I always wanted to play D&D and/or a crpg and now I see the hype about BG3, but when I watch streams and let’s plays I don’t understand most of the jargon.
- So how beginner friendly is it?
- Are there good tutorials?
- Are there difficulty levels, like less mechanics for beginners? I found the UI a bit overwhelming.
- How frustrating is it if you don’t understand the mechanics at first?
- How long does it take to learn the rules? How complex are they? Do I need to remember stuff like: oh I can only cast this if the day of the month is a prime and the mother of the target was born under the sign of zock or can I just happily nuke everything with fireballs?
- I have only time to play on weekends. Is it easy to get back into the game or do I need to remember most of the past story to enjoy it? So is it casual player friendly?
Thanks.
I play this with my GF who knows DnD, but other than that I basically went into this knowing nothing about the rules.
It feels a bit overwhelming at first, but the basics are pretty simple in the end. This is pretty much the kind of game where you don’t need to create the most optimal “build” to do something.
Here’s my quick tutorial from a noob to other noobs:
- Pretty much everything is a roll of some kind of dice. 1d6 means 1x six sided dice (so you get 1-6). 2d8 means 2x 8 sided dice (you get 2-16).
- In dialogs you can often say something and it does a check to see does it succeed. E.g. you can lie (Deception), you roll a 1d20 and you need to get at least e.g. 10. You can be proficient in Deception so you get bonuses to your roll. Your Charisma also gives bonuses to Deception rolls and to many other. You can be the best liar and still fail. Or you can be the worst liar and still succeed.
- You can also some times get Advantage to your rolls meaning you throw 1d20 two times and use the better roll as your result. You can have Advantage on attacks too and it rolls the approriate dice for that. Disadvantage is the other way around. Two rolls, use the worse one.
- Combat is turn-based. You can move, do an action (usually one per turn) and one bonus action (usually also one). Any order. Attacks are usually “actions”, utilities are usually bonus actions.
- If you are a spell caster you have spell slots. Spell castings are actions or bonus actions, bur they also consume spell points. Cantrips are spells that do not consume spell slots. Level 1 spells consume level 1 spell slots. Level 2 spells consume level 2 spell slots and so on.
- After fights you usually need to rest. You can do two short rests to regain some hit points. In the end, you need to do a long rest which will replenish your spell slots and all hit points.
- There are bunch of class specific things like Warlock spell slots that replenish on short rests or Fighter’s superiority dice that are used for more powerful attacks or abilities.
These are the very basics that came into my mind. Some additonal advice would be: don’t try to min max your character and just have some wholesome fun!
That’s a fantastic summary of the beginner rule set, for sure. Great job!
A couple things worth noting:
1.) With regards to “skill checks” (you mentioned “In dialogs…”), the Difficulty Class or “DC” is set to describe how challenging such an action is to succeed at. You mention “you need to get at least 10”, but that’s for a DC10. Depending on the intended goal and chosen course of action, the DC can be as low as 5 or as high as 20+ for the nigh-impossible… and “natural” 1s or 20s (straight die roll, no modifiers) will trigger a “Critical Failure/Success”, respectively — though that’s an optional rule IRL gameplay. I mention this to keep new players from going into every skill check assuming the DC to automatically be 10… and perhaps even building their characters’ advancement to target that average (which would begin to fail quite often mid-game and beyond).
2.) Party members within 30ft (IIRC?) of each other can take turns simultaneously, often swapping actions between them (yes, even in multiplayer!🤩), making for really fun combos and setups, if you plan accordingly. For instance, your warlock can Hex a target to give Disadvantage on the specific attribute the baddie will use to Save against (ie. a defense roll, essentially) the nearby wizard’s spell coming at them right after.
e.g. Hex(Wisdom) + Dissonant Whispers == fun times, but Hex(Dexterity) + Fireball/Lightning/etc. == classic boomstick shenanigans.
