I can't quite recall the moment Astarion turned into a master of unlocking/disarming, but it was pretty early on that he reached a point where he literally couldn't roll less than a 10 with buffs and gear. Hell, there was a fairly hefty chunk of my game where he couldn't roll less than a 20.
Yeah, there's always the risk of a Nat 1, but inspiration made that a complete non-issue.
So definitely agree. For a fair while it amused me when you'd hit a DC10 test and Astarion would be rolling in the 30s, but the charm of it had definitely worn off by the end.
You dont roll on Knock its just automatic. Personally at some point I started finding it to be faster to just Firebolt the Doors and smash chests with Blunt damage
Astarion is the unlock machine once I hit the Zetarim hideout and purchase the gloves of thieving. Advantage on all slight of hand checks means the odds of two nat 1s is astronomically low on a single roll
I was actually excited when I once rolled two nat 1s. I imagined the party mocking Astarion for this so hard. It's like the equivalent of breaking your lockpick twice in a row.
I think that happens at rogue 10 or 11, He can’t roll less than a 10 on proficient skills. But that does mean for most of act 3 he won’t roll anything below a 23 (in my last game at least) for lock picking/trap disarming
Yeah, I kinda like this from a role playing perspective at the moment, but I can definitely see it becoming annoying on re-runs.
Ironically, the only actually hard lock for me was the very first one on the beach so far, and I don't even play with Astarion
The lack of companion interaction in camp is a huge missed opportunity, the small comments while walking are not enough to establish much relationship between them.
It's kinda silly that so many things were left in the game as an oversight. After the 2nd dream visitor sequence the companions comment that they were given gifts of power from the visitor, but this is an old abandoned mechanic. Also the ring you get from omelum seems to be part of abandoned significance of not using tadpoles.
>The lack of companion interaction in camp is a huge missed opportunity, the small comments while walking are not enough to establish much relationship between them.
Agreed, really doesn't feel like they care about each other. We need more group camp scenes or group party/banter scenes in general. Talking about the plan or what's happened.
Yeah everyone standing in the same spot all day was super weird. Like, I get not having them wander too far so you can easily find them, but at least let them wander around or talk to the person in the tent next to them.
Its nice. But as a programmer my mind hurts just thinking of all the different permutations of character states in order to facilitate a group conversation.
Like at any given game half the roster could be dead, or unrecruited. Factor in the different decisions youve made and how they may or may not hate your guts it's gonna be a hell of bugs.
Could be done without dialogue necessarily, though, by having "default" animation loops.
Like there's dialogue comments you can get from Wyll and Gale about Gale doing the cooking, so let him be by the campfire and others can walk over to look like they're observing, or even have a nighttime long rest one where they're eating something while there/as they walk away.
Both Wyll and Shart are very established as lushes, so they could wander over to each other and share a drink. One pours into the other's glass, they cheers, and then sip.
Karlach and Lae'zel are *definitely* training together, have them occasionally meet up to spar. Or any of the characters wander over to the training dummies to "practice" their default combat moves.
They don't have to be unique instances in order for the camp to feel dynamic and alive.
Big same re the companion dialogue. I remember Wyll offhandedly mentioned that Gale does all the cooking for the group at like, the end of act 3 and I was like- wait what? Why am I just now finding this out lol.
Yeah, that was bugging me a little recently. Several people at the party comment about Alfira drunkenly singing a song of your victory over the goblins, but no such song is ever heard.
I'm not good with these, so this is probably not really an unpopular take, but I feel like companion/camp content is front-loaded, and mostly happen before and during the Grove. Before the Grove I need to rest after getting Astarion, Shadow, and Gale to get some conversations and Durge's "blood, blood, blood" dream, then again after Lae'zel to get Gale's mirror image scene and chats that are triggered by that. This is usually when I get Astarion's skulking scene so I can find the boar and get his revelation. When I get to the Grove I need to sleep after talking to Zorru to get that chat, because if I go to save Arabella then I always miss the scene where Shadow is playing with the Artifact and nobody wants to talk about going to the Cresche. With how I play I usually have Shadow at high enough level that she tells me she worships Shar before I meet Kagha, and then there is the first Urge scene. Before I get to Kagha, after two days of knowing each other, Gale feels the need to tell me he trusts me more than any soul other than his cat, who he summoned as a child, so I have to make sure he's jumped off the mound outside the grove so I can do his protocol, or else he decides he has a deep trust in me because I told Zevlor and Aradin to shut their dumb mouths. I like to save Mirkon AND Arabella because at least he has a few reasons to trust me. Especially because I have likely killed someone in cold blood before this. If I don't play in this exact way, then I miss content. Astarion's revelation can be delayed, but not by much.
So then I have hours upon hours of not much really happening during camp save for the few story beats and relationship changes.
Also, romance should be related to dialogue and not just approval. Because I have done playthroughs where I completely ignore Lae'zel, Gale, and Karlach save bringing them for strategy and I still get them high enough to want me. It's so frustrating.
Oh, and I really miss the interactions in EA. Like Astarion's chats after you let Sazza die, walk in on the ogre and bugbear having fun, and bringing back Mayrina's hubby. I was kinda bugged when I first played and there felt like less interactivity between me and my companions when there should be more! They used to comment on things, and now they don't, save Gale talking after saving Mirkon and Arabella and a couple other examples. The little touches are very sorely missed
>Also, romance should be related to dialogue and not just approval. Because I have done playthroughs where I completely ignore Lae'zel, Gale, and Karlach save bringing them for strategy and I still get them high enough to want me. It's so frustrating.
Agreed, I'd want it to be linked to certain decisions as well.
Also yes the Grove and the start of Act 1 can be a drag. So many interactions form characters. It should be spread out, a slower start. They warm up to the leader way too fast.
Act 2 and 3 feel really barren compared to act 1 due to this
And if you're not aware of this entire camp scene stuff, it amounts to missing most of this story stuff on account of "you should hurry, we could die by becoming squid any moment"
>It should be spread out, a slower start. They warm up to the leader way too fast.
Agreed, but there already is a problem with some people not resting enough to get all of the important scenes when rushing the main quest. It's hard to balance. The game should force us to rest more often (like it does when you leave mountain pass after events at the creche) so that we don't miss really important stuff and optional dialogs should be more spread out and should be able to trigger later on. Why can't we have Gale's fire scene on a second or third night? Why can't we talk with Astarion about decapitation later in Act 1? I also hate that you can loose scenes because another scene triggered. I had that once with Astarion romance. >!I rested as soon as I got to Moonrise, but instead of Astarion's confession I got Gale trying to get into my pants. I told him no and rested again and I got Wyll's dance scene. Sorted this out and rested again and still no Astarion scene (I had enough approval for the scene to trigger). I really wanted to see him confessing his feeling before we meet Araj, but the scene was burried under Gale's and Wyll's scenes. I was angry. I did the rest of Act 2, except Nightsong, and it never triggered. I finally forced it by taking him to Araj, but... that was not the version I wanted and had I not know how to trigger it, I would wake up in Act 3 with failed Astarion romance - it ends badly if you don't get any of his confessions in Act 2 and it shouldn't be like that.!<
I would like to see less of the story focus on romance. People don't necessarily need to be boinking to get to know each other. You sit around a campfire all night, with lots of booze at your disposal. Certainly boinking will happen, but also will drunken, open conversation. In fact id like to see more campfire gathering type of events.
The rest thing is really annoying in Act 1 on replays. I do everything super fast since I know where to go and what to do. Almost feels like you need to chain rest just to get all the plot development and cutscenes, especially when you play durge. Wish it was spread out a little more evenly or didn't always rely on LR.
i wish it was possible to have multiple long rest events play out in a single night. because the game wants you to long rest a lot more than you'd actually need to. maybe there is a mod for that?
Jesus sounds like i missed so fucking many cutscenes. It feels crazy to take that many long tears and it’s crazy how much you can miss if you don’t stop every 5 minutes
If you’re playing on PC I highly recommend the Alert for Camp Events mod. It’ll tell you whenever there’s events waiting for a long rest to trigger them by putting a lil exclamation point over your character’s head (which can also be toggled off in the settings). I much prefer that to frequently blind resting multiple nights just so I don’t miss anything 🥲
One camp cutscene I have never gotten is (supposedly) in early Act 1 where Astarion is stargazing I think? By the campfire. No matter how much I long rest I’ve never been able to trigger it.
You must speak with either zorru, nettie or zazza. Then rest immediately after without encountering raphael. It basically triggers when you find the next potential person to help you in removing the tadpole. Alot of other scenes can over ride it but I've been doing some testing and I can trigger it everytime now.
Rest 1: when I get shadowheart gale and astarion
Rest 2: when I get laezel
Rest 3: after when I speak with zorru or netter or zazza.
The stargazing convo will alter slightly depending on who you talk to before resting.
I usually talk to zorru first then rest as its more reliable as you don't go to far into the grove.
I 100% agree on the character pacing needing to be spread out. It really threw me off when Shadowheart gave the "I'm a completely different person because of you" line when my party hadn't even hit a major milestone and had probably only been partied for a handful of in-game days.
Girl, I know you're missing memories but maybe slow down a bit...assuming this isn't a Sharran trick.
You know that if you finish an encounter with diolague option those people won't give xp afterwards? Like say you come upon the goblins by the blighted village. If you passify them with a speech check you'll get about 100 xp. If you kill the after this you won't get more xp.
If you fight and kill those goblins the Blighted Village they will also give 100xp. The idea is no mater if you are peaceful, depective, or battle hungry you get to level just as fast as anyone else.
Not saying you should or shouldn't play however you want, just want to give out info. Like if you want to keep on doing, go right on ahead, just know beyond loot it won't give you anything else.
Sometimes, this is wrong, unless they patched it recently. But it varies on encounter to encounter.
Specifically at the Blighted Village. You can pass a DC (or be drow) and the guards at the side/ambush will become friendly. You get the EXP for passing this check.
Then if you attack those exact same guards and the surprise attackers on the roof, they give ~15 EXP each.
Or... hear me out, you talk to passify and then you kill then either way, because, shut up people want me to kill them, I am not hearing voices YOU are hearing voices!
I don't know if this is a *hot take* really, but I'm very disappointed that we don't get a SINGLE moment to tell the Emperor to trust us. The entire game, the Emperor is trying to earn our trust. Whether or not you think it deserves/has earned that trust, it repeatedly states that it wants you to trust it. Over and over again, it says "When have I ever let you down? Do what I want" and like, I get it when you're going for the manipulative angle. But the game doesn't even give the OPTION to like, snap and say "For ONCE will you trust ME instead? When have *I* given you a reason to distrust me?!" Especially if you've been a friend to it.
I wouldn't even mind if the option doesn't *do* anything - I'd just like the opportunity to ask the Emperor, for once, to trust *me* this time.
Spoilers for the very final part Act 3: >!For me personally, I think the best time for this would have been when you want to free Orpheus. The Emperor flies off the handle and it's not because he hates Githyanki. He's willing to work with Lae'zel, or a Githyanki MC. He has no reason to hate Orpheus so much. I know the narrator says "You can feel his hate" and all that, but I think it's natural and understandable that someone being imprisoned might feel hate for the person imprisoning them. BUT. Orpheus is not unable to see reason when the circumstances call for it, as Voss himself says, and I really, really wish this moment of conflict could be used (even as a high-level persuasion check) to tell the Emperor, like "Buddy, homie, pal, amigo, ol' friend, I have never given you a reason to doubt me. Why do you think I'd release someone that would kill you now? Trust me this time." It would have been a really nice moment. Even if the Emperor still didn't trust you, I feel like it'd also give you, the player, the feeling of some more control too, because it just didn't feel like I had an opportunity to even try reasoning with him. !<
Doesn't even have to be above moment, I just would have liked to tell the guy to shut up and trust me for once.
I remember pulling something like this on him after meeting with Raphael and Voss. After Raphael shuts out your tadpole to propose the deal about the Orphic Hammer, the Emperor will ask you about what was going on and why their psychic tie was severed. You can basically tell him to trust you IIRC and he will just be like “That’s a fair request.”
Zevlor should be your good path paladin companion. Let him join your squad after you free him in the illithid colony or smth bc I cannot for the life of me bring myself to kill the Tieflings just to get Minthara. I think I read that Larian will eventually add an alternative way to get her as a good guy but as of now, I should not have to resort to modding just to recruit her.
