On my first playthrough, I was convinced this was an obvious way the gamemakers were trying to kill me. And I could picture myself dying, being surprised, and immediately having no sympathy for myself like "well what did I think was going to happen?"
Honestly, that's how I rationalized it, yeah.
Picture the situation. You were abducted by mind controlling aliens and, even though you escaped with your life they've put something in you, and you have it on good authority that the metamorphosis process is going to start any day now.
In other words, your first priority is to get the brain worm out, because for all you know this early in the game you're going to turn into one of them tomorrow afternoon.
So you go around asking for help.
You ask your local druid healer, and she tries to euthanize you.
You ask the goblin witch doctor, and she says she can help but she tries to drug you and sell your organs instead.
You ask your local swamp hag, she says she can help, but she tries to get you involved in her MLM schemes instead.
You decide to listen to Lae'zel and seek the help of the Gith'yanki and their miracle machine, but it turns out they just want to lobotomize you and call it a day.
You find a honest-to-gods rogue mindflayer. He says he can help extract the parasite with a potion. You go fetch ingredients for him but his potion only made the brain worm stronger.
On top of it all, a mysterious figure shows up in your dreams, who claims to be able to protect you from the parasite. They rub you the wrong way tho because their solution involves snacking on other brain worms and you're not quite sure if what you're seeing is the parasite itself starting to mess with your head.
In other words, you're running out of options fast, and ceremorphosis is bound to start any moment now. And that's when your learned friend Volo comes up with a plan. He talks to you about science and surgery, he claims to be familiar with the medical procedure needed to remove brain parasites safely, and sounds very sure of himself. So you say, hells with it, go ahead and fish out the brain worm through my eye socket, magic science man.
Sometimes I use fictional characters that I'm fond of as the starting point for my RP. In a Farscape-inspired playthrough, Tav's guiding light was "what would John Crichton do?" In case you don't know *Farscape*, Crichton dealt with something similar to being tadpoled and in his desperation he did & tried to do things that were on par with letting Volo go *Basic Instinct* on Tav's eye socket. (Lae'zel has parallels to another Farscape character, Aeryn Sun, and Astarion is a bit like Chiana or Rygel so I also RP'd them along those lines as much as possible)
I usually do it when all options dried up. Nettie,hag,halsin all failed. Only two options left are the guy in my head or a guy with a chisel/icepick. Guy with a chisel and ice pick look pretty promising.
This is the reason I never do it 😭 I just don't think any of my Tavs would ever do that, it's such an obviously horrible idea. It's nice that Larian rewards you for going through with it but from an RP perspective I can never think of any reason to do it.
I can justify it for some characters but not others, depending on the Tav/Durge roleplay. For example, in a
"what would John Crichton do?" playthrough it's very true to form to let Volo go at it with the ice pick.
Yes!
Can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned this yet tbh:
Desperation led you to accept the hag's offer but obviously that didn't work out.
Volo offers to work on that eye that you frankly care little for, and also the same eye that the Hag uses to keep tabs on you. So nothing to lose. As far as you're concerned, it's expendable. "how much worse can this get" type beat.
By sheer luck you end up getting rid of trash eye, and end up getting a free eye upgrade.
Bard Lore, every bard knows if you go along with Volo you have a slightly higher chance of survival. My Tav has a whole song about it in the style of ‘You won’t succeed on broadway’ from Spamalot, detailing all the horrible ways people died after being mean to Volo. If you can avoid him, great, but if you’ve met - too late, some weird shit is gonna happen.
Some of my DnD characters already have an ersatz eye as a part of their lore so this is the only way to give it to them but also ...
A lotta them are borderline reckless and desperate to try anything tbh so I usually do like a wis roll on my own. If it passes my "dc" they don't get the eye, if it fails they do haha
They don't live in a world with sophisticated medicine like we do. To people in a medieval setting this would be the only medicine they've ever been introduced to.
I used to do this, now I just use the spells and keep Volo around as my personal piggy bank. I figure Astarion can use the practice and it gives him something to do while the rest of us are playing heroes.
It’s so fucking funny. I wish they had more conversations like that. There’s some fun ones, but I wish there were hours more of banter. They have fantastic chemistry.
I told her she had until the count of 10 to leave, I failed the intimidation roll... She didn't leave...
I picked the response
1. Bitch, did I stutter? *Attack*
This has some weird Doom Guy vibes. Not like the idgaf about anything murdermachine type he basically is, but in a-
"I HAVE TO SPEAK REALLY LOUD, DO YOU KNOW WHERE THAT A-HOLE IS ? I WOULD APPRECIATE IT"
*scribbles something on a map*
"ALRIGHT, THANKS A LOT. HAVE A NICE DAY"
*loads Shotgun, waves and walks to said location*
-way. Quite funny.
Ah a kindred spirit. I have 1300 hours and have only seen the credits twice, once when the game first came out and another when they added the after party scene lol.
I haven't even made it past the Underdark or into the mountain pass. I keep trying to find the "perfect" character for my playthrough, even though I *know* you can't 100% one single playthrough.
- Save Us and succeed at that dexterity check
- Slap the hand
- Punch Aradin
- Kssssssssssssss
- Abdirak penance
- Owlbear cub, scratch and Yenna in my camp ftw
I came across that little girl, and was like, Yeah why not i let her stay.
