I would expect certain streamers to likely be given access to download it early no? I know Journalist were give access to download the full game last Sunday for review purposes so I would expect certain content creators will be actually playing at launch tomorrow and not downloading.

I'm excited but I know I'll be too busy to dive into the game until the weekend.
 

I never played the EA, or paid much attention, so I am very excited. Don't much care about streamers, I don't want spoilers. But I am concerned how long it will take me to DL this, because I'm on an ancient DSL connection that gives me around 10 Mbps down. I can't remember what this pulls per hour, I think it was around 5GB/hr. In either case, even if everything goes well, it'll take me at least 24 hours to install this! Yikes. Most of the time my Internet connection is perfectly adequate, but BG3 will strain both my monthly limit and my throughput. I was a bit shocked when I learned pre-installing the EA version was not going to be of any help whatsoever.

I'm killing time prepping and theorycrafting. Anyone have any experience maining a Bard? Looking to try a Halfling Lore Bard "face + skill monkey + odds changer + disables", with basically all Cha and Dex skills, and Lucky on them to boot. Able to buff and debuff everything and everyone. I am concerned that they've nerfed some of the strong disabling spells to only last 2 rounds (Sleep, Tasha's, Hypnotic Pattern) and Frightened no longer triggers OAs. My damage contribution at higher levels will be negligible, and in a party of only 4 I'm concerned if conditions + mostly manipulating all the odds is enough to pull my weight... I'll have little defense and while sneaky it might be too risky to go explore alone.
 

I tried a bard mostly doing spells in an actual D&D campaign once, but wasn’t very satisfied. The problem is that pretty much all of those debuff spells require concentration, so you can’t cast another concentration spell. And the bard cantrip, vicious mockery, does very little damage. I was thinking maybe multiclass bard/warlock. I also played a sword bard once, which worked a lot better than the lore bard for constant damage output.
 

Yeah, that's my main concern now, that like 80% of the good Bard spells are Concentration, and I'm not sure what I'll be contributing the rest of the time. The Vicious Mockery does piddly damage, but keeping the big bad attacker on disadvantage much of the time is decent value. I would probably need to take some second tier spells that don't have concentration. I've kind of concluded that starting Bard with 12 CON resigns me to a life of failing Concentration checks at only +1. The slightest breeze for 1hp dmg would distract me 40% of the time. So revised plan is start Fighter, primarily for CON proficiency, but also adds medium armor, shield, rapiers, +1 defense spec, self-heals, and more, and lets me go DEX 14, CON 14, so my con saves are from +4 to +6, so I can keep those spells up. And with much better AC I can at least contemplate some melee and adversity. With a Fighter start multi, I can finally see how those melee Bards of Valor/Swords become viable.
I also remembered rather late that Halflings lack Darkvision, and I'd need a ring or buff to actually sneak around anywhere dark. So new plan is Wood Elf, which has 3m more movement than the Halfling, and an extra skill (elven perception). Extra mobility for optimal positioning seems good on a caster. I will miss the Halfling Luck, though.
I think I'll give that a shot. Could see myself respeccing into a melee college and going Heavy Armor / STR / melee with multiple attacks at some point.
 

I think I found a good solution for getting decent at-will damage for a ranged Lore Bard: take the Eldritch Blast cantrip at level 6 as part of the Magic Secrets subclass feature! It should be available, and counts as a bard spell, so it scales, and immediately gives you a 2d10 ranged attack that rolls at your high Charisma bonus. And it scales to 3d10 at 11th Bard level. Until then, you should get by ok with some combo of Vicious Mockery and any +1 ranged weapon you can find. Elf or Fighter adds shortbow/longbow, and Fighter-1 even Heavy Xbow. I'm not sure you can double fire dual-wielded hand crossbows, but that's a 2d6 damage option if so. It may seem like a waste to take a mere cantrip with one of your bonus spells, but not when it offsets a big weakness. I don't think Valor/Swords ever get a 3rd attack, while you get a third d10. And all that at full CHA attack roll bonus, rather than 14 or 16 Dex. Yes, there is no bonus to those d10s, you can't buff it like a Warlock, and they can get magical weapons, but it's still decent I think.

In terms of this build being passive/dull, I don't think it'll feel as bad as in tabletop where you only control your bard. In a CRPG, I also control the other characters that I'm buffing and protecting, and I am not stuck waiting around for my turn even if I'm mostly playing defense and concentrating.
 

I am doing a bard / warlock multiclass character, same principle.