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autistichalsin · 3 months

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I know I am in the extreme minority, but there hasn't been a single change Larian has made to the game post-release that I have worse than neutral about, and most of them I consider moderate to extreme improvements. There are some added lines I didn't like per se, but I never liked those less than what was (not) there originally. Some examples (most Halsin-focused because those are the ones I pay the most attention to)

Neutral:

Changing Gortash's note

Allowing the Dark Urge to have a flirty line with Gortash (if that has been confirmed)

Changes to certain dismissal lines

Halsin's line if you show him Kagha's letter

Spawn Astarion's response if the player sleeps with Mizora

Some of the new lines for Halsin re: Baldur's Gate, Shadow Druids, etc

Liked:

Additions to the epilogue that let you talk to your (former?) love interest if you went to hell with Avernus, rode dragons with Lae'zel, etc

Other new lines for Halsin re: Baldur's Gate, Shadow Druids, etc

Scenes dealing with Vlaakith path Lae'zel ascending, the implications of this, etc in the end

Loved:

New kisses

Camp idle behaviors

The Halsin-Minthara ultimatum

The epilogue party

Halsin's expanded post-Drow discussion

Halsin's platonic path

The updated lines when spawn Astarion gets burned in the sun

Cuddling cinematic post-Drow foursomes/moresomes

The new bad ending sequence, both in terms of animation, and the fact that now romanced Minthara or Ascended Astarion who encouraged the player to take over are spared by the player (if anything, I feel they could change this bit MORE and give us more of the aftermath of the player thralling their friends and loved ones)

The new note in the epilogue from Archdruid Francesca, mentioning sending Ormn to live with Halsin at his commune

The new Speak With the Dead lines for Halsin if he dies to Orin instead of in the goblin camp

Karlach's ending with Wyll and/or the player in Avernus

The option to tell Halsin you want to join him at his commune

... Etc.

I can think of nothing off the top of my head that I think made the game worse. At worst I might go "strange to add that as it didn't change anything," I.E. Halsin's non-reaction to Kagha's note. I didn't hate it- I just felt it added nothing. (Maybe it's a way of setting flags for the dialogues specific to Halsin knowing about the Shadow Druids in case the player didn't investigate Kagha before finding him?) But I can't think of anything that made the story/my experience worse in any way.

I know people keep complaining that Larian is "listening to some fans over others" and such, but to me, I don't think they have done that? Very few of these seem in any way like they were influenced by fan complaints (and the few that were, were, in my opinion, definite improvements, I.E. the player/Wyll going to Avernus with Karlach, Halsin's additional post-Drow dialogue, etc). And of course, Larian has shown they also have no problem NOT adding things when it goes against their vision- they have repeatedly shut down requests for an expanded evil path, haven't added to Wyll's story despite very loud fan outcry, haven't made Halsin monogamous despite a very vocal group of fans calling for this on the Larian forums and Discord... etc. It clearly isn't number or loudness of the fans influencing 95% of these changes- it's Larian adding things that already fit in their vision.

I guess it is also baffling to me because I'm used to games that are either from series that have been dead for decades or are rushed out just as money grabs (Pokemon) with little attention given after besides minimal bug fixes and content for paid DLCs (cough, Pokemon). To see a game that reflects on their story (or just general experience, like their constantly giving Cazador buffs in tactician mode) and constantly changes what they think should be is, in my opinion, pretty admirable. I truly don't understand all the outrage- to me, it's a sign they care about their story and want it to be the best they can make it, even after people have already paid them for it.

I know i'm in the minority here, but the changes make me respect Larian a lot more than I already did.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3

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eff-plays · 4 days

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one thing i find funny about AA stans is like, all the other spawn have just as much of a "right" to ascension if we're playing by the "he's traumatized so he gets to kill 7k people" logic. but i think if you said fuckin idk petras should get to become the vampire ascendent people would (rightfully) call you fucking insane

i know that a big part of that is because the player gets to know (and be manipulated by) astarion but still. fuck those other trauma victims they can get turned into goop ig. i'm a vampire lord petras truther now though i don't even know if i'm spelling his name right. is this even comprehensible i've taken so much benadryl

God ur so right tho. AA stans tend to be like "well those guys are evil and feral and they're not Astarion and we don't know them so they could definitely be a danger", completely missing the entire fucking point. Or they're like "unlike those bleeding-heart spawnies, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for my pookie", you know, Lord Farquaad style. It's really funny how the 7k people just get brushed under the rug for when they have to argue that it's the good ending, or it gets a feeble "well they could be a danger to society/the environment" or a full mask-off "I don't give a fuck about anyone but Astarion".

I also love that one post that tried to argue that not liking A!A means you hate victims of abuse, or that you think that they should be "perfect victims" to deserve sympathy, implying that Astarion's literal murder and abuse of others is just his way of coping and is actually sooooo valid and you're ableist if you disagree. Also implying that Spawn!Astarion (and by extension, Astarion in general) is a perfect victim (???) who just takes the abuse and "forgives it" and not the guy who stabs his abuser 5948487 times and makes his problems everyone else's until that point.

Like. Actual brainworms. People are using social justice language to defend objectively harmful ideas, just because they get off on rich cock. Girlies, you're embarrassing. You're endorsing the cycle of abuse, and it's called a cycle for a reason. And if you genuinely believe Astarion deserves to kill/abuse others (NOT including Cazador, I'm very much for Astarion killing that guy) just to cope with his own trauma, then you're insane, and also incorrect, sorry. It's the same excuse abusers make: "Well it happened to me and broke me forever, I just can't help my actions, it's how I cope with my trauma!" Like. No. S!Astarion literally says he breaks the cycle of violence and terror, but A!A stans argue that no, keep it going, it's sooo valid, because you're a victim and you deserve to hurt others.