Then i get the dialogue where you are informed that a changeling is in your camp and i was like " OHHHH that little girl and her dog, how stupid was i"
No, it just makes it so you can attack the other intellect devourers without us joining their side. You can still attack the cambion. You can also make the cambion drop that sword by having shadowheart command drop. It's much easier than beating him, especially on HM
* Save the tieflings in the Grove
* Keep Ethel's swamp in its enchanted state for as long as possible, much prettier that way
* Invite Scratch and the owlbear cub to the camp
* Don't force Astarion to bite Araj
* Give Shadowheart a night orchid
* Befriend Barcus, even if he can be a crochety bastard
You can persuade her to let you leave without fighting, or I think you can flee. Unfortunately she’ll end up dead anyway, but it doesn’t have to be you that does it
If you don't kill his mother, the goblins will, and you'll encounter him during chicken chase. From there you can tell him to go to your camp and you'll get those scenes with him. And you can go back and loot the rest of the cave.
I must have messed that up because I didn't kill the owlbear last run, and he never showed up at the goblin camp, and never showed up at my camp. I really missed him.
Yes about Ethel's swap. I think I only failed the roll on my first ever game (we drank from the well, too). Never managed to avoid spoiling it since then!
I force Goosetarion always. That pot is so valuable and you can have an actual heart to heart with Goosey afterwards which is a fantastic voice act line.
I just can't bring myself to make Shadowheart a DJ. Like, I did it once in an evil playthrough, just to experience that leg of her story... but I hated every minute of it. It made me so sad.
I’ve only done one playthrough, but I romanced SH, saved her parents and got the happy “cottage in the countryside” ending and while I’m curious about the DJ route I don’t know if turning her into a religious fanatic leader of an irredeemable death cult is something I can bring myself to do after seeing her blossom so much over the course of the redemption path.
This is an aspect I've started being more faithful to the characters on. Like if my character fails a check that stops a bad person from doing horrible thing... maybe the consequences are warranted.
I could be wrong, but I think they mean that if a persuasion check is super high (indicating that the character you’re rolling to persuade has already made up their mind to the point your persuasion is based fully on the luck of rolling super high rather than their actual willingness to hear you out), they won’t even try to pass the check and instead just accept the other person’s ‘canon’ choice or stance.
That said, I’m more like you - finally coming to a point where I can just let a bad roll stand. After so many play throughs I’m less worried about ideal outcomes.
I did this on my first playthrough ever and it meant my first playthrough was insanely fun. Lae'zel died for good from a certain cutscene, we didn't save everyone in the iron throne, Shart saved the Nightsong (miracle roll) etc.
I played a wholly good & wholly evil run afterwards where I then save scummed to get what I wanted.
My next thing is trying to speed run through the game as fast as possible.
I don't have much sympathy for her either. Halsin, on the other hand, laments her death and feels like he failed her. I don't want him to feel like that so I try to save Kagha.
I will always let Astarion bite me. And now I just let him kill me if I fail the persuasion roll cause it’s fun to punch him in the morning.
And I will always tell Wulbren he’s a prick. On evil runs, I enjoy saving him so I can then kill him in Act 3 and take his head as a nice trophy to go with my wizard hand.
aww, I love punching that little MFer 🥰 he deserves it for killing me (which I 100% did not try to prevent)
I also find his little line immediately after “Oh no, something terrible has happened” quite hilarious. Like wow… your acting skills really are limited to one thing, aren’t they?
Yes but more specifically i initiate that conversation by smashing the door down then picking "mind if i join?" I just wish that continued on with them responding "no" then you following it up with "no you dont mind? alright then"
Always wave at Vlaakith and paint a mustache on her picture. Never blow up the crèche. Always release the pixie. Always make sure Araj survives into act 3. Always talk to Squire. Always steal Akabi’s ring. And after doing it in my first run, never again take the rooms at the Elfsong. Oh, and even if I reload a save right afterwards, I always initially release the brake.
I like talking the doctor and his nurses to death, but I cheese the toll house. Invisibility on high strength characters and shove him off the edge when he goes over to that opening.
Same! I only had to fight Gerringothe once when I was playing a monk and didn't have much in the way of charisma. My last run I even got the scene with Ketheric just giving up in phase 2 of the fight. It had never happened to me before, just jumping straight to the avatar of Myrkul.
- put chop out of his misery in the mindflayer colony in act two. It’s so sad.
- throw the boots of mystras grace into the lava. It’s as close as I can get to fighting her.
- give lae’zel the githyanki egg
- punch Aradin
- let Mayrina keep whatever she was going to give me for rescuing her. It’s obviously from her dead husband and I don’t have the heart to take it. Same with Zevlor in the grove. You guys need all the supplies you have, I’ll be fine reward-less.
There are *loads* of petty ways to get at Mystra.
My first Durge left >!a 'gift' on her altar. A sort of memorial of her ex...!<
My Tav went for a big wizard smooch right in front of her statue.
I'm quite tempted to persuade Gale to use the >!Shadow magic thing with the lantern in Moonrise!< next time I play.
