#except like half these characters don't have tadpoles

[ryttu3k]

Inspired by this post by @araneapeixes, my version of the Greater Faerûnian Polycule!

Ships highlighted in red are my favourites, the rest range between "I 100% believe this canonically happened in the past" (Durgetash, Emperor/Ansur, Shadowheart/Nocturne) to "The involved participants looked at each other and went 'Would 👀'" (most of the Halsin ships) to "ngl it'd be funny" (Raphstarion tbh).

Resist!Durge could go with any of the romancable characters tbh but that's the same for like. Non-Durge Tavs, too, and it was getting a few too many lines. That said, I particularly love them with Astarion, their stories just fit together in a way I find very satisfying, and I wanted to get the Halsin one in for my own Durge <3

Anyway. Greater Faerûnian Polycule!

[powdermelonkeg]

just saw ur gale/mystra analysis post. im new to the game and dnd lore and honestly… ur take on their relationship feels like the most natural/compelling one??? esp since its all too easy to simplify topics that have many facets and nuance….

thanks for sharing i love analysis and reading people’s takes on narratives : D

My pleasure! (Bee from the future here: congrats, you spawned another meta!)

I love complicated characters, WAY more than I like a clear cut-and-dry case. Flaws, to me, are what make a character compelling and lead to interesting stories about them with choices that can get them into situations. I'm both writing a fanfic and running a campaign where I'm playing as Gale, and in the interest of portraying him properly and in-character, I've gone into SUCH a deep dive into all the decisions and facts that make him him.

It helps to, y'know, also be in love with the fictional wizard, but I digress

The thing about Baldur's Gate 3 is that no character in there is perfect. I've seen a couple analyses about the theme of continuing cycles of abuse vs breaking out of them, but in my mind, in terms of the characters themselves, it goes like this:

The origin characters have just come out of the lowest situation of their lives (Lae'zel being the exception; being tadpoled is a gith's worst nightmare. You're seeing that lowest situation in real time).

Not the lowest point, mind. Gale's lowest was probably the day after he got the Orb. Wyll's was probably the day his father cast him out. Karlach's was the day she lost her heart. But the lowest, accepted normal for them is what they've just left.

They're then thrown out of their depth and forced to rely on you to live. That's #1 priority: living. We get the extremes of these characters before we get their nuances, because they're quite literally at their breaking points.

Then once we get to know them, we see their wants, their hopes, their fears, as they open up to us. Every companion's story is at their own pace, but they all have a moment where they ping-pong between despondency and desire. Sometimes that desire is what we know isn't good for them, like Shadowheart wanting to be a Dark Justiciar. Sometimes that despondency is only for a flicker, like Astarion's realization that he's condemned 7000 people to a half-life of tortured spawnhood for as long as he's been a vampire.

Romance lets us crack all that open more, because if you pursue a romantic partner, they see you as their closest confidant. They WANT to trust you, so they're more willing to explain how they see the world and what decisions they want to chase.

And then their endings. Those often get simplified as good/bad, continuing the cycle vs breaking away from it. But how is Duke Wyll on the same platform as Ascended Astarion? He's not evil, he's not even entirely unhappy. He might even have broken out of his abusive cycle with Mizora, if you played your cards right. And Ascended Astarion is overjoyed, even if he is remarkably more cold.

I think that the endings are less a dichotomy of "this is good for them" vs "this is bad for them," and more one of "bringing out their best traits" vs "bringing out their worst."

Wyll's worst trait is being willing to sacrifice his own wants for whatever people desire of him. His best is standing for what he believes in and ensuring people are safe. Duke Wyll leans into that necessity to turn the other cheek in the name of people who count on him, while the Blade of Avernus has seized that moral compass of his and forged it out of mithral.

Shadowheart's worst trait is blind obedience at the cost of her individuality, while her best is her desire to be kind to things that don't deserve to be hurt. Mother Superior Shadowheart's whole life is defined by Shar. Selûnite Shadowheart's life is defined by her hospitality, especially towards animals.

Karlach's worst trait is how willing she is to accept that things are (to quote her) fucked, letting despair override hope. Her best is her durability in the face of horror. Exploded Karlach would rather die than try to work out a solution in the Hells, because she's terrified of facing Zariel alone. Mindflayer Karlach has accepted her fate and decides to give up her heart and soul to go out a hero, losing who she is. Fury of Avernus Karlach is willing to keep fighting for a solution, and by the time the epilogue happens, she's got her sights set on one.

