So 188 hours later and I finished! That was a fun story and good ending. Here’s a spoiler question:
So the Emperor was lying to me the whole time right? In my story I took Orpheus’ side so the Emperor left me to join the Netherbrain, but just before the final fight I found a transcript of a conversation between him and Gortash where he says it would be physically impossible for him to ever betray the Elder brain which said to me he was always secretly working for her and not me. That was one of the reasons I had no problem taking Orpheus’s side. It seems like he would have left no matter what I did
Siding with the Emperor doesn’t result in any last second betrayal – you guys go defeat the Netherbrain, he says “Attaboy” and takes off to cruise the skies. How much the Emperor was being honest and how much he was bullshitting and/or gaslighting you is left for you to decide. There’s ample evidence for either camp. But, either way, he does want the Netherbrain dead by the time you ‘meet’ him in the beginning of the game.
It’s somewhat reasonable, from the Emperor’s perspective, that going back to the Netherbrain is a preferable course over sticking with the yahoos who (a) want to release the powerful being you’ve been keeping prisoner and who wants to murder all of your kind and (b) are going to lose because they refuse to become illithid or give an illithid the stones when only an illithid can use the stones you need to win. He isn’t willing to be a martyr for your foolishness and might as well join what he assumes will be the winning side.
As I understand it, the Emperor WAS working with Gortash as an agent of the (then just) Elder Brain. But the Dead Three wanted the artefact and sent the Emperor to locate it. Emp finds it and the shielding power of Orpheus breaks control of the Brain and then the Emp can begin plotting the destruction of the Brain.
Started my honor run sooner than I expected and had to spent two revivify scrolls in the Jergal temple. Ooof. Not looking forward to the harpies. I might think about seeing if there’s enough reasonable content to get to lvl 4 before trying to take them on.
Do you just wander around the campsite forever? Is there something you can click on that triggers “The End” and credits roll? I know this was added in the recent patch. I assume before that the ending would have been when I ran off with Karlach to kick ass in Avernus. But with the epilogue once you talk to everyone and read all the letters is there something that says, “It’s over, go home.”?
Okay so I sat through the credits and got the Withers scene I see a lot of people talking about online but I also got a scene with Raphael basically saying that we will regret letting Mystra have the crown instead of him. 1. That jerk should be dead. I killed him in Avernus so he should be dead dead by D&D rules and 2. I see almost no chatter about this scene online which I find odd because there is plenty about the Withers scene but the only Raphael talk was about how people were disappointed that there was no follow-up for them in the epilogue. Did I get some kind of rare scene? Did anyone else get this scene or a variation of it?
I haven’t seen them (aside from one on YouTube) because I’ve always done House of Hope but I think those come up if you make the deal with Raphael and don’t steal/break your contract. Either him threatening you over giving the crown to Mystra or him gloating over getting the crown and preparing to rule the Hells (and beyond). If you destroyed your contract and killed Raphael in Avernus, it sounds like a bug.
Honor mode is stressful and I’m very early in act 1. I think I’ll be ok once I hit lvl 5 and start to get any gear that isn’t trash, but I’ve had like 4 fights so far that had me out of my chair and pacing the room between turns.
Larian is running an Advent Calendar where you do a simple card matching game (easy and cannot lose). Some days will have some giveaways you can download for the game. Nothing major. Just for fun.
…tore up the contract and killed Raphael. And, after the Withers epilogue, got Raphael gloating about how great the Crown is, how he’s conquering Avernus and will be coming to “knock at my door” soon enough
My first playthrough I was friendly with Wyll, but not flirty at all. He asked me to dance and was hurt and confused when I rejected him. The second playthough I was actively rude to him and he still hit on me.
Hah, I started an Honor Mode run today and have had three fights by Level 3 that had me pretty sure this might be the end of my run. And feel as though I’ve flubbed an extraordinary number of simple rolls but that’s probably just because I have to live with them. I was forced to fight the tieflings to save Lae’zel – though at least I was able to knock them out before AI controlled Lae’zel killed them.
