As I thought, I just needed to spend a bit of time on the problem and I would be able to work my way around the roadblock of Ketherich and Myrkul. And with some blessed rolls from the random numbers gods, I did. Also, getting back up to speed after weeks away from the game.
First up, I used my normal party – Lae’zel, Elodie (my Bard), Shadowheart and Gale. I am used to using these guys. I stuck to my basic idea which I was already using; release Nightsong as soon as possible to let her get in Ketheric’s face; have my party get rid of the mind flayer as a priority and then smash down Ketheric to initiate Myrkul.
Second, I did read through the stuff in my bags a bit to see what I might use that I had been missing. Like a Barkskin Elixir for Gale, so he has better odds on holding Concentration (doesn’t get hit as much, doesn’t need to save). It also meant I knew what I could use to cause damage or heal, without using spell slots, for the first part of the fight. I also read a bit more about Myrkul’s abilities (using the Examine option, I really should use that more). So I made sure none of the minions could sacrifice themselves to him. This means he can’t use his “Finger of Death”.
Killing Ketheric went well, and my team were at about 75% health with the mind flayer already defeated when we put Ketheric to the point of summoning Myrkul. Some of the minions were gone and the others well out of position. I had 3 characters on the platform, with Gale on a higher one, out of reach. Great positions.
Here we go….
With a Cloud of Daggers, a Guardian of Faith and Spirit Guardians, along with at least one Fireball, and some solid hits from Lae’zel, Myrkul was down!
Nightsong, who’s name is Dame Aylin, got to crush Ketheric’s head with extreme prejudice.
She was very angry
There was a few odds and ends around to clean up, then it was off to save Baldur’s Gate and I moved on to Act 3.
And immediately found myself in trouble again! But more on that next time.
I have had about 7 weeks away from the game. It was was report writing time at school and that made me very busy. The first thing cut away was BG3, though I suspect there was a second factor in that decision.
I’m a bit stuck. Though I think I am slowly getting unstuck, we will have to see.
So after wandering about in the keep in the mountains for some time, my party wandered back into the cursed region. This time they worked to release a young boy, following a series of quests that took them into the Shadowlands. I think. I am a little mixed up here, I do apologise. They were successful in this, helping the boy return, but he is connected to this land and won’t heal until Ketheric is dead. So, another link into to getting rid of him.
Shadowheart completed a whole string of trials to qualify as a Dark Justicar, her lifelong dream. This was a cool series of tests and explorations.
I also found my way into another place, where the Nightsong is revealed to be a person. Here seems to be an important juncture for Shadowheart. Her goddess is demanding that Shadowheart kills Nightsong. It is up to your relationship and dialogue choices to see which way she goes.
Both seem to be significant, and I will admit I have a save after both choices (I played both to see what might happen). There are immediate effects either way and I suspect some long reaching ones too. I chose the one that seemed more good, at least in the short term. And who am I if not someone who annoys gods (the Gith “god”, Shadowhearts “god”, the Divine Dream visitor as well).
This led us to attacking the castle where the cult seems based. I had explored it before, but this time we attacked. Most of the battles within the castle went fairly well, and I had some supporters from the Last Light Inn to help.
Until the roof, where you face Ketheric. Now I had a few goes at this, but it seems, at least in basic terms, there is no way to kill him, or not get Nightsong killed. At this point the castle shakes and a tentacle erupts, killing her and Ketheric flees down the hole. He leaves and you have to clean up the adds. This isn’t too hard, as long as you stay on top of the additional spawns they cast.
The tentacle attacks
There is a chance for respite here, before descending into the hole yourself. You find yourself in the source of the worms, a Mindflayer colony existing right under the castle.
eww, but that’s where we must go
Here is where I am stuck. You can clear the place out, using resources, spell slots etc, but there seems no way to have a full rest in here (like the old hags domain). There is a route through to Ketheric without facing anyone. I will use this path for now, at least until I get unstuck.
There is other stuff in here, including a rare rapier you can get if you have Wyll in your party. I usually don’t, but have attempted the next battle with him… I’m undecided.
I am stuck fighting Ketheric. Well not so much him as who spawns when he “dies”. I use the term loosely as I’m not convinced he won’t come back.
Trouble coming…
Fighting Myrkul.
Yes, him. He spawns. After you’ve fought Ketheric, a mindflayer and several minions. And here’s what I have so far. In not particular order.
