#matt plays bg3

[achillvs]

one thing that i'm fucking tired of is that when i tell people i'm playing bg3, they usually go "who are you romancing?", as expected, and i usually start with "well, astarion for now" and the way they answer excitedly is also understandable, but it's important to me that i am looking forward to properly romancing wyll on my next run and the difference in people's reactions pisses me off. "oh, i don't care about him," "eh, he's boring" or "wyll completely didn't grasp me"

to each their own, of course, but the difference with which people respond to you saying you like wyll vs someone like karlach or gale, is staggering. if someone isn't keen on romancing karlach or shadowheart or anyone else but wyll, they will generally jump into conversation with "i personally went with xyz, but karlach is so cute/shadowheart is my goth princess/gale is so funny" etc. i get nothing when i bring up how tragically heroic wyll is or how sweetly supportive no matter the circumstances (breaking up with wyll on the aforementioned astarion run fully made me inconsolable for the whole day. i didnt deserve him)

i don't think all the people who say that are racist, i would like not to think that at least, so i cant help but put the blame on the developers. they created a perfect companion's backstory that has ties to ALL the major locations of ALL 3 acts, something that off the top of my head no other companion has (wyll has personal business in the grove, the moonrise towers/ketheric's prisons and is literally "the pride of the gate") and yet the depth of his characterization was just fumbled so massively. i saw a comparison between the arcs of astarion's and wyll's and how astarion gets to make a big choice for himself where wyll doesn't - and that it makes sense, because the narrative itself doesn't give wyll the information that would lead to make different choices. he doesn't get to know important things from his own story. he exists mostly mechanically and to bring big bad bosses into the game. the game doesn't care about him as a character and as much as it irks me, it's not hard to see why players don't either

#wyll ravengard #bg3 wyll #baldurs gate wyll #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #shut up matt #matt plays bg3

[sadmages]

In my mind palace my tav and Astarion are playing the exact same game of 5D chess and they don't realize it yet

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion #bg3 tav #my art #gabby plays bg3 #shadowheart #and #lae'zel #are also here #anyway tag ramble time just got the romance scene where you can hug him and on my knees.....this guy..... #astarion: hey i was kinda sleeping with you to save my ass but turns out im feeling real emotions now #matt marja: wtf. me too. this is so embarrassing for both of us we're idiots [tenderly hold hands] #i thought up matt for a campaign we may or may not play last year and deciding to play him in bg3 because i thought it would be funny #to put him against this guy who seemingly has many of his same issues. Best idea i've ever had. the emotional catharsis im experiencing #matt marja

[sirobvious]

Every D&D5e player needs to take a listen to this with an open mind.

Here are other links in case you don't want to listen to it through YouTube.

#dnd #d&d #d&d 5e #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #dnd 5e #5e #dnd 5e homebrew #subclasses #homebrew #ttrpg #ttrpg tumblr #ttrpg community #rpg #bg3 #baulders gate 3 #dimension 20 #d20 #critical role #matt mercer #podcast #roleplaying games #roleplaying #tabletop #actual play #Youtube #Spotify

[mushlooms]

girlhood is about having several different playthroughs in baldurs gate 3 and not finishing a single one of them bc u dont want the game to end

#bg3 #i am incapable of finishing this game #me everytime i get to act 3: hmmm but what if i made a new tav/durge #i rly dont want it to end but the good thing is i know there are a bunch of options so the experience will never be the exact same no matte #how many times i play #perhaps my fav game of all time? yes. skyrim meet ur brother #gigi talks #og

[sollucets]

do you ever get. matthew mercer jumpscared

#i didnt know he voiced minsc. #you see i have watched all of cr1 and 2 #i used to have dreams narratedby that voice in the worst hyperfixation stages #and so i cannot ever hear a character he plays normally again. hes just matt #chrom was RUINED i tell you #rowan chatter #bg3 posting

[motheatenscarf]

I've gone on the record here and elsewhere that I don't especially want any more companions than the ones we already have in BG3, and have especially mentioned that I don't really care about Minsc. I'm kind of annoyed by association because everyone makes reference to his hamster in every Bioware game and like, yes, we get it, people like this character. Even if I had played the first 2 BG games (which I haven't, enormous casts of characters intimidate me, there's a reason I love ff6 but am NEVER replaying it), I'm a fan of letting characters rest and not needlessly shoe-horning in fan favorites just to drum up attention for a game.

