In my first walkthrough of BG3, I think I only ever used healing potions, and even they were situational as I tried to keep Shadowheart stocked on spell slots, and my main character was a wizard (and for a large portion of the game, Gale was in a party too)
Oh, and I straight up didn’t find Lae’zel, Karlach, or Wyll in Act 1, and I lost my chance to add Halsin and Minthara, so I was limited to casters + Astarion anyway. The game didn’t accentuate that I really, really need to look around, and that only struck me in Act 2, by the point I couldn’t return to Act 1. Still, I got Jaheira on my side, which basically turned every melee battle in an enclosed space into a meat grinder for enemies (wizard’s Grease followed by Spike Growth and then cleric’s Spirit Guardian, Astarion shooting from the rear to take down buffier and ranged enemies). Made it a challenge to get Minsc though, as hostile Boo is absolutely destroyed by this grinder too.
Actually, returning to looking around, there’s one gripe I have about most RPGs. They constantly accentuate that you need to complete the main goal ASAP. In BG3 case, everyone is concerned with removing the tadpole before turning into a mind flayer (and constantly nagging about it, making it look like a genuinely time pressing issue), and then with saving the Baldur’s Gate, and it simply feels extremely unnatural to just go about your business, doing all the side quests etc. Dk about anyone else, but saving my life and then, like, everyone in Baldur’s Gate sounds more important than looting another castle or helping a cow find a trinket. So, in my first walkthrough of virtually any RPG, I typically skip like 80% of all the game’s content, and only then on the second one can relax and learn the world.
In my first walkthrough of BG3, I think I only ever used healing potions, and even they were situational as I tried to keep Shadowheart stocked on spell slots, and my main character was a wizard (and for a large portion of the game, Gale was in a party too)
Oh, and I straight up didn’t find Lae’zel, Karlach, or Wyll in Act 1, and I lost my chance to add Halsin and Minthara, so I was limited to casters + Astarion anyway. The game didn’t accentuate that I really, really need to look around, and that only struck me in Act 2, by the point I couldn’t return to Act 1. Still, I got Jaheira on my side, which basically turned every melee battle in an enclosed space into a meat grinder for enemies (wizard’s Grease followed by Spike Growth and then cleric’s Spirit Guardian, Astarion shooting from the rear to take down buffier and ranged enemies). Made it a challenge to get Minsc though, as hostile Boo is absolutely destroyed by this grinder too.
Actually, returning to looking around, there’s one gripe I have about most RPGs. They constantly accentuate that you need to complete the main goal ASAP. In BG3 case, everyone is concerned with removing the tadpole before turning into a mind flayer (and constantly nagging about it, making it look like a genuinely time pressing issue), and then with saving the Baldur’s Gate, and it simply feels extremely unnatural to just go about your business, doing all the side quests etc. Dk about anyone else, but saving my life and then, like, everyone in Baldur’s Gate sounds more important than looting another castle or helping a cow find a trinket. So, in my first walkthrough of virtually any RPG, I typically skip like 80% of all the game’s content, and only then on the second one can relax and learn the world.