BG3 Run 1 Complete

[got_quiet]

I have "finished" Baldur's Gate 3. That is, I got to an ending credits, at least.

My first run ended kind of like this:

Frustrated at himself for his failure to save Lae'zel, worried for Thrall Astarion's protection, and unconcerned with the moral dilemma of cermorphosis, Tav took up the full transformation without much hesitation. His only pause was to consult Astarion on the matter, but Astarion held back any firm protest. I had almost maxed out his tadpole infection, so he had quite the selection of powers in the final assault. After a difficult fight against the Netherbrain (In which I STILL couldn't bring myself to use half of my inventory and continued to forget to use the other half.) it was finally defeated, Tav commanded it to kill itself, and everyone lived happily ever after. Sort of.

Once you go squid I think the game immediately tags you as no longer romancing Astarion, because his comments on the pier were rather formal and friend oriented before he had to run off. Halsin of course is a big horny boy who had no problem with Tav's change, and bless him for it. Likewise the bed scenes after were a little weird because I got two of them back to back, the first one with a Halsin who was like, "that was some freaky sex, I still love you, let's talk about our future together." Immediately after I got the Astarion scene, who was like, "I can't do this..." Considering Tav had made the change largely for Astarion's benefit this was an angsty blow, but whether Astarion is into him or not he's still going to stick around. My headcanon is that they team up as monster killing monsters and Tav just holds his torch in silence, at least until the reunion party... where after having a nice time and a chat (where Astarion again is like, "sucks it didn't work out." You're killing me, baby!) Tav found himself distracted by the deliciousness of Wyll's brain and just couldn't help himself. He nommed down on it, Wyll died, and an extremely put out Withers kicked Tav out into some random dimension as punishment for ruining the party.

While this is a funny and somewhat fitting end to this Tav's adventures, who never saw a bad choice he didn't like and vibed with Astarion largely over a mutual violent streak, it doesn't particularly feel like the happiest of endings. I can only tell myself that if anyone would forgive Tav for eating Wyll it'd be Astarion, who isn't against a little murder, and Halsin, who'd understand that sometimes instinct is hard to fight. Buut probably I'll just retcon that and Tav will have better self control. He did eat Orpheus after all.

---

So now that my first playthrough is over I got some takeaways:

• Wyll grew on me a lot as the game went through. I don't know if it's just because I so rarely had him in my party, but when he was he was constantly chatting everyone up and being a friendly guy. I feel like his situation was sidelined in my first run so I'm going to try to give him more time in the gang in the next one.
• Good Shadowheart ended up being kind of boring, and her plot felt like something was missing. I think maybe I missed some lore piece or something, for why exactly she was the one being groomed into a tool for Shar. But the end of her quest did have strong emotional beats and Tav gave her a big tight hug in the end.
• Poor Karlach also had a good emotional end. Her reaction to Gortash's death was very well done, I'd say right next to Astarion's fight with Cazador, especially since for her she had put on such a brave face for so long and finally she gets to really let go of the pain that she'd been holding in. She an Wyll went off hunting in Avernus in my game which I think worked out well for both of them.
• Gale being the god of Ambition is pitch perfect. Honestly that's so him. Tav was very supportive of everyone's greed and selfishness, and was himself a self-serving sort of guy, so at the party he and Gale were basically patting each other on the back for a job well done lol. The letter from Elminster was sad though. And it's a shame that this end for Gale basically happens in the epilogue, so unlike with Astarion you don't seem to really see the consequences of that decision up close.
• It sucks that Lae'zel died in my run because I liked her so much, and her story was interesting. Her dying led to a dramatic change in the outcome of my game, because I think had she lived it would have been very hard for Tav not to rescue Orpheus.
• And Astarion. He's really a beautiful, special character and I wanted to install a single mod that did nothing but add "I love you" as a chat option when you talk to him so I could spam it. I would raze a million Gur villages and crawl through the fires of Avernus for that little shit. And he dumped me. There is fix-it fic begging to be written here.
• Halsin seems to have gotten the best and happiest end. He is thriving and content and couldn't stop talking all about his village and children and I would also raze a million Gur villages for him.
• The Emperor reveal near the end I didn't like. One of my least favorite tropes is when some character suddenly is revealed to be some different, significantly more important character. Every time this happens that character becomes infinitely less interesting to me so for the Emperor that was a libido killing moment.
• Healing is practically useless in this game. I regretted it almost every time I cast it.