Like, I love Varric, he's maybe my favorite character in DA2 (they're all great, it's hard to pick), and I know he's a lot of other peoples' too! Which is why they brought him into Inquisition, even if you could feel his frustration for the entire first act because why the hell was he here? What was there for him even to do? And I'm worried he'll have even LESS to do in Dreadwolf, so I'm kinda conflicted.

And then when BG3 announce Paladins, they announce that Matt Mercer is gonna be voicing Minsc. ...

Well played, Sven.

Well played.

#FINE i will recruit minsc and take him places you have through like 4 degrees of separation #given everyone who owns the game a very roundabout way of playing D&D with matt mercer #you fuckers #you evil conniving motherfuckers #Caitlin Plays BG3 #Caitlin Plays Baldur's Gate 3

[neraiutsuze]

minsc is here. the genre of this game has just switched entirely. utterly ridiculous himbo, holy shit

#matt mercer is having an absolute ball playing him #miri plays bg3 #baldur's gate 3

[freshcut-chetney]

Somehow finished Stray Gods in a sitting and it was soooooo good 🥹

#I'll probably play the expanse tomorrow iirc the ep is only an hour or so #then back to the bg3 grind 🙌 i will find matt mercer i mean minsc or so help me

[suntiger745]

I really think Mark Hulmes was the perfect DM to run a game for the BG3 companions and the narrator of BG3.

- He has a very long experience with DnD both as a DM and a player.

- He also has a long experience running streamed games with two completed long form campaigns (three if you count Nights of Eveningstar) along with a number of shorter campaigns and oneshots.

- More importantly, he has experience DMing for both new players, veterans and a mix of the two - on stream. And he's good at making things comfortable for someone who is unsure about the rules while also on camera, along with shifting views to give them space to both roleplay and roll dice if they wish.

-Minor but related to the above, he's brittish, so he naturally has a better feel for the type of banter that will be familiar and comfortable to other brits.

- He is known, but not hugely so, which makes him less intimidating to play with for a new player espescially. Which is an aspect I think people might overlook because they naturally think of the most known DM's when there's talk of running a session with with the cast from a big game.

Yeah, some of them are very experienced VA's, but that doesn't make them immune to performance anxiety about playing their first session of DnD ever, on camera, espescially with a big name DM like Matt Mercer, Aabriya Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan or B Dave Walters. "What if I screw things up!" is a horrible little demon that no-one is immune to (including the big name DM's themselves). ;)

- From a practical aspect, High Rollers having their own studio and being located in the UK makes transport and logistics (and probably scheduling) easier to arrange.

I also hope we get another session down the line where Mark runs another game for the BG3 cast where Matt gets to play Minsc along with Jaheira's VA, and Minthara's VA thrown in for additional chaos. :)

And while I'm making wishes, an all Tavs DnD session would be cool too.

#bg3 #dnd #high rollers #voice acting #ttrpg #baldur's gate 3 #streaming #d&d #high rollers dnd #mark hulmes #larian studios #thank you larian

[bipunkharrington]

Who I think would play each BG3 companion from Crit Role

Astarion - Taleisin

Gale - Liam

Halsin - Travis

Karlach - Ashley

Lae'zel - Marisha

Shadowheart - Laura

Wyll - Sam (this one doesn't ring true for me sadly its just a case of who's left 😅 really Sam would probably play the Owlbear cub)

Everyone else would either be a guest star or an NPC voiced by Matt.

#please be aware that im too adhd to actually keep up with crit role stuff so ive only watched a total of about 20 episodes #spread over the three campaigns #haha #critical role #bg3

[achillvs]

i know this is easier from the programming standpoint, and i get it, bg3 is massive as it is, but it absolutely sends me how the lines sometimes refer to things that are absolutely false for your specific run

"i recognise this cat, isn't it gale's?" i have never talked to gale beside feeding him boots and then when he invited me for an awkward night of stargazing bc he was feeling suicidal and I quote "it's not much, but it's better than being alone". i have never seen his fucking cat. I didn't know he has a cat (that's a lie, i've seen fanarts)

