Reminds me that there was a homebrew garlic bread subclass in r/unearthedarcana lol

​@@enzoponce1881I believe that is what he's talking about cause he covered it on the channel a while back.

@@Defcon5gamingn1 huh, didn't know

Deep cut right here.

@@enzoponce1881 yes well done that was the joke

I kept about 10 rope till the 2nd act thinking I may need it.

Wait, so you're telling me I should stop hoarding all this rope? It's really not used for anything?

Rope is extremely useful in this game. Ive gotten so much money from selling it.

​@@DeathnomGood one 👏 👏

Just like in Larian's other notable game, Divinity Original Sin 2, there are a LOT of items that are just there for flavor. Rope was also one of those in DOS2. Some were used in crafting related things like normal non-weapon hammers in DOS2 were used to repair weapons (DOS2 had a system where if you used your weapon for stuff besides hitting a dood (so doors, chests, etc) it would take 1 durability damage with each weapon having 20 IIRC... it didn't really ever become necessary to repair stuff, but still neat)

No way you can actually do it

You can actually stop certain NPCs from calling for backup with the silence spell

Yeah people forget about the "Quiet" aspect of silence lol

​@@mayhewstorm1473soo... Can you scream loud enough to penetrate it? Also this mean thunder damage would work quite well (well, probably it can be solved as reduced thunder damage by X) Also silence is absolute. It is either there or not. Silence won't be silent if there is sound. Granted if we turn silence into "dampen sounds by Y decibels", where Y value can be scaled with uplevelled casting it can actually be done, but horrible to rule around.

@DimkaTsv Every entity in silence sphere is fully immune to thunder damage.

This! My bread & butter in TTRPGs is finding clever ways to avoid conflict and it sucks the reward structures only incentivize combat and even then, only killing.

There is a fun little exploit to this (it might have been fixed now though, and besides it kinda breaks the game so not very fun in practice): If you kill the enemies anyway.. you get no extra XP. Right, good, no exploit for double XP there!. Except if you talk, save, reload the save and THEN kill them. You get the xp for talking and killing, If you talk, save, load, knock out, save, load, kill you get 3x the XP.

Wait does that not count as defeating an enemy in 5e? 🤔

@@jhonea6535 If it's a combat encounter the enemy needs to be killed, captured, or flee on their own. The DM guide does mention granting XP for roleplay scenarios like intense negotiations or difficult skill checks like navigating a trap filled room. But if it was designed as a combat encounter you don't get anything for successfully avoiding it. At least, I've never seen a DM award it that way.

​@@CrabCrowI've seen many DM give xp for doing it this way Also Amy DM who used milestone leveling does this by default, which is one of the reasons milestone leveling is just better

"Oof you guys probably should have saved before entering this room"

"D&D but the DM just wants to play Baldur's Gate 3" is me wanting to run BG3 as a campaign for my players. All the maps in the game already have a square grid, it's like they intended for people to actually do something with it!

@@helgenlanethey really should release this story as a module tbh.

@@heyfell4301Wouldn't be surprised if they eventually did since the prologue to it exists already with Descent into Avernus

@@Ashai I didn't know the two were connected (as I didn't play Descent Into Avernus). That's cool!

Plus it's not concentration (can't remember if it is in the TTRPG or not) so Wild Heart barbs can use it all day without having to worry about recasting it over and over.

Remember kids, at the start of the day you brush your teeth, wash your face, and cast speak with animals and longstrider.

@@pharaoh2426 and Mage Armor when appropriate.

@@pharaoh2426 wish it was that simple lmao, by the end of my summoner playthrough it was, gale: armor of agathis from magic item, darkvision, mage armor, summon familiar, summon minor elemental, summon elemental, raise dead, create undead. wyll: bind pact weapon, false life, summon elemental, raise dead. karlatch: shield of thralls, give gale his first and second level slots back. shadowheart: raise dead, create undead, aid at 5th level (once all summons are out of course).

@@Reapor234 Well actually in BG3 it depends where you get that spell from. I use Speak with Dead as a spell from the amulet, and my character has to use concentration on it being "ready". As long as it is there I can re-cast it anytime until long rest. I use it on my main character rogue assassin, so that fits since I don't have other concentration spells on me. At least for now.

I liked this about Warhammer 40k.

los works better with a solid object we use shashlik sticks for that

Wooden dowels snipped to a fixed length are also a good solution.

I’ll have to see how it works in practice, but I like this string theory.

@@Eantrin In our games we attach a string with the ring to all characters minis, and you can just move the ring until string is taut, and then just put mini into the ring or next to it so it doesn't take space. Works pretty well and you don't need to calculate squares every turn.

Yeah same with mage armour, speak with animals, and several others being made to last until you long rest. That change actually makes them worth while, they might be useful or even game changing normally but they just aren't worth using a spell slot for a one off or short duration. More often then not it's a wasted spell as you aren't going to get useful information or it'll run out to soon.

Wait, what? I found an amulet of Speak with Dead, and had Shadowheart use it. I assumed it was a hard once per long rest, so tried to avoid wasting it on random NPCs.

@@PhoenixBlazer39 Yeah from what I remember it isn't something the game outright tells you. You're supposed to just figure it out when you notice that after casting it the first time there are bodies that glow green and you get a recast Speak with Dead added to your "add to slot" options. There's tons of stuff in the game that it doesn't tell you and is meant to be a thing for people to figure out on their own. It's can kinda be annoying but allows for new playthroughs that can be very unique and different from your first as you discover new mechanics and areas you might of missed the first time.

For whatever reason, it's not the same button to cast Speak with Dead when you're trying to do a subsequent cats. It's its own button on the side. @@PhoenixBlazer39

​@@albacore3473 it also is bugged on console and doesn't auto add to the radial

I think one of my favorites was Mobile Shot with hand crossbows. It gave youa reason to use them over the other two.

@@collenjets123 hand crossbows are SO good in BG3, especially as a thief rogue. Three full modifier shots per turn? One of witch has sneak attack? At level three? its just *chefs kiss*. Then add crossbow expert at level four for no penalty in melee, or go sharpshooter for that tasty plus ten damage per shot.

