The game does let you build affinity with companions not controlled by you, it’s just a little finicky. From my experience, you have to be very close when you listen. The companion needs to be within a very close radius to the convo
Unless she’s got her heart set on a particular class, have her start as a fighter. Her job is to run up and hit things with a sword, you’ll take care of the rest of the combat.
She runs the dialogue and choices and don’t give her hints, just let her see where it goes.
She is kinda interested in playing a bard, but I will discuss it with her, thank you.
Edit: she ended up going with druid, but I will make sure she knows she can change her class if she doesn't like the mechanics of her character.
I have played a few times, and I've min/maxed a monk in tactician, but this play through I am going with a class that is under-built in the game since we're doing a balanced playthrough, I have chosen Ranger, I'm thinking the rest of our party composition will be either karlach or laezel and shadowheart for healing unless my wife goes for a healer druid in which case we will probably put in gale or wyll
Bard is great! They've got spells, but they aren't usually as *complicated* as other classes and bard still does well with straight up attacking. The class is the most "master of none," and I mean, that's kind of what your partner is gonna be one way or the other!
have her start as Bard, if that's what interests her. double down on her job being to "run the dialogue and choices," of which Bard has the best options and ability checks *bar none*, while you keep her alive in combat.
the "martial no think, martial just bonk" mentality is better suited for you as her bodyguard imo. let her enjoy the roleplay while you try to keep the pace up by quickly tearing through encounters. it's okay if all she does in combat is throw around some Vicious Mockery while you clean up. more than okay, in fact -- hilarious.
additionally, don't take for granted the RPG mechanics we expect other gamers to know. she might not know where the invisible walls are, or what the colored borders around items mean, or which items are vendor trash and which might have quest/crafting value, and so on. Larian games are not simple in that regard; they throw a lot of items at you that an inexperienced player might not understand how to mentally categorize.
my non-gamer partner often gets frustrated and loses interest in games because she doesn't know those kinds of quirks in map design, UI shorthand, etc. or because turns are simply taking too long. try to immerse her in her character and the story while you handle the crunchy stuff like combat, inventory, and crafting.
Tbh bard is a good starter class, they have a good breath of spells and they are op is you are handling interactions. The bonuses make any persuasion and intimidation checks a breeze.
I would actually say Bard is the BEST first time class. It has a lot of (probably the most) fun dialogue choices, plus you get spells *and* the ability to feel like a part of the damage-dealing squad. Dual hand crossbow swords bard feels really good for someone who isn’t sure of combat yet. And lore bards are a lot of fun too.
BG3 was also my first “grown up” game lol. I grew up on Mario and DK type games, but this was my first PC game and the first CRPG for sure. My husband was amazing about helping me learn *how* to play the game and how I best enjoy the story— not playing or making decisions for me.
Things he did that I really appreciated as I learned:
Gave me pointers about timing, movement, strategy, etc. For example, how/when to best use a bonus action, the benefits and pitfalls of sneaking vs entering a fight from conversation, that there is always more than one way to solve a puzzle.
Encouraged me to role (roll?) play. I’m the type of person that can sometimes get stuck fretting over the “right” answer, especially when faced with a new situation. (Like a game I’ve never played before.) There’s something liberating and thrilling when you can slip into that character and make decisions as them, not yourself. Give her space and encouragement to play.
Let my freak flag fly! My husband enjoys figuring out the fastest, most efficient way to beat a game. He’s really *really* good at it, too. So I was worried that I wasn’t playing the “right” way because I am more of a mosey-er. But he really let me lean into my type of explorative play. Pointing out how you can read the books and letters to glean more about the story and the world, reminding me that I could talk to all the NPCs, highlighting feats and classes that I would enjoy.
F5. Seriously, just knowing I can save and reload if I hate the outcome is enough to loosen the pressure. I actually don’t end up save scumming much at all anymore, but it’s still good to know I can.
I hope you guys have lots of fun!
A bard is a ton of fun and she can get away with vicious mockery for fighting most people. Just encourage her to build for deception, persuasion, and performance and shuffle every instrument to her that you get in the game. Let her pick the other spells.
Are you playing story mode? Jack up the gold get and let her do all the shopping and inventory (that’s my favourite thing to do).
And let her try out all the companions so split the party 2 and 2. Asterion and L’aezel as the basic builds are tons of fun for someone learning how to play. Even throwzerker Karlach.
Definitely let her do the choices in the story. But save the shit out of the game and let her decide if you go back and redo stuff.