Astarion's worst trait is his desire for power over people. His best trait is using the tools he has to his advantage. Ascended Astarion has let his powerhungry nature and paranoia lead all of his decisions, with his sights set on dominating mankind. Spawn Astarion has embraced what he is, and carved out a life for himself where he can do as he pleases.

Lae'zel's worst trait is her blind fanaticism, while her best trait is her individual dedication, making her loyalty a marriage of the two. Ascended Lae'zel is a meal for the lich queen, turning a blind eye to all Vlaakith's tried to do to her and literally being consumed by her fervor. Champion of Orpheus Lae'zel has turned her loyalty into something productive for diplomacy. Faerûnian Lae'zel has seized her individuality by the throat and decided her own future.

And then Gale. Gale's worst traits are his hubris and, paradoxically, his low self worth. His best traits are his creativity and wonder for the world. God Gale is the embodiment of ambition, having burned away all but that in pursuit of perfection. Exploded Gale has let his remorse blot out all hope for a redemption in which he does not die, because he thinks he's earned it. Professor Gale leads his life by embracing the school of Illusion and letting his creativity thrive, teaching others to do the same. House Husband Gale has multiple creative projects he's working on, and Adventurer Gale is always finding new sights to see and wanting to share them with you.

There are arguments to be made on which ending the origins are happiest in, certainly, or which one benefits them the most, but each ending represents the extreme of a facet they possess.

So with all that, there's a sort of malleable method to figuring out the ins and outs of a character.

You take their endings—all of them, all variables they can have—and reverse-engineer the flaws and details they carry. Then you start to notice how those work into their approvals for minor things: Astarion approving of your taking of the Blood of Lathander, or Shadowheart approving of standing up for Arabella. Getting a list of approvals and disapprovals is helpful, but having those endings on hand tells you why they react like that to a majority of their decisions.

You take their romance-route explanations of how they act, and apply those to earlier decisions. Astarion's confession to manipulating you and Araj-prompted admittance to using himself as a tool brings to light how he reacts to your decisions, regardless of his actual opinions on them. Wyll's fairytale romance and love of poetic adages speaks to his idealistic nature, and why he takes a sometimes-blinded approach to decisions in which the "right" answer isn't always the smart one.

You take their beginning reactions to stress and use that to measure how future decisions impact them. Lae'zel locks down and gets snappy when she's scared, while Gale immediately turns to diplomacy. Shadowheart has gallows humor, while Wyll turns to quiet acceptance. If they break from these and seem even worse, you know the situation is more dire in their minds than having seven days to live.

And then you factor in all their fun facts and dialogue choices and backstories.

A wizard falls in love with a goddess and her magic, attempts to retrieve a piece of her power for her, is scorned for his attempt and is cursed to die.

Give that backstory to a Tav. Look at how it changes.

A chaotic good wizard fell in love with a goddess, thought retrieving a piece of power for her would be a showy bouquet of love, and was punished for not thinking things through.

A lawful evil wizard fell in love with a goddess's power, snatched the most precious thing she owned, tried to use it to barter his way through to the secrets she kept, and was given a swift retribution.

Same backstory. Same class, same act, same goddess. Wildly different connotations. Wildly different conclusions as to who is in the wrong.

If you take all there is to Gale, all that the game shows us makes up his character, and apply it to this backstory, you get what really happened:

A wizard, enamored with magic, fell in love with a goddess. His desires led him to want more than she was willing to give. In his well-buried fear of inadequacy, he concluded that the reason she wouldn't indulge his ambitions was because he just hadn't proven himself worthy enough. So he tried to prove himself, but he lacked the context for what he was proving himself with. And the goddess, seeing a weapon that had killed her predecessor, saw this ambitious wizard as losing his way and coming for her just like the weapon's creator had. She was angry, she withdrew his link to her, and he didn't know why. So he drew the conclusion that she took his powers to punish him, and let that encompass his fall from grace.

Was he wrong to reach for what was out there?

If you knew that the answers to everything you cared about were not only known, but kept by someone you loved—someone who adored you—what would you do to ask to see them? What if your curiosities were if there were other planets with life out there, or how dark matter worked, or whether or not we could one day travel in the stars? What if it was the potential cure to an illness that's little-understood, or the way to make a program you dreamt up, or the scope of the true limits of your artistic talents? Would your answer change?

Was she wrong to cut him off?

