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Post by alanc9 on May 29, 2024 19:58:37 GMT
Now that they've gone back to Minthara and Halsin not being mutually exclusive, they might as well restore that scene.
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Post by Curious Crow on May 29, 2024 23:12:38 GMT
Alice Act 1 adventures. So mostly the Grymforge this session. Killed the druegar because...they were there I guess? Also Wyll sanctions it so it must be fine.
Got Philomeena to toss me the vial this time around, because the barrel just isn't enough for me I guess.
Cheesed Grym via ranged attacks but decided not to tangle with the Lava elemental since it always kicks my but with its stupid lava and it's stupid healing. That's my gimmick damn it!
Attack the druegar at the digsite so I can deal with them without Nere. Anyways at some point Alice gets mind controlled and being the clever girl she is she tosses the runepowder vial at Astarion. Well shit. Except nothing happens. Think oh it's probably a bug and I am very thankful. Then a ranged Druegar has a turn and shoots in Astarion's direction but not at him. So look at the combat log and realize, the vial is still there, it just didn't explode. So have Astarion scoop it up in his turn just so someone wouldn't do anything hilarious.
With much pain we finish the encounter, heal up and do some necromancy. Find out that Shatter also works on the rubble, taking a good half of it's health bar. Then used a smokepowder bomb for the rest just because.
Nere comes out, does some murder and we initiate combat. Attack him, he fires up Psionic visage and tbh I don't know how to deal with it. Usually just face tank the damage and hope someone is alive to attack him after. Anyways try to be clever and move Shadowheart away from the group before making her attack. It hits and she get's shattered into the Lava and poor Larissa was standing a bit to close and gets yeeted into the Lava as well. Whoops. And she'd just heard Philomeena was alive and well and totally not planning on ghosting her or anything. Resurrect Shadowheart and figure to not be clever and just have Wyll blast him into the lava. Got the lantern, but alas no head, so the Myconid story is sadly incompletable. Unless maybe I go back if I get access to telekinesis and see if I can fish him out or something.
Also realized while typing this that I forgot to talk to Barrcus afterwards. So guess he's dead since I did rest and leave the area. Frick.
Went to visit Auntie Ethel since the Right eye is worth more than a one use bone. Except I got greedy, rolled one on the Deception dialog and was denied use of my (at least) two inspiration points. So murdered the old woman in her home. Then Mayrina got big mad and stormed off. Feeling spiteful I tracked her down, told her I found an item to ressurect her husband and then snapped it before her eyes. Had been planning to let her join him but again, Wyll is there. He might get mad and then who will Eldritch blast people into chasms for me?
Figure I'll do the party next, then head to the creche because eggs. Yummy yummy eggs. Could also deal with the spider I guess since I should be fine now. Maybe?
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Post by alanc9 on May 30, 2024 6:11:15 GMT
Some fights strike me as being extremely random. Got creamed the first time against Balthazar at the Nightsong. Second time, Balthazar actually Dashed at Gale. So Sylvie calmly Mobile Flourished him into a chasm, and used the second charge to throw a Apostate Destroyer after him. But then both Sylvie and Gale got pitched into the chasm by the other Destroyers.
Shadowheart and Lae'zel cleaned up the mess , but it's an ugly win.
I suppose the correct approach is to only have one person go to the lower platform, huh?
Anyway, with Sylvie temporarily out of things, Shadowheart did what she came to do. I'll keep the outcome, although I'm really curious to know how things play out with Aylin alive and Isobel abducted
I guess I'll keep an archived save and play it out later.
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Post by Finvola on May 30, 2024 7:51:48 GMT
I fought Auntie Ethel tonight and unfortunately for me, it defaulted to Shadowheart to do the talking. I usually save Mayrina and get the hair, but not with her minus Charisma. I changed her stats once I got Withers. She failed the check, so I decided to take the hair. That meant no Connor either. I like to use him in the Underdark or for various surprise attacks. When I know there's an ambush coming, I send him off ahead to trigger it. Not this time, Sadness!