Better than weapon masteries in my opinion. Even if it's more gamified, I like the varied and often more potent options with limited uses over the single at will weapon mastery per weapon.

They are playing around this for onednd, hopefully it sticks around

something i always try to encourage for martials is to "attack and." As in, its assumed by default you are attacking, so as part of your attack you should do something interesting. Interact with the environment, try to shove or trip or grapple an opponent, throw a table over, kick over a brazier and make a flaming mess, etc, and I find that really helps players get into the scene a lot more rather than just rolling to bonk then ending turn.

Absolutely. It makes Archfey flow way better when you can use its melee range abilities and teleport toward people instead of just using them to run away.

I've homebrewed that since Hexblade came out. There is no reason for it to be the level 1 dip ability when it is called "PACT OF THE BLADE". Make my blade do work for me, it's the magic thing!

As someone who loves swordlock and hates hexblade, agreed.

theres no hexblade

>don't have to take Hexblade You can't anyway because it's not in the game in the first place. Pact of the Blade was modified to be a more expensive copy of the only reason people dip into Hexblade to begin with.

Me carrying around 200lbs of random food, alcohol, and miscellanious items not knowing they added a feature if you never had enough camp supplies 😅

@@BiggieD17 Assuming you talk about BG3. Always use 'Send to Camp' on Supplies, don't keep them in your Inventory. You can use Supplies from the Camp Chest for Resting without taking them out beforehand.

Yeah, dude act 2 had me digging through everything i could in the hopes of finding food to survive, it felt oppressive and the constant rotten food was like the game was nailing in how inhospitable the land was, and made every random place feel important cus of the hope of something that doesnt expire like alcohol feel worth it. Digging through the ruins for a scrap so i might be able to rest was intense, especially with the threat of monsters jumping me. Now in act 3 food is a non issue and it feels so rewarding, like i fought through hell and now im in the light, in the sun, and everything’s gonna be alright. Despite the, yknow, murder cult and oppressive robo-guards, oh and the giant brain that threatens to turn everyone into mind flayers. We’re in a better place, but surrounded by even deadlier threats. Its such great progression

my only issue is that they give you way too much even on Honor mode. You can short rest every other fight and immediately long rest and you'll find 80 supplies before long resting again.

Really fun in multiplayer. I’m nuking enemies with a fireball, not noticing that my friend’s barbarian is charging straight into the blast zone.

This is such a great change for multiplayer. Me and a friend can take the time to figure out our turns at the same time. Kinda essential with 4 player characters.

I was almost done with Act 1 when I figured this out. My brain fogs up thinking about every time I skipped a character's turn because another character was in the way blocking line of sight or you know, the ability to get into range at all

acolyte background in 5e is literally the only one with a midly reliably useful feature, aside from outlander with the food thing but honestly who keeps track of rations

This is not unlike the World of Darkness games and their mechanics for regaining willpower. Do something consistent with the true nature of your character? Here have something that helps you succeed in your dice rolls.

This was one of the most readily exploitable ideas I saw in BG3 that would transfer to tabletop. It makes roleplay so much easier to reward, and it sets clear expectations for PCs.

This is actually in the rulebook 5e, it suggests if a PC encounters or overcomes their flaw thematically they could be awarded inspiration, or interact with any of their 4 backgrounds in some way

@@TheJerbol Boom, your group needs camp supplies. Outlander is useful and gets an inspiration.

if you could do unlimited short rest, classes like warlock you could just get the tough feat I think it is, full heal, and all spells back every short rest and complete the game without a long rest.

100%

​@@Thioleeasily fixed by adding exhaustion without long rests

​@@almightyk11Okay, when does the Exhaustion accumulate?

​​@@eugenides04once per day, not sleeping is exhausting. That is if you use one dnd rules

Conversely to that, in tabletop, the DM can dynamically adjust how much XP is given. Thus could make it a system in which XP is a way of saying how much you learned from that fight. Sure you can go into the sewers and murder every rat that moves, but after the first few, are you really learning anything new from killing a rat? Thus, have the rats giving diminishing returns on XP value, until they stop giving anything at all. Which is how IRL learning happens. If you're learning to play an instrument, then any random note will give you "XP" on how to play that instrument. Until it doesn't, and playing that same note teaches nothing. So you play several notes in series, etc..

I'd say the XP system works because it's being handled by a computer. :P Seriously, the main issue with XP is that it's hard to keep track of properly (especially because the numbers involved get silly big) rather than players going to grind levels.

And the DM can just go "no" or make rats worthless

The DM doesn't have to allow it. Also, regarding the XP system in BG3, it's kind of like milestone experience. You do get experience for killing enemies, yes, but since it's a game with no random encounters, it's more like you got experience for completing the encounter than for killing the enemies. In a tabletop sense, you can just make it so that even if they tried farming weak enemies, they don't get any experience. Otherwise every cat would be level 20 just hunting rats for food.

They can do that, and the DM can say "Rats are 1 xp". Or say that the players aren't able to find any rats. Or put a giant sewer monster down there to make the players earn their XP. You forget that the DM is not beholden to either the rules of D&D or the whims of the player.

The sad thing is it wouldn't be that broken if it weren't for the "cast more than one leveled spell per turn" thing.

