My speculation on why they changed initiative to a d4 is so that members of your party are more likely to get ties on the initiative roll, which gives you more freedom in choosing which one will act first if you want to set up some cool teamwork combos. I don't entirely agree with it, but I do see it being helpful to people new to the genre, and I guess the game did end up being hugely successful.
it saves a lot of the pain you feel for "deferring" not being a thing in BG3, while that and readied actions are probably 2 of the *most critical* aspects of maximizing high-level tabletop play.
@@peanuts7324 You don't, but there can't be an enemy in between, and a D20 *vastly* increases the chance that enemies and allies will get randomly intermixed. Also there is some kind of threshold at which even adjacent initiative values get broken into 2 separate groups, though since it doesn't show up in the combat log, I haven't been able to pin down what that range is
I wish mystras spells had a list of the new spells and descriptions. However, it does make leveling up exciting to see what new spells are coming up next.
My play throughs have gone from 100-130+ to about 60-80 hours from using the gold, arrows, and potions from the cheaters ring. I’ve played 6-7 play throughs without mods, and platinumed the game, I don’t want to spend a whole afternoon/evening after work just selling, and sneaking, and stealing around Moonrise, or resetting levels for the main purpose of resetting vendor inventories, just so I can keep going back to camp to grab all my stuff to sell. It’s also nice to not have to fret too much if I want to change my mind half way through a playthrough for things like hag hair, and everlasting vigor.
Without watching your videos, I never would’ve considered d20 initiative a difficulty mod. My worldview has been expanded. Thanks so much for the awesome informative content, I truly learn so much from watching you every time!
Honestly, I LOVE the D20 Initiative mod. Ever since playing with it my perspective of the game has changed completely. So many times my Max dex Gloomstalker Assassin with all the initiative gear and Alert feat would end up going in the middle of the turn order causing the surprise round not being as effective as it would be compared to the base game. Making slow and tankier builds like Sword and Board much more viable imo for fights where you can't get a surprise round in. Granted GWM builds would still make for better frontliners but knowing that a good chance that half of the enemies would go before you might make the playstyle much more appealing.
Videos like these are great, especially when you refer to your DnD knowledge. I have only a little DnD experience compared to BG3 experience, so it's always neat to see what was changed, what works, what doesn't work, etc.
i have been massively enjoying the blood mage and the eldritch knight +. Which i was totally sleeping on before watching this vid, so thank you for that o7 Particularly that EK sollution to the class fantasy is so elegant and simple. Also loving the war magic change mod from the same modder. Frankly it baffles me that ''using a cantrip with bonus action'' wasn't the actual text in the base game. The way war magic was officially implemented is so convoluted just to be a sidegrade/downgrade to simply attacking twice
Loved the video, and I plan on downloading all of them. But honestly my favorite part of this video was the "youtube just likes it when you hit buttons" 😂 great video all together, that just did something special for me I guess!
Perfect timing on this video. Just decided yesterday to dip my toes into modding, and you're THE person I turn to for BG3 knowledge. Thank you so much.
The wings mod is broken. You get 30m movement speed but flying 30 meters only really costs 5m of active movement speed. It also make jumping completely irrelevant and not quite, but almost, something like feather fall. Super broken.
First thing he said is that it is not intended to balance. Sometimes you want a challenge; sometimes you just want to sing 'I believe I can fly' while you spank your enemies arround all the field.😂
It have to be said that if you're on pc, there is in fact a d10 (and others) initiative mod available on nexus called Initiative Variants. Putting it here for those who might want it.
I'm definitely going to check out the Tasha's feats and the feats on even levels. I think that's an awesome mod idea, getting more feats so you have the freedom to pick feats that otherwise just don't make sense
Really glad you went over some of these mods, as I have been trying a lot of them out myself. I'm using a mod that gives a feat at level 2 to simulate another house rule in tabletop that gives a free feat at level 1 (It had to be given at level 2 because of a modding limitation). Also REALLY loving Mystra spells, definitely a must have. Any chance on a tier list going over the spells the mod added? I enjoy your tier list videos and how you explain things and would very much appreciate your insight on these new additions.
You saying that bloodmage and witch feel weaker than some base classss make me super super interested to try these mods out! Busted classes are a bit too boring for me, so trying to work around flaws sounds super fun.
I really love the infinite arrows, potions and elixirs. I thought it was incredible how the witcher 3 wild hunt handled decoctions etc., i wish that approach was taken more often
Yooo for suree! The all green with the 1 self revive from adrenaline skill was so underpowered at first, but got so op late game when you filled your toxicity and did a ton of damage and were unkillable.
