BG3

[Wormerine]

23 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

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The latest point for the companion or Yenna to be kidnapped is shortly before the first gate to the Temple, which can be unlocked with Knock. The companions who can be kidnapped are Lae'zel, Gale, Halsin/Minthara. If all are in the active party or unavailable, the game defaults to Yenna. Grub the cat disappears from the camp even if he was in a conversation when Orin/Yenna spawned. If a companion who is not in the dialogue with Orin attacks her, she teleports away with plot armour. If Yenna is attacked at the camp by the player and runs away, and all kidnapping candidates are in the party/unavailable, Orin still kidnaps her and kills Grub.

Yes, that's all correct. It's annoying that characters still disappear from camp as if Orin revealed herself in camp.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Broke a lady out of jail, sabotaged a propaganda rag, found my guardian's old stash, and ran into someone in the sewers.

Spoiler

The Emperor is Balduran. Between the stats of the Sword of the Emperor being very similar to the Sword of Balduran in BG1+2 and The Emperor mentioning that he was missing a butter knife it clicked for me. 

Also halsin was kidnapped and....ok? He's the character I used least and it came out of nowhere, was Yenna actually a shapeshifter of some kind?

 

[Hawke64]

4 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

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The Emperor is Balduran. Between the stats of the Sword of the Emperor being very similar to the Sword of Balduran in BG1+2 and The Emperor mentioning that he was missing a butter knife it clicked for me. 

Also halsin was kidnapped and....ok? He's the character I used least and it came out of nowhere, was Yenna actually a shapeshifter of some kind?

Spoiler

Can he be Balduran, considering the timeline and the average illithid lifespan? Larian tends to be quite "creative" with lore, even their own.

 

[Wormerine]

5 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

 

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The Emperor is Balduran. Between the stats of the Sword of the Emperor being very similar to the Sword of Balduran in BG1+2 and The Emperor mentioning that he was missing a butter knife it clicked for me. 

Also halsin was kidnapped and....ok? He's the character I used least and it came out of nowhere, was Yenna actually a shapeshifter of some kind?

 

To be Emperors backstory is just another “?!” On top of already questionable character with odd motivations.

Orin kidnapping is the clunky one. She can appear in your camp, or when adventuring if you go to close to your lair. Explaining what happens in camp explains why NPCs disappear for no reason if you encounter her when adventuring. 

1) Orin kidnaps Laezel, Gale or Halsin/Minthara. When in camp Orin will approach the player wearing the face of said companion and urge you to kill Yenna claiming she is Orin in disguise. If you refuse it, she will kill Yenna herself and reveal her true identity and do her speech about kidnapping the companion. As such, even if you encounter her when adventuring Yenna still disappears from your camp

2) if you have all three in your party Yenna will be kidnapped instead. She will give you a stew which she reveals to be cooked grub the cat. So if Yenna is kidnapped grub is the one who will disappear from your camp. 

Out of the two, you got the superior outcome I would say.

edit. Actually it seems more complicated than that. Different NPCs will do different things and potentially kill different followers in camp (Scratch, Isobel etc.). Laez is one who can kill Yenna. Apparently if you encounter Orin in sewers Yenna just disappears. Act3 jank.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Wormerine

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm on mobile and spoiler posting is wonky here so the responses to both @Wormerine and @Hawke64 will be in the spoiler below

@Hawke64 so I looked into it last night and lorewise the Emperor could fit with age, there's a lot of ways people in the Forgotten Realms can extend their life span, so I don't think there's much of an issue with a very wealthy adventurer prolonging his life before going through ceremorphosis. I assume we could say the same about a renegade mind flayer who isn't reporting to an elder brain.

The bigger issue is that ceremorphosis kills the host, whose soul goes on to the afterlife, and the resulting mindflayer (or other creature) is essentially the grown up tadpole. So The Emperor isn't really Balduran, but the tadpole who ate Balduran's brain and retained his memories to the point it believes itself to be Balduran more than just a regular mindflayer. Of course Larian-brew (the elder brain and the tadpoles have been magically altered after all) or even larger Coastal Wizard retcon could be at play, and neither would be unheard of, but Withers already said mindflayers don't have souls so this is what I'm going with.