Honestly it wouldn't even be broken. A second bonus action isn't really that powerful for most classes especially since you'd have to dedicate 3 levels to get it. A Sorcerer could use it to throw out 3 cantrips a turn, but that would burn through sorcery points way too fast. And 3 levels of Rogue really hurts Sorcerers since it stops spell and sorcery point progression. They'd be better off just going Warlock, Paladin, or Bard for more power and utility; or Fighter for action surge at level 2 and more survivability. Oath of Vengeance Paladin's could dual wield weapons, cast hunter's mark, and be able to use 2-4 smites a turn without additional multi-classing but again the 3 levels or Rogue will hurt their spell slot progression. They'd be better off just going Warlock to get powerful spell slots for divine smite and eldritch smite that can be used at the same time and some spells slots that come back on a short rest. Monks would benefit massively as they could get another flurry of blows each turn but Monks already have issues with ki points so an extra bonus action would just eat their ki points quicker so it balances out. Really the only 2 classes I can think of that benefit a lot from it without negatives are Ranger and Rogue. Rogues rely on sneak attack for damage so another bonus action helps increases the chances of hitting sneak attack and gives added utility. And Rangers are notoriously under-powered so a Rogue multi-class is often done as a Ranger for the sneak attack damage anyway so a second bonus action would help bring Ranger's up. Outside of them a second bonus action isn't all that powerful unless you're playing at like levels 16-20 where you can use Blade of Disaster or Crown of Stars that deal tons of damage as only a bonus action. For any other level there just really isn't anything insanely powerful that would make 2 bonus actions broken. At least not off the top of my head. I mean I guess you could do a two weapon fighting Rogue/Fighter which would have 6 attacks, 7 with haste at level 8. Or a dual wielder Rogue/Barbarian so you can use higher damage strength weapons in both hands that can hit 4 times a turn 5 with haste and the rage damage bonus at level 8. Then take 2 levels in Fighter to get two weapon fighting and action surge or a 4th level in Rogue and take the Fighting Initiate feat for two weapon fighting for the modifier damage on the bonus attacks. But even then it doesn't really make either of these broken it just narrows the damage gap between them and full caster classes.

@@-Offstar This is a good comment but please god break up the text a bit next time.

​@@-Offstarranger is nuts with it, totem barbarian is nutty when you get steed totem since rogue 2 lets you bonus action dash, also as someone abusing.. i mean playing a monk *its really good* with how good bonus actions are in bg3 getting them free is so cash money, especially with cunning action from rogue 2 Best multiclass in the game no question

@@Gaawachanwe got the fucking comment aficionado over here

Longstrider too right after every long rest. Feels so damn good. Hopefully they update the character creation/level up UI to show ritual spells are in fact ritual spells

@@hufismissing It is annoying when you don't know if a spell is a ritual or not, however when in combat some (if not all) ritual spells do still use a spell slot.

both being WHAT!??

Letting players full heal on Potions used as actions may be problematic. It would make the Potions more valuable and I could see players wanting to just save them for after combat so they can get the most out of each potion. That is if you have the full heal still happen out of combat.

@@kevinjackson7169 Right? It doesn't tell you in the spell selection in the level up screen! But also yes, they use a slot in combat - that's how BG3 handles rituals, as opposed to 5e where it adds ten minutes to the casting time. BG3 doesn't have extended casting time spells at all, so the distinction is just "in combat" or not.

Wizard: I cast fire bolt. Fighter: and I shoved that hag into the fire pit.

I mean it definitely helps because martials have a boost to physical stats comparatively, but realistically it depends on if your DM even has a complicated map set up in the first place. I was thinking back and can't remember too many instances where a full blown multi-layered map with good verticality was really used to much effect other than having different sightlines (like climbing on a roof). Many DM's just don't like the hassle of tracking the environment with that much detail, so alot of fighting feels 'flat' by comparison. Also it's not a good trade off fundamentally because it's not like casters can't push, they just don't have as high of a bonus. That's not as big of a limiter as "I'm melee focused, I have no magic and very few ranged options..."

Everybody has limited ranged options when you hit them with Command: Grovel

I agree completely. It feels so cool to have a string character in BG3 and just toss people around, while in 5e strength is almost worthless and you can easily build Dex-focuses fighters and paladins. But in BG3, I wouldn't do that - I want my barbarians, fighters, and paladins to be able to jump long distances to explore without wasting spells on fly/misty step and I wand them one-action killing enemies by pushing them off the map. One thing though that's worth consideration: In BG3, the maps have a TON of verticality and the levels have intentional death pits and lava pools and such. Doing this in 5e would be a lot of work for the DM - not only because it's harder to design, but how do you SHOW it to players? Even most VTTs don't support this well. So things like jumping, climbing, and shoving just don't come up in D&D nearly that often because the maps you play on generally aren't designed to make those sorts of things useful.

You can do that at the table too, though. You can even grapple, shove, then action surge and get 2 attacks with advantage while removing the enemy the chance to stand up because grapple keeps them at 0 move. This is at level 5. Shove is already a powerful action and using an extra attack is much better for those martials than utilizing their one bonus action.

O.o

Mage hand was pretty broken. Also everyone getting bonus action hide

@@ZtaticifyThere's way more broken things in the game than magic hand. They should have kept it as it was. It's up to the players if they want to cheese the hell out of the A.I with things like that. Because even if they choose not to, you can can absolutely obliterate enemies even without min/maxing. Hell, I found the game too easy on my first playthrough and I made my own rule to never use elixirs, haste, and free action item drops etc. After act 1'ish (mostly after lv 4/5), I almost never felt challenged. The viconia fight caught me off guard, but thats about it.

@@welkingunther4298 Were you playing on tactician? Did you do the optional fights like Raph? I'm not saying late game fights were exceptionally difficult, but without proper placement of your units and without some kind of strategizing to deal with the various fights "gimmicks" these fights would be nigh impossible. Raph in ascended form has a 10 meter wide 90 damage space lazer which if you dont space out your units enough (which is difficult in a fight that starts with 8 more cambions and he can summon even *more* units in) will likely one shot your spell casters/rogues/anyone who isnt inherently a bit tanky. Sure Shadow heart can res them all with a mass healing word, but thats assuming they dont get KO'd by cambions, and even if they don't, thats half your actions you're missing for a turn. Again not saying its exceptionally difficult to plan around, but how much more difficult can you make it than one shotting your characters on a given turn, as well as giving whatever is doing the one shotting immense amounts of sustain?

Absolutely. I also love the fact that sharing backgrounds builds a kind of bond between characters (role-play wise). For example, my MC and Shadowheart both have "Acolyte" so we are both inspired by the same things (and the party gets 2 inspiration points instead of just 1). This leads to neat moments where I'm like "We were both just blown away by that Selunite Ritual - that was friggin cool!"

Hells yes, this actually would make the Background relevant to how characters get played. The only time any of my character's backgrounds were relevant narratively was when I decided that my character was a bounty hunter and took that background.

Funnily enough. This is already how it works in Vampire the Masquerade and I think other World of Darkness TTRPG. They also allow you to have mutliple Willpower (inspiration), but with a limit, depending on your humanity stat I think.

