#romancing astarion as durge is so insane | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autistichalsin · 1 month

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Gameplay changes I'd make to BG3 if I was in charge:

(Under a read more bc this is an insanely long list)

Ability to make party changes without going back to camp; I.E. "hey Lae'zel, go back to camp and tell Karlach to come here."

Able to see companion approval at all times even if they're not in the party

Able to make checks with any character, not just Tav. You used to be able to do this to an extent by having other characters do conversations, but when they made it so Tav was prioritized back in patch 6, they changed it so that even if you click with another companion, it switches to Tav. Ideally they would fix it so that if the conversation triggers automatically, it prioritizes Tav, and if you deliberately start a conversation with another companion, it recognizes that you wanted that.

Better item sorting. "Most recent" actually sorts by when you acquired the item.

Ability to text search for an item if you know its name.

Ability to mark an item as a favorite so you don't accidentally sell it/drop it/send it back to camp.

Quest items don't count against your weight total.

Quest items that are no longer relevant are no longer marked as quest items.

Either allow for character leveling past 12 (Even if class leveling is limited to 12) or adjust the difficulty across the board so you scale more evenly. Act 1 becomes a bit easier, act 2 remains about the same, act 3 becomes a lot harder. I should not hit the level cap early in act 3.

Alternatively, at least give a reward in lieu of XP when you hit the level cap. Items, gold, a points system that lets you use excess XP to buy additional spell slots/wilshape charges/rage charges/bardic inspiration, something.

Story mode; battles are disabled, allowing you to solely explore and focus on the story elements.

Dark Urge as a companion.

Ability to change who your unfortunate murder victim is, outside of Alfira and Quill. Maybe it's Zevlor, or Rolan, or Kagha.

More recruitable evil companions. Kagha, Wulbren, and Ethel are a good start.

Halsin recruitable in act 1 or at least no later than the start of act 2.

More reactivity for story developments after act 1, particularly in act 3 when it drops to little comments here or there.

More reactivity for Dark Urge story elements in particular, especially everything related to the Orin fight.

Ability to fast travel to quest-related markers.

Ability to hook up your companions. Let me smooch Halsin but hook up Karlach and Wyll, or let me romance Wyll while hooking up Halsin and Astarion!

Change point and click lines for characters to reflect story developments (resist Durge should sound less unhinged, Lae'zel shouldn't reference Vlaakith after turning away from her, etc)

Let your love interest answer questions about you during the love dryad test. You can select the right answers beforehand, and then they'll answer right or wrong depending on a bit of approval and a bit of luck/dice rolling. Halsin, of course, will automatically know you fear krakens.

Fighting Gortash at the coronation is actually an option that doesn't break the bridges and doesn't disable fast travel into Wyrm's Rock once he's defeated.

Give the gnomes the ability to fix Karlach's engine, or at least work on a prototype.

Option to speed up or entirely skip enemy turns, coming back to you and giving you a brief recap of who was hit and for how much damage/what status effects. This would make the courtyard, in particular, less of a slog. I should not be able to finish my turn, take a pee break, and come back to the enemies still attacking.

Ability to make it more clear what your relationship with Halsin is in a polymance- keep it as a one night stand/physical relationship, make it a poly romance with your other partner as your nesting partner, or even make it a throuple. Similarly, if the latter, add scenes of your partners getting to know each other better, kissing, etc.

Don't tie so many plot events to long rests while stressing that the player needs to hurry to avoid ceremorphosis. Either drop the facade that there is a rush, or make these plot developments happen outside of camp.

Consequences for using tadpoles beyond one (possibly two as of patch 7) dice rolls. Make it so using too many will cause you to squid, no matter what.

Ideally, bring back the plot that was teased in act 1, where instead of being the Emperor, you Dream Guardian was your tadpole, trying to seduce you to let it take over.

Better balancing for Rangers at higher levels, as as it is now, you basically have to multiclass them to get any decent use out of them. After level 5 any additional levels spent on Ranger are wasted.

Improve Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster to use the class's standard stat instead of int or wis for their spells.

All wildshape attacks minus three of the four myrmidons should count as unarmed for the purposes of tavern brawler and other similar things that buff unarmed attacks working.

Make the Emperor/Orpheus a fully autonomous party member, allowing you to give them equipment (and allowing them to use potions/spells they didn't already have on hand) during the final battle.

Fix pathfinding for characters you don't control, and especially fix them automatically jumping back to the other side of a gap just because you had to switch to a character who wouldn't make the jump before.

Improve Fly so that it is better than Jump outside of like 2-3 levels.

Some kind of enemy-rush mode where you see how long you can last against all the bosses in the game would be amazing.

Ability to either return to the city and finish up some quests before the epilogue.

New game plus.

Origin Halsin and Minthara.

The game does a better job of remembering that Halsin isn't tadpoled, and also does a better job of not always assuming that if you're in a poly relationship with him, you want the other partner prioritized for literally every scene.

Resist scene for Minthara and Halsin.

Recruitable Aylin and Isobel. Ideally, you can also romance them and become their third.

Dye preview, as well as clothing and armor previews.

Armor scales in weight with your size, so the same armor put on a small character will weigh less than the same armor on a large character, allowing little characters more options.

Druids automatically revert to human form for cutscenes, then return to wildshape after without losing a charge.

Orin can kidnap any character, including your romanced companion, but to compensate, there are less steps needed to access the Temple of Bhaal.

The kidnapped companion is not guaranteed to be unharmed even if you save them; depending on how long you took, they might have been badly tortured and receive a status debuff that lasts several days.

Faith-leap trial is fixed so that you can actually solve it without either a guide or cheesing it.

Let Wyll dump Mizora as a patron, then become an Archfey warlock with Thaniel and Oliver as his patrons. Wyll then becomes a nature defender.

More autonomy for Wyll in his quest. You can't make the pivotal choices of his story arc for him, and instead, your ability to convince him is tied to dice rolls that have a DC scaled to your approval, like for SH.

Able to take Scratch and Owlbear home in the epilogue, instead of only being able to send Owlbear with SH, Halsin, or you if romanced to either.

Let Karlach stay in the House of Hope if Hope lived, allowing her to live in Avernus without having to constantly fight and fear Zariel.

More interesting Speak With Animals conversations. They drop dramatically after act 1, and by act 3 there are very few times I use the spell anymore, just to talk to the kitties.

Able to cast certain spells (I.E. Hero's Feast) on all recruited characters, not just those in the active party.

