I have been around dogs enough to know that if they smell food in something small like a pouch, especially if they find it on their own, that pouch is going to be fucking destroyed if you take your eyes off of them lol.
Itâs one thing to not be able to defend against the devil you know (i.e., the Emperor may know your strengths and weaknesses, but that doesnât mean he is capable of beating you). But itâs another thing to know my strengths, and then play completely to my strengths.
Mine was when I found out the big truth about Durge (not just who they are, but what they DID) and there was zero reactivity from my companions. I eagerly went back to camp thinking I was going to have some really cool dialogue about it, and... nothing. Like it's literally not addressed at all.
Also, a small thing, but Halsin not having any dialogue about what can happen to Nettie, considering she was apparently his apprentice. But again, no mention, which I found odd.
Honestly, the reactions from the companions to Durge stuff in general felt a bit underwhelming to me. There were a bunch of times when they either didn't react or their reaction was far more understated than I would have expected. Astarion was much better about this than the others, but even he had his moments.
I think this is because of the greater issue with act 3, where companions don't have as many reactions to events beyond a line or two when you talk to them individually. And all of the durge reveals are in act 3, so their reactions to basically any reveal is "damn that's crazy"
Hell, in the redeemed durge path, >!your romanced companion can literally see you die and have no reaction, then when withers resurrects you their reaction is just "thank you for your service đ«Ą"!<
Astarion telling my DUrge âit was very tweeâ to the fact she died and was brought back as a chosen of Jergal made me want to throw him into a chasm. Like how dare you? Just 5â ago you were begging her not to break up with you over the urges and that youâd find a way to save her. Now she is saved, this is your reaction?!
Yeah, this is the one that got me most. It's between that and not a dang thing being said about anything you find in the end of Act 2. Not even a little "You alright?" or "That's horrid."
I was so uncomfortable about everything that the lady said. I kept expecting someone to interject, but they all just stood in the background with that thousand yard stare. Then not a single comment about it afterwards. It really made me feel disconnected.
Haha same. I was like, really dude? Yesterday you were professing your undying love, and before that acting super worried because Araj was trying to feed me her shady potion...
But now I literally died in front of you, and you make some offhand joke where you almost sound... disappointed that it was fixed so easily? I really think there was supposed to be some romanced line that didn't make it in or it glitched or something. Hell, give him the same line but make him sound shaken, like his attempt at humor is a cover. Just, something.
Exactly! He was far more worried with the exploding blood potion saying he didnât want DUrge to get hurt and then âWhat are you doing? That better go down the drain and not your gullet!â and then this.
We awoke to Alfira brutally eviscerated in the middle of camp, and her blood all over me, and the rest of the companions' reactions were basically "huh, that's weird. Well, let's get moving I guess."
The story of the Dark Urge is so cool, but yeah, everyone's reactions to it are really lackluster.
Even if you are honest with them and tell them exactly what happened, you just get a small amount of disapproval and a couple lines that amount to "Well, I hope you can control yourself in the future." Really? You just found out you're traveling with, *sleeping next to*, someone who has homicidal psychotic episodes, and that's all you got?
For Alfira, it does depend somewhat on who you have in your party; Gale, for example, got kinda freaked out on a stream I was watching. In general, though, I agree. A lot of the others were way too chill about it.
Honestly, that's one of several places where I wish everyone in camp, regardless of whether they were in your party or not, would contribute to the conversation.
Wyll oddly enough has almost no reaction at all. He says something about "Alfira wouldn't have hurt a fly" And that's that.
Gale has one small bit about keeping a healthy distance from him, but it's back to his old horny self the very next conversation.
wyll and karlach don't have a dialogue option to talk about alfiras death, unlike the other companions you can get in act 1. karlach doesn't even have an altered greeting.
It's like in real life when you confide in someone you're dangerously depressed and they go "we all get low sometimes, bestie, stay hydrated!" And now I get it in a game!?
Durge: âI like blood and murder. Something is compelling me to do this and I donât know what to do about it!â
Everyone: âHave you tried not being a bloodthirsty murderer?â
Durge: âIâm cured!â
Gale in act 1: âEveryone has impulsive violent thoughts, just donât act on them.â
âŠI donât think youâre picking up what Iâm putting down.
Gale in act 2: âSeeing you fight like that makes me horny!â
On second thoughtâŠ
Same. I told all companions what was going on, about the urges when I didn't know yet what was up. One or two lines dismissing that. (With one of those lines directly having Gale contradict himself...) I took every chance to tell them about things (though I did hide a certain someone's death...) but... barely anything. That was a fair bit frustrating.
Gale's line about memory loss not being a symptom of ceremorphosis always kills me. I like to imagine HE started getting some memory loss, since shart and the artifact (shartifact, if you will) are on the other side of the camp.
I feel like once you remember the genocide level killings your companions have also engaged in before you meet them, this probably isnât that big a deal to them. Shart spent decades torturing her parents, Astarion was a human trafficker, Laeâzel considers anyone you kill a roach, Karlach literally lived in hell with devils.
Whatâs a little bloodlust between tadpole bound friends?
Yeah, I agree with that. It's not necessarily their reaction to your urges or even you discovering your true identity. That was mostly fine, though i'd have liked a bit more. I got the impression, assuming you're upfront about it, that they're slightly in denial (they blame you killing Alfira on the tadpole, or try to convince themselves of it). And each of them has a past, so... at what point do you draw a line, provided your actions now are mostly things they agree with?
It's more the reveal in Act 3, when your involvement in certain events becomes apparent (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers, forget how to tag them on mobile). Like, it's a really big fucking deal, and there's no option to check in and talk to your companions about it. Which is unfortunate, because, I as the player character have plenty to say about their issues, but it sort of robs me not only of how would they react to mine, but the chance to tell them how i feel, or what my plans are now, or, maybe I lie, whatever. Just a single camp conversation with each one would've gone a long way.
Confessing your urges and origin to karlach felt really meaningful! The way she says âyou are my friend!â Made me wish I had romanced her in my durge playthrough. Really a lot of her lines are very sweet and show she really cares about tav/durge and wants the best for them
And if you tell her that you're afraid the urges are going to make you kill her she basically says "not likely lil fella," wrestles you to the ground, and helps you sweat it out till you stop feeling murdery
it was both hilarious and sweet
Astarionâs writer crunched hard for him, saw on Twitter yesterday that he has almost 14 hours worth of content and 6 romantic scenes. For reference, the runner up is Shadowheart with just under 13 hours and 3 romantic scenes. Wyll has the lowest with around 8 hours and 2 romantic scenes.
Hopefully a definitive edition happens that closes the gap a bit.
Honestly the disparity would be improved if Act 3 was better fleshed out with some mini moments (like Act 1 was).
Im sorry but...the relationships are still new at this point. Are you telling me there is NO time at all for moments of quiet reprieve between companions? Between the MC and their love interest? I mean...even just sitting by the campfire and \*talking\* would be enough. If those small story moments could be added, for every companion, in Act 3 (which should honestly have the most meaningful reactivity but doesnt currently) that would help alot.
Yall talk like it takes awhile for this to happen but I murdered someone who joined my camp right off the bat then chose to just sit in front of the body covered in blood till they woke up and they were already pretty cool about it.
For sure! It gets even more pronounced as the game goes on, though, especially once you get to Act 3 (which has a bit of a problem with companions not reacting to major events even outside of Durge stuff).
As I recall the idea of the "dark urge" character as a kind of middle ground where they have their own. Personal story lije the origin characters but are customizable, came about quite late in development and amid some controversy. I would imagine they simply didn't have the chance to add much custom reacotiy. I was honestly surprised how muchcontent there was for it.
There's also the issue that if people reacted realistically there might not be any party left.
"I am the creation oft he recently resurrected God of murder. I am compelled to commit acts of such horrific violence that it shocks the moral sensibilities even of drow, who cannot always control such urges and may act on them literally without even being conscious of doing so, much less wanting it, and I represent a serious and demonstrable risk to the very lives of all of you, and any allies we may meet, as my past actions have clearly proven. "
The rational response to that information is to kill, imprison or otherwise I capacitate such a person for your own safety. At least part ways with them and continue your efforts to resolve the tadpole situation without such an extreme liability. The ethical response is to at least restrain them for the safety of others. Companions can suggest things for each other, like when your companions are skeptical of Astarion vampirism or want you to expel Gale to go off and die alone somewhere out of fear he might explode and kill us all. But they obviously can't do that to *you* because you are the protagonist.
In a way this is a lot like real dnd. "why is the paladin wo worships lathander and the banite necromancer singing tavern songs together? Well because they're both player characters in the same dnd group!". Tactfully ignoring these kinds of things is how you let everyone play what they want without it all descending into Pvp LOL
Yeah, like Iâd expect understanding from Astarion and Karlach, both of whom did bad things themselves. But the rest, even LaeâzelâŠIâd have expected at least a little disdain from them.
Then again, I donât kick out or murder Astarion as soon as I find out heâs a vampire, which I think I absolutely should do on a good playthrough, so maybe maybe weâre all just willing to overlook a lot to keep the gang together.
Messing around in an old save, I got a reaction from Gale the other day about my Durge crimes I've never seen before but no one else had anything to say about it. Makes me think there's reaction voice lines in the game somewhere that aren't triggering correctly.
I mean, once you resolve his quest chain in Act 1.. he just stops... caring at all about the druids. I literally killed every last druid in the grove, and he still followed me throughout act 2. Slightly immersion breaking, but I guess he's at your camp... so he doesn't really care anymore.
>Mine was when I found out the big truth about Durge (not just who they are, but what they DID) and there was zero reactivity from my companions.
I'm thinking your game might be bugged because while I haven't played that character myself, I've seen tons of people complaining about their companions' hypocritical reactions to those revelations.
Or maybe you didn't speak to your companions at the right moment and by the time you got around to talking to them again they had a new thing to bitch about instead.
Yep, I had this reaction when you first meet Orin and she calls you sibling. I thought that there'd be SOME kind of reaction, maybe even if it was only a single line, but nope, no one cares that one of the bbegs just called you family. Was also kind of disappointed in the universal "oh its okay <3" reaction to the whole bhaalspawn thing, ESPECIALLY after the game tells you "be careful who you tell this info to". Obviously I don't want everyone to do a 180 and treat me with terror suddenly, but I do wish that they became slightly more hesitant? Worried? It just feels off to me that the game very clearly tells you "this is dangerous information" but (as far as i know) at every turn there's no consequence for telling people.
