Baldur's Gate 3- What does fried Nautiloid taste like?

[Anonymouswizard]

I go back to camp constantly, because pretty much every story beat that prompts a reaction from one party member does so for all of them and a lot of them are quite funny. In fact, as long as you're not in a restricted area, you can teleport to and from camp and land exactly where you left.

Yes, but I'm running the game off a HDD, waiting for maps to finish loading is a pain even when you don't do it every five minutes.

I'm putting off a Durge playthrough. Frankly, I just have no interest in Bhaal at all, and a major fear I have is that due to the success of this game they'll do BG4 and retread this tired old ground yet again. The cosmology is so much bigger than this tiny corner of it, dammit!

I mean, it's Baldur's Gate, the Lord of Murder has always been pretty central. I fully expect any hypothetical BG4 to continue the Bhaal thread, because the time to drop it was around when The Black Hound was in development.

Although I wouldn't say no to a NWN or Icewind Dale 3. But I'd much, much rather they started giving us computer games not set in the Realms. Give us some Eberron love, or Council of Wyrm's!

On the Dark Urge specifically it just feels like they're more tied to the story. It's not just that you have an entire questline revolving around if you resist or succumb to the Urge, but also that one of the Act 2 hubs is full of people who know your old self and willing to point your murdering in a useful direction.

Muder murder murder murder.

[Psyren]

Spoiler: Response to Psyren

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I mean, of course its the Dead Three, its Baldur's Gate. Bhaal, at least, has to be involved.

I mean, it's Baldur's Gate, the Lord of Murder has always been pretty central.

I know what city the game is named after. There are still other gods Evil ones even! That aren't dead failures incapable of taking a hint!

For me, the Shar stuff was way more compelling than anything Moe, Larry and Curly were up to.

[Anonymouswizard]

I know what city the game is named after. There are still other gods Evil ones even! That aren't dead failures incapable of taking a hint!

Eh, my point is that there's a difference between a Forgotten Realms game and a Baldur's Gate game, and the latter is for better or worse tied up with Bhaal. His legacy was pivotal to the original trilogy, his plans and offspring are the core of the villains of 3, and he'll be relevant to any BG4 that gets made as the only other consistent elements are Boo, his familiar, and Jaheira.

I suspect its worse because we haven't had a proper licenced D&D CRPG since what, Neverwinter Nights 2? I'm hoping that either Larian or WotC will decide to make more games on the BG3 engine, which should have more diverse villains.

For me, the Shar stuff was way more compelling than anything Moe, Larry and Curly were up to.

Each to their own, I found most of the Shar stuff rather generic.

Although there is an advantage to using the Dead Three over someone like Shar: they're demigods, at least partially by choice, which comes with the dual properties of 'more free to act' and 'more easily killed'. Maybe Baldur's Gate 4: Bhaalspawn Fiesta will be a high level game where you actually take them on in combat.

But if not then yeah, there's no other reason other than 'consistently Bhaal'.

[Jophiel]

I know what city the game is named after. There are still other gods Evil ones even! That aren't dead failures incapable of taking a hint!

For me, the Shar stuff was way more compelling than anything Moe, Larry and Curly were up to.

I agree with this. I'm not overly familiar with the previous games but I am familiar with the Dead Three from novels and modules and they just strike me as making divinity look bad for the rest of the pantheon. Like "Oh, it's those idiots again? Guess we don't really need to worry".

[Keltest]

I agree with this. I'm not overly familiar with the previous games but I am familiar with the Dead Three from novels and modules and they just strike me as making divinity look bad for the rest of the pantheon. Like "Oh, it's those idiots again? Guess we don't really need to worry".

No, thats pretty fair. The last time they got up to something like this, Ao kicked all the gods out and gave all their jobs to Cyric of all people.

[LibraryOgre]

I mean, at the start your feeding the glowy stuff to Gale anyway. I think I'll stop looting leather armour between like level 4 and level 6, but that's the limitations of a low strength party before Karlach unlocks her double carry weight power.

"Send to Camp" is amazing. Pick up everything, send it all to camp, then load your entire party down to sell it all.

[Bunny Commando]

In Act 1 you have Blurg, the trader at the Myconid Colony. He's quite close to the waypoint, so he's my go-to trader to offload all the trash I collected.

[Psyren]

Each to their own, I found most of the Shar stuff rather generic.

Nah, Shar has way more depth in this game than they do. The game actually delves into the subject of why well-meaning, sane people might end up seeking her out, or even full-on joining her cult, as well as her history and her eternal rivalry with Selune and how they're two sides of the same coin.

