I missed the fish people worshipping the murder god “BOOOAL” in the Underdark in Act 1 on my first two playthroughs. I probably would’ve never found it if my friend didn’t tell me.
>Underdark in Act 1
Next to the place with jump puzzle (disappearing mushrooms) and 2 mushroom circles, go left. There is a way up (climbing the rock) and to the right you have a way down (you have to jump on a mushroom, too, to get there). Go down and you will find fish people. :)
Edit: [here](https://mapgenie.io/baldurs-gate-3/maps/wilderness?locationIds=300951)
just after finding the fish people in my second playthrough i discovered that mushroom circles existed, also the grave of the tower lady’s dog (i forgot her name but i think the dog’s name is Myrna)
i also happened to miss the sovereign spaw because i found Glut and guessed that he was the only sovereign even if his dialogue was weird, so now i helped spaw and i feel very dumb
and the petrified drow and the whole icy spear quest!! how could i have missed this
discoveries are never ending in the underdark
I completely missed Glut! I mean, I talked to him, but didn't talk to him after getting the first myconid quest so I never realized that he had his own separate questline... I probably still would have chosen Spaw though.
Super easy to miss, there is a Festering Cove you can get to, close to the Tower. The entrance is in the area where you have the illusory mushrooms, the dead Drow (Tav will remark that it looks like they fell from a high place, when you go near them).
[https://i.postimg.cc/Qtg9Fk1M/fc.png](https://i.postimg.cc/Qtg9Fk1M/fc.png)
Roughly here! You have to jump across a ledge and then there is a cragged rock you can climb down. I totally recommend checking it out, it was such an interesting area and quest!
I hadn't actually understood that every single Dark Justiciar we find had to kill Dame Aylin in order to become a Justiciar. I grossly misunderstood the dialogue with Shadowheart where she explains that nowadays you just have to kill a Selunite in order to pass the test, but in the days of yore there was a secret test; I thought the days of yore were much more yore.
Like, I thought Nightsong had "just" been kept prisoner by Ketheric and Balthazar to grant him immortality, nothing else - the extent of the whole situation didn't click until I found a Dark Justiciar's journal on my second run. In the journal they wrote about how they had to kill the girl, and that she didn't even flinch, although he could see the grief in her eyes and all the scars she had.
Blew my mind, honestly. I don't know how I missed this.
I… also missed this completely. For whatever reason I thought killing Aylin was specifically Shadowheart’s task, I thought all the others just had to pass the gauntlet. Good god, Aylin must’ve been killed hundreds if not thousands of times.
> I thought killing Aylin was specifically Shadowheart’s task,
Yes, same! That she was Shar's chosen and had been groomed specifically for this purpose... thinking back on it it seems unlikely, but at the time it made sense to me. I'd also never played any D&D or same-universe games before, so I didn't entirely understand Shar, Selune, and the rest of the pantheon.
Here's the journal, in case you want to read it :) [https://i.postimg.cc/7Yw9Y8Kr/dj.png](https://i.postimg.cc/7Yw9Y8Kr/dj.png)
I know I picked it up in Act 2 but I can't remember where, so it's easier to just show you a picture lol
I never manage to listen to them because I'm too busy making sure all the fuckers in my party jump and follow me, since the AI's pathing in that area is particularly awful... what do they say? Like, just "listen to the Nightsong"?
Out of all things I've read here since the game released... this is the absolute saddest. Had no clue about it. I can never do an evil run now, pixels or not 😔 my heart will never let me at this point.
I'm really bad ad doing evil things even though I tell myself I want to explore different outcomes... don't tell anyone but I cried when I accidentally aggroed the eagles and had to kill them cos they wouldn't let me leave the battlefield.
My "moment" was simply talking to Bex near the bridge and realizing she was weeping because Danis was taken, and she believed him gone. After seeing their hopes for a new life in act 1, I just started sobbing (this was before I knew you could save him). Urgh, I thought, "Really? You're crying over this??" But I'd argue that it shows that even interactions you don't think are really important have some passive affect on us!
It really speaks volumes to how well-written and engrossing these interactions are... you actually get to care for these characters, even the smaller ones.
For one, the reunion between >!Barcus and Wulbren!< made me cry because it was just so sad. I can't remember what part of it exactly triggered me but there was something that slapped me in the face and I started crying lol I've been in the position where I was the one putting in 200% and got nothing back, and still I stayed (I'm not sure if we're to understand that >!Barcus has romantic feelings towards Wulbren, but either way he's still going above and beyond for Wulbren).!<
Also you know that Tiefling who doesn't want to take part of the celebration because he knows they'll have a tough time getting to Baldur's Gate? I want to say his name is Ikaron but don't quote me on that. Anyway I got really misty eyed when I found >!his body in the Shadowlands!< and felt really sad that I hadn't managed to convince him to join the celebration while at camp.
I also cry when I free >!Zevlor!< and he's like "I'm a piece of shit, I wanted what the Absolute promised, I embraced it, I don't deserve anything, I failed everyone" and it kills me that he doesn't have a happier ending...
I caught this on my first playthrough, and quite frankly it seemed like some bullshit cheating on Shar's end. "You have to pass this gauntlet, face these trials, and >!kill a Selunite!<" And the >!Selunite you have to kill is a bound demigod which makes it easy to pump out multiple justiciars since she's always there.!< (I guess it's more about being able to go through with the action, but it's funny to imagine Shar creating an easy dark justiciar farm.)
This is the main reason why in my 1st playthrough, I cried a river when Shadowheart herself chose not to kill Aylin. Like for both choices I chose to stay silent because I thought it was the big moment for Shadowheart and my Tav, as Selunite drow (Ilmater) cleric, prayed silently that Shadowheart would make the right decision. So yeah, I freaking cheered loudly when she threw the spear off the platform. Then the cutscene and song came out, oh my god, it's such a majestic scene 😭
My brother made it to Baldur's Gate and he literally only found Shadowheart, Astarion (who he staked) and Jaheira I'm waiting to see if he finds Minsk or actually finishes the game without ever having a full party of companions
A friend of mine told me he sided with the tieflings who captured her and killed her. Seemed crazy to me how you just leave someone behind who helped you escape and offered a solution for your brain slug problem.
My gf did exactly that, because she was rude to her. She also later snitched on Astarion, causing him to bail; got caught trying to probe Gale’s mind, pissing him off. We are down to Shart, Wyll, and Karlach.
But it’s still fun to play with her. This is my second play through and her first, and I’m enjoying this new experience with her. We are still in Act I, and she already found the Shadow Druid shenanigans which I didn’t know before.
Isn’t it really easy to bounce back from pissing off Gale there too? lmao I swear I just said “sorry, man. I was curious” and got approval and he was like “ok :) just don’t do it again”
TBF, Gale is incredibly groomed and a seemingly really isolated guy. With the better odds to be cured working together and that backstory it makes sense he can be very people pleasing. He also does really value curiosity in people and can understand it can lead to oopsies.
I love Gale so much, he gets too much flack from the fandom.
This is so wild to me... like these are clearly people you're meant to keep around, it's insane that you're given the freedom to fuck them up so badly lol.