#there was sth else at some point but i forgot #but basically anything to do with karlach gale and esp halsin n jaheira #karlach just told me her engine is close to giving up #'but she just wants to enjoy her life' uhuh #i took her for half a hook horror battle in underdark and that was it #im sorry bbygirl ur the camp set piece #at least i took laezel to the creche #i dont think im taking karlach to see gortash #its me (paladin) and my 3 range besties (astarion shadowheart n wyll) against the world #matt plays bg3 #shut up matt #(correction: i took laezel to the creche the first time. i didnt when i came back to slaughter everyone)

[sadmages]

Gale stabilizing all 3 party members from death after not getting hit himself at all and then dropping this bomb while everyone's on the verge of death. So funny of him

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #gale of waterdeep #matt marja #finally art of him in his little tag <3 #gabby plays bg3 #gale dropping this right in front of astarion also knowing full well matt goes into his tent every night for some form of sucking #shoot your shot king i respect it!!!!!!!!!!!!! #any other time this would have landed so well. the fact this dialogue popped up while matt was at 1 hp and dying.....incredible #my art #ITS BEEN A WHILE but my film is done so i can do stupid shit like this again

[12pt-times-new-roman]

C3E75

snow effects!!!

They arrive on a mountainside, where the opening into the rock is devoid of snow and ice. It leads into a tiny, Descent-like cave that drops into nothing -- and that's eventually fully blocked by a humanoid skull. (yeah. it's that small.)

Eventually, they come upon a Minecraft-style pool of lava with imps and a roiling bit in the middle -- sounds like lava mephits and a fire elemental! (someone's been playing BG3)

FCG casts tongues on Fearne. They sound similar to the blue frog pixie-things they encountered before, but fire-themed. They keep spawning from the roiling bit in the middle, and over time they fall to dust.

When Fearne says the name Rau'shan, their eyes light up, their grins widen -- "The creator... tales are told of those who have come before. It births us... others have come and angered the spark, and then, fire."

Oh, so this is the Sunken Temple all over again, except far more difficult because lava hurts.

Ashton implies that if no one else does anything, they're just gonna.... jump in the lava and get the thing. Great.

The fact that absolutely no one in this party tried anything to stop Ashton from dive-bombing into a lava pool, and are in fact encouraging them to do so, is honestly ridiculous. "It doesn't kill you instantly" lava does 18d10 damage per turn. if that roll is even slightly above average, Ashton is down in one round.

but they only take 35, reduced by temporary hit points and an elemental absorption ring. (rules-as-written, full submergence in lava is 18d10 damage -- 35 is way too low for even surface-level damage, so something else is happening here.)

Ashton finds something in the lava pool, pulls, can't get it free -- and stays another round. Another 40 (reduced to 31) fire damage.

Fearne casts fire shield (cold) on herself to give herself fire resistance and jumps in after Ashton. Matt is rolling one set of dice for each damage roll here, so there's something special about this specific magma pool (not about Ashton) that's reducing the amount of damage they take.

"Is anyone else doing anything this round?" meanwhile, Chetney: "I am CLIMBING up the WALLS"

In the second round, Ashton pulls it free -- the words of Evontravir come to their mind, and in that moment they know that they were meant to be here, Fearne was meant to be here, and Ashton darts upward, Fearne in tow, with Imogen's fly.

FCG update: "Scatter Vigor" allows them to take 3d8 necrotic damage and then give that much healing (plus twice their wisdom modifier) to a close friend.

Ashton's skin is red-hot, matching the lake, but it slowly fades as his body cools. The cracks that damaged their body has somewhat healed, they've been shored up -- the gold is still there, but it's less wide than it was. "It's slightly joyful that, after a lifetime of being hurt, someone gets hurt when they touch you."

Also, Ashton is fully naked. Their clothes are gone.

The shard itself is a bright orange-white crystal that branches like roots. Inside, Ashton sees shifting light, roiling flames, like a window into the tiniest, most dangerous ever-burning inferno. They tap it to their head, and sense that there is something within it that they're drawn to -- there's a churning, like an earthquake foreshock, like the anticipation before a fall.

