No, I hadn't seen that feature. The default is underwear, apparently. A little joke, perhaps?

Well, while hunting around for our neighborhood Gith got into combat with a group of baddies on top of the chapel ruins. They were a bit tough with our magic and rogue heavy group, but we prevailed without anyone going down with the help of a couple health potions. It's been awhile since I've had to engage the strategy side of my brain for turn-based gaming. Been playing Skyrim for too long.

My level 6 party is definitely doing better in combat. I'm finding that Misty Step is one of the absolute best combat abilities/spells -- when all else fails, a magical repositioning behind an enemy works wonders.

Yeah, I was getting lazy and relying too much on cantrips and shield spells. This was just the combat I needed to kick my tabletop game-brain back into gear. I need to watch my positioning to set up better for defensive spells. I've got a couple Fey oriented, area of effect spells that I keep overlooking and should have used in that last encounter.

I've finished everything I can in the first region and am cleaning up the Mountain Pass area. There's one quest in there I need to complete, I think, and then I'm moving on into Chapter 2.

I keep forgetting that my Bard has the Silence Spell. Just started using it all the time in my fights with the Gith. My newest tactic is to sneak as close as possible and blast that at a group of enemies. I'm still lousy at combat but Rarely need more than a couple of tries now, with the exception of a few battles with multiple enemies. I ran into a Beholder a while back and that didn't go well the first two tries.

I feel bad for some of my companions. I haven't used Shadowheart since I first found the Grove. Wyll has been sitting around since I picked up Gale. I go back every now and then to level them up, then move on. I might respec Wyll a bit next time.

Beholders are cool beasties. They're in my top tier list for cool D&D monsters right next to Displacer Beasts, which are right out of science fiction.

And just before I stopped playing last night I ran into a pack of Ghouls and other Undead beastlies. The loot is starting to get better, though my party still has only a small amount of cash.

I'm definitely having fun with this. Still haven't found that darn Gith though

Had a little fun under the chapel. We ran into a friendly Lich? Maybe? I think that's what they were. Seems like the combo of a Fey benefactor and Teifling Warlock is working out pretty good. Gale really is very squishy though. He's seems to almost always be at the verge of death.

I know it's been done to death with several different versions and an MMO, but I'd really like to see Larian redo Neverwinter Nights 1 with the expansions in this game engine. Is that too much to ask?

If you missed Lae'zel at the start of the game, before you get to the Grove, you can't recruit her, I believe. I find Karlach to be almost as useful as a tank anyway. I use them interchangeably, though Karlach is a much more congenial pal.

I find Gale to be enormously useful. I just load him up with healing potions and let him blast away with offensive spells. I find Wyll to be less effective, though he gets all his spells back with a short rest.

The character I find least useful is Shadowheart, which is a drag because a lot of Act 2 involves her. My Bard has an amulet that lets her cast two healing spells, and she has one of her own anyway, so she doubles as my healer in combat. I might respec Shadowheart to be a bit tankier.

I ran into a familiar face in Act 2. As barb-tonged as ever. And apparently there is another familiar face in Baldur's Gate city.

I'm at level 8 now. I have a feeling I'll max out long before I get to the last Act.

The only thing I don't like is that you can only change your spells at level up. I'd prefer to be able to do that before resting.

With only 4 members in my party I've been relying on Shadowheart as a tank/healer by equipping her with a torch instead of her mace. Actually does more initial damage and adds a chance of fire damage. Gale is talented, but with his low hit points it only takes one to drop him to near death. We do use healing potions, but those are limited right now. That's the only thing that's kept him going as I don't want to take too many Long Rests this early in the game, so Shadowheart's healing spells are on hiatus until our next one.

Regarding spell prep, Bards, Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Sorcerers, and Warlocks can only prepare new spells at level up. Wizards, Druids, Paladins and Clerics can change spells anytime after a Long Rest, as long as you aren't in combat.


Also this is hilarious! Turns out your abyssal tattoos in Baldur's Gate 3 are...

Double posting to let folks know I've put a link below and in the first post of this thread to an article at PC Gamer that gives a fairly good primer on the Dungeons and Dragons 5e ruleset that Larian used for BG3. One thing to keep in mind is that Larian overlaid some of their own "house rules" as well, so there are a few differences here and there. For the most part though, they hold fairly tightly to the D&D ruleset.

https://www.pcgamer.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-dandd5e-to-play-baldurs-gate-3/

I actually had Gale in a set of Light Armour for a while until he levelled up a few times.

