No Alphabets 7.1 — Baldur's Gate 3

[orinEsque]

Characters like Nere, for me at least, are a pleasure to both have around as companions and as antagonists <3

Can't agree more with this. I would've loved to have him as an optional recruitable companion if you go a more chaotic neutral run.

Still miss hearing Baeloth from Baldur's Gate 1 moan about "woofs" (wolves) and how the mud is staining his precious robes if you dismiss him

Sadly, I never got to play through bg1 and bg2.
But after seeing so many people speak fondly of the games, I really want to give it a chance.

I highly recommend it. Also DO NOT recruit neera. She's a pink hair self insert SJW created in 2016 (game came out in 1990s). Take Edwin instead. He's a based mofo. If you are the type of woman who liked Raistlin, you will like him too.

[Silver]

I highly recommend it. Also DO NOT require neera. She's a pink hair self insert SJW. Take Edwin instead. He's a based mofo. If you are the type of woman who liked Raistlin, you will like him too.

Isn't bg1 a 1998 game? And it already had a character that was sjw level crazy?

[orinEsque]

I highly recommend it. Also DO NOT require neera. She's a pink hair self insert SJW. Take Edwin instead. He's a based mofo. If you are the type of woman who liked Raistlin, you will like him too.

Isn't bg1 a 1998 game? And it already had a character that was sjw level crazy?

Added in 2016 with siege of dragonspear expan- i mean fanfiction, written by a activist lesbian



Look at this, look at that obvious air brushed triple chin of a 400 pound morbidly obese ****. Theres men here who claim that's baby fat. That ain't baby fat, that's just an average american that needs some harpooning.

[orinEsque]

Hmm btw I'm altering Valeria. And I'm finding it SUCH a pity removing the original voice. He has quite an attractive voice.
I will file this away as a potential wyll candidate.

[Silver]

Added in 2016 with siege of dragonspear expan- i mean fanfiction, written by a activist lesbian
Look at this, look at that obvious air brushed triple chin of a 400 pound morbidly obese ****. Theres men here who claim that's baby fat. That ain't baby fat, that's just an average american that needs some harpooning.

Yep. I see that.
I can also see how one can argue that she just has round face, but...
Round face has structure still, shape of bones that dictates it. Lily Cole would be a perfect example.
But this girl on art just looks like she has a blanket of fat wrapped around her face.
Not to mention that she looks very displeased with everything and is about to call manager. Or maybe she is the manager I dunno.

Hmm btw I'm altering Valeria. And I'm finding it SUCH a pity removing the original voice. He has quite an attractive voice.
I will file this away as a potential wyll candidate.

Right?! I haven't listened to it much mostly because I just wanted to be done and far away from that "quirky" abomination of a creature.
But the voice itself - out of context of stupidly written character - is very pleasant.

[orinEsque]

Added in 2016 with siege of dragonspear expan- i mean fanfiction, written by a activist lesbian
Look at this, look at that obvious air brushed triple chin of a 400 pound morbidly obese ****. Theres men here who claim that's baby fat. That ain't baby fat, that's just an average american that needs some harpooning.

Yep. I see that.
I can also see how one can argue that she just has round face, but...
Round face has structure still, shape of bones that dictates it. Lily Cole would be a perfect example.
But this girl on art just looks like she has a blanket of fat wrapped around her face.
Not to mention that she looks very displeased with everything and is about to call manager. Or maybe she is the manager I dunno.

Hmm btw I'm altering Valeria. And I'm finding it SUCH a pity removing the original voice. He has quite an attractive voice.
I will file this away as a potential wyll candidate.

Right?! I haven't listened to it much mostly because I just wanted to be done and far away from that "quirky" abomination of a creature.
But the voice itself - out of context of stupidly written character - is very pleasant.

Indeed he can give ethan reid a run for his money in a male voice beauty pageant.

[Envergence]

With the right texture edits and a nice hair replacement, Gortash qualifies as handsome in my book.

Hot DAUM he's fine, Envergence!
I had to install Gortash facelift in some combination cause I absolutely could not handle the "handsome young man with an easy smile" being Gortash as he is in vanilla game.
Also, with him having Jason Isaacs' voice? Get out of here Larian.
The voice, the mannerisms it was all so amazing and was never sitting well in my head with how he looks.
It's like someone went out of their way to make "handsome" into "hobo-chic" or something like that.
Urgh, this just makes me think Gortash got butchered on purpose cause you just can't have a nice male character in this game. It's so upsetting.

Why, thank you! My only complaint when they first showed off his character prior to release was the anime hair. Why??? After release, I noticed how overly-weathered his face is. Just because you can add an absurd amount of detail, doesn't mean you should, Larian. Even the elves weren't safe, as we well know. Back to the point, for me he only needed minor changes, so I took some bits and pieces from others' mods until he was perfect in my eyes. If anyone's interested in making their game's Gortash look like mine, I'll see if I can't upload the zip somewhere.