Ketheric is immune until the lady is released, so do this quickly. You can get there in a turn or so. Try Misty Step, Dash etc.
He’s resistant to poison and necrotic (I think that was right).
I would also concentrate on getting rid of the mindflayer as he hits hard too, and has a AoE attack.
When he is basically dead (though I’ve had it happen earlier, maybe it’s actually a turn count?) it will (again) change to a cut scene and he will sacrifice himself to bring in Myrkul.
Myrkul is big and hits hard (no surprise)
If you are within about 10feet of him YOU WILL NOT HEAL.
He seems to stay in the one spot, but has a 10foot melee range.
There is a pointy part of the ledge (towards the entrance) (you’ll know what I mean when you’re there) where you are out of melee and can heal.
He is also resistant to poison and immune to necrotic (I will have to double check that). Sadly, doesn’t seem vulnerable to anything.
AoEs should work nicely on him. He’s big, so you don’t have to worry about damage to your fighters, and he can’t move (or doesn’t), so things that are fixed work well too.
My strategy, in development and not yet successful is… release the woman and get her into the fight so you can kill the mindflayer. Then smash as much other stuff and Ketheric, using as few spell slots as possible.
When he switches places, I will now try AoE and ranged attacks on him. Perhaps someone like Lae’zel to move in, strike and move out. Keep the melee fighters out of melee range (I hope) and able to be healed. I’ve nearly got him down. About 1/5 of his HP to go last time he TPK my party.
Right, so 40+ hours into this campaign with Elodie Braunforge, the College of Valour Dwarf Bard. My party usually consists of myself, Gale, Lae’zel and Shadowheart. I will occasionally swap out for Karlach and Wyll if I want everyone with dark vision.
I stepped out from the pre-release zone into the land haunted by the Shadow Curse. Quickly had one character using a lit torch. Strangely, I can’t seem to actually light a torch, I’m just using one that was lit when I put in my inventory. Go figure… Hey I’m just going to put this lit torch in my backpack. Nothing will happen, the bag won’t burn… yeah, I dunno.
Wyll’s patron tries to make demands
Killed some shadows, helped some harpers and ended up at Last Light Inn. Exploring I found our devil friend, then we were attacked by the leader of the mercenaries who had gone over to the Absolute.
I found my way into Moonrise Towers and wandered about interacting with people. This didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so I wandered out again. I rescued some kid. Then I wandered up a path and ended up…
In another zone. I think I’ve headed backwards, because I think it’s the Mountain Pass. I am currently exploring a ruin that the Gith have taken as their creche. Lae’zel isn’t really happy with me as I defied her Queen, sort of. Ended up in another plane, chatting to the entity supposedly protecting us from the Absolute.
Hey, it’s Tomb Raider!
I am somewhere down in the underneath of this monastery having found a secret passage. A fight has just broken out, but I don’t know what is going on. That will be next time.
Yes, I annoyed this lass.
Really, I’m kinda lost and just poking about exploring. Seems like any normal D&D game where the players have gone off the rails a bit. I know I need to find a weakness for Ketheric Thorn so I can defeat him, but haven’t got a clue for that yet. Certainly violently introducing metal into his body seems ineffective.
Somewhere in the Astral Plane.
Below, I have added some suggestions for defeating the bigger fights I faced in this part. Well what worked for me, I’m sure there are other ways.
The Gith Inquisitor.
After a couple of play throughs I gave up talking to him. Instead I stood at the double doors into the room, set up my spells etc (so Gale summoned some Ice Mephits, Shadowheart called upon the Guardian). Elodie opened the door, shot at someone and then closed the door.
The Wolfenstein 3D strategy.
The bad guys run up to the closed door, open it and surprise, are faced with a wall of opponents. It gave me a few advantages. I could shut the door to protect myself some of the time, it meant the opponents were grouped together (so easier for AOE), there is a choke point so things like Cloud of Daggers was more effective and sometimes I could trap one on my side and crush them down before the next one came along.
The Merc Leader.
The first time I fought this guy, I thought that losing was scripted. He is trying to kidnap the cleric and in about a turn he has support, half my party was crippled, the cleric was unconscious and he basically grabbed her and left. I think it was one and a half turns.
Another lost to the Absolute.
Well I wasn’t standing for that.