3.) There is SO much content added since I last played the beta, that even my most recent playthrough of the first 6hrs or so is only barely adjacent to any previous run. It’s incredible how lush this game world is and I’m barely cracking it open so far! Have fun with it and never hesitate to start a new character, or reload an old save game to try a new angle/path. 🥳❤️
That’s a nice explanation on the basics.
Really nice write up!
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it is definitely different in the sense that different characters (race, class, skills, and abilities) play a major role in dialogue choices, so it is important to pay attention to conversational choices because they will influence the nature of your game. Whereas most RPGs I’ve played before, you might have dialogue options, but you essentially get to the same outcomes.
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The in-game tutorials are mostly for UI/functional options. As another community member suggested, might want to watch a quick tutorial video. There are a bunch out there.
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There are 3 difficulty levels. Default is normal. I would suggest drop it to he story level to start out. The biggest differences between story and normal I know of or have experienced are 1) no multiclassing in story 2) mobs hit a bit harder/your spells don’t hit as hard in normal mode 3) finding random things with perception checks occur way more on story mode.
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like any new games, trial and error. Quick save often!
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The only real rules deal with combat. You can sneak into an area and as long as enemies don’t see you (noted by the red on the ground while in sneak mode) you can do anything until enemy sees you or you hit them with something from range. After that, it is turn-based and will use the D&D rules. Each turn has 3 things you can do 1) movement, 2) action, 3) bonus action and you can generally use them in any order. Once all those are done, end your turn and it’s the next enemy or players turn. It would probably be beneficial to watch a quick video guide on basic combat rules. Each class has different advantages and limitations, so might want to watch a guide on whichever class you choose to play. You will learn as you go along. Again, remember to save frequently! Even as semi-experienced players, my husband and I are always trying new things and reloading the game to redo when we mess something up.
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The game is very casual friendly. It will take a long time to finish it, but you won’t need to remember all the details. There’s a journal to remind you of new and completed quests.
Honestly we are having the most fun exploring things and trying different dialogue options. If we feel we don’t like the outcome, we just reload a previous save and try again until we are happy to move on.
There is no right way to play the game. Just enjoy the story and exploring. Happy adventuring!
PS - save frequently!
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I’m not going to lie, this game is pretty tough at first when you don’t understand the systems. I played all of their previous game Dos2 and I used to play a bit of 5e and I still found it surprisingly difficult. There’s also a lot going on on screen with passive checks rolling all the time. It’s just a lot. That being said it is absolutely worth it to slog through and learn everything there is to know. This is absolutely a game worth knowing if it seems up your alley. I highly recommend checking out videos from Fextralife, WolfheartFPS and Mortismal on YouTube. They all have great coverage of the game and you will learn a ton.
I’ll leave you with one video I would recommend to beginners that covers the combat system in BG3. https://youtu.be/EjGMn3e3NVo
I’d recommend starting as a fighter or barbarian. They are simpler to play from a mechanics perspective. I’d probably watch a “dnd 5e for beginners” video.
There is a difficulty slider but it doesn’t affect how many mechanics. I’d recommend starting on exploration mode because even normal difficulty can be tough
Thanks
Coming from the MMORPG and action/clicky games like WoW or Diablo, the biggest tick for me was new camera controls. I felt similarly starting with Divinity Original Sun 2 (another Larian title)— but I think jumping into skills/abilities etc is ripe for fun experimentation (my perspective from Mac early access at least)
As a non-D&D player I’m still struggling trying to remember what things like Advantage, Proficiency, Expertise, and stuff like that mean exactly from memory. When you’re in the game if you see any highlighted word in a tooltip you can press T and it will keep the tooltip open and you can hover over a lot of the words/elements to get a definition of what it means. Very helpful for those of us that don’t play D&D.
Also, check out this interface/mechanics video if you do pick up the game. It explains A LOT of things that will help you have a more enjoyable experience. I thought I had a solid understanding of the mechanics and interface and this video alone probably double my knowledge.
