Baldur's Gate 3

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I will agree that being able to do both paths to act 2 is silly. Nothing suggests this should be possible, and I suspect it wasn't really intended to be done.

Wait. I thought that clicking the "Mountain Pass" took you to the act 2 map, and that it was just weird that you could somehow go there in act 1 and do the Githyanki Creche content there before going back to the act 1 map and then going to do the rest of the act 2 map proper. But is the Creche on a different map altogether than the act 2 map? Can I run around the entire Creche map without advancing to act 2 or running into super high level mobs early?

[rusty_shackleford]

I will agree that being able to do both paths to act 2 is silly. Nothing suggests this should be possible, and I suspect it wasn't really intended to be done.

Wait. I thought that clicking the "Mountain Pass" took you to the act 2 map, and that it was just weird that you could somehow go there in act 1 and do the Githyanki Creche content there before going back to the act 1 map and then going to do the rest of the act 2 map proper. But is the Creche on a different map altogether than the act 2 map? Can I run around the entire Creche map without advancing to act 2 or running into super high level mobs early?

Act 2 starts with going to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, I believe.
I think you can still go back to Act 1 areas after this, but a lot of people have moved on and time passes(?)

[DrSneed]

you can do all the stuff in the undershart and go to the mountain pass after, but going to the mountain pass prevents you from going back to the grove

[Val the Moofia Boss]

► Into Act 2: Creche rooftop, meeting Elminster, evil spider man, Last Light Inn, Moonrise Towers 1st floor

I was advised that I was still missing some stuff. I went back to the Creche and climbed to the roof, and completed a baisc puzzle.






Come on. There is enough room for you to creep along the edge while hugging the wall. What do you mean this is inaccessible?




I got a one handed mace for my support character Shadowheart. It doesn't really do anything since she is going to spend most of her time supporting with buffs and heals and maybe shooting debilitating arrows rather than trying to melee to do damage. At least it comes with a big AoE spell.






I have been informed that this Mountain Pass map is not, in fact, the act 2 map/region. So I can still fully explore this map and do stuff without running into act 2. Those point of no return notifications I was getting made me think that this was the act 2 map. Very unintuitive.

Would have been nice if there had been more of scenic mountain highlands hiking like this.




IIRC the level cap only goes up to 12, so this gave me a bit of a spook as something I might never be high enough level to fight.




Why is he classified as a "construct"? Is he a puppet being remote controlled by the real wizard from a secret base somewhere?




He looks like Gandalf or that guy from Discworld, or Dumbledore. Seems to be a rather bland clone.




Is everyone in this game secular? Even Shadowheart suddenly stops believing that gods are real and have intent that you should obey them in this scene.








Am I finally safe to go to act 2?




Not FIVE MINUTES ago you were questioning how lovesless a god was towards her servant, and now here you are ecstatic at the idea that you are favored by your god. Pick a lane lady.




I haven't really ran into any significant challenge since fighting the evil dwarves in the Underdark some 10 or 20 hours ago. This guy has an annoying ability where he becomes invulnerable until he decides to attack, so you are passing turns tapping your foot waiting for his turn to come back around so his shield goes down and you can blow him up.




I need to vendor my loot. I see a shield in the distance so hopefully there is a town or an encampment or a house there with an NPC I can trade with.




I was very hesitant here. Her dialogue and tone of voice made it sound insincere, but fortunately after you release her she actually decides to give you a protection item.




Why is the noble knight trapped in the artifact now dressed in lingerie?




The world feels static. I am never stumbling onto anything actually happening. I either arrive in the aftermath of something (after the spaceship crashed. After the goblins wiped out the village. After the gnolls slaughtered a caravan. After goblins attacked the inn and set it on fire. Etc). Or much more rarely, something on happens because I came close (ie coming close enough to the Grove and getting sucked into a cutscene in which goblins attack). I am not seeing anyone else in this world moving through this world. No other parties of adventurers like Kurt's party in Trails in the Sky. No travelling merchant wagons or caravans like the Khajit in Skyrim or traders in M&B. No stumbling upon a civil war skirmish like in Skyrim or people shooting each other like in Deus Ex. Not even guards patrolling the path like in WoW. Etc. There is just nothing happening.




These guys wield weapons like a heroic, martial organization of heroes who bust down doors and do heroing. Why are they called "Harpers"? When I saw the Chris Pine movie, I was under the impression that they were copied from the Harpers from Dragonriders of Pern in being a CIA agency that manipulated countries from behind the scenes or convinced the authorities to take certain people out, rather than being an overt paladin organization sending troops to reinforce towns.




I have heard that this character becomes a playable party member later on. Weird that this is our first varied party member, looking considerably middle aged or perhaps even a senior. Everyone else in this game appears to be sameily young-ish, in their late 20s/early 30s.




It is strange that Jaheira doesn't take an interest in the companions of the True Soul, or even recognizes Wyll or Gale. If Jaheira is supposed to be one of the top heroes of the region and a leader of this paladin organization based in the city, then shouldn't she at least be acquainted with the son of the duke? Wouldn't she have seen him at formal meetings at the palace? Gale also seems to be one of the upper wizards in the region so they have probably met at a party or some sort of presentation where the wizard's guild or society was called upon for assistance. It'd be good to tell her that we just saw Elminster in the adjacent valley. And Jaheria has probably met or heard of the Shar bishop so Shadowheart would have reason to step in and ask Jaheria about that.

It is strange that Jaheira doesn't notice this opulent stranger in their base. This guy does not seem to be an actual omnipotent immortal divine being like Q, but more like just an incredibly powerful wizard like Emet-Selch and can thus be killed.




It is odd how these are FLYING creatures, but they fight while landed and are just as easy to hit as other landed characters. Nothing like fighting flying mobs in FF10 where they will easily evade most grounded characters' melee attacks.




Nobody shouts that the tiefling girl was taken away.




I crafted the Helldusk armor set. Unfortunately it is worse than the set I am already wearing. Looks good for transmog, though. Not sure what can be done with those other ores.