If you were once hurt, and the person you loved—the person who adored you—brought the thing that caused it to your door, believing you'd want it, how would you react to seeing it? What if that thing was someone you thought you'd broken contact with, like a friend or family member you'd been trying to avoid? Would your answer change?

That's the sort of scope that needs to be applied to this, on both sides. You have to take the perspectives of each party, and apply two analogies instead of one.

Gale saw the vastness of the universe, untold wonders, the solution to every question he could ever dream up, and saw Mystra as withholding this from him because she thought he just wasn't worthy enough. To claim Mystra knew his perspective does her a disservice.

Mystra saw a cruel weapon she thought long gone, in the hands of someone who could use it, brought right to her, and thought Gale was willingly following the path of Karsus. To claim Gale knew her perspective does him a disservice.

Should Gale have researched his prize more, so he knew just what he was obtaining? Should he have kept his hands off a cursed book that would devour him? Of course he should have.

Should he have given up on chasing his dreams?

Should Mystra have understood that Gale's pursuit of power was nothing like Karsus'? Should she have communicated when she was angry instead of giving the cold shoulder? Of course she should have.

Should she have given him the benefit of the doubt?

That's the root of their falling out. That's what leads to hurt being inflicted. Understandable, human reactions to the situations they perceive. Unhealthy, unwise choices made afterwards.

You work backwards from this to figure out their dynamic as Chosen and goddess. You work forward from this to understand more of where Gale and Mystra are during the events of Baldur's Gate 3. Gale reached too high, and understands this. His goddess hates him, and he regrets this. Mystra isolated Gale, and understands this. Her Chosen wants redemption, and she wants to make it happen.

Just like we took Gale's character into account, we also have to take Mystra's.

A goddess is faced with a problem. She uses someone who's desperate for approval to solve it, by telling him to kill himself.

An evil goddess is faced with a threat to her reign. She sees someone who's unfailingly loyal and hates himself, and elects to have him tear himself apart rather than do anything about it.

A good goddess is terrified of the future. She sees someone who tried to hurt her, who's going to die anyways, and tells him to use it to save the world.

Same story. Same act, same power, same pawn. Different character. Different perspective. Different outlook on whether or not this is the right thing to do.

Mystra has died, multiple times, to people trying to stake claim to her domain. Someone appears with the very thing that could do it again, right as she's regained her stability.

She does not see mortals the way mortals do. She is timeless. She is eternal. She has a duty to protect billions of people, and one person lost to protect that number is more than worth the sacrifice.

People like to bring up the Seven Sisters as proof of Mystra's cruelty. For those unaware, Mystra asked permission to, then possessed, a woman, used her to court a man (with dubious consent from the woman), and bore seven children, all of whom were capable of bearing Mystra's power as Chosen without dying. The woman she possessed was killed in the process (reduced to no more than a husk, then slain by her now-husband, hoping to end her suffering), and the husband was horrified by the whole story.

Mystra needed Chosen in order to restore herself in the event that she was killed again, to prevent magic as a whole from collapsing and wreaking havoc on the mortal realm, like it had in the few seconds Mystryl had been dead. Elminster, Khelben Blackstaff, and the Seven Sisters contributed to this. The more Chosen she has, the better; what happens if Elminster dies? She can't afford to have all her eggs in one basket.

Mystra has Volo (yeah, that Volo) as a Weave Anchor, imparted with a portion of her power to prevent the Weave from shredding itself to pieces in her absence. All Chosen of Mystra are Weave Anchors by nature. The creation of Weave Anchors was mandated by Ao, the Overgod, and Chosen are the best way to make sure those anchors aren't drained by ambitious people hoping for godlike power. Chosen can, and will, defend themselves, unlike static locations (which Mystra also has). The anchors are why the Weave wasn't completely obliterated during Mystra's last death, when the Spellplague rose up, because they stabilized the Weave around them.

Everything Mystra does is in the name of the big picture, to prevent a catastrophe like the fall of Netheril from happening again. Her restriction of magic, her numerous Chosen, her creation of Weave Anchors, her destruction of those who would claim her power, it's all in the name of the stability she's been charged with. Dornal Silverhand's grief and Elué Silverhand's death, while regrettable, were worth it to bring seven more anchors into existence to save all of the Material.

So someone appears with the Crown of Karsus, potentially powerful enough to try to kill the other gods in the name of the Dead Three. She can't risk being a target of them. She can't risk the destruction of magic again.

Gale is going to die. He lives in fear. He begs for forgiveness.