@@666HeroHero I believe BG3 has a limit of 4 inspirations as well. I'm absolutely positive i've collected way more without using any, but i never seen more than 4 available. Tbh, i'm not generally a fan of having just one inspiration point, multiple but still capped is better imo

​@@666HeroHero As an oWoD player & GM myself, thank you for putting into words why I've enjoyed BG3's Inspiration mechanics so much. Since the game doesn't let us define a backstory, our Background is pretty much all of who we are until we start playing or choosing dialogue. I feel like the tabletop rules tried to do this well (separating "who you are" from "what was your old day job"), with Personality Traits, Bonds, Flaws, etc, allowing you to define in short phrases who the character is, and the GM can reward you based on matching roleplay. In practice, though, that led me to making single-page sheets with everyone's traits, and failing to react when they were triggered 😅

Yeah, while an hour rest can be good narratively I haven't found it used like that often, rather the narrative like being in the middle of a dungeon makes my friends reluctant to short rest because being undetected for an hour in the same spot, from patrols or responses to previous noise, seems infeasible. Not fantastic when a few classes are built around short rest resources.

Not sure how long you guys have been playing together or how experienced your dm is but that shouldn't be an issue. Short rest classes need the option, when i dm i always try to make it known that it's not gonna kill you to take a break. If it is something truly time sensitive ill roll during the rest for consequences but the time sensitive nature will be stressed before i start encounters so short rest classes can adjust and not burn out. Punishing a player for needing rests, even if it's just 1 player at a table, is something im extremely against personally. I've played them alot, dmed for them alot, they're really fun. They get alot less fun when you cant use your abilities because you'll be punished for it. Id try to stress that aspect the most, especially to the dm, if they have your back then that'll go a long way towards fixing the issue.

Monk and warlock have always been my favourite and parties running classes that don't care about short rest always ruined me. Cuz I'd either barely do anything for an entire day OR do a lot in an encounter or 2 and then totally check out for the rest. Having the on demand rest is so nice.

with my Open Hand monk, I'd stretch out sessions between long rests to as long as possible. Turns out you're supposed to long-rest as often as possible, as it's used to advance story with your partymates.

@@chuck9246 If there's the possibility of consequences for taking a short rest, people will want to avoid taking that risk. The real solution is to have short rests last 10 minutes instead of a full hour. Its easy to justify spending 10 minutes to rest, its much harder to justify a 1 hour rest when time is sensitive. Short rests are already limited due to the nature of spending hit die to regain health. At some point, you'll have to take a long rest, because you spend all your hit die and can't keep going.

same here lmao, I was like, "lets do this funny thing and get stupid drunk" and it popped up. Another reason I love this game, thinking about all the funny things players will do and putting them as actual achievements

You could make that a reaction to keep it semi balanced! If you react to the enemy getting pushed into you, you can hit them for bonus damage. If you're not able to react because you just deflected an arrow away from you, you get knocked prone or take some damage

@@johnparham655 Can even set it up as a ready action if you don't want to burn your reaction; and even probably add your teammates stats to damage in that case.

@@darkfire8008 readied actions use your reaction in 5th edition

There is also no class requirement for the scrolls in BG3.

Yeah, i think im just gonna restriction how common those diamonds are. Not every store is gonna keep a 300g diamond.

there's also the inclusion of a time limit for revivify. it's like 1 minute.

I tried to revive a certain pair of NPCs and got the message "target must be a player character" so there's that

Yea thats the only thing I disagree with about this video. If It pissed me off in BG3 when I couldnt revify npcs even ones that fight with you. Im pretty sure they just made it so you couldnt use revifify on npcs in the game because adding plot lines for if you revived each important npc wouldve been so much

I think the rule should be that you can’t cast two damaging spells in a turn. I don’t think it’s an issue to quicken mirror image and blow up enemies with a fireball on a single turn, but two fireballs in a turn is obviously too powerful.

@@talongreenlee7704 That is a good idea. Or you could set something up in your turn like quicken grease and then fireball.

@@talongreenlee7704 My Fighter with a Necklace of Fireballs knows what you're talking about. If someone has their heart set on casting two leveled spells in a turn, they'll just take the 2 or 3 level dip into Fighter. But, even then, a bonus action spell breaks Action Surge's usefulness for spellcasting, too, so then you're stuck with two actions you can't cast a leveled spell with if there's any bonus action spells you want that turn. It's so counterintuitive. Like, and by extension, what is even the intended use of Quicken Spell in the base design of 5E? Most scenarios without a specific multiclass and/or feat build in mind (both of which being considered optional variant rules if you'll remember), Quicken Spell is just worse for a straight Sorcerer than casting the given spell as an action would have been.

@@talongreenlee7704 Depends imo. I let my players do whatever with BG3 rules just for fun and... 4 fireballs are kinda overpower but it still used all his slots and he just sat there spamming cantrips. I would dare even say that Sorlock is stronger because hex + EB + quickened EB is stronger.

Can just make it so that you may cast one spell that affects enemies per turn, and one that affects allies in that turn. Problem comes with target all spells hitting both, probably clarify that it is considered hitting enemies in that scenario, just for the sake of semantics. @@talongreenlee7704

yeah its bc they let it actually draw aggro in BG3 so it would be too busted unlimited i think the tabletop works better where its just a purely utility spell

I really hate how they handled mage hand. During the drider fight I thought myself clever by using Stinking Cloud to neutralize them while they were grouped and snatch the lantern with Mage Hand... For my Mage Hand to be affected by the nauseous status. That doesn't make sense. Why is it treated like a creature?

Feather fall too.

Rituals are amazing, I don't want to imagine a world were they aren't

@@HeyzDexy They arent in normal 5e sadly

One concept I had is spell slots you locked into boons like long strider, magic weapon, and so on. (Or curses!)

Not saddly. Ritual means it doesn't cost a spell slot. So technicaly just knowing longstrider allows whole party to have extra 10ft. of movement for no cost whatsoever. Not that great, if it were to last until rest. @@TheGoodColonel

It feels like they made BG3's EXP system a mathematical milestone. Everyone gains xp, even if they aren't in the active party.