Right now I sidequested out and just want to get on with the plot. So I head straight towards the Moonrise Towers. I get accosted by packs of corrupted mobs a couple of times.

This is the first zone in the game that looks vaguely artistically interesting. The color scheme of beige/white sand juxtaposed against red grasses, blackened trees, and eerie green glows/black smokes is good. Reminds me a lot of the Emerald Nightmare areas of Val'sharah from World of Warcraft Legion. Unfortunately, the zone holistically does not look as good as WoW with the short sightlines, no verticality, etc. Obviously it was a game designed to be seen from the top down rather than for pleasing vistas.






Also an unexpectedly above average view from this game. It is a VIDEOgame but so far 70+ hours into this game (not counting all of the time spent reloading, just what it says on the current playtime tracker for this save), aside from this scene and the shot of the Mountain Pass valley while on the cable car and the mountain pass long rest camp site, there hasn't been any memorable environments.




These guards are level 8 and have a defensive buff that would cause my first attacks to miss, while my party is still level 7 (getting close to 8). No way I can just start clearing them out, and with the Ginthyanki Creche there is a chance that the entire facility will go on alert if I try to kill anyone. It's inconsistent since the goblin base and Grymforge in act 1 allowed me to go room to room talking to people and then killing them without anyone in the next room being hostile, but I am not going to be on that here just yet. Hopefully I will be 8 by the stabbening time.

With all of these level 8 mobs around with defensive buffs, yeah sure I need every edge I can get.




Oh, I can do it multiple times with each character? Neat.

Oh now I am even getting 200 gold each time too.

I wonder if I'll be able to make these myself.




She wants to meet Astarion, so for the first time I add him to my party just for this.

Goodness




The dialogue line is inconsistent. When the witch in act 1 was at low HP and sucked me into a dialogue cutscene and offered me a permanent stat increase item, the dialogue text clearly said it would increase my stat by +1. Whereas here it doesn't say that, so you have to first quicksave and then accept the offer and check your inventory to verify that it is in fact a permanent stat increase item. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop like this somehow giving Astarion a disease or something, but no. There is no reason not to say yes.






In the Moonrise Towers long rest camp, I find Halsin (I don't recall seeing him in the regular act 2 map long rest campsite), and I am able to tell him about the comatose man at the inn, and he heads there. I think that eventually results in him becoming a playable party member? Wish I had known about that before I set off for this climatic main story arc. Now I might have to pause this story to go do that sidequest over there, and then come back, which is immersion breaking.

There is absolutely no reason to save them. They are not innocent victims. The act 1 goblins in that region were gleeful mass murderers and cannibals. Mind as well profit off of their ill favour while also infiltrating the tower and executing justice.










It is baffling that I apparently just killed a cat in front of Shadowheart, Wyll, and Gale, and there is not one peep from them. What makes it worse is I talk to Shadowheart to see if she has a reaction dialogue buried behind having to click her, and the first words out of her mouth are joyous about me rather than horror.

[rusty_shackleford]

CAT MURDERER!!!

[rusty_shackleford]

RESURRECT THAT CAT RIGHT NOW!

[Val the Moofia Boss]

► Act 2: trying to find the Duke in Moonrise Tower

Several hours spent but very little progress made.

When I last left off, I had explored the first floor. Time to find the prisoners. Wyll said he thought his father would be in the basement, so I go down there first.




Clicking one of the doors in the basement led me to docks behind the tower. To check the crates, I had to use Gale and tediously draw the guards away from the docks.








I pocketed the crate. Maybe if we bring it back to the inn, Jaheira might have an idea for what to do with it.






I go back into the prison. I talk to a tiefling prisoner but am immedietely sucked into a different cutscene dialogue with a prison guard, but fortunately I am able to tell her that I am supposed to be there. I don't have any trash item "tools" on me.








I find a ledge, but I am unsure if it counts as a restricted area and will cause me to become flagged as an enemy if I go up there. So I conjure familiar: Scratch and have the dog scout there.








So it seems that I can just break down the walls and then get the prisoners out via a boat. However, I do not want to attempt a jailbreak until I am able to make sure that the duke can get on that boat too. A jailbreak might result in me getting spot and thus made hostile, and thus end my infiltration of the base (depending on whether or not all soldiers in the base turn hostile, unlike what happened with the goblin base and the evil dwarves in Grymforge in act 1).

I enter the prison Warden's office. She has nothing much to say. Going upstairs apparently is a restricted area and gets you arrested, so I had to reload. I wait for her to walk out of the office and magically lock the door behind her, then check out the area behind the office. I featherfall the party and leap down.










You would think that there would be a cutscene of the party expressing horror at this viscera level, but not one peep from anyone besides the MC.




I see a couple corpses. This sounds like a good time to use those Speak with Dead scrolls I have. Unfortunately, I waste two of them and get no response.




Before I start tearing open the flesh walls and possibly aggroing or being spotted by powerful hostiles, I try to save, but encounter an error. Upon researching it online, it appears that for whatever reason, people have issues saving in this particular level, and you have to delete a quicksave to be able to save here again. Odd that this was never fixed.






I come across two bird monsters. They are easily killed.

It seems that I have seen everything in this first area of the viscera level under the prison. I can hear an NPC talking, and I can see due to a visual glitch that there is another area with a "butcher" and several little brains scurrying around, but I do not see any way to get to that room. I have Gale cast illusions trying to bait the mobs over here, see if there is some path I cannot see, but they do not respond to the illusion. Also, strangely, trying to leap over to that room onto a clear surface depicts it as resulting death, as if it was a chasm.






Exitting the viscera level takes us up onto the high ledge area in the prison. Clicking the boat says that it is a one way trip, so I really do have to wait until I find the Duke before breaking these other guys out. As level 7s with there being two or three dozen level 8 soldiers out there, there is just no way I could defend the VIPs if we had to go up to the first floor and try to run. I also am not sure if the game has any mechanics for getting VIPs to follow me or to direct their movements in turn based combat so that they won't just stand still and get cut down.






