5 Things I Stole from Baldur's Gate 3
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Have you played Baldur’s Gate yet? Is your mind racing with possibilities on how this can level-up your dnd game? Me too! That’s why in this video we’re talking about the 5 things I’m taking from Baldur’s Gate and throwing into my home ttrpg! - JJJreact
Have any ideas on other things you would rip from the game? Let me know in the comments!
00:27 Disclaimer
01:10 - Verticality
02:52 - Weapon-Specific Attacks
04:12 - Better Bonus Actions
06:19 - Unstoppable
09:22 - Player-Centric Campaigns
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Развлечения
The big thing I have stolen from BG3 is letting the players take their turns simultaneously.
So long as there are no enemy turns between 2 players' turns, those PCs can act "simultaneously".
Since I already just have a "DM turn" followed by the players' turns, this means the players can strategize their collective actions and movement all at once.
This has had a couple of benefits:
1) Players can move into position before taking their actions, letting players move out of the way of AoEs or give each other flanking bonuses.
2) Players that have trouble deciding which of their 342 spells they want to cast no longer hold up the game for anyone lower in initiative. If you know what you want to do, you just do it.
This rule, on top of the "players roll all the dice" rule means the players stay engaged in the game, and I have less work to do as the DM.
Honestly did not realize players were taking their turn at the same time til I tried playing with someone else on multiplayer. Such a brilliant approach.
All my players, and this is not a small number, hate taking their turns together. I'm really not sure why, but based on their reactions, they seem to feel like they're being rushed instead of having their moment. I have no problem running all the monsters on one turn and think it's fun, but none of my players like the idea of going together. I guess they like making everyone else wait?
HELD ACTIONS
the only reason people were getting in the way is because they were being greedy with their action economy.
@@tubebubereboot6873 I think it depends on the personalities at the table. In my gaming group, we have a couple of people who get a little greedy whenever we play a game that has open turn structures. So whenever turns have more structure, you can actually tell everyone's just a little happier. You get your turn, you get to really focus on what you want to do, and you just do it. When things are open or shared, there are some people who just kind of end up always having main character syndrome, and others who just always fall away to the background.
So personally, I'd never introduce BG3 shared turns to my table, but I can totally see how this could be great for other groups.
Will try this out.
I like the ability for a wizard to swap out prepared spells outside of combat without needing a long rest
I would alter it for 5e to be you can swap spells on short rests and long rests. Whenever seems a bit much for me. But it totally works in BG3
I can do that??
I think it would be too overpowered if you just let it be whenever you need to, better to keep it between rests even if its on short rests
along with the nerfs to cc spells in bg3 that is probably fine
5e revision has a thing for this, it expends a spell slot but it's possible
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I’ve implemented potions of healing as a bonus action. At lower levels it gives a much needed source of healing while still allowing you to do something on your turn.
That is something we added as a homebrew quite awhile back and it really doesn't unbalance the game. Remember, enemies can have potions and use them as bonus action as well.
Plus it gives your clerics/druids something more interesting to do besides pump out healing in combat.
Yeah I run that rule and added a twist: Players can use their bonus action to roll the dice for the potion, or use their action and get the max amount the potion heals. So it makes it a decision "do I want the full HP but lose my turn, or do I want variable healing but have my action left?" I find that rule interesting.
@@tatsunithelennyking2540If a potion lasts for 1 minute, BA drink it to roll 2d4+2 rounds of use.
@@tatsunithelennyking2540 i like your variant!
When a PC recovers from dying, they lose their action on their next turn as they get back up. That would mean that a PC going down becomes a significant loss of resources, rather than just a "quickly throw a healing word on them and they can keep attacking on their next initiative."
While I agree this works well in BG3, I'd use it with caution in 5e. You control 4 characters in BG3, in tabletop players get only 1. So losing a turn really hurts that player. Unless you are finding reasons to target players somewhat evenly, the tank / front-liner is going to get fed up with never getting a turn.
I'd be tempted to do something like imposing a penalty on movement, level of spells able to be cast, or amount of attacks.
@@garion046 yeah well said, my homebrew is 1) reduced movement speed 3) bonus action only for 2 turns, and depending on the injury, 3) sometimes a constitution affliction of some kind. They still get a turn, but it makes it clear that they are injured/gimped and should pull back to regroup. I also throw my players a bone (w advantage) when they have been downed and picked back up, but they want to feign death instead of getting back up, makes for some cool moments
@@garion046 Well you have to stand up after being knocked so that's half movement gone already. Totally agree though that removing an action is way too strong a negative. Maybe they can do either an action or a bonus action.
@@garion046 having the effects of the "slow" spell seem to be a good compromise. you get an action or a bonus action not both you lose half your movement to get up from prone anyway . I would probably let them keep their reaction tho!
Yes, I think that might be a really nice balancing way to give death more meaning, instead of the death spiral that is: "You get one exhaustion level".
With the unstoppable condition, I've found making it something in the environment works really well. Like if there's 3 totems placed in the boss fight that are empowering/protecting the boss so players need to think about damaging them, but they're split far enough away you can't just aoe them down. This can be used to house legendary resistances as well.
Or a magic item that a boss is wearing. One of my players stole it off of him well before the fight and used it against the boss.
Exactly. Minions for a necromancer, obelisks, armor layers for golems. Thematic effects are more convincing and show this enemy is truly tough, compared to just throwing a mechanic like legendary resistance or unstoppable on them.
I love this idea
Yeah I really didn't think the unstoppable condition added anything extra, it wasn't anything a barrage of magic missiles couldn't solve, and that spell is already great for breaking convention on an enemy etc etc.
Reminds me of Auntie Ethel 2: Electric healing plant boogaloo
I like how BG3 does short rests. You get 2 a day and each heals you half your max HP. Way better than the fussy counting hit dice and such. I would make it really short in table top. Perhaps 10 minutes to relax and catch your breath.
I still want the hour, buy use their version of the Bard's Song of Rest. One per long rest (scale with level?) and that gives you a short rest in 10 minutes.
@@block_the_ 10 minutes is a pretty long song. Must be Stoner Rock :D
@@curseofyig6727 A bard is used to perform 😉
@@curseofyig6727jam band
@@block_the_ hour long short rests have been gone for my game for forever, and god it just makes everything better. Hour long short rests do nothing but punish short rest PC the moment there's a 'time crunch' on a quest and no one can sit around for an hour, while the Wizard/Sorc/Druid/Cleric had all their resources gassed and ready to go.
