#saga of the Bad Opinion Haver

[spaghettithighs]

The Bad Opinion Haver has a bad opinion: the worst tier list in existence.

(or at least the worst tier list I've seen in the last 3 to 5 business days)

So... I have beef. It's a silly beef, but I have it nonetheless. I've mentioned Lily Orchard the Bad Opinion Haver a few times before, and her uncanny ability to get under my skin. Right now, of all her myriad Bad Opinions(TM) my ire is drawn mostly to this:

Per the original description:

My wife (Lily) and I (Mikaila) made a tierlist for Baldur's Gate companions.

Before you jump to your keyboards to react, we judged them based on the following criteria.

Viability in a party

Relevance to the story

Their own character story

Their romance (if applicable)

The quality of content surrounding them

They were only tiered based on games they were a companion in (so Ajantis in BG2 and Viconia in BG3 weren't considered).

And they were tiered evenly, so if they were really strong in one area but weak in the others, they were tiered lower. So S Tier is high marks in everything, while RP tier is "Literally every other character in their respective game is better than them, only take them if you're roleplaying."

Now, of the Baldurs Gate CRPG series, I have only played BG3 to completion. I'm currently halfway through Baldur's Gate 1 (specifically the Enhanced Edition), and I haven't touched BG2 or Siege of Dragonspear yet. Regardless, I feel comfortable in saying the above tier list is one of the worst tier lists I've seen, and the reasons why have nothing to do with the specific placement of any character.

So, what makes it so awful? Well:

Reason one:

There, I fixed it (but not really)

The tier list ranks 57 characters from four separate games in a series, with the first game in the series having been published 25 years before the most recent one. That is a lot of characters for anyone to remember, and yet Lily Orchard didn't so much as bother to include their names, let alone the games that they appear in. (now, you could argue that this tier list is meant for people who already recognize all of the Baldurs Gate characters from portraits alone. That would be a fair assumption, if it weren't for the fact that 17 of the 57 characters above are not represented by their official Baldurs Gate artwork. In fact, I'm not 100% certain that I got all of the characters correct in my labelling - it's possible that I mixed up 2 or more characters, because I am working purely off of the information provided in the original tier list, which is... not a lot)

Reason 2: The criteria for this tier list are too broad.

To recap, we have 57 different characters from 4 different games, and they're being rated on 5 separate criteria:

Viability in a party (in other words, mechanical effectiveness)

Relevance to the story

Their own character story

Their romance (if applicable)

The quality of content surrounding them (we'll get back to this one)

Any one of these criteria would make for a good tier list... by itself. By ranking characters on all 5 at once, the reasoning for placing each character in each position becomes more muddied, especially when you withhold the information that would lead to each character being where they are. ... Okay, I said I wasn't going to get too into the specific placements of any character, but to illustrate my points I will bring up one example; Dynaheir is present in the S tier of this list, which implies that she scores exceptionally well in all 5 categories. So let's run through them quickly:

Mechanical Effectiveness: Dynaheir is certainly a good character in BG1, but her effectiveness is hampered by the same thing that hampers all mages in BG1 - limited spell selection due to low character level. For the first 4 or so levels she'll spend most of the time parked behind the tanky front-liners, mooching off of XP from the mundane fights until she's ready to bring out the big guns at 5th level. If you do use her spells in every fight, you're going to be resting a lot, and that brings its own complications in BG1.

Relevance to the story: Strictly speaking, none of the BG1 companions are essential to the story, not even Imoen. The game has 25 optional characters, and you'll be bringing at most 5 along with you at any given time. That's just not a lot of opportunity for deep character interaction.

Their own character story: Dynaheir will occasionally banter with Minsc, but the only quest relevant to her in BG1 is the one in which you first encounter her, and that could be argued to be Minsc's personal quest first and foremost. Then comes Baldurs Gate 2... and she's dead. :/

Their romance: Dyna's not romanceable, so this does not apply.

The quality of content surrounding them: I said we'll get back to this one. Be patient.

Now, to be fair, I did ask Lily directly why Dynaheir is in S tier, and here is her response:

"She's in S Tier because Mages are S Tier. Especially in BG1 with the Sleep/Web combo."

Okay, so Dynaheir is in S tier exclusively for mechanical reasons. Only... if that were the case:

Why are other mages from Baldurs Gate 1 (Edwin, Xzar, Quayle and Xan) not also in S tier with Dynaheir?

Is Lily aware that Dynaheir, who is barred from casting Enchantment spells, cannot cast Sleep?

I'm sure if I asked Lily about every other character in the tier list, I'd get a similar explanation that would lead to similar follow-up questions. However, I can't help but assume that the list's ambiguity is the whole point; Lily doesn't want these opinions to be open to debate.

