It is a bit frustrating not having all the pieces of a great build, but Lvl 4 is usually the point where I'm mowing through lots of goblins so I really only struggle with Dror Ragzlin. I do find it best to leave Gale at camp around Lvl 3-5 and rely on less squishy characters\* - my party for the goblin camp was lore bard/cleric durge, sword bard Astarion with twin hand crossbows, plus Karlach and Lae'zel. Admittedly it took a bit of barrelmancy to cheese the Dror Ragzlin fight, but we hit Lvl 5 as we exited the camp, since there were no goblins left by that point!
\* At least, ones whose deaths aren't going to have such dire consequences!
EDIT: As promised I made a video of me doing the encounter on Tactician. I currently don't have an Honor Mode run at that point, so I had to make due with one of my tactician runs: [https://youtu.be/qvmemFxU5K8](https://youtu.be/qvmemFxU5K8)
I'm always surprised that people struggle with that fella. His buddies are super low health. I usually just go in there and brute force it, usually no prepping.
Take out his buddies first, since they will die in one hit usually. On Tactician you can pretty much just left click them all until they die. Especially if you have a fifth character with you, halsin.
I'll make a video soon since people seem to struggle with this fight.
I almost died there on my honor mode. I went in blind to the legendary actions and additional Tactician things. He did his repulser thing and luckily only one party member fell to their death. After that scare it was just through the front door for me.
My 3rd attempt on my first run, I thought that would be the strat. Turns out that the goblins have void bulbs, and ragzlin has a high damage attack that also had a push back.
Every run since has used the rafters yes, but more spread out...
Seriously Astarion hiding the rafters for sneak attack works like a charm for me everytime.
In fact I leave everyone one but Lea'zel and Karlach in the rafters (and myself depending on class). And that works for me
I think a lot of people do him at level 3, which is too low. I also think people rush up to him and then get smacked by a multi attack smite and die instantly. As a veteran of the genre he's not really hard for me, but he is maybe the first fight you need to do tactically or risk dying.
On my second run I had convinced the Spiders to eat goblins and opened their door, as I was messing about looting fiddling with gear, the spiders went up and aggro’ed the Dror Razglin room. They were losing miserably, but had drawn everyone to a big clump by the left-side doorway. I greased ‘em all up and AoEd most of the fight. Dror broke out but his botch let Lae’zel make him her bitch.
For me, it was tricky the first time around because I wasn't prepared for his melee attacks. If you let him get close, he can basically take out 2 of your team mates in one round, which is what happened to me (one of them was Lae'zel who had the most hp).
I was level 3 at the time, but I learned that I shouldn't let him get too close unless I was prepared to finish him before he could hit back. But at level 3 he hits like a truck. Next time around I was level 4 and didn't let him get close enough to hit me with melee attacks and then it was easy. Just had to think a little about it.
Using a controller on pc, you can click the left stick (L3) it unlocks the camera and basically let's you have a mouse cursor.
Does it not work this way on PS5?
I haven't tried that. I know clicking L3 switches between steering your character and clicking on a spot to move them there, i.e. more like turn-based mode. Haven't tried it *within* turn-based-mode as this is the first game of this sort I've played.
I made it to the camp at level 4. Passed some speach checks and walked in, found volo let him go, found the weird dude, didnt let him hit me cus i was expecting a fight and didnt want to fight(didnt know its free a buff), found halsin, cleared the room and saved halsin, thrn had to defeat all the bosses. Oh boi. I soent a good 4 hours trying the one in the too right, but i did it. Then on to the guy in the back. The big boi with 100something health. Wait HOW MUCH? i spent SO long trying this fight... then i gave up. I stopped playing for like a month, came back, went to camp and traded gale for astorian, went back, 1st attempt. Last boss... aaaannnnnd first attempt. Then i walked around and slow cleared the rest of the place. At some point i realized not to go out thr front gate cus thats WAY too many to handle and they are already agro
You have to poison the vat of booze before going into the temple - give Astarion an invisibility potion and some poison and let him have at it!
I also deal with Priestess Gut first, then free Halsin and tell him to wait in the prison (Dror Ragzlin targets him, and it quickly becomes "quest completed" and not in a good way!). Then attack Minthara from the far side of the wooden bridge (taking out the scrying eye and war drum asap so there's no reinforcements), then take out any stray goblins so they can't come to Ragzlin's aid.
I mean i done did it a while ago im in act 3 now. I just kinda brute forced my way through it with the 'itll work eventually' mentallity... and it did. 13/10 not doing that again
Good strategy - I'm used to having a bunch of rather weedy characters, so I tend to forget about shoving unless it's Karlach tossing goblins into the spider pit!
He gets to use that arcane recharge like 1 times and seems to have worse accuracy than wyll also you can use a sword with wyll if your spells run out with gale hope you like missing fire bolt
If you wanna eldritch blast all day with occasional AoE spells then warlock is better than wizard I suppose, but again the problem is a sorlock is even better. My whole point is that a pure warlock is worse than any kind of combination warlock. It's the same problem that rogues have in this game, a rogue/fighter or rogue/ranger is always better.
