#the only gale mod I'll ever need

[bbetasus]

incredible new Gale mod just dropped

[thedawningofthehour]

didn't you say you were making Draxum's house in the sims? Did you ever finish? :(

So I whined about this on my main blog, but I'm having issues with my computer. The power port, and I've noticed this for a while, gets extremely hot whenever I try to run anything more intensive than Powerwash Simulator, and the past few months it's become harder and harder to get it to charge. (I'm not overclocking or anything-I bought this computer for gaming and made sure it had the specs to run shit like my heavily modded Skyrim and Fallout, it should be able to run Sims) I contacted Acer about a repair and they quoted me over eight hundred dollars. The actual computer was about 1200-1300, for comparison. There's other issues with it as well-there's a chip on the screen that's really obvious on a white background, and they advertised that it would support a second hard drive, but it's never recognized the one I bought. The power port is the most grievous though, and power ports on laptops are notoriously hard to repair.

And this computer isn't old. I bought it last spring. Less than a year and a half-and I've barely been gaming on it because I've been writing this, so I spent over a thousand dollars on a turtles fanfiction machine essentially. (there's been other reasons, depression funk caused a complete disinterest in gaming and after so many mass shootings I've started feeling guilty whenever playing games with guns, but writing is mostly what I've been using this expensive gaming PC for) I only had the one-year warranty that came with the computer, but honestly I can't find it in myself to regret that too much because I have never once had a company actually honor a warranty. It's like safety deposits on apartments or insurance claims-they'll do everything they can to weasel out of doing what they're supposed to.

So back to your question-I currently don't trust my computer to run the Sims. Or anything else. And I can afford to buy another gaming PC right now, but it would be financially pretty irresponsible. I returned the tablet I bought to draw with, and I think I'm going to get one of those two-in-one laptop/tablets so I can use it for drawing and writing. Maybe I'll be able to run the Sims 4 on that-it doesn't have to run great, I use it mostly as a building simulator. Kind of sucks though, Crusader Kings 3 came out with another expansion pack and the new Cities Skylines is coming out this fall, plus I've been getting a hankering to play Skyrim again.

But enough about my computer woes, I do think I have some screenshots I could show...

First floor, I apparently took these during the first round of building because I made a lot of changes. The lab is way bigger now, and I have the rest of the house shell done. The blank space in the back right is where I was going to put in the multi-story room where the turtles find the weapons-which is probably the least completed part of the entire house because holy hell the building controls do not want to work with me.

But in the back left you can see Cass and Gale's rooms! :)

I do like how the main hallway turned out. I know it was mostly destroyed on Creation Day, but let's just say Draxum redid it in the same style. The middle picture, that's the little storage room that hides the door to the part of the house where Gale's room is. If you know the Sims you can tell where the secret door is.

And yes, I know the half-walls under the stairs look ridiculous, I've fixed it since then. I couldn't just extend the half-wall all the way back because it would delete the upper staircase, for some reason.

I'm pretty proud of how the living room is turning out. Could be a little bigger, but the symmetry of the bookshelves are just too perfect. (also the curved walls get fussy, FUCK CURVED WALLS) Needs some clutter on the mantle though.

The kitchen no longer looks like this, I moved around a lot of the pictures and added another layer of cabinets, because Draxum probably has like six sets of fine china he's received as gifts throughout the years and refuses to part with. I added more retro-looking décor, because the last time he remodeled this room was in the sixties and I wanted it to look a little old-fashioned. I also imagine he refuses to get an electric stove, saying his mystic wood-burning stove works just fine. I tried to work a pantry in, but it didn't really pan out. (lol) And the more I think about it, he probably has a legit larder somewhere in the basement, since Draxum is from a time before refrigeration and would have grown up storing food in underground cellars. (and he deffo has like several years worth of food stored away, he's pretty much a doomsday prepper)

This is also incidentally the layout of the kitchen at my old house, hence the weird octagon dining area. Except we had windows. With no curtains. In the woods. It was unsettling to cook at night.

Draxum's study is bigger now, and I think I added a fireplace? He absolutely has eight bazillion degrees and awards and he puts them ALL on his wall. He earned that shit, dammit.

His bedroom's nothing to write home about. It's comfortable, not luxurious. There's no electric lights because he prefers candlelight.

Just imagine that white bathroom counter stained with pink splotches from Draxum's hair dye.

I had BARELY done anything with the pool, but as you can see it is indeed a tank. Draxum was planning to keep a mutant or something in there.