​@trentlewis1473 which helpful too because you be really annoyed dragging around level one Karlach because I recruited her after taken care the goblins

just double dip, bro ... talk your way out of as many fights as possible, but immediately backstab them as they're leaving the scene. LUL

Well, just give your players exp for solving an encounter, not just for killing. Pretty simple idea a lot of people suggested thousands of times already

exp is, well, experience. It makes sense that talking your way out of a nasty fight would give your party exp, they would learn a thing or two with that interaction

It does kind of kill the disengage as a bonus action's value some.

​@@uberculex For characters with high Athletics (usually Martial classes), sure. Your Wizard party member is still gonna want to have Disengage as an option, especially if they're using their Concentration on something important.

@@Bek359 wizards can try to shove and hope to get lucky since they aren't using the bonus action anyways. They usually use shocking grasp instead of disengage anyways

I think it helps even like greater healing potion isnt a ton on average, so not like your able to get your full health back with a click ala skyrim

It's also great in a coop video game because no one has to play a healer if they don't want to. My buddy and I co oped healer-less and just stockpiled potions and it was great

A neat rule a DM I know does is that you can choose to drink a potion as an action or a bonus action. Using a bonus action means you roll as you do normally, but using a full action means you automatically get the max healing.

Our table has actually used the exact same house rule for a long time and we love it. Being able to use an action to get that guaranteed 10HP on a basic healing pot is SO much nicer than using an action and rolling 4HP lol but giving the option to use a bonus action and risk getting that 4HP instead of the full 10.

That's how I did the Iron Throne section. Managed to save everyone (on tactician)

You can go SO far too cause of the insane range on Dimension Door. I feel like BG3 really puts into perspective how massively blown up the size is on a D&D battlemap. A 20 foot circle on a 4th level spell felt kinda meh before I played BG3 but now it feels absolutely MASSIVE.

Thunder Step works too, so long as it's one other character! It's 3rd level and even deals an AOE when you cast it. I used it in a game to save folks all the time. :)

@@Cressx I also saved everyone, but my Karlach bugged and skipped the last 2 turns so she and Shadowheart died. Karlach had dimension door boots and had enough time and actions to save them both.

@@dharmeshmistry342 It's too bad dimension door is so weak compared to the 5e version. 500 feet anywhere you can imagine, a nightmare to code in game I imagine.

I honestly think it would be a nightmare in tabletop, where the game already sometimes grinds to a halt with tabletalk. In BG3 combat resolves a lot faster because so many things are automated, so it's less of an issue (plus often it;s one person controlling all the PCs, so there's no tabletalk necessary)

@@dylanboczar999 I agree. If I in my own mind think "oh, I'll have the bard cast an AOE and then I'll have the cleric put Sanctuary on them" it's no big deal. But at the table this would be a massive conversation about turn order every single round with some people trying to plan, others insisting on going first, others still saying "I'm not ready yet you go first" and then still not being ready when it is their turn... it would be a lot.

@@Lord_zeel I do agree that it's definitely a discussed at session zero possibility kind of thing. I will say though I've had plenty of tables where, with a set turn order, people weren't ready when it was their turn so that aspect at least wouldn't really affect me lol.

@@dylanboczar999 of course anything rules related will be a group by group execution. I can easily see this as a way of making combat more interesting and if things are going poorly/taking too long then as a dm it's your job to step in i.e. "Hey you guys are taking too long person A its your turn act now or lose a turn". That said this could also be a good foundation for say mass combat rules group people up and have them share an initiative.

As much as I'd like to agree; BG3 did this as a "4 players are all going basically simultaneously let's not let them bog down the time" Tabletop doesn't GET that benefit since things have to resolve 1 at a time ANYWAY

My group has been pretty terrible. Some can't really play every week so its caused some schedule wonkiness. Within like, a year, we've started up several campaigns. So far death has actually been impactful for us, despite how uneventful people say it is. Mostly because we end up having a death before we can get 300 gold worth of diamonds or Revivify. While diamonds can bring back the dead you have to remember that 300 gold, is a lot within the fictitious economy. Not every tom dick and harry can afford one

Fabricate exists. Diamonds are just carbon, which is fucking everywhere.

@@gravehammer4095 Fabricate excludes difficult to make things like glass, and diamond is much harder to make than glass. Unless your wizard has proficiency with chemical vapour deposition tools or something, then its allowed

Yeah. At some few times I've actually used multi attack to throw a potion to the ground rather than the bonus action.

Nah. Bonus action is still much much cheaper than an action and potions are so abundant you can chug them every turn if you'd like. BG3 simply changed the balance of 5e and it expects you to use potions in combat. In 5e you use potions only to bring someone back or between combat if you don't have spell slots. If potions were an action in BG3, they would be useless because any action is 95% of the time more valuable than drinking a potion and you can take long rests infinitely.

@@helgenlane How valuable your bonus action is depends mainly on your class. For some it can be easy to justify just chugging something every turn but for others it is not quite as easy. Land Druid for instance does not do much with their bonus action so it is not that important, but Rogue often wants to use their bonus action to get advantage, change position or anything else.

and monk. Thief/fighter is hands down one of the strongest builds. Double bonus and extra attack GG

@@PowerSenpaiyeah, some classes get a lot more mileage out of bonus actions. my rogue almost gets more utility out of a bonus action than a normal action, but my warlock basically never uses thei bonus action because theres nothing to use it on other than potions

Agreed, wizards would drink a potion every turn in D&D, but in BG3 there are universal/item/illithid bonus actions that they might want to do instead.

You don't have unlimited potions in D&D and potions being actions mean that there is absolutely no reason to drink one in most cases.

I think there is a simple solution to this, that being for the GM to give players more abilities or (preferably) items that use bonus actions, like magic weapons/armor with useful bonus actions effects so that even for classes that don’t have bonus actions by default, there’s some opportunity cost to using bonus actions to drink potions. And I think having bonus actions in general is fun for players

@@silotx Ya, if im in a game where potions are an action, I'm basically never going to drink one in combat.

