Baldur's Gate III - Spoiler Edition (please read updated OP)

I haven't really played in a few weeks but I checked things out after the patch. There's disappointingly few mods available on the mod manager. I thought there would be more or at least the popular ones. I was expecting to see a ton of hairs, presets, etc.

I went back to my very first save from last September, where I did the embrace DUrge run. I saw the new endings. However, I feel my poor Tess was done really dirty and I wanted to un-do every bad choice I made in that save but it's impossible. I have no saves from earlier than act 3 and I have absolutely no idea what I did. I have little to no gear, bad stats, bad abilities. I can respec, but none of the equipment I'd normally use are available. My camp storage has nothing but junk in it. It was only on Explorer so even if I wanted to re-do the ending I shouldn't have trouble replaying it with terrible gear. I can respec of course, but I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking. I've got clutter and junk galore but very bad equipment. The only thing I did right was be a Swords Bard.

I'm finding a badly equipped party on Explorer is way harder than it is with a well equipped one on HM. It is brutal!

I'm getting an incorrect/mismatched data maessage when I load up, despite me removing the one and only mod I had installed. I removed it prior to patching. I was using the one to allow multiple saves for HM. But I don't need that anymore because we can make custom games with HM settings and that's all I really wanted to do anyway.

I can't believe how much junk I hoarded and how little valuable gear I kept. And I don't seem to have a lot of gold to show for it. I vaguely remember I ran out of camp supplies on this save too (the first time around). I apparently looted all the useless things and missed all the valuable ones. Ha ha ha. I don't think I'll ever do an evil DUrge run again. That was my one and only and the new scenes sort of cemented it for me that Tessa deserved another chance. I'm surprised I still had as many save files as I did as I had deleted a lot of old ones before. At least I kept the majority of autosaves from Act 3. I'd always intended on going back to this save when this patch dropped but my goodness I had absolutely no clue what I was doing a year ago and how I even made it to the end of the game is beyond me.

The new patch has me pottering around again - Alaria had been parked at the gates to Wyrms Rock Fortress for nearly 6 months... (where the hell is this year going)...

Solved the Open Hand murders, freed Stelmayne and found an entirely new - to me - way in to see Gortash's coronation. Then wandered the lower city, and save Cora from Dolor. Then went to another on the red dwarf's list - Alexander...something. I couldn't pick the lock to his home, because a Steel Watcher was there, but 3 out of the 4 party members were able to jump to an open balcony out of sight of the Watcher and gained entry to the house.

Alexander was dead, but had useful information about the murders and the tombstone shop that doesn't sell tombstones. Very suspicious.

But below his house was some kind of altar...and a pair of ritualistically slaughtered dragonborn (very glad my Paladin didn't see his kin like this). All very creepy, but the party is now at level 10 and we've barely scratched the surface of the city's quest lines.

Question:

Say, when finding scratch one were to ACCIDENTLY aggro him after befriending him (don't know how this could have happened) and, rather than kill him, knocked him out. He appears in camp, still KO-ed. And he has remained so despite several long rests. He has been healed with spells, potions, and Lay Hands. He cannot be "Helped" and attempts to shove him only annoys the other NPCs in camp.

Am I doomed to have an unconscious dog in camp the rest of the game?

Bummer. I'd hoped if it was a bug the latest patch might have fixed it.

Don't worry, you won't accidentally kill Cazador. You will know when you reach the city where you need to go. There is a clue about it in the flophouse across from Sharess' Caress. So you could add Astarion into your party before going to the flophouse and find out more info. You won't stumble into the vampire lair just by exploring. There will be big hints ahead of time. Also, make sure you don't have the Blood Of Lathander equipped on anybody before going into the flophouse.

Same goes for Shadowheart, there will be hints around town that lead you to a specific location. Gale mentions at the start of Act 3 where he needs to go for his questline to progress.

However, it is possible to kind of screw things up with Wyll's, which is apparently what I did in my first playthrough. I progressed his storyline too soon. I will say this--if you can, postpone going to Gortash's ceremony for a bit. It progresses things around the city before you've even had a chance to explore.

Lae'zel's is probably the most difficult to accidentally stumble upon so I wouldn't worry about it. You need to do a series of things first. And don't worry about Karlach's either. There's no way you will progress her storyline accidentally. You will find out who she wants dead the most and just make sure she's in your party when you do it. And even if she's not in your party, she will say something at camp and you can return to the scene with her.

So I'd say to just hold off attending Gortash's coronation for a little bit until you've had a chance to look around the city proper for a bit.

Speaking of such, I'm still cleaning up Tessa's mess. I had already done the first part of Wyll's storyline, fought Cazador, and recruited Minsc when I went back to my earliest save. I guess I couldn't have been playing all THAT evil because I have Wyll, Karlach, Jaheira, and Halsin. I saved the grove, lots of people think you have to kill the grove and side with the goblins to do an evil DUrge playthrough but that's not the case. You can flip your good/evil switch any time you like up until a certain moment in game.

I just finished Shadowheart's storyline and because this is on easy mode, I didn't do my usual cheese method of that epically annoying battle. But I got to try out Black Hole with my illithid powers. That was fun. Black Hole, arrow of many targets, the end. I made myself suffer all these months just because I didn't want to have a veiny illithid face. I think about all those times I struggled on HM when some battles would have been much easier had I used these illithid powers. Me and Gale are the only half-squids so far. Astarion must have already told me he didn't want to transform because I no longer have the option to ask him. Gale was down, though!

Finvola Thank you for the explanation. Makes me feel mor confident now when playing act III.

It is five long rests iirc, which is fairly generous considering that it is possible to bum-rush the whole lower city without resting at all to keep the "rapture" buffs if you don't care about the camp scenes. Stop the Press is the only really hard-timed quest in act 3 as it fails after a single long rest.

I have a question: I have not completed the game but have seen that Gale becoming a god is possible ending. Why is it that it is considered the evil ending for him? I've seen clips where a god Gale deifies Karlach saving her from Avernus. I've seen clips of him denying Raphael Karsus' crown. I even seen him in camp as a god talking to the party. Like I said I have not finished the game but why is that is considered the evil ending?

Finvola Oh I see. I think for Gale to save Karlach you have to play her origin and romance him. I even saw a clip where he turns Astarion into a god. As for him being arrogant and insufferable well he is a god and you know how they are portrayed in media. As for leaving Tara that is inexcusable in my opinion. Now I will talk Gale out of becoming a god since I have high influence. Although I did not romance him so we'll see.

Aren't most dnd Wizards power hungry though and isn't their goal godhood or lichdom?  I know of the lich Vecna who's from another realm achieved godhood as well.  I know there are exceptions such a Eliminster and Gorion.  I forgot was Gorion a Wizard in BG1?  I'm just saying Gale being the typical power hungry Wizard is no surprise to me.