#bg1 screenshot

[striderstable]

[ID: screenshot of a baldur's gate 1 character sheet featuring a chaotic good male half-orc level 3 fighter named hurak with a strength of 19, dex 15, con 18, int of 12, wisdom 10, and charisma of 15. the rest of the party pictured in the sidebar consists of minsc, khalid, jaheira, imoen, and dynaheir. /end]

My latest Bhaalspawn with the canon party. Maybe this time I'll finally actually finish this game.

[nucleqr]

guys the baldur's gate obsession got bad i've regressed to bg1

[muddiestpath]

Orrin is back, & she's pissed off.

[absolxguardian]

BOO AND ELMINSTER ARE FRIENDS!?

[dirtybiowareconfessions]

i wonder how often you get confessions that aren't about bioware's main two game series. i know ppl sent in swtor stuff sometimes and even kotor but do you get bg1&2 stuff. jade empire. nwn. did anyone get horny for anthem?? probably not but idk

i doubt the mods keep track in any way but if you have any vague idea about non DA/ME related confessions frequency i wanna knowww

Not often at all. The chief games are DA and ME and people have been obsessed over those games for well over 10 years (yours truly included.) Even if we *did* get confessions for BG and NeverWinter Nights, it's damn near impossible to get screenshots for those games.

Anthem's pretty much dead so it's normal to not get confession for it. But we do have a tag for it, just look it up!

-R

[crispywisp]

ive never heard of bg1 or 2.....wjere did 3 come from and why are all the characters so hot

idk much about bg3's development history or how and why it even started development in the first place since bg2 was released all the way back in 2000, but i wanna guess that they're all hot because they wanted to lure in all the jaded dragon age fans (like me lol)

also if you like old school games, i recommend bg1 and 2, these games are dirt cheap nowadays, especially during steam sales. i personally really love the isometric backgrounds and quaint little character sprites

(this is a screenshot of my icewind dale party, but it uses the same game engine as bg1 and 2, so they look very similar)

[catt-nuevenor]

Baldur's Gate 3 - Writing

Right, yes. I am a writer, time to put all the pretty screenshots aside and talk about the writing. Still going to sneak a screenshot or two in, but I will try and remain focused on the task at hand.

Spoilers for BG3, BG1 and BG2, visual and textual. The games are best experienced knowing as little as possible going in, so I highly recommend you do that if you plan to or are playing.

Considering just how long the game is and how much story is pack into it, it would be foolish of me to try and condense my thoughts on it down into an itty bitty tumblr post. So, we're going to pick out a few elements and overview their structure, progression, and impact.

These are my opinions, not fact, they are also from a 1 and a half playthrough perspective with far too many additional hours spent in early access, and I'm a good bean who gets physically squirmy with 'evil' choices. In other words, I'm not going to have seen everything. With all that in mind, let's dive in.

As the character who has probably changed the least from early access through to full release (so is therefore the most linear developed character in my head), let's talk about Shadowheart.

When I first came across Shadowheart I was reminded of Sebille from Larian's previous game Divinity Original Sin 2. The comparison didn't hold up long, but its undertones were always there, just under the surface.

Quick catchup for clarity, in DOS2 Sebille is a classic Femme Fatale character. She is openly seductive, dangerous, and introduces herself to your character by sticking a needle in your neck. First impressions very important and all that. After you strike something of an uneasy alliance with her, involving agreement to murder someone, or several someones, her approach to you shifts. She takes nearly every opportunity she can to physically touch you, the first being as you approach her first 'target' she walks up behind you and places her hand to the small of your back. A definite seductive action. It's not your shoulder, not your arm, certainly not your hand, all platonic or affectionate, but the intimate sensitive position of the small of your back. It's a great set up for the breakthrough you get with that character a short while later. You reach for her hand to comfort her, and she recoils bodily. If you apologise, she does the same and compares herself to, "A cat that has known too much unkindness." And so the two sides of Sebille begin to be revealed. (Highly recommend DOS2 by the by)

In my opinion, Shadowheart begins the game with the ambition of being like the initial side of Sebille. I hope you all paid attention to the spoiler section. Considering Shadowheart's parental figure, or at least the only one she initially remembers, this should come as little surprise to the informed player.