Chetney uses grim psychometry on it. "It's such a small shard, but the power is nearly overwhelming. There is a powerful essence locked within this crystal, but it's such a small piece of the entity it once belonged to... chained, trapped, kept away -- vengeful, furious, and then freedom, the promise of escape. You and a partner to bring this world low once more -- and then, light. Light, that is a different fire than your own -- it is blue, then white, and it breaks you apart, you see a mountain reformed and destroyed, you see this light engulf you and the Emperor, and you're sundered into a million pieces. And this one piece just flies through the sky at an impossible speed, before it punches into this mountain."

Ashton takes it and pushes it into their chest. There is a twin essence within them, waiting to be awakened -- but the one they hold is still looking for its vessel.

"Who do we know who's fiery?" "Fearne!" FCG, Chetney, Laudna, and Imogen are all trying to get Fearne to take this thing, despite her having just explicitly said that she doesn't want it because it hurt her.

With an arcana check, Laudna knows that a powerful essence is locked within this particular artifact -- "there's another relic that they uncovered that was used to imbue certain essences into the wearer." And that means that it's completely within reason for Ashton, Fearne, or Orym to take it, because they're all arguably elementally infused.

With a flash, five figures apperate on the other side of the chamber -- two members of the Ruby Vanguard, two reilorans, and LUDINUS DA'LETH. "Well, now -- you certainly have been busy, haven't you? It seems that fear is a potent motivator."

Imogen immediately using telekinesis to throw lava at Ludinus has the exact same energy as Caleb throwing a wall of fire at Trent in Vergessen

hold up, Ashton still doesn't have pants on--

Ludinus has a new white gem in the center of his forehead -- it's unclear whether it's actually set into his skin or on a circlet of some kind. My first guess is that this is an Ioun stone -- white is regeneration, but that doesn't really help him in a combat encounter. It could also be sustenance, which means he doesn't need to eat or drink

The reilorans have less than 60 hp and an AC less than 19.

The Ruby Vanguard goons have less than 50 hp.

For Ludinus' turn, he sees his staff in FCG's hand -- "oh, you've been prying, haven't you?" With his own telekinesis, he lifts Fearne above the lava and just holds her there. "If you've been digging through history, good! The more you see, the more you learn, and the more you learn, the more you know how right we are."

The reiloran juggernaut uses telekinetic shove, pushing Orym not into the lava but into melee with it. (read: either Matt is being merciful, or Ludinus wants them alive.)

Chetney takes the shard from Ashton, puts it into the bag of holding, then turns invisible.

a wall of stone around Ludinus is a super fun choice -- either he doesn't have fly and has to waste his action on trying to break out, or he has fly and has to waste his action on that!

oh, the inclusion of the lava is such good encounter design. on a flat field, this fight would be pretty skewed in Ludinus' favor, but with both parties being able to utilize the lava and with the Hells having more party members that can use it, it really levels the playing field.

Ludinus has the metamagic adept feat, which gives him some sorcery points and metamagic, of which quicken spell is one. He brings Fearne closer -- "how rude of your friends, not to consider talking. Let's find a better place to converse."

Ludinus' armor class is 19 and he has advantage on checks to maintain concentration.

With an 18, Fearne convinces Ludinus to at least talk to them for a minute. He indicates that he has curiosity about their locations and, looking specifically at Ashton, patrons.

Predictably, Ludinus' strength score is abysmal, and Laudna gets him prone with her hound.

Ashton rage build update: They have to burn a chaos burst to do their wormhole strike. The wormhole strike counts as melee attack, not a ranged one, for the purposes of having advantage/disadvantage on a prone opponent.

Ludinus' concentration on Fearne breaks, and she falls to the ground. "Ah, well -- at least a lesson can be learned here." He begins to cast, something with a 30-foot radius, and Laudna counterspells his ninth level spell -- Marisha needs at least a 14 AND SHE ROLLS A FUCKING 14--

They all feel this alien, arcane hand reach into their minds, memories, their fears -- and suddenly it's gone, Ludinus reels away and tries to counter-counterspell and FAILS. "Well. At the very least, we have more information." And he walks, falls into the lava; his flesh melts into a pile of snow that releases into steam -- this form was a simulacrum.

However, Ludinus' robe still remains, and they grab it. The fact that it didn't descinerate immediately means that it's magic.

Using Ludinus' staff, the Bells Hells attempt to return to Whitestone to reconvene with Imahara, Dancer, and Percy.

