#karlach's is..........not great. and astarion's just doesn't compel me?

[ohlawsons]

also at some point, since i wasn't around here for the bg3 release, i'll have to introduce sol. i have my issues with the full release version but the tav/shart/halsin trio is not one of them

[wetcatspellcaster]

I read the latest chapter of Honest Lie: it was devastating. I was smashed to the floor, it was incredible.

I loved the support group feedback.

Something I’m looking forward to is seeing how Rosalie deals with allowing Astarion to ascend. Rosalie’s straightforward ways of dealing with good things and bad things are something that I find difficult to comprehend - I think I personally am much more willing to compromise on good and evil for a person I love and a person I hate. I wonder if the party’s adoration for Rose is partially because she provides that strong moral compass that they all so desperately are looking for being

Good —————————- Power? Power!

(See companions vacillating between both spectrums, with Karlach being the exception, in my opinion)

And I do love Astarion’s cautiously made point, which (maybe? I feel?) that Rosalie hasn’t quite yet seemed to express fully in my reading - that people should be allowed to choose. There’s this line from a book that often resonates with me (I’ve put it below!! Please excuse my quoting another author at you, you being my respected and much loved author!) which states basically that choice is the most important thing to preserve, because it lets us choose to be whoever we want to be, which!! I love that BG3 seems to show us, that we persuade the companion but the companion makes the actual final choices!!

I’m super looking forward to the next installments!!! I enjoy reading so much your good and amazing works! Wishing you a great month ahead :)

“It was the right thing to do because it gave us choices. Having a choice is the most important thing.”

I’d heard that before. It’s a bullet-point line in the graduation handbook: As a general rule, regardless of the specific situation in which you find yourself, at every step you must take care to preserve or widen the number of your options. It hadn’t quite sunk in properly, but now it did. Having a choice meant being able to choose something that worked for you and whatever you were carrying and whatever you’d prepared. Having a choice meant you got to choose getting out.”

The Last Graduate, Naomi Novik

hey lovely, thank you for the message and feedback on the chapter, I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

I just want to give a quick reminder that Astarion doesn't Ascend in An Honest Lie! That is not my canon playthrough narrative and Pieces has the tagline 'Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence' for this reason. I only bring it up to put the lingering fears of any readers to bed, but also because it informs my response to your message!

Because, um, we've already *seen* the timeline where Rosalie gives Astarion full and free reign of choice... and that is, in fact, Pieces Still Stuck In Your Teeth :'))))

I totally get where you're coming from. I love that BG3 post that goes around occasionally being like 'I believe in supporting my friends' choices and BG3 really tests that by making my friends want to commit mass murder, become a God, kill a defenceless woman...' bc it sums up my feelings pretty succinctly. While in theory, I'd love a world where Astarion is given space to fix himself and then makes the choice a good Tav wants him to make, the fact of the matter is that if you do not make the (admittedly low DC) persuasion check, if left to his own devices Astarion will always choose to Ascend.

I've thought about that choice by Larian a lot. It's part of what made Pieces so compelling to me as a worst timeline, because that crucial moment seemed to become a perfect storm of 1. Rosalie doubting herself and her own values, choosing to put love first but in a way that is essentially, more self-sacrifice and self-effacement and self-doubt, and 2. Astarion losing a key source of support at the scariest moment in his life and suddenly feeling lost and alone. Rose doesn't speak to him once, past the flashback, in that timeline - she lets him take the lead.

So in response to your question, I operate on the belief, however subjective, that Rosalie's refusal to give in actually is what opens up more choice for Astarion, not the other way around. Because (as plenty of other meta posts that come before me have said much better than I could) he thinks the world works a certain way, and all his decisions are made within that matrix and the assumption that this is the only way the world works. Rose is offering a new model of behaviour - I'm not saying it's flawless, or even correct (it's mostly just autistic). It's just an alternative perspective that I believe (inevitably, as its author) is needed.

A secondary example of that, is him mechanising love in the Chapter 11 argument to try and get his way - he knows he can get people to do what he wants through sex, surely love is just a more powerful version of that? This is the way the world works. But Rosalie refusing to back down despite being in love with him, or love manifesting in a way that isn't immediate acquiescence, also challenges that perspective. It shows that sometimes love or sex or attraction isn't the automatic tool to a person's complacency, and that in fact sometimes love is actively working to better yourself, if you care about a person enough. Sometimes love/attraction isn't making the other person do something for you, but doing something for them instead.

