I'm starting to get jealous of some of my teammates and wondering if I should respec.
Warlock in particular seems to be getting really tough. Wyll is kicking ass and taking names every fight, plus having temporary health and seems to not run out of spells as fast as Gale. I guess the main warlock blast never runs out of charges. Often the only reason I need to rest is for the dang wizard. Sometimes for Shadowheart paladin recharges.
Karlach the barbarian is also doing quite well with extra attack and sometimes a 3rd bonus attack. Plus rage throwing weapon. I found a spear that auto returns when you throw it and it's just too fun sometimes.
And I still have Astarios as a most dual dagger backstabbing Rogue. Plus he gets extra stabs every turn.
My druid is just very chill. Can only turn animal two fights before having to short rest. She is a bit better now that I got Owlbear and extra attack too. Level 6 really did seem to step up almost everyone's power.
Just musing I guess since I can't play right now. Loving the game and thinking about builds
There's a really deep online rabbit hole on re-spec and class builds. I found that it takes some of the fun out of the game when you're trying to simply create a build that does the most damage.
There's a really deep online rabbit hole on re-spec and class builds. I found that it takes some of the fun out of the game when you're trying to simply create a build that does the most damage.
Same, but I'm that way with RPGs in general. The thing I quite liked about BG3 is that, on balanced difficulty, you could just make a character however you wanted without worrying about The Build and still beat the game (and fairly handily, too).
As opposed to the Dev (Strigiform Feline) who shall go unnamed's games.
Speaking of, I actually kinda got a little bored with Rogue Trader, so I restarted BG3 with a couple more mods. Very much enjoying the fantasy racism i'm encountering at literally every turn as a Seldarine Drow (that's not me being sarcastic, I genuinely am LOVING this).
There's a really deep online rabbit hole on re-spec and class builds. I found that it takes some of the fun out of the game when you're trying to simply create a build that does the most damage.
The problem with those builds is that it takes pretty much all of the fun out of the game, especially when they are put together with the highest difficulty levels in mind. I had a similar issue with going through Rogue Trader using online guides - I could see they made a lot of sense, but for a lot of the game it made combat laughably easy.
You don't need to worry about "build complexity" for BG3 - the system is very well designed to understand, and you can have a lot of fun with the skills available. Just pick the class you want and go with it. It's very hard to mess them up.
Oh yeah, you wanna break this game there are all kinds of multi-class builds that will do it.
Anyway, if I'd respecced Shart, I never would've understood why the community thinks of her as never capable of hitting any goddamn thing in combat.
I've reached Act 3 in my Durge run.
Act 2 spoilers:
Wow. I was not expecting to kill Isobel.
I was RPing my Durge as generally trying to resist the Urge instead of revel in it, but the game was hinting very strongly that if I didn't kill Isobel, I would black out and kill one of my party members. Now, due to siding with Minthara in Act 1, I lost Wyll, Karlach and Halsin, so my companion roster was pretty thin and I didn't want to lose any more. Thankfully Nightsong is none the wiser. And killing Isobel unlocks the Slayer form, which I seem to recall Orin using against me in other playthroughs.
I am getting a different reception around town. It's interesting how much of key quests and plot points are built into the Durge storyline. It's definitely branching the story away from my earlier, "good" runs. It's more than just a bit of flavour dialogue here or there -- it completely recontextualises your relationship to key characters!
I guess I have been using a guide for most characters. When it comes to wizard or warlock, what spells to learn or set. No point in wasting time on something inferior.
I've kinda done my own thing with traits.
Feats I have looked at the recommended, which is usually 2 more points in your key stat, so that made sense for pretty much everyone at 4. But I might diverge a bit at 8 to try some things.
Cantrips seems like there's some good and some useless.
I haven't tried any multiclassing so really I'm keeping it simple I guess. Mostly just impressed at 5 and 6 that everyone is feeling stronger.
Like I picked up counter spell as a reaction and have been able to choose to use it a few times to shut the enemy down. That's pretty dang cool. I like the way you can choose to use reaction or not too.
I guess it's cool I'm not bored with combat 40+ hours in.
It's interesting how much of key quests and plot points are built into the Durge storyline. It's definitely branching the story away from my earlier, "good" runs. It's more than just a bit of flavour dialogue here or there -- it completely recontextualises your relationship to key characters!
My hot take is that Durge just should've been the default character. I haven't tried the Origin characters as my PC, but compared to custom characters, Durge's story is just exponentially more interesting and well-fleshed out.
Like, I am still quite a bit disappointed at how little my first custom TAV being a Githyanki ultimately mattered in the story, especially compared to Durge.
The Durge storyline, as you said, completely recontexualizes the game's entire goddamn narrative. Whether you play it evil or as a redemption story, it is, to me, by far the best version of the story.
I still find it hilarious that you're like "Uh, guys? I think about committing terrible, awful murder, like, the most horrifying murders you can imagine, at scale, every time I close my eyes," and everyone in the party acts like you just said you're feeling a little depressed. You literally tell Wyll about your never-ending bloodlust and he's like "everyone has strong feelings sometimes."
Felix Threepaper wrote:It's interesting how much of key quests and plot points are built into the Durge storyline. It's definitely branching the story away from my earlier, "good" runs. It's more than just a bit of flavour dialogue here or there -- it completely recontextualises your relationship to key characters!
My hot take is that Durge just should've been the default character. I haven't tried the Origin characters as my PC, but compared to custom characters, Durge's story is just exponentially more interesting and well-fleshed out.
