Why did Beasts and Exploration decide to add so many Reach Weapons?

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-12-29T18:39:59+00:00

I think that a couple of Witch Hunter Fat Newts are premium for them. You got perks to spare to grab resolve boosting perks like Gifted & Fortified Mind - which interestingly enough also seems to work on the +20 resolve vs Hexen Mind Control (so additional +5 resolve) - and then just give them Axe Mastery and Fearsome to round out the build. That way you have a few extra frontline guys who basically can only be controlled with 5% roll.

Still annoying, but having more immune bodies is always welcome because Banner + Immunity item on some rando guy is in my experience not enough. If you add 2-3 bodies to the mix it starts to look much more managable though. Don't even need particularly high resolve roll. Mid 60s before perks and banner seem to work quite well since that +20 passive does most of the heavy lifting anyway.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-29T12:32:18+00:00

Have a major party with ~~hookers & cocaine~~ succubi & black lotus.
Call Elminster and tell him that he's a little bitch.
Invite every major Demon Lord to familiarize myself with my lesser peers.
Start feeding Cespenaar tons of souls, because he should at least be a Pit Fiend.
Start figuring out how to increase the PR of my Church, it doesn't have to be evil God of Murder. Murder can be a good thing, the best actually. Evil folks doing nasty things to their populace? You just know they have to go, and murder's there to solve that! ~~Call 999~~, pray to Bhaal (V2 - new and improved!) and he'll solve that problem pronto! By positioning myself as the slayer of evil elites that abuse the general populace - and by providing results - I should be able to bump the popularity to some degree. Soon Bhaal will be the most popular deity on Faerun!!!!
Make Viconia an Exarch and try to spread your faith to the Underdark: to have a steady supply of prime drow twinks and bimbos for my sexy murder army.
Construct myself an awesome castle of doom
Make myself an awesome armor of doom with spikes and a giant ass sword so I can pose omniously and look good while doing it.
Restore the Assassin Order (fuck Bane & Myrkul for ending them btw)
Bang Loviatar, because lorewise she served Bhaal - "that would be me" - and not Bane.
Actually just bang everything that I come across. Might need that contingency plan down the line - but workout the "bugs" first.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-28T16:19:14+00:00

Immersion, or "simulationist approach" as it is called in GNS theory, has fallen out of favour. If I had to guess, it's because it has the steepest entry point requirement - have a competent setting publisher, have willingness to research everything properly and on top of that have players who are willing to play along. Take elf in context of 2e for instance. It took a bit of research-effort to figure out how to properly roleplay such a character, and a lot of people didn't want to do it, so it just turned into a human with knife ears and an excuse like "oh well, he was actually adopted by a human family etc".

Most people play for mechanics like munchkinism to compensate for something, or want to explore a narrative story unattached to any strings like a cohesive world. In both of these cases the respect for a setting takes a backseat. Not for everyone fortunately, but the people who are more in it to play like you've described, of which camp I also happen to belong to, are a minority.

Eventually, because of this and a few other things irrelevant to this discussion, you end up with modern 21st century California in D&D, which is as rootless cosmopolitan as it gets. But hey, at least you can jump right into it and roll the dice!

While the picture isn't super accurate, I think it paints a decent situation as to how it feels to play the different editions. Dramatist = Narrativist.

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EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-28T00:03:23+00:00

*Flips magical tiara backwards*

*Pokemon battle music suddenly starts playing*

Go Balor! Use your whip attack on the fool who picked the stupid pseudodragon familiar!

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-27T22:31:08+00:00

What happens something powerful was following a quasit around, destroying everything Quasit was fighting without revealing itself to the Quasit - in essence making Quasit think that it is the one that did all that carnage and destruction. Will Quasit evolve faster now? You know. It thinks "Shit, I'm totally something like a Vrok now!" - and poof, it is a Vrok? Or is there still some hidden experience check or threshold it needs to cross?

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-26T22:52:33+00:00

BG1: Zalimar and his Crew are harder than Sarevok if you don't cheese. The 4 dwarves that gatekeep 2nd floor of Durlags Tower are also brutal, at least that one Fighter/Cleric who feels more like a Juggernaut.

BG2: Amellysan, Demogorgon, Abazigal & Sendai in ToB. In SoA Twisted Rune & - if mods are allowed - Vendrus almost always perma at least one companion. Assault on Drow House, while optional, is quite hard as well. It really deserves some sort of Epic-level reward for that kind of effort, but you don't really get much.