I banished him as soon as I had a shot. This meant I could focus on the adds. Then when he came back I was super successful with Tasha’s Laughter and he stayed put for about 2 rounds of people bashing him (so many failed saves). By the time he got back up, he was almost dead and the cleric was on the other side of the room. He went down quickly.
There is a Scroll of Banishment in one of the closets (upstairs I think) if you don’t have the spell by then.
The Eagles.
Yeah, I really didn’t want to fight them, but I kept accidentally bothering them as I explored the rooftop. EVEN after we had a conversation and they relaxed (Speak with Animals).
First I tried to get some distance and disengage. There isn’t anywhere to hide and they can fly to all the rooms within your range. They do call lots of support, so focus the older bird before finishing the other.
SPOILER: You might not need the weapon in the nest, I think you could chuck any old warhammer on the altar? I haven’t tried.
The Barkeep
I drank this guy under the table.
Seriously, you think you can out drink a bard, who is a dwarf?
Relationships.
Umm, so this is a part of the game. I haven’t really put much into it, but I’ve been able to keep everyone interested even when some seem to have laid claim to me. It’s a balancing act that I’m sure will come crashing down at some point like I imagine it would in real life if I was really 2 or 3 or 4 timing people!
Well, first up, it’s still awesome. In fact it decidedly more awesome than it was. They’ve just added more stuff. Even in the first act, which I am still deep inside, there is more stuff and things have changed.
There are new options, such as races and when designing your character. They have added alchemy, allowing you to harvest materials and create your own potions. New party members (Karlach especially) and new twists. Some things that were hinted at have developed, such as Gale’s need to consume magical items.
But it’s harder too. I’m playing on balanced and part of me feels like the team at Larian read my blog and changed some of the bosses to counter the methods I used to defeat some of the mini bosses around. I feel like the hag is a lot harder. I am working on a way to expose her so I can silence her, as at the moment she is invisible, I think, and wins initiative, steps and casts mirror image before anyone in my party can move. And suddenly I’m fighting four of them. And they all won initiative as well.
Even getting there is tougher. Along the way there is a toxic gas, which I would simply fireball and let burn away. Doesn’t work this time. You need to spot and then block the vents. Throwing things (I’ve seen rocks used, but I’ve used bones and skulls) blocks them.
I’m going to leave her and hit up the goblin strongpoint.
Something else was harder but as I write I can’t remember what it was.
But I’m loving it.
I’m still playing the areas that I’ve already played for over 140 hours in prerelease. I am playing a new character, a bard, which is interesting but seems powerful as a utility, especially during the dialogue, opening new bard options but also with stronger bonus generally.
So I’m feeling like this game is giving me a lot and the money spent was worth it. Now after over 10 hours in release (sadly real life has been in the way), that’s less than $1 per hour overall. And as I’m still in Act 1 (is there 3 Acts?) I may only be less than 1/3 through the game. I think each Tomb Raider was 20-30 hours. And it’s fun, the story is so in depth and I have no idea where it’s going to go.
It’s smooth on my very middle ranged system (no Mac version released yet, so I’m on my PC). In early release while both systems worked well, the newer NVME drive in my PC made loading times so much swifter than the older hybrid SDD/HDD in my few years old Mac. Though this didn’t affect actual gameplay or switching to cutscenes, just loading times.
If you have interest in story, or D&D, or RPGs, I highly recommend it.
MOTOGP! Finally. And the ride there and back was great, and the racing was excellent. I stayed in budget (very important this year). I camped, I had adventures… yup, read the two stories here and here. Was worth the wait. The only thing that didn’t work out was Jack Miller getting taken out by Alec Marquez at the new “Miller Corner”. I do think I will stick to my two year cycle and aim for 2024 for my next ride down. It’s at an awkward time of the year, work wise.
2022 Philip Island -Australian MotoGP
I hit most of the roads I had planned, changed a few over, mostly due to the bad weather.
My first night motocamping.
Otherwise the bike was a garage queen at least by comparison to how it (and my other bikes) have lived. It was lucky if it got a ride to the shops once a week. As the year finishes off, I think I’m in the market for a new battery. Even commuting is off the menu at the moment, as work is only 10mins away and I drop my two kids at school on the way.
I got a new bike… sort of. It was fun to build at any rate.
LEGO’s M1000RR
No bicycle riding to speak of really. Some fitness rides on the commuter.
Enjoying the sunshine and open space…. in the middle of the suburbs?
