Way Off-Topic: Question for RPGamers

[Xenophon]

Hi Xeno -

Hey Honor, thanks for checking in. I had planned to post today anyway as we had a nice long session yesterday but you definitely help give me some talking points.

You've got a lot of sound observations there and most of them are spot on:

You're correct that the druid and cleric are able to now split the brunt of front lining while still keeping a lot of the utility in their kits. This was a pretty big game changers for how fights are being managed, although we've taken far less unnecessary fights this time around due to some better choices and much better rolls.

Our Necro player said they had done several campaigns with it and wanted to run it with this modified ruleset so we trusted them. It has gone very well for us. To your level point the game does go all the way to twelve and you can very easily hit five before the end of act one, opening a lot of power up for the classes fairly quickly.

I'm not entirely sure on arcane trickster yet but it seems good to me, although I'm uncertain if I just lucked into a few things that make that so. You're right that out of combat obviously feels nice: mage hand, charm, and disguise self have all been very useful so far. Although you can play combat centric you'd be surprised how many non-combat solutions you have available to you if you put in the effort for it. A CRPG could never fully capture the vast number of options that a human DM could grant you but so far we've been able to be quite creative. I'm sporting an amulet that grants me misty step and a bow that recovers a spent spell slot on crit that have allowed me to put in more combat work than I would have expected (pure luck, I've no idea what I'm doing). Couple that bow with an illithid power you pick up in the game that guarantees one critical hit per long rest (and thus at least one additional spell cast) and I'm feeling quite powerful. I've no idea about the power curve though and I'll be interested to see what the scaling feels like in the rest of the game. I opted for magic missile for that first wizard spell but I'm not sure if that was the right play and I've thought about swapping that for fog or find familiar.



All in all we are having a blast. Good company does that but I have to say this is one of the best video games I've ever played. There is an extreme attention to detail in the world that still catches me off guard at times. The story-telling and world building is well done and I've been insanely impressed with how impactful your choices feel. From the big things like which groups to help but also to the much smaller like which entrance to a town is your first or whether you pet a dog as you passed (yes really). The visuals are nice, the hits feel chunky, and it is obvious that Larian understands the table top world and manages to do a damn fine job translating that to the computer. I've mentioned liking some of their other titles but this one is a step above so far.

The only downside I'm seeing in our 4-party team is we are missing some additional interactions with the characters in the world that would normally join your party in a solo run. They'll join your camp and you can still gain access to their dialogue and fellowship but it isn't quite the same when they aren't regular members of your party. They feel a bit like tag-alongs. Just there to serve as story drivers and lore dumps.

Some additional highlights from last night with hopefully not any real spoilers:

• Opening a random door to a bugbear and ogre in a... compromising position. Hilarity-> quickly turns to a tougher fight than expected-> fades into the feeling that you just murdered two lovers just looking for something nice in a bleak world.
• Convincing three ogres to band together in the fight against a goblin camp with promise of a delicious meal, namely the dead goblins. Getting to watch those ogres hurl giant stones at goblins was very satisfying.
• Managing to successfully help both of a competing set of NPC groups, we had a narrow path for the "win-win-win" scenario and we were all really pleased when we pulled it off.

[honorentheos]

Hey Xeno,

Thanks for the update! Sounds like the computer is doing a darn good job and likely has a richer story that comes with professional writing staff knowing what they are doing. That's compelling and leads me to consider checking it out even more. But still, time is a factor. I spent a couple of hours today working out an expanded plot web for my work campaign to figure out what bits of player backstory could potentially be worked in next session but your comments about the writing in BG3 still gives me a complex.

I'll say magic missile is a perfect arcane trickster spell. It doesn't matter if you have high intelligence or not, it's a killer. And having a bow with proficiency as a rogue is a strong build as it opens up sneak attack damage from range. Tack on misty step to a rogue, an automatic crit per long rest, as a DM I might question what I was letting you get away with...

Opening a random door to a bugbear and ogre in a... compromising position. Hilarity-> quickly turns to a tougher fight than expected-> fades into the feeling that you just murdered two lovers just looking for something nice in a bleak world.

Of everything you've shared this one really piques my interest. That's a great little detail and dilemma. Chef's kiss.

