Baldur's Gate 3 II: The Urge for a Second Playthrough

[Aragehaor]

Oh really? Huh, I'd never have guessed. Honestly I wouldn't have figured she could get out of the camp alive even if you let her out, given she's caged way in the back of it.

You do need to escort her out, but you gain control over her for the duration (in more or less the style of summons), depending on your party set up/items escorting her out can be pretty easy or somewhat difficult, but its not too troublesome overall

[The Patterner]

You do need to escort her out, but you gain control over her for the duration (in more or less the style of summons), depending on your party set up/items escorting her out can be pretty easy or somewhat difficult, but its not too troublesome overall

You can just sneak out the back way from the prison cell. Super easy.

[Psyren]

Yeah there are a bunch of ways to get her out of there:

1) The back way (hop down ledge outside her cell to cave)
2) Waltz her out the front door (talk your way past the guards and/or be sneaky)
3) Feed her an invisibility potion (from Auntie Ethel) or use the spell if you're level 3, and hoof it to the exit
4) Fight your way out (not recommended)

And there's probably more I'm not thinking of.

[Zevox]

You do need to escort her out, but you gain control over her for the duration (in more or less the style of summons), depending on your party set up/items escorting her out can be pretty easy or somewhat difficult, but its not too troublesome overall

Also unexpected, though certainly explains how that could work out. Guess perhaps that should've occurred to me given there's something similar in Act 3.

Anyway, though, big news: a new patch is out, and it's a big one. Big enough that it's taking my entire lunch break at work to download. Biggest piece being that the game now has a real epilogue! So I'm guessing a lot of us will be redoing the final fight on old runs today - I know I will be.

Also, two new difficulty settings. Honor Mode, which is apparently the new highest difficulty setting, and Custom Mode, which is what it sounds like. One big thing about Honor Mode: they added Legendary Actions to bosses. So yeah, expect a big difficulty spike there.

[BRC]

More Importantly!
While at camp, you can now access and manage the inventories of companions who aren't in your active party.

Boo will no longer take damage when thrown.

[Psyren]

Waitaminute....!!

Does that Minthara patch note about knocking her out mean you can recruit her on a Good playthrough?? Without mods or exploits???

"Halsin now deigns to pitch in at the Last Light attack" has me rolling

[Zevox]

More Importantly!
While at camp, you can now access and manage the inventories of companions who aren't in your active party.

Yes, that too, hallelujah. Now if only we can get an actual party management menu screen so we don't need to go chat with everyone to change who's in the party.

Waitaminute....!!

Does that Minthara patch note about knocking her out mean you can recruit her on a Good playthrough?? Without mods or exploits??

Just spotted that and was about to post about it myself. Sounds like it means that, and very nice if it does. Even if it's a little awkward narratively since there's not a clear reason why someone who's otherwise killing the Goblin leaders would spare her.

[BRC]

Still, that's an awfully big thing to hide in a patch note.

[Psyren]

Just spotted that and was about to post about it myself. Sounds like it means that, and very nice if it does. Even if it's a little awkward narratively since there's not a clear reason why someone who's otherwise killing the Goblin leaders would spare her.

Another note mentions adding "cinematic polish" to her interaction at the goblin camp, No idea what this means, but I'm hopeful part of it is your tadpole clueing you in to "hey, maybe don't kill this one" the way it did with Karlach. But I guess we'll have to see.

[Jophiel]

Waitaminute....!!

Does that Minthara patch note about knocking her out mean you can recruit her on a Good playthrough?? Without mods or exploits???

Also possibly related:

Added an extra line for Halsin so he acknowledges an outcome where you resolved the grove situation but the goblin leaders weren't necessarily killed.

[BRC]

Ugh, I was going to do a second playthrough as a Monk Durge romancing Astarion, but I might have to romance Minthara instead, since I understand she also gets a lot of interesting durge dialogue.

[Aragehaor]

You can just sneak out the back way from the prison cell. Super easy.

...Huhn.