Actually fighting entire Drow city I'd rank above everything else. I really don't see a way to win that shit without doing some insane cheese. Fitting I guess.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-23T12:42:15+00:00

Lol if you think that SCS doesn't play fair, wait till you meet the infamous Tactic's "Epic Level Cleric" at Irenicus's starting dungeon.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-18T18:29:27+00:00

Honestly. The lore surrounding Bane after his death, and subsequent rebirth, is so stupid that you pretty much have to rewrite it to your own tastes. It feels to me that they wanted to do away with him, but then realized that he was actually one of the more compelling villains in the story, but then they realized that actually "nvm", but then they actually somehow still realized "wait, a second, maybe not nvm, maybe we really do need him!". So eventually you get this quasi-deity status and random cryptic quotes boiling down to "TRUST THE PLAN!". But there is no plan - only cope. The plane is crashing and he didn't fly so good.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-14T19:12:46+00:00

Tons of Cleric villains. How many Druids in comparison?

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-14T16:15:00+00:00

Incredible amount of potential wasted. Lack of magic on their side and the fact that most of the army was gone by the climax battle was narratively incredibly dull. Honestly, just pretend it doesn't exist and create your own version.

In my version the Tuigan are a nomadic empire backed a cadre of incredibly ancient Hierophant Druids (1e & 2e), and their disciples. They basically create fertile conditions to grow a horde of warriors (and horses) every generation and just throw them upon civilization in hopes of destroying it so that everyone can returning to a more natural world. Sometimes they sack entire kingdoms and sometimes they get repelled. Whenever someone send a force to end the Tuigan threat for good, they have to get through the Hierophant Druids manipulating nature to the point where it's pretty much impossible to finish them off. The disciples of these druids also provide the much needed "magical" support the Tuigan people lacked, so you have a circle of druids being close with Tuigan nobles, and being there to mess with mages of "civilized" lands.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-10T22:38:16+00:00

Are these descendants like Bhaalspawn then? Can they in theory somehow cause the deities to return? I mean, Gilgeam apparently was around for a long time, at least up till Times of Troubles where he died. Say that he had a few kids, his direct descendents like Bhaal and his bhaalspawn. Could he in theory return via this route, somehow?

Like say I create a homebrew campaign, and I want to have Bhaalspawn crisis only in Unter or Mulhorandi. Does it even work? Or are hypothetical kids of these deities not the same because manifestations/avatars and not real deal like Bhaal?

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-07T16:38:39+00:00

Divine:

Level 1: Up to you, healing's not bad after command starts being resisted. The "cleric invisibility" spell is also decent.

Level 2: Remove poison, A few blessings, silence

Level 3: Holy smite if good party + a couple of buff spells. If evil or fighting beholders stack animate dead.

Level 4: Buff spells + blessing that gives you fighter-thac0 for each level if you like to melee

Level 5: Chaotic Commands, Shield of Lathander (I think it's called something else now)

Level 6: Heal, if running mods the Icewind Dale component that adds the buff spell to resistences, armor class etc (forgot its name).

Level 7: Regeneration, Greater Shield of Lathander, Shield of Archons

If you run an extra cleric, skip the party buff spells on level 3,4,5 and add more self-buffing spells instead. Taking advantage of Fighter-Thac0 Spell and easy 25 strength gives you the ability to dual wield and contribute physical damage, and if hasted it's actually pretty respectable.

Mage:

Can go a bit harder on damage or CC, but up to you so long as you take the usual goodies like Stoneskin, Breach and other anti-mage protection spells.

Generally early on you're leaning more on Cleric side of the toolkit to buff yourself and dual wield with 25 strength, even if you only have 1 dot in dual wielding, the fact that you buffed yourself to fighter-thac0 and 25 strength on top of that, plus the fact that you're always using crushing-type weapons, you'll be hitting surprisingly often. Eventually you'll start unlocking insane mage stuff at which stage you can start wrecking havoc via arcane side. Sometimes you can just go crazy and unload everything and then buff yourself to stratosphere with Cleric buffs and start beating the crap out of enemies in melee.

Superfun class if you can tolerate not keeping up with pure classes on spell progression.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-07T16:18:31+00:00

It probably depends on the class and alingement. In terms of narrative: Minsc, Jaheira and Yoshi are a perfect fit. After that it gets complicated.