About Babes
Two girls in high school. Both doing well. One won a State Championship for her gymnastics so really well done there. Next year will be interesting as the other one can start learning to drive!
About Bytes
Nothing hugely dramatic here. My Surface is finally getting used a lot, I use as my school device and it’s been great. Except for a dead TypeCover. Replaced, but I am suspicious of the durability of this part.
I upgraded my iPad Pro 9.7 (v1) to the Pro M1 11”. It has been excellent, really nice jump in performance from my last one. They did eventually release an M2 version as I suspected, but it didn’t get the mini-LED display, so I don’t feel like I missed anything. Its keyboard cover has also deteriorated (common theme this year), there are some places where the soft covering material has worn through. It is still working, but has been put away and hasn’t been replaced.
The new PC has been working fabulously, though I really should step up the graphics card. Otherwise it’s been fast and reliable. I’ve since spent many hours using it for gaming, completing the last 3 Tomb Raiders and spending over 100hours in the Baldur’s Gate 3 pre release.
And I can play BG3 on the Mac too
The iMac also has been going well. It has also recently received a new keyboard, a Logitech MX Keys (not the specific Mac one). I’m really happy with this keyboard too.
Having all these devices has meant all my work is available everywhere. The school mostly uses Google’s environment so that was something to get used to. But with it all in the cloud (along with my OneNote) it’s easy to work anywhere. I also switched over to iCloud Photos and this has been working well too.
D&D has been fun all year. Wild Beyond the Witchlight finished up just a few weeks ago. That was a fun campaign for all. It’s been replaced by a journey in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage, which I am not DM, so currently I am a player in 3 campaigns (Dungeon, Strahd and a face to face home-brew) and not a DM anywhere. It’s so relaxed! Strahd is likely to finish up soon and the DM wants to put us in Spelljammer (D&D in space). I have never played in that environment, so I’m a little unsure. I’m writing my own home-brew adventure for when I get a DM slot again.
About Me.
My offical career change occurred in mid-April (not Christmas as planned), I stayed in order to finalise a couple of medical issues with work. Even though that was the offical date, I was on holidays from that work from Christmas until April and actually working as a teacher full time.
I am enjoying my teaching. My school has a really nice community working environment. There are some challenges, partly due to the children and partly due to my limited experience. However, the school has always been supportive.
The pay is a significant cut from my old pay, at least in these first couple of years. Once I complete my proficiency after two years it will jump up and be a lot closer. I don’t think it will ever surpass it.
To help make up for this, I have secured some part time work in my old career for the school holidays and that will be a nice bonus for me. It’s also a way to stay relevant and connected to that old career in case I am needed.
Next year will see me having my own class, and it looks like it will be a Year 5/6 one. Equally excited and nervous, but everyone at work assures me I will do a great job. That makes me feel very supported, but then also nervous that I don’t want to let them down!
Edit – September 2023, AFTER FULL RELEASE. Please note that these strategies were created during the latter part of Early Release and may not be as effective, or even work at all in Full Release. Saying that, in my first play through (still going at the moment) my strategies were similar to these.
I thought I might list up some of the various bosses or the tougher fights and how I got around them. I am quite certain that there are other ways, and probably easier or more efficient, but these worked for me. Generally these were using myself as a fighter, Gale, Shadowheart and Lae’zel. Admittedly most are once I was level 4, but the Hag is easy enough at 3 or so. THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE.
The Hag
First up, the Hag. Once chased from her pleasant little cafe, the hag is found in her lair through the fireplace. Getting there can be a bit confusing and difficult. First you need to follow her through the fireplace and downstairs. Then by clicking through an illusionary door you find yourself confronted by 4 NPCs wearing cursed masks. There are tricks to this, but I simply brute force my way through. They will try to resist the masks and if successful they will not attack that turn.
Through the next cavern, and you’ll find a climb down to the hag’s real hideout. Some small explosive traps along the way. The girl is caged above a long drop (for us Australians, I don’t mean one of those long drops….) and begs you to leave.
Honestly, the hag has nothing to say of use, so part way through the conversation I will attack. My first action is to cast silence over her. This blocks her usual first move – to set the cage on fire and cast mirror image, making 4 (and then 8 then 12) copies of herself to fight. Silence quashes both of these actions. Hit her hard in the first rounds and keep her Silenced as much as possible (I move my melee fighters in close and keep the casters away). She begs for her life when she’s almost dead. Up to you.
