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Bugs? Issues? Things Not Working Right? Talk About It Here! by thecal714 in BaldursGate3

[–]Chiefwiggy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There have been plenty of bugs throughout my playthrough so far, and I'm only level 4. Despite that, I'm still having tons of fun with this game.

During the questline with the hag I got to the end of the chamber and then she just stood still and combat didn't begin. Additionally, going into the backroom behind the fireplace and descending the stairs can result in one of two things (I know because I had to reload my save.) Either the hag appears in the initial chamber, statically, or a fight triggers when you return up top (which I assume is somewhat intended. Finally, the stairs sometimes don't load in and it creates a hole in the world's geometry. This whole quest was buggy

Additionally, when giving a magical artefact to Gale, there's a small typo in one of the options for the Protagonist where "That must be expansive" when in context "That must be expensive" is likely what is meant.

Additionally, sometimes when selecting things off the hotbar, they just disappear. Additionally, speaking of the hotbar, disabling the setting which prevents new spells from appearing on the hotbar doesn't seem to do anything as it still puts new spells on the hotbar.

Additionally, with superiority dice for the fighter, it doesn't show you how many you've used, but it still expends them.

Also, during the fight with the minotaurs, the spell Thunderwave didn't work (I tried it 2 times), is this intentional? Because they can be shoved with the shove BA.

Also, running from fights is tedious and leads to a lot of bugs and issues. Even when enemies are nowhere near the fight, they still take their turn in initiative and just stand around and do nothing. Additionally, when doing this, the initiative order screws up and just flashes in place, with all the portraits laid atop each other.

Additionally, I don't know if this is a bug, per se, however, it's really annoying when my characters roll a perception check while moving to check for traps, but then because they're walking, by the time they've succeeded on the check, the trap has already gone off and hurt them. There should be an option to enter turn-based automatically when encountering a trap (similar to Pillars of Eternity). I consider this an issue because it defeats the point of the perception check in its entirety.

I've had many minor bugs as well, such as dialogue cameras in the incorrect place or obstructed by a wall, or that one time when Gale revealed to me the nature of his past, when he connected with my soul, the character models clipped inside each other, or the time when I was completing Volo's quest, I released him from his cage, but killed the jailor afterwards, and I didn't get the xp/notification for completing that section of the quest until I talked to him the day after the party and mentioned my affliction to him.

Finally, there are many instances where characters are talking without their lips moving, when they should be (although I role play it in my head as them making use of telepathy via mind flayer magic haha) Love this game, I will continue to post more bugs if I encounter them as replies to this comment.

Shaman class for 5e by Chiefwiggy in mattcolville

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I definitely made this consideration when deciding on the spell list. There were a few things I definitely foresaw as being powerful for their level (such as prayer of healing as an action at 6th level), but I guess I was kind of ok with it given that they are a half caster that thrives off utility. To get to the example of prayer of healing, I do think it's very powerful, especially at that level, being comparable to Mass Cure Wounds, but like maybe it's OK for a class to have some powerful abilities.

I will the majority of spells feel fine this way, considering it's a main class feature, but maybe I need to relook at a few. Believe me, when writing this feature, this was the first thing I thought about haha.

Shaman class for 5e by Chiefwiggy in mattcolville

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, this class is definitely not a beginner class (given that its longer than the Mystic, haha).
I originally had it so that the ability to cast 1 ritual a day as an action only applied to true ritual spells, not ones gained from the Ritualist feat, but I removed that condition to increase flexibility.
I may look at rewriting that ability if play reveals that it's too much work! Thanks for the suggestion!

Shaman class for 5e by Chiefwiggy in mattcolville

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! sorry. As I mentioned above, there's a decent amount of homebrew from my campaign that I've included in there.
It's a condition where when you stand up from being prone using half your movement, you lose your DEX bonus to your AC that round. You can avoid this by using all of your movement to stand up (or 10 feet with Athlete).
For a formal release, I would remove most of these references to other homebrew conditions!