In Mystra's eyes, she's offering him the best outcome. She'll let him die in service to her, to save Faerûn, and she'll forgive him. He's going to die anyways, and if he does this, she'll give him everything (she thinks) he could ever want in her realm. She's asking him to do what (she thinks) is the right thing.

"She would consider what she considers to be forgiveness."

Notably, she leaves the decision in his hands. She doesn't have Elminster lead him to the Nether Brain. She doesn't activate him as soon as he's there. When he lives yet, she doesn't revoke the charm that keeps him stable. And when he declines, when he lets it go and starts pursuing Karsus' path, she doesn't smite him on the spot.

She is (she thinks) being incredibly patient. If Gale is going to try to be Karsus II, she's ready for him. If he decides to walk off and keep the Orb, he's dug his own grave in the Fugue Plane (those who don't have a god to claim them roam endlessly as husks and form a wall of bodies around the City of Judgement).

From her perspective, she's not being unreasonable. But from the perspective of a mortal, she absolutely is.

"Now, I have a question for thee: what is the worth of a single mortal's life?"

This is a question she cannot answer properly.

I think a lot of characterization is lost whenever someone paints one of them as being totally in the right. But I also think you have to be invested in them as characters to want to see that characterization. If you want to write about Mystra, you have to try to get into her head, analyze the decisions she made, figure out why she thinks she was right, and follow the pattern.

Gale's sacrifice is a very predictable thing for her to ask for.

[linka-from-captain-planet]

I wanted to do something for Femslash February but don't have enough brain cells to commit to much, so I will now be day drinking and explaining The L Word: Faerûn as well as The Chart.

Part 1: What Even Is This

the tl;dr I created an elaborate mental AU to write my own ideal BG3 storyline and also shoehorned in a bunch of women kissing bc that's what I'm into

Mandatory disclaimer: I obviously love BG3 as I wouldn't spend 500 hours playing a game and countless more drawing/writing/thinking about it if I didn't

Overall, I conceptualized The L Word: Faerun as a hodge podge mad libs "if you could REALLY do whatever you want" fantasy playthrough that combines my own headcanons/preferences for how the story should go with F/F rareships and my beloved female background characters, and ignores and/or antagonizes almost every male, except Wyll because he's my son.

At the time I started this mental story, I was already hundreds of hours into the game and the veneer of "you have so many choices!" was starting to wear really thin. You don't really have that many options if you're roleplaying as any sort of reasonable character, and you're further limited because you can't even do things in the order you like because you might shut down other quests.

For example, the Tav main character of TLW:F is a drow named Alekto and Lae'zel is the only bitch in this house she respects early on, and is thus the only one whose opinion on what to do about the tadpole matters. If I could really play however I wanted, we'd make a beeline directly to the creche... but we can't. Going to the Mountain Pass shuts down the grove/goblins conflict, and it's too difficult an area, so you don't really have a choice but to play basically all 10+ hours of Act 1 first, even if it's definitely not what your character would do. (This is especially grating in a Lae'zel origin run btw, nothing shatters my immersion like having to fart around for hours when the creche is RIGHT THERE).

Act 1 also presents the most annoying story beat in the entire game, which is that the goblin-tiefling-grove conflict (in my opinion) makes no sense and has no satisfying resolutions. Being essentially forced to side with the asshat druids or lose literally half the game (pretending it's as "consequence" for being "evil" when really it's transparent that they just decided to prioritize other things) sucks, losing Minthara sucks (I do not acknowledge the knockout option, it's like the game dev equivalent of a "shut up ring"), being strong-armed into a decision based on what content I'm willing to miss and not the story I want to tell sucks.

So, when I'm playing, I fire up my imagination and mentally write my own ideal storyline, psychically rearranging the order of events, ignoring what I don't like, and inserting content I wish existed or that the game forces me to miss based on choices.

Of course I have my own plot holes and weak spots, but again like 50% of the point is making women kiss so it's not actually that serious.