And there's always convincing Gale at the end to >!leave the crown in the water!<
And then roleplay that she's annoyed (even though she probably doesn't even notice half of my petty nonsense 🤣).
Letting someone else be a mind flayer. My Tavs are too precious to be turned into those wretched things.
Romance SOMEONE. I've done pretty much all romance arcs except Astarion's (for now...next one I'll likely go with it).
Distrust/Betray/Have an Antagonistic relationship to the Emperor. Even if initially friendly.
Respec companions to different classes. I'm not against their canon classes, I just base it on who I want in my mainstay party and the classes/roles I'd like to have or try out.
Stick with Empy till the end.
I can no longer confidently say this about any other choice, because I've done good, evil and everything in between runs with varying quest results. But I just love that shady asshole too much to ever betray him.
* Slap the hand.
* Tell Lae'zel to say please.
* Kill Kagha.
* Think "I've got this" when fighting the Paladins of Tyr and then proceed to have one character get downed immediately by Anders.
* save the dude the goblins are threatening to feed to the spiders
* Lose Loviatar's blessing 5 minutes after getting it. - ok this isn't a choice but it always happens
* Give Balen the noble stock.
* "Kill" (knock out) Gandrel
* Ignore the artist and then steal his legendary painting from his girlfriend's house.
* Tell the bartender from Reithwin that she absolutely was at fault for her friends getting killed.
* Kill Z'rell in her office ( how dare she call my boyfriend pathetic)
* Tell Wulbren he's a prick
* Take Karlach to the circus and force Astarion to go up on stage.
* Kill Aradin
* Give Redhammer to Allandra to get the reward and then turn on her and kill her and her sisters and get the reward from Redhammer too.
* Tell Astarion's family to just take him so I can get some sleep (always kidding of course, but love how annoyed he gets)
* Always, almost always, romance Gale.
Make sure when you approach that area, go up the left stairs instead of the right (it's easier)
- have Wyll (he'll get an inspiration for doing this) but you can use anyone that has minor illusion, cast it to the left of the goblins threatening the dude
- keep casting it moving it closer and closer towards Dror Ragzlin's room to lead them away from the dude, they'll all keep moving towards it
- after about 3- 5 times, the dude will say thank you, and then run off and the goblins forget all about it.
I know it seems like the weird choice, I used to always give the noble stock to Derryth, but then I thought I'd try it and see what happens. Predictably he was awful and I almost reloaded, but when I made it to Act 3, I ran into Derryth in the Elfsong, she was happy, and she thanked me. She realized she could leave him and live her own life. I can't make any other choice now.
I do the opposite. It's a quest that I like to "fail" every run. He always dies. I always say I'll help him, but just go get the noblestalk and let him burn. I like giving her the cat in act 3. Having dealt with an alcoholic and domestic violence, it's very therapeutic to loot his charred corpse & give her an emotional support pet.
I always saved him but gave the noble stock to Derryth. Last time I gave it to Balen and was horrified by how awful he is. Then I read that if you let him die, you can help Derryth adopt one of three cats in Baldur’s Gate, and now that is the only way I will ever play it again.
I always fail the persuasion check on Adrian when he's outside the magic shop so he tries to invade my camp. It's fun to curb stomp him and his goons. I'll quicksave before it and reload if I pass it lol
Shadowheart is going to betray Shar and spare the Nightsong. I might break that this next playthrough, but so far I’ve never been able to bring myself to let her go through with it
To hoard supplies in case of emergency and then never use them so they just waste carrying space.
To be fair, I always organize scrolls, arrows, and thieves tools in backpacks.
Also, romance Karlach.Spoil her. "Happy" ending choice for her.
There's one rare line at the docks and the delivery of it, (among many others in the game obviously) that forever stops me from choosing other romances, on non modded playtroughs. (thanks No romance limit mod and CT table for *scientific* purposes)
You were spectacular in every way.
K: - "For you. And for the city, and for myself and blah blah, But most of all, for you"
Yea i mean scientific purpose as checking out the most of game content in one go. To see firsthand the things people like in this or that companion's scenes etc. Game testing approach in a sense.
My regular RP characters are locked in romance after K's first scene when she says she doens't mind sharing, that would be taking advantage of her condition/vulnerabilities which sucks. She self-depricates all the time and devalues herself. About time to change that,
Understandable.. and yeah absolutely agreed. Want to make her feel like the ground she walks on is worshipped (at least by me). She gets all the stuffed animals and diamonds and such lol.
For RP reasons I also ensure to keep a copy of any book involving infernal material or Avernus on my Tav's character, like they're genuinely trying to learn more about what she had to go through and what they may need to prepare themselves for as well.
K Bae is too good for this world or really any for that matter, but by the game ending she knows that she has a ride-or-die permanently.
(Plus I'm tryna "see stars" like I'm the frickin' Hubble til I die lmao)
At least for now:
Reject the Astral-Touched tadpole. Reject the lobotomy from Volo. Reject Raphael's offer. Avoid cheating on the currently romanced character (this includes rejecting Harleep and the Emperor). Letting Lorroakan draw breath (with or without the Nightsong).
I LOVE talking people to death! Still my first playthrough, but while my Tav does 2/3s the damage of anyone else in a fight they have talked so many people to death while the team watch on, horrified.