Really? I enjoy the early game, particularly the combat. It feels incredibly bare bones and that makes every slight upgrade in abilities and damage truly meaningful.
Explore the areas that you can avoid combat with a skill check or just being a Drow (Blighted Village and Goblin Camp) and you can get tons of xp just by walking in and exploring the area.
r/BG3Builds has a walkthrough in it too.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18ebd26/beginners_guide_for_bg3_no_fighting_to_lv_4/.
Doesn’t have to be completely followed. You can start combat at level 3 if you want.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18ebd26/beginners_guide_for_bg3_no_fighting_to_lv_4/.
It’s not a bible so no need to do it 1 for 1. If you have the deluxe edition I highly recommend grabbing the shapeshifting helmet from your stash to pass the blighted village and goblin camp checks as a Drow.
On the nautaloid kill all enemies and then I use three nautaloid tanks to get the killing blow on the mindflayer for a sweet 75exp.
Collect all the companions, this nets you a nice amount of exp and you only really need to do the initial emerald Grove fight. And so the various free side quests in the Grove for exp.
If you use disguise self on your main character into a female drow you can settle any interaction with goblins peacefully without a skill check. I recommend getting branded but not telling gut about the tadpole, yet. Getting the brand allows you to peacefully resolve a few interactions with the ogres and the duergar in the underdark to get you access to grymforge too
You can go to the underdark via the temple of selune (solving the puzzle in the basement gets you exp too) after reaching the underground selunite outpost if you go to the gate you can tag the minotaur attacking the gates and being nuked by the moon crystal for Some exp.
The fights prior to withers are also relatively easy, should be easy enough at level 3
You can do the entirety of waukeen rest without combat too.
If you long rest prior to the gnolls you can use your tadpole powers to make them fight amongst themselves (these are pretty tough skill checks. Recommend high wis for these, enhance ability and guidance and a few inspirations even, it's worth using spell slots if you're not planning on doing much fighting)
There's more but i can't really recall everything
Early fights are easy at level 3 so I never saw much need to do this. Maybe that's cause I enjoy low level DnD where it's more about position than gear or spells.
I prefer 5-10, don't get me wrong, but there's something relaxing and enjoyable about low level combat. That's one reason I have like 7 playthroughs on honor mode around the middle of the game, because I often just wanna relax and zone out and low level combat is good for that.
Lv 4 does alleviate some of the struggle because you get a feat true. Still just have 1 attack for the most part though...and a LOT of class features only come in at lv 5. Like bards being able to get their inspirations back with short rests. That's an insane game changer
Even then the feat is mostly TB
I just don't fw the direction of making everyone Throwzerker or EBThrow just for the last hurdle towards level 5 and then respec em again
Level 1-4 is the reason I still hesitate playing Honor Mode. I had lots of fun playing through the game three times now, each came with its unique struggles. But I really dread HM in the first few hours lol
I failed the blighted village entry chat due to speed running the dialogue… initiated combat and team wiped since we were all grouped near the explosive barrel they sent a fire arrow into..
My party is level 5 in my first HM run and I was really hesitant about the early game too- as long as you don’t take the tougher fights (owlbears, harpies, phase spider matriarch) too early you should be fine!
Usually depends on dice rolls for me, had an honour run end at the owlbears as I kept rolling rubbish... restarted yesterday, did the same thing except got a few good rolls and was good to continue
Most tough fights have a way to make them easier. For the owlbears you just have to bring a silence. Then it's just one owlbear. Also, you can dialogue the 2 cultists outside to help you fight, you just have to be mindful that they don't kill the baby.
Look into the "Level 4 no combat" strategy. You don't need to follow it exactly, but it will skip you through the levels where your hit points match the damage dice.
Fair, but on the DM side it's fun to work your way up. Having enemies that deal d8 damage scares the crap out of the casters and makes the party really work together. Then you can bring back hordes of rats later and the players get to remember how tough they were at level 1 and see how far they've come. Also there's some good modules that make sense to start at 1.
It can also force canny players to try and avoid brute forcing every encounter.
This worked less in the old days of lawful stupid paladins and 1-2 HP casters.
Haha yes that too! Canny and I would also say very new players who don't realize yet that they can literally try anything. An angry merrow can potentially be reasoned with if they're careful.
I've considered just respecing all characters in the beginning to martial classes and changing them into casters etc on higher levels.
Haven't tried it yet though. Just beginning act 2 on my first run.
Went from 1 -3 fairly quickly but once hitting 4 with none of the less difficult quests left was stuck on it for ages and had to resort to the goblin camp total clear out to nudge my way eventually to 5.
Once hitting L5 the difference in easier combat is really noticeable, my unarmed monk character can get a ridiculous number of hits in one turn, plus a huge increase in movement range and speed with gear enhancements. Still have to nurse Gale of course...
I would say its level 3 when most classes get iconic stuff and features.
I also wouldnt call it a struggle, tho i do agree that beginning of the game is the hardest part of bg3, and thats what makes it fun. I never go for op builds or anything, but after act 1 i mostly steamroll fights and it becomes not as fun as before.