Next Part: Tav Lore (aka why Counsellor Florrick is actually the main character)

[trashcatsnark]

Just rambling because I really wanna be feral about my bg3 tav and dont have a place to really do so lmao but my little rotted brain wanted to play with the whole- tadpole fucks with previous conditions/characters shit. Ala making Astarion able to walk in sunlight and and seemingly making Gale's orb hungrier/less stable (judging off the first artefact helping him as usual but then the second one doesnt)

And I don't do fantasy often but since arcana Ive always wanted to play with a character with a enchantment/spell on them that makes people forget them shortly after meeting them. Unable to form lasting connections and living a life thats almost entirely in isolation (i love lonely transient bitches)

So, my tav, Petra (half wood elf, rogue/ranger) ran away from a shitass abusive life with her now dead partner who casted the enchantment on them both, so only they could remember one another. Being each other's entire world. Shit happens, her lover dies, but the enchantment is binded to their instrument (lover was a bard)

Which is all build up to say, she had and only wanted a cozy insignificant existence, because significance just means giving people the power to hurt her/being known means vulnerability and yet now thanks to the tadpole, she is being perceived and thats horrifying enough- i also really love the extent that Petra contradicts with many of the companions in terms of the idea of ambition and desire.

For so many of the companions (except Karlach really) insignificance is their like nightmare. Gale has both an innate hunger f for power because he derives his sense of self-worth from being a powerful, significant, and impressive wizard. Gale of Waterdeep, chosen of Mystra, deep down he does want a more simple life of relaxing in his tower and idly reading, and cooking for someone he loves but he can't ever seem to fully shake this feeling that when he sees power or opportunity he must grasp it because without talent, power, significance, magic, utility- he thinks he has no worth at all. Astarion craves power, once you start to enter act 2, he starts to talk about how he thinks the player has ambition and that maybe heyyy you can use that ambition for me? Because to him ambition and power, his own or using someone elses is how he'll find a way to permanently escape his abuse. He says he's not content to sculk in the shadows, what good is freedom if he doesn't have the power to make sure he'll never lose it. Wyll, the blade of frontiers, wanting desperately to help everyone- be a hero, make the sword coast proud in a way he never could make his father. He wants to matter, he wants to be important, he is forever burdened by the weight of his mistakes- the pact that binds him, never able to feel free of it and just wants the world to look at him and see something good.

Lae'zel fears insignificance, this is stated plain as day in the scene where she threatens the player, if you choose to probe her thoughts. She's doesn't care if she dies, if her skull splits, and tentacles writhe through her flesh- she's terrified it will happen before her queen ever knows her name, that she'll never be more than a failed soldier, that she'll never wield the silver sword or ride a red dragon. That she'll die before she feels she ever mattered.

Shadowheart wants to be a dark justiciar, she wants to be of value to her god, she wants to matter- similarly to Lae'zel, ironic given their hostility, but it is the same ultimate goal. She doesn't want to be no one, she doesn't just want to be another follower who's struck with pain, mind wiped tirelessly, and nothing to show for it- she wants her pain to have purpose, meaning, even if it's just serving the god causing it. Karlach is already a bit of an oddity in terms of, she never really seems to be scrounging for power and signficance and in fact- her power, her strength, her ability is what led to Zariel choosing her as her attack dog. So, while she's a bit more similar in not having a heavy desire for power, ambition, and a goal beyond- not wanting to be hurt, the desire for freedom and life on her terms. They still differ so greatly in terms of- Karlach lost out on getting to be a part of life for so long, she misses people, connection, and she doesn't want to avoid life because it hurt her, she wants to take back the parts stolen from her- she wants to live and be apart of the world finally again on her terms. Even if it kills her.

And my brain just kind of buzzing and feral for this idea of how she somehow finds herself thrusted into not only being perceived, being surrounded by people who are learning who she is, knowing parts of her she hasn't shared, and also being asked to... lead. When it's never truly been something she craves and even overwhelms her, but it finds her regardless and how she helps ground for many of them their grappling for power/ambition while for her they help her find that... she deserves to be a part of the world around her, that she can touch the world around her and make a difference. And she's no less guilty of wanting something that's bad for her, that she's been alive but not truly living and returning to that loneliness once the tadpole is plucked out won't be peace, won't be contentment, isn't freedom, because it was never that to begin with- she was just languishing in isolation and grief as a living ghost.

[helenawa-art]

what is bg about all I know is that it's a game and I think you can fuck a vampire which makes it a 10/10 imo

Oh my god tia. You have no idea what you just asked me I'm gonna make a read more cause. Yeah. Sorry in advance for the wall of text 🙏

Okay so bg3 is a dnd type of game and I don't know much about those types of games cause this is my first time I'm playing one but okay the plot is basically: your character wakes up and is on a strange nautiloid and there are mind flayers that are basically like the enemy right and they're like let's put a tadpole inside this bitch brains so!! Your character has a mind flayer tadpole in their brain which is supposed to make you turn into one so the plot goes around how your character needs to find a cure for that. And get to baldur's gate which is a real place in the game lol

BUT that's just the beginning of it all cause there is soooo much story and so many characters and so many. Everything that is hard to sum up so.

