#skip BG1

[salamanders-please]

If Beamdog was able to make their new BG1 EE companions use the friendly arm inn as a hub, why didn't they make the og companions do it too? It's really frustrating that swapping companions means leaving them behind where you dumped them. Because a) you need to remember where they are and b) sometimes that place is the middle of a dungeon??? Hello???

I don't actually have any complaints about the EE companions, just that it feels a bit jarring that they and their quests are fully voiced when no one else's is. Neera seems neat, though.

Iirc BG2 sends companions back to specific locations when dismissed. So that will be a welcome improvement.

[outeremissary]

Most cursed ass thing about BG3 is the way it makes me think "I should replay BG1." Literally the voice of the devil

[devotedlystrangewizard]

shoutout to my dad for complaining his baldurs gate 3 download took 45 minutes. i cant even play it but go OFF

[sovonight]

Who’s your go-to party in BG1? I love everyone! Wish I could take them all with me 😭😭

i stick with imoen, jaheira, khalid, xan, and viconia! i'm very boring haha

i recruited montaron & xzar briefly out of necessity of course, and branwen just to fill up the 6th slot after nashkel, and i remember trying out dynaheir, minsc, ajantis, & kivan before--though i always find timed companion quests a chore, especially in the beginning of the game when i'm actually recruitment-minded but still super low level. and i don't think i've ever actually recruited edwin, even though ppl seem to like him, just because i never notice him standing there in nashkel loL

ngl i do feel kind of locked in by insisting for story reasons that i have to keep imoen and jaheira/khalid in the party at all times... when u get down to it, on a player level, the only one i actually need to keep is xan. but the mod gives imoen such a sweet moment with the birthday celebration and the necklace, and jaheira/khalid are part of gorion's last instructions for charname, so it's difficult to trade them out for total strangers. bg2 is definitely a whole different environment in that way, like now that the original reasons are gone and imoen is gone and it's just jaheira and xan left, it's a lot easier to swap out companions at will. it's still a pain to do the whole equipment transfer though T_T

[svampira]

finally made a gay little durge

gorgeous gorgeous girls who finally own a computer

[glitter-stained]

More Lantern!Bats shenanigans

Blue Lantern Duke: *jumps off a building to dodge an attack*

Blue Lantern Duke: *creates a grapple construct made of pure hope*

Villain of the week: "such a fickle and fragile thing, Imma cut his line with my evil sword of power..."

Villain, after shattering his sword and all the bones in his wrist on the line: what the fuck

*****

Bludhaven Goon #1 (BG1): Dude, run! Nightwing's powered have tripled over night!

Bludhaven Goon #2 (BG2): Oh no, what happened? Did something happen in Gotham? Someone gone after Robin?

BG1: I don't know, but we need to- wait what is he doing

BG1: he's straight up glowing I-

BG2: he's lighting up the nightsky-

BG2: ohmygod we're gonna die

Meanwhile Red Lantern! Dick, ranting to Wally on the comms: yeah so Cass took all the hot water while showering then told me to 'deal with it', someone kept hiding pig whoopee cushions that go "oink" in my seats and I can't figure out who, Jasont told everybody my most embarrassing Nightwing debut stories with photographed evidence, Damian tried to kidnap Bitewing thrice and Tim skipped out to go to a party using a stratagem so needlessly elaborate it looked like Jason had designed it, and we all thought someone had kidnapped him! But no, yeah, the visit went well, manor's fine. You know how it is, siblings...

*****

Rose: Hey Jason, how the fuck did you bag Kyle Rayner?

Star Sapphire Jason, whisper-shouting: I don't know what the fuck is going on, he popped in with yellow roses and offered to teach me how to make constructs, don't talk so loud I'm afraid that'll make him realise.

Referrencing these posts:

[y-rhywbeth2]

I'm assuming Durge is at the root of the ascetic misery of the Baldurian Bhaalists (what with Orin complaining that the temple is decaying under their rule (it was fancier before, tbf. Inaccurate though that might be), and the snippets of Durge's past and the beggar incident).