I agree people should be allowed to choose... but sometimes people need support and also, to be quite honest, coaching to get through the most difficult times in their lives without turning into the worst version of themselves. That's not a failing of the person, it's just proof that things are easier when you have a support network. Astarion wants independence as freedom but I don't think independence as loneliness serves him, as it reinforces his worldview, of choices as survival and nothing else.

[pindagreat]

I finished Baldur's Gate 3 last night and wow. Really good game! It could get a little overwhelming with the sheer amount of content. I needed guides a lot more than I would have liked, but I loved the story. The entire cast of playable characters is great, but I do find the party size of 4 too restrictive. I just stuck to using the same party of my Paladin Tav, Gale, Shadowheart and Karlach(my wife). I would have appreciated some sort of sidekick system where inactive party members can provide some sort of passive buff to an assigned party member. This way even characters the player doesn't use can have out of combat conversations, which are fantastic, as well as being able to participate in story cutscenes. It would also be nice to swap my party around in a menu instead of talking to party members individually to change around the party.

On the subject of the party, here are some thoughts on the party members (Full game spoilers):

Note that I went for the righteous choice at pretty much every turn

Gale is a fantastic little goober. The thing about him eating magic items in act 1 was hilarious. Tim Downie's performance was perfect for the character at every turn. Gale takes himself seriously to the point of both gripping drama and hilarious blunders. He was a mainstay of my party not just for having a good spell list, but he was a great guy. I love the arc I got for him, where he learns to accept that he doesn't have to keep ascending to greater heights, and becomes a teacher.

I thought when I met Shadowheart that I would hate her. I kept her around in the first few hours of act 1 because she was the first party member you got and also a cleric, which I knew would be useful for the entire game. I found her and Lae'zel bickering annoying at first, but it progressively got more and more entertaining. Then they actually tried to kill eachother, which gave great insight to both characters. Every bit of Shadowheart's quest made me love her more, from facing the gauntlet of Shar and rebelling against her to killing her captors and letting her parents go with their love in her heart. Also spirit guardian + boots of speed is goated holy shit

Karlach is amazing. She's goals and also my wife. From the moment I saw fanart of her, I knew she would be my favorite character. Her narrative of trying to escape from her past and it catching up with her struck a chord with me. Trying to fix her engine was a great conflict, and I love the ending where Karlach and my Tav Nadia go to Avernus to fix her engine once and for all. She's a ray of sunshine, and I love every second of joy in her eyes. I loved finding all the best equipment I could for her, with her getting the Balduran giantslayer for the final battle + amulet of health + being hasted. So much fun

Astarion is such a gremlin. I loved helping him kill his abuser and save all the other vampire spawn. I didn't use him very much, so he was kinda just comic relief to me, but he's still a great character even if you don't wind up going into his deepest depths.

Lae'zel was in a similar boat to Shadowheart, where I was put off by her in the beginning, but she won me over. I love a narrative where a character rejects a supposed truth they were brought up believing, and Lae'zel's crusade to kill Vlaakith was amazing. Gith lore was a corner of dnd lore I was more familiar with going in to the game from listening to Rolling With Difficulty, and that made Lae'zel's arc all the sweeter.

Wyll was the origin character that compelled me the least, but he was still cool. I don't have much to say about him.

Halsin and the quest to heal the shadowcurse are some all time favorite quests in this game. I love the ending he gets where he becomes the guardian of all the refugee children.

Jaehira was kinda just there. She was fun in the few interactions I had with her, but otherwise eh. I'm glad other people get more out of her than I do

The Emporer is a fascinating character. He is extremely set in his ways. He is unwilling to consider the idea that Orpheus won't try to kill the party because he thinks Orpheus would kill him for what he's done. This uncompromising nature is why he killed Ansur, and why he will betray you if you don't give him the netherstones and let him kill Orpheus.

Orpheus himself was a little underwhelming since he came in at the 11th hour, but I liked convincing him to live. I headcanon that if you convince him to live he meets Omeluum and those two learn from eachother.