It seems that it's on the ground floor and the basement of tower. Only place left to look for the Duke is up.




I doesn't seem this dialogue option of trying to get some extra rewards or maybe turn the orc lieutenant to your side does anything.




Most of the second floor is behind doors that cause my mouse to turn red when I mouse over them, so presumably most of it is restricted area I am not allowed to be in. I once again have Gale tediously lure away the guard in the central area and the orc lieutenant, to the patio, and then lock the door so they can't get back in. Then I have Shadowheart in turn based mode avoid the eye's cone of vision and lockpick into the adjacent room.
















This appears to be Ketheric's bedroom. No captive Duke Ravenguard imprisoned in here. So I move to the next door.






While lockpicking, the dog turns around and spot me. I then get a strange line of dialogue that it recognizes "me". But I am playing as Shadowheart. I believe that this line of dialogue was meant for the Dark Urge main character. From talking to NPCs in this tower, I think that this is a Darth Revan/Darth Malik situation where my amnesic character was some sort of evil overlord who was deposed. Several NPCs in this tower say that they remember me. So was this my bedroom? Was this my guard dog?






Having placated the dog, I have Shadowheart walk over to the patio door and unlock it, so the rest of the party can get in here without having to run through the central restricted area patrolled by the guardsman and the eye.






Would be nice if I could conjure this as my dog familiar. Or the Owlbear cub.




I lockpick into the next room, but there is no one in it. It seems like it might be the Orc lieutenant's room.

After looking around, I believe I have been to every room on the second floor. Still haven't found the Duke. Guess he is on a third floor? I was told that there is a ritual going further up in the tower and that no one is allowed to go up past the second floor, and the stairs that lead up are being watched. So I need to climb up the exterior.






There appears to be no way into whatever rooms are on this 3rd floor, so I continue my ascent.




I have to use misty step to go up further.




It appears I have made it to the last floor. I see Ketheric.




Unfortunately, he is immune to all damage. My knockback arrows do not show a trajectory indicator, so he can't be knocked off of the boss arena either. He has a whooping 22 AC and a -2 incoming damage reduction passive. It seems like I am expected to come back either with serious buffs and maybe reinforcements like Jaheira and the harpers and some sort of plan, and/or to kill or disable the brain empowering him to massively nerf his stats and strip his passives.






I spot another door, but it just seems to lead to the watched door on the second floor, which is two floors below this one. Is there no third floor interior?




There appears to be nothing else of interest up here, making this a trip for nothing. I consider trying to sneak up and drop off some explosive barrels before I leave in anticipation of coming back for the big boss fight and being able to chunk a huge amount of his HP right from the get go, but I don't have enough carry weight left to bring more than one or two, and it would too many turns to get in there, drop them off, and then get out, and then leap off. So I just chug a featherfall potion and jump off.








I double check my quest log for the rescue the duke quest. The last thing it says is that Duke Ravengard was likely taken to Moonrise Towers. When I talked to Wyll here in my last play session, he thought dad would have been in the basement. I thoroughly double check the first floor, second floor, prison basement, and the viscera level I had access to.


While checking the 1st floor raptors, I find the Absolute. I had to succeed a strength check to pull away before I was consumed.








An ogre talked about the noises in the wall, so I report back to her about it. She wants a chunk of flesh from the wall, so I go back and stick my head in again and try select an option that might let me tear some flesh out.






Well that was several hours spent with not much accomplished. I pocketed a lot of invasion plans and letters and that crate of tadpoles. Hopefully Jaheira will be able to make something of those materials when I get back to the inn.

I have checked the entire tower. Duke Ravengard is not here. So either he is on a third floor I am not seeing an entrance to, or he is in the second area of the viscera level that I do not have access to yet, or some dark fate has already befallen him like being tadpoled or being sacrificed in the viscera level. I have not heard any NPCs say that he was tadpoled and put on a carriage out or on the cargo ship that just went to Baldur's Gate.

I am not sure if I will be able to find the Duke later, and if it will be after so much plot progression that something bad will have happened to the prisoners in the basement like getting sacrificed or tadpoled (why didn't they do that right away to get Wulbren's dyanmite knowledge?). So it seems like maybe that I need to break them out right now? But then that will end my infiltration. So it's not clear what I should do: go find Balthazaar and the artifact, or save the prisoners.

[rusty_shackleford]

@Val the Moofia Boss Pretty sure you did the tower way, way too early.
Well, the game is very nonlinear so, not really but I did it as one of the very last things in chapter 2 and it was much different.

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

@Val the Moofia Boss I recommend saving the prisoners first before going to Balthazar.

[orinEsque]

U can kick a squirrel, kill a cat, kill little kids, and no reaction from companions. Kill the lesbian priestess? Jaheira goes bye bye.

Sell out the ****, a horde of comments from every companion.

[Cipher]

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Kai no Kiseki/Trails Beyond the Horizon will be releasing tomorrow, and then Arknights: Endfield next week, so this might be the last BG3 playthrough update for a while.

► Act 2: Moonrise Towers prison break, Dark Urge visitation, some misc exploration

I have been advised to free the prisoners now. I head back, place smokepowder barrels in front of each wall, split the party into two with two party members at each wall to help cover the escape of the prisoners, and get ready to blast.






But then I realize that the guards are right there, so the moment I blow the walls, the guards will likely manage to shoot and possibly kill at least one or two of the unarmoured, low level low HP prisoners. So me and Gale wind up having to once again draw the guards away into the office and out the back and lock the door.








Bombs away








Gale and I chug speed potions with Gale flipping the lever to open a cell door so we can sprint from the Warden's office straight through the cell to the breach we just made on the other side and then to the boat. Unfortunately, because Gale flipped the lever which counts as an action, he can't use the dash action, so he falls behind me.






This then leads to a problem. As soon as the gnome leader Wulbren reaches the boat, he sucks whichever party members are currently there into a cutscene dialogue and tells them he is getting in the boat and leaving. There is no option to tell him (or force him) to hold position to wait for Gale. If you don't get on the boat, they leave without you. There is no other boat.






