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Shadowheart in daylight

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4

Thoughts on that final ally choice

Major spoilers for ending of BG3:

>!This is my first playthrough where Lae'zel wants to free Orpheus (and not just to immediately kill him) so the choice of whether or not to do so is harder than just "do I trust the Emperor or not?". I'm definitely not the first to feel weird about the options you're given here and how they play out in terms of The Emperor's actions, but I thought it'd be fun to write out my headcanon for the direction I wish I could have taken the conversation (a direction I believe would stay true to what Larian intended with this scene). !<

  • >!After your character indicates they want to free Orpheus and The Emperor gives its speech about trust, your character can say "I trust you, but we can't let Orpheus be killed. We need to find another way."!<

  • >!The Emperor responds "There is no other way. An Illithid is needed to dominate the Netherbrain, and I cannot exist outside of the astral prism without absorbing the protection provided by Orpheus."!<

  • >!You can respond "What if Orpheus is willing to protect you? He could be freed and we could still be shielded from the Netherbrain."!<

  • >!The Emperor: "I told you: to Orpheus, you are Illithid. If you free him, he will kill you. Right after he kills me."!<

  • >!You can then make a persuasion check with a DC influenced by how much you've shown The Emperor trust thus far: "He will see reason. And if he doesn't, I will subdue him again. I won't let him hurt us."!<

  • >!If unsuccessful, The Emperor doesn't believe you, and you're brought back to the original dialogue options.!<

  • >!If successful, The Emperor will guardedly agree to let you free Orpheus. However, it doesn't trust that Orpheus will protect it if it leaves the astral prism, so it will refuse to go with you.!<

  • >!When Orpheus is freed, he will initially be hostile toward The Emperor and threaten to kill it for imprisoning him. You can pass a high persuation or intimidation check to convince him to see reason and work together for the common cause. Otherwise, you can side with him against The Emperor and help him kill it, or you can fight Orpheus. If the latter, you must knock him out; if you kill him, you get a Game Over.!<

  • >!If you convince Orpheus to stand down, you are then presented with the same choice as you would if you'd freed Orpheus without convincing The Emperor to stay. However, The Emperor becomes a powerful callable ally in the ensuing battle. It continues communicating with your party, and it has a tense but nonviolent interaction with Orpheus after the Netherbrain is defeated.!<

  • >!If you subdue Orpheus, Lae'zel is angry, but she will reluctantly agree in light of Orpheus's hostility that The Emperor consuming him is the only option.!<

  • >!If you help Orpheus kill The Emperor, the scene will proceed as if The Emperor abandoned you.!<

>!What do y'all think? Does this seem realistic, or am I off with any of the characters? What's your headcanon for this scene? !<

6

Finished my first playthrough and…

1

Am I playing Baldur's Gate wrong?

Recently, I started my second campaign in Baldurs Gate in addition to the campaign I play with my wife in co-op. My wife and I opted for the easiest difficulty in our playthrough since neither if us ever played similar game.

This time I felt like it would be such a breeze since I already know a bit more about the game and DnD in general. I opted for the balanced mode with my new character and started going through Act I and boy oh boy do I get wrecked almost everywhere. Multiple of my characters already died and I had to revive them.

Characters

Including Gale, which in turn triggered cool mini-quest to revive him, but the magic aura around his dead body killed Astarion multiple times.

I feel very scared going into each combat and trying to plan as much in advance as possible (keep in mind I mostly know what awaits me there, because I've gone through Act I already).

Where I got wrecked

I got wrecked at the church before you get to Whithers, I got wrecked by the hyenas and gnolls by the caravan road, I got absolutly wrecked by the Paladins of Tar and

I just don't know what am I doing wrong.

My party

I play as high elf paladin and most of my encounters so far I've had Astarion, Gale, and Shadow in my party. I feel like the only actually useful member is Astarion. I probably don't know how to utilize Gale well enough and my Tav paladin just feels like a paper-thin wall between the enemy and the rest of the party.

Are these early encounters in Act I intentionally challenging so that the game "force-teaches" you to utilize everything at your disposal and will it get easier later on or am I just on the wrong path with my character and my party? Honestly, I can't imagine going through the goblin camp in this state.

35

How do you interpret the intro?

Let's add a friendly image so that people don't see any spoilers by accident.

!

So, the way I see it the Emperor probably tailed Shadowheart's team who liberated the Astral Prism. Maybe he even got the Nautiloid and some cultists and Mindflayers from the Elder Brain so that he could extract Shadowheart's team. Orin left her sibling on there for good measure. Mindflayers doing Mindflayer things they abducted Shadowheart.

But as soon as the Prism was close enough the Elder Brain lost its grip on the Emperor. Probably just him because he already was able to leave an Elder Brain once. Seeing the opportunity he killed the Mindflayers near him and took control of the Nautiloid.

Being the practical Mindflayer he probably sought to build an army of tadpoled people with super duper Illithid powers to fight the Absolute. He went to Baldur's Gate to find more people and thus snatched up Tav and the others.

