complexity.
I agree. I was mostly trying to point out that playing mages is somewhat more complex than playing fighting classes that mostly just… fight.