#faye plays bg3

[pxiedustnblades]

Unfortunately part of the deal of being forever doomed to search for a fragment of your destine’s soul means trial and error sometimes.

Oh, Leila, if only you knew…

[friberchi]

Tiefling portraits (Eadgar and Magnolia)

[fvaleraye]

us: we want to play an evil character us, sitting on this one decision in a cutscene wishing we could do a mono-character run for 3 hours because we're internally terrified of our npc companions getting upset with us: *quietly lies facedown on the floor*

[mongoose-bite]

She's so beautiful. And yeah, I got her the Blood of Lethander, despite it taking ages, cause I couldn't find a battleaxe until someone told me there was one in front of the guardian. I had Gale use mage hand to grab it. Got the mace, left, remembered we'd used Shadowheart's mace to solve the puzzle and had to go back and retrieve it. I play BG3 like I play minecraft; constantly forgetting to pick up shit.

That gdilf dragonrider gith showed up again, and then a genuine celebrity, Elminster! In a rare moment of unity, I truly love how the entire party's reaction is 'fuck that,' to Mystra's plan. Even Asterion, which is a relief. Faye doesn't need him to like her, she's content with him making friends. Everybody loves Gale. I suspect he's been giving everyone magic lessons, and good for him. Although, does he offer to do so if you're a wizard too? That would be very condescending.

We went to the shadowlands and Asterion said he wanted to make a deal with the devil. I left him at camp and when I came back to fetch him, having located said devil, he'd come up with another brilliant idea; to rule on high as tadpole monarchs. He does raise a good point about the sheer number of potential infected, and Faye will accept living with it in her head is preferable to dying or tentacles, so she'll humour his wild theory for now. He clearly finds this atmosphere intellectually stimulating, but I kind of wish he didn't as each idea seems worse than the last. If he mentions crypto I'm kicking him out of camp.

He disapproved (of course) of humouring the half-spectre kid in the abandoned house. Just shut up and bear with it; we're lucky no one got possessed or followed back to camp. Not that we could avoid it forever; now we have a new-minted orphan hanging around, although Withers seems to be taking care of her? I guess he never leaves.

Speaking of failing to avoid awkward situations, Wyll invited Faye to dance, and she had to disappoint him. He apologised the next day, using almost the exact same words as Faye did to Halsin. They're good now and Faye can go back to spending hours trying to figure out he dream-friend. He's so chill and relaxed and wants hugs now, but she knows she wears her heart on her sleeve; you can literally read her oath in a book. Saying the right things to her is pretty easy and she knows it.

So. The artifact is gith, if it's an illithid inside, why didn't they just say so? The implication from the gdilf is it's someone else, probably the prince. Is the dream visitor not in the artifact at all, and just taking credit for it? but if that was the case surely we wouldn't have been sent right to it by whatsherface? It makes our heads hurt. What has Shar got to do with this? Maybe it is a weapon against the Absolute, which seems to be the biggest threat here. Illithids = Absolute? Divinity doesn't seem their thing. 

Halsin finally joined us, and Thaniel isn't actually a real kid, so he can hang around camp for a while. The party seems to be divided into two camps on our newest recruit: woof he big, and Shadowheart. Maybe he ate her cheese or something.

He's so nice? So calm? Doesn't guilt-trip you when you leave him in camp. Polite and grateful for all you've done. I need to get him some gear though, and figure out how to druid. Faye is very happy to have him around.

[lutethebodies]

Tav Tuesday Redux: Talinthe Vel, the Hidden Hand

Reviving LTB Tav Tuesdays, just this once, to do something I haven't in quite a while: building an original character! Meet Talinthe of House Vel: 

If that name sounds slightly familiar, well...let's work out why. The conceit this time is I'm making one new for BG3, instead of importing an existing older character from tabletop/5e. This is gonna be messy, so please bear with me:

I'm using BG3 to create someone who will work in that context as well as in one of my homebrew settings. I'm stealing the plot idea of Minthara surviving a crazy ordeal of exile and trauma to take over her new adopted home city from the inside. For this I need a lady drow, sure, but given that I already have one (as a PC/NPC, whom I’ve already shown) I need to distinguish this new character from not only other famous drow but also my own older OCs. I'm also pairing her up with my beloved swords bard, because her character arc was inspired by my bard's BG3 dynamic and plot arc as played with a romanced Minthara, and because Madam Baenre simply won't fit (and probably doesn't belong) in my homebrew game.

To (mostly) avoid cliché, I'm passing on Drizzt-style do-goody rangers, Viconia-style clerical melodrama, and Minthara-style mother-hating vengeance. However, that doesn't mean I can't combine smaller aspects of each (as well as some of my own) in order to make a compelling person. But this has to be a person and not a stat block. As much as I'm fascinated by the idea of a drow as a gloom stalker/assassin, that's both a clichéd powergamer build and something another of my characters can feasibly morph into, so that's out. I've yet to satisfactorily crack the code of the Fighter class in tabletop (I've made several, all unplayed), but my DEX-based builds of Minthara and Lae'zel helped me get the hang of mélee characters outside of my favorite class types (I usually go for experts: bards/rogues/rangers).