It's not even that bad. The healing isn't huge and as a DM you can give out less potions or use save or suck spells (which I'm pretty sure they already are) to guarantee more damage than the bonus action will heal.

Came here to type this.

Its also insanely good for hiding spellcasting (whether to get the drop on a guy youre talking to with a secretly caster fireball or to trick that guard whos questioning you that his boss is calling or really anything else).

Yeah but yeeting someone out of the word costs you loot and any info that person may have had. Also if you let players do it then the enemies get to do it too.... We're all had a character yeeted into the void.

@@tripp9278 in Baulder's Gate, if they don't have a name, 99% of the time, they have worthless loot and no information for you. Into the void they go!

Shove and jump distance are great additions actually. I would allow players to spend a bonus action to jump by spending only 5ft of movement, though I would also attach an athletics check to it. Shove distance is also fun, don't see how it would break any 5e game. But I hate it in BG3 because there are simply too many maps that go like that: succeed against shove or lose your character. It's not fun to kill a boss by yeeting them into void, it's not fun to get your character yeeted into void.

@@helgenlane oh I agree that shoving going farther off an athletics check, or a strong character would be awesome. But it's wildly powerful in Baulder's Gate with the sheer number of cliffs people enjoy standing next to. And the shoves also go like 30 feet, which is kinda ridiculous. Shoving someone 10 or 15 feet, might be cool, but yeeting someone halfway across a battlefield and off a mountain, into a hole to the under dark, as a bonus action, is a bit much, lol

​@@helgenlaneI don't think jumping with bonus action would be too popular amongst players, unless you remove the movement cost of jump distance. However, if the movement speed requirement is removed, it becomes a bonus action dash for strong characters.

I love being able to start a fight where my melee characters are a bit to far away with a couple range shots then switching back to melee for reactions.

I love that as a monk I can attack with a quarterstaff and still use my flurry of blows bonus action

@@chazconkey5888 you always could in 5e. Flurry just required a Ki point and a free bonus action.

@@Reapor234 then I'm stupid because in all my campaigns as monk I only ever used unarmed because I thought I couldn't use my bonus ki actions with a weapon(including monk weapons)

​@@chazconkey5888yeah you always could lol

He is going to turn his campaign into DOS2 lol.

He's going to add them and a few sessions later everyone's going to hate them. They work in a game setting because it is a game setting. You can reload, you can restart the fight, you see really far ahead of you and know there are there among other things. Non of that works in tabletop. It would also slow the session to a crawl as everyone would need to be mindful of them, even worse for caster "I want to cast fireball" DM""The enemy is standing on water, thus they are wet, thus they resist fire" or "I want to go in an strike at the enemy" DM "The path to them has acid, so if you step on it you will lose AC" and stuff like that. You can argue "Well, that would make it so players need to be more creative and think more" yeah, good in paper, in practice you now made combat more annoying and slower for everyone.

​@@taigaaisaka6305It all depends on how you implement it and how your table already does combat. If you're already using maps and minis(/equivalent)? Have either a variety of different shape/size "blobs" of colored cardboard to put on the map to very visibly show where the surface is. Could even ask the player to confirm that they're aware of the surface before commiting to an action involving said surface. That all said, if you don't use maps or if you don't think your friends would enjoy interacting with it, then sure, don't use it. I just really enjoy setting up situations like "Cleric casts Create Water>Wizard casts Lightning Bolt down mid for double damage."

​@@eugenides04I like it, but lightning vulnerability is just too strong. Vulnerability is extremely hard to come by in 5e, but in bg3 you can just throw a bottle of pee at your enemy and suddenly they take double damage from chain lightning? Maybe give them disadvantage on saving throws against cold and lightning instead of vulnerability. Still strong, but at least not broken. Otherwise yeah, I always wanted to do it in my games, but it heavily complicates things (have to keep track of all the surfaces and interaction).

@@helgenlane you DO take more damage from lightning and cold in irl. and what you said doesn't cover everything, like attacks with no saving throws. i dont know i think my flaming sword should do something extra to a guy covered in OIL.

Uhhh thst sounds dope! Need to try that next time. I just murdered all of the guards since no one will notice in the levels above xD

Yes! Also, silence works on the war drums in act 1, so the enemies can't call for reinforcements.

Silence also allows you to do infinite thunder damage to anyone around you every turn so long as you pick up the Harper trapped chest. Stand in the silence range and trigger the trap as many times as you want, you take no damage because silence reduces thunder damage to 0.

You can use cloud or dark cloud to hide the sight actually. :) But the silence and cloud combo would have helped me even better. 😂

that's EXACTLY how I did it. Got everyone out and never even had to roll initiative.

I love this

A month ago I too swapped to BA - roll for HP and Action - Max HP. I do have it as an Action to use a potion on an ally - still roll to heal in that situation though.

That sounds a lot like the Catnap spell

@@ZelphTheWebmancer yeah, but won’t cost a known spell, happens instantly and affects maybe all allies in a radius, only Vocal components and bard exclusive

@@lukesandadordoceu4835 I see, so it's like Catnap but better

@@ZelphTheWebmancer kinda

It is Bard exclusive though, so it's not gonna be relevant to every game.

I'd just go the lazy route that a mini short rest is 5 minutes per hit dice ( just enough time to catch your breath, tend a wound or have a drink to restore 1 dice worth of HP). This also puts a natural limit on how many rests you can have as monks/warlocks etc. can only rest by using one or more hit dice. This way the players can choose to roll the dice early for ki/magic up to their level/times daily but to do so they risk not having the ability to restore HP until they complete a long rest. If they start abusing short rests the DM can easily 'fix' the problem by reducing how much of their abilities come back per 5 minutes and/or impose exhaustion if they have not had an hour of downtime to eat/drink/rest in a 8 hour day.

Great idea. I'm stealing this. Thanks!

Even if the caster was dragged back in combat cast mage hand essentially every turn and push enemies down chasms while keeping out of the enemies range.

They could have just made Mage Hand not able to shove, since it's not able to in the tabletop and I really don't see it being so important to allow Mage Hand to shove

@@leechesg yeah, that should have been the solution here. let me manipulate the environment as much as I want, and leave my utility spells out of combat.

