Random tip: Don’t sleep on Spiritual Weapon in the cleric spell list. Unlike the 5e version, the BG3 one (a) doesn’t use your bonus attack to direct after you cast it and (b) makes a good off-tank as enemies will try to target it instead of you. Flaming Sphere is much the same. Both are a solid use of a 2nd level spell slot.
Wait, Cyberpunk still hasn’t added in-game customization? 
in that game I would have expected that you could walk into a plastic surgery shop and walk out with a completely new character, including completely changing your face or choosing a different gender. I have no idea why they wouldn’t do that.
Tell me about it - I am trying really hard to accept my mistakes and play on rather than reloading…
You can now but it was added after the game’s release. Mods in the interim time were clunky at best.
Ah, phew! I was planning to go back to that game when the new DLC releases and would have been bummed if this STILL wasn’t an option.
I am hopeful that Larian will promptly add this.
I accidentally lucked out into an amazing build for Lae’zel and now she is basically carrying my party by just chucking her greatsword at people every round. It is hilarious.
Fair, but at the same time as a DM I wouldn’t hold punches if my party snuck into a bad guy’s lair without an exit strategy !
Luckily, I could take a long rest in the cleared out temple before heading outside for the fight.
It took two tries to beat the fight at the entrance because the first time around I misclicked my Spiritual Weapon summon with Shadowheart, placing it up on the second level on the first turn of combat. This awoke the sleeping bugbears, and on their way down they pulled another four or five goblins earlier than I could deal with them.
I won the second time around - my bard had plenty of spells left when I left the indoor area, unlike the rest of the party. I spammed Thunderwave for the win.
With regards to my potentially buggy situation:
I went back to the Grove and no one attacked me, so I think I’m in the clear. The icon still shows up, though.
I tried way more than twice and never came close. I actually went to bed (IRL) worried that I put myself in a permanent bind, not yet realizing that I could teleport. Though in retrospect, I could have changed my party around. My favored mix is definitely on the glass cannon end of things, and that was… quite inappropriate for that situation. When I approached from the other end, using the bridge as a constriction point, I took out virtually the whole area in one try.
Holy shit. This game is AMAZING.
I decided to backtrack a tiny bit and load a save from just before I go into the Grove, because (especially now that I confirmed I don’t need to restart) I want to take a Long Rest and go do Lae’Zel and Wyll’s sidequests first.
But while doing some inventory maintenance, I stumbled across something REALLY, REALLY cool.
I’ll be intentionally vague, even in spoiler:
Wyll summoned a Shovel
This sideplot is the coolest thing ever.
I had to read a walkthrough for the first time. I couldn’t find Gale! Would’ve totally missed that he exists, except that he’s apparently the most popular companion.
Also, I found a funny encounter based on the old saying “if the van barn is a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’”.
I loved the music “video” from helping the bard.
That one was great! They really didn’t like being interrupted.
As a Bard, I diffused the situation…
I loved this, but I’m playing the Dark Urge background, and
That night she joins the camp, and I woke up having messily slaughtered her in my sleep.
I’m not crazy about that. It fits with the background, but I wasn’t expecting dark urge to be so, well, dark.
If I could change my background without starting a new game, I would 100% do so.
Y’all, it’s been a long long time since a game got its hooks in me like this. I’m almost done with Act I and I’m struggling against the urge to start over as an evil bard.
I also feel like humans are kind of garbage compared to tabletop 5e. The extra weapon proficiencies and carry weight aren’t nearly as good as either vanilla human or the human variant.
But because I’m a noble paladin, I’ll resist that dark urge.
Cool thing from last night: a boss bitching about how half elves are garbage after Shadowheart saved against a charm effect.
What’s everyone running with party-wise?
I’ve got:
- Main character, classic paladin with the “protection” shield fighting style.
- Karlach, bear totem because it’s too damn hard to pass up the best subclass in the game.
- Shadowheart as a walking Guidance pump but I guess also for heals and stuff.
- Flex spot, usually Gale but often Astarion for exploration stuff.
I like Laserbeam (battlemaster fear four times a short rest is great) but barbarian > fighter and I already have a paladin for extra frontline. Wynn is really cool as a character but low level warlocks are kinda meh. Don’t have the druid in my party yet, he might swap out for Shadowheart.
I’m almost level 5! Thinking about multiclassing a bit at 6. Maybe Karlach to fighter and the paladin to bard for the extra skills and spells.
Main: Deep Gnome Rogue (Thief) 4/Barb 1
Shadowheart for heals, Bless, Spiritual Weapon offtanking and Duplicity clones to assist my main
Wyll as Blade Pact with a glaive that allows him to pull enemies closer; great for getting archers off ledges
Gale doing wizard stuff though he honestly feels the most replaceable. I switch him out with Lae’zel or Karlach for their quests and barely notice the combat difference. I might try trading him out for the druid.