We did not buff and heal up in anticipation for a fight. With angry level 8s behind our backs of level 7s, and far more level 8s above and possibly now hostile, it would be suicide to try to fight our way up and out of Moonrise Towers. The only choice is to get on the boat with the three we have and see what can be done later.






We arrive at the Last Light Inn.






Oh sod off. There should be a button that lets you interrupt dialogues to punch people in the face like in Mass Effect with that reporter.




We have to wait for the guard to lean over and look at everyone's heads, one by one. He doesn't even have a tadpole in a jar so he couldn't possibly detect them since since tadpoles are crawl through the eye sockets. There won't be any visible surgical scars.




Well we get released and go back into the common room. We hit level 8. Nice.




Time to check out what's happening to Gale.

Well crap.




The way I believe the game works is that only stuff within a certain radius of whichever character you are currently controlling is in motion and active. Ie, if you walk far enough away from something (or you are in a different instance/map), everything there is frozen. It's not like Mount & Blade where the entire game world is still running and being simulated - armies and caravans moving around, battles being fought, NPCs being killed offscreen, etc - even when you are not there. That's why in Grymforge I was able to lure Kith away, fast travel back to the center of Grymforge and kill all of the other dwarves, but Kith never walked back until I ran over to where I left him, and then his walk back routine kicked in. So that is kinda what was happening for Gale once the boat cutscene ended and we unloaded out of this map back to the Shadow Cursed Lands overworld map at the Last Light Inn and we were talking to guards and getting inspected. So during that time, no time passed for Gale.

But what happened is that while we were sucked into the cutscene with Wulbren, the enemy mobs were released from turn based mode, the lock on the door expired, and they came running and were attacking Gale and brought him down to half HP before the boat cutscene ended and the prison map froze.

Gale is rooted and is going to die on the next turn if he isn't able to somehow turn invisible or get away. Almost all of the scrolls I pick up are still on the MC. I know you can inexplicably transfer items between party members when they are far away from each other on the same map, but I don't know if it can be done to party members in a completely different instance.

Apparently, it can be done. I remotely send him some invisibility and misty step scrolls.






The prison guard fortunately does not attack and kill Gale, but she is able to see through his invisibility. On the next turn, Gale has to misty step away and make a run for it to the viscera level. I have never seen NPCs be able to click on a door or a staircase and transfer to a different instance/map in this game like how hostile guards or bandits in Skyrim can follow you from the open world into an instanced house. So I am betting the guards won't follow and get Gale down here.








Gale goes down to the viscera level, and then comes back up. Seems like the guards lost aggro and have gone back to their positions. Apparently I can fast travel out of here, which means I don't need to send Gale more invisibility scrolls and potions so he can escape Moonrise Towers. I guess the whole facility has not become hostile territory to me now like with the Githyanki Creche where fast travelling was forbidden once you entered the Inquisitors room (at that point he was planning to kill you so peace time was over).










We talk to Jaheira. She would want a look at all of these letters and invasion plans we found, the crate of tadpoles, ask the prisoners we freed about who and they saw in there, know about the viscera level underneath the tower and the Absolute flesh in the walls, and know that Duke Ravenguard is not in the tower.




What? We can't report any of these things to her?

Well that was kind of a waste. I level up and long rest.




The Dark Urge butler visits a second time.




Since Jaheira didn't want my crate of tadpoles, I run out of town and toss it. Guess all of those war plans and letters will collect dust in my storage along with all of the other letters and books I have collected...

After that, I roamed around explored the East-Northeast area of the map. Not much exciting stuff. Got ambushed by a flock of crows which I then incinerated with my dragon breath. Found some random necromancer guy in the woods. Found the Gyrmforge elevator. Came back to the inn and stopped in front of a house.

I have a long litany of criticisms for BG3. But what I will say is that it is very nice to be able to just kill almost anyone I want, including party members. I don't mean killing people just to RP an evil character or whatever. I mean getting rid of a character altogether because they are dragging down your enjoyment of the product. Wyll being guilted into not being a demon hunter was already bad enough, but then Karlach's swearing, millenial speak, and girlboss attitude made her completely DOA and must a remove to maintain my enjoyment of the game. A lot of games would be improved if you could just rid of an unlikeable character or party member. My enjoyment of the third Utawarerumono game would have risen by 2 points if I could have just gotten rid of that infuriating mary sue Kuon. And it's also nice that you can just shut down villains getting let off the hook for their crimes, which has sadly become very prevalent today.

[The_Mask]

Holy ****! Baldur's Gate 3 peaked at over 110,000 concurrent steam players yesterday. This game has been out for 2 1/2 YEARS, Larian didn't even charge full price (it was $60 when $70 was already a thing) & it is a non live-service RPG... TAKE NOTES INDUSTRY!

Have we gotten any influx of new/more traffic because of this? Do people try to mod things?

[BLofbr]

Holy ****! Baldur's Gate 3 peaked at over 110,000 concurrent steam players yesterday. This game has been out for 2 1/2 YEARS, Larian didn't even charge full price (it was $60 when $70 was already a thing) & it is a non live-service RPG... TAKE NOTES INDUSTRY!

Have we gotten any influx of new/more traffic because of this? Do people try to mod things?

Lol how the **** do this game still get this many players, its unfinished and lacking a lot of stuff and the end is dreadful,. Players cant be this ********?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Holy ****! Baldur's Gate 3 peaked at over 110,000 concurrent steam players yesterday. This game has been out for 2 1/2 YEARS, Larian didn't even charge full price (it was $60 when $70 was already a thing) & it is a non live-service RPG... TAKE NOTES INDUSTRY!

Have we gotten any influx of new/more traffic because of this? Do people try to mod things?

Lol how the **** do this game still get this many players, its unfinished and lacking a lot of stuff and the end is dreadful,. Players cant be this ********?