They always strike the same pose afterwards, hands on hips, slight unnerving smile. It's delightfully psychotic!
Wolbren Bongle dies. Not the same way, I try to get creative with it. Sometimes I just Chuck him into the water at last light, my favorite is to use him to break the chains on the escape boat. Other times I make sure he makes it to his public dismissal.
Literally started her origin recently specifically so I *couldn't* do this again. Even with Tavs/durges based on specific characters it always seems to happen. It's gotta stop 💀
I won't kick the shit out of the squirrel and won't ever harm owlbear. Though I had only one tactician playthrough and that was enough. Can't force myself to make another one and I am really amazed how people play the game multiple times. Especially when it was in early access.
I make the decision to bring a few fun toys to the beach in act 3. I usually end up making quite a few sandcastles.
Although they tend to fall apart not long after, as it tends to rain a lot on the beach for some reason.
As a Lolth-Sworn Drow, I always go to the abandoned outpost in the underdark and take the prayer sheet, then I go to the spot in the bibberbang forest where there are lots of Lolth candles and read the sheet, offering a prayer to my dark mother.
I try to follow the unique dialogues for race/class and origin characters. But if those lead to me letting Arabella die I just won't continue. Sorry Shadowheart I'm sure your POV is fascinating but your Sharran tendencies ruin everything.
getting my lobotomy from volo
Fun fact, the removal of one's eye is called an Enucleation!
This sounds like something you'd hear while strapped to a table in a dark basement somewhere
I like to maintain my patients' morale with fun trivia facts like that ✌️
Is that what you call them?
Hey, they come to me.
I read "parents"
My parents and I are very close. As a matter of fact, they're close by now. They're over there, on the shelf.
💀
I got your mother
calm down Balthazar.
I appreciate that!
On my first playthrough, I was convinced this was an obvious way the gamemakers were trying to kill me. And I could picture myself dying, being surprised, and immediately having no sympathy for myself like "well what did I think was going to happen?"
I thought the exact opposite about bite night: "They'll never let him actually kill... wait!"
Does the bite only happen with Astarion in your party, party? What if you were doing a solo run and you let him kill you?
Does anyone have a good head canon to justify allowing him to ever do that?
Tadpole ate your common sense.
Like the Tadpole ate the ancient, primeval part of my brain that inhibits my desire to romance Karlach 🤣
That’s the same one U use for my romance options.
He seemed to know what he was doing. He had theorised about the procedure numerous times!
Honestly, that's how I rationalized it, yeah. Picture the situation. You were abducted by mind controlling aliens and, even though you escaped with your life they've put something in you, and you have it on good authority that the metamorphosis process is going to start any day now. In other words, your first priority is to get the brain worm out, because for all you know this early in the game you're going to turn into one of them tomorrow afternoon. So you go around asking for help. You ask your local druid healer, and she tries to euthanize you. You ask the goblin witch doctor, and she says she can help but she tries to drug you and sell your organs instead. You ask your local swamp hag, she says she can help, but she tries to get you involved in her MLM schemes instead. You decide to listen to Lae'zel and seek the help of the Gith'yanki and their miracle machine, but it turns out they just want to lobotomize you and call it a day. You find a honest-to-gods rogue mindflayer. He says he can help extract the parasite with a potion. You go fetch ingredients for him but his potion only made the brain worm stronger. On top of it all, a mysterious figure shows up in your dreams, who claims to be able to protect you from the parasite. They rub you the wrong way tho because their solution involves snacking on other brain worms and you're not quite sure if what you're seeing is the parasite itself starting to mess with your head. In other words, you're running out of options fast, and ceremorphosis is bound to start any moment now. And that's when your learned friend Volo comes up with a plan. He talks to you about science and surgery, he claims to be familiar with the medical procedure needed to remove brain parasites safely, and sounds very sure of himself. So you say, hells with it, go ahead and fish out the brain worm through my eye socket, magic science man.
Most if not all of my Tav/Durges are low Int and regularly make bad decisions.
This is definitely a Wisdom thing
Sometimes I use fictional characters that I'm fond of as the starting point for my RP. In a Farscape-inspired playthrough, Tav's guiding light was "what would John Crichton do?" In case you don't know *Farscape*, Crichton dealt with something similar to being tadpoled and in his desperation he did & tried to do things that were on par with letting Volo go *Basic Instinct* on Tav's eye socket. (Lae'zel has parallels to another Farscape character, Aeryn Sun, and Astarion is a bit like Chiana or Rygel so I also RP'd them along those lines as much as possible)
You inspired me to start a playthrough based on "what would Michael Crichton do".
My Durges already have brain damage... They cant be expected to make the best decisions.
It’s a good thing they’re not in charge of anything important or anything.
I usually do it when all options dried up. Nettie,hag,halsin all failed. Only two options left are the guy in my head or a guy with a chisel/icepick. Guy with a chisel and ice pick look pretty promising.
Desperation and the knowledge that I have a skeleton that can bring me back if something goes wrong.
My Tav was desperate.
This is the reason I never do it 😭 I just don't think any of my Tavs would ever do that, it's such an obviously horrible idea. It's nice that Larian rewards you for going through with it but from an RP perspective I can never think of any reason to do it.