I'm trying to get the Busker achievement. According to Steam, one of my previous Bards had 94/100. I have no idea which one it was or that it was even an achievement at the time. Otherwise I would have tried harder for that last 6 gold. I think I milked as much gold as I could from the Grove. I wish I played a few tunes for the goblins before poisoning the beer keg. That was a missed opportunity, lol. I think I got some gold from there but not as much as I could have. I wish there was a way we could keep track of tips. I have no idea how much I got. A lot of times I forget to play when there's groups of NPCs around. Mostly by the time I reach Act 3, which is probably how I got stuck at 94/100.
I just finished the goblin leaders and had the tiefling party, so I'm making good progress. I got another round of tips at the party. Taking money from refugees, how shameful!
I had dipped into the Underdark a bit already when I was trying to get enough XP to get me to level 5. I wasn't going to take on any bosses until I reached 5. I still hadn't replaced my worn out mouse from last week and it was wildin' during some of these fights, but I finally swapped it out.
Now it's time to head back to the Underdark.
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Post by Curious Crow on May 30, 2024 22:52:18 GMT
Another honour mode bites the dust. Stomped the spider then went back to Grymforge and found Barcus standing there. Alone. He did not want to join Alice, but accepted to camp with Wyll (eh eh, it's paying off having him you see). The stone mason and fellows at the docks were also still there but let them be for now. Went to the forge and got the heavy stuff Shadowheart yeeted at Grym since I forgot it last time and made the second Admantine item. Made a scimitar and scale armour and no idea if I'll even use them. Also got the smoke powder satchels because bombs. Finally realized what Mirkon means when he says "You saved us, just like Baldy Ron". Baldy Ron, balduran. Bah. Guess it's a more flattering comparison than the drunk uncle I was picturing. Party time get your drugs out! Got a new dialog from Lae'zel . "Too bad for us both your bunk will be quite busy. Take all the pleasures you can, before dawn brings their end." Usually she's either thirsty or disgusted so this middle of the road dialog was odd. Shadowheart dialog also cut short when talking about the wine. Can't apologize for aggressively propositioning Halsin, not sure it's because we're at the temple or Alice has no shame. Would be funny if I'd locked out the romance this way. Murdering the Githyanki at the entrance does not make all the others hostile. Guess it makes sense. Have never had my character use the Zaithisk (Lae'zel gets dibs on the creepy murder chair) so that was fun. Pick a fight with the red haired Gith because it's hilarious. Lae'zel gets the first move, disarms her, knocks her down, beats the heck out of her. She had like 19 hitpoints left. But she had better initiative so she got the next turn. Unarmed, very weak, should be easy right. She casts fear, everyone panics and drops their weapons. We get the heck beaten out of us for two turns. Lae'zel gets one turn. She's been benched since the Grove so she has no extra knickknacks. No invisibility potion or well anything. Equips a weapon, has no turns to use it and gets murdered the next round. I've never dealt with fear in the game so if there is a potion or something to override it or prevent it I don't know it. All I know is that's I'm livid and I hate this game and I won't play it ever again. Until I play it again but currently I just want to scream.
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Post by Element Zero on May 31, 2024 2:14:17 GMT
I picked up BG3 again, today. First, itching to use the CC, I created a female Gith'yanki Sorlock I'd intended to eventually make. She was intended to be a Wizard, but I didn't want to make Gale obsolete. I played through the early going, recruiting Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, and Lae'zel. We met Withers and respec'd. I saved before heading to the Grove.
Later in the day, I decided to resume my Gale playthrough. I really like that, with Tav out of the way, I can bring all four of my preferred "companions" -- Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Wyll. (As with 5e in general, I don't have much use for melee characters. I'll happily support others playing them in the party, but I'm an optimizer at heart, so they generally aren't for me.)
We essentially looted in the time I had. We looted the countryside surrounding the Blighted Village, and then the village itself.
Gale told the sibling cultists to avenge their brother by killing the owlbear. The fools never quite made it, needing a prod at every turn. As they stood staring at the owlbear, Astarion pinched a single gold piece and some cheese from their pockets. When they started getting worked up over who (in the isolated cave) could've done it, Astarion threw a spider egg pouch on the brother. That was a good choice, as he was rendered frightened and useless. Astarion killed the sister and the brother got dropped by the others. The spiders stayed with us until we eventually took a long rest.
