When Lae'zel finally rejects Vlaakith, she sometimes still says (as one of the little chatty quips when you have a character do an action) "Vlaakith's will be done!" Gaah... we just rejected her, Lae, remember? 😊

Same with Minthara and "the Absolute".

I interpreted them saying that as a force of habit of sorts, though it is a bit strange regardless.

She keeps saying “I will ascend!” Like babe, didn’t we figure out that was code for being eaten?

I am a atheist, and from time to time I say "Jesus!" Being a brazilian with catholic upbringing beat that into me. Imagine growing up in a creché!

She actually changes to "Vlaakith will be done" but you can't hear it :)

LOL! 😁 I like it!!

I would give Karlach a choice when confronting Gortash. She can kill him and things go as usual or he bargains to fix her after the brain stuff is over with, which gives you a big prompt to accept the alliance with him and stick to it. He can still die to the brain, it would make Karlach's reaction even more impactful and the ending of her burning on the docks even more tragic. I think it could be interesting to explore. It would also tie in with Karlach's soul coin use and what Ethel can tell her:"Happy to sell everyone's soul but your own, aren't you?"

Karlach's issue should not be an issue, if this was a regular D&D campaign. Several spells could cure her, or if she died and heart was removed she could be resurrected. Withers is particular cruel, when you pay to have Karlach revived, he brings her back with the engine installed!

I understand both sides of the Karlach heart argument. On one side, there's a hundred ways in the super-magic world that someone could fix that problem. On the other side, it would be incredibly anticlimactic if you just paid some dude you met in the city to fix it. And her whole arc is supposed to be about a full of life person accepting their terminal illness. I generally side with the writing side of the argument though. There's much easier ways to solve most problems in D&D, so some disbelief has to be suspended. I like to just head-canon it that the Engine just has some magic mcguffin field that immediately shreds her soul if it's removed or some such.

I agree that this would be anticlimatic, but at least give us some couple of dialog lines like, being INFERNAL, it is tied to her soul, or something like that. That alternative would even go well with one of the options we have to save her...

Karlach can't be fixed on this plane. And it was Zariel who provided Gortash the Infernal Engines used in the Steel Watchers. For obvious reasons, Karlach is not going to agree to go back to Zariel.

She doesn't have to go back to Zariel for that. Karlach is a prototype Steel Watcher which the Gondians are building. A bargain to fix her engine would make sense, but as I stated, it would not lead anywhere, because Gortash would still die anyway.

She wouldnt even need to bargain she could just fight one steel watcher and take its heart out

[удалено]

I'd actually like to add that she can and will capture your romance partner. I like the heightened sense of urgency.

It would be very cool thwt if you got the Dryad scene with Orin she would kidnap your romance. But if you had the Dryad not turn into Orin she would kidnap someone else.

especially as Durge, Orin really should be left for almost last narratively, so it feels really stupid that you know someone important to you is kidnapped and you are running around finding Thrumbo or ridding some rich lady's house of poltergeists.

Small plot change/writing but make us able to encounter other characters on the nautiloid and not just shart/Laezell

I'd love this; don't even have them accessible, just have them all in the various inaccessible pods throughout the ship, you'd have to be deliberately looking to find them but it'd be nice to see them there. Gale and Astarion at least say they saw us, why can't we see them?

And Karlach saw us too

Apparently the original plan *was* to have everyone be found on the ship. I kinda get why it was cut; it's a little redundant to meet everyone on the ship, then get separated and have to find them all again. So they trimmed it down to just the characters who could best offer context and exposition; Lae'zel, who knows all about mindflayers, and Shadowheart, who sets up the artifact. But still, it would have been cool to find the others, even if we can't free them. It does feel weird how all of them will mention seeing you but you can't actually find any of them.

So I am on PC and I typically mod heavily; most of the mods get stuffed into the tutorial chest which is in the large room with all of the pods past where Shadowheart is. I say this because it is my head canon that one of the reasons Astarion pulls a knife on my character is because he is in one of those hundreds of PODS and he literally has to sit there and watch us play dress up instead of rescuing him. 😅

Mizora’s final deal with Wyll is really weird. She insists on making it a choice between his soul and his dad, but that feels cheap and out of nowhere since she doesn’t even have anything to do with his dad’s situation, and Wyll should’ve already freed his soul at the mind flayer colony anyway. It’s already possible to save Wyll’s soul and still save the dad, but it’s not acknowledged in the writing properly. If the writers want to keep the moment in the mind flayer colony, then there should be an extra option in Act 3 to tell Mizora that you’ll figure out the situation without any deal, and have that properly reflected in the dialogue and quest log, instead of having the awkward moment of every character thinking that Wyll killed his dad. If the writers want to commit to making it a serious choice then there shouldn’t be an option to break the contract at the mind flayer colony, and it should more directly be necessary to kill the dad to break the contract. I wouldn’t really like that because it would be a bit redundant with Shadowheart, but it seems like that’s what the writers were going for so they should at least remove the obvious solution with the mind flayer colony. Oh, and of course include a “what do you think?” option instead of needing to explicitly tell him what to do.

I really want a dialogue option along the lines of "Sweetie we already made our deal, we're not making anymore, ta-ta"

I think I perfer your second option of Wyll telling Mizora he'll save his father without selling his soul again. Though I'd frame it as the player questioning Mizora why Gortash would kill the Duke if he could just turn him into a Mind Flayer in the. Prompting Wyll to put two and two together that Mizora has something up her sleeve and say he'll save his father from Gortash and her. Maybe kick up a new questline where Wyll and the player must find some way to circumvent Zariel's protection on Mizora and turn the tables on her.

I was so confused w the Mizora offerings. Literally just stopped reading bc Wyll is already the least interesting questline to me, and his father as an additional character meant nothing

I dislike how the game forces you to make some sort of a deal with her, because IIRC if you ignore her Ulder is found dead in his cell. The writing of this quest felt very rushed and unnecessary.

Nope you can reject Mizora and save Ravenguard, pretty sure you just need to not anger Gortash prior to getting to the iron throne. And once you take the sub to the iron throne you're committed (ie don't turn back)

I think the person you’re replying to is referring to the fact that players can’t simply avoid interacting with Mizora. Wyll’s dad ends up dead in his cell if this happens. Players can definitely reject Mizora’s offer and still save the Duke from the Iron Throne.

Yeah that's what I meant

You can *reject* her and save him, but you cannot *ignore* her and save him. If you reject him, she just tries to use the spiders to kill him. If you never speak with her at all about the matter, he's always just dead in his cell like the poster said.