I was actually in the process of redoing the entire greenery lol, but I think I did an okay job on 1.0. Not the mason jar lamps though, I'm not sure what I was thinking there.

Some pictures of Lab 1.0. The ooze-vine-thing looks terrible; I straight up haven't even started to recreate it in 2.0. I pushed back Draxum's alchemy area and gave him an actual medical bay in the back, which is where The Table would have been located.

That's mostly Gale's area on the left, I think it still broadly looks this way? I didn't put in stuff like the robotics table because it just looked silly-and besides, we're not actually playing this build. We know Galois only needs two hands and a welder to make a robot.

I will leave you off with a slightly more clutterfied Gale's room! Oh, but also, I GOT PURPLE CC CURTAINS FOR HIM. :D After I took this picture, but just know he has them now. He has no reason to have them because he does not have a window, but I'm happy for him.

[speltfields]

Opinions on Gale Baldur's Gate? 🤔

cheeky readmore (no spoilers ahead other than one party member who joins later game afaik)

SO BALDURS GATE... im only a couple of hours into it. my friend is playing my character for me and streaming it since i dont own it+laptop was gone for so long... i plan on playing more once im back home from work...!

so far my team consists of astarion (funny), wyll, lae'zel (cutie) and karlach

GALE SEEMS CUTE! he needs more grey in his hair though. imo. if i ever draw him hes getting hit with the wrinkle beam. and why does he have abs.. id fix that... im planning on adding him to my party soon... i did give him the thing he asks for the first night. would I romance him? idk. probably. hes up there. Ermmm. Can I top him is the inportant question

i really wish i could romance this lady ⤵️

im so mad you cant... the cowards way out. someone mod her as an option NOW (idk anything about her or her name. i like her eyebrows)

anyways sorry i dont havw more tjoughts rn im barely in the game. and i play like an idiot. i dont like shadowheart that much. and astarion is required to be in my party at all times to keep my bffs morale high while i make the Stupidest Plays In The World in front of them

Why cant you kiss the mindflayers? unless you can? idk. i assume you cant. they should let me?

heres my guy btw. hes based off my deep rock galactic dwarf. lol

(you cant see it but he has the cunty megan thee stallion braid)

i think him and halsin would look good together personally. i have no idea what halsin is like

i found this really cute pic of stan while i was looking for pics of my character💘

i think thats all my thoughts for now.... I'll be back to playing again soon >:) ill be sure to post my thoughts as I play more...

actually i forgot to add my fav thing about this playthrough is that i chose my characters genitals at complete random (kept his pants on) i cant wait to find out what hes got in there. like a kinder aurprise egg

[that-elven-boy]

New OC

Okay, so now that I mostly know what I'm doing in bg3, I've switched out my character build and I'm more happy with this mostly just because this version of my Tav looks more like me. I ended up deleting my previous OCs just because I literally haven't used those builds in forever so I'll probably replace my profile pic and my user name.

Guys, I apologize for the janky pictures I'm about to show, but keep in mind I sent these to my bestie and failed to take screenshots in-game and save them. But anyways...

This is Zephyr

Yeah, not exactly proud of my choices of words.

The first picture was when I spent like three hours in character creation just messing around with the idea of a Druid Tav that had gotten comfortable defaulting to panther in Wildshape. The piercings are different because the first one was back before bg3 had mods that ran through the game so the first would had a Nexus mod and I just decided not to mess too much with mods now (I should tho).

I also made a Picrew of him as well, it's obviously not exact but it's as close as I'll ever get considering my hands have been cursed to have terrible drawings. The name of the this format is Dungeon Elf Dress Up and it's created by Ravenstone.3 if anyone wants to use it as well.

So! What's Zephyr like?

Zephyr, like I mentioned, is a Half-Elf Noble Druid most comfortably as a panther in Wildshape. He's an assertive but kind half-elf who isn't afraid to back down from a fight if it's required, he's a firm believer of making things right.

His past by his standards are dull, he was born and raised by druids and stay within that same circle until he was taken by the Nautiloid ship. He lived a fairly sheltered and protected life up until that point, which is why he preferred whileshapping during battle.

He's a bit quiet, but he's very observant. Zephyr will note where he saw boars in their adventures at night before the vampire hunts, Zephyr will stay up all night helping Lae'zel understand as mush of Fearûn as she's willing to take, Zephyr will pocket any magical items and later any interesting books for Gale, Zephyr will personally deliver wine to Shadowheart, Zephyr will let Karlach cuddle him as much as she needs, Zephyr will collect fine chunks of wood for Halsin to whittle, Zephyr will make time for Minthara to cool off from the sun during their adventures.