The Githyanki were in close pursuit and disrupted him so he had to flee. When the Nautiloid arrived on Avernus he hid inside the prism.

I'm not quite sure where Lae'zel fits into all this. She probably went aboard the Nautiloid to get her Mindflayer head but was captured instead. She didn't know anything about the Prism because it was way above her paygrade.

What do you think happened? Or is there an official version of the events that lead up to the game?

17
forums.larian.com Hotfix #11 Now Live! Version Number: v4.1.1.3956130

Hello everyone, We’ve got a new hotfix for you today, addressing several bugs, visual issues and blockers. Have you ever had a romance so intense, that everything melts away? Well, sometimes that isn’t intentional. We’ve fixed an issue where Gale’s romance scene was playing in wh...

Hello everyone,

We’ve got a new hotfix for you today, addressing several bugs, visual issues and blockers.

Have you ever had a romance so intense, that everything melts away? Well, sometimes that isn’t intentional. We’ve fixed an issue where Gale’s romance scene was playing in what looked like some kind of black void. Consider the ambience restored.

We are aware of an issue with kissing animations for Astarion, and are currently working on a fix. We expect this to be released in a future update. Thank you for all your reports and messages, and thank you for playing Baldur’s Gate 3! If you have any bugs to report, please reach out to our support team.

FIXES

  • You can now use soaps encountered in savegames before Patch 4.
  • Fixed the game sometimes freezing indefinitely after a reaction to a spell that hits you with multiple projectiles.
  • Fixed a crash after using a reaction that causes an attack against a dead creature.
  • Fixed an issue causing you to get stuck in certain dialogues unable to continue.
  • Fixed a blocker that could occur when trying to Long Rest.
  • Dominated followers will now follow the party as expected after loading a savegame.
  • Fixed Gale's romance scene playing in what looks like a black void.
  • Fixed a Dark Urge flashback accidentally teleporting you to the Lower City.
  • The Cursed Skulls in Jannath's Estate are now vulnerable to Force and Radiant damage.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented certain characters from executing their behaviours.
  • Fixed citizens and refugees in Baldur's Gate sometimes jittering about the place or not using their proper animations.
  • Fixed some visual artefacts appearing at camp in relation to Dark Urge and Karlach dialogues. This also solved the bloodstain under [SPOILER]* suddenly becoming larger after loading a savegame.
  • Wyll and Minthara should now properly kiss a second time without the need to retrigger the dialogue.
  • Fixed an issue where a companion's camp night dialogue could be replaced by a different dialogue that couldn't trigger during a previous night.
*SPOILER

Alfira

1

PSA: Mirror of Loss, Cleric of Selune

Just so no one else reloads 131 times like I did to get a +2 wisdom bonus for Shadowheart, it doesn't work for her since she has "nothing more to give."

Yes, I kept track of how many times I reloaded.

7

Was that Aang who just ran past?

...because Geezer Loryss looks like they just crossed paths.

!

1

Where to find EA information

Are there any good collections anyone might be aware of, for EA information or datamined information.

I'm curious to see what ideas got scrapped and how things changed. I know of a few things, like a little on Daisy. How certain abilities were actually going to be handed out.

But places like Grymforge really elude to something... there's a bunch of stuff hints that something might be near. From whatever caused some of the destruction you see. Because I refuse to believe it's all a vague reference to Yurgir.

And then there's some MTG pictures I saw, that list someone has potentially the main villain, in the very least a bad guy, and in the current game plays a very different roll.

Edit: Added spoiler tag just in case

0

What choices do you repeat each run?

Full game spoilers
  • Orpheus is freed from his prison. I was initially torn by the choice and willing to keep working with the emperor despite their manipulations, just not at the expense of a prisoner. I freed Orpheus ready to save-scum, but upon seeing the emperor's immediate decision to join the Elder Brain I never looked back.
  • The emperor dies in combat the first round on the Elder Brain. I don't even know what he does although I assume it's the regular mind flayer abilities like when Orpheus turns or myself.
  • Music concert with Hope.
  • During the battle with Hope, waste her miracle on the mace and chuck it for me to scoop up after the battle. Shadowheart keeps her single-use miracle for a rainy day and I get a divine weapon.
  • Keep Shadowheart in the party until she loses the prism to you. I think her leaving the party or after an event in the creche triggers the prism to go from her inventory to yours. Until then during rests in camp she'll be fiddling with it like a child with a rubik's cube.
  • With the exception of my first playthrough, the guardian is made to look like a clown. Big red afro, pallid skin, and ridiculous red or purple tattoos. I spent so long the first time making the perfect complement to my half-elf druid and it was for nothing.
4

Shadowheart resolution kinda weird? (Spoilers act 3)

:::Spoiler

Does anyone else think the Shadowheart showdown at the House of Grief ends oddly?

