More or less. You can re-assign them anytime unlike the TTRPG where you have to prepare them during rest time. You still expend spell slots to cast them though - of course Sorcerers can refill them using their sorcery points. There are many ways around these limitations though - cantrip builds, pact of the blade warlocks, etc. leaving high level spell slots only used for counter spell and shield (both reaction spells). Didnt feel limited that way, you can consider that as a "spell build" choice and go with a useful combination, depending on your class. I still enjoy the good old fireball from time to time, always a crowd pleaser. Spell effects in this game are stellar btw with a lot of attention to detail (specific and different deaths for every NPC..).
Your 2023 Game Watch List
- Thread starter Star Wanderer
- Start date
Was looking forward to Stalker 2, but that's been delayed to Q1 2024.
I'm 170 hours into my first BG3 play though and while I might give it another one at some point, I don't think BG3 will hold my interest as well as the first two games (which I've played through a half-dozen times, and thousands of hours, each) have. The BG3 narrative is much tighter in some areas, but polish is oddly lacking in others. Voice acting in the original games, especially among the antagonists, was noticeably better (hard to match the likes of David Warner and Kevin Michael Richardson). The original games were also notably less linear and more open, especially the first game, which is something I appreciated; not everything needs to wrap back around to the main plot.
Regarding the returning characters, I've recruited Jaheira and Minsc (with Boo), and encountered Elminster, Sarevok, and Viconia, but their stories all seem relatively minor compared to the other recruitable characters and a fair bit of retconning was required to mesh them with the current plot. Notably, all of them are far weaker than I left them at the end of Throne of Bhaal (though it would be very hard to have a game were this not this case as any one of them would already have foiled the Absolute plot), despite the timeline advancing a century, while most of the character development that happens with Viconia and especially Sarevok seems to have been discarded entirely. I think the game probably would have been better off without most of these cameos.
The Vancian memorization/preparation system encourages forethought and is a critically important limitation on the power of spell casters, especially in earlier editions of the game. In AD&D (1e and 2e) for example, it takes a high level MU/wizard about a week of game time to change their complement of spells, which was a limitation I religiously enforced. Indeed, aside from loosen the arbitrary and ridged spells per level caps (I did move to a spell point system to add more flexibility to what spells could be prepared), I was careful to enforce every rule that made life more difficult for Wizards (I was a stickler for spell components, memorization limitations, item saving throws, attacks of opportunity, rest periods, etc and so forth)...and they were still the most powerful class in the game, pretty much from the get go (charm person, a level one spell, is phenomenally potent in the earlier editions, for example), by a mile.
Even in later editions, where they increasingly poured on the psuedomagical/supernatural powers for traditionally more mundane classes, wizards and (to a lesser extent) priest still had a slew of abilities that no one else could duplicate and keeping them from being able to dump a tailor fit complement of spells on a single unanticipated encounter is an important balance consideration.
In video games, where wizards are mostly reduced to magical artillery and priest classes mostly healers, it's easier to ignore these limitations without breaking things.
You're able to alter prepared spells any time you're out of combat, with no need for any rest period.
I'm 170 hours into my first BG3 play though and while I might give it another one at some point, I don't think BG3 will hold my interest as well as the first two games (which I've played through a half-dozen times, and thousands of hours, each) have. The BG3 narrative is much tighter in some areas, but polish is oddly lacking in others. Voice acting in the original games, especially among the antagonists, was noticeably better (hard to match the likes of David Warner and Kevin Michael Richardson). The original games were also notably less linear and more open, especially the first game, which is something I appreciated; not everything needs to wrap back around to the main plot.
Regarding the returning characters, I've recruited Jaheira and Minsc (with Boo), and encountered Elminster, Sarevok, and Viconia, but their stories all seem relatively minor compared to the other recruitable characters and a fair bit of retconning was required to mesh them with the current plot. Notably, all of them are far weaker than I left them at the end of Throne of Bhaal (though it would be very hard to have a game were this not this case as any one of them would already have foiled the Absolute plot), despite the timeline advancing a century, while most of the character development that happens with Viconia and especially Sarevok seems to have been discarded entirely. I think the game probably would have been better off without most of these cameos.