The only person that Zephyr ever extends himself to though, is Wyll Ravengard.

Zephyr's interest in Wyll had always been there but it turned into something else after Mizora forces horns on his head and makes his body look like one of a tiefling, tail included. (I have the Wyll Devil mod!!!) Zephyr began to keep his eyes on Wyll, both in a manner of making sure his horns didn't hurt him and because his new form was almost hypnotizing.

Initially, Zephyr thought lowly of Wyll. He thought Wyll was the type of "hero" that did good things for a price or for the attention. However, in the few days before they found Karlach, Wyll quickly proved to Zephyr that he was a genuinely good man and that he was coined as a hero because he was true to his word. Zephyr then started to like Wyll, having similar view points with him.

Then everything with Mizora started happening, and Zephyr made sure to find time in the night to leave little reminders to Wyll that he's not alone and if he ever needs anything, Zephyr's tent wasn't too far away.

Obviously everything that happens when you romance Wyll happens with Zephyr. However, despite Wyll being the one to initiate a lot of things in the beginning, it's Zephyr that keeps it going. Wyll thought he would easily sweep Zephyr off his feet with the almost fairytale like approach, but it ended up being Zephyr that was Wyll's knight in shinning armor.

After the events of the game, Zephyr actually keeps in contact with everyone afterwards. Zephyr will sometimes stay up at night and wait to see if Astarion shows up, Astarion knows where Zephyr and Wyll live and have been reminded that he's welcome to visit any time. Zephyr will pay Shadowheart visits and will even seek her out if him or Wyll need medical help. Zephyr sends letters to those that don't live in the city, such as Gale, Lae'zel, Halsin, and Minthara. He likes checking up on the people that played a large role in his life.

Even though Zephyr doesn't have to work a job, he still wants to. He prefers to be active in the community as the husband of Wyll, who later becomes the Duke. Wyll insists Zephyr not work, so Zephyr helps small vendors instead. He has to talk to vendor shops anyway to keep food in the house so sometimes he'll give them a little extra gold, it always works and it's something fairly subtle that he can do.

Wyll always wanted kids, he didn't care who his spouse would be but he always wanted kids. Zephyr felt indifferent about it, he didn't have it as a requirement but he wouldn't say no to having them. Wyll and Zephyr end up adopting roughly five kids, all different races to add to it. And that's just counting the ones that they went through the adoption process with, most of their kids' friends consider them their parents as well. Their first kid was a tiefling girl, the second was a drow boy, the third was a halfling boy, the fourth was an elf girl, and the fifth was a githyanki girl.

Although it's sad to admit, Wyll passes away first as he's still technically a human. Zephyr never re-married, he didn't even indulge in romantic relationships after Wyll's passing. He focused on his kids and the friends that remained as Gale would have passed by now as well, the rest of the companions giving Zephyr their condolences and love. By the time Wyll passed, all of their kids had grown up and moved out, leaving Zephyr alone in the house. After Wyll died, Astarion saw how it affected Zephyr and decided to live with Zephyr.

Zephyr always made sure to visit Wyll's grave on special days. He visited on Wyll's birthday, he visited on their anniversary, he visited on the holidays, and he always left roses. Astarion would occasionally join Zephyr on days where Zephyr planned on visiting after the sun set, Astarion providing the comfort Zephyr showed him years ago.

Zephyr was also fairly old by the time Wyll died, so he knew it was only a matter of time before he left as well. It wasn't longer than four months that Zephyr finally passed as well, Astarion found Zephyr dead in his sleep. The clerics who prepared Zephyr for his funeral choked it down to dying of a broken heart as nothing was wrong with Zephyr and he didn't seem in any distress when he passed.

I couldn't find any good character sheets I liked so I'm just gonna give a run down of what I actually put into my character so, here's what Zephyr's stats are beginning of the game.