I have a very difficult battle coming up, one that I tried a few times a while ago and gave up on. Given the number of undead enemies I'm thinking mage power rather than fighter power. Makes me wish I had a Paladin in the party, though. That always simplified undead horde fighting.

I think Shadowheart has a turn undead spell available, maybe, or was that my character? Looking forward to the end of the work week, so I can jump in again. I really haven't had any good convo's with my party members yet. My game playing has been so abbreviated, I rarely hit camp. *Sigh* retirement cannot get here quick enough.

I highly recommend retirement.

I hadn't looked to see if Shadowheart has a turn undead spell. I should check.

I'm getting closer and closer to heading off to Baldur's Gate.

Yeah, if it weren't for health insurance I'd be retired right now. Stupid, flawed human body.


I just found out one of my favorite voice actors and all around persons is doing a voice in BG3. Matt Mercer is voicing the iconic Minsc, complete with mousey companion If you're not familiar with Matt, he's done a ton of voice work on games and anime, and is the Dungeon Master for the Twitch/You Tube series "Critical Role", which I highly recommend, especially their Campaigns 1 & 2, Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein (both of which are now animated series on Amazon Prime Video).

Yes, I can see how that's a huge concern. We do have it good here in Canada. That's one thing we don't have to plan for in retirement, and John's illness cost us virtually nothing. One less thing to worry about.


So I'm happily wandering around the Shadowlands, wondering which part of the quests I have I should do first, and also wondering just exactly how I'm supposed to go and talk to that guy I, um killed a long while back.

Yeah, that could be a problem

Actually, I believe your handy cleric should have a "Speak with the Dead" spell. Not sure if the guys body is still around or if will even work, but worth a try.

I have an amulet with that spell. I actually have a big collection of rings and amulets and other tchotchkes cluttering up my inventories because they come with handy dandy spells. Need to talk to a dead person? Slip on that amulet.

The bodies do seem to stick around. Anyway, I'm sure there's some way around it. And if not, there's always next time. I haven't done any tweaking of my party members in this game after all. At level 8 everyone seems pretty competent.

Level 8, you'd kick my party's collective butt We are still small.

Time to get a-gaming...after a nap.

I'm getting close to the end of Act 2 but it's one of those huge areas where you can't rest, so by the time I get to the boss battle I'll have no spells left to use. Hopefully I have enough scrolls to get by.

Yikes, thanks for the warning. I'll have to make sure we stock up prior to making it that far.

Act 2 is pretty complex. You can make moves that have major consequences down the road. I ended up playing a couple of big areas twice because the immediate result was very much not to my liking and in one instance, the quest was bugged; the only solution was to murder someone to get the quest back on track.

Turns out I killed a potential party member ages ago, too.

Yeah, seems that Larian is working out the bugs as they are reported, so they're being fixed in a loosely chrono order. Not surprised that the later parts of the game have bugs since folks are reporting as they progress through the game. I'll make sure I'm keeping a larger save list. Usually, I like to keep my saves down to about 4-5, but seems like it may be OK to let them build up a bit in the difficult areas. At least I haven't hit any inventory bugs since the last patches came through, that's a good thing.

I wanted to run this character as Lawful Evil, but Larian's Inspiration system doesn't seem to fall in step with the previous D&D Alignments. They seems to rely on the character's backstory and race attributes, though admittedly I haven't looked into it that deeply. Still, I'm tending to go the diplomatic route IF my character stands to profit from it, besides not getting bloodied. I do like having the high Charisma of a Warlock, that has given me some favorable rolls lately.

Went back an located Lae'zel who has been doing pretty well as a straight fighter. She likes to verbally spar and doesn't pull any punches, I sort of like that. Seems to be forthright though I'm getting the impression that she's fairly young and hasn't been out in the field that much.

Well, I came across a fight I can not possibly win, and after fifteen tries, that's it. Game over. Too bad. I was enjoying myself. But I had to use all my resources on the way to the fight, could not rest, so that's it. It's a two-shot, everyone dead fight.

What's really annoying is that they've made it impossible to backtrack so that you can go back to the previous area, rest, maybe grab different party members, instead of making you go through the area again -- and still use up all your resources. I reloaded an earlier save and went through the whole area with a different party and still never did get anywhere with the fight. It's just discouraging, and I have almost never reached this point with a game before, where the will to continue is just not there.

Maybe I'll start Starfield instead.

What fight is it? Just curious. There are some really tough fights in this game. My son says that even on "easy" mode it can be difficult.