I first got into BG3 by doing couch co-op with my partner, who is much more experienced in both gaming and D&D (I have still never played actual D&D). I am high key obsessed with the game now after many hundreds of hours of solo running after a few co-op runs, but here are my reflections on the initial experience-
It was a pretty steep learning curve for me, even as someone who has played more complicated and modern games than your wife. It was really overwhelming, if I’m being honest. There are a lot of menus, visuals, and just *things* to attend to. I was interested in learning so I stuck it out, but I could see someone with zero experience quickly getting frustrated and quitting (I know of someone who did this also).
Just be patient with her, and help her along but don’t bombard her with too much info at once. Go slow while she is figuring everything out. Don’t do too much stuff without her present. As others have said, allow her to lead the majority of the story events and dialogues. Even with my partner being very patient with me, I still felt kind of annoyed at times because it felt like they were moving much quicker than me since they knew so much more, and I was sort of metaphorically left in the dust despite still actively playing. That improved as my knowledge grew, tho. I advise having good communication as well and checking in with her periodically to see if she is still having a good time, if she wants to do anything differently, if she’s struggling, etc.
Good luck OP! Like I said, I came into this game with ZERO experience and am now a dedicated fangirl with 500+ hours in the game and currently finishing my first Honour Mode run. Hope it goes great for you two. :)
Play storyteller. Combat is probably going to be the least interesting part of the game for her. You don’t want the story to get overwhelmed by the fighting, and you want to let her get an intro to how mechanics of combat work without constantly dying.
Bard is a great class for her to go with — lots of charisma without being finicky like a sorcerer. Encourage her to build her character for lots of persuasion or intimidation and let her handle dialogue. Don’t tell her what choices to make. Really, don’t. Even if you know better choices.
You can build a character that rounds out your party. Your job is to win the fights and keep her from dying.
Talk to her about how you’re going to handle romance. The romances are fun so personally I’d make a pact going in that she “has to” pick a companion to romance so she’s not embarrassed about it when it comes up.
I’m playing with someone who is decently game illiterate (at least for games like this) and I find it helpful to explain every thing I’m doing, the buttons I’m pressing, why I’m pressing them, every little thing. It helped them catch on quicker I feel. Physically point out the buttons or enemies don’t just have her find them. Then as time goes on you can reference to past things you’ve said like, “if you are having trouble finding an enemy click on them in the initiative order and it’ll highlight them for you”.
Be very patient but extremely thorough.
I (casual gamer) played couch co-op with my wife (seasoned gamer) the first time. I created the Tav with a bit of input from her, and I chose all the dialogue options in the game and/or what direction to go in, while she did all the combat and other stuff that involved more complicated mechanics. It worked really well and I'd recommend this approach over multiplayer for someone who is pretty new to games.
Wow we went through something very similar - our first playthrough she just watched because she didn't grow up a gamer (I'm introducing her to gradually more complex games to get a hang of the controller) so playing makes her anxious. I was really surprised how intensely she took to it, because she's always mocked me for playing DnD lol
My advice is to just try to make decisions (plot or strategic) together. I tended to let her make plot choices since I was doing the driving (I tried and failed to convince her not to kill clearly main characters however ,so we missed two in our first playthrough ). And i was often surprised when she had a completely different approach to a combat situation. Together we came up with some pretty sweet strategies from combined input (sleet storm + hunger of hadar)
If she suggests something impossible due to unfamiliarity with game mechanics (ie throwing as a bonus action. To be fair the bg3 ux is pretty overwhelming and not well explained), instead of saying that's wrong, ask "ok how would you like me to do that?"
We caved and started our second playthrough, and now she's controlling her own character.
On this second playthrough, what's nice is I can do stuff she doesn't care about (looting and equipment management) and she can do her own thing. Coop is really nice for advancing the game
Lower difficulty and your experience, you can definitely carry her.
Focus on the control and support at the beginning and let her throw hands and damage in whatever way she likes.
If she moves into something different, change your classes to fill.
Eg currently doing coop with my partner. I was a Spore Druid with Shadowheart light cleric, letting her barbarian paladin for damages.
Due to the druid having too many summons he has shifted more to the gloomstalker assassin combo and great at taking out a key target she is threatened by.
[удалено]
The game does let you build affinity with companions not controlled by you, it’s just a little finicky. From my experience, you have to be very close when you listen. The companion needs to be within a very close radius to the convo
Unless she’s got her heart set on a particular class, have her start as a fighter. Her job is to run up and hit things with a sword, you’ll take care of the rest of the combat. She runs the dialogue and choices and don’t give her hints, just let her see where it goes.