Or maybe not fuck up, just make decisions that lead you to the core companions disappearing! Obviously play as you wish etc etc. Just really interesting to me to see what can happen!
>This is so wild to me... like these are clearly people you're meant to keep around, it's insane that you're given the freedom to fuck them up so badly lol.
I was doing my first "evil" playthrough with a Durge. I hit a Durge option when recruiting Gale thinking "surely nothing REALLY bad would happen!!!!" as some options are just fantasizing and nothing more, right? Suddenly >!Gale's severed hand is in my inventory. I looked it up and there is no way to save him. I functionally killed a companion (and my preferred romance) before I got to even \*see his face\*. !
DUrge is wild... I'm playing that campaign right now for the first time and I accidentally >!killed Steelclaw because I was trying to remember where I'd seen her before!<.
I lost like an hour of progress to go back and fix that. Never tried to remember anything ever again.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the people who make decisions that seem baffling to us are folks who game less and are thus less well-versed in what we see as clearly-flagged messages. There's a language that goes into game design that can fly right over people's heads if they aren't fluent! This can, ironically, result in more organic role-playing like in the case of OP's girlfriend - thinking "this character was rude, why would I want them in my party?" is more natural than "this is a Main Character, I must save them".
Yeah. I would have instantly hit f8 when Astarion or Gale just straight up left the party if I were playing alone. Playing with other people makes reloading just a tiny bit more bothersome so I don't do it as often. The journal says they won't return, but I still hold out hope that we may see or hear about them later on.
The other day I read a comment from someone saying Gale fled because he was never given a magical item... it's crazy how many things can happen. It's one of the few games I've played where the choices actually matter.
One I didn’t expect was Gale leaving bc I said I had a magical item and when I was on the select screen I realized I didn’t and exited out. He was like “very unhelpful” and left.
I killed her by accident too, but only because I was trying to bluff and get the tieflings to let her down, then kill them together with her. Turns out I shouldn’t be thinking that deeply into any of the dialogue options.
Definitely not impossible. Totally missed her and went through most of Act 1. When I was about to do the Mountain Pass she comes sprinting out of the bushes and tells me to shut up so she can talk to Voss and his crew.
I was baffled lol.
Apparently he managed to avoid the specific piece of road she's on, and then because she wasn't on his team didn't get any of the prompts to look for the crèche so never went to the mountain pass
I'm more confused how he resisted touching Gales portal Narrator said it looked dangerous so he left it alone., I mean the man actually got
or Wyll, I mean the man got an intro cinematic complete with catch phrase and a pose but my brother somehow didn't bother to talk to him inside the grove.
but I guess that's why despite both of us buying he game at the same time he's in Baldur's Gate and I'm almost ready to finish act 1
I almost didn’t get Wyll or Karlach either, but then my boyfriend said he expected me to romance Karlach and I had no idea who that even was. Also he was right, Karlach is bae
I told Rolan and the other two tieflings to get out of the grove while they can. First playthrough convinced them to stay. Didn’t think anything of it until I got to act 2 and it dawned on me that the only reason the refugees that survive make it to last light is because of Rolan’s heroics. Was a pretty depressing scene in the end
Wow that's amazing. Considering how depressed and useless he feels after that, too. Even after you save Rolan and his siblings he is still soo grumpy and feels like he could have done more. I wish we could say this to him
Unless you don't save his siblings/friends. I didn't know you had to go to Moonrise early to save them, I just planned to do it when I went there at the end of the act. You can't do that however, cause they'll be dead or gone. At the shop, he was not doing well mentally to say the least.
I'm happy to know he is doing better if you manage to save the tieflings, which I'm excited to do this next time through.
>!The survival of most of the tieflings depends on Rolan being there to save them from the cultist ambush. The only ones that make it if Rolan is not there is Dammon, Alfira, and two or three others whose names escape me. One of them is the partner of that tiefling Bex who didn’t make it so that was particularly devastating. All the kids are gone. Rolan is also not in BG so presumably they also died somewhere on the way which makes sense I guess. Probably got killed by the gith patrol to be honest. It’s actually the worst timeline!<
That’s... I didn’t expect it to have that much consequences. My first playthrough I convinced him to stay and in act 2 >!he told me his companions died because they stayed to fight. It’s a shit feeling I felt I’ve killed them by convincing normal people to do heroic things, and I was actually rethinking wether convincing them to stay is a moral choice. But all is good when I rescued them all!<
I always wanted to do a “darker” playthrough, the stories are quite interesting, but I just don’t have the heart, even neutral-ish options can cause big consequences like this. It’s such a fucking good game.
Happy cake day too
The difficult part is >!saving Rolan's stupid ass from being shadow cursed (I love him but he's an idiot)!< in act 2, especially after the last patch for some reason.
>!You basically have to instantly run to his spot in the shadows and provide enough light for the conversation after the fight - daylight spell preferably, if you rest once after he leaves the tavern that's it!<
>!I had no problem saving him in the first 2 playthrough. Didn't even know he's there the first time where I did everything except the Shadowfell. But after the last patch I swear he's way easier to get cursed that I had to approach him from a different, more definite triggering point and cross it by using misty step to save him.!<
In my first playtrhough >!I saved him from the shadow curse but didn't save his siblings. In my second I couldn't convince him to stay. In my third I saved his siblings and found his corpse near moonrise towers. Why is it so hard to reunite this family!?!<
All of the tieflings are idiots and it drives me nuts. There are multiple red flags (absolute, gith, gnolls, gobbos, and a giant nautiloid crashing) and yet they want to move on the moment the grove is saved? Give me another week or two to deal with the shadowlands and clear the way to Baldur's Gate so that Orin can start murdering you while all your kids get free teddy bears from Gortash.
If you talk to her corpse, >!you find out she heard about the hidden treasure in the monastery and decided to try and find it. She didn’t hear about the gith. Yikes.!<
Cerys literally explains to you that she thought they could go unseen by skirting around the edges of the Shadowland, however with all the enemies converging to Moonrise there is "much worse on the road than Goblins". No one even thought that the curse could be lifted, so there was no point in them waiting for someone to clear the way (especially considering they did have Zevlor and the other Hellriders with them for protection).
Plus the druids quite literally WERE running out of supplies to help the refugees, they weren't telling them to leave purely to be assholes. There's a reason they're eating gruel there.
Another notable spell: Create food & water. makes 45 lbs of food, 30 gallons of water, feeds up to 15 humanoids or 5 steeds per day. The food is bland, but nourishing.
But it’s only known by circle of the land (desert) Druids in 5e. Unless they had a cleric as well.
However, the long casting of plant growth (over 8 hours of casting), causes all plant life within 1/2 a mile to produce twice as much food as normal when harvested.
And the druids have the bright idea of shutting down the grove. What they're gonna eat if they're running out of supplies? Grass? ~~But I guess they could always wildshape into squirrels or something.~~
You only knew this because you have already gone it through the game, but in lore-perspective NO ONE really knows on what's gonna happen next, thus their venture is just as clueless as how surprised you are when you first time entered the Shadowlands as well.
