#pregame bg3

[shadowstarion]

strangers • pregame shadowstarion

i am a sucker for the “we met once and had an impact on one another but neither of us remembered it” trope and i need them crossing paths at least once. this is just some thoughts/concepts for a fic featuring baby sharran shadowheart and rookie vamp spawn astarion

++ warning for mentions of trauma & abuse

Novice Shadowheart being the honeypot piece for an investigation on disappearances near her House. She’s sheltered and awkward, not yet confident in herself, and the idea of going to seedier hangouts in town makes her very uncomfortable, which is 75% of the reason this task gets assigned to her. Her sitting nervously in a tavern bar, feeling overexposed in that leather getup and nursing a drink.

Astarion approaches her and she’s smitten in an instant— there’s no way that this is the creep her superiors are after, right? He’d walked right up to her in plain view, his flirtation is polite and respectful even. All of his words and touches are sweet ones, compliments and chaste caresses. She realizes it feels nice to be just a girl in a bar, batting her eyelashes and enjoying the attention of a stranger. No obligations, no pressure to be perfect, no standards for her to meet other than simply existing as she is.

There’s no moment of “she’s the love of my life i must spare her from certain death” where Astarion consciously refuses to lure her home, he just… doesn’t. They end their night together with an almost-kiss after she’d insisted on bidding him farewell, sounding almost pained. He’d leaned in for it, to give her that mesmerizing kiss that would linger in her mind and draw her back here some other night, but she’d winced and flinched away at the last second before hastily leaving. And Astarion would let it happen. With his skill set and the clientele of the tavern, he’ll have plenty more options to bring home for his master’s dinner. Maybe some part of him just wanted to be an interested suitor chatting up a shy but beautiful maiden, not a hunter in pursuit of prey.

The whole time they’re talking, Shadowheart is growing more convinced that this stranger was not the one she was meant to seduce and interrogate, but she just can’t tear herself away from him. Shar is punishing her for it, her brand flaring up once or twice throughout. Of course her patron would protest at this, her wasting her time flirting around instead of pursuing the objective, the way her smiles and laughs are growing much too genuine. So she rushes back to the cloister, repents for her failures, and has the mission wiped entirely from her memories.

Astarion forgets because he hadn’t been able to bring home supper that night. Entertaining that pretty girl at the bar bleeds into a tick in the endless tally of tortures, no different from any other evening he’d come home to a punishment. Faces and names are hard to recall, everything stained by Cazador’s cruelty.

When they meet again, neither of them have any idea they’d ever met before. That entire day’s worth of time was erased from her mind, she couldn’t possibly remember him. Even if Astarion might have remembered Girl At The Tavern #147 for some reason, he wouldn’t recognize her immediately— her hair is much longer now, she’s slimmed down a bit, and her personality is forcibly cold and prickly.

Regardless of how their story ends, I don’t think they’d ever even know. If Shadowheart did recognize him via Selune returning her memories, she wouldn’t tell him. Knowing she’d been one of his failed targets in that time would only make him feel terrible, and what’s the use in dredging up old wounds now when they’re finally free from abuse? She’ll just keep how he made her feel close to her chest as a cherished memory.

[kromanjoma]

Younger merchant Gortash when you come to trade him rotten tomatoes for a dagger

[mariana-oconnor]

OK okokok... gonna put this 'I just woke up' thought out there because this is tumblr and what else is it for? Someone has probably already said this and I haven't seen it, but whatever. I will throw it out anyway.

SO... Gale. We've all seen the posts where people quote the Gale lines about being naturally gifted with magic as a baby, a prodigy etc. and then point out that this is sorcerer behaviour.

BUT, what if... you're all right and it is sorcerer behaviour. BUT the orb feeds on weave/magic right? And sorcerers are born with innate magic... so what if he was born a sorcerer, then trained as a wizard, but the orb consumed his sorcerous magic. And that's why he's not as powerful as he once was, because, unbeknownst to him, all this time, he's been using that natural sorcerous connection to make accessing the weave easier. And now that's gone. Eaten up. Destroyed forever by the Netherese void.

And that's part of what's causing him pain. Because an instrinsic part of himself has been taken away. And he feels it like a phantom limb. Maybe he thinks it was actually connected to his relationship with Mystra, rather than a part of him, and that adds to his sense of loss from that relationship.

What if the first magic item Gale fed to the orb was himself and he doesn't even realise it?

[sanguine-tenshi]

Right so I have this feral idea for a citrusy one shot.

