Baldur’s Gate 3’s newest patch added two entire new problem modes. Honour, a form of pseudo-permadeath run, and Customized, which helps you to fiddle round with rulesets to your coronary heart’s content material. One factor that had alarm bells ringing in my head, nevertheless, was this line from the patch notes:
“[Honour mode] introduces over 30 new tweaks to all of Baldur’s Gate 3’s boss-fights, with a brand new Legendary Motion system designed to catch gamers off-guard and enhance the problem.”
If you have not performed Dungeons & Dragons fifth version (D&D 5e), the tabletop ruleset the sport is predicated on, you don’t have any thought what you are in for. Including Legendary Actions to Baldur’s Gate 3 is an enormous spike in problem, and I can show it. How? I’ve DMed for too many video games of D&D, and balancing an encounter makes me very drained, that is how.
A Legendary Motion in D&D 5e is an motion {that a} highly effective enemy takes after a participant character’s flip, and so they usually have three per spherical of fight. For instance, the Historical Crimson Dragon from the Monster Handbook can use a Legendary Motion to attempt to spot a hidden enemy or make an assault with its tail. Alternatively, it could actually spend two Legendary Actions to flap its wings, dealing injury to everybody unfortunate sufficient to be near it and doubtlessly knocking them inclined, then fly as much as half its motion pace.
Whereas this sounds easy in idea, it truly addresses an enormous problem within the TTRPG that makes single enemies cakewalks and crowds of foes lethal. However first, it is time for a crash course in economics—particularly, the motion economic system.
Turns for the more serious
D&D 5e tells the DM how laborious a monster is by way of its Problem Ranking (CR) system. That is form of much like an enemy’s degree in Baldur’s Gate 3, besides it is primarily based on the idea the monster might be combating a celebration of 4. So a “CR 5” monster is a problem for 4 degree 5 adventurers.
Besides not precisely. For those who put your common CR 5 schmuck in opposition to that occasion, and stated schmuck is by itself, it should get eaten alive. That is as a result of the occasion has 4 actions each spherical and the monster solely has one.
The Dungeon Grasp’s Information truly calls this out when it tells you easy methods to steadiness encounters by how a lot XP the monsters provide you with, which is… annoying, because it kinda stops CR being helpful, however hey. There are on-line calculators that do the maths for you. “The extra monsters there are, the extra assault rolls you are making in opposition to the characters in a given spherical, and the extra harmful the encounter turns into.”
Let’s examine the Ogre from D&D’s Monster Handbook to the a lot weaker Swarm of Bats. The Ogre offers a median of 13 injury each spherical of fight with its Greatclub. A Swarm of Bats (handled as one monster) offers a median of 5 injury a spherical with its “Bites” assault. So what’s extra harmful, an Ogre, or three bat swarms?
It is the bats, and it is not due to the two further injury. If the ogre misses a swing, it misses—that is it. It is successfully fully wasted its flip. The bat swarms nevertheless have three probabilities to deal injury and three probabilities to crit.
For those who’ve fought that group of gnolls through the “Discover the Lacking Cargo” quest in Act 1, you will have felt this in motion. Large group of enemies, a few of whom frenzy into firing two arrows per flip—that combat can go south extraordinarily shortly. Now you recognize why.
This may change primarily based on positioning, clearly—when you have an opportunity to land an space of impact spell, the bats are all of a sudden so much much less scary. However I simply used a quite simple instance. This downside solely will get worse the upper degree (or greater occasion dimension) you’ve gotten.
As to how this pertains to the sport—with out Legendary Actions within the recreation at launch, Larian has needed to buff up most of its main encounters with further enemies. However layering Legendary Actions on high of these fights, when the motion economic system’s already working in opposition to you? The implications are big. These new suped-up bosses are going to finish quite a lot of honour mode runs.
Even when they only get to take an additional pot shot or two, because of D&D science I can confidently say that every one of those fights simply received method, method more durable. The motion economic system is king.