54. Fix the morality system for Paladin oaths so that it's more clear what actions will break your oath ahead of time.

55. Give players more chances to fix things if a character turns temporarily hostile. I shouldn't lose a vendor, quest, etc for good because of a failed persuasion roll. There should be one more chance to fix it.

56. More deities for players to choose from; if not for Clerics, at least add more at the Stormshore Tabernacle. Ideally, allow even other classes to talk about having a favored deity, as most in the Realms do, and it would be interesting to, for example, be a Ranger, worship Mielikki, and have dialogue with Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc.

57. Act 3 gets more unique music instead of largely reusing tunes from acts 1 and 2.

58. More companions so that every race and every class has representation.

59. Elves act more elven. Halsin and Astarion can have conversations in Elvish. Arnell is not confused by Shadowheart choosing her own name.

60. Free healing by Halsin. He is a world-renowned healer and would be great to see him use it more. Also, more shown of him researching medical conditions, helping sick/injured civilians in Baldur's Gate, etc.

61. The Shadow Curse breaks as soon as Ketheric dies or Thaniel and Oiver are reunited, whichever comes later, so the player can see the lands not influenced by the curse. Move the cutscene that plays on leaving the lands to this point, just without the bit of the party leaving the land.

62. Ability to save Art Cullagh so he won't die shortly after the game ends.

63. After you defend Halsin's portal, you get to play a side-quest where Halsin fights through the Shadowfell, finds Thaniel, and fights his way back. OR, you can delegate the portal defense to your other party members, and join Halsin in the Shadowfell to help him find Thaniel.

64. Introduce a weather system and a day/night system.

65. When you knock out a character using non-lethal attacks, the character is actually treated as alive, letting it be used outside of Minthara, Minsc, and Alfira.

66. Scene of Withers telling the players who he really is. Dark Urge players can become Withers' Chosen after they reject Bhaal, while Tav and non-Shadowheart Origins can be it from earlier on, maybe a scene early in act 2, and Shadowheart can be it after turning from Shar.

67. The Dark Urge's Urge manifests in battle, causing them to sometimes waste an action torturing a victim who's already been downed, or to turn hostile on allied characters.

68. More references to the Dark Urge being chronically ill as a result of their brain injury- this is brought up periodically in act 1 and then dropped for the most part. This could even lead to scenes of romanced characters comforting them when they have a headache or fainting spells.

69. More intra-party conflicts besides SH and Lae'zel, and the possible Halsin-Minthara ultimatum. Let the evil characters get angry at Gale for wasting magical items and try to kick him out.

70. Implement the Halsin-Minthara ultimatum, but don't make it an ultimatum; instead Halsin simply signals his intention to leave, and if you want him instead of Minthara, you bring up sending her away. Also make it clear that the Absolute still hunts Halsin for what happened in the Grove and for fighting Ketheric 100 years ago, showing that even without a tadpole, he has stakes in this too. Also make it clearer that Minthara is severely triggering his past trauma with all her pro-slavery talk, possibly causing him to gain a status debuff if he's near her. That way people will stop demonizing Halsin there will be more of a feeling of balance in the ultimatum.

71. Ability to rescue children (particularly the orphaned ones in act 3) and bring them back to camp for Halsin and/or Jaheira to mother.

72. When you're in the final battle, the companions who aren't fighting at your side are instead on a sidequest evacuating the city and fighting the midnflayers who are terrorizing the citizens. Alternatively, just for this one battle, you can bring all your recruited companions with you (it would certainly help make that courtyard fight more balanced if you aren't using invisibility potions).

73. Platonic paths get just as much weight as romantic ones. You can become Karlach's best friend forever and go on friendly outings with her. You can train with Lae'zel. Etc.

74. Setting for romance/sexual encoutners/offers to be turned off entirely.

75. Explorer difficulty allows you to multiclass still.

76. More quests for evil players.

77. Every romanceable character has at least one action that will cause them to break up with you, and every companion has one that will cause them to leave the party (outside of sinking approval to -40).

78. Option to turn on a "confirm action" button, so that accidentally clicking on an item in red that's right next to a communal use item doesn't get you aggro'd.

79. Optional choice to add in random encounters.

80. Reintroduce class-specific tadpole powers from Early Access.

81. Ability to help people in the city more; you can offer refugees shelter at your camp, feed or pay all beggars, etc. Telling the rich they suck for not helping is great but I want to be able to do more.

82. Sidequest for that Druid who's trying to save the dying tree in Baldur's Gate, ideally with special Halsin and Jaheira interactions.

83. More conversations like the one with Halsin and Jaheira in act 2, where controlling a character lets you talk to another and unlock special dialogues you don't otherwise get.

84. The circus is now a proper carnival, including magic-fueled rides, treatos, and a tunnel of love. Also, the Bhaalists are trying to interfere with the rides and get people killed, which you have to stop.

85. You have the option to tell owlbear cub that you don't want to give him the potion to make him grow faster because he deserves to stay a cub and grow naturally.

86. You can give companions little gifts, like SH with the night orchid. You can give Halsin his pipe back.

87. You can choose to join a companion in the endgame even if you haven't romanced them. You can move to Halsin's commune or keep Astarion company in the Underdark.

88. Ability to evict companions from your camp at any time, with a corresponding chewing out from the companions who stayed unless you have a really good reason for it.

89. Bring back the datamined bits where companions who left your party would later show up in the courtyard battle, tadpoled (if not already) and under the Absolute's control. (Maybe with a scene showing how it happened, including the tadpoling for Halsin and Jaheira who wouldn't have been infected before).

90. Bring back the datamined scenes from the morphic pool where the netherbrain would make the party have hallucinations corresponding to their insecurities. Including the option to comfort them after, especially your romanced partner.

91. Optional ability to cook meals yourself, maybe with a little cooking minigame like Pokemon has. Different foods can give you different status benefits the next day.

92. Ability to travel back to any act at any time before the final point of no return.

93. Act 1's point of no return is either entering the Underdark or the Mountain Pass, or entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but not either entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands from the Underdark or entering the Mountain Pass.

94. A gardening mechanic for edible plants and such would be fun, so you could have a steady supply of camp supplies and certain alchemy ingredients. Especially mushrooms since Minthara literally has her own mushroom farm.

95. Camp library so you can keep all your books, notes, and letters in one space to read without cluttering up your traveller's chest.

96. Alternatively, there are multiple traveller's chests for different items. Armors and weapons in one, scrolls, potions and other magical items in another, food and alchemy supplies in another, etc.

