ASOIAFrelatedusername

The issue is that there is a lot of cut content for act 3 (most notably an entire section of Baldur's Gate and at least one severely truncated companion quest).

Patch 1 is out https://baldursgate3.game/news/patch-1-now-live_87 Beware of spoilers

I was talking about the racial features for humans.

And now they are basically useless except for casters and the polearm proficiency is utterly wasted on them. Ranged martials getting the AC from the shield has nothing to do with the racial bonus, it's because Larian didn't bother with properly implementing swapping weapon sets and with casters requiring a free hand to cast. It's all the more baffling since their signature warlock is supposed to be the Blade of FrontiersTM

Speaking of lacking option. The absence of the variant human and the nerf to humans it represents is really annoying. The racial features in the game are just not very good and don't really synergize with any class. The extra skill proficiency is also bugged and cannot be assigned in character creation if you use a controller.

So I finally finished it Yeah the game is still very good, but it's clear that they, as should have been expected, ran out of time and/or money at the end and as a result act III ended up being to cramped and with no real epilogue, not even a slideshow. I wonder if they should have left the final villain for an expansion and used the resources to expand act III. It even would have given them an excuse to raise the level cap. Still the game is still very much worth the time and money, a good 8.5 8/10

Another thing that is disappointing is the end of Astarion's and Karlach's personal quest.

Really? I entered the Shadowlands through Grymforge and got the achievement for beating act 1 right away and later did the creche before Moonrise Towers.

Being now (I suspect) near the end, I can't but think that the game either needed to be longer (or shorter). As it is act III just feels way to cramped in a way that act I und act II don't (for me).

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3655285307835439472

I have yet to discover any drawback the long resting and no time limit for quests. In theory you are limited by the amount of camping supplies you have, but practically it does not seem to be a concern so far. You are free to rest whenever you feel like you need to. Actually it might be better to rest more and than less since certain story events happen at night and you might miss them otherwise. That was even more the with Early Access where

*shrug* People were also asking for an option to designate a face for the party so they wouldn't be forced to roleplay another character and/or be stuck with the dumb, uncharismatic Barbarian when dialogue is started automatically and Larian didn't manage to implement that either. Or an option for party members to help with or take over skill checks in dialogue (besides guidance and bless). On yet another note: Shoving really should have been a full action, not a bonus action. It makes putting your enemies to sleep rather pointless. Still I am very much enjoying this game.

That's horribly slow though since there is usually only one trap disarmer in my party. I don't want to be forced to constantly press space and wait for the environments turn because Larian didn't feel the need to program in a rather QoL feature. And on a related note the perception checks to spot those traps are taking far to long or/and have far too short a range.

I really wished that my companions would stop running into traps and dangerous surfaces by themselves. Party control is so far the game's worst aspect.

Well BG3 does not have endless prebuffing and you can actually use the environment to your advantage. I once tried positioning my ranged attackers on a cliff so they would not get charged down by an enemies and it turns out that they couldn't fire from there because of an invisible wall.

More than the (regular) spells, it might be reactions and similar abilities) that make the turn-based mode preferable for a 5e DnD game. Consider the Divination Wizards special power or the Paladin's Smite: Those are pretty difficult to do in RTwP because you can only use them a limited number of times and so might want to wait for the right time to use it. In RTwP you would have to either pause the game any time such an ability could trigger, which would completely ruin the games pacing, or you would have to develop a system that allows the player to set the precise condition for when these abilities are supposed to fire a la Dragon Age Origins. Such a system would mean much more work for the developer, would be difficult for the inexperienced player to use, and would still be imperfect. In DAO the mistakes of such a system could be easily corrected by the player and you wouldn't lose that much if something went wrong (unless you were player on the hardest difficulty I guess). In a DnD 5e game who would run the risk of losing precious spell slots in trivial encounters. I also imagine that RTwP would make the interactions between elements and surfaces even more chaotic.

Hardly Larian's fault. Volo also appears in Waterdeep Dragon Heist which takes place at (roughly) the same time as Descent into Avernus which in turn takes place shortly before BG3 and forms part of BG3's backstory. Apparently he was trapped with a spell and frozen in time.

These are no longer up to date. The changed it earlier this year I believe. Steam and GOG list these: Minimum: OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel I5 4690 / AMD FX 8350 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 970 / RX 480 (4GB+ of VRAM) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 150 GB available space Additional Notes: SSD required Recommended: OS: Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel i7 8700K / AMD r5 3600 Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia 2060 Super / RX 5700 XT (8GB+ of VRAM) DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 150 GB available space Additional Notes: SSD required

But I want it NOW! But seriously, it looks pretty good so far. I am suspecting that the previews are exaggerating the extent of the changes to the base game, but I am fine with less. The only not mentioned, that I would like to see, is more cosmetics with regards to visible cyberware.

Looks rough and from what I could gather, the gameplay does not impress either. The writing will have to save it. The fact that the publisher decided to charge extra for the elves speaking Sindarin (and I suspect that this will only be NPC chatter) and a "Lore compendium" does not inspire confidence either.

I would have less problems of it being over the top if this was a genuinely new take on the source material. Instead it is shaping up to be more of the same with Boyens, Lee and Howe involved. Not to mention that the thing is produced by WB and New Line.

To close the Mumak discussion: I still don't think it's feasible that any of them participated in the attack on Rohan, especially since it wasn't that grand of a war compared to the War of the Ring or the War of the Last Alliance. My fear is that, following the Jacksonian tradition, the adaptation will attempt to go over the top and stuff a bunch of senseless spectacle into the story like what happened with the Hobbit movies.

Elephants are a lot smaller than the Mumakil (as portrayed in the movies). Also, if I recall correctly, only one Elephant made it into Italy.

To quote myself: How would you even store them on boats? Let alone feed them on the voyage. It's the same Jacksonian overindulgence that ruined the Battle of the Five Armies.