Loot her lair, there are some really interesting potions (very few are beneficial to the consumer!).
The Goblin Bosses
No real tricks here, I simply brute forced each of them. Start from the inside out (of their encampment) about where you find Halsin, and I had him accompany me. Heck, once you attack one group, the whole camp is immediately red to you, even if none of them have seen the fight.
And you can leave using magic once you’ve killed all 4, there is no need to kill the whole camp. Though it can be done. The ogres from the blighted village are a big help. The other strategy I used was to get my party onto one of the high wooden platforms above the goblin courtyard and fight from on high. I also put grease on the floor below the ladder.
Wood Woads and Mud Mephits
Okay, this fight can get out of hand quickly. The 4 Ancient Mud Mephits can continously add more Mud Mephits. Take them out first. None of them have very good situational awareness and you can easily creep into ranged and spell attack range. I used a volley of Magic Missile spells (from Gale, from my caster fighter and from a scroll) to take them out in almost the first round (and you get surprise too).
The Wood Woads are vulnerable to fire. With the Mud Mephits gone, these are brute forced with as much fire as I can apply. See if you can get them Burning.
Underdark – Phase Spiders
Yeah, nope, haven’t got anything for them yet. I can kill one or two but once the Matriarch gets involved I quickly lose control of the fight. Work in progress.
Underdark – Animated Armour (on top of the tower).
I have two strategies. First use “Lost Time” on him and if successful this will help. Second, following his electrostatic discharge AOE for a couple of rounds, he is dazed. I used “potions of speed” at this time and hit him a lot. During the static try to stay away and use this time to get rid of the smaller mobs.
Do try to shove them from the roof. They will do it to you and it kills them.
The second strategy was a chance thought…. when I was trying to redo my other strategy I happened to find myself in a position to shove the Armour of the building. So I did. And it died. So easy strat. (And I was able to loot it when I went back downstairs.
Underdark – The Cultists
While not exactly a “boss fight” if you end up fighting a couple of the druegar, then it usually ends up as the lot. You can recruit a couple to your side, but I’ve not managed to get that to work properly yet.
Above the rockfall is a balcony area. Have your party up there. It give you the advantage of high ground (improve hit %), lets you shove any attackers back to the ground, and limits the ways they can approach. It does draw the fight out a bit, but reduces how many are actually able to attack you at a time, limiting the effect of their superior numbers.
Throw grease, fire and acid below. Use bombs etc.
You can do this before “rescuing” the drow if you wish. You don’t even have to blow the cave-in. Go exploring the Forge for a bit, come back and the body is lying on the ground. You can take his head if you need it.
Underdark – The Grym
At the bottom of the GrymForge, as you are trying to get the Forge restarted to make your sweet mithril gear, you will face the animated (I think) Grym. This thing is tough, resistant to almost everything and hits hard. Some damage he is immune to (Radiant and Fire)
But in the lava he gets a “Superheated” condition, meaning that he is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. I swapped everyone’s weapons out to bludgeoning weapons. I put three right next to where he spawns, careful not to stand in lava and the last is next to the valve wheel. The lava spills out for about 2 rounds then dries up. He remains Superheated for about 2 more rounds and then he’s almost invulnerable. Unless you release more lava.
So that’s what I did. Using the fighters extra action, as well as Potion of Speed, I had him down in two rounds. At 4th level, your characters should be able to survive a hit and keep fighting.
The Githyanki Patrol
I’ve saved this for last. I am really struggling to get a working strat for this fight. Watched a few on YouTube that I haven’t successfully implemented. Trying to work on one on my own.
That isn’t to say I haven’t got past them. If you let Lae’zal do the talking and manage to persuade her to play along with the direction to join the search then you will find they just up and leave. (And Lae’zal gets all fired up about traitors).
So that gets past them, but there’s no loot.
Final thoughts
Shadowheart is infuriating. She usually misses her strikes. Most of her spells are radiant damage (no variety and useless against animated enemies) and are usually Saving Throw negated if they hit anyway. I’ve started running other NPCs to see if they are better
Lae’zel is tough and hits hard too.
Concentrated fire is usually best. Magic Missile is great as it’s 100% hit, even though the damage is low. There are some things you can find to boost this damage.
Make it so the enemy can’t all attack you at once.