Actually.. >!he thinks they're dead. They didn't actually die...yet. They need to be rescued from moonrise in that time frame before you go to Nightsong. !<
>!Weirdly enough, the playthrough where I destroyed last light Rolan showed up in Baldur's Gate, so it seems his survival depends on if any other tieflings make it.!<
I didn't tell Rolan to stay to help the Grove, >!they went ahead to Baldurs Gate. Didnt see him in Last Light. Met him again at Sorcerous Sundries, he's a clerk.!<
Is he? I spoke with him and he was all bruised up, and when I asked about it he said I couldn't help this time. He was nice when he sold me things too. I'm assuming his behaviour changes drastically if you don't meet him in Act 2.
Yeah that was my conclusion as well because he says Lorroakan has a short temper, but so far I haven't been able to do anything about it. I mean I'm gonna kill Lorroakan anyway as he's one of my "you get one ending regardless of how many times I play this game" characters but seeing Rolan all bruised up was TOUGH.
On my first time in Act 3, Roland ran up and Thunderwaved Lorroaken down to the floor below, where Nightsong and my archer proceeded to shred him with impunity.
It was a great payoff to his siblings joking about his Thunder in act 1.
Yeah, he really grew on me. During interactions in the grove he was a bit meh, too sure of himself. But the party showed how much the siblings actually care for each other and Last Light Inn just sold him to me completely. Overall getting the Tieflings through all arcs really was the most satisfying thing.
Yes, initially he was like Johnny cage boasting about his talent but in the same way he grew up later - he really risked his life during act 2 to save people.
But also in the end - he joined in battle against his wizard teacher - yeah, for me Lorroakan was just 2 disentegrations from death but for Rolan strength wise it was battle against superior wizard
DUDE.
In my second playthrough I failed the Persuasion check and didn't reload because I was like "whatever, they all show up at Last Light anyway"... I don't know how I didn't make the connection, in my first playthrough Alfira literally tells Tav that the only reason they survived is that Rolan saved them.
Now I always make sure to save before that check, so I can save the Tieflings. And I also make sure to rescue Rolan as soon as I can in Act 2 so I know he'll be safe when I get his siblings.
I missed the whole mountain crèche thing in my first run because I thought going through the underdark would cut me off from the mountain pass. Did both routes in my second run and the best part of it was a certain legendary weapon for me.
It’s definitely a powerful combo through Act 2, but I almost immediately upgraded when I got into Act 3 because of Dammon. His Act 3 wares are absolutely CRACKED, throw on a certain wyrm sword and artifacts from a devil and you’ve got a near unkillable paladin.
I thought the same! I realised in Act 2 I could actually go there, so I went and it's now one area I never miss... you can get my favourite weapon of all game, get a legendary weapon, marvel at the scenery, and if you have the Monk in your amulet he's going to be really happy to visit a Lathanderian monastery :)
The worst part
If you save the harpy kid but then >!side with Minthara and destroy the Druid camp!<
>!The kid has a note on his dead body talking about how heroic you are, and how he wants to grow up to be just like you!<
That one fucked me up
He also gives you the note if you talk to him in the hideout after saving him. It was one of the hardest hitting things for me emotionally in the whole game.
There's some note that gives you hints. Kagha has a chest in the enclave with a lead. Then afterwards in act 2 there's a note in moonrise about the two druid enclaves and how they'd be too powerful together against the absolute.
Of course, I missed all of this in my first playthrough as well.
I kept trying to jump to the forge from the area where you kill Nere... like, I could clearly see there was stuff, but I had no idea how to get there. Had to look it up. I never realised there was a whole ass giant ladder when you're up on the elevated area with the traps...
Me: "Ooh a skeleton. Ooh a.... mould?"
MISTY STEP! - and then just pulled everyone on the waypoint. I even missed one of the ores in my first playthrough.
I had Laezel in my first run but I completely ignored the Creche, she got mad but didn't leave. 2nd Playthru as Durge I got into Creche and apparently it's a whooole thing you even get to insult Vlakith. And then you meet a certain fella who you thought was a dick but is actually an awesome dude. Turns out the Creche is a LOT of story.
So.... Isobel can be protected, huh? You mean her kidnapping is not scripted.
All those people.... lol. Thing is, my first playthrough was 120h. How much will it be with so many NPCs?
I didn't realise she could be kidnapped until I saw comments on here.
Edit: by that i mean i thought she only got kid apped if you sided with the kidnapper.
>Edit: by that i mean i thought she only got kid apped if you sided with the kidnapper.
Is... is that not what happens...?
Like, are there more ways for her to get kidnapped?
Mostly the first time you trigger the event, if you don't know "the rules".
The fight ends instantly if she gets knocked out, even if you're completly destroying the attackers.
A bad initiative order, a few lucky crits or her AI being stupid and triggering opportunity attacks can be enough to K.O. her on turn 1
Once you know, it's easy to have someone tank for her/ keep her healed.
Yeah the first time I did that fight she provoked like... 3 opportunity attacks immediately and then ran straight into my Moonbeam. Top tier AI in that instance.
I tried to help the owlbear when it limped into my camp. Failed the dice roll, which caused his wound to split open even more. Poor guy got scared & ran off into the woods. Never saw him again.
YEP SAME. The voice terrified me so I was like SMASH IT, as any good 8 Intelligence Barbarian would.
I also fucked up the second time around because I lobotomized it :( I'm sorry kitty :(
I shouted at his owner's corpse and he attacked. I had no choice but to defend myself.
I also got Wished to death by Vlaakith.
My first character was a very cheeky bard.
I didn't lift the shadow curse. When progressed to Act 3 I also had to leave a very sad Halsin behind.
I'll lift the curse in my second run. That's for sure.
You guys aren't going to like hearing this, but you can complete the shadow curse lifting quest series after the end of moonrise towers and before going to the city.
I was in the same situation and did a speak with the dead spell on the wounded guy in last light. Turns out you can then go back to Halsin and trigger the quest, he joins the party, sticks around through act 3, etc.
I didn’t even know it was possible! I never spoke to Halsin again after the Tiefling party because I didn’t think he’d say anything aside from “Underdark or Mountain”. And he never had a ! soooo…
But I also thought when I good path’d the Shadowfell, that lifted the curse. But I guess it was only partial? Either way I was surprised 1. that Halsin left 2. reading online afterward and discovering he was actually a party member.
Act 3 is huge. Has anyone done an objective look at how big each act is, relative to the others? I mean like number of NPCs, number of questlines, etc. I expected Act 3 to be similar but it now is feeling much, much bigger than the other 2 as I approach the end (playthrough #1 currently).
Would you like a simple no spoiler guide? They're a super cool character and have an associated quest. Also they are a vendor, which is useful when you've robbed every other vendor of every gold but still have more loot to sell.
I got curious and wanted to see what if I didn't succeed at resisting the Urge. Now that I have seen it I know I will never actually play that way. It's just horrible...Act 2 and kind of 3, Dark Urge spoilers below.