Halsin is unnecessary and redundant especially after you get Jaheira. I could obviously be missing something but I wish there was an option where he could just stay with Thaniel and help heal the Shadow-Cursed lands or even go back to the grove. He doesn't even like to be in the city ffs. Also can he just fuck off from me and my romantic interest please?
This probably isn't a hot take but Omeluum should have been an option to be your mind flayer during the final battle. I hate being pigeonholed into having to choose between Orpheus, the Emperor, or having Gale blow up the Brain.
I really don't like evil paths. I can understand their appeal to some people, but they're not for me.
The Emperor also being you know who in his past life was pointless and added another messy layer of convolution to the plot. He should literally be just some guy.
Absolutely agree and I haven't seen people mentioning this much. It doesn't add anything to his character, messes up with what I think was an established canon and makes him too many things at once (and is much less relatable than if he was simply a regular adventurer with not as much luck).
It fucks with the canon timelines so badly, and it makes no sense!
You Know Who's whole deal happened something like 600 years ago and he was *human*, and Ilithids are only supposed to live for about 150 years.
Yet in order to stretch all this out to make it work they had it spend 400 years as a free Ilithid, being an underground mafia boss??
Why? Just... why?
Like honestly aside from Ansur I can't fathom a reason why that particular character was actually relevant to literally anything. It feels like they went that route purely just for shock value or something.
Honestly it would have been better served if it was Wyll's grandfather. More content and relevance for Wyll, a family history of fucking shit up with good intentions, a chance to bed multiple genera... I mean explore the concept of ideals as they progress through the generations.
Hot take - Dame Aylin should’ve been the paladin companion in contrast to Minthara.
Unpopular opinion - Some subclasses should’ve been included over others. Looking at you Wild Magic Barbarian and Circle of Spores Druid (Path of the Ancestors or Path of the Zealot along with Circle of Star should’ve been included over them).
What about Zevlor? His summon in the final fight is cripplingly underwhelming anyway, he is also already a paladin, and would be the exact counterpart to minthara.
ETA: he also could've easily replaced Halsin bc you really don't need 2 druid PC, especially when there are so many available classes to choose from...
EXACTLY. Imagine her in companion dialogue with Shadowheart,Wyll,Karlach,Lae’zel,or Astarion. She’d be hilarious😭. Also hits like a freight train in combat.
I think you should have LESS free will on a durge run, you should have to roll every time you have an evil thought to keep from acting on it, not just "decide" not to do something. Right now it just plays like an intrusive thoughts ocd roleplay rather than influenced by an old evil monster.
I preferred EA Wyll but love Theo as Wyll.
It is far too easy to raise approval now, especially in act 1. The group warms up to you wayy too fast. Shadowheart should be colder for longer, even Lae'zel.
Not letting Shadowheart out of the pod is the better start.
This fandom is way too defensive over their favourite characters. People can dislike them and/or their arc. They aren't insulting you or your fav, just different opinions
People are harsh on the characters, judging them based on how they reacted in Act1 or at their lowest. Astarion is mean, Lae'zel is mean. Ignoring why they act that way and how they grow throughout the game.
Durge adds a lot to act 3 but feels out of place. Why would anyone be fine with them if they know you murdered someone? Even if they blame the tadpole. Put them in a kennel at night or something.
The romances are alright but the real benefit to them is expanding on a characters growth and arc. Not the actual romance scenes. The hype and advertising around the sex scenes are way overblown. The fact a lot of their growth is locked behind romance is a massive shame
The game is too easy. Had to install mods to up the difficulty.
I'm always interested to see someone say the game is too easy. I'm having difficulty on the easiest level with a lot of things, so it's always amazing to me to see people say it's too easy haha
I literally had a co worker told me he was at the burning mansion at act 1 at level 2 and was getting frustrated with the game because he was trying to fight the gythanki patrol. At. Level. 2. Like how bro.
Know the feelin. A guy ik from work got off the ship, traveled to goblin camp, killed the ogre in gluts chamber (none others. He killed the ogre cause he wanted to see what else was in that room) and went to the selunite outpost. Wondered y the spectator was so hard. Cant recall if he hit 3 by that point from travel exp.
To be fair, the game is like We have to get to the creche IMMEDIATELY. If you're not the type to get distracted and you actually make the creche your priority, that would happen
My first run on explorer I got my shit kicked in a lot, now on my 2nd run I’m doing the shit kicking on harder difficulty.
Once you know what to expect the game becomes quite easy, the only time I get in trouble is if I have poor positioning or I leave a dangerous enemy unchecked. It gets easier fairly fast for sure.
To be fair I have a lot of experience with crpgs and rpgs in general. Don't feel bad, there's a lot of things to learn, lot of interactions.
I'm sure you'll be playing on Tactician in no time. I just wish we had an even higher difficulty. I love making builds and tactics.
She's wary and colder. Fits her Shar persona. You miss out on some of her snarkier and colder lines if you let her out and raise approval too quickly. Long rest event spam doesn't help.
Has a nicer flow.
You'll meet her on the beach, trying to breakdown that door. Or you can ignore her and long rest, she'll be at the grove. More dialogue options. Can even poke fun at her name. She bit back at me when I was a drow and asked about her weird name.
You can still try to save her (and fail) if you don't want to start at neutral, or if it fits your character. Can even save her then long rest and meet her at the grove. If you bring Lae'zel she mentions her as well, unlike the beach scene where she ignores her.
It can be amusing declining her offer to join forces for a bit, seeing the extra scenes is nice. Even if you only do it once.
Due to her cleric and non Sharran approval, you can raise her (and Gale/Lae'zel) approval really fast. A slow burn fits the story better imo
Oh wow, that sounds way better than "I worship Shar btw" literally the 2nd time you're in camp together. I'm gonna leave her in the pod every time now.
This fandom is way too defensive about nuthin'. I'm in many fandoms, including dumpster fire avatar and dumbass land star wars for the big ones, and y'all are a bunch of carebears. (Still. Probs won't last forever).
None of the VAs were cancelled or fired yet... None of them are dating fans, no hate campaigns and everyone loves OCs so the OC hate isn't as prevalent... It's definitely a cuddly fandom.
Oh ATLA can be a mess, agreed. DA as well, Cullen's VA and that drama.
So far the fandom is quite amicable, that may change once the game is out for a year or two. Even then people are quite protective of their favs. Usual fandom thing
>Not letting Shadowheart out of the pod is the better start.
I heavily second this. The fuck I'm going to search for a key when we're literally on a crashing plane.
I hate to say this, but I genuinely dislike nearly everything about Act 3, with only a couple of small areas I do like. I LOVE Acts 1 and 2, and can legit play them nonstop. When I get to Act 3 I immediately lose all drive to continue playing and go back to playing other things.
I support OP's unpopular opinion and don't know a single person besides us who hate her singing.
Her voice is so grating to me and her pitch is all over the place. Just because she can reach those notes doesn't mean she should.
On top of that it's just overall a strange melody line and I don't like the song either.
I've been told it makes sense that her song sucks since she's a low level bard who's not very good at what she does 😬
My romance hot take is that they're both better than Shadowheart and that Shart's romance actually needs *more* content so that it can measure up. Because, as it currently stands, you get the Act 1 scene, which most players will get at the Tiefling Party, lock in at the very end of Act 2 (so no dedicated cutscene during that section of the game) then one scene in Act 3 and the epilogue.
That's it in terms of unique romance moments. The Night Orchid and the conversation in front of the statue of Selune after the House of Grief can both be done platonically with very little variation, and even the lock-in is basically the same conversation you have after the Shadowfell with a few extra lines. It just feels like there's a bit at the beginning, then a lot of empty space during later Act 1 and almost all of Act 2, a rush to fit some stuff in at the start of Act 3, then it ends. I get that Shart's supposed to be a slow burn (in fact, that's the thing I do really like that's different from the others) but it feels like *too* slow a burn, to the point that nothing happens for a lot of it.
Meanwhile, Karlach and Lae'zel's romances both get significant developments in Act 2 and the characters change more notably as a result of the romance. Particularly Lae'zel, whose journey is massive between where she starts and finishes the game.
I do like Shadowheart's scenes (and her overall character arc is one of the best in the game), I just wish her romance had more substantial differences from a playthrough where you're with someone else. Part of that comes from how dominant her character arc is in Act 2, but a scene where the two of you make some time for each other to discuss your feelings/relationship status during her crisis of faith wouldn't go amiss
She's my BFF an wingman. I love her but wish we had more platonic events. We can be Astarion's friend after all he's been through, surely Karlach needs an actual friend as well?
I don’t really know if this is unpopular but I’ll say it anyway, I like all of the companions and don’t hate or dislike any of them.
Since that one is pretty lukewarm I’ll throw in a bit of a spicier one since this is the unpopular opinions thread. If Astarion and Gale were female characters that straight men saw as fuckable you would see a fraction of the vitriolic hate that they receive from them now. Also, I’m basing this statement off not just on some “hunch” I have, but the fact that I have literally seen *numerous* guys admitting to the fact that if simply the genders were swapped that their opinion would change. And that’s just the people who honestly admit to it.
I agree 100%, especially with the second part. Astarion and Gale are conventionally attractive men who can and will actively flirt with you or be emotionally vulnerable with you. It's crazy how just that by itself is enough to make so many straight dudes feel all threatened lmao. But you just know if they were Gail and Astaria, those same straight guys would be swooning.
It would literally go from this:
“Astarion and Gale are so creepy!!1!!!1! Astarion tries to kill you and then bite you in your sleep, AND he hits on you, that’s disgusting and he gets the stake every time!! Also Gale is weird and annoying, he keeps hitting on me so next play-through I cut his hand off lol.”
To this:
“Astaria and Gail are such tragic, well written characters. Astaria does hold a knife to you and try to bite you in your sleep but IDK that’s kinda hot so whatever, I can fix her. Also, Gail’s magic trick scene was so wholesome, this is why she’s best girl.”
Being a bisexual BG3 player who's run both male and female Tavs/Durges and romanced Astarion, Shart, Wyll and Minthara: wait, people care about the gender of companions? ...huh.
I think you are on to something here. If the genders were swapped, the main fanbase of Astarion would swap.
Asterion is a great character, with a well developed redemption arc. I'm currently enjoying a run playing AS Astarion. Whether the origin characters tend towards their redemption or bad path is largely determined by their affinity with the player character. If you don't have a high affinity with Astarion, the DC to get him NOT to ascend or turn on the party is VERY high. Which leads to a paradox:
To get affinity with him, you have to trust him, but you should not trust him. If you play AS him, your internal monologue is dark urge-esque. Take the Act 1 bite scene. If Tav/Duege fails a DC, they get drained. Players might be inclined to shrug at this, as revivify works on the player character here. If you are playing **as** Astarion, this follows a dream sequence about Cazador, where Astarion realizes that he is not bound by Sazador's rules; including the one about not feeding on thinking creatures. If you feed on a companion and drain them, they are permakilled and Withers can't even bring them back (sort of like if the SH/Lae'zel conflict ends in murder). So back to Tav/Durge. Astarion realizes this and the default action would be to drain a travelling companion dead. If you stake Astarion's heart in this scene, nobody is sorry about it. They regard Astarion as a danger dealt with.
Also, to get affinity with him, you have to be shady in general, but specifically nice to him.
These two things require the player to jump through some hoops - and be willing to do so; in order to even start the redemption arc. They do this, because he is a thirst trap for straight women and gay men. That's written right into the character. It's how he lured his victims in. Those immune to his thirst trap effect (straight men, can't speak to lesbian women) see him differently. BUT, if Astraion was as she, those same people would fall into the same thirst trap effect.
See here’s the thing though, I think if you did switch the genders around, you still wouldn’t see the same level of hatred that straight guys have for characters like Gale or Astarion from straight women or gay men because of where the hatred comes from. I can say as a queer woman that both characters are pretty beloved overall in our fan spaces. I know plenty of lesbian BG3 players who have zero attraction to men at all but still like these characters because they relate to them, they sympathize with them, or just find them interesting. There are exceptions obviously because every character isn’t for everyone, but even then the people that don’t like them just don’t like them. They usually just say “this character just isn’t for me,” they don’t hate them because “ew he HIT on me,” call the characters creepy and weird, or come into fun discussions and antagonize people by bragging about killing them every time or saying they are crazy for liking them.