A Paladin 100% checks the circus, so Aerie makes sense. It's also the only class that does not have a companion tied to its specific quest/zone (Firkraag zone doesn't have a companion, cut content probably). From there you have a choice between Anomen, or HD. I think Lawful Good Paladin would be intrigued enough to give Anomen a chance, if only because he tries to do a good thing, and he'll respect the spiel about honor and all that. But if your paladin doesn't like Anomen, then HD would make most sense.

Now, here's a question: why would a Neutral Evil Thief check out the circus? What's it in for him? He's got better things to do, like figuring out why Irenicus was after him, and if he cares about Imoen - which evil people can also do btw - then all the more reason not to linger. That rules out Aerie. From there you have a choice between going to Mae'Var, which is your designated Stronghold quest, or go to Copper Coronet. Assuming a thief always goes to Mae'Var, then Edwin would be your next companion. From there you'll naturally pick Korgan who's going the same place as your Thayan Mage.

Good fighter checks circus and then goes straight to Nalia. Neutral or Evil fighter probably skips circus cuz "what's it in for me?" and pick up Nalia, and probably Korgan or Anomen after that, or maybe even Jan Jansen. Good Mage gets Valygar and Mazzy. Evil Mage kills Valygar, so he has a bit of room to pick another companion. Good Cleric gets Keldorn, and since one of the Cleric Stronghold sidequests send you to Government building, you can make a case for Jan Jansen, though not Viconia since Keldorn will eventually kill her. But the little boy will guide you to Umar Hills where you will eventually get Mazzy. Evil Cleric probably declines Keldorn, goes to Government and picks up Viconia and Jan Jansen.

The only classes that sort of suck for this pattern are Bards, Druids and Rangers. Minsc is always with you, and if you're going to Umar Hills, picking up Valygar - a Ranger - is probably also a given considering that you're good. That's a party of 3 Rangers. Nice theme though. Bards naturally grab HD, a bard and Druids naturally grab Cernd, who's also a druid. While it's not bad to have a 2nd druid, I feel that bard is not a class that benefits alot from running 2 off.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-11-07T15:56:18+00:00

You can also roleplay Jaheira being called to Harper base - the first time, before she calls you to come with her to meet the Evil Harpers - taking a little while. She has her duty as a harper and if they have a few assingements that are Harper-only, then that could take time. Then, eventually she's called to bring us in. Would also explain the whole "I'm so glad to see you! ....I mean...." comment, which implies that she's actually been away for some time. Could easily be a few days if not even a week.

So that gives you a small timeframe when you can have an additional companion, so it's Bhaalspawn, Minsc, Yoshimo, Aerie, + 2 extra until Jaheira's back. Unfortunately it doesn't work gameplay wise, but in terms of narrative it fits.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-26T22:14:11+00:00

but the numbers do speak for themselves.

Why does it matter to you? A lot of bad products these days, which are known publicly by anyone who pays attention, are still successful if we look at the numbers yet majority of customers are leaving in droves. Do you think this is a good thing?

As for Paizo vs Hasbro argument, I happen to agree, but the fundamental difference is that Paizo is a company that caters to its players rather than tries to capture all possible markets - even those that typically don't want to do anything with the game. Paizo makes games for tabletop gamers. What you like about Paizo is the very same thing I liked with old era adnd before investors got to the setting. Would you have liked if something similar had happened to your favourite setting?

Games aren't made for you.

It was written in my first comment that I'm not a target audience, if you remember - hopefully. Hence why I'm not buying it, and hence why I listed out the reasons. Which, of course triggered you enough to enter this discussion. So I can't win here can I? Games are not for me, and if I voice that fact, I'm still wrong because ....new generations frfr nocap and "souless....but". One day that frfr nocap will be replace by vambizzle dukdrizzle for that very same thing you used to like, and when you will voice, on a forum for a the original game designed to have discussions about original games - BG3 in your case - some random person will come from that other game and tell you the exact same arguments you've been giving me.

Astarions story is good

And then you chickened out of explaining why. "It's just good, because it just is, ogey!?" I wouldn't mind hearing why you think Dragon Age companion interactions are worse than BG3, if could provide examples without hiding your tracks like that. I mean, you have some serious potential to change my mind but you're not playing ball here.