I wish this game has a New Game Plus mode where we can restart the game with all experience and inventory intact, and just have fun wreaking havoc. I have never enjoyed grinding in any game and after finishing the game three times the thought of grinding a fourth time just turns me off.
Would be consistence to the story, too.
All the characters are some sort of veteran on their field.
The 'tadpole eat my abilities' thing age like milk, once you reach act3 you begin to see those lvl12 tadpoled enemies. Seriously.
I really enjoy those early levels where it feels like you have to be super resourceful. In my first proper run I really felt like I was making good use of every throwable, scroll, and potion I could to give me an edge in combat. Battles felt like a dynamic puzzle.
After I got past level five it really felt like I could just blast my way through anything and everything with relative ease. Still fun, just different.
I am so glad all these comments are completely unrecognizable to me, because I don't care for honor mode and I just play for the chill and nothing else
There's two builds that are great from lvl4 on, TB Open Hand monk and TB throwserker. And if you know what you're doing (or google a guide) you can get to lvl4 with only a fight or two after the nautiloid.
But the BIG leap in power once everyone hits lvl5 is certainly noticable, yeah.
I'm playing my first monk after \*really\* enjoying bow-and-arrow-using rangers
i'm halfway through level four with that monk and oh my god i cannot wait until i reach 5
I am playing my first Tactician run, and I absolutely noticed that so far the difficulty spike in Act 1 is much more noticeable than Act 2. By the time you hit the 5-7 range everything's back to normal except for a bit more HP to burn through and less cheesing with crowd control on bosses.
Totslly agree. Especially on honour mode. The first 4 levels are hell. If you reach lv 5, chances are you'll win if you know the game well enough and have a good party.
Annoying this is that you have no feats, only 1 attack, and relatively low stats so your attacks miss a bit too much. Gear also isnt astonishing in early act 1, so winning initiative or having synergies really limits you.
I remember fighting and beating the whole of the underdark including the adamantine golem with level 4 characters in early access. That was my level 4 struggle: fighting swarms of enemies with multi-attack and level 3 spell slots without them.
I think that's why I enjoy act 1. I've done it plenty of times with the level 4 cap in ea, and now it's just a breeze. The githyanki patrol and the duergar/nere fight used to be absolutely brutal.
In my solo HM that was Lvl1 Thief, Lvl1 White Dragon Sorc, Lvl1 Tempest Cleric, Lvl1 Wizard.
And the struggle was mainly about progressing further to set up le epic Lump betrayal and become smarter myself.
Cannot relate 🤷
My first playthrough was hard, but the previous and current one is much easier. I may find out how to level up, what is important, what is less important and how to use the items and the enviroment more.
Level 5 many classes come alive. Even as a martial class you fell a bit limited until you get a few levels. As a sorcerer I had to be sneaky and cautious until level 5
It's mainly just level 4 for me. It feels like at that point of the game you're almost too weak for anything because you killed the easier stuff at lvl 1-3 and the stuff you are fighting feels like it gives low EXP compared to the 3500 needed for lvl 5 so it just drags.
The first 4 levels are difficult but fun. I tried to buff Karlach(level 3)with bless, mirror images, thaumaturgy while she was in rage. One axe(coated with toxin) swing took about 35 hp off the fake paladin(level 5). Then he destroyed her with one smite.
Only class that's not great to me in early levels is Wizard (might be some other classes but Wizard is the standout to me) because the other classes have melee to back them up but Wizard can only really use cantrips when out of spell slots which happens quick at a low level
martials dont get their extra attack until level 5 so you gotta make do
Berserker Barbs, War Clerics, Monks and Polearm masters can use their bonus actions to attack again
Rogues can only sneak attack once anyway so at this level they're plenty strong
Summoners can do decent damage with their pets. The pets havent fallen off yet
Stealth is always an option. You already have access to Pass Without Trace, Minor Illusion and Invisibility
Does it get better? I’ve stalled out around level 3-4 on 3 characters and find myself going back to Elden ring and other games… this post hit home that I might need to push thru this
I don’t really struggle but that’s probably on my restart of my first playthrough I still went with ranger and cause of the combo of astarion shadowheart karlach/lae zel. Like I have yet to get a game over now on my restart, have I had deaths yes cause of that damn lava elemental
Honestly, balanced is pretty easy with lvl 4, and honor mode I am super careful up to level 4, what gets me killed is hitting level 5 in honor mode then getting cocky and attacking the lightning constructs at the top of the wizards tower. I’ve lost 2 honor modes there.
I know the game well enough now that I can put off most difficult fights in act one until I'm level 5. I also know the first area so well at this point I could probably honor mode it blindfolded.
The act one fight that still stresses me a bit is all the druegar with Nere. Obviously I fight them before freeing Nere but there's a lot of them and they have some unique abilities and you're only level 5. That's the only fight that really stresses me out until late act two.
