Baldur's Gate III (PC/Mac/PS5/XSX) - Larian Studios (100% CONFIRMED)

[Gweivyth]

I tried it out. You can recruit her. Siiiiiiiick! Now I don't have to be a dommy mommy to get my dommy mommy.

[Andalusian girls]

I mean, I've been begging for this since I started the game. They ain't gods for giving a basic feature.

Lot of other good stuff though. Especially if they fixed the endings.

curmudgeon!

LOL that's too good.

The epilogue is legit. It's about an hour's worth of dialogue and there's a lot of options.

If they launched the game the state that it's in now, I don't know if it would have competition to be dethroned for the GOAT, ever. Even so, with all the fixing they've done, the epilogue added, and will probably continue to work on, this is my game of the decade.

Today's update just feels nice and I really was not expecting it.

AND you can access non party members inventory this patch? Larian is the god king for listening

ye it was great, original ending re companions was what 10-15 minutes? it's a solid x4-x5 in content, far more reactive, and brings a lot of the minor stuff back home. takes the ending from something significantly worse than, say, Wrath of the Righteous's ending to something a little better. some of the better FLC you'll run across and with all the other Act 3 improvements feels like the game is properly finished and a proper mastapiece. not bad for three months of patching.

[Prothescar]

definitely a better ending 'fix' than what bioware did w/ mass effect 3

[Gokulo]

Everyone's talking about boring stuff, thankfully twitter has informed me they added peen physics with this amazing patch

[Kachiko]

Got wiggle physics; now need jiggle physics.

[Rulke]

I was going to wait until my 2nd crew beat the game to see the new epilog but I think I want the organic result from my first. Where do i need to reload? Before the netherbrain or before climbing up to the first half?

[Odesseiron]

You can just reload at the last hit of the Nether Brain. It's the "original" ending and then there's an epilogue after that.

[Celeras]

As much as I want to I'm not sure I have another playthrough in me to fully explore Honour mode. Kind of wish something besides the D20 was locked behind it to motivate me.. I'll probably just end up pining over the list of added legendary actions once everybody finds them all.

Epilogue was great though, rounded out the ending in a satisfying way without really changing anything. Barcus' letter was on brand lol

[Daydreamer]

I'm nearing the end of act 2 on honor mode now. If you go in spoiler free it's similar the first time experience where you are legit scared of all major fights. The forge fight at the end of act 1 is absolutely crazy now depending on your setup.

[Andalusian girls]

also finna start an honor run tonight for my second playthrough, godspeed self

what party comp you rockin Dreamer of Days ?

[Daydreamer]

Second play on honor? Good luck!

I've run almost every comp at this point and have played through the game 5-6 times or so, so what I'm running this time isn't "fully optimal" as I'm using a few combos I wanted to experiment with more but....

Lae'zel - pure fighter. Eldritch knight. Almost all spell slots go to shield but I also keep concentration up on "protection from evil and good" as it's just a good and it combos well with some other items that function only when concentrating on a spell.
Astarion (soon to be swapped with Minthara) - Beast Master Ranger. This is one I haven't messed with much before but I'm really liking it due to the bird companion. It's just so good for blinding or cursing enemies and at level 11 it'll summon two more ravens that I don't even have to control. Works for me. Also using his conc slot for spike growth has been great. Also he's using Phalar Aluve in his main hand which pairs SO WELL with the tav build below.
Karlach - Light Cleric. I'm basically running a spirit guarding build on her so I cast that turn one, then just run around and tag enemies to give them all radiating orbs via luminous armor

Tav - Storm sorc with a focus on items that combo with magic missile. This build is absolutely insane. End game looks something like this
rings - coruscation ring and callous glow ring
amulet - psychic spark
gloves - belligerent skies
boots - stormy clamour
weapon - spellsparkler + legendary staff (via DW feat)
Helm - Hat of the Sharp Caster

This build is not just about the damage (which is great) but also about the debuffs. Every ping of a magic missile generates both Radiating Orb and Reverberation. Radiating orb is the big one though as every stack is -1 to attack so by the end of turn one you'll have enough stacks on the bigger targets that they just can't hit you unless they roll a 20.

[Daydreamer]

Btw other good options for Honor would be ...

8sword bard / 4 thief rogue - great party face + huge NOVA damage
8 open hand monk / 4 thief rogue - honestly this is probably the most OP build in the game. It's just SO powerful.
7paladin/5sorc - lots and lots of spell slots for smites. This one is great for single target dps
Some combo of warlock and sorc for an eldritch blast build. Make sure you get the armor from Alfira in act 2. Convert all level 3 spell slots to sorcery points and add a bloodlust elixir to basically get 3x casts of eldritch blasts every turn.