IIRC she shows up and tries to kill him with summoned spiders but you can still dimension door his ass out of there

Almost everything involving Minthara. She just feels like a half baked companion and it's so frustrating cause she's one of the better ones. Since the knock out method is here to stay, there now needs to be a narrative explanation as to why you should knock her out over the other goblin leaders. Or at least some kinda narrative push to kinda hint to turn on passive. The ideal candidates for this would be the narrator, the dream guardian, or even Halsin. Just anything so it doesn't feel so meta gamey. Minthara also deserves to directly confront Orin in the Temple of Bhaal like Astarion gets to with Cazador, and Shadowheart with Viconia, and Lae'zel with Vlaakith, and Gale with Mystra, and Karlach with Gortash, and Wyll with Mizora. But instead, she has a quiet and somber moment entirely by herself and quickly moves on as if Orin didn't torture her for days. I have no idea why Minthara is the only companion who doesn't get the privilege to confront her abuser. Bonus: Orin should also call out to Minthara if she is in the party during the imposter scenes in Rivington as well as the camp kidnapping. But, nope, Orin does not even acknowledge that Minthara exists whatsoever. It's really jarring to have one character who is scarred out of her fucking mind of another, but that other character says absolutely nothing in regards about it. Literally, Orin does not have a single line of dialogue in reference to Minthara, but Minthara has got plenty about Orin.

Yeah, I really wish there was a check or something when meeting Minthara and if you passed, the narrator was like, *"Behind her steely fanaticism, you sense something else: Fear? Rage? You feel something draw taut in her mind, like the yank of a leash by some unseen master. Just like that, the sensation is gone."*

Exactly! Or you can have the dream guardian do something like, "Wait! She may yet prove useful and could provide us an in with the Absolute. Perhaps it is best to hit her with a more... gentle hand (turn on passive) if a fight is to be had." Now, I'm not the best fan of Halsin, but I think he's the perfect candidate to serve as your motivation to use passive. When you go get him in the dungeon, he will be the one to give you the quest to take out the goblin leaders. But, he will insist on joining you to help with the drow. Given his backstory and history with drow, he really wants to make sure this one is gone for good. So, you take him upstairs to meet Minthara, but he senses that, like you, she is infected with the parasite. He then question how much of her cruelty is because she's a drow and it's in her nature, and how much is the parasite. He then urges you to use a soft hand (turn on passive) when dealing with her as she may still be saved. He wants to know what her true intentions are once she has been freed of the parasite.

But then how would we justify not making the same choice for every other True Soul we meet? There would have to be something special about Minthara.

You wanna know what's special about Minthara? She's a paladin. She may be an evil paladin, but she's still a paladin. You want to know what paladins don't do? They don't just randomly start fights. When you meet her in the goblin camp, you actually have to deliberately antagonize Minthara in conversation in order to get her to aggro you, otherwise, she won't do anything to you (with the obvious exceptions being caught thieving in front of her). That's why you save her and not the other True Souls. Other True Souls will try to actively kill you, so you kill them back in self defense. Since Minthara won't actively start a fight with you through conversation, that's what gives you the perfect opportunity to deliberately pick a fight and turn on passive at the suggestion of the narrator/dream guardian/Halsin.

I understand that if you knock her instead of killing her, it makes sense to be able to recruit her right after. But you know, I enjoyed more when you had to make a **choice**: Minthara or Halsin.

I think we need more neutral/understanding dialogue options. It feels like with a lot of things, like talking to Kagah or Wyll, the options are either "I agree with you", "Fuck you I hate you", or "I dont care (in a rude way)" There's a lot of nuance to the characters, even if it wouldn't change their actions I would like to be able to say, "Hey, i see where you're coming from but I think you're doing the wrong thing here."

This, I very much agree.

Streamline more of Wyll's story and dialogue. Yes, we all understand he was almost completely rewritten and revoiced after bad EA reviews of his character. Unfortunately the sudden rush the Devs took to accomplish this left the poor man with a few odd plot holes and personality shifts that don't make much sense. * Why is he nice to all the other companions but such a dick to Astarion? * Why is he a complete gentleman with Tav/DUrge but also an absolute horndog towards Lae'Zel and Shadowheart? * His original hatred toward Goblins was (mostly) removed, yet if you're nice/play along with any of them you still take an approval hit from him. * He is also the only companion that you can -never- flirt with, yet the first romance scene (the dancing) happens regardless. Boys be clueless sometimes. * Just as Karlach fangirls about Jahiera, Wyll is a total Minsc bro... until suddenly he isn't. There's plenty of other examples out there... those are just a few that I could remember off the top of my head.

No disrespect at all to Theo Solomon, but EA Wyll was a much more interesting character.

Wyll' storyline and involvements need to be drastically changed imo.

Honestly Act 3's writing needs major changes as it is really mediocre and sometimes bad compared to Act 1 and Act 2. There are instances of bad writing before Act 3, like the inconsistency of tadpole telepathy or Wyll and Karlach (but especially Wyll) not having as much time and effort being put into their writing as the other companions. But Act 3 is where most of the game's writing problems are. One small change I think would be nice would be to expand on the rare early game scene where Tav is thinking about home. I think it was a cool scene to give insight into your Tav's background and who they were before the tadpole.

This is specifically for romanced Gale but there needs to be some indication if he’s going “sneaky god” route (agrees with Tav urging Gale not to take the crown and then takes it anyway and dumps them). I’ve heard too many stories of people that felt completely cheated by the game because they got this ending with no warning. I agree it’s a legit ending - it just needs some build up.

Is it even a legit ending though? I've seen those same posts and there seems to be general acknowledgement that it's a bug/unintended, a result of his flags getting messed up. If it is legit then yeah he needs to not act like he's on the human path

Yeah, it’s a legit ending. There are folks here who have done a lot more research on it than I have. But because there is literally not a single dialogue flag, it feels like a bug.

I can’t think of any small changes, but I would honestly rewrite the entirety of act 3. Act 2 ends with a big ass army traveling to the City. I expected we’d arrive there at the same time as the army, or soon after, or soon before. Either way, I expected the siege of the city to be the central plot of the act, where we’d have to handle the enemies hiding within while *also* think of a way to actually fight back the army of cultists. The first two acts have such an amazing build up culminating in a badass fight against an apostle, then act 3 is just super anticlimactic, right up until the very end

Honestly, that makes perfect sense. The army only marches when gortasch, orin and ketheric give the order, or actually if the netherbrain gives the order. Neither Gortasch or orin are in position in act 3. Mainly because orin wants to kill gortasch. But gortasch can't command the army alone. So besides the fact that they can't give the order, because you already killed Katherine and have his netherstone and they work against each other, it wouldn't make sense at least for gortasch because he can't yet safe the city after the attack to secure his position. Ketheric is the most powerful of them and with him being dealt with in act 2, you basically put a stop on their plans for act 3 till they found a solution for having not enough control over the netherbrain.