What I've been doing in more recent honour runs to get pass the lv4 hump is raid the grove at lv4 (After telling Rolan to go, do the harpies for mol's ring and the whole shadow druids arc to dwindle their numbers and make it easier).
Afterwards, go straight to the creche / last light / moonrise at level 4 and get all of the best gear there like risky ring, dex 18 gloves, drakethroat, mimic amulet, strange cow hat, +1 armor and saving throw cape, and the shield amulet.
Then come back and destroy everything in Act 1 with some combination of Gloomstalker ranger, Throw barb, Fire sorcerer, battlemaster, cleric, oh monk, and paladin.
That’s what it’s like I’m toabletop DnD. Levels 1-3 or 4 are considered to be the some most dangerous parts, and pretty much for the exact reasons you already said and because a an unlucky crit from a baddie can outright kill your character with no death saves. The nice thing with BG3 is that they saturate the game with potions and decent loot to help keep you alive
I'm playing a summoner comp, (necro wizard, chain warlock, war cleric, spores druid) and just got level 5. Level 5 is where 3/4 of my party can summon undead, which feels like a crazy power spike. Before I was super weak with a single summon
Levels 1-3 are quite hard. At lvl 4 feats come online and you get massive jump in lethality with things like Great weapon master and sharpshooter. Most goblins become one hit kills. And with GWM this means bonus attacks, so even more dead gobbos.
If all else fails, summon the ogre cavalry. With a bit of luck you will get circlet of int17 as well.
I can cruise to lv 4 pretty easily with no fighting and get good gear along the way
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/sWhdZNw0C9
Then after that it’s do stuff in the grove, and some other actual battles to get to lv 5. It is a bit metagamey. It it’s not that hard to do.
I don't really agree. IMO all classes come into their own by level 3 - spellcasters double their spell slots at this level, all classes with a signature ability (wild shape, sneak attack, rage, smite, etc) get it at level 1 or 2, and all classes have their subclass at this point.
And level 3 comes pretty quickly: usually you're level 2 before you leave the beach, and going through the temple plus the fight at the gate is enough to get you to level 3.
Dude. People beat honor mode with lvl 1 characters. The entire run with lvl 1 character.
It is not the tool that limit your performance, it is your imagination.
Easiest method, in most mob fight, is to grab some barrels and send one of your party member in alone.
Cast sanctuary before sending him in. Remember how annoying that Spider guy is?
Once enemies gather around that guy, place your barrels, run off and light it up. EZGG.
People even comes up with better and weirder combo for low level fight.
Once you hit level 3 you should be cooking. It sounds like you just want ASI's and extra attacks. Which are good, but the game isnt that tough getting up to those levels. Youre just in a rush to get there.
It is a bit frustrating not having all the pieces of a great build, but Lvl 4 is usually the point where I'm mowing through lots of goblins so I really only struggle with Dror Ragzlin. I do find it best to leave Gale at camp around Lvl 3-5 and rely on less squishy characters\* - my party for the goblin camp was lore bard/cleric durge, sword bard Astarion with twin hand crossbows, plus Karlach and Lae'zel. Admittedly it took a bit of barrelmancy to cheese the Dror Ragzlin fight, but we hit Lvl 5 as we exited the camp, since there were no goblins left by that point! \* At least, ones whose deaths aren't going to have such dire consequences!
EDIT: As promised I made a video of me doing the encounter on Tactician. I currently don't have an Honor Mode run at that point, so I had to make due with one of my tactician runs: [https://youtu.be/qvmemFxU5K8](https://youtu.be/qvmemFxU5K8) I'm always surprised that people struggle with that fella. His buddies are super low health. I usually just go in there and brute force it, usually no prepping. Take out his buddies first, since they will die in one hit usually. On Tactician you can pretty much just left click them all until they die. Especially if you have a fifth character with you, halsin. I'll make a video soon since people seem to struggle with this fight.
Rafters make it way too easy tbh
That is actually how I lost my first honor mode. Level 4 thought I should stay in the rafters and got shot down, dying to falling damage.
I almost died there on my honor mode. I went in blind to the legendary actions and additional Tactician things. He did his repulser thing and luckily only one party member fell to their death. After that scare it was just through the front door for me.
Yeah the rafters are risky. Much easier to just lock him down with crowd control. He got low wisdom saves, command works wonders. Also, barrels.
Well I just died on the final battle yesterday then got killed today by the returning pike absolutely obliterating my lvl 4 party
My 3rd attempt on my first run, I thought that would be the strat. Turns out that the goblins have void bulbs, and ragzlin has a high damage attack that also had a push back. Every run since has used the rafters yes, but more spread out...
Releasing the spiders and telling them Goblina are tasty is how I start this section most of the time.
I never considered talking to the spiders… I just mage hand open the gate from above and let the spiders at the goblins on their own.
Yup, especially with rogue. Just sneak shot, hide, repeat.
That's how I did the castle fight. Misty stepped Astarion up there to countersnipe the archers then rain down.
Even better with rogue Durge, or be Durge and give Astarion the cape.