The whole point of evil gods enduring in society is that they should actually offer something relatable to people, and represent the easy way out of your problems. No deity exemplifies this better than Shar; every one of us has trauma or pain we'd be tempted to just forget about or paper over given the chance, rather than putting in the hard work of dealing with, processing, and growing from it, and her followers then go out and put more senseless grief and loss into their world so that more and more good people eventually find their way to her. And her followers themselves, once you beat them, end up learning her final lesson - that in the end, the greatest loss of all is to be abandoned by the very thing you dedicated your life to and sacrificed all your other relationships for in the first place. As evil faiths go, it's masterful writing.

The game even explains why she's so well funded/where her resources come from. Her front businesses like

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the House of Grief

make perfect sense as something that would thrive even in the middle of a city and draw in commoners and nobles alike that might put on a show of hating her while secretly funding her enterprises en masse, because she truly offers a service they can't get anywhere else. Of course she's going to have the money to build giant underground vaults complete with magic elevators and security systems.

They could literally be the only two deities in the setting (in fact, at one point, they were!) and there would still be enough depth there to base some pretty compelling narratives on.

...

Compare all that to Bhaal and it's like

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"Hey kids! Do you like killing for any reason or no reason? Forgot to take your meds again? Have we got the faith for you!" They're useful as acceptable targets for both good and evil playthroughs alike to oppose, but their cartoonish brand of evil is just paper-thin. You could literally replace Bhaal with Asmodeus or Cyric or Cthulhu and get the same result - a whole bunch of people too nutty and homicidal to leave alive no matter what your morals are. And while his methods might change slightly, his goals in every single game are exactly. the. same. With the only real choice for a Bhaalspawn protagonist or Chosen being to follow daddy's urges or spurn them. Cool, after 3 games and expansions we get it already.

Although there is an advantage to using the Dead Three over someone like Shar: they're demigods, at least partially by choice, which comes with the dual properties of 'more free to act' and 'more easily killed'. Maybe Baldur's Gate 4: Bhaalspawn Fiesta will be a high level game where you actually take them on in combat.

Why bother? They wouldn't stay dead anyway. At this point they might as well just kill off Cyric and bring them back as full-on deities. This game alone has probably made him way more popular/well-known to new D&D players than Cyric at this point.

[Keltest]

Why bother? They wouldn't stay dead anyway. At this point they might as well just kill off Cyric and bring them back as full-on deities. This game alone has probably made him way more popular/well-known to new D&D players than Cyric at this point.

Did they not? I thought Cyric was basically dead as a faith come 5e between the damage he did to his own church and the return of the Dead Three.

[LibraryOgre]

Man, so Last Light Inn.

Spoiler: Last Light Inn

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So, I got the result... a couple different ways I played it... where almost everyone in Last Light died. Turned into shadow-cursed undead. And that hit me HARD. I think the death of Dammon did it the most, but I am gonna start looking for how I can get around everyone dying. Kill Marcus in that first round?

[BRC]

So, Question, when exactly do I get to Baludr's Gate

Spoiler: Just got to the Shadow-Cursed Lands

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I got to the Shadow Cursed lands, took a left, and a bunch of Absolute Cultists want to escort me to Moonrise Towers. Everything has been very aggressively sending me towards either Moonrise or Baludr's Gate.

I figured I'd get a chance to visit Baludr's Gate and make some progress on those storylines, I figured Moonrise Towers and the shadow-cursed lands would be the "Adventure Wilderness"/ Big Dungeon alongside Baldur's Gate itself as the Town. But The only path out of the Mountains drops me in the shadow-cursed lands.

Do I need to clear the Towers before I visit Baldur's Gate?

[Keltest]

Man, so Last Light Inn.

Spoiler: Last Light Inn

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So, I got the result... a couple different ways I played it... where almost everyone in Last Light died. Turned into shadow-cursed undead. And that hit me HARD. I think the death of Dammon did it the most, but I am gonna start looking for how I can get around everyone dying. Kill Marcus in that first round?

Spoiler

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Positioning is key that fight. You want to have some of your dudes blocking the door so the ghouls cant get in and paralyze Isobel. If she is allowed her turns, she can protect herself tolerably, or at least heal herself.

[Psyren]

Did they not? I thought Cyric was basically dead as a faith come 5e between the damage he did to his own church and the return of the Dead Three.

It wouldn't surprise me but Bane aside, The Three are still underground (quite literally) so it may just be a vacuum.