She wants to be cold, but appealing, she wants to be able to draw people in, use and discard them, she wants to be ruthless and detached and to be able to use other's weaknesses to get what she needs out of them. Take the moment where she demands to know what the main character thinks about Rafael before she will give them her own opinion. My read on this is that she is trying to use techniques she was taught back 'home'. Find out what facade will fit the best with her current companions. Ideally, if she were successful at the Femme Fatale archetype, she would twist her own feelings to compliment or manipulate the Main Character's. But here is where some of the first cracks show through. She can't twist her opinions, her own morality breaks out.

It's difficult to know at the beginning how genuine her care for the Main Character is. I think of the moment you free Lae'zel from her cage:

"She sees your kindness as weakness. Don't let her take advantage."

Now, with hindsight, she's probably right. Lae'zel doesn't have a brilliant opinion on kind acts. But, one could argue there's a little self projection going on there. It is possible that 'mother' superior said the same to her at some point? Less 'be careful', more 'kindness is weakness, take advantage of it'.

It's interesting to think that Viconia had 40 years of trying, and possibly failing, to beat the kindness out of Shadowheart, yet it's only when she is out from under her control, forced to rely on others, that her personality 'locks in'. If you are kind, above nearly all other things, kind to others, kind to children, kind to animals, Shadowheart softens. She opens up, reveals more, even if you disagree with her beliefs.

Second playthrough my main character is a priest of Eilistraee, the chaotic good drow goddess, who has on multiple occasions had 'disagreements' with Shar, and is allied with Selûne and Mystra, among others. On paper, Shadowheart should hate that character on principle, possibly try to murder them if no Selûnite is available. Yet, she does not. So long as she is not antagonised about her faith, Shadowheart is willing to let the eternal war her own goddess seeks to perpetuate lie.

"A cat that has known too much unkindness."

I keep coming back to that line. I think is sums Shadowheart up, despite it being written for another character. If you coax her out of her shell, if you are gentle and understanding, and do not admonish her for her occasional lashing out, show her that she can relax around you, that you won't punish her for miss-stepping or misspeaking, she uncoils. But if you meet her hostility with the same, or encourage her into hostility against others, she'll draw further into herself, remain hissing and spitting in her corner.

"The fate you seal is your own. To be a Dark Justiciar is to turn your heart from everything but loss. You will know no love, no joy - only servitude."

I just did a little Wiki digging to see what the alternate routes through this scene are, since it's mid-morning here on a workday and I'm not loading up Baldur's Gate 3 before 5pm, I would never get anything done otherwise. It's interesting that many folks seem to have found that you need to convince Shadowheart to do the right thing here.

When I first played this through, I did the same, persuaded her. Due to a muck up on my part and some serious save backtracking, I had to do this section again with the same playthrough, and I quicksaved before the dialogue began and decided to see what would happen if I let things just play out. If Umrae (the Main Character) trusted Shadowheart to do the right thing.

She chose, without input on the Main Character's part, to release the Nightsong. It stunned me, it really did. And I realised that all those little kindnesses had led her up to that decision, that she'd been allowed to show her softer side with the Main Character and the others, and even in the Shadowfell, even in the heart of Shar's domain, she clung to her gentler side without explicit encouragement.

"They trained you well, trained you hard. Chiselled away any part of you that did not fit their plan. They made you forget."

Trusting Shadowheart brings to the table self-motivated development. Later in the playthrough, once we'd kicked Viconia around for a far longer battle than it should have been due to me being seriously under-leveled, I had the opportunity to give the reigns to Shadowheart again.

Shadowheart chose to spare her tormentor.