I would love to see more of this kind of content - also modded class builds and maybe even modded party comp builds. Its been fascinating for the past month playing this game like it was new again! D20 initiative mod has changed everything I was used to in HM...
If I recall, they originally did have a d20 for initiative but it was hated by EA players. It also made the shared turn system very infrequent, as you mentioned. Thus, they opted for the much lower d4 which is too much of an overcorrection. I've always thought d10 or d12 would be the perfect middle ground since d20 makes things too random. It just seems downright silly to me that a heavily dex built Rogue can move slower than a Paladin decked out in plate. Could it happen? Sure but it should be a rarity. A d10 accomplishes that
Great video! Very intesting to hear your take on what mods are good and why. I would like to see more like this. Also I have a suggestion. You have done many tier lists which are excellent but I personally would find it very helpful if you could do a sort of tier list based on gear from each Act for each class. It would save me having to rewatch multiple existing tier list videos. Perhaps an idea for the future when you have completed you current set of tier lists. Please keep up the great work! A loyal fan.
Worth noting: there is an Artificer class in the in-game mod page and a different one on Nexusmods. Having fiddled around with both, the Nexus version is IMO far better. Smoothr intergration, better performance, more interesting rules interpretations etc.
The last one works well in combination with the mod Nothing Feat. If every second level is too much for anyone, they can choose to entirely skip a feat by taking the nothing feat. There's also one called Origins Feat, which only adds a bonus feat at level 2. This is supposed to emulate the bonus starting feat house rule, but due to limitations you can only get it at 2nd level, and you also get it at 2nd level with every class on a multiclass character.
So here's the reason for D4 initiative as I see it (not saying it's good, just trying to explain the actual reason). One of the most interesting changes BG3 made to DnD is shared initiative. When playing your 'all melee party' full run, one of my favourite runs, I blessed shared initiative each combat. In tabletop it's straight up impossible, or make the battle really long and complex, as well as making much worse the problem when the smartest player tells everyone what they do. But in a single-player video game it adds such a fun strategic layer to combat. However, imagine you implemented this mechanic just to see it only happens a couple of times per act. You want users to frequently interact with this mechanic, and you make the change that leads into shared initiative situations happen more often. Actually before I fully synced my initiative in 'full melee party', I've had a mini-game of 'okay, who do I have to kill to end up in a shared initiative situation' ) EDIT: I paused the video when you said something like 'I don't know why they made it d4', and typed this comment, then resumed. I kinda went overexplaining, because you understand this reason as well.
I’m finally on the netherbrain fight on my first honour playthrough which I’m finishing first thing when I get home from work later today! So excited to finally try out some mods so this drop is even more icing on the cake haha
I adore mods, don’t have a powerful PC to play games like Baldur’s Gate 3. I do have a PS5, and am super happy that they have mod support for BG3. Thank you very much for informing us console players about this awesome new feature. Moded BG3 on my PS5 here I come 😁
Also, on the d20 initiative it makes the possibility of hordes of enemies taking their turns at once less likely, I noticed when using this mod that big battles took longer depending on the luck of the draw
Im just here for the random rants about DnD design in general and in the weapon armor tierlist the rants about how things are and how fantasy get things wrong. Praise the UA-cam algorithm
Had this playing in the background and at 12:25 I started dying laughing because I didn't hear the "s" at the end of feats. "I love this character building mod Tasha's feet" 🤣
New teir lists for Mod Feats when? lol. Love the video, as a PS5 player, i appreciate the look into what's coming to console. Keep up the amazing work!
So I havent made a d4 initiative system, but I have made an initiative rework mod that does the following: Initiatve = 1d6 + INT mod + DEX mod/3 (I also nerf Alert to +3 in another mod but I am considering nerfing to +1 and giving an additional reaction point making it still very powerful, but far more niche) The effect of this mod is that Dexterity gets a much needed nerf as a stat, Intelligence gets a much needed buff as a stat, and initiave bonuses for the player generally drop pretty hard because you still generally can’t invest too much into Intelligence on most characters, but you can invest a little and get a decent bonus. The modifier portion if this initiative system also only applies to the player characters with backgrounds (not summons, not enemies) so while variance is higher and initiative bonuses are lower, there arent wild swings and you can still get to go first, you just have to be smart to do so. Wizards, Eldritch Knights, and Arcane Tricksters especially rejoice! I would love to hear your thoughts on this system. I would also consider changing the initiaitve die to a d8.