97. Ability to take care of and comfort characters who've been poisoned, infected with contagion, etc.

98. Let Halsin, SH, and the player cuddle more animals.

99. Every class gets a unique camp follower a la the Oathbreaker Knight.

100. Vendor of common things (animal speaking potions, some alchemy ingredients, camp supplies) in camp for the whole game.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3

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graveyardcuddles · 9 months

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There's this post I saw on here about how if the player turns Shadowheart over to the Sharans, the rest of the party should all turn on you. I completely agree, and I think they should also mutiny against Tav/Durge if they tell Orin to just go ahead and kill the party member she takes hostage. Act 3 feels like the act where everyone in the group should care about each other the most and yet it's the act where they arguably feel most disconnected from one another. And this is all probably a symptom of the overall lack of reactions and responses to major events in Act 3 from the companions in general.

But another similar example that drives me insane is how, if you ascend Astarion and then immediately turn on him and side with the Gur, ALL of the companions will just be like "Nice work taking out the trash, team. Job well done. Another vampire lord vanquished, " without so much as a hint of emotion after you betray him, gang up on him and KILL HIM?? As if they hadn't spent weeks and possibly months traveling with Astarion, getting to know him, bonding with him, ect. As if they hadn't just all stood there and let him complete the ritual. But the moment Paladin Karen and the Gur show up, they just abandon all that over what? Some vague ideal of "evil is evil black and white no nuace" nonsense? (which is even more ridiculous if some of the other companions are evil like DJ Shadowheart or Minthara).

The only companion with a reasonable reaction is Halsin, who correctly points out you should have tried harder to stop the ascension rather than betray Astarion and kill him after it happened. I understand that not all of the companions have the best relationship with him. And I understand all of them very much disapprove of him ascending. So I don't expect the whole party to mutiny over this particular decision. But the fact that they ALL uniformly turn on him so quickly for these people they don't even know is disappointing. There should have realistically been some pushback/objections. Or at least some guilt and sadness and reflection over the fact that they all just had to kill their former traveling companion/friend that THEY allowed to become this threat they felt warranted putting down.

It feels like it should be an incredibly tragic and cathartic moment, and it just falls spectacularly flat. I tried to rationalize their reactions as just part of the shitty lack of responses the companions all generally have in Act 3. But at least with Shadowheart and the hostage situation with Orin the companions will still be ANGRY at you and express their disaproval. Whereas here it really comes off like they just don't give a shit about Astarion and never really did. It's depressing.

I feel like it unintentionally and very sadly lends validation to the idea that what Astarion says about no one else being like Tav/Durge. No one else will look out for him. No one else will have that same kindness for him. No one has a heart like them. I don't actually agree with this notion. I think based on the good epilogue for his spawn ending he's definitely capable of making friends and genuine human connections. But Tav/Durge HAS to come first. They have to be the example that shows him how.

Also why I can't stop repeatedly romancing him. Astarion needs Tav/Durge arguably more than any other companion. He has nothing and no one else.

#also don't come for me for calling the gur lady a karen lmao #i understand the gur have every right to be angry i just don't like her okay?#she's a monday morning quarterback #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #bg3 act 3 spoilers #bg3 astarion #astarion #baulders gate 3 #ascended astarion #astarion ancunin

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thefruitiestnight · 1 year

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i know many people are rightfully insane over scel's "He is so afraid of everyone, besides you, who he ought to fear most" about durge romancing astarion but please consider this line you get if you're romancing gale. it does so many things to my brain

#bg3 #the dark urge #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3

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wildissylupus · 8 months

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I want to share what the dynamics of my BG3 party with my character, since I've nearly finished ACT 1. I will probably do this at the end of every act cause I am so excited to see how all these dynamics develop.

(Slight Spoilers for BG3 ACT 1)

Medea - My Durge character, often goes with the diplomatic approach, she's charismatic and hides her urges well (except with Alfira but everyone thinks it the tadpole). I'll probably make a separate post going into detail, this is more just to give context

Shadowheart - Second person Medea met, saved her from the Nautiloid, they both have an insane amount of trust in each other. Romance is also blooming between them. With Medea as the leader of the party, you could say that Shadowheart is her second in command. Medea is also getting a lot of bad vibes from what Shadowheart says about Shaar but is trying to be open minded while trying to subtly convince her that maybe she should leave and that what she's going through with Shaar isn't good. They also bond over their shared memory problems.

Astarion - Second person Medea met after the crash, pulled a knife on her when she went to help him, no blood was spilt though. After that they basically started bickering like siblings, Medea being the responsible one, Astarion being the bad influence, both of them chaotic. Also in my mind, since Medea is also an elf and has the same sleep schedule as Astarion, she was suspicious of him sneaking off at night. Though she didn't think he was a vampire, speaking of which, she will never not make fun of Astarion for trying to bit her even though she is literally the one other person who traces, meaning she was the worst person to bite from if he didn't want to get caught. Basically they act like siblings, also Medea has only heard the basics of who Cazador is and already wants to kill him.

Gale - Third person to join the party and the person Medea has the highest approval rating with. When she found out about Gale's condition she instantly sought out magical items that he could use, she was also very stunned when she found out about him a Mystra. Medea was never the studious type, even without a majority of her memories she knows she has a distaste for casting the magic wizards cast, however, casting that magic with Gale is different. She genuinely enjoyed it, and something tells her that he's the best teacher she's ever had. Honestly, even though this is act 1, I didn't expect Gale and Medea to become so close or like each other so much.

Lae'zel - First person Medea met (cause that's how the game goes) and honestly when it comes to her urges, Lae'zel is the one she thinks will take her out if needed. She's even considering telling Lae'zel about the urges. They have a lot of respect for each other even if they disagree on sertain situations, and they probably want the tadpoles out of their head the same amount as at this point Medea thinks her urges could be influenced by the parasite, so she wants it out. Honestly compared to the others there isn't much to say, mostly because I play in character, which means I choose which characters join me based on how close my character is to them or how important they are to the mission lore wise. Their dynamic will probably change in act 2 though.

Wyll - Medea and Wyll have had a slow burn to their friendship, though there is trust between them, they haven't known each other long enough to form a distinct bond (though I am tempted to get them a sibling bond because of what Wyll said after she said they will get his dad back). However, Medea does feel guilty about Wyll's dad being captured, feeling as though she could have done something. It's been added to her ever growing mountain of guilt (at this point she's dealing with the urges, she's killed Alfira, and she's killed Mayrina's brothers), she's also determined to help Wyll get his father back. She has also made it her goal to see Wyll dance.