So, Question, when exactly do I get to Baludr's Gate

Spoiler: Just got to the Shadow-Cursed Lands

Show

I got to the Shadow Cursed lands, took a left, and a bunch of Absolute Cultists want to escort me to Moonrise Towers. Everything has been very aggressively sending me towards either Moonrise or Baludr's Gate.

I figured I'd get a chance to visit Baludr's Gate and make some progress on those storylines, I figured Moonrise Towers and the shadow-cursed lands would be the "Adventure Wilderness"/ Big Dungeon alongside Baldur's Gate itself as the Town. But The only path out of the Mountains drops me in the shadow-cursed lands.

Do I need to clear the Towers before I visit Baldur's Gate?

I'm pretty sure you can't leave Act 2 until you deal with Moonrise one way or another.

Man, so Last Light Inn.

Spoiler: Last Light Inn

Show

So, I got the result... a couple different ways I played it... where almost everyone in Last Light died. Turned into shadow-cursed undead. And that hit me HARD. I think the death of Dammon did it the most, but I am gonna start looking for how I can get around everyone dying. Kill Marcus in that first round?

An easy way I've found is to just buff her with Pro Evil when you get up there (ideally before the fight starts so you're not at the mercy of Initiative), all of Marcus' winged cronies are undead so they will have disadvantage to hit. Position your tank near her to deal with anyone who approaches and you'll win eventually.

[BRC]

I'm pretty sure you can't leave Act 2 until you deal with Moonrise one way or another.

So Baldur's Gate itself is Act 3?

[Psyren]

So Baldur's Gate itself is Act 3?

In a word, yes. You'll learn a lot more about why that is once you've gotten to Moonrise.

[LibraryOgre]

An easy way I've found is to just buff her with Pro Evil when you get up there (ideally before the fight starts so you're not at the mercy of Initiative), all of Marcus' winged cronies are undead so they will have disadvantage to hit. Position your tank near her to deal with anyone who approaches and you'll win eventually.

So it ends when she dies? I'll have to do that, then.

[Psyren]

So it ends when she dies? I'll have to do that, then.

If she dies or gets kidnapped then everyone at the Inn is instantly screwed, yes.

(Did you like the Load-Bearing Boss trope? Then you'll LOVE Load-Bearing Ally!!!)

[Cikomyr2]

So it ends when she dies? I'll have to do that, then.

It is indeed one of these fights with Chess rules. You lose it when you lose your female King.

[Bunny Commando]

In that fight, Shadowheart is ironically a great addition to the party; enemies will try to rush Isobel and Shadowheart with an upcasted Spirit Guardians will hit them hard.

[Cikomyr2]

Btw, i had a biiiig awesome boss fight against

Spoiler: Act 3

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Raphael in the House of Hope

And I have to say the custom song made for that boss fight enthralled me. Absolutely magnificient. So full of character and personality, rather than just generic instrumentals.

Any other similar boss fight song you remember? Its rare that the boss himself sings in their own boss fight sing

[Psyren]

Btw, i had a biiiig awesome boss fight against

Spoiler: Act 3

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Raphael in the House of Hope

And I have to say the custom song made for that boss fight enthralled me. Absolutely magnificient. So full of character and personality, rather than just generic instrumentals.

Any other similar boss fight song you remember? Its rare that the boss himself sings in their own boss fight sing

There's a whole trope for this, though not all of them occur during the boss fight itself. And yes, the boss fight in question absolutely belongs on that page

I cleared the DC 30 check to convince Yurgir to switch sides so the fight ended up way, way easier than all the build up led me to believe it would. Expertise in Persuasion FTW!

As for other boss-sings-their-own-song examples that I enjoy, "Great Mighty Poo" from Conker's Bad Fur Day and "King Dice" from Cuphead come to mind.

[Anonymouswizard]

Went through character creation SIX TIMES before I had a Durge I was actually happy with, didnf have any bugs, and didn't look worse in-game than in the character creators. Which resulted in a transfemme human (for the extra skill) rogue specced into social skills (I can sneak, but mostly got away with my past via charm and blatant lies), with dyed red hair leaning towards a 'tempted, but resists' run. Going to hit Level 3 soon after I boot the game up in the morning,so I guess it's time to decide between Thief and Assassin (although what I really want is Swashbuckler or Mastermind, urgh why did Larian have to focus on core options).

