Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@Throb It’s brilliant if you have Astarion in your party or if you’re playing as a rogue during potential upcoming combat scenarios.

Having Astarion be sneaky and scout ahead and maybe even pick off an enemy or two whilst remaining hidden is absolutely awesome.

I entered the lower city last time I played, and I'm kind of just overwhelmed and don't know what to do first. I did some of the murder investigation stuff, and Elfsong tavern. Initialy I got the Stop the Press quest, but it didn't really fit into the flow of literally having just spoken to the person who is slandering us, as they want us to help them with their own problem, so I reloaded until I do some more stuff that maybe upsets that person again, just for my own headcanon. Don't get me wrong, I won't be helping either of those who want me to side with them, but for continuity it did feel a bit strange that the one party is trying to hinder us while we are trying to overcome someone, who's downfall will benefit them.

I guess my solution is to go back to where the quest initiated once I'm ready, and then follow it through. Or maybe thinking on it, headcanon my way into believing the attack in the press is using old information acquired from them while they were still fearful of our meddling selves entering the city, and wanted to make sure we were public enemy number one, despite them since realising we could actually be the means to an end. That might be the way I have to go, as I want to be doing the side content first, really.

Got back into the groove of things last night. Mixing some investigations and side content together to make my own narrative flow once more.

I got locked into an absolutely massive battle at once point, where I blew up about 5 enemies, before a huge fight kicked off, I didn't have shadowheart in the party, so my healing was very limited, but the initial battle was very satisfying. I then went on to loot everything I needed to, including some tasty sounding vault keys, but by then the noise had dragged in the Flaming Fist and a steelwatcher, so I had to then deal with them 😅😅 managed it, had to do 2 short rests to heal up, and by that point, somehow 6 more Flaming fists had appeared and "accused me of stealing" while I'm standing over the corpses of a bunch of bad guys, like come on give me a break haha. I then dealt with this wave, each party member had about 10hp left, and I fast travelled out of there as fast as I could, incase more came 😬😬

Big win though, I got to go back and steal sooooooo many fireworks and barrels of powder. My camp is now filled with explosives that I'll let Karlach hurl at people in every fight to come, I guess 😁😁😁

Boom, Boom, motherf***er

Fought a pretty powerful wizard and his monsterous minions. So much fun, finally had a really nice overpowered use for Hold Person, to make him unable to attack at all, and I got to test out Hold Monster ok his minions, and a Sphere of Immunity that I could nip into before attacking the wizard, to negate his retaliation spells 😁 very satisfying use of the tools I had available

I almost wish there was a new game plus, just to be able to fight through the whole game with your more final builds, as it's immensely fun. And I'm going to make sure I try to get into as many fights as possible before the end to really make the most of the levelling up

I tried the Moonrise Tower fight but I think I'm still a little under-levelled. I'm sure there are a few more spots on the map that I haven't been to in the Shadow Cursed Lands yet, so I reckon I'll have to check those out first.

@KAIRU if you're still struggling and have tried a few different fight tactics for turning the tides, I did notice when I was exploring Moonrise there is a way you can enter via a hole in the roof, if you head left before going in the door and have a little look around you can jump/climb your party up to the rafters, which might give you a new approach. Not sure how it works in combat, if it triggers or if you can sneak completely around, but at the very least it should provide advantage on ranged attacks and spells, if you can catch them all while they are bunched together too with AOE spells that could give a good head start.

A large part of that fight for me was starting with an AOE ice surface spell which made a good chunk of the enemies fall over right away, then I could take out the Ogre, and then rain spells from above with Gale who teleported to the rafters, picking off the next person in the attack queue at a time, and keeping others as prone ad possible.

(you can use scrolls or thrown items/arrows if you don't have any of the AOE surface spells prepared)

@Ravix Funnily enough, I actually noticed the roots you could climb up, but I guess I just couldn't see the roof as it looked like there was nowhere else to go up there. I might check it out again!

So I have this really annoying bug Wyll keeps wanting to chat but the conversation options just take me in circles😆

@Falcon94 that is a common bug. It was for me too, but I didn't have him in my party and only saw it at camp. Eventually it went away.

@Falcon94 On the plus side, Shadowheart's looking hella good. 😏

@Falcon94 f*** Wyll. (Okay he grew on me a bit after his ridiculous first impression of a white knight who seeks acclaim more than pride, and seemed a lot more legit caring afterwards, but I never have him in my party, as he serves no use)

What we need to focus on is how that's a long ass cape you've got! What is it? 😁 Since switching to using capes that apply effects, I've only had weeny short capes, which has saddened me a little. Especially for my Bard tav who rocked the long DLC Cape for a good while before switching to buff capes. Although I've now found a charismatic hat to make up for it, it is absolutely ridiculous and bedazzled, which is perfect 😁😁 I do still miss long capes.

@Elodin @Ravix I really only used him for some quests as he seemed to have some story related content attached now I'm finished he's going straight back to camp with his exclamation mark😆. I can't remember exactly where I got the cape but it's just a standard cape with some black dye.

@KAIRU she's a total babe lmao.

@Falcon94 She's something else! 😍

@Falcon94 @KAIRU I can't help but want to do an evil Dark Urge playthrough and have evil Shadowheart, Minthara, Power Mad Astarion, and maybe the cheeky Quasit, Shovel as my entire party 😅😅 I'm not sure I have another playthrough in me this year, but I really do want to see the different outcomes, especially Shadowheart giving in to darkness. At least in this playthrough I've done as much as possible so far with side content and origin party members, so can pick and choose what to skip if I do go again.

I only just activated Shovel, or Fork, in the city, too! I wish I'd realised sooner. They've just been sat in my inventory all game, until I was going through spells to teach Gale from scrolls and saw 'summon cheeky quasit'🤦‍♂️

@Ravix I'm definitely doing an evil playthrough next, I've just cleared Bhaal's Temple and retrieved the final stone I know I'm nearing the endgame and yet it feels like there's way more to this game lmao.

Is the game buggy in general? Is the performance smooth from a technical standpoint?

@Th3solution It's a bit buggy but nothing major, Act 3 is where there is a noticeable downgrade in performance.

@Falcon94 I’ve heard the game lags a lot during conversation or transitions, is that true? And is it a game, like many other current gen games lately, that actually performs more stable in 30 fps mode?

@Th3solution It definitely lags mostly during combat and I’ve had a few crashes here or there, I can’t comment on 30fps as I haven’t tried it.

@Th3solution time to just buy it 😬😬😬 otherwise time may just cease to exist before you try it 😅 it's the RPG of a generation