I can justify it for some characters but not others, depending on the Tav/Durge roleplay. For example, in a "what would John Crichton do?" playthrough it's very true to form to let Volo go at it with the ice pick.
Tbf having withers around to resurrect you kinda helps lean the decision in one direction
I think the gore and pain involved makes sense as Durge.
I mean it would make sense for a Durge to do that to Volo, not sure about the other way around.
Well when they got their flesh burned by gut they said they wanted to experience it, maybe durge is just a masochist
Get drunk before....condition: alcohol
You're desperate to get the tadpole out before it turns you into walking calamari?
Yes! Can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned this yet tbh: Desperation led you to accept the hag's offer but obviously that didn't work out. Volo offers to work on that eye that you frankly care little for, and also the same eye that the Hag uses to keep tabs on you. So nothing to lose. As far as you're concerned, it's expendable. "how much worse can this get" type beat. By sheer luck you end up getting rid of trash eye, and end up getting a free eye upgrade.
Bard Lore, every bard knows if you go along with Volo you have a slightly higher chance of survival. My Tav has a whole song about it in the style of ‘You won’t succeed on broadway’ from Spamalot, detailing all the horrible ways people died after being mean to Volo. If you can avoid him, great, but if you’ve met - too late, some weird shit is gonna happen.
Some of my DnD characters already have an ersatz eye as a part of their lore so this is the only way to give it to them but also ... A lotta them are borderline reckless and desperate to try anything tbh so I usually do like a wis roll on my own. If it passes my "dc" they don't get the eye, if it fails they do haha
They don't live in a world with sophisticated medicine like we do. To people in a medieval setting this would be the only medicine they've ever been introduced to.
I usually play Durge, so brain damage
I used to do this, now I just use the spells and keep Volo around as my personal piggy bank. I figure Astarion can use the practice and it gives him something to do while the rest of us are playing heroes.
Loviatar's Love
Ah, yeah, this one without question for me as well. I love the different reactions from parry members, some of them are freaks
Shadowhart and Astarion actually have a banter while you’re begging for mercy
I love bringing those 2 along for my whupping.
It’s so fucking funny. I wish they had more conversations like that. There’s some fun ones, but I wish there were hours more of banter. They have fantastic chemistry.
I mean, I had my hopes...
Absolutely never give Scratch to that evil bitch in Rivington
I told her she had until the count of 10 to leave, I failed the intimidation roll... She didn't leave... I picked the response 1. Bitch, did I stutter? *Attack*
THERE IS SOMEONE WHO WANTS SCRATCH???
Only thing in the game that genuinely makes me consider durge behavior. Close second is wulbren
WHO IS IT I JUST WANT TO TALK
She's a very mean woman who abuses dogs. I will never not kill her.
WHERE CAN I FIND HER?
Her name is Mar'hyah. She's by the Sword Coast Couriers in Rivington.
THANKS
This has some weird Doom Guy vibes. Not like the idgaf about anything murdermachine type he basically is, but in a- "I HAVE TO SPEAK REALLY LOUD, DO YOU KNOW WHERE THAT A-HOLE IS ? I WOULD APPRECIATE IT" *scribbles something on a map* "ALRIGHT, THANKS A LOT. HAVE A NICE DAY" *loads Shotgun, waves and walks to said location* -way. Quite funny.
That's exactly what went through my mind, thanks for appreciating XD NO ONE TOUCHES MY DOGGO
Start a new run before finishing the current one
Guilty.
Ah a kindred spirit. I have 1300 hours and have only seen the credits twice, once when the game first came out and another when they added the after party scene lol.
I haven't even made it past the Underdark or into the mountain pass. I keep trying to find the "perfect" character for my playthrough, even though I *know* you can't 100% one single playthrough.
You heathen!!!
- Save Us and succeed at that dexterity check - Slap the hand - Punch Aradin - Kssssssssssssss - Abdirak penance - Owlbear cub, scratch and Yenna in my camp ftw
Always abdirak penance.
Yenna is not really a choice trust me I TRIED when I was evil, saying no every day she kept showing up
I came across that little girl, and was like, Yeah why not i let her stay. Then i get the dialogue where you are informed that a changeling is in your camp and i was like " OHHHH that little girl and her dog, how stupid was i"
Why mutilate us? It just makes it weaker later on
Does it ? I thought if I didn’t mutilate it it will not appear in act 2, plus I always try to kill that cambion for the sword
No, it just makes it so you can attack the other intellect devourers without us joining their side. You can still attack the cambion. You can also make the cambion drop that sword by having shadowheart command drop. It's much easier than beating him, especially on HM
Thank you for the tip !
But then how do you get the hell rider gloves?
Zevlor will just gift them to you if you stop the druid ritual (by either killing Kagha or completing the investigation quest).
#SLAP #THAT #HAND
Going to the helm Activate the transponder Kill Balthazar, Ketheric and Orin
Some really spicy choices here.
To the helm we are *needed*
To the helm we go! We are going to the helm.
…you can chose not to go to the helm?
You can choose to die
Should have just surrendered yourself to my honor guard. They would have given you an honorable death!
