To anyone that's played more than once:

[JACKHAMMER RAGE]

Just curious, how did you do it? I enjoyed the game, put around 200 hrs in my first play through - but that's the primary reason why I "liked" the game, but also simultaneously hated the experience. The RNG of everything in combat, the mass amount of rolls that were 1-4 dwarfed the other rolls.

I'm usually the type of gamer that'll replay an RPG and on my 2nd play through I'll "be awesome" because I've learned the systems but this game, there is nothing that I could determine as skill based. It's just random number generation.

Are you playing again with mods that make the game a better experience? Or are you just hardcore fans of completely random outcomes?

[ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ]

Originally posted by JACKHAMMER RAGE:

Just curious, how did you do it?

The RNG of everything in combat, the mass amount of rolls that were 1-4 dwarfed the other rolls.

I'm usually the type of gamer that'll replay an RPG and on my 2nd play through I'll "be awesome" because I've learned the systems but this game, there is nothing that I could determine as skill based. It's just random number generation.

Are you playing again with mods that make the game a better experience? Or are you just hardcore fans of completely random outcomes?

The RNG in this RPG is AHHMAAAZZINNG! idk why I said that but that's right, I said it. I'd say this game is pure RNG and you can probably skill some stuff but obviously not the RNG related things.

I think (assume) most people play "EVIL" their second playthrough or just the opposite of what they've played, vise versa, yaddah yaddah.

I never rely on mods to make my game experience "better" because the game already offers so much to me. Maybe for Left 4 Dead but yaknow, using character skins as you just shoot/mow down zombies x3

Could be some cool mods out there though, I just... idk, wouldn't want to change the experience too much. Maybe if they have characters/outfits stuff like that, sure.

Did you play good or evil your first playthrough of this game? do you feel like playing the opposite way? do you just want to go at it randomly? want to play suicidal? (don't heal, don't eat, see how long you can last before dying.. idk I just thought this up lol)

Do whatever you want! the options are endless me matey

[KRON]

The further you go in the game, the less reliant on RNG you become because your bonuses grow with better gear, feats and stat increases. Also, with karmic dice the RNG is quite generous. After playing 1000 hours of XCOM, the RNG here felt very forgiving.

[JACKHAMMER RAGE]

Originally posted by ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ:

The RNG in this RPG is AHHMAAAZZINNG! idk why I said that but that's right, I said it. I'd say this game is pure RNG and you can probably skill some stuff but obviously not the RNG related things.

I think (assume) most people play "EVIL" their second playthrough or just the opposite of what they've played, vise versa, yaddah yaddah.

I never rely on mods to make my game experience "better" because the game already offers so much to me. Maybe for Left 4 Dead but yaknow, using character skins as you just shoot/mow down zombies x3

Could be some cool mods out there though, I just... idk, wouldn't want to change the experience too much. Maybe if they have characters/outfits stuff like that, sure.

Did you play good or evil your first playthrough of this game? do you feel like playing the opposite way? do you just want to go at it randomly? want to play suicidal? (don't heal, don't eat, see how long you can last before dying.. idk I just thought this up lol)

Do whatever you want! the options are endless me matey :SpectreCreepy:

I played as a good character.

That's the thing - I *want* to play again, but I can't. I can't imagine putting myself through the horrendous RNG rolls ever again. The fails at 95% success rate. The skill checks that can only fail on a 1, and that happening numerous times.

I've started a new character probably 20-ish times and never made it off the nautiloid. It's always something that just sends me into a furious rage IRL because of the complete nonsense the game put me through on my original playthrough. Whether it's failing the skill check of "2" to get Shadowheart out (it's happened more than once). To watching my characters get back to back crit by the final encounter on the ship. The moment it happens, I just realize "I have to go through this ♥♥♥♥ for 100+ more hours" and I literally ALT-F4.

I wasn't sure if people were using mods that cleaned up the rolls, or if this type of video game experience just isn't my thing. Maybe the terrible rolls wouldn't be so exaggerated to me if the fights weren't 4 vs 20. I felt like, especially in the later parts of the game, I would just sit there for 60% of the time watching enemies do all kinds of things. Then it's my turn, and I do a thing and it fails - whether it's a miss, or the enemy saved. Or I get a spell off, and a caster loses it from a 2 damage attack because they failed their concentration save with advantage.

I just get flooded with "I have to deal with this combat fight in 60 hours and I'm already seeing 1's again"...

[[CGF]Fozzie]

If it's not doing it for you, no one can convince you otherwise. I'm on my 6th playthrough and simultaneously doing an MP playthrough with a friend. We have laugh out loud moments playing MP. The game has so much to give as long as you are enjoying yourself.

[JACKHAMMER RAGE]

Originally posted by CGFFozzie:

If it's not doing it for you, no one can convince you otherwise. I'm on my 6th playthrough and simultaneously doing an MP playthrough with a friend. We have laugh out loud moments playing MP. The game has so much to give as long as you are enjoying yourself.