Karlach - Her and Medea have not interacted much (that will change in Act 2), but so far I think Karlach is on the fence on whether to trust my character or not, because she says a lot of fucked up shit she doesn't mean in order to manipulate her enemies and Karlach tends to take it at face value so she obviously disproves of what Medea is saying. I like to think the displeasure shows on her face and every time Medea looks back at Karlach and gives a look of "I'm not actually going to do it".

Halsin - Like Karlach they haven't interacted that much but that will change in Act 2. As for now though they like each other and Medea wants to get to know him more.

And that's it for now!! I'm really excited to see how the game progresses and how these dynamics develop.

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bettsfic · 8 months

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it took 140 hours, but i finally finished my first playthrough of baldur's gate 3. overall i'm insane about it but there are a few things that really pissed me off. my (many) thoughts in no particular order under the cut.

i forced myself to play the full game totally vanilla, no mods even though i'm so bad at games i usually need cheats to make it to the end. not to mention i've hated inventory management in every game i've ever played (except genshin. love u, hyv). but i was patient, and i played on explorer mode, and i savescummed the hell out of it (hence 140 hours). but as SOON as i finished the epilogue, i turned around and installed 30 mods, most of which are QoL things that shouldn't even need to be modded (vertical camera pitch, WASD option, stackable items, sortable inventory, highlight ALL interactable objects).

i decided i wanted to play both a Dark Urge playthrough and an I'm Just Ken playthrough, but after making two new characters and, through my endless youtube diving, accidentally getting spoiled on what i think is the major durge reveal, i decided simply to make Ken the Dark Urge.

every other minute he goes, "Hi! I'm Ken," and then thinks about murder. it's great.

obvs he's going to romance Shadowheart (although i may download the poly mod and romance everyone).

MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

here are my Thoughts, in no particular order, because i don't know where else to put them:

i didn't enjoy romancing Astarion as much as i thought i would, because i came to see him less as a romantic interest and ended up identifying with him more than my Tav. that said, i'm very excited to do Astarion's origin playthrough

i ended up enjoying my Halsin romance more, because it was a more traditional slowburn, and Halsin's quest was totally external conflict. on one hand, that made me less interested in him as a character overall; on the other, it was SO SATISFYING to find out he had been Pining for me the whole time. sometimes i just need a little bodice-ripper content, as a treat

obviously i'm also into Astarion/Halsin and Astarion/Halsin/Tav

however the only viable fic idea i have is Astarion/Shadowheart? i blame this fanvid

no, really, what was so different about Early Access that OP got this much Astarion/Shadowheart material? the description in the video says they were disappointed by how their dynamic had changed for full release

okay, time or my biggest beef:

Haarlep pissed me off almost enough to stop playing the game. not in a purity way, but in a "this is just bad writing" way

i mean, your options are to kill him or fuck him. that's not consent. and when you agree to fuck him, you have to roll several checks to keep him from killing you. then he steals your likeness so that whenever he has sex with someone else, you have a spontaneous orgasm

i wanted to dismiss it as dead dove, but the point of dead dove is that 1) it is labeled, and there was no indication whatsoever i was about to walk into this, and 2) dead dove implies the creator is aware that the content is filth for filth's sake. i saw no evidence that that quest was anything more than the sniffing panties buff of D:OS2

the sadist in the goblin camp? that's good filth. you have a little public BDSM demo that you can easily nope out of, and if you finish it you get a permanent buff. your companions have fun things to say. and there's no major quest attached to it, so you can completely walk past it. and the Drow twins were the same. and Mizora. just horny content for players who enjoy that kind of thing, and easily disregarded for players who don't. i don't understand why Haarlep had to be different

like, you're looking around for the hammer. you come across Haarlep, who is bored and wants to have fun with you. maybe he offers the promise of a buff that will help in the coming battle with the Absolute. if your romanced character is in the party, you have a dialogue option to talk to them about it first. maybe in parting, he gives you a hint about where to find the hammer, and it's in a completely different room

but no, you *have* to interact with him to advance the quest, can't talk your way out of it, and it leaves you with a skeevy pseudo-debuff

when i went to look it up, i saw so many forum posts of people being like, hmm this made me really uncomfortable, and (presumably) men responding, it was consensual! you have the option to kill him! and it's frightening that so many people think that way

also when you have a female Tav and you choose a male Haarlep, the animation doesn't change to account for the position. Haarlep straddles you the whole time. and that just made me interpret the scene as a male succubus rape fantasy

and your companions have to WATCH. and they don't intervene or even say anything about it. if you've romanced Astarion and he's in your party, you get one point of disapproval and that's it. like he wouldn't have an Opinion over that kind of coercion? i saw some youtube videos and know that he says something about it much later when you spontaneously orgasm, but that's it

i hope there's something i'm missing, and someone will come into my ask and go "ummm actually" and tell me some important factoid of game development that will make me interpret the scene differently

i ended up resetting and just not doing the House of Hope questline. i didn't bother with the hammer, either. honestly the whole Githyanki plot confused me and i was more invested in my conflict with the Emperor. i ended up siding with him and killing Orpheus so that no one would have to turn into a mindflayer. i was expecting to have to persuade him out of taking the crown himself, but he just noped off for some reason

this is another thing i wonder if i missed. i never understood his motivations or goals beyond "protect you" and "manipulate you." so he's Balduran and he killed his dragon and...what else? to what end? it would have been more satisfying to me if he planned to take the crown for himself but decides not to because of the bond he's forged with you. but maybe i can interpret it that way anyway

yes i fucked the Emperor

but i fucked him in Guardian form

like a COWARD

i was very torn about all the characters' final decisions. in the end, i kept Jenheart and spawn Astarion. i let Wyll and Karlach choose for themselves (and loved their ending together). i couldn't prioritize Gale or Lae'zel this playthrough because i was focused on too many other things, and i got their bad endings (although i ended on good terms with Lae'zel despite killing Orpheus?)

i played as a beast master ranger (i mained a beast master hunter in WoW for years) and i've seen in several places on the internet that it's supposedly the worst subclass, but let me tell you...

the bird companion. nobody is talking about the bird companion. by the end, it has two actions, the ability to blind, and your bird can call in two more birds. you can have a total of FOUR BIRDS

the red dragon in the final battle? couldn't do shit. it spent the entire time blinded by my bird. nearly everyone on the battlefield was dead by the end, but my bird still had over 50% of its HP. the bird is BROKEN

in my I'm Just Ken playthrough, i'm going to multiclass Shadowheart into a raven girl. the birds spoiled me and i can't imagine playing without them now

it's weird to me that there's penis physics but no boob physics. did anyone else notice that? you wiggle the male avatar and the dick moves. you wiggle the female avatar and her boobs are like rocks. even when she's lying down, the boobs stay exactly as they are

listen, i have a lot of complaints. the bugs made the game nearly unplayable for me. i know they're putting out patches fast, but i think it'll still be years before i would recommend this game to someone who is on the fence about playing it. if you're not immediately dropping everything to fuck the hot sad vampire, you might as well wait until the game is cleaner at like hotfix 856