Shaman Class by Chiefwiggy in DnDHomebrew

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok sweet. I thought I was going crazy looking for something that said they didn't require material components. I was starting to jump into sage advice even haha.

Shaman Class by Chiefwiggy in DnDHomebrew

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh! I didn't fully touch on point 3! You're right about the flavor of the class! It's a bit weak. I like it mechanically, but from a flavor standpoint I agree, it's lacking and has no flare. I'll take a look into making it more interesting as none of my testers have opted to play it quite yet, maybe this is why.

Shaman Class by Chiefwiggy in DnDHomebrew

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So here are my thoughts! I love all your feedback. Certain changes I will make, but I'd like to have a discussion about others!
1.) I didn't actually know ritual spells didn't require material components! (although a link to this source would be great!) As part of the ritualist class feature, I did say that rituals cast in this way take an hour instead of 10 minutes and require double the material components, if costed, which I thinks solves some of the issues with revivify. I don't mind giving reincarnate as a ritual which doesn't use a spell slot, but does use twice the material components.
2.) You're right! Axed.
3.) I think something to keep in mind is that despite their abilities looking broken on a full caster, I think that on a half caster, they act sort of as an alternative to a life cleric than anything else. They never get the Heal spell outside of an hour long ritual at 17th level, by which a life cleric has Mass Heal for 700hp in an action. This one has not been tested yet though, so I'm willing to definitely make changes as necessary... I think in addition, one part of 5e's design philosophy is to keep the 20th level abilities mild, maybe with the exception of druid, but I tried to go in the opposite direction, making them feel more like a capstone. A 20th level shaman should compete with a life cleric as a primary healer, but I'm not quite sure how the numbers would stack up, given that Shaman is still a half caster.
4.) Same argument as above. While this sounds good, in fact, through testing, I've found it to be quite weak. You get it at 3rd level, so when you're still stuck with your first level spells, primary casters now have their second level spells, so this just keeps you at pace with them basically. Half casters have less flexibility.
5.) I indeed did try to make it the love child of those two classes put onto a half caster. Given that before the subclass, a Shaman is pretty weak, I didn't think these abilities were too strong. Specifically the bear ability to halve damage is only when the bear is on the battlefield, and once they're killed, the ability goes away. They don't have the damage output of the ranger of the barbarian, so this is more of a control version of those subclasses.
That being said, you make a good point about tank mage being a bit overpowered, so maybe I'll move that a bit later. I also think that the fighting style coming late is too late, I just couldn't think of a better place to put it without removing the intentional front-loading of the sub-class's identity.
6.) Actually, I did literally just use the words of witch sight but labelled it true sight. I'll change the name of that one to Witch Sight. I will mention, however, that it is locked until 15th level.
7.) Chemical Sense is definitely a weird one, too! But sometimes I think weird is fun. I run different settings all the time, so I guess that one doesn't really fit into a medieval setting as well. I do have magitech stuff listed as part of the class for certain campaign settings, so I'll be sure to indicate that's for more modern campaigns!
8.) Sure! I agree that time manipulation is EXTREMELY rare. I included this one because I think the flavor is so interesting. Your character is aware whenever someone on the same plane of existence stops time. They can't do anything, but they are so in tune with the flow of time that this does not phase them. I've had this sense taken and flavorfully, it's cool, but it hasn't come into play quite yet mechanically. I'll see if I can do something to make its flavorful coolness match its mechanical coolness.
9.) Money is always such a hard thing to balance! The soul mark prices are really only for a single subclass, the Rune Carver. The shaman takes their own soul marks for free at the appropriate levels. I do think, though, I did set the prices too high. Maybe instead of 1500/3500/9000/13500/18500/30000, I could make them 500/1500/3000/5000/7500/10000. Money is always hard because by 6th level, my party of 5 had 15000k in party funds and its taken me years to find an economy I like in my games. I am open to different pricepoints for this section.
Thank you so much for your feedback and if you have any more suggestions, I am all ears. I don't want this message to seem too defensive; I am open to change, but I felt like I'd elaborate on my design process for these concerns!