Stuff Tav did and did not do

• Blew up the Steel Watch factory. I hear everyone hates Wulbren Bongle, which, fair, but my Tav thought he was practical, and he supplied a very convenient solution to Tav's problem. Also Wulbren's friend disappeared at some point, likely after Tav let Nere kill all the Gnomes... so the stuff that probably exposed the shittier side of Wulbren (outside of the genocidal rage, I mean) did not appear in my run.
• Sided with Dame Aylin. If Tav was consistant about one thing, it was about giving people freedom to ruin shit themselves. He doesn't like cages. Also Aylin was a badass and he respects badasses more than mages who sit back expecting people to do their work for them.
• Got Zevlor free. I guess this is a thing that matters because he showed up to help in the final fight.
• Let all the spawn go. Again, not his problem anymore. If they fuck up the area, that's on them, but they should be allowed to have the choice. Unfortunately the Gur were in fact all dead, despite my quest log's confusion so the Gur kids are going to have a tough time.
• Left Raphael on read. Who knows what he wanted. Tav didn't know, and he didn't care. So I didn't see his house of whatever this run.
• - Never met Minsk, never ran into any owlbears, never went into the underdark in act 2, and never found any mushroom people even though now after seeing vids they appear to be a major feature of the underdark in Act 1.
• Got into a street brawl with a mummy, who was standing outside for other shinanigan based reasons.
• Tried and failed to sweet talk himself into the bank. He was going to go back after the Steel Watch was gone, but he killed Gortash first, and then Mind Flayers started appearing everywhere, and it was brain slaying time.
• Failed to track down Auntie Ethel for a second time, he was looking around for her, but never ran into her.
• I almost managed to fill up Tav's entire brain with tadpoles. I regret giving Gale a few now because I wanted to see if a full head would give you an achievement.

So now, eventually, I'm going to roll a Durge and romance Gale. I'm not sure what sort of Durge I'm going to roll. I want something with high charisma so I can see all of the stuff I couldn't by being a tongue tied little murder machine, but I don't care too much for the CHA class options. I thought maybe a Male Drow Monk. Or if Cha a Male Drow Paladin. Are those allowed? Probably? I'm also not sure if I want to be good or evil. My Tav was, theoretically, good in that he worked for the good guys, even if he wasn't nice about it. So I didn't see any of the evil bits. I don't know how happy Gale would be about such a route though.

I'm curious as to what people thing are things that shouldn't be missed in the game, now that I've gone through once with a minimum of spoilers. Are there any interactions or scenes or things that were your favorite? Is there a companion interaction that you love to see? I'm going to go back to my plethora of Tav saves too and poke around some options. I don't know if I want to just hit an ending with a Thrall!Astarion and Human!Tav or go even further back and see if I can't get Astarion ascended, as he probably should have been in this run.

But for now I'm a little burnt out on BG3. The game is too damn big, so the save scumming and rerolling will have to wait for a while.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Aw, that's really sad about Astarion! Shadowheart got lukewarm after my Tav transformed in my first playthrough, so when I redid the ending to see the epilogue I got poor Orpheus to do it instead >.>

Speaking of which, Raphael's house (which is what gets you to ability to free Orpheus) is definitely worth visiting!

Minsk annoyed me, but I guess I'm glad to have seen his content once even if I'm not sure I'll recruit him again next time. The owlbear doesn't have a lot of content but is very cute.

The Auntie Ethel Act 3 quest is a bit convoluted but mildly interesting.

My mind has blanked on other things I liked and you might have missed!

It is a lot of game isn't it? I've stalled on my own Durge/Gale run, even though I was enjoying it, just because after 2 and a half games of Baldur's Gate I need a break.