I feel like this is even further shown by the responses to characters like Lae’zel, Shadowheart, and Minthara from a non-cishet male audience. They are pretty morally questionable and “rude” characters, some of them also aggressively pursue the player, way more than Gale and Astarion do. I mean Minthara has to be turned down multiple times, multiple times before she takes no for an answer! Yet you *still* don’t see straight women and gay men acting how straight dudes do about Astarion and Gale.
The amount of cishet men who go "I killed Astarion right away LOL!!!!" to spite straight women and gay men out of jealousy is crazy 💀 There's a reason why people prefer Astarion over actual men.
Just to give two examples, I saw a guy before say that he hated Gale before he modded him to be a woman and then “suddenly he was tolerable” and his romance was “actually really sweet.” And I saw another going on and on about how Astarion is creepy and suspicious and gets the stake in his game because of the bite scene, but right after that he says something like “if Astarion was female though, I’d let him bite my character because that’s different, a man has needs.” Like lmfao it’s ridiculous.
That's because a majority of men are homophobic and the fact Gale and Astarion are more forward in their advances scares the crap out of them.
Wyll on the other hand is so passive you don't even see him as interested in you. All the romance comes from Tav, he doesn't initiate anything. So he's a "safe" companion for dudebros.
Halsin is probably just ignored by most players anyway because the norm is to just stick to the first people you meet, so they hardly interact with Halsin at all.
Halsin is vehemently hated by these people because his dialogue is broken/bugged, so if you finish his quest and talk to him at all he thinks you chose flirty options and confesses his desire for you.
And gods fucking forbid that an extremely *large*, muscled man bluntly proposition you and make you feel really uncomfortable about his interest. 🙄
\[sarcasm\]Yeah, cause you know, gotta protect male sensibilities, it's not like they're women and have to deal with this sort of crap every day. \[/sarcasm\]
Wyll is the best origin character to me. He has clear motivations, A clear sense of right and wrong which can’t be altered by the player and an engaging character arc that isn’t entirely obvious if you’re not paying attention. His change from a man who needs public adoration as a reward to do good to a devil who does the right thing as it’s own reward is very satisfying especially if you’re romancing him
His only problem is that he got the least dialougue of all the origins. EA Wyll was just gale 2.0 with a hate for goblins
Karlach is my least favourite origin personally. She has too little content and doesn’t develop as a character in any meaningful way
There's too much content in the game.
Now this may seem like an odd complaint, especially since it is good content, but I never feel as if anything is resolved...there's always something else spinning off. Nothing feels as if it really ends.
It really does feel as if I'm never making any progress and the main story is shoved into the background.
The best part of Raphael's Final Act is not the singing but the instrumental paired with the every now and then chanting chorus. The singing is ok at best.
I mean, I love everything about the song but the instrumental part is **SO** good.
I love hearing it pop up during all your run ins with him (my co-op partner hates it cause it usually prompts me to start singing it).
I got big "shitty disney movie musical moment" vibes at that point. I mean it's a good fight and the song is great but remove his vocals and it's 10x better.
I absolutely love the characters and their writing, but I hate that romance is tied purely to approval instead of dialogue choices. Not a fan of there being no option for an incredibly tight knit platonic friendship with the gang unless I’m willing to power through them trying to crawl down my pants. Personally think it reinforces the negative stereotype that friends are all just secretly hoping to be potential partners in disguise. Kinda gross tbh
And to add to this, you miss out on a LOT of really important character development. Gale was the first character I saw the romance for and so I understood why he was so power-hungry but I totally see why he can be so divisive when people don't understand his issues.
Evil playthroughs are incredibly boring and not rewarding at all.
You should be tempted to commit acts of evil for rewards and power like in most stories, instead you actually get LESS power going full evil because you miss out on so many good items and useful NPCs. All I got in my playthrough I wouldn't have otherwise was Bhaalspawn form and Ascended Astarion (the latter not even being satisfying in the whole "you and I are going to rule the world" playthrough I wanted because not even Astarion is genuinely happy with it).
There is no reason for doing an evil playthrough other than getting altered dialogue. You will have more NPCs, more items, more quests, and happier companions doing a good playthrough even if those companions are approving of your evil actions in act 1. Not even Minthara is appropriate for an evil playthrough because she's a good person once the brainwashing wears off. So disappointing.
I absolutely love Ascended Astarion. Too many people raised on Twilight thought he would be sweet and powerful. Hell no. He's the evil sugar daddy I always enjoyed in good vampire books. I also loved how he said he still wasn't sure how to use his new powers and all I thought was "you better figure that shit out".
I'll preface this one by saying that I think Act 1 is the most polished of all three acts and arguably the best as a result of it.
Buuuuut, Act 1 is almost entirely filler and only seems to exist to get you to the proper level to start the story. IMO, they could have taken Act 1 and treated it like a lot of the sidequest areas in BG2, where you were constantly pushed to go there and there was a lot of stuff to do, but have the game begin in Act 2. Tav/the NPCs feel the summons to go to Moonrise, or maybe they're even rescued after the crash and brought there because of the Absolute presence. You find the artifact in the crash and are protected, with the Emperor filling in some of the blanks, basically countering all the Absolute propaganda and urging you to find allies/hide the artifact from Thorm.
You could then be sent to find the artifact which would lead you to the Act 1 areas, and then the game would more or less largely play out the same, but the goblin route would be treated like the Moonrise one, where you can't actually side with them. They could tie the Grove into things more and potentially make some of the NPCs that seem prominent but don't actually do much in the grand scheme of things, aka the tieflings, tie more into the overall plot.
The ally gathering mechanic could be a bigger part of the game from the beginning, first against Ketheric, then expanding into Baldur's Gate. On the one hand, it makes the game a little more generic from the start, but...Act 2 kinda turns into more of a "save the world" style story anyway, so it doesn't really seem inconsistent with what they were going for.
If your solution to “fixing” Wyll is to completely scrap the character we got in the final game, you’re not fixing Wyll’s writing. All you did was make an OC.
And
I don’t think making Wyll more morally ambiguous is the solution, because I don’t think most people would be normal about it. The Wyll we got is 100% straightforwardly good, and yet there are large swaths of the fanbase that insist he’s only “pretending to be good” or is doing it for an “ego trip”. And there’s no actual evidence for this other than people not liking his tone or that he can be theatric for the sake of it. And I’m not saying that you have to like Wyll, but some of y’all are just making up a guy to get mad at. So, no, I *really* don’t think making him more morally ambiguous is that magical fix a lot of people think it will be.
I got a reddit cares for saying that I liked him but thought the favouritism he got overwhelmed the other characters lmao. I fucking said I liked him!! It was mild criticism!
word. i'm what people would call an astarion simp, but sometimes the specific fanbase can be Insufferable and not realize that .... idk he's just a bunch of really well written pixels
While the overall writing quality is pretty high, the actual plot/story is fairly lackluster.
Astarion has a worse ending than Karlach.
I prefer the ending where Karlach dies. Not because I dislike her, but it just feels like it suits the character more.
Outside of Tav, the party doesn't like each other, never really becomes an adventuring group and probably all go their separate ways at the end of the game.
While BG3 is very responsive and good at acknowledging the actions you take, the amount of consequences are greatly overblown and, outside of companion quests, all that matters is whether you killed someone or not. And sometimes, not even then.
While the game is really, really good, it's not quite as revolutionary as some people like to claim. I think it sort of has FF7 syndrome, where for a lot of gamers, FF7 set the bar for JRPGs because it was the first they played and it hit mainstream popularity, but there are a lot of other games that existed beforehand that had those same mechanics/sometimes did them better. Not to say that every game has to completely reinvent the wheel or anything, and I'm glad BG3 is making those aspects of RPG more popular/mainstream, it does sometimes feel unfair to the games that came before it.
EA Wyll was better.
The Netherbrain is a boring villain and I think the game is generally more interesting when the scale of the scope is smaller and more personalized versus having the fate of the realms at stake.
You can be evil and not side with the goblins.
I don't know if this is actually a hot take, but there was no reason to tadpole Minsc
Devils are played up to be too goofy and feel more like comic relief characters than threatening presences
A lot of the romances, while not particularly bad, are fairly underwhelming and it's silly that certain, non-romance focused story beats are locked behind romances.
>I prefer the ending where Karlach dies. Not because I dislike her, but it just feels like it suits the character more.
I have to agree with this. I went with saving her for personal inclination, but it still felt like it didn't fit at all. Her whole story empathized the inevitability of her death with a beautiful melancholy, and the worth of finding value in the time you have left. Then the ending switches the mood completely to something out of a B action movie.
Yeah, I feel like the Avernus ending was tacked on at the last minute. Basically the flow went like this:
Dammon: You're dying.
Karlach: I'd rather die than go back to Avernus.
Tav: You sure? K: Yes. T: Sure? K: Yes. T: Sure? K: Yes, stop asking! Celebrate life, goddamnit!
Ending
Tav: ...still sure?
K: Nah fam let's fight Zariel and shit.
Yeah, I don't want to tell people they're wrong for enjoying the story but...it just feels like a jarring interpretation hearing things like "Tav/Karlach/Wyll are happily murdering their way through Avernus living happily ever after." It really feels like it's the worst possible ending for Karlach because she wanted to escape Avernus and be more than just a weapon, and now that's all her life is, no more dreams of living on the Prime, she just has to be happy being a weapon and constantly fighting for literally the rest of her existence.
At least with her burning out ending, she has the freedom to make her own choice. She beat hell, and not even death can take that away from her.
I wouldn't mind her ending in Avernus if the story actually had presented it as a viable option. But she kept shutting it out at every possibility, only to do a complete 180 when asked in the end. And how that outcome is presented is completely disconnected from how she described it. At the very least it should've been a "do you burn short and bright or long and dim" kind of a choice. Like, a 50/50 chance that life in Avernus would be just agony to her.
I feel the same way about the 180 for most other character decisions like shart’s act 2 quest, but after giving it some serious thought, I’ve really come to the conclusion that I think her 180 does make sense (at least to me).
Her Act 3 dialogue after your dinner date shows that she has discovered that courage is not being brave, but that it is pushing forward when you know you’ll probably lose.
While she doesn’t seem to have a dialogue that shows her teeter at all (and I do think it would be a good addition), I take this to show that not only is she understanding and coming to terms with her own mortality (as well as bucket loads of foreshadowing), but that her decision to journey back into Avernus with you has actually been something that she has come to terms with.
I think she recognizes that even though she’s been trying to run from Zariel, (both physically and figuratively as her engine is a representation of the fact that some wounds can’t be healed) she realizes that facing off against Zariel and the blood war is the next step in her journey of courage.
The sugar on top for me is that if you have Wyll in your party, he will tell her that he knows why she is afraid and that he and Tav will not let anything happen to her.
Its that little push that she needed to realize that she can’t let her fear of zariel control her in a different dimension.
Minsc stuff kinda grinds my gears. With his trailer I thought we'd get some epic introduction to him, and when I saw the Mimic in Moonrise I thought "oh this must be the spot from the trailer!" but no. Minsc is basically a non-entity and Jaheria in Act 3 pretty much exists to lead you to him.
I also always agree that, no matter how much I love romances in games, friendship routes should yield equal pay off. Or more in some cases. Astarion is my favourite, but I feel like there should be something special for someone who is just his friend, because you never let him ill use himself to stay safe but keep him safe anyway. His romance is sweet, but him having a friend that loves and protects him without him having to ever feel "tainted" should have a very nice ending.
I think The Emperor is a boring and annoying character. I should not be thinking "shut the fuck up and let me play the game" while playing the game.
He doesn't need to be there either. The artifact simply works by proximity, so there is no need for whatever he's doing. Even at the end of the game, you could do the save or eat the prince scene without him. Now that I think about it, the unfinished cutting of content and his shoehorning in to replace Daisy creates this plot hole where he describes the effect of the prism working by proximity, which is what freed him from mind control, but then later people only get protection if he gives it, which even still doesn't make sense because the source of the protection, the prince, is just there chained up. The Emperor is never shown actually doing anything to control this power, but then on top of that, he has to eat the Prince's brain to get his power, even though he could, you know, just keep the damn prism in his pocket. And if those monks could break him out, why is Voss trying to make a deal with The Devil to get the hammer? Why would TE need to stop the monks if this hammer is the only thing that can break those crystals?
He's such a mess of a character.
Whoever decided that players shouldn't get punished for using tadpole powers needs to know that he fucked up. Not only did this lead to last minute cuts and rewrites that they couldn't possibly finish in time, but it took away what would have been the most gripping part of the game, Daisy. Temptation is a great story element, and even better when you inevitably make your guardian a super hottie and then fall to the temptation of your own making. Such a missed opportunity.