We also met Shovel. I usually have all of my arcane casters summoning Shovel, but this time couldn't resist teasing Shovel with Wyll. Shovel noted that Wyll smells like a dragon. (He's a Sorlock). Wyll shared that he secretly IS a dragon, and gave Shovel lessons on how to become a dragon. I would've reloaded after having my fun, but Honour Mode. 🤷🏻♂️
We sold our loot at the Grove and finally took our long rest. I got to see Astarion gag on Gale's blood. I'd wondered if that would happen. 😄 After having my Withers Support Staff of flunkies buff the party, we were ready to head back to the village. That's when my pup decided that we needed to play, so I saved for the day. Tomorrow we'll continue with the Blighted Village and beyond.
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Post by alanc9 on May 31, 2024 3:25:57 GMT
Later in the day, I decided to resume my Gale playthrough. I really like that, with Tav out of the way, I can bring all four of my preferred "companions" -- Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Wyll. (As with 5e in general, I don't have much use for melee characters. I'll happily support others playing them in the party, but I'm an optimizer at heart, so they generally aren't for me.) Could you show me the math on that? What makes melee suboptimal?
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Post by alanc9 on May 31, 2024 4:57:09 GMT
Just discovered a get out of jail free card for Sylvie and that unfortunate result in my last entry.
Turns out Sylvie had somehow broken her Oath at some point between going full murderhobo at the Towers and actually hitting the point of no return. Savegames didn't give me any idea what had gone wrong, beyond that it wasn't at the Towers. Usually you get something from the narrator, but I didn't get anything.
Since this isn't Honour Mode I get to apply my personal CRPG standard, which is that I don't have to accept consequences if I can't determine why the consequence happened. So I'm reloading. Of course, I might just screw up again.
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Post by alanc9 on May 31, 2024 6:58:19 GMT
Another honour mode bites the dust. Stomped the spider then went back to Grymforge and found Barcus standing there. Alone. He did not want to join Alice, but accepted to camp with Wyll (eh eh, it's paying off having him you see). The stone mason and fellows at the docks were also still there but let them be for now. Went to the forge and got the heavy stuff Shadowheart yeeted at Grym since I forgot it last time and made the second Admantine item. Made a scimitar and scale armour and no idea if I'll even use them. Also got the smoke powder satchels because bombs. Finally realized what Mirkon means when he says "You saved us, just like Baldy Ron". Baldy Ron, balduran. Bah. Guess it's a more flattering comparison than the drunk uncle I was picturing. Party time get your drugs out! Got a new dialog from Lae'zel . "Too bad for us both your bunk will be quite busy. Take all the pleasures you can, before dawn brings their end." Usually she's either thirsty or disgusted so this middle of the road dialog was odd. Shadowheart dialog also cut short when talking about the wine. Can't apologize for aggressively propositioning Halsin, not sure it's because we're at the temple or Alice has no shame. Would be funny if I'd locked out the romance this way. Murdering the Githyanki at the entrance does not make all the others hostile. Guess it makes sense. Have never had my character use the Zaithisk (Lae'zel gets dibs on the creepy murder chair) so that was fun. Pick a fight with the red haired Gith because it's hilarious. Lae'zel gets the first move, disarms her, knocks her down, beats the heck out of her. She had like 19 hitpoints left. But she had better initiative so she got the next turn. Unarmed, very weak, should be easy right. She casts fear, everyone panics and drops their weapons. We get the heck beaten out of us for two turns. Lae'zel gets one turn. She's been benched since the Grove so she has no extra knickknacks. No invisibility potion or well anything. Equips a weapon, has no turns to use it and gets murdered the next round. I've never dealt with fear in the game so if there is a potion or something to override it or prevent it I don't know it. All I know is that's I'm livid and I hate this game and I won't play it ever again. Until I play it again but currently I just want to scream. Fear spells can ruin your whole day. I'm not sure what counters it besides Counterspell. Heroism, maybe?
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Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by talyn82 on May 31, 2024 8:25:47 GMT
A couple of days ago I reloaded my Paladin campaign and just finished act 1. Since I've done act 1 so many times before I skipped somethings like creating a weapon at the forge in the Blighted Village and I got tired of trying to navigate to the Grymforge so I skipped it. Now comes the hard part the portion of the game that has stopped many of incomplete playthroughs Act 2.