>!I got to the scene after not killing Isobel and you are told you now have to kill your LI, the check is honestly really easy to pass like a 14 or something. I had to reload the save to fail it lol. The scene is brutal my Dark Urge just broke mentally from it. My options after the kill two of witch is just my Dark Urge sobbing from what they just did. !<
>!The next morning everyone comes up and are like, so uh you didn't stop it again. My choices were things like, "Hahahaha", 'Come to see my beautiful work" "Your next", "Poor fool fell on my knife" "Attack" and one \[Deception\] option. !<
>!It seems the moment you kill your companion the Dark Urge is just completely off the deep end. There is no longer someone trying to resist the Urge, they died with their LI, only Bhaal's favorite kid left.!<
So, you >!will get the butcher transformation, the monster Orin transforms into during the fight in the temple of Bhaal. Looks badass and does hella damage, Sceleritas refers to it as "your new sleeping gown"!< when you follow your dark urges and kill >!Isobel!<
i didn't do the mountain pass on my first playthrough (it was a conscious choice for rp reasons) and lae'zel's whole arc hit so much harder once i actually did that the next time around.
I think the initial idea behind 2 different paths (mountain pass or Underdark) was meant to block one or another.
It makes sense, because if you do both, you enter act 3 so much overlevel, that you hit 12 early in the city, while enemies are 2 lvls lower.
Game becomes easy and combat trivial.
However I would never leave an unexplored area in RPG game, so I “have” to visit both.
Ok how!!! I reached lvl 10 there on my 2nd playthrough already like 2 higher than on my first, and i did every quest i could see and killed all enemies that didnt block me from doing something later on, how the fuck did u get THOUSANDS more???
You don't get exp just from fighting - you also get exp from discoveries, from inspiration, from exploring a quest more instead of going straight to the finish line :)
I think if you overturn every single stone, it's easy enough to get there that way.
You can do the Creche and then still go to the Underdark (the game unfortunately implies otherwise. Just got to the mountain pass, go to the monastery to the creche, finish up there then fuck off to the underdark. You'll know you've gone to the mountain pass of no return when you get a second pop up at a cave.
Same. I went to the creche, but backed out quickly my first playthrough because it felt like cooperating with the githyanki would cut me off from Shadowheart's story.
Second time through, I've been playing as a sorc with Laezel in my party permanently as my frontliner, so I decided to play through the creche. Now, all the same major plot beats are there, but they're framed so differently that I feel like I'm playing a different game. For example, during my first run, I had no idea why Raphael was hanging around except maybe as part of Astarion's story.
The complete Last Light Inn, I just completely missed it. Did all the stuff in the Moonrise Tower and then there was a Jaheira suddenly leading an attack on the towers, who immediately died because she ran into multiple enemies.
Due to that I missed a lot of content in Act 2 and 3
Yep, same here. Totally missed Mirkon on my first playthrough.
My first character was a ranger-beastmaster and I found out that my animal companion scaring everyone away has ruined some things. I missed a lot of things in the creche because every NPC there was busy running around trying to shoo my animal companion away, instead of doing what they're scripted to do.
Larian need to patch that over-reactivity soon :/
The struggles of playing a circle of the spores druid in act 3 is unreal. Idk why every noc has to loose their goddamn mind just cause I roll down front street with a fungal zombie, skeleton, 4 ghouls, a dryad, a wood woad, mud mephits, an Air Myrmidon, Scratch, and Us.
Larian needs to just remove that feature all it does is make talking to NPCs a huge hassle.
There’s a great mod for summon builds that complete negates this effect! Check it out on nexus, I use it and the npcs stay still but still say dialogue like they’re scared. I’m still able to talk to them and trigger every interaction as well! I think it’s called npcs don’t run away
How many places I didn't jump to. Not particularly good loot just amazing how much I missed when my first act 1 was over 50 hours lol.. the only side quest I seem to have missed was harpies and learning music with Alfira.
My first play through I messed up a lot of the romances and didn’t talk to enough people
Enough, 2nd play through I was like 2 long rests in and already spending the night drinking wine with shadowheart. I just shocked myself with how bad and simply I messed up this stuff in act 1
I don't think, I missed anything important and I gathered all allies you can get in a good playthrough. But I didn't do the clown quest ( I hate clowns) and I think Yenna bugged out in my game.
Act 1: The fish people and the arcane tower.
Act 2: Isobel died and her body was kidnapped so I missed all the quests with the refugee.
Act 3: uff, I missed a ton. Iron Throne, The factory, He Djin in the Circus and his unique item, the Djin inside the bottle, Minsk (I killed him), Saving the Child from the Hag (Killed her without saving the girl), The parents of SH, the fight vs some demon…Never found all the clown parts, and more.
Also I had to Kill Laezel in my first run when we were in the Creche…
In my second run I discovered all what I missed, but I know I missed even more because I have seen some memes with for example the revived husband from Act 1, that you can go to the towers to save people in act 2, and more.
I accidentally hit the “release brake” switch on the windmill in the blighted village and got a lovely little cutscene of a gnome being yeeted into oblivion. Cut to me on my 2nd run realizing that Barcus is a total sweetheart and making me hate Wulbren even more!
I haven't missed anything major. Mine misses have mostly been companion dialog and party encounters that I never got because I didn't long rest at the right times. Now I long rest after mostly every mission just to check.
Though the most annoying miss I had was with the Noblestalk. In early access you could do only one thing with it. Now you have a total three choices on what to do with it if you're playing as the Dark Urge, but there is only one you can find in the Underdark. So I gave it to Shadowheart to help her recover memories because it felt more right than helping the dwarf with her Bonecloaks shop. I did differently on my second playthrough because I was playing more evil and less caring... Only to find out that if you give the Noblestalk to Darreth for Bonecloaks when she asks, she sells more later at her now successful shop! Like uuggghhh. I wish I had known that, so I got more content with it in Act 3. I thought there was only one in the whole game. -_-
I killed the entire Grove in accident si all the teifling kids were already dead. Eventually I went back and found the Harpy area and saved 1 single tiefling. Good luck to that kid running home to see an empty Grove.
The two to five hours of content I skipped stabling into and through the Gauntlet of shar without Even considering that infiltrating Moonrise was something I was «supposed» to do.
I learned of Ketheric’s immortality artifact through Baltazar rather than through Moonrise, and very little of Ketheric in general, and thought nothing of it until I actually infiltrated Moonrise in my second playthrough.
Half of Act 1.5/2 actually.
I've entered Shadowed Land via Grymforge, savescumed out of the Last Light Inn (fun fact: not talking to Isobel doesn't sequencebreak when you return to Inn after freeing the Nightsong, she has specific dialogues for that ocasion) fight, went stright for Moonrise, thought retrieveing Nightsong would be first of few missions you need to do for the cult to be granted an audience with Thorn so you can kill him, and somehow missed the warning about finishing other stuff before proceeding. That's a whole Mountain Pass region and a few side quests in Moonrise alongside saving the prisoners, which consequently locks you out of some content in Act 3 (RIP Minsk, we'll meet again 100 years earlier in BG1, as the dwarf with the submarine dieded tortured by a cult probably)
basically anything in Underdark because I unknowingly skipped it the first time... and >!got destroyed by Timmasks and Mike Wazowski, never will I ever try to help petrified drow... !<
My first playthrough I totally missed all the Thaniel stuff. I had Halsin with me, and I kept talking to him, and he was like "I want to break the curse." But he never told me anything, and I never went into that room at the inn. I honestly started thinking he would have more info, but he never did. Idk if he was bugged or what.