[Xenophon]

Hey Xeno,

Thanks for the update! Sounds like the computer is doing a darn good job and likely has a richer story that comes with professional writing staff knowing what they are doing. That's compelling and leads me to consider checking it out even more. But still, time is a factor. I spent a couple of hours today working out an expanded plot web for my work campaign to figure out what bits of player backstory could potentially be worked in next session but your comments about the writing in BG3 still gives me a complex.

Oof, I hate to think my praise for BG3 might be negatively impacting you like that and it certainly wasn't my intention. With as little DM work as I've done I have to reiterate that anyone who puts in the time, consideration, and effort you do to your campaigns sits in a very elite class, in my opinion. I love getting to read the stories you share here.

For me, the comments weren't meant to downplay the awesomeness that is a well prepared DM and their table but instead highlight that I think BG3 does a better job translating that same magic to a different medium. Of course the writing is more elaborate, they have the resources and time (they started work in 2013 for god's sake) to sink into one of the most massive CRPG projects of all time. That said they still can't improvise like a normal DM can, they have to try to prepare for a thousand+ different scenarios and program them in as such so you'll never get as much freedom as you will in a true table top experience. The dialogue will never be as conversational as two humans winging it but they've done good at not making the choices feel as... robotic as can sometimes plague the genre even among the better crpgs out there (Fallout: New Vegas for instance).

I'll say magic missile is a perfect arcane trickster spell. It doesn't matter if you have high intelligence or not, it's a killer. And having a bow with proficiency as a rogue is a strong build as it opens up sneak attack damage from range. Tack on misty step to a rogue, an automatic crit per long rest, as a DM I might question what I was letting you get away with...

It has felt fairly powerful thus far and I wouldn't have expected this from a normal session. I do think Larian might be leaning into the power fantasy a little hard but from what I've gathered about the later stages the "excess" power may only be relative for our current progress.

Of everything you've shared this one really piques my interest. That's a great little detail and dilemma. Chef's kiss.

I'm glad that stuck out for you, I've wanted to expand more on some of the scenarios I've encountered but I also don't wish to ruin the magic for anyone. That one seemed small and subtle enough as to be an okay one to share. The world as a whole benefits from solid, nuanced writing. Very few of the characters are all good or all bad, even the "good" choices often come with some negative ramifications. Early on it is also very difficult to tell who exactly is truly on your side and who just has overlapping considerations that leave them as opportunistic allies.

I hope you, or anyone reading, don't feel pressured or rushed to try it out for yourself, it is going to be here for a while. Wait for a good sale, wait till they release remote play (I'm hoping they will as they did with previous titles), wait for the modding community to expand class/race/spell choices. These kinds of games are best when savored and that includes waiting until the moment you have the time necessary to dedicate to it.

[honorentheos]

I hope you, or anyone reading, don't feel pressured or rushed to try it out for yourself

Hey Xeno,

I should have used more smilies. I didn't mean to suggest I was comparing myself to the writing in BG3 and feeling actual distress.

A couple of the folks I play with in a TTRPG were talking about it last night. They echoed your praise for the game. Maybe someday. But for now I can't justify the time as much as I am curious to explore it. I spent a chunk of free time this week continuing to elaborate on the plot points in the work campaign I'm DMing and that was about all the non-work, non-family, non-in real life social time I had to spend. There is a legit argument to be made my time economy is poised for a crash so advice there may be welcomed.

When I'm noodling on the campaign I find it easy to slip into flow, whether it's working on plot ideas, creating maps, painting minis, setting up pregame notes, etc. So I know I don't hold myself to time constraints as well as I might. Point being, I'm cool with my time choices and only joking (kinda) about the BG3 writing. It sounds like it was well done and I am interested in checking it out sometime. But it will be when I need it as an outlet because some other outlet I currently have came to an end.

That said, here's an example of one of the backstory expansions I recently prepped with a player in our work campaign:

Where From: Ellery doesn’t know where she was born, but she grew up in Newquay, (pronounced NU-kway) a port city on the Challenger Coast. It is approximately a month’s travel south of Fairbanks. Worked in The Leaping Stag tavern in Bydale, a village between Purevault and Fairbanks, after Shugz was murdered. Studied at the bardic college in Morstor, a small college town in the hills between Fairbanks and Newquay.

