The goal of the “Listonomicon” is to be an out-of-the-box experience that enhances Baldurs Gate 3’s UI, quality of life, and replay value; introduces beloved aspects of the tabletop game’s past and present; and widens and deepens the game mechanics while respecting Larian’s vision for adapting DnD5e to an enjoyable cRPG. The early Act One on-ramp should be smoother, thanks to quickly reaching level 5; but the vanilla late Act One and Act Two challenge level should be felt throughout the entire game. No extremely early game struggle or challenge-free late game. But also, no slog - no one enjoys wading through buckets of enemies who were given too many HPs and AC bonuses to be a satisfying fight!
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List Philosophy
Classes and Subclasses
Classes and Subclasses should represent something that exists in official D&D material, makes sense in the Forgotten Realms (sorry my fellow Dragon Mech and Dragon Star fans), and compliments Larian’s design. It must work within the Compatibility Framework, and it must have level scaling to 20. Anything that requires unusual deviation or disruption to the regular flow of gameplay, such as a class that introduces an obnoxious number of toggle abilities or changes to the action economy or impacts the basic features of all classes, will most likely not be considered for inclusion. Classes and subclasses should follow their book/tabletop counterparts as closely as practical, with minimal changes to translate to the game.
Magic Weapons, Armor, and Items
New gear should reasonably exist in the Forgotten Realms. The design philosophy and distribution (as static loot, or new random loot table entries or shopkeeper inventory) should match Larian’s progression expectations and design sensibility. Vanilla gear that is changed should avoid “over tuning” and changes should focus on making items more interesting, under-used items more compelling, or provide Quality of Life changes to awkward mechanics or descriptions.
Feats, Class Features, and Progression
New feats should add interesting options. Revised feats (nerfed or buffed or just tweaked) should prevent any options from feeling mandatory, polarizing, or weak. The progression of feats every 3 levels, instead of 4, allows more feats to be chosen over the course of the game; allows builds to come together sooner (such as polearm/sentinel tanks); and it allows multi-class dips to grab their 3rd level subclass features without having to choose a 4th level or miss a feat. Level progression should be faster than the base game, allowing players who do most content to reach level 15+ and completionists to reach level 18+. Completionist players will still be able to out-level enemies, but not to the same degree as the base game. Balance tuning is an ongoing fight; please provide feedback on what level you enter Act 2 and Act 3, and if you encounter enemies with excess AC or HP.
Engaging Combat and Difficulty Curve
Enemies should roughly scale with the player, to a limit determined by the game act. Bosses will always be slightly above the player’s level. Enemy casters should have access to 5e spells and PF2e spells. Enemies are smarter, and more viscous: They will target unconscious characters, attempt to shove or throw characters off cliffs and into chasms, and in general feel like they are trying just as hard to survive an encounter as the player is. The list enables Honour Mode mechanics, including legendary actions added to boss fights.