Dungeons & Dragons has always been a game that has fascinated, and intimidated me in equal measure. There is far too much to remember, so I find it overwhelming. A few years back, I tried a D&D group with some other newbies and a couple of veteran players at the helm, but it fizzled out quickly as the experience gap proved too much for people to bear.
Fortunately, TheGamer put together a D&D group with our editor-in-chief Stacey Henley taking on the role of DM. It’s a good mix of people who know D&D and absolute beginners like myself. Most importantly, unlike my last group, the team here is more than happy to answer every daft question we ask. Even if we already asked in a previous session and simply forgot.
We make some pretty rookie mistakes, but it doesn’t make it any less fun. We often forget to ask for payment for things which is inconvenient to say the least, but we’re just going with the flow and doing things for critical hits and giggles. One time we carried around a severed head as we didn’t think about the consequences of doing such a horrifying thing. Spoiler alert, the locals did not like it. We’ve also resorted to brute-forcing quite a few puzzles, too. At the end of the day, though, we get stuff done.
I chose a Satyr Bard for my character, and I’d be lying if I said I fully understood it all. The team helped me pick which background and spells to go for, and I still don’t know how to use everything at my disposal. That’s why when I decided to play Baldur’s Gate 3, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and do some homework. I made a Bard, and while there was no Satyr to be had, I chose a Tiefling because they at least have horns. And you know, they’re cool.
From the get-go, I realised just how much I have been missing out on in D&D. Jack of all Trades is a godsend for rolls, which I have not used in our campaign at all. I think back to all those rolls I failed and wonder whether I would have passed if I had only paid attention to my character details a little more.
I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to using my spells to the best of their ability, too. Unless it’s a straightforward healing or damage-dealing spell, you can bet it’s underutilised in my arsenal of Bard tricks. I chose some familiar spells for my BG3 Bard, such as Faerie Fire and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, so that I could better understand just how helpful they can be in battle.
It’s not just the finer details of my class that BG3 is helping me get to grips with, but also the general mindset of the world and how to interact with it. Doing Perception checks is almost always an afterthought in our campaign, and we fail to check things in the way we should. While we often opt for the obvious route of trying to haggle, charm, or intimidate other people, I’ve realised there is so much more we could be taking advantage of and so many different options we could use, based on our character backgrounds.
Exploring the world in Baldur’s Gate 3 has made me realise how many layers there are to everything around you. Every encounter, every location, and every battle can be approached in a myriad of ways, and it doesn’t always have to mean the most straightforward path. In fact, the more offbeat you go, the more interesting and hilarious the consequences.
I’m especially looking forward to our next D&D campaign now, as I can’t wait to put some of my homework into practice. I doubt I’ll suddenly be the best Bard in the world, but just having a better understanding of everything I could be doing and contributing to the team more will make me feel more competent in my role. Between BG3 and D&D, maybe I’ll actually become a half decent Bard by the end of the year.