It's fueled by my need too put Astarion in pretty things, torture Gortash and have Durge be some feral nerd assassin. And it's just Astarion all gift wrapped sent by Cazador to Gortash to get a better deal or something. Gortash can guess what Cazador expects of him, of how he'll treat Astarion so he just swerves off road and goes service top (he does have Durge there for the deprived stuff). And just as they are getting close Gortash's window slams open and in cryptid crawls dragonborn Durge just drenched in blood.

Durge's all like "Ye, hey Gortash got you the..." which is when he notices Astarion under Gortash.

"Is this a bad time... Got you gnome liver, you said you needed gnome liver."

So ye... that does turn into a bloody mess of a threesome.

[ebthestarryknight]

I caved in and made a dragonborn durge! His name is Dagarkul, "Daga" for short. He's Default Durge adjacent because I did change him a little bit, but just slightly. He's a sorcerer/fighter multiclass (because c'mon he is murder incarnate of course he has to have some melee combat experience and expertise).

He's my beautiful murderous son who is wracked with guilt he cannot fully comprehend and I love him very very much!

[jb-nonsense]

Working on the fic for Gale and my Galemancer OC, Gwenifar, and I'm giving you all a rough draft preview.

Background: Taking place ten years prior to the game, set when Gale had a case of pox when he was cared for by the Ilmatari in Waterdeep. Gwenifar, a novice cleric, is there to help with the pox outbreak.

Finally, he was looking at her. Blue eyes met brown as she waited for his reaction. Brown hair kept in a short, clean cut stuck to his forehead from the sweat of his fever and the pox was on his skin. Gwenifar realized how close she was, without proper protection, was very dangerous at the stage he was at, but she could not allow him to continue in his fevered state.

“Are you an angel?” The question took her off guard. She blinked, looking at him with furrowed brow. He still looked fevered, his cheeks flushed and eyes hazy. His voice was hoarse and tired from yelling, but there was a gentleness to it. “Because I can’t think of anything on this plane that could be so beautiful.”

Any thought took a quick flight out of her mind at that. Her hands loosened their grip on his wrists, and she sat back a bit, processing what he had said. Surely the fever had gotten to him. He was definitely seeing things, if he were to say something like that about her. She shook it off, focusing on getting him to calm down and come back to reality and see things as they were.

“You’re very sick,” she explained. “You’re at the Hospice of St. Laupsenn.” His hand reached up to touch her uncovered face and she reacted quickly, not wanting him to react negatively. She took his hand in her gloved ones, keeping her eyes on him. “We’re going to help you get better, but you need to go to sleep. Your fever is too high.” “You’ll stay with me?”

[flymmsy]

The Scion of Bhaal. His Dear Lady. Created to Rule.

[archersartcorner]

Someone holds me, safe and warm

Horses prance through a silver storm

Figures dancing gracefully

Across my memory…

Hi I finished a resisting Durge user with Bela and I have. Thoughts.

[xanfeursel]

finished sketching Will color tomorrow thoughhh... i do like how her outfit design came out though

[autuumnlocked]

Okay, completely out of the realm of possibility but such a fun thought: what if it had some sort of recording device and Gortash finds recordings of you having spoken to it.

For extra Dark Urge fun: he doesn't tinker with it for fear of losing the recordings of Durge. Maybe it's enough to show him Durge is actually alive, or maybe he doesn't know when the recordings were made and thinks it was from your many travels abroad. Either way, it's possibly all he has left of Durge's voice and maybe image until Durge confronts him in Wyrm's Fortress.

no one told me that to doodad ketheric sent along to gortash was bernards head D:

[the-southern-cereal-king]

I am once again pleading bg3 players to play Divinity Original Sin 2, another larian studios game, because it’s very similar and so enjoyable. You can find a lot of commonalities in characters between the two games.

I played dos2 to pregame baldurs gate because I wasn’t used to the turn based combat system, and I was much more prepared for it. Larian Studios is not a one hit wonder, and when I have the funds I plan on playing the other games they’ve made. They also have a dos2 website and digital art book/ character sheets/ cosplay guides that’s worth checking out

Also, dos2 explores the crafting/ combining mechanic WAY more, and I honestly wished Larian had kept more crafting in bg3.

Oh also, Amelia Tyler, the narrator for baldurs gate 3, plays a really great character in divinity original sin 2

[rawrsatthetree]

One of my favorite things in the bg3 fandom is hearing about people’s Dark Urge Oc’s relationship with Orin pregame.

