Baldur's Gate III Announced - ...and it's coming to Google Stadia and PC

[Lemmingwiser]

according to the game, the most valuable companion is Astarion, followed by Lae'zel, Shadowheart and then Wyll.

I'd love to make a quip about this, but it's just alphabetical.

Also it's accurate measure of value as long as you don't add Karlach or Gale to the list.

 

[Cheeseknife]

I fucked up and pulled the flask out of the chest so the chink bitch went instant aggro on me and I had to kill the Zhent lol. So no gloves for me on my Bard. Didn't matter because I wanted their explosive barrels. Hrmm... I wasn't even aware of that for Rogues at 10 though. I guess I'll just have to have my Bard do all the thieving until then. Have him doing it on my Warlock Durge and he has incredible luck in that file. Actually have the gloves on her too since I remembered NOT to open the chest until I slaughtered the Zhent. I really love explosive barrels possibly so they always have to die.

There's also the Smuggler's Ring you can loot from a skeleton at the side of the creek near the Toll Collector house (where the false Paladins are holed up).

 

[Safir]

Without relying on any modern terminology, Nocturne still says enough to lead you to conclude he transitioned and changed his name. Moreover he tells you that Shadowheart inspired this change.

Fucking disgusting, they ruined my favorite goddess. I was considering playing this after I read it was possible to kill fucking everyone, but this ruined the setting.

What could the developers have meant by this?

Sorted by item id in ascending order for stability, ids in alphabetic order.

 

[Cheeseknife]

I was considering playing this after I read it was possible to kill fucking everyone, but this ruined the setting.

Frankly the most interesting part of the game is something the devs don't even fully take advantage of.

You can play the default character Tav, choose you race and class and whatever and do whatever you want. However the game will also let you play one of the many companions as an "Origin" character as well.

Why this was interesting to me was the fact that you're basically playing Jordan Peele's Get Out, in a manner of speaking.

You're in control of what choices the characters make, regardless of their past history or how they acted as companions.

What I mean is you, the player, can play as an evil character like Lae'zel, but can go respec her as a Devotion Paladin and be as nice as can be to everyone and anyone. You basically tailor an entirely new identity for her...or so you think. But, unfortunately, the game never actually acknowledges you're doing this.

The isekai genre has played with this concept before where the MC is reincarnated into a fantasy world as the story's villain. Usually the character figures this out and tries to be heroic instead which changes the direction of the story.

I feel like that should have been what BG3 did. They had the perfect engine for it too: the mindflayer parasites. They could have the Githyanki demanding why Lae'zel would try to save the Tieflings at the Grove. Why would she devrlop a romance with a non-Githyanki? Why would she mock Vlakkith by doodling on her portrait?

The simple answer would be: the mindflayer parasite. It would be the appropriate explanation for the player making all these decisions outside the bounds of how the Origin characters were conceived.

Only other angle I thought could have been interesting is that you give all the characters memory loss. Later on they discover they all chose to lose their memories on purpose in order to have the Ilithid give them new identity. Like maybe Lae'zel felt guilty for something she did in the past and decided to receive a modified tadpole in order to remake herself. Maybe Karlach was forced to a bunch of wicked things for Zariel and welcomed the tadpole as a means of erasing those experiences and starting anew.

Again, seems to me the tadpoles could have been some kind of meta reference for the player rewriting a character's history.

 

[SIMIΔN]

If you get the Gloves of Thievery from the Zhentarim trader underground, that'll give you an extra die to roll on Sleight of Hand checks which will make things even easier.

Another good item is the robes you get from the egg-stealing scholar outside the monastery. It gives advantage to all Dexterity checks, so sneaking, shove-resistance and thievery are all helped.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Take it from someone who went full thief, eventually you’re gonna need to just have another character carry the gold. I was laughing around 30K+ when I hit Act 3. And I only have a 120-150 carrying limit, so my hoarding items is heavily working against me.

But yeah, I don’t think I’ve failed a single Sleight of Hand since I got to Act 3. Like most of the pickpocket numbers are in the negatives when I grab something.

 

[Cheeseknife]

Made it to LLI as Origin Karlach. Turns out, she gets some extra lines to say to Jahiera, but that was expected. Unfortunately for the Harpers, I sided with Marcus and knocked out Isobel. When Jahiera confronted me, I responded with, "I just wanted to see what happend." LLI is now kaput.

I resurrected Astarion in order to get the +2 Strength potion from the crazy Drow lady in Moonrise Towers. He wakes up in a creepy fortress far away from the beach where I found him and all he can say is, "Oh, thanks for resurrecting me." Despite all that has been experienced in the story so far, the conversation choices with him occur just as if your character doesn't know anything about the parasites. In other words, there's no, "So, since you've been dead, this much has happened..."