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Post by Finvola on May 31, 2024 8:35:50 GMT
Calm Emotions works. Clerics have it and bards can learn it too, but they get something called Countercharm that does the same thing, I think? The only difference is that it's an aura so you have to be within a certain radius of them.
I finished most of the Underdark. I made a boneheaded mistake and had Glut reanimate the Bulette. It couldn't even move around to do anything and then I had to kill it again once Glut failed in his attempt to take over the circle. Ah well, it's moments like this when I question my sanity.
Went to the forge, teamed up with the rebel duergar to fight Nere and then I went around picking off the isolated groups as I went. I didn't risk it with Philomeen this time, I sniped her in one shot in my last save and nobody got blown up. This time I wasn't so sure. I sent Astarion in to pickpocket the vial from her, then go invisible to steal the barrel. She got mad and attacked him but at least nobody got blown up. I always leave the rest of the party outside the room in case things go wrong.
Nere fight wasn't anything special. His Legendary Actions were mostly used on the allied Duergar. Sucked to be them.
All that's left is the big hunk of metal at the forge and all that stuff. It's going to be Owlbear from the top rope. Why give myself a headache when it can be over in 20 seconds?
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Post by Element Zero on May 31, 2024 14:24:35 GMT
Later in the day, I decided to resume my Gale playthrough. I really like that, with Tav out of the way, I can bring all four of my preferred "companions" -- Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Wyll. (As with 5e in general, I don't have much use for melee characters. I'll happily support others playing them in the party, but I'm an optimizer at heart, so they generally aren't for me.) Could you show me the math on that? What makes melee suboptimal? This is a huge ask, to "show math" on 10 years of 5e plus BG3. I'll try to hit the main points, and address the ways in which BG3 at least made melee more fun than in standard 5e. The big thing here is that it's more than just math. The math varies wildly depending upon the builds being compared. The math also can't take into account the differing experience from one table to another. BG3 at least gives all of us a similar, baseline "table" experience, as we are facing many of the same encounters. However, we are facing them on differing difficulty settings with different party composition and different builds, so... it's more than math. The main issue is this: ranged characters, and particularly spellcasters, can do anything a melee character can do, generally do it better, and do it from greater safety. BG3 greatly improved the capabilities of melee combatants to dish the damage in interesting ways, adding tactical options to weapons and making a handful of questionable design changes. The silly design of Tavern Brawler aside, it is definitely an improvement in fun. The upcoming update to 5e features similar improvements that should give martials (that is weapon users, as opposed to spellcasters) more meaningful and effective options. It still doesn't close the gap, though. It's hard to compete with characters who simply alter reality each round while you're swinging a halberd. Spellcasters and ranged martials (like the dual handcrossbow Thief or Valor Bard) can put out amazing damage and do so at range. They don't waste time closing to melee in round 1 of combat, nor when selecting subsequent targets. They don't drain party resources in the form of healing because they take far less damage. (In BG3, I often go many hours without casters taking any damage at all.) They don't contend with terrain in the same ways, and they don't settle for lesser attack options because of not being able to get into range. There's a myth that casters are "squishy" and need melee combatants to protect them. This was true in some editions of D&D and other games, but not in 5e. Casters can (and should) easily achieve excellent Armor Class, roughly on par with melee classes like Fighters and Paladins. They also have defensive magic like Shield, Arcane Ward, Warding Flare, etc... Martials lack this second line of defense and resilience, and have to fight from riskier positions, generally making them less resilient and more needy of support than supposedly "squishy" casters. The Paladin is the king of burst/spike damage in 5e (though the 2024 update will rein them in while simultaneously buffing the other martials). The Paladin also has one of the best features in 5e in Aura of Protection, making everyone in the party more resilient. Paladins are great in 5e. It's been fun for those of us who love Paladins but have suffered through poorly designed iterations in previous editions. Still, how does a Paladin compete with a Sorlock? He just can't, unless he also multiclasses into Sorcerer (or maybe Bard in BG3). Round to round, the burst damage of the Paladin simply will not prove as useful as the consistent damage and battlefield control of the ranged caster. I've focused a lot on casters, since they are the most powerful characters. Yet, ranged martials still share many of the same advantages. BG3 gives everyone overpowered gear, but I feel like it ultimately favors the ranged characters. The medium armors of Act 3 that allow characters to add their full Dexterity bonus to AC completely outclass the magic armors of the melee martials. This means our multiclassed Rogues, Rangers, Bards, and archer-Fighters have AC on par with the best melee ACs and (again) enjoy all the benefits of being at range. I'm sure I've missed something important (yep, see Edit#2), or could've been more clear or concise in this post. I'm typing in a distracting environment. Hopefully, though, it at least explains that optimizer's mentality I referenced. None of this is to say that playing melee characters is a bad idea. They're fun and present different challenges and experiences. Games would also be boring if everyone always played the same types of characters. EDIT: Going back to my "preferred companions" comment that started it all, I nearly always have three of these four (Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Wyll) teamed with a spellcasting Tav. I only deviate from this for story reasons. If I could adventure with a party of 5, I'd be very happy indeed. I'm on PS5, so no mods for me. Even with mods, though, increasing party size would reduce the difficulty even further. EDIT #2: I left out another key point. A huge portion of monsters in both 5e and BG3 lack meaningful ranged attacks. They must rush into melee in order to challenge the party. The ranged heroes get a free round against these enemies, pummeling them before they get to reply. As described above, combining this with crowd control means dominating encounters with minimized risk.
