BG3 BG3 General Talk

[Vaelith]

Amazingly, some people care more about enjoying something than looking for discrepancies with systems that were created to excel in the social interaction between people playing with pen and paper, and possibly enjoying some pizza together; and not so much for a single person in their lonesome in front of a computer where everything is pre-recorded and pre-determined. These crazy people, says the legend, didn't even pay more for the game than the rest, but are having ten times the fun. Outrageous.

 

[Pladio]

I just finished off the last of the Chosen and ready to head to the Morphic Pools. I assume there's only a few hours of gameplay left now.
It's been one hell of a ride and I have been really happy with all the options available to me to RP the character I really wanted. I know already what my 'canon' choices will be at the end, but will try out a few if it's just a matter of trying a few dialogue options.

All in all the game says I have played 100 hours. Since there must have been 10-15 hours of reloads it looks like my first playthrough will take about 120-130 hours in total gameplay. This is probably the longest single playhtrough game I will have ever completed. Truly an outstanding game in my opinion.

I will certainly leave several months before starting over - in part to forget some of the details and in other part, because I don't want to burn out on it.
I have several games ready to go in my backlog so that's not an issue and Colony Ship is coming out soon too.

 

[bizorker]

Nearing end of first playthrough and looking for spoiler-light recommendations from others for my second playthrough, which I plan to start right away.

My first run was a human bard (with 3 lvls of rogue) playing classic 'good guy' role and shunning the mindflayer power. High skill checks, buff/control. Played on normal difficulty. Main companions were Shadowheart, Gale and Karlach (with some Jaheira and Minsc in Act 3). Played almost zero with Astarion or Wyll. I'm kicking around the following...

Play an origin character, maybe Dark Urge

Take Shadowheart in different direction for her companion story

Go with the more evil or maybe power-hungry path vs. good guy path

Play mainly with other companions I didn't use last time (Astarion, Wyll, Lae'zel, the druid, the drow)

Play a different class - maybe a primary spell caster (if I don't use Gale), or a Paladin as the whole vows thing looks cool, also interested in eldritch knight. My bard talked his way through a lot of stuff.

Also thinking I will bump the difficulty to hard to make combat more challenging / tactical (since I've already been through a lot of the story)

My overarching goal is to get at the content that I didn't see in the first playthrough.

All ideas welcome

 

[bkrueger]

All of your ideas are ok in my eyes. I am in my second playthrough on hard as Dark Urge right now. Funnily enough I find it easier this time than in my first playthrough on normal. Obviously being used to the combat system makes a bigger difference than the added difficulty. In my first playthrough I played Shadowheart.

Somehow I always end up with Shadowheart, since she is the only cleric you get and has the most interesting story (in my eyes). Also I always use Astarion, because he is the only thief. What did you do in situations, where you need a thief, when you didn't use Astarion? Also I have with either Karlach or Lae'zel as melee support (choice depending on the part of story I am in).

Maybe the most interesting idea is to play a bard, because that seems to be the only specialisation not covered by one of the companions. But you did that already...

Or play a all-hirelings party without the predefined companions. (But then it may be hard to get all sidequests.)

 

[wolfgrimdark]

One of the perks of not trying to fit a computer game into some pre-conceived notion of how combat and rules should work in some other rule set is you don't find yourself irked and can enjoy the game for what it is on its own. I never saw the value in trying to force a game into something it isn't.

 

[bkrueger]

One of the perks of not trying to fit a computer game into some pre-conceived notion of how combat and rules should work in some other rule set is you don't find yourself irked and can enjoy the game for what it is on its own. I never saw the value in trying to force a game into something it isn't.

If you want to say that a game being fun is more important than its adherence to some predefined ruleset, then I agree completely.
(Besides that: Am I right in assuming that your post has no direct connection to Bizorker's post and my reply? )

 

[bizorker]

Somehow I always end up with Shadowheart, since she is the only cleric you get and has the most interesting story (in my eyes).

Agreed based on my first playthrough. Thought that companion story was awesome.

Also I always use Astarion, because he is the only thief. What did you do in situations, where you need a thief, when you didn't use Astarion?

My bard was an insane 'thief'. Basically bard can pass any skill check if you go (I think) path of lore which gives you extra skill proficiencies.

 

[bkrueger]

My bard was an insane 'thief'. Basically bard can pass any skill check if you go (I think) path of lore which gives you extra skill proficiencies.

That is great. May be I try a bard as a main character one time in the future. However I will probably take some time until I start third replay. During my second replay I already feel that parts of the game get boring if you have them to fresh in mind from the last playthrough. I am not even sure, whether I will complete my second playthrough in one go or make a pause to play something else in between.