It's not the most amazing thing ever it was made out to be, and there are a lot of things I wish had been different about the game (more appealing artstyle/setting like MTG, that the mocapped characters would move around more in scenes rather than stand in place, the forgettable soundtrack, lack of a world map/overworld), but I played for 70 hours and (hadn't even explored half of the act 2 map yet) and the game is overall good. I fully intend to get right back to this once I finish Trails Beyond the Horizon.

Probably the best thing about the game is that it gives the sense of going on a fantasy adventure that few RPGs do. A problem with most RPGs is that the gameplay is almost all in the combat. You are deciding between different spells that do pew pew damage. But BG3 has a lot of the gameplay happen outside of combat. Casting spells to speak with animals, or to speak with the dead, or to detect people's inner monologues. Or just simply walking into the strongholds of evil and deceiving people into thinking you are on their side. So it feels a little bit more like what you would read in a fantasy novel, where the characters are doing things that aren't just combat. There are only a few other games where the noncombat stuff is gamefied and interesting, like Sakura Wars with its timed dialogue choices and having to pay attention to the characters.

[Valter]

There are only a few other games where the noncombat stuff is gamefied and interesting, like Sakura Wars with its timed dialogue choices and having to pay attention to the characters.

Sakura Wars salesman

[methoxetamine]

There are only a few other games where the noncombat stuff is gamefied and interesting, like Sakura Wars with its timed dialogue choices and having to pay attention to the characters.

Sakura Wars salesman

It's working, I'm going to start it sooner or later

[TKVNC]

And it's also nice that you can just shut down villains getting let off the hook for their crimes, which has sadly become very prevalent today.

Very true, and sorely missed in the face of 'morally grey' slop.

There is objective good, and while it may seem 'evil' to put sinners to death, you are permanently ending their commission of sin... you are compassionately acting as a force of righteousness in doing so.

I wonder if this idea of forgiveness, and 'earthly repentance' (I'm using lower case for a reason...) is born from a Protestant rejection of purgatory, and intercession?
'

[Val the Moofia Boss]

We are back.

► Act 2: The basement under Last Light's Inn, weird orphaned kid, the toll House, the 'Hospital', another gay Gale scene

Fearing an ambush walking through the front door, I decide to walk through the side door. There is no one inside, though.






I looted this skeleton not noticing that there were two skeletons in the bed. Once I did, I put the ring back.




I climb down the vines into an underground cavern. I find a cracked wall and begin breaking it down. After having played Arknights Enfield, I miss my party members helping me destroy objects and pick stuff up. Why are you just standing there Wyll and Gale while I do all the hard work?




Turns out that I just broke into Last Light's cellar where the jail cells are. Nothing to see here, so I head back out and go the other way in the cavern.




We find some weird Zerg looking things. A pretty rote execution.








Shadowheart starts becoming nitpicky when I pocked the only good loot down here.




Time to hit the road again.




I get accosted by some hairy things which garrot me, but they go down easy peasy. Need some challenges please.




Why are there lots and lots of chests buried across this area?




I find a house. Wonder what will happen here.




Yay, my speak with dead spell actually worked this time! Didn't get any relevant info, though. Unfortunately, some wonky camera framing stuff ensues. Does the game not detect to see if your character's head is visible?








This guy wants me to play a game with him. I don't want to risk getting into a fight with strong enemies that killed these two space orcs, so I play along with it. Eventually a couple ghosts of his parents spawn, but I easily dispatch them.






The kid gives me a ring and runs off. I am not quite sure what was going on with his face. He had a blue eye and a red eye. Was the blue eye from him being slowly corrupted by the Shadowlands' cursed atmosphere? Is his spirit decaying slower than that of his mom and dad? Didn't this region get cursed many years ago? Why is the kid still a kid then? Is it because time flows slower inside the Shadowlands? Or does it magically slow your aging?

Time to fully check out the Toll House. I only passed through on the way to Moonrise Towers and didn't explore or talk to anybody, presuming that the place was staffed by Ketheric's soldiers.




There is nothing interesting on the first floor, so I climb up and immediately run into...




Why am I the only one recoiling at this weird being? Why are my comrades just standing there pretending as if there isn't an obese gold woman in front of them?




I failed the persuasion check, but she apparently suicides or dies anyway.


Again, it'd be nice if my friends would help out.




Shadowheart is being petty about Selune items again. Nobody tells her to shut it.




I pick the second floor clean and proceed to the third floor, which turns out to be an empty roof. This is a surprisingly large area and has a lot of holes through which you can view the second floor. Is this a place meant for you to set up and attack the golden toll keeper boss from a safe distance if you don't want to be diplomatic with her?




I head north.






Come on. I am a 6 foot tall heroic dragonman wearing a gilded suit of plate armor and wielding a spear. I have by this point survived being abducted by cthulu monsters, a spaceship ride through a hell planet, a crash landing, killed bandits in the a temple ruin, killed skeletons, exterminated several dozen if not over a hundred goblins, survived a gnoll warband, killed a demon war hero, killed an evil witch, fought giant spiders, fought a giant demon eye that petrified a half dozen dark elves, wiped out a few dozen evil dwarves, fought large golem, killed several lieutenants of the absolute, wiped out a space orc base, waltzed into the dark lord's towers... why am I afraid of a single ghost?




I was anticipating that she would become a guest party member following me around and I would have to protect her for a few minutes until I find out what happened to her parents and Zevlor, but she apparently disappears offscreen to go to the vague camp location.




Some of the blurbs on the tombstones were neat.




It is frustrating that I charge in to save this guy, and then get yanked into a cutscene where my character just stands and watches the poor man's eyes get gouged out or cuts them. It's the same problem with Karlach where I initially tried to charge at her to kill her, and then the forced cutscene nonsense that ensued that screwed up my save.












To try saving this guy, I reload and have Gale throw a fireball from afar to prevent the cutscene.












What? I attacked the bad guys so no cutscene happened of his eyes get gouged, but now that I am talking to him his eyes are black as if I didn't prevent that?




