Does the game balance itself around party size? :: Baldur's Gate 3 General Discussions

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Kersakof

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:06am

Does the game balance itself around party size?

I didn't like how most the characters talked to me, so I killed them at the start. I only had a party of 3 and some places were kinda difficult. Was wondering if that was because I didn't have the maximum party. Other than having two warlocks and a cleric, anyways.

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Originally posted by Arani:

Originally posted by All these grapes inside my head:
Ah, sad.

It's not quite like that at all though. The devs have continuously shared in their streams that they designed it that way. To paraphrase:

Evil/selfish characters who embrace their darkness and chase after power at any cost will gain completely unique abilities, gear etc. and reach absolutely staggering levels of power. You will become an unstoppable force in the battlefield. But you would have to, because you might be going at it alone. There will be opportunities to sacrifice your companions for more power. Should you choose the Dark Urge origin and embrace it, you will learn new unique abilities from it, but this will come at a cost to those around you. And every time you find a tadpole you can absorb it into your brain to learn increasing levels of completely unique Mindflayer powers from powerful telekinetics like violently throwing your enemies around the field, to mind control, manipulating others in dialogue, levitation, transforming into a Displacer Beast, and more. But embracing these parasites might come at a cost.

Since basically all of your original companions have tadpoles in their heads, killing them and absorbing those tadpoles early would give you a huge headstart to getting those Mindflayer powers. Assuming you can use the tadpoles at that point, I don't know how far in the game you learn that ability. Regardless, they made *very* clear that they very much intentionally designed the game in a way where an evil character - even alone - will be much stronger than a good one with their allies fighting with them. The only advantage to being a good character we know of, is that they said "well your allies will be alive" and that's that.

You should know OP, that ever since the start Larian has been absolutely ridiculously focused on evil. So if you plan to just up and murder people when you feel like it, do not doubt for a moment that you will become strong and the game has tons and tons of content for you. Many of us are far more afraid of the opposite. It's the good character players that need to worry.

I never play evil characters, I almost never kill unless I have to, and I also happen to only like custom characters. Every evidence so far suggests I will have the worst possible experience of the game. I can't play any of the 7 origins because 6 of them are premades and The Dark Urge has since been confirmed by streamers to eventually inevitably lead you to murder and maim, no matter how hard you try to resist it. So I'm restricted to Tav and only Tav no matter how many times I play (Tav is the default name of your custom character, so people refer to that whenever they speak of a no-origin player character). Also just like D:OS2, we have reason to believe that Tav is simply a lesser experience. The origin characters will have access to the same main story, quests etc. except that they also have their origin storyline and related abilities, dialogue and other interactions on top of it. And all those unique powers and abilities you get from being evil, sacrificing your companions, murdering random NPC's, embracing The Dark Urge, absorbing the tadpoles? I will never get to have them.

The devs have never flat out said that Tav is the lesser experience, or that good characters cannot have powers, but like with all things PR and business it's not just what they say, but what they don't say. They've spent hundreds of hours and videos and interviews speaking about all the things evil characters and origins get. And yet they've said next to nothing at all what good characters, or Tav, gets (and what they said has been vague at best). So it's basically a guarantee that all of what I said above is how it's going to be.

Still, I'm on PC. We have mods. People will fix this, over time. As a disclaimer, naturally I'm not saying I should get all the advantages of evil / origin characters without making any of the sacrifices they need to to get them. But it would be nice to get at least something. BG2 had many mechanics that rewarded each decision regardless of your alignment with unique stuff, the nature of that stuff simply changed depending on whether you were good or evil. So good characters would get supportive abilities, defensive buffs etc. While evil ones would get offensive abilities instead. I will get whatever mods address this in a balanced manner.

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Showing 1-15 of 40 comments

Izuzul

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:07am

No, encounters are the same regardless of your party size.

Kersakof

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:27am

Ah, sad.

breadman Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:27am

no

if you want to do it solo or with smaller party size it will be harder

AzureTheGamerKobold has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:32am

No it doesn't and with 5e's bound accuracy i doubt it'll be easy to solo either since the game kind of hard limits alot of things. Where in Kingmaker or Wrath you can stack buffs to compensate, 5e really doesn't like buffs let alone stacking them. So i'd say soloing isn't really going to be easy (probably possible... but it'll be harder).