Oh also: Resisting the dark urge is mostly wisdom rolls afaict. Of course maybe you want to try and fail, that could certainly be compelling, though perhaps not ideal for a happy romantic ending with Gale. He's pretty chill about you being evil if you spin it the right way afaict. My Durge is trying VERY HARD to be good which is also pretty fun, since it's such an uphill journey, and Gale has been endearingly supportive.

[got_quiet]

Good to know about the wisdom rolls! I'm not sure if I want to play Monk or Druid right now but I might go for Druid for the high Wis then since I do want to play a resisting Durge first.

I do want to pay a visit to Raphael this time. I think the next PC will not be so all-in on the Emperor so it will be easier to have an excuse.

[kissed]

YOU SURVIVED!! i agree with the game's size, the first two acts are just really big and it's difficult to slug through it for me as well. if you play a purely/mostly evil character next time, the game's content shrinks dramatically because no one is alive to give you quests LOL. then that in turn makes the game more difficult, because xp is a lot more scarce.

something i also dreaded is going through the gauntlet of shar AGAIN, AND AGAIN...... but unsure if it's intentional or will be patched, but you can use knock to unlock the big door and bypass everything lol. IIRC, my husband's game glitched and the door wouldn't unlock for him anyway after completing everything, so he was able to misty step behind it to get to the waypoint.

so that's what i'm doing right now (a mostly evil durge playthrough) and it's definitely different, if not a little rough around the edges. it's certainly intended for you to play a "better" person!

--

the mushroom people are on the top right of the underdark map and i definitely recommend giving them a visit next playthrough! there are some memorable characters in there that have made shop, and i'm curious if they even appear later in the game if you've not met them before... (i don't want to spoil them though)

in the underdark as well, there's a cloistered group of fishmen that you can only find if you're looking for them honestly (they're in a hole you have to jump into), but they give you a good buff if you do... certain things for them, one that is very suited for an evil playthrough and may or may not require sacrificing one of your companions, like your least favorite.......

and HIGHLY HIIIIIGHLY recommend checking out raph's deal, and by extension, raph's house too. there's a lot of things in there that i think you'd enjoy playing through (and a slight spoiler, there's a possible boss fight, and the boss fight is epic with excellent music).

astarion's pretty honest about not really digging you after becoming a mind flayer, though it's a little sad because he obviously still loves you deeply but can't get past the appearance :(

hmm, finding auntie ethel again i think is also worth it, and the minsc addition was honestly to me, not even worth doing, though i did it LMAO. he just has such little impact on the game where he's easily missable and was really there for nostalgia players that i don't really care for him much. i don't think you really suffered not indulging him.

gale is a bit more malleable with an evil tav/durge, you have to convince him not to leave your ass multiple times LOL... he's not as good as wyll or karlach and recognizes/respects power but still has somewhat of a code of morals (like killing innocent people) while astarion doesn't care or understands you have to do whatever you have to to survive, so it's just different!

to speak in terms of that, if an origin is up your valley, i'd recommend astarion origin romancing gale (which has its own difficulties since they're both carrying secrets) or karlach (which is something entirely different for him, and has the potential to be really sad too).

i think the positive thing for you is because you missed or didn't do some content, a second playthrough will have new things for you to experience! so you may not feel as burnt out playing it, especially trying out durge.

[got_quiet]

I've seen some Gale/Astarion fanart and I see the appeal for sure. There's a post about Ascended Astarion romancing God Gale too which I think is the most hilarious outcome of them all. The bitter divorce energy just flowing off that pairing is overwhelming.

I didn't try to hard to do everything my first run because I figured that would make a second more fun. And in the short half hour I played with a Durge Drow there were already a lot of changes to the flavor of things. It's remarkable how much (voiced!) content is in this game. I'm definitely paying a visit to Raphael next time.

I'm not super enthused about doing any of the Shadowlands again. The Gauntlet wasn't terrible the first time, but yeah, if there's a way to cheese it I might give it a shot.