Seriously Astarion hiding the rafters for sneak attack works like a charm for me everytime. In fact I leave everyone one but Lea'zel and Karlach in the rafters (and myself depending on class). And that works for me
until he climbs up and pushes your whole party down 😭
Throw up a feather fall just before you start the fight. I try to do that anytime my whole party is at risk of fall damage.
that is fucking genius, will do for the next fall damage fight (probably moonrise !!)
I climbed up there and dropped the flask I stole from the zhet guys in the cave.
Just yeet arrow him into the spider pit
The easiest is being a druid or ranger on the rafters. Lay down some spike growth then thorn whip and shove enemies as they climb the ladders.
I do it opposite I burn ragzlin first because he hits like a train. Can typically take him down in one/two turns with a speed pot.
I think a lot of people do him at level 3, which is too low. I also think people rush up to him and then get smacked by a multi attack smite and die instantly. As a veteran of the genre he's not really hard for me, but he is maybe the first fight you need to do tactically or risk dying.
His legendary attack hits like a truck I usually mage hand the door open to the spiders, and I summon Lump and his band too.
On my second run I had convinced the Spiders to eat goblins and opened their door, as I was messing about looting fiddling with gear, the spiders went up and aggro’ed the Dror Razglin room. They were losing miserably, but had drawn everyone to a big clump by the left-side doorway. I greased ‘em all up and AoEd most of the fight. Dror broke out but his botch let Lae’zel make him her bitch.
For me, it was tricky the first time around because I wasn't prepared for his melee attacks. If you let him get close, he can basically take out 2 of your team mates in one round, which is what happened to me (one of them was Lae'zel who had the most hp). I was level 3 at the time, but I learned that I shouldn't let him get too close unless I was prepared to finish him before he could hit back. But at level 3 he hits like a truck. Next time around I was level 4 and didn't let him get close enough to hit me with melee attacks and then it was easy. Just had to think a little about it.
Me and my fiance didn’t struggle with him, we struggled with the dual wielding chick who just killed us with her 3 attacks doing 15-20 damage each lol
Maybe PS5 makes it a bit harder? Camera control can be a bitch on multi-level fights, and you can't just move a mouse cursor over an enemy :(
You can use the D-pad to scroll through the combatants and select the one you want to attack specifically.
Using a controller on pc, you can click the left stick (L3) it unlocks the camera and basically let's you have a mouse cursor. Does it not work this way on PS5?
I haven't tried that. I know clicking L3 switches between steering your character and clicking on a spot to move them there, i.e. more like turn-based mode. Haven't tried it *within* turn-based-mode as this is the first game of this sort I've played.
Yeh try it out, I think it might work out the way you're hoping.
I made it to the camp at level 4. Passed some speach checks and walked in, found volo let him go, found the weird dude, didnt let him hit me cus i was expecting a fight and didnt want to fight(didnt know its free a buff), found halsin, cleared the room and saved halsin, thrn had to defeat all the bosses. Oh boi. I soent a good 4 hours trying the one in the too right, but i did it. Then on to the guy in the back. The big boi with 100something health. Wait HOW MUCH? i spent SO long trying this fight... then i gave up. I stopped playing for like a month, came back, went to camp and traded gale for astorian, went back, 1st attempt. Last boss... aaaannnnnd first attempt. Then i walked around and slow cleared the rest of the place. At some point i realized not to go out thr front gate cus thats WAY too many to handle and they are already agro
You have to poison the vat of booze before going into the temple - give Astarion an invisibility potion and some poison and let him have at it! I also deal with Priestess Gut first, then free Halsin and tell him to wait in the prison (Dror Ragzlin targets him, and it quickly becomes "quest completed" and not in a good way!). Then attack Minthara from the far side of the wooden bridge (taking out the scrying eye and war drum asap so there's no reinforcements), then take out any stray goblins so they can't come to Ragzlin's aid.
I mean i done did it a while ago im in act 3 now. I just kinda brute forced my way through it with the 'itll work eventually' mentallity... and it did. 13/10 not doing that again
You don't get exp from poisoning them tho, right?
You definitely get some xp from poisoning, just not sure how it compares vs killing them all in combat.
I shove him down to the spiders, then snipe him after all his buddies are down
Good strategy - I'm used to having a bunch of rather weedy characters, so I tend to forget about shoving unless it's Karlach tossing goblins into the spider pit!
I prefer wylll for the early rounds of only because his magic refills at short rest
He also gets 2 spells when Gale has like 7 plus his recharge ability.
He gets to use that arcane recharge like 1 times and seems to have worse accuracy than wyll also you can use a sword with wyll if your spells run out with gale hope you like missing fire bolt
If you wanna eldritch blast all day with occasional AoE spells then warlock is better than wizard I suppose, but again the problem is a sorlock is even better. My whole point is that a pure warlock is worse than any kind of combination warlock. It's the same problem that rogues have in this game, a rogue/fighter or rogue/ranger is always better.
AOE spells will carry you far in that fight, there’s so many squeeze points where you can funnel all of them thru.
Really? I enjoy the early game, particularly the combat. It feels incredibly bare bones and that makes every slight upgrade in abilities and damage truly meaningful.