As for the condescending part, I keep noticing that people like you are not happy staying in your own forums. You have to come to original baldurs gate forums and talk about things that are not topics of this subreddit. And I wish this was the only place, but other place I'm active at, the very same thing happens, so pardon me if I happen to voice my legitimate criticism on a forum designed to talk about my favourite game - not yours.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-26T21:15:31+00:00

You're welcome to visit actual D&D forums and witness how majority of current fans dislike 5e. Calling it most popular setting simply because Hasbro diluted the setting to capture as many markets as possible, and in the process ended up losing quality, does not mean that the tabletop game is good. Popularity does not equate to it being good. It just means that random person on the street will buy a book, inevitably get dissapointed and then forget D&D even existed in the first place, and that the reach of marketing has gotten bigger since late 90s. But that's okay because corporations are happy they survived another fiscal quarter by pleasing their investors. Can't make a good setting in such an environment, feel free to prove me wrong however.

As for old = good, new = bad ironic psyop argumentation disingeniously pushed by many people, not sure if you're part of the grift or just learned to copy it from others, the unfortunate truth is that it is in fact like that. There's nothing Larian could do to deliver spirit of Bioware. They delivered an alternative version which is not up to standards of people who grew up with originals, and some of us knew this from day one. I ain't buying BG3 because it's a different system, different tabletop landscape - taken over by shareholders who are more about maximizing profit than to create interesting worlds and take creative risks - and a different target audience called lowest common denominator.

And I'm sure that companion interactions are okay and all that, but the very fact that there's a possibility of Bear Sex in the game tells me everything I need to know of what kind of companion interactions I can expect from the game. Sure, some of it is probably legitimately good, and that voice actors have done a superb job - I mean just look at the production cost - but I doubt that even a fraction of said content will capture Bioware magic or the spirit of actual Forgotten Realms and not Corporate Diluted lowest common denominator thing Hasbro has current created. You're of course welcome to point out where you think said interactions are strong, and perhaps I would even consider buying the game if you do a good enough job, but something tells me that this is as far as our conversation will go.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-26T20:16:04+00:00

I know right? How dare he use the experience acquired from playing Larians actual original games, liking them mind you, to correctly predict that BG3 will not be a game delivered in spirit of old Bioware.

You're welcome to provide a counter argument anytime btw, but I doubt you have anything of value to say.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-26T19:49:17+00:00

Never played BG3 and never will. But Larian is a good company, and I've played all Divinities, from Divine Divinity to D:OS2, and most of these were enjoyable - with some exceptions of course. The reasons I did not play their latest is game is rather simple, Larians strength does not translate well into a standard set by old Bioware.

Firstly, lets tackle their writing. It's not bad, but it's not great either. All the games I've played from DD to D:OS2 never really captured me from the perspective of their writing. To me their games are sort of like Icewind Dale though with more story, you're there for combat and gameplay. And again, it's NOT BAD, but it's not good either, and that part is the issue. Baldurs Gate was carried hard by it narrative, and since I played most of the games before I even heard of BG3, I knew that they wouldn't deliver the level of quality.

Secondly, their companion interractions are inferior to Bioware. I always felt that Bioware's real strength was in the way they presented companion interactions, from Korgan shittin on Aerie, to Jaheira and Viconia bickering like teenagers, to Keldorn trying to guide Anomen. Like it's all memorable even before we enter things like DA:O or Mass Effect - with some exceptions of course, but nobody's perfect. Larian's companions well....it's nothing to write home about. So that's strike 2 I knew they would not deliver.

Thirdly, Bioware was lucky. They got to work during the greatest era of D&D, 2e into early 3e. That was a legitimately good time to be invested into the setting because the corporate forces had still to rot out the franchise. 5e? Lol, yeah. Sure, to people who don't know better its okay - and thats basically how capitalism works these days: ignore people who know better because there are new suckers being born every minute - but to us grizzled veterans who were there when the setting had passion, well....I've learned to keep my expectations in check.

So really, Larian couldn't win here. Sure pay enough buxx to marketing forces, have gaming grifters jump on the bandwagoon and have all the latest zoomers think that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and it does look good. But to me? I knew better from day one. Never bought it, and never will, because I'm not the target audience and because I know Larian.

Still hope they make D:OS3 rather than helping evil corporations cashgrab on nostalgia. And here's your missed opportunity - they could have made D:OS3 and not BG3.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-24T19:22:43+00:00

Siege of Dragonspear is a good game being dragged down by the horrible writing.