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Post by Iakus on May 31, 2024 17:39:11 GMT
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Post by talyn82 on Jun 1, 2024 0:42:49 GMT
Just watched this video on youtube showing what becomes of Astarion if we choose not to recruit him.
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Post by Finvola on Jun 1, 2024 15:09:53 GMT
I finished the Underdark. Turns out I used the wrong jump on the druid hireling but he still one shotted Grym. I was like "Wait, why is he injured?", then I realized I used regular jump but it was all good. It's one of the fights I have no shame in cheesing. And watching the owlbear launch will never get old.
I moved onto the mountain pass, talked to the Blue Jay and agreed to kill the eagles. Then I heard a noise outside and went to investigate. I saw my neighbor's cat murdering a pigeon on my patio. I did a little shriek and went back in the house. I played a bit more, but considering I'd just witnessed a bird murder in progress I didn't feel much like murdering eagles after that and logged out, haha.
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Post by bolt on Jun 1, 2024 15:32:02 GMT
Just watched this video on youtube showing what becomes of Astarion if we choose not to recruit him. Well, that settles it for me. He'll be recruited even if he spends large portions of the game chilling at camp.
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talyn82
N5
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Post by talyn82 on Jun 1, 2024 18:05:46 GMT
Just watched this video on youtube showing what becomes of Astarion if we choose not to recruit him. Well, that settles it for me. He'll be recruited even if he spends large portions of the game chilling at camp.
I feel the same way.
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Post by Ravenfeeder on Jun 1, 2024 20:12:49 GMT
Just watched this video on youtube showing what becomes of Astarion if we choose not to recruit him. Same thing happens if you shove a stick through his heart when he tries to feed off you. Which will probably be my default mode from now on. I've tried to like him, I've taken him along, I've given him the silly book. But he's still a vampire with an annoying accent and deserves to die.
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talyn82
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Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by talyn82 on Jun 2, 2024 0:25:15 GMT
Just watched this video on youtube showing what becomes of Astarion if we choose not to recruit him. Same thing happens if you shove a stick through his heart when he tries to feed off you. Which will probably be my default mode from now on. I've tried to like him, I've taken him along, I've given him the silly book. But he's still a vampire with an annoying accent and deserves to die. I've only completed the game once and that was many months ago during the time it was released and I have had many abandoned playthroughs since. So I don't remember how all of the companions turn out. But so far Astarion has been cool with me. We butt heads from time to time but he's been fine. He tried to bite my paladin once but I him spared and he has not attempted to bite my paladin again. I do remember Astarion had a redemption arc and I'm all for that. Although I have never recruited her but seen many of her scenes on youtube even Minthara has a small bit of change.
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Post by Element Zero on Jun 2, 2024 1:17:59 GMT
Astarion's attempt to bite Gale was interesting. I almost had Gale refuse him, but one of Gale's dialogue options intrugued me. It said something like, "You might be biting more than you can handle."