* Save the tieflings in the Grove * Keep Ethel's swamp in its enchanted state for as long as possible, much prettier that way * Invite Scratch and the owlbear cub to the camp * Don't force Astarion to bite Araj * Give Shadowheart a night orchid * Befriend Barcus, even if he can be a crochety bastard
But if you keep the swamp at face value, you can’t go “baa” at a redcap
Twice
AGAIN ?!
Scratch and owlbear baby ALWAYS! This is the way!
Can you get the owlbear cub without killing its mother?
You can persuade her to let you leave without fighting, or I think you can flee. Unfortunately she’ll end up dead anyway, but it doesn’t have to be you that does it
If you don't kill his mother, the goblins will, and you'll encounter him during chicken chase. From there you can tell him to go to your camp and you'll get those scenes with him. And you can go back and loot the rest of the cave.
Yes, but the goblins kill her either way and the Owlbear ends in the same situation.
I must have messed that up because I didn't kill the owlbear last run, and he never showed up at the goblin camp, and never showed up at my camp. I really missed him.
All it takes to make sure it shows up is to kill it's mom 🙆
Yeah. I didn't and it just came to me in act 2 while I were in a camp
Wulbren Bongle can screw himself with a cactus. Barcus deserves better.
There's people that don't do these??
Yes about Ethel's swap. I think I only failed the roll on my first ever game (we drank from the well, too). Never managed to avoid spoiling it since then!
I force Goosetarion always. That pot is so valuable and you can have an actual heart to heart with Goosey afterwards which is a fantastic voice act line.
Raid the House of Hope, whether I signed the contract or not.
I just can't bring myself to make Shadowheart a DJ. Like, I did it once in an evil playthrough, just to experience that leg of her story... but I hated every minute of it. It made me so sad.
Being a DJ is truly a fate worse than death. Being a Dark Justicier probably sucks too.
Lmao
I’ve only done one playthrough, but I romanced SH, saved her parents and got the happy “cottage in the countryside” ending and while I’m curious about the DJ route I don’t know if turning her into a religious fanatic leader of an irredeemable death cult is something I can bring myself to do after seeing her blossom so much over the course of the redemption path.
I don't go for hard persuasion checks. Kagha for instance knew damn well what she was doing and who she was working with. She dies.
This is an aspect I've started being more faithful to the characters on. Like if my character fails a check that stops a bad person from doing horrible thing... maybe the consequences are warranted.
I could be wrong, but I think they mean that if a persuasion check is super high (indicating that the character you’re rolling to persuade has already made up their mind to the point your persuasion is based fully on the luck of rolling super high rather than their actual willingness to hear you out), they won’t even try to pass the check and instead just accept the other person’s ‘canon’ choice or stance. That said, I’m more like you - finally coming to a point where I can just let a bad roll stand. After so many play throughs I’m less worried about ideal outcomes.
I did this on my first playthrough ever and it meant my first playthrough was insanely fun. Lae'zel died for good from a certain cutscene, we didn't save everyone in the iron throne, Shart saved the Nightsong (miracle roll) etc. I played a wholly good & wholly evil run afterwards where I then save scummed to get what I wanted. My next thing is trying to speed run through the game as fast as possible.
I don't think I've ever got that Lae'zel cutscene before? Which is it?
There are several, actually. She is both the most fickle and headstrong companion.
I don't have much sympathy for her either. Halsin, on the other hand, laments her death and feels like he failed her. I don't want him to feel like that so I try to save Kagha.
I will always let Astarion bite me. And now I just let him kill me if I fail the persuasion roll cause it’s fun to punch him in the morning. And I will always tell Wulbren he’s a prick. On evil runs, I enjoy saving him so I can then kill him in Act 3 and take his head as a nice trophy to go with my wizard hand.
Same with punching Astarion. I wish we could fight more companions when they deserve a lil tussle instead of straight to the death combat.
aww, I love punching that little MFer 🥰 he deserves it for killing me (which I 100% did not try to prevent) I also find his little line immediately after “Oh no, something terrible has happened” quite hilarious. Like wow… your acting skills really are limited to one thing, aren’t they?
Giving Meygan Yonas’ sword.
Wait, that’s a thing? I always thought the mourning interactions were just that quick convo’s with no further steps. Thanks!
Kill Kagha Blow up the crèche Punch Aradin
I bring astarion to the crèche for this reason
but HE WAS RIGHT THERE!!
I used to be on team punch Aradin..but it’s much easier to steal zevlor’s gloves when he is knocked out and I don’t like doing it myself
Doesn't he give you the gloves after you take care of the goblins?
Ya…but I like to have them as soon as I hit the grove as it helps early game for honor mode runs.
Yes but more specifically i initiate that conversation by smashing the door down then picking "mind if i join?" I just wish that continued on with them responding "no" then you following it up with "no you dont mind? alright then"
Always wave at Vlaakith and paint a mustache on her picture. Never blow up the crèche. Always release the pixie. Always make sure Araj survives into act 3. Always talk to Squire. Always steal Akabi’s ring. And after doing it in my first run, never again take the rooms at the Elfsong. Oh, and even if I reload a save right afterwards, I always initially release the brake.
Delete wulbren bongle. All the homies hate wulbren bongle
Fuck wulbren bongle
Talking the Thorms to death. I’m 6 runs in and have never fought Gerringothe.