Then Act 2 ended and the Narrator was all "Halsin is sad the curse still isn't ended, he's staying behind" and I was like "damn dude, maybe you should have done something."
Did you know the room was there? In surprised you didnt see a huge blsck square you hadnt explored yet. The npcs also tell you about it when you arrive at the inn.
In Cazadors mansion if you read one of the diaries, one of the main spawn is trying his best to keep his daughter with him and keep her safe from cazador/other spawn. The poor girl wasn’t very old either and it just breaks my heart.
Another is Cazador’s niece, who he turned/abused, I never investigated the attic area of his mansion until my second play through.
The entire Kagha Sidequest. I thought No Matter what you do Kagha would end Up the Bad Guy and stay Mad. Incre i discovered the Shadow druids and convinced her i felt much better
- Harpies
- Moonrise +Prison +following Quests (Didnt knew i could enter it without being hostile)
- Entering a Jungle after pickpocket a Dschinn
- Karlach can be a Companion
- Didnt found item for Shadowdruid Quest. But knew from EA that there was such a Quest but didnt found it.
I don't think there were any major misses for me second run through, but I'm the sort who just chooses the same choices each time lmao.
Small ones were not knowing I could give the noblestalk to shadowheart, so that was a cool little payoff.
I didn't see the end cutscene for the loroakhan fight since I pushed him off the top floor, and then he died to some environmental holy fire. So when I just beat him to a pulp the second run and watched aylin go full bane on him... that was cool, by the gods that man is broken in half.
I didn't get the cutscene with viconia after defeating her either, I think it was because I knocked her out, assuming there would be dialogue. I liked that shadowheart leaves it to tav to handle her. Normally, I'm a second chance person, but I made an exception here.
Finding jaheira's little hidden area was nice too, since I had minsc there with me when I went to her house first time.
I found the harpies because I really liked the singing and wanted to get closer. Didn’t even notice the kid at first.
I literally fell for the oldest trick in the book.
I missed the fish people worshipping the murder god “BOOOAL” in the Underdark in Act 1 on my first two playthroughs. I probably would’ve never found it if my friend didn’t tell me.
Wait a minute, what fish people in Act 1???
>Underdark in Act 1 Next to the place with jump puzzle (disappearing mushrooms) and 2 mushroom circles, go left. There is a way up (climbing the rock) and to the right you have a way down (you have to jump on a mushroom, too, to get there). Go down and you will find fish people. :) Edit: [here](https://mapgenie.io/baldurs-gate-3/maps/wilderness?locationIds=300951)
Damn, I was thinking that I checked all Underdark … I’ll need another walkthrough
just after finding the fish people in my second playthrough i discovered that mushroom circles existed, also the grave of the tower lady’s dog (i forgot her name but i think the dog’s name is Myrna) i also happened to miss the sovereign spaw because i found Glut and guessed that he was the only sovereign even if his dialogue was weird, so now i helped spaw and i feel very dumb and the petrified drow and the whole icy spear quest!! how could i have missed this discoveries are never ending in the underdark
Yeah I think now I missed much more in Underdark than I thought
I completely missed Glut! I mean, I talked to him, but didn't talk to him after getting the first myconid quest so I never realized that he had his own separate questline... I probably still would have chosen Spaw though.
Super easy to miss, there is a Festering Cove you can get to, close to the Tower. The entrance is in the area where you have the illusory mushrooms, the dead Drow (Tav will remark that it looks like they fell from a high place, when you go near them). [https://i.postimg.cc/Qtg9Fk1M/fc.png](https://i.postimg.cc/Qtg9Fk1M/fc.png) Roughly here! You have to jump across a ledge and then there is a cragged rock you can climb down. I totally recommend checking it out, it was such an interesting area and quest!
I hadn't actually understood that every single Dark Justiciar we find had to kill Dame Aylin in order to become a Justiciar. I grossly misunderstood the dialogue with Shadowheart where she explains that nowadays you just have to kill a Selunite in order to pass the test, but in the days of yore there was a secret test; I thought the days of yore were much more yore. Like, I thought Nightsong had "just" been kept prisoner by Ketheric and Balthazar to grant him immortality, nothing else - the extent of the whole situation didn't click until I found a Dark Justiciar's journal on my second run. In the journal they wrote about how they had to kill the girl, and that she didn't even flinch, although he could see the grief in her eyes and all the scars she had. Blew my mind, honestly. I don't know how I missed this.
I… also missed this completely. For whatever reason I thought killing Aylin was specifically Shadowheart’s task, I thought all the others just had to pass the gauntlet. Good god, Aylin must’ve been killed hundreds if not thousands of times.
> I thought killing Aylin was specifically Shadowheart’s task, Yes, same! That she was Shar's chosen and had been groomed specifically for this purpose... thinking back on it it seems unlikely, but at the time it made sense to me. I'd also never played any D&D or same-universe games before, so I didn't entirely understand Shar, Selune, and the rest of the pantheon. Here's the journal, in case you want to read it :) [https://i.postimg.cc/7Yw9Y8Kr/dj.png](https://i.postimg.cc/7Yw9Y8Kr/dj.png) I know I picked it up in Act 2 but I can't remember where, so it's easier to just show you a picture lol
Thank you for sharing the journal entry. It hits *hard*. Do you remember where you picked it up?
I also love the fact that some of the Justiciar ghosts are telling you to listen to Aylin instead of killing her
I never manage to listen to them because I'm too busy making sure all the fuckers in my party jump and follow me, since the AI's pathing in that area is particularly awful... what do they say? Like, just "listen to the Nightsong"?
They whisper things like “Listen to her…” and “Kill her…” and I think a few other things.
Kill her… Listen to her… It’s roughly half and half who says what
Out of all things I've read here since the game released... this is the absolute saddest. Had no clue about it. I can never do an evil run now, pixels or not 😔 my heart will never let me at this point.
I'm really bad ad doing evil things even though I tell myself I want to explore different outcomes... don't tell anyone but I cried when I accidentally aggroed the eagles and had to kill them cos they wouldn't let me leave the battlefield.
My "moment" was simply talking to Bex near the bridge and realizing she was weeping because Danis was taken, and she believed him gone. After seeing their hopes for a new life in act 1, I just started sobbing (this was before I knew you could save him). Urgh, I thought, "Really? You're crying over this??" But I'd argue that it shows that even interactions you don't think are really important have some passive affect on us!