And I'm pretty sure that's just their choice. Bhaal doesn't care. I don't think Bhaal cares how his followers interpret the finer details of his doctrine much, tbh, so long as his church has influence, people fear-worship him, and he's getting his regular sacrifices and entertainment. Sceleritas can talk about them ignoring the order to kill Isobel like they're just a young master out on a joint around the pubs with their friends, enjoying the high life (and that's perfectly fine! Just please kill Isobel while you're at it). We also encourage you to indulge in hedonism. Get a harem. Please. Visit a festhall. Something!

Looking at the temple in more ruin than it was 100 years ago and the rags the Bhaalists are dressed in - and then at the elaborate and very deliberate way Orin dresses (it might be a bacon suit, but it's carefully tailored, her headpiece is silver, her hair would take forever to look after) at the furniture Orin's bedroom contains, with the gold studding on the bed...

It's like the Bhaalists were on their usual projectory of wealth and luxury, as described by Elminster's Forgotten Realms, sort of mentioned in Faiths and Avatars, and technically seen on Sarevok back in BG1, where he's a rich heir rubbing elbows with the nobility - and this is what Orin grows up with and expects to inherit.

Then somebody drags in this (former?) street rat they pulled out of some Outer City hovel and Bhaal says they're in charge, and then street rat declares money and vanity is the root of all evil now. They then take your inheritance and then throw in in the gutter.

Did she ever try to teach them the error of their ways, or was it just silent seething forever? Did attempts ar respectful debate evolve into homicide, or did we skip to homicide? Probably skipped to homicide...

[fuckyeahbaldursgate]

Do you have any advice for someone much more used to modern games who is having a hard time getting used to bg1? im playing on the lowest difficulty and cleared out the nashkel mines but real time with pause just feels really clunky & unintuitive still

I know the feeling! After years of bouncing off fallout 1 and 2, I finally completeted them this year so with that in mind here's a few tips.

1.) Use a walkthrough. It might feel a bit cheaty but honestly this is what saved me with Fallout 1 and 2 because I just didn't know where to go or what to expect in combat. There will be spoiler free ones avaliable given the age of BG so don't be afraid to just look something up if you don't know where to go next.

2.) In BG1 specifically ranged weapons are king, equip ranged weapons on everyone as some enemies can easily be defeated before they reach you or can be kited around the map until they are dead. Just watch out for the bandits as this won't necessarily work on them if they also have a ranged weapon.

3.) if you find it a pain in the ass to give instructions to everyone then try assigning some AI to your characters so they start attacking automatically although make sure you read through what the AI does because some will switch to melee automatically. You can toggle the AI on and off if you want to take control directly for particularly hard fights.

4.) Check out the auto pause functions in the settings. What I tend to find useful is autopause for when a character reaches low health, when someone spots a trap and immunity to weapons.

5.) Pick up the tweak pack at Gibberlings3 https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/tweaks/tweaks/ Now I usually say for first time players don't install mods but the tweak pack contains a lot of quality of life changes that do make your life easier in the long run and as a veteran player I always pick it up. Make sure you read the read me file though for an explanation of each feature, you can skip sections I.e. Content changes or rule changes if you don't want to have to go through them all.

6.) Skip BG1 altogether. While I love BG1, it's also a bit lighter on story and NPC content to the point that if you are really struggling with it then go straight to BG2, which is considered the best of the series. It's also much tighter in terms of locations e.g. Much less random wilderness areas without a whole lot in them. It does a fairly good job at the start of catching you up to speed right in the opening too.

I'm sure my followers can chip in with a few more.

[starlightcleric]

...Or perhaps I will not be doing that as saves don't appear to be cross-platform between Windows and Mac.

Baldur's Gate/Forgotten Realms ramblings:

So I finished Act 2 of BG3 yesterday, but I've been holding off really getting into Act 3 because I'm traveling this weekend and my laptop isn't up to spec for it.

That being said, I have been debating about revisiting the Siege of Dragonspear dlc with my original Charname, Sigrdrifa, because I haven't played it, and me not playing it is what's been preventing me from importing her into BG2.