#critical role #note watches c3 #critical role spoilers #critical role campaign 3 #critical role c3 #critical role liveblog #long post

[spellshite]

RULES: Post 5 songs associated with your OC, followed by 4 outfits they would wear

I was tagged by @tavsboots and I was really undecided about which one of my BG3 characters to do, but since I was playing on Xarann's run, I guess he's a good pick :)

Xarann is my Lolth-sworn Drow Redemption Durge! He's a Necromancer Wizard and until Act 3 he was a major edgelord! Now he's waaaaay nicer than at the start!

5 Songs

4 Outfits

It's difficult to pinpoint a proper "style" for Xarann. I think he'd surely dress mainly in dark colours, surely might have some skulls or spiders as a pattern or on accessories.

And I think he'd either wear something comfortable but still somewhat alt/punk or he'll be all dressed up in a more goth style. No in-between.

His mohawk makes me think he'd be leaning towards the punk style, but then I remember that the Poisoner's Robe had a sort of corset and then I think about the Elven Chain and mainly the new camp outfit that is a dyed black "brass city outfit" that is very fancy looking... yeah, maybe he'd more on the "vampire goth" area.

Fun fact: I think that Xarann, Shadowheart and Astarion were the Goth Elf Trio of the camp until Act 3 when they started to lighten up their style (except Xarann who still wears all black lmao)

Tagging... I don't know??? Anyone who wants to do this, feel free to consider yourself tagged!

#durge: xarann #bg3 durge #my bg3 oc #his playlist is almost all three days grace and i noticed it only doing this game lmaoooo #modern!AU Xarann and Shadowheart would've bonded over MCR and I'll die on this hill

[greyias]

Wait... is that Matt Mercer playing BG3 over on the dev broadcast on Steam??

[maaaahri]

I think if someone tried to tell me that BG3 is better-written than, say, NWN2:MotB or KotOR II or Planescape: Torment I'd go feral. Like I'm willing to give BG3 some props as game but the primary story is uh. Actually not very good imo, it's kind of propped up by its companion interactions and the sheer amount of "What-ifs" the game has properly scaffolded into its gameplay and narrative. Even then, its narrative reactivity pales in comparison to Disco Elysium in a lot of ways. The thing is, games do not have to have incredibly intricate, well-thought out narratives. BG3 has decent prose and pretty incredible voice acting serving a basic narrative that, at times, would probably benefit from being more simplistic than it is. Character companion stories explore more complex themes than the primary narrative and some do it better than others. All of this is fair and creates a pleasant narrative experience. BG3 would honestly probably be a worse product if it tried to tackle some of the themes NWN2:MotB does. I use that one here because it's the other example set primarily in the Forgotten Realms setting and thus has themes that are more theoretically easily accessible by BG3's narrative. MotB actually deals, hilariously and fun enough, with some of the same principle characters of BG3, but it's uh. It's a high-level adventure that ruminations on the nature of birth, death, and punishment. On divinity's responsibility in a world where the divine is far from abstract to its subjects, yet very few truly see the fruits of prayer in their lifetime. NWN2 does, however, play like garbage. It's based on 3.5 which was MY first DnD experience, but it's also far less accessible to newcomers in 2023. BG3 controls miles better (it's a more recent game that had far more time in the oven, of course it does and it should but it bears saying) and I feel like talking about graphics is actually a moot point in cRPGs. Yes, BG3 is very pretty. I, however, regularly go back and play through cRPGs that came out two decades ago and look like paper dolls on pixely matte paintings. You cannot entice me with graphics in a way that matters. As many individuals have also pointed out, in game so centered on graphics and diversity in 2023, there is no excuse for not providing a fat body type option and putting in the extra effort to be more inclusive instead of pretending fat people don't exist. TL;DR - if you like BG3 play other cRPGs, if you don't want to literally fight tooth-and-nail to just play a video game, Owlcat makes some great ones and I've heard good things about Pillars of Eternity, but I haven't gotten around to playing those. If you're a Star Wars fan you are literally doing yourself most bastardly if you've never played KotOR II, restored content patch or no (the restored planet is not actually very good I would recommend the patch for everything but that)

#text #screaming into the void #Mahri talks about video games too much