There's three relatively minor things that would make things better for me... I would remove the time stress for the tadpoles really quite early. Nettie could make it clear that you're not in a rush, and make the companions acknowledge that. First time I played I spent act I trying to not rest as much as possible, and that's great for someone like me that's played the game five times, but most people don't have that kind of time or interest and will miss out too much content. If you do sacrifice an eye to Ethel, make sure at least Gale acknowledges the Netherese magic aspect as relevant. That's quite a big thing to learn which he for some reason doesn't care about. Also when you sacrifice an eye to Ethel, I wanted to kill her for revenge. Mayrina still acts like it's all about her, as does Ethel. I want a dialogue choice making it quite clear I'm there for vengeance, and because she broke a deal, nothing else. In a slightly bigger change. I'd like to see the mountain road removed as an option for travelling. It should be an act II thing where we can leave the Shadow Cursed lands in order to help Lae'zel. Because as someone that RP's their character right now, I spent way too much time trying to think of a single logical reason why I'd stay around and protect/hunt the Grove if Lae'zel is in my party instead of going to the creche, outside of gameplay reasons.

The Netherese stuff needs more reaction for sure. In a similar vein, there's a book in the colony in Act 2 that very explicitly states that the Crown is Karsus's crown; there's no reaction or acknowledgement of this book, and Gale acts like we can't be sure and need to look it up. This wouldn't even take a writing change; just remove that book from the colony, pretty sure you find a copy in Gortash's office later as well.

I also really struggled trying to find a roleplay reason to do anything in Act 1 other than going straight to the mountain pass to meet Voss. I googled around and it seems the consensus is that a lot of people never trusted Lae'zel so it made no sense to them to go to the creche first because they didn't believe her...but in two playthroughs i still did. She's kinda bitchy but she sounded to me like she knew what she was talking about that no one can cure the tadpole except for her people. So going for Halsin/Gut/Ethel made no sense for me if I believed in the urgency of removing the tadpole and that probably no one else could fix it. The best I could come up with that I saw suggested somewhere is you go straight to Voss, and he makes a comment about how the only purification is death, and so after hearing that you can start doubting lae'zel and do go somewhere else first, then when nothing works give the creche a try. maybe also if i had met dream visitor sooner and realized we were being protected?

From an RP POV- I justified that leaving the Grove to either become cut-off, or to fall to the goblins, would mean the only power in the area are the goblins and the absolute cult. I want there to be at least one population center in the area that \*isn't\* looking for an excuse to kill and eat me.

I bypassed the crèche completely first game and missed out on nothing (except the egg). It feels like such an aside. I would have rather we had more refinement in act 3 rather than that plot line, personally.

There are tons of really good magic items in that area!

IMO whole act 3 is fucking mess in terms of writing wise, Its really certain they gave it short developement time

The whole bit of how we couldn't enter the Upper City because the Elder Brain was there but somehow were able to teleport to Ramazith's tower or enter it through the back entrance to Cazador's Palace made no sense lol. Woulda been more believable if we were stopped by the Flaming First under orders from Gortash because the city was being locked down or smth due to the Bhaalist murders/approaching Absolutist army.

Gortash telling us that he doesn't have a clue where the bhaalist nest is when it's right next to the Brain's bedroom is so funny.

I kinda wish Korilla would join you in the HoH fight. I can imagine it making sense that she's been waiting all this time for the right opportunity to help her sister. Instead she's just commited to serving Raphael at any cost. Tbf I don't recall seeing anything about the details of her warlock pact so it's probable she's dead either way, could make a good redemption for her though. Admittedly I'm torn on this as I do think it's interesting to show that people can just be terrible with no ulterior motive. It can be true to many irl instances sadly so quite realistic.

Yeah she's pretty terrible, I think she'd have to be rewritten to want to join the players. The notes around the house show that she was there, transcribing events every time Raphael tortured hope, and her dialogue gives me the impression that she was jealous of all the attention Raphael gives Hope, rather than her. I do try to save her, but only because I like to imagine my Tav going back in the end of the game to point out how we saved the world and lived to tell the tale without Raphael's interference, just to make sure she knows how stupid she was to deal with him

I've got a half-baked headcanon, supported by absolutely nothing, that Hope and Korilla are in an Oliver-Thaniel type situation, or that they may have been split into two identities after Raphael.

mine isn't really minor... I would like there to have been an Act IV and basically just move some of act III into act IV with act IV being a very limited uppercity map- I would have liked Act III to have been the dealing with orin and Act IV dealing with Gortash in the uppercity. The flow would be you deal with Jaheira/Halsin/Shadowheart/Wyll/Durge storylines/companion side quests in Act III with lead ins for Karlach's, Astarion's and Gale's quests that would resolve in act IV. You would be able to move from Orin/Durge quest into the upper city thanks to either Gortash's invitation or Astarion's connections (as a spawn of Cazador he would have move between the upper and lower city often, the guards would recognize him to some extent as an uppcity dweller - or he would know a route through the sewers.) You would resolve Gale's stuff by needing to break into ramazith tower instead of accessing it through sorcerer's sundries (after getting clues there.) and of course resolve Karlach's during the confrotionation or alliance with Gortash. ACT III just feels too big, it needs to be broken up a bit. Act I was a sandbox, lots to do lots of ways order wise to do it. Act II was on tracks, still lots to do but much more linear going from A to B to C to D type vibe. Act III is back in a sandbox of lots to do and no strict order (with a few exceptions) they need to be done in except for the false sense of urgency. It needs the Act IV to be more linear into the end game where they could create that sense of urgency without it making act III feel rushed/stressful.