been using bloodmage and witch in a recent playthrough, and if you pick the right stuff, I have to say they can be pretty insane. Bloodmage's "rage" subclass gets a per-combat rage that gives them advantage on all melee attacks, at the cost of 2 hp lost at the start of each turn, and since thrown attacks are loosely coded as unarmed attacks, it counts that XD Plus they get Hex as a spell. It's pretty fun, but considering it only gets 2 attacks, it is still rather fairly balanced against something like an Eldritch Knight. Witch's Herbalist subclass I'm not sure how I feel about, since you get Healing Word and Revivify as "cantrips" which makes you a positively *insane* user of the buff-on-heal items, and also gives you infinite out of combat healing and revives. Pragmatically, since potions are unlimited if you bother, and you can revive at Withers and just pickpocket him for free, it's not really letting you do anything you can't normally, though it definitely feels pretty great at first glance. Also pincushion is a ridiculous cantrip XD
I think that the reason that they changed initiative from a D20 to a D4 is because that greatly reduces the computation power required during initiating combat. While it does create some wonky situations, I think it is the way it is to keep the program more stable.
My favourite mod and for many others by the video's and what they say, is the increase party number mod. I always thought 4 was a bit restrictive. Just have a party of around 8 and listen to the extra banter you get between characters. It's fantastic. Highly recommended.
Thank you for this video! I'm lost with all the new mods, so I'm glad to hear some suggestions. I really want to try D20 Initiative, because like you said with Alert it's so broken it gets kind of boring, but even without it, I almost always know what I'm going to get. It will reinject some challenge and diversity into the game. I feel like the infinite consummables make sense starting act2, where it's more a question of regaining the time you are losing doing the round of vendors to get whatever you are looking for. In early game, the consummable economy still make sense. But after level 5/6, everything is basically free in BG3...
Took me a while to come back and leave this comment... I think this video fills a gap in the bg3 mod video space. There are already so many mods that finding goos and interesting mods is time consuming. The alternatives I've seen all favored quantity over substance. I really appreciate more curation in the current scenario.
Check out the 4e Monk mod. So much better. The best way to handle ASI and feats is to separate them out. Just give everyone ASI at 3, 7, 11. They can't take +2, just +1 and +1. Leave feats as is.
The mod that is most important to me atm is Combat Extender. It allows you to freely readjust mob's stats (think like a generic 30% extra HP, +1 AC, +3 damage to everything). It also adds more abilities to many mobs (like fighter-style enemies getting riposte). Sadly it's only on nexusmods and has some preconditions like script extender and editing a .json file (for setting the values). But it's kept my runs interesting. Will try out the initiative mod!
Honestly prefer Origin Feats over FOELs, having basically a free Alert is enough to give you that leg up while still being able to explore what little depth is in the standard feat pool without risking cracking your build too much which is likely to happen with FOELs. It's a bit clunky when multiclassing with the way it's implemented but I think it strikes the best balance when on its own. FOELs is probably best with another feat mod like Tasha's which you mentioned so you actually have a need and want to take that many feats at all.
Very cool video highlighting very cool/fun mods. I would love to see more content like this, though I would want there to be a theme to the video. Such as a video highlighting mods that jus increase/decrease difficulty or QoL mods or new class.
I’m currently doing a Solo run on Custom mode (Honor ruleset, but multiple savings to avoid mod issues). My fav mods: - Vampire Origin - Mystic - Extra spells - Wings - D20 initiative - 5e and Mystra extra spells - Tasha feats - bag of holding - Ritual Underwear I have some more installed, but these were the most useful. I dont recommend dices and too many customization on consoles, gets too slow and crashes.
As soon as I saw the D20 initiative, I downloaded it. I was beyond tired of seeing nobody on my team get higher than a 4. Meanwhile, every opponent is getting double digits because of difficulty modifiers
Everyone on PS5, just a fair warning that many of us, including me, have had our saves (all of them, even on unmodded runs) completely corrupted by having too many mods installed. Textures failing to load, the game chugging at 5fps and then crashing, not even being able to get to the menu screen, all that has been happening for a lot of people. Thankfully I turned off automatic backups when patch 7 dropped, so I could restore completely clean saves. But just be careful going crazy with mods on PS5
3:15 that is technically not true as Dhampir natural bite attack uses constitution for attack and damage role, but it does 1d4 damage so you are effectively correct.
@@ntgrv it doesnt work exactly like this, its basically if they do a cantrip then they can make 1 melee attack with a bonus action (but this doesnt work with extra attack so it is only 1 cantrip then 1 attack per round)
There is a D10 Initiative mod. I think it's called Initiative Variants D10. Not sure if I got it off Nexus or the mod manager though. I would like to see a video about the mystic class if you've played with that one. It's extremely complicated.
