u/Quick-Ad9335

Serious question.

The game doesn't really have a definition of wisdom as an RP or character trait beyond explaining it as a game mechanic, right? So for the purposes of BG3 as a game, is it just shorthand for "divine magic ability"? Is it just for skill checks? Does Shadowheart's dialogue display any heightened intuition, perception, emotional awareness, or other such DnD definitions of "wisdom?" When playing as Shadowheart origin-- which I've never done-- are there options to make her "wise"? Can somebody whose brain has been scrambled as hers be "wise?"

I lived in Belgium from 1986-1990 and I remember owning a brown booklet about birds of prey. It had profile drawings of them, but also sections that explained their life cycles, predation, etc. I distinctly remember a part showing how they culled small rodent populations.

Any Belgians know where I can buy one? Find a scan?

Veel bedankt!

Don't more weirdos go to Arby's?

Aren't drunk people more likely to ask their drunk questions and tell their drunk stories at a Taco Bell drive thru?

First of all, I get it-- the differences between the weapons are there for flavor and for rule of cool. The weapons in Mass Effect take their cues from modern shooters, and the variety in weapons are to offer different but familiar play styles. Everybody knows how a "sniper" or a "shotgunner" plays in RTS games. Mass Effect is a game first and foremost, and any high-concept sci-fi elements have to take second place to gameplay elements.

But logically-- Mass Effect field technology would logically tend to a "universal gun." And these universal guns would basically be assault rifles.

Point A: Sniper rifles would be superfluous. Mass Effect weapons all fly at a near-perfectly flat trajectory within the engagement ranges portrayed in the games. They also travel so fast they are unaffected by ambient atmospheric distortion. Therefore, just on their own (independent of targeting or user proficiency), Mass Effect weapons theoretically can have near-perfect accuracy. That pretty much eliminates the need for sniper rifles. Recoil does still exist, so you can't just rock and roll and expect to hit a target at long range, but that seems to be the only limiting factor. Put in a rate of fire adjuster and a change of targeting optics/software optimized for long ranges and you have a sniper.

Point B: Submachine guns are especially useless. Those kinds of weapons are already very rare in modern warfare. They were originally designed to have a portable fully automatic weapon a soldier in WWI could carry to enemy trenches. With the technology of WWI, the only rounds low-powered enough to enable controllable full automatic fire were pistol rounds. These limited submachine guns' range and made them close quarter weapons. These days, their role has been replaced by fully automatic weapons using ammo with lower pressures. 5.56mm ammunition can be fired controllably. If a smaller weapon is required for space or ergonomic reasons, there's plenty of carbines to go around. It's different for police forces who require smaller, more compact weapons for building clearing, and which will not over-penetrate.

Given that battlefield submachine guns are now rare, there's even less reason for them to exist in the Mass Effect world.

Point C: There is a workaround which would be entirely consistent with in-world lore. And it rather surprises me that Bioware didn't go for it: the limiting factor in gun performance should be power draw and power output. The mechanics of Mass Effect guns revolves around power management, not heat management. This is only alluded to in game, not directly stated.

As said, because recoil still exists, a sniper can't go full auto and expect good accuracy. So if you're going to fire your gun at low ROF, then you'll need to pump more power into the shot you're going to get. In the Mass Effect world, they can say that these high-powered shots draw more power, and thus generate more energy for the slug. The downside is that, aside from the more powerful recoil, it'll take more time for the gun to power back up for the next shot. It'll also explain the more extravagant use of heat sinks for sniper rifles.

That being said, longer barrels would seem unnecessary since that's not how chamber pressure and accuracy work in the Mass Effect world. It was argued in the comments that the Mass Effect weapons are essentially railguns or coilguns and a sniper requiring power would benefit from a longer "barrel." A further in-universe explanation for really big sniper rifles like the Widow: they need for more power generation and recoil dampeners. But you could get clever. You could tune your sniper rifle for more rapid fire to take down shields, like the M-13 Raptor, but then increase power output once you've stripped the shields.

For submachine guns, the explanation is the opposite. To generate high rates of fire and keep the gun controllable, the gun would be tuned down, to put less energy into the slugs. Unlimited ammunition and future-tech recoil dampeners would give Mass Effect SMGs blistering rates of fire. The only limitation is cooling, but there are so many ways around that aside from the heat sinks. Just putting in baffles would help in atmospheric battlefields. They'd still be functionally useless in battlefields with typical combat ranges, however. Maybe security forces like C-SEC would find use for submachine guns. Just like police forces nowadays.

What about Biotics? Biotic powers are portrayed as extremely short range. If you're fighting a biotic,the obvious answer would be to just not get close to them and overwhelm them with fire. If a biotic had a chance to use their light submachine guns then something must have gone very wrong for their opponents. Maybe instead of the "lightly armored squishy wizard" archetype, Biotics would actually have to be extremely well-protected, using their shields, armor, and barriers, to enable them to get near enough to the enemy to use their powers. This is especially true for Vanguards. Instead of being glass cannon wizards, they would be the tankiest, best protected combatants. Biotics would be shock troops.

Last Thoughts: It's all a moot point. Mass Effect is a game, and it follows game conventions. But I've read through the Mass Effect lore, and while they make a big deal of heat dissipation they say remarkably little about power draw and power output. They allude to it mostly indirectly with the heat thing. If they'd emphasize power management as the main issue with Mass Effect weapons then the switch to heat sinks would have made much more sense. It'd be a way to dump a lot of power in the first initial bursts of power and in theory keep it'd help up ROF because changing out a heat sink/mag is faster than letting the gun cool down.

It's such a simple tweak that would make the tech lean more to the "sci" end of "sci-fi".

My Tav is a capital P, Paladin^(tm). He idolizes Keldorn Firecam. He weeps sainted tears when he sees suffering and injustice. He's so insufferably good that Astarion doesn't want to bite him for fear of his blood being holy water. Even Wyll thinks he should take it down a notch.

He is also very frustrated he can't open a refugee aid center in Baldur's Gate. I absolutely have the resources for a successful refugee center.

I was so paranoid I'd run out of supplies that I saved every single scrap of food. I was stuffed to the gills with thousands of points of camp supplies when I ended the game.

I also have a camp full of good-aligned healers: myself, Jaheria, Halsin, and Shadowheart. You can maybe count Minsc if you give him healing spells. I can deceive Minthara and tell her I want to use the refugees for labor later. Wyll and Karlach would love to help.

I'm only half-joking when I say it's too bad I can't use some of my resources to help more of the refugees. I didn't spend all that time and effort keeping the tieflings alive to see them live in shit. There's that kid whose parents got murdered. Mol's gang are stuck outside the gate-- they can stay in my camp if they keep scamming to an acceptable minimum.

Let me be an insufferable Paladin and help, damn it!