Yes, but no. You get inspiration even if you resist the urge. You don't get inspiration if you choose an option available to all other characters. Which makes no sense, considering that choosing those options also mean resisting the urge 🤦‍♂

As for the one thing I wanted to add to my campaign, but one of the players got wildly defensive about, was the change they did on some of the spells/potions being up for the whole day instead of silly time limits. Like, when I play my Druid in D&D I'd like to have free access to talking to animals, or anything else that makes me feel like a Druid. Now the use of a single spell slot is not that big of a deal, but it quickly can become more depending on what is going on. The same for some of the buff potions, in D&D I never really know when to use them as they are expensive as all HELL at times, but work for a single battle only. Changing both these things to being up for the whole day will give players a lot more choices, as it might be more worth it to stay awake and keep the spell/potion going than it is to avoid the exhaustion or something. It also allows players to prep ahead of time in some cases, basically gambling their spell slots at the beginning of the day in case they might need it. Ended up dropping it as I believe D&D to be an 'our' game and not a 'me' game, but still kind of confused as to why it was such a sore spot.

Quick exploit: if you talk your way out of a situation, you get XP and then killing the enemies DOESN'T give XP, which is neat... except if you save and load, in which case it now does ;p so a quick way to get some bonus XP if it doesn't bother you

On the other hand with XP, the DM can get the exact same feeling you mention with milestones by just handing out enough to level up when it feels appropriate i.e. completing an important objective.

Milestones are basically never needed in a CRPG (with proper design) thanks to not having to calculate things manually. XP numbers work very well in BG3 specifically because it's an either/or system

​@@satanhell_lordyou can actually get triple XP if you: Talk your way out of it -> Save and load -> Beat them unconscious -> Save and load -> Kill the unconscious enemies 😂

I've read how someone gave Tavern Brawler to Karlach and just threw spiderlings back at their spider mother with her, doing considerable damage.

Found my next character idea. Also throwing cups and mugs sounds fun too

@@KnicKnac Well yeah, but still in the game mechanics you'd better throw weapons that have "thrown" property on them, this way their weapon damage is added. I haven't played around with throwing stuff myself yet, but I guess you can carry a collection of daggers/axes or something. Alternatively you can be a Fighter Eldritch Knight and just use Bound Weapon, this way your weapon returns to you after being thrown. There's also a ring that adds some throw damage too, I don't remember where I got it.

@@cjnf11I can’t remember if it’s Arron or Dammon, but it’s called the Ring of Flinging and you can buy it for ~130 gold in Emerald Grove :3

@@helflower2025 Ah.. yes, of course, I, ah, totally bought it. With money. Yep.

Same and while getting the agency of the player with that 5% of fail It still encourages players to do impossible tasks because you have a 5% of sucess anyway like the 99 cd safe of the bank that there a puzzle to open It but If you get lucky you open it

I think that comes down to having to video gameify degrees of success/failure. Most of the time when I run games, if someone rolls a Nat 20 or Nat 1, I still take into account their modifiers, but sort of make something special happen one way or the other, which is easily done when it's all just the power of the imagination. As a video game designer you would have to consider a success, critical success, failure and critical failure outcome for every dice roll. So I think that for a video game, the 5% success or failure is fine.

a lot of people play 5e this way too. i do with newer/less crunch oriented players because crits and fumbles are super fun for lots of players. i also play with spell crits. I get if you were a primarily tactical player this unbalancing would be annoying, but tbh its just the most obvious place you can feel the swinginess of the d20, which is still there anyway i mean you can have a +12 to a skill and still fail a dc 15 check which is wild.

I don't mind it in skill checks, but I _hate_ it for saving throws. Love spending my highest level spell slot and overchannel to make an enemy caster with WC force to face with a DC30 concentration saving throw, and have them have a 10% chance of an auto-success on it.

@@Madasaur91 Spot on, game can't grade skill checks on a curve like we can as Game Masters.

I think the main thing that makes XP fun is that it makes players feel rewarded for the actions they take, even the small ones or for very easy encounters, it makes them feel like theyre still going forward and it gives a lot of control over their characters since they can decide the actions they take (assuming you give XP for non combat things as well). Yours is a cool idea but it still has the problem with players not really knowing when theyll get a "milestone shard", they won't feel rewarded for the actions they take they'll just feel like they got the milestone shard whenever the DM thought it was most opportune. You could make it so that you give frequent milestone shards for actions the players take, and making it so you require more than 4 to level up, but at that point it just becomes XP by another name.

Honestly when it happened I assumed it was a bug. A very weird choice to be surr

It a relic from their divnity games. Knocking enemies prone is key cc in those games. And I guess Larian really really loves that mechanic.

@@TheKillaShow The reason why nails are so valuable in DOS 2. Combine them with your boots to be immune to slipping on ice (which otherwise happens during your turn AND bypasses the immunity you'd get from still being armored).

It's always funny when you slip on the grease, though.

@@seb8523 wait WHAT???!! I never you could do that in DOS 2 :O so many combos in that games crafting system

It also helps to solve eternal problem of 2handed axe worse than 2-h sword and could be taken only for flavor. In bg3 big axe has slightly better special buttons than big sword.

Yeah turn undead literally moves them away so it's not a programming limitation as he speculated

Without a defined grid to measure with, distance is left to DM fiat and that can make or break an experience due to its inconsistency moment to moment. A grid is empirical and its fair to everyone

To be fair its also pretty unrealistic for you to know that the enemy can only move 30feet and keep a cheeky 35feet distance from them.

I don't think this is that big of an issue, warhammer does not use grids and it's fine just... a lot of measuring with tape.

@@blunk778 Um, rulers _do_ exist. But it's completely reasonable to not want to spend lots of time measuring everything. Which is a non-problem in a computer game, although they should really include a measuring tool for some situations.

There were so many fucking times where I was just CENTIMETERS out of reach of an enemy and couldn’t target them. Most frustrating shit ever. On a grid, where it looks more nebulous, I can easily accept that. But with how BG3 is all fancy free with its movement, it can be so annoying to CLEARLY be within greatsword swinging distance of an enemy, but the game doesn’t allow it cuz it’s tEcHnIcAlLy 5.0004 feet away or some shit

The only issue with that is that they are then pseudo-Maneuvers from Battle Master Fighters, so if the Cleaves and Lacerates get added you might want to think of some tangible benefit for BM fighters, like maybe an extra Maneuver slot (since you start with 3, you have 4 instead for example)? Or maybe 2 more superiority die?