Oh I'm not looking for someone to convince me. I was looking for what other people were doing - to see if someone was doing something that I didn't think of (or know about) that would make the experience better.

Like "Yeah I played through again using this mod or that mod that changed this mechanic or that mechanic".

Or if it's simply I hate RNG, and that's just how the game is. Not trying to have my opinion swayed by random strangers on the internet. Just seeing what's out there as options for myself.

[Willow Rivers]

800 hours played so far and have 2 runs going at the moment. Love the game and trying different classes/sub classes. When Patch 8 drops with even more subclasses to choose from I have more runs planned lol.

Love the game. Sounds like the game just is not for you if you do not enjoy the combat system.

[Worlord]

The whole idea of combat in D&D is to leave as much as possible to your character's abilities as possible, leaving you to mostly the strategy part of it. It was born from battle sims, after all, so there is no escaping the RNG aspect. As for me, I bought the game precisely for the D&D look and feel. I was tired of twitch games disguised as RPGs where the only skill was mashing buttons as fast as you can - although I do admit that I miss the incremental skill leveling of, say, Skyrim.

So my first playthrough for a game is always pure vanilla - no mods, default difficulty. I figure one playthrough the way it was intended. The next time is usually at the hardest difficulty as I've learned the system by then, modding as I choose. With Skyrim it was mostly survival mods because - eating two cheese wheels to restore your health while fighting a dragon simply did not appeal to me. For BG3, it was straight to honor mode after that with only cosmetic mods installed, like head presets or those awesome physics-enabled earrings. The engine itself was exactly how I wanted it to be already.

In HM I regularly took a beating until I decided that trying to hack n slash your way through a fight with no planning wasn't going to work, and that running away is a viable option. Sometimes HM forced me down paths I'd never taken before, like Marcus being able to kidnap Isobel and failing to defend the portal and losing Halsin. (They both happened in the same run and it turned out pretty grim, although I made it to the reunion.)

So I recommend HM mode next, because if you thought you knew the game before, you'll find out just how inadequate your tactics really are, and how much you were relying on save scumming. I recommend not using unbalanced mods until you've conquered HM. Then it's time to just play with cheat mods like ones to extend your party beyond four. (Hey, if the game can cheat massively in HM, so should you.)

Personally, I think HM should've been "play by the same rules, but dead is dead (no save scumming)" - the honorable way to fight, no cheating on either side. A new mode, which I will call Valor Mode, would be what Honor Mode is now. Extra difficult, game cheats. To overcome the odds stacked against you, you need to be special. (Look up the definitions of "honor" and "valor" to see what I mean.)

[FunkyMonkey]

Originally posted by JACKHAMMER RAGE:

Originally posted by CGFFozzie:

If it's not doing it for you, no one can convince you otherwise. I'm on my 6th playthrough and simultaneously doing an MP playthrough with a friend. We have laugh out loud moments playing MP. The game has so much to give as long as you are enjoying yourself.

Oh I'm not looking for someone to convince me. I was looking for what other people were doing - to see if someone was doing something that I didn't think of (or know about) that would make the experience better.

Like "Yeah I played through again using this mod or that mod that changed this mechanic or that mechanic".

Or if it's simply I hate RNG, and that's just how the game is. Not trying to have my opinion swayed by random strangers on the internet. Just seeing what's out there as options for myself.

Game is built around RNG and there is skill involved, they don't necessarily rule each other out. For example, there are plenty of things that you can do that don't require *any* rolls to do damage, like Magic missile, Spike growth and Cloud of daggers. Many spells do half damage even on a save. You can have reroll mechanics like Portent from Divination wizards, Light Cleric's make enemies reroll their attacks, Lucky feat gives you rerolls...

There are a lot of things you can do to skew the RNG in your favor. And all that I mentioned didn't include any of the gear that can do some pretty wacky things simply by you existing.

[quothz]

I'm not sure what the point of this is. You're pretending to ask a question but characterizing the answers in advance, and going off on a weird superstitious tangent that I think is the real point of your post. Just assume my answer is one of the two possibilities you helpfully listed.

I will give you a tip, though: Don't ever play poker. To you it will seem like you're just losing a lot of money to pure random chance.

[Cardgage]

Originally posted by ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ:

Originally posted by JACKHAMMER RAGE:

Just curious, how did you do it?

The RNG of everything in combat, the mass amount of rolls that were 1-4 dwarfed the other rolls.

I'm usually the type of gamer that'll replay an RPG and on my 2nd play through I'll "be awesome" because I've learned the systems but this game, there is nothing that I could determine as skill based. It's just random number generation.

Are you playing again with mods that make the game a better experience? Or are you just hardcore fans of completely random outcomes?

