I swear I'm not playing this game correctly. I get my ass kicked at every turn, no matter how carefully I approach any situation, no matter how much I try to think my way through things, I just can't get very far.
The first 5 levels are the hardest, because every little thing can kill you. And it's so easy to stumble into enemies you're not yet prepared for. But exploring the map, reloading if you're stuck, trying different companions, it all will start to feel like a puzzle you're solving.
Haven't played BG3, but I have played BG1 and Planescape Torment, and it seems like it's the exact same thing. Everything ends you easily at the beginning.
Best advice for any game like this , you are 21 jump street. "Infiltrate the dealers, find the suppliers" your a (dumb) detective, trying to decept those you dont know into belonging and sharing clues(story) while seeking answers to your big problem - brain worm(game narrative)
Using the detective motive draws out the story and gives you clues of how to interact or proceed with next encounter.
OR be a chaos gremlin and make role playing choices for the lulz
The Baldur's Gate franchise, including the older ones, are always games that have never been on rails. Because of this, the game does not warn you or stop you from putting yourself into situations that you should absolutely NOT be in yet. You can literally walk yourself into a fight against enemies that are way way tougher than you are ready for yet. The game expects you to make an adventure for yourself, and to choose your battles, not assume that every enemy is tailored to be beaten. Sometimes, the correct answer in an adventure is to not go fight the dragon just because you know where its lair is; perhaps wait until you are actually a power strong enough to stand against a dragon.
Just like in real D&D, the answer is not always to fight. Not every enemy is balanced or scaled to your power level. Sometimes you are going to end up in situations that you should have had the foresight to avoid.
It takes a little getting used to. Because MOST games are so hand-holdy or on-rails that you assume that the game would never put a challenge in front of you that wasn't "equal to your current power level" but that isn't how Baldur's Gate is designed. Instead, the world exists completely disregarding your characters at all; and expects you to traverse the world as such. Just because the game puts a dragon in front of you doesn't mean you are anywhere near ready to fight such a thing, yet. And the same might go for some random group of thugs you encounter in a tavern when you are still a low level.
You have to get out of the mindset that most games put you in that "every potential fight put in front of me is made to be beaten and made for my current power level". Instead, treat it more like a real life adventure would feel. Just because you run into a mugger in a back alleyway does not mean that life has ordained that this mugger is "an appropriate fight" for you. In most games, if you randomly run into a gigantic dragon in a dungeon, you would think "the game wouldn't put this here unless i could beat it." But that's not how Baldur's Gate games are designed. The dragon is just living its life. If you fuck with it, you are the one who chose to mess with a dragon. When it completely obliterates you, you are supposed to say "Oh. I Guess that makes sense. Lets avoid it next time. Maybe come back after i'm a superpower."
The game doesn't hold back, because its trying to be realistic. If you walk into a bandit camp (or goblin camp) with 30 bandits in it. The game isn't going to send them at you 3 at a time like most other games would... they are just all going to attack you at the same time... because... that's realistic. You are expected to strategize and find ways to perhaps eliminate some of the bandits that are alone and whittle them down with clever ways rather than walk in the front door and engage them all. You are 3 vs 30 after all, so you are expected to treat it as such. You wouldn't walk into a bandit camp in real life and go 3 v 30 with bandits, would you? Because you would intrinsically understand just how fragile your life is, and how easy you could die. And also that you are not special or protected by plot armor. Even highly trained combat vets would fail to win in a 3v30 fight against 30 novices. The way you win is to not fight fair. Find stragglers, pick them off one by one without others noticing, etc.
As you get more and more into the higher levels of the game, this becomes less and less of an issue, as your characters eventually become inhumanly strong; at which point it starts making sense for you to no longer be afraid of random encounters like you were when you were a wee level 2 novice.
Basically, when you are level 1-3, you are weak. And the game expects you to act as such. Not as if you are a hero. Because you aren't a hero, yet. You're a level 3 nobody. And a level 3 nobody who walks into a random fight just because they think they are the hero and plot armor will protect them.. is just going to die. Most games treat you as if you are the chosen one, and the game is designed to be beaten, with you always succeeding. In D&D, you aren't a hero until you actually make it. Until then, you are just like every other NPC who could die at the drop of a hat. So you are expected to act like it.
Most of the early fights have a gimmick that'll make them way easier. Blowing up explosive barrels, ambushing the goblins from behind, dropping a stalactite on the monster's head, etc. Make sure to look around before you engage.
A lot of fights can be made a lot easier with positioning before the fight starts. When you’re in a dialogue with a boss, you can swap to your other characters and position them better - ie have your fighter move to where the archers are so you don’t spend 3 turns just trying to reach them. Even just spreading out before a fight starts can make a huge difference, so you don’t all get hit with one AoE
yeah, I swear trickster is the worst cleric domain. Its useful for the drow skipping of some goblin dialogue for free xp but other than that it sucks. I love life and light. Light cleric just became fireball the character. The pure insanity of having a wizard casting some magic missile for single target and shart spamming fireball and wall of fire was hilarious.
Because I'm pretty sure it is. It also thematically doesn't work for Shadowheart at all (and don't you dare try to bring up her background, that doesn't match as well as like half the other domains thematically)
Try to take any advantage possible before the fight: stealth, highground, positioning, splitting your group, combat buffs etc
Save, reload and try different things, you can do it with enough motivation!
Fair you can easily get surprised, most of the time I put the whole group in sneak mode when entering a suspiciously wide open area, that way you can see the enemies' line of sight in red or even the dots on the mini map (although I can understand not doing that for roleplay purposes)
This is one of those games that expects your party to be very well built for normal difficulty or higher. You need to follow build guides. Outside of that the game just allows you to run into high level enemies and you're just supposed to turn around and come back later.
The biggest problem is that you can't farm XP so you have to go searching for just the right level of enemies to defeat. You also need to be very clever with your skills and abilities. Otherwise you get your world rocked.
"You need to follow build guides" you absolutely do not, you just need to not be underlevelled and everything is pretty easy. Do not follow build guides, that's boring af and totally unnecessary.
If you know an encounter is coming up, separate your team. Have one or two start the dialogue/encounter while the other two are not in combat. You can flank around or cast/action from afar
Don't be afraid to just make a bunch of quick saves, just go back if you fail an encounter horribly. Also, for later on, haste is INCREDIBLE, make sure you have someone in your party that knows it.
It really encourages metagaming. Get into a bad situation, look around and realize "oh if I had positioned here/made this dialogue option/etc this would be way more feasible," then reload and execute with your omniscience. Really trash design, but that's just how CRPGs work.
Also, there are quite a few fights you can avoid completely by talking your way out of them, though they will also require some lucky dice rolls on your social skill checks.
I'm playing this right now. I heard the height and how great of a game it was. But I just happened to start getting into D&D and wanted to play a game that played similar. And wow this may be one of my favorite games of all time. I hope things get better for you. I'm more of a tedious player so, right now it's not much of a challenge. But I might be considered over leveled.
I'm someone that's more critical of BG3 than most and that's largely due to the pacing in Act 3 being awful. Part of that is the progression stalling at level 13 (for good reason, but still).
Act 1 is basically perfect and that good will carries through the rest of the game.
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u/crumpled789 4h ago
Baldur’s Gate 3