#Ranger Wyll choosing to become a menace to fiendish society.

[jeeaark]

I'm surprised Epilogue Wyll is a Ranger, not a Paladin. The man fits the mould pretty damn well. And having a good Paladin to contrast Minthara's evil Paladin would be neat.

Ranger Wyll makes perfect sense to me. Rangers are built for survival and to thrive in the environment of their choosing. Even Literal Hell. Not only would Ranger Wyll have no difficulty trekking a land that is nothing BUT heinous, that man would become a menace to every fiend that thought they were top of the food chain. Sure he won't have radiant damage, but he'll have favored enemy. That man would not only become the Blade of Avernus, but the Predator of Avernus. The Ranger Knightmare to Nightmares. Paladin Wyll can smite demons with big damage dealer spells sure, but demons come in the hundreds in hell. Poor guy would run out of smites reaaaaallll fast.

Ranger Wyll? Play your spell cards right, and you can have the environment kill your foes aaaaallll day. Paladin Wyll would be like a good sprinter, but Ranger Wyll? Marathon Runner. Paladins are defenders, pest control for communities in Faerûn and kicking overambitious fiends back to their planes.

Ranger Wyll? Is the naturally heat resistant, longstriding, enhanced leaping, persistent hunter of demons and devils. The man who doesn't wait for the demon lion to start devouring the souls of townspeople, but who dares stride into the demon lions' den itself and beat them at their own game. And this time they have nowhere to run and hide.

Also Paladins gotta have oaths. and that entails. rules. After the whole Mizora thing, I don't think Wyll wants to be stuck upholding anymore sets of rules. Let that man do what he wants without holy/fiendish consequence! The moral conundrum is what got Wyll stuck into the warlock business, and having a paladin oath is moral conundrum cocaine for nefarious evildoers.

Also. Ranger Wyll gets a Killer Puppy Companion.

Can't top Killer Puppy Companion.

[margridarnauds]

BG3 ask meme: 3 and 7 General and 2 Story Specific

3. Does your Tav have any comments or advice when you recruit other companions?

Kitrye would give various tips on Minthara, presuming you spared the tiefling/druid grove, including information on House Baenre and general Drow culture. She'd overall support attempting to redeem her, even though there would still be some lingering resentment and anxiety (given that Kitrye is (1) Half-Drow, and Minthara is canonically bigoted towards them and (2) Is very aware of Lolthian Drow social norms even if she doesn't practice them.)

She is very nervous around Astarion starting up, since her initial Oath does kind of force her to be at odds with the undead, though this changes over the course of her run.

Kitrye, in general, isn't going to have too many instances in the game where she wants to speak to the player character; they'll have to reach out to her for her opinions on game events, and often, they'll be quite brief, though you can get more information through Insight checks. What she does provide the player character with, though, is almost always usable information.

Malla (who you absolutely would NOT need to spare the tiefling/druid grove to recruit) would be much more disdainful of Minthara, seeing her as a traitor to Lolth, but she would still give advice on Drow Culture 101. (And would very smugly tell the player that House Baenre tried to court their grandmother, Hesken-P'aj Symryvvin, for an alliance.) (Please note: She is romancing Minthara in her run.)

She supports recruiting Lae'zel, arguing that the Githyanki is blunt, a little too hot-headed for truly sophisticated work, but that she has no ulterior motives and that can be useful in an ally. Trust her with no major secrets, but use her blade.

Ana is delighted to recruit Karlach and Wyll and will give the player a lot of information on the Hells. (She can tell, instantly, that Wyll is a warlock AND that he has a fiendish patron, because she can detect a hint of Avernus on him -- faint enough that most people wouldn't notice it, but to someone raised there, it's obvious.)

7. Do they have their own personal quest that spans the course of the game?  Can it take different branching paths depending on the choices the Player Character makes?

Kitrye is trying to break free from her family and Lolthian society -- if Tav encourages her on a good path, she will be resolved to kill Lolth, whether or not she becomes an Oathbreaker, and will maintain her sense of purpose. If Tav doesn't, she becomes far more morally flexible, proposing increasingly pragmatic options, some part of her clearly deadened, and it's fully possible to sell her back to the Drow ala Shadowheart, with the implication being that she'll either be killed or transformed into a Drider. You get a lovely shot of her absolutely heartbroken face as she's led away to an uncertain fate.