Reason 3: The criteria for this tier list don't apply equally to every Baldur's Gate game

Let's cycle back to that first point; party viability / mechanical effectiveness. In Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 this is pretty important, because characters in these games are locked into the choices made at character creation. (this could lead to a whole separate discussion about accessibility in RPGs and "the burden of foreknowledge", but I digress). Aerie will always be a Cleric/Mage, Alora will always be a Thief, Khalid will always be a simp for Jaheira et cetera, so if you want a balanced party, you will have to consider the mechanical benefits of each character, as well as their banter and individual story beats.

In Baldur's Gate 3, you can change any companion's whole class at any time for 100 gold pieces.

In other words, the first criteria (Mechanical effectiveness) is completely irrelevant to Baldurs Gate 3 characters.

Before you say that shouldn't matter; every companion in Baldur's Gate 3 has unique dialog options for the Bard-only cantrip Vicious Mockery, and unique roars when entering a Barbarian rage. The ability to adjust any origin PC's class and abilities is a fully supported and wholly intentional part of the game, and should be considered as such when creating a tier list such as this one. Especially when you consider what else this tier list accounts for:

Reason 4: This tier list is based on heavily modded versions of each game.

Hey, remember that last point that I kept saying we'd get back to? Here it is again:

The quality of content surrounding (the character)

By content, Lily Orchard is referring to mods.

This isn't a matter of speculation; Lily Orchard is very open about the mods she uses when playing Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and even 3. Notably, Lily has often claimed that the Imoen Romance Mod (a mod that allows you to romance your own half-sister) is one of the greatest romances of all time. Given that Imoen is S-tier in Lily Orchard's rankings, and that romance is one of the list's criteria, the aforementioned mod has definitely made an impact on the tier list.

I'm not here to begrudge Lily's decision to play the Baldur's Gate games with mods, that's her choice as a consumer of media. As a reviewer, though, she should absolutely be basing her opinions off of un-modded content. Otherwise, the game that she plays could be (and demonstrably is) radically different to the game that a follower is playing.

Let me put it another way: several of the companions in Baldurs Gate 1 come in pairs - if you recruit one, the other joins automatically (or after a short quest). Dismiss one, and the other leaves with them. It's possible to travel with only one of the pair (usually by letting the unwanted character die and then dismissing the corpse) but the expectation is that you play with both, or with neither.

Lily has tiered the members of these pairings separately in the above tier list -because- you can play with separate characters via the above method. Now, if I were to install a mod that makes it so that paired characters will always leave if their dead companion is dismissed, that would impact the tier list above - an S tier character isn't going to be S tier if they're permanently attached to dead weight, after all. You could argue that this shouldn't matter, because I'm basing my opinions on a fully optional mod - and you'd be absolutely right.

The other reason to disqualify a tier list based on mods is one of self-selection. As previously mentioned, the Imoen Romance Mod has definitely influenced Lily's rankings, but I daresay that she included it because she likes Imoen in the first place. To that extent, what's to say that Lily hasn't specifically included modded content for characters she already enjoys playing? Neera the Wild Mage is in F-tier because Lily doesn't like the random nature of Wild Magic surges, but what's to stop her from adding a "good outcomes for Wild Magic only" mod, other than the fact that she already doesn't like Neera?

In Conclusion:

This tier list is bad. It's bad because it's incomprehensible, it's bad because it's indefensible, and it's bad because it's based on a version of Baldur's Gate that you will never play.

Tier lists by their very nature invite discussion - there is no tier list on the internet that won't spark up some level of disagreement, after all. And yet, by its obstinate ambiguity, this tier list has tried its damnedest to stifle any and all discussion on its core subject - forcing me to discuss, instead, just how much it fucking sucks.

Thank you for reading.

PS: I may as well share who my current BG1 party is comprised of - by Lily's metric, I have 2 S-tiers, a D-tier, an F-tier and one RP-tier. We're having fun~

[velvetvexations]

youve talked abt this before i believe, and i dont want to come across as patronizing and if it sounds that way please don't take it to heart and feel free to ignore/shut it down

i think queer discourse has an addictive quality in the way that anger is addicting. i struggle with anger issues myself and this was something that was and still is really hard for me to balance. how much of my engagement in queer theory is actually in the theory vs how much of it is getting into arguments that are bad faith from the beginning with people who do not respect [insert discourse topic du jour here] as real theory or real people to begin with.

and that like. drags you fucking down, you know? i get anxious, all the time, and my partner has to be like "you need to take a break" for it to hit that im developing an unhealthy relationship with theory on tumblr, specifically. and that's even with me ACTIVELY AVOIDING tags related to t/ransandrophobia and exclusively engaging w it via people whos opinions i respect directly. it's way harder when you actively trawl those tags.