Which is all fine and good, those games can run on my laptop.

But then I realized: Sigrdrifa is a Paladin (Cavalier specifically), but I don't know who she's a Paladin of because the game doesn't make you pick that and I actually really know fuck all about Faerun.

Is the Forgotten Realms pantheon a rabbit hole I really want to fall down?

[lordharmony]

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024 COMPLETED✨🌈

I ended up skipping the last day. I hope making all of these art pieces Halloween-esque makes up for it! So, for my first ever monthly art challenge, I did 30/31 prompts over the course of a month and a half. They're all of varying quality, but overall, thank you for going on this journey with me!

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 28: MASCOT HORROR

Love this big ugly mascot version of Chucky. I think I could make an argument Chucky is a mascot horror character.

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 29: EXPERIMENTAL MAKEUP

Respect to people in the makeup game. Molly is one of my VTMB OCs that I translated over into my own OC-verse. She did turn human when she moved, but I still wanted to keep her iconic Nosferatu look. She's covered with tattoos as well but I did tactfully hide them all for this haha.

🌈✨CRINGETOBER 2024✨🌈 DAY 30: SUPERNATURAL / MONSTER

My BG3 Dark Urge, Braum, and BG1/BG2 Bhaalspawn Janek! I actually haven't finished BG2 yet but I've enjoyed playing through the old games a lot. Braum is a reanimated corpse of a man, and Janek is a werewolf boy.

[salamanders-please]

Welp wiped on honor haha. I'm taking a break from bg3.

Decided to give the first 2 another go. I played bg1 ages ago.

Damn these games are big but I'm noticing a lot of the sidequests in bg1 are pretty shallow. Am i missing out on much by skipping a lot of them? I'll do the ones that are convenient/interesting/easy but I'm not gonna bother trying to get all of them.

[outeremissary]

Tagged by @arendaes on this fairy doll maker. I've skipped the last few of these doll makers because I just do not tend to have the kind of really high femme character in play that works on them without feeling really uncanny to me, but I figured I'd give this one an attempt and see how well I could recreate my BG1/2 character's old 2018 design (doodled on scrap paper at work here with a sad attempt at shitty wizard dart).

Not too far off...?

Not tagging folks on this one- forgive me, I'm just not sure who's best for something so specific ^^;; If you want to do it etc.

[blackjackkent]

Accepting Baldur's Gate Fic Requests! (Again XD)

Might start putting this out there semi-regularly just bc I find it fun. c: I'm on the hunt for more one-shot ideas/prompts/requests for things you'd like to see me write, for any scenario in the Baldur's Gate fandom! Send me an ask or reply here if you've got something in mind. :)

(Examples of my writing: AO3, and scattered through #bjk plays baldur’s gate 3 and #bjk plays BG3 Durge)

I’m comfortable writing pretty much every major character in a Tav playthrough except Minthara (cos I haven’t done a playthrough with her yet) and I'm familiar with early Act 1 Durge. (Also BG1/BG2 stuff. :) ) Pretty much up for trying any romantic or platonic pairing/scenario, SFW or NSFW (though obviously I reserve the right to skip anything I'm uncomfy with). :)

Hit me with your best shot!

[sovonight]

hey! been an enjoyer of your art for a while now (been offline Tumblr for a sec) and noticed you do BG art!

I low-key wanna get into BG but I don't know where to start or even what to expect. Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to get into the og BG games? (I don't wanna play BG3 rn I wanna start with the OG games)

sure! i wrote up a quick rundown here of the series + dlc + the enhanced editions. as for tips:

play the tutorial! don't skip this, bg's gameplay is not as self-explanatory as it is for modern games. xan also shows up here to teach you how to cast spells, so it's just nice to bother him

play on pc, not on an app (if for whatever reason you were considering the app version). not only is it really annoying playing on the app with a touchscreen, but you can't install any significant mods either, and it's a pain to even access the files in the first place

holding tab highlights all the interactable objects on the screen, like loot on the ground & chests you can open. there's also a magnifying glass button that does the same thing (in the ee version only, i believe)