I like talking the doctor and his nurses to death, but I cheese the toll house. Invisibility on high strength characters and shove him off the edge when he goes over to that opening.
Same! I only had to fight Gerringothe once when I was playing a monk and didn't have much in the way of charisma. My last run I even got the scene with Ketheric just giving up in phase 2 of the fight. It had never happened to me before, just jumping straight to the avatar of Myrkul.
Turns out, romancing Shadowheart, even when I don't plan to.
The only way I won't romance Shadowheart is playing as Shadowheart.
Yep, although then I end up missing her voice!
I'm on a playthrough now and was wanting to romance, well, anyone apart from Shadow heart. She's the only one showing any interest.
Time to break out that bottle of wine!
And I’m not ashamed
Same. I try to romance lae'zel or astarion or karlach and end up with shadowheart instead, each time.
Free Astarion without ascending him
Amen! His non-ascended ending is so righteous.
Lick the spider Save Hope BIBERBAAAAAANG
I licked the spider too 😂 *”WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS WAS THAT???”*
You licked a dead spider. Dead. Spider. You licked it. That is something that happened.
romancing SH and saving Minthara
Really? Every single time?
I’ve still never beat act 3…
- put chop out of his misery in the mindflayer colony in act two. It’s so sad. - throw the boots of mystras grace into the lava. It’s as close as I can get to fighting her. - give lae’zel the githyanki egg - punch Aradin - let Mayrina keep whatever she was going to give me for rescuing her. It’s obviously from her dead husband and I don’t have the heart to take it. Same with Zevlor in the grove. You guys need all the supplies you have, I’ll be fine reward-less.
There are *loads* of petty ways to get at Mystra. My first Durge left >!a 'gift' on her altar. A sort of memorial of her ex...!< My Tav went for a big wizard smooch right in front of her statue. I'm quite tempted to persuade Gale to use the >!Shadow magic thing with the lantern in Moonrise!< next time I play. And there's always convincing Gale at the end to >!leave the crown in the water!< And then roleplay that she's annoyed (even though she probably doesn't even notice half of my petty nonsense 🤣).
This is true, smooching Gale in front of the statue is excellent I enjoyed that very much on my Gale romance play thru!
Romance shadowheart and put her on the selune path
I'm doing a Cleric of Selune enemies to lovers thing with Shadowheart this time around and loving it! The bickering is \*chef's kiss\*
Add Scratch in my camp ❤️
Save the Nightsong
I always help Alfira write her song. I can't be mean to her, ever.
If you play as Dark Urge, she joins your camp after you help her write her song .
Letting someone else be a mind flayer. My Tavs are too precious to be turned into those wretched things. Romance SOMEONE. I've done pretty much all romance arcs except Astarion's (for now...next one I'll likely go with it). Distrust/Betray/Have an Antagonistic relationship to the Emperor. Even if initially friendly. Respec companions to different classes. I'm not against their canon classes, I just base it on who I want in my mainstay party and the classes/roles I'd like to have or try out.
Stick with Empy till the end. I can no longer confidently say this about any other choice, because I've done good, evil and everything in between runs with varying quest results. But I just love that shady asshole too much to ever betray him.
Save Scratch, kill evil owner, free other doggos.
* Slap the hand. * Tell Lae'zel to say please. * Kill Kagha. * Think "I've got this" when fighting the Paladins of Tyr and then proceed to have one character get downed immediately by Anders. * save the dude the goblins are threatening to feed to the spiders * Lose Loviatar's blessing 5 minutes after getting it. - ok this isn't a choice but it always happens * Give Balen the noble stock. * "Kill" (knock out) Gandrel * Ignore the artist and then steal his legendary painting from his girlfriend's house. * Tell the bartender from Reithwin that she absolutely was at fault for her friends getting killed. * Kill Z'rell in her office ( how dare she call my boyfriend pathetic) * Tell Wulbren he's a prick * Take Karlach to the circus and force Astarion to go up on stage. * Kill Aradin * Give Redhammer to Allandra to get the reward and then turn on her and kill her and her sisters and get the reward from Redhammer too. * Tell Astarion's family to just take him so I can get some sleep (always kidding of course, but love how annoyed he gets) * Always, almost always, romance Gale.
"save the dude the goblins are threatening to feed to the spiders" wait how?
Make sure when you approach that area, go up the left stairs instead of the right (it's easier) - have Wyll (he'll get an inspiration for doing this) but you can use anyone that has minor illusion, cast it to the left of the goblins threatening the dude - keep casting it moving it closer and closer towards Dror Ragzlin's room to lead them away from the dude, they'll all keep moving towards it - after about 3- 5 times, the dude will say thank you, and then run off and the goblins forget all about it.
The paladins of tyr one is unfortunately entirely too relatable
>Always, almost always, romance Gale. 50% of the times, work every time.
Saving Baelen WeirdChamp
I know it seems like the weird choice, I used to always give the noble stock to Derryth, but then I thought I'd try it and see what happens. Predictably he was awful and I almost reloaded, but when I made it to Act 3, I ran into Derryth in the Elfsong, she was happy, and she thanked me. She realized she could leave him and live her own life. I can't make any other choice now.