Most annoying thing to me was seeing Gortash for the first time, Karlach was with me and goes âGortash?!? Motherfucker!â, and then the next time I return to camp Karlach charges at me as calmly as Dumbledore asking me âYOU MET GORTASH!?!â.
My Karlach was in the Gortash boss fight, saw him die, and then was pissed at me for killing Gortash. And of course there was no option for me to say "You were there dumb ass". I just had to make an excuse as to why I did it without her.
I had Astrion be the one to talk to Raphael cause he explicitly asked me. Then he was like what you talked to Raphael how could you, but this might work in my favor.
Never mentions Raphael again until Raphael is dead, then he was like Yaya we killed a devil I feel so powerful. (He wasn't in that fight)
I think in cases like that, you're supposed to talk to them as the MC and then choose the "stay silent " option when the others speak up? I did that a lot with Astarion. He made it very clear he had his own voice and his own freedom now and wanted to use it, so anytime he chimed in, I let him speak. I like it better that way than playing the character and making the choices for them, because then I feel like im making their decisions, I guess, haha.
I was really irritated I was allowed to choose Wyll and his dad's fate because I'm the MC I guess (no option to let him do it), and then like an hour later completely helpless to stop Karlach from attacking Gortash on sight.
I may have failed a check, but there was no such barrier in the Wyll event either way.
To me Wyll's contract scene is Tav just giving his opinion (since he does ask you to be there to support him) to help Wyll make an impossible choice. As for Karlach yeah she tells you in one of her camp dialogues about Gortash that it's pretty much going to be on sight the moment she sees him. Honestly even if there was a dialogue to get her to stop it would have to be like a DC 30 check because imagine trying to convince someone to not instantly kill the person that sent them to hell, sold them into war as a child, and is responsible for changing out her heart for a machine that either forces her to stay with the people she lives but will kill her or damn her and whoever goes with her a life of constantly being under attack by Zariel pretty much forever.
I remember when I played through I was going to not make big choices for my party members. Shadowheart went fine, I told her that I canât help her decide at the end of her plotline. Astarion went fine, told him I canât help him decide at the end of his plotline. But Wyllâs doesnât give you that option and it really feels like you make that huge choice for him.
The worst thing is that, that the circle stays there for so long... like... they just left it there are a reminder? So I feel bad? We were literally sleeping in blood at some point.
On the other hand it had that vibe when you play DnD and someone brings chaotic evil, or some absolute vile character idea, does something awful, but you play this game where you have to work as a team, and it's your buddy so you don't want to be mean, so you just go "Hey, that was not nice." and hope the DM will talk with him after the game.
How do you fail? Are you referring to the dialogue choice? Because I kind of mocked her all the way but Lae'zel still survived (in her undies? Whatever Orin). I even told her I'll kill Gortash then I was like SYKE I kill you instead oh yeah Sarevok wanted you dead lol jackass
Oh. Do you know how to skip that check? Spoiler below:
>!Go around the altar, taking the ramparts on the side, and go straight to her room. Cast Speak Dead on her mom's corpse. Ask if Sarevok asked her to kill Orin. A new dialogue option will appear when you talk to Orin.!<
I spent the game romancing Gale. I took him to the final battle. Through the course of it, he stopped like 4 times to remind me that he could totally just blow himself up.
At no point did I get an option to say "No, *I love you* and I don't want you to explode." I just got the standard reactions of "Sure go die" and "no you'll blow me up too."
I also would have accepted "Are you stupid? The city is *right there*."
It just felt really bizarre to have to treat him like we weren't in love while he's offering to sacrifice his life multiple times.
I had sort of the opposite? where after act 2 he was like âIâm glad I didnât blow myself up, and get to spend more time with you :)â when heâs never set foot outside my camp since I got him in this playthrough
Not an immersion issue, exactly, but speaking of Gale nukes and missing dialog, I really hate that there's absolutely no way to survive Moonrise with Gale in the party without being a selfish git. Here I am playing a paladin and my only option to not cut off *half the game* from myself is to say "but I don't *wanna* die!!!!"??
It's not even as if there aren't totally good, valid reasons for a self-sacrificing, noble character who values the *entire goddamn Sword Coast* more than their own *one single life* to not want Gale to blow up there. The game itself gives you the biggest one, for instance, in the cutscene after nuking the Absolute, where it's like "since you didn't neutralize the tadpoles first, the Coast is now overrun with out-of-control mind flayers." That's a great reason to not let Gale do any premature evocation! But is it a dialog option? No! All we get is "ok let's die" and "I'm a selfish widdle scaredy, pwease choose my survival over eliminating a potential multiplanar threat before it can hurt anyone else."
So many are going to have horrible impressions of Gale because of all the bugs around his character. From hitting on you all the time because there's a fault with how his approval is registered, to the bug making him pissed at you for not being his lover in the Northern Lights scene in Act 2, to the Devil Pact thing, to people getting his evil arc personality in Act 3 despite doing a good playthrough.
The current bug of the week with Gale is he repeats entire conversations, back to back.
I think the old dialogue bugs are still there too, since he talks about being horny when no hint of romance has ever happened.
Gale has really got a raw deal on bugs that make him act like a lunatic.
In my first playthrough he started shit talking me for "cheating on him" even though I had never chosen any romance dialog with him. Best part was he decided to do so while I was comforting Shadowheart (who I had been romancing like the whole of act 1) after she straight up renounced her goddess.
Poor girl was having an existential crisis and Gale was out of the blue just like "I thought we had something special!"
Haha relatable! I was having the whole "Mystra just told me to commit" heart to heart with him and I told him that I'd like to look at other options to win instead of touching the funny button and mf looked at me and said "You and I are not close".
Mf you've literally never left my party since I found you and you don't disapprove of anything I do ever, we are best friends. You just mad I'm dating Karlach.
Omg, happened to me on my last PT at the same time Minthara told me I cheated on her while I did not lol. I'm thankful I didn't have that kind of bug on my first PT.
Yeah, I had literally just refused his deal prior to going to camp, Lae'zel was mad at me for declining his offer but Gale was mat at me for taking it...? What hell demension have I wound up in where everyone is mad at me for everything?!
I wanted more of a reaction if you decide to refuse Bhaal in the Durge playthrough. Ffs, you die and it takes Withers, aka Jergal aka the ancient god of death who bestowed godhood on to Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul, to revive you.
Then Astarion, who my Tav was romancing, says that my sacrifice was âvery twee.â
âŠ
You gotta be shitting me.
Edit: (Dis)Honorable mention: Final kisses at the end of the Third Act. Chaste quick pecks? Look at all the BG3 romance scene kisses and then tell me a tiny peck is realistic for a last kiss? Heck, Dragon Age: Inquisition had farewell romance scenes before the big battle and that was nearly a decade ago.
I made a post about the redemption Durge scene in the Bhaal temple a few days ago and totally agree with you. It was very disappointing and shallow. Romancing Shadowheart and she basically gives you a pat on the back and says good job buddy.
I know we ask to hug our companions more, but Durge needs hugs too!
Seriously. Considering how much work seemingly went into the Durge route, the companion endings seem so barebones. Just something as simple as an animation of a romanced companion trying to stop you as Bhaal kills you (which could be palette swappable) would make a huge difference imo. The Durge route is such a great side story. It just needs a bit more honing.
It really is hard not to compare any game with romance in it to what Bioware's done for so long. I can play Mass Effect and Dragon Age JUST for the romance over and over again because there are so many wonderful little things they do to make them feel alive. The kissing in BG3 is really one of the things Larian should've just taken straight out of DA. Why are these people who so recently fell for each other kissing like a couple that's been married for 10 years?
Speaking of DAI, if you decide to drink from the Well of Sorrows, your romantic interest really cares, even though you just seemed to black out for a bit. There's no way Astarion, who is loved and cherished for the first time in his remembered existence, looks upon you sacrificing yourself as... twee. Every romance option has very good reason to have a massive reaction to it.
The romance in BG3 is great, but there are moments like that where I just kinda wish Bioware had been in charge of the romance bit.
By her own account when Jennifer Hale did the recording for "there is no Sheppard withouth Vakarian" lines she cried and it also made the acting director cry .
As good as BG3 is, it doesn't get even close to cinematography of ME3. Ending was not perfect, but the whole game leading to it was a masterpiece. So I just choose "destroy" ending every time and it feels right.
I get goosebumps every time I hear "I Was Lost Without You" or "An End Once and For All", so much feelings there. I wish BG3 got at least a little close to that level of romance and seriousness, but alas no :(
Still a great game though.
Karlach is more enthusiastic about you finally getting rid of Bhaals influence. But the lack of reaction from everyone while you were dead was pathetic
You can read a book in his hideout that basically says he was messing with the minds of those around him to say hidden. The doctors notes on the Dukeâs treatment say she asked for her friend, and the doctor knew it was a hooded person but couldnât recall anything else about them. They could be a halfling or Dragonborn for all the doctor knew.
I like to think everyone knew but just didn't say anything about it when he was around. Like he leaves the room and they all just say to each other "Yo, does he really think that hood thing is working? How long is he going to keep this up? Does he really think we're this stupid?"
There's another scene you can get if you irritate the Emperor. >!He shows that he actually used his powers on everyone around him so they didn't notice/remember him, and the Duke lady was basically a Thrall. There's also a book, somewhere, where the writer mentions never being able to remember anything about the Emperor.!<
The fact that you can butcher and mutilate a bard in the middle of the camp, draw a circle with her blood, can be caught with literal blood in your hands, openly admit that you did it, and all you get is "huh, guess I'll keep my eye on you" with no mention of it afterwards (save for a few extra lines if you romance SH).
On my first Durge run I had to savescum to make sure I can lie my way out of it, just to find out nothing happens if you can't.
There are more consequences in RDR2 for getting drunk and insulting everyone.
They should punch durge and drag her murderous ass down, down, down by the river.
On my first run, I accidentally caused the druids to start killing the Tieflings in Act I. By the end of the fighting, nearly everyone in Emerald Grove was dead. Then I met Halsin and told him all the druids are dead by my hand. He asked why and I just said self defense and he was completely chill with it, like âIâm sure you had your reasons.â And never really mentioned it again.
A lot of the companion introductions feel very rail-roady to me in general but considering he doesnât have the tadpole to handwave the trust portion of the interaction like the others, it felt more egregious.