I find the key and free him from his restraints, and he runs off, not even letting me ask him his name. Isn't he blind? Shouldn't he need guidance to get to Last Light's Inn? Shouldn't he become a guest NPC who follows me around for a bit? How is he going to survive in these Shadowlands without a moonlantern to prevent him from being warped into an evil spirit monster?




I find the parents. After getting confirmation that they were murdered, I avenge them. It is odd that only dad could be raised for questioning, though.










Some more unthreatening fodder on the way to visit the morgue. I am not sure if the game designers thought that they should deliberately place a lot of encounters that are 2 or 3 levels below me (I am 8) that are very easy to create "leisurely" sections in the gameplay, or if they calculated the EXP wrong and they didn't think that the player would be this high level. I was struggling throughout almost all of act 1's content, almost always underleveled or same levelled up until the end.






I come across another seemingly fresh mass grave pit (after the first one underneath Moonrise Towers). These bodies haven't decayed so they must be a few weeks old at the most. Where on earth are all of these people coming from? The Shadowlands seems to be a remote, unpopulated region with only ONE remaining, inhabited residence: Last Light's Inn. Which seems to receive hardly any to no normal civilian traffic. The only people there right now are the inn's owner, and the Harper military NGO/order visiting from Baldur's Gate. There just isn't any people nearby to prey upon and harvest bodies from. I don't see any carriages trucking in bodies either from the Absolute's frontlines in other regions. Are they coming on the boats?






Another dull battle.




I am out of spells, so I need to long rest. Gale wants to talk to me.




Uhhhh










Look. I am a man. You are my bro. Why can't I get a bro scene? This scene feels like it was for a female protagonist.

Also, why is the sky clear? Why is there green foliage? Why are we away from camp, without a moon lantern or the pixie's blessing? I thought we were in the Shadowlands where there is grey fog, all of the foliage is dead or twisted, and we are in constant danger of being warped by the atmosphere into evil beings. Is this scene supposed to take place in the normal act 1 zones?

[DecadeRiptide]

Holy ****! Baldur's Gate 3 peaked at over 110,000 concurrent steam players yesterday. This game has been out for 2 1/2 YEARS, Larian didn't even charge full price (it was $60 when $70 was already a thing) & it is a non live-service RPG... TAKE NOTES INDUSTRY!

Have we gotten any influx of new/more traffic because of this? Do people try to mod things?

Lol how the **** do this game still get this many players, its unfinished and lacking a lot of stuff and the end is dreadful,. Players cant be this ********?

Is it actually that bad?

[DecadeRiptide]

I watched a streamer play it but its been a while so thought I might try

[DecadeRiptide]

Holy ****! Baldur's Gate 3 peaked at over 110,000 concurrent steam players yesterday. This game has been out for 2 1/2 YEARS, Larian didn't even charge full price (it was $60 when $70 was already a thing) & it is a non live-service RPG... TAKE NOTES INDUSTRY!

Have we gotten any influx of new/more traffic because of this? Do people try to mod things?

This is weird bcos even I had thoughts on playing this game for the past few weeks. Not sure if they've upped the ads for the game or smth and it's drawn a lot of ppl on or smth.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

so thought I might try

I am using the following mods and would recommend them:

No Alphabets mod
Realms Restored
DeGirlBoss
Dignify
ReallyShadowheart
BetterRomance
WyllsOfToril (I use the black version for a more handsome fellow knightly party member)
NarratorMortanius (replaces the female narrator with an older male voice)
WASD movement mod
3rd person camera mod
Transmog mod
Everybody Dyes Unlimited Dying


I am 80 hours in on Act 2. IIRC I have only had one severe problem so far. I went to kill Karlach but got sucked into a cutscene upon approach before releasing me and allowing me to kill her, and then several hours I long rested and the game decided that I had not killed Karlach and punished me for it. So I had to reload an earlier save and attack her from range to prevent the game from sucking me into a cutscene and the bad thing from happening. That was incredibly aggravating. Otherwise, there have been minor hiccups but nothing game breakingly substantial. I am a little peeved with how I use a dye, but then sometimes my armor's color will shift when I load into a different map/load a save/close and reopen the inventory screen. I haven't felt the game "missing" a lot of content or anything so far.

I would also recommend playing on tactician difficulty. The middle stretch of act 1 becomes a little difficult because you are always just a little underlevelled for the content, and there isn't enough easy encounters to farm (unless you beeline to the goblin fort instead of saving it for last like I did), but it wasn't too bad. Act 2 has been a breeze so far, feels like everything is level 5 or 6 when I am level 8, but then again it seems like the designers only intended for you to clear either the Mountain Pass map or the Underdark and Grymforge maps, not both, so I might be overlevelled? Also, don't worry too much about having to do a lot of research before you play for your build. You can do a full respec at any time (after you get Whithers from the first dungeon near your starting location on the beach) for a measly 100 gold. You can change class, stat allocation, etc.

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

We are back.

► Act 2: The basement under Last Light's Inn, weird orphaned kid, the toll House, the 'Hospital', another gay Gale scene

Fearing an ambush walking through the front door, I decide to walk through the side door. There is no one inside, though.






I looted this skeleton not noticing that there were two skeletons in the bed. Once I did, I put the ring back.




I climb down the vines into an underground cavern. I find a cracked wall and begin breaking it down. After having played Arknights Enfield, I miss my party members helping me destroy objects and pick stuff up. Why are you just standing there Wyll and Gale while I do all the hard work?




Turns out that I just broke into Last Light's cellar where the jail cells are. Nothing to see here, so I head back out and go the other way in the cavern.




We find some weird Zerg looking things. A pretty rote execution.








Shadowheart starts becoming nitpicky when I pocked the only good loot down here.




Time to hit the road again.




I get accosted by some hairy things which garrot me, but they go down easy peasy. Need some challenges please.




Why are there lots and lots of chests buried across this area?




I find a house. Wonder what will happen here.