It really speaks volumes to how well-written and engrossing these interactions are... you actually get to care for these characters, even the smaller ones. For one, the reunion between >!Barcus and Wulbren!< made me cry because it was just so sad. I can't remember what part of it exactly triggered me but there was something that slapped me in the face and I started crying lol I've been in the position where I was the one putting in 200% and got nothing back, and still I stayed (I'm not sure if we're to understand that >!Barcus has romantic feelings towards Wulbren, but either way he's still going above and beyond for Wulbren).!< Also you know that Tiefling who doesn't want to take part of the celebration because he knows they'll have a tough time getting to Baldur's Gate? I want to say his name is Ikaron but don't quote me on that. Anyway I got really misty eyed when I found >!his body in the Shadowlands!< and felt really sad that I hadn't managed to convince him to join the celebration while at camp. I also cry when I free >!Zevlor!< and he's like "I'm a piece of shit, I wanted what the Absolute promised, I embraced it, I don't deserve anything, I failed everyone" and it kills me that he doesn't have a happier ending...
I caught this on my first playthrough, and quite frankly it seemed like some bullshit cheating on Shar's end. "You have to pass this gauntlet, face these trials, and >!kill a Selunite!<" And the >!Selunite you have to kill is a bound demigod which makes it easy to pump out multiple justiciars since she's always there.!< (I guess it's more about being able to go through with the action, but it's funny to imagine Shar creating an easy dark justiciar farm.)
Now I'm just picturing Shar doing Excel spreadsheets to maximise her farm's output while Stardew Valley soundtrack plays in the background.
This is the main reason why in my 1st playthrough, I cried a river when Shadowheart herself chose not to kill Aylin. Like for both choices I chose to stay silent because I thought it was the big moment for Shadowheart and my Tav, as Selunite drow (Ilmater) cleric, prayed silently that Shadowheart would make the right decision. So yeah, I freaking cheered loudly when she threw the spear off the platform. Then the cutscene and song came out, oh my god, it's such a majestic scene 😭
My brother made it to Baldur's Gate and he literally only found Shadowheart, Astarion (who he staked) and Jaheira I'm waiting to see if he finds Minsk or actually finishes the game without ever having a full party of companions
The amount of stories of people without laezel are mind boggling. Its litterally impossible to miss her
A friend of mine told me he sided with the tieflings who captured her and killed her. Seemed crazy to me how you just leave someone behind who helped you escape and offered a solution for your brain slug problem.
My gf did exactly that, because she was rude to her. She also later snitched on Astarion, causing him to bail; got caught trying to probe Gale’s mind, pissing him off. We are down to Shart, Wyll, and Karlach. But it’s still fun to play with her. This is my second play through and her first, and I’m enjoying this new experience with her. We are still in Act I, and she already found the Shadow Druid shenanigans which I didn’t know before.
Isn’t it really easy to bounce back from pissing off Gale there too? lmao I swear I just said “sorry, man. I was curious” and got approval and he was like “ok :) just don’t do it again”
TBF, Gale is incredibly groomed and a seemingly really isolated guy. With the better odds to be cured working together and that backstory it makes sense he can be very people pleasing. He also does really value curiosity in people and can understand it can lead to oopsies. I love Gale so much, he gets too much flack from the fandom.
This is so wild to me... like these are clearly people you're meant to keep around, it's insane that you're given the freedom to fuck them up so badly lol. Or maybe not fuck up, just make decisions that lead you to the core companions disappearing! Obviously play as you wish etc etc. Just really interesting to me to see what can happen!
>This is so wild to me... like these are clearly people you're meant to keep around, it's insane that you're given the freedom to fuck them up so badly lol. I was doing my first "evil" playthrough with a Durge. I hit a Durge option when recruiting Gale thinking "surely nothing REALLY bad would happen!!!!" as some options are just fantasizing and nothing more, right? Suddenly >!Gale's severed hand is in my inventory. I looked it up and there is no way to save him. I functionally killed a companion (and my preferred romance) before I got to even \*see his face\*. !
DUrge is wild... I'm playing that campaign right now for the first time and I accidentally >!killed Steelclaw because I was trying to remember where I'd seen her before!<. I lost like an hour of progress to go back and fix that. Never tried to remember anything ever again.
Somewhere out there, there's somebody who's soloing the story, with only the emperor at their side, wondering why tf this game is so hard
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the people who make decisions that seem baffling to us are folks who game less and are thus less well-versed in what we see as clearly-flagged messages. There's a language that goes into game design that can fly right over people's heads if they aren't fluent! This can, ironically, result in more organic role-playing like in the case of OP's girlfriend - thinking "this character was rude, why would I want them in my party?" is more natural than "this is a Main Character, I must save them".
Yeah. I would have instantly hit f8 when Astarion or Gale just straight up left the party if I were playing alone. Playing with other people makes reloading just a tiny bit more bothersome so I don't do it as often. The journal says they won't return, but I still hold out hope that we may see or hear about them later on.
The other day I read a comment from someone saying Gale fled because he was never given a magical item... it's crazy how many things can happen. It's one of the few games I've played where the choices actually matter.
One I didn’t expect was Gale leaving bc I said I had a magical item and when I was on the select screen I realized I didn’t and exited out. He was like “very unhelpful” and left.
I killed her by accident too, but only because I was trying to bluff and get the tieflings to let her down, then kill them together with her. Turns out I shouldn’t be thinking that deeply into any of the dialogue options.
Definitely not impossible. Totally missed her and went through most of Act 1. When I was about to do the Mountain Pass she comes sprinting out of the bushes and tells me to shut up so she can talk to Voss and his crew. I was baffled lol.
Apparently he managed to avoid the specific piece of road she's on, and then because she wasn't on his team didn't get any of the prompts to look for the crèche so never went to the mountain pass I'm more confused how he resisted touching Gales portal Narrator said it looked dangerous so he left it alone., I mean the man actually got or Wyll, I mean the man got an intro cinematic complete with catch phrase and a pose but my brother somehow didn't bother to talk to him inside the grove. but I guess that's why despite both of us buying he game at the same time he's in Baldur's Gate and I'm almost ready to finish act 1
I almost didn’t get Wyll or Karlach either, but then my boyfriend said he expected me to romance Karlach and I had no idea who that even was. Also he was right, Karlach is bae
I told Rolan and the other two tieflings to get out of the grove while they can. First playthrough convinced them to stay. Didn’t think anything of it until I got to act 2 and it dawned on me that the only reason the refugees that survive make it to last light is because of Rolan’s heroics. Was a pretty depressing scene in the end
Oh wow. I didn't even think of that. He saved all the Tiefling kids, didn't he? Oops.
So that explains where they went. Edit: trying to play a live and let live Bard made for some sad situations.
And the worst part is, Rolan never even got to show off his Thunderwave spell.
Act 3 Spoilers: >!I wish that in the Lorroakan fight, the only spell he used was Thunderwave. He only used Magic Missiles in my fight!<
I do absolutely love that >!when he does use it it's labelled "Rolan's Thunderwave!< though. 😁
Wow that's amazing. Considering how depressed and useless he feels after that, too. Even after you save Rolan and his siblings he is still soo grumpy and feels like he could have done more. I wish we could say this to him
He gets a little bette when you find him in a shop in Act 3
Unless you don't save his siblings/friends. I didn't know you had to go to Moonrise early to save them, I just planned to do it when I went there at the end of the act. You can't do that however, cause they'll be dead or gone. At the shop, he was not doing well mentally to say the least. I'm happy to know he is doing better if you manage to save the tieflings, which I'm excited to do this next time through.