In hindsight, upon exploring the rest of the cloister, I was very tempted to go back to an old save and have a word with Viconia myself, nostalgia for the old games be damned. But it felt right to respect Shadowheart's decision instead.

In that vein, the conclusion of Selûnite Shadowheart's story can feel a little hollow initially.

The options:

Her parents die, she is free from Shar.

Her parents live, Shar can (and will) torment her for the rest of her life.

I am a wee bit annoyed at Larian for the framing of Shadowheart's final scene at Selûne's statue. If her parents are alive, they get to hug and comfort her. If her parents are dead, she stands alone and sobs, and even in the Main Character has a close or romantic relationship with her, they stand like a statue in the background. Let us give the poor woman a damn hug!

EDIT: You can now give Shadowheart a hug! Thank you Larian!

Because otherwise it can feel like Shadowheart is choosing between having support but never-ending torment, or peace and utter isolation. Imagine how differently that scene would feel if not only the Main Character could hug and support her, but if others, like Karlach, or Gale, or Wyll, or heck even Jaheira and Minsc, could all pile in and remind her that hell no she's not alone.

"Embrace loss."

Personally, I chose to follow her parents' wishes.

I've seen it argued that this is letting Shar win, that Shadowheart is forced to, 'Embrace Loss'. But I'd like to dispute that, if I may. As you're approaching the House of Loss in act 3, you come across a woman on the bridge. She's confused and doesn't seem to remember why she's there, who she is, or why she remembers the words to a lullaby but not who she sung it to. It doesn't take much to fill in a tragic story in place of what the mirror has taken.

This is the loss Shar preaches.

What Shadowheart begins to experience after her parents die isn't this dizzy blank nothing, it's grief.

You've all heard me exposit on grief and its difficult, painful journey many, many times before, so I won't rehash the same here.

Shar doesn't 'win' if Shadowheart loses her parents. She'd only win if Shadowheart chose to deal with her grief by taking what memories she has of them and giving them up to the mirror.

If you take her to the temple in Baldur's Gate, after everything goes down with Shar (perhaps this also happens before, I haven't checked), and get her to interact with the shrine to Selûne, the goddess welcomes her. It's a scrap of narration, and a blessing if you make an offering, but it feels complete to take her there after the House of Loss.

The seduction of Shar is that she conflates absence with relief, that grief is something to be discarded, thrown away, that silence is peaceful rather than quiet.

Early Access screenshot. Dialogue remains the same, I think.

"Most fear the dark, like children, because in darkness they see their fears reflected. But Shar teaches us to step beyond fear. Beyond loss. In darkness we do not hide - we act."

I've had few more rewarding experiences in a story to walk beside a character who goes from that.

Through little glimpses of sweetness like this:

To this:

Anyway, I think that's enough for now.

Not sure how much analysis went on there, I think I more just gushed. We could have a look at a single scene if you'd all like, if I have an appropriate save or can zip to the point in question in another playthrough.

Kudos if you got to the end, this has definitely got to be up there with my longest post.

[fallenbhaalspawn]

do you have a screenshot of bhaal's hands at the end of bg1? that sounds cool

had to grab this from yt bc whenever i try to screenshot the game it is just a white screen for some reason??? but here you are

id: monochrome drawing of large taloned hands hold an infant with bloodshot eyes

on a second look lasting more than the couple seconds its on screen, it could definitely be NOT the slayer (or perhaps the more corpse-like version bhaal uses instead of the monsterous version his spawn get), but it does look similar imo

the picture does imply bhaal was like. possibly around for some of the actual births (ones during and just after the time of troubles not withstanding*)?? which is crazy funny to me for so many reasons

*i know the throne of bhaal expansion for bg2 muddles the timeline a bit but i am not there yet

[blackjackkent]

OK, so, based on the quest priority list that I wrote out last night, my next step is going to find Minsc as soon as possible. Which means for now I am going to forego a full exploration of Wyrm's Rock in favor of heading straight into the Lower City and beelining for Jaheira's quest to rescue him.