There are multiple fantastic races and classes that you can choose to make your character and they're all really cool! If you wanna know, my character is a tiefling so she's half fire resistant and she's an assassin rogue cause I just adore playing as a rogue fr. The battle system is like goes with turns and yeah well pretty boring to explain but it's actually funnnnn.

I'm gonna talk about my favorite favorite part of this game that is the companions!!! So turns out you're not the only one who has the tadpole right and as the story flows you will meet other people with the same issue than you and you can have them in your party. As you complete their missions and interact with them you will earn their approval!!!!! Which is soooo cool to me. But you can also fuck it up and earn disapproval. You can also romance them if you have your approval high enough and want to!

Anyways, YES you can fuck the vampire his name is astarion and he's my companion he was originally a rogue but I needed to be the center of attention so I changed his class 😌 he's a little bitch I'm ngl but I'm surprised of how deep his character arc is! Cause at first he's like kind of flirty and just sarcastic and I was like nicee but then it was more and I'm like. NICEEE 😢. Sad sad vampire... I feel bad for you. I love him, a tragic vampire... He was really made for me truly

Anyways I could spend days talking about each of the companions cause I love almost all of them... With the exception of one and is just cause I'm kinda petty but yk. YEAH. sorry this was sooooo fucking long none of my friends really care about dnd games and I've been itching to talk about this with someone so thank you for asking 🤧🤧🤧 I'm gonna end this ask with a picture of astarion and another of karlach that will be my companion in my next run cause I love her!!!!!!!!

[riddlerosehearts]

some more, slightly longwinded thoughts on various things i've done in act 1 of bg3 with my half-elf bard tav, elenion:

i ran into raphael and basically told him to fuck off because why would we ever accept "help" from a devil after seeing what just happened with wyll and mizora??

i also investigated the beach and found the harpies. i wonder if it was actually them that the squirrels were complaining about earlier and not alfira's beautiful song.

gale is hilarious but i'm now imagining elenion, who has already chosen to project an image of them on a romantic walk with gale into his head, rolling their eyes and thinking "so that's what i might be getting myself into if we survive all this."

i think i need to try and get into the habit of talking to everyone at camp after anything big happens even if they don't have a ! over their heads. i went to camp and accidentally clicked on astarion, and he had quite a bit to say about raphael and then so did everyone else!

lae'zel is so funny sometimes actually. i kind of love her.

also, the investigate the beach quest seems to have bugged out for me--it didn't complete after getting the letter from the kid we saved, which i assume was the end of the quest, but the objective was still to find mol who had no new dialogue. and then after i beat the goblin leaders the quest suddenly completed and changed to say "the situation has changed in the grove. mol is busy dealing with other matters." that's kind of annoying, but i'm guessing/hoping it won't really cause any issues??

anyway. i investigated kagha, and when i confronted her i got an option to recite the history told on the plaques in the grove as a way of convincing her to turn against the shadow druids. i knew my dedication to reading every bit of flavor text that i can find would come in handy somewhere! also, the game says that you just speak the text that was etched into the plaques, but since elenion is a bard i'm choosing to pretend that he turned it into a song.

after that i set out toward the goblin camp to save halsin and defeat the leaders. on the way there i got a dream sequence with the guardian i made in character creation, going "i've been protecting you from everything and btw you should totally embrace the ilithid powers". i had no idea what the guardian was going to be used for so i just made her look basically like how i thought elenion's mother would look, except i gave her the wrong eye color by mistake. i imagine that would feel very strange and would make it obvious that someone is trying to magically use his mother's face to manipulate him but has gotten a significant detail wrong.

everyone else at camp had the same dream and all had something to say about it! elenion basically told everyone he isn't sure he trusts this mysterious dream visitor, because really, i just do not see why he should from a roleplay perspective. he also is not opening his mind to the tadpole specimens, at least not for now. we'll see if anything that happens later in the story changes that.

minthara wiped my party once when i tried fighting her normally, so the second time around i killed her by luring her onto a bridge and then destroying it out from under her. i didn't get her loot that way, but it was hilarious. will probably try to beat her legitimately on a second playthrough.