So for a gish-type build I'm leaning toward Eldritch Knight, or some combo of EK with a rogue subclass. Drow are at least a bit magical, and for homebrew I'm unburdened by the lore of Loth-sworn, so my Seldarine-like warrior can be magical for [reasons]. In 5e an EK/Rogue multiclass might be easy, RP-wise: the Rogue's mechanically underwhelming but RP-rich Mastermind subclass works well for a Moriarty-type character who wants to gain control of a city from the shadows. 

However this build is highly Multiple-Ability-Dependent (in my case, DEX/CON/INT). Happily, BG3 offers many items to help build MAD characters, so for this one I can focus on DEX/CON and use the Intellect Headband to boost INT. Alfira can also teach her how to play an instrument, so the Spider Lyre can be useful. Eldritch Knights don't need lots of INT for their spellcasting; my understanding is they should use utility cantrips (Blade Ward) and spells (Shield, Expeditious Retreat) that don't rely on the Spell Save DC.

Working with abilities/builds at the start will only get me so far, though. No build can create a character unless that character already has their own personality. So, back to piecing together this person with aspects of others and a few personal details of my own (that's always how I've made my OCs and, I'll wager, is how many authors make theirs. "Originality" doesn't figure in). From famous drow like Drizzt/Jarlaxle/Viconia/Minthara I'll swipe the "loner/exile" trope. From Drizzt and Minthara I'll take "warrior." From Viconia and Minthara I'll take "middle-aged noble." From Jarlaxle I’ll take “hidden puppet-master.” From my own homebrew world I'll take details for background/setting/etc.

Her surname "Vel" is a truncation of the drow velkyn (hidden), and also swiped from Faye Marsay's rebel spy in Andor. Her given name "Talinthe" is built on an obvious near-rhyme of Calanthe, the Witcher's Warrior Queen of Cintra. I’ve never read those books and so was introduced to Calanthe by the glorious Jodhi May, whom I've crushed on for decades, ever since she played the doomed Alice Munro in Last of the Mohicans. Talinthe is much less royal and much less doomed, but I've already decided she's a noble used to power (like Calanthe), so let's make her a second daughter (like Alice). That gives her a reason to be away from/ambivalent toward her family (maybe a bit like Vanessa Kirby's Princess Margaret).

That last bit brings me back to my other stunningly attractive female drow OC, a younger archfey warlock named Qiranna (whose 5e portrait looks sorta like a drow Vanessa Kirby), but Qiranna's BG3 appearance got too visually wrapped up in the character creator's many options. She became less herself and more "what looks coolest in the character creator and oooh also a bit Minthara because yes please." So maybe Talinthe can take on the more superficial Minthara visual aspects, plus a bit of conventional-drow topknot-discipline (which, probably not coincidentally, was part of Qiranna's original Heroforge look I made circa 2021). The look allows Talinthe to be herself and Qiranna to be herself in both 5e and BG3. They’re probably still insufficiently unique from one another, but I don’t care:

Why? Because I think I have it now: A character I want to play (as a PC in BG3 and NPC in 5e). A noble daughter who's the "spare" part of "heir and a spare," whose incorrigible youth earned her expulsion or at least distance from her family, but whose ambition and personal standards became refined with age and trauma into a single-minded, ruthless focus on attaining power and station in her own right. If she gets entangled with a washed-up Lost Singer along the way, well, so much the better for that lucky bastard. I'm sure many will think that's a whole bundle of clichés, but whatever. All my best characters are made that way, and they're good enough for me.

[storminmyveins-archived]

& DASH GAMES;

ALIAS / NAME: Myllie

BIRTHDAY: Next month on the 12th. So April.

ZODIAC SIGN: Aries, idgaf what Nasa says about new star signs. You can take that concept and shove it up Uranus.

HEIGHT: 5'3

HOBBIES: writing, drawing, making graphics, making characters, watching shows, playing games such as BG3 or House Flipper

FAVORITE COLOR: blue and pink

CURRENT BOOK: I am trying to get my hands on the second TSITP book but my gosh these fkers keep it checked out longer than it needs to be. Come on y'all.

LAST SONG: In my head right now it's Black Rose by Trapt which is pissing me off, since the lead singer proved himself to be a douche, but the last song I actually listened to was Daddy Cop. And let me tell you no one is surprised.

LAST FILM / SHOW: Chicago Med

INSPIRATION: music, books, movies, my writing partners

STORY BEHIND URL: soooo this started out as my solo Faye Chamberlain blog url which was based on the scene where their magic gets enhanced and she causes that storm she can't control. But since I kind of suck at solo blogs even though I have some I decided to use it for a multimuse.

FUN FACT ABOUT ME: I've had multiple head injuries, technically speaking I should be dead. But I'm not. So...woohoo

TAGGED BY; @clairelilcorner TAGGING : Any and all who'd like to do this

[pxiedustnblades]

They see you.

They know the truth.

[pxiedustnblades]

“I’ve saved you once before; and now I’ve saved you again.”

What if instead of a memory of being saved from the fall, Leila saw a glimpse of another timeline?

[Games: BG3 & Mass Effect]

[pxiedustnblades]

There’s something familiar about her dream Guardian….

….

Oh.