Wow! I definitely like this look for Assy (as I’ve affectionately come to call him) a lot better!


Or at least a little Prestidigitation!

Our own travels aren’t going very well. I keep wanting to try other characters!

Nice pics. January's threads has got style galore.

One thing about this game that is becoming very frustrating is that it often punishes you for attacking monsters, at least if you are a paladin. The problem stems from the fact that the developers want you to be able to play either the good or evil route. Which means you either wind up working for the Big Bad - a cult called The Absolute - or against them. To make that possible the cultists won't be initially hostile to you. So you can walk right up to goblins as they are torturing people and they just say hello to you. Which really ruins immersion for starters.

It also makes playing a paladin difficult. If you just attack them, you become an Oathbreaker, basically a fallen paladin. Nevermind that the goblin you attacked literally just regaled you with how he tortured, murdered and ate someone, and put added emphasis onto the latter fact by pointing out the meat from said person roasting on the fire. Killing that guy is evil. Being chummy with him is good.

Riiight.

The only way you can fight the members of the Absolute without breaking your oath is by walking up to them and talking to them. Then you have to find a dialogue option to start a fight. The important thing here is that way you are not attacking them - who are as far as the game is concerned - a neutral NPC. They go hostile before you swing on them, so killing them does not break your oath.

Sometimes there are no dialogue options to start such a fight however. So then you cannot fight the bad guys. It gets very frustrating, especially in the ruined temple at the end of Act I, where the Absolute have an outpost.

I am not sure how this works for non-Paladins. I suspect that the game does not care if you just attack them on sight. There is no Alignment system in this game. So there are no points for good or evil, or lawful or chaotic acts. Except where Paladins are concerned with their Oaths.

I finished Act 1 finally, after doing everything (I think) there is to do. There is a lot of stuff, hidden away in little nooks and crannies on the maps.

I finally got to meet the mysterious Guardian, whom you are prompted to create the appearance of at the start of the game. They appear to you in a dream, where you meet them in astral space as a battle goes on in the distance. They tell you that they have already saved you once, and replay a flashback of the nautiloid crash, and how after you were thrown out of it, some force held you up in mid air to prevent you from splatting across the landscape.

This was the second appearance of the Guardian I think. The first was also in a dream sequence, but with even less.

I was made instantly suspicious however. I have no evidence to back it up, but I think the Guardian is the mysterious leader of the Absolute cult, the Big Bad of the entire game. I think they are trying to groom you to work for them.

But maybe I am just being paranoid.

I suspect it is the creature behind your eye.

That could be too. Though they *say* that they are keeping the tadpoles in check. And clearly something unusual is going on there. Numerous people point out that ceremophosis should have happened already. Somehow the tadpoles have been hijacked, or mutated, and turned the people infected with them into the lieutenants of the Absolute.

The main menu of the game has a picture of a subterranean temple with a skull. I remember that from the previous games. I think it is a temple to Bhaal. So I wonder if the three lieutenants of the Absolute are the Dead Three - Bhaal, Bane, and Myrkul. There was a book in the game about them, and there is a loading screen blurb. That might make the Absolute the original god of Death, Jergal.

I have seen some speculation online about who the Guardian is. Some people think they are Mystra. Though I suspect not. Given how the Guardian makes a comment in your head about Mystra after Elminster comes to talk to Gale, and deliver a new revelation.

That was interesting btw. Elminster appeared in Baldur's Gate 1 as I recall. He has the same opening line here as he did there. After that he is Gandalf. They seriously made an effort to not just make him look like Gandalf, but the voice actor was making a real effort to sound and speak like him as well. As I am a LOTR stan, I love it.

Lol, I still haven’t made it past the Druid grove.

The maps in this game are small by comparison to the Elder Scrolls or Fallout verses. But there is so much packed into them that it takes forever to go through every nook and cranny. I spent days in the Druid Grove alone.

I love how gross the nautiloid is in the intro. All the gaping wounds, items in jars. Good stuff!

I kind of accidentally found out who the Guardian is by looking at the wrong article. Suffice to say, we were both wrong.

I am well into Act 2 now, and I can say that the Githyanki and Mind Flayer involvement is not tangential to the story. They are central to it. Read every book and Gith disc you can, in order to familiarize yourself with their history.

I still don't know who the Absolute is. So I am not sure if they are a Gith or Mind Flayer, I suspect neither. Somehow they have hijacked the Mind Flayer tadpoles, and they are using them to create a cult of super telepaths to take over/destroy the world. I still suspect the Dead Three gods: Bhaal, Bane, and Myrkul are their lieutenants, because I keep seeing subtle references to them in the game. I kind of wonder if the Absolute is the goddess Shar. As both Shar and Selune are prominent in the game.

The Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast had a good episode on Mind Flayers


Edit: And I just found out that Volo (who you meet in the Druid Grove, and later in the game at the Goblin Camp) is a character from the Faerun setting. He is the author of a bunch in in-game books, the Volo's Guide to ... series

I started a new Warlock character today.
It feels really good so far.

The Eldritch Blast visuals and sound effects are based AF in this game.