what im getting at is that to other people that trawl those tags the same way, the aforementioned Bad Faith Argument Havers, when they see you there frequently you get a reputation as someone who is looking for fights to get into. which is kinda shitty tbh on their end to then be like "i know who you are" all judgemental and shit when they at the Very Least also follow people that actively stir up shit in the tags on purpose. which isnt really what you do, you respond in kind, i think? or thats my perception of it, at least.

i guess tldr it may be good to check in w people who care about u every so often who can help pull you back when it's taking a serious hit to your health -- maybe you already have measures in place its not like i would know lol. but the people that have u preemptively blocked likely just dont want to see those arguments all the time (in which case they should unfollow the people Starting those arguments lmfao but what do i know)... i dont think its indicative that youre a Bad Person or whatever, its just a symptom of The Wretched Disk Horse

Thank you. <3 It just struck me as weird since they seem to have the same opinions about me on those subjects, I was going to reblog posts about them, so I just got really curious about what might have prompted it from two different people who seem to otherwise be on my side in the Discourse Trenches. It really could be something totally unrelated.

But earlier today I did get just a little self-conscious and start worrying about the way I talk or engage with things, that I was doing it in a way that annoys people or something, and I had a small narc crash over it. But that happens every other day, so no big deal there really. I'm definitely making way too big a deal about it either way. I'm just going to assume they disagree with my acerbic opinion of the Buu Saga and forget about it lol.

[the-moonwolf]

cinema question game!

idk why, but I’ve never seen something likw this cinema-related. so, here you go!

be good with me, english is not my 1st language! it’s like, my 3rd. lol. 

i’m eurpoean, so i’m a bit curious about certain questions lol.

play this game with friends... or, repost this, and get your followers to ask.

only rule: be respectfull!

de gustibus non disputandum est.

-

-

1.      Last film You watched?

2.      Last series You watched?

3.      What film has the best soundtrack?

4.      A film from the 80s

5.      A film from the 90s

6.      A film from 2000

7.      An actor/actress you like that passed away.

8.      An unexpected cameo

9.      What was your favorite movie when you were a child?

10.   Your favorite film saga?

11.   A character that you hate, but you like the person who plays them.

12.   A character that you like, but you dislike the person who plays them.

13.   What platform do you use the most to watch films/series?

14.   A film that, in your opinion, deserves an Oscar.

15.   A film with animals as characters

16.   A film produced in south America that you liked.

17.   Star Wars or Star Trek?

18.   Marvel or DC?

19.   best actors: name one for each continent!

20.   The longest show that you watched/ still watch?

21.   An anime that you like.

22.   Do you use subtitles when you watch a film in original language (a different language from yours)?

23.   You can make a film become reality. Which one?

24.   You can make a series become reality. Which one?

25.   A film that traumatized you?

26.   A series that traumatized you?

27.   A cartoon from the 80s

28.   A cartoon from the 90s

29.   A series from the 90s

30.   A film/series that has a videogame adaptation.

31.   Don’t lie: have you haver read fan fictions and/or one shot about a character you fell for?

32.   The last musical you watched.

33.   Which one is better: a series of 15 seasons, 10 episodes each but each episode lasts about 20 mins; or a 2 season-long series of 5 episodes each, but each episode lasts 1 hour?

34.   Something you would change on your fav show.

35.   Let’s play: explain a film plot badly.

36.   A film or series that you ask yourself why you watched it?

37.   Horror or thriller?

38.   Fill in the blank: you can’t go to the cinema without________

39.   Have you ever met an actor/actress?

40.   A series that takes place in your country?

41.   A film from your country that has won 1 or more Oscars?

42.   A film that at first you disliked, but now you like?

43.   A film that you used to like, but now can’t stand?

44.   Let’s play: explain a tv-show plot badly.

45.   A film that takes place in the 1700s?

46.   A series that takes place in the 100s?

47.   A series you love, but almost no one knows it?

48.   Think about 2 sagas you like. You can bring back to life a character from the 1st saga, but to do it, your favorite character in the 2nd saga must die. Do you do it? If yes, who?

49.   The film you watched the most?

50.   A film that reminds you of your past?

51.   The worst death in a film or show?

52.   A book that you didn’t like but liked the film/series adaptation, and a book you loved but hated the adaptation.

53.   Your favorite villain?

54.   The most boring film you watched?

55.   A film or show about an historical figure?

56.   A film you’re happy you watched at the cinema, and a second you wish you didn’t waste your money to watch it at the cinema

57.   A film with bad acting

58.   A film or series that was made into a book.

59.   Have you ever been to a theatre? If yes, what was the play?

60.   A show that you used to like, but it’s lo long that it annoyed you?

61.   A character that deserved better?

62.   A character that you like, from a movie/show, that you wouldn’t get along with if they were real.

63.   An overrated character

64.   A musical you like?

65.   The craziest character you know?

66.   You become one of the main characters in your favorite show… but your favorite character from said show absolutely hates you. Do you accept? Which show is it?

