• GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    1 year ago

    idk I played some starfield and I watched my gf play the harry potter game and it doesn’t seem much better

    baldurs gate 3 tho seems pretty great, but I don’t like that the plot is all about illithids (boring)

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t like that the plot is all about illithids (boring)

      gulag

      Mind Flayers are the hook, but its a full on brawl between supernatural factions by the end. You get a healthy number of gods, devils, and undead monsters all piling in.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t really see the need to make psionics its own thing when you already have the eight schools of magic and plenty of overlap.

          I don’t mind psionics as flavor, broadly speaking. Giant floating brains that get Detect Thought and Telekinesis at will and squid monster mad scientists with high level divination/enchantment spell lists that feast on your grey matter are as legit fantasy tropes as goblins or vampires or oozes.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            In earlier editions of D&D, psionics mostly ignored magical effects and didn’t interact with them and even bypassed magical resistances.

            I’m glad that is no longer the case, but it used to be some bullshit power fantasy nonsense.

            • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              2e was silly for a lot of reasons.

              I believe by 3e, it was generally just “Magic with Power Points” and a few incredibly janky spells/effects that made Psionics annoyingly overpowered.

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                Early on, it was also a way for That Guys in D&D groups to get really mad and demand rerolls until they got the “wild talent” unlock confirmed for their templates, or else they deliberately get killed off to try again.

                  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Things get a lot better when That Guys are banished, but a lot of nascent DMs have a “include everyone interested in playing no matter what” policy that actually drives non That Guys away over time.

        • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          The most iconic “monsters” in dnd are gonna be Dragons, which aren’t really dnd exclusive in any way, mind flayers, and beholders. There’s no way we weren’t getting at least one of those last two to play a big part. They’re just too great of designs not to be used.

    • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Yeah mind flayers suck, and it sucks that anything involving the underdark has to so heavily involve them. Give me more svirfnebli if we must go to the fucking underdark

      (I’ve never played Baldur’s Gate 3 so I have no idea whether we get svirfneblin action but I have read R.A. Salvatore’s books and this reminded me to rant about it)

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        It sucks how pretty much every D&D game post Baldur’s Gate 1 had an annoying mandatory detour/speed bump into the Underdark for more dae le sexy sex us-foreign-policy elves and their oh so DAE LE EPIC LOVECRAFT AMIRITE mind flayer associates.

        I wanted Icewind Dale to be more druidy and rangery and forests and snow and that sort of vibe, but nope, into the Underdark we go. Again. debord-tired

        • CloutAtlas [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 year ago

          The speedrun Strat of BG3 completely skips the underdark, btw.

          There’s 2 methods in to act 2, above ground or underground, above ground is a lot quicker.

          On the other hand, you can kill slave owners in the UD. Like a whole town of slave owners.