By the way the Astarion and Lae'zel story lines are also very good, so you should play through them if you didn't already.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

If you want to say that a game being fun is more important than its adherence to some predefined ruleset, then I agree completely.
(Besides that: Am I right in assuming that your post has no direct connection to Bizorker's post and my reply? )

That pretty much sums it up, yes

Looking at it another way ... if someone would otherwise enjoy the combat, outside of some issue with it needing to meet some rule set, then it seems like adhering to some predefined rule set is simply getting in the way of enjoying the game. Very different if they don't like the combat at all, regardless of what rule set used.

For me I try to take each game I play on it's own merits and decide if it's fun or not to play.

Of course, I also understand that "fun" is very subjective and relative to each user and if someone's fun is heavily dependent on a predefined ruleset being implemented a certain way then of course the game won't be fun for them.

 

[Morrandir]

Play mainly with other companions I didn't use last time (Astarion, Wyll, Lae'zel, the druid, the drow)

I highly recommend playing with Astarion, he's really great. Also Lae'zel has a great arc.
However if you want to play with Minthara (the drow) it's generally impossible to play with Halsin (the druid) and Wyll.
That's because if you side with Minthara and the goblins in Act 1 and slaughter the grove, Wyll and Karlach will leave the party and also you won't be able to recruit Halsin. However here are some cheesy workarounds like turning Minthara into a sheep, or ignoring the grove alltogether.

All ideas welcome

While I haven't done it myself, I highly recommend playing as the Darke Urge. Apparently this is what comes closest to an actual sequel to BG1/2. You could go for the evil route having Minthara and Astarion. Lae'Zel will also play along. Then you could also go the different direction with Shadowheart letting her become a Dark Justiciar. Downside is that you won't have Wyll. (Which in my personal opinion wouldn't be a big loss. I find him quite boring in comparison to the others.)

 

[Morrandir]

I'm currently in Act 3 of my 3rd playthrough with a good Human Bard (2nd was evil Drow Rogue, 1st was good Half-Elf Wizard) and I think it'll be the last one for the near future.
I intended to go for another evil run, this time without killing/ignoring almost all companions like my Drow did and instead try to use them. So more Neutral/Lawful Evil than Chaotic Evil. That would have perfectly fit a cunning Cleric of Bane which would have been very interesting in Act 3. However in BG3 it's unfortunately not possible to play a Cleric of a deity of the Dead Three Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal.
Hm... perhaps I'm going for a dragonborn Cleric of Tiamat ...

 

[bkrueger]

I'm currently in Act 3 of my 3rd playthrough with a good Human Bard (2nd was evil Drow Rogue, 1st was good Half-Elf Wizard) and I think it'll be the last one for the near future.
I intended to go for another evil run, this time without killing/ignoring almost all companions like my Drow did and instead try to use them. So more Neutral/Lawful Evil than Chaotic Evil. That would have perfectly fit a cunning Cleric of Bane which would have been very interesting in Act 3. However in BG3 it's unfortunately not possible to play a Cleric of a deity of the Dead Three Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal.
Hm... perhaps I'm going for a dragonborn Cleric of Tiamat ...

Why not play as the Dark Urge? That is the nearest you can get to a cleric of

Spoiler

Bhaal (of course not really a cleric but a Bhaal Spawn, which is even nearer...). And you are a Dragonborn too.

.

 

[Morrandir]

Why not play as the Dark Urge? That is the nearest you can get to a cleric of

Spoiler

Bhaal (of course not really a cleric but a Bhaal Spawn, which is even nearer...). And you are a Dragonborn too.

.

Because I like Bane, but dislike Bhaal.

 

[bkrueger]

Because I like Bane, but dislike Bhaal.

Regarding Bane

Spoiler

in one house in Baldur's Gate I found a note of a Vampire stating that she wanted to try and get a Bane breed by drinking from Bane followers and tricking the Bane followers into believing that she was one. Sound similar to the plot of the Dark Urge with regard to Bhaal by replacing Gortasch (instaed of replacing Orin in the Dark Urge plot). But I didn't find anything else about that and don't want to look in the internet to avoid spoilers. Did you encounter something like that?

 

[bizorker]

I highly recommend playing with Astarion, he's really great. Also Lae'zel has a great arc.
However if you want to play with Minthara (the drow) it's generally impossible to play with Halsin (the druid) and Wyll.
That's because if you side with Minthara and the goblins in Act 1 and slaughter the grove, Wyll and Karlach will leave the party and also you won't be able to recruit Halsin. However here are some cheesy workarounds like turning Minthara into a sheep, or ignoring the grove alltogether.

While I haven't done it myself, I highly recommend playing as the Darke Urge. Apparently this is what comes closest to an actual sequel to BG1/2. You could go for the evil route having Minthara and Astarion. Lae'Zel will also play along. Then you could also go the different direction with Shadowheart letting her become a Dark Justiciar. Downside is that you won't have Wyll. (Which in my personal opinion wouldn't be a big loss. I find him quite boring in comparison to the others.)

This is basically exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!!!