VideoGame_Discussion

I used mostly short / half rests unless a big fight. That’s probably why I don’t jive with those classes as well. I’d rather have a fighter or monk any day. Once their resources are exhausted they’re still better solid melee. You don’t miss it much and it’s like a bonus if you have it.

Feeb wrote:

I messed this up and have to re do it as well.

The keys are zevlor and Rolan it seems. Of course don’t destroy the camp- but I’ve seen reports of missing the harpy, the assassin, killing the bard at camp and I personally didn’t do Arabella fully- still popping. There must be an internal score or something that determines if you did enough- the flavor text says: Save every tiefling refugee you CAN throughout the game in a single playthrough.

It doesn’t say ALL.

Feeb wrote:

There are bunch. And then you have to talk to them all in act 3 for it to flag them as saved.

Yeah there are a ton of lists I found out there. The best thing is do it all- reality is some of it is optional. I missed it initially because I used the summon and rebooted it popped. I was sure I’d still miss because of Arabella but that was not needed for my playthrough for some reason.

Also there is a bunch of info out there on what to do in act 3. I only talked to refugees in camp, two ladies in the bar, Rolan at the mage shop, Mol in the camp and Zevlor shows up at end. I think as long as the resolution does not result in actual death, no matter where they end up (Arabella not there for me but alive) you’re ok.

Just finished the platinum. Only needed the Sazza trophy- a bit more complicated than it seems. Just started a new run, raided the camp and went straight to moonrise. Only took like an hour or so.

Nice. I have to finish this one, and then another to get the plat. I have do a full play through just to get the stupid karlach one.

Archer wrote:

I made Karlach a monk so I could tolerate keeping her around. The sounds are great. Her relationship stuff is so cringey.

I've been messing around with late game respecing to test classes and just goofing around in act 3. And I have to say having a summoned army in this game is the most bonkers and amazingly fun thing.

I switched to a druid, spore druid sub class. And I can have 12 summons. 4 fungal zombies, 3 skeleton zombies, a dryad, 2 minor elemental and an elemental. That is only 11, but because the dryad summon can summon their own wood woad summon, which is stronger than her, I have 12. I can also then turn myself into something else for a second HP bar to survive longer. Which is super useful. Druid is insanely strong. I don't see a lot of people talking about them.

Then I got a hireling and turned them into a wizard with necromancy specialization and he can have 15 summons. He can have 6 skeleton zombies, 4 flying imp things, 2 minor elemental, an elemental, a familiar and a mummy. Looking it up he could have 18 with gear. And if you had read necro of thay book from act 1 and brought it with you to act 3 and finished the quest you get 4 more ghoul summons. So 22 for one necro in the party with full gear for max summons.

Then I got a cleric who can have 6. A weapon, a flaming ball, 3 zombies and a mummy.

You could have a second spore druid and necro and a massive army with 57 summons. You could even go insane and have 4 necros and have 67 summons. Which is insane this game lets you do that. You can have so many things in your party combat takes forever. And the spore zombies replenish themselves. If one of them dies, and then another one kills something it auto turns the new corps into a fresh fungal zombie. Its really too bad all this is locked behind level 6 for all classes. So you can't start to experience any of it until then. So not until the end end of act 1. In act 3 most of them have such low xp you basically use them for fodder to prevent being attacked yourself. But a few of the higher level ones are very useful and do decent damage. But its also fun walking around scaring the crap out of everyone due to the giant zombie army coming towards them.

What I'm saying is everyone needs to embrace the summoner in this game and have fun with an entourage.

It really is about extra turns in tactician. If you get more moves you’re likely to win- a summon can help you do that. I like to use ravens and spam blind as well. I didn’t know you could create a whole battalion like that! I’m having a hard time keeping it from crashing already.

Yeah, it causes major lagging in the city. But under ground its fine.

@Archer That setup is nasty! Nothing so crazy here, but I've been having fun casting Minor Illusion outside combat to group enemies together and then hitting them all with HoH + Cloudkill + Insect Plague. It's complete overkill, but it's such a sick combo! Even if someone makes it out I just Eldritch Blast their asses back in or I Thorn Whip them to Minthara and have her do her Paladin thing. I legit don't think I've ever played a game where the options feel so limitless. It's just such a blast!