Newquay
Port city on the Challenger Coast a month’s travel on land to the south of Fairbanks. By sea, the trip takes 1 week from Newquay to Fairbanks, and 3 weeks from Fairbanks to Newquay as the prevailing current favors traveling north up the coast. This means most trade from Newquay to Fairbanks is by sea while goods from the north to Newquay are often by land given the greater risk of shipwreck isn’t worth saving one week to many traders.

Two factions compete openly for control of the city. These include the majority of the City’s wealthy merchants on one side, and those aligned with the hill dwarf Lord Hafgri on the other, whose family ties to the region go back beyond human memory.

The Pavilion of Revelry
A two-story half-timbered theatre that shared an alley with the simple two room second floor lodgings where Shugz and Ellery lived. Ellery often snuck in the back of the theater through the alley to watch performances, encouraged by a number of the performers and theater staff with whom she had became friendly. One of these performers, a dwarf named Hildi, was a favorite of Ellery’s, who could play many instruments as well as tell enrapturing stories mixed with song. Outside of his performances, he often told her stories of a legendary lost dwarven kingdom called Bul Gunar.

Bydale
Medium sized village that serves as a main stopping point for traveling merchants along the road between Purevault and Fairbanks.

Governed by a group of elders that everyone in the village ignored as they wrote bizarre laws mainly to pass the time more than they seemed interested in having them enforced.
Grobern, a human veteran of many past wars who wasn’t interested in the trapping of leadership, is the de facto village head. His experience and sense of justice has led to the villagers trusting him which in turn means his judgements are actually treated as if he were in charge. Which means he is in charge.

Lucie Vought is the proprietor of The Leaping Stag, the only tavern in Bydale.
The Leaping Stag
The inn is a large timber and brick building, with a small walled yard and garden. Accommodations consist of a dozen or so rooms with beds and feather mattresses for those willing to pay 5 silver per night. Bunk beds in the barracks on the second floor are available for a more modest price of 2 copper per night.

Adjacent to the main bathhouse in the city and often served food to bathhouse guests at a mark-up.

Morstor
College town, home to the Resounding Halls, a respected and somewhat exclusive bardic college.

College president is a halfling named Wynna, good humored and loved, with a pseudodragon pet named Quinnt.
The exclusive nature of the college meant most students were well-to-do and connected, which Ellery was not. Ellery thought the majority of students and professors, while not exactly looking down on her rough manners, couldn’t hide feeling superior to her in some way which affected her behavior and her studies.

While Wynna never directly intervened between others and Ellery that Ellery knew of, it seemed she served as a sort of buffer between the other staff and Ellery. Wynna would only smile at Ellery if Ellery attempted to talk to her or ask questions, and offer some quip such as how the value of a stone might not be obvious until it was cut and polished and the gem inside revealed.

General training at bard college required three years of study, with another year of specialty training in the specific college where Ellery attended the College of Spirits. Dean Frist, a sallow former cleric turned bard who was dean of the College of Spirits, came to mentor Ellery and often remarked to her that the spirits seemed to circle heavily about her which she could not decern if it was meant as compliment or concern. Few students chose this college as the many privileged and well-to-do found it less appealing which suited Ellery just fine.

Key backstory points:

Ellery is an orphan who never knew her parents.

Taken in by an orc named Shugz very early on. Ellery is not sure when she was adopted by him, only that he has always been in her life as long as she could remember. He told her about finding her in the care of a small church where survivors of raids on farmsteads and hamlets were often brought, and had assumed her parents were likely killed by marauders or bandits.

Shugz raised her in Newquay, teaching her how to get by through resourcefulness, and being willing to do what it took to survive.

Blames herself for Shugz death which is her motivating regret. She has been unable to forgive herself for her part in his being murdered.

Had a wild past, settled down and became more cultured when she went to Morstor to train at the Bard College.

Can communicate with Shugz through seances which she learned to perform in bardic school in the college of spirits.
Learned from Shugz he had a bastard son he had not known about until after his death. Shugz was unable to give her many details but shared he knew his name was Scyne, and a half-orc/elf whose elven mother had died in childbirth. Shugz believes he has returned to the orc tribe which Shugz had abandoned, but only knows the tribe had been nomadic so Shugz had not recognized where Scyne was at the time.