Yeah there are a bunch of ways to get her out of there:

1) The back way (hop down ledge outside her cell to cave)
2) Waltz her out the front door (talk your way past the guards and/or be sneaky)
3) Feed her an invisibility potion (from Auntie Ethel) or use the spell if you're level 3, and hoof it to the exit
4) Fight your way out (not recommended)

And there's probably more I'm not thinking of.

I always just used option 3, Guess i'm more lazy then clever.

Waitaminute....!!

Does that Minthara patch note about knocking her out mean you can recruit her on a Good playthrough?? Without mods or exploits???

If so, that'll be rather excellent news, i've done an evil play through but ended up being too evil and

Spoiler: dark urge

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killed her after bed.(turns out when your roleplaying as someone who gives into their psychotic urges you don't get nice things...)

it'd be pretty great to get to recruit her in a good-aligned playthrough, i dont know if shes redeemable or not, but i do have a cinnamon bun character i want to run through the game again at some point who'd certainly try

[Zevox]

Stuff from the new epilogue:

Spoiler

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First of all, it's not just cutscenes, it's a whole reunion party at the camp arrange by Withers where you walk around and talk to everyone. Though everyone does also wander themselves, which can make it hard to find people you haven't talked to yet at times. There's also a bunch of letters in a small chest and several Baldur's Mouth news postings for information about people and places that aren't present.

First Run: Goody two-shoes Selûnite Cleric, romanced Shadowheart, Orpheus became the Mind Flayer and was killed at his request after.
- Shadowheart and I continued to have adventures after, including visiting the "House of the Moon," likely a Selûnite temple, and having a stray Imp named Bing Bong join us at some point.
- Wyll and Karlach went to Avernus, found a map to Zariel's forge on a Cambion they killed, and are planning to force a smith there to fix her up so she can live outside Avernus.
-- Karlach does refer to Wyll as "someone she loves," though unclear if that's meant platonically or romantically.
-- Wyll without his Pact becomes a Ranger.
- Gale gave the Crown of Karsus over to Mystra and was cured. He's now a teacher of Illusion magic at Blackstaff Academy, which I assume is in Waterdeep given that's where he lives and where Khelben did.
- Lae'zel couldn't attend in person, but cobbled together what she needed to attend as a psionic projection. She carried on Orpheus' mission - she is now The Comet. She's brokering an alliance between her Githyanki rebels and the Githzerai! And the Githzerai are the ones who reached out first!
- Astarion has accepted his life and seems happier, even though he can't come out in the sun anymore. He's now playing the heroic adventurer - though he says it's because people are okay with you murdering "as long as you murder the right people."
- Halsin is taking care of a bunch of kids in the former Shadowlands now.
- Jaheira is helping rebuild Baldur's Gate, and so are her kids.
- Mincs is trying to reform the Guild. Not so sure that's going as well as he thinks it is, but he's trying.

Some notable non-companion ones:
- Arabella meets with "Beard Man," who is now teaching her magic. Probably Elminster, but maybe Silvanus, given her powers come from his idol and he is depicted as bearded?
- The Vampire Spawn, if freed, terrorize the Underdark for a bit, attacking monsters and people alike, and losing hundreds of their number to either fights with monsters or simply wandering off into the depths. But eventually Astarion's siblings find them and get them under control, and they establish a home in some old ruins.
- Alfira and her girlfriend start a bardic school in Baldur's Gate, which is swiftly so busy her girlfriend has to quit her job at the Elfsong.
- Hope still seems to be in control of the House of Hope six months later.
- Millil, the God of Music and Poetry, performs at the party, at Withers' request. Apparently he's somehow been forgotten due to some scheme of Cyric's and this is his first time out of the Fugue Plane in a while? Which bugs me, as this apparently isn't something 4e pulled as far as my googling can tell, it's something they made up for this. I thought we were past them tossing out the setting's gods for no reason now that 5e undid all of 4e's nonsense...
- Strangely no mention of Isobel and Aaylin that I could find?