K-Pop Astarion

The Myconid King

A friendly Mind Flayer and Bugbear

Elminster is totally Gandalf

The White Raven

Even in combat, you can right click on any character, then go to Examine, and it will show you their stats and resistances

What's this about a Bhaalspawn plot from a hundred years ago, that Jaheria was a part of stopping?

My version of the Guardian

A displacer beast!

Nice pics! That Miconid is beautiful!

On Warlocks, I had so much fun fighting the hostile party at the chapel above the dank ruins using the repelling blast evocation. I had my character, Saryn, and Assy go to the side and second floor and brought Lazy and Shady in through the front. The ranged guy on the second floor died so quick and got yeeted off the box he was standing on down to the ground floor. The mage lady did manage to put Lazy to sleep but she died not long after thanks mainly to Assy’s bow. Once the top folks were dealt with Saryn had some fun knocking the melee thugs around with her Eldritch Blast. They were flying all over the place!

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Aug 25 2023, 05:29 PM

Just wait until you get to some fights in high places. You will be blasting bad guys off of cliffs to their doom, sometimes into rivers of lava below.

Good times.

I can’t wait, lol

And I love your nicknames: Assy, Lazy, and Shady are awesome. That means you have Karly, Gally, and Wyllie coming up.


In other news, I took Gale out for a bit. He becomes a lot of fun once you pass 5th level. Fireballs! He can clean out half a room in the first turn.

I am about half way through Act II now. Maybe more. It is weird because you start the Act with two options for how to move forward. Take the road west toward Baldur's Gate, or go through the Underdark in the same direction. I read that either way you pick, you wind up in the same place at the end. And apparently you can still go back afterward and explore the other path.

Edit to Add: Ok, I looked it up. If you take the Underdark route from the Grymforge, it leads you to the Shadowlands. It just puts you closer to the Inn of Last Light, which you want to find sooner rather than later as a lot of quests start from there. Plus you can get protection from the curse on the Shadowlands. I think you just get on an elevator in the Grymforge, and appear in the Shadowlands, with nothing between. But I am not positive. So it is the quicker route.

However, if you go the aboveground route you go through a small-ish map on the way. It has some outdoor encouters. But more importantly there is a destroyed Lathander temple with monsters, and under it is a Githyanki creche. This is directly tied to Lazy and her personal quest. And you will find out more about what is going on with the Artefect, and who might be in it, and why it is so important.

I took the aboveground route, which took me into a really cool (as in, really horrific) area that had been taken over by Shadows. I think I am basically at the end of the act now, as I just assaulted Moonrise Tower, the stronghold of the Absolute. I am not sure, by my guess is that the Underdark route also leads you to Moonrise Tower? I am not sure. Or it could just be that the Underdark route leads you to the Shadowlands.

Shar and Selune are really central to what is going on in the Shadowlands, which was cool. You got to a lot of insight into the inner workings of the Sharrans. It made me uncomfortable having Shady in the party. Because the Sharrans are so plainly evil and manipulative. On one hand I feel sorry for Shadowheart. Shar is plainly using propaganda and manipulating her emotions to make her a puppet. OTOH, she is seeing all this horror in the Shadowlands caused by Shar, and all she can think of is how wonderful it would be to become one of Shar's chosen Dark Justiciars. It does come to a very dramatic head at the end of her personal quest (which is also tied in to the main quest at this point). There is a chance to bring her back from the Dark Side. But I had to roll a 20 to do it.

I also just found out who/what the Absolute is, and the same for their 3 lieutenants. I am not going to spoil it.

I have reached the end of Act II. Some quests and places in the world do have to be done in order, otherwise you get locked out of them for good. For example, once I completed the main quest for Act II, I found I cannot go back to the Act I areas at all.

I tried going back to the Grymforge from the Shadowlands. I found a small temple of Shar area that was empty, and the elevator down to the Grymforge. But it would not let me use the elevator, and the fast travel waypoints are gone from the map.

I also found that some quests I did not finish are now impossible to complete. Most notably there is one to fix the Shadowlands.

I also got lucky, in that I accidentally did one in the right order. Save the Tieflings is one you want to do before you make your final, big assault upon Moonrise Tower. I did this by accident. I went in the tower and found them first. Apparently if you do the big attack, you get locked out of saving them, and fail the quest.

Likewise, if I had not done the Githyanki creche already, that would now be locked out as well.

The Find Mol quest cannot be finished in Act II. It goes on to Act III, so you don't have to worry about being locked out of that one.

So be careful before you finish the Acts, and make sure you have done everything there is to do first.

I was thinking Karry for Karlach, but Karly does work too!

A question about Karlach and Wyll(sp?). I have yet to encounter Karlach in any play through, but the first thing out of Wyll’s mouth is how he’s hunting this one horned Tiefling, which I’m sure is Karlach. You don’t have to go into any detail, but is there trouble if you bring them both into the party?

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Aug 26 2023, 03:18 PM

I would say it is actually best if you have Wyll in the party when you find Karlach, as I think there is more dialogue that way. Talk to Karlach first. There is a lot more going on than Wyll is aware of. You do not have to kill her to keep both her and him in the party.