Like I said, it's the Cullen shit all over again. And to me that's the true ableism, to imply that trauma permanently breaks you, inherently makes you cruel and and violent and incapable of controlling your actions, destined to repeat the cycle just to get yours. Destined to abuse others and incapable of change, of becoming better than those who hurt you.

Anyway. Sorry went off on a rant there. I actually have an extended canon where Petras is the main bad guy and Critter has to hunt him down with the help of Wyll and Phoebus' cool and hot son. And Petras is kind of trying to become an ascendant vampire there. So I support this.

#bg3 #astarion discourse

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rosymorns · 9 months

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i think i've seen other people discuss this. and there is definitely racism involved in why wyll is a less popular character -- if he were a c*llen dragonage clone everyone would be head over heels for him. but one thing i find myself really wishing for with him is just... more internal conflict? yknow? more growth. more. i love him as a man who is good and just keeps choosing to do good, but that doesn't leave as much to dig in to. karlach suffers the same problem, tbh. astarion, shadowheart, laezel, and gale all grapple with what i'll call fundamental undermining of their established worldviews, and the player can influence how they handle that. do they ignore it -- double down -- confirm what they already believe, sink deeper into it? do they challenge it -- change -- abandon their old lives and philosophies?

wyll doesn't have that moment. karlach doesn't have that moment. they just, uh, yknow. they feel like late-production rewrites. i think people would be going a lot more insane about them if there was anything to go insane about.

#wyll has the barest traces of it with his patron/pact. i just think it needed a few more rewrites.#he doesn't change over the course of the game really. the guy you meet at the beginning is the same guy you say goodbye to #whereas like. the laezel you meet at the beginning. IS NOT. the same buff frog girl you end the game with.#i love wyll and i want sosososo bad to sit and think about his psychology but it. feels like trying to dive in the kiddie pool.#carly.txt

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seldaryne · 4 months

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"Wyll's quest regarding the Wyrmway is now a subquest instead of part of his main quest."

"Wyll's quest regarding Ravengard will now more reliably and frequently receive updates in Act III."

so mechanically speaking then, was the demotion of quest status in the first point required for them to implement the functionality of the second or??? because i genuinely don't understand why it became a subquest, especially when the game's structure already allows you to just ignore quests & move on to the next area if you want. most of the patch notes that directly mention wyll are bug-related or scripting flow, which i don't have a problem with (bug fixes are great, we love those). i'd love to hear any thoughts about this, though, because i really can't think of a reason why it had to become a subquest?

i also initially read that second point as planning for future updates to wyll's content but at a second glance i think it may just be referring to journal updates? i don't know, i'd like to believe my initial reaction was the correct one but... yknow. anyway i maintain that this is yet Another example of some really goddamn weird choices on the developmental end of things. if the companion quests exist on a sliding scale of 'most related to current main storyline to least,' wyll is very much at the top end of things. optimistic thought is that a lot of his scrapped content existed in the parts of act 3 that were cut, but i would think that as a studio you'd see that & make an effort to level things out with how much screentime the other companions have. at the bare minimum, your player base shouldn't be able to clock so many weird holes in his story arc where it's clear that something else was supposed to be offered.

i'm also not saying that the other companion arcs weren't clunky in some areas & didn't need a bit of help, but the disparity here makes deprioritizing those edits seem like a more logical course of action. like there's a difference between some slightly unpolished scenes vs. something that feels fundamentally lacking in a lot of structural ways, especially when you get into the finer points of the comparisons. act 3 imo is the one that feels the most bare-bones to me. like yes, there's Stuff there visually and quests too but it doesn't feel as lived-in as acts 1 & 2. i would say that the underdark to ketheric section feels the most dense, content-wise, and i don't think it's a coincidence that it's the bracket of the game i enjoy the most. i maintain that giving wyll's storyline the attention it needs would not only help with the character arc itself, but also pad out the quieter stretches of act 3. at this point i don't really see how they'd be able to add in the upper city without either completely changing the trajectory of the third act (so like, almost definitely something we Will Not See Happen & understandably so from a production standpoint. weird post-release editing aside, it is still a finished game.) & i'm also not sure what a DLC would look like here because the main story feels pretty complete too. off the top of my head, maybe one where you follow wyll & karlach into avernus would work, but that's worldstate dependent & probably wouldn't get made for that reason.

all that to say, from where i'm standing it really seems like giving wyll the same respect other companions are offered would by extension fix some of the act 3 issues, without having to release an entirely new area of the game (i'd love it i just don't think it's realistic lmao). like i know why/what the factors are that led to wyll getting the short end of the stick, it's bullshit but it's not the first time we've seen black characters handled unfairly by devs (& fans), but beyond that it's literally just. so confusing to me on the basis of writing alone. why wouldn't you use the character with that many ties to the titular city of the game more? why isn't he more integral to the story when it really seems like he has every reason to take the spotlight in certain areas?? like that's a fantastic resource of a character to use to move the narrative along and Yet.

idk. this started off as just a reaction to patch notes but it's so unbelievably frustrating to watch it keep happening every patch.

#like when you KNOW why but my brain still refuses to comprehend?? bc its so Dumb on production's side??#there feels like there's so little flavour text for him even like... idk.#anyway thats my thoughts on patch 6 #new kisses are nice menu qol fixes sound good now please do something about this #like put it on the list or something.#bg3 #no really like does anyone know why this is now a subquest. what does this mean have any of you seen this in other games.

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pwnyta · 4 months

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From someone who knows basically nothing about Baldurs Gate......

Imma give my UNSOLICITED OPINIONS.

Karlach is the most consistent with her style. She looks great in everything. Shes also the hottest overall (no pun intended). Her personality is one of the cutest and the fact she doesnt seem to get that good of an ending is UH... CRIMINAL.

Best ship- ...//covers face and mumbles... I really like her relationship with the player... this is so unfortunate... but its so cute. I love her. (I know theres a couple endings where you can kill her. Those dont exist or Im calling the cops.)