Talk to priestess: Does Shar know about this prism thing? "Nah"

Kill everyone. (Ok this part was expected, but a little disappointing)

Documents: Prism operatives are Totally Expendable.

Next room: Shadowheart's parents are being personally tortured by Shar. This is right in front of the memory eraser, which seems like the temple's money maker.

Tonally, this seems so strange. I guess it is part of the Larian design philosophy that gods must be directly involved, but it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense here.

:::

6

Did my Shadowheart storyline bug out?

Spoilers for *THE* major turning point in Shadowheart's story

I was with Shadowheart and Nightsong, and I failed my persuasion roll to get her to spare Nightsong. When that happened, I told her that I would fight her before I let her kill the Nightsong. She flew in to a rage and was ready to throw down with me, and then suddenly I was in a cut scene with Nightsong. I freed Nightsong, and she did her thing, and then the cut scene was over, and I was back in Shadowfell, and Shadowheart was just gone.

There was no fight with her, no final dialogue, she just disappeared during the Nightsong cut scene.

Is that how it's meant to play out, or did it bug out on me?

8

ending + romance

Warning: spoiler about the ending with a specific companion

spoiler

Lae'zel

I mean, I did everything she said, I saved her comet crush, I saved the world, we had the top of the relationships, I was "the source of her joy", and then, just because I had to transform myself into a flying squid "she can't cross that line" !1One!! :D

In my headcanon, after the big brain, I did track down and exterminate all the Githyanki after she left >:|

5

First BG3 finish, I have a question.

I was just curious, has anyone beaten the game with Astarion?

SPOILER

I ascended my Astarion, and at the end of the game, he is standing on the docks, while the sun was still out; he could stand in the sunlight because he was ascended, and it wasn't only the tadpole protecting him.. Has anyone beaten it with Astarion who DIDN'T ascend him? I am curious if he burns up, but I really quite dislike him and don't want to play another game with him to find out.

Thanks for your time!

2

Should I revert after killing important NPC early?

Should I revert my game after killing

Spoilers for Act 3

Raphael in Sharess' Caress in Wyrm's Crossing

? I was able to throw them off the balcony with several shoves, dealing ~1100 damage (and only granting 65 XP).

Because the game keeps teleporting you out and never technically entered combat, I'm guessing they weren't supposed to be killed here. Some quick google searches suggest they're supposed to appear later on too - will this break my game at all or is it safe to continue with this save file?

10

Find Familiar: Cheeky Quasit

13

Bye Auntie Ethel

26

If Larian claims '17,000 ending variations', I wish they at least gave us some ending slides.

Finished the game yesterday and have some thoughts on how the ending is handled.

Personally I'd have liked something deeper than the 'and they lived happily ever after' I got in my playthrough. In Divinity: Original Sin 2 you get a recap of how your decisions influenced certain places and characters, but BG3's epilogue is almost non-existent, other than your party acknowledging that they did in fact complete the main quest.

I'm not saying the ending is bad or that I didn't enjoy it - quite the opposite. But then credits rolled and my first thought was 'wait, what about everything else I just did, am I not getting to see any of it?' My issue isn't with the story that is told, but rather the part that is omitted.

Now, I must also mention that

Slight ending spoilers here

before the final fight you meet up with allies you gathered throughout the campaign. Who shows up and aids you depends on your choices, so in a way this serves as a summary of your adventure.

--- Other thoughts

Big ending spoilers here

On an unrelated note: this whole ending sequence gives off massive heh Mass Effect 3 vibes, even down to the control vs destroy choice. Looking forward to Larian adding a synthesis option so we can all become illithid hybrids.

On another unrelated note: I let Karlach become a mind flayer so she could dominate the brain, and it was strikingly obvious that NPCs had no voiced lines for this possibility. The narrator did acknowledge her, but everyone else talked as if my PC were illithid, not Karlach. I know you can't make a voiceline for every possible choice, but in that moment it was really jarring.

Edit: formatting

2

So, about my PC eyes

hidden or nsfw stuff

So I lost one to Volo and the other was taken by Ethel. So basically I am now legally blind. Hope this does not become a trend and by the time I reach the end of a game I will have no body parts left to mutilate and will not look like someone who escaped from Cyberpunk

20

PSA: Significant Lae'zel Bug

I somehow got into a state where Lae'zel couldn't be interacted with. I'll put the rest in a spoiler tag for those that don't want to know the details.

spoiler

Lae'zel woke me up during the night and challenged me to a fight because she couldn't stop thinking about me. She was down bad, lol. Anyway, I agreed and killed her dead, then revivified her. Well, that broke her. From then on I couldn't talk to her, couldn't interact with her at all, and she wouldn't join combat.

When I got into a fight, she remained outside of the fight and could act with impunity. I was literally able to take control of her and go up to each enemy and kill them dead without using any turns. This is obviously very broken. So beware.

Luckily, I was able to resolve it by loading a save from before the fateful event, and only lost an hour of progress.

7