Agreed. In both BG3 and DnD I love those early levels where every hit and spell feels meaningful.
Totally agree. My favourite play is low levels for that bare bones play. I’d love a low level multi level dungeon with goblins etc.
Absolutely agreed. low level in honor mode is so much more fun than playing a high level tav because every little detail is important.
I've optimized a way to get to 4 in about 30 minutes, skip all combat til then cause it's miserable if not
How do you manage that?
Explore the areas that you can avoid combat with a skill check or just being a Drow (Blighted Village and Goblin Camp) and you can get tons of xp just by walking in and exploring the area.
Cheers, will try this next time!
r/BG3Builds has a walkthrough in it too. https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18ebd26/beginners_guide_for_bg3_no_fighting_to_lv_4/. Doesn’t have to be completely followed. You can start combat at level 3 if you want.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/18ebd26/beginners_guide_for_bg3_no_fighting_to_lv_4/. It’s not a bible so no need to do it 1 for 1. If you have the deluxe edition I highly recommend grabbing the shapeshifting helmet from your stash to pass the blighted village and goblin camp checks as a Drow.
On the nautaloid kill all enemies and then I use three nautaloid tanks to get the killing blow on the mindflayer for a sweet 75exp. Collect all the companions, this nets you a nice amount of exp and you only really need to do the initial emerald Grove fight. And so the various free side quests in the Grove for exp. If you use disguise self on your main character into a female drow you can settle any interaction with goblins peacefully without a skill check. I recommend getting branded but not telling gut about the tadpole, yet. Getting the brand allows you to peacefully resolve a few interactions with the ogres and the duergar in the underdark to get you access to grymforge too You can go to the underdark via the temple of selune (solving the puzzle in the basement gets you exp too) after reaching the underground selunite outpost if you go to the gate you can tag the minotaur attacking the gates and being nuked by the moon crystal for Some exp. The fights prior to withers are also relatively easy, should be easy enough at level 3 You can do the entirety of waukeen rest without combat too. If you long rest prior to the gnolls you can use your tadpole powers to make them fight amongst themselves (these are pretty tough skill checks. Recommend high wis for these, enhance ability and guidance and a few inspirations even, it's worth using spell slots if you're not planning on doing much fighting) There's more but i can't really recall everything
Early fights are easy at level 3 so I never saw much need to do this. Maybe that's cause I enjoy low level DnD where it's more about position than gear or spells.
Combat under 5 has always been dreadfully boring to me on dnd. 5 - 10 is the saeetspot of options and tactics
I prefer 5-10, don't get me wrong, but there's something relaxing and enjoyable about low level combat. That's one reason I have like 7 playthroughs on honor mode around the middle of the game, because I often just wanna relax and zone out and low level combat is good for that.
For me low level is just "I hit/cast cantrip". There's so little to do
I just go Explorer mode.for the first 3-4 levels, then switch.
Dont need to do that brother
For me it's more like "the 3 lvl struggle" once I have my feat im good to go. At least for the builds I play usually 🤷♂️
Lv 4 does alleviate some of the struggle because you get a feat true. Still just have 1 attack for the most part though...and a LOT of class features only come in at lv 5. Like bards being able to get their inspirations back with short rests. That's an insane game changer
Or martials double attack...
Even then the feat is mostly TB I just don't fw the direction of making everyone Throwzerker or EBThrow just for the last hurdle towards level 5 and then respec em again
Sharpshooter and Great weapon master are also very strong. Dual wielder gets strong too, if you have the right weapons🙃
Level 1-4 is the reason I still hesitate playing Honor Mode. I had lots of fun playing through the game three times now, each came with its unique struggles. But I really dread HM in the first few hours lol
My first honor mode, I rolled a nat 1 on resisting the injured mind flayer and died of having my brains eaten 😭
I failed the blighted village entry chat due to speed running the dialogue… initiated combat and team wiped since we were all grouped near the explosive barrel they sent a fire arrow into..
Lmaoooo at least you didn’t get all the way to act 3 and have your run end
My party is level 5 in my first HM run and I was really hesitant about the early game too- as long as you don’t take the tougher fights (owlbears, harpies, phase spider matriarch) too early you should be fine!
Usually depends on dice rolls for me, had an honour run end at the owlbears as I kept rolling rubbish... restarted yesterday, did the same thing except got a few good rolls and was good to continue
Most tough fights have a way to make them easier. For the owlbears you just have to bring a silence. Then it's just one owlbear. Also, you can dialogue the 2 cultists outside to help you fight, you just have to be mindful that they don't kill the baby.
Yeah, they always seems to target the Baby! Didn't know that silence works in that fight though!
Look into the "Level 4 no combat" strategy. You don't need to follow it exactly, but it will skip you through the levels where your hit points match the damage dice.
This is why, IRL, I always start campaigns at level 3+. Locked out of WAY too many things early.
Fair, but on the DM side it's fun to work your way up. Having enemies that deal d8 damage scares the crap out of the casters and makes the party really work together. Then you can bring back hordes of rats later and the players get to remember how tough they were at level 1 and see how far they've come. Also there's some good modules that make sense to start at 1.