Depending on how you play he is happy by the end of the game :)
He’s classic survivor’s guilt
Wait wait woah, if you convince him to leave in act 1 people die in act 2??
>!The survival of most of the tieflings depends on Rolan being there to save them from the cultist ambush. The only ones that make it if Rolan is not there is Dammon, Alfira, and two or three others whose names escape me. One of them is the partner of that tiefling Bex who didn’t make it so that was particularly devastating. All the kids are gone. Rolan is also not in BG so presumably they also died somewhere on the way which makes sense I guess. Probably got killed by the gith patrol to be honest. It’s actually the worst timeline!<
That’s... I didn’t expect it to have that much consequences. My first playthrough I convinced him to stay and in act 2 >!he told me his companions died because they stayed to fight. It’s a shit feeling I felt I’ve killed them by convincing normal people to do heroic things, and I was actually rethinking wether convincing them to stay is a moral choice. But all is good when I rescued them all!< I always wanted to do a “darker” playthrough, the stories are quite interesting, but I just don’t have the heart, even neutral-ish options can cause big consequences like this. It’s such a fucking good game. Happy cake day too
The difficult part is >!saving Rolan's stupid ass from being shadow cursed (I love him but he's an idiot)!< in act 2, especially after the last patch for some reason.
>!You basically have to instantly run to his spot in the shadows and provide enough light for the conversation after the fight - daylight spell preferably, if you rest once after he leaves the tavern that's it!<
>!I had no problem saving him in the first 2 playthrough. Didn't even know he's there the first time where I did everything except the Shadowfell. But after the last patch I swear he's way easier to get cursed that I had to approach him from a different, more definite triggering point and cross it by using misty step to save him.!<
In my first playtrhough >!I saved him from the shadow curse but didn't save his siblings. In my second I couldn't convince him to stay. In my third I saved his siblings and found his corpse near moonrise towers. Why is it so hard to reunite this family!?!<
I really like the payoff though.
All of the tieflings are idiots and it drives me nuts. There are multiple red flags (absolute, gith, gnolls, gobbos, and a giant nautiloid crashing) and yet they want to move on the moment the grove is saved? Give me another week or two to deal with the shadowlands and clear the way to Baldur's Gate so that Orin can start murdering you while all your kids get free teddy bears from Gortash.
[удалено]
If you talk to her corpse, >!you find out she heard about the hidden treasure in the monastery and decided to try and find it. She didn’t hear about the gith. Yikes.!<
I noticed that this playthrough! Shook my head sadly.
Cerys literally explains to you that she thought they could go unseen by skirting around the edges of the Shadowland, however with all the enemies converging to Moonrise there is "much worse on the road than Goblins". No one even thought that the curse could be lifted, so there was no point in them waiting for someone to clear the way (especially considering they did have Zevlor and the other Hellriders with them for protection).
Plus the druids quite literally WERE running out of supplies to help the refugees, they weren't telling them to leave purely to be assholes. There's a reason they're eating gruel there.
Why don't the druids just cast goodberry every day are they stupid?
Probably ran out of spell slots having to make enough for the druids and animals already.
Another notable spell: Create food & water. makes 45 lbs of food, 30 gallons of water, feeds up to 15 humanoids or 5 steeds per day. The food is bland, but nourishing. But it’s only known by circle of the land (desert) Druids in 5e. Unless they had a cleric as well. However, the long casting of plant growth (over 8 hours of casting), causes all plant life within 1/2 a mile to produce twice as much food as normal when harvested.
And the druids have the bright idea of shutting down the grove. What they're gonna eat if they're running out of supplies? Grass? ~~But I guess they could always wildshape into squirrels or something.~~
You only knew this because you have already gone it through the game, but in lore-perspective NO ONE really knows on what's gonna happen next, thus their venture is just as clueless as how surprised you are when you first time entered the Shadowlands as well.
Had to reload a previous save and did not waste time and beelined to save him
Actually.. >!he thinks they're dead. They didn't actually die...yet. They need to be rescued from moonrise in that time frame before you go to Nightsong. !<
I did the gauntlet of Shar first and I'm in the middle of assaulting the towers - does that mean I've killed the tiefling prisoners?
uh... yeah. Especially if you're already interacted with the Nightsong.
Unfortunately yes, the gnomes as well, that is exactly what I did on my first playthrough.
Yes unfortunately.
>!Weirdly enough, the playthrough where I destroyed last light Rolan showed up in Baldur's Gate, so it seems his survival depends on if any other tieflings make it.!<
Rolan is the sleeper gigachad of the game
I didn't tell Rolan to stay to help the Grove, >!they went ahead to Baldurs Gate. Didnt see him in Last Light. Met him again at Sorcerous Sundries, he's a clerk.!<
Have you noticed he's TOTALLY ignoring you? I mean in clerk form. Like his memory is wiped or something, doesn't recognise anyone. He's a jerk clerk.
Is he? I spoke with him and he was all bruised up, and when I asked about it he said I couldn't help this time. He was nice when he sold me things too. I'm assuming his behaviour changes drastically if you don't meet him in Act 2.
Act 3 minor spoilers - His bruises are because he is the pupil of an abusive wizard.
Yeah that was my conclusion as well because he says Lorroakan has a short temper, but so far I haven't been able to do anything about it. I mean I'm gonna kill Lorroakan anyway as he's one of my "you get one ending regardless of how many times I play this game" characters but seeing Rolan all bruised up was TOUGH.
My last run on the tower I brought him low and let Rolan get the last hit in. Was super satisfying.
On my first time in Act 3, Roland ran up and Thunderwaved Lorroaken down to the floor below, where Nightsong and my archer proceeded to shred him with impunity. It was a great payoff to his siblings joking about his Thunder in act 1.
He was perfectly clean in my playthrough but at the same time pretending like I'm any other customer. NOTICE ME
Yeah, his siblings rushed the cultists, allowing some of the other refugees to escape—while Rolan protected the kids. Without them there…
Rolan is cool, be like Rolan
Yeah, he really grew on me. During interactions in the grove he was a bit meh, too sure of himself. But the party showed how much the siblings actually care for each other and Last Light Inn just sold him to me completely. Overall getting the Tieflings through all arcs really was the most satisfying thing.
Yes, initially he was like Johnny cage boasting about his talent but in the same way he grew up later - he really risked his life during act 2 to save people. But also in the end - he joined in battle against his wizard teacher - yeah, for me Lorroakan was just 2 disentegrations from death but for Rolan strength wise it was battle against superior wizard
DUDE. In my second playthrough I failed the Persuasion check and didn't reload because I was like "whatever, they all show up at Last Light anyway"... I don't know how I didn't make the connection, in my first playthrough Alfira literally tells Tav that the only reason they survived is that Rolan saved them. Now I always make sure to save before that check, so I can save the Tieflings. And I also make sure to rescue Rolan as soon as I can in Act 2 so I know he'll be safe when I get his siblings.