7:30 there was a point in bg3 where a boss had like 10 stacks of unstoppable and my rogue had a magic item that granted magic missle along with my wizard, so on turn one the shield was ripped right off the thing. Felt so good.
1. Being wet makes you (or the enemy) vulnerable to lightning and cold damage and resistant to fire damage. Simple but brilliant and completely grounded (heh) not just in D&D physics but in IRL physics. Suddenly Create Water is not reduced to saving your party from dying of thirst in a desert-based adventure, it's a clutch buff/debuff in combat.
2. Swapping spells on a wizard, cleric, and druid whenever is a bit OP in BG3 as you essentially become a "Batman with prep time" meme (to the uninitiated: the strongest entity in the DC universe). But tying it to a Short Rest or even just having it take a few minutes even without resting (like ritual casting) is a great idea to consider.
3. Powers/summons unlocked via plot. Sure, D&D has some, but BG3 has A LOT. Be it passive buffs from a deity for undergoing their ritual, summoned familiars/pets that have their own backstory and personality, powerful unique spells or abilities hidden in arcane tomes, the list goes on. Some of those powers may be situational, tied to a place or a quest. Others may be permanent rewards for side quests or diligent exploration.
4. More use of PC's background/racial/class specific choices. Sure, some background descriptions suggest the possibilities but those are often large-scale ways of building your base of operations (a gang as a Criminal, a friendly village as a Folk Hero, a temple for an Acolyte, etc). But with certain backgrounds having advantage on appropriate checks (or skipping those checks entirely), giving additional manner of completing a quest or entering a restricted area, and many other utilitarian options, it gives much more incentive to think about your backstory not just from an RP standpoint but outright mechanical gains. Also, additional source of inspiration for RPing your background on top of RPing your class/alignment both adds an easy to use option for DMs to reward the players and makes the players happy/incentivises their RP approach even more. I've really lost count at this point how often have I seen the [class]/[race]/[background] option in dialogues and it still makes me happy every time as it enforces the feeling that my choices in the character creation weren't just purely cosmetic. And now on my second playthrough entirely different paths keep opening for me that were firmly locked before.
I LOVE how they did weapons up in this game. Dnd weapons just feels like shades of flavor for fighters, now they actually have PURPOSE!!!
They feel like both, for me. My first playthrough was spent pretty deep in the weeds of things, min/maxing weapons, damage, my build, into ridiculous combos etc. My second playthrough I'm leaning harder into my MC's "Style" of combat, and my efficiency hasn't really been all that muted in comparison. The thing I always found impressive about weapons and armor in D&D is that, to speak the words of Todd, "It just works." and doesn't require a constant influx of power and numbers to make me feel like I'm getting stronger/better. Even if you only do the bare minimum of upgrades, such as going from Longsword to Longsword +1 at some point keeps you more than relevant and a danger.
I've actually implemented a ton of BG3 changes at my table. Thief's Fast Hands change is pretty much old news. BUT I probably won't ever implement BG3's alchemy system. I gave my players an Elixir of Bloodlust and the Barbarian that used it took 3 lvls of Exhaustion to avoid giving up it's benefits.
Probably make it last 18-24 hours instead of "until long rest" (or whichever happens first), since BG3 basically doesn't have time pass unless you long rest
@@someguytm9241until next dawn is a thing.
As a mechanics oriented gamer, I really like what BG3 did with rests. Short rest is instant out of combat, but you only get 2 per long rest, and if you take a long rest it consumes resources and you have to rp it. It really balances out many classes.
This is my favourite takeaway from BG3
It's the change to Legendary Resistance for me. Instead of just "choose to succeed on a failed save" they instead burn a resistance to add +10 to the roll. Most cases will still result in a successful save but it at least allows for the *possibility* that your action will have some consequence instead of just hurling spells into oblivion with guaranteed futility until the resistances are burnt.
As a dm I like legendary resistances by choice because it adds a fun element of strategy firnme to play with, which things do I choose to burn a legendary on and which do I let through
@@chalor182 I think all that still applies though. The +10 to the save is still something the DM chooses to use or not in exactly the same way, it's just that it allows the possibility that you'd roll poorly enough that even a +10 wouldn't save you.
@bushpusherr that's fair enough, maybe I'm just addicted to the control lol
I like that they made a lot of magic items have a spell you can use once per day.
The one thing I’ve definitely noted is weapons coming with innate bonus abilities like cleaves, lacerate, etc… would definitely like to see more of that in D&D. Kinda feels sucky being a barbarian, surrounded by enemies and chopping them down 1 at a time from lack of aoe.
The One D&D playtests have weapon abilities, but they're honestly pretty mid.
I like reckless attack being a reaction to missing, rather than choosing the reckless attack beforehand. Same with cutting words.
The issue with this is that reckless attack grants advantage, so if you roll without reckless attack normally you only roll 1 die instead of 2, leading to theoretically 5% less crits than if you just reckless attacked every attack.
@@LemonInYourEyes You're not wrong and I'm someone who will do sharpshooter every shot but I think reckless attack and cutting word being reactions instead of blind choices is more in line with current 5e where silvery barbs exists.
@@LemonInYourEyesAnd that’s why you can choose to do Reckless Attack as your action. If you want that 5% greater chance for a crit, use Reckless Attack. If you want to avoid giving the enemy Advantage unless necessary, use Attack and reroll as a reaction.
Declaring it retroactively kinda takes out the point of "reckless" in Reckless Attack, doesn't it? What a flavor fail, that.
@@TerraDoctor "You take a swing with your great sword, but it looks like he's going to dodge out of the way..."
"I reckless attack. 19."
"... You shift your strike awkwardly, leaving you off balance, but you just manage to connect. Roll damage."
Looks like the fail is of imagination on your part.
I've heard a lot of rules discussion since BG3 dropped, and this is one of the few to really consider how different they impact the video game versus the tabletop. Very cool, very helpful.
Also, loving your editing style. The last few videos have especially coalesced your current style, and it shows more personality than I usually see.