Base model MEH, Camp model VERY cute, Panties.... ITS A CHOICE BUT ONE I BUY THAT HE'D MAKE FROM WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HIM. Also I dont believe for a MINUTE this man got a six pack why are you lying directly to my face... He reminds me of Dr Frank, I love his voice, I would never be able to deny him anything because hes really funny and I just wanna see him go crazy.

Best ship- Astarion/Wyll... I just saw a video of Star being SO into Wyll it was hilarious. 'Honestly that MAN~' Someone get him a Thirst-aid kit.

The sheer driplessness of this man needs to be studied by SCIENTISTS. But his panties are pretty cute. I do like his face/hair... but the man cant dress himself. ...Look on paper Gale is everything. His sweetness and earnestness is very charming but GOD... hes so cringe sometimes. GOOFY FUCK.

Best ship- ... Probably Wyll? I mean you can just slot Wyll in anywhere cuz hes so charming and he and Gale are such cornballs itd be insufferable.

Laezel takes second place right behind my bbg Karlach. Her base model is a little weird looking the metal looks weird but it still looks pretty cool. Her camp model is super hot, I never would have expected those panties TBH... why dont the men get fun panties. This is a crime. Anyways 9/10 Zel! Congrats. IDK if I like her or the memes with her. her VA did that ducks in a row video and its so funny and I cant ever be mad at her no matter what she wanted to do.

Best ship- .....I mean aesthetically Karlach? For shallow reasons... idk what their relationship is like.

...Look I know shes super popular but.... Look her camp model is pretty great but Her hair is hideous. I can get over Gales absolute driplessness cus hes still handsome... what is this hair... GIRL. The panties are a choice too... but after Karlach and Zel she really had little chance. Least theyre better than the guys.

Best ship- //shrugs I have no attachment to this woman LMAO

Base model? Kinda boring but not terrible. Camp model? One of the best... the cute little peekaboo belly. I hope someone bites him. BUT THE PANTIES??? Girl. Youre lucky youre so handsome. The horns and crazy eyes elevate him... just putting that out there. Like Gale... on paper Wyll is so perfect but HES SO EMBARRASSINGLY EARNEST. The problem is probably just the style of the game... if it was less uncanny realism and more stylized maybe I wouldnt be as cringed out LMAO. Youre so damn cute Wyll... Im sorry.

Best ship- Astarion is funny but hes such a menace... I think Wyll deserves better. HALSIN/Wyll.

Halsin somehow does the earnest lover thing way better than Gale or Wyll... but hes almost as bad as Gale when it comes to dressing himself. Who let this man dress himself? Hes hot though. It makes up for it. I cant believe BG3 let this beefy elf exist... Im so used to young looking scrawny pasty elves (eyes emoji).

Best ship- Like Wyll you can just put him anywhere.... but WYLL. Theyd just be so cute. Halsin could definitely dull the sheer earnestness to tolerable levels probably.

This lady I know almost nothing about except shes kinda rancid.... but at least shes kinda hot and also can dress decently.

Best ship- ...//shrugs

The fact shes not romanceable makes BG unplayable. Her face and hair is gorgeous, her clothes get a MEH from me... maybe if the colors were more muted?

Best ship- ...//shrugs

Hes fine.

Best ship- ...//shrugs

I know the Emperor has some part in this too... and hes hot. So...

Overall-

The difference between S tier and A tier.. isnt that different. I really like those 3 freaks.

At first Wyll & Halsin were these too but... they grew on me & I cant blame them for their faults. Its not Halsins fault you can traumatize a squirrel... its not Wylls fault the realistic style combined with his cheesy romantic bullshit embarrasses me...

I couldnt even get through Dream Daddys.... and I love that game.

I can forgive Wyll.

#Text posts.

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lutethebodies · 1 month

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LTB Tav Tuesdays: Drem Sion, the Relentless Defender

My third Tav is based on the first character I ever made for D&D 2e circa 1991, so he's a bit unique—a blend of several characters I found compelling as a tween and teen in the late '80s/early '90s. I lifted his name from the young protagonist of Warrior Scarlet, Rosemary Sutcliff's 1958 story about a Celtic boy in pre-Roman Britain, but as a grown-up martial artist my Drem is not a wee kid.

His look and demeanor is a combination of the monk/master character from Final Fantasy I (floppy dark hair, blue robes) with Donatello the Ninja Turtle (a clever, focused, disciplined, staff-wielding thinker). So the (arguably rightfully much-derided) monk clothes actually work well for his look. I wish I still had his 2e stat block with the Shadowdark-like sketch-portrait I made, but that's long lost. These days I think he holds up as the bare bones of a character, so filling the gaps in 5e and BG3 has been fun.

I'll keep Drem's rather convoluted 5e backstory-bio super-short compared to previous Tavs, because he's actually got two: as a PC in my brother's homebrew campaign, and as an NPC in my own campaign. As a PC, he's less of an austere monk and more of a brawler/pugilist/enforcer for Guild-type organizations (the 5e "monk" is such a janky idea that I've ended up using it less for flavor and more for mechanics).

As an NPC, he was sort of a Jaheira/Minsc-like folk hero from a century prior, but when encountered by my players he was most definitely (and unwillingly) undead; indeed the subplot of that particular adventure was to help him find his final peace, because his ashes also unlocked a particular macguffin. It seemed a fitting way to send off my original character and put my own 2e era to rest.

In BG3 Drem is probably the most "moral" character I'll be playing (criminal background and shadow subclass notwithstanding), and to date he's one of my least-progressed playthroughs, because it's taken me a while to get the hang of the Monk as a class. However, post-Patch 5 he's gone well: being "good" enough to romance Karlach (and only Karlach) and be Wyll's best bro, while deftly playing off the whims of more ambitious/ambivalent companions like Astarion or Gale, and doing his unarmed-fighting best to keep on Lae'zel's good side.

