D&D 5E Blatantly and Directly Stealing from BG3 (Spoilers)

NotAYakk

Legend
Good DMs create, great DMs steal.

So what can I steal from BG3?

Weapons:
Unseen Menance has a nice mechanic. You get advantage on attacks ... until you miss. It is 2 rounds by the game; I might make it take an action to regain the feature, just to get rid of bookkeeping.

Club of Hill Giant Strength is hilarious; an inferior weapon with a nice status buff. (I don't like the "set stat to Y" items, but I can replace that with my homebrew effect).

I don't like the conditional bonuses based on the target for weapons. Too much tracking, not enough damage per tabletop second.

A per-encounter (or per-short-rest) maneuver attached to weapons works, as it is something for the Player to track (and is just a checkmark).

Cacophony, which deals +1d4 thunder damage and gives you a 1/short rest smite, is good to steal. I prefer +1dX elemental damage to a +1 weapon, as +X weapon is a bit too effective for its impact.

To that extent, all of the +save DC items and the like are yawn. Mechanically very strong, narratively weak.

Drakethroat Glaive is cute.

Ravenguard's Scorcher, which grants an underpowered maneuver (commander's strike) 1/SR but as a bonus action, is also fun. By changing the action economy of the maneuver it becomes quite good.

Sylvan Scimitar is interesting. It it an otherwise mediocre weapon that gives casting-stat-to-attack.

The Watcher's Guide has True-Strike-on-Miss, which I like; applying an underpowered effect with better action economy is great.

Dancing Breeze -- a finess polearm -- is rather fun. I can imagine a PC picking that up in mid game and building their character around it.



I like the fact that rarer items tend to have more than 1 effect. So greyskull helm has
1. Resistance to Fire (nice)
2. Immune to Critical hits (nice)
3. 1/day hunter's mark (also nice)

One issue I've found with mid-high 5e characters is feeling you are locked to some low-level magic item because you really, really want that specific effect (resistance, or whatever). If high level magic items tended to replicate the lower level item effect with extra fun stuff, it makes eventual upgrading more tempting.

Helmet of Smiting isn't bad. I'd probably remove the condition requirement.

The complex lightning charges/burning/etc I'm not going to steal. Similarly "wet = 2x lightning and cold" is off my table.

I sort of like magical plate reducing incoming damage by a small amount, and definitely throwing in stuff that isn't +X AC. Blackguard's Plate, for example, with +1 AC, wisdom saving throw advantage, and 1 point of damage reduction. But it might be annoying to track: I might make it a block of temporary HP that can be recovered as an action (or when taking a second wind).

The medium armors that allow full dex-to-AC are interesting, like Sharpened Snare Cuirass. They are basically "requires better proficiency high enchantment light armor" however.

I appreciate the pile of magical shields that are less than +1 enchantment yet tempting.

Night Walkers are amazing; mini freedom of movement plus 1/SR misty step.

The battlemage items, like strange conduit (+1d4 psychic damage on weapon attacks when concentrating) are fun, or Band of the Mystic Scoundrel (after hitting a creature, can cast illusion and enchantment spells as a bonus action instead of an action). They encourage and reward weaving between weapons and spells.

Ne'er misser, which is a hand crossbow that does force damage and can cast magic missile, is flavourful, has mechanical impact in the game (as force is amazing against physical objects).

The Reviving Hands, which grants bladeward on a heal and death ward on a revive, is just too good an item. As is blessed mercy (grant 2 turns of bless on a heal).

The items like Hunting Shortbow, which grant advantage against monstrosities on all attacks, are interesting. Attune a ranged weapon, get a boost to your non-ranged weapon attacks - this encourages generalization, which I support.

Corvid Token is fun. Always-on feather fall, and effectively a dire raven wild shape 1/day.

Nyrulina - the trident that deals +1d6 thunder (making the 1d6 versatile weapon a good one) that is returning and explodes for 3d4 damage when thrown, feather fall, movement speed and jumping distance boost. (extra damage) (returning) (aoe when thrown) (movement speed and jump speed) (feather fall) - oh and glows - having a collection of fun properties on Legendary weapons makes them interesting and helps them dominate and replace other items.

The Titanstring Bow, which just adds +str to damage, is an interesting weapon to add. Especially if it doesn't require attunement, it might be tempting for a non-ranged specialized PC to pick it up as their preferred bow.

Weapons that grant pseudo-bless like abilities - Phalar Alive for example - are worth stealing. I might have it trigger on a successful hit optionally instead of it being an action.

...

Elixirs are interesting. On TT, they would effectively act as an extra attunement slot and a consumable item. Knowing a recipie and having an alchemist or the like in the party would be similar to having the magic item, but because they are 1 at a time it avoids some of the crafting-spam issues with making magic items (even consumables).