Don’t forget all those items you’ve been hoarding in your inventory (and spells from any magical items you are wearing)
EXAMINE any new mobs. Check them out for vulnerable and resistants (or immunes) and use weapons & spells to target such.
Get high ground.
Shove mobs off high ground. (Try not to get shoved off high ground).
Getting this magical lift to work (and then fighting the guardians at the top) was fun
The Underdark – another area of D&D that I know little about. Full of nasty things and very dangerous is the impression that I have. My party has been exploring into this area. There has been a couple of fascinating puzzles and I seem to aligned myself with some fungus people (Myconids). This has really highlighted the trouble when you have party members who don’t have dark vision. Tav’s party is split evenly (Tav is a wood elf, Shadowheart is a half elf, the githyanki and the human do not). This really affects their ability to hit.
Then I was investigating a puzzle that looked like it would end up with a new magic weapon. I had Shadowheart doing it on her own so that if she needed support the rest of the party could surprise them. But the puzzle ended up moving her away just before a very large construct attacked her. With a single hit taking more than 50% of her HP and it had multiple attacks it was over pretty quick.
Then I will admit I got a little distracted and watched some YouTube videos (the first time since I started playing). I found that there were two other party members you could recruit….
So I reloaded a very early save to play about with this and I think I will see what happens there. I’ve actually recruited them both already.
So even more to play through in this game.
Then, I figured, I’ve seen a lot, I’ll start poking through other people’s experiences. I hadn’t done this much at this stage, except prior to purchasing to get a feel if it was something I would be interested in.
I found out so many things that I…. started again…. well sort of. I took this party way back to just after the crash landing. It turns out there are at least two other party members you can add. So I had to go recruiting them.
Interesting things – these NPCs automatically level up to the party level when you add them. They also level up again if you leave them in your campsite for a bit and then add them back into your party. This is very handy, as you don’t need to keep swapping people out to earn experience… however you will need to do it if you are trying to get on the good sides of one or other of them.
I’ve had different cut scenes occur and there are even more stories piled on top of things. I stumbled across some mud mephits and wood woads… these wiped me out. I will have to figure a plan out for them.
So I understand now that full release is not until 2023. That’s probably okay for me to plug away at this part of the game (known as Act 1, but I don’t even know how many there will be … 3?) and clearly, there is still more to do.
Some people even go full evil…. siding with goblins, recruiting drow, all sorts of stuff. I might try that too.
And there are other classes. Maybe a wizard. Other races….
I’m really enjoying this game. Even in this (I assume) small chunk of the game, I’ve faced a range of enemies: hags, phase spiders, ogres, animated armour, and loads of goblins. There are puzzles, there are things to put together.
This second party is well kitted out at the moment.
There are magical items, and the fighter’s party is quite well equipped now. It helps, but its no cake walk. I think my original party is in a lot of trouble seeing as they didn’t find their fourth in the early part of the game. There isn’t another option (maybe there will be in the full game) so 3 instead of 4 and missing their a strong fighter is making a big difference.
There is a lot of D&D in the mechanics, which gives me a strong base to understand what could be a very tough game to walk into. Adding guidance to rolls, understanding proficiencies. There are even feats added (I let the mage learn light armour and he’s working in AC13 (Drow leather) now. Not sure it’s helped a huge amount, he still has low hit points. No DM to fudge rolls here….. (well sort of, there is a mediated dice option where it doesn’t tend to roll really low, but also won’t roll high, I’ve turned that off).
They’ve killed the hag!
The main thing is that even with the level limit (4 not 3) and the limits to the game map at this stage, I’ve played 20 hours and I am still finding new areas or challenges.
I have just found a way into the Underdark….
Interestingly, there are some marked differences between my two play throughs so far, with things that have or haven’t happened. Not sure if these are random, or have been triggered by my actions (or non-actions).
School starts again next week, so I’ll be playing a bit less then… off to get my fill before then 😉
Heck, first up, I’m enjoying this. I started a second character to experiment with different choices and builds and conversations.
So I started a fighter, and stumbled about. This time I found an extra party member, so I have 4 now. Climbing all over the place taking different routes, I ended up uncovering whole new areas. Even if this is a Early Access, and it is limited, there is a heck of a lot of game here. I’ve probably played about 15 hours across the two parties and I am still exploring.