Here are some extra screenshots:

► Show Spoiler

[Silver]

Indeed he can give ethan reid a run for his money in a male voice beauty pageant.

That's a bold statement right there!
For that compression I need to listen to Valery voice but with Dream Guardian lines.

[Silver]

Why, thank you! My only complaint when they first showed off his character prior to release was the anime hair. Why??? After release, I noticed how overly-weathered his face is. Just because you can add an absurd amount of detail, doesn't mean you should, Larian. Even the elves weren't safe, as we well know. Back to the point, for me he only needed minor changes, so I took some bits and pieces from others' mods until he was perfect in my eyes. If anyone's interested in making their game's Gortash look like mine, I'll see if I can't upload the zip somewhere.

Oh I love how he looks in your screenshots!
I have trouble with the most popular (probably) mod of Gortash Facelift, cause he either looks too much of "tik tok thirst trap boy", or too old again. I'm talking about specifically head edit, not texture edits.
And yours looks really lovely imho. He looks handsome, but also tired and wicked. I might've added more eyebags for face texture cause I just like idea of Gortash constantly busy with tinkering, but those are just my musings

[orinEsque]

Indeed he can give ethan reid a run for his money in a male voice beauty pageant.

That's a bold statement right there!
For that compression I need to listen to Valery voice but with Dream Guardian lines.

Issue is he sounds drunk in most of them. The ones where he speaks normally he sounds like he would make a handsome nobleman voice (but yes he probably won't win that pageant perhaps come second).

[Silver]

Issue is he sounds drunk in most of them.

Thanks to Larian with their "ha-ha look the lawful good character is edgy, rude and drunk" thing.
Ethan is still the best voice in the game. I would perhaps only put the sequence of astral-dream-love cutscene with Gale on top, just because I think it was beautifully done.
It gets completely thrown out the window cause Gale is still dumb and simps for Mystra, but... that one scene is just good.

[Envergence]

Why, thank you! My only complaint when they first showed off his character prior to release was the anime hair. Why??? After release, I noticed how overly-weathered his face is. Just because you can add an absurd amount of detail, doesn't mean you should, Larian. Even the elves weren't safe, as we well know. Back to the point, for me he only needed minor changes, so I took some bits and pieces from others' mods until he was perfect in my eyes. If anyone's interested in making their game's Gortash look like mine, I'll see if I can't upload the zip somewhere.

Oh I love how he looks in your screenshots!
I have trouble with the most popular (probably) mod of Gortash Facelift, cause he either looks too much of "tik tok thirst trap boy", or too old again. I'm talking about specifically head edit, not texture edits.
And yours looks really lovely imho. He looks handsome, but also tired and wicked. I might've added more eyebags for face texture cause I just like idea of Gortash constantly busy with tinkering, but those are just my musings

Thanks! I've got a version of the HMVY file that keeps the dark eyes/eyebags, and I keep waffling back and forth between which I like better. The aforementioned version looks awesome too, the younger side of middle-aged, and the first one I shared is slightly younger looking still, but YMMV. Also worth noting that his darker eye sockets are harder to see in that bright daylight; I just had Astarion metamorphed into Gortash since it's going to be ages until I see him in-game, so this was the only means I had, lol.

Some screenshots of the different HMVY, most obvious difference is in the lips, cheeks, and eyes:

► Show Spoiler

[orinEsque]

Why, thank you! My only complaint when they first showed off his character prior to release was the anime hair. Why??? After release, I noticed how overly-weathered his face is. Just because you can add an absurd amount of detail, doesn't mean you should, Larian. Even the elves weren't safe, as we well know. Back to the point, for me he only needed minor changes, so I took some bits and pieces from others' mods until he was perfect in my eyes. If anyone's interested in making their game's Gortash look like mine, I'll see if I can't upload the zip somewhere.

Oh I love how he looks in your screenshots!
I have trouble with the most popular (probably) mod of Gortash Facelift, cause he either looks too much of "tik tok thirst trap boy", or too old again. I'm talking about specifically head edit, not texture edits.
And yours looks really lovely imho. He looks handsome, but also tired and wicked. I might've added more eyebags for face texture cause I just like idea of Gortash constantly busy with tinkering, but those are just my musings

Thanks! I've got a version of the HMVY file that keeps the dark eyes/eyebags, and I keep waffling back and forth between which I like better. The aforementioned version looks awesome too, the younger side of middle-aged, and the first one I shared is slightly younger looking still, but YMMV. Also worth noting that his darker eye sockets are harder to see in that bright daylight; I just had Astarion metamorphed into Gortash since it's going to be ages until I see him in-game, so this was the only means I had, lol.