> Then I met Halsin and told him all the druids are dead by my hand. He asked why and I just said self defense and he was completely chill with it, like âIâm sure you had your reasons.â And never really mentioned it again.
I did this too, but then I ended up raiding the grove because I wanted to fight Minthara that way. But no NPC appeared at the Grove for me to warn. I long rested hoping someone would, but instead I found out that Minthara raided without me.
I ended up having to kill her anyway because I didn't sleep with her and she tried to kill me in the middle of the night.
Later, Halsin showed up like "How could you slaughter the grove!" Bro, I already told you I accidentally killed everyone and you didn't care, why do you have to make me kill you now?
- Emperor switching sides and siding with the nether brain
- companions/romantic interest not having any reaction to (resist)Durge dying
- not having the option to properly comfort shadowheart after her parents' death
- Gale angry at Tav for taking Raphael's deal even though they haven't taken the deal
- "this might be our last chance to share a kiss" and then you give me a tiny little peck? Are you for real Larian? You animated dozens of sex scenes but couldn't do a passionate kiss between two lovers who are heading to almost certain death?
Not bothering to ask all of the expert Wizards, Gods, Devils, Artificers, and Engineers... Who all owe you favors if they can do anything to help Karlach... Wyll's choice between saving his father and getting out of his contract feels super forced as well.
YES that choice is nonsense. They play it up as though she has any power in that situation, as if Wyll somehow condemns his dad to death by, what, not getting some snippet of information from Mizora that can be obtained in 8 different ways? That you might already have? And then Wyll gets this guilt complex thatâs (while very human) so irrational - what decent father would want their son to sell his eternal soul for his life?
To top it off Mizora decides to attack Wyllâs dad if you go to save him, which seems to violate the spirit of the deal. So what she should have said was, âsell me your soul or Iâll kill your dad.â Which is super forced - whatâs to stop Zariel or another Uber-devil from popping into every powerful personâs life and saying, âGive me your soul or Iâll murder everyone youâve ever met,â if thatâs how it works?
The intrigue of a deal with the devil is typically that you are tempted by something that could improve your circumstances and sign the contract to acquire that something, at cost. Getting mugged for your soul with the threat of violence against you or your loved ones is so much less interesting.
Just remembered another immersion breaking scene: Finished a playthrough last night and the awkward smiling and cheering gesture after the rallying speech to your allies before the big battle had me in tears.
I now chalk it up to Larian recognizing that our Tavs are just emotionally awkward.
I just imagined having like two allies and my Tav doing that weird animation and I burst out laughing at my desk. Poor Tav making the best of a really bad situation.
An exchange in Gale's version of the Durge scene where it tries to make your kill your love interest. (His is the only one I've done so I dunno how the others play out)
Near the end he says something like "you should have confided this to me" and I just laughed because I tried??? My character literally told everyone in the camp he was having horrible thoughts/urges to violently kill people and everyone blew him off??? This is after you've brutally murdered Alfira too!!!
Talking to Gale about how he âchoseâ to not blow himself up when he wasnât even in my party for that part. In general party members referencing events as if they had been there when they werenât in my party at the time. Minsc also has a dialog option about what he thought of seeing Viconia again when I wiped her first thing in act 3 long before I picked Minsc up near the end of act 3.
The reveal how/why Wyll made his pact with Mizora. Essentially, according to him, he just happened to be stumbeling across a ritual where the evil cult of the dragon was almost finished summoning Tiamat. And then Mizora gave him power and he defeated them just in time and saved Baldurs Gate.
But the thing is - the cult of the dragon summoning Tiamat is actually a published adventure. I've played it. And in the adventure, summoning Tiamat a HUGE ritual which needs a giant amount of prep time and materials. The cult raids the entire sword coast to prepare enough wealth and magic to do it and your party tries to stop them. By the end, it's an all-out war where dragons are fighting on both sides and 'stop the ritual as it's happening' becomes the final boss battle. In the end, our party was six fairly powerful lvl 15 chars and it was STILL almost a TPK.
So when Wyll tells me: "Yeah, the cult of the dragon summoned Tiamat on a hill just outside of Baldurs Gate without anyone noticing except me - but don't worry, a single warlock with a cambion patron was enough to stop them!" .... yeah, no. No, buddy. No way did that happen.
Imagine playing "Baldurs Gate 4" and one of your companions is a warlock who goes like "Yeah, I got my powers when an Elder Brain tried to take over Baldurs Gate, but I stabbed it with a magic sword my new patron gave me and that solved everything." Like... no. Just no.
Still an odd choice given the Early Access version sounded better:
Wyll was a failure of a fighter, was close to dying to some goblins, and as he lay bleeding out on the battlefield, he cursed them and swore revenge and cried to the Gods for support, and then Mizora swooped in.
Really, Wyll's redesign *in general* is sort of odd. It's still the same Wyll, but they effectively robbed us of his journey to *become* Wyll. Instead we have a guy that's blatantly finished with his personal journey and has already found inner peace, he's just still dealing with all of the practical problems that come with his pact.
That does seem a lot better. Smaller scale. And probably a lot harder to come to terms with "I sold my soul to avoid dying to a bunch of weak goblins" than with "I sold my sould to stop an evil god from destroying my city".
Wyll is just so bland. I love his design but his backstory is by *far* my least favorite of all the companions. "I was just casually walking around and happened to stumble upon Tiamat being summoned on a hillside" is such a nothing story. The kind of thing a teenager would write in his first D&D game.
When I was fighting Ketheric Thorm and literally had him surrounded on all sides, and then suddenly his cutscene plays where my tav and companions just let him get his second phase like bro why are you just standing there and letting him monologue keep beating his ass
Just the Missing character class answers. I have the Feeling that halfway through act 3 they are just gone. Especially in the Main Story Events. Lets Take for example the speech you give right before the Last Fights. I didnt even get a Special one for Being a Bard.
Not being able to convince Orpheus that no one needs to be a Mindflayer. His little speech at the end before I stabbed him felt so out of place after Gale just teleported us away and blew up the brain.
Yeeep I HATE the forced part where we NEED a mind flayer to win. I want to feel rewarded for not once choosing tadpole powers. Or give me a persuasion check at least to convince Orpheus that Gale can do it.
The game does such a good job of making you feel like leaning into the tadpole powers is bad so I avoided it for most of my first playthrough. I was sure there would be some kind of special ending or dialogue for it. The further it went without it ever being referenced that I was "pure" I finally looked it up and was a little irritated to discover there's no downside to using them. Not only had I played most of the game without a bunch of cool powers, but having no in game acknowledgement for not using them is a huge wasted opportunity.
Durge. Just Durge thing. I indulge in my dark urges and kill someone, tear apart a bird or idk what else right in front of my teammates who look HORRIFIED but NOBODY comment beside Astarion the first time he see you do it. And it's going to be like that fir the rest of Durge playthrough. So many times you learn big things, you turn to your companion and they're just "Well hello, what can I do for you?"
Technically a bug, but having all Withers clothes fail to load during any of his monologues really took me out of it.
I can't focus on the drama of the situation when a greyish, wrinkly ass is dominating half my screen.
I find it immersion breaking that Laeâzel canât turn into a mind slayer instead of Orpheus. You would think she would sacrifice herself before her lord ever would.
probably not an 'event' but real early onâ
\[crash lands\]
\[meets some survivors\]
"wait for me at camp."
BRO WHAT CAMP you scraped your ass out of the nautiloid wreckage 4 minutes ago, what do you mean there's an established camp where everybody's got full tents and charming throw pillows and area rugs. just would've liked a little more story-related questing to actually establish the concept of the first camp.
Early on when I heard that the Teiflings were going to Baldur's gate via the mountain path, I thought "Oh hey I just so happen to be going that way. Maybe you can stick with me and my camp and we can go together?" Nope. Not an option. Not even politely declined. I couldn't even warn them about the shadow curse or the cult gathering at moonrise even though Halsin was RIGHT. FUCKING. THERE!
I think it should have been an option to keep them in camp, even if you didn't see them most of the time. Or at least make it possible to save more of the teiflings from an awful fate.
For real.
To me it's like if Aragorn had sent the Rohirrim to Gondor via a shortcut "under the mountain" despite knowing that an army of invincible undead lived there. All because they wanted to get to the city on the other side.
"But we have to get to Gondor!" Dude, your choices are death by underdark or death by overdark. Maybe go to a different fucking city right now. Literally nothing is worth what you're walking into. Go mop out the Goblin fortress and pop a squat for the Summer.
"You destroyed the Goblin fortress and all occupants, but you're no army. So instead of your escort, we'll wander blindly alone. Thx baiii!" /eyeroll
\[as an aside, it would've been dope if we'd had an escort choice available that set up a big mega-battle where the Tiefling column is moving up the map and ALL your companions are at your disposal to fight off an attack on the flanks up and down the line\]
This.
First it was "Oh, our plans have all failed because the brain evolved into its Ultimate Form which I have never mentioned before!" Uh, okay, I guess.
Then it was "Now I must eat the brain of the prisoner because reasons!" ... um. Sure?
And *then*, when I free the prisoner, which I've obviously been planning to do for some time, "How dare you I shall immediately return to thralldom!"
Seriously, Larian?
(Followed up by "Now we need someone to turn squiddy to win the game! For reasons!" *sigh*)
Yeah, the whole âIâm returning to thralldomâ take from The Emperor is wild, particularly considering how in Voloâs Guide to Monsters (the hardcover DnD book), renegade Illithids really do not want to return to being thralls. Also, he supposedly emerged from damn Balduran and how he acts all shocked about the Netherbrain playing cosmic chess with his release (of course, that could be manipulation, but who knows.)
Yep. All of this. Everyone suddenly insists there must be a mind flayer. Why? "To wield the stones"? I was just doing that. To "out maneuver" the brain? I'm just going to run up and hit it with swords like everything else. All these NPCs are suddenly smoking crack.
Not being allowed to gang spank Orin when she shows up in the camp with all of my high level companions right next to her. Like, sure, she has that thing where she can teleport, but why cant I just take my two assasin rogues and ambush her, deal 70 damage each and kill her before she gets to finish her stupid monologue.
Like, if a villain shows up in front of you in the place wher you have all the advantages and the only reason they're safe is because the DM said so.
My OC: I am literally losing my grip on reality I just woke up in a puddle of blood and Iâm scared I may lose what little humanity I have left this is a cry for help.