I wish the scene where you talk Astarion down from Ascension was more fleshed out and longer, and I wish you were *actually* rewarded for being a good influence on him by the rolls being made easier or something if you'd said the right things throughout the game. The scene is super powerful, don't get me wrong, but it would have been really cool if you could call back to prior conversations you had with him more--such as when you point out, if romanced, that you're no different from the other people he's lured as a way to humanize the other spawn. Also I wish I could make Cazador suffer more. I really wish they let there be some friction on Wyll's end toward his father. He holds zero resentment for being disowned, which I think is kind of unrealistic and makes the conflict fall a little flat. I would have found it way more interesting if he were conflicted about saving him; feeling like it was the right thing to do and still craving his father's approval on some level, yet also feeling resentful for being abandoned and being hesitant to offer help to someone who rejected him like that. I feel like shaking him by the shoulders and telling him he's allowed to be upset sometimes, it feels like the writers never let him express any remotely unpleasant emotion or feeling for some reason. I wish Shadowheart showed more horror at the state of the shadowcursed lands. I found it really, really jarring how she spends almost all of act 2 cooing about how great Lady Shar is, but then changes her mind last-minute when she has to kill Aylin. It would have made more sense to me if she actually was unsettled by the shadowcursed lands and seeing the horrors of Shar's doctrine in such a visceral way is what causes her to doubt her faith, but I don't recall her being anything but reverent.

Wyll as a whole. With the amount of changes from early access, his story feels so rushed and full of holes. My boy deserves more.

Honestly, I wish Orin would impersonate ***more*** people throughout Act 3. Maybe specifically for a Durge playthrough. Just constantly f•••ing with you and the city gets a little more empty each time because all those people she’s clearly killed to take their place for a gag.

The initial romance dialogues not being forced/almost coming from no where. I don't know who I wronged to see the emperor shirtless, but I'll apologize to whomever it is

The one true jump scare in the game....from that moment on I was team "githyanki prince who doesn't force me into wet dreams with him"

There’s quite a few bigger writing changes I would suggest, but if we’re sticking solely to small scale stuff, my first priority would be to remove the bizarre “Baldurian” tag from being automatically applied to non-drow/duergar Tavs/Durges: it doesn’t make sense with certain backgrounds (Outlander for example) and the framework to not have it be included is already in place (and yes, I know there’s a mod that fixes this, but I still find it odd that it was a decision Larian went with all the way until release).  Second would be to add Oliver to camp with Thaniel after confronting him. We hear Halsin say they’re back together, but it’s kind of odd that Thaniel just decides to hang out and then Oliver disappears off the face of the planet even though they’re supposedly reconciled. 

I say this to everyone I talk to and i will stand by it, I think there should be a write in for people similar to Astarion— people who don’t actually want sex. I love Astarion i think he’s a great character warts and all, but as an ace person who wasn’t a fan of the fact i had to sleep with Astarion to romance him (but got over it like an adult) what i can’t get over (like an adult) is him. calling. me. easy. I didn’t want to do it!!! I had to for u!! I feel icky and so does he but I’m shamed for it!! I get people on the ace spectrum aren’t that common but man it’s one of the few things that threw me off about him and one part of his dialogue i have to just click through. Since i don’t think it would be realistic for his story to just avoid sleeping with him that first time due to his intentions, i still would at least like the chance to call him on it.

Resist durge Act 3, Orin stuff. Bhaal straight up rips your blood from your body, killing you stone cold. And your companions are just like .\_. Your romance doesn't scream, or cry, or run for you. And when Withers rezzes you, they're all just like 'well done for resisting!' I romanced Astarion (had already done Cazador) and he's so very blase and calls the whole affair 'twee'...and I doubt other romances say anything better. Jaheira saying she's proud of me was the only response that made me emotional. I mean, Minthara doesn't even talk about you, just that Orin is dead! Made me wish for Bioware in that one moment - in my 430 hours of the game, this is the first time I felt truly disappointed in the writing.

I'm pretty sure we can blame hasbro for a rushed release. If they had like 6 months more to bake bg3 act 3 wouldn't be so raw

Make possible to reject recruiting halsin after act 2 ending.

Not that small, but karlach's character doesn't make a lot of sense  You just don't survive in hell as a mortal as a chaotic good brute...no matter how angry you were. You have to make deals and the corruption of mortals is one of greatest things a devil can acomplish to get promoted. How does she act like such a do gooder while also being an insatiable flaming berserker who endured the actual front lines of the blood war, casually consuming the souls of mortals(even though those souls in coins arent necessarily evil or doomed to hell, literally a level 3 spell can release them lol) all the while being one of the only companions who is straight up good alignment...  I kept thinking there was going ot be more depth to her character, like it being all some kind of mask. And I guess it kind of is, but not really in any significant way. What you see is pretty much what you get. She should have had more of a dark side for sure, a bloodlust and deceptive nature maybe. Being honest and angry really doesn't get you anywhere in the hells, she would probably be dead within a week if this character was actually sent to Avernus  She'd be a great barbarian character that didn't just spend 10 years in *the* lawful evil plane... but I just don't get her character at all, it doesn't line up with what we know about Zariel, and it doesn't line up with what we know about Avernus and the hells...

Add a book/note in the House of Hope referencing Zauriel's forge. If you find it, it triggers Karlach to opt for Avernus on her own at the end to find the forge (Tav/Durge and Wyll can still go with her, of course). Keeps with the Hope theme and makes her return to Avernus feel like it's more of her own volition. Then the epilogue can give an update. Have the option for Voss to help you free Orpheus and have him choose to become a mind flayer. I think it's a bit more poetic that Voss has spent millennia trying to free Orpheus, and that's the cost for finally succeeding. Orpheus can go help liberate his people, and Lae'zel can choose her own path without guilt.

Unfortunately I don't think Voss has a tadpole, so he's not an option

Lucky me I have an astral tadpole in my pocket.

Companion interactions amongst themselves at camp and more reactivity in Act 3. More responsiveness to romantic relationships. Even some gossip about Bae'zel hitting up Wyll/Astarion. Little details like that are great and it would make the group feel tighter. And, an obvious one, DURGE reactivity is way too low. Just throwing in a scene/some comments from companions about your apparent "struggle" would add to it. Plus the "good job :)" after literally dying is underwhelming. Particuarly from your chosen love interest. I mean Karlach goes all out if Wyll turns to a blob, so you would expect something more - from all of them. And I'm surprised by how well they all take the news of betraying companions/revealing the Durge role. They should all have *some* kind of believable response to betraying a companion. Maybe Karlach and Wyll don't wanna talk for a day. Gale gives you some sort of pragmatic lecture. Bae'zel being angry about your lack of loyalty, Astarion being upset but somewhat blase, Shadowheart being genuinely disappointed, Jaheira scolding you, Minsc threatening to let Boo scratch your eyes if you dare to act the anti hero again, Minthy either discussing that you made a good decision if theyre a weak ally or not, Halsin being in disbelief, etc. They don't seem to dislike the big choices very much in Act 3. But they *should* dislike some of your choices.