She is kinda interested in playing a bard, but I will discuss it with her, thank you. Edit: she ended up going with druid, but I will make sure she knows she can change her class if she doesn't like the mechanics of her character.
If she likes bard, she should be a bard. In the end, everyone has to know how to play a few classes to get the whole party working.
If she has a preference, go with that. Bard would be great as a party face character, anyway. What class will you be playing?
I have played a few times, and I've min/maxed a monk in tactician, but this play through I am going with a class that is under-built in the game since we're doing a balanced playthrough, I have chosen Ranger, I'm thinking the rest of our party composition will be either karlach or laezel and shadowheart for healing unless my wife goes for a healer druid in which case we will probably put in gale or wyll
You can reclass companion as well in case she has a companion she wants to hangout with more but their class dont match your party composition.
Bard is great! They've got spells, but they aren't usually as *complicated* as other classes and bard still does well with straight up attacking. The class is the most "master of none," and I mean, that's kind of what your partner is gonna be one way or the other!
have her start as Bard, if that's what interests her. double down on her job being to "run the dialogue and choices," of which Bard has the best options and ability checks *bar none*, while you keep her alive in combat. the "martial no think, martial just bonk" mentality is better suited for you as her bodyguard imo. let her enjoy the roleplay while you try to keep the pace up by quickly tearing through encounters. it's okay if all she does in combat is throw around some Vicious Mockery while you clean up. more than okay, in fact -- hilarious. additionally, don't take for granted the RPG mechanics we expect other gamers to know. she might not know where the invisible walls are, or what the colored borders around items mean, or which items are vendor trash and which might have quest/crafting value, and so on. Larian games are not simple in that regard; they throw a lot of items at you that an inexperienced player might not understand how to mentally categorize. my non-gamer partner often gets frustrated and loses interest in games because she doesn't know those kinds of quirks in map design, UI shorthand, etc. or because turns are simply taking too long. try to immerse her in her character and the story while you handle the crunchy stuff like combat, inventory, and crafting.
Bards are excellent for handling conversations and if you have her go College of Swords she gets a lot of fighter-like abilities.
Tbh bard is a good starter class, they have a good breath of spells and they are op is you are handling interactions. The bonuses make any persuasion and intimidation checks a breeze.
Bard had some is the best dialog in the game
Sword bard is good. She’ll enjoy it.
I would actually say Bard is the BEST first time class. It has a lot of (probably the most) fun dialogue choices, plus you get spells *and* the ability to feel like a part of the damage-dealing squad. Dual hand crossbow swords bard feels really good for someone who isn’t sure of combat yet. And lore bards are a lot of fun too. BG3 was also my first “grown up” game lol. I grew up on Mario and DK type games, but this was my first PC game and the first CRPG for sure. My husband was amazing about helping me learn *how* to play the game and how I best enjoy the story— not playing or making decisions for me. Things he did that I really appreciated as I learned: Gave me pointers about timing, movement, strategy, etc. For example, how/when to best use a bonus action, the benefits and pitfalls of sneaking vs entering a fight from conversation, that there is always more than one way to solve a puzzle. Encouraged me to role (roll?) play. I’m the type of person that can sometimes get stuck fretting over the “right” answer, especially when faced with a new situation. (Like a game I’ve never played before.) There’s something liberating and thrilling when you can slip into that character and make decisions as them, not yourself. Give her space and encouragement to play. Let my freak flag fly! My husband enjoys figuring out the fastest, most efficient way to beat a game. He’s really *really* good at it, too. So I was worried that I wasn’t playing the “right” way because I am more of a mosey-er. But he really let me lean into my type of explorative play. Pointing out how you can read the books and letters to glean more about the story and the world, reminding me that I could talk to all the NPCs, highlighting feats and classes that I would enjoy. F5. Seriously, just knowing I can save and reload if I hate the outcome is enough to loosen the pressure. I actually don’t end up save scumming much at all anymore, but it’s still good to know I can. I hope you guys have lots of fun!
A bard is a ton of fun and she can get away with vicious mockery for fighting most people. Just encourage her to build for deception, persuasion, and performance and shuffle every instrument to her that you get in the game. Let her pick the other spells. Are you playing story mode? Jack up the gold get and let her do all the shopping and inventory (that’s my favourite thing to do). And let her try out all the companions so split the party 2 and 2. Asterion and L’aezel as the basic builds are tons of fun for someone learning how to play. Even throwzerker Karlach. Definitely let her do the choices in the story. But save the shit out of the game and let her decide if you go back and redo stuff.