BUT

i've never experienced anything like this game. every decision matters. every character has a story. there are so many potential paths and opportunities that it's literally impossible for the fan wiki to be completely accurate. i cried at least 4 times, and by the end, saying goodbye to Karlach, i was actually sobbing. i'm old enough now to know that these states of immersion into fictional worlds are rarer than they used to be, and i'm so grateful to this game for giving me so many hours of fun and escape

unlike books, movies, and tv, where i get invested and move on and rarely read or watch anything twice, video games are always such a learning curve for me that when i get into a game, i stay there. i have thousands of hours into Genshin and SDV, and i have a feeling BG3 will be the same. this game is so, so flawed, but it's ambitious beyond any narrative i've ever encountered, and i really admire it for that

i would love to find a Discord server for it that's not overwhelmingly huge, just the people writing fic and making art. it's been a long time since i've been involved in a fandom and i really miss it

#bg3

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sephirajo · 1 year

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I'm cracking up the way this happened with my Bard Durge... going for Astarion's romance and he propositioned Niobe RIGHT AFTER she helped him kill Gendrel. You could just hear him thinking 'this little insane half-elf is willing to kill for me, way too trusting and occasionally commits the random stab happy murder for no reason. She's easily the most broken of all of us this will be EASY AND FUN." The 'oh crap' he has later will just be so funny.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 durge #bg3 astarion #astarion #the dark urge #bg3 oc #her name is niobe #and she's a mess trying to be a good person

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wufflesvetinari · 7 months

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finished with dorothea's run 😭😭😭 pictured: space-skyping from the space war (also got a Meaningful Haircut after fighting orin)

stuff and things:

she quickly agreed to give orpheus his honorable death, but the animation showed she took no joy in doing so--i really like that as a symbolic ending for a redeemed durge who hasn't eschewed violence/her talent for violence, but now wields it intentionally and without glee (or at least, like. a manageable amount of glee)

i'm INSANE about lae'zel calling herself the Comet. in our last run she stayed in faerun, which is a super sweet ending for her also and i like them both about equally, but i am just. so proud of her as the Literal Savior Of Her People in this one 😭

also it's really nice that after however many months of lae'zel trying to keep dorothea out of trouble/generally supporting her through her drama, dorothea is now happily playing second fiddle to her king arthur wife. and they made each other better the whole way through

also i feel like the Space War ending really jives with withers' comment that there's no true rest for someone like durge. she's out there mercilessly decapitating evil regimes but it'll be a long time before she is able to just like. Go Home.

which makes shadowheart's ending such a nice contrast!! last time she moted her parents, and i was not prepared for how much more i like her ending with them alive. the cottage! the bazillion animals! the dad jokes. fucking hysterical that she's trying these out on dorothea the bard. it's so cute to imagine her like "oh, i know who likes puns!!! she'll be so proud of me!!!!"

astarion's non-romanced adventurer ending is so good. he told dorothea he was proud of her!! and had a conversation about defining his own future in a way that, as always with him, parallels with resistant durge very well

karlach was maybe a bit bugged here; we left on the dragons so i guess she went to avernus off-screen? didn't step out of the party portal with wyll and they didn’t talk about each other lol. but i went and did the non-space-war ending, just to compare, and holy shit the theme arrangement that plays when she's down there with him is such a banger

i do agree that durge is just...hooked into the plot and themes better than tav is. there's pros and cons there, because it's nice to freeform imagine your own tav (i love lash so much and am glad i started with her) but durge's writing does so much more integration for you

hypothetically, my next effort would be finishing my astarion origin. even more hypothetically, i want to be a tiny evil bastard gnome who romances minthara, and do a lae'zel origin. but there are only so many hours in my life

#bg3 #bg3 spoilers

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scoutpologist · 2 months

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gonna try and install no romance limit for my durge run so i can do both gale and astarion cause i think that throuple would be insane

#op

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asikaia · 1 year

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I’ve finally finished baldur’s gate 3!! This is absolutely one of my all time favorite games now, and the replay ability is insane, I already have 4 more ongoing characters and plans for many more) but I do honestly have some gripes about the endings. (Spoilers ahead)

Like, I get that it’s unrealistic that everything turns out well and everyone is completely fine, but at the same time, it’s a video game, let me be a delusional people pleaser and give everyone their best endings. I’m actually also really annoyed that if you free Orpheus, like I did, you have no choice and have to become a mind flayer (which, in retrospect is in line for Dahlia’s character, as she’s so self sacrificing to make up for her past mistakes that of course she would do this to save her friends and the world) but then if you don’t free Orpheus, you lose Lae’zel and Karlach?? Which again, I get losing Lae’zel, though I just wanna have every companion be fine and do what they want to do.

Thankfully I was mostly happy with the rest of the character endings I got, though I don’t think I should’ve encouraged Lae’zel to follow Orpheus at the end because she looked like she regretted it and wanted to stay, which absolutely broke my heart. And I’m also a little upset at the complete lack of closure my character, Dahlia got with Astarion after romancing him. I chose to follow Karlach and Wyll to Avernus, which otherwise, I would be happy with, and I don’t know if I would’ve gotten more closure if I didn’t follow them, and let them go ahead.

But other than these little gripes I have, it was of course such a wonderful experience playing this game, and I cannot wait to explore all the possibilities. I’m already super excited to fully start playing my full Durge Evil run, though at the same time, I know it’s gonna hurt.

#baldur’s gate 3 #baldur’s gate spoilers #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #baldurs gate tav #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 posting #bg3 spoilers #bg3 ending #baldur’s gate 3 ending #bg3 ending spoilers #bg3 durge

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imageingrunge · 1 year

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So um got to that scene w asatrion,……….its a whole thing

so like an immense sense of guilt followed me thru the durge playthrough cuz of what happened in last light inn, which I wouldn't have even felt THAT bad abt if I hadn't tried really hard to save Jahiera and the nightsong. Like I am the reason she had to kill her girlfriend n I feel so bad about that I don’t even go near her side of camp……..sheesh n don’t get me started on jahiera like she deserved a warriors death I literally obliterated the harpers n then I take her w me to baldur's gate n orin wipes out the rest like I am her Judas

THEN we get to the murder tribunal that’s when I found out what happens to a bhaal spawn when they die; they become servants of their lord and technically their souls go back into bhaal so he is resurrected- and that durge is a being born from an immaculate conception, an antichrist like figure- this has been in the back of my mind while playing like damn when we die we are NOT seeing those pearly gates.