Second Run: Githyanki Wild Magic Sorceress, Dark Urge, ended resisting but with tragedy in Act 2. Romanced Lae'zel, Karlach became the Mind Flayer. Went with Lae'zel and Orpheus to fight Vlaakith.
(Note: I had Gale blow the brain up in order to skip the fight, so I won't know if there's something I missed with him that would differ from my first run. But I ended with him intending to give the Crown back to Mystra on this run too, so I doubt it.)
- I attended the party as a psionic projection, like Lae'zel. This time around Orpheus is said to be the one making it possible. Although the effect that makes me appear this way does awkwardly disappear at times in some conversations.
- Shadowheart and her parents settled down into an abandoned cottage somewhere and have been making a homestead/possibly farm out of it. They care for animals now, and her mother has been teaching her cooking recipes.
- No real difference for Lae'zel, aside from Orpheus being alive and myself being a part of her efforts and her lover.
- With his Pact still in place, Wyll is hunting devils and demons in Avernus again, and calling himself the Blade of Avernus, just like he can without the Pact. No indication of Mizora screwing with him, at least in the six months that pass between the ending and epilogue, though he still expects it to happen. He does feel like the threat of him offing himself if Zariel ever threatens the Sword Coast will make them hesitate to do that as long as he's more useful as a Warlock than a Lemure, though.
- No difference for Astarion, which is no surprise since I made the same choices with him.
- Mind Flayer Karlach is... creepy. Her voice is pretty monotone - clearly six months later the Mind Flayer lack of emotions has kicked in. She says she won't tell you what she's been up to because she's "not sure you're ready for the truth." When pressed, she does say she has an arrangement with a healer in Baldur's Gate, who offers the terminally ill in their care the choice between dying naturally and letting Karlach eat their brain (phrased as her "relieving them," so unclear if they know exactly what's happening besides implied assisted suicide). This causes Karlach to obtain their memories, which she views as keeping them alive in a way. She says this is a way of staying true to her morals, but... yeah, creepy. Kind of think I can add this variation to my "not he best ending" picks here.
- There's a magical projection of Gale at the party despite his blowing himself up, a pre-programmed one. He says he was "erased from this plane in both soul and substance," and so cannot be resurrected. He gives you a letter Gale wrote before the fight with the Netherbrain, which is pretty much what you'd expect. Would probably be more sentimental if I'd romanced him. You can also meet Tara, his Tressym (she was in the version where he survived, but has more to say in this version). She offers to have you meet Gale's mother sometime - though for a Githyanki trying to topple Vlaakith, that's not happening anytime soon.
-- Oddly, a letter to Gale from Elminster is still there, written as if he'd survived. Looks like a bug/oversight.
- No difference with Halsin. No Jaheira or Minsc at all, due to Last Light's destruction, though a statue of Jaheira is evidently erected where Minsc's "statue" once stood, and Minsc dying in service to the Absolute becomes public knowledge, staining his reputation posthumously.
- No major changes for being a Dark Urge character that I could find (besides the Alfira parts being gone), just a couple of optional lines you can say while speaking to the characters.

Definitely a damn sight better than the abrupt ending the game had before - good on them for adding it. I'll be curious just how different it is with more radically different endings, such as the one I'll get for doing my current evil run.

[Witty Username]

Oh, my thread got merged, well then.

But to reiterate here in case of digging, I had a bit of a slump when I first hit Act 3, along with noticing the edges of some of the conversations surrounding characters I haven't reunited with yet. Which at the beginning of the thread I attributed to the returning characters in the game feeling a bit weird. or more accurately less interesting than the new.

The slump I have attributed to me taking a week off work for Thanksgiving which I mostly used for getting progress, and Act 2 being unusually good. A few days playing nonsense puzzle game seems to have me back on track.

But I do still have some notes:
Jaheria feels a bit lackluster as a party member in comparison to how she was handled as an NPC, and I actually liked Halsin's inclusion better as he felt more natural in comparison. That being said, taking 6 levels in Fighter on Jaheria helped my personal amusement alot.
Volo, First time meeting proper it feels like. BG1 was a bit blink and you'll miss him. Fine, bit weirded out that he is a relatively normal human that is still alive after 100 years, but Psyren has informed me that was a thing from elsewhere. Other than having to double check his class (I thought he was a bard, I was incorrect) no complaints, no strong opinions apart from his final contribution in Act 1. Which was straight funny.
Elminster, I find it somewhat refreshing that he interacts with you but is sorta on other business. Unless you are Gale, as he shows up about that nonsense.

And for the ones I haven't met yet, so I am trying to withhold judgment:

Spoiler

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Minsc, Sarevok, and Viconia. No concerns on Minsc. over 100 but I happen to be aware enough of the Comics that I am at least aware of the how, and I have heard no complaints. Voice by Matt Mercer too, so that should be fun at least. Sarevok, who I mostly am weirded out by how he is still alive given human, even with him revived at the end of the old games he should be dead by now. and Viconia, which a coworker won't shut up about, sounds like their is some strong opinions on how she is handled in terms of personality. I mostly have notes that I thought she was kicked from the Shar people due to her role in BG1 and 2.

[Jophiel]

I ran two of my old run's epilogues

Spoiler

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Standard Good Run: Was nice catching up with everyone. Gale detonated himself this run so the projection was sort of bittersweet, especially when I tried to hug it. Weirdly, I didn't see Alfira (mentioned in Zevox's comments) although she did survive, was on the Elfsong roof and my bard character had multiple conversations with her throughout the game and helped with her song. Or was that info just via letter? I totally missed the letter box -- oops! Guess I'll have to fire it back up and look to see what I got. The biggest part was the "Hey, we can maybe probably save Karlach for good" leads. Maybe that'll finally shush some people up.

Evil, Non-Dark Urge Run: Sadly, though not unexpectedly, there's no epilogue if you dominate the Brain and become the Absolute. So I destroyed the Brain and got a nice closing where Minthara and I talk about our plans and decide to take over Baldur's Gate via political guile and assassination like normal people. At one point she asks why I didn't dominate the brain and there's no option to suggest that doing so would have just made her a thrall -- there's no Co-Absolute option.

The party was a gathering of the Sword Coast's worst people between myself, Minthara, Ascended Astarion and Mother Superior Shadowheart. Shadowheart has got it going on in her Shar Pope gown. Despite conversations between Minthara and myself suggesting that we're working 24/7 on setting up alliances, bribes, favors owed, etc in the pursuit of power in BG, neither Astarion or Shadowheart recognized or commented on it. You'd think that "Ascended Vampire in Cazador's manor" and "High Priestess of Shar Church" would be on our list of local alliances and leverages. Gale went off to become a professor (I didn't encourage him to seize the crown, maybe I should have) and my conversation with Jahiera was about the same as in my Good run above. Minthara was all "Can we go? These are your friends, they all hate me. Can I poison them?". Classic Mindy.

This time I did notice the box of letters and most were fairly neutral "Hey thanks" stuff though I was amused by Devella's ignorance of my being evil with comments about "I heard reports that Bhaalists were even sacrificing Bhaalists!" and "We'll have to toast to Valeria's memory..."

All in all, it was an interesting ending and I appreciated the effort but they obviously had a harder time trying to make an Evil ending gel than the traditional good guy hero runs.

[Psyren]

I'm hearing that, while it's possible to recruit Minthara on a good playthrough now by knocking her out, Halsin will still leave the party if you do - can anyone confirm?

My plan for my next Good Durge playthrough is to recruit Halsin, fix the Shadow Curse in Act 2 before the Moonrise assault, then save Minthara so he can leave the party, and then do all of her Act 3 content with Orin.

[The Patterner]

I'm hearing that, while it's possible to recruit Minthara on a good playthrough now by knocking her out, Halsin will still leave the party if you do - can anyone confirm?

My plan for my next Good Durge playthrough is to recruit Halsin, fix the Shadow Curse in Act 2 before the Moonrise assault, then save Minthara so he can leave the party, and then do all of her Act 3 content with Orin.

Seems plausible since they share tent space. So yeah, I'll probably do the same. Solve his part of the Shadow curse and then save Minthara.

This really makes me wanna do a kinda evil playtrough, not so much EVIL, as very self-serving.

So the exact opposite to my current goodie two shoes paladin.

[Zevox]

Spoiler: Epilogue Alfira

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She is one of the letters, yes. Her school is also one of the headlines in the Baldur's Mouth postings near the letter chest.

I think the only non-party members who attend the party are Volo, Tara the Tressym, Withers, and Milil. Well, and Minsc's accidental guest.

[Errorname]

The epilogue is nice. Nothing special, but it's good to have and it's a neat alternative to the fallout-style slideshow

Spoiler

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Minsc, Sarevok, and Viconia. No concerns on Minsc. over 100 but I happen to be aware enough of the Comics that I am at least aware of the how, and I have heard no complaints. Voice by Matt Mercer too, so that should be fun at least. Sarevok, who I mostly am weirded out by how he is still alive given human, even with him revived at the end of the old games he should be dead by now. and Viconia, which a coworker won't shut up about, sounds like their is some strong opinions on how she is handled in terms of personality. I mostly have notes that I thought she was kicked from the Shar people due to her role in BG1 and 2.

Spoiler: Returning characters

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The thing about Sarevok and Viconia that grinds people's gears is a combination of their endings being incompatible with all of their possible endings from the original, and also just being really boring. Probably the least interesting thing you could do with both characters, which is a shame

[Spore]

The epilogue is nice. Nothing special, but it's good to have and it's a neat alternative to the fallout-style slideshow

Spoiler: Returning characters

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The thing about Sarevok and Viconia that grinds people's gears is a combination of their endings being incompatible with all of their possible endings from the original, and also just being really boring. Probably the least interesting thing you could do with both characters, which is a shame

Spoiler

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I havent seen Viconia or Minsc in BG 3 yet, but I feel the schtick of "evil femme fatale Sharran priestess" and "lovable himbo ranger" is great for new players, but horrible for older ones. Barring interference by charname - which canonically is Abdel or some sort of adventuring crew for the comics anyway - imho Minsc should end up in a relationship with Aerie as his "witch". This would have given his character depth as he needs to seek his witch again, maybe only to have her moved on, or anything else.

Similarly Viconia grows as a character during the events of BG 2. Even if you want her to stay evil-ish, there is a long road from BG 1/BG 2's "moustache twirling evil to believable and reasonable evil of BG 3 and modern games. Characters need a motivation more than just "We need a TV tropes archetype". Viconia having softened (or hardened) by her life on the surface may have given enough reason to develop her character, but the game is bogged down by other stories, and frankly she is just in there for fan service.

[Keltest]

Misnc was a statue for a hundred some years. Thats significant even for an elf. Aerie would have moved on.

[Eldonauran]

Epilogues are not working for me. I had several saves before the final fight, and after finishing it, I get the normal docks scene, it SKIPS the romance scene, goes to credits, goes to withers, then goes to main game screen... no epilogues. It is rather annoying, but I am playing with mods...

[diplomancer]

Epilogues are not working for me. I had several saves before the final fight, and after finishing it, I get the normal docks scene, it SKIPS the romance scene, goes to credits, goes to withers, then goes to main game screen... no epilogues. It is rather annoying, but I am playing with mods...

Same here, I've tried several things on both my playthroughs. Now uninstalled and installed the game, but haven't been able to test it yet.

[Psyren]

He's now playing the heroic adventurer - though he says it's because people are okay with you murdering "as long as you murder the right people."

Ah yes, the Belkar Exception Clause.

Probably Elminster, but maybe Silvanus, given her powers come from his idol and he is depicted as bearded?

Pikel maybe? Now that would be funny. He's still alive IIRC (he was pretty young for a dwarf during Cleric Quintet), and has quite the (green) beard.

[LibraryOgre]

Ok, if you're going for the twelve classes, one level each achievement, how do you build it? What's the order of classes you should take? How do your spread your stats?

My inclination is to start with rogue, for the skills. Knowledge cleric would be useful in there, for the same reason.

I haven't tried to seriously build this, just curious y'all's approach.

[Zevox]

I finally have Minthara in evil play through! Haven't seen much of her yet, but I look forward to it. Also it's kind of weird doing the stuff around Moonrise Towers before ever seeing Last Light after two runs where I went to Last Light first.

Ah yes, the Belkar Exception Clause.

Heh, kind of, yeah.

Pikel maybe? Now that would be funny. He's still alive IIRC (he was pretty young for a dwarf during Cleric Quintet), and has quite the (green) beard.

Eh, theoretically possible, but probably unlikely. I doubt someone with his limited vocabulary would make a great teacher. Also, seems likely that she'd have remarked upon more than just him having a beard if it was someone as odd as Pikel.

Ok, if you're going for the twelve classes, one level each achievement, how do you build it?

Well that's a bizarre idea. Personally, I just wouldn't bother, as it doesn't sound fun and I don't care about achievements. If I cared about achievements, I'd probably just grab a hireling or respec someone to that once I hit level 12. Trying to actually play through the game with something like that sounds miserable, it'd surely be terrible.

[tonberrian]

The thing is though for the achievement you can't use a respec, you have to play as that character all the way through. I'd be tempted to start as a fighter or paladin (or ranger, tbh), so you could start with heavy armor proficiency, since you'll never be able to pick that up with no feats. I'd also have to look at how half-casters would work if you give up before taking a level that grants spellcasting, since you'd have (bard + wizard + cleric + druid + Sorcerer) 5 caster level to start with, with (ranger + paladin) maybe adding another 1, plus 1 warlock spell per short rest. You'd have at least, what, 2 level 3 slots to cast spells in? Magic Missile upcasted to level 3 with the amulet isn't the worst thing you could do with your action, and the only class feature that is used in the overpowered magic missile build is Int to damage. You're gonna miss it but you can still probably pull out reasonable unavoidable damage with it.

You're gonna want to heavily invest in tadpole powers though.

[Keltest]

The thing is though for the achievement you can't use a respec, you have to play as that character all the way through. I'd be tempted to start as a fighter or paladin (or ranger, tbh), so you could start with heavy armor proficiency, since you'll never be able to pick that up with no feats. I'd also have to look at how half-casters would work if you give up before taking a level that grants spellcasting, since you'd have (bard + wizard + cleric + druid + Sorcerer) 5 caster level to start with, with (ranger + paladin) maybe adding another 1, plus 1 warlock spell per short rest. You'd have at least, what, 2 level 3 slots to cast spells in? Magic Missile upcasted to level 3 with the amulet isn't the worst thing you could do with your action, and the only class feature that is used in the overpowered magic missile build is Int to damage. You're gonna miss it but you can still probably pull out reasonable unavoidable damage with it.

You're gonna want to heavily invest in tadpole powers though.

Actually, clerics get heavy armor through a class feature, so you can pick it up with the right cleric domain when you take your cleric level.

[Psyren]

The thing is though for the achievement you can't use a respec, you have to play as that character all the way through.

Actually, you can in fact cheese this one even with the respec prohibition. Spoilers for those who want to figure it out for themselves:

Spoiler: Pungent Gouda

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Keep one party member at level 1 for the entire game and never use them. Once everyone else hits 12, then have that character join the party and they'll gain enough XP to level to 12, at which point you put 1 level in every class and boom, achievement unlocked.

This was even doable with hirelings, though I have no idea if that's still the case.

If you're trying to do it the hard way (...why tho), Mortisimal Gaming put out a guide that might help.

[InvisibleBison]

Actually, you can in fact cheese this one even with the respec prohibition. Spoilers for those who want to figure it out for themselves:

Spoiler: Pungent Gouda

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Keep one party member at level 1 for the entire game and never use them. Once everyone else hits 12, then have that character join the party and they'll gain enough XP to level to 12, at which point you put 1 level in every class and boom, achievement unlocked.

This was even doable with hirelings, though I have no idea if that's still the case.

Spoiler

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I don't know if this really counts as cheese. After all, there's no reason why you have to use all your companions.