Verticality 1:09
Weapon-Specific Attacks 2:52
Better Bonus Actions 4:11
Unstoppable 6:18
Player-Centric Campaigns 9:23
If your barbarian is losing a turn due to be at range, you should look into using jump and throwing items/weapons. Rarely are the battlefields so big you couldn't get in throwing range with a str based jumping character.
I'm definitely using the bonus action economy for my future campaigns. But one thing that stood out the most were the equipments and weapons giving small bonuses . I'm not gonna implement it as the base (like all swords now do this thing , axes do this etc.), but I am going to give some equipments those small bonuses as a special reward from time to time
The monk's accelerated gaining of class abilities in BG3 is a better balance than the D&D rules.
One thing I want to do is mapping a small area and filling it with encounters. Maybe the players are in the area for a specific object ("Fetch 5 purple roses"), but have other things they can encounter aloing the way. Let the players wander the map, so their choice of route determines what they encounter. I wouldn't try to make each encounter as involved as BG3, but things like "a boy has wondered off and is now in danger", "some NPCs have just been attacked by a giant phase spider, one is near death, how do you handle the situation", and so on. It is a lot of work, especially as the players may not encounter everything, but it can also help the Daily Fight issue, you the players can unload on a fight, then fully rest before they continue their journey to Location B
Nice video dude
P.s my cheat against your first point was giving Karlach the misty step necklace from act 1, making sure the barb could yeet across the battlefield when needed the most
Jump on a high str character pretty much solves any distance closing.
Did the same, and later found another item that gave her another use of misty step. In combination with her jump, she's now zooming over the battlefield.
Also, the Athlete feat. +1 to STR or DEX, 50% extra jump distance & standing up uses less movement if prone. Helps use a 17 point build start rather than 16, so great on a companion character that won't get the hag. Combined with the jump spell being ritual cast, means my front-liner can almost always jump further than misty step would get them anyway.
I also gave carlac the Misty step necklace, my favorite thing is to teleport right behind an enemy and then just barrage them with reckless attacks lol The visual gets me every time
I am playing a Necromancer Wizard as Gale. The first time my Zombie killed someone they were immediately raised as a temporary Zombie called a Newborn Zombie. That zombie had less health and took damage each turn until it dies. It wasnt directly controlled but was only hostile to enemies. But it could also apply the Newborn Zombie effect. I ended up with 4 total zombies at the end of the fight, and that was with the original zombie dying.
I have a necromancer wizard in my irl DND campaign and I implemented that on the spot. It makes zombies a lot more interesting then skeletons (who are usually favored because they can wield weapons) as the zombies can spread rapidly.
You could really let your necromancer wizard go crazy and start a temporary zombie apocalypse as their zombies spread across the battlefield.
The unique weapon abilities are great and I also love the idea of that being part of base D&D. It seems like the upcoming revised rules are adding something like that for Fighters, but I think it'd be more interesting if that were a feature available to everyone and simply required proficiency with that weapon like in BG3. Maybe Fighters could gain additional uses or something, but it's a great mechanic that can make using "weaker" weapons actually feel viable, and I'd hate to see it restricted to a single class.
One thing you don't mention that I adore in BG3 is the short rest economy. So many D&D mechanics are built around using short rests, and in RAW, a short rest takes at least one hour. My personal experience has been that my DM doesn't allow us time to ever take a short rest, which makes things like expending Warlock spell slots, using Battle Master Maneuvers, or giving Bardic Inspiration very rare because we never get a chance to recuperate. BG3 handles short rests as something that's essentially instant and doesn't have any negative consequences in terms of time spent, but instead is simply treated as another limited use ability available as long as you aren't in combat. While that arguably isn't as realistic, I think it allows for classes reliant on those short rests to be more able to actually utilize those abilities that make them interesting rather than having to hold back because you're not sure you'll be able to recoup those charges until you have an actual long rest.
I like the short rest mechanics as well, I actually talk about it in my part 2!
The whole weapon masteries thing applies to all the martial classes. At the very least, I know for a fact monk also gets it.
I honestly really love the Unstoppable condition and made a particular fight in ACT 3 with a Big Bad that made me really think of how I needed to order my attacks to break through to its HP.
I hope to use it in future encounters with some tweaks of course to make it better for Tabletop
Been using beyond damage dice in one of my games for a few years now so it was nice to see something similar in BG3 to give some good variety to weapons, especially when some of them have their own unique abilities that just get treated as another weapon action. Unstoppable is also pretty interesting as an alternative to second forms or whatever to give the boss a bit of breathing room to *do* something, I'd agree.
Also shoutout to the Grease Fire combo. Genuinely opened my eyes to great potential.
you should check out larians older games - divinty original sin 1 and 2. the spell/surface interaction is what magic is all about in them. highly recommend.
its toned down a LOT for bg3 - but as well as flamable liquids we also have lighting + liquid = shocking surface and Ice + liquid = frozen surface. play around - and remember you can target surfaces directly, you dont have to aim at the enemy.
any ways to give you an idea of how divinty was heres a quote from my freind "Why is everything on fire, and why is the fire cursed and why is there a cursed electrified steam cloud above it - Im surrounded by death.. death everywhere"
a bit ambitious but i also wanna give a shoutout to the subtle or not so subtle rebalances of existing class and subclass content. and not just the "you can prepare outside of long rest" deal.
the extra bells and whistles they gave Draconic Bloodline sorcerers, the extra class specific interactions, making Chromatic Orb have a small AoE in exchange for a single die of damage, the seemingly insignificant balance tweaks that slowly add up to make BG3 feel like a better version of 5e than One DnD or even some of the third party attempts at fixing/rebalancing DnD 5e.
Potions as bonus action is amazing. I would make a whole character around brewing up a swiss army bag of potions to dip my allies weapons in and to throw on enemies. It would be amazing.
These are great points. I myself have codified 20 odd house rules to give stuff so a player has more avenues to approach a problem. Things like climbing your oponent, disarming, etc. that has shown up before, but also feinting with a bonus action to gain advantage, stoping your own attack with your reaction and taking the dodge action instead in case of shitty attack rolls. Ability to concentrate on more than one spell by spending your action every turn.
I take mostly inspiration from 3.5 and AD&D when making these rules. It is certainly more stuff that you have learn, but I think they help experienced players feel more in control of the situation, and inspire newer players to be creative with how to tackle the mechanics.