Yay, my speak with dead spell actually worked this time! Didn't get any relevant info, though. Unfortunately, some wonky camera framing stuff ensues. Does the game not detect to see if your character's head is visible?








This guy wants me to play a game with him. I don't want to risk getting into a fight with strong enemies that killed these two space orcs, so I play along with it. Eventually a couple ghosts of his parents spawn, but I easily dispatch them.






The kid gives me a ring and runs off. I am not quite sure what was going on with his face. He had a blue eye and a red eye. Was the blue eye from him being slowly corrupted by the Shadowlands' cursed atmosphere? Is his spirit decaying slower than that of his mom and dad? Didn't this region get cursed many years ago? Why is the kid still a kid then? Is it because time flows slower inside the Shadowlands? Or does it magically slow your aging?

Time to fully check out the Toll House. I only passed through on the way to Moonrise Towers and didn't explore or talk to anybody, presuming that the place was staffed by Ketheric's soldiers.




There is nothing interesting on the first floor, so I climb up and immediately run into...




Why am I the only one recoiling at this weird being? Why are my comrades just standing there pretending as if there isn't an obese gold woman in front of them?




I failed the persuasion check, but she apparently suicides or dies anyway.


Again, it'd be nice if my friends would help out.




Shadowheart is being petty about Selune items again. Nobody tells her to shut it.




I pick the second floor clean and proceed to the third floor, which turns out to be an empty roof. This is a surprisingly large area and has a lot of holes through which you can view the second floor. Is this a place meant for you to set up and attack the golden toll keeper boss from a safe distance if you don't want to be diplomatic with her?




I head north.






Come on. I am a 6 foot tall heroic dragonman wearing a gilded suit of plate armor and wielding a spear. I have by this point survived being abducted by cthulu monsters, a spaceship ride through a hell planet, a crash landing, killed bandits in the a temple ruin, killed skeletons, exterminated several dozen if not over a hundred goblins, survived a gnoll warband, killed a demon war hero, killed an evil witch, fought giant spiders, fought a giant demon eye that petrified a half dozen dark elves, wiped out a few dozen evil dwarves, fought large golem, killed several lieutenants of the absolute, wiped out a space orc base, waltzed into the dark lord's towers... why am I afraid of a single ghost?




I was anticipating that she would become a guest party member following me around and I would have to protect her for a few minutes until I find out what happened to her parents and Zevlor, but she apparently disappears offscreen to go to the vague camp location.




Some of the blurbs on the tombstones were neat.




It is frustrating that I charge in to save this guy, and then get yanked into a cutscene where my character just stands and watches the poor man's eyes get gouged out or cuts them. It's the same problem with Karlach where I initially tried to charge at her to kill her, and then the forced cutscene nonsense that ensued that screwed up my save.












To try saving this guy, I reload and have Gale throw a fireball from afar to prevent the cutscene.












What? I attacked the bad guys so no cutscene happened of his eyes get gouged, but now that I am talking to him his eyes are black as if I didn't prevent that?




I find the key and free him from his restraints, and he runs off, not even letting me ask him his name. Isn't he blind? Shouldn't he need guidance to get to Last Light's Inn? Shouldn't he become a guest NPC who follows me around for a bit? How is he going to survive in these Shadowlands without a moonlantern to prevent him from being warped into an evil spirit monster?




I find the parents. After getting confirmation that they were murdered, I avenge them. It is odd that only dad could be raised for questioning, though.










Some more unthreatening fodder on the way to visit the morgue. I am not sure if the game designers thought that they should deliberately place a lot of encounters that are 2 or 3 levels below me (I am 8) that are very easy to create "leisurely" sections in the gameplay, or if they calculated the EXP wrong and they didn't think that the player would be this high level. I was struggling throughout almost all of act 1's content, almost always underleveled or same levelled up until the end.






I come across another seemingly fresh mass grave pit (after the first one underneath Moonrise Towers). These bodies haven't decayed so they must be a few weeks old at the most. Where on earth are all of these people coming from? The Shadowlands seems to be a remote, unpopulated region with only ONE remaining, inhabited residence: Last Light's Inn. Which seems to receive hardly any to no normal civilian traffic. The only people there right now are the inn's owner, and the Harper military NGO/order visiting from Baldur's Gate. There just isn't any people nearby to prey upon and harvest bodies from. I don't see any carriages trucking in bodies either from the Absolute's frontlines in other regions. Are they coming on the boats?






Another dull battle.




I am out of spells, so I need to long rest. Gale wants to talk to me.




Uhhhh










Look. I am a man. You are my bro. Why can't I get a bro scene? This scene feels like it was for a female protagonist.

Also, why is the sky clear? Why is there green foliage? Why are we away from camp, without a moon lantern or the pixie's blessing? I thought we were in the Shadowlands where there is grey fog, all of the foliage is dead or twisted, and we are in constant danger of being warped by the atmosphere into evil beings. Is this scene supposed to take place in the normal act 1 zones?

Great to see you back at it!

You can avoid those forced cutscenes by sneaking and landing an attack for a surprised round most of the time. Looks like you got that with the fireball.

Are you not using the Even Better Romance mod? That gay **** shouldn't happen with that installed.

[orinEsque]

so thought I might try

I am using the following mods and would recommend them:

No Alphabets mod
Realms Restored
DeGirlBoss
Dignify
ReallyShadowheart
BetterRomance
WyllsOfToril (I use the black version for a more handsome fellow knightly party member)
NarratorMortanius (replaces the female narrator with an older male voice)
WASD movement mod
3rd person camera mod
Transmog mod
Everybody Dyes Unlimited Dying


I am 80 hours in on Act 2. IIRC I have only had one severe problem so far. I went to kill Karlach but got sucked into a cutscene upon approach before releasing me and allowing me to kill her, and then several hours I long rested and the game decided that I had not killed Karlach and punished me for it. So I had to reload an earlier save and attack her from range to prevent the game from sucking me into a cutscene and the bad thing from happening. That was incredibly aggravating. Otherwise, there have been minor hiccups but nothing game breakingly substantial. I am a little peeved with how I use a dye, but then sometimes my armor's color will shift when I load into a different map/load a save/close and reopen the inventory screen. I haven't felt the game "missing" a lot of content or anything so far.