@Wormerine Huh, I haven't checked back in camp for a while, I wonder if Yenna ran away. It's funny that Orin impersonates the three companions I use the least, but I did grab Lae'zel because the Githyanki alarm went off.

Kind of lame that after Gortash tells you that you've been infiltrated by a shapeshifter that you don't get an option to investigate and find out. Guess this is the start of Act 3 jank for me.

[MrBrown]

4 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

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Can he be Balduran, considering the timeline and the average illithid lifespan? Larian tends to be quite "creative" with lore, even their own.

 

He is. I think there's additional stuff in the game that confirms it 100%.

[InsaneCommander]

I'm exploring Reithwin. I met with a lot of crazy people, helped two children and recruited Halsin. And the owlbear cub finally returned.

Karlach's romance is working. Withers seemed displeased about it, but he is busy now explaining to Arabella what he is, so good luck with that.

I imagine how many people were spying at night. I bet someone wanted to talk with my character but decided to leave it for another night.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Karlach's romance is working. Withers seemed displeased about it, but he is busy now explaining to Arabella what he is, so good luck with that.

Withers also savages you if you don't have a bosom companion. "Thou walkest alone?" is the best rpg dunk since Elden Ring calls you maidenless.

[Wormerine]

8 hours ago, MrBrown said:

He is. I think there's additional stuff in the game that confirms it 100%.

I think the question was if it is possible lore wise. 

But yes, the game directly confirms Emperor’s pre-squid identity as a Baldurian.

[Wormerine]

 

[InsaneCommander]

Gauntlet dungeon. I don't know if a certain battle was supposed to be difficult, but the enemies were really stupid so I won even forgetting to use a summon item. I hope there are other battles in this place.

There was an option to lick a corpse. Wtf!?

[BruceVC]

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Gauntlet dungeon. I don't know if a certain battle was supposed to be difficult, but the enemies were really stupid so I won even forgetting to use a summon item. I hope there are other battles in this place.

There was an option to lick a corpse. Wtf!?

And....you did didnt you? You amongst friends here so you can be honest 

[Hawke64]

5 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Gauntlet dungeon. I don't know if a certain battle was supposed to be difficult, but the enemies were really stupid so I won even forgetting to use a summon item. I hope there are other battles in this place.

There was an option to lick a corpse. Wtf!?

1. There is 1 mandatory battle.

2. Unhygienic. Which corpse, by the way?

[Chilloutman]

spider one I guess?

[InsaneCommander]

6 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

2. Unhygienic. Which corpse, by the way?

 

6 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

spider one I guess?

Yes, the spider.

8 hours ago, BruceVC said:

And....you did didnt you? You amongst friends here so you can be honest 

No. There were other ways to proceed: smell it, some skill checks and a Druid specific option, which I chose. But who knows, when I play as a stupid Barbarian or the Drunk Urge, anything is possible.

6 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

1. There is 1 mandatory battle.

It was the one Raphael requested. Not sure if it was avoidable, I hit them with Confusion as soon as I finished setting up Grease, Glyph of Warding and Cloudkill.

Spoiler

The last one was useless, but the Orthon fell prone twice.

 

[Hawke64]

8 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

It was the one Raphael requested. Not sure if it was avoidable, I hit them with Confusion as soon as I finished setting up Grease, Glyph of Warding and Cloudkill.

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The last one was useless, but the Orthon fell prone twice.

 

Spoiler

You could completely ignore him (probably would have failed the quest), convince him to kill himself (several persuasion checks with increasing difficulty), or help him to finish off the last Justicar.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I went to a wine tasting, checked out a clothing shop, and convinced a friend to not take a big deal. Also saw the absolute greatest romance scene in RPG history.