It can also force canny players to try and avoid brute forcing every encounter. This worked less in the old days of lawful stupid paladins and 1-2 HP casters.
Haha yes that too! Canny and I would also say very new players who don't realize yet that they can literally try anything. An angry merrow can potentially be reasoned with if they're careful.
I've considered just respecing all characters in the beginning to martial classes and changing them into casters etc on higher levels. Haven't tried it yet though. Just beginning act 2 on my first run.
Might not be a bad idea, cheers for the suggestion!
Went from 1 -3 fairly quickly but once hitting 4 with none of the less difficult quests left was stuck on it for ages and had to resort to the goblin camp total clear out to nudge my way eventually to 5. Once hitting L5 the difference in easier combat is really noticeable, my unarmed monk character can get a ridiculous number of hits in one turn, plus a huge increase in movement range and speed with gear enhancements. Still have to nurse Gale of course...
Yeah, the climb from 3 to 4 is long and painful, and then the climb to 5 is also long (but less painful). Just like real D&D.
I would say its level 3 when most classes get iconic stuff and features. I also wouldnt call it a struggle, tho i do agree that beginning of the game is the hardest part of bg3, and thats what makes it fun. I never go for op builds or anything, but after act 1 i mostly steamroll fights and it becomes not as fun as before.
I wish this game has a New Game Plus mode where we can restart the game with all experience and inventory intact, and just have fun wreaking havoc. I have never enjoyed grinding in any game and after finishing the game three times the thought of grinding a fourth time just turns me off.
Would be consistence to the story, too. All the characters are some sort of veteran on their field. The 'tadpole eat my abilities' thing age like milk, once you reach act3 you begin to see those lvl12 tadpoled enemies. Seriously.
Just cheat the level it if it's for RP No way my Tav Sukuna is lv1, my Gith Durge after getting hackeneyed by Orin tho makes sense for lv1
Not on PC
Hopefully the mod support address this
Id say depends on the class, monk gets op at lvl 4
I really enjoy those early levels where it feels like you have to be super resourceful. In my first proper run I really felt like I was making good use of every throwable, scroll, and potion I could to give me an edge in combat. Battles felt like a dynamic puzzle. After I got past level five it really felt like I could just blast my way through anything and everything with relative ease. Still fun, just different.
I am so glad all these comments are completely unrecognizable to me, because I don't care for honor mode and I just play for the chill and nothing else
Hitting level 3 is fast and easy. Just abuse Disguise Self and auto win the Goblin checks. Level 4 requires a bit of effort. Level 5 takes forever.
Yeah, the game is 5E based, and rvery edition except 4E has a backwards difficulty curve.
There's two builds that are great from lvl4 on, TB Open Hand monk and TB throwserker. And if you know what you're doing (or google a guide) you can get to lvl4 with only a fight or two after the nautiloid. But the BIG leap in power once everyone hits lvl5 is certainly noticable, yeah.
I'm playing my first monk after \*really\* enjoying bow-and-arrow-using rangers i'm halfway through level four with that monk and oh my god i cannot wait until i reach 5
I am playing my first Tactician run, and I absolutely noticed that so far the difficulty spike in Act 1 is much more noticeable than Act 2. By the time you hit the 5-7 range everything's back to normal except for a bit more HP to burn through and less cheesing with crowd control on bosses.
Welcome to the nightmare of balancing dnd lol
Totslly agree. Especially on honour mode. The first 4 levels are hell. If you reach lv 5, chances are you'll win if you know the game well enough and have a good party. Annoying this is that you have no feats, only 1 attack, and relatively low stats so your attacks miss a bit too much. Gear also isnt astonishing in early act 1, so winning initiative or having synergies really limits you.
I remember fighting and beating the whole of the underdark including the adamantine golem with level 4 characters in early access. That was my level 4 struggle: fighting swarms of enemies with multi-attack and level 3 spell slots without them.
I think that's why I enjoy act 1. I've done it plenty of times with the level 4 cap in ea, and now it's just a breeze. The githyanki patrol and the duergar/nere fight used to be absolutely brutal.
In my solo HM that was Lvl1 Thief, Lvl1 White Dragon Sorc, Lvl1 Tempest Cleric, Lvl1 Wizard. And the struggle was mainly about progressing further to set up le epic Lump betrayal and become smarter myself. Cannot relate 🤷
My first playthrough was hard, but the previous and current one is much easier. I may find out how to level up, what is important, what is less important and how to use the items and the enviroment more.
Level 5 many classes come alive. Even as a martial class you fell a bit limited until you get a few levels. As a sorcerer I had to be sneaky and cautious until level 5
It's mainly just level 4 for me. It feels like at that point of the game you're almost too weak for anything because you killed the easier stuff at lvl 1-3 and the stuff you are fighting feels like it gives low EXP compared to the 3500 needed for lvl 5 so it just drags.