Race: Half-Elf

Subrace: Wood Half-Elf

Class: Druid (later Subclasses as a Circle of the Moon Druid)

2 Cantrips: Guidance / Resistance

Background: Noble

Strength: 12 (+1 for Strength Checks and Saving Throws)

Dexterity: 13 (+1 for Dexterity Checks and Saving Throws)

Constitution: 14 (+2 for Constitution Checks and Saving Throws)

Intelligence: 11 (+0 for Intelligence Checks, +4 for Saving Throws from Proficiencies)

Wisdom: 16 (+3 for Wisdom Checks, +7 for Saving Throws, +4 from Proficiencies)

Charisma: 11 (+0 for Charisma Checks and Saving Throws)

4 Prepare Spells: Speak with Animals / Cure Wounds / Thunderwave / Create or Destroy Water

Initiative: +1

Hit Points: 10

Proficiencies - Weapons: Clubs, Daggers, Javelins, Maces, Quarterstaffs, Scimitars, Sickles, Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives

Proficiencies - Armor: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields

Proficiencies - Skills: Stealth (from Race), History (from Background), Animal Handling (from Class), Perception (from Class), Persuasion (from Background)

And also, here's a video tutorial I took on how to make him (minus genitals). It's a little jittery but it's whatever.

So yeah, that's Zephyr. Hope you guys like him and I hope I get to write some things with him!

[missizzy]

A Game Novice's Baldur's Gate Log, 91 1/2 Hours In: I still think I'm getting smarter, but...

Masterpost

(Note: this will definitely contain spoilers for all I've played through, and probably quite of a bit of the later stuff I've also seen.)

So this week was the big Baldur's Gate update, where the biggest changes involved the evil ending, which I'm probably too squeamish to ever go for, and mods, which I'll probably be more interested in when this computer finally goes and I get a new one that could potentially handle such things. I also heard a couple horror stories about game crashes, but thankfully, mine's situation normal. I think also the tips on the loading screens have changed?

Last week I had successfully freed a small amount of Tieflings and gnomes, then talked with Jaheira about a potential Thorm relic in the mausoleum along with the orthon, and once she suggested it might be the key to his invulnerability, that made Sara ready to go after it, especially since Astarion had committed them to killing said orthon anyway. But since Mol, whom we'd also promised to rescue, hadn't been in the tower, I decided we'd better first seek out the remaining corners of the Shadow-Cursed lands to see if we could find her, or at least enough XP to hit level 8, since we were close enough for that.

Ultimately, we found neither, but we got within 300 XP of the latter, leaving me to hope we could get the rest in the mausoleum before we reached the orthon. Largely thanks to getting ambushed by the Githyanki for a third time, this time with Lae'zel in the party. We won this time, but it took a lot out of us. I'd brought Halsin, but he was so drained I swapped him out for Shadowheart immediately, and it was also the main reason I would swapped Gale out one fight with shadow plants later. It was only after returning to the bridge after the swap that I noticed the Road to Baldur's Gate waypoint right below us. That at least explained why the fight had been so hard; it was probably meant to happen later.

Right after the fight, Lae'zel did have a thing or two to say, obviously, but seemed very determined to kill anyone chasing us, and was very matter of fact about her goddess still wanting us dead. Which contrasted very oddly with the previous night, when we'd brought her the disk about Orpheus we'd found in Balthazar's room, and she'd decried it as heresy. It seems she has not yet realized how much she still has to unlearn, or is still much more conflicted than she's willing to show to her companions.

We also dropped in on the Last Light after the shadow plant fight, and I successfully did transactions with the quartermaster, and this time the objects appeared in the inventory. So at least that's one worry less.

But no sooner was that worry gone then I got hit with another maulfunction. When I went to camp after that, I had Sara revoke her interdiction on Astarion feeding on her and told him he could do so that night. I'd decided some time ago she'd do that once she had two people who could cast Lesser Restoration on her in the morning, and she knew she was taking him into the mausoleum the next day. But then I had to sit through his smarmily describing his coming to her in terms of a romantic liaison, particular weird of him considering the confession he'd made to her the previous evening, and especially aggravating when the camp layout meant Gale. was. standing. right. there. She made a point of going to kiss him right in front of the vampire after that one.

Which one supposes must have put him off, because the next morning, there was no buff to him or debuff to her. I couldn't figure out why, and was very annoyed at having endured his antics for nothing.

Then again, when we went into the mausoleum and the large room full of traps, it wasn't like Astarion needed the buff to disable all the ones we saw. I also spotted the buttons under the trio of artworks, and had him press them, which did nothing. Figuring this was a puzzle, I gamely went looking in the side rooms, found a nice cloak for Shadowheart, and also Balthazar's writing about Thorm's advice to go "from splendour, to tragedy, to infamy." I quickly realized that referred to the paintings, and the order in which to press the buttons.