Then, literally the next conversation I have with him, he immediately confesses he is a vampire as if we've been traveling together for a long time. I can only guess the way the game keeps track of your companion progress is dependent on how far you are into the game itself. I thought about respeccing him as a Barbarian and bringing him along for kicks. "Astarion the Barbarian" has a nice ring to it. Sadly, there's a bug I've encountered: Astarion won't follow my party anymore, even when grouped. I've decided to just leave him in camp for the rest of the game. Maybe I'll bring him into Cazador's mansion in Act III, but he has served his purpose.

After my most recent rest, I got a cutscene where Karlach's heart is really starting to heat up. It will be interesting to see how that will be resolved considering I sided with the Goblins over the Grove which means Dammon is dead. I'm wondering if I'll actually reach an early game over if I don't find a way to fix her heart. I don't know if there are any alternatives to finding Dammon in the latter portions of the game.

Something else I want to mention is the devs completely overlooked the fact that Karlach can interact with Scratch and the baby Owlbear regardless as to whether or not you've fixed her problem.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

I made the mistake of not saving well before going into Balder’s Mouth, and it’s been a real pain in the ass sneaking in. I completed it, but now my player character is stuck downstairs with two Steel Watchets already in alerr because they spotted me earlier.

Maybe I’ll just let him get killed and have the party revive him.

 

[Cheeseknife]

So, another bug. Even though Astarion admitted he was a Vampire, the game still has the scene where he tries to bite you during a Long Rest and your character reacts as if they weren't even aware.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

So, another bug. Even though Astarion admitted he was a Vampire, the game still has the scene where he tries to bite you during a Long Rest and your character reacts as if they weren't even aware.

Maybe you sequenced broke something after killing everyone and leaving them dead for so long. All the “night scenes” have to catch up.

 

[Cheeseknife]

Maybe you sequenced broke something after killing everyone and leaving them dead for so long. All the “night scenes” have to catch up.

I've looked it up, some other people have noted it's actually a common occurrence. It usually happens if you've progressed through the game without taking too many Long Rests. Eventually Astarion just outright tells you he is a vampire and no matter what he will still try to bite you if you Long Rest later on. Your character reacts as if they didn't know. Most likely it has something to do with how the game handles triggers and exceptions and something needs to be patched. Funnier still, Minthara somehow knew about Cazador when I asked her about her thoughts on Astarion. This was before Astarion ever even mentioned Cazador's name.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

New patch is up.

https://baldursgate3.game/news/patch-4-now-live_96

 

[Zirnwyb]

I prayed that with this new patch Larian would let us PS5 players store corpses in containers finally. Nope very much still can't which makes me sad!



I hate having to leave all of them behind in this camp. Waste of perfectly good projectiles it is.

Edit:

Tested by throwing a severed arm and he indeed did fetch it.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Huh, apparently switching out the front page news to an article about you kicking Thorn’s ass makes the entire city very horny for you. Neat.

 

[Cheeseknife]

New patch is up.

https://baldursgate3.game/news/patch-4-now-live_96

>You can now customise hirelings' appearance when recruiting them.

Good. This should have been available from the start. Hirelings look ridiculous.

>At Level 6, Knowledge Domain clerics will now correctly gain 'Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts', Nature Domain clerics will now correctly gain 'Dampen Elements', and Trickery Domain clerics will now correctly gain 'Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows'.

Again, something that should have been available from the start. That being said, Light Domain is still leagues better than the others. Nature and Trickery are just gawdawful.

>Lae'zel was having trouble getting over Act I and Act II. She'll no longer make certain comments in Act III as though you're still in the earlier stages of your adventure.

Okay, but did they fix this for Shadowheart? If you play as a Cleric of Selune, she still has a dialogue option to say she's trying to corrupt you to Shar even if you you got her to abandon Shar. Gale also has some comments about the Nightsong in Act III that disrupt continuity.

>Selûnite Shadowheart will no longer wish you well in the name of Lady Shar.

Well, at least they fixed that.

Nevermind, she still says, "Shar's blessings upon you." as a Selunite.

>When a character uses an off-hand ranged attack, Dexterity is no longer added to the damage. This now aligns with off-hand melee attacks.
>Fixed your Dexterity modifier being added to ranged off-hand damage before you have the Dual Wielder feat.

Yeah, I always felt dual-wielding crossbows felt OP; didn't realize this was the reason.

>Picking up the disarmed weapons of characters in combat will no longer be considered a crime. You can also now use owned items in combat even around characters who are not participating in combat.

This was unintentionally hilarious. Happened to me once in Act III. Some civvy saw me pick up a Baneite's weapon and got all huffy. It's like, killing is fine, but theft? No, sir!

