#zafraia the bandit

[lutethebodies]

"Are you sure we're not related? You look awfully familiar."

I understand why this happens from a game design/technical standpoint, but my headcanon is that Ao or some other deity is prepping Tav for the idea that shapeshifters are real and will be a recurring annoyance very soon.

Cannor doesn't usually experience this often, but it's much worse for other Tavs (like some of mine) whose faces pop up more frequently or, say, resemble certain prominent NPCs.

Zaf: "The bard got off easy. At least his in-game twins aren't cops, madams and necromancers."

[lutethebodies]

This is why the human femme face 9 is my favorite human face in BG3. If it please the court I hereby submit my second Tav, thief-rogue Zafraia Zital and her glorious nose. Even Lae’zel had to rethink her prejudices after meeting Zaf.

i love characters with prominent noses. the only reason i’ve ever given a character a small nose is to fulfill a diversity quota

[lutethebodies]

BG3 Moodboards: Zafraia Zital

The nemesis of my favorite bard is this amoral, free-spirited, swashbuckling Banished Bandit.

I love Zaf almost as much as I love Cannor, but they definitely don't like each other; they were both exiled from the city after dueling in public over the affections of a patriar's daughter.

Zaf has definitely made the most of her banishment.

Pronouns: she/her Tav/Durge: Tav Race: human Class: rogue (thief/BG3, swashbuckler/5e) Background: urchin Romance: no commitments, no squids. But the drow twins? Mizora? Sure, why not.

Thanks again to @bladesandbhaalspawn for the inspiration.

[lutethebodies]

Patch 7 Day 1 Photo Dump

Since it finally arrived for Macs today I took a tour of some of the mods and eeeeeevil endings.

Mods: so far, the hair and dyes mostly work out great for my Tavs, but Cannor with Astarion's hair and Oscar Isaac vibes is a bit much. Same for Zaf and Minthara's bun. However, the bun works great for Sianed the druid, and a modfied one works for Talinthe the fighter. Also the party limit adjuster is gonna be rad. I just wish there were better faces and certain weapons available for Macs. Ah well.

Evil Endings: Well, Cannor's went full megalomania, with Minthara totally down for it. Farago and Shadowheart make for quite the maniacal second couple in here as well. It's so over the top, and definitely a novelty for all of them, since I'm not sure I have a Tav who'd actually take over the cult.

More as it develops.

[lutethebodies]

Somewhat less happy with this face now that I've played with it for a few sessions. Bit too supermodely (with the perfect eyelashes and collagen lips) to work perfectly for my butch-tomboy swashbuckler rogue.

Even some quick edits in PS Express (above right) help a little but not much. I wish the Mac mods for faces weren't limited to this one. Bring on FacesUnlocked. Maybe...Mizora (?) will work for her? Eh.

[lutethebodies]

My current playthrough’s full complement as of the Mind Flayer Colony in Act 2 is pretty much this:

Reblog with your main party in bg3

[lutethebodies]

One odd aspect of my most recent run was that the party managed to avoid meeting Raphael for the entirety of pre-Mountain Pass Act 1. He just never showed up in his usual places, and in fact didn't until the party entered the Mountain Pass area, when there was a forced cutscene akin to Voss showing up in camp.

There was a smash cut to the riverside Act 1 camp at night, and Raph was just chillin' in the same spot where, say, Minthara stands during the goblin party. Raphael pulls his whole "what ho, well met" bullshit and then there are some great dialogue options that all say basically "who the fuck are you" and "nobody invited you, weirdo." I very much enjoyed that Olini, Zaf, and Shadowheart got the chance to tell him to fuck all the way off. "You weren't invited here. Explain yourself."

He didn't leave, of course—plot armor AC is impenetrable—but it was nice to at least tell a character that I dislike to his face how much I disliked him way earlier than I had before. I've avoided posting about characters I despise because everyone in this game has a fanbase, and needless antagonizing is dumb. But this seemed like strange and/or irregular behavior so I felt like I had to document it.

[lutethebodies]

Me for the past year or so, examining any Oreo cookie I've eaten for remnants of lingering souls or traces of hellfire.

[lutethebodies]

When your friends ask you "Cannor, what's with the Volo jerkin?" as if they didn't know full well you'd never be caught dead in a clown suit like this, so now you have to explain that you got uncharacteristically trashed last night at the Mermaid and lost a bet, the terms of which shall not be disclosed at the moment because, amazingly, you had no idea you'd be kidnapped and infected by mind flayers the next day while doing your agreed-upon penance. A true bardic tragedy indeed.

[lutethebodies]

I Love How She Sneers, Part LMCXVIII

She comes from nowhere and wears the face of a devil.

She has endured and overcome servitude, privation, and want.

She has bested the most dangerous people on either side of the law.

She has outwitted the canniest and most ruthless power-brokers in the land.

She has laid waste to entire neighborhoods with synapse, steel, and smokepowder.