I really need to try out a Druid build, I guess. I didn't even consider it because I didn't enjoy playing as either Jaheira or Halsin my first time round. They just felt so weak and the novelty of shapeshifting wore off after a while. But your Spore Druid build sounds like a ton of fun.

Feeb wrote:

Hot stuff!

sinnie wrote:

Was her dialogue completely different before? She hasn't had a ton of dialogue for me so far, but when she speaks...man, she's so badass! It's wild having both her and Halsin in my party. I thought I'd broken the game, but Minthara got an inspiration event thing with I recruited Halsin which I found interesting.

Heavyd814life wrote:

She didn't speak too much but spoke more than people were complaining about (at least for me.) I think she is supposed to have a lot more interactions now and possibly at some point a "good" way to recruit her that doesn't break the game.


I think after I wrap up my 3rd and 4th games I am going to take a long break from this game. I've put hundreds of hours in and it'll be fun to see the changes a year from now. Even the changes over the last few weeks and months have been neat to see when they happen.

Heavyd814life wrote:

I always forget to use minor illusion or mage hand to distract and group enemies. I know its a very strong way to start a fight. I just never remember to do it until the fights already started. And yeah this is why this game is so great. There is just so many ways everything can go. Combat has such a vast array of ways to approach and do it and there are so many combos you can setup. DoS2 was similar. But not to this extent, not even close.

And yeah I think regular druids are boring and not that fun either. You just shift and attack as an animal the whole fight. But with the spore druid I don't ever really shapeshift unless I'm on low health at the start of my turn and don't want to spend the action on healing. If that happens though something has already gone very wrong in the fight and its a last resort to stay alive another round. The spore druid has another use for the wild shape resource that the other two do not, so you don't really want to spend them on shapeshifting anyways. A buff that doubles all spore damage while active. You have multiple spore spells. And one that is a reaction that you can just cast during your turn for a third action or use as actual reaction upon taking damage. And it adds 1d6 necrotic damage to your weapons. It also gives you temporary hit points. It lasts all day or until the temporary hp are depleted. You get this spell at level 2. But you don't get spore spells until level 6. So from the start of the game you always have extra damage via the 1d6 necrotic on your weapon. and a third action in combat, before anyone else gets that ability. And you have temporary hp right out the gate. So having the shield army (at level 6) to prevent you taking damage keeps its active through many fights. So staying a ranged bow user and slinging your spells is optimal for the setup while your summons tank. I might start as this on my next playthough and try a solo run with it. I can't believe I'm not warn out or tired of this game yet. I've put in so many hours in the month or so I've been playing.

sinnie wrote:

Come back just in time for that DLC drop only to get addicted again and do another 3 or 4 full plays, lol.

Archer wrote:

Honestly I keep seeing so much new crap it makes it hard to walk away... but you can only do the temple of Shar so many times. It feels like a drag. I wish some parts weren't required. Just let me explore and have random encounters.

sinnie wrote:

You can skip most of it and do it really quickly. I don't think its that bad.

I was able to counter spell the raise dead thing Balthazar did once. I’ve tried it scumming about 10 times and it worked just once. Trivial fight if you get it to work. Also bring guns and shoot from the rock, never jumping down works.

Yeah I am able to get through the Temple of Shar quickly, but still hate running around inside of it because it's boring.

Archer wrote:

Never considered this. Although I almost lit his ass up first time I saw him because he’s ugly.

Feeb wrote:

I don't know...

I summoned the ogres a few times. It’s pretty funny quest line.

I’m going to try summoning the golem at Balthazar and watch from the ledge.

Ogre summon

lol I always forget to use those summons. But I did summer the Flesh Golem recently and he helped a lot.

Larian announced today patch 5 is coming this week. And its bigger than patch 4 (according to ign, but who knows if thats true). And its going to fix act 3 lag/issues. But with it being so big, I wonder if its going to break something else, lol.