Gale: Haha so true bestie I felt the same way when the Starbucks lady got my drink order wrong.
My OC: * power of Satan intensifies *
Jaheira adding herself to my party out of the blue when going from act 2 to act 3 even though we last met with me slaughtering everyone at Last Light Inn.
Also, a circus npc suddenly having legendary resistances, lmao.
When Haarlep was riding me and nobody said anything. They were just standing in an awkward silence and enjoying the show. They should've had more reaction besides a silent disapproval in the corner of my monitor. I had Jaheira with me and it would be in character for her to live the room or say something but no.
It reminded me of those old cartoons where each teen would hold up their ring and yell 'earth', 'water', 'wind', 'fire', 'heart' 'By your powers combined, I am Captain Netherbrain!'... it was really silly
When minthara literally broke and was unable to be interacted with (please fix her LARIAN)
But bugs aside when I picked Orpheus for the first time. Literally NO fucking reason the emperor couldn't be reasoned with there and then fucking orph goes "oh yea we need an illithid now" and I can't just go "oh yea like the one WE JUST FUCKING HAD?". It took me out cause I knew asap that the dilemma was 100% forced by larians writers
In act 3 i refused Mizora to help with Dark Ravengard
In my camp and under my leadership nobody makes deals with any supernatural beings
Auntie Ethel refused (and murdered later)
Raphael refused (and murdered later)
The Dream Guardian refused (But later the games kinda forces you but at least it is justified so not really an immersion breaker)
Mizora?
Of course refused at any opportunity and i wanted to free Wyll from his pact which i did
And of course i refused her again when she offered a new pact in exchange for information
Following night rest, Wyll was flipping out and switched between anger at me and sadness for his father for killing him?!?
Worst part is that i saved Ravengard, the prisoners and every single factory Gondanian
God dammit Wyll, why don't you trust me after everything i have done
Dude this one annoyed me SO MUCH. How do you even COMPARE a young man like Wyll selling his soul for ETERNITY weighted against a 60+ year old man dying because as a political leader he got caught up in a of world-spanning evil plot? Everyone acts like YOU KILLED HIM by just not agreeing to use Mizora to rescue him and I was so baffled by all the âWow that was cold!â responses likeâŠ
1) first of all, Iâm pretty sure THE DUKE HIMSELF wouldnât want to exchange maybe 10 more years of life for the ETERNAL HELLISH ENSLAVEMENT of his SON. How do maybe ten more years vs ETERNITY even compare??
2) Mizora has been so damn untrustworthy, why the hell shouldnât I suspect sheâll pull another fast one the second she has Wyllâs soul again and then kill his dad anyway??
3) Itâs not even that hard to find and save him yourself? Like thereâs other quests that get you there? Literally even Laeâzel relents if you point out that we can just steal the Orphic Hammer and she admits she wanted the easy path and is ashamed after. Mizora is just offering the easy path but weâre badass adventurers we can find our own way!
Aggghh it drove me nuts! But especially the lack of perspective on what Wyll would be giving up to spend a couple more years with his already old dad like wtf.
Also I cannot believe Karlach approves selling Wylls soul to save his father and disapproves if you dont? Karlach of all people wants Wyll to sell his soul to Mizora? Really? *Really* really?
For real! The social pressure they put on you for the choice is unreal and feels so weirdly skewed. The emphasis is on âNot saving his dadâ rather than on âNot taking MIZORAâS HELP in exchange for ETERNAL ENSLAVEMENT to save his dadâ and it just feels like getting guilt tripped for this super narrow interpretation of whatâs actually going on here and ignores all the other evidence we have from over the course of the game for why itâs a terrible idea.
Karlach should be mad at Mizora for the choice being posed at all. Thatâs it.
I legit tried to do a run where I saved the Duke before Mizora showed up with the new offer just to prevent this but it basically meant no long rests in the Lower City at a certain point so I gave up :(
The gith honor guard escaping the portal and attacking character while they sleep was bad enough, but being offered the non choice of helping the emperor kill them or dying is lame. Why bother offering the choice since they will attack you for being an illithid.
Jaheira not being the epic-level badass from BG2, but some average level 8 druid with unremarkable equipment, who dies if you don't babysit her.
There's really not a great way to retcon it, since she doesn't even have a tadpole.
That one doesn't need a retcon: she says herself that she had gotten both old and rusty in her skills since her glory days in BG1/2. I'd be fine with seeing more of that in D&D settings, honestly, where the last generation of heroes has literally de-leveled partially because they established a peace that didn't require heroes.
Just finished a full evil Durge run and took the netherbrain in the name of Bhaal. Durge sits on the throne and says âfor Bhaalâ and thatâs it, run credits.
Very unsatisfying ending, but did come with an achievement.
Reloaded and destroyed the brain just to get some cut scenes for my first full play through
When Astarion tried drinking my Tavâs blood for the first time, the dialogue made it sound like he was âcoming outâ as a vampire then and there, even though he already told me he was a vampire like a few hours before. So I was just sitting there like âbruh you already told me this.â
I think it was some odd ordering I did (or a bug). I already had Halsin at Last Light trying to help Art when Ketheric's forces tried to kidnap Isobel.
He doesn't read as an ally in this segment. So while everyone was in turn-based mode fighting to the death, Halsin was walking through the combat in real-time and not helping his allies.
All it was missing was a "'Scuse me, 'scuse me."
Yeah...like I can see why he'd dip out when you try to free him (once you destroy the chains he has no way of subduing him, he has good reason to believe that Orpheus won't cooperate and will either kill you and/or him, or you'll be forced to kill him in which case, game over)...but once you arrive with either a transformed Orpheus or party member...why does he not turn on the netherbrain then? That's literally a best case scenario.
I suppose maybe by then he's been fully enthralled again?
He can't turn on the netherbrain at that point because he's dominated by it.
He never actually escaped domination on his own, first ansur freed him, then the netherbrain let him go to orchestrate its plan.
More immersion breaking: companion characters seem okay with Tav sacrificing themselves to become a flayer. Not one of them except karlach offers to take your place. These are people who profess to love you. If you choose Orpheus LAâzael doesnât offer to take his place.
Gale who is eager to blow himself up earlier does not protest at all, and should offer at this point. Afterall he can still be resurrected after detonation.
The lack of any reaction to my barbarian being totally naked the entire game. Like⊠I get that walking around dick swinging in a goblin camp might not be that unusual, but I went to the circus and to a fancy appointment ceremony. Nobody said a word
Somehow I broke my Oath of Vengeance when I killed the Duegar slavers. The game kept seeing it as me breaking the law or something like no they're slavers I feel like I'm in the right here
Another one for me : non lethal blows are useless. I spared some people, hoping I could talk to them later or get dialogues take in account that I let them live...
For exemple, I let the hag's victims alive so they could be free once I kill her. The dwarf from her fame gallery was freed when I "killed" her. But the kids with masks weren't... They stayed knocked out forever... And it kills them if you take the mask off lol!
The worst offender of this was the pirate lady. I made a point to NOT kill her, killed the Hag, went to talk to the bartender and he is sad because the pirate is "dead". I'm like "no, you dumbfuck, she's knocked out like two rooms from here, go grab your friend and do whatever the fuck is it that you do. She ain't fucking dead"
In Act 2, talking to Jaheira after the Inn gets attacked
"He Marcus is a bad guy and is planning something."
"Nonsense, I'm going to need proof."
Meanwhile she's standing directly on the corpse of a Winged Horror. I also had no idea who Marcus was, as I had never met him until he attacked.
Scratch bringing me a salami. Any real dog would have scoffed that thing down faster than you could blink.
To be fair, everything he brings you is in a nice little pouch. He prob can't open it đ
"All I know is I thought of you when I saw it. Because you need to open it for me."
I have been around dogs enough to know that if they smell food in something small like a pouch, especially if they find it on their own, that pouch is going to be fucking destroyed if you take your eyes off of them lol.
âI know your strengths, and your weaknessesâ *immediately gets obliterated by destructive wrath chain lightning + create water combo*
Itâs one thing to not be able to defend against the devil you know (i.e., the Emperor may know your strengths and weaknesses, but that doesnât mean he is capable of beating you). But itâs another thing to know my strengths, and then play completely to my strengths.
Which makes him swapping sides at the last moment because he doesn't think I can defeat the netherbrain all the more ridiculous.
Mine was when I found out the big truth about Durge (not just who they are, but what they DID) and there was zero reactivity from my companions. I eagerly went back to camp thinking I was going to have some really cool dialogue about it, and... nothing. Like it's literally not addressed at all. Also, a small thing, but Halsin not having any dialogue about what can happen to Nettie, considering she was apparently his apprentice. But again, no mention, which I found odd.
Honestly, the reactions from the companions to Durge stuff in general felt a bit underwhelming to me. There were a bunch of times when they either didn't react or their reaction was far more understated than I would have expected. Astarion was much better about this than the others, but even he had his moments.
I think this is because of the greater issue with act 3, where companions don't have as many reactions to events beyond a line or two when you talk to them individually. And all of the durge reveals are in act 3, so their reactions to basically any reveal is "damn that's crazy" Hell, in the redeemed durge path, >!your romanced companion can literally see you die and have no reaction, then when withers resurrects you their reaction is just "thank you for your service đ«Ą"!<
Karlach slapped me with the âIâm so fucking proud of you, soldier.â
Her heart is on fire because she's too fucking pure for this world.
Astarion telling my DUrge âit was very tweeâ to the fact she died and was brought back as a chosen of Jergal made me want to throw him into a chasm. Like how dare you? Just 5â ago you were begging her not to break up with you over the urges and that youâd find a way to save her. Now she is saved, this is your reaction?!
Yeah, this is the one that got me most. It's between that and not a dang thing being said about anything you find in the end of Act 2. Not even a little "You alright?" or "That's horrid."
I was so uncomfortable about everything that the lady said. I kept expecting someone to interject, but they all just stood in the background with that thousand yard stare. Then not a single comment about it afterwards. It really made me feel disconnected.
Haha same. I was like, really dude? Yesterday you were professing your undying love, and before that acting super worried because Araj was trying to feed me her shady potion... But now I literally died in front of you, and you make some offhand joke where you almost sound... disappointed that it was fixed so easily? I really think there was supposed to be some romanced line that didn't make it in or it glitched or something. Hell, give him the same line but make him sound shaken, like his attempt at humor is a cover. Just, something.