It helps that I have ridiculous memory, great mathematical skills and a near encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. Still, the point stands! The game is yours. So make it yours.
I love that Larian learned from DOS2 where Companion stories were on varying levels of connection to the main story.
I played a different DND based game called Solasta a while before BG3 came out (actually very good game, i would recommend it if you want more dnd style games after BG3). But in Solasta they treated Legendary Resistance different. Normally Legendary Resistance just feels bad as a player. You just have no reason to use big spells on the boss because they will save either way no matter what. But in Solasta Legendary Resistance would be used against ANY save they failed. Even mundane garbage ones. Like if they fail a save against Sacred Flame? 1 Legendary Resistance is now gone. This still prolongs the fight but also lets the players eventually use their big spells on bosses after taking a turn or two using smaller spells to try to blow those resistances. Basically the same thing as the Unstoppable in BG3.
This may exist already, but something I haven't seen in games I've played is I want to allow nature/survival checks for ingredients to make potions. I feel like it would encourage engagement in the world. A certain DC would determine if/how many ingredients are found.
There's an amazing supplement on the DMs Guild called Hamund's Harvesting that does that!
Ah, thank you!@@GentryPerry
I like some of those ideas. I can't wait to start a fight with "This dragon seems be quite unstoppable" "How unstoppable?" "Like... Thrice Unstopable"
one thing about BG3 is that you can see the "stat cards" of all of the enemy's and their weaknesses and hitpoint pools. It makes sense for a video game because eventually people will figure that out and you can look it up online anyway. But for tabletop it is better for that to be more of a surprise. Casting fireball and finding out the bad guy is immune/resistant to fire can be a big moment for the bad guy. And having you players roll nature/arcana/knowledge checks to see if they can figure out weaknesses before hand can also be a big moment for the players. Having your ranger in your group know every detail about some horror monsters weaknesses can make that player feel like they contributed greatly even if that leads to the barbarian beating it to a pulp in just one turn after sharing that information.
Great video, good points.
I would like to say one thing about your last point about tying your PC stories into the main plot.
I have done that consistently in every campaign I've ever run. Not because I'm some genius (I wish! I have scary smart players) it just sort of happened. And in that hindsight, I'd drop any reference to sandboxing actually at all, but specifically in this context.
You, the DM, have what your bad guys are doing over here, affecting your world. They have a goal in mind and they are doing that regardless of w/e happens. If something messes with those plans they will correct or counter to achieve their goal anyways if possible. If an obstacle prevents them from completing their goals they will attempt to remove that obstacle with their own internal consist logic.
Your players are doing their thing. You and they have set the parameters of what they want to accomplish.And they are in charge of how they go about it.
Your job is to set up situations in which those two groups get in each others way.
That's a campaign. That's not a sandbox nor is it a railroad. It's just D&D. Counter to this, and some may get mad when I say this but w/e, is a module like, well most of the modules Wizard's put out that have no option for the dynamism necessary to do the above (BBEG does a, Party responds with b, so BBEG now does C). Partly because you can't put every conceivable option in a campaign guide but every module I've looked at ends up in situations where the party MUST GO somewhere, MUST WANT something specific or MUST DO something in order for the rest of the book to be relevant. And that's railroading which, IMO is not and never will be D&D.
TLDR: There is no such thing as a sandbox vs railroad discussion in D&D that makes sense. Every functioning campaign is an open world where players can go do where they want to go and do what they want to do in small or large ways. In other words. There is D&D and there is not D&D, there is no question.
Having a halberd and being able to hit three enemies for less damage is really rewarding when it means you can finish off three low hp does in one turn.
Here early it looks like, I agree with what you said this game has already changed things at our dnd session. As a wizard I absolutely love being able to prep spells outside of battle and that’s what we’re doing! Along with the martials having things like cleave and rush.
For the unstoppable thing: get creative. Bosses are spectacles, not just attrition. The thing that inspired this for me, was the Warden in Mass Effect 2, funny enough. A powerful lich wouldn't just fight with magic, his lair is set up to magically protect himself, projecting shields from rods. The boss I'm working on now is a rogue who's lair is designed to obscure and hide her when she's seen, and distract foes with her minions. Give them a lightweight puzzle to solve during the fight in order to finally damage the boss
I like how BG3 handles uncommon+ magic item gear!! Adding elements to unarmed strikes, more damaging throws/improvised weapon hits, obscurity payoffs!! I have my eye on a few items I would consider full porting their effects over for sure
I like the way the game handles food as resources for long rests. I like a bit of realism, but no one really likes tracking food and water consumption, so I plan to give the players a shared "camp pantry." As they adventure, they can either loot food, trade in town for ingredients, or hunt/forage in the wilderness to add items to the list. When it comes to taking a long rest, the party and DM can look at the list and decide if what they have could make a meal for everyone. No need for tracking numbers, just use reasonable judgement. You could give them inspiration for quality meals or introduce exotic ingredients which may provide them temporary buffs. I feel like with the right group, it could make long rests more exciting and provide interesting RP opportunities.
I want to utilize the shares initiative. Normally we go top to bottom, if ties they can pick who is first or go by dex mod. But i like the idea of tactical teamwork.
as someone who played a pact of the blade warlock for years in 5E, I thought it was neat how BG3 let my warlock use my charisma mod instead of strength/dex with my pact weapon.
wait. baldurs gate 3 lets you use charisma with your pact weapon? ive been upgrading both dex and charisma simultaneously and it feels pretty balanced. theres no way ive only been using my cha this entire time right?
When I first made my character I was doing the same thing, but if you hover over your attack bonus with your pact weapon equipped you'll see it's using CHA + PROF. Kinda neat cause then you're not limited to finesse weapons if you're rocking an otherwise DEX focused build.@@laughingstock7638
It's just Hexblade from 5e.
yeah it's like that pulled that piece from hexblade and just added it to the pact of the blade in BG3. I played great old one + pact of the blade in 5e, not hexblade, so this feels a bit different to me@@hr329085
@hr329085 Hexblade isn't in baldurs gate 3 though.