She has sailed, thrice, to the furthest-flung unknown corners of the world.

She has survived the worst storms nature and humanity threw at her.

She has mastered ships, commanded fleets, and ended enemies.

Those are the

nicest

things she has done in her 29 years.

Her crews would part the wildest seas for her.

Her hirelings have overcome death to do her bidding.

Her companions would crawl naked on broken glass for one night with her.

The so-called "Emperor" has no clue what he's unleashed.

The so-called "Chosen" have no idea what they're up against.

The so-called "Absolute" has no hope of designing anything as grand as she.

Zafraia Zital is returning to the city that carelessly banished her almost a decade ago.

And no one there is ready or even capable of dealing with what she brings with her.

…

Or so she believes.

[lutethebodies]

Zafraia Takes Faerun, Version 4.0

Decided to risk choppy play and begin a Tav run with Zafraia Zital, my beloved rogue thief, just so I could get some glamor screencaps of her modded build in its final form (unless I can switch her to Swashbuckler): Mizora's face as a human, sometimes making expressions that everyone's favorite Cambion Lawyer never ever would.

She's getting all the benefits of what I can do on a modded Mac game—double XP, all the dyes, all the camp clothes, all the hidden magic items, the works—to selfishly and impulsively sneak-stealth her way through the whole game, because she's exactly the kind of chaotic neutral Tav who'd upend the snow-globe to become an unholy assassin before blithely peacing-out for parts unknown.

This is Zaf's fourth run (after the first to Act 3.5 and then two aborted follow-ups) and instead of coming up with anything fancy to call it in my own notes (Mizafraia? Mizora's Mask?) I've just decided to snap as much as I can and pare down the best to avoid spamming the feed. So (counting the one above) here's 10 from Days 1-2:

More to come, because (as the kids say) I love her, Your Honor.

[lutethebodies]

Minthara Judges My Tavs, Part 1

I'm probably not the first person to realize that pointed opinions from everyone's favorite House Baenre scion would be a great device for character development. If it works for the other companions, why wouldn't it work for my own disparate collection of vagabonds and strays? Hence:

You and Cannor seem friendly.

"He is refreshingly different to the usual clownish troubadours crowding every inn and tavern. Cannor is nowhere near as useless in a fight, and when negotiating he truly does have a way with words. However, he squanders his talent on self-centered tales no listener will know or care about, and what use is such creativity if it cannot be cultivated into fame or fortune, and the powerful influence that can bestow? His exile prevents a return to the diplomatic and courtly circles he seems so desperate to rejoin, and without patrons or benefactors he risks sliding into further irrelevance. When your home is everywhere, it is nowhere, so Cannor must cut his losses and begin anew. I sympathize."

What do you think of Zafraia?

"A childhood of privation and want has made her resourceful and ruthlessly efficient in every endeavor she undertakes, but her capricious impulses will be her undoing if she cannot curb them. Accumulating wealth—legally or otherwise—means nothing if that wealth is wasted on trivialities, for the privileged have targets on their backs that all others are only too eager to assail. When one has never known great riches or power, a sudden acquisition of either at such a young age can adversely affect one's decision-making. Zafraia would do well to retain the rigorous discipline that helped her survive to this day, or else she will not hold her ill-gotten gains for long."

Any thoughts on Drem?

"He is a formidable combatant—all the more so considering his bare hands are often his only weapons—and for a surface dweller he is remarkably versed in making darkness his home. However Drem is hardly the 'living legend' described in so many songs and stories, and that is as it should be. The weight of one's past words and deeds is heavy enough without the additional burden of expectation, which he himself took on via his own heroics. Moral codes such as his cannot grant the power of divine oaths, for their rigidity offers insufficient benefits with too many limitations. If he cannot bend his own rules when flexibility is required, he will find himself trapped in a quagmire of his own making."

Yikes. Well, Judge Minthy shall return after three more Tavs make their debuts here, because they should get the chance to tell their own stories before she brings the hammer down. Stay tuned.

[lutethebodies]

Further Adventures with BG3 Mac Mods

A good topic to keep me from last night's self-centered whining: Zaf's best BG3 face mod has arrived! Well, sort of. This week's Friday Mac Mod dump includes two alarmingly large head-customizers: P4 Companion Heads for Tav (234.51 MB) and P4 Other NPC Heads for Tav (167.97 MB).

So I can finally test Mizora's face on my rogue Zafraia, and she looks great. This is the closest yet in BG3 that I've been able to approximate her 5e portrait (a previous attempt didn't last long). Unfortunately both of these mods are relatively gargantuan in file size (compare the as-yet-unapproved-for-Mac FacesUnlocked mod at 18.65 MB). So I won't get to see this person smolder at me in the character creator juuuust yet.

No slight on the P4 mod creator, but as a Mac user with non-optimized memory, the heavy ones won't work well on my machine. However, it's handy to have a compelling preview of what at least one of my characters will look like with their "final" face. Once I get them all set, ideally with FacesUnlocked, I'll set up a "definitive" run (as much as that can be with a game that might still be changing a bit) and snap all the screencaps I can get.