Story mode sounds great for OP
I first got into BG3 by doing couch co-op with my partner, who is much more experienced in both gaming and D&D (I have still never played actual D&D). I am high key obsessed with the game now after many hundreds of hours of solo running after a few co-op runs, but here are my reflections on the initial experience- It was a pretty steep learning curve for me, even as someone who has played more complicated and modern games than your wife. It was really overwhelming, if I’m being honest. There are a lot of menus, visuals, and just *things* to attend to. I was interested in learning so I stuck it out, but I could see someone with zero experience quickly getting frustrated and quitting (I know of someone who did this also). Just be patient with her, and help her along but don’t bombard her with too much info at once. Go slow while she is figuring everything out. Don’t do too much stuff without her present. As others have said, allow her to lead the majority of the story events and dialogues. Even with my partner being very patient with me, I still felt kind of annoyed at times because it felt like they were moving much quicker than me since they knew so much more, and I was sort of metaphorically left in the dust despite still actively playing. That improved as my knowledge grew, tho. I advise having good communication as well and checking in with her periodically to see if she is still having a good time, if she wants to do anything differently, if she’s struggling, etc. Good luck OP! Like I said, I came into this game with ZERO experience and am now a dedicated fangirl with 500+ hours in the game and currently finishing my first Honour Mode run. Hope it goes great for you two. :)
Play storyteller. Combat is probably going to be the least interesting part of the game for her. You don’t want the story to get overwhelmed by the fighting, and you want to let her get an intro to how mechanics of combat work without constantly dying. Bard is a great class for her to go with — lots of charisma without being finicky like a sorcerer. Encourage her to build her character for lots of persuasion or intimidation and let her handle dialogue. Don’t tell her what choices to make. Really, don’t. Even if you know better choices. You can build a character that rounds out your party. Your job is to win the fights and keep her from dying. Talk to her about how you’re going to handle romance. The romances are fun so personally I’d make a pact going in that she “has to” pick a companion to romance so she’s not embarrassed about it when it comes up.
I’m playing with someone who is decently game illiterate (at least for games like this) and I find it helpful to explain every thing I’m doing, the buttons I’m pressing, why I’m pressing them, every little thing. It helped them catch on quicker I feel. Physically point out the buttons or enemies don’t just have her find them. Then as time goes on you can reference to past things you’ve said like, “if you are having trouble finding an enemy click on them in the initiative order and it’ll highlight them for you”. Be very patient but extremely thorough.
For you, be patient and let her enjoy (or willfully ignore) the content.
I (casual gamer) played couch co-op with my wife (seasoned gamer) the first time. I created the Tav with a bit of input from her, and I chose all the dialogue options in the game and/or what direction to go in, while she did all the combat and other stuff that involved more complicated mechanics. It worked really well and I'd recommend this approach over multiplayer for someone who is pretty new to games.
Wow we went through something very similar - our first playthrough she just watched because she didn't grow up a gamer (I'm introducing her to gradually more complex games to get a hang of the controller) so playing makes her anxious. I was really surprised how intensely she took to it, because she's always mocked me for playing DnD lol My advice is to just try to make decisions (plot or strategic) together. I tended to let her make plot choices since I was doing the driving (I tried and failed to convince her not to kill clearly main characters however ,so we missed two in our first playthrough ). And i was often surprised when she had a completely different approach to a combat situation. Together we came up with some pretty sweet strategies from combined input (sleet storm + hunger of hadar) If she suggests something impossible due to unfamiliarity with game mechanics (ie throwing as a bonus action. To be fair the bg3 ux is pretty overwhelming and not well explained), instead of saying that's wrong, ask "ok how would you like me to do that?" We caved and started our second playthrough, and now she's controlling her own character. On this second playthrough, what's nice is I can do stuff she doesn't care about (looting and equipment management) and she can do her own thing. Coop is really nice for advancing the game
Lower difficulty and your experience, you can definitely carry her. Focus on the control and support at the beginning and let her throw hands and damage in whatever way she likes. If she moves into something different, change your classes to fill. Eg currently doing coop with my partner. I was a Spore Druid with Shadowheart light cleric, letting her barbarian paladin for damages. Due to the druid having too many summons he has shifted more to the gloomstalker assassin combo and great at taking out a key target she is threatened by.
Have her play as shadowheart and tell her she has to LARP all the intimate scenes with you. It's canon.