And then we went to cazador- I got this dialogue with him, since I romanced him n was like no, no we arent going to let him ascend this time its an insane choice! This 'to care is to live again' would not have hit the same if I wasn’t playing durge!! It in perfectly incapsulates my entire experience its why Rhena didn’t fuck everyone over to be the last woman alive to rule over a dead world- as Amelyssan (Bhaal's former priestess) would've done like damn w an evil durge ending Rhena could've become a messiah like figure in the bhaal cult- the power she couldve received from it, makes a nice parallel with Astarion n Cazador- was it worth it? I am HAUNTED BY consequences astarion shouldn’t be!! its like they say you may start the walk towards power as a person of dignity but ultimately you end it as a gnat

Also the way he FUCKING CRIES IM DEAD AAAAA

#2000000 out of 10 storytelling in this game #im still blind in this play thru i do not look at peoples theories n stuff so this is just how i feel in the moment this game mannnn #Just enough freedom n flow for you to interpret what you like about your tav n these characters without boxing you in to a set good or bad #I still do like the ascendant ending because he can still live in the sun but it doesnt work this time #astarion is one of my top choices for durge romance rn #i gotta be up 5 tomorrow but im staring at the ceiling thinking about this whole thing #they defo fucked nasty on that grave #bg3 #bg3 Rhenawedd

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a1t-alt · 8 months

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LONG PERSONAL POST - BG3 AND HOW I PLAY IT (SPOILERS /gen)

Hi okay so I'm fucking insane and I NEED to tell SOMEONE because I'm being bullied to hell (deserved) by my close friends over this- I am an incredibly slow gamer and I’m very particular about how I play. Save scumming? I don’t know what you mean. Romancing literally anyone that isn't Astarion? I'm pretty sure that isn't real but a lie made up by Larian Studios to convince more people to play the game (/j). It's literally the only thing I play ever anymore.. besides Minecraft, but I digress.

I got BG3 in the middle of September (2023) through game share, and started by playing with my brother and his boyfriend with mods! I didn't get to play much of that character, but that's not the point okay. Okay the point is- a few things actually. Let me start with-

My first time playing BG3 was modded. I played MAYBE 3 hours on that character. They were gorgeous and unfortunately they no longer exist. I spent more than half of that time making them. They were a dragonborn and I don't remember for certain? But I Think they were just a Tav, not Durge. Unfortunately their name is also lost to the cosmos :( Here are a couple of the very few pictures I have of them!

I made a few characters at first, let's say like.. 5? Two were Durge, the others Tavs. 3 of those 5 got maybe a maximum of 6 hours each, never made it into the Emerald Grove. I think.. I'm pretty sure all but 1 went through the ruins and got Withers. The 4th one, my main and New Very Cool And Awesome Black Dragonborn Barbarian Durge™ got up to!! I believe it was up to 38 hours? I had done only a few things though! I had taken care of Kagha (no kill, I convinced her to not side with the shadow druids, she didn't hurt Arabella), I had gone through and done pretty much everything in the Emerald Grove? I saved Mirkon, I saved Arabella, I played it up with Volo, I killed the squirrel, I saved the tiefling from being assassinated and got a coin out of it (sick, was completely unintentional, I didn't like her much), bought stuff from the kids and all kinds of other things- you get it. I had gone through the blighted village, went through Waukeen’s Rest (but idk if I saw the Zhentarim with this character), killed the big spider, looted so many things, killed Ethal, revived Mayrina’s husband, found infernal iron, saved Karlach after save scumming her death and getting the fire armour for Wyll but it's okay because she was Fine After- *gasp* I got her engine upgraded once, and the very very last things I did was defeat the gobbo camp then kill Minthara and Dror Ragzlin (and Gut ofc, but I killed her first). I was in the middle of the party with the tieflings! I saved before anything happened, so I didn't see the fun stuff, but uh.. yeah, I ended up resetting my game, deleting all my mods and such to play with my partner. So went the days with my darling Melaqyn :’))) I miss them all of the everyday actually. Unfortunately I can't find any pictures of them :(( so here's some pictures of another of my early dragonborns, Sesaphael (name graciously yoinked from my partner's OC).

After I lost Melaqyn (which if I'm honest, I didn't actually lose them. I just didn't have the mods anymore and really didn't want to corrupt the file) I ended up making a few random characters- by a few I mean.. like 10, but only 2 or 3 survived. I made a couple also for playing with people, which were based on my own characters, so they were a little bit special? I started a game with a DND character I had made a year or two ago, who has the Haunted One background lmao- their name is Skulk- I'd show pictures but I'm really not that proud of how they look anymore >< I kinda floated for a bit in between games- I was playing all the time, but never settling- I was genuinely mourning Melaqyn.

Determined to get back on my feet with a character for real, I made a tiefling, named them “Ammarir”. They were supposed to look a bit like me, sort of like playing myself? Just a Tav though, which I regret to be honest but! There's always more time- I've been playing Ammarir since October 4th! They’re vanilla, so it was nice to not have to worry about corrupting their file. I started playing them slow at first, in between other campaigns, but I did keep coming back to them. Here are some early game pictures!

I was very quickly falling in love with them, and as soon as the mirror got added holy SHIT- I'VE CHANGED THEIR APPEARANCE SO MUCH OVER TIME NOW- Here are a couple early pictures from right after the mirror was introduced!

As I've made progress in the storyline with them, I've been having vitiligo spread slowly over their body- they don't have it here but will in upcoming pictures. I played and played and played and I'd done a ton of completionist type shit with their campaign (futile I know) until I finally got to the same amount of hours. It was insane, I wasn't as far into the game as I was with Melaqyn- I hadn't even made it to the gobbo camp yet. It took me 47 hours to make it there, and I knew this time around that Minthara was a companion. However, I did kill her, and I did keep her body in my camp, and It Is Still in my traveller's chest.

I started getting anxious about playing, about the idea of making progress, of missing anything, of saying something wrong or fighting when I shouldn't have. I didn't want to look anything up because I wanted it to be fun and a surprise.. but I also made myself look things up because I couldn't handle the thought of getting things wrong. I had heard Astarion was hard to romance, so I used a guide for So Many interactions, with him and with him around. He's been a permanent party member (save for when I'm working on the others and have to trade people out for a moment, but even then I usually keep him in the party). Pictures from before the party! (They're taken a small time apart, and I only know because you can't see vitiligo on the first one.)