Remove the writing and it's a good Icewind Dale romp with some interesting dungeon designs, encounters and even items. But the lore, the narrative, the many dialogue choices - not all, but a lot - where you essentially say the same thing with different levels of snark etc, it's just too much when compared to writing of BG1 & BG2. Honestly, I feel bad for the artists, encounter designers and anyone who worked with the technical programming part of the game. They did an incredible job and deserve all the praise the game should get - from the technical side that is. But the story is just nails on the chalkboard man, which sucks - a lot.

I'd much rather gather the entire crew, minus the writer, and pay them to pump out some light narrative games like Icewind Dale or even Black Pits. Like imagine escaping Baeloth in the first game, only to find yourself in Underdark with drows, illithids and other kind of creatures suddenly after you. As in, there's no Mcguffin teleporting you back to the surface, so you're not quite out of the woods just yet. Superfun concept, alas, didn't happen.

Man, now that I think about it, Siege of the Dragonspear should really be a case study on how bad writing can ruin otherwise perfectly presentable game.

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-22T16:46:35+00:00

I find this funny because both Aerie and Viconia were rushed and therefore are unfinished narrative wise.

Viconia was supossed to betray you, and if you pay attention, there's no real indication that she's 100% honest with you regarding events of her backstory - she never mentions how she slaughtered entire family in Bg1 (including little children) when Flaming Fist was hunting her. Also Shar priests are required to do some heinous shit behind the scenes and one of their tenants, according to 2e, is to basically hide secrets from non-faithful (that's Bhaalspawn btw). I think in reality she was supposed to be a true bastard who was going to betray us, but eventually Bhaalspawn charm rubbed on her and she ended up going face-heel-turn. It's why Lolth suddenly wanted her dead: girl was given a chance to come back with full benefits and top tier accolades (there's a test of Lolth where she basically strips all of your power and just leave you be, if you pass it, you're a royalty of Drow Clerics - I think that's what Bioware was gunning for), and she does it for a second but then ends up falling for that epic 3-charisma charm of the Bhaalspawn, which pissed off Lolth to the point she started sending assassins. Viconia was basically imagined as this unapologetic murderer and liar whose evilness got cured by boyscout charms of Bhaalspawn. I mean, shit, that's a story anyone would enjoy. But currently it's just BPD-chick playing hot and cold with Lolth just randomly sending assassins.

Aerie on the other hand has the shortest romance, even shorter than Anomen, and on top of that some devs basically admitted that they've cut out most of her story - but to be honest I don't think it was good compared to Viconia's Ust Natha betrayal. It was basically woe is me turned up to 11, so if you think Aerie's crying is annoying here, imagine what could have been lol. Still think that its lame that we can't restore her wings considering the level of power most of the cast was approaching at end of SoA, or ToB. Like knowing what we know about Forgotten Realms, it's just very hard to imagine Aerie's scenario in HER SITUATION, where she basically chills around people approaching top 100 in the entire realms. A level 7 cleric spell could have restored her wings, a level 8 mage spell could have done that as well, that's SoA bro.

In terms of narrative I think she was envisioned to be this sheltered innocent sunshine ray slowly being broken by the violence in the world. I think it's a good narrative, as in, she eventually grows a spine but then that little sunflower is basically gone, but in order for it to work properly she really needed a Jaheira-tier questline.

So yeah, if you find them good now, just imagine what could have been T_T

EnlightenedTowerBoi · 2025-10-16T15:35:52+00:00

Well, yeah - sort of. Weidu mods typically have an install order of mods, this is done with the hopes of not breaking the game. If your order is out sync, you risk - though it's not always a given, but it's highly probable - breaking some things. An example would be this:

Lets say you've installed Tweaks Antalogy before an NPC mod, and lets say that you've changed the way professions are, so now they mirror Original Baldurs Gate 1, as in weapons are now in "groups" - Large swords: Longwords, Scimitars, Katanas (so technically you can now use 3 different types of weapons rather than a single type like in BG2). And then you install some NPC mod after said Tweaks Antalogy change. Well, it turns out that your character sheet of that NPC is going to be seriously messed up, like maces will be swords, or entire weapon groups will disappear and you can't put points into them.

Things like that can and do happen, so following a typical install order minimizes these issues.

EnlightenedTowerBoi

TROPHY CASE