i forgot to say earlier, i love how investigating the shadow druids gives you the ability to make kagha see the error of her ways and redeem her. i am still kind of mad that she tried to imprison a child, but i think she's actually a very interesting character.

kind of hilarious to me how lae'zel was very clearly expressing... interest in my tav at the party and was all "well, it's your loss, then" when they turned her down whereas astarion, completely unprompted, was like "gods i wish i was having sex with someone right now. but not you obviously, that would be awful". 😭 well you know what, elenion is gorgeous and smart and a musician (an inherently sexy thing to be) so maybe that's your loss!

i think i also could've ended up getting a romantic scene with shadowheart (she wanted to share a bottle of wine after everyone else went to sleep), but i chose not to do anything with her. although now i'm curious if i could've done it and just, like, made it platonic somehow? or if sharing a bottle of wine with her would've automatically been romantic.

i've heard that if you trigger the weave scene with gale at the party then the other companions will have dialogue where they react to the budding romance. which sounds hilarious but i got his approval up very quickly just by having my character be nice to people, and got the weave scene earlier, so i didn't get that dialogue. oh well! i still got a very sweet conversation with him. all of this talk about tara makes me wish she could come on the journey with us :(

i'm so glad we get to see alfira again at the party. i wish she could be a companion tbh, it'd be nice to still have a bard around if you don't play as one.

and speaking of alfira, once again i'm obsessed with the dialogue options in this game:

i picked the mixed heritage option because although elenion hates to boast or reveal too much about himself, i think he is very proud of his family. but i love that you have the option to be like "if you're going to write a song about me then it obviously has to be about how hot i am" or "if you dare write a song about me i will actually kill you".

anyway uhhh. what else. i'm sure that i've missed plenty of things i could've done so far, for example i ended up finding a dead tiefling beside a telescope on a hill and i bet if i'd gone up there sooner i could've saved her. i bet i also could've gotten higher approval with at least karlach or lae'zel and seen what might've changed about their dialogue at the party if i'd progressed more in their quests first. i think i may have also missed the chance to adopt a baby owlbear. and i'll probably end up missing even more things! but that's fine because i already know i'm going to be doing multiple playthroughs of this game.

i think now before i do anything else i am going to work on karlach's personal quest, because i still haven't taken down those paladins and i need to get some answers out of her.

[jynxeddraca]

BG3 Tavs - because why not?

Because I can, here's all the Tavs that I have made for BG3:

First is first: Meet Tav Moonridge, my original lady named before I realized that 'Tav' is the default name. She is my Zariel tiefling bard and silver-tongue extraordinaire who has zero idea why she ended up leader of the Tadpole Squad. Grew up as an urchin with her sister in the Outer City, believes that "When the world demands cruelty, you should choose to be kind". She is 5'2" and would rather talk her way out of trouble where possible - handy as she manages to talk herself into trouble fairly often. She is fiercely protective of her friends and any children she comes across and will cut you if you hurt them. Chaotic-Good, she mostly adheres to laws but has no issues bending or breaking them if need be. Started a fling with Astarion thinking it'd be casual and they both caught feels - much to Astarion's confusion. Somehow every screenshot I have of her she's either concerned or angry.

Next up is who I stream with: Averona! She is beauty, she is grace, she will pulverize your face. Gives 6'+ vibes but is only about 5'5". Averona is a noble-born, Zariel tiefling paladin with the Oath of the Ancients - her parents don't really get the appeal but they're very supportive. She is fairly no-nonsense, somewhat blunt, with a dry sense of humor. Strong lean towards Lawful-Good but understands there are exceptions to every rule. She wants all sides of the story before she fully commits to anything. I'm still hashing out her background but I'm feeling that she's not from Baldur's Gate, or at least not originally. Loves a good glass of wine and dancing on evenings where she can. Just as comfortable in evening gowns and ballrooms as she is in armor on the battlefield. Flaming lesbian with a weakness for puppy dog eyes and rescuing maidens. She laid eyes on Karlach and fell hard but - in true queer fashion - has no idea how to proceed.

Latest one is Auren - a half-elf wild magic sorcerer who acts super bubbly constantly - but will not hesitate to fuck someone up. Puppy dog eyes constantly. Gives short energy but is like 5'8". Her hair is naturally brown but due to a wild magic surge it's permanently pink - her favorite color. Grew up in a remote monastery that she was abandoned at, basically had no real friends, and is now utterly stoked of all the new friends she's suddenly made after being kidnapped by mind flayers. She is book smart but does not read social situations terribly well and will get in your personal space or read your mind. She embraces chaos, is just as likely to help or hinder someone depending on her mood and what she thinks could be interesting. Starts chaotic-neutral, probably leans chaotic-good. So far will be the only character to try out using the tadpoles powers. Decides to give Gale grief for telling her she wasn't learned in magic and ends up totally devoted to him.