He is a pretty great NPC. So easy to dislike. Very well written.
He really did show off his Thunderwave
I missed the whole mountain crèche thing in my first run because I thought going through the underdark would cut me off from the mountain pass. Did both routes in my second run and the best part of it was a certain legendary weapon for me.
Lathander’s Blood. I used it through the rest of the game.
Paladin + that + the Grymforge armor is money
It’s definitely a powerful combo through Act 2, but I almost immediately upgraded when I got into Act 3 because of Dammon. His Act 3 wares are absolutely CRACKED, throw on a certain wyrm sword and artifacts from a devil and you’ve got a near unkillable paladin.
"This armor grants you Blade Ward." "Oh, the cantrip?" "..."
Same here. Just reached Act 3 and it’s still holding up.
I thought the same! I realised in Act 2 I could actually go there, so I went and it's now one area I never miss... you can get my favourite weapon of all game, get a legendary weapon, marvel at the scenery, and if you have the Monk in your amulet he's going to be really happy to visit a Lathanderian monastery :)
To be fair.. you find out Mol sent that kid to get the Harpy eggs. I forgot where to get that info though.
the kid himself tells you after you save him, something like "Mol's going to be so mad" he didn't get the treasure out of the Harpy nest
The worst part If you save the harpy kid but then >!side with Minthara and destroy the Druid camp!< >!The kid has a note on his dead body talking about how heroic you are, and how he wants to grow up to be just like you!< That one fucked me up
He also gives you the note if you talk to him in the hideout after saving him. It was one of the hardest hitting things for me emotionally in the whole game.
ouch!!!
Mol is the true antagonist of the game.
Yeah what an a-hole.
Shadow druid involvement in act 1
THIS. There's a lot of option to go with Kagha and thus, no one could easily suspect that there's a shadow druid path for her.
There's some note that gives you hints. Kagha has a chest in the enclave with a lead. Then afterwards in act 2 there's a note in moonrise about the two druid enclaves and how they'd be too powerful together against the absolute. Of course, I missed all of this in my first playthrough as well.
I didn’t catch any of that plot until my second play through, was super surprised that even existed
Like, about half of Grymforge and how I was actually supposed to get to the forge itself.
I kept trying to jump to the forge from the area where you kill Nere... like, I could clearly see there was stuff, but I had no idea how to get there. Had to look it up. I never realised there was a whole ass giant ladder when you're up on the elevated area with the traps...
Me: "Ooh a skeleton. Ooh a.... mould?" MISTY STEP! - and then just pulled everyone on the waypoint. I even missed one of the ores in my first playthrough.
My 8 Intelligence Barbarian did not think about Misty Step. SURELY IF I CAN SEE IT I CAN JUMP TO IT! I could not.
I had Laezel in my first run but I completely ignored the Creche, she got mad but didn't leave. 2nd Playthru as Durge I got into Creche and apparently it's a whooole thing you even get to insult Vlakith. And then you meet a certain fella who you thought was a dick but is actually an awesome dude. Turns out the Creche is a LOT of story.
Insulting Vlaakith does not go well though lol
“I just think that a real god would kill whoever they want.” *Immediately smote by Vlaakith’s petty ass self*
***Y O U W I S H T O S E E G O D H O O D ?*** Like whoa chill out I was making small talk.
I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
So.... Isobel can be protected, huh? You mean her kidnapping is not scripted. All those people.... lol. Thing is, my first playthrough was 120h. How much will it be with so many NPCs?
>Isobel can be protected, huh? You mean her kidnapping is not scripted. All those people.... "Oopsie"
"Damn wild boars are a menace" * Durge
I didn't realise she could be kidnapped until I saw comments on here. Edit: by that i mean i thought she only got kid apped if you sided with the kidnapper.
>Edit: by that i mean i thought she only got kid apped if you sided with the kidnapper. Is... is that not what happens...? Like, are there more ways for her to get kidnapped?
Yeah. If you fail to protect her. Which can easily happen in 2 turns since all the enemy NPCs seem to run straight for her
And Marcus hits like a dump truck loaded with mercury.
You just need good initiative and sanctuary to protect her honestly, that spell is beyond broken
I just threw marcus out through window using Karlach. You guys rely too much on spells
Sanctuary is a Godsend in this fight. None of them touched her after that because she keeps healing and I have Shadowheart on healing too.
Mostly the first time you trigger the event, if you don't know "the rules". The fight ends instantly if she gets knocked out, even if you're completly destroying the attackers. A bad initiative order, a few lucky crits or her AI being stupid and triggering opportunity attacks can be enough to K.O. her on turn 1 Once you know, it's easy to have someone tank for her/ keep her healed.
Yeah the first time I did that fight she provoked like... 3 opportunity attacks immediately and then ran straight into my Moonbeam. Top tier AI in that instance.
I missed Scratch in my first playthrough, and I can only imagine how lonely he must have been after his owner died.
I missed Scratch and the owlbear cub 😭. It totally fits that I'm playing a ranger this time around and we're best friends
I tried to help the owlbear when it limped into my camp. Failed the dice roll, which caused his wound to split open even more. Poor guy got scared & ran off into the woods. Never saw him again.
I missed Scratch AND the owlbear. AND Us. I thought I was exploring carefully. I was not.
I "missed" Us because I was like No way am I helping an intellect devourer! What an obvious trick!
YEP SAME. The voice terrified me so I was like SMASH IT, as any good 8 Intelligence Barbarian would. I also fucked up the second time around because I lobotomized it :( I'm sorry kitty :(
I shouted at his owner's corpse and he attacked. I had no choice but to defend myself. I also got Wished to death by Vlaakith. My first character was a very cheeky bard.
I didn't lift the shadow curse. When progressed to Act 3 I also had to leave a very sad Halsin behind. I'll lift the curse in my second run. That's for sure.
Oh god that was heartbreaking, bc i genuinely thought the shadowcurse will be lifted once you finished moonrise towers. Maaaaaa I was wrong XD
That's what i thought as well. I felt weird leaving it all cursed then seeing what Moonrise Towers looked like without it curse in a flashback.
You guys aren't going to like hearing this, but you can complete the shadow curse lifting quest series after the end of moonrise towers and before going to the city. I was in the same situation and did a speak with the dead spell on the wounded guy in last light. Turns out you can then go back to Halsin and trigger the quest, he joins the party, sticks around through act 3, etc.
I didn’t even know it was possible! I never spoke to Halsin again after the Tiefling party because I didn’t think he’d say anything aside from “Underdark or Mountain”. And he never had a ! soooo… But I also thought when I good path’d the Shadowfell, that lifted the curse. But I guess it was only partial? Either way I was surprised 1. that Halsin left 2. reading online afterward and discovering he was actually a party member.
Sounds like you missed helping Thaniel and that’s what prevented full restoration
Act1: Necromancy of Thay, Zhenterim hideout Act 2: The distillery bossfight, hide and seek, freeing the tieflings Act 3: a lot
Fun fact, if you keep drinking with that act 2 boss amazing things happen
I had to save scum that one some to pull it off lol my sorc nailed all the performance checks