I decided to play a Dwarven Cleric of Tymora (Tempest, which isn’t really thematic but I don’t care; I like Tempest). Shadowheart got changed to Veng. Paladin, Astorian is Swords Bard and Lae’zel is staying as a Battlemaster. The rest I don’t have special plans for, though I might run Karlach as a monk since you collect so much gear that’s useless without a monk.
I dropped a couple hundred in random junk on Dammon right off and max’d his merchant approval which I know most people don’t bother with but it’s already paid for itself easily and they supposedly adjusted prices on 100+ items in Honor Mode. Better to have a full purse! Since he’s around all three acts and sells some nice stuff later, he’s the obvious choice. And now he’s cornered the market on used silverware and leather armor for the entire Sword Coast.
I don’t know if I’ll continue (or restart) if I die but I’ll have fun until then, praying with each dice roll. Maybe picking Tymora will pay off (Too bad I didn’t want to play another halfling; that Halfling Luck trait would have been handy)
I’m playing this run as an evil Dark Urge so I won’t have access to Dammon much longer. He’s only really useful in act 1 if you want to romance Karlach or set him up for later in the game. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to participate in the grove storyline anymore so I can keep Karlach, or just do the underdark and creche and book it to moonrise.
I’m running two high dex martial characters so hitting lvl 5 around the time I got to the Zhentarim hideout was a huge boost (two bows that’ll last me until act 3 in the same location).
What were the fights that threw you? For me: The gnoll fight was rough. Lots of multi-attacks. I fought the shadow druids too early. Kagha’s moonbeam wrecked me and I would have wiped if I didn’t run away. I also aggroed the entire courtyard of the goblin camp by antagonizing the goblin that tells you to kiss his toes. The owlbear calling it’s mate as a legendary action didn’t throw me as much as I thought it would since I used the two cultists as cannon fodder. SImilarly, the harpies were easy this go around because I actually used the anti-charm spell.
In the ruined temple, I had the bright idea to set the oil barrel next to the door with the treasure hunter/looters while everyone else stood back. Plan was to open it, aggro and run back then blow up the barrel when they came through. Opened the door and the NPCs won initiative, hit the barrel and, since everyone else was way back, they weren’t in the fight and I was dead-dead before I could activate them and get them up there. Shadowheart had to use her rez scroll on me.
Crossing the crashed Nautiloid when it was just myself and Shadowheart, and the three 19hp intellect devourers attack (and we had 10-12hp each). Only survived due to some lucky hit/damage from Guiding Bolt.
The room under the Blighted village with the undead who pop out and wake more undead; sometimes two more per round. We made it through but it consumed most of our resources in terms of hp and spell slots.
I told the two cultists to go fight the owlbear, decided “Nah” about me fighting it and went around the other way and chatted with it instead. Left the cave, came back and the cultists were dead. Thanks for the free chain mail, dude.
A few successes were Commanding the cambion to drop his sword on the first try and Astarion yoinking the +1 Breastplate off Dammon’s table without getting caught
Oh yeah, I had trouble with that temple fight too. I would guess that’s the fight that has ended more honor mode runs than any other, honestly.
I’m terrified about trying to steal anything. I haven’t mastered getting away with it. Are you supposed to just run really far away afterwards? I should look into what ends the “I didn’t catch you, but something was stolen and you’re standing there” phase. Especially without a high CHA main character.
Yeah, basically. Steal it and everyone in your party beat feet as quickly as possible. Can help to do it in Turn-Based mode so you can run/dash away without them being able to react, then turn off turn-based and keep bookin’ it. In this case, I didn’t bother going back until I had zoned into Kagha’s area.
Theft victims will accuse each member in your party and it’s really annoying to have your main character talk their way out of it, just to have the merchant accuse Shadowheart a second later and you’re stuck. I complained about the theft system way back at launch and it’s still something I “work around” versus something I think was well implemented, five runs later.
(Too bad I didn’t want to play another halfling; that Halfling Luck trait would have been handy)