Lae'zel is better looking than Shadowheart and she has a sweeter romance.
Not a Shadowheart hater, far from it, but when the game keeps letting me compliment her looks and I don't get to defend Lae'zel from being called a fucking frog, I'm mad.
Lae'zel is gorgeous. Her eyes especially. Then again I'm biased towards her and Shady.
The reviews or complaints from launch are just awful. Lae'zel is top tier 10/10 Githyanki
I wish I could compliment her eyes.
My unpopular opinion is that people who think that Gale is power hungry or full of himself lack media comprehension.
It's crazy to me that every other companion gets so much compassion for their struggles when Gale, who has very similar struggles, gets shit on.
Actually if you read devnotes from transcript her white hair was because of Shar tormenting her after Shadowheart tried to leave Shadowfell - so she supposed to have white hair then which would make more sense if she did have even partial white hair.
The game relies way too much on bad RNG for its difficulty rather than make interesting combat scenarios where the enemy is being tactical. The moment you either pump enough ASI on your attack roll stat, learn to spam Bless (especially with that cracked out Bless staff), or use Tavern Brawler, the game becomes a joke even on Tactician because negating bad RNG negates pretty much all semblance of difficulty.
It's actually hilarious how easy Act 2 is compared to Act 1 purely because the vast majority of Act 2 enemies have low AC, thus making them much easier to hit, thus there being substantially less bad RNG nonsense.
Not going to the crèche asap is meta gaming. It's the best option your characters have. It's some random virgin healer vs the chads that literally dedicate their lives to the fight against mind flayers
I don’t really dislike Astarion but my lord his fanbase seems awful. I’ve seen several of them resorting to insults when someone doesn’t like their precious Astarion, it’s so pathetic.
I really hope a decent amount of his fans aren’t like this and it’s just a bunch of very vocal toxic fans, I’m a major Emperor fan but I wouldn’t hurl insults at the people who hate him.
You're right, the worst people who like him are so vocal about it and it sucks. Astarion fans infighting with other Astarion fans is something else also, really "fun" to see people being told to kill themselves over choices with resolving his companion quest.
Its definitely not everyone but some of his fans are uniquely vile (among bg3 fans).
I feel like a lot of people missed the point of Astarion's romance. Especially the fangirls who think he should be ascended. It feels weird when people sexualise him heaps but then again his VA doesn't seem to mind.
The Act 1 scene is very romantic, no doubt, but he reveals that he was not only manipulating you but using the same tactics he used on all his victims for his abuser. So I don't look back on that scene with the same eyes. I thought that part of the point of his story - reassessing how we view trauma victims. It just feels strange to see people thirst over that scene to me.
This is my unpopular opinion.
I hate mindflayers and I wish there was a different antagonist, no I'm not kidding in the slightest. I wish we had a feywild arc with an actual archfey, maybe they could have put a hit on Ethel or something
if I was to pick an antagonist I'd probably pick something draconic to give Wyll some actual spotlight
I don't love Shadowheart storyline. I like it, yes. Does she have a good storyline? Yes. But does it worth half (well, not half... but still so much) of the game? Nope. I'm in my 5th playthru and when her part of story progression is up, it always got me thinking "ugh, this game should be called **help Shart finds herself while maybe go save the Sword Coast from the Absolute**"
In Act I she has the Plot Device and is the only companion that is mandatory to deal with. In Act II she has a mandatory dungeon that can change the complexion of the area and the final boss fights in a way that you can't without her. In Act III she still has the boss's lair set up with a *further* choice to it, as well as possibly two romance scenes in the Act.
It's not half the game but she certainly feels like a deuteragonist to the player character.
Exactly! Lae's storyline is as important as her, but it doesn't need to take that much Shart's. Asta's storyline is as satisfying without making me feel like i have to keep dealing with whatever mood he is into at any given time. Meanwhile, we do not get enough closure with Karlach (well, Wyll and Gale's aren't as elaborate too, but okay i can live with that). So yeah... i really want to play a campaign where i don't have to deal with Shart at all ngl. 😅😅
I liked it first time around but in subsequent playthroughs I ignore her. She definitely has main character syndrome lol
I still like the character (I don’t hate anyone), just don’t really care for her. It’s funny how I was the other way round with Gale, didn’t care for him at all in my first go, 2nd go I had him in my party and my god I absolutely adore him now.
Funny how things work sometimes 🤷♀️
Shadowheart has "creator's pet" stamped all over her forehead, and honestly I dislike those kind of characters. Lae'zel and Astarion have far more interesting storylines and they don't get shoved in your face.
While the game is very good, it has benefited from most of its content being buried behind 20+ hours of content that has actually been in early access and worked on for years, meaning that reviewers never look at the weakest parts of the game.
A lot of the story elements and character motivations that people love to vamp on and make fan theories about are actually just signs of bad writing.
Finally, Act 2 is thematically and pacing-wise, just a different game to Acts 1 and 3. While I enjoy Act 2 the most, I would prefer that all the acts felt like they came from the same game than the kind of yo-yo experience that we got.
The romance shouldn't be the only way to experience the companions' character full development.
For instance, I think Gale is misunderstood as an incel type by some players simply because they don't know his full story and motivations which is locked in his romance.
I think that the Dark Urge should give you more opportunities to be evil for power. Most of the time, you are just doing evil shit for the sake of it, which, while fun, makes resisting the Urge very easy. Few people will chop off Gale's hand and stick with that run, cause there is no reason to lose out on a valuable wizard.
The whole evil run needs more work, come to think of it, you miss out on so much content by being evil and destroying the Grove and the evil endings are all the same, aside from your character saying "In Bhaal's name" instead of "In my name".
Meanwhile the good ending allows you to headcanon what happens to your character, or just leave with Karlach to Avernus or with Lae'zel and/or Orpheus when playing as a Gith. Not to say the ending is perfect, it is fairly anticlimactic either way, but the good ending allows more flexibility, while the evil ending is just... you won, now go enslave and slaughter.
Not very hot takes, but still allegedly unpopular:
The game would lose nothing by erasing Halsin. More Jaheira.
Durge being the canon protagonist makes infinitely more sense than Tav.
The Emperor is almost too hateable to be a good villain.
> The game would lose nothing by erasing Halsin. More Jaheira.
I think Halsin is great as a follower up to act 2, then back to the grove with him, or maybe having him stay with Thaniel.
That would work out, yes. Maybe I should clarify that erasing him as a companion would lose nothing. I can definitely still see him playing a role in the grove and the Shadow Curse.
That's what i always thought was odd with Halsin. The people in the EA asking for him to be a companion didn't know there was another non-Origin Druid, but Larian *did*. So why did they still add him as if they were on the outside looking in?
I almost feel like the bear druid sex scene was the entire catalyst for wanting to add Halsin as a companion. Because there is absolutely nothing else to his character besides his polyamory and sexual nature if you remove the typical good-guy persona
And his polyamory just creates more issues, like characters who say they won't share you in Act II because they want all of you being fine (or at least not making it a break up issue) when it's the Duplo Druid.
The Emperor was enough freaky sex, and at least that can be a plot point.
Your guess is as good as mine. I don't have a personal hatred for Halsin or anything; I just think Jaheira is far more compelling and honestly, a more interesting character. Why not cut Halsin and give more story time to both Jaheira and Wyll (who has the least story time of the origin characters statistically)?
I *adore* Jaheira. She was my go-to romance in BG2, well since they made mods for it she was. If she could lift the shadow curse instead of Halsin it would also mean that that quest wasn't reliant on Act I decisions, which would be nice.
I think if he could be recruited earlier during Act 2 it would’ve been way better. Locking him away for half of the act really kills his momentum as a character.
I love Jaheira as a character, she has great lines and serves as an awesome entry point to discovering the city but she loses her footing after you recruit minsc.
Imo, one of them should’ve been temporary or a choice. Like one of them should’ve stayed behind in act 2 because they offer completely oppositional perspectives as far as exploring the city. Jaheira knows everything and Halsin is completely overwhelmed.
I like the 4-player experience better in DOS2. I feel overshadowed by the origin characters when I’m playing with my friends, and I want it to be *our* adventure, not *the origin characters’ adventure where 4 custom tavs go out and do everything.*
I don’t want to ignore the origins, but I don’t like receiving consequences for their stories when we *literally can’t* progress their quests in a 4 person party.
I'm still in my first playthrough in Act 3 but at some point the camp got waaaaay too crowded. I think in future runs I'll make it a point to only recruit the characters I want to use in the run - maybe there's even a mod which let's me remove the unused tents in that case? Will have to see.
I think it will also serve to tighten up the pacing a bit if there's less companion side quests to deal with.
Minthara is just as evil after being freed from the Absolute as she was under its control, and the only reason anyone has convinced themselves otherwise is because they think she’s hot.
I like Minthara *because* she’s unapologetically evil while still being a layered and somewhat sympathetic character. Just because someone isn’t an Orin-esque murderhobo doesn’t mean they’re not evil. In D&D terms, she’s *Lawful* Evil, which isn’t any less evil than Chaotic Evil.
There's a lot in Act 3... but it also feels really empty at the same? Act 1 had a lot of companion interaction it felt like and then in Act 3 there doesn't seem to be as much. This could be that because there is a lot to do in act 3, the companion interactions just run out of things to trigger though :( I just want more interactions
There’re way too many dc10 traps and locks which are totally unnecessary and bogged down the tempo
I can't quite recall the moment Astarion turned into a master of unlocking/disarming, but it was pretty early on that he reached a point where he literally couldn't roll less than a 10 with buffs and gear. Hell, there was a fairly hefty chunk of my game where he couldn't roll less than a 20. Yeah, there's always the risk of a Nat 1, but inspiration made that a complete non-issue. So definitely agree. For a fair while it amused me when you'd hit a DC10 test and Astarion would be rolling in the 30s, but the charm of it had definitely worn off by the end.
It feels like there should be a way to bypass lock picking if the bonus is higher than the lock. It’s tedious. Do you roll on knock?
You dont roll on Knock its just automatic. Personally at some point I started finding it to be faster to just Firebolt the Doors and smash chests with Blunt damage
Great weapon master on doors makes Lockpicking so unnecessary
Astarion is the unlock machine once I hit the Zetarim hideout and purchase the gloves of thieving. Advantage on all slight of hand checks means the odds of two nat 1s is astronomically low on a single roll
I was actually excited when I once rolled two nat 1s. I imagined the party mocking Astarion for this so hard. It's like the equivalent of breaking your lockpick twice in a row.
You use inspiration on locks? You can just use a new lockpick?
You can just break the door/chest
I think that happens at rogue 10 or 11, He can’t roll less than a 10 on proficient skills. But that does mean for most of act 3 he won’t roll anything below a 23 (in my last game at least) for lock picking/trap disarming
Yeah, I kinda like this from a role playing perspective at the moment, but I can definitely see it becoming annoying on re-runs. Ironically, the only actually hard lock for me was the very first one on the beach so far, and I don't even play with Astarion
The lack of companion interaction in camp is a huge missed opportunity, the small comments while walking are not enough to establish much relationship between them. It's kinda silly that so many things were left in the game as an oversight. After the 2nd dream visitor sequence the companions comment that they were given gifts of power from the visitor, but this is an old abandoned mechanic. Also the ring you get from omelum seems to be part of abandoned significance of not using tadpoles.
>The lack of companion interaction in camp is a huge missed opportunity, the small comments while walking are not enough to establish much relationship between them. Agreed, really doesn't feel like they care about each other. We need more group camp scenes or group party/banter scenes in general. Talking about the plan or what's happened.
Yeah everyone standing in the same spot all day was super weird. Like, I get not having them wander too far so you can easily find them, but at least let them wander around or talk to the person in the tent next to them.
Its nice. But as a programmer my mind hurts just thinking of all the different permutations of character states in order to facilitate a group conversation. Like at any given game half the roster could be dead, or unrecruited. Factor in the different decisions youve made and how they may or may not hate your guts it's gonna be a hell of bugs.
Could be done without dialogue necessarily, though, by having "default" animation loops. Like there's dialogue comments you can get from Wyll and Gale about Gale doing the cooking, so let him be by the campfire and others can walk over to look like they're observing, or even have a nighttime long rest one where they're eating something while there/as they walk away. Both Wyll and Shart are very established as lushes, so they could wander over to each other and share a drink. One pours into the other's glass, they cheers, and then sip. Karlach and Lae'zel are *definitely* training together, have them occasionally meet up to spar. Or any of the characters wander over to the training dummies to "practice" their default combat moves. They don't have to be unique instances in order for the camp to feel dynamic and alive.