And so, oh so proud of myself for having figured out something by myself for once, I strode back to the big room, clicked on the buttons to press them again, this time in the right order-and promptly saw half the room engulfed by a cloud of magical darkness, and no portals or anything else opening to take us into the Gauntlet of Shar, now firmly established as being below.

After some attempts to find a way in through the darkness, I gave up for the night, saved, quit, and went to look up the answer as usual. Multiple places told me I'd gotten it right, claiming a door was supposed to open, and failed to explain why I'd gotten the darkness instead. When I resumed the next night, I spent an hour trying clicking on the buttons again, trying to cover the vents when I read that suggestion in one place, but I finally got the impression you have to avoid triggering that cloud, and there's no way in once it's there. And since I'd deleted several autosaves and quicksaves when I'd quit (another thing I do regularly due to my lag issues), I was forced to go back to right before we'd gone to camp for the last long rest.

After returning to camp a second time, I took a kiss from Gale just to sooth me, but I wasn't up to sitting through that speech from Astarion again, and wasn't sure I'd let him starting feeding on Sara again after all. Once in the mausoleum, I quickly picked up the cloak again before taking Astarion all around the room and being a thorough as I could in disabling the traps, hoping this time I got whichever vent I missed last time, even spending two inspiration to override a pair of natural ones from him. And it seems I got them all, because this time instead of the darkness, we got our entry into the Gauntlet.

I left off there, very worn out, and resumed last night, after installing the new patch. While trying to figure out what I'd done wrong in the mausoleum, I'd also seen something about needing to gather the Gauntlet's umbral gem, but I actually figured out how to get to the first of them without any complications or looking anything up. Unless one counts getting thrown against the wall by the repelling field around it a *lot.* Astarion's resulting comments about needing to see the runes actually did help me realize I needed them up, which was good of him, since I'd been trying to get rid of them until that. That is now officially the cleverest I've been in this game so far.

After a fight with some undead Justiciars which finally got us the needed boost to level 8, I found myself going into a more wrecked part of the Gauntlet, and there I quickly came upon Yurgir. I would basically make two attempts to kill him that night, both of which went south pretty quickly. I also discovered in the process if I wanted the cut scene beforehand, I would have to start the fight on the low ground. Which was annoying, but I knew I could get Astarion's approval by ending the scene by attacking him, and when we were going to the trouble of killing the orthon purely for his sake, I really wanted said approval.

After sleeping on it, I decided to long rest before trying to fight him again, and also try to get Astarion to feed on Sara once again. Thankfully this time it worked. Having Halsin in the party just long enough to remove the debuff is awkward, of course, but I'd resigned myself to that already, and I wanted everyone we took in to have full spell slots for this one.

It was while going through the cut scene for the second time that the implications of what Yurgir actually says hit me. But once he started hissing about how Raphael tricked him, Sara hastily attacking him then actually made more sense. Once Astarion made that deal, she saw killing him as something they didn't dare refuse to do, and if he was in fact the wronged party in the affair, well, Sara Tully might have reached the point where she just doesn't want to know such things anymore.

At that point, I was still under the impression that there was no easy way to get the party up to the high ground, where Yurgir and his buddies mostly were. I went to the trouble of misty-stepping Astarion and Gale up there. That ended with him nearly going down, and Astarion actually going down, and Gale having to misty step up there again to get him back up, and I had the feeling they'd probably both just get killed that way. And it was around then that I realized that actually, we could just go up the rock slope to them. I reloaded one last time.

Towards the end of the fourth attempt, I started to wonder if I could win it. I still don't know how Gale avoided going down once Yurgir turned all his attacks on him near the end, and then threw about a zillion time bombs down. But I managed to get everyone away from them before they exploded (literally misty stepped Gale out just before they did, and I'm pretty sure he would've been killed instantly), setting on Yurgir the second he went visible meant we'd actually killed him by then, and a couple of turns later, it was over. Gale and Sara were both under twenty hit points, and he and Shadowheart were drained of their high-level spell slots, and we'll have to long rest again immediately, but we'd fucking won. It is currently five and a half hours later as I type this, and I am still feeling the relief of that.

I left off after taking us back to camp. Then I started writing another fic, one that's been bouncing about in my head for a while, but pretty much settled itself as taking place the night before the orthon battle when that was when I got Astarion to feed. One that will arguably make it more amusing that it was when we left camp post-long rest Astarion promptly made his comment about Sara's night with Gale and them having a "hard, long debate."