Like, I am still quite a bit disappointed at how little my first custom TAV being a Githyanki ultimately mattered in the story, especially compared to Durge.
The Durge storyline, as you said, completely recontexualizes the game's entire goddamn narrative. Whether you play it evil or as a redemption story, it is, to me, by far the best version of the story.
Spoiler:I still find it hilarious that you're like "Uh, guys? I think about committing terrible, awful murder, like, the most horrifying murders you can imagine, at scale, every time I close my eyes," and everyone in the party acts like you just said you're feeling a little depressed. You literally tell Wyll about your never-ending bloodlust and he's like "everyone has strong feelings sometimes."
I'm someone who usually starts up Nth game of an RPG saying "I'll do an 'evil' run this time", be snarky for like 2 minutes during the intro, then go back to making the same goody two shoes choices I always did.
I'm impressed by BG3's way of keeping you on the 'evil' path, or at least making it a more interesting choice, even if some of those choices are with a dagger to your throat.
I'm certainly finding the Durge run more rewarding and compelling than I thought.
As for your spoiler:
I found that funny too -- it's like in serial killer movies where the profiler says "they WANT to get caught". My GF Minthara actually liked me more for telling her.
Act 1 camp spoilers.
I sometimes wish
I let Shadowheart kill Lae'zel or vice versa. Just to spice things up. That was a crazy cool scene but I talked them both down.
I mean it looks like half your companions are missable in act 1 anyway. Or you can lose them with certain actions.
Really would make for some varied runs.
Act 1 camp spoilers.
I sometimes wish
Spoiler:I let Shadowheart kill Lae'zel or vice versa. Just to spice things up. That was a crazy cool scene but I talked them both down.
I mean it looks like half your companions are missable in act 1 anyway. Or you can lose them with certain actions.
Really would make for some varied runs.
My son did that in his run! His PC was a barbarian, he never had Lae'zel in his party, he just thought "someone's messing with my healer!" and let Shadowheart win. Obviously, he didn't care about maximising XP/quests or getting to the githyanki creche. He never looked back.
At the start of my second play through I failed whatever check you needed to
save Gale from the portal. Oops, looks like we're hiring a wizard if we need one.
Or you can respec or multiclass for magic.
I know but I have a weird internal prohibition about re-speccing the story characters away from their main archetype. So Shadowheart stays a druid, Wyll a Warlock, etc...
In that particular play thorough it's more like, alas Gale we hardly,err, never knew ye.
Photo Mode, Cross Play and 12 new Subclasses coming early next year.
Larian put more work into not working on a game than some studio's manage when desperately trying to keep their games alive.
Them and OwlCat, who is still making major updates to WotR.
12 new subclasses ?!?!?!
I guess I'll be doing ANOTHER playthrough in 2025 then
That is one thing I did. Just followed some recommended subclasses. I didn't dig too deep into them yet. Perhaps just a respec and change of that would freshen things up if I do get bored.
My main druid is a lot more exciting since I got Owlbear. It has the attack again thing in that form that fighters and barbarians got at 5 or 6 as well.
And that Owlbear jump smash!
On to Act 2 finally, at 52 hours or so. 
Got Minsc and respeced him into a Lore Bard with a dip in cleric to make him the concentrating buff master to complement my double-sorcadin, Astarion dual crossbow death trio
Photo Mode, Cross Play and 12 new Subclasses coming early next year.
Larian put more work into not working on a game than some studio's manage when desperately trying to keep their games alive.
Fextralife's summary of this update.
Wow. Be careful with AOE spells if you have NPC allies.
I was doing a fight in Act 2 at a certain Inn... anyway. I dropped Sleet Storm because there were 3 enemies kinda grouped away from us. And figured that would let me focus on the 3 closer enemies. Everything actually worked great, and we started chipping away at those ranged ones, with NPC help.
Then I won the fight. A cutscene started. I thought everything was fine and saved. After the scene... one of the nearby NPCs slipped on the ice. And the whole place went hostile to me!
I backed up an redid part of the fight, trying to stay in turn-based after the fight. Then I moved to the edge of the ice and talked to the NPC who I thought had slipped. Turned off turn-based, started conversation, then the post-fight conversation triggered again... thought I was clear. But no, a different NPC fell on the ice!
This time I had a save from right at the final turn. So I tried again. Turned off turn based, cutscene started. Turned it back on. No one hostile yet? Turned it off and map-warped away.
So far so good I think the stupid thing finally wore out without anyone else falling.
And level 7 yay.
My second playthrough has been about exactly two things.
1.) Romance Karlach this time
2.) Get Minthara in the party
So I played yesterday. A ton. Got all the way to the party in Act I, only to realize that I'd spent too much time without K in my party, and she wasn't interested (which is extra hilarious because the first time played the game, I was literally fending off everyone with a STICK.)
Without wanting to spoil anything, I’m not sure that points 1 & 2 in your list aren’t mutually exclusive.
Without wanting to spoil anything, I’m not sure that points 1 & 2 in your list aren’t mutually exclusive.
They're actually not, which is why I'm doing this second playthrough. It just takes some finessing. 
I don't know what happened in the patches, but I have been rolling astonishingly poorly this playthrough. Regularly getting 1-5, while my enemies get 15-20. On everything.
Did you have "karmic dice" turned on in your last play through?
Yeah turning that dice option off was in every tips for BG3 list I saw
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