in the main gameplay screen, hovering over icons brings up a quick tooltip that tells you what the icon is, but for full info on item/spell descriptions you'll have to click into the character's inventory/spellbook/etc and right click on them there

i regularly look things up on the wiki, because one of the things you'll probably be wondering once you enter combat is "how do i get rid of this negative status effect?!" status effects show up as tiny icons on the character portraits, and you'll have to click into the character page to see the actual name of the status effect, at which point you can drop it into the wiki search bar and find out how to get rid of it

another reason to keep the wiki open is to find out your enemies' weaknesses, so that when your companions are like "my weapon/spell has no effect!" you can change tactics

keep an eye on the log (that text box at the bottom of the screen)! i know, it fills up with a lot of information during combat, but you should keep an eye on how much damage you're doing, especially if you find out you're doing no damage at all

i regularly play with a walkthrough (bg1, bg1, bg2) because i hate backtracking and never want to miss a thing (you don't have to use the walkthroughs i linked, they're just what i have on hand). they are filled with spoilers, so i'd recommend trying your first playthrough without a walkthrough, but if you get stuck they're helpful for telling you what you need to do to get back on track with the main quest. bg doesn't have quest markers or individual quest trackers or anything, just one journal that every single quest update gets piled into (wow, just like real life!) so it's definitely possible to lose track of where you are if you're too deep in side quests or if you stop playing for a week

[sorcerous-caress]

was bg3 your first foray into dnd? it was for me!! and these days even at work im researching stuff on how to build properly lol :')

Not dnd as a whole, i was aware of some aspects of it. I've even watched a couple campaigns of people on youtube.

But Bg3 was my first ever intro to dnd fighting mechanics. I was also so blind at the start in early access and got very frustrated because every encounter was exhausting and i didn't know what anything does.

Back at early access times, we didn't have ANY tutorials. There weren't any helpful videos or guides or breakdowns of classes. It was through pure chance that I picked sorcerer. I didn't even know sorcerer was a class in dnd or what it does.

The subreddit wasn't active much either. The game itself doesn't teach you or guide your hand, it expects you to learn it on your own. Which was something i hated at the time but i also liked dark souls so i couldn't stop playing.

I replayed early acess a lot until i got the hang of it really, i don't even remember when it just clicked but now i can breeze through encounters while watching a youtube documentary like it's nothing. I know what most spells do and how to counter them, I can easily stack so many cc and buffs to make every boss look like a joke.

In the final boss fight i was skipping turns and messing around.

I do have a lot of experience in turn based games from before, so that might have helped, i knew what to read and what stats to look out for. Darkest dungeon, slay the spire, Frostpunk, Iratus.

Then i tried divinity original sin 2 and found it its combat is even more complicated than bg3. If you love something enough you'll have to be willing to learn for it.

Finally I gave bg1 a chance and the combat is even more bizarre, I'm still learning about thacco and armour and stuff.

I still have dragon age to try, then maybe pathfinder.

[ranger-danger]

Obviously not a critique but I do really prefer datv combat set up compared to bg3’s. Or bg1’s. I feel like the turn based combat takes way too long and kills the entire mood of a situation (like the needless ambush in the morphic pools). And it’s nice to only have to focus on what I’m doing rather than the entire party.

Also love that companions will warn you about enemies and things actively happening in combat, even if it is a little agitating to hear Davrin go “They’re shooting at us!” For the 20th time while I charge the enemy.

I’ve also been really liking the dragon age world building so far, it feels like such a fresh breath of air from many other fantasy games.

As for some actual comparisons with critique in mind because people love forcing the two into the same room for some fucking reason…

I feel like the companion stories in bg3 are way better, but drown out the actual story of the game. Only a few characters get to have the whole character arch however, and that’s really disappointing. You can compeltely skip over some companion’s stories and the game just lets it slide? I really don’t want bg3 to normalize having companion stories completely eclipse the actual game’s story, even if they were well done and enjoyable. It’s a double edged sword that I can sing praise for Shadowheart’s specific story, but not do the same for the entire plot.