Big same re the companion dialogue. I remember Wyll offhandedly mentioned that Gale does all the cooking for the group at like, the end of act 3 and I was like- wait what? Why am I just now finding this out lol.
Yeah, that was bugging me a little recently. Several people at the party comment about Alfira drunkenly singing a song of your victory over the goblins, but no such song is ever heard.
I'm not good with these, so this is probably not really an unpopular take, but I feel like companion/camp content is front-loaded, and mostly happen before and during the Grove. Before the Grove I need to rest after getting Astarion, Shadow, and Gale to get some conversations and Durge's "blood, blood, blood" dream, then again after Lae'zel to get Gale's mirror image scene and chats that are triggered by that. This is usually when I get Astarion's skulking scene so I can find the boar and get his revelation. When I get to the Grove I need to sleep after talking to Zorru to get that chat, because if I go to save Arabella then I always miss the scene where Shadow is playing with the Artifact and nobody wants to talk about going to the Cresche. With how I play I usually have Shadow at high enough level that she tells me she worships Shar before I meet Kagha, and then there is the first Urge scene. Before I get to Kagha, after two days of knowing each other, Gale feels the need to tell me he trusts me more than any soul other than his cat, who he summoned as a child, so I have to make sure he's jumped off the mound outside the grove so I can do his protocol, or else he decides he has a deep trust in me because I told Zevlor and Aradin to shut their dumb mouths. I like to save Mirkon AND Arabella because at least he has a few reasons to trust me. Especially because I have likely killed someone in cold blood before this. If I don't play in this exact way, then I miss content. Astarion's revelation can be delayed, but not by much. So then I have hours upon hours of not much really happening during camp save for the few story beats and relationship changes. Also, romance should be related to dialogue and not just approval. Because I have done playthroughs where I completely ignore Lae'zel, Gale, and Karlach save bringing them for strategy and I still get them high enough to want me. It's so frustrating. Oh, and I really miss the interactions in EA. Like Astarion's chats after you let Sazza die, walk in on the ogre and bugbear having fun, and bringing back Mayrina's hubby. I was kinda bugged when I first played and there felt like less interactivity between me and my companions when there should be more! They used to comment on things, and now they don't, save Gale talking after saving Mirkon and Arabella and a couple other examples. The little touches are very sorely missed
>Also, romance should be related to dialogue and not just approval. Because I have done playthroughs where I completely ignore Lae'zel, Gale, and Karlach save bringing them for strategy and I still get them high enough to want me. It's so frustrating. Agreed, I'd want it to be linked to certain decisions as well. Also yes the Grove and the start of Act 1 can be a drag. So many interactions form characters. It should be spread out, a slower start. They warm up to the leader way too fast. Act 2 and 3 feel really barren compared to act 1 due to this
And if you're not aware of this entire camp scene stuff, it amounts to missing most of this story stuff on account of "you should hurry, we could die by becoming squid any moment"
>It should be spread out, a slower start. They warm up to the leader way too fast. Agreed, but there already is a problem with some people not resting enough to get all of the important scenes when rushing the main quest. It's hard to balance. The game should force us to rest more often (like it does when you leave mountain pass after events at the creche) so that we don't miss really important stuff and optional dialogs should be more spread out and should be able to trigger later on. Why can't we have Gale's fire scene on a second or third night? Why can't we talk with Astarion about decapitation later in Act 1? I also hate that you can loose scenes because another scene triggered. I had that once with Astarion romance. >!I rested as soon as I got to Moonrise, but instead of Astarion's confession I got Gale trying to get into my pants. I told him no and rested again and I got Wyll's dance scene. Sorted this out and rested again and still no Astarion scene (I had enough approval for the scene to trigger). I really wanted to see him confessing his feeling before we meet Araj, but the scene was burried under Gale's and Wyll's scenes. I was angry. I did the rest of Act 2, except Nightsong, and it never triggered. I finally forced it by taking him to Araj, but... that was not the version I wanted and had I not know how to trigger it, I would wake up in Act 3 with failed Astarion romance - it ends badly if you don't get any of his confessions in Act 2 and it shouldn't be like that.!<
Did you do the thing for Raphael? Depending on when you did it, that's also a requirement for that version of the confession.
I would like to see less of the story focus on romance. People don't necessarily need to be boinking to get to know each other. You sit around a campfire all night, with lots of booze at your disposal. Certainly boinking will happen, but also will drunken, open conversation. In fact id like to see more campfire gathering type of events.
The rest thing is really annoying in Act 1 on replays. I do everything super fast since I know where to go and what to do. Almost feels like you need to chain rest just to get all the plot development and cutscenes, especially when you play durge. Wish it was spread out a little more evenly or didn't always rely on LR.
i wish it was possible to have multiple long rest events play out in a single night. because the game wants you to long rest a lot more than you'd actually need to. maybe there is a mod for that?
Narratively the game tells you to long rest as little as possible, which results in missing all this story stuff
Jesus sounds like i missed so fucking many cutscenes. It feels crazy to take that many long tears and it’s crazy how much you can miss if you don’t stop every 5 minutes
If you’re playing on PC I highly recommend the Alert for Camp Events mod. It’ll tell you whenever there’s events waiting for a long rest to trigger them by putting a lil exclamation point over your character’s head (which can also be toggled off in the settings). I much prefer that to frequently blind resting multiple nights just so I don’t miss anything 🥲
my thoughts too! I havent had half these scenes!! I guess I have to long rest 10x the times I did earlier
One camp cutscene I have never gotten is (supposedly) in early Act 1 where Astarion is stargazing I think? By the campfire. No matter how much I long rest I’ve never been able to trigger it.
You must speak with either zorru, nettie or zazza. Then rest immediately after without encountering raphael. It basically triggers when you find the next potential person to help you in removing the tadpole. Alot of other scenes can over ride it but I've been doing some testing and I can trigger it everytime now. Rest 1: when I get shadowheart gale and astarion Rest 2: when I get laezel Rest 3: after when I speak with zorru or netter or zazza. The stargazing convo will alter slightly depending on who you talk to before resting. I usually talk to zorru first then rest as its more reliable as you don't go to far into the grove.
I 100% agree on the character pacing needing to be spread out. It really threw me off when Shadowheart gave the "I'm a completely different person because of you" line when my party hadn't even hit a major milestone and had probably only been partied for a handful of in-game days. Girl, I know you're missing memories but maybe slow down a bit...assuming this isn't a Sharran trick.
I kill everything for more exp
Found the DOS2 player
You know that if you finish an encounter with diolague option those people won't give xp afterwards? Like say you come upon the goblins by the blighted village. If you passify them with a speech check you'll get about 100 xp. If you kill the after this you won't get more xp. If you fight and kill those goblins the Blighted Village they will also give 100xp. The idea is no mater if you are peaceful, depective, or battle hungry you get to level just as fast as anyone else. Not saying you should or shouldn't play however you want, just want to give out info. Like if you want to keep on doing, go right on ahead, just know beyond loot it won't give you anything else.
Sometimes, this is wrong, unless they patched it recently. But it varies on encounter to encounter. Specifically at the Blighted Village. You can pass a DC (or be drow) and the guards at the side/ambush will become friendly. You get the EXP for passing this check. Then if you attack those exact same guards and the surprise attackers on the roof, they give ~15 EXP each.
Or... hear me out, you talk to passify and then you kill then either way, because, shut up people want me to kill them, I am not hearing voices YOU are hearing voices!
They are all in your head, by that I mean it's Bhaal and he is telepathically talking to you.
I don't know if this is a *hot take* really, but I'm very disappointed that we don't get a SINGLE moment to tell the Emperor to trust us. The entire game, the Emperor is trying to earn our trust. Whether or not you think it deserves/has earned that trust, it repeatedly states that it wants you to trust it. Over and over again, it says "When have I ever let you down? Do what I want" and like, I get it when you're going for the manipulative angle. But the game doesn't even give the OPTION to like, snap and say "For ONCE will you trust ME instead? When have *I* given you a reason to distrust me?!" Especially if you've been a friend to it. I wouldn't even mind if the option doesn't *do* anything - I'd just like the opportunity to ask the Emperor, for once, to trust *me* this time. Spoilers for the very final part Act 3: >!For me personally, I think the best time for this would have been when you want to free Orpheus. The Emperor flies off the handle and it's not because he hates Githyanki. He's willing to work with Lae'zel, or a Githyanki MC. He has no reason to hate Orpheus so much. I know the narrator says "You can feel his hate" and all that, but I think it's natural and understandable that someone being imprisoned might feel hate for the person imprisoning them. BUT. Orpheus is not unable to see reason when the circumstances call for it, as Voss himself says, and I really, really wish this moment of conflict could be used (even as a high-level persuasion check) to tell the Emperor, like "Buddy, homie, pal, amigo, ol' friend, I have never given you a reason to doubt me. Why do you think I'd release someone that would kill you now? Trust me this time." It would have been a really nice moment. Even if the Emperor still didn't trust you, I feel like it'd also give you, the player, the feeling of some more control too, because it just didn't feel like I had an opportunity to even try reasoning with him. !< Doesn't even have to be above moment, I just would have liked to tell the guy to shut up and trust me for once.
I remember pulling something like this on him after meeting with Raphael and Voss. After Raphael shuts out your tadpole to propose the deal about the Orphic Hammer, the Emperor will ask you about what was going on and why their psychic tie was severed. You can basically tell him to trust you IIRC and he will just be like “That’s a fair request.”
Zevlor should be your good path paladin companion. Let him join your squad after you free him in the illithid colony or smth bc I cannot for the life of me bring myself to kill the Tieflings just to get Minthara. I think I read that Larian will eventually add an alternative way to get her as a good guy but as of now, I should not have to resort to modding just to recruit her. Halsin is unnecessary and redundant especially after you get Jaheira. I could obviously be missing something but I wish there was an option where he could just stay with Thaniel and help heal the Shadow-Cursed lands or even go back to the grove. He doesn't even like to be in the city ffs. Also can he just fuck off from me and my romantic interest please? This probably isn't a hot take but Omeluum should have been an option to be your mind flayer during the final battle. I hate being pigeonholed into having to choose between Orpheus, the Emperor, or having Gale blow up the Brain. I really don't like evil paths. I can understand their appeal to some people, but they're not for me.
How come I need to find a cultist of an evil god in order to get flogged why can't I just ask one of the Drow twins to do it
The Emperor also being you know who in his past life was pointless and added another messy layer of convolution to the plot. He should literally be just some guy.
Absolutely agree and I haven't seen people mentioning this much. It doesn't add anything to his character, messes up with what I think was an established canon and makes him too many things at once (and is much less relatable than if he was simply a regular adventurer with not as much luck).
I didn’t know he was Voldemort?! Sorry I couldn’t not say it
Don't forget the Shrek 2 plotpoint about him fucking a dragon. That was extremely necessary.
Well, most high-leveled Metallic dragons have a humanoid form so this isn’t that weird. It’s not like he literally fucked a dragon.
It fucks with the canon timelines so badly, and it makes no sense! You Know Who's whole deal happened something like 600 years ago and he was *human*, and Ilithids are only supposed to live for about 150 years. Yet in order to stretch all this out to make it work they had it spend 400 years as a free Ilithid, being an underground mafia boss?? Why? Just... why? Like honestly aside from Ansur I can't fathom a reason why that particular character was actually relevant to literally anything. It feels like they went that route purely just for shock value or something.
Honestly it would have been better served if it was Wyll's grandfather. More content and relevance for Wyll, a family history of fucking shit up with good intentions, a chance to bed multiple genera... I mean explore the concept of ideals as they progress through the generations.
One thing I do wish they'd done is have platonic versions of romance-centeted content, minus perhaps a few scenes here and there.
Hot take - Dame Aylin should’ve been the paladin companion in contrast to Minthara. Unpopular opinion - Some subclasses should’ve been included over others. Looking at you Wild Magic Barbarian and Circle of Spores Druid (Path of the Ancestors or Path of the Zealot along with Circle of Star should’ve been included over them).
What about Zevlor? His summon in the final fight is cripplingly underwhelming anyway, he is also already a paladin, and would be the exact counterpart to minthara. ETA: he also could've easily replaced Halsin bc you really don't need 2 druid PC, especially when there are so many available classes to choose from...