Is there a chance we will ever get unlockable trophies for console? I just want to use a few cosmetic mods but locking out achievements because of them is kind of a bummer
I love all the new mods. The problem that I'm running into is that it makes the game too easy. We need a difficulty mod. Adding more mobs, with more health/AC. I wanna bring my party of 6, level 20 characters with like 6 feats each and have some spicy battles.
10:57 '...and if you are on PC then you can have enemies cast them against you as well which is ofc pretty awesome because it gives enemies a ton more tactical options.' well, depends on the AI probably. is the AI able to apply tactics with new, unknown content it was never trained with? just using up resources is easy but applying them usefully and in a tactical smart way is something different.
Mystra Spells scream to you: "Make the tierlist and talk about all of the spells from this mod!" Mentioning of course who gets them, how they work, what would you do with them in the game, take or not ) All my DnD experience is BG3 so all these names mean nothing to me, and there are a lot of names.
I have been 'houseruling' myself into not taking Alert, as it was so absurdely broken that it almost felt as cheating. Therefore I love 1d20 Initiative. Alert still useful and even mandatory in some builds, but now it almost feels too weak (especially with the new cool modded feats), so I fully support your 1d10 proposal. Loved the video, as always.
Personally, I only use cheating effects like that when I need a specific item to record a video or do a dumb strategy like getting the ring that makes you always wild magic surge in act 1. I wouldn't recommend them for actually playing the game unless you're specifically looking to avoid some annoyance - like you say, cheating takes a lot of the fun out of things!
I'll never understand the d4 initiative. I think there was an extremely vocal play tester complaining that they took Alert, but still lost initiative sometimes. How about showing off some feat every even level builds?
I finally got all the achievments, now i go for some cheaters mod and play with extra feats, it allways feel lackluster to chose feats, because you rarelly choose anything aside from alert and ASI, even if you do you feel you're losing power for some roleplay.
Is there a mod that lets you use the charisma modifier of the highest cha member of your party for dialog checks? The single worst thing about BG3 is being unable to be a party face as your main character unless you're one of a handful of classes
It sounds like a cool mod, but it's unfortunate that the blood mage mod page uses AI art. I get that it's cheaper for a free mod that the creator makes no money from, but it's a shame that they didn't take the small extra effort to use public domain royalty-free art, of which there is so much that is easily accessible.
I appreciate the content, but this video should have been half the length (or less). You've got a lot of useful and interesting knowledge to impart, but it's totally unprepared and unscripted. With a little more planning and polish, your stuff would be really impressive.
My speculation on why they changed initiative to a d4 is so that members of your party are more likely to get ties on the initiative roll, which gives you more freedom in choosing which one will act first if you want to set up some cool teamwork combos. I don't entirely agree with it, but I do see it being helpful to people new to the genre, and I guess the game did end up being hugely successful.
it saves a lot of the pain you feel for "deferring" not being a thing in BG3, while that and readied actions are probably 2 of the *most critical* aspects of maximizing high-level tabletop play.
im 90% sure you dont need to tie to get shared initiative in bg3. you just need to be next to an ally
@@peanuts7324yes
@@peanuts7324 You don't, but there can't be an enemy in between, and a D20 *vastly* increases the chance that enemies and allies will get randomly intermixed. Also there is some kind of threshold at which even adjacent initiative values get broken into 2 separate groups, though since it doesn't show up in the combat log, I haven't been able to pin down what that range is
I honestly think its more fun this way.
I wish mystras spells had a list of the new spells and descriptions. However, it does make leveling up exciting to see what new spells are coming up next.
My play throughs have gone from 100-130+ to about 60-80 hours from using the gold, arrows, and potions from the cheaters ring. I’ve played 6-7 play throughs without mods, and platinumed the game, I don’t want to spend a whole afternoon/evening after work just selling, and sneaking, and stealing around Moonrise, or resetting levels for the main purpose of resetting vendor inventories, just so I can keep going back to camp to grab all my stuff to sell. It’s also nice to not have to fret too much if I want to change my mind half way through a playthrough for things like hag hair, and everlasting vigor.
Without watching your videos, I never would’ve considered d20 initiative a difficulty mod. My worldview has been expanded. Thanks so much for the awesome informative content, I truly learn so much from watching you every time!
Honestly, I LOVE the D20 Initiative mod. Ever since playing with it my perspective of the game has changed completely. So many times my Max dex Gloomstalker Assassin with all the initiative gear and Alert feat would end up going in the middle of the turn order causing the surprise round not being as effective as it would be compared to the base game. Making slow and tankier builds like Sword and Board much more viable imo for fights where you can't get a surprise round in. Granted GWM builds would still make for better frontliners but knowing that a good chance that half of the enemies would go before you might make the playstyle much more appealing.
