After buying the game the day of its release, I was disappointed to discover that Baldur's Gate 3 was still in Early Access for Mac users, and so I had to wait over a month to get the full version.
Well, I've got it now!
Naturally, the biggest change is that there's more content beyond what I encountered in the early version, but there are also some other distinctions. For example, the relationship between you and the, well, other character you create during... er... character creation, is pretty different. In the early version, it was very clearly supposed to be a sort of romantically seductive character (even clad in skimpy dress, at least for those of you who are attracted to women) but in the release version, this individual is armored and portrayed as much more of a protector. I still have no idea who she is (or he, or they, depending on how you build them).
I've made a Half-Orc Vengeance Paladin, and when I realized there was some jewelry that was called something like "Barovian Fangs," I decided that his backstory would involve having escaped the Mists of Ravenloft. He's named after an important NPC in my homebrew world, and could conceivably be a version of him in the Forgotten Realms - the characters is a legendary hero who, despite taking the side of the Church in its war against the Empire (these have more specific names, but in my world there's a monotheistic church that wants to break away from a colonialist empire - hooray! - but also want to form a theocratic republic in its place - boo! Both sides have people across the alignment spectrum, and the Church's top paladin is decidedly good-aligned, and fights ferociously, even if, privately, he thinks the whole rebellion is a mistake.)
So far the only additional party member I've gotten is Karlach, who is a ton of fun. I'm given to understand Halsin can also join, though I don't have him in the party just yet.
Most of the early access content remains pretty much unchanged, so I am kind of going through a lot of familiar stuff. I'm trying in most cases to just let the rolls land as they will. I've really only done save-scumming when I'm in a fight where a TPK is pretty much inevitable. Unfortunately, I also hit a glitch where when Lae'zel died on a stairway during the Dror Ragzlin or whatever his name is fight, I couldn't use my Revivify scrolls on her even when standing right next to her, and so had to pay Withers (I sure hope that price doesn't increase each time you do it).
Anyway, I've got my main guy, Rokthar, going for a classic sword-and-board tank build (though man is the game stingy with basic heavy armor). I've got Lae'zel going with a Great Weapon Master build and the Battle Master subclass (using Precision attack - which is a little riskier than it is in the Tabletop version, as you get to see what you roll before you choose whether to spend a superiority die, so you know not to waste it if you roll, like, a natural 2). Wyll I've got going with Pact of the Blade, though still focusing on Eldritch Blast when he can. I've got to say Dark One's Blessing is a hell (pun unintended) of a good feature, as it goes off pretty frequently. Gale I went boring and picked Evocation because, well, I want to be able to drop Fireballs on my party without worrying about friendly fire. Astarion I went Arcane Trickster because it just feels right. Shadowheart, of course, is still a Trickster Cleric (I haven't re-specced anyone yet, but I could imagine giving her a new domain, possibly).
I was tempted to make an Eldritch Knight (either Lae'zel or my main character) but without the SCAG cantrips, it's a little half-baked (though Shield and Heavy Armor is amazing).
I'm intending to really stick to this run of the game and not play any alts until I've either gotten very far in it or beaten it. I'm curious but also a little nervous to play the Dark Urge origin.
Happily, the game runs very smoothly on my Mac, though I think the graphic settings are turned way down. The only problem I've run into is that you hold the Command key to highlight loot to pick up, and you use the Q key to rotate the camera counterclockwise, and at least twice, I've been searching for loot and moving the camera and have abruptly quit the game thanks to the universal "Command Q" for Quit. I think there's a way to change this, but I haven't gotten around to it (most tragically, I had an extremely clean fight against Minthara and then lost it thanks to this blunder, and while I was able to take her out again, it was a much messier fight (the first time I managed to make something of a tank wall with my main and Lae'zel and had Shadowheart's Invoke Duplicity nearby, so I was getting advantage on all my attacks with the front-liners, who were taking less damage thanks to all the disadvantage being handed out).
There are, of course, lots of nuances that you lose in a digital version of the game with no human DM. Thaumaturgy is reduced to just advantage on certain social encounter checks, for instance.
One bit of advice I'd give to players who are finding the game difficult (and not that it isn't) is to think about how many combat encounters you tend to go through between long rests in an actual D&D game. BG3 is pretty generous about letting you go back to your camp and rest (or just instantly popping a bunch of health and resources back with a short rest). In a big dungeon environment like the Goblin camp, I really don't think you're intended to do it all in a single "day."
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