The recipie to make them could require a unique catalyst as well, which would explain why they aren't everywhere.

The accounting of "how many doses left" and buying ingredients is a bit boring however. It is possible I could have a player who likes that kind of thing.

There is a bit of a power gap.

Giant Size is great. The Strength ones, however, are better.

Bloodlust is insane - the game gives out extra actions a bit too easily.

The extra spell slots are interesting. By now allowing you to spam drink them, they become a perk, and won't break the game.

The one that grants warcaster's advantage on concentration checks is solid.

...

Having potions for utility, like detect thoughts/speak with animals/etc has some attraction. It does reduce having those as class features a bit - it becomes about saving gp for potions.

...

A few of the different features for subclasses also look good. I prefer to make changes upwards; but the variety of barbarian rages is interesting (and gives Bear some competition).

...

I love the idea of legendary spells. They can only be used on a refresh, still take slots. It can add a bunch to the game if there are PCs whose goals include gaining knowledge.

The bit where you can get speak with dead as a built in ability by reading the necro tomb is also fun. Similar to a legendary spell.

...

Anything else?
 

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I like the Sussurus Great Sword a lot.

The 2 guys I usually play Xbox with haven’t tried BG3 yet - they’re waiting excitedly for the Xbox release.
  • One is a newish player in my email 3.5e Greyhawk campaign, which currently in the Temple of Elemental Evil. He’s new to D&D but liking it.
  • The other is reluctant to try D&D from time commitment concerns, even though his friend keeps bugging him to join, but is doing Solasta solo.
  • My secret evil plan is once we all play BG3 together and he is gaga for it, offer guy #2 the chance to play one of the starting companions in our D&D game. TOEE is explicitly designed as a place where any kind of “lost character” can show up. We’ll see. He may just not like anything not on a TV screen. If he goes for it, I will convert to 3.5e but probably leave the mostly FR backstory, bringing in the character pre-Tadpole. If he doesn’t want to play his choice of homemade character or Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Lae-Zel, Shadowheart, or Wyl in “real D&D”, it would seem he just doesn’t want to play in our game. Fair enough. It’s the old school of magic try!
 
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TwoSix

Master of the One True Way
2nd BA for rogue/thief is pretty transformative for that subclass. The general loosening of BA restrictions is something I’d like to move towards in my own games.
 

NotAYakk

Legend
2nd BA for rogue/thief is pretty transformative for that subclass. The general loosening of BA restrictions is something I’d like to move towards in my own games.
I find that is an example of subclass features that work better outside of that subclass than they do within the subclass.

I tend to make houserules that go the other direction. I don't mind some synergy, but if you get an 2nd BA feature in your subclass, you should also get awesome BA uses, and the bonus BA "value" should reflect that.

The thief is exactly the opposite -- it has mediocre BA features, and the best use of it is .... not being a thief.

Don't get me wrong - I would be good with theif3 being a great dip for a bunch of classes. But it is a better dip than primary path by an order of magnitude, and that rubs me wrong.

I do like the monk in BG3, as it doesn't seem to have this problem.
I like the Sussurus Great Sword a lot.
Shhhh!
 

Dausuul

Legend
Elixirs are a really nifty way to push back against the 5-minute workday, particularly if you make them a little harder to come by than BG3 does. Though I would probably retool it into a one-shot item that provides a buff to the entire party -- that way you don't have the elixir-drinker keen to push on while everyone else is desperate to rest.

Drinking potions as a bonus action, and two short rests of trivial length for each long rest, are house rules my group has already been using for a while. But if we weren't, I'd push for us to start.

I'm not sure I'll go so far as to work up house rules for berserker frenzy to let your bonus action attack be "pick up an enemy and throw it at another enemy"... but I really want to. :)
 

CapnZapp

Legend
I would love to have BG3 lessons imported to D&D. However, with the impending release of D&D 2024 I think these will fall through the cracks. Not useful to implement now, and probably forgotten next year.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the BG3 magic items in the 2024 PHB.
I would be, but I can see them all showing up in an Extra Life PDF.

(I would have put them all in a physical book myself that was initially available in the BG3 physical deluxe set, before putting out the book separately a few months later. Insert standard rant about WotC and tie-in products.)
 

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
I would be, but I can see them all showing up in an Extra Life PDF.

(I would have put them all in a physical book myself that was initially available in the BG3 physical deluxe set, before putting out the book separately a few months later. Insert standard rant about WotC and tie-in products.)
I would not be surprised if there wasn't a BG3 related book on the schedule for next year.
 

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