Also the dead three's chosen were fun antagonists. I loved being jumpscared by JK Simmons when he showed up. I only kinda remembered that he would be in this game.

I love a ton of the changes and additions to the format of dnd 5e. The 1/short rest abilities make martials have a little more depth, which is a great boon. One minor thing I wish they got rid of from 5e is that you can't cast spells while raging. I would have loved to get more use out of Karlach's smites.

Instant short rests is something I love. It makes the game flow well and lets the characters that rely on short rests stay good. I'm honestly planning on adopting that in some form when I start dming.

One gripe I have is that the game pretends as if resurrection magic isn't a thing in the story. Each character starts the game with a couple scrolls of revivify, so I don't understand why you can't be resurrecting NPCs. That would save a lot of hassle.

All in all, I love Baldur's Gate 3. It's the perfect game for someone who loves RPGs and going for most of the sidequests. The story is engaging, and I don't have any gripes that ruin the game. It's mostly just things I would change to fit my own tastes more. 10/10

[limpfisted]

While I would prefer to make it so that wyll has more agency over his own narrative

I find it extremely interesting he just CANT make decisions by himself

Like to me, that's a character beat!

Like he can make a decision to sacrifice himself, and to hurt people he thinks "deserve" it, again and again, but by the end of the game, he no longer trusts himself to make that kind of decision

He was wrong about karlach. Who knows how many other "devils."

Given the choice between himself and his father. His father, who WILL most likely have a good after life, and in dnd u know like. After life's exist, and are much longer than human lifespans and wyll is fully cognizant of like. The fact his father won't really suffer when he dies, like wyll will for all of eternity

He doesn't trust himself. He thought he couldn't get out of his pact. He had given up on his freedom. He BELIEVED in his choice. And now... now he doesn't know what to believe. He knows you are his PROTECTOR and his light in the darkness, his light in the dysphoriq and the realization he has been more corrupted by this deal (not just physically. Again. How many more karlachs were there.) And he had learned THROUGH you just how bad his "learned helplessness" is while also mozora drives down the point that he IS trapped, he IS punished, and he still doesn't know what he'll do without her and it's like

Of course he can't fucking decide, man

Thats an impossible choice for HIM. If u look at everything u learn about him. This is the ultimate evil move on mizoras side because she LET you dangle freedom over wyll. His pact wasn't even completely broken. He still had six more months. And u know what? Before he met you, wyll might have just have gone on like this with mizora indefinitely. Never being able to tell people about mizora or his Father. How is he supposed to get close enough to someone, for them to show him what his freedom really means?

You MADE it an impossible choice. Befor3 this adventure he would have simply sold his soul again. No questions asked. Hes had just a taste of freedom, though. Just a taste of personhood. He has friends now. He has people he can genuinely trust who aren't MANIPULATING him or keeping him on a leash

He NEEDS you. He trusts you! You saved him.

He literally. He literally just can't make this decision alone and whatever you choose for him hell stand by

And that's great! That's a great flaw and arc!

If the game had taken this to its conclusion and had like. A scene like astarion at his grave where wyll just takes you aside and tells you. Thank you for choosing for me. Thank you for being MY light. I trust you. I dont know what I'm doing anymore. I'm scared and lost and this is all so overwhelming. All I have had for seven years is mizora. Before that all I had was my father. I dont know how to choose myself and not them. I still don't. But I know I was right to choose to be by your side.

This is a GREAT and IMPORTANT narrative about abuse, about trust, about "heroism."

But there's no... conclusion. The iron throne/steel foundry/wyrm/gortash is this big epic quest 2hich is basically a whole act in and of itself centered basically entirely around wylls life and wylls arc and wyll and his Father (also saving the world, but baldurs gate is WYLLS. No one else can become Duke but wyll.) But wyll doesn't really get the chance to react

Like broe? Honestly. If you just add a bunch of wyll reaction and maybe even something as simple as SOME MORE DIALOGUE TREES, doesn't even have to be like a whole cutscene!. This is a compelling narrative! By itself! You don't really need to change stuff! Wyll is an INTERESTING CHARACTER! Just add some stuff!!!

Me @ larian. If yall don't get theo Solomon back in that mo cap suit right now talking about his trauma as explicitly as astarion got to

He is NOT boring. He is just the greatest victim of the act 3 curse. Help