The RNG in this RPG is AHHMAAAZZINNG! idk why I said that but that's right, I said it. I'd say this game is pure RNG and you can probably skill some stuff but obviously not the RNG related things.

RNG literally means Random Number Generator.
Its not the right term to use when talking about unmodified BG3.
Larian is right out there saying the game isn't fair across the d20. You cannot say an RNG is AHHHMAZING!!!11!!! when it quite literally isn't an RNG - its a weighted calculator.

If I save my game in the middle of a conversation that should not affect any gameplay whatsoever, but in BG3 if you save while talking your next roll result when you load up will have adjusted probability values. The game is built to assume the player is save scumming and punish for that, adjusting the chances for a low roll to go up (with chances of rolling a 1 in particular being much higher).
Game data does not support you, my dude.

[Favonius]

The skill i learnt from my first run is how to decrease the random part. I'm never trying anything where i have less than 50% chance, i find other way.
First, specialize your characters, gear them accordingly, and use them for what they're good at.

First run i was playing a barbarian, fight was ok but my dialog options were limited and unsuccesfull. Second run i played as Wyll, an all-talky playthrough and everything felt very easy and yet very different...

[Cardgage]

Originally posted by quothz:

I'm not sure what the point of this is. You're pretending to ask a question but characterizing the answers in advance, and going off on a weird superstitious tangent that I think is the real point of your post. Just assume my answer is one of the two possibilities you helpfully listed.

I will give you a tip, though: Don't ever play poker. To you it will seem like you're just losing a lot of money to pure random chance.

That is quite literally the opposite point that they are making. If Im correct, they dislike how (to use your analogy) being *good* at Poker makes no difference. Play all the Poker in the world, but it doesn't matter because whenever you get back from the bathroom the dealer makes sure you get dealt a 2 and a 7. After that first hand it seems a little better, but the dealer knows that hes always going to give out cards that make the most excitement at the table - not the actual result of RNG.

[Thomas D.]

The skill lays in understanding the system.
build building,
group composition
and Tactics.

Even you have plenty of influence of randomness it's a huge difference seeing someone who mastered this game / system and someone who has no clue.

Also it's true that the former will change the odds so much in his favour that luck plays only a small role while the later one will only be able to accomplish anything when he has luck.

I assume you are right now in the center or even closer to the "low skill" category and thus it looks to you that it's all only about luck. And no it doesn't matter if you played 10h or 1000h, playtime (even it influences it over time) is still no absolute indicator for understanding and skill.

One example if you know how to increase chances let's say to 80% and understand action economy and manages to do let's say 5 hits you will almost guaranteed end up hitting once or multiple times and do even decent damage if you know how buffs and effects work. Yes there is a little chance that this still won't work out but the chance is so tiny, it's neglectible.

While one who doesn't understand it might end up with a chance to hit of 50% and has no clue / puts in no consideration into action economy ends up with only 2 hits in the same round. The chances are decent that that person does even 0 damage in his whole turn and even if he hits the total damage output will be lower in 90% if not even up to 99% of cases, especially if that person doesnt understand buffs and effects.

That's a huge skill gap! In the end sure the first one could miserably fail and do 0 damage with 5 hits but the chance for this is almost 0.

In that sense I would even add "math" to the initial mentioned skills.

But is it possible that you use carmic dice? Because they ♥♥♥♥ around with chances and stuff might not work out as intended.

[Thomas D.]

Also as additional side note. Maybe learn to understand how RNGs often work. Like seeds and so on. In that case you understand how it is possible that you get the same results even with a low / high chance and as said carmic dice does some odd stuff.

Hint: RNGs in computers are deterministic and not random (and produce the same numbers when the same seed is used) 😁

Also you have to learn that high chances aren't a guarantee for success and maybe you will have more fun if you learn to accept bad outcomes or non perfect runs, like for example real life which isn't always perfect / fair, either.

[seeker1]

Originally posted by JACKHAMMER RAGE:

Are you playing again with mods that make the game a better experience? Or are you just hardcore fans of completely random outcomes?

1. yes.
2. well ... you claim there is no skill factor ... and yet as your character improves ITS skills and abilities ... and you as a player improve YOUR skill in using them ... you'll start to find the infamous "RNG" matters less and less, because you know what to do to improve your chances.
3. there's mods that straight up cheat your rolls - I don't use those - but that's not to say I'm not using mods - whether they be entirely additional legit additional 5E feats or slightly improved equipment etc. - that is certainly helping.

Also, again, knowledge helps. When you're about to face a situation where you'll be facing a lot of conversational skill checks, or even other kinds -- bring a bard. I always bring Alfira because, Bardic Inspiration. It helps. As can anything that provides Advantage on your rolls.

P.S. you almost seemed to be asserting something that I still think is not true - that Larian is deliberately rigging the dice rolls against the player. They aren't.