Slight disappointment: Prior to meeting Astarion, I cam across a guy looking for Astarion and sincerely said “No clue, dude”. Later, I met Astarion and I would have expected me to say “Hey, I heard of you…” but nope. Anyway, our meeting didn’t go well and now I’m wearing his shirt which looks better on me anyway. I dyed it green and look like a leprechaun swashbuckler.
I was a little worried about my switch from Rogue to Barbarian but I went back to fight the goblin camp and liberate the owlbear cub last night and just wrecked things with her. I think I’m just going to ride it to Rogue 4/Barb 8. Can’t whip stuff around like Karlach but my scimitar and rapier combo gives me Main Attack, Sneak Attack, Off-Hand, Off-hand per round and it’s quite effective. I bought a ring that adds 2 corrosive damage per hit just before bed and am pretty excited to check it out.
Has anyone eaten the worm? I’ve stayed away but my next character will probably be slurping them down. Feels wrong for this character/playthrough though.
I think I may have lost the owlbear cub.
When I was outside I told it to go to my camp but it was scared to do so because of the goblins. I figured I’d fight my way out and get him again, but when I came out he was gone.
Another spoiler, main plot related, involving the guardian figure we made at the beginning:
When I camped in the Goblin lair, I had a dream, where that guardian I designed came to me and told me to use the tadpoles’ powers, blah blah blah - I’m sure you all had the same dream by now, or will soon. My fellow party members had the same dream, too.
I have remained wary of the offer, and haven’t used any tadpole powers yet, nor consumed the five extra tadpoles I have acquired so far. My party members have generally been supportive of this, although Wyll and Gale have both suggested they’d be open to trying to use our powers more.
Astarion, though, got mad at me, and asked if he could try and use them instead. I agreed - I think it makes sense, as a vampire spawn Astarion seems like he had the least to lose, and I’m keeping a close eye on him anyways. I told him to help himself, and he said he would do so at some point in our future off time.
I’m excited to see where this goes - I assume the tadpoles let you spend points on that Illithid Power tree the devs showed off just before release, and I just hope I’ll still be in control of that process for Astarion.
My next character will be a Dark Urge necromancer who just wants personal power, so yes, that’s my plan. I haven’t decided on the details yet - maybe a male Drow who, having escaped Lolth’s society which is ruthlessly dominated by the priestesses, wants enough power so that no one can ever have that hold on him again (and so that he can turn that power around and dominate others).
I’m not sure if that backstory fits the Dark Urge’s established plotline, though. So I might just be a maniacal halfling or deep gnome or something.
Assuming you invited it, when you go to camp and take a Long Rest, it will appear and wake you up. I used Animal Handing and, despite the successful roll, it was too scared to get close so I tossed it some food, it ate and took off. I assume I’ll see it again in the future.
Me: sword Bard
Shadowheart: just whatever her cleric flavor was
Astarion: gloomstalker/thief
Lae’zel: Eldritch Knight sword chucker
Main: Human, pure Bard. I went with Lore bard, so far I’ve mostly been focusing on skills but I think it’s time to stop screwing around and learn more combat spells.
Shadowheart: I have her with a shield and with a special spear that can blind enemies. She casts Spirit Weapon and tanks.
Astarion: Assassin, pure Rogue. I have him dual wielding a magic shortsword and magic dagger, but I’m considering switching him to dual hand crossbows if I can find that. Does monstrous damage on the first round of combat and pretty good afterwards - I also gave him a bow that casts Hunter’s Mark so he’s great at a distance too.
Gale: Abjuration wizard - seemed to fit his personality. Shield, Flaming Sphere, and Witch Bolt do most of the work for me. He did just learn how to summon Shovel but I haven’t seen that perform in combat yet because -
I actually parked Gale and Astarion at camp! I plan to try and switch around using as many companions as I can on this run - though I believe eventually they may stop getting along?
So for now I have Lae’Zel and Wyll with me -
Lae’Zel - I went with an Eldritch Knight, mostly because Githyanki is literally where the term “Gish” meaning Wizard/Fighter comes from. Of course she needs spells. For the most parts, just ones that buff her rather than anything that needs an attack roll or a save. I have Lae’Zel at 17 int thanks to the Warped Headband of Intellect but the adjective “warped” makes me think I may need to get rid of it eventually. Still, and EK doesn’t necessarily NEED Int…. She wields a Glaive, specifically the one that can cast a thorn spell as a bonus action. But I may trade this out for the throwing pike.
Wyll - of course, he’s a Pact of Blade warlock. I took Repelling Blast and summon a glaive, but I think I can wield a real glaive and use Pact of the Blade to gain proficiency instead. Need to respec Will because I took an ability score improvement instead of the Polearm feat.
Once I get Karlach I think I will build her as a very simple berserker. Enough magic! (Although I hear Berserkers are good throwers, and with their enormous strength they have tons of carry weight, which means they are actually quite skilled in the arcane art of Barrelmancy…)