Relationships:

Shugz
Orc who found and raised her.
Taught her to use weapons and survive on the streets.
Attempted to teach her roguish skills.
Shugz was killed in the attempt to pick pocket a nobleman in a carriage traveling on the road into Newquay from Fairbanks.
After Ellery learned her bardic arts at the Resounding Halls Bard College in Morstor, she became able to make contract with Shugz through seances.
Shugz informed Ellery he has bastard half orc/elf son named Scyne he didn’t know about until after his death.
Shugz believes Scyne has returned to the orc tribe which Shugz had abandoned in order to raise Ellery. Does not know where they are as they are nomadic and exactly where they are is not something Shugz could see from the afterlife.
Having learned about his existence, Shugz is worried about his son becoming something Shugz had tried not to become himself.

Scyne
Half orc/elf, bastard son of Shugz.
Believed by Shugz to have recently joined with the orc tribe Shugz had left.

Lucie Vought
Human female, blond hair and green eyed. She has been described as beautiful but not in a conventional manner.
She presents as a strong, capable and self-assured businessperson which is good for business. But anyone attempting to get to know her better is rebuffed whether they seek friendship, a romantic interest, or even just historic information.
Hired Ellery to bus tables after hearing about what happened to Shugz.
After Ellery had worked for her a year, Lucie surprised Ellery by offering to pay her way to attend the Resounding Halls Bard College in Morstor.

Hildi
Male Dwarf Entertainer
Performed at The Pavilion of Revelry in Newquay.
Hildi has matted blonde hair and dark brown eyes, and a thin mouth. He wears modest garments and a sling of vials and potions.
He often told Ellery stories of a legendary lost dwarven kingdom Bul Gunar. One time he confided in her he did not believe it was a legend only, and that he thought it might be located somewhere near the city of Orossads where he believed the powerful Axe of the Dwarvish Lords could be recovered. She was enthralled by this suggestion, but then he laughed and said he was pleased she might have believed him as he had been trying out a new bit to add to his act.

Wynna
Female halfling president of the Resounding Halls Bardic College.
Charismatic, well-loved by all who met her.
Pet pseudodragon named Quinnt
Friendly if distant towards Ellery, seemed to somehow shield her from what could have been mean spiritedness from the more privileged students and staff.

Dean Frist
Male human dean of the College of Spirits at Resounding Halls.
Formerly a death domain cleric, had left his faith to turn to the bardic arts for reasons unknown to his students which he never discusses and ignores questions when raised.
Had taken a special interest in Ellery’s training, often directly tutoring her with difficult matters such as learning the art of séance, apparently seeing her having a special connection to spirits even before she had begun her training.

Unnamed Nobleman
Killed Sugz without a second thought.
Did not consider mercy, took life because he could even thought there had been no reason to do so given the minor nature of the offense.
Ellery fled as Shugz was slaughtered by him directly, so she does not recall many details about him. She only remembers he appeared to be human with black hair, and was accompanied by a man he called Svetz.

[honorentheos]

The above is the outcome of the player sending me their initial backstory ideas. I then noodle on it as I work out how it might weave into the world and the other backstories from the other players. Here's the initial write up sent to me by the player. The bulleted expansion I create doesn't include every detail they gave but they are assumed included. That is, unless we agree to replace it as we refine the backstories.

Also, we used the Tarokka deck backstory system we tried out to seed the player thoughts. I think it's worked out pretty well. But that is in part due to the players I am fortunate to have being creative and making surprising use of those seed ideas. Not every table I've played at would be as successful in using them.