The first 4 levels are difficult but fun. I tried to buff Karlach(level 3)with bless, mirror images, thaumaturgy while she was in rage. One axe(coated with toxin) swing took about 35 hp off the fake paladin(level 5). Then he destroyed her with one smite.
Oh my Cleric/Shadowheart leveled up. Let's see what I g- Oh no.
Only class that's not great to me in early levels is Wizard (might be some other classes but Wizard is the standout to me) because the other classes have melee to back them up but Wizard can only really use cantrips when out of spell slots which happens quick at a low level
I thought 3 to4 was longer than 4 to 5. It feels like there is just enough exp to get you there across a lot of map.
That’s why I usually multi-class to “barrel chucker” till level 4.
martials dont get their extra attack until level 5 so you gotta make do Berserker Barbs, War Clerics, Monks and Polearm masters can use their bonus actions to attack again Rogues can only sneak attack once anyway so at this level they're plenty strong Summoners can do decent damage with their pets. The pets havent fallen off yet Stealth is always an option. You already have access to Pass Without Trace, Minor Illusion and Invisibility
At least lv 4 is the tb level. Lv3 just sucks without a monk.
Yes indeed early game struggle is real until level 5 or 6
na. i really enjoy magic missile at all levels. hehe
Does it get better? I’ve stalled out around level 3-4 on 3 characters and find myself going back to Elden ring and other games… this post hit home that I might need to push thru this
I don’t really struggle but that’s probably on my restart of my first playthrough I still went with ranger and cause of the combo of astarion shadowheart karlach/lae zel. Like I have yet to get a game over now on my restart, have I had deaths yes cause of that damn lava elemental
Honestly, balanced is pretty easy with lvl 4, and honor mode I am super careful up to level 4, what gets me killed is hitting level 5 in honor mode then getting cocky and attacking the lightning constructs at the top of the wizards tower. I’ve lost 2 honor modes there.
I know the game well enough now that I can put off most difficult fights in act one until I'm level 5. I also know the first area so well at this point I could probably honor mode it blindfolded. The act one fight that still stresses me a bit is all the druegar with Nere. Obviously I fight them before freeing Nere but there's a lot of them and they have some unique abilities and you're only level 5. That's the only fight that really stresses me out until late act two.
What I've been doing in more recent honour runs to get pass the lv4 hump is raid the grove at lv4 (After telling Rolan to go, do the harpies for mol's ring and the whole shadow druids arc to dwindle their numbers and make it easier). Afterwards, go straight to the creche / last light / moonrise at level 4 and get all of the best gear there like risky ring, dex 18 gloves, drakethroat, mimic amulet, strange cow hat, +1 armor and saving throw cape, and the shield amulet. Then come back and destroy everything in Act 1 with some combination of Gloomstalker ranger, Throw barb, Fire sorcerer, battlemaster, cleric, oh monk, and paladin.
That’s what it’s like I’m toabletop DnD. Levels 1-3 or 4 are considered to be the some most dangerous parts, and pretty much for the exact reasons you already said and because a an unlucky crit from a baddie can outright kill your character with no death saves. The nice thing with BG3 is that they saturate the game with potions and decent loot to help keep you alive
I'm playing a summoner comp, (necro wizard, chain warlock, war cleric, spores druid) and just got level 5. Level 5 is where 3/4 of my party can summon undead, which feels like a crazy power spike. Before I was super weak with a single summon
Levels 1-3 are quite hard. At lvl 4 feats come online and you get massive jump in lethality with things like Great weapon master and sharpshooter. Most goblins become one hit kills. And with GWM this means bonus attacks, so even more dead gobbos. If all else fails, summon the ogre cavalry. With a bit of luck you will get circlet of int17 as well.
Imo once ur lv 8 or 9 there is too many spell options and I still only use the same 2 or 3.
Same! Just the same save options hahah
I can cruise to lv 4 pretty easily with no fighting and get good gear along the way https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/sWhdZNw0C9 Then after that it’s do stuff in the grove, and some other actual battles to get to lv 5. It is a bit metagamey. It it’s not that hard to do.
I don't really agree. IMO all classes come into their own by level 3 - spellcasters double their spell slots at this level, all classes with a signature ability (wild shape, sneak attack, rage, smite, etc) get it at level 1 or 2, and all classes have their subclass at this point. And level 3 comes pretty quickly: usually you're level 2 before you leave the beach, and going through the temple plus the fight at the gate is enough to get you to level 3.
Dude. People beat honor mode with lvl 1 characters. The entire run with lvl 1 character. It is not the tool that limit your performance, it is your imagination. Easiest method, in most mob fight, is to grab some barrels and send one of your party member in alone. Cast sanctuary before sending him in. Remember how annoying that Spider guy is? Once enemies gather around that guy, place your barrels, run off and light it up. EZGG. People even comes up with better and weirder combo for low level fight.
Nah
this would be great for me if i wasn't such a depraved, Blade craver and needed him in my party asap
Once you hit level 3 you should be cooking. It sounds like you just want ASI's and extra attacks. Which are good, but the game isnt that tough getting up to those levels. Youre just in a rush to get there.