Tag or reply with yours!

[avernusreject]

Nothing quite like getting dressed up and pregaming to go out for your friend to decide not to go last second. Well tonight looks like I’m playing bg3 in a slutty dress and slightly drunk. Astarion would approve

[friedesgreatscythe]

LIKE??? HELLO????

Listen I sees ye all talk about Astarion and I am THERE with you but

BUT

I think I'm a "Gale just fuck me up" kinda gal

[retrokid616]

critical role campaign 3 episode 83 pregame

so where were we last month oh yeah half the cast got sick and robbie totally saw ashton's bg3 dick

meanwhile over on the campaign proper fearne basically sums up me when i was coming up with terms for 2024

and finally over on candela chapter 3's ending shit went south fast

but mostly cars anyway let's see how the bells handle finally being on the moon (for real this time) this week on critical role so until then see y'all in the live blogs.

[fruitcd]

i finished bg3

i really enjoyed it! i tried to take my time with this game and it was so nice to just have a really meaty, fun game to sink my teeth into. it was a super engaging game with a pretty good story, great characters, and fun mechanics. i've rarely played games with turn based mechanics before and i was surprised at how easily i adjusted and how fun it was. im also not really a big dnd fan but i found this game really streamlined a lot of the dnd aspects i find tedious irl (sitting and rolling die and adding up bonuses makes me wanna kms)

there is truly a lot of choice in this game and i know "your choices matter" is something of a gaming buzzword atp, but it does genuinely feel like what you choose impacts the game. i also just really appreciated the world and the aesthetics, i've never played a baldurs gate game before and i found the world to be really intriguing and fun. it's also just a beautiful game (when the textures load in properly) and all the environments/character/armor design are gorgeous.

there are a couple things i could critique though and my big one is just that it's pretty obvious that some stuff was added last minute. halsin's character was the only one i could never really get invested in, it really did just feel like he was a non-party member elevated to companion bc ppl thought he was hot in early access. i also found it strange that the polyamory SOLELY revolved around halsin, especially when it was a big part of the pregame marketing hype. like, shadowheart and astarion will be in a throuple... but ONLY if halsin is also involved. how does this make sense???????? other characters will also signal that they're ok with "sharing" like laezel and karlach, but will actually get super pissed if you actually try to open up your relationship. which again is like okay but then why market the game as having poly romance where there is ONE poly romance that you basically have to jump through hoops for...

another critique i have is that the character creator is SO diverse in some ways but there's one giant noticeable weakness (and i think it's strange that i haven't seen more talk about this)... why can you only be skinny and buff?? i get having body type presets, but when the only presets available are "short buff" and "tall buff," it gets really annoying. especially when this game is marketed SO heavily as being a game where you can really create your OWN character you identify with. it feels like "play your way.......... unless your way is fat." it just annoys me especially because otherwise the character creator is such a giant step forward in terms of customization

couple more critiques but they're spoilery so they're under the cut

but these small critiques aside, i REALLY REALLY enjoyed the game and definitely think it's worth all the praise it's received. i can already tell this is a game i'm going to come back to over and over again!

**SPOILERS**

the emperor's character ultimately just fell flat for me. he never really got a solid, consistent character and the big "reveal" that he's actually balduran feels like such a nothing revelation bc no one really reacts to it and it's brushed off. also, it's just a really weird writing choice to have him side with the elder brain if you decide to free orpheus, because the ENTIRE GAME has been about him trying to kill the elder brain and the speed at which he completely switches sides gave me whiplash. i can definitely see him turning on US and trying kill us to take the nether stones, but why the fuck would he side with the elder brain completely of his own free will? just feels weird bc there's a million ways he could have still been a final antagonist (mind control, turns on us, etc) but the way they chose to do it felt so.... contrived

some of the character endings felt really well developed and some felt really weak. i LOVED karlach and wyll going to avernus together, i liked laezel basically getting recognition from orpheus and being tasked with freeing her people, i got a nice ending with the person i romanced (astarion), but the way shadowheart and gale just like... vanish is really funny to me. even gale has a little exchange where he's like "well i guess im giving up on the crown of karsus" (which felt really anticlimatic considering his is basically the only companion quest that doesn't get resolved until the VERY LAST SECOND OF THE GAME), but shadowheart literally is just like "yay we saved the city" and then never speaks again 😭

but again overall i did really enjoy the game :3 it was so nice just to spend hours and hours playing a good, solid game!!