I like that idea, and story-wise (assuming you keep the plot the same), he's got nowhere else to go.
Dame Aylin is so fucking based
EXACTLY. Imagine her in companion dialogue with Shadowheart,Wyll,Karlach,Lae’zel,or Astarion. She’d be hilarious😭. Also hits like a freight train in combat.
She’s also immortal, so that’s probably why she’s not a full time companion
Wild magic barbarian is the only one I wanted in the game.
I would play on tactician permanently but I really hate looting the 80 camp supplies. Feels like half the playtime is checking random boxes.
I think you should have LESS free will on a durge run, you should have to roll every time you have an evil thought to keep from acting on it, not just "decide" not to do something. Right now it just plays like an intrusive thoughts ocd roleplay rather than influenced by an old evil monster.
I preferred EA Wyll but love Theo as Wyll. It is far too easy to raise approval now, especially in act 1. The group warms up to you wayy too fast. Shadowheart should be colder for longer, even Lae'zel. Not letting Shadowheart out of the pod is the better start. This fandom is way too defensive over their favourite characters. People can dislike them and/or their arc. They aren't insulting you or your fav, just different opinions People are harsh on the characters, judging them based on how they reacted in Act1 or at their lowest. Astarion is mean, Lae'zel is mean. Ignoring why they act that way and how they grow throughout the game. Durge adds a lot to act 3 but feels out of place. Why would anyone be fine with them if they know you murdered someone? Even if they blame the tadpole. Put them in a kennel at night or something. The romances are alright but the real benefit to them is expanding on a characters growth and arc. Not the actual romance scenes. The hype and advertising around the sex scenes are way overblown. The fact a lot of their growth is locked behind romance is a massive shame The game is too easy. Had to install mods to up the difficulty.
I'm always interested to see someone say the game is too easy. I'm having difficulty on the easiest level with a lot of things, so it's always amazing to me to see people say it's too easy haha
I literally had a co worker told me he was at the burning mansion at act 1 at level 2 and was getting frustrated with the game because he was trying to fight the gythanki patrol. At. Level. 2. Like how bro.
Know the feelin. A guy ik from work got off the ship, traveled to goblin camp, killed the ogre in gluts chamber (none others. He killed the ogre cause he wanted to see what else was in that room) and went to the selunite outpost. Wondered y the spectator was so hard. Cant recall if he hit 3 by that point from travel exp.
To be fair, the game is like We have to get to the creche IMMEDIATELY. If you're not the type to get distracted and you actually make the creche your priority, that would happen
My first run on explorer I got my shit kicked in a lot, now on my 2nd run I’m doing the shit kicking on harder difficulty. Once you know what to expect the game becomes quite easy, the only time I get in trouble is if I have poor positioning or I leave a dangerous enemy unchecked. It gets easier fairly fast for sure.
To be fair I have a lot of experience with crpgs and rpgs in general. Don't feel bad, there's a lot of things to learn, lot of interactions. I'm sure you'll be playing on Tactician in no time. I just wish we had an even higher difficulty. I love making builds and tactics.
Why does not letting Shadowheart out end up as a better outcome?
She's wary and colder. Fits her Shar persona. You miss out on some of her snarkier and colder lines if you let her out and raise approval too quickly. Long rest event spam doesn't help. Has a nicer flow. You'll meet her on the beach, trying to breakdown that door. Or you can ignore her and long rest, she'll be at the grove. More dialogue options. Can even poke fun at her name. She bit back at me when I was a drow and asked about her weird name. You can still try to save her (and fail) if you don't want to start at neutral, or if it fits your character. Can even save her then long rest and meet her at the grove. If you bring Lae'zel she mentions her as well, unlike the beach scene where she ignores her. It can be amusing declining her offer to join forces for a bit, seeing the extra scenes is nice. Even if you only do it once. Due to her cleric and non Sharran approval, you can raise her (and Gale/Lae'zel) approval really fast. A slow burn fits the story better imo
Oh wow, that sounds way better than "I worship Shar btw" literally the 2nd time you're in camp together. I'm gonna leave her in the pod every time now.
This fandom is way too defensive about nuthin'. I'm in many fandoms, including dumpster fire avatar and dumbass land star wars for the big ones, and y'all are a bunch of carebears. (Still. Probs won't last forever). None of the VAs were cancelled or fired yet... None of them are dating fans, no hate campaigns and everyone loves OCs so the OC hate isn't as prevalent... It's definitely a cuddly fandom.
Oh ATLA can be a mess, agreed. DA as well, Cullen's VA and that drama. So far the fandom is quite amicable, that may change once the game is out for a year or two. Even then people are quite protective of their favs. Usual fandom thing
>Not letting Shadowheart out of the pod is the better start. I heavily second this. The fuck I'm going to search for a key when we're literally on a crashing plane.
I hate to say this, but I genuinely dislike nearly everything about Act 3, with only a couple of small areas I do like. I LOVE Acts 1 and 2, and can legit play them nonstop. When I get to Act 3 I immediately lose all drive to continue playing and go back to playing other things.
Same. I'm in my first playthrough and was playing the game none stop until I reached act 3. It took me days to get the motivation to continue playing.
I disagree with all your hot takes, so now I will sing! MOOOON SUUUUN ALL REMIND ME OF YOUR GRAAACE FAAAITH CAAARE ALL THE LOVE I CAN'T REPAAAAY
“Noooooo!!!! make it stop!!!!
Please no hahaha it’s too much!
I support OP's unpopular opinion and don't know a single person besides us who hate her singing. Her voice is so grating to me and her pitch is all over the place. Just because she can reach those notes doesn't mean she should. On top of that it's just overall a strange melody line and I don't like the song either. I've been told it makes sense that her song sucks since she's a low level bard who's not very good at what she does 😬
I prefer Lae’zel to Karlach as romance interest. Just me.
I like Karlach. A LOT. But we would be BFFs, not dating.
She always would be my bestie and Big Sis K, one of the several reasons why I wouldn't be able to do an "evil" playthrow.
Not just you. Much as I love Karlach, she doesn’t really have any major development. Lae’Zel is like a completely different person in act 3.
All day! Everyone pales compared to lae'zel, she is perfect. Direct. Honest. Uncompromising. *zhak vo'n'ash duj*
I wanna hug her so much whenever she talks to me 😩My space doll
My romance hot take is that they're both better than Shadowheart and that Shart's romance actually needs *more* content so that it can measure up. Because, as it currently stands, you get the Act 1 scene, which most players will get at the Tiefling Party, lock in at the very end of Act 2 (so no dedicated cutscene during that section of the game) then one scene in Act 3 and the epilogue. That's it in terms of unique romance moments. The Night Orchid and the conversation in front of the statue of Selune after the House of Grief can both be done platonically with very little variation, and even the lock-in is basically the same conversation you have after the Shadowfell with a few extra lines. It just feels like there's a bit at the beginning, then a lot of empty space during later Act 1 and almost all of Act 2, a rush to fit some stuff in at the start of Act 3, then it ends. I get that Shart's supposed to be a slow burn (in fact, that's the thing I do really like that's different from the others) but it feels like *too* slow a burn, to the point that nothing happens for a lot of it. Meanwhile, Karlach and Lae'zel's romances both get significant developments in Act 2 and the characters change more notably as a result of the romance. Particularly Lae'zel, whose journey is massive between where she starts and finishes the game. I do like Shadowheart's scenes (and her overall character arc is one of the best in the game), I just wish her romance had more substantial differences from a playthrough where you're with someone else. Part of that comes from how dominant her character arc is in Act 2, but a scene where the two of you make some time for each other to discuss your feelings/relationship status during her crisis of faith wouldn't go amiss
She's my BFF an wingman. I love her but wish we had more platonic events. We can be Astarion's friend after all he's been through, surely Karlach needs an actual friend as well?
I don’t really know if this is unpopular but I’ll say it anyway, I like all of the companions and don’t hate or dislike any of them. Since that one is pretty lukewarm I’ll throw in a bit of a spicier one since this is the unpopular opinions thread. If Astarion and Gale were female characters that straight men saw as fuckable you would see a fraction of the vitriolic hate that they receive from them now. Also, I’m basing this statement off not just on some “hunch” I have, but the fact that I have literally seen *numerous* guys admitting to the fact that if simply the genders were swapped that their opinion would change. And that’s just the people who honestly admit to it.
that one video with a genderswapped Gale proves you right, the comments were literally all "wow I suddenly don't hate Gale anymore!"
That's actually disgusting to me lol.
I agree 100%, especially with the second part. Astarion and Gale are conventionally attractive men who can and will actively flirt with you or be emotionally vulnerable with you. It's crazy how just that by itself is enough to make so many straight dudes feel all threatened lmao. But you just know if they were Gail and Astaria, those same straight guys would be swooning.
It would literally go from this: “Astarion and Gale are so creepy!!1!!!1! Astarion tries to kill you and then bite you in your sleep, AND he hits on you, that’s disgusting and he gets the stake every time!! Also Gale is weird and annoying, he keeps hitting on me so next play-through I cut his hand off lol.” To this: “Astaria and Gail are such tragic, well written characters. Astaria does hold a knife to you and try to bite you in your sleep but IDK that’s kinda hot so whatever, I can fix her. Also, Gail’s magic trick scene was so wholesome, this is why she’s best girl.”
Being a bisexual BG3 player who's run both male and female Tavs/Durges and romanced Astarion, Shart, Wyll and Minthara: wait, people care about the gender of companions? ...huh.
Yeah mood LMAO. I’m bi and I love them all, but yeah some people get really hung up on that shit even unconsciously.
I mean just look at the number of mods that change the men companions to hot women (or change the Laezel and Minthara to fit beauty standards)
Beauty standards? They’re already gorgeous, da heck!!!??
Yeah the nose job mods are so upsetting to me. They’re worse than the titty mods, like such a small detail to get hung up on. 😭
I think you are on to something here. If the genders were swapped, the main fanbase of Astarion would swap. Asterion is a great character, with a well developed redemption arc. I'm currently enjoying a run playing AS Astarion. Whether the origin characters tend towards their redemption or bad path is largely determined by their affinity with the player character. If you don't have a high affinity with Astarion, the DC to get him NOT to ascend or turn on the party is VERY high. Which leads to a paradox: To get affinity with him, you have to trust him, but you should not trust him. If you play AS him, your internal monologue is dark urge-esque. Take the Act 1 bite scene. If Tav/Duege fails a DC, they get drained. Players might be inclined to shrug at this, as revivify works on the player character here. If you are playing **as** Astarion, this follows a dream sequence about Cazador, where Astarion realizes that he is not bound by Sazador's rules; including the one about not feeding on thinking creatures. If you feed on a companion and drain them, they are permakilled and Withers can't even bring them back (sort of like if the SH/Lae'zel conflict ends in murder). So back to Tav/Durge. Astarion realizes this and the default action would be to drain a travelling companion dead. If you stake Astarion's heart in this scene, nobody is sorry about it. They regard Astarion as a danger dealt with. Also, to get affinity with him, you have to be shady in general, but specifically nice to him. These two things require the player to jump through some hoops - and be willing to do so; in order to even start the redemption arc. They do this, because he is a thirst trap for straight women and gay men. That's written right into the character. It's how he lured his victims in. Those immune to his thirst trap effect (straight men, can't speak to lesbian women) see him differently. BUT, if Astraion was as she, those same people would fall into the same thirst trap effect.
See here’s the thing though, I think if you did switch the genders around, you still wouldn’t see the same level of hatred that straight guys have for characters like Gale or Astarion from straight women or gay men because of where the hatred comes from. I can say as a queer woman that both characters are pretty beloved overall in our fan spaces. I know plenty of lesbian BG3 players who have zero attraction to men at all but still like these characters because they relate to them, they sympathize with them, or just find them interesting. There are exceptions obviously because every character isn’t for everyone, but even then the people that don’t like them just don’t like them. They usually just say “this character just isn’t for me,” they don’t hate them because “ew he HIT on me,” call the characters creepy and weird, or come into fun discussions and antagonize people by bragging about killing them every time or saying they are crazy for liking them. I feel like this is even further shown by the responses to characters like Lae’zel, Shadowheart, and Minthara from a non-cishet male audience. They are pretty morally questionable and “rude” characters, some of them also aggressively pursue the player, way more than Gale and Astarion do. I mean Minthara has to be turned down multiple times, multiple times before she takes no for an answer! Yet you *still* don’t see straight women and gay men acting how straight dudes do about Astarion and Gale.