@@0Roach_ I don't think it'd affect battlemaster fighters at all since they still get proficiency weapon attacks and battle maneuvers overall can do a lot more. If anything, it makes martials as a whole have more abilities to keep them closer to magic users in combat efficacy over time

@@0Roach_ I dont think Battlemasters will be worse for wear if weapons gave a minor alt attack/ability for being proficient with them. The only potential issue I see with it is causing combats to bog down a bit as players figure out which ability they have access to and if they have used the ability this long rest yet or not etc etc.

​@@TheKillaShowSo you mean, a tenth of the amount of choice the average high-level spellcaster gets on a turn? Just let martials do fun stuff lol.

@@HunterTracks They already do have fun, not my fault you only attack attack attack on all your turns.

"Why have alive NPC when dead does trick?"

Ew

Maybe it could just be toggled? I do the same thing. Good way of checking is just clicking the sword and hovering it over the target. Unless the pathfinder does some insane reroute, which will be visible, it’ll tell you if you can do it or if you need more movement

Same!

I don’t think I’d mind if it was one or the other but the fact that it can so easily end up as both is frustrating as heck

Thats exactly what bonds traits and flaws are there for

could just limit quickened spell to being usable only if the full action isnt used as a leveled spell

bg3 did also somewhat counteract this by increasing the cost to 3 sorcery points instead of 5e's 2

This is true. But the game lets you bonus action and regular action leveled spell

​@@himedo1512BG3 is balanced around it to be fair, at the table, healing word and misty step should have an opportunity cost.

​@@Y00biHealing Word, sure (at least unless you copy BG3 and rule that characters lose their action for a turn when they get revived), but Misty Step is typically a fairly poor use of a spell slot outside of very specific circumstances.

@@himedo1512 Yeah bg3 does. Too many times people think in the ttrpg the rule is only one leveled spell.

Honestly BG3 has let me see how useful really simple lvl 1 spells can be amazing on the tabletop, like Grease! Who would have thought Grease would be the reason my party survived an encounter with an Ice Giant when we had already fought and killed a sea hag and were exhausted. Grease on the giant, giant has low dex. Giant failed his save on the Grease three times in a row including a Nat 1 where he fell on his own axe for damage. Beautiful.

I saw Dungeon Dudes mention those additional weapon abilities and how one D&D should just copy those entirely. They are flavorful and give different weapons actual differences rather than just flavor.

I wish they were per battle though. It doesn't make any sense you have to rest to use those only once.

Which also emphasizes the usage of other weapons rather than the one with the biggest dice

@@Wilsonbism I mean tbh I think the emphasis is already there since shields are a thing. By Act 2 I had every person in my party with an AC of 19-21. So barring the fighters/barbarians who benefit more from two-handed (either great sword or axe) everyone else had shields and therefore mixed it up with the more varied single handed / versatile weapons.

@@cjnf11Some of them are pretty strong skills. ESPECIALLY some of the custom abilities special weapons get. And in BG 3 you short rest alot so they are almost always available. People really underestimate how stong some of the skills are. Take the simple Lacerate. Bonus bleed damage + BLEED GIVES DISADVANTAGE ON CON SAVES so bleeding an enemy opens the door for blinds and poisons to land much easier which then gives your party advantage on lots of other things vs them. Same thing with pommel strike and backbreaker opening up future attacks. These are honestly very powerful. That being said, weapon abilities per battle instead of short rest prolly isnt THAT big of a deal. I'm just saying those abilities are much more powerful than they seem at first blush.

yeah and the lethargy round afterwards makes it so you freak out a little after it runs out. Don't know if this mirrors 5e?

@@zbnmth That is usual, so yes, while it can turn the tide of the battle, it is of the utmost importance to keep your twin spell haste sorcerer away from the battle and in safety

In Pathfinder 1E, bards have varying levels of inspiration spells that add X bonuses (+3, 2d4, etc) to allies as an immediate action (reaction in 5E) and this game just uses that idea for guidance. It's amazing!

Dunno, I just tell my DM that "I ask the cleric for guidance before that". Though guidance in dialogues is actually weird because that's not natural to cast random spells when you talk to someone.

I love it for bardic inspiration but not so much for guidance because inspiration is a resource that still needs to be considered when handing it out. Allowing guidance to be cast as a reaction without cost trivializes skill checks and proficiencies

Maybe I'm lucky but I've never played with a DM that would be that much of a dick, unless it was a reactionary type roll (like avoiding a trap for example, but that's not a skill check). If the Fighter wanted to make a mighty leap and the DM asked to roll Athletics, he would certainly allow the Cleric to cast Guidance before the Fighter jumped.

@@geltric4779The game has shown it kinda doesn’t though. If a character is good at something it’s just extra insurance against failure. If a character is bad at something it can mean the difference between failing and succeeding (and even then still not cut it since it’s just a D4) Guidance imo is just as much of a class ability as any other. It costs a cantrip slot which can be used on a lot of other very useful spells and it’s not available to everyone.

Also Open Hand's AOE ability is crazy good in a way Monk usually couldnt really do

spamming flurry of blows is a terrible way to play monk.

Two bonus actions is not "subtle" as a buff. Certainly not with things like the changes they made to dual wielding hand crossbows or with other bonus action attack abilities. Thief is a killing machine.

I meannnnnnn... there are a few really nice changes, a few "WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?" changes and then a lot of "Eh I don't love it but I get why they did this"

@@genericusername546 I can think of one for sure that belongs in the middle *as I watch my bae karlach get knocked, brought back up, able to do nothing because no action just bonus action so use a potion i guess, and then knocked again because healing often means nothing in the middle of combat, and then repeat that cycle for another fucking 3 rounds until she finally gets to attack the one guy thats left*

@@yuugur666 Now imagine it's a multiplayer game and it's the only character you get to control.