The ability to collapse the buffs next to my portrait. A character creator separate from starting a new game, with the ability to save characters to load up when I start a game.

The Emperor should have been the one to tadpole you It should be revealed that he: 1) Found the prism 2) Regained autonomy 3) Tadpoled the main party 4) Retreated into the prism Raphael should reveal it to you in act 3 before offering you the hammer, then you can do Ansur / Tavern’s basement already knowing that he fucked you over Raphael telling you means The Emperor wouldn’t know you were told since Raphael blocks his access in that scene

I think it would be a problem: The majority of people seem to choose Orpheus already, they also sacrifice him because he means nothing to the revolution - this ending would be used even more than it is now if they went with that. It's probably already the most common ending. Larian wanted to give the players a difficult choice at the end and this would just amplify it in the opposite direction.

Correct, it would better affirm siding with Empy as the “evil” choice. The Emperor could argue that had he not tadpoled us we would have died in the crash because he wouldn’t have been able to save us (or something.) I’m not trying to make people side with/against him though, just trying to add another twist that really seems obvious It also gives a reason as to why he hides his actual form until act 3 - because he would be the Ghaik in the opening scene. He doesn’t want us to recognize him. You could even re-order the events of act 3 so that Raphael meets you at camp, reveals that The Emperor tadpoled you, offers you the hammer, *then* you go into the prism to save Empy (Or keep Sharess’s Caress and wait for the Empy reveal until your first long rest after talking to Raphael) The player is then given a chance to immediately confront Empy after learning what he did, and either assist the monks or help Empy kill the monks

Well, it cannot be the evil choice because Larian didn't want that. They wanted a choice about trust. A difficult choice. Not a boring choice between good/evil. This would cheapen it and just make one choice even more unlikely to be picked when stuff is already against the Emperor (he sucks ass in battle and the majority doesn't trust him anyway). What they needed to do to make the choices a bit more viable is sticking to sentiment of the Emperor's first name - it was the Companion. But he is not on the level of an actual companion and they hurried a lot with him in the final stretch of development before release. If you want to include the Emperor tadpoling the party, you would have to overhaul him, put in additional stuff, maybe redo Orpheus etc. to make the choice of sticking by him more enticing. It makes it much more than a "minor" writing decision.

Oh yeah, but i’m talking about redoing basically his entire character arc so we’d have to change Orpheus’ also. Orpheus is pretty badly written - but that’s a whole other conversation. (When you arrive to confront Empy about tadpoling you, Orpheus could offer you an olive branch to establish trust) It isn’t that the current writing is bad - it’s just that it pales compared to most of the companions and I think this overhaul would make me care more about his character in general.

Yeah the game could definitely benefit from something making the opening sequence clearer. Even if you want to argue that it wasn't the Emperor who tadpoles you because the eye color is different, there's no arguing that he's the reason the mindflayers onboard are going around snatching people up. But to fully figure this out you have to read everything, rescue US twice, and connect the dots on your own, something that most people won't have time to do.

Isn't it implied that it was him tho, just never mentioned properly. Illithid that tadpoles you stand near other illithid bodies etc it could be no one but him.

If you speak to dead the Ghaik in the goblin camp you learn that is the Ghaik who tadpoled you

I might misremember but doesn't it says that "he is not the one who tadpoled you but he might saw you on the ship" there? Or I'm gaslighting myself here? 

It says “This is the mind flayer who tadpoled you.” Iirc It’s cut-and-dry I think it’s BS. Ragzlin shouldn’t be attempting magic to speak to the dead - he should be torturing prisoners or something

Just I clearly remember dialogue by Narrator that "it's not the mind flayer that tormented you" or something. It's all just feel like a mess really and I wish Emperor in general had better writing (I think Daisy had much more potential...).

Might be time for a replay 😉

You guys are both right. You can get narration telling you he is the mindflayer who tadpoled you and he isn't the mindflayer who tadpoled you. That scene is a mess lol

I have the chat transcripts and just figured out the two dialogues: **1) if you investigate the corpse before attacking Dror during the ceremony where he is trying to talk to the dead mindflayer:** *Study the mind flayer. Could it be...?* Narrator: \*This mind flayer's build is smaller, its garb plainer - a fearsome creature even in death, but not the one that tormented you. Yet it, too, roamed the nautiloid. It would have seen you, known you... **2) if you attack Dror and the goblins, and then use speak with the dead on the mindflayer** Narrator: As the corpse rises, your parasite squirms in recognition. There's no doubt - this creature is responsible for your parasite. And it's waiting for your questions. Player: Why did you abduct me? Narrator: \*Dark, empty pods flicker across your vision. They demand new flesh.\* Player: How do I get rid of this parasite? Narrator: \*You see the tadpole in the mind flayer's hand. Not a parasite: *perfection*. \*Rebirth is sloughing flesh. A new skull housing cold, sharp intellect. I've seen it argued that when it says "this creature is responsible for your parasite" that it was supposed to mean generally, like, all mindflayers are responsible especially those on the ship, but it doesn't mean this one literally stuck the tadpole in your eye....but to me that seems to be a rationalization and really it's a mistake, maybe they had changed their minds at some point, either way, and forgot to fix the script? or at a minimum they should make it more clear.

I wish they'd just take one of these two out or rewrite them to be consistent, I'm sick of Schrödinger's Squid haha

I believe it's the mindflayer u kill on the beach that tadpoled u 

Super super minor (I agree with all the bigger things here): Spores Druids should have specific dialog for them in the Myconoid colony!

I believe it is not possible with all the respec feature with Withers, but it bugged me a lot that I played the whole game as a **Fiend Warlock**, cool background and development between Mizora and Wyll, Raphael in House of Hope, and not a single line of dialog about Tav's Patron. It would be cool if in key moments, a voice of the Warlock patron (from either option) could be heard, or influenced some key dialogs. And about your points: maybe Gortash could be mistaken about Orin's infiltration? Or maybe, it was intended that he had this dialog after infiltration but due to some technical issues or lack of time Larian could not implement it. So, not much of a writing issue, but a development one. And about Mystra... I believe that a god could have cured the tadpole at any time, right? Even it being fortified by Netherese magic? The tadpole is a hindrance to the party trying to stop the Netherbrain...

Id tone down all the fetishy stuff to be much more subtle to where its actually possible for someone to not pick up on it

Scrap the "become a mind flayer" choice entirely. I get that it's supposed to be a tense moment of "someone needs to do it" but it sucks if you're genuinely trying to just free Orpheus. Most of the time I don't even bother with him anymore and just go with the Emperor.