My other Tavs may or may not shake out like this (below the cut):

Cannor: Oskar Fevras. My swords bard isn't ugly, but he's not handsome either, so Rugan's face is too much for him. I never do the artist quest, so I'll never see Oskar.

Drem: Deva (maybe). My shadow monk isn't exactly a looker either, and I don't dislike his vanilla face, but it's a common NPC face, so it might have to go.

Olini: Isobel (maybe). Isobel's unique face is offset by her being a highly visible and plot-centric NPC, but her narrow eyes and full, high cheeks match up well with Olini's 5e face.

Qiranna: Florrick or Kagha. Drow Vanessa Kirby needs the face of a gal who's used to being obeyed.

Sianed: Viconia or maybe Shadowheart, if she changes at all. I'm probably too enamored of the fem half-elf head #4 with Minthara's messy bun to change this character, though.

Ruy: Lorroakan or (maybe) Dribbles. My knowledge cleric is yet another non-looker, but he's no uggo either. Lorroakan's nerd-vibe suits him, but the clown's visual awkwardness might as well.

Farago: I don't dislike his vanilla face, but I tried Astarion for him to see if maybe the lower ear angle won't clip his hat, but it's still clipping, just in a different place, so I'm not sure it'll work. We'll see once the lighter mod becomes available (if ever).

There are several others I might work with, but it's a moot point unless and until I can use the mod I want to.

Sidenote: a small win for today is scoring Act 1 Capes and Cloaks, because there really should have been such things in the main release.

So once again, as always, we wait.

[lutethebodies]

Big Simpin’

My multiplayer-as-multi-Tav run has reached the end of Act 2, so now Cannor can get as twitterpated as the other three.

Managing multiple approval tracks for each character is nuts enough to require a spreadsheet. Seriously, I riddle thee not:

As for the boys who got left out, well, they’ll just have to make do, won’t they. Jaheira and Halsin can babysit them.

[lutethebodies]

Giving the New Guy a Tour of Act 1

Zaf: “That’s Voss. He’s an insufferably arrogant asshole but we let that behavior slide, because he’s trying to free his boyfriend from eons of imprisonment. The others are just mooks, though, so we liquidate them every time.”

[Edited to note that my Tavs who’ve done multiple repeat runs are doing so because they’re doomed to be stuck in Faerun, Groundhog-Day-like, until such time as their nebulous creator (me) deems them worthy to move on.]

[lutethebodies]

Incoming: Tumblr Tav Tuesdays

Ok, preview of coming LTB attractions, thanks to helpful feedback and tips from some kind folks to this post. What I'm gonna do is post somewhat substantial entries for each of my eight Tavs that have made the most progress in the game.

They'll happen for the next eight Tuesdays (because Tav Tuesday of course) beginnning April 23. I previously did this on a fun Discord that I'm part of but Discord stuff tends to scroll away and get lost, so maybe this will be a better venue for it.

Content will be a combo of 5e/BG3 backstory (in-game and out), builds/gear (because crunch is fun), BG3 playthrough highlights (romances, unique events, etc.), and selected screenshot dumps (ideally beyond "standard stoic Tav" poses). The cast will star:

4/23: Cannor Coth, the Lost Singer (human swords bard). You've heard of heroic anti-heroes, but anti-bard bards? This guy is that guy, a little bit of everything without being Too Much.

4/30: Zafraia Zital, the Banished Bandit (human thief rogue). A cynical con artist who's seen everything and found it sorely lacking. No Guildie is good enough, no Zhent is safe.

5/7: Drem Sion, the Relentless Defender (human shadow monk). Bare-knuckle brawler with a heart of gold, this one—but since things are never that simple, neither is he.

5/14: Olinitza Cuel, the Silent Sentinel (half-drow gloom stalker ranger). A righteous rebel out to afflict the powerfully corrupt, avenge the downtrodden, and clear her name in the process.

5/21: Farago Heli, the Elven Exile (wood elf hunter ranger). Strong silent types have nothing on this ex-soldier, who's pining for a place to settle down once this adventuring stuff is all over.

5/28: Qiranna Jasti, the Raven's Right Hand (seldarine drow archfey warlock). The merely curious and ambitious have nothing on this moxie-fuelled mage. She wants the world and wants it now.

6/4: Ruy Acavés, the Realm's Reckoner (human knowledge cleric). What's a nice nerd like him doing in a nightmare like this? Why, collecting all the maps, arcana, and lore he possibly can, of course.

6/11: Sianed Arie, the Silver Stargazer (wood half-elf land druid). A shrewd sage who'd rather scan the night sky than shapeshift or strive for balance, she's at home in both wild frontiers and urban jungles.

There may be a few more after that, but these folks are my Elite Eight who've seen the most playing time, so they come first. Stay tuned!