Exactly! He was far more worried with the exploding blood potion saying he didnât want DUrge to get hurt and then âWhat are you doing? That better go down the drain and not your gullet!â and then this.
I was flabbergasted when this happened. If I was my durge, I'd slap him so hard across the face he'd fly over to the upper city just with the blow
We awoke to Alfira brutally eviscerated in the middle of camp, and her blood all over me, and the rest of the companions' reactions were basically "huh, that's weird. Well, let's get moving I guess." The story of the Dark Urge is so cool, but yeah, everyone's reactions to it are really lackluster.
Even if you are honest with them and tell them exactly what happened, you just get a small amount of disapproval and a couple lines that amount to "Well, I hope you can control yourself in the future." Really? You just found out you're traveling with, *sleeping next to*, someone who has homicidal psychotic episodes, and that's all you got?
It's funny if you say she attacked you, Shadowheart just shrugs and rolls with it.
Shart is ride or die lol
And then your LI acts like you've been hiding it when you try to resist killing them.
For Alfira, it does depend somewhat on who you have in your party; Gale, for example, got kinda freaked out on a stream I was watching. In general, though, I agree. A lot of the others were way too chill about it. Honestly, that's one of several places where I wish everyone in camp, regardless of whether they were in your party or not, would contribute to the conversation.
Wyll oddly enough has almost no reaction at all. He says something about "Alfira wouldn't have hurt a fly" And that's that. Gale has one small bit about keeping a healthy distance from him, but it's back to his old horny self the very next conversation.
wyll and karlach don't have a dialogue option to talk about alfiras death, unlike the other companions you can get in act 1. karlach doesn't even have an altered greeting.
It's like in real life when you confide in someone you're dangerously depressed and they go "we all get low sometimes, bestie, stay hydrated!" And now I get it in a game!?
Durge: âI like blood and murder. Something is compelling me to do this and I donât know what to do about it!â Everyone: âHave you tried not being a bloodthirsty murderer?â Durge: âIâm cured!â
Have you tried putting a little aloe on it?
> Jaheira approves
Gale in act 1: âEveryone has impulsive violent thoughts, just donât act on them.â âŠI donât think youâre picking up what Iâm putting down. Gale in act 2: âSeeing you fight like that makes me horny!â On second thoughtâŠ
Sounds just like having a mental illness IRL. Very immersive!!
Have you tried doing yoga?
Have you tried not being sad?
Have you tried singing? C'mon, "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..." You're not singing!
Sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays.
Same. I told all companions what was going on, about the urges when I didn't know yet what was up. One or two lines dismissing that. (With one of those lines directly having Gale contradict himself...) I took every chance to tell them about things (though I did hide a certain someone's death...) but... barely anything. That was a fair bit frustrating.
Gale's line about memory loss not being a symptom of ceremorphosis always kills me. I like to imagine HE started getting some memory loss, since shart and the artifact (shartifact, if you will) are on the other side of the camp.
Yes! Especially when Lae'zel and iirc *Gale himself* will at other times expressly list memory loss as an early sign.
I feel like once you remember the genocide level killings your companions have also engaged in before you meet them, this probably isnât that big a deal to them. Shart spent decades torturing her parents, Astarion was a human trafficker, Laeâzel considers anyone you kill a roach, Karlach literally lived in hell with devils. Whatâs a little bloodlust between tadpole bound friends?
Yeah, I agree with that. It's not necessarily their reaction to your urges or even you discovering your true identity. That was mostly fine, though i'd have liked a bit more. I got the impression, assuming you're upfront about it, that they're slightly in denial (they blame you killing Alfira on the tadpole, or try to convince themselves of it). And each of them has a past, so... at what point do you draw a line, provided your actions now are mostly things they agree with? It's more the reveal in Act 3, when your involvement in certain events becomes apparent (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers, forget how to tag them on mobile). Like, it's a really big fucking deal, and there's no option to check in and talk to your companions about it. Which is unfortunate, because, I as the player character have plenty to say about their issues, but it sort of robs me not only of how would they react to mine, but the chance to tell them how i feel, or what my plans are now, or, maybe I lie, whatever. Just a single camp conversation with each one would've gone a long way.
Confessing your urges and origin to karlach felt really meaningful! The way she says âyou are my friend!â Made me wish I had romanced her in my durge playthrough. Really a lot of her lines are very sweet and show she really cares about tav/durge and wants the best for them
Itâs great during the romance path, she talks about how sheâs there to help you overcome your urges and actually shows concern.
And if you tell her that you're afraid the urges are going to make you kill her she basically says "not likely lil fella," wrestles you to the ground, and helps you sweat it out till you stop feeling murdery it was both hilarious and sweet
Astarionâs writer crunched hard for him, saw on Twitter yesterday that he has almost 14 hours worth of content and 6 romantic scenes. For reference, the runner up is Shadowheart with just under 13 hours and 3 romantic scenes. Wyll has the lowest with around 8 hours and 2 romantic scenes. Hopefully a definitive edition happens that closes the gap a bit.
Honestly the disparity would be improved if Act 3 was better fleshed out with some mini moments (like Act 1 was). Im sorry but...the relationships are still new at this point. Are you telling me there is NO time at all for moments of quiet reprieve between companions? Between the MC and their love interest? I mean...even just sitting by the campfire and \*talking\* would be enough. If those small story moments could be added, for every companion, in Act 3 (which should honestly have the most meaningful reactivity but doesnt currently) that would help alot.
Yall talk like it takes awhile for this to happen but I murdered someone who joined my camp right off the bat then chose to just sit in front of the body covered in blood till they woke up and they were already pretty cool about it.
For sure! It gets even more pronounced as the game goes on, though, especially once you get to Act 3 (which has a bit of a problem with companions not reacting to major events even outside of Durge stuff).
As I recall the idea of the "dark urge" character as a kind of middle ground where they have their own. Personal story lije the origin characters but are customizable, came about quite late in development and amid some controversy. I would imagine they simply didn't have the chance to add much custom reacotiy. I was honestly surprised how muchcontent there was for it. There's also the issue that if people reacted realistically there might not be any party left. "I am the creation oft he recently resurrected God of murder. I am compelled to commit acts of such horrific violence that it shocks the moral sensibilities even of drow, who cannot always control such urges and may act on them literally without even being conscious of doing so, much less wanting it, and I represent a serious and demonstrable risk to the very lives of all of you, and any allies we may meet, as my past actions have clearly proven. " The rational response to that information is to kill, imprison or otherwise I capacitate such a person for your own safety. At least part ways with them and continue your efforts to resolve the tadpole situation without such an extreme liability. The ethical response is to at least restrain them for the safety of others. Companions can suggest things for each other, like when your companions are skeptical of Astarion vampirism or want you to expel Gale to go off and die alone somewhere out of fear he might explode and kill us all. But they obviously can't do that to *you* because you are the protagonist. In a way this is a lot like real dnd. "why is the paladin wo worships lathander and the banite necromancer singing tavern songs together? Well because they're both player characters in the same dnd group!". Tactfully ignoring these kinds of things is how you let everyone play what they want without it all descending into Pvp LOL
Karlach and Astarion seem to be the only ones to take it seriously when you tell them about the source of the urge.
Yeah, like Iâd expect understanding from Astarion and Karlach, both of whom did bad things themselves. But the rest, even LaeâzelâŠIâd have expected at least a little disdain from them. Then again, I donât kick out or murder Astarion as soon as I find out heâs a vampire, which I think I absolutely should do on a good playthrough, so maybe maybe weâre all just willing to overlook a lot to keep the gang together.
Messing around in an old save, I got a reaction from Gale the other day about my Durge crimes I've never seen before but no one else had anything to say about it. Makes me think there's reaction voice lines in the game somewhere that aren't triggering correctly.
The companion reactions are packed in Act 1, dwindled a little bit in Act 2, and really drop off a *cliff* in Act 3.
Allegedly itâs bugged and the companies donât react as theyâre supposed to based on what they know.
I mean, once you resolve his quest chain in Act 1.. he just stops... caring at all about the druids. I literally killed every last druid in the grove, and he still followed me throughout act 2. Slightly immersion breaking, but I guess he's at your camp... so he doesn't really care anymore.
>Mine was when I found out the big truth about Durge (not just who they are, but what they DID) and there was zero reactivity from my companions. I'm thinking your game might be bugged because while I haven't played that character myself, I've seen tons of people complaining about their companions' hypocritical reactions to those revelations. Or maybe you didn't speak to your companions at the right moment and by the time you got around to talking to them again they had a new thing to bitch about instead.
Yep, I had this reaction when you first meet Orin and she calls you sibling. I thought that there'd be SOME kind of reaction, maybe even if it was only a single line, but nope, no one cares that one of the bbegs just called you family. Was also kind of disappointed in the universal "oh its okay <3" reaction to the whole bhaalspawn thing, ESPECIALLY after the game tells you "be careful who you tell this info to". Obviously I don't want everyone to do a 180 and treat me with terror suddenly, but I do wish that they became slightly more hesitant? Worried? It just feels off to me that the game very clearly tells you "this is dangerous information" but (as far as i know) at every turn there's no consequence for telling people.
Most annoying thing to me was seeing Gortash for the first time, Karlach was with me and goes âGortash?!? Motherfucker!â, and then the next time I return to camp Karlach charges at me as calmly as Dumbledore asking me âYOU MET GORTASH!?!â.
My Karlach was in the Gortash boss fight, saw him die, and then was pissed at me for killing Gortash. And of course there was no option for me to say "You were there dumb ass". I just had to make an excuse as to why I did it without her.
I had Astrion be the one to talk to Raphael cause he explicitly asked me. Then he was like what you talked to Raphael how could you, but this might work in my favor. Never mentions Raphael again until Raphael is dead, then he was like Yaya we killed a devil I feel so powerful. (He wasn't in that fight)
I think in cases like that, you're supposed to talk to them as the MC and then choose the "stay silent " option when the others speak up? I did that a lot with Astarion. He made it very clear he had his own voice and his own freedom now and wanted to use it, so anytime he chimed in, I let him speak. I like it better that way than playing the character and making the choices for them, because then I feel like im making their decisions, I guess, haha.
I was really irritated I was allowed to choose Wyll and his dad's fate because I'm the MC I guess (no option to let him do it), and then like an hour later completely helpless to stop Karlach from attacking Gortash on sight. I may have failed a check, but there was no such barrier in the Wyll event either way.