I would also recommend playing on tactician difficulty. The middle stretch of act 1 becomes a little difficult because you are always just a little underlevelled for the content, and there isn't enough easy encounters to farm (unless you beeline to the goblin fort instead of saving it for last like I did), but it wasn't too bad. Act 2 has been a breeze so far, feels like everything is level 5 or 6 when I am level 8, but then again it seems like the designers only intended for you to clear either the Mountain Pass map or the Underdark and Grymforge maps, not both, so I might be overlevelled? Also, don't worry too much about having to do a lot of research before you play for your build. You can do a full respec at any time (after you get Whithers from the first dungeon near your starting location on the beach) for a measly 100 gold. You can change class, stat allocation, etc.

FYI BetterRomance is outdated. it's superceeded by Even Better Romance. Make sure you have the right one

[Val the Moofia Boss]

so thought I might try

I am using the following mods and would recommend them:

No Alphabets mod
Realms Restored
DeGirlBoss
Dignify
ReallyShadowheart
BetterRomance
WyllsOfToril (I use the black version for a more handsome fellow knightly party member)
NarratorMortanius (replaces the female narrator with an older male voice)
WASD movement mod
3rd person camera mod
Transmog mod
Everybody Dyes Unlimited Dying


I am 80 hours in on Act 2. IIRC I have only had one severe problem so far. I went to kill Karlach but got sucked into a cutscene upon approach before releasing me and allowing me to kill her, and then several hours I long rested and the game decided that I had not killed Karlach and punished me for it. So I had to reload an earlier save and attack her from range to prevent the game from sucking me into a cutscene and the bad thing from happening. That was incredibly aggravating. Otherwise, there have been minor hiccups but nothing game breakingly substantial. I am a little peeved with how I use a dye, but then sometimes my armor's color will shift when I load into a different map/load a save/close and reopen the inventory screen. I haven't felt the game "missing" a lot of content or anything so far.

I would also recommend playing on tactician difficulty. The middle stretch of act 1 becomes a little difficult because you are always just a little underlevelled for the content, and there isn't enough easy encounters to farm (unless you beeline to the goblin fort instead of saving it for last like I did), but it wasn't too bad. Act 2 has been a breeze so far, feels like everything is level 5 or 6 when I am level 8, but then again it seems like the designers only intended for you to clear either the Mountain Pass map or the Underdark and Grymforge maps, not both, so I might be overlevelled? Also, don't worry too much about having to do a lot of research before you play for your build. You can do a full respec at any time (after you get Whithers from the first dungeon near your starting location on the beach) for a measly 100 gold. You can change class, stat allocation, etc.

FYI BetterRomance is outdated. it's superceeded by Even Better Romance. Make sure you have the right one

Are you not using the Even Better Romance mod? That gay **** shouldn't happen with that installed.

Apparently not, just Better Romance. Is it safe to uninstall that and to install Even Better Romance during the playthrough?

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

I am using the following mods and would recommend them:

No Alphabets mod
Realms Restored
DeGirlBoss
Dignify
ReallyShadowheart
BetterRomance
WyllsOfToril (I use the black version for a more handsome fellow knightly party member)
NarratorMortanius (replaces the female narrator with an older male voice)
WASD movement mod
3rd person camera mod
Transmog mod
Everybody Dyes Unlimited Dying


I am 80 hours in on Act 2. IIRC I have only had one severe problem so far. I went to kill Karlach but got sucked into a cutscene upon approach before releasing me and allowing me to kill her, and then several hours I long rested and the game decided that I had not killed Karlach and punished me for it. So I had to reload an earlier save and attack her from range to prevent the game from sucking me into a cutscene and the bad thing from happening. That was incredibly aggravating. Otherwise, there have been minor hiccups but nothing game breakingly substantial. I am a little peeved with how I use a dye, but then sometimes my armor's color will shift when I load into a different map/load a save/close and reopen the inventory screen. I haven't felt the game "missing" a lot of content or anything so far.

I would also recommend playing on tactician difficulty. The middle stretch of act 1 becomes a little difficult because you are always just a little underlevelled for the content, and there isn't enough easy encounters to farm (unless you beeline to the goblin fort instead of saving it for last like I did), but it wasn't too bad. Act 2 has been a breeze so far, feels like everything is level 5 or 6 when I am level 8, but then again it seems like the designers only intended for you to clear either the Mountain Pass map or the Underdark and Grymforge maps, not both, so I might be overlevelled? Also, don't worry too much about having to do a lot of research before you play for your build. You can do a full respec at any time (after you get Whithers from the first dungeon near your starting location on the beach) for a measly 100 gold. You can change class, stat allocation, etc.

FYI BetterRomance is outdated. it's superceeded by Even Better Romance. Make sure you have the right one

Are you not using the Even Better Romance mod? That gay **** shouldn't happen with that installed.

Apparently not, just Better Romance. Is it safe to uninstall that and to install Even Better Romance during the playthrough?

Probably not. Just push Gale off a cliff if he tries that **** again

[orinEsque]

Apparently not, just Better Romance. Is it safe to uninstall that and to install Even Better Romance during the playthrough?

Remove Better Romance, and include Even Better Romance. Should be fine doing it mid play through. if you find its not the case, I'd recommend letting lore/kowe know

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Ah, I should have moused over first. Turns out that I did actually have EvenBetterRomance installed. It just initially appears in the list as BetterRomance. And in my BG3 mods folder, I have EvenBetterRomance. No "BetterRomance" there.

[orinEsque]

Ah, I should have moused over first. Turns out that I did actually have EvenBetterRomance installed. It just initially appears in the list as BetterRomance. And in my BG3 mods folder, I have EvenBetterRomance. No "BetterRomance" there.

@loregamer why is there bear sex still?