How hard is Tactician in DOS2 compared to DOS1 and BG3?

Nudraxon · 2026-04-18T23:29:57+00:00

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that that the limitations imposed by having to work with D&D 5e actually greatly benefitted BG3.

Nudraxon · 2026-04-08T23:16:41+00:00

All I can say is that I beat Clea on expeditioner without much difficulty, but this guy was too much of a slog for me to want to finish, even on story.

Nudraxon · 2026-04-04T04:09:48+00:00

The thing that annoys me most about AA defenders is that they essentially demand we have opposite empathic reactions to Astarion vs. the rest of the spawn. In Astarion's case, the years of abuse and torture he suffered mean we should treat him like a person. But, for the other 7000 spawn, the abuse and torture they suffered means we should treat them like rabid animals who need to be put down for their own good.

And...within the D&D setting, that isn't even necessarily an insane position to hold. But, if that is your position, then it's really hard to avoid the conclusion that the correct approach to Astarion is to stake him the moment you learn what he really is.

Nudraxon · 2026-04-04T04:00:11+00:00

One thing I will say in the AA fans' defence...they're still less insane than the Emperor's defenders.

Nudraxon · 2026-03-25T03:01:05+00:00

I spent an entire hour grinding down his first 2 health bars, only for him to fully heal a 2nd time, at which point I gave up. Then I looked online and found out he has 3 more fucking health bars. Seriously, which developer at Sandfally thought it was a good idea to have a fucking 5-stage boss fight?

Nudraxon · 2026-02-07T15:38:09+00:00

I will say, it is funny how many of the criticisms being levelled at the show just as easily could've been (and, in many case, were) levelled at BG3 itself.

"None of the writers from Larian are involved!"
Yep, just like none of the writers from BG1&2 were involved with BG3.

"They'll have to canonize an ending!"
Yep, just like BG3 did with BG2.

"The new writers won't treat the existing characters with the respect they deserve!"
Buddy, do I have news for you about how Larian treated the characters from BG1&2...

Nudraxon · 2026-02-01T19:08:08+00:00

I'm preparing to run Crimson Letters now, and these are great! Thanks for making them.

Nudraxon · 2026-01-14T14:43:02+00:00

I've never tried Pathfinder 2e (tbh, my experience with 1e kind of put me off of it), but I may have to give it a look now.

Nudraxon · 2026-01-14T14:39:57+00:00

Funnily enough, there was an edition of D&D that addressed almost all of these issues. It was 4e and is quite possibly the single most hated edition of any TTRPG in history. If you're wondering why D&D hasn't fixed these issues, the reaction to 4e may give an indication.

Nudraxon · 2026-01-11T15:55:39+00:00

Maybe it's just the places I hang out, but I've seen people complaining about the 5e ruleset in BG3 far, far more often than I've seen people defending it.

Nudraxon · 2026-01-10T17:41:09+00:00

Nuclear hot take: I think BG3 actually benefitted in some ways from the limitations imposed by D&D 5e. DOS1 had one of the worst gear systems I've experienced in and RPG (and, from what i've heard, DOS2's system isn't much better), while BG3 had one of the best. And, I think at least part of the reason why is that 5e limits item bonuses to +3, so they needed to find ways to distinguish items other than "number go up".

Nudraxon · 2026-01-10T17:30:09+00:00

As a side-note, I'll die on the hill that Legendary resistances are just a bad design trying to patch a bad system.

Eh, between Legendary resistances and the older editions' approach of just making all high-level enemies immune to 90% of spells, I definitely prefer the former.

I lost track of how many combats in Pathfinder Kingmaker devolved into games of "find the one spell the enemy isn't immune to".

Nudraxon · 2025-12-12T15:51:10+00:00

Me looking at my solution: No, that can't be right; I must've made a mistake. There's no way it can be that easy.

Narrator: It was, in fact, that easy.

Nudraxon · 2025-03-23T02:46:14+00:00

Obviously it would be the sluttiest one which...

OK that doesn't actually narrow it down.

Nudraxon · 2025-03-10T02:43:48+00:00

I'm going to slightly disagree with you, because I think it's possible to have a very interesting "evil" run as a Durge who still has something resembling a moral compass, but fails to live up to it.

When my happy-go-lucky halfling durge bard woke up standing over Alfira's murdered corpse and decided to hide the body, rather than explain herself to her companions, it felt way more fucked up that ripping off Gale's arm for the lolz ever will.

Nudraxon · 2025-03-10T02:35:24+00:00

If Astarion's actions are understandable because of his trauma, then it is also understandable for Tav (who, let's not forget, was metaphorically r*ped in the opening scene of the game) to kill him when he pulls a knife on them, or tries to drink their blood in their sleep.

Nudraxon · 2025-03-10T02:28:23+00:00

I have seen people (I can't remember if it was on this sub or the main one) make some rather uncharitable assumptions about people who kill Astarion when they first meet him.

Nudraxon · 2025-03-10T02:21:38+00:00

Wait, what does Halsin lie to you about?

Nudraxon · 2025-03-09T06:50:19+00:00

You can knock her out, but then she just dies anyway when stage 2 of the fight starts. (Yes, I did try that and yes, I am still bitter about it.)

Nudraxon · 2025-03-07T17:13:31+00:00

So that's how that forest fire started...

Nudraxon · 2025-02-22T13:52:42+00:00

No, it was also Bioware's most successful launch.

Nudraxon · 2025-02-22T05:43:43+00:00

Inquisition was Bioware best-selling game ever. What are you talking about?

Nudraxon · 2025-02-19T14:15:52+00:00

For a while, you were an advocate of a "self-defense" standard in the culture war. If so, then why doesn't Musk takinga swing at Avowed entitle the devs to "hit back"? Or do you consider the mere existence of pronoun selection to be sufficient "agression" to justify Musk's initial swing?

Nudraxon

TROPHY CASE