Potions as bonus actions has been a thing at our table forever, but I like the handling of prepared spells for Wizards in this game. I like throwing items like potions to make ground effects. Those kinds of things were something players tried to do when I was DMing and it didn't make sense to me but I like the idea now. But yeah, verticality is amazing. I don't know how easy it will be to do to run a game like that at a table, seems like a lot of work if you're using maps.
I like being able to swap my prepared spells in non combat situations and then being "locked in" when initiative is rolled. But in bg3 you have to prepare your ritual spells if you are a wizard which is lame but not as big an issue as there are very few ritual spells in bg3.
Implementing shove as a bonus action can be a pretty fun addition , but I think it also requires you to put a lot of thought into the surroundings. It can make or break your encounter. This is based on an encounter I had in BG3 with a big baddy that ended up being very underwhelming, because Karlach just shoved them into a chasm.
At the same time - the number of times I had to reload on my Tactician run because enemies just shoved 1-2 of my party member into the abyss/water/whenever else was outright horrifying xD
@@mikerelf i do find this kind of good, if the ai can do it and use it well. you can guard against it with saving throws and positioning against high strength enemys.
One of the drawbacks of this in BG3 (at least until the very end) is that powerful enemies tend to have the best loot. Shoving them into an abyss means that you lose out on whatever cool items they may have.
@@allanhernandez6692 in this case it went straight to a cutscene and afterwards the body was in the middle of the platform, so no worries there xD
Yes, but you can’t loot the character with that and lose out on maybe great gear.
Dude the quality of this channel is awesome, cant believe you only have a few K subs, definitely a bright future is ahead!
Here's my list before starting the video.
-Bonus actions (more variation or options for each class). Shove, dip.
-Making more of the more utility underused spells rituals, jump, longstrider.
-swapping spells with out having to long rest, although I may consider tying this to a magic item or have a limit.
-more minor magic items and weapons specific attacks that just do cool little thing but add more flair. Like giving your weapons slight variation attacks.
-using height and other tactic advantages for bonus to hit.
-Be able to buff before social rolls.
Honourable mentions
-Camp supplies?? Maybe.
-maybe a simplified crafting and harvesting system. I've tried this before but like how they kept it simple here.
Cool seems like we shared a few of the same ideas. This game is super inspirational for dms
I’ve found that the camping system is great way for players and DMs to keep track of time. IE only two short rests per long rest which is usually one full day. As well as assigning value to food and having the players keep track of supplies instead of just “rations”. It’s a nice little immersion tool to have player be like “well my character is a Druid vegetarian so we need vegetables” have them actually shop for supplies or hunt and gather for food and game to be able to get the full benefits of a long rest is a game changer. Obviously not for every table but large semi open world adventure and dungeon crawls I think I’m gonna implement from now on. It adds a new dynamic on the survival aspect and another gold sink.
As a long time DM...some of the rules are good, some don't work well going into tabletop and some the tabletop does way better. Pick and choose for your table and what is most fun for you.
hi, im new here - YT recommended this and it makes sense, im a dm of many many years too (about 35).
regarding 'unstopable' - this is exactly how stoneskin spell in 2nd edition worked.
back then wizards had pitiful HP and had to use their magic to live, so defensive spells were strong.
Regarding what im taking form BG3 - its 'advantage' - for 3.5 games(and other systems too). I know this is from 5th edition, not spefically bg3, but its such a simple system for circumstantial bonus/malus. Ill probably rob the short rest too - although Ive done somthing very similar for a long time - give the party a chance to patch up wounds take a breather(I usually based the HP returned on a medicine roll)
your channel looks good, you got your self a new sub young man - and if you want to ask an old fart about ancient D&D lore/mechanics Im happy to oblige.
I love that unstoppable gives magic missile a uniquely useful purpose even at very high levels. where you would normally drop it after like level 8 because most spells out pace it and missing is not a huge issue.
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The Unstoppable Condition is something I absolutely love. Best not to use it for most enemies, but for big threats it'll be amazing to see how my lvl 12 players handle that. Great video.
I think that it's perfect for lvl 12, just to give those hard hitters a bit more punch and longevity. Thanks!
Your barbarian should always have a set of handaxes or javelins on him to thrown on enemies when is movement is a little short, so he doesn't lose his rage.
@@neverfallnewsmediaproblem is that that won’t refresh rage. Rage ends if you don’t take or deal damage on your turn. And yes it has to be on your turn not the round.
Pushing as a bonus action pulls part of the use from the shield master feat. I've played a shield master and if everyone had the one thing I could do that they couldn't it would have been as fun. It removes individuality from the feat.
"Karlach's the best"
Here's how I'm currently using Karlach: she has the Nyrulna trident, plus the ring of flinging (1d4 for thrown weapons) and the Kushigo gloves (forget exactly they're called, but they add another 1d4 to throwing) and the Tavern Brawler feat to double the strength bonus to thrown weapon attack and damage rolls. So thats 1d6 (weapon) + 2d4 (equipment) + 3 (weapon enchantment) + 8 (strength modifier doubled) + 3d4 thunder 6m AOE of target (weapon enchantment) and then I can use it a second time because the weapon returns after being thrown, so thats an average of 27 damage twice per round, no expended spell slots, and it's a ranged attack. Don't have access to a Fighter right now (long story, not explaining why) but between enhanced extra attack and action surge, that's 27 average damage 6 TIMES in the first round of combat.
Im definitely taking a lot of balance adjustment from bg3 aside from a lot of what is mentioned in this video. For example four elements monk, the tavern brawler feat, the thief subclass, removing multiclassing stat requirements, some other adjustments to subclasses and main classes. Bg3 is just a much better system for allowing unique playstyles and characters that I really want to see at my table since honestly it all has gotten so samey with the restrictions in 5e.
Sometime in the future, I'd like to implement BG3's turn based / real time systems. For example, some kind of physical token (a card) that either the players or DM can turn and engage in turn based mode at any point. It could be used for precision roleplay, or DM could hint incoming danger.
One thing that BG3 does that is not available in most D&D games is an enemies health pool, their resistances, etc. I think if they get hit with an attack you can call out the Unstoppable condition, similar to calling our a legendary resistance. Then again DMs dont have to say they are using those. In BG3 knowing all the information about an enemy is great but that isnt how most groups will run it. I know there is that "gotcha" moment when a person uses say Fireball and Oops turns out the enemy is fire resistant, or immune, but it is part of the game.