It's nice that melee sneak attack is so easy to proc, unlike the hassle it is in Solasta, and I can go rapier+shield for decent AC. So honestly it's going to be a fun run, especially because the first DU item syncs up well with being a Rogue.

[Zevox]

Spoiler: Act 3 Gale

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So, the Weave fragment Gale has in him is from Karsus' Weave, eh? That actually makes considerably more sense. Mystryl's Weave ceased to exist the moment she sacrificed herself - that was what caused Karsus' Avatar to fail and Netheril to fall. But for Karsus, mid-apotheosis into becoming a new God of Magic, to have been starting to generate his own Weave, and for a fragment of whatever small amount of it had formed to become stuck in some artifact he had on him at the time actually works. Much better than the original implication that it was a piece of Mystryl's Weave. Kudos to them there.

Also, Gale was worrying me with his "I want to pull a Karsus!" stuff there for a minute, but it doesn't seem to have taken much to convince him not to, thankfully. Which is nice, I've already got Astarion setting me up for an unpleasant inter-party conflict over his personal quest, would suck to have that happen with Gale too.

Gotcha. If it's any consolation, I was able to get his personal quest done AND easily get him to listen to me at the end of it despite us being pretty blah towards one another, so don't feel bad that he's standoffish.

Well, we'll see. Astarion's approval level of me is only Medium; not sure if that'll be enough to enable better options when I do his personal quest.

(I thought Hypnotic Pattern was good in tabletop 5e, it's bonkers in a game where the AI constantly forgets they can slap each other awake.)

I actually feel like it's weaker in a game than in tabletop, because you can't have a pre-arranged signal the caster can give for the party to close their eyes so they aren't affected by it.

I will say though that Velsharoon isn't really who I'd want to see either, he's kind of an also-ran joke among the rest of the pantheon, and not just because he's technically only a demigod. I mean, running behind Mystra's skirts because he was afraid of Talos, really man? I'd actually rather see someone like Vecna take over for the two of them.

Talos is one of the most powerful and violent gods in the pantheon, being afraid of him if he has his eyes on you is pretty reasonable, especially for a demigod. But hey, all they need is a story where Velsharoon hatches some plot to empower himself enough to come out of Mystra's shadow.

And Vecna is a Greyhawk deity, not a Realms one, so don't expect to see him.

For me, the Shar stuff was way more compelling than anything Moe, Larry and Curly were up to.

To be fair, Ketheric was a very effective villain for act 2 (though also to be fair, the reasons for that had nothing to do with him being a Myrkullite), and I do like Gortash as a villain as well. Orin though, yeah, could definitely do without her.

[Bunny Commando]

Without giving away too much, Orin is much more prominent and important as a villain in a Dark Urge playthrough.

[Psyren]

Well, we'll see. Astarion's approval level of me is only Medium; not sure if that'll be enough to enable better options when I do his personal quest.

I was neutral with him too. Just make sure you read everything you can in that area.

I actually feel like it's weaker in a game than in tabletop, because you can't have a pre-arranged signal the caster can give for the party to close their eyes so they aren't affected by it.

I feel like that's the kind of thing the enemy should get an Insight check to recognize but fair enough.

Talos is one of the most powerful and violent gods in the pantheon, being afraid of him if he has his eyes on you is pretty reasonable, especially for a demigod. But hey, all they need is a story where Velsharoon hatches some plot to empower himself enough to come out of Mystra's shadow.

And Vecna is a Greyhawk deity, not a Realms one, so don't expect to see him.

Meh. I don't think Vel is salvageable but to each his own.

As for Vecna, they've crossed over famous deities before (see also Lolth and Tiamat.) MTG's Forgotten Realms expansion puts him there. And canonically, he wrote (or possibly coauthored) the Book of Vile Darkness, which also made the jump from GH to FR.

To be fair, Ketheric was a very effective villain for act 2 (though also to be fair, the reasons for that had nothing to do with him being a Myrkullite), and I do like Gortash as a villain as well. Orin though, yeah, could definitely do without her.

Exactly - the most interesting parts of Ketheric came from his Shar/Selune worship rather than Myrkul.

Orin is just Jokerella. I definitely see how a DUrge playthrough would flesh her out though, knowing what I know.

[Eldonauran]

Finally got me a Dark Urge character that I'm going to run with. I can't really stand embracing the Urge fully, so I will be fighting against it the entire time. She is going to be rather skeptical and paranoid about people's motivations, mostly due to her conflicting desires. The murderous and insane desire to slaughter everything that stems from the deepest recesses of her vacuous mind, and the bright spark of hope that fights in her heart, letting her draw on the powers of a Paladin, Oath of the Ancients. Don't bother too much with the strange Eldritch powers she seems to have from a pact with a Great Old One... I don't think they will make an appearance...