I'm not sure how his run will end up—as of right now he's made it as far as Karlach's dinner date in Act 3—but RP-wise I'm confident he'll do the right things in crunch time. For better or worse that's what folk heroes do, right? At the very least I've gotta go back and replay him to get better screen shots, because I find the "standard stoic Tav" poses sorely lacking, personality-wise. For a less-developed character like this who's more a cipher than many of the others, that's a problem, even if he is my "oldest" character overall.

His in-universe homebrew bio goes like this:

"A Kalen warrior-monk and legendary folk hero, Drem looms large in local tales of the early Ryvellian Era, mentioned frequently in Volumes 6-9 of "The Urgent Chronicles" purporting to document that time. Born circa 403 AD in the Krettan town of Caerdeva outside Scarnasa, Drem escaped what’s described as a chaotic childhood to become a student of ancient Anuelidathi unarmed defense at a young age. Taking up with the Unseen as a young man, Drem led a life of adventure with his elven companions Slie Senescha and Qaminyo Lythar, basing themselves in Dramdoc and eventually allying with the Amrysii to help restore House Luradh to the Kalen throne in 426 AD."

"Retained by King Amrys, enviously spurned by his successor Cafnys, and returned to prominence by Cafnys’ son Ryvell, Drem and his friends defended the Kalen High Kingdom against Vaali invaders via espionage and dirty tricks, which Ryvell’s honor prevented him from doing directly. Eventually such assignments proved to be Drem’s undoing, for after retrieving the Soul Key from Saalurun he was captured and defeated in Haervudt by his own assassination target, a renegade Broken Hand Brother named Nikolai Nisse, in 447 AD."

(Image and text from The Nua Gazetteer, Volume 1)

#ltb tav tuesdays #bg3 #bg3 oc #bg3 ocs #drem the defender #bg3 monk #bg3 tav #my ocs #my bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #my bg3 character #my bg3 ocs #tav tuesday

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bethanythebogwitch · 8 months

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I'm not too fond of the Forgotten Realms as the default D&D setting for a few reason, but one big thing that really keeps me from liking the setting is the wall of the faithless. In the Forgotten Realms, the souls of the dead go to a place called the Fugue Plane where whoever the current god of death is judges them. Most people are taken by whatever god they worshipped but those who worshipped no gods are instead stuck in the wall of the faithless where they will slowly and agonizingly fade away unless a demon or devil comes and rips the soul out to turn them into a new demon/devil. The god who set this up was an evil one named Myrkul but when he was overthrown by a neutral god named Kelemvor, the wall was kept around.

I see this as absolutely pointless cruelty on the part of the writers and it really hit home when I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 in a conversation with Wyll where he says he doesn't really care about the gods. Wyll is a selfless, kind, and genuinely heroic person who will be condemned to a fate worse than death for not actively worshipping a god. Meanwhile some of the most vile and evil people in the Realms will get a perfectly pleasant afterlife because they worship the right god. And nobody doing the writing seems to think the wall is a bad thing because they came up with a pretty pathetic excuse to keep it once Myrkul was overthrown. Kelemvor took down the wall and immediately everyone across the world stopped worshipping the gods and they almost starved to death until Kelemvor put the wall back up. That's simply an absurd excuse to keep singling out nonbelievers as deserving the worst possible afterlife. Notably, Myrkul was not the first god of death and this didn't happen before he put the wall up in the first place. In addition, other D&D settings don't have this problem either, there's no mass starvation of gods due to non-belief and atheists are simply sent to whichever outer plane most fits their alignment. It really reads like someone, I don't know if it was Ed Greenwood or someone else, hates atheists so much that they needed to punish them in their fantasy world so much they'll create ridiculous excuses to keep doing so even when they no longer have a conveniently evil god to do it.

This kind of belief that atheists are the most evil possible people and deserve the worst fates is real and very common in real life. I will note that the Forgotten Realms uses atheist to mean someone who believes in but doesn't worship any gods while in real life an atheist is anyone who doesn't actively believe that at least one god exists (agnosticism is a form of atheism). The real-life definition of atheism doesn't really work in a world like the Forgotten Realms where gods can grant people magic and the goddess of magic has to die every time a new edition rolls around to explain the changes to magic rules. This does bear a lot of resemblance to the common lie about atheists that we believe in God but refuse to worship him. Someone who had that belief would, by definition, not be an atheist. Atheophobia or hatred of atheists is very common in real life. There are places where you can be jailed or killed for being an atheist. Even in places that aren't that extreme, atheism can make you a social pariah or have many other negative outcomes. Just look at the number of people who think atheists aren't trustworthy, wouldn't vote for one, or don't want their kids dating one. Having this kind of hatred infused in what should be a fun escapist fantasy world drags the while setting down for me and even makes me actively dislike it. It's really not that different from having a fun fantasy world where there's this background detail that all people with the wrong skin tone will go to hell no matter how good of a person they are and this is portrayed as something necessary or even good rather than as an evil for the player characters to overcome. Overthrowing the wall of the faithless would be a great story for player characters if the story of the Forgotten Realms hadn't already made it very clear that atheists are so dangerous and wrong that sending them to a fate worse than death no matter what actions or beliefs they hold is necessary and right. I do not want to play a game in a setting that has that kind of hatred baked into it. And before someone says it, yes, I can headcanon the wall of the faithless out in my home games, but that doesn't work for official Forgotten Realms material like BG3. Wyll is going to the wall in canon (unless he has some conversion later in the plot) and I can't just make believe otherwise unless BG3 is decanonized.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #d&d #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #atheism #athiest #wall of the faithless #atheophobia #bigotry #forgotten realms