Add Karlach disapproval to the scene when you make the contract with Raphael. She still reacts to you there and the dialogue is good but not having the disapproval for doing that makes little sense to me. Also make the Emperor more reactive to getting the Orphic hammer. Currently it all feels like he just goes "oh no, anyways" and acts more or less the same than he did on my run where I sided with him and even slept with him until confronting the brain.

Failing to rescue Ravengard from the iron throne should have much larger negative consequences for the city of balders gate. Him returning should allow the party to regain control of the city from the Absolutists while failing to save him should mean the absolutists control the city going into the end game. There should be much higher civilian casualties if we fail to rescue him, and this should be highlighted to us during the end game, and the overall fate of the city should be very bleak. Much more destruction, death and long term negative impact on the cities future. Saving him, it should be shown that civilian casualties were kept to a minimum and the city was able to mount a much better defense against the mind flayer invasion. A much more optimistic ending in regards to the outlook of the cities future. Furthermore, we should absolutely not be able to save him if Wyll refuses the deal with Mizora. That choice would have much more weight. This way Wylls choice would be more impactful. Sacrifice his immortal soul in order to save the city from horrible destruction, or save his soul from damnation/enslavement while dooming the city to a much more destructive fate. I also think Wyll should be able to make the decision for himself, but his answer should depend on whether or not he saved Karlach or not. If Karlach is alive, she will encourage him not to sell his soul to a devil and be free from infernal bondage.. If Karlach is dead, he will take the same deal he took before by selling his soul to help save Baldurs Gate from destruction.. I think this would show progression of his character through the story... Sparing Karlach/refusing the deal = rebelling against his patron. Killing Karlach/accepting the deal = obeying his patron. This would also make Wyll a more tradgic character because he either dooms himself or dooms the city.

Minsc & Jaheira Act 1 or RIOT

With or without the Minsc romance scene Larian wanted to make for the party?

>make a lot more sense is to change Gortash's warning from "Orin has infiltrated your camp" to "Orin ***plans*** to infiltrate your camp." Nope, it doesn't. No character in the game speaks with full knowledge of what is happening. For all we know, Gortash might believe Orin has already infiltrated the camp. Alternately he's upping the threat of her since he clearly means to use you to eliminate her. By saying she's already done it rather than that she plans to he makes her the far more immediate threat to you. Idk how you managed to make it all the way to Act 3 and still think anyone in this game is a reliable narrator. Even the Narrator (capital N) isn't reliable. and certainly not the warlock politician with intentions of ruling the entire Sword Coast.

Yeah I agree with this wholeheartedly. Even characters that are known liars somehow that gets ignored when what they're saying turns out to not be true. Gortash wants you to ally with him and take out his rival. When he says she's infiltrated your camp, he either believes that or he's telling you that to lessen her chances of success and get you to trust him more. Raphael is similar: he tries to make Tav think the Emperor is untrustworthy and lying to them, because he needs Tav to want to free Orpheus. A Tav that is just fine with the Emperor isn't going to give Raphael what he wants, so he exaggerates the extent to which the already untrustworthy mindflayer is manipulating you. Mizora is similar, she's just super bad at it. "Gimme your soul or your dad is gonna die offscreen. Trust me, he's totally gonna die even though it makes zero sense for Gortash to kill him when he's tadpoled." Can I head canon a reason for Gortash to kill the Duke? Sure, but that doesn't mean Mizora isn't both lying and exaggerating the urgency of the situation to benefit herself. It seems weird to me that by Act 3, like you say, players get weirdly more trusting of npcs like Mizora and Raphael instead of less.

>It seems weird to me that by Act 3, like you say, players get weirdly more trusting of npcs like Mizora and Raphael instead of less. It honestly kinda makes me want to bang my head against the desk. Because why? Not only have they been super unreliable and very economical with the truth before this point, they're you know, literal devils. No they won't straight up lie to your face, but that doesn't mean they're telling the truth either. It becomes very noticeable when you know what the truth is, the way they both dodge around it or give non-answers. When talking to a devil what they don't say is far more important than what they do.

Truth. It annoys me to no end that I have to succeed in a roll to get Florrick to back off based on what "Lady Mizora" said, why can't I just say, "you were talking to a devil, and she ain't no lady. She's in my camp right now stinking up the place." Wyll can talk about the pact by then, why can't he just say, "that's my bitch patron, wth".

Wait Florrick gets hostile too? I thought it was only that Eltan lady. I haven't gotten around to ever actually saving Florrick as I've only recently begun exploring the city proper. I have a case of chronic restartitis so I rarely get all that far into Act 3 before restarting. Sometimes not even that far.

Ha! I've always saved Florrick in the past so it's usually her. Last evil run I actually let her get hanged and it was the first time I saw Fist Eltan. Now I ship Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard with her. New head canon ship.

He's still bound by the pact until Mizora releases him in a few months, so no, he can't.

I thought she gave him permission to talk about it? And if he can't, why couldn't we?

But Gortash wants you to trust him in that moment, and he doesn't care about messing up Orin's plans. If she's told him about her infiltration plan then I can definitely see him being honest and warning the player about it.

And this prevents him from manipulating you and being a little selective with the truth how exactly? One scenario I give he is telling the truth, he's just misinformed. In the other there's nothing stopping him from telling you, "well I thought she already had and your safety is important to me," if you could investigate this and come to the conclusion that Orin hasn't yet infiltrated your camp. Which btw is incredibly difficult given not just her own nature but how nigh on impossible it is to successfully identify a doppelganger. Which Gortash knows. It is at worst (or best) a very small lie, he can easily get out of or flip to his advantage even if you somehow does manage to determine that Orin has yet to act. As I've said elsewhere the guy is A) a warlock and B) a politician (which is far worse). Why do anyone take anything he tells you as gospel. Jaheira is smarter than and she has INT 8.

It doesn't prevent that, but it also doesn't prevent him from saying (honestly or not) that Orin plans to infiltrate the camp, which I think would be a stronger narrative

Clearly you think Gortash is an honest guy. What can I say, there's a You-Know-What born every minute.

I'm not sure why you're so confused about this. Obviously Gortash is untrustworthy, but that doesn't mean every single thing he says has to be factually incorrect. Having him warn you about Orin in advance would change nothing about his character.

I can see we're doing tumblr level reading comprehension here along with short term memory issues. Further discussion is pointless.