Gale let him bite, and Astarion recoiled at the vile taste. Then, a smirking Gale told him about the orb. 😄 Gale was not drained "Bloodless". Astarion was at least appreciative and went off to hunt an animal. I really like Astarion. He's fickle and petty, at times, but he's remarkably sane and reasonable given his experiences. Newbon's VA performance is incredible, and Astarion's redemption arc is one of the most poignant things I've experienced in a game. It felt good to help him free himself. I'm slowly making my way through Act 1. We started in camp today, just after recruiting Karlach. Mizora revealed herself and punished Wyll for his actions. Karlach respec'd as a Battle Master. Gale and Shadowheart had a private evening that ended with a kiss. Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Karlach headed back to the Risen Road to deal with the false Paladins. We sneaked to the roof, and Karlach crept down to push one of them off the cliff. She failed, despite only a 10% chance of that happening. No matter. She one-shotted the woman with a critical hit and climbed back up the ladder. We threw grease bottles in front of the doors and stairs. Their Ranger decided to fight from below and was eventually dropped by bolts from Shadowheart and Astarion. Anders eventually decided to come upstairs via the inner route. He slipped in the grease at the door. (Gale's Web awaited him if he'd cleared the grease.) With an invisible Shovel lurking, Astarion filled Anders with miniature bolts. Shadowheart got in on it, too. Gale finished him off with a Magic Missile spell. Thanks to good tactics and luck, we took no damage in the fight. Then, Karlach's rage led her to burn down half the building and everyone took fire damage. I'd previously seen her lose control, burn up and die in this scene, so I kept throwing water on her. I don't know if it helped, but she lived. Between her nearly useless role in the fight, and her freak out after, I usually don't bring her to this battle. Next, we headed to Waukeen's Rest, which was aflame following an attack by drow and goblins. We rescued several people, including Councilor Florick of Baldur's Gate. I would've like to have Wyll here for this, but Karlach is perfect for kicking down doors and running into burning buildings like a badass. Florick rewarded us with a nice staff that will serve Wyll into Act 3. After the rescue at the inn, we headed back outside to battle gnolls. Again, crowd control spells and ranged attacks carried the battle. Karlach did get to tank the crowd of newborn gnolls at the end, at least, though it was Astarion and Gale that killed them. Heading further up the hill, we found the gnolls' main force. Wyll used the tadpole to convince the Flind to attack her pack. We again mopped up the group with ranged attacks. (This is why I typically don't bring the melee Fighters. Sigh.) Wyll then commanded the Flind to devour herself. Scary stuff, these tadpoles. Astarion thought it was great. The men we rescued proved to be Zhentarim, something Gale knew upon hearing them mention tarenths (zhent currency). I have always stolen the lockbox from these guys. This time, I didn't. I want to see whether I can get my hands on it in their hideout. (If not, I'll miss it later. I like deploying the Spectator when freeing Hope in the House of Hope dungeon. It's great to give those enemies something else to fight.) We fast-traveled back to the Grove to sell some loot and talk to Dammon, and then returned to Waukeen's Rest to loot the now smoldering ruin. It's incredible how much food was in there. We are once more loaded with loot. We'll sell it to the Zhents. I also dropped by camp, talked to Wyll about his father, Duke Ravengard, and had him replace Karlach in the party. EDIT: I forgot that we also confronted Kagha while in the Grove. Gale convinced her to oppose the Shadow Druids, and we absolutely wrecked them with no allied casualties. My pup wanted to play just as we descended into the Zhentarim Hideout, so I saved there. Tomorrow, we'll engage in honest commerce with the Zhentarim, before inevitably pissing them off and burning down their hideout. Then, we will finally head for the Goblin Camp.
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talyn82
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Post by talyn82 on Jun 2, 2024 20:48:20 GMT
Made it into the Shadowlands via the elevator in the Underdark. Ran into the legendary wizard Eliminster who wanted to speak to Gale. I'm not a DnD lore expert but I have played plenty of crpg's set in the Forgotten Realms and even I knew who Eliminster was. Turns out Mystra wants Gale to activated the orb inside his chest to blow up the Absolute. Met some Harpers and for the first time I was able to save most of them including their leader which helped later on. Was directed to the Last Light Inn and met the famous and my Bhaalspawns waifu Jaheira from the original Baldur's Gate games. She was skeptical of my Paladin but one of the Tiefling children spoke up for him. Spoke to Dammon with Karlach in my party. Gave her a big hug. Met Raphael again who was negotiating a contract with a Tiefling child.