While datv’s companion stories have been more normal length if not quite lackluster, but it makes up for it with the main story being so focused on. They feel like they lack build up and connection to the companions in datv, companions who’s stories are far more personal feel like they come at you with it out of no where. While companions whose stories are meant to be more personal can falter because of it. Overall it does let the story flow at a more reasonable pace, and while the writing in the entire game can feel a little janky at times I feel like it lends to the charm of the entire game.

The environments of datv feel way more stunning and controlled than bg3. It feels less like many environments were more focused on realism in bg3, rather than emotional or environmental cohesiveness. I’m not saying bg3 compeltely lacked that, it just was way less present. Rosymorn however, and some of the shadowlands, did great at that. I think my favorite datv area that did this is definitely the Hosberg Wetlands. The Monastery looked like it was made with the sunlight and stunning environment in mind, which allows it to stand out much more. Similarly the Wetlands’ overall color pallet lets the blight stand out alongside emphasizing many smaller details (Lavendell flowers & the red hue of the water).

Similarly with design I feel like bg3 had more ideas, but datv did better. Companions have completely unique looks to them in datv, while in bg3 all they have unique to some of them is hair and faces. It does allow for more leeway and allows gear to be shared throughout the party, but it lacks giving character’s a strong unique look. I do like the fact that all the companions in datv have unique body types as well as the smaller detail of Neve and Lace’s hair changing between the lighthouse and being out. I think bg3 however allows smaller details of companions’ looks stay small and still matter. Gale’s earring, Shads Wyll Lae’zel & Karlach’s scarring, the symbol of Minthara’s noble house on her neck, etc. I wish datv had some more details on companions like that.

Back onto the writing point, datv’s writing so far has been way better than bg3’s even if it has moments of being more comedic. The humor derived from Varric’s narration while still letting it add to the tension of the story is well done. The game also knows when to drop that and have genuine moments of emotion. It strikes emotional moments way better and, while still having its jankiness, it hasn’t taken me out of the game at all. Really my biggest complaints with it so far wouldn’t actually make the game that much better, and are more “that’d be neat.” The companions are actually written to be queer as well as feeling very distinct, and this isn’t a note on the writing but I do like that it has several companions who aren’t just white people.

Bg3 on the other hand wasn’t written that well. The main story crashes and burns actively, many things it tries to make serious fail to hit (either because companions comment on the situation with no need to, or just because it doesn’t let there be any build up at all and prefers to vague it’s way into it). The game doesn’t make defeating the elder brain feel like half the accomplishment of rescuing Aylin. There are quest lines that come back and continue for way too long, only to have an ending that’s basically “here’s a gift, you helped us.” And the game isn’t built around any main character to make room for the origins. Tav has no personal connection to the story, and the dark urge despite being the best origin gets so little it’s upsetting for a game series about Bhaalspawn.

I think datv’s soundtrack is better than bg3’s. But that’s more personal preference. Datv hasn’t been repeating the same music leitmotifs, but I do like the small additions of vocals bg3’s had. Datv’s blends more into the background only to pick up during combat and important moments, while bg3’s stays pretty consistent. Which probably has to do with them having different styles of combat. I really prefer when parts of a soundtrack blend away into the environment rather than tries to stand out.

Honestly I feel kinda bad for people “comparing” datv to bg3, when in reality they’re just upset datv isn’t doing things like bg3 does things. I like that romance is less of a focus in datv and I do like the companions actually bonding and growing with eachother. I do wish some relationships didn’t get resolved in one conversation, but it doesn’t drag down the game that much since the companions aren’t the focal point of the game. I really don’t want every fantasy rpg to have to be bg3 or someone’s favorite game of all time to be a decent game. You don’t have to be madly in love with every game you play, and I’ve found it’s very normal to just like a few companions (or just one) and not have to love the entire cast.

Idk this is a ramble. I could probably format this as an actual review, but I’m tired right now. And I still need to finish datv, which I think I’m getting pretty close to doing.