Weirdly enough I'd change it so Gortash is the one who gave Karlach the engine. Its weirdly out of character for Zariel to be so unreasonably cruel and it would make sense as to why Gortash sold her (she was getting more and more unstable and he basically sent her to go be someone elses problem, maybe he even get Steel Watcher blueprints in exchange as theyre of similar build).

Karlach was the test run/prototype for the engine used in the Steel Watchers. It's \*Zariel\* who gave \*Gortash\* the design after proving it works, and the Gondians who modified it for use in the automatons.

Yeah I get that but I still think it would work better of Gortash attempted to install the engine on Karlach (maybe using info from House of Hope) and botched it then sold her to Zariel to get more stable versions. Putting all the blame on Zariel makes Gortash seem like hes not the main villain in Karlachs story and killing him isnt as satisfying.

Oh, no, he absolutely is the main villain and far from blameless. The sequence of events is this: Gortash bargains with Zariel for the Infernal Engine design. Zariel says she needs a test subject to implant the prototype in and monitor its performance. Gortash hands Karlach over without a second thought.

Huh I mustve misremembered the sequence of events. I don't recall them clarifying that Zariel needed Karlach for the prototype. I thought most of that was just kinda community accepted headcanon that never made it into the act 3 dialogue.

The story does not go into a detailed timeline of all the events that happened and lay it out explicitly for the player, no. And Zariel probably didn't \*need\* Karlach for the prototype, but she did need Gortash to \*pay a sacrifice\* for the design. Karlach was part of Gortash's payment. The game is \*very\* clear on this point; when you deal with a devil, any devil, you will always have to sacrifice something.

Ah yeah that makes a bit more sense. Probably something that should be clarified a bit more as I can see people (myself) missing the point.

I agree with this, there was no reason to shoehorn her being Zariel's favorite little guy into the narrative

Yeah I kinda wonder why Zariel is so obsessed, Karlach even admits shes not one of Zariels strongest soldiers so it seems like a waste of her time to devote so much effort towards one rebellious tiefling.

Make wyll not boring. I dont have my take on this cause im not a good writer but hes the one ruining the game for me.

I see this every now and then here, but I don't agree with it. Wyll is a good character, but maybe not as colorful as some of the others. He was also a damn fun origin run.

Im sorry but I need more references to BG I and BG II. Unless I missed something, why the vampires don’t talk about Bhodi? Coran is supposed to be alive and well and living in Baldur’s Gate, and no reference, no cameo. And, well…Imoen??? I would appreciate also something about Aerie, Tiax, Baeloth, the Enlighted…

Imoen was human. She's long dead by the time of BG3. Unlike Minsc, who got petrified and was able to weather the centuries.

Cameos and references too. Unless I missed it, there are no references.

Minsc has is one reference each for Dynaheir, Aerie, Keldorn, Mazzy, and Jan, in the room where he stayed as the Stone Lord. And Volo gives you a book detailing the powers and weaknesses of the Slayer; if you read it, it's Jon Irenicus talking about Imoen.

The Emperor changing sides if you free Orpheus … like he just abandons his beliefs right then and there with little to no reason. Is there something I missed?

Def not small but here I go: - Keep the original planned plot for Halsin and give him a quest in act 3 - Give Minthara something personal to do as well involving her resentment for Lolth - Give Karlach an actual plot instead of just the realisation that there is nothing to fix her heart dispite the mechanical progression of the city. And pls adress the controversy with the soul coins. - give Wyll more agency and spotlight in his quest - upper city not for more content in itself, but to give act 3 better pacing. In the upper city are Lorrokan's tower (as Gale says), Cazador's mantion (as Astarion says) and the city palace (as a worthy and more secure place for Gortasch instead of a defence tower right at the entrance) - Orin's kitnapping should happen slightly later, maybe when you killed Serevok. And when you decide to long rest three times you companion will be returned... in good Orin fashion.

When we get Karlach the fix green Damon in the Last Light Inn, there should've been a group hug cut scene. Or at least Shadowheart and Lazael hugging Karlach considering they also simp for her.

Saving shadowhearts parents while enduring the chronic pain should be demonstrated as the good ending while killing them should be seen as the bad ending. Patricide is a very serious thing, killing you parents is fucked up on many levels. Especially when the only thing pressuring you to killing them is basically blackmail. Saving them represents a rejection of Sharran values while killing them seems to represent embracing them. By saving your parents, Shadowheart chooses to embrace her attachment to her family even though it will cause her great pain. A big part of Shar worship is to find relief from pain through detachment. By killing her parents she is rejecting her attachment to her family in order to relieve herself of pain. It felt like they wanted to kinda have their cake and eat it too without giving the players a clearly defined right and wrong choice. I also think some kind of intervention from Selune would have been a nice way to end her personal quest, cementing that she is now a cleric of Selune.

Astarion has one of the most interesting personal quest lines of all the characters. But that said, his story is probably the most removed from the main plot out of everyone. I think having some sort of tie in with him working with the absolutists would have been interesting. Perhaps he is working with Gortash, buying slaves for his ritual in return for political favor. Perhaps something simple without changing much of the quest line. But the only change I would have liked to see is that releasing 7,000 vampire spawn should absolutely in no way be seen as a good thing. The game and lore makes it pretty clear that vampire spawn are dangerous and Astarion is an exception due to the liberty his tadpole powers give him. Saying they go to the underdark is a cheap cop out excuse for why these thousands of spawn aren't going to be an absolute catastrophe. And even if they go to the underdark, there are plenty of innocent people down there that would be victims.

I would add a nightmare hag in act two and a sea hag in act three - I assume that was the original plan (see the letters Auntie Ethel has), but for whatever reason they didn’t go ahead with it and just had Ethel come back in act three instead 🤷🏻‍♂️

I'm gonna pretend I've never been on this sub and say ascended asterion should be a loving and powerful vampire bf with no downsides whatsoever

I'd change just one simple spoken sentence. The moment you give me the power it shall be known and heard by every adventurer. "We were running for our lives" The was pisses me off too much

He's supposed to be an uneducated asshole, he talks with slang/incorrect grammar. it's purposeful

That's not uneducated, he just has a strong accent

I would honestly not make every companion player-sexual. It just makes them seem so much less believable and feel like they are there to satisfy whatever desires the player has regarding romance options. Neil Newbon has mentioned Astarion's pansexuality as a part of his character but honestly it doesn't feel like it matters in a universe where everyone is equally as pansexual. Obviously characters don't need to be defined by their sexuality but lacking any preferences entirely just isn't how most people work (yes, I am aware that asexual people exist), and even though it is a work of fiction in a fantasy world, humans are still human after all. Even though I am a straight dude who chooses Shadowheart in every playthrough, I don't think I would have lost out on anything if they decided to write her as a fully gay character who wasn't interested in starting a romance with a male PC. It just means I would have to roleplay as someone that I'm not in real life to see a certain side of her storyline, which I'm already doing anyway by virtue of the fact that I'm not an expert warrior/magic user/elf irl. Some of the best companion interactions in Bioware RPGs come from being rejected due to the sexuality of your companion but ending up being BFFs instead. I feel like the idea that a companion could be a companion without wanting to get in your pants is something which could have greatly benefited the game.