[cannibalisticskittles]

i am almost certainly not going to do full runs with these bc they'd pretty much all be good or neutral aligned and so there wouldn't be much variation throughout the playthrough but i've been tossing around ideas for other tavs

was thinking abt a halfling paladin for a wyllmance but now i'm wondering if maybe i like the idea of him being a half-orc better; not sure! either way, he is v sweet and... does not really know how to interact with people beyond the limits of his oath

a really arrogant halfling... wizard? maybe multi-classed to bard/warlock? not sure. not exactly optimized especially if she's multi-classed to wizard, but she's not here to be optimized, she's here to do whatever the hell she wants. might save the tieflings but might skip the tiefling/goblin entirely; she'd love the praise of saving people but also doesn't want to sprout tentacles, so she might just. skip past them. unsure abt romances but thinking lae'zel.

symon, amity's father. like 1 level of wizard, 1 level of warlock, and 10 levels of artificer with a mod. also not optimized but he lives his life according to his whims, not optimization. might also skip the tiefling/goblin conflict -- not deliberately, but uh, he doesn't always. think. about the long-reaching consequences of things. he Did Not mean for the tieflings to get slaughtered, he was just so focused on studying the tadpole situation that he... Did Not Think about anything else. whoops. he probably wouldn't romance any of the origin characters EXCEPT maybe gale -- but symon is so blase about everything all the time and isn't super interested in traditional wizardry so while they Might get along, i think he'd end up rubbing gale the wrong way lmao. however. something with halsin is Possible. it would almost certainly not end well since symon doesn't usually... do love. or even fleeting attachments. but it would start.

and then i kind of wanted to do a self-insert bard run with a lae'zel romance and just eat all my shitty dice rolls lmao

the idea of a dark urge who embraces their urges/an evil run might forever be Too Much for me so i don't even have ideas for what that'd look like rn

[ryttu3k]

Some thoughts on working out a D&D character:

So I was intending on transferring Tae to 5e rules - similar background, still a Circle of the Land druid, just minus the whole. Tadpole thing. I'd have to work out exactly what they got from their drow side and what they got from their wood elf side in terms of mechanics (and also a new background, since it looks like Outlander is BG3-only? Guide seems to be the best fit, but Sage could be interesting too), but that seems straightforward enough. Maybe it could be Darkvision to 90 feet (midway between wood elf 60 and drow 120), and switch Darkness at level 5 for Pass Without Trace, since they were raised on the surface.

That, of course, was before finding Circle of the Sea. Holy shit, I wanna play that :D Sea elves aren't in the handbook (they're in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes), but they are in 5e, at least. The Forgotten Realms wiki also mentions interesting stuff about mixed-origin aquatic elves:

"Aquatic elves did also sometimes reproduce with surface elves (generally sun or moon elves), which resulted in an elf who looked like the subrace of their surface parent except for the greenish tinge to their hair. Unlike aquatic half-elves or even their full blood parents, all such offspring were fully amphibious, having gills that were hidden on their necks but being able to comfortably breathe air indefinitely. As such, they were fully capable of living among their aquatic kin, and those whose mothers were aquatic elves often did."

Source for that appears to be the 2e Monstrous Manual, so it'd be at DM discretion if I could play a character like that in 5e, but... I just really dig the idea. I'm playing around with the concept of a half-aquatic, half-sun elf who was raised on the surface with their sun elf mother in Evereska (or maybe? Myth Drannor?? but I'd have to research that carefully), but who always felt a call for the sea, and who took to the Circle of the Sea to reconnect with their heritage. If I go with the Myth Drannor idea, there's also the sense of that culture being lost - you can't return home, so where do you go next?

Still more or less the same character concept as Tae. An elf of mixed origins who tries to balance both sides of their background, themes of diaspora, someone who grew up in an almost entirely elven culture (Tae's village had a population of forest gnomes along with wood elves and Eilistraeean drow) and so mixed or human-dominant culture is definite culture shock, and a druid of some descript.

Of course, I don't actually have a game yet! I think probably my best bet would be to make sheets for both, then put both to the DM and be like, okay, which would fit best?