In Patch 4 we introduced a fix that would prevent the Scrying Eyes in Moonrise Towers from immediately calling the guards on you when stealing, even if you were sneaking, or invisible for example. This fix had the unintended consequence of causing unnoticed thefts & acts of vandalism to remain stuck forever within the ‘did anyone see me’ pipeline, rather than timing out and moving on, as is intended. Essentially, your ‘DM’ - in a real-world sense - constantly thinks about the acts of theft & violence the player keeps doing, without ever moving on or verbalising them. Mulling on it ad infinitum. These unnoticed and eternally-active acts of theft & violence eventually bogged down the game. The more a player commits those acts, the more the game is trying to keep that all up to date and in memory, and so the more slowdowns start happening. Essentially, the ‘DM’ eventually becomes unable to operate. By Act 3 this caused slow-down issues, which after some sleuthing we’re extremely happy to say we’ve solved in Patch 5, which is in testing and scheduled to release this week.

Getting to act 3 now so this is good to hear. Loved seeing Minthara finally get a bunch of dialogue at the end of act 2. Honestly can’t say enough good things about her voice actress. She’s phenomenal!

Also they need to do something about post fight cutscenes/dialogue triggering on the closest ally instead of my main character. So annoying! Or better yet find a way to include everyone in conversations so you can have other class/race specific dialogue options. But that would likely take a complete rework of the conversation system to get that to work.

Archer wrote:

This makes sense. My durge playthrough was plagued by slow downs, freezes, crashes etc. I was a douche, robbed and killed everyone. my last run through was very normal- not issues in act 3.

The patch is 30GB (from a larian tweet this morning). Hoping it drops today (they keep saying soon) so I can get back to playing in act 3. Because its completely busted in two of my saves waiting to be finished. I haven't really been able to experience any of act 3 in either of them.

Patch is live on PC and PS5 as of now.

https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-patch-...

Main Highlights

● Epilogue: An entirely new section at the end of the game that aims to provide a well-deserved sense of closure with your allies.

● Two new play modes: Honour Mode and Custom Mode.

● Many performance improvements, particularly in Act III.

● Added dynamic resolution for PS5.

● Players playing on machines with low VRAM/RAM should see improved performance.

● While at camp, you can now access and manage the inventories of companions who aren't in your active party.

Wondering the improved performance for Act 3, been holding off buying it cause it sounds awful

● You can no longer loot the entire inventory of unconscious traders - instead you have access to a limited selection, as with dead traders. Nice try, pacifists.

Damn. That was such a nice trick to just get good gear early. Sneak up, knock out vendor. Steal entire inventory.

● DippIng weapons in toxin puddles makes attacks toxic for 10 turns rather than until Long Rest.

Another good exploit gone.

I try to keep Volo in camp and just rob him when I need cash or camping supplies. He just runs off and comes right back.

Feeb wrote:

Didn't even know this was a thing lol. Poor Volo

Archer wrote:

Damn it, Larian. The toxin puddles one is such a good exploit. I remember using the Spellmight Gloves + Magic Missile exploit on my first playthrough and wrecking everything! But now the gloves only apply to spells that make an attack roll so I didn't even bother trying to get them this time around.

Yeah volo usually has 700-900 gold and lots of food / scrolls per long rest. Just don’t use supplies and rest- he’s restocked.

Feeb wrote:

I'd rather have the eye personally.

Act 3 is actually fixed. Just walked around for about 15 minutes and not a single issue. Hooray!

Honestly its performing better than it ever did. This is better than act 1 performance. I'm actually getting 60FPS. They not only cleared the bugged log file. But fixed memory issues. And fixed it so not every single thing is active even if you are on the other side of the map. It is now in an aura around the player. So things only load in as you approach them. Meaning not only is the memory footprint smaller, its not trying to load every single damn nps into memory the second you load the map. This feels so much better.

Also a very nice QoL change I didn't see mentioned in the massive patch notes, when you pull up the map and then the fast travel points. They are now separated by region and not just one giant long list where you have to remember, was this in that region or another.

You can now also send items to companions in camp from anywhere. When you select an item to send its not just camp and your three current. Its everyone.

Archer wrote:

I didn’t feel like it helped much at all.