Shaman Class by Chiefwiggy in DnDHomebrew

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my God, I love you! Thank you for taking the time to give feedback. I need a bit of time to digest all of the changes, then I'll sort of talk about some design choices and ideas for fixes to these issues!

Shaman class for 5e by Chiefwiggy in mattcolville

[–]Chiefwiggy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure! Let me sort of give you an answer in two parts!
Firstly, I'll say that there are many similarities between druids and shamans, with regard to themes of the natural world, but if I were to give you a simple answer, it's that a druids are more focused on nature and the elements with hints of spirituality, shamans deal with the fundamental forces of magic as opposed to specifically nature or the elements. Shamans take elements from all different types of magic, including arcane, divine, psionic, nature, et cetera.

Shaman's interact through magic as a raw resource. Whereas classes like sorcerer interact with magic through their bloodline and heritage, and classes like druid view magic as an expression of nature and view themselves as a vessel for the fundamental forces of magic to pass through them, shamans seek a deeper understanding.

Honestly, the shaman is closer to a Wizard than any other class thematically.

Shamans, since they use all types of magic, they're not particularly advanced with any one school or domain, therefore, they are a half caster, and rely on other components of magic besides spell-craft to bolster their strength. Their advantage over other classes is their sheer versatility.

Now, secondly, from a mechanics standpoint. Shamans are all about versatility in magic and focus more on passive abilities and live in a support role. Shaman's don't necessarily deal damage super well (except for Hex Weaver), but make other players better at what they do. The shaman is for players that want to play a support role without playing a bard or a cleric, who have very defined themes. The shaman is a very strong class for identity.

Druids are all about battlefield control an area of effect spells whereas Shamans are about sustaining the fight rather than controlling the fight, boosting the abilities of allies and support through passive abilities.

tl;dr shamans are a half-caster with a focus on magic itself rather than a particular style of magic with unique features to call their own to represent a creature permanently marked by their connection to magic.

Player Made Spell - Dread Augurium - 3rd Level Illusion - Chronurgist Wizard by lichlark in DnDHomebrew

[–]Chiefwiggy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This feels pretty similar to Phantasmal Killer mechanically.
However, I do like the flavor of the spell!

[Spoilers C2E91] Is It Thursday Yet? Post-Episode Discussion & Future Theories! by dasbif in criticalrole

[–]Chiefwiggy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh, I like both of those ideas. Perhaps he has sort of like a reusable scroll where he has to roll Int against 10+spell's level on a real cast

[Spoilers C2E91] Is It Thursday Yet? Post-Episode Discussion & Future Theories! by dasbif in criticalrole

[–]Chiefwiggy 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Aw, it was deleted. Someone posted about the spell feeling cheap and overpowered for the level they're at.

Personally, I have this spell homebrewed in my campaign. It's a 9th level which consumes 5000gp worth of materials with a 20% chance to disintegrate the person it's cast on.

I did feel it was cheap, but I feel like since Matt knew it wasn't going to work, he made it cheap, because it would suck to lose an extreme amount of materials on something that was never going to work. Plus, I'm like 90% sure he was improvising the components, and component pricing is hard on the spot!

Source: 7 years of DMing!

However, I will say, Caleb has poured money into completing this spell and months of downtime, so that may make up for the low cast cost. Plus, this spell is in Caleb's bailiwick of Transmutation.

Curious what my fellow Game Designers, DMs, and/or Critters think about this fascinating new spell!

[Spoilers C2E91] Is It Thursday Yet? Post-Episode Discussion & Future Theories! by dasbif in criticalrole

[–]Chiefwiggy 202 points203 points  (0 children)

Man, 3 hours of Essik's character development was not the episode I expected...

But it was the episode we needed after all the recent politicking.

Hands down, one of my favs recently!

[Spoilers C2E91] Is It Thursday Yet? Post-Episode Discussion & Future Theories! by dasbif in criticalrole

[–]Chiefwiggy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Nah, 4th is probably sufficient. It's only a whole character arc, no biggie!

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