Videos like these are great, especially when you refer to your DnD knowledge. I have only a little DnD experience compared to BG3 experience, so it's always neat to see what was changed, what works, what doesn't work, etc.
Is there any chance in the future we get a breakdown/tierlist of Mystra's Spells ? so many new choices is kinda overwhelming for a newer bg3 player.
I'll second this.
Came here to say this.
i have been massively enjoying the blood mage and the eldritch knight +. Which i was totally sleeping on before watching this vid, so thank you for that o7 Particularly that EK sollution to the class fantasy is so elegant and simple. Also loving the war magic change mod from the same modder. Frankly it baffles me that ''using a cantrip with bonus action'' wasn't the actual text in the base game. The way war magic was officially implemented is so convoluted just to be a sidegrade/downgrade to simply attacking twice
Loved the video, and I plan on downloading all of them. But honestly my favorite part of this video was the "youtube just likes it when you hit buttons" 😂 great video all together, that just did something special for me I guess!
Perfect timing on this video. Just decided yesterday to dip my toes into modding, and you're THE person I turn to for BG3 knowledge. Thank you so much.
A D10 initiative mod exists, it is called Initiative Variants and is on the Nexus.
The wings mod is broken. You get 30m movement speed but flying 30 meters only really costs 5m of active movement speed. It also make jumping completely irrelevant and not quite, but almost, something like feather fall. Super broken.
You could hold off on using the ability until you unlock Ilithid flight
First thing he said is that it is not intended to balance. Sometimes you want a challenge; sometimes you just want to sing 'I believe I can fly' while you spank your enemies arround all the field.😂
Is this broken on console, seems wild they would consider it cosmetic if it was that unbalanced.
@@alvarotopo I always want a challenge, that I continually increase until I hate the game and take years off of playing it.
@@alvarotopo to be clear, I think your approach is smarter.
It have to be said that if you're on pc, there is in fact a d10 (and others) initiative mod available on nexus called Initiative Variants. Putting it here for those who might want it.
Thank you!
I'm definitely going to check out the Tasha's feats and the feats on even levels. I think that's an awesome mod idea, getting more feats so you have the freedom to pick feats that otherwise just don't make sense
Really glad you went over some of these mods, as I have been trying a lot of them out myself. I'm using a mod that gives a feat at level 2 to simulate another house rule in tabletop that gives a free feat at level 1 (It had to be given at level 2 because of a modding limitation). Also REALLY loving Mystra spells, definitely a must have. Any chance on a tier list going over the spells the mod added? I enjoy your tier list videos and how you explain things and would very much appreciate your insight on these new additions.
I love these BG3 mod videos. Hope you keep it up as the community continues to grow. Thank you!
You saying that bloodmage and witch feel weaker than some base classss make me super super interested to try these mods out! Busted classes are a bit too boring for me, so trying to work around flaws sounds super fun.
I really love the infinite arrows, potions and elixirs. I thought it was incredible how the witcher 3 wild hunt handled decoctions etc., i wish that approach was taken more often
Yooo for suree! The all green with the 1 self revive from adrenaline skill was so underpowered at first, but got so op late game when you filled your toxicity and did a ton of damage and were unkillable.
I would love to see more of this kind of content - also modded class builds and maybe even modded party comp builds. Its been fascinating for the past month playing this game like it was new again! D20 initiative mod has changed everything I was used to in HM...
If I recall, they originally did have a d20 for initiative but it was hated by EA players. It also made the shared turn system very infrequent, as you mentioned. Thus, they opted for the much lower d4 which is too much of an overcorrection. I've always thought d10 or d12 would be the perfect middle ground since d20 makes things too random. It just seems downright silly to me that a heavily dex built Rogue can move slower than a Paladin decked out in plate. Could it happen? Sure but it should be a rarity. A d10 accomplishes that
Great video! After many playthroughs I was looking to spice up the game a friend suggested mods so I'm glad to see this!
Blood mage build guide when?
Big fan of this content as it's great to get your strategic analysis on these nods and impacts on balance overall. Keep it coming!
Your build videos have quickly become my favorite. Do you have any plans to release builds for modded classes?
Great video! Very intesting to hear your take on what mods are good and why. I would like to see more like this. Also I have a suggestion. You have done many tier lists which are excellent but I personally would find it very helpful if you could do a sort of tier list based on gear from each Act for each class. It would save me having to rewatch multiple existing tier list videos. Perhaps an idea for the future when you have completed you current set of tier lists. Please keep up the great work! A loyal fan.