Spoiler: Finding a Gale

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Spoiler: Saving a Child

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[Zevox]

Question regarding act 3:

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Without spoiling anything: can I go after Orin before Gortash without her killing the party member she kidnapped? I want to get Lae'zel back ASAP, and it would be nice not to have to deal with Gortash beforehand to do it, but am genuinely concerned there might be no way save her besides killing Gortash first.

I was neutral with him too. Just make sure you read everything you can in that area.

Actually encouraging to hear. I would not have expected it to be possible to influence his choice at neutral approval.

I feel like that's the kind of thing the enemy should get an Insight check to recognize but fair enough.

Not if the signal is weird enough that nobody not in the know could possibly figure out what it meant .

As for Vecna, they've crossed over famous deities before (see also Lolth and Tiamat.) MTG's Forgotten Realms expansion puts him there. And canonically, he wrote (or possibly coauthored) the Book of Vile Darkness, which also made the jump from GH to FR.

Lolth and Tiamat are racial deities - and Tiamat came in with the Untheric pantheon, one of the interlopers from Earth. Rather different cases from Vecna. As for the Book of Vile Darkness, it's a core artifact, of course they have a version of it on the Realms. My own variation has it as a creation of Shar's.

[Eldonauran]

Question regarding act 3:

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Without spoiling anything: can I go after Orin before Gortash without her killing the party member she kidnapped? I want to get Lae'zel back ASAP, and it would be nice not to have to deal with Gortash beforehand to do it, but am genuinely concerned there might be no way save her besides killing Gortash first.

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I can 100% confirm this is possible. It is exactly what I did. Had the same person kidnapped too. Find the person committing all the murders.

[Psyren]

Question regarding act 3:

Spoiler

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Without spoiling anything: can I go after Orin before Gortash without her killing the party member she kidnapped? I want to get Lae'zel back ASAP, and it would be nice not to have to deal with Gortash beforehand to do it, but am genuinely concerned there might be no way save her besides killing Gortash first.

Yes, I did things in that order. When the fight starts,

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you'll need to pass a pretty tough social check to keep her focused on you, but if you clear that, the victim is safe.

There is no time limit either (i.e. you can long rest as much as you want before going) until you get to where they are.

Lolth and Tiamat are racial deities - and Tiamat came in with the Untheric pantheon, one of the interlopers from Earth. Rather different cases from Vecna. As for the Book of Vile Darkness, it's a core artifact, of course they have a version of it on the Realms. My own variation has it as a creation of Shar's.

I guess we'll see. SCAG doesn't even mention him, despite mentioning the Dead Three, so that's not a good sign I'd say. I'd settle for upgrading Myrkul.

Finally got me a Dark Urge character that I'm going to run with. I can't really stand embracing the Urge fully, so I will be fighting against it the entire time. She is going to be rather skeptical and paranoid about people's motivations, mostly due to her conflicting desires. The murderous and insane desire to slaughter everything that stems from the deepest recesses of her vacuous mind, and the bright spark of hope that fights in her heart, letting her draw on the powers of a Paladin, Oath of the Ancients. Don't bother too much with the strange Eldritch powers she seems to have from a pact with a Great Old One... I don't think they will make an appearance...

Spoiler: Finding a Gale

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Spoiler: Saving a Child

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Question, what save is it to resist the Urge? Wisdom? I want to maximize my chances of resisting it when I finally get around to that.

[Eldonauran]

Question, what save is it to resist the Urge? Wisdom? I want to maximize my chances of resisting it when I finally get around to that.

I am fairly certain there are a decent amount of Wisdom saves to make in the critical moments. I haven't played far into the Dark Urge yet to get an accurate count but I've seen several clips. What I mostly meant by resisting the Urge is actively choosing (as the player) to avoid picking options that let it out. The scene with saving the child in the druid grove is certainly one of them. There is also a moment where you meet an adorable little squirrel that you have no control over your actions, but can choose how your character responds afterwards. My particular character nearly got physically ill from the conflicting internal reactions, enough so that Astarion had a special dialogue about it.

Here is an example of 'resisting' the Urge:

Spoiler: Strong but Helpless

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EDIT: I'm dying over here, of laughter... Just... Wow, Ethel... Just wow.

Spoiler: She Says She Knows What Naughty Girls Need

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