Just adding my 2 cents on the things you talked about.
I have a player who really likes the additional weapon abilities in BG3, I really like them too in the videogame because I think they do a good job of replacing something missing from BG3 that is present at a D&D table:
That's just letting your players DO unique actions if they come up with something crazy. I've always allowed people to trip with their weapons, disarm, shove. Sometimes if a hit lands in the perfect moment I'll stun or daze an enemy because of how they got brained by a big warhammer or maul. So my argument for this one is that those actions are already *IN* D&D, you just need to encourage your players to get creative, and say 'yes' when they do more often than you say 'no.'
The downside of those actions is that you're now giving the player a bunch of OPTIONS that make them take much longer to decide what to do in combat. "Oh i could go for a lacerate, but maybe I should just go for full damage, or maybe a lunge?" Those actions become cookie-cutter. It's a complaint I have with weapons in pathfinder. While I totally agree that D&D weapons are laid out very badly in terms of "Why use a dagger when short swords exist? Why use a mace when a morning star exists?" I don't think the solution is to tack on extra abilities that sacrifice damage for some kind of utility. This implies to the player that they cannot do something SPECIAL in combat unless it's a listed attribute of the weapon they carry. I don't like implementing that change.
But I do think it was a GOOD change for BG3, because it's a videogame and you cannot ask the DM to do something 'crazy.'
This also applies to shove as a bonus action, and a couple other bonus action changes. Dip I think is a good one, and of course potion as bonus action is a classic homerule. But if you make something like 'shove' a bonus action, be prepared to see shoving all-the-time. Now if you make it shove like in BG3 where you can only push people back... you now have a combat where the enemies are gonna try to push the players all the time because they got that bonus action to burn (Monsters rarely have, or use their bonus actions.) So you've created an environment where instead of fighting with weapons, more often the scene will be that they 'pushed eachother around a lot, and occasionally attacked.' I'm exaggerating but it makes pushing a very tempting decision. If you make it shove as in 5e, you've ALSO created a bonus action to push someone prone, thus getting advantage on them... and that's dangerous. There's a whole feat for it in 5e, and now you have to redesign Shield Master to make it viable, because everyone has shield master even if they aren't using a shield.
Instead you could just LET players choose to ask in a situation "Hey I have a bonus action, could I use that to just kick this guy out the window?" ask them to roll athletics, and say yes. This lets players feel special for coming up with a unique interaction, and generally the whole table will get excited that the DM allowed it, and start thinking of other ways they can use bonus actions.
I think BG3 is making players and DMs consider adding too much 'bulk' to the mechanics of their games. Dont' worry about all that, and instead encourage players to get creative with their turn actions. If you really want bonus actions to DO more so players are always taking bonus actions on their turn, you can give every player a bonus action ability to make a 'small attack' where they do 1d4 damage with their weapon, and can replace that attack with other options. This will keep actions simpler.
Drow getting to play the game without constantly having disadvantage or having to worry about if your DM will just let you or someone else at the table axe that racial feature, is really nice.
It's been a long time since I've done a proper table top game, but one of the things I have come to really like from Baldur's Gate, that might be somewhat easy to translate, if it isn't already, is surface conditions. Sure stuff like Grease has been around a really long time, but stuff like throwing a bottle of water to cover an area, then use something like ray of frost to do more damage on a target in the water area, then freeze the area into something that can make it difficult for enemies to get through. Or use an electric spell for more damage and turn the water area into an AOE damage effect.
Oh and that can be combined with dipping, shoving, throwing (both throwables and enemies) to basically setup a character that is pretty much focused on support before even touching magic. Someone need heals? Throw a potion at them, and so long as you hit the ground next to them, and they act before nearby enemies, they just need to touch the potion's liquids on the ground. Enemies not quite aligned for an ally's AOE spell? Start shoving and throwing people into the area. Ranged ally plans to fire a lightning/fire arrow? throw a bottle of water/grease/alcohol near the enemy first to increase the damage or add more area to the arrow.
I love the implementation of "Spiritual Weapon," in Baldur's Gate 3. I have started to have the weapon role initiative - give it a set amount of hit points, movement speed, and its own turn. Just makes more sense.
Spell is almost always out of range, and when it's not it never hits lol
The weapon-specific attacks are a bit OP for how little you spend to get them off, granted they ARE only one use per short rest. I think using them in tabletop would require some modification.
I wouldn’t really call them op. At least their implementation is pretty balanced. That once a short rest is the real kicker. If you have 10 enemies that one use of piercing strike or topple the big folks isn’t really gonna do much. Cleave is great though and making it a dex save is interesting
The biggest one I have taken from it for my players which seems super simple is to let them use any race and just put a +2 modifier in one stat and a +1 in another. It makes the choice of race so much more freeing and the other benefits are usually what break a race anyway. Seems simple but in practice my players have so much more fun getting to play the character they want rather than what they feel like they have to
It's amazing how big of a deal it is for a subclass like storm sorcerer that there's verticality. a bit of free flight every turn suddenly turns into a big deal when there's places to fly to.
About that last point.
Many DM let players get away with superficial and self contained backgrounds.
But there's one simple trick to create a bunch of loose end for the DM to exploit during the campaign:
Ask the player to give EVERYTHING a proper name. Any involved character and any place, village, shop, river, pet should have a name.
Now you can reference them anytime you wish to grab the PC attention.
A nice caveat is that players become much more fond of those NPCs that would litteraly never come up again otherwise.
I like how many minor magical items there are in Baldurs Gate. We all know our players love magic items but most of the magical items in our books are way too good to dish out to our low level characters, in baldurs gate however there are a ton of magical items that you can have as early as level 2 and while you certainly see the effect they have it usually feels pretty balanced. Of course in baldurs gate all of these minor effects very quickly stack up to be very powerful and that's fine for a video game but in tabletop we already have a solution for this problem in the form of attunement slots. Basically, I like the number of minor magical items as well as the variation of effects they provide and would love to both see them in the games I play in and also drop them in the games that I run
love this and i was already thinking of adding some things to my table as well. just have to say that vertical maps are very hard in theatre of the mind, at least, i havent had much success with it lol
Unstoppable as a mechanic is great. If a boss has a decent AC then the barb and fighter might decide to deal with adds before the big boss as they could be wasting damage. Plus it encourages wizards to throw out stuff like magic missile to strip it off which is an extra turn the wizard isnt flinging off 100 damage spells.