The Lower City is... very loud. Given that Hector was pretty overstimulated by Rivington and the South Span, I can only imagine that he is even more overwhelmed by being inside the city proper, where there are so many people in every direction, everyone seems upset about something, and EVERYONE is talking at once.

It's hard to get a very representative screenshot that accurately reflects just how much seems to be happening at once. It's actually a little overwhelming from a player perspective also.

We're going to try not to get too sidetracked here until we've done the main priority quests mentioned in my last liveblog post, but we will talk to everyone along the way

Now that we've reached the Lower City, it's time to talk to Jaheira and form a more coherent plan:

"A true pleasure, to watch you tell the Archduke exactly where to put his alliance. One cannot embrace a viper - only get entangled by it. And we learned something. One Chosen thinks to send us against the other, while they sit safe behind their defenses."

"Good. Ketheric thought he was safe too."

I love her so much. <3

"Have you thought any more about how we might find Minsc?"

"I have. And while I do not love my conclusion, that does nothing to change it. The Harpers are the city's best information network. With them out of action, we shall have to fall back on second-best. Nine-Fingers Keene."

Narrator: [HISTORY] A name known and feared throughout the city's underworld. The mysterious Keene runs the Guild, which in turn runs every criminal enterprise in the city.

As occasionally happens, Hector passes this history check because he is generally good at history, but I can't imagine where he actually learned this information. XD

We have actually heard about Nine-Fingers before though; some of Keene's people were fighting against agents of the Stone Lord (an interloper into the Baldurian underworld backed by the Absolute cult) and we took their side to help fight the Absolutists off. We were already planning to follow up with them to look into the Stone Lord's activities, so going to the Guildhall is now two birds with one stone.

We have the option to chastise Jaheira (in several different ways) for being willing to associate with thieves. And certainly Hector is not thrilled with the idea (especially after some conversations he's had with Karlach on the subject); given how quintessentially honest he is, hanging out with criminals is not necessarily his cup of tea.

But their circumstances have demanded strange bedfellows for a while, and he trusts Jaheira's judgment.

(This is also fun for a headcanonical reason, since Caden was a thief in my BG1/BG2 playthroughs. He wasn't a very GOOD thief and quickly learned that there was a big difference between playful pickpocketing people for fun in Candlekeep and the real world's guilds of robbery and murder, and eventually multiclassed away from his roots into cleric/monk territory because of Rasaad - but nevertheless he and Jaheira and company did spend quite a lot of time in thief guildhalls. So this is not unfamiliar territory for Jaheira in this worldstate. :D )

"She is no one to be trifled with," Hector says, folding his arms thoughtfully.

"Nor are we," Jaheira points out with a slight smile. "But I trust she knows the value of collaboration, especially in times like these." A slight pause. "How hospitable she will be to a Harper that comes begging to her Guildhall..." She gives a low, hoarse laugh. "We will find out. Perhaps I will let you do the talking."

Hector and his -1 modifier to charisma are at your service, Jaheira. ;)

[de-pointe-du-lioncourt]

So. I felt like bg3 makes it seem like Menzoberranzan is really close to Baldur’s Gate but it’s not at all so here’s some screenshots of an interactive map that I marked up showing some important places in bg1/2/3

Ignore that blue dot in the first picture, that was me trying to decide where to put an original (currently nameless) city of mine lol.

But yeah Menzoberranzan is pretty fucking far 💀. This is not exact but I’m pretty sure it would take many months, maybe over a year, to get from there to Baldur’s Gate and that’s not even including the time it takes traveling from the actual city of Menzoberranzan to that surface area. If someone has a more accurate timeframe I’d love to hear it.

I threw in some other arrows for Waterdeep (where Gale is from obviously,) Elturel (where the Tiefling refugees are from,) Candlekeep (where Gorion’s Ward/Charname/the player’s character in bg1/2 is from,) and also Amn but really that should be a big circle not an arrow (bg1/2 covers a large part of Amn and the places there.)