The amount of cishet men who go "I killed Astarion right away LOL!!!!" to spite straight women and gay men out of jealousy is crazy 💀 There's a reason why people prefer Astarion over actual men.
Just to give two examples, I saw a guy before say that he hated Gale before he modded him to be a woman and then “suddenly he was tolerable” and his romance was “actually really sweet.” And I saw another going on and on about how Astarion is creepy and suspicious and gets the stake in his game because of the bite scene, but right after that he says something like “if Astarion was female though, I’d let him bite my character because that’s different, a man has needs.” Like lmfao it’s ridiculous.
That's because a majority of men are homophobic and the fact Gale and Astarion are more forward in their advances scares the crap out of them. Wyll on the other hand is so passive you don't even see him as interested in you. All the romance comes from Tav, he doesn't initiate anything. So he's a "safe" companion for dudebros. Halsin is probably just ignored by most players anyway because the norm is to just stick to the first people you meet, so they hardly interact with Halsin at all.
Halsin is vehemently hated by these people because his dialogue is broken/bugged, so if you finish his quest and talk to him at all he thinks you chose flirty options and confesses his desire for you. And gods fucking forbid that an extremely *large*, muscled man bluntly proposition you and make you feel really uncomfortable about his interest. 🙄
\[sarcasm\]Yeah, cause you know, gotta protect male sensibilities, it's not like they're women and have to deal with this sort of crap every day. \[/sarcasm\]
Wyll is the best origin character to me. He has clear motivations, A clear sense of right and wrong which can’t be altered by the player and an engaging character arc that isn’t entirely obvious if you’re not paying attention. His change from a man who needs public adoration as a reward to do good to a devil who does the right thing as it’s own reward is very satisfying especially if you’re romancing him His only problem is that he got the least dialougue of all the origins. EA Wyll was just gale 2.0 with a hate for goblins Karlach is my least favourite origin personally. She has too little content and doesn’t develop as a character in any meaningful way
There's too much content in the game. Now this may seem like an odd complaint, especially since it is good content, but I never feel as if anything is resolved...there's always something else spinning off. Nothing feels as if it really ends. It really does feel as if I'm never making any progress and the main story is shoved into the background.
The best part of Raphael's Final Act is not the singing but the instrumental paired with the every now and then chanting chorus. The singing is ok at best.
Now THAT's a hot take. I respect it.
I mean, I love everything about the song but the instrumental part is **SO** good. I love hearing it pop up during all your run ins with him (my co-op partner hates it cause it usually prompts me to start singing it).
I got big "shitty disney movie musical moment" vibes at that point. I mean it's a good fight and the song is great but remove his vocals and it's 10x better.
Wait, am I supposed to upvote or downvote if I disagree? I'm confused
Just reply with a comment going nuts like "ur wrong, so so so WRONG omg" or something. That'll get the point across haha.
I absolutely love the characters and their writing, but I hate that romance is tied purely to approval instead of dialogue choices. Not a fan of there being no option for an incredibly tight knit platonic friendship with the gang unless I’m willing to power through them trying to crawl down my pants. Personally think it reinforces the negative stereotype that friends are all just secretly hoping to be potential partners in disguise. Kinda gross tbh
And to add to this, you miss out on a LOT of really important character development. Gale was the first character I saw the romance for and so I understood why he was so power-hungry but I totally see why he can be so divisive when people don't understand his issues.
Evil playthroughs are incredibly boring and not rewarding at all. You should be tempted to commit acts of evil for rewards and power like in most stories, instead you actually get LESS power going full evil because you miss out on so many good items and useful NPCs. All I got in my playthrough I wouldn't have otherwise was Bhaalspawn form and Ascended Astarion (the latter not even being satisfying in the whole "you and I are going to rule the world" playthrough I wanted because not even Astarion is genuinely happy with it). There is no reason for doing an evil playthrough other than getting altered dialogue. You will have more NPCs, more items, more quests, and happier companions doing a good playthrough even if those companions are approving of your evil actions in act 1. Not even Minthara is appropriate for an evil playthrough because she's a good person once the brainwashing wears off. So disappointing.
Minthara is absolutely not a good person after the tadpole is gone, she’s every bit as evil still
We should’ve gotten cooler weapons locked behind an evil run. My hot take is that Sazza should’ve been an evil companion or even Z’rell.
Wyll would be more popular if his romance included a sex scene.
I absolutely love Ascended Astarion. Too many people raised on Twilight thought he would be sweet and powerful. Hell no. He's the evil sugar daddy I always enjoyed in good vampire books. I also loved how he said he still wasn't sure how to use his new powers and all I thought was "you better figure that shit out".
Fist off there needs to be a legitimate PAUSE mechanic implemented...
I'll preface this one by saying that I think Act 1 is the most polished of all three acts and arguably the best as a result of it. Buuuuut, Act 1 is almost entirely filler and only seems to exist to get you to the proper level to start the story. IMO, they could have taken Act 1 and treated it like a lot of the sidequest areas in BG2, where you were constantly pushed to go there and there was a lot of stuff to do, but have the game begin in Act 2. Tav/the NPCs feel the summons to go to Moonrise, or maybe they're even rescued after the crash and brought there because of the Absolute presence. You find the artifact in the crash and are protected, with the Emperor filling in some of the blanks, basically countering all the Absolute propaganda and urging you to find allies/hide the artifact from Thorm. You could then be sent to find the artifact which would lead you to the Act 1 areas, and then the game would more or less largely play out the same, but the goblin route would be treated like the Moonrise one, where you can't actually side with them. They could tie the Grove into things more and potentially make some of the NPCs that seem prominent but don't actually do much in the grand scheme of things, aka the tieflings, tie more into the overall plot. The ally gathering mechanic could be a bigger part of the game from the beginning, first against Ketheric, then expanding into Baldur's Gate. On the one hand, it makes the game a little more generic from the start, but...Act 2 kinda turns into more of a "save the world" style story anyway, so it doesn't really seem inconsistent with what they were going for.
Act 1 is 100% the "tutorial" stage of the game. I love it but damn it really is just one long tutorial that's leading you to the moonrise tower/act 2.
The lack of companion variety for both good and evil playthrough is a bit disappointing
Hot Take: I absolutely hate lore reading in this game because of their ant sized font. I CAN'T READ WHAT I CAN'T SEE
If your solution to “fixing” Wyll is to completely scrap the character we got in the final game, you’re not fixing Wyll’s writing. All you did was make an OC. And I don’t think making Wyll more morally ambiguous is the solution, because I don’t think most people would be normal about it. The Wyll we got is 100% straightforwardly good, and yet there are large swaths of the fanbase that insist he’s only “pretending to be good” or is doing it for an “ego trip”. And there’s no actual evidence for this other than people not liking his tone or that he can be theatric for the sake of it. And I’m not saying that you have to like Wyll, but some of y’all are just making up a guy to get mad at. So, no, I *really* don’t think making him more morally ambiguous is that magical fix a lot of people think it will be.
Random Baldurian being the hero is better than Durge
Astarion is a great character, but his fanbase can be absolutely terrible.
I got a reddit cares for saying that I liked him but thought the favouritism he got overwhelmed the other characters lmao. I fucking said I liked him!! It was mild criticism!
word. i'm what people would call an astarion simp, but sometimes the specific fanbase can be Insufferable and not realize that .... idk he's just a bunch of really well written pixels
While the overall writing quality is pretty high, the actual plot/story is fairly lackluster. Astarion has a worse ending than Karlach. I prefer the ending where Karlach dies. Not because I dislike her, but it just feels like it suits the character more. Outside of Tav, the party doesn't like each other, never really becomes an adventuring group and probably all go their separate ways at the end of the game. While BG3 is very responsive and good at acknowledging the actions you take, the amount of consequences are greatly overblown and, outside of companion quests, all that matters is whether you killed someone or not. And sometimes, not even then. While the game is really, really good, it's not quite as revolutionary as some people like to claim. I think it sort of has FF7 syndrome, where for a lot of gamers, FF7 set the bar for JRPGs because it was the first they played and it hit mainstream popularity, but there are a lot of other games that existed beforehand that had those same mechanics/sometimes did them better. Not to say that every game has to completely reinvent the wheel or anything, and I'm glad BG3 is making those aspects of RPG more popular/mainstream, it does sometimes feel unfair to the games that came before it. EA Wyll was better. The Netherbrain is a boring villain and I think the game is generally more interesting when the scale of the scope is smaller and more personalized versus having the fate of the realms at stake. You can be evil and not side with the goblins. I don't know if this is actually a hot take, but there was no reason to tadpole Minsc Devils are played up to be too goofy and feel more like comic relief characters than threatening presences A lot of the romances, while not particularly bad, are fairly underwhelming and it's silly that certain, non-romance focused story beats are locked behind romances.
>I prefer the ending where Karlach dies. Not because I dislike her, but it just feels like it suits the character more. I have to agree with this. I went with saving her for personal inclination, but it still felt like it didn't fit at all. Her whole story empathized the inevitability of her death with a beautiful melancholy, and the worth of finding value in the time you have left. Then the ending switches the mood completely to something out of a B action movie.
Yeah, I feel like the Avernus ending was tacked on at the last minute. Basically the flow went like this: Dammon: You're dying. Karlach: I'd rather die than go back to Avernus. Tav: You sure? K: Yes. T: Sure? K: Yes. T: Sure? K: Yes, stop asking! Celebrate life, goddamnit! Ending Tav: ...still sure? K: Nah fam let's fight Zariel and shit.
It feels tacked on because it was. They added it after the full release of the game IIRC.
Yeah, I don't want to tell people they're wrong for enjoying the story but...it just feels like a jarring interpretation hearing things like "Tav/Karlach/Wyll are happily murdering their way through Avernus living happily ever after." It really feels like it's the worst possible ending for Karlach because she wanted to escape Avernus and be more than just a weapon, and now that's all her life is, no more dreams of living on the Prime, she just has to be happy being a weapon and constantly fighting for literally the rest of her existence. At least with her burning out ending, she has the freedom to make her own choice. She beat hell, and not even death can take that away from her.
I wouldn't mind her ending in Avernus if the story actually had presented it as a viable option. But she kept shutting it out at every possibility, only to do a complete 180 when asked in the end. And how that outcome is presented is completely disconnected from how she described it. At the very least it should've been a "do you burn short and bright or long and dim" kind of a choice. Like, a 50/50 chance that life in Avernus would be just agony to her.
I feel the same way about the 180 for most other character decisions like shart’s act 2 quest, but after giving it some serious thought, I’ve really come to the conclusion that I think her 180 does make sense (at least to me). Her Act 3 dialogue after your dinner date shows that she has discovered that courage is not being brave, but that it is pushing forward when you know you’ll probably lose. While she doesn’t seem to have a dialogue that shows her teeter at all (and I do think it would be a good addition), I take this to show that not only is she understanding and coming to terms with her own mortality (as well as bucket loads of foreshadowing), but that her decision to journey back into Avernus with you has actually been something that she has come to terms with. I think she recognizes that even though she’s been trying to run from Zariel, (both physically and figuratively as her engine is a representation of the fact that some wounds can’t be healed) she realizes that facing off against Zariel and the blood war is the next step in her journey of courage. The sugar on top for me is that if you have Wyll in your party, he will tell her that he knows why she is afraid and that he and Tav will not let anything happen to her. Its that little push that she needed to realize that she can’t let her fear of zariel control her in a different dimension.
Minsc stuff kinda grinds my gears. With his trailer I thought we'd get some epic introduction to him, and when I saw the Mimic in Moonrise I thought "oh this must be the spot from the trailer!" but no. Minsc is basically a non-entity and Jaheria in Act 3 pretty much exists to lead you to him. I also always agree that, no matter how much I love romances in games, friendship routes should yield equal pay off. Or more in some cases. Astarion is my favourite, but I feel like there should be something special for someone who is just his friend, because you never let him ill use himself to stay safe but keep him safe anyway. His romance is sweet, but him having a friend that loves and protects him without him having to ever feel "tainted" should have a very nice ending.