Jonas™ Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:34am

Originally posted by Recjawjind:
"I didn't like how most the characters talked to me, so I killed them at the start."

Gee who would have guessed having less allies makes things harder

Who would have guessed making all the starting companions range from unlikable to insufferable would lead to people killing them (in self defense in at least 2 cases) or leaving them on the ship?

To answer your question OP, recruitable henchmen they have said, but I'm not sure when you get access to them.

Incantus

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:34am

Originally posted by All these grapes inside my head:
I didn't like how most the characters talked to me, so I killed them at the start. I only had a party of 3 and some places were kinda difficult. Was wondering if that was because I didn't have the maximum party. Other than having two warlocks and a cleric, anyways.

Just going to tell you that the characters are all in extremely stressed and hostile situation, as such they are not going to be very nice per say.

If you take them along and you know.. get to know them abit, they will show a friendlier side.

Just like real people do in such situations.

Recjawjind has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:35am

Originally posted by Jonas™:
Who would have guessed making all the starting companions range from unlikable to insufferable would lead to people killing them (in self defense in at least 2 cases) or leaving them on the ship?

To answer your question OP, recruitable henchmen they have said, but I'm not sure when you get access to them.

That might be a you problem. I found them perfectly fine, if (understandably) a bit abrasive and distrusting.

Incantus

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:36am

Originally posted by Jonas™:
Originally posted by Recjawjind:
"I didn't like how most the characters talked to me, so I killed them at the start."

Gee who would have guessed having less allies makes things harder

Who would have guessed making all the starting companions range from unlikable to insufferable would lead to people killing them (in self defense in at least 2 cases) or leaving them on the ship?

To answer your question OP, recruitable henchmen they have said, but I'm not sure when you get access to them.

They aren't tho. Just as I said above, you are in an extremely hostile situation. People aren't going to assume you're a friend and be weary. Most of the companions greatly improve their disposition towards you as you get to know them. Shocking that you'd have to build a working relationship with a complete stranger who's only ties to you is that the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up thing happend to all of you.

Jonas™ Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:42am

Originally posted by Incantus:
Originally posted by Jonas™:

Who would have guessed making all the starting companions range from unlikable to insufferable would lead to people killing them (in self defense in at least 2 cases) or leaving them on the ship?

To answer your question OP, recruitable henchmen they have said, but I'm not sure when you get access to them.

They aren't tho. Just as I said above, you are in an extremely hostile situation. People aren't going to assume you're a friend and be weary. Most of the companions greatly improve their disposition towards you as you get to know them. Shocking that you'd have to build a working relationship with a complete stranger who's only ties to you is that the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up thing happend to all of you.

Why would I want to put up with a bunch of insufferable "stressed out" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for hours just so they become less insufferable later on? Also, why would I want to help them if, as you said, the only thing they have in common is the brainbug when they are so obnoxious?

After 10 minutes with them the overwhelming desire to have a conversion option of "Sort your own ♥♥♥♥ out then, I'm going to go find some people who may be able to help me and not try to kill me in my sleep."

Detective Costeau has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:43am

I'm honestly just baffled. After the crash, Shadowheart thanks you for helping her on the ship, says you should stick together to solve your mutual problem.... and that's so insufferable you can't restrain your bloodlust?

#10

Recjawjind has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:46am

Well at least now I know who I *definitely* don't want at my dnd tables xd

#11

Kersakof

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:47am

Shadowheart and the Warlock were the only two that didn't attack me, belittle me, or order me around. I killed the bug woman, the wizard, and the guy that held a dagger to my throat. In an equally stressful situation, can I really trust people who try to ♥♥♥♥ me over on first meeting, or try to control me from the start?

#12

AzureTheGamerKobold has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:48am

tbh sounds like your a murder hobo and suffering for it...

#13

[OTS]EchoZenLogos has Baldur's Gate 3

Aug 2, 2023 @ 10:49am

If you want to role-play as a murder hobo and kill companions merely for being "annoying," you should know that's going to put you at a disadvantage in a game like this.

That's just another way to play though. But you can get more companions as you go along, so unless you continue to kill all of them you should be fine.

#14