Starting background:

Ellery was an orphan, an orc named Shugz finds her and taught her how to master weaponry, due to taking Ellery under his wing he was shunned by his clan. He becomes a mentor and father figure to Ellery. He taught Ellery all necessities to survive, both moral ways and unmoral ways. He attempted to teach Rllery sleight of hand and attempted to pick pocket a nobleman in a carriage that they sabotaged into stopping. During this interaction Ellery was tasked with making sure that the coast was clear and to back up Shugz if anything were to go south. A unexpected sound in the woods spooks their horse, and also alerts the nobleman in the carriage causing Shugz to be caught pick pocketing a bag in the carriage. Ellery is preoccupied calming the horse, and is not aware that he was caught. Shugz was murdered by the nobleman without a second thought for a crime that could have been reconciled through other means rather than death. Ellery turns around to see him being slaughtered and hears him tell her to run away. Ellery blames herself for his death which becomes her biggest regret and is unable to forgive herself for letting the one person who showed her any kindness die.

Ellery travels aimlessly alone and depressed, from town to town and come across a bar looking for work. The barkeep, takes pity on her and let’s Ellery bus tables. She tells stories of exciting travelers, and eventually Ellery divulges the tragic story of her mentor dying, and her wishes to receive his guidance and connection again. Barkeep mentions that she used to have bard that would play at the tavern every once in a while and he had a talking skull that would recite sea shanties and jokes for the patrons. Ellery shrugs this story off, but after a few months the bar keep fronts Ellery money to pursue bardhood and gain entry into the college of spirits. To achieve this Ellery had to give up her wild upbringing to become more conformed with society.

After successfully going to the College of Spirits. Ellery uses her new found skills to communicate with her mentor in the the afterlife. He tells her about a blood connection he discovered in the afterlife, revealing that he has a long lost bastard son. Ellery is grateful to have a new potential connection to her late mentor, and is thrilled about his son’s existence.

[honorentheos]

Latest session recap:

With last call at the Tipsy Tankard having came and went, Null left the rest of the party behind to accompany Elix back to the Grinning Sinner’s guildhouse. Keno picked up Ellery who was pretending to be passed out on the floor, and escorted the party back out onto the street but avoiding heading directly after Null. Keno also noticed that the barkeeper seemed to be watching them with intent as they left. Once out and away from the Tankard, the party took the long way through the streets, intending to arrive five minutes after Null.

Elix maintained his offer to share his room and bed with Null, who seemed to no longer be quite as interested in Elix while also more drunk than he had seemed earlier. Arriving at the guildhouse, Elix announced himself to the guard who kept watch over the main path to the front of the house, escorted Null up the stairs around a passed out Sinner, and was leading him to his room when a taller than average woman with a black, tightly pulled back pony-tail came out of her room adjacent to Elix’s to find out what was going on as Null had become vocally concerned about needing to use a restroom. Gwish, as she was called by Elix, seemed both mocking of Elix’s apparent habit of bringing home “guests” from his nights out while also appearing to find her own interest in Null, telling Elix once he was done with him that he could leave Null in the hallway for her as well. Null lunged out onto the back balcony, surprising the guard keeping an eye out that direction, asking for privacy, then vomiting on himself, and pretending to pass out. The guard and Elix came out to see what had happened, then brought Null back into the building placing Null in Elix’s bed. Elix waved a bracer of strong brandy under Null’s nose, managing to get a reaction from him that Null played off as his coming to. Elix wasn’t deceived, but acknowledge that if Null wasn’t interested then he would leave him the bed he had now soiled with vomit while Elix would take a chair for the night. Elix noted Null was lucky he didn’t offer him up to Gwish instead given her reputation. Null downed the brandy Elix offered him, attempting to fight off the effects of the alcohol but finding himself drifting off and under the influence of the drink.

Meanwhile, Null’s antics had managed to cause the guard to go inside who would have otherwise been watching the path in the direction the rest of the party took to get to the guildhouse. Arctica and Xerxia split up from the rest of the group, heading into the building with the 3-story rotunda while the rest of the party attempted to slip into the stables adjacent to the central building. Unfortunately the group consisting of Kino, Rasxan, Annalee, and Ellery were louder than intended which Null heard from his position pretending to be passed out on the balcony…as well as by the stable boy whose job it was to keep watch over the horses. Rasxan and Ellery noticed him in return, recognizing that he appeared to be too scared of the group to sound the alarm given he was by himself and the party looked pretty tough. So he was watching to see what the group did before deciding what to do. Ellery made it known he was also seen, and offered to buy him out with 15 gold pieces and helping him find a new job. Pitt agreed to this, taking her gold and setting up a meeting in the morning at the city front gate.