>Protection from Evil and Good should now protect you against meenlocks' Fear Aura, and the aura will go away if the meenlock gets knocked out.

Great! However, Meenlocks are also supposed to be afraid of light. But if you cast Light or Daylight, they don't care.

>The Slayer's Saving Throws are now dynamic. The Slayer now also gains Extra Attack(s) as part of the form.

Good; Slayer felt kinda worthless to transform into in Act III.

>NPCs will now give proper consideration to Steel Watchers' self-destruct area and steer clear of it.

Again, another unintentionally hilarious part of the game was watching NPCs casually walk into the explosion radius and die.

>If you polymorph, charm, paralyse, or dominate NPCs who are waiting around for you to approach or interact with them, they'll now consider this a hostile action.

Oh, damn. This might break the Minthara recruitment workaround if you save the grove.

>Companions will now consistently have something to say to you when you break up with them by choosing to be with someone else.

Funny thing about this. After I became an Unholy Assassin, Minthara accused me of cheating on her. Is this intended or is this a bug?

>For Lae'zel to decide to romance you, you no longer only need to gain high enough approval from her. You must also have proven yourself worthy through your actions.

Bad news for romance speedrunners?

Maybe you sequenced broke something after killing everyone and leaving them dead for so long. All the “night scenes” have to catch up.

>Fixed the game not recognising that you know that Astarion is a vampire after he tells you about it.
>Fixed the player character mentioning Astarion killing the Gur hunter even if Astarion never met him.

Well, there we have it.

>If you decapitate Karlach before having spoken to her and then resurrect her, she'll no longer spend the rest of the game headless.

NOOO!!!

>Fixed some inconsistencies with those in Last Light turning hostile if you start being aggressive with them. They're no longer fine with you murdering Jaheira. You can also no longer brag to Jaheira about saving her scouts if you bypassed them and they saved themselves.

Funny thing about this is, you can just completely ignore the goblins during the initial fight at the gates in Act I; but after the battle, the NPCs will still talk like you bravely defended the grove.

>Fixed an issue where Wulbren would try to save the tieflings from their cell even if he didn't have a weapon to break their wall.

Also unintentionally funny to watch Wulbren try to break a stone wall with his bare hands.

>Viconia's minions will no longer stop fighting when she is defeated.

Dude, people assumed that they stopped fighting because they all secretly hated her.

Something else they did, although I don't know if they mentioned in the patch, is that you can tell your companions about your Bhaalspawn heritage if you play as the Dark Urge, sometime after the revelation in Act III...

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

God, when that house I was randomly passing by in Lower City just exploded out of nowhere, I thought I’d missed a timed quest or something.

Instead, my blood is now gasoline.

 

[Cheeseknife]

New bug: Minthara still has the "True Soul of the Absolute" title underneath her health bar. She is also continually doing her "IN THE NAME OF THE ABSOLUTE, KILL THEM ALL!!' battle cry even though we're in Act III and she has long since joined my party.

Headcanon now says she is just suffering from PTSD.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Man, I’m glad Gale was with me when I first talked to Lorroakan. Them having a smug-off was pretty entertaining.

But now I need to talk the dude down, because damn he’s getting weirdly power hungry.

EDIT: Okay, so I went back and talked him down after he read the book rather than being more supportive of his choice. Led to a completely different tone and conversation with Mythra, and what he said afterwards, which is pretty neat.

Also a different kind of snark off with Lorroakan. Gale had some “looking in the mirror” realizations.

 

[Cheeseknife]

If you call The Emperor a freak of nature, this is the way he responds:

Just in case you thought he was the only character in the game who was straight with you from the beginning; the truth is that you were always his plaything. Wyll got it right when he mentioned how Duke Stelmane died of a mysterious stroke. Turns out, The Emperor was only friendly to you because it was pragmatically expedient. None of his motivations were altruistic.

I think this drives the number of people in the end-game who actually want to help you, by merit of the goodness of their heart, to a net zero.

 

[There Is Light At The End]

If you call The Emperor a freak of nature, this is the way he responds:

Ver archivo adjunto 5467618

Just in case you thought he was the only character in the game who was straight with you from the beginning; the truth is that you were always his plaything. Wyll got it right when he mentioned how Duke Stelmane died of a mysterious stroke. Turns out, The Emperor was only friendly to you because it was pragmatically expedient. None of his motivations were altruistic.

I think this drives the number of people in the end-game who actually want to help you, by merit of the goodness of their heart, to a net zero.

That's why he always gets boot at the end. New patch broke 2 things for me - Minthara's romance and hirelings. Can't hire anyone right now