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drhu0806 · 8 months

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Oh here's a fun game: rate the BG3 companions (and your player character too if you so choose) on what you think their spice tolerance/spice threshold are (in my case, I interpret spice tolerance as how well you react to the heat whereas spice threshold is how hot one can go before they feel something or start reacting poorly)

My thoughts:

Lae'zel: very high tolerance, mid to low threshold. The latter is very debatable because I don't know what githyanki eat wherever they are. I'm just going off the assumption that maybe they don't devote a lot of time to cultivating spices and herbs, though I think githyanki would be up for spice challenges. Overall grade is very high on the scale in spite of relatively low threshold because my girl is a tough son of a bitch and she can sweat almost anything out no problem

Shadowheart: high tolerance, mid to low threshold. Again, I don't know what Sharrans eat generally so threshold is arguable. Could it be used as a torture implement? Sure. But I like to imagine people who eat spicy food like to enjoy life and have some fun, which Sharrans... don't seem to have. Overall grade: below Lae'zel, but in the same general bin

Astarion: THE LOWEST ON THIS LIST. LOW TOLERANCE, LOW THRESHOLD. WE DON'T EVEN NEED TO DISCUSS THIS. NEXT QUESTION.

Gale: low tolerance, mid to low threshold. Man doesn't even like eating vegetables. How the fuck can he handle a habenero? He edges out above Astarion but is that really an accomplishment? EDIT: I have been notified that in the romance he talks about liking spicy food--along with a very funny comment involving spice and his mother--so I am upgrading him to high average on the scale, with high tolerance, mid threshold. Congrats Gale you are so damn lucky to have a lawyer as your fan

Wyll: mid to high tolerance, mid to low threshold. He's tough to judge; I'm willing to put him in the same bin as Shadowheart at his highest. Again, I don't know what he regularly ate growing up; he was a Duke's son so he probably had access to more diverse foods than the average citizen, but do the nobility regularly eat spice? Who can say? In the end I would put him solidly in the middle ranking, but this can change.

Karlach: HIGHEST ON THE LIST. Very high tolerance, high threshold. Would probably be one of those people who would eat two Carolina Reapers in that challenge for the lulz. Do I think she would still feel it? Yeah. But would she take it like a champ? Absolutely.

Halsin: high tolerance, mid to low threshold. This one's tough, the threshold especially, very arguable. But I want to believe in him because the man is 350+ years old, he's been around, he's seen some shit, probably eaten a lot of different kinds of stuff in his travels. I believe he could absolutely sweat it out at the very least. Middle of the pack.

Minthara: high tolerance, high threshold. I'm gonna be real, I've never recruited her so these are all off of general impressions but I mean come on. I would put her second only to Karlach.

Jaheira: mid tolerance, mid threshold. I feel like in BG1 and 2 she probably would have had a higher ranking, but she is older now and I know from personal experience sometimes you get to an age where you just can't eat the same kind of stuff you did when you were younger. Middle of the pack again, I'd put her with Wyll.

Minsc: I have no idea. Mid to high tolerance, mid to low threshold? I definitely think he could sweat it out well but who knows how hot the hamster man can go? I'm gonna put him in average because I'm just HMMMM???

My Tav, Kainé: high tolerance, high threshold, because I am incapable of making a character anything else I guess. Not as high on the ranking as Karlach and Minthara, but probably around Lae'zel's place because spicy food was just a staple growing up for her. She'd probably shed tears if she had a Caroline Reaper or ghost pepper but she would absolutely still go for it if she had to to prove a point.

#what does the owl say #baldur's gate 3 #when you're an astarion fan but you gotta be realistic about your man LOL

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tiredassmage · 1 month

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[remembering that i can just blorbo post whenever i feel like it, that's how i introduced my swtor ocs. i can do it again for the bg blorbos i can just Do That that's Free to do in my own house. giggles!]

yeah, yeah, it's all fun and games flirting with poetic lines and declarations of attraction, isn't it, leo?

sure. right. hot men telling you pretty things is just a darling time! flattery is wonderful, he can enjoy this, surely this isn't something of depth and meaning and everyone's having such a good time-! haha, astarion's so good at this, this is amusing, surely-

oh.

oh fuck.

[most genuine leo reaction.] activate deer in headlights mode.

right! fun! haha! of course! totally just in jest! you know!!! because this physical thing is all very well and good, just a little amusement between... travel partners?

I don't think knowing everything was getting more and more elaborate and showy just for the sake of it prepared him to hear that. even knowing - or believing, at least - none of this is. more than just. just a little fun. nothing more. leo wouldn't say the whole thing has been at his own expense, not to astarion - genuinely gods forbid leo imply his own lack of self-esteem is somehow someone else's problem. genuinely. there's some level of awareness there that that says something about the other person's character that he doesn't mean, necessarily.

I do love that leo's a disaster in this sense. leo's... the kind of guy that won't easily end up in the clearly better for him option in wyll - wyll is so clearly and evidently a Good Guy and he's sweet and leo's a little sweet on him for it, but that. would also mean genuinely admitting to feelings. actually having those. and leo just... doesn't do that. not yet. not very easily.

but falling along at someone like astarion's heels isn't because leo entirely believes the honeyed words and endearments from the start. they're as nice to hear as they are for astarion to say, this early on, likely. it's not about saying things with intention. it's saying what sounds good. they're both guilty of it, full stop. the difference, perhaps, in leo playing along versus some of the targets astarion had brought cazador is that leo's not ignorant, entirely, of the fact that it's a game. he's just... willing to go along with it. in a way that'd be liable to get him into trouble. because leo unfortunately does a self-fulfilling prophecy thing where he struggles with deserving the kind variety of guy that might actually be good for him and supportive and thus leo instead trots himself right into questionable arrangements, romantic and otherwise aknlksfdl;dsf.

and he's. afraid of mucking up good things when they do come, so it's far easier to run away from these things, right?? right??? cutting a deal with a hag is obviously the safer option than waiting around for his feelings to get hurt or for when he inevitably causes some sort of terrible event himself, right? i'm sure that hag deal back in the city just worked out so well for him.