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Post by alanc9 on Jun 2, 2024 22:54:24 GMT
Could you show me the math on that? What makes melee suboptimal? This is a huge ask, to "show math" on 10 years of 5e plus BG3. It was, but I figured you'd rise to the occasion. Thanks. As it happens, Sylvie the (former) swords bard just reached the end of act 2, and the last fight there did illustrate some of your ideas nicely. Due to some bad loadout decisions, neither Sylvie nor Lae'zel had decent Bludgeoning weapons available. This made Lae'zel largely ineffective against the Apostle, and as a pure Swords Bard Sylvie would have been almost wholly so. And when I considered trying to clear up the reinforcing Necromites, it was clear that Sylvie would be far better at the job than Lae'zel. The random spawns would usually work against Lae'zel; a Titanstring Bow is good, but not that good. Some of this is that Swords Bards are a bit OP, but most of it is that ranged>melee.
Fortunately for me, Sylvie isn't a pure Swords Bard anymore. She got to P2 inside the Mind Flayer Colony. How many (live) Paladins can say that their very first Smite was on something like the Apostle of Myrkul? And honorable mention to Wyll, for making everyone more effective with Hunger of Hadar. Plus his new cambion pal, of course.
And Gale's running around at 20 AC with Mage Armor, the Gauntlets of Dex, and a shield. Which is as good as anybody else.
So, points taken.
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Post by alanc9 on Jun 3, 2024 5:37:42 GMT
So, yeah, Sylvie's past Act 2 now. Before finishing, I played out Gale doing the thing. Is Mystra kind of stupid? Or did she just not care since the damage was limited to the Sword Coast? (Apparently that ending counts as a win for achievement purposes.) As for the real playthrough, the more I think about it, that's one of the most awful villains I've seen in a while. I mean... ... everything Ketheric did was about his wife and daughter, supposedly? And yet, the moment he gets Isobel back, after years and years, the first thing he does is STICK A TADPOLE IN HER BRAIN??
I'm just hoping he lost faith in Myrkul in his last moments. If anyone deserves to go to the Wall of the Faithless, it's him.
Well, that's that. On to Baldur's Gate. No help for the Shadow Curse. So, no Halsin, no... quite a few people, actually. Did the fight before entering the city. Easier than I remembered it being; maybe I'm getting better at this. And Sylvie didn't even have to make a check, since she thought this tadpole stuff was icky. And in totally trivial news, I found a use for Sylvie's default underwear: Now she fits in better with Shart and Lae'zel. You could do this with Minthara's underwear too, but I thought that looked a bit trashy.
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Post by alanc9 on Jun 3, 2024 5:47:00 GMT
Made it into the Shadowlands via the elevator in the Underdark. Ran into the legendary wizard Eliminster who wanted to speak to Gale. I'm not a DnD lore expert but I have played plenty of crpg's set in the Forgotten Realms and even I knew who Eliminster was. Turns out Mystra wants Gale to activated the orb inside his chest to blow up the Absolute. Met some Harpers and for the first time I was able to save most of them including their leader which helped later on. Was directed to the Last Light Inn and met the famous and my Bhaalspawns waifu Jaheira from the original Baldur's Gate games. She was skeptical of my Paladin but one of the Tiefling children spoke up for him. Spoke to Dammon with Karlach in my party. Gave her a big hug. Met Raphael again who was negotiating a contract with a Tiefling child. Always good to meet Jaheira. But does she now have two murdered husbands?
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talyn82
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Games: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by talyn82 on Jun 3, 2024 20:55:35 GMT
Played a bit more in act 2. Spoke to all of the teiflings at Last Light even a drunk Rolan. For the first time Isobel was not taken by Marcus. This has never happened to me before usually Marcus takes her. Did not even know it was possible to prevent him from doing so. So the for the first time since I have been playing BG3 Last Light Inn was not destroyed. Now I want to see act 2 to it's completion.
Edit: Oh and after the fight at Lat Light Inn the camera focused on Shadowheart and Isobel was speaking to her instead of Tav. The narrator spoke of Shadowheart's hesitant feelings abut Ketheric Thorn being a fellow Sharran. This is the first time this has happened to me.
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