Rasxan used his recently acquired spell to speak with the horses in the stable and won their favor by inspiring them with visions of freedom from the oppression of the sinners they had not previously realized were stealing their labor. Or something. Who cares? Viva la revolución!

Leaving Keno and Rasxan with the horses, Ellery and Annalee made their way into the building looking for the basement shown on Grinky’s greasy map and found it was surprisingly reliable in marking where the secret door was that led there. They followed it into the basement further where they found another secret door bypassing much of what they realized was the Grinning Sinner’s training maze.

While this was happening, Arctica and Xerxia discovered the back door to the other building was trapped with a poison vial which Arctica easily disabled. But they then discovered the door was nailed shut from the inside. Rather than attempt to force it open, the pair made their way around the exterior wall to a window where they discovered the empty kitchen. Removing the slats and working the window up, the two rogues easily snuck into the building without apparently alerting anyone, and began to search this building for signs of the painting. Though they both snuck some food to eat while Xerxia stole the butcher knife from the knife set. They then made their way through the small foyer past what appeared to be the dining hall/meeting room where a large table was found, apparently including the remains of someone’s midnight snack left on the corner of the table. They then snuck quietly up the stairs where they discovered a large room filled with crates and casks…and a coffin with apparent dirt crusted over it’s outside indicating it had been dug up. They opened the coffin and found inside a corpse of a priest of the goddess Melora the wildmother. The priest was clothed in ceremonial garb that included a large golden sun medallion and a golden death mask also apparently shaped like a sun. Xerxia and Arctica decided it was best to leave these items behind, but they did take the brilliant and untarnished necklace with six beads on it the corpse was wearing. They then prepared to continue their search…

Back in Elix’s room, Null fought off sleep for an indefinite amount of time when he heard the sound of Elix get up and leave the room. Null, still under the influence of the brandy, attempted to search the room where he discovered a ledger in Elix’s drawers. The ledger appeared to include the transactions of the Sinners here in Palisades, including what really grabbed Null’s attention: the apparent recent acquisition of a vorpal sword which Null knew to be extremely powerful which distracted him from looking further in the ledger for information about the painting they had come to steal back for the Consortium Obscura. Null decided he wanted this sword and slipped out into the hallway, down the stairs where he stepped over the passed out Sinner without stepping on them, and followed the direction he had heard the party go which was into the stables. Reuniting with Keno and Rasxan, the three of them then proceeded to search for Ellery and Annalee to let them know they should use the sending stones to message Xerxia and Arctica what they had learned from Pitt regarding there being a guard as well as a guest with the guildmistress. And also that they intended to cause a distraction. As the three moved through the entry room towards the stairs down to the basement, they heard three distinct knocks on the wall between them and the stairs. Not pausing, they continued down into the basement and found Ellery and Annalee just as they were entering through a secret door into a hidden section of the maze…

[honorentheos]

All in all we are having a blast. Good company does that but I have to say this is one of the best video games I've ever played.

Hey Xeno,

I believe I've mentioned I joined a D&D game I found through an online group where I could play rather than DM since I DM two games these days but hadn't played as a PC for a long time. We've been playing since spring. I thought you'd be interested in hearing that BG3 has taken over the conversation around this in person game. The young guy in the group who has the least experience has said it helped him immensely in understanding the TTRPG as well. I thought that was an interesting comment and am curious about your thoughts on that topic? Do you think BG3 is also an effective tutorial for D&D 5e game mechanics?

[Xenophon]

Hey Xeno,

I believe I've mentioned I joined a D&D game I found through an online group where I could play rather than DM since I DM two games these days but hadn't played as a PC for a long time. We've been playing since spring. I thought you'd be interested in hearing that BG3 has taken over the conversation around this in person game. The young guy in the group who has the least experience has said it helped him immensely in understanding the TTRPG as well. I thought that was an interesting comment and am curious about your thoughts on that topic? Do you think BG3 is also an effective tutorial for D&D 5e game mechanics?

It's a very good question and I did float it to the group today to get their thoughts. I think we're all in agreement that BG3 could possibly be leveraged as an intro into 5e but I think there might be some pitfalls to watch out for.