[it did not + the last person that told leo those three little words was that cute bard he definitely totally did not (yes he did) have a crush on and who was definitely too good for him (leo he was concerned about your safety and well-being, y'know, like a decent partner) + congrats you got a hag eye deal out of it and lost the first love of your life, i think (i'm still pondering details. i still don't know who made a deal in which direction, whether it was leo bargaining or his lover, but either way... at the very least, feelings got hurt and they stormed off in different directions and haven't seen each other since. and at worst... well. dealing with a hag has historically not worked out for anyone very well in this game)]

which is all perhaps just a really long way of saying leo i think you could do so much better, baby (for yourself, bc not that this relationship can't ever turn out sweet bc it can but that's something i know as a player that leo doesn't ahaaa), wyll and gale and literally also right there, but leo is also incredibly fucking skittish and astarion will play him like a lute and leo will let it happen and i'm just here with popcorn waiting to see if either leo runs from it all (again) when shit starts to actually mean something or if both of them are going to do the screaming opossum moment about 'seduce and manipulate haha just for safety right just as a little bit' turning into 'oh fuck Feelings' and ultimately work something out.

i mean, the screaming opossum moment is likely going to occur either way, it's just. will they actually manage to stick it out and make a relationship out of it or will at least one of them go 'good gods absolutely not kill it with fire and ten thousand bees me have an emotion? haha you're hilarious, no.'

in the meantime, i will be the screaming opossum watching it all unfold because gods they're going to kill me with the suspense.

#dot talk #dot's bg3 tag #i wonder if i should have a tag for specifically blorbo rambling #that's kind of what their character tags are for i guess in general but kandfad;lskf #don't mind me i was also just having a screaming opossum over wanting to share nd forgetting that i just. can do that.#skittish brain won for a moment lol oopsie #vs: the only things the foolish need are a suitcase and a trunk | bg!leo #anyway now that i have reminded myself of the magic power of post it anyway stay tuned for rhyst bg edition updates too

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lonepower · 8 months

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idk as much about lilin so maybe this is too many, BUT: 2, 4, 5, 7 general, 14 for story and – idk if any of the dark urge stuff would apply for her since she’s your dark urge, right? if so, 15 + 17? if not, 10 + 11? and, 1, 2, 5 for romance?

Yeah, she's my durge! So much of who she is (how much of that is even left) is tied up in that fact, so for these purposes she's still Bhaal's Specialest Princess™ if you're not playing dark urge, and if you are... I guess you'll probably have to kill her, either because she's in your way or because if you're not going to become his Chosen, she'll definitely try to usurp you. Whoops.

(Sorry this took SO long btw, the more I got into her head the more I realized what a... complicated companion she'd make 😅)

2. Do the other companions have special comments or reactions upon recruiting your Tav?

None of them trust her all that much: she's not currently outwardly murderous, but it's really clear there's something not-quite-right about her. Lae'zel disapproves, pretty steeply for early-game, if you free her from her pod (You find her trapped on the beach, where her pod has cracked open and buckled, pinning her legs. You can free her with STR/DEX, leave her to die, or if Zel is in the party, give her a merciful death). Astarion sees her washed out complexion and sharpened teeth and sunlight sensitivity (got that szarkai disadvantage) and is torn between trying to (not-so-)subtly deflect any Ambient Vampiric Behaviors onto her, and not drawing attention to it in case Tav notices the similarities. Gale wonders if she might be a fey of some kind and advises you to watch your wording around her; Wyll actually vaguely recognizes her, having noticed "such an unusual moon elf" once at a function, and muses that something is definitely off (perhaps drawing a connection later to Duke Stelmane?).

4. What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

Despite the hit that her INT took by being lobotomized (it's 9, oof), she was a scientist—up-and-coming head of the physickers’ guild, not that she remembers this—so curiosity and intelligence will go a long way, as will any kind of magical or intellectual hubris (reading Thay, bargaining with Yurgir, getting both Mayrina and the hair from Ethel, etc) or dialogues using the [medicine] skill check. Reassuring her about her memory loss, lapses, and general Durgeiness will net approval pretty quickly, but will also heavily influence her to lean into them, so if you want to actually help her you're going to have to balance some regular approval loss. If that's not your concern, though, being vicious or unnecessarily cruel is always a good way to make her like you ♡ Conversely, she doesn't actually disapprove of being nice or offering to help, as long as she gets to kill someone, so she approves equally of (for example) slaughtering the grove and of slaughtering the goblin camp.

She is still super racist a noble-raised drow somewhere deep down, so she'll disapprove of what she sees as demeaning oneself before or conceding to "lesser" races, such as kissing the goblin's foot or stopping Nere from murdering the gnomes. (She does approve of leaving him to suffocate, though.) She also tends to disapprove of shying away from knowledge just because it's "tainted" or "unnatural", ie if you soothe or destroy the Necromancy of Thay, or if you let Gale cleanse the shadow circle in Balthazar's backroom. And if you actually treat her Urges as A Problem that she needs to put in work to help fix, she'll disapprove, at least at first—but it will turn out much better in the long run.

5. Are there any instances where your Tav can permanently leave the party, depending on player character actions?

There's pretty much nothing you can do that will get her to leave, but there's plenty you can do that just straight up kills her. Non-Durge players can give her back to Kressa Bonedaughter, avoiding that fight. (Lae'zel approves; Astarion approves if your approval with both of them is low, and disapproves if your approval with one or both of them is high; and everyone else strongly disapproves.) She'll volunteer to be Malus's test subject, but you can scroll-of-revivify her afterwards (earning an inspiration point and a big chunk of approval from her, a little approval from Shadowheart, and a lot of not-quite-disapproving-horror from Wyll, Karlach, or Gale). If your approval is low enough, she will try and kill you, and will revive hostile no matter what. If you help her get the Slayer form, she'll use it in the final battles, but then you'll have to fight and kill her while she's in it unless you're planning to rule the Absolute together.