[Andalusian girls]

man i did 0 multiclassing my first run and hadn't really thought about it, prolly should huh. not big on min-maxing tbh prefer interesting loreish stuff that works well enough. game ain't that hard but maybe Honor mode will force my hand.

just hit level 3 and made it to Druid's Grove no issues so prolly i'm all set for the entire run. any advice besides builds? some of the bosses seem like they'll be fucker of mothers with legendary action business. just making sure everyone has at least a potion of invisibility so they can bonus action and dip should things go awry.

[Tyrath]

I also did 0 multiclassing first time around. Didn't even change any companion jobs. Just felt overwhelmed by all the choice lol

[Daydreamer]

I also did no multi-classing my first play through. You definitely don't have to and heck even my honor mode doesn't seem like I'll be going that route. However, there are some times it just helps so much, specifically if your class relies on bonus actions. Open hand monk 8 / rogue 4 is big for this because you get a second bonus action and therefore an extra fury of blows every turn.

As far as tips for honor mode here's a quick list:
-The potion of invis that AG mentions is a great idea just remember it won't work on all fights.
-Honestly consider skipping the final fight in Grymforge. Both a friend who plays more than I do and both came extremely close to wiping. I won't spoil what the legendary action is but it stacked with him being almost immune to everything in the first place makes it super rough, especially because my magic missile build on my tav this run does basically nothing to him.
-I like not being spoiled on what the legendary actions are so I'm not looking them up but they are the biggest challenges in this mode. I've mostly been ok except the forge fight because I know most of the fights inside and out at this point, but a few surprised me and I'm legit nervous about maybe 1/3 of act 3.
-Always use elixirs every single long rest. Those +1 spell slot elixirs? Heck early game why not? Every little bit helps.
-Be aware on honor mode haste/bloodlust elixers work differently. You only get one more attack NOT a full action. So a level 11 hasted fighter only gets 4 attacks not 6. However, casters still get an extra spell cast so it's still very good for them.

The next few tips approach cheese territory but I'm trying to think of it as "people in my camp would want to help me if this were an actual dnd campaign":
-Have someone at the camp be a transmutation wizard and ideally someone that gets medicine proficiency. Stack wisdom on them. The chance to get extra potions is super nice and also at level 6 you can give con proficiency to someone every long rest. I have them doing this to my cleric now and stacked with an elixir of peerless focus it's incredibly hard for her to lose concentration.
-Have MORE than one person be a transmutation wizard to give transmuter stones to even more people.
-Have Gale be a cleric5/fighter after that. Use him to cast warding bond on your entire team. The reason you take fighter after level 5 is to give him more hp. Also with feats have him take tough and then ASI for constitution. For some reason Gale auto regens hp when in camp and no one else does so basically when you're in fights half the damage is transferred to him. This one I admit is mega-cheese.
-Have other camp people be druids/clerics/or anyone that gets freedom of movement. Give it to all party members every day.

Basically honor mode is about over preparing for every encounter "just in case." This is especially true if you're going in blind.

At this point I have like 300-400 hours in the game so if anyone wants any specific tips for certain classes let me know and I can try to explain the gist of different builds.

[Andalusian girls]

the camp buffing is clever stuff (tho Gale cheese is a pass), and yeah i'm staying the fuck away from a lot of the optional bosses until as high a level as possible. Grym killed me numerous times on tactician, dude can wait until the end of Act 2 and level 8/9

think i'm rollin Wyll, Astarion, Karlach this run, missed or neglected them all in my 1st. will cry without Shadowheart's guidance tho needa get someone specced into it.

[Tyrath]

Playing the game on the toughest mode without Blood of Lathander Shadowheart sounds not fun. Godspeed.

[Daydreamer]

Playing the game on the toughest mode without Blood of Lathander Shadowheart sounds not fun. Godspeed.

Honestly Blood of Lathander isn't that great all things considered, especially when you can rock the goat Phalar Aluve.

Put it on a dex pali, dump strength to 8 since there's no reason to have it with this weapon, use the shriek ability then have the rest of your team go to town. Works especially well with magic missile and eldritch blast.

Edit:

Although I fully admit on my honor play I have blood on my cleric and phalar on my ranger. Best of both worlds!

[Andalusian girls]

FIRST LEGENDARY BITCH DOWN LESGOOOO (i laughed when the second dude came soaring down, was like aight bet that's a proper intro to legendary actions)

more importantly i managed to pass the Scratch test whose failure would've been an instant restart.

but ye Honor mode is a lot of fun so far. save scumming out of the picture, have to mind your p's and q's in both dialogue and fights

40K Owlcat game out today tho, gonna have to switch up time between two giant crpgs

[Qalbert]

I don't know if I somehow just didn't see it during the game awards, but it is in the xbox store now