The prospect of playing the game became so daunting, I ended up spending a lot of time just mucking about and sorting my inventory and collecting items and finding nothingness so I didn't have to move on. I finally got a push from my partner to talk with Zevlor about the party, and we did it! And it was awesome! And Astarion was very pleased with me! Alfira was there! I really liked the party. Even after that though, I didn't really.. move on. I ended up going through the underdark and at ~70 hours, I finished everything down there, everything else in the main Act 1 space, and finally ventured to the crèche. I didn't spend a lot of time there to be honest, jumping back and forth between it and the Emerald Grove to sell things, buy things, the likes. I managed to sneak out the back of the crèche and not fight anyone (except the guys waiting in the room where Vlakith was) so I moved on and got out of there because those guys are tough, and I'm not good at combat lmao. I made a lot of changes between the tiefling party and just after the crèche, so here's a little run down! (Gotta love the zaith'isk)

I've only recently made it into Act 2, early December I think. I've hardly done anything as far as I know. I saved Isobel (reloaded a couple times bc I am NOT hurting Dammon <3), talked to He-Who-Was (I've not done his quest yet but I agreed to), I've taken care of the tollhouse (literally like not even a week ago), spoke with Raphael in the Inn, as well as now just past the House of Healing, I did some dark justiciar stuff with Shart, killed Kar'niss (sadge u-u), saved Arabella again, a couple other things I'm sure and I'm currently going through the House of Healing-

Real quick I want to add- I had a few weeks where I couldn't bring myself to play Ammarir. I didn't (and still don't) know what lies ahead in the story and I just. Couldn't. I decided one night, a week or two ago now, that I want mods again. Mostly just visual stuff, I love the customization in this game, and I wanted a little more freedom. I also discovered the beautiful basket full of equipment mod and I've been very much enjoying the sick as fuck armour B) I didn't want to load up their game at first, since I made them to be! A vanilla campaign! But I thought.. “I'm not having fun and this feels like a chore. We can play with the mods and see how it goes!” And holy SHIT I've been having so much more fun :’)

As of writing this, I'm at 114+ hours on Ammarir's playthrough. I've had the scenes with Gale and Wyll, didn't uhh.. I wasn't interested in Gale (but I'd be lying if I said I didn't go through with it and reload-) but I went through with the kiss with Wyll! Which finally sparked the single neuron that's still alive in Astarion's soiled pants (/a) of a brain to bring up the nature of our relationship. Here's some pictures from some of my most recent gameplay (in order of oldest to newest, over the span of like 9 days).

This all got away from me- I really did just mean to say that I am a very slow player. My brother’s boyfriend has beaten the game, got farther than I am in less than 24 hours which is insane to me. I suppose now at the bottom of this all, I should tell you how many hours I have in the game in total. Mind you, where Ammarir is now, is as far as I've seen the game.

(Everything prior to this text was written on January 21st, 2024. The latter has written on February 12th, 2024)

Having mistakenly left this to simmer a little too long, I now have 431.2 hours in the game. Ammarir is now in early Act 3, with 158+ hours, and boy do I have some things to add since I wrote all of that.

Picking up where I left off, I did most everything in Act 2! I’ve realised that in doing the Last Light Inn quest things early in Act 2, I missed some interactions :( One, I didn’t get to play chess with Mol and Raphael (I actually don’t know what happens in that interaction at all- I haven’t seen it anywhere and I don’t really want to seek it out. I’ll see it eventually). Two, I think I spoke to Rolan at Last Light about his siblings, but I never saw him again after that. I didn’t know I should’ve looked for him until after I did the Nightsong quest. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be, and I had a broken quest which sucks, but it’s okay.

I saved all the tiefs and dwarves from Moonlight Towers- but let me go back a little. I did pretty much every single thing possible in the Shadow Cursed Lands, and! I went back to the Creche and destroyed everyone (bc I’m a loot goblin and I couldn’t leave all those goodies behind ToT). With the Creche cleared out, I sort of just went between the Emerald Grove, Last Light Inn and the Thorm family businesses™ for a handful of reasons.

There were two things in particular that I really wanted to do with Ammarir’s playthrough, which were collecting every single skull and head I could get my hands on, and unlocking every edge of the map, everywhere I went. I’m sure I’ve missed many a head, and some spots on the maps were impossible to get to, but I’ve done my best.

It’s been a minute since I’ve added pictures, and my babe changed a lot through the Shadow Cursed Lands, so here’s a few pics!

By this point I’d finished everything in Moonrise and got myself prepared for Act 3- well sort of. I knew that I was reaching the end of Act 2, but I didn’t know anything about the transition in between? So I was wrapping all of my quests up, trying to find Rolan, looking for anything I could- realising too late that I didn’t and couldn’t bring my brain jars from the Nautiloid into Moonrise with me- after killing Ketherik. But it’s okay, I have them both neatly set aside on another campaign. Anyhow, I saved Dame Aylin, and she and Isobel are in my camp now, happily by one another’s side again. Shart has her snowy hair, and a very pretty white and gold makeup look to match, and I went to the road to Baldur’s Gate.

In camp, I was going through some of the clothes I had picked up- found a pair of pants, that are just.. pants? No shirt? I thought it would be funny if I had Ammarir wear those as camp clothes and uh.. Immediately went into the cutscene to start Act 3 ToT. So I have some pictures of them just.. topless, looking out over the city. I reloaded, changed them into something more comfortable and appropriate, and went through the cutscene again. These are pictures from leaving the Shadow Cursed Lands, entering the Act 3 intro, and the beginning of the scene in the Astral Prism.

I had no idea what to expect!! I didn’t know that Gith came after us at camp, I didn’t know that I had to go into the prism and fight, I didn’t know that I was going to meet The Emperor yet! It had been kind of a long fucking time since the last time I saw my gaurdian, so I genuinely wasn’t sure when it was going to happen. I did figure out that my guardian was The Emperor early on in playing the game- not entirely spoiled for me by stuff online or by friends, but genuinely just.. Finding out that The Emperor exists in the Astral Plane kind of tickled my brain an odd way lmao.

Now, I had been waiting a long, long time for this event- I knew nothing about how it happened, but talking with The Emperor and getting the astral-touched parasite was something I was Very Excited to have happen. I didn’t know it happened at the beginning of Act 3- though I didn’t know when it was going to happen at all, so it’s not saying much to be honest. Like I said, I was waiting for this, and I very graciously accepted this gift. Quite hastily perhaps even- when I started Ammarir’s game, I had no intention of using the Mindflayer abilities At All! But how could I turn down the offer? I’d begun using the abilities rather frequently by the time I entered Act 2, and by the end I was pretty juiced up on worms frankly. Here’s Ammarir after using the parasite!