7. Do they have their own personal quest that spans the course of the game? Can it take different branching paths depending on the choices the Player Character makes?

This is the one that took me the longest, because honestly, having the dark urge as a companion character could actually be really cool, but it would also be pretty complicated! I think at its core it would revolve around a hardening/softening (or I guess "embracing/resisting") mechanic similar to Leliana in DA:I, where there's a hidden ticker for both player and ambient actions, similar to approval, that influences how far she's leaning into or fighting against her Urge.

Stage one of the actual quest is of course figuring out the amnesia-and-murderosity thing, which mostly kicks into gear in act 2. If you pass a (pretty low, like DC5 or something) perception roll in the illithid colony you can ask her "hey... you don't happen to know why there's Another twitchy doll-like blind-eyed bone-pale silver-haired crazy lady waltzing around down here?", which of course she doesn't. Kressa's notes will also help with the figuring out the mystery thing. As for resolving it, there's two paths that I think would be fun: Withers, or the Mycology Husbands. If you do the whole parasite potion sidequest for Omeluum, you can ask it about mental shielding wrt the Urge. It can't help you in act 1, but promises to think about it, and if you then rescue it from the Iron Throne, that unlocks the turn-her-illithid ending (but she still has to be softened enough to accept it). Withers will, in turn, cryptically help you with the probably more rewarding route of "get this girl some goddamn therapy," which will require enlisting the others to actually, y'know, take her seriously. This starts after she kills—let's make it the backup bard so that poor Alfira isn't doomed no matter what. (If you're durge, there'll have to be some other way to handle this. this grove ain't big enough for Two demigod serial killers...)

On the other hand, if you're going the evil route, she's not complaining. If you want a goodbad end, just get her approval high and leave everything else alone, because her default state is "agreeable most of the time, and also extremely dangerous"; voilà, you've got an excellent attack dog. If you're also Dark Urge, though, you're going to have to watch out, because she won't be as keen to share the Chosen title with a competitor. If you don't soften her enough before act 3, she will turn on you, possibly in the Tribunal arc but definitely when the time comes to decide how to deal with the Absolute. And if you soften her while not resisting your own Urge, she's not going to appreciate your hypocrisy and will probably try to retaliate just on principle!

14. How does Tav react to the PC becoming a mind flayer? Can they offer to become one themselves? Does their reaction change if they’re romanced?

Depending on your approval and what direction her quest has taken, she'll either be sort of melancholically approving, or just brush it off. "We've both become something our old selves wouldn't know." versus "I don't care what you are, if you're a threat I'll kill you and if you're not you're not."

She doesn't offer to become one by default, but if she's softened enough and you've done that route of her quest, you can suggest it as a way to break Bhaal's control over her. In this ending she'll either return to the Underdark (if romanced, or if the Emperor/Orpheus are dead) or stick with your other illithid ally to help and/or learn from them.

10. How do they react if the PC licks the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar?

Whether the player passes or fails the constitution check: "Oh, that looks good. Can I have some?" (Devnote: absolute, earnest sincerity)

[Rotten spider meat added to inventory]

You get +1 approval and some interesting facts about the chemical composition of displacer beast saliva if you give it to her.

11. What do they say if the PC tries to force them to go up on stage with Dribbles the Clown?

TAV: Lilin, why don't you go? You seem like you need cheering up.

LILIN: [+1 approval] Okay.

If she has high approval, isn't softened, and passes the hidden perception/dexterity roll, you only have to fight “Dribbles”'s lackeys, because she puts her arm through his ribcage when he tries to grab her.

1. Is your Tav a romanceable character? Are there any specific requirements to romancing them?

I think she could be, but I think it would go over poorly with a lot of players, because there's no way it wouldn't be either Weird or Difficult in like a lot of ways. for safety's sake we'll just say she can't be romanced as another dark urge at all, so we don't have to account for "wellllllll if they're not the same species are they really related", because that's Way more discourse than it's worth lmao. You can sleep with her at the goblin or tiefling party, where she's (outwardly) politely flattered and (privately) startled and more than a little relieved that you'd even think of her that way; all the other companions have been handling her like she's made of glass, so she's desperately glad that someone here is treating her like a consenting adult and not something to be equally feared and pitied. It's probably a prerequisite to romancing her at all, actually. Gale is in the background giving you this look:

Lilin is at least 35 years older than him and can kill him in more ways than he has scrolls, thank you very much.

2. Does your Tav need to be flirted with to start the romance, or will they approach the PC themselves if approval is high enough? / 5. Does the romance have different branching paths, or just one route to take?

Approval doesn't matter for the first fling with her, but you're going to have to get it pretty high to actually propose any kind of romantic partnership. You'll have to walk a pretty fine tightrope, too, because being patient or kind with her or downplaying her issues at all will raise your approval but is—as the companions in my playthrough learned with a lot more surprise than I thought they were due—going to do the opposite of help, reviling or lecturing her is going to close her off, and encouraging her is going to end badly for everyone. A lot of things that net approval will also point towards her Bad End, especially if you're the only one taking her seriously (which, as you noted with Amity, literally nobody except Halsin does). Making sure you're not her only lifeline will do a lot of good here; I imagine there could be an interesting role for Withers, given the part he plays in a resistant durge's ending, but you're going to have to get some of the others (Shadowheart, who she's close with in my playthrough, and Halsin, who actually fucking takes the "amnesia and murderous compulsions" thing seriously enough to suggest causes and solutions, come to mind) to come around as well. If you manage to undo the brainwashing, free her from Bhaal's control, and help her build an actual healthy support network, you could probably get a pretty good ending! On the other hand, there might be a fun GoodBad ending too where you do what Gortash proposes and rule the Elder Brain together. (If you try this as Durge, she attacks you in the very last scene and you have to pass a series of checks to 1) Not Die 2) kill or mind-control her and 3) maintain control of the brain, all while being Lightly Stabbed.)

tl;dr she is probably not worth the trouble akddnrh.

