#'prim and proper paladin boy gets his world so rocked by a mildly kinky encounter that he abandons all preconceived notions of his identity

[minweber]

One way in which, I think, BG3 succeeds in emulating tabletop DND experience - though, admittedly, It may be more of an achievement of its writing rather than game design - is sending player characters down unexpected development paths.

My favorite ttrpg experience have always been the moments when you realize that through the interaction between other players' actions, your own choices and the ongoing story, your character has now developed traits that you did not originally intend for them to have.

Those really are fascinating moments, ones that have always been difficult to explain to people who never experienced them - even though the mechanic between them is very simple and non-mystical. Something happened that you did not expect, and you react in the ways you may not have expected either! It's trivial, but the result is quite magical - when you see a character escape beyond your full control, becoming something onto themselves and making you not the sole master of their story.

Anyway, shoutout to my first BG3 playthrough, where my hoity-toity noble paladin - who had a whole dramatic arc from the stock of "difficult relationship with a position of leadership that awaits him in a distant homeland" set up for him - awkwardly confessed to Karlach, got politely rejected, went off to sulk, had Lae'zel come onto him, apathetically agreed and then proceeded to have his brains fucked out so hard that it completely changed the direction of his story and had him fighting on the frontlines of a space revolution not even a full month after.