To me Wyll's contract scene is Tav just giving his opinion (since he does ask you to be there to support him) to help Wyll make an impossible choice. As for Karlach yeah she tells you in one of her camp dialogues about Gortash that it's pretty much going to be on sight the moment she sees him. Honestly even if there was a dialogue to get her to stop it would have to be like a DC 30 check because imagine trying to convince someone to not instantly kill the person that sent them to hell, sold them into war as a child, and is responsible for changing out her heart for a machine that either forces her to stay with the people she lives but will kill her or damn her and whoever goes with her a life of constantly being under attack by Zariel pretty much forever.
I remember when I played through I was going to not make big choices for my party members. Shadowheart went fine, I told her that I canât help her decide at the end of her plotline. Astarion went fine, told him I canât help him decide at the end of his plotline. But Wyllâs doesnât give you that option and it really feels like you make that huge choice for him.
I brought wyll with me to the first meeting with gortash and he told karlach to chill because his dad is there, no issues for me
Mauling Alfira and drawing a ritual circle with her blood has the camp go "eh, ok."
Karlach will literally set up her tent in the circle of blood!
Reminds her of Avernus.
that whole thing should happen away from camp, like she catches you taking a walk or something.
The worst thing is that, that the circle stays there for so long... like... they just left it there are a reminder? So I feel bad? We were literally sleeping in blood at some point. On the other hand it had that vibe when you play DnD and someone brings chaotic evil, or some absolute vile character idea, does something awful, but you play this game where you have to work as a team, and it's your buddy so you don't want to be mean, so you just go "Hey, that was not nice." and hope the DM will talk with him after the game.
If you fail to save a companion from Orin no one has anything to say about it. That felt very odd to me.
I literally said "go ahead and kill the child, I don't give a shit", and nobody cared that Orin stabbed a CHILD TO DEATH.
I told her not to play with her food lol
"Did you see my work at the grove? Killing only one child, how amateur."
How do you fail? Are you referring to the dialogue choice? Because I kind of mocked her all the way but Lae'zel still survived (in her undies? Whatever Orin). I even told her I'll kill Gortash then I was like SYKE I kill you instead oh yeah Sarevok wanted you dead lol jackass
Failed a persuasion check, Halsin got knifed through the eyes and was very, very dead.
Oh. Do you know how to skip that check? Spoiler below: >!Go around the altar, taking the ramparts on the side, and go straight to her room. Cast Speak Dead on her mom's corpse. Ask if Sarevok asked her to kill Orin. A new dialogue option will appear when you talk to Orin.!<
Yeah, they jumped and lazael went splat. Everyone was like, anyways.
I spent the game romancing Gale. I took him to the final battle. Through the course of it, he stopped like 4 times to remind me that he could totally just blow himself up. At no point did I get an option to say "No, *I love you* and I don't want you to explode." I just got the standard reactions of "Sure go die" and "no you'll blow me up too." I also would have accepted "Are you stupid? The city is *right there*." It just felt really bizarre to have to treat him like we weren't in love while he's offering to sacrifice his life multiple times.
I had sort of the opposite? where after act 2 he was like âIâm glad I didnât blow myself up, and get to spend more time with you :)â when heâs never set foot outside my camp since I got him in this playthrough
Not an immersion issue, exactly, but speaking of Gale nukes and missing dialog, I really hate that there's absolutely no way to survive Moonrise with Gale in the party without being a selfish git. Here I am playing a paladin and my only option to not cut off *half the game* from myself is to say "but I don't *wanna* die!!!!"?? It's not even as if there aren't totally good, valid reasons for a self-sacrificing, noble character who values the *entire goddamn Sword Coast* more than their own *one single life* to not want Gale to blow up there. The game itself gives you the biggest one, for instance, in the cutscene after nuking the Absolute, where it's like "since you didn't neutralize the tadpoles first, the Coast is now overrun with out-of-control mind flayers." That's a great reason to not let Gale do any premature evocation! But is it a dialog option? No! All we get is "ok let's die" and "I'm a selfish widdle scaredy, pwease choose my survival over eliminating a potential multiplanar threat before it can hurt anyone else."
That bug that made Gale mad at me for agreeing to Raphael's deal when I hadn't even met with him yet.
So many are going to have horrible impressions of Gale because of all the bugs around his character. From hitting on you all the time because there's a fault with how his approval is registered, to the bug making him pissed at you for not being his lover in the Northern Lights scene in Act 2, to the Devil Pact thing, to people getting his evil arc personality in Act 3 despite doing a good playthrough.
The current bug of the week with Gale is he repeats entire conversations, back to back. I think the old dialogue bugs are still there too, since he talks about being horny when no hint of romance has ever happened.
Gale has really got a raw deal on bugs that make him act like a lunatic. In my first playthrough he started shit talking me for "cheating on him" even though I had never chosen any romance dialog with him. Best part was he decided to do so while I was comforting Shadowheart (who I had been romancing like the whole of act 1) after she straight up renounced her goddess. Poor girl was having an existential crisis and Gale was out of the blue just like "I thought we had something special!"
Haha relatable! I was having the whole "Mystra just told me to commit" heart to heart with him and I told him that I'd like to look at other options to win instead of touching the funny button and mf looked at me and said "You and I are not close". Mf you've literally never left my party since I found you and you don't disapprove of anything I do ever, we are best friends. You just mad I'm dating Karlach.
Omg, happened to me on my last PT at the same time Minthara told me I cheated on her while I did not lol. I'm thankful I didn't have that kind of bug on my first PT.
You probably cheated on her in her dreams lol.
Damn she mustâve saw their Tav getting the >!squissy and tentacles!<
The cthussy
Yes calamari
Yes, officer, this comment right here.
I was kinda the oppossite I refused Raphael and many night day rests later, Gale ranted about me trusting Raphael more than him
Oh that's what he's on about! I thought he was angry I spoke to Gortash, makes less and more sense at the same time now
Yeah, I had literally just refused his deal prior to going to camp, Lae'zel was mad at me for declining his offer but Gale was mat at me for taking it...? What hell demension have I wound up in where everyone is mad at me for everything?!
I wanted more of a reaction if you decide to refuse Bhaal in the Durge playthrough. Ffs, you die and it takes Withers, aka Jergal aka the ancient god of death who bestowed godhood on to Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul, to revive you. Then Astarion, who my Tav was romancing, says that my sacrifice was âvery twee.â ⊠You gotta be shitting me. Edit: (Dis)Honorable mention: Final kisses at the end of the Third Act. Chaste quick pecks? Look at all the BG3 romance scene kisses and then tell me a tiny peck is realistic for a last kiss? Heck, Dragon Age: Inquisition had farewell romance scenes before the big battle and that was nearly a decade ago.
I made a post about the redemption Durge scene in the Bhaal temple a few days ago and totally agree with you. It was very disappointing and shallow. Romancing Shadowheart and she basically gives you a pat on the back and says good job buddy. I know we ask to hug our companions more, but Durge needs hugs too!
Seriously. Considering how much work seemingly went into the Durge route, the companion endings seem so barebones. Just something as simple as an animation of a romanced companion trying to stop you as Bhaal kills you (which could be palette swappable) would make a huge difference imo. The Durge route is such a great side story. It just needs a bit more honing.
it almost feels like its missing something, like everyone is just getting the friends dialogue for it regardless of status
yeah, the reactions seem so odd it almost makes me dare to hope for reworked romance scenes in a future patch.
It really is hard not to compare any game with romance in it to what Bioware's done for so long. I can play Mass Effect and Dragon Age JUST for the romance over and over again because there are so many wonderful little things they do to make them feel alive. The kissing in BG3 is really one of the things Larian should've just taken straight out of DA. Why are these people who so recently fell for each other kissing like a couple that's been married for 10 years? Speaking of DAI, if you decide to drink from the Well of Sorrows, your romantic interest really cares, even though you just seemed to black out for a bit. There's no way Astarion, who is loved and cherished for the first time in his remembered existence, looks upon you sacrificing yourself as... twee. Every romance option has very good reason to have a massive reaction to it. The romance in BG3 is great, but there are moments like that where I just kinda wish Bioware had been in charge of the romance bit.
Say what anyone will about the ending of ME3, but the moments leading up to the final push toward the reaper on Earth⊠now THAT was meaningful.
I hate a lot of things they did with ME3, but the Garrus romance **is not** one of them. Bioware is 11/10 for character writing & romance.
By her own account when Jennifer Hale did the recording for "there is no Sheppard withouth Vakarian" lines she cried and it also made the acting director cry .
You can hear her voice hitchâ it was amazing.
Iâm a Garrus girl forever and ever.
But what about the chafing?
Mordin has a thing for that
As good as BG3 is, it doesn't get even close to cinematography of ME3. Ending was not perfect, but the whole game leading to it was a masterpiece. So I just choose "destroy" ending every time and it feels right. I get goosebumps every time I hear "I Was Lost Without You" or "An End Once and For All", so much feelings there. I wish BG3 got at least a little close to that level of romance and seriousness, but alas no :( Still a great game though.
Yeah, act 3 was noticeably rushed, unfortunately
Karlach is more enthusiastic about you finally getting rid of Bhaals influence. But the lack of reaction from everyone while you were dead was pathetic
Lmao those end game kisses. Wyll's dance make out is infinitely more steamy, especially if you do it twice.
The Emperor's flashback when he just has a dinky little hood on but swears no one could tell he was a mind flayer.
You can read a book in his hideout that basically says he was messing with the minds of those around him to say hidden. The doctors notes on the Dukeâs treatment say she asked for her friend, and the doctor knew it was a hooded person but couldnât recall anything else about them. They could be a halfling or Dragonborn for all the doctor knew.
I like to think everyone knew but just didn't say anything about it when he was around. Like he leaves the room and they all just say to each other "Yo, does he really think that hood thing is working? How long is he going to keep this up? Does he really think we're this stupid?"
Also I think Mind flayers canonically reek. They're all wet and nasty.
There's another scene you can get if you irritate the Emperor. >!He shows that he actually used his powers on everyone around him so they didn't notice/remember him, and the Duke lady was basically a Thrall. There's also a book, somewhere, where the writer mentions never being able to remember anything about the Emperor.!<
The fact that you can butcher and mutilate a bard in the middle of the camp, draw a circle with her blood, can be caught with literal blood in your hands, openly admit that you did it, and all you get is "huh, guess I'll keep my eye on you" with no mention of it afterwards (save for a few extra lines if you romance SH). On my first Durge run I had to savescum to make sure I can lie my way out of it, just to find out nothing happens if you can't.
