re: Baldur's Gate 3 (2023)

we ended up putting a darkness cloud around the portal to help against the ranged attacks, and had Shadowheart wandering around with the spirit guardians fricking shite up while also using the fire glyphs to attack groups hiding in the grasses. Did some other stuff too obviously, including my created unga bunga style character wrecking shite via melee, but ultimately we had 3 of the 4 characters die between the end of round 3 and sometime early round 5. We killed a lot of enemies too, mind you. Somehow we got lucky manged to keep the last person alive, and when it was his turn used misty step to move far away from the portal (he only had 5-6 health left). The last 10 or so enemies seemed confused and did a lot of movement with dash and didn't attack anything and we squeaked by...barely. It was a lot of fun though. Easily the most satisfying battle victory we've had to date.

BG3 won game of the year last night

Only combat is turn based. It’s fantastic. Get it baw.

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So, this is probably a dumb question. My only experience with these types of games is open world. How does the turn base compare? It finally came out on Xbox last night and I’m thinking about getting it. Is it worth it?

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First off: yes, it's VERY worth getting. Absolutely. 100%.

Next: The only drawback is that the NPC friendship interactions seem set up to almost default a player into a homosexual relationship (at least male player characters to male non-player characters, no idea on female-female) whereas the male-female attractions seem to take a bit more work (at least male player towards female NPCs). This isn't an exaggeration, if you play a good enough (based on the game's alignment system) character you will literally have to shut down (at least) Gale, Wyll and Halsin as becoming too good of a friend to them makes them want to constantly do butt-stuff with you (I leave Astarion out because he's obviously gay from the first time you meet him, the others are not).

Turn-based: As BJ said, only the combat is turn-based. Other than that, you are just point-clicking your team to wherever you want them to go. Once combat is initiated (let's say you get seen by a hungry monster, for example) the game's progress (ie: NPCs moving about/ talking) will stop and whichever character (whether ally or enemy) will be highlighted for their turn (although some of the story may be told through cinematics or v/os). If it's an ally on your team, you have complete control (you can move them x number of steps, cast spells, use your weapon, etc). If it's an enemy, their decisions are driven by the game's combat system. To look at it in a very general view, it's like you are playing a chess match against the computer, except that there's a FAR wider range of what can be done for one piece to defeat another.

Check out this PS5 video from a fight fairly early in the game. You'll notice some "allies" aren't user-controlled, that's because they aren't in your group. Your group, however, is completely under your control (you can't swap group-members on the fly during combat though).

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I think I’m going Paladin

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Ima be honest with ya. I wouldn’t start with paladin. The oath mechanic is a doozie to wrap your head around your first go.

“What do you mean I just broke my oath?!”

ditch the wife, get BG3 replace wife with shadowheart

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I want to buy this now but my wife has been on my arse about Christmas present ideas so I may have to wait it out

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Buy her a copy of BG3 and play it together.

Only an hour in and I’m already addicted

I’m one step forward, two steps back. Invested quite a few hours and have to keep going back to a save. I’m getting my arse kicked trying to get to the Gith camp. Goblin camp is a straight up no right now too.