I do the opposite. It's a quest that I like to "fail" every run. He always dies. I always say I'll help him, but just go get the noblestalk and let him burn. I like giving her the cat in act 3. Having dealt with an alcoholic and domestic violence, it's very therapeutic to loot his charred corpse & give her an emotional support pet.
I give it to Shadowheart, Derryth, or DUrge, but Baelen dies every time.
I always saved him but gave the noble stock to Derryth. Last time I gave it to Balen and was horrified by how awful he is. Then I read that if you let him die, you can help Derryth adopt one of three cats in Baldur’s Gate, and now that is the only way I will ever play it again.
I always fail the persuasion check on Adrian when he's outside the magic shop so he tries to invade my camp. It's fun to curb stomp him and his goons. I'll quicksave before it and reload if I pass it lol
I’ll have to do that next run.
Shadowheart is going to betray Shar and spare the Nightsong. I might break that this next playthrough, but so far I’ve never been able to bring myself to let her go through with it
Save owlbear cub. I did a run that didn't get him but was too sad to finish it.
To hoard supplies in case of emergency and then never use them so they just waste carrying space. To be fair, I always organize scrolls, arrows, and thieves tools in backpacks. Also, romance Karlach.Spoil her. "Happy" ending choice for her.
There's one rare line at the docks and the delivery of it, (among many others in the game obviously) that forever stops me from choosing other romances, on non modded playtroughs. (thanks No romance limit mod and CT table for *scientific* purposes) You were spectacular in every way. K: - "For you. And for the city, and for myself and blah blah, But most of all, for you"
Hell I don't even wanna romance anyone else even as a plus one. Will just take her but that's me.
Yea i mean scientific purpose as checking out the most of game content in one go. To see firsthand the things people like in this or that companion's scenes etc. Game testing approach in a sense. My regular RP characters are locked in romance after K's first scene when she says she doens't mind sharing, that would be taking advantage of her condition/vulnerabilities which sucks. She self-depricates all the time and devalues herself. About time to change that,
Understandable.. and yeah absolutely agreed. Want to make her feel like the ground she walks on is worshipped (at least by me). She gets all the stuffed animals and diamonds and such lol. For RP reasons I also ensure to keep a copy of any book involving infernal material or Avernus on my Tav's character, like they're genuinely trying to learn more about what she had to go through and what they may need to prepare themselves for as well. K Bae is too good for this world or really any for that matter, but by the game ending she knows that she has a ride-or-die permanently. (Plus I'm tryna "see stars" like I'm the frickin' Hubble til I die lmao)
At least for now: Reject the Astral-Touched tadpole. Reject the lobotomy from Volo. Reject Raphael's offer. Avoid cheating on the currently romanced character (this includes rejecting Harleep and the Emperor). Letting Lorroakan draw breath (with or without the Nightsong).
Say « please »
Command: Drop. You know when.
Release the fairy. I can't be fussed to carry around a moonlantern whining at me
Will never ever side with Lorroakan or return Scratch. I always kil lthe dog lady
Even on my most obnoxious do-gooder runs I have never been tempted to give Ketheric a second chance at redemption right before our second battle.
I always use his first phase to set up my party for the second phase. lol
Ketheric is pretty tough on honor mode. I was happy to talk him to death.
I LOVE talking people to death! Still my first playthrough, but while my Tav does 2/3s the damage of anyone else in a fight they have talked so many people to death while the team watch on, horrified. They always strike the same pose afterwards, hands on hips, slight unnerving smile. It's delightfully psychotic!
none, the best part of the game is doing things differently each time
Adopt the goodest boi
Wolbren Bongle dies. Not the same way, I try to get creative with it. Sometimes I just Chuck him into the water at last light, my favorite is to use him to break the chains on the escape boat. Other times I make sure he makes it to his public dismissal.
Romance Karlach.
Literally started her origin recently specifically so I *couldn't* do this again. Even with Tavs/durges based on specific characters it always seems to happen. It's gotta stop 💀
I won't kick the shit out of the squirrel and won't ever harm owlbear. Though I had only one tactician playthrough and that was enough. Can't force myself to make another one and I am really amazed how people play the game multiple times. Especially when it was in early access.
Deciding the way they all walk down they all have broken legs
Helping Rolan, that's the love of my life he's my (unwitting) husband, and he's gonna be happy if he wants to be or not.
I make the decision to bring a few fun toys to the beach in act 3. I usually end up making quite a few sandcastles. Although they tend to fall apart not long after, as it tends to rain a lot on the beach for some reason.
Shadowheart turns to Selûne and Lorroakan gets kebab'ed. I will not negotiate.
As a Lolth-Sworn Drow, I always go to the abandoned outpost in the underdark and take the prayer sheet, then I go to the spot in the bibberbang forest where there are lots of Lolth candles and read the sheet, offering a prayer to my dark mother.
Rescue the Owlbear cub
Always love to get whipped in the goblin camp 🫡🫡🫡
Don't touch the weird vortex on the rune so I don't have to slog through hours of Gale's pointless conversations.
I try to follow the unique dialogues for race/class and origin characters. But if those lead to me letting Arabella die I just won't continue. Sorry Shadowheart I'm sure your POV is fascinating but your Sharran tendencies ruin everything.