67.   Have you ever fallen for villains? Give examples.

68.   The film with the best setting?

69.   A film that reminds you of someone?

70.   The best and the worst film you watched at school?

71.   And the Oscar for the most original show goes to…?

72.   And the Oscar for best acting goes to…?

73.   The best low-budget film?

74.   A film or cartoon that you liked as a child, but now makes you cringe?

75.   A film you couldn’t wait for, but then it was a flop?

76.   A film that should have been a series, ant the other way around?

77.   And the Oscar for best animated film/show goes to…?

78.   A film with good actors, but still sucks?

79.   A book or comic you wish was a film/series?

80.   A film or show underrated from the critics, but you still love?

81.   A series and a film from the 60s?

82.   A film that you discovered on tv?

83.   And the Oscar for best comedy goes to…?

84.   And the Oscar for best drama goes to…?

85.   The best trailer?

86.   The best trash edits or parody?

87.   A film or cartoon that disturbed you as a child?

88.   A film or show that taught you something?

89.   A film that made you cry?

90.   And the Oscar for goodest character goes to…

91.   And the Oscar for the cruelest character goes to…

92.   And the Oscar for the most cunning character goes to…

93.   And the Oscar for the most stupid character goes to…

94.   And the Oscar for the most epic character goes to…

95.   And the Oscar for the most obnoxious character goes to…

96.   Think about the last horror you watched. Which character would you be?

97.   Film with the best costumes?

98.   The best movie director is…?

99.   Your first actor/actress crush?

100.                   Your most recent actor/actress crush?

[spaghettithighs]

The Bad Opinion Haver has a Bad Opinion - Sneak Attack

So there is at least one person out there who hates rogues in Baldur's Gate 3 and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, due to a fundamental misunderstanding of how sneak attacks work. Rather than respond to this person directly (because they blocked me) I thought I'd make the world's most unnecessary PSA instead.

I'm not going to dive much into the stuff about 2nd edition thieves, aside from the fact that it takes a long time to get to level 21, and the output of a low level thief pulling off a backstab are… not as impressive. Regardless:

Sneak attacks do not give you advantage. Sneak attacks make your attacks do a lot more damage -if- you have advantage from another source. That sounds rough, but there are a hundred and one ways to get advantage - such as attacking an enemy who's prone from melee range, or attacking an enemy who's blinded by a blindness spell, or attacking an enemy who's been distracted by an allied fighter's distracting strike, or heck, attacking an enemy while hidden (and rogues can hide each turn as a bonus action).

The extra damage from sneak attack may seem unimpressive- an extra 2 to 12 HP at level 3 (on an attack that deals 4 to 9 HP as standard) isn't a huge boost, but it's still a solid doubling of damage output, and more importantly, it's consistent. Doing an average of 14 damage per round just off of action + bonus action is great for longer fights at that level, when the spellcasters are down to cantrips and even the fighter has exhausted their superiority dice.

Now, to be fair, Rogues did suffer from one unintentional change in Baldur's Gate 3 - in pen and paper 5th edition DnD, rogues can apply sneak attack damage once every combat turn - that means you can get the damage bonus on your turn as a regular attack, and also on someone else's turn, if you can pull off an attack of opportunity or a readied action through some other means. Baldur's Gate 3 has it coded so that the opportunity to perform a Sneak Attack refreshes at the start of a rogue's round, so unfortunately there's no chance to double dip. For that reason (and the fact that options to long rest in BG3 are plentiful), rogues do suffer a bit in the power rankings. They're by no means useless (and definitely not as useless as the Bad Opinion Haver implies), but you do need to work a little harder to make the most of them (or you do what everyone does and build a monstrous assassin/gloom stalker multiclass that gets the kind of absurd backstabs that the Bad Opinion Haver is going for)

As an aside:

It's true that if you perform attack rolls with no consideration for tactics, you're going to miss a lot of them. However, there's a very straightforward mechanic, fundamental to the system, that makes your chances to hit a hell of a lot higher.

It's called advantage.

[spaghettithighs]

Person notorious for having bad opinions on the internet: makes a video ostensibly reviewing Dungeon Meshi, fills the damn thing with spoilers for the entire anime + manga right up to the final chapter.

Person notorious for having bad opinions on the internet: does not put a spoiler warning on their video.

Person notorious for having bad opinions on the internet: titles their review "First Impressions"