I love the fey touched feat.
Would love to see some build guides with some of these modded classes
Worth noting: there is an Artificer class in the in-game mod page and a different one on Nexusmods. Having fiddled around with both, the Nexus version is IMO far better. Smoothr intergration, better performance, more interesting rules interpretations etc.
The last one works well in combination with the mod Nothing Feat. If every second level is too much for anyone, they can choose to entirely skip a feat by taking the nothing feat.
There's also one called Origins Feat, which only adds a bonus feat at level 2. This is supposed to emulate the bonus starting feat house rule, but due to limitations you can only get it at 2nd level, and you also get it at 2nd level with every class on a multiclass character.
So here's the reason for D4 initiative as I see it (not saying it's good, just trying to explain the actual reason).
One of the most interesting changes BG3 made to DnD is shared initiative. When playing your 'all melee party' full run, one of my favourite runs, I blessed shared initiative each combat. In tabletop it's straight up impossible, or make the battle really long and complex, as well as making much worse the problem when the smartest player tells everyone what they do. But in a single-player video game it adds such a fun strategic layer to combat.
However, imagine you implemented this mechanic just to see it only happens a couple of times per act. You want users to frequently interact with this mechanic, and you make the change that leads into shared initiative situations happen more often.
Actually before I fully synced my initiative in 'full melee party', I've had a mini-game of 'okay, who do I have to kill to end up in a shared initiative situation' )
EDIT: I paused the video when you said something like 'I don't know why they made it d4', and typed this comment, then resumed. I kinda went overexplaining, because you understand this reason as well.
I would love to see a Mystra's spells spell tier list!
I’m finally on the netherbrain fight on my first honour playthrough which I’m finishing first thing when I get home from work later today! So excited to finally try out some mods so this drop is even more icing on the cake haha
I adore mods, don’t have a powerful PC to play games like Baldur’s Gate 3. I do have a PS5, and am super happy that they have mod support for BG3. Thank you very much for informing us console players about this awesome new feature. Moded BG3 on my PS5 here I come 😁
I installed mostly all of your suggestions, a lot of this things looks like very fun, good video!
Also, on the d20 initiative it makes the possibility of hordes of enemies taking their turns at once less likely, I noticed when using this mod that big battles took longer depending on the luck of the draw
Im just here for the random rants about DnD design in general and in the weapon armor tierlist the rants about how things are and how fantasy get things wrong. Praise the UA-cam algorithm
Had this playing in the background and at 12:25 I started dying laughing because I didn't hear the "s" at the end of feats. "I love this character building mod Tasha's feet" 🤣
These are some really cool mods. Will definitely look into downloading these once I complete my honor mode run.
New teir lists for Mod Feats when? lol. Love the video, as a PS5 player, i appreciate the look into what's coming to console. Keep up the amazing work!
So I havent made a d4 initiative system, but I have made an initiative rework mod that does the following:
Initiatve = 1d6 + INT mod + DEX mod/3
(I also nerf Alert to +3 in another mod but I am considering nerfing to +1 and giving an additional reaction point making it still very powerful, but far more niche)
The effect of this mod is that Dexterity gets a much needed nerf as a stat, Intelligence gets a much needed buff as a stat, and initiave bonuses for the player generally drop pretty hard because you still generally can’t invest too much into Intelligence on most characters, but you can invest a little and get a decent bonus. The modifier portion if this initiative system also only applies to the player characters with backgrounds (not summons, not enemies) so while variance is higher and initiative bonuses are lower, there arent wild swings and you can still get to go first, you just have to be smart to do so. Wizards, Eldritch Knights, and Arcane Tricksters especially rejoice!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this system. I would also consider changing the initiaitve die to a d8.
been using bloodmage and witch in a recent playthrough, and if you pick the right stuff, I have to say they can be pretty insane.
Bloodmage's "rage" subclass gets a per-combat rage that gives them advantage on all melee attacks, at the cost of 2 hp lost at the start of each turn, and since thrown attacks are loosely coded as unarmed attacks, it counts that XD Plus they get Hex as a spell. It's pretty fun, but considering it only gets 2 attacks, it is still rather fairly balanced against something like an Eldritch Knight.
Witch's Herbalist subclass I'm not sure how I feel about, since you get Healing Word and Revivify as "cantrips" which makes you a positively *insane* user of the buff-on-heal items, and also gives you infinite out of combat healing and revives. Pragmatically, since potions are unlimited if you bother, and you can revive at Withers and just pickpocket him for free, it's not really letting you do anything you can't normally, though it definitely feels pretty great at first glance. Also pincushion is a ridiculous cantrip XD
Wild magic barbarians and dragonborn breath weapons use Con aa their spellcasting ability
I think that the reason that they changed initiative from a D20 to a D4 is because that greatly reduces the computation power required during initiating combat. While it does create some wonky situations, I think it is the way it is to keep the program more stable.