Spoiler

looking forward to playing more when I get the chance, but Act 3 is already noticeably more janky than previously.

[Wormerine]

9 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I went to a wine tasting, checked out a clothing shop, and convinced a friend to not take a big deal. Also saw the absolute greatest romance scene in RPG history.

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looking forward to playing more when I get the chance, but Act 3 is already noticeably more janky than previously.

Eh, ME2 did it better

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Eh, ME2 did it better

 

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I disagree.

Spoiler

The Emperor howling in ecstasy is comedy gold. Larian has made this **** funny as hell.

I also forgot to mention that I also robbed a bank and ran into The Stone Lord.

[InsaneCommander]

Can't argue with that. Worst spell in the game.

 

Edit: Patch 3 is out. You can change your appearance now.

Edited September 22, 2023 by InsaneCommander

[InsaneCommander]

The voice actors who voice the origin companions are playing D&D. I don't know if Jennifer English played BG3, but she certainly knows what to do as Shadowheart:

 

[MrBrown]

My youtube recommendations is filled with them doing interviews and whatever. This game must be a huge career boost for most of them.

[InsaneCommander]

Who would have thought that roleplaying an intelligence 8 character would reveal so much about the plot?

 

Spoiler

I shoved my hand into a hole and met with the absolute, who claims she is being controlled by some people called “the Chosen” and, if this was not one of the numerous act 2 bugs, the Dream Guardian just forgot to mask his voice as female.

 

Gauntlet Trials:

 

Spoiler

I tried to push a switch in the Stealth trial and somehow I couldn’t reach it. I wasn’t sure if it was a bug, so I decided to just turn into a cat and cheat my way to the end by jumping through a window.

The one with the mirror party was funny. Mirror Shadowheart kept wasting concentration spells by casting two of them in a row. Mirror Karlach used a useless low level spell from a ring I had forgotten she was wearing. Mirror Gale only cast Fireball. Is Larian mocking players’ mistakes or stereotypes?

The leap of faith trial was ridiculous. My party had Light spells on them so I never even saw what was supposed to be the problem there.

 

Some funny moments:

 

I passed a deception check and convinced a guard that I live in Ketheric Thorm’s room. Or was it his wife’s?

Withers got tired of dealing with Arabella and sent her away. I tried to prevent it, but he got angry, cast some sort of magic and Arabella was happy to go.

I woke up in the middle of the night with the pets screaming or something. It was actually a nice moment showing that they are very good friends, until the Owlbear cub revealed that his mother ate his brother. Should I worry about the dog?

I met with the Zhentarim vendor again and she admitted she is pretending she didn’t see me slaughter all of the goblins in act 1.

 

Spoilers:

 

Spoiler

How the **** did a level 1 goblin deal a fatal blow to Ketheric Thorm? Yes, he resurrected immediately, but it did seem that he would be gone if it was not for his immortality trick.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I found a hag support group, killed a hag, and got a bitchin rapier for my Bard. Also stopped a mob from killing Volo. Feels like I'm back in Act 1.

On 9/22/2023 at 1:00 PM, InsaneCommander said:

Can't argue with that. Worst spell in the game.

I consistently use it with Shadowheart over Firebolt. It's good for undead and not a lot of things resist Radiant damage.

[Hawke64]

21 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

I woke up in the middle of the night with the pets screaming or something. It was actually a nice moment showing that they are very good friends, until the Owlbear cub revealed that his mother ate his brother. Should I worry about the dog?

 

Spoilers:

 

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How the **** did a level 1 goblin deal a fatal blow to Ketheric Thorm? Yes, he resurrected immediately, but it did seem that he would be gone if it was not for his immortality trick.

 

If they said that they are friends, they are safe from each other.

Spoiler

It probably was a crit and the goblin maxed out Str (checking the stats might disprove it, but it sounds plausible).

The logic in the cut-scenes in general seems a bit odd sometimes.