I wasn’t alone in my venture either, I wanted to share this with my companions- of course- but I wasn’t going to Make Anyone do something they didn’t want to do. I spoke with Astarion first, considering he and Ammarir are together, what he thought. He was heavily against it for himself, and y’know what? Fair! I don’t plan on having him “evolve” at all, not past normal parasites. Gale I spoke to and he wasn’t opposed, but wasn’t for it. I convinced him pretty easy peasy and now he’s joined in on the fun! Skipping to Lae’zel, I did convince her to use the astral-touched parasite as well, and I’m not even a little sorry. She looks fucking awesome, and she’s so powerful TwT Gonna put just a couple pics of them in here, as a treat~ (before And after)

Considering I didn't evolve Astarion and don't plan to, I wasn't planning on posting pictures of him here- and I've reached my image limit, or I would 10000% show him here. Unfortunately though, I can't, but if anyone wants to see him, I'll post some pictures of him and Ammarir separately <3

As of writing this, I’ve not gotten very far into Act 3. In Rivington now- donated to the Flaming Fist for the refugees, spoken to a handful of folks around, was granted access to the circus (but I’ve not gone in yet) and I traded with the shady fucker who trades “antiques”. I’ve also run into Orin! The blacksmith’s shop is really cute, I’m absolutely in love with Exxvikyap 🥺 Seeing all the Baldurians who absentmindedly look up to Gortash is giving me whiplash (I’ve hated the guy since BEFORE I started playing ToT Fuck him).

Anyway, I could go on and on and on forever, but I think.. I think I will finish this off here, for now. If I end up updating this in the future, I’ll be more timely about it- After all, I did just pick up a Durge OC campaign that I’ve been wanting to do for months.

#BG3 #Baldur's Gate 3 #spoilers #BG3 spoilers #Baldur's Gate 3 spoilers #Tav #BG3 Tav #Gale Dekarios #Lae'zel #The Emperor #Astarion #BG3 mods #Was gonna have this peer reviewed but I promised to post it tonight so no beta we die like Alfira #I need therapy #I'm too gay to play this game I'm obsessed ToT /pos #bg3 act 1 spoilers #bg3 act 2 spoilers #bg3 act 3 spoilers

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lucyghoul · 9 months

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the thing is. i want to play a unique durge so i can go full cult leader insanity but im constitutionally incapable of playing anyone but caolinn rn. but durge caolinn is an epic tragedy that requires emotional damage on my part. but i can’t romance astarion with anyone else thats cheating. problems im having

#im insanw #however i ascended astarion my first run so maybe they can only be epic tragedy #meanwhile abby still hasn’t even finished one playthrough #lyra and astarion live forever

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malklavian · 8 months

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thinking about my bg3 playthrough (ass-cended ass-tarion and durge thoughts-dump, some spoilers)

ascended ass-tarion got me feeling things, such a perfect match with my durge. que me just sighing dreamily of this evil as FUCK, UNHINGED duo.

so I RPed my Durge to be at first scared shitless of his mysterious urges, acting nice and heroic and doing good deeds as kind of like a way to surpress those feelings and act normal, focus on his empathy and use it to help people, tho secretly enjoying the bloodbath of his own creation, and the two of them in the beginning had these tense interactions and i'm pretty sure they could each sense in one another that they were fake as fuck, hiding behind these pretty, elaborate masks and lying through their teeth, and still kind of dancing around one another in this intriguing game of guessing, push and pull, seduction

and then as time goes on they both gradually let down their guards and both basically find out they're quite similar, and as durge learns of his bhaal stuff and astarion ascends they both ease into being unapologetically power-hungry and unhinged and obviously have huge control and dominance and obsession issues, and they bring out the best and the absolute worst in each other and throughout all their flaws and shortcomings... they accept one another as they are even when all others leave their side, and i think that's beautiful... as far as dark fictional romances go. ofc they're both completely off the rails in actuality, toxic as all FUCK beyond one's wildest imagination, like when they get into fights over the stupidest shit and it lasts for fucking decades or whatever and then they get back together again only to backstab each other again soon enough. they probably break up at least a dozen a times a century but they always come crawling right back to one another. tho the s3x they have down the line must be absolutely fucking insane, my god...

and also idc about canon, I just know that my durge ascended astarion and took the gift but did not become his slave or anything

i just imagine the scene going on where astarion is more or less convinced durge is gonna kneel and take it, then just durge grabs him by the jaw and is like 'know your place baby vampire you forget yourself, i made you and i could still end you in an instant' and then they almost kill each other but they don't, and eventually durge caves (durge loves to be slapped around hard every once in a while, come on) and then later on durge controls the brain but gives his allies and those worthy free will, and astarion realises again that he once again is subservient to someone and that kind of stings heh but oh well- it's never impossible to make changes to the arrangements again, if one plays their cards right...

actually i think my durge would give nearly everyone free will just for entertainment (kind of like playing sims and turning on free will and watching them piss themselves and die in their own kitchen fires) up until people start getting a bit too disobedient for his liking

and then of course he'd get too cocky and too in love with his own existence and power and murder, and some brave adventurers eventually take him down and he goes down gloriously. and then it's astarion to the rescue, because as much as they bring out the worst in one another, they're absolutely fucking obsessed with each other. they very much have serious issues but they have all of eternity to work through that, or get even WORSE

now that would be an interesting idea if i ever decide to develop a mini dnd campaign. the evil twink demi god villain and his vampire lord bf the power couple who rule an entire realm. kind of like the whole thing with strahd

or maybe it's canon for my durge that he gets so cocky that he defies daddy murder god at some point, either by destroying the brain or something else, and then is stuck in that bad bhaal ending and hunts and begs his friends to kill him. that's such a disturbing ending, i love it. idk if astarion would want to keep him in that state, too much trouble, he'd either give the mercy kill he yearns for or obsessively search for the cure and tear the whole world asunder in the process, depending on when and how that exactly happens

such a fucking DISASTER, i love it. people usually say that ass-cended ass-tarion is bad for him but idk, i dig the narrative. and at first i felt bad about my character 'suddenly' turning evil because it seemed ooc due to how 'good-aligned' he was up to the bhaal reveal but i explain it to myself that he even had ME fooled with this act of being a reedemable good guy he had going on. all around a very interesting playthrough, gg

#lu screams #bg3

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