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.

  1. So how beginner friendly is it?
  2. Are there good tutorials?
  3. Are there difficulty levels, like less mechanics for beginners? I found the UI a bit overwhelming.
  4. How frustrating is it if you don’t understand the mechanics at first?
  5. 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?
  6. 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.

  • Nitue@lemmy.world
    151·
    1 year ago

    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!

    • Piecemakers@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      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. 🥳❤️