Malla has a goal -- to destroy the Absolute menace, take her sister back to Menzoberranzan, and earn her family's approval. If she succeeds, the epilogue will show that Kitrye is now dead and that Malla is now Matron Mother of House Symryvvin. She appears even colder than before, losing whatever spark of chaos she previously had, and is now fanatically loyal to Lolth. If she chooses to go another path thanks to the player character's intervention and chooses to spare her sister and forsake her house, she will still be evil, but she will choose to set out for a life on the surface, living on her own as a ranger. (With things with Kitrye being ambiguous, but tentatively hopeful, in the sense that they're still sisters.)

With Ana, the stakes are slightly lower, in the sense that she's not actively running from anyone or anything, but she is, essentially, dicking around in the mortal plane, trying to make sense of where she stands with everything. If she is encouraged to find her own way, she'll break away from the infernal hierarchy and become her own person, losing a lot of her ego and bluster (though not all -- she is still ANATHEMATISMA, P̧͕̒̊͘R͉̜̎͡͠I̍̅̀̎̊N̺̻̔̆ͅC̵͉͋̔͞Ḛͭ̉̇͟S̵̙͕̀̃S̵̙͕̀̃ O̖̼ͩ͌͐F̘͍͖ͫ͘ T̨͈͗̌ͥHͥ̽ͣ̃̔Ḛͭ̉̇͟ Hͥ̽ͣ̃̔Ḛͭ̉̇͟L̸̖̽̌͂L̸̖̽̌͂S̵̙͕̀̃ and the line of Mephistopheles is seemingly cursed to forever produce the most dramatic and Extra bitches possible.) In her epilogue, she'll happily mention starting up a theatre troupe, along with some of the tiefling refugees, with her parents even sometimes attending. (In his epilogue, Raphael will mention it, somewhat begrudgingly noting that she's happy and is doing the family name credit, so all is going exactly as he'd expected...and, anyway, she has time to grow into her role in the centuries to come.) If Tav doesn't encourage her, she will return to Avernus and resume her place as P̧͕̒̊͘R͉̜̎͡͠I̍̅̀̎̊N̺̻̔̆ͅC̵͉͋̔͞Ḛͭ̉̇͟S̵̙͕̀̃S̵̙͕̀̃ O̖̼ͩ͌͐F̘͍͖ͫ͘ T̨͈͗̌ͥHͥ̽ͣ̃̔Ḛͭ̉̇͟ Hͥ̽ͣ̃̔Ḛͭ̉̇͟L̸̖̽̌͂L̸̖̽̌͂S̵̙͕̀̃, under Raphael's strict guidance -- it's very clear that this isn't really what she wants, but she's putting on a brave face. Raphael will lightly scold you in the Epilogue, in the same way that he'll scold you if you let Mol lose at lanceboard in the canon game. (Just because he's a deadbeat dad who has managed to give his daughter new and exciting daddy issues as replacements for his own, it doesn't mean that he wants to see his daughter MISERABLE.) It's fine, he can just give her a nice hotel...to rehabilitate sinners....possibly one for Has-Beens....

2. How do they advise the player character on Raphael?

Kitrye would absolutely tell the PC NOT to trust Raphael, but would be extremely cagey about details. Tav would have to pass an Insight check + do some snooping around various areas in the game to find documents to learn the full truth. (Pickpocketing her diary from her, finding things around the House of Hope, etc. etc.)

Malla would advise taking the deal and breaking it -- let him think the player is playing along with him, but get him when he least expects it. (She absolutely wants to kill Raphael...and him having sex with her sister is only one part of it.)

Ana is very similar to Kitrye, saying not to take the deal but being cagey, except for that, rather than needing to succeed an Insight check, she or Raphael will outright tell Tav the connection between them with the right dialogue branch, which can be used for leverage down the line provided that Tav makes the discovery. (Though it should be obvious from the horns alone, really.)