Perhaps some of the smaller things, or things that people are already doing in home games:
- Potions are bonus actions (in our home game the first potion in a battle is a bonus action, which is a good compromise too, no potion spamming like in bg3)
- spell scrolls, not considering the basic rules, using a spell scroll only consumes a bonus action if the original spell is a bonus action in bg3, which is really nice and as far as I understand it not how standard dnd 5e handles it
The biggest problem with BA health potions imo is that it severely nerfs healing classes. Why would you ever use a full action AND a precious spell slot to heal when you could just use a common consumable and a BA to do the same thing? Cure wounds becomes obsolete
They aren't that common in many campaigns.
I took the mechanic where characters don't have to precast spells for boosts during checks like Guidance, Friends, Resistance, ect.
Rush Attack has saved a couple of turns where I'm literally spitting distance from the enemy without contact.
hey man this was in my recommended. thats kinda neat, isnt it?
That's awesome!!
What I'll implement for sure:
-Jumping
-Camping supplies
-I'm already creating some fantasy terrain to use in my warhammer club, I want to switch to the system of measuring and a free-from map, to hells with the grid
-healing pots that can be thrown and used as a bonus action
-many buffs to be rituals and not actually taking a spell slot to use. I'd go so far as to make some BG3 didn't, like no reason feather fall shouldn't be a ritual, rituals do take 10 minutes to cast so if you're in an emergency you can't cast it as a ritual, but precast before jumping off the cliff? That's the change I feel is necessary for players to justify actually using it, and not some more powerful and generally useful tier 2 spells
-more scrolls, potions and items with interesting effects. Spells in dnd are so varied, and there are far too many of them for any one wizard to possibly know all of the utility spell exactly as they need it. Items though? You need to talk to a squirrel but you don't have a druid at hand? Potion of speak with animals. Need to call down rain on this burning house but no mage or cleric at hand? Good thing we have a staff of create water at hand. In the past many CRPGS used wands for it and they work far worse than items that give you these spells per long rest since we as players are wired to hoard expendable items and never use them, because who knows, maybe this burning house could be saved, but what if tomorrow I'll need to save a burning castle?
Can you explain jumping? I really hate the current Jumping rules in dnd and would love to hear.
@@TrixyTrixter BG3 gets rid of some needless rolling and ties jumping directly to your STR characteristic. Currently in 5e jumping is kinda tied to your str stat, but in a very limited way, which makes your acrobatics/athletics rolling much more important in determining your jumping length than STR stat. In BG3 Every character can jump 10ft in whichever direction, plus 2ft for every str above 10 (or so I assume, that's how I'll rule it). So With str 8 you'll jump just as far as with str 10, but with str 15 your jump distance is 20ft, with STR 20 your jump is 30ft. You can jump as a bonus action only in BG3, but I think jumping as a move action should be just as good, but even if you use jumping as a bonus action you cannot move in your turn further than your move distance allows, so no moving 30ft and then jumping for 30 more. If you jump down from high places you receive damage if jump from higher than 10ft. In 5e it's 1d6 for every 10ft, in BG3 I assume it's one damage for every 10ft. And if you land and receive damage, then you roll for athletics to see if you're knocked prone.
How I'll rule it, I don't like that BG3 nullifies acrobatics in jumping, in my games you'll role acrobatics if you want to cushion the jump, or athletics if you want to land on your feet, in both cases 1d6 damage if you fail and fall prone.
@viatka1966 Sounds cool. Ill probably steal that with minor change. To use it you must expend 10 feet of your movement. That is all. So that its not just an extra 10 feet movement for everyone as a bonus action.
1. Turn-based non-combat encounters, like saving people from a burning building that is slowly becoming more hazardous to navigate. So many GMs forget that combat isn't the only type of encounter.
2. Throwing potions as an action, drinking them as a bonus action. This encourages people to actually use their potions, poisons, and elixirs, so long as you make them common enough loot, and promotes teamwork.
3. Two short rests per long rest, with Bards granting a third short rest per day. Setting this in stone helps encourage the party to plan, and not burn through all of their resources in one encounter. It makes it easier to balance combats for the day and keeps the party more aware of everyone's resting/resource needs.
4. Hexblade just worked into Pact of the Blade. Fantastic. If only the other Pact Boons were improved enough to keep up with the Blade Pact.
5. Abjuration Wizard's Arcane Ward decreasing by only 1 when struck instead of working like an extra layer of temp HP. This makes the subclass actually viable as a party support, using potions on allies, control spells on enemies, and using the ward to protect the team. It's good without being broken, and lets the Wizard fill a role it often can't.
6. Swapping prepared spells out-of-combat. Even if this was only possible during a short rest, it would really help new players and still not really be broken for more advanced players.
7. Short rests not taking 1 hour. This is, after all, a game in which powerful magic exists. It's not all that weird for powerful adventurers to rest in 10 minutes of meditation or tapping into arcane forces to ready them for the next few hours of adventuring.
8. A lot of the spell changes were for the better. Shortening combat spells to 1 minute instead of having some be 10 minutes, some an hour, etc., then extending more explorational or basic buffs last all adventuring day helps minimize extremely unnecessary bookkeeping. Also, making a lot of the exploration spells rituals was genius. Longstrider/Jump, Speak with Animals/Dead, all useful spells players can't always justify preparing or wasting slots on.
9. No multiclassing ability score prerequisites is nice. Some of them don't even make sense, and not every class requires multiple stat investments, while others require as many as three. You can make a dexterity paladin, but for some reason you can't multiclass into or out of it? That's dumb.
10. Better homebrew gear. A helmet that heals you each time you heal someone else, even with potions, a cloak that deals acid damage to attackers, so many great items that the base game was sorely without.
Buffs that last until long rest, from potions! Elixir effects stacking with spells! The fight against Grym in the forge is intimidating until you realize you can give Karlach an Elixir of the Colossus and THEN cast Enlarge on her, allowing her to stand on even ground with said foe!
I do like the elixirs lasting longer, I discussed it with my group
Essentially, to me, it makes sense for potions to last til the end of combat or til the next long rest rather than 10 minutes, or an hour. It's hard to track those things in game time.