The Vancian memorization/preparation system encourages forethought and is a critically important limitation on the power of spell casters, especially in earlier editions of the game. In AD&D (1e and 2e) for example, it takes a high level MU/wizard about a week of game time to change their complement of spells, which was a limitation I religiously enforced. Indeed, aside from loosen the arbitrary and ridged spells per level caps (I did move to a spell point system to add more flexibility to what spells could be prepared), I was careful to enforce every rule that made life more difficult for Wizards (I was a stickler for spell components, memorization limitations, item saving throws, attacks of opportunity, rest periods, etc and so forth)...and they were still the most powerful class in the game, pretty much from the get go (charm person, a level one spell, is phenomenally potent in the earlier editions, for example), by a mile.
Even in later editions, where they increasingly poured on the psuedomagical/supernatural powers for traditionally more mundane classes, wizards and (to a lesser extent) priest still had a slew of abilities that no one else could duplicate and keeping them from being able to dump a tailor fit complement of spells on a single unanticipated encounter is an important balance consideration.
In video games, where wizards are mostly reduced to magical artillery and priest classes mostly healers, it's easier to ignore these limitations without breaking things.
You're able to alter prepared spells any time you're out of combat, with no need for any rest period.
Ugh, so it's again running around with the same spells all the time until you get a better version and pretty much the "exotic" ones you never put in the slot because it's a waste of power.
Not really no, food is plenty for getting rests and a class get their slots back on short rest. Do as you please really and if by "exotic" you mean the high level utilitarian / crowd control ones they are quite OP in this game. Having a lot of fun with the cleric and all 3 spell slingers in both my solo and multi play through... Actually cleric is probably the most powerful class in this game, especially when you get over level 6. Many spells are really good though so the problem is more of making a choice.
In BG3 you can swap out prepared spells at will, as long as you aren't in combat. The spell slots consumed when casting them are the limiting factor.
A bunch of my characters are cursed right now in my current save, not because I can't slot 'remove curse' (I can change prepared spells at will), but because it's been almost 40 hours of play time since I had the party long rest (I'll have long rested six or seven times when I complete this 200+ hour playthrough), and I already cast everyone's spell complement.
Edit, an example (very minor spoilers):
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Woah how? When i played as Sorcerer i rested almost after every fight or two to replenish used spell slots. What was your party set up? I usualy play Wiz/Sorc, Rogue, Warrior/Barbarien, Cleric( for heals).
My normal group is all warriors, though I swap out characters as needed for their specific content.
I always seem to have these one-time until long rest buffs that I don't want to lose, so I rarely long rest unless some part of the story makes it mandatory or I think I'm missing something.
Astarion as a Warrior, A Vampire Knight! Certainly has a ring to it.
Never tried playing with out a healer, How does it works, do you invest in potions and hope to end the fight befor everyone gets killed? Are they all melee or mix of ranged and melee units?
I killed Astarion the first time my character noticed him trying to feed on him (why he'd choose the psychopathic warrior elf, who has keen senses, doesn't actually sleep, and already demonstrated he was stronger, as a potential victim is beyond me!) and Shadowheart didn't last much longer as she demanded a duel with Lae'zel. So, that didn't really leave me with many options, besides Wyll and Gale, and I found Gale's need for long resting something of a momentum breaker. Thus it was my main character, Lae'zel, Karlach, and Wyll (who I kept a pure warlock, but took the melee oriented subclass stuff for) for much of the game.
Never found the lack of a healer problematic, except for the occasional curse or disease. Healing potions are relatively cheap and plentiful. On top of that, once the warriors start to get multiple attacks, most battles were extremely one-sided, to the point that many fights that seems to be presented as major combat resulted in almost no injuries to the party (on standard difficulty). The mobility of the group when everyone has double digit athletics scores also makes missile combat an afterthought, though I make sure everyone has a solid missile weapon, for those situations where they do prove useful.
Both Free Update and Expansion look awesome. I hope the story is long enough to justify the price (1/2 of Base game).
Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader got the release date :
I don't think it would be as polished and as entertaining as Baldur's Gate 3, but it would make a great conclusion to the best gaming year to date: 2023.
I don't think it would be as polished and as entertaining as Baldur's Gate 3, but it would make a great conclusion to the best gaming year to date: 2023.
Steam sale is over, but you can still get it on 33% sale on Epic Store until 7th November.
Edit: Took 36 hours to finish the game on Easy difficulty. There is NG+ too, so can restart campaign on higher difficulty while keeping all your Marines.
Enjoyed the game so much that tried to look up similar Squad base Real-Time Combat games, but no luck so far. Perahps someone knows any?
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