#replies #cannibalisticskittles #lilin duskryn #baldur's gate #sorry about the delay!!! this gave me some trouble ack #also sidebar it like. Hurts Me to refer to omeluum as ‘it’#if blurg refers to it as such then those are probably what it prefers! but like!! it's a PERSON IT'S NOT AN ‘IT’#i mean like it Is but.#the emperor is easy. i'm pretty sure they've been referred to by Every standard pronoun at this point so I just default to he/they #anyway!! thank you very very very much for the ask :D

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missizzy · 2 months

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A Game Novice's Baldur's Gate 3 Log, 6 1/2 hours in: I might just be getting somewhere

(Note: this will definitely contain spoilers for all I've played through, and probably quite a bit of the later stuff I've also seen.)

I spent the week continuing with my Baldur's Gate 3 experiment, even as the dialog sequences ran excruciatingly slow, due to the animation going at half the pace as the audio. I now suspect the problem is my computer's struggling with our internet connection, which it has ever since Comcast insisted on replacing the modem. Which is part the reason we may finally be doing something about that next week, and I may pause playing until such time as we do. But that depends on how long it takes. I'm kind of getting hooked on this game, despite everything.

After last weekend saw Sara Tully, my barbarian Tav, successfully find Gale, and me fail to figure out how to lockpick, I went and looked up how to do the latter. (Of course it was the obvious way I hadn't thought of.) So first thing when I resumed was to take the party back to the big locked door on the beach to try to get through it. Except Astarion failed two checks in a row, resulting the loss of all our thieves tools. Guess I'm not finding out what's behind that door in this run.

After that I looked up Lae'zel's location and went to find her, and once again managed to go the wrong way, hitting the chapel entrance instead. So we ended up killing Gimblebock and the bandits outside, which made me feel a bit too much like a murderhobo, but at least, at long last, I finally got Sara to rage, marker by her box and everything. I have also now equipped her with a looted goblin bow, so she can even do ranged attacks while raging. Also we were able to get another set of thieves tools out of it. I even happily took Astarion up to the chapel door-except that when we heard the other bandits calling out through it, I decided to just walk away.

He did, on the other hand, successfully lockpick us through the trapdoor outside. Which of course led to another fight, one that felt very much like a learning experience about positioning characters in the game and recognizing when they are and aren't in silence AOEs. But I was much less sorry when we made contact with Withers, whom I hadn't known about, though I've since learned he's a camp follower, and I suspect I'll enjoy having him about. Maybe going the wrong way in this game isn't such a bad thing.

Still I was impatient to get back the Emerald Grove, so I scrutinized the maps a little more carefully (another skill I'm still developing) and finally got to Lae'zel, sent her captors on their way by saying I'd deal with her, and then Gale shot frost on the her cage's bottom to get her down. Then I promptly sent her to camp, because the party was full, and Sara as a barbarian is a tank already. Also, reading some meta about how she probably viewed the druids made me not really want to bring her to the Grove. (And since, I've come to think I'd rather not deal with the druids' reactions to her either.)

I suppose I'm not supposed to ask how we even have a camp, when we've been doing nothing except walk around since landing in the area. Or why, when we finally returned to the Grove entrance and went in, we found Aradin and Zevlor right there arguing as if the goblin fight had still happened only moments ago. Though at least Wyll had found time to go further inside and resume his fighting lessons before we recruited him.

I've heard plenty of how Wyll is hard done by and underused by players. I kept him with the party, partly because we were in the place he knew, and also because Shadowheart was low on health and and spell slots, so it was just as well to send her off. But when leveling him up, it was hard not to observe he really has the same spells as Gale, only fewer of them, which I suspect is one of the major problems. On the other hand, I did give him Beast Speech as an invocation, which will probably result in my using him a lot more, since the animal dialog in this game is really fun.

We ended up wandering around most of the hollow, which meant hearing about the Absolute for the first time,-but I'm pretty sure Sara won't believe in the significance of that for a while. I continued to work on trying to figure the map out, even after seeing the marker for Kagha on it, making a full circuit around the sacred pool, having an important conversation with Apikusis and a hilarious one with Volo (was kind of sorry there were no conversation options for Sara to tell him how much he was pissing her off). Then, finally, I found the entrance to take us to Kagha.

By then, the talk with Apikusis has already made clear she was a bad leader, and I happened to already know about her working with the Shadow Druids. But honestly, I'm not sure who they even are, and that's really more distant fantasy novel villainy. Her introduction scene, on the other hand, where she refers to a Tiefling child as "poison" and terrorizes her for doing as young children will sometimes do? That's something that really will hit the player hard. It hit Sara hard, too, and if she hadn't really wanted to see that healer, she definitely would've tried to intimidate her, or might have even outright attacked her to rescue the kid.

Instead, I ended up going with the nature check option of her saying imprisoning little Arabella would disrupt the balance of nature. Maybe not the best choice either, since Sara has -1 on nature, but luckily she rolled high. I immediately decided that Sara was pulling words out of her ass or possibly just trolling, and Kagha was the kind of narrow-minded arrogant that completely failed to realize this. Whether the approving Wyll or Gale realized this, I am not yet certain.

The last thing I've currently done was the conversation with Gale that immediately followed this encounter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to romance him, and one could even count that interaction as flirting, if you really stretch it.

Now, however, I am looking at next facing a scene I've seen played through twice, and heard comments about, and I think may well end with us having to flee the Grove. Which is even more of a problem when I still haven't even talked with Zorru about the possible location of the Githyanki creche yet!

#baldur's gate 3

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