Also! I have not finished the original Baldur’s Gate games so if anyone wants to correct me on anything, feel free.

[good-grade-in-cleric]

I'm looking back at some Candlekeep/BG1 prologue stuff and trying to find a specific interaction (alas, i don't think i took a screenshot of it) and found this instead, and god i forgot how rude these watchers were to Perlaufen. He ran the errand as asked! Without any sidetracking! (besides avoiding the literal attempt on his life, that is, but yknow) Would you prefer he just let you get caught unarmed on the job?

Like, sorry for being chaotic neutral with only moderate charisma. Guess he'll do better next life

[nucleqr]

i got noober to give up lmao

[sauronpilled]

i love taking screenshots from bg1 and bg2 because all of the characters are just : 🧍🏻🧍🏻🧍🏻🧍🏻🧍🏻

[dschubba-art]

Back to screenshot editing of the Tav run I'll definitely stick to this time, pinky promise.

That bladesinger mod has been a tonne of fun so far - and on the character front I just a lot of fun headcanoning up this gal being my BG1/2 character's kid (and screw the books). So maybe this'll be the one.

[erikacousland]

Baldur's Gate 3 characters in my crazy brain…

I didn't play Baldur's Gate 3 yet, I just watched some videos and screenshots and fan arts… so it's my feeling about it for now:

(Female characters only)

1.

Shadowheart and Isobel gave me a cats fight aura.

Russian Blue Cats Xafi & Auri

Isobel is definitely a Russian blue, with the iconic smug smile.

Question about black kitten turning grey

Shadowheart is a black smoke Norwegian Forest kitten. Yay, a KITTEN, but with a super serious "I'll ganna kill you with my cuteness" looking.

*

2.

Dame Aylin catched my eyes at first glance. She reminds me of my Lady Cousland (Dragon Age: Origins) - tall, strong, blonde, blue / silver armour.

Fred

Aylin is a magnificent big cream long hair to me, the most regal cat you have seen, very likely.

Until…

Gizmo

Aylin: Isobel!

OMG!!! #Aylin x Isobel is toooooo sweet to weak my teeth - it's perfect for my taste!

*

3.

I haven't gotten to know Lae'zel yet but soon…

Learn About The Sphynx Cat Breed From A Trusted Veterinarian

She's so crazy cat CAT to me…

And I saw this amazing fan art made by @basketobread. So I think it's accurate enough?

*

4.

Karlach is the first BG3 character who grabbed my heart.

She's a Jaheira fan girl is a part of the reasons (Jaheira was my favourite character from BG1, for BG2 it was Nalia).

Karlach looks like a reddest, and fiercest Tibetan mastiff you can imagine.

Happy Puppy

But a most innocent puppy inside of her, so maybe a Golden Retriever?

5.

I don't know about Minthara for now either.

She's the first BG3 character who grabbed my eyes.

Halloween Pet Costume: Black Bat

Something tells me she's soft on the inside.

6.

Jaheira is a mother bear, still.

Polar bear mother with cubs in Wapusk National Park, Manitoba

You think a mother bear of this type?

No no…

More like this…

25 Of The Cutest Parenting Moments In The Animal Kingdom

And this.

7.

How could I forget another old fellow from BG1/2?

Bats, facts and photos

Viconia, look! I found a soul clutching picture for you!

My friend didn't tell me if she killed in Shadowheart's personal quest or not (he didn't gotten this far), and I was curious insanely.

8.

Wait…

What do you mean I can't collect all the animals in the camp and spend all the time to talking to them, Larian?

I HATE you!!! :"(

[crossdressingdeath]

Once I've transcribed all my BG1 screenshots I might open the BG3 CC just to see if I can figure out what my horrible jester boy looks like. It'll be nice to have a face in mind.