My favourite mod and for many others by the video's and what they say, is the increase party number mod. I always thought 4 was a bit restrictive. Just have a party of around 8 and listen to the extra banter you get between characters. It's fantastic. Highly recommended.
Would love a deep dive on Mystras Spells. Theres a lack of coverage on non OP lore friendly mods for the game.
Can confirm Witch class is a ton of fun and gives you a lot of extra stuff to fiddle around with.
Thank you for this video! I'm lost with all the new mods, so I'm glad to hear some suggestions. I really want to try D20 Initiative, because like you said with Alert it's so broken it gets kind of boring, but even without it, I almost always know what I'm going to get. It will reinject some challenge and diversity into the game. I feel like the infinite consummables make sense starting act2, where it's more a question of regaining the time you are losing doing the round of vendors to get whatever you are looking for. In early game, the consummable economy still make sense. But after level 5/6, everything is basically free in BG3...
Took me a while to come back and leave this comment... I think this video fills a gap in the bg3 mod video space. There are already so many mods that finding goos and interesting mods is time consuming. The alternatives I've seen all favored quantity over substance. I really appreciate more curation in the current scenario.
Thanks very much!
I can't wait to see the fey wanderer ranger implemented into the mods in the game.
3:16
Actually, dhampirs use constitution for their bite attack. Very niche case, but *technically* something does use constitution aggressively
Check out the 4e Monk mod. So much better.
The best way to handle ASI and feats is to separate them out. Just give everyone ASI at 3, 7, 11. They can't take +2, just +1 and +1. Leave feats as is.
The mod that is most important to me atm is Combat Extender. It allows you to freely readjust mob's stats (think like a generic 30% extra HP, +1 AC, +3 damage to everything). It also adds more abilities to many mobs (like fighter-style enemies getting riposte).
Sadly it's only on nexusmods and has some preconditions like script extender and editing a .json file (for setting the values). But it's kept my runs interesting.
Will try out the initiative mod!
Please do more mods highlights! It helps me to get a list for my next playthrough.
I love it when BG3 mods are basically dnd5E mods.
Honestly prefer Origin Feats over FOELs, having basically a free Alert is enough to give you that leg up while still being able to explore what little depth is in the standard feat pool without risking cracking your build too much which is likely to happen with FOELs. It's a bit clunky when multiclassing with the way it's implemented but I think it strikes the best balance when on its own.
FOELs is probably best with another feat mod like Tasha's which you mentioned so you actually have a need and want to take that many feats at all.
Very cool video highlighting very cool/fun mods. I would love to see more content like this, though I would want there to be a theme to the video. Such as a video highlighting mods that jus increase/decrease difficulty or QoL mods or new class.
One warning about the feats on even levels mod, it will conflict with any mods that make changes to base class progressions which can be problematic.
I’m currently doing a Solo run on Custom mode (Honor ruleset, but multiple savings to avoid mod issues). My fav mods:
- Vampire Origin
- Mystic
- Extra spells
- Wings
- D20 initiative
- 5e and Mystra extra spells
- Tasha feats
- bag of holding
- Ritual Underwear
I have some more installed, but these were the most useful. I dont recommend dices and too many customization on consoles, gets too slow and crashes.
Great video. Thanks
Mod roundup every few months might be cool
Please do a Race tier List at some point, I would love to see your thoughts on that
Thank you for then detailed and expert continued content.
I'm not sure if it was in response to this video or not but I just saw there was a new d10 initiative mod 😂
Just a question. Will you be playing POE 2? I can't wait to play that game. Anyway, love the content 👍
As soon as I saw the D20 initiative, I downloaded it. I was beyond tired of seeing nobody on my team get higher than a 4. Meanwhile, every opponent is getting double digits because of difficulty modifiers
very good, thank you.
Would you recommend these mods for a first time honor mode run?
Curious bout your history with dnd. What was your first character
Everyone on PS5, just a fair warning that many of us, including me, have had our saves (all of them, even on unmodded runs) completely corrupted by having too many mods installed. Textures failing to load, the game chugging at 5fps and then crashing, not even being able to get to the menu screen, all that has been happening for a lot of people. Thankfully I turned off automatic backups when patch 7 dropped, so I could restore completely clean saves. But just be careful going crazy with mods on PS5
3:15 that is technically not true as Dhampir natural bite attack uses constitution for attack and damage role, but it does 1d4 damage so you are effectively correct.