The good:

• A robust tooltip setup that allows you to examine and expand on basically anything in the game. You can delve into enemy stats, modifiers, items, spells all right within the game. The information obviously isn't really hidden normally but the point and click nature of learning likely makes it feel simpler.
• A streamlined play experience where the game is doing a lot of the work for you, although you do a lot of the non-combat rolling in a very visual way all of the combat rolling is behind the scenes. This includes not being able to even accidentally violate the rules (as defined by Larian, of course).
• Dialogue options provide some liberating constraints on what to say and do with NPCs. I think sometimes the fully open nature of TTRPG feels daunting to some folks so having some choices to keep them on rails might feel nice. It also provides some tips on the dialogue choice that might be best for your character (race/class/background related mostly)
• Reduced/focused spell, feat, action, class, race, etc. selection could keep a newbie from feeling too overwhelmed at all the options.
• Full rendering of models and battle layout obviously make visualizing and thus tactically playing combat out much more approachable in my opinion. Even with a lot of the amazing DM options on this out there I'm not sure anything is quite as good as the full animation effect.
• It can be done single-player and at your own pace. This may help with someone that otherwise feels pressure at the table or needs help in building confidence that only comes with experience. Obviously getting too used to being solo in an otherwise group game could have consequences but I think with the right perspective this should be manageable.

The (potentially) bad:

• First and most important, the rules just aren't identical. If you were relying primarily on BG3 you're just going to learn some stuff wrong. They make the CRPG version much more playable but they are different. A slightly dated, not totally comprehensive, but still useful list.
• Being able to save and reload makes players behave very differently, actions can be taken that might not normally be done. The game also expects this on many levels. Dialogue can turn into a pass/fail scenario instead of having a DM smooth out the failure into "what you tried didn't go quite right but let's see how you get there now". A solid example is very early on you have an NPC/DMPC roll up to a scene and effectively determine if you get TPK'd or not, a scenario that would leave me fuming at a normal table. The game in many ways is built for you to reload, rethink your strategy like a giant puzzle, and then try again (both in and out of combat).
• All that behind-the-scenes automation will likely make a player not realize what all would actually need to be done at a real table.
• It may just be the campaigns I've done but the economy feels off. Too much gold, too many rare items, too many scrolls, too many potions. They keep the game flowing but the pacing will likely feel very off if you went from BG3 to something more traditional.

So, all that to say that I think it could be an okay learning tool but the gap is not nothing. I suspect your scenario might be ideal, a newish table top player getting to leverage some of the good from BG3 but also still have the table to learn and grow. I'd just caution them to keep an eye on the differences, try to talk to the table about the "why" of that feeling, and recognize that at the end of the day they just aren't meant to be the same thing.

[honorentheos]

Thanks, Xeno. That makes sense.

We discussed one aspect of BG3 that would be destructive if brought to a TTRPG: completionist tendencies. Two of the people at our table who are playing it got into a discussion about needed items, how certain PC builds make certain options unavailable, etc. The young guy bemoaned that he had moved into a new act of the game without finding a certain object he had learned was available that would make part of the later game easier, which the other agreed was sad. I asked how often they thought a DM in a TT game had to keep quiet about some things the players failed to find, information they failed to obtain, or otherwise take the game as it played out and go forward ensuring it would be fun while having countless "might have been" moments only they would ever know about. The plus being all the "never saw that coming" moments that often take their place.

[Xenophon]

I'm curious what their response to your question was, cause if isn't "every damn session" they likely should take a turn on the other side of the table. It certainly was an eye-opener for me.

I touched on it a bit but I think the DM relationship is the biggest "shortcoming" of BG3 as an rpg experience. Yes the story is wildly expansive and I've been very impressed by all the different scenarios Larian planned for... but its still on rails. Of course all the lines are crisp and the deliveries impeccable, it's a script that you can't venture too far from. Nothing will ever truly compare to a DM that is vibing with their players and everyone is riffing off one another. I know it is so cliché but the "journey rather than the destination" really is the point of tabletop, in my opinion. Nothing compares to that satisfaction of building a truly one-of-a-kind moment where excellent preparation perfectly meets creative improvisation.