Some screenshots of the different HMVY, most obvious difference is in the lips, cheeks, and eyes:

► Show Spoiler

Hmm his face reminds me of a bad eastern european commercial/ music video I saw on 9gag.

[Silver]

I just had Astarion metamorphed into Gortash since it's going to be ages until I see him in-game, so this was the only means I had, lol.

I was about to ask why I can see Gortash in daylight and outside his natural habitat and this answers my question lol
Especially since I was wondering why on screenshots he has that specific head tilt that Astarion often does.
I think I like younger version more. Hair is a good fit too.

[Acrux]

Baeloth from Baldur's Gate 1

Who?

[DagothGeas5]

Baeloth from Baldur's Gate 1

Who?

BAELOTH, the Entertainer!

► Show Spoiler

[Acrux]

Oh, a Beamdog addition.

[DagothGeas5]

Oh, a Beamdog addition.

He wasn't in the original? I thought The Black Pits was an added arena thing alongside the game (the version I first played was already at the "Enhanced" level, but not as "Enhanced" as the one on Steam now that added and changed UI and things).

[Silver]

(the version I first played was already at the "Enhanced" level, but not as "Enhanced" as the one on Steam now that added and changed UI and things).

There are... multiple Enhanced versions? Which should I get then? (for the best experience of course)

[DagothGeas5]

(the version I first played was already at the "Enhanced" level, but not as "Enhanced" as the one on Steam now that added and changed UI and things).

There are... multiple Enhanced versions? Which should I get then? (for the best experience of course)

I am unsure, but the one I got from Steam left me with a sour taste in my mouth with all the changes. It feels as if it was, like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, re-packed with a comunity mod or something. I personally prefer the original as possible experience I can get, which, from Acrux's comment, it seems it is actually not an original "definitive" edition like I thought, but something else entirely. I have to say though, in my experience, Baldur's Gate and Vampire the Masquerade are the two games that gave me the most trouble that come to mind when I bought them compared to the "trial" Jack Sparrow version. I hope someone more experienced will know what version to recommend!

[Acrux]

If you own the BG/BG2 EEs on GOG, they come with the "classic" editions. The modding community still mostly supports those mods, and/or the older mods for those versions are easily available through the main BG modding sites (pocketplane, gibberlings, etc.)

[Silver]

@DagothGeas5 @Acrux
Thank you both! I really am very interested in original BG games since I've heard many good things. Mostly from this forum of course and some topic on Larian forum, where people were praising the BG experience and frowning on modern BG3 experience.

[DagothGeas5]

If you own the BG/BG2 EEs on GOG, they come with the "classic" editions. The modding community still mostly supports those mods, and/or the older mods for those versions are easily available through the main BG modding sites (pocketplane, gibberlings, etc.)

Thank you! I am switching everything to GOG, glad to have further incentive to also buy Baldur's Gate on there when I will have the means to do so! Thank you once more!

[Acrux]

There are also mods that remove the Beamdog NPCs from the EEs.

http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/113 ... tion-npcs/

The EEs are a mix of some very helpful QoL and changes to work on modern systems more smoothly, plus really bad technical/visual/gameplay decisions.

[orinEsque]

Every Beamdog companion has unnecessarily high stats and are OP. Breaks the law of balanced character stats that we saw in vanilla. I hate them all. It's made for idiots that can't work around inherent class weaknesses.

[DagothGeas5]

Every Beamdog companion has unnecessarily high stats and are OP. Breaks the law of balanced character stats that we saw in vanilla. I hate them all. It's made for idiots that can't work around inherent class weaknesses.

I can't vouce for the others because I try to stay away from them like the plague, but Baeloth was a gem for me to have around, and the only one, in my opinion, to have a reason for being so powerful being an old drow sorcerer (I will never get to his level I think, but I would love to learn at least half of the whole dictionary of words he uses and be as agile as he is in their use. For me it was always a pleasure to hear him talk.) That said, he was for very specific parties. The ranger of the woods (Kivan) will always be the one character I will always recruit if my party's morality allows.

[Deadpan55]

@Silver The EE's definitely aren't bad, but ugh, don't remind me of that self proclaimed "expansion", that in actuality, was little more than horribly cobbled together fanfiction.

The modding community for those games is still very much alive and kicking, with no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Do note, however, these are "old school" RTP RPGs (incl the EE's) and everything that implies. Do keep that in mind, if that's not really your cup of tea.

[orinEsque]

@Silver
Oh yes, the fighting system can feel clunky because its old, and the fights can be brutal.

[Silver]

Do note, however, these are "old school" RTP RPGs (incl the EE's) and everything that implies. Do keep that in mind, if that's not really your cup of tea.

That doesn't scare me. Not nearly as much as that pink haired manager lady...
But thank you kindly for the heads up and additional info!

[Acrux]

The ranger of the woods (Kivan) will always be the one character I will always recruit.

Good taste