I wish they had given eldrich knight an ability to cast a cantrip instead of a second melee attack, would've been cool
Vanilla eldritch knight does get this ability at level 7. he gets two attacks or melee and cantrip cast
@oh shit. I’m a dumbass. That’ll be my next campaign then. Thanks.
@@ntgrv it doesnt work exactly like this, its basically if they do a cantrip then they can make 1 melee attack with a bonus action (but this doesnt work with extra attack so it is only 1 cantrip then 1 attack per round)
Great vid
I’d like to see more modded character builds
There is a D10 Initiative mod. I think it's called Initiative Variants D10. Not sure if I got it off Nexus or the mod manager though. I would like to see a video about the mystic class if you've played with that one. It's extremely complicated.
Is there a chance we will ever get unlockable trophies for console? I just want to use a few cosmetic mods but locking out achievements because of them is kind of a bummer
I love all the new mods. The problem that I'm running into is that it makes the game too easy. We need a difficulty mod. Adding more mobs, with more health/AC. I wanna bring my party of 6, level 20 characters with like 6 feats each and have some spicy battles.
What about using the mod Blood Sorcerer with melee multiclass? I dunno but in a Durge run that class is well suited
10:57 '...and if you are on PC then you can have enemies cast them against you as well which is ofc pretty awesome because it gives enemies a ton more tactical options.' well, depends on the AI probably. is the AI able to apply tactics with new, unknown content it was never trained with? just using up resources is easy but applying them usefully and in a tactical smart way is something different.
Does console have a mod to make multiple custom characters yet? I want to do a full Dragonborn run but it’s been impossible without the right mods.
Mystra Spells scream to you: "Make the tierlist and talk about all of the spells from this mod!" Mentioning of course who gets them, how they work, what would you do with them in the game, take or not ) All my DnD experience is BG3 so all these names mean nothing to me, and there are a lot of names.
🔥🔥🔥
How about a D20 initiative mod with a held action mod? I can't count the number of times I wish I could hold my action.
Would you have put level curve on here if the Druid bug didn’t exist?
I have been 'houseruling' myself into not taking Alert, as it was so absurdely broken that it almost felt as cheating. Therefore I love 1d20 Initiative.
Alert still useful and even mandatory in some builds, but now it almost feels too weak (especially with the new cool modded feats), so I fully support your 1d10 proposal.
Loved the video, as always.
have you tried the cheaters ring? it felt like it turned off some of the fun for me like looting.
Personally, I only use cheating effects like that when I need a specific item to record a video or do a dumb strategy like getting the ring that makes you always wild magic surge in act 1. I wouldn't recommend them for actually playing the game unless you're specifically looking to avoid some annoyance - like you say, cheating takes a lot of the fun out of things!
I'll never understand the d4 initiative. I think there was an extremely vocal play tester complaining that they took Alert, but still lost initiative sometimes. How about showing off some feat every even level builds?
I finally got all the achievments, now i go for some cheaters mod and play with extra feats, it allways feel lackluster to chose feats, because you rarelly choose anything aside from alert and ASI, even if you do you feel you're losing power for some roleplay.
Is there a mod that lets you use the charisma modifier of the highest cha member of your party for dialog checks? The single worst thing about BG3 is being unable to be a party face as your main character unless you're one of a handful of classes
Do you (or anyone) know if I can use mods with an ongoing multiplayer save on console?
It sounds like a cool mod, but it's unfortunate that the blood mage mod page uses AI art. I get that it's cheaper for a free mod that the creator makes no money from, but it's a shame that they didn't take the small extra effort to use public domain royalty-free art, of which there is so much that is easily accessible.
If you ever stop making BG3 videos, I'll leave YT
Play a Dragon Age character in Baldur's Gate so you can experience good writing lol
D&D? No. Pathfinder has kineticist with Con as the casting stat.
Playing as optimal as possible seems like such a bummer. Always picking Alert for everyone is so boring
my favourite mod is none of them right now because I can’t get the game working with my friend (GustavDev error). sooo frustrating.
Whatever you do, do NOT download or use the shotgun mod cause it will brick your game on ps5
The mod is gone from ps5 mod manager the creator is trying to fix it
@marquisepixley684 oh good
BETTER SORT/FILTER MOD PLEASE!
❤❤❤
Please tell me that you DM in Portland, OR. 🤞🏻🤞🏻
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I appreciate the content, but this video should have been half the length (or less). You've got a lot of useful and interesting knowledge to impart, but it's totally unprepared and unscripted. With a little more planning and polish, your stuff would be really impressive.