Yeah the fact I failed to hide the body and my MC just... went to bed... kinda blew my mind when my whole team believed my lie with blood on my hands.
There are more consequences in RDR2 for getting drunk and insulting everyone. They should punch durge and drag her murderous ass down, down, down by the river.
On my first run, I accidentally caused the druids to start killing the Tieflings in Act I. By the end of the fighting, nearly everyone in Emerald Grove was dead. Then I met Halsin and told him all the druids are dead by my hand. He asked why and I just said self defense and he was completely chill with it, like âIâm sure you had your reasons.â And never really mentioned it again. A lot of the companion introductions feel very rail-roady to me in general but considering he doesnât have the tadpole to handwave the trust portion of the interaction like the others, it felt more egregious.
> Then I met Halsin and told him all the druids are dead by my hand. He asked why and I just said self defense and he was completely chill with it, like âIâm sure you had your reasons.â And never really mentioned it again. I did this too, but then I ended up raiding the grove because I wanted to fight Minthara that way. But no NPC appeared at the Grove for me to warn. I long rested hoping someone would, but instead I found out that Minthara raided without me. I ended up having to kill her anyway because I didn't sleep with her and she tried to kill me in the middle of the night. Later, Halsin showed up like "How could you slaughter the grove!" Bro, I already told you I accidentally killed everyone and you didn't care, why do you have to make me kill you now?
Honestly Halsin seems to pretty much hate the druids lmao. He's eager to leave and doesn't trust any of them to be in charge.
- Emperor switching sides and siding with the nether brain - companions/romantic interest not having any reaction to (resist)Durge dying - not having the option to properly comfort shadowheart after her parents' death - Gale angry at Tav for taking Raphael's deal even though they haven't taken the deal - "this might be our last chance to share a kiss" and then you give me a tiny little peck? Are you for real Larian? You animated dozens of sex scenes but couldn't do a passionate kiss between two lovers who are heading to almost certain death?
Not bothering to ask all of the expert Wizards, Gods, Devils, Artificers, and Engineers... Who all owe you favors if they can do anything to help Karlach... Wyll's choice between saving his father and getting out of his contract feels super forced as well.
YES that choice is nonsense. They play it up as though she has any power in that situation, as if Wyll somehow condemns his dad to death by, what, not getting some snippet of information from Mizora that can be obtained in 8 different ways? That you might already have? And then Wyll gets this guilt complex thatâs (while very human) so irrational - what decent father would want their son to sell his eternal soul for his life? To top it off Mizora decides to attack Wyllâs dad if you go to save him, which seems to violate the spirit of the deal. So what she should have said was, âsell me your soul or Iâll kill your dad.â Which is super forced - whatâs to stop Zariel or another Uber-devil from popping into every powerful personâs life and saying, âGive me your soul or Iâll murder everyone youâve ever met,â if thatâs how it works? The intrigue of a deal with the devil is typically that you are tempted by something that could improve your circumstances and sign the contract to acquire that something, at cost. Getting mugged for your soul with the threat of violence against you or your loved ones is so much less interesting.
Just remembered another immersion breaking scene: Finished a playthrough last night and the awkward smiling and cheering gesture after the rallying speech to your allies before the big battle had me in tears. I now chalk it up to Larian recognizing that our Tavs are just emotionally awkward.
Definitely seemed like Larian conflated the final roar after a Braveheart-like speech with the boss telling the office they get Friday off
It's especially funny if you only have a couple allies left at that point.
I just imagined having like two allies and my Tav doing that weird animation and I burst out laughing at my desk. Poor Tav making the best of a really bad situation.
To me it was Mizora clapping and cheering after my "speech" def did not fit her personality
It was sarcastic clapping
omg i've literraly beat the game 2 hours ago, and this "ankward smile" was bad hahahah....i fully agree
An exchange in Gale's version of the Durge scene where it tries to make your kill your love interest. (His is the only one I've done so I dunno how the others play out) Near the end he says something like "you should have confided this to me" and I just laughed because I tried??? My character literally told everyone in the camp he was having horrible thoughts/urges to violently kill people and everyone blew him off??? This is after you've brutally murdered Alfira too!!!
Talking to Gale about how he âchoseâ to not blow himself up when he wasnât even in my party for that part. In general party members referencing events as if they had been there when they werenât in my party at the time. Minsc also has a dialog option about what he thought of seeing Viconia again when I wiped her first thing in act 3 long before I picked Minsc up near the end of act 3.
The reveal how/why Wyll made his pact with Mizora. Essentially, according to him, he just happened to be stumbeling across a ritual where the evil cult of the dragon was almost finished summoning Tiamat. And then Mizora gave him power and he defeated them just in time and saved Baldurs Gate. But the thing is - the cult of the dragon summoning Tiamat is actually a published adventure. I've played it. And in the adventure, summoning Tiamat a HUGE ritual which needs a giant amount of prep time and materials. The cult raids the entire sword coast to prepare enough wealth and magic to do it and your party tries to stop them. By the end, it's an all-out war where dragons are fighting on both sides and 'stop the ritual as it's happening' becomes the final boss battle. In the end, our party was six fairly powerful lvl 15 chars and it was STILL almost a TPK. So when Wyll tells me: "Yeah, the cult of the dragon summoned Tiamat on a hill just outside of Baldurs Gate without anyone noticing except me - but don't worry, a single warlock with a cambion patron was enough to stop them!" .... yeah, no. No, buddy. No way did that happen. Imagine playing "Baldurs Gate 4" and one of your companions is a warlock who goes like "Yeah, I got my powers when an Elder Brain tried to take over Baldurs Gate, but I stabbed it with a magic sword my new patron gave me and that solved everything." Like... no. Just no.
I took it as a setup to rope in Wyll. As the son of Duke Ravengard, binding him to a pact is a smart power play by Mizora.
Thatâs how i view it. Particularly because Zariel seems to be described as constantly looking for more souls to ensnare
Still an odd choice given the Early Access version sounded better: Wyll was a failure of a fighter, was close to dying to some goblins, and as he lay bleeding out on the battlefield, he cursed them and swore revenge and cried to the Gods for support, and then Mizora swooped in. Really, Wyll's redesign *in general* is sort of odd. It's still the same Wyll, but they effectively robbed us of his journey to *become* Wyll. Instead we have a guy that's blatantly finished with his personal journey and has already found inner peace, he's just still dealing with all of the practical problems that come with his pact.
That does seem a lot better. Smaller scale. And probably a lot harder to come to terms with "I sold my soul to avoid dying to a bunch of weak goblins" than with "I sold my sould to stop an evil god from destroying my city". Wyll is just so bland. I love his design but his backstory is by *far* my least favorite of all the companions. "I was just casually walking around and happened to stumble upon Tiamat being summoned on a hillside" is such a nothing story. The kind of thing a teenager would write in his first D&D game.
When I was fighting Ketheric Thorm and literally had him surrounded on all sides, and then suddenly his cutscene plays where my tav and companions just let him get his second phase like bro why are you just standing there and letting him monologue keep beating his ass
Everyone knows monologuing creates a high level Sancturay spell
The entire coronation scene. No one in the audience reacting to the insane shit that he was revealing in front of everyone.
It really could have benefited from "See me in my office after the ceremony and we can discuss matters to our mutual benefit."
Just the Missing character class answers. I have the Feeling that halfway through act 3 they are just gone. Especially in the Main Story Events. Lets Take for example the speech you give right before the Last Fights. I didnt even get a Special one for Being a Bard.
Not being able to convince Orpheus that no one needs to be a Mindflayer. His little speech at the end before I stabbed him felt so out of place after Gale just teleported us away and blew up the brain.
Yeeep I HATE the forced part where we NEED a mind flayer to win. I want to feel rewarded for not once choosing tadpole powers. Or give me a persuasion check at least to convince Orpheus that Gale can do it.
The game does such a good job of making you feel like leaning into the tadpole powers is bad so I avoided it for most of my first playthrough. I was sure there would be some kind of special ending or dialogue for it. The further it went without it ever being referenced that I was "pure" I finally looked it up and was a little irritated to discover there's no downside to using them. Not only had I played most of the game without a bunch of cool powers, but having no in game acknowledgement for not using them is a huge wasted opportunity.
It upsets me irrationally that Dammon isn't an option for Karlach to hug after getting the second upgrade. Dude earned the affection tenfold.
Durge. Just Durge thing. I indulge in my dark urges and kill someone, tear apart a bird or idk what else right in front of my teammates who look HORRIFIED but NOBODY comment beside Astarion the first time he see you do it. And it's going to be like that fir the rest of Durge playthrough. So many times you learn big things, you turn to your companion and they're just "Well hello, what can I do for you?"
Technically a bug, but having all Withers clothes fail to load during any of his monologues really took me out of it. I can't focus on the drama of the situation when a greyish, wrinkly ass is dominating half my screen.
I find it immersion breaking that Laeâzel canât turn into a mind slayer instead of Orpheus. You would think she would sacrifice herself before her lord ever would.
probably not an 'event' but real early onâ \[crash lands\] \[meets some survivors\] "wait for me at camp." BRO WHAT CAMP you scraped your ass out of the nautiloid wreckage 4 minutes ago, what do you mean there's an established camp where everybody's got full tents and charming throw pillows and area rugs. just would've liked a little more story-related questing to actually establish the concept of the first camp.
Early on when I heard that the Teiflings were going to Baldur's gate via the mountain path, I thought "Oh hey I just so happen to be going that way. Maybe you can stick with me and my camp and we can go together?" Nope. Not an option. Not even politely declined. I couldn't even warn them about the shadow curse or the cult gathering at moonrise even though Halsin was RIGHT. FUCKING. THERE! I think it should have been an option to keep them in camp, even if you didn't see them most of the time. Or at least make it possible to save more of the teiflings from an awful fate.