But that's just my thoughts on it, my group felt like it could be unbalanced lol so we opted to keep it RAW for now
Unstoppable is a little like Legendary Resistances, but for martials.
My preference is to obfuscate such mechanics by using thematic devices. For example a necromancer had minions that take the first few hits as he channels their life essence as defense. Or an armored golem has layers of armor that need to be cracked through. Or several obelisks are in the corners of the room, surrounded by cultists, channeling energy to provide a shield to the BBEG.
the last one you described is quite literally the fight mechanic of an endgame battle in bg3
where the obelisks provide both defensive and offensive utility to the boss in question
One thing from bauldrs gate which I did even before the game released was fast short rests. The reason being is taking short rests can often slow down the pace of the game and be hard to fit in when you really need them. Additionally, fast short rests buffs a lot of the weaker classes like fighter and warlock.
I like the idea of unstoppable condition, but my implementation would something more akin to the big bad can sacrifice a his Legendary Action(s) or reaction or something to reduce or negate the damage of an attack
One thing that I think I will take because I either already do or have rules for the other stuff is the unstoppable rule
Step of the Wind Dash is so OP on Strength Monks in BG3 because it makes Jump a free action so you can bunny hop from one end of the map to the other.
Pact weapons using your charisma modifier. It makes Pact of the Blade more useful and makes it so you don't absolutely need to go hexblade for a melee warlock.
Other things that are different which I don't know would fit into a tabletop game:
* darkness works differently, to the point that it can be very beneficial to throw darkness on your own ranged group and just dip out and in again when you need to attack. (or get a warlock that can see in darkness and be untouchable)
* longstrider and increased jump are rituals. You can always have longstrider on because it lasts until next long rest and if you know an encounter is coming you can get most of an increased jump buff as well. The latter is insane on a strength character, especially with athlete. Nevermind 15 meters jump distance, how about 60+. Karlach jumps from one end of the spider cave to the other like it's the astral plane :D Super fun, not so sure if that would work on tabletop.
* surfaces with a DC are actually broken in BG3, and not in a good way. Engine limitations mean they're always DC12, which means that surface effects like web are super powerful in the first levels, but at the end are mostly pointless as everyone resists it anyway.
One thing that helped my melee characters feel useful with limited movement was that everyone can use bows, but proficiency unlocks abilities with it
Speak With Dead/Animals lasting until long rest. This makes so many more RP possibilities.
unstoppable is basically the same thing as legendary resistances, except there are at least ways to play around legendary resistance.
it kind of sucks to run into if you're not anticipating it, but on the other hand if you know it's coming, can practically negate it with a higher level magic missile.
I'm probably going to implement collective turns, so creatures can move and act simultaneously when they share adjacent initiatives with allies.
I actually really dislike the Unstoppable condition, because it just means that someone needs to burn their action getting that shield down. It doesn't feel particularly good for a player to see that they're the dedicated shield-remover, instead of doing actual damage. Even if your enemies end up becoming a bit of a damage sponge, it's usually cooler for the player to see Big Numbers than to say "ok you got through the shields, now everyone else can chunk them". Since it basically requires a multi-hit attack to get through, there are a limited amount of options that are not required to be taken in combat to bring down a shield, rather than just letting your players do what they want. I think it "game-ifys" boss battles a bit too much.
Something like multiple health pools is much more interesting, because you can say alright you got through one health pool, now that the boss is on its second, some cool boss-only effect triggers. There are plenty of ideas out there for stuff like that too. Plus, in the end, you're just adding a "mechanic" that you can tell the players exists rather than fudging numbers behind the screen. It's the same thing in the end, but attached to a "condition".
Usually the boss with unstoppable is not the only enemy in the room. So you're given a decision of target priority. Do you want to shield crush or do you want to target one of the minions? And I think that's cool.
With the big fight involving u stoppable(avoiding spoilers) there’s a way to remove it permanently
Love the retro vhs styling on your graphics! Just a little editor's tip, try experimenting with a black matte or drop shadow behind the graphics, just to make it slightly easier to read against a busy background! Your content is great, and I'm sure this channel will go far! Keep it up bud!
Thanks for the advice!!
What I am surprised to see no one is taking away from BGIII, is the ubiquitous use of passive skill challenges and that you are informed if your passive score is too low. Using this at the table means that the DM must know the relevant skills (and therefore core strengths) of the party - which is useful knowledge to have anyway, so why not make it explicit.
Well for perception checks its fairly obvious - while players may not know WHAT EXACTLY is out there, they would immediatly be wary of any traps or ambushes and prepare for that. I think its fine for passive checks on stuff like history or religion, where the players are already aware of it, but would have to pass the check to figure out the details.
the problem is in BG3 you can't ask the DM to make a perception or investigation check, so in BG3 these HAVE to be passive triggers
@@TYOjoe Absolutely, but making those checks transparent for the players makes it obvious that something is amiss - i prefer keeping them as hidden background rolls which only notify you on success.
I think the only passive skill in bg3 is perception and they use nature to find the buried treasure. the main difference between tabletop and bg3 is that you can't actively "investigate" for traps it's passive only. If you are purposely looking for traps you would use an active skill like investigation or if you are purposely looking for a stealthed enemy you would use investigation or an active perception roll.
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The unstoppable condition is great, and loading the encounter with lower level enemies or allies that the unstoppable enemy can slay to regain the stacks.
I know for the last tip, I make my games story centric to begin with because I find that most interesting. I’m always cooking how to mix their campaigns in.
I liked the changes made to Ranger lvl 1, making them more of a skill monkey like the rogue or bard, instead of.... whatever they were before.
I'm starting my first d&d campaign after playing BG3 and i already thought of adding stuff from this list without knowing it wasn't an actual d&d thing lol
Some things that I like from BG3 that I’d like to import into my 5e Campaign are simple some of the interesting magic items that you can come across.
The fact they changed the duration of many spells just to 'until next long rest'. Always annoying having mage armor user having to remember to reduce their ac 1h after or 'let's not use a spell now in the morning's cause I need to specifically know the hour we will be fighting today. You're already being punished with 1 spell slot used, dont need to also punish them with an action just because they forgot to use it before a fight.