Fighting has improved a lot. My party is now 2 fighters, a wizard and a cleric. The fighters have a few magic items and wield Greatswords. With 2d6 not 1d10/1d12, plus bonuses, they hit for at least 7 or 8, instead of 4 or 5. That makes a difference. Though one fighter seems to miss twice as much as the other.
Looks amazing, even at low graphics settings
But it has meant that together they have killed the gnolls that were a roadblock for the other party, they’ve cleared out the goblin camps and a bunch of other groups have fallen to their blades and spells. I’m keen to drop them into the underground and fight the spiders. I am certain there is a lot under the map too.
In the spider caverns. Still struggling in here.
The other group has also been exploring, finding a trapped crypt and fighting some undead. They also fought the hag, though the hag retreated somewhere that I can’t figure out yet.
My skill at fighting has improved, but I’ve not quite figured out how to set up an ambush when characters are not all initially involved in the battle. For example, I had set up most of the party in cover in a hallway, and then I planned to kite the enemy into the hallway with a longbow shot. Set everyone up, put the fighter with the longbow in range (but where she could pull back, encouraging the goblins to follow) and let loose.
No reaction from the target… not even damage. So I moved forward, was spotted and “Battle commenced”. But the rest of the party was not “in the battle” so it was a messy start. I will experiment with this.
Deep in the goblin camp (an old temple)
Things I have discovered. FAST TRAVEL. I didn’t realise that you could click on a waypoint any time and it would transport you there. I thought you had to use waypoint to waypoint, like flight paths in WoW. This has been a massive revelation.
Some NPCs will change their next conversation with you depending upon how the last one went. So if you miss a chance at a quest or offend them, they won’t be interested next time. Other NPCs may not actually be in the same place – the biggest one is the second fighter. IF you don’t find her captured (right near the crashed ship where you start) then you won’t find her until the gathyanki patrol encounter. This is part of the intent of the 2 games I am playing, to experiment with the options.
There is some adult stuff too. I crashed open a barn to find a bugbear and an ogre…. ummm having a good time. Nothing was seen, but they were very unhappy at being disturbed! It also appears that my character has entered a relationship with the cleric. And perhaps pissed off the other fighter? Speaking of relationships, I am curious why the trader I keep selling my loot too doesn’t seem to like me….
So still lots to explore and figure out. And then at some point between now and later, the full game will be released… I suppose.
Background – I’ve not played any Baldur’s Gate games, the closest I’ve played is probably several years of WoW. This probably causes the most common mess up that I have been doing while playing.
After all the tribulations I was fascinated by the game. In my D&D so far, I’ve not come across Mind Flayers, so am not aware of any of their background history etc. So the whole opening event with tadpole, red dragons, flying seashells all new.
Mind Flayer
I was a little worried as there wasn’t a character creation at the start… they let you watch a little story first. When it comes up, there are lots of options, so I kicked off with a current character I’m playing. Sister Fredis is a War Cleric of Morradin. With BG3 in early release I only had a choice between Life, Light and Trickery. I went with Life.
Red Dragons vs. Flying Seashells
I was even more confused when the next screen had me designing my “dream girl”. That was weird.
Sister Fredis
The main difference I have picked up is just because of that familiarity with WoW. I keep right-clicking to do things, but actually you can just left click most of the time.
The other thing that I really struggle with is range. I feel like the spells have really short range when compared to playing on something like Roll20. Now, it’s metres not feet, and 60′ range is about 18m, so Healing Word having a 18m range is right. I just feel like 18m is a lot shorter in this game. But it probably isn’t.
The interface (is pretty useful)
Being early access, the level is limited to 3. And there are physical restrictions about how far you can wander on the map. But it also appears that there are encounters that are placed there to support higher levels. And playing on the assumption that as they know the level limit, they have only put things that a level 3 party can deal with, then this game can be quite hard!
Several encounters seem way overmatched for my party. 3 come to mind – a group of phase spiders and their matriarch, about 5 gnolls of varying powers with a pair of hyenas, and 3 level 5 githyanki. All of these, when put into the encounter builder on D&D beyond are well into the fatal range.
I’m enjoying the dice rolling (and it’s way easier to remember to cast guidance on yourself in this game). It’s very D&D 5e, and that is the reason I picked it up.
Overall I am enjoying it and keen to play more. I will have to take a look at some other build, like paladin or fighter perhaps. Something with a bit more stopping (and tanking) power.
bikesbabesbytes 