I might be the only person in the world that can’t get into Baldur’s Gate 3. Something is off for me, maybe the pacing?
To be clear, this game is an amazing implementation of D&D 5e. Graphics are amazing, effects are amazing, dialog, cut scenes, everything is top-notch. In addition, the game engine is incredibly flexible – class skills, terrain difficulty, exploding barrels… 😉
Tactician
The first time I played was shortly after release. I cranked up the game, chose the high difficulty (tactician), did the tutorial and did NOT rescue Shadowheart on the ship. In that case, I found her down the beach at the fortress door. After speaking with her, going over our shared experience on the Nautiloid, we teamed up. She says there might be resources we could use on the other side, so let’s get them…
OK! So I head around and up, fighting a few intellect devourers on the way. We get to the top, ASAP, and find myself in a 4-on-2 fight. Which goes about as well as you’d think. I save scummed a few times but stopped and put the game aside.
Yes, maybe I should have explored more, but literally the first NPC I talked to 1 minute after finishing the tutorial, says “lets get inside and get some resources to help us” so I did that. And it led straight into a slaughter. I’d say this is poor sign-posting, bread-crumbing, whatever you want to call the way the game itself nudges you in certain directions.
Balanced
So a few months later I decide to try again. Lowered the difficulty to medium (balanced).
This time I explore around, find Gale, Lae’zel, and go back to that ruined fortress with a full team. The fight is tough, but with even numbers I beat the enemies, and go on to explore the fortress.
I quest further along and find myself exploring the Goblin Camp. I’m looking to rescue a druid, and also kill 3 goblin leaders. One goblin leader is fairly easy to isolate (Minthara), but the other two either have several adds with them or call for help.
So I save scum, try to kill the goblin leader that summons help (Priestess Gut)… before she can do it. Finally by perfect positioning, lucky initiative, a clutch silence spell, and the fact her running out of silence to call for help gives me several attacks of opportunity, I down her before she calls for help. If that happens, around 8+ goblins arrive, and one peels off to sound a war drum which alerts the entire camp.
I sit back and reflect on the outrageous save scumming needed to survive this quest, and am thinking I’m not going to have much fun continuing to play. Yes I’ve seen short meme videos of players stacking explosive barrels and detonating them all to beat encounters. While that’s a mark in the win column for how great the game engine is, I also put a mark in the lose column for needing to resort of ridiculous engine tricks – if I’m playing a CRPG and I can’t defeat encounters using the characters I’m playing and their class skills , and instead need to spread oil and then lure everything into a flame trap while blowing up explosive barrels that just happen to be sitting around, that’s not what I’m looking for. Why play a class at all? Have everyone throw flaming oil to solve all combat problems.
Explorer
So I let another few months go by and try again. This time on the lowest difficulty, explorer.
To sum up quickly, I quest a bit past the goblin camp. However, I’m also sort of role playing, and by that I mean I pick dialog choices as if I were me actually there. Given the nature of the main quest (mind flayers have implanted the group and we need to cure it), I’m focusing on the main quest.
Yes I do side quests, but I’ll try to get back to the main quest as soon as I can.
And this, I think, has screwed me out of being able to do several quests.
For example, when I got to Emerald Grove, I picked up quests to investigate Kagha (one of the druids), rescue a druid (Halsin, in the goblin camp), and assassinate goblin leaders. I also talk to Aunt Ethel and agree to meet at her cottage.
On the way to the cottage, there’s an update to the quest involving two brothers and their missing sister. The brothers are confronting Ethel and she vanishes. I decided that rather than chase this diversion down, I want to get back to the main quest which means solving the goblin problem, to get Halsin who will point me to the next step. I also decide I don’t really need to investigate Kagha.
So I do that. I rescue the druid, kill the goblin leaders like I did in the balanced playthrough except with a lot less save scumming!
I get back to Emerald Grove, except I find that I can’t progress the Ethel quest anymore (can’t seem to get to the hut), and the Investigate Kagha quest is gone. She’s there, but you can’t interact with her.
Getting back to the grove and finishing those quests also appears to have updated the state of the goblin camp (e.g. the neutral vendors inside aren’t there anymore).
On top of all this, I only found Karlach after finishing the goblin camp stuff, which causes the tieflings to leave the Emerald Grove, which means I can’t talk to one of the tieflings there for Karlach’s personal quest. This probably isn’t stuck as I’m sure I’ll run into him in the future but still.
Because I camped/rested at a certain point, I also arrived at Waukeen’s Rest after it burned down. Yes, the walkthrough for Rescue the Grand Duke on the BG3 wiki says this – oh sorry, the NPCs needed to start the quest will have burned to death if you long rest at the wrong time.
Why I am reading the wiki? Well it’s because I’m trying to find more quests to do, because my party is only level 4, and when I try to move forward to Mountain Pass, I get a warning that “the area will be bitterly difficult for a party of your level”.
I went anyway, and the very first encounter is with a group that overwhelms me. It’s undead and two monsters that can rez. So if you don’t kill both in the same turn, they will rez each other and basically you are fighting an infinite stream of enemies.
So I’m stuck again, having done just about everything I could find in the initial Act One area. I’m halfway through 4th level, xp wise, so I need 1.5 more levels to get up to par otherwise it’s going to be too difficult going forward.
That’s why I’ve been looking through the wiki trying to figure how the heck I’m ~2 levels below where I should be to advance zones.
Well the answer is several quests appear to be unavailable because of the order I did stuff. Another is I didn’t pick up all available quests (at the Emerald Grove) but now that I’ve rescued Halsin, they aren’t available anymore.
Thoughts
I did find a few things I missed, by searching the map. The owlbear cave. The ogre and bugbear that are… enjoying a romantic interlude. Harpies east of the Emerald Grove. The Zhentarim basement (which I haven’t done yet). I can’t figure out how to get to Aunt Ethel’s spot in the bog, the road seems blocked by rocks now. I think by exposing the swamp but not following the path to do the quest right then, and going off to complete the Goblin Camp, I’ve locked that quest.
I found a quest I didn’t do, Search the Cellar, because it starts by finding a book in a random house, or maybe searching a pile of boxes for a lever… ok got me there, however I don’t find clicking on every interactable object to be that fun, on the odd chance one will start a quest.
I’m fairly annoyed that some quests cut off completion of others, because that is missing xp and might be why I’m underleveled. Especially the Waukeen’s Rest burning mansion – it seems by resting before going there, it burned down and kills vital NPCs.
How in the heck is someone supposed to know that, without playing with a guide open next to you?
I found one such comprehensive guide, but I think if I need to play this game following a guide to make sure I’m not screwing myself out of quests, I should play something else instead. It’s a great game but I’m finding that something is drastically wrong with the pacing or quest flow.
I think my current game in unsalvageable – math tells me that there is no way I can get ~2 levels with the 3 quests I can still do (Zhentarim basement; Aunt Ethel if I can figure out how to continue it; Search the Cellar).
I’m not sure I’m up for another attempt. I have ~25 hours in game, am getting tired of replaying the same initial half of Act 1, and am not excited about essentially following a guide to make sure I don’t paint myself into a corner.
Meanwhile, my buddy started a Cyberpunk 2077 game about the same time I gave BG3 a third try… and he’s enjoying it, mostly playing the main quest, and not getting stuck in the situation I’m in.
So yeah, winner of tons of awards, admittedly great game engine and implementation… I’m going to set this aside for a while, due to various frustrations.
MMO Juggler 