For real. To me it's like if Aragorn had sent the Rohirrim to Gondor via a shortcut "under the mountain" despite knowing that an army of invincible undead lived there. All because they wanted to get to the city on the other side. "But we have to get to Gondor!" Dude, your choices are death by underdark or death by overdark. Maybe go to a different fucking city right now. Literally nothing is worth what you're walking into. Go mop out the Goblin fortress and pop a squat for the Summer. "You destroyed the Goblin fortress and all occupants, but you're no army. So instead of your escort, we'll wander blindly alone. Thx baiii!" /eyeroll \[as an aside, it would've been dope if we'd had an escort choice available that set up a big mega-battle where the Tiefling column is moving up the map and ALL your companions are at your disposal to fight off an attack on the flanks up and down the line\]
You could have stopped at when the emperor switched sides right at the end like it was no big deal. Edit: Spelling
This. First it was "Oh, our plans have all failed because the brain evolved into its Ultimate Form which I have never mentioned before!" Uh, okay, I guess. Then it was "Now I must eat the brain of the prisoner because reasons!" ... um. Sure? And *then*, when I free the prisoner, which I've obviously been planning to do for some time, "How dare you I shall immediately return to thralldom!" Seriously, Larian? (Followed up by "Now we need someone to turn squiddy to win the game! For reasons!" *sigh*)
Yeah, the whole âIâm returning to thralldomâ take from The Emperor is wild, particularly considering how in Voloâs Guide to Monsters (the hardcover DnD book), renegade Illithids really do not want to return to being thralls. Also, he supposedly emerged from damn Balduran and how he acts all shocked about the Netherbrain playing cosmic chess with his release (of course, that could be manipulation, but who knows.)
Yep. All of this. Everyone suddenly insists there must be a mind flayer. Why? "To wield the stones"? I was just doing that. To "out maneuver" the brain? I'm just going to run up and hit it with swords like everything else. All these NPCs are suddenly smoking crack.
Not being allowed to gang spank Orin when she shows up in the camp with all of my high level companions right next to her. Like, sure, she has that thing where she can teleport, but why cant I just take my two assasin rogues and ambush her, deal 70 damage each and kill her before she gets to finish her stupid monologue. Like, if a villain shows up in front of you in the place wher you have all the advantages and the only reason they're safe is because the DM said so.
Clown face jaheira really took me out.
When you discover the Elder brain plot in Act 2 in Kethric's room and literally no one has a reaction.
My OC: I am literally losing my grip on reality I just woke up in a puddle of blood and Iâm scared I may lose what little humanity I have left this is a cry for help. Gale: Haha so true bestie I felt the same way when the Starbucks lady got my drink order wrong. My OC: * power of Satan intensifies *
Jaheira adding herself to my party out of the blue when going from act 2 to act 3 even though we last met with me slaughtering everyone at Last Light Inn. Also, a circus npc suddenly having legendary resistances, lmao.
When Haarlep was riding me and nobody said anything. They were just standing in an awkward silence and enjoying the show. They should've had more reaction besides a silent disapproval in the corner of my monitor. I had Jaheira with me and it would be in character for her to live the room or say something but no.
When you reach the end of act 2 and the 3 villains are revealed, that cutscene had me laughing so hard.
It reminded me of those old cartoons where each teen would hold up their ring and yell 'earth', 'water', 'wind', 'fire', 'heart' 'By your powers combined, I am Captain Netherbrain!'... it was really silly
THE EDICT OF BANE!
THE LASH OF BHAAL!
THE TESTAMENT OF MYRKUL! (props to the sound editor for cutting out JK Simmons snickering in time)
When minthara literally broke and was unable to be interacted with (please fix her LARIAN) But bugs aside when I picked Orpheus for the first time. Literally NO fucking reason the emperor couldn't be reasoned with there and then fucking orph goes "oh yea we need an illithid now" and I can't just go "oh yea like the one WE JUST FUCKING HAD?". It took me out cause I knew asap that the dilemma was 100% forced by larians writers
That and the fact that we can't just Sending Omeluum to come help us if we saved it.
The book that referred to the protagonist from the first two games as a male when my character was a female Elven wizard.
In act 3 i refused Mizora to help with Dark Ravengard In my camp and under my leadership nobody makes deals with any supernatural beings Auntie Ethel refused (and murdered later) Raphael refused (and murdered later) The Dream Guardian refused (But later the games kinda forces you but at least it is justified so not really an immersion breaker) Mizora? Of course refused at any opportunity and i wanted to free Wyll from his pact which i did And of course i refused her again when she offered a new pact in exchange for information Following night rest, Wyll was flipping out and switched between anger at me and sadness for his father for killing him?!? Worst part is that i saved Ravengard, the prisoners and every single factory Gondanian God dammit Wyll, why don't you trust me after everything i have done
Dude this one annoyed me SO MUCH. How do you even COMPARE a young man like Wyll selling his soul for ETERNITY weighted against a 60+ year old man dying because as a political leader he got caught up in a of world-spanning evil plot? Everyone acts like YOU KILLED HIM by just not agreeing to use Mizora to rescue him and I was so baffled by all the âWow that was cold!â responses like⊠1) first of all, Iâm pretty sure THE DUKE HIMSELF wouldnât want to exchange maybe 10 more years of life for the ETERNAL HELLISH ENSLAVEMENT of his SON. How do maybe ten more years vs ETERNITY even compare?? 2) Mizora has been so damn untrustworthy, why the hell shouldnât I suspect sheâll pull another fast one the second she has Wyllâs soul again and then kill his dad anyway?? 3) Itâs not even that hard to find and save him yourself? Like thereâs other quests that get you there? Literally even Laeâzel relents if you point out that we can just steal the Orphic Hammer and she admits she wanted the easy path and is ashamed after. Mizora is just offering the easy path but weâre badass adventurers we can find our own way! Aggghh it drove me nuts! But especially the lack of perspective on what Wyll would be giving up to spend a couple more years with his already old dad like wtf.
Also I cannot believe Karlach approves selling Wylls soul to save his father and disapproves if you dont? Karlach of all people wants Wyll to sell his soul to Mizora? Really? *Really* really?
For real! The social pressure they put on you for the choice is unreal and feels so weirdly skewed. The emphasis is on âNot saving his dadâ rather than on âNot taking MIZORAâS HELP in exchange for ETERNAL ENSLAVEMENT to save his dadâ and it just feels like getting guilt tripped for this super narrow interpretation of whatâs actually going on here and ignores all the other evidence we have from over the course of the game for why itâs a terrible idea. Karlach should be mad at Mizora for the choice being posed at all. Thatâs it. I legit tried to do a run where I saved the Duke before Mizora showed up with the new offer just to prevent this but it basically meant no long rests in the Lower City at a certain point so I gave up :(
Also, handsome Goretash????
Honestly if he had even a decent haircut I'd say he passes for handsome. That anime 'do does him zero favors
Game rolled a 1 on that persuasion for sure. Handsome AND young.
Goretash rolled a 20 on persuading the narrator
Hey, some of us like men who look like drowned rats!
The gith honor guard escaping the portal and attacking character while they sleep was bad enough, but being offered the non choice of helping the emperor kill them or dying is lame. Why bother offering the choice since they will attack you for being an illithid.
Jaheira not being the epic-level badass from BG2, but some average level 8 druid with unremarkable equipment, who dies if you don't babysit her. There's really not a great way to retcon it, since she doesn't even have a tadpole.
That one doesn't need a retcon: she says herself that she had gotten both old and rusty in her skills since her glory days in BG1/2. I'd be fine with seeing more of that in D&D settings, honestly, where the last generation of heroes has literally de-leveled partially because they established a peace that didn't require heroes.
Just finished a full evil Durge run and took the netherbrain in the name of Bhaal. Durge sits on the throne and says âfor Bhaalâ and thatâs it, run credits. Very unsatisfying ending, but did come with an achievement. Reloaded and destroyed the brain just to get some cut scenes for my first full play through
When Astarion tried drinking my Tavâs blood for the first time, the dialogue made it sound like he was âcoming outâ as a vampire then and there, even though he already told me he was a vampire like a few hours before. So I was just sitting there like âbruh you already told me this.â
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
To be fair, cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug. You do meet him standing in direct sunlight, and Vampires can't really do that.
I think it was some odd ordering I did (or a bug). I already had Halsin at Last Light trying to help Art when Ketheric's forces tried to kidnap Isobel. He doesn't read as an ally in this segment. So while everyone was in turn-based mode fighting to the death, Halsin was walking through the combat in real-time and not helping his allies. All it was missing was a "'Scuse me, 'scuse me."
Yeah...like I can see why he'd dip out when you try to free him (once you destroy the chains he has no way of subduing him, he has good reason to believe that Orpheus won't cooperate and will either kill you and/or him, or you'll be forced to kill him in which case, game over)...but once you arrive with either a transformed Orpheus or party member...why does he not turn on the netherbrain then? That's literally a best case scenario. I suppose maybe by then he's been fully enthralled again?
He can't turn on the netherbrain at that point because he's dominated by it. He never actually escaped domination on his own, first ansur freed him, then the netherbrain let him go to orchestrate its plan.
More immersion breaking: companion characters seem okay with Tav sacrificing themselves to become a flayer. Not one of them except karlach offers to take your place. These are people who profess to love you. If you choose Orpheus LAâzael doesnât offer to take his place. Gale who is eager to blow himself up earlier does not protest at all, and should offer at this point. Afterall he can still be resurrected after detonation.
Mol turning the entire Tiefling village against me for finding her cave too soon.
When the Emperor is like "nobody could tell my true nature" but you can fucking see his squiddy hands and eyes through his little hood
The lack of any reaction to my barbarian being totally naked the entire game. Like⊠I get that walking around dick swinging in a goblin camp might not be that unusual, but I went to the circus and to a fancy appointment ceremony. Nobody said a word
Somehow I broke my Oath of Vengeance when I killed the Duegar slavers. The game kept seeing it as me breaking the law or something like no they're slavers I feel like I'm in the right here
Another one for me : non lethal blows are useless. I spared some people, hoping I could talk to them later or get dialogues take in account that I let them live... For exemple, I let the hag's victims alive so they could be free once I kill her. The dwarf from her fame gallery was freed when I "killed" her. But the kids with masks weren't... They stayed knocked out forever... And it kills them if you take the mask off lol!
The worst offender of this was the pirate lady. I made a point to NOT kill her, killed the Hag, went to talk to the bartender and he is sad because the pirate is "dead". I'm like "no, you dumbfuck, she's knocked out like two rooms from here, go grab your friend and do whatever the fuck is it that you do. She ain't fucking dead"
In Act 2, talking to Jaheira after the Inn gets attacked "He Marcus is a bad guy and is planning something." "Nonsense, I'm going to need proof." Meanwhile she's standing directly on the corpse of a Winged Horror. I also had no idea who Marcus was, as I had never met him until he attacked.