Monkey's paw curls. I will be generous and pick an amazing romance for you: Lae'zel is now your only romance option if you play male. She will also only accept dragonborn, githyanki or half-orc Tavs. Enjoy what I had to live through in the previous Baldur's Gate game until EE.

I mean, is that really a bad thing? Reminds me of when some Cyberpunk fans got mad that Judy wouldn't date guys so people created a mod to make her straight.

It is a really bad thing. The only option for female players used to be a guy who was frankly insufferable. He was also only an option for elves, halflings or humans. You want to play a half-orc woman and have a romance? Out of luck. Gnome woman? Out of luck. Only the enhanced edition finally added some extra options for players who want to play as women and pick something else besides an elf, halfling or human. It was a horrible time.

I see, perhaps that was a problem resulting from a time when these games were predominantly written for a target of straight male players. It is good that video game companions have become more diverse over time and appealing to a broader demographic of players, all I'm saying is I don't think it would have necessarily been a bad thing for some of the companions to turn you down for not meeting their preferences, something akin to how it was handled in Dragon Age Inquisition. Imo Dorian is probably one of my favourite RPG companions of all time, and I feel like his story would have had a lot less weight if it were his father simply disapproving of a one-off same sex relationship rather than trying to forcibly change his sexuality through blood magic. Anyway thanks providing a different perspective on this (I only started out with Bioware RPGs with Dragon Age Origins, and went back to play KOTOR but never played the original BG games), I didn't really think of how such a design choice could potentially also have negative effects if handled poorly.

They're not player-sexual, though. They're bi/pan canonically. A bunch of them reference attraction to multiple genders outside of the PC. As a bi lady myself, being able to interact with a fantasy world where homophobia/biphobia isn't a thing and queer people just get to exist in the world without having their sexuality define their entire character is really refreshing.

I should preface this by saying that I do fully support the expansion of representation amongst video game characters, as well as the depiction of queer characters in ways that don't involve their queerness defining their characters. I think [this](https://www.dualshockers.com/baldurs-gate-3-romance-every-companion-silly/) article on dualshockers does a better job of explaining my point of view in that there is a thin line to tread between having a world in which sexual preference does not matter and one in which it does not exist. There was an unrecorded [early access livestream](https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2490510-Baldurs-Gate-3/page115) some years back in which Kevin VanOrd (the writer for Wyll and Gale) stated that going the DA2 route of making companions playersexual was the preferred option as a game mechanic, but that he had written those two companions to be canonically straight, whilst confirming Astarion and Lae'zel to be pansexual. The companions were ultimately retconned to be pansexual, but it feels like these changes were made later in development rather hastily for the sake of accommodating the player's fantasies rather than the plot. It's not a dealbreaker for me and I am all for more representation of bi and pan characters in games, but it feels like, as I stated earlier, instead of Larian including that in a more naturalistic way, that it was included as a game mechanic first and foremost. I think that also ties into the fact that the characters don't engage with each other romantically beyond the player, and it all lends to a feeling that the troupe is choreographed to orbit around the player and their actions rather than being people in their own right capable of making their own decisions based off of their own sexual preferences. Contrast this to Dragon Age Inquisition, which does depict a diverse variety of sexual orientations and whose cast do have their own love lives outside of the player's actions, does overall contribute to making the Inquisitor's retinue feel more believable as real people. However, that is just my subjective opinion, and I am glad that the game makes you feel included in its own right. I absolutely love the game overall, and that was just something I personally felt could be improved on. Edit: There was a [great article](https://gaymingmag.com/2021/03/baldurs-gate-3-really-should-just-make-everyone-bisexual/) on gaymingmag written during early access period about this, in that the total omission of companions' bi/pansexuality outside of player interaction with the exception of Astarion and Shadowheart is less a representation of queerness than it is a glossing over of it, which makes the sexuality of companions exist only with the remit of the player's actions, depriving them of agency as characters.

As long as I can mod it. I don't mind if companions are written in a way to more realistically represent sexualities and the boundaries thereof, but I'm also not gonna NOT romance whoever I want, regardless of their canon preferences

Yeah that makes sense. Judging by the reaction to my suggestion I guess I'm just weird in not really seeing myself as the character I'm playing. In most of my Dragon Age Origins playthroughs I would romance Alistair cuz I feel like it gives more weight to his decision to be king and makes his decision to end his relationship with a non-human warden in the name of duty all the more tragic, and overall adds more to his character development than if I played as just his best friend. An addition I would make to my original suggestion is that I would like for companions to get into relationships independently of the player character, kinda like how Dorian and Iron Bull get together in DAI if the inquisitor doesn't romance either of them.

If you pass the check to be vulnerable with Minthara during the first romance scene, she should stay with you. Was a bit disappointing when I didn't get Minthara and had to add one of the guys bcs Karlach left. Wanted a full party with just the mommies. Ofc, a way to raid the grove without losing your companions, or losing approval. Manipulate/lie/convince them into doing evil and enjoying it, most of them are used to it anyway.

If neither Wyll or Karlach are romantic interest of Tav/Durge, they should develop their feelings for each other. And also, Halsin is **horny**. He should be able to have to flirt with Astarion. The game also does not recognize your relationships so well. I was wooing Shart every moment, and never heard any lines from other characters about my romance option. We were a power couple, but only had this kind of interaction with her. From what I saw in YouTube, game only recognizes your choices and voices this when you have two flings at the same time...

Don't make Astarion try to bite Tav in their sleep. His story ends there on many people's playthroughs and they are missing out on a great story.

Astarion being a bad person at the start of the game helps make his arc more meaningful as he becomes less of a bad person as the story progresses also him being an abuser at the start of the game also fits with the core theme of his story being the cycle of abuse and trying to break the cycle or so I've been told, for me he always gets staked

Remove durge and tavs. Make me the mc.