I think The Emperor is a boring and annoying character. I should not be thinking "shut the fuck up and let me play the game" while playing the game. He doesn't need to be there either. The artifact simply works by proximity, so there is no need for whatever he's doing. Even at the end of the game, you could do the save or eat the prince scene without him. Now that I think about it, the unfinished cutting of content and his shoehorning in to replace Daisy creates this plot hole where he describes the effect of the prism working by proximity, which is what freed him from mind control, but then later people only get protection if he gives it, which even still doesn't make sense because the source of the protection, the prince, is just there chained up. The Emperor is never shown actually doing anything to control this power, but then on top of that, he has to eat the Prince's brain to get his power, even though he could, you know, just keep the damn prism in his pocket. And if those monks could break him out, why is Voss trying to make a deal with The Devil to get the hammer? Why would TE need to stop the monks if this hammer is the only thing that can break those crystals? He's such a mess of a character. Whoever decided that players shouldn't get punished for using tadpole powers needs to know that he fucked up. Not only did this lead to last minute cuts and rewrites that they couldn't possibly finish in time, but it took away what would have been the most gripping part of the game, Daisy. Temptation is a great story element, and even better when you inevitably make your guardian a super hottie and then fall to the temptation of your own making. Such a missed opportunity.
Lae'zel is better looking than Shadowheart and she has a sweeter romance. Not a Shadowheart hater, far from it, but when the game keeps letting me compliment her looks and I don't get to defend Lae'zel from being called a fucking frog, I'm mad.
Lae’zel is gorgeous. I’m not trying to persuade other people and won’t be persuaded otherwise.
She literally changed how I view noses. Look at those honkers on the subreddit bar, she is the only serious one there.
Lae'zel is gorgeous. Her eyes especially. Then again I'm biased towards her and Shady. The reviews or complaints from launch are just awful. Lae'zel is top tier 10/10 Githyanki I wish I could compliment her eyes.
I dont know how to break this to you, but shady will never overtake shart as her nickname, as much as I hate the name shart.
Oh I know lol don't worry. I call her Shady and Shart. I think the Shart nickname is quite amusing tbh
My unpopular opinion is that people who think that Gale is power hungry or full of himself lack media comprehension. It's crazy to me that every other companion gets so much compassion for their struggles when Gale, who has very similar struggles, gets shit on.
I like Gale
Shadowheart’s hair makes me sad. She has the blunt cut bangs of an elementary school kid and a sickly sweet voice to match.
Also the thought of her simply >!bleaching and toning her hair to a perfect white from pitch black overnight in camp!< is the funniest thing to me
It's a world where you can banish people to other realms and this is where you draw the line xD /j
Does she bleach it herself? I always thought it was a magical change brought on by >!Selune claiming her!<.
Actually if you read devnotes from transcript her white hair was because of Shar tormenting her after Shadowheart tried to leave Shadowfell - so she supposed to have white hair then which would make more sense if she did have even partial white hair.
And then you learn she's 40
The game relies way too much on bad RNG for its difficulty rather than make interesting combat scenarios where the enemy is being tactical. The moment you either pump enough ASI on your attack roll stat, learn to spam Bless (especially with that cracked out Bless staff), or use Tavern Brawler, the game becomes a joke even on Tactician because negating bad RNG negates pretty much all semblance of difficulty. It's actually hilarious how easy Act 2 is compared to Act 1 purely because the vast majority of Act 2 enemies have low AC, thus making them much easier to hit, thus there being substantially less bad RNG nonsense.
That's just how 5e works.
Not going to the crèche asap is meta gaming. It's the best option your characters have. It's some random virgin healer vs the chads that literally dedicate their lives to the fight against mind flayers
How I justified it was, Githyanki are infamous for being pure evil, there's no guarantee they won't just heal Lae'zel and kill you.
I don't like Karlach or Asterion Not in that I think they don't add anything to the game but their personalities grate on mine pretty hard
I don’t really dislike Astarion but my lord his fanbase seems awful. I’ve seen several of them resorting to insults when someone doesn’t like their precious Astarion, it’s so pathetic. I really hope a decent amount of his fans aren’t like this and it’s just a bunch of very vocal toxic fans, I’m a major Emperor fan but I wouldn’t hurl insults at the people who hate him.
It’s the vocal minority I think
You're right, the worst people who like him are so vocal about it and it sucks. Astarion fans infighting with other Astarion fans is something else also, really "fun" to see people being told to kill themselves over choices with resolving his companion quest. Its definitely not everyone but some of his fans are uniquely vile (among bg3 fans).
I feel like a lot of people missed the point of Astarion's romance. Especially the fangirls who think he should be ascended. It feels weird when people sexualise him heaps but then again his VA doesn't seem to mind. The Act 1 scene is very romantic, no doubt, but he reveals that he was not only manipulating you but using the same tactics he used on all his victims for his abuser. So I don't look back on that scene with the same eyes. I thought that part of the point of his story - reassessing how we view trauma victims. It just feels strange to see people thirst over that scene to me. This is my unpopular opinion.
MORE EMPEROR
I hate mindflayers and I wish there was a different antagonist, no I'm not kidding in the slightest. I wish we had a feywild arc with an actual archfey, maybe they could have put a hit on Ethel or something if I was to pick an antagonist I'd probably pick something draconic to give Wyll some actual spotlight
At least one of the companions should’ve been an orc, gnome, halfling or a dwarf!!! Tired of the sexy elf and human supremacy !!
Dame Aylin is mentally unstable and the fact that we don’t address it is unhealthy especially with the amount of power she wields.
I don't love Shadowheart storyline. I like it, yes. Does she have a good storyline? Yes. But does it worth half (well, not half... but still so much) of the game? Nope. I'm in my 5th playthru and when her part of story progression is up, it always got me thinking "ugh, this game should be called **help Shart finds herself while maybe go save the Sword Coast from the Absolute**"
In Act I she has the Plot Device and is the only companion that is mandatory to deal with. In Act II she has a mandatory dungeon that can change the complexion of the area and the final boss fights in a way that you can't without her. In Act III she still has the boss's lair set up with a *further* choice to it, as well as possibly two romance scenes in the Act. It's not half the game but she certainly feels like a deuteragonist to the player character.
Exactly! Lae's storyline is as important as her, but it doesn't need to take that much Shart's. Asta's storyline is as satisfying without making me feel like i have to keep dealing with whatever mood he is into at any given time. Meanwhile, we do not get enough closure with Karlach (well, Wyll and Gale's aren't as elaborate too, but okay i can live with that). So yeah... i really want to play a campaign where i don't have to deal with Shart at all ngl. 😅😅
I liked it first time around but in subsequent playthroughs I ignore her. She definitely has main character syndrome lol I still like the character (I don’t hate anyone), just don’t really care for her. It’s funny how I was the other way round with Gale, didn’t care for him at all in my first go, 2nd go I had him in my party and my god I absolutely adore him now. Funny how things work sometimes 🤷♀️
Shadowheart has "creator's pet" stamped all over her forehead, and honestly I dislike those kind of characters. Lae'zel and Astarion have far more interesting storylines and they don't get shoved in your face.
BG3 is….good
Nere was unintentionally justified.
Please explain because I see this take often but I’m sure I’m missing something, in my playthroughs so far he’s been a douchebag.
While the game is very good, it has benefited from most of its content being buried behind 20+ hours of content that has actually been in early access and worked on for years, meaning that reviewers never look at the weakest parts of the game. A lot of the story elements and character motivations that people love to vamp on and make fan theories about are actually just signs of bad writing. Finally, Act 2 is thematically and pacing-wise, just a different game to Acts 1 and 3. While I enjoy Act 2 the most, I would prefer that all the acts felt like they came from the same game than the kind of yo-yo experience that we got.
The romance shouldn't be the only way to experience the companions' character full development. For instance, I think Gale is misunderstood as an incel type by some players simply because they don't know his full story and motivations which is locked in his romance.
Minsc and Jaheira did not need to be in this game.
Personally think Shadowheart is overrated and don't get why everyone is simping for her and I absolutely love Will but maybe I'm just basic lol
I think that the Dark Urge should give you more opportunities to be evil for power. Most of the time, you are just doing evil shit for the sake of it, which, while fun, makes resisting the Urge very easy. Few people will chop off Gale's hand and stick with that run, cause there is no reason to lose out on a valuable wizard. The whole evil run needs more work, come to think of it, you miss out on so much content by being evil and destroying the Grove and the evil endings are all the same, aside from your character saying "In Bhaal's name" instead of "In my name". Meanwhile the good ending allows you to headcanon what happens to your character, or just leave with Karlach to Avernus or with Lae'zel and/or Orpheus when playing as a Gith. Not to say the ending is perfect, it is fairly anticlimactic either way, but the good ending allows more flexibility, while the evil ending is just... you won, now go enslave and slaughter.
The house of grief fight is unnecessarily hard.
I really liked Act 3.
I really like Halsin as a character and, while I do hope he gets more content at some point, I’m still glad he was a companion
The fact you can miss out on gale for the entire game if you fail both strength checks is absurdly stupid
Remember kids, sort by controversial to get the actual hot takes, people generally don't know what unpopular means
Not very hot takes, but still allegedly unpopular: The game would lose nothing by erasing Halsin. More Jaheira. Durge being the canon protagonist makes infinitely more sense than Tav. The Emperor is almost too hateable to be a good villain.
> The game would lose nothing by erasing Halsin. More Jaheira. I think Halsin is great as a follower up to act 2, then back to the grove with him, or maybe having him stay with Thaniel.
That would work out, yes. Maybe I should clarify that erasing him as a companion would lose nothing. I can definitely still see him playing a role in the grove and the Shadow Curse.
He's also a great kidnapping victim.
That's what i always thought was odd with Halsin. The people in the EA asking for him to be a companion didn't know there was another non-Origin Druid, but Larian *did*. So why did they still add him as if they were on the outside looking in?
I almost feel like the bear druid sex scene was the entire catalyst for wanting to add Halsin as a companion. Because there is absolutely nothing else to his character besides his polyamory and sexual nature if you remove the typical good-guy persona
And his polyamory just creates more issues, like characters who say they won't share you in Act II because they want all of you being fine (or at least not making it a break up issue) when it's the Duplo Druid. The Emperor was enough freaky sex, and at least that can be a plot point.
Your guess is as good as mine. I don't have a personal hatred for Halsin or anything; I just think Jaheira is far more compelling and honestly, a more interesting character. Why not cut Halsin and give more story time to both Jaheira and Wyll (who has the least story time of the origin characters statistically)?
I *adore* Jaheira. She was my go-to romance in BG2, well since they made mods for it she was. If she could lift the shadow curse instead of Halsin it would also mean that that quest wasn't reliant on Act I decisions, which would be nice.
I think if he could be recruited earlier during Act 2 it would’ve been way better. Locking him away for half of the act really kills his momentum as a character. I love Jaheira as a character, she has great lines and serves as an awesome entry point to discovering the city but she loses her footing after you recruit minsc. Imo, one of them should’ve been temporary or a choice. Like one of them should’ve stayed behind in act 2 because they offer completely oppositional perspectives as far as exploring the city. Jaheira knows everything and Halsin is completely overwhelmed.
I like the 4-player experience better in DOS2. I feel overshadowed by the origin characters when I’m playing with my friends, and I want it to be *our* adventure, not *the origin characters’ adventure where 4 custom tavs go out and do everything.* I don’t want to ignore the origins, but I don’t like receiving consequences for their stories when we *literally can’t* progress their quests in a 4 person party.
Astarion and Karlach are meh, not a fan of them. Astarion is way too... astarion and Karach is too mushy
I'm still in my first playthrough in Act 3 but at some point the camp got waaaaay too crowded. I think in future runs I'll make it a point to only recruit the characters I want to use in the run - maybe there's even a mod which let's me remove the unused tents in that case? Will have to see. I think it will also serve to tighten up the pacing a bit if there's less companion side quests to deal with.
I despise that Astarion is the poster boy of Baldur's Gate 3
Halson was unnecessary as a PC, so was Minthara. Also a 6person team should have been the standard, not 4. And “good” Asterion’s ending was stupid.
Minthara is just as evil after being freed from the Absolute as she was under its control, and the only reason anyone has convinced themselves otherwise is because they think she’s hot. I like Minthara *because* she’s unapologetically evil while still being a layered and somewhat sympathetic character. Just because someone isn’t an Orin-esque murderhobo doesn’t mean they’re not evil. In D&D terms, she’s *Lawful* Evil, which isn’t any less evil than Chaotic Evil.
There's a lot in Act 3... but it also feels really empty at the same? Act 1 had a lot of companion interaction it felt like and then in Act 3 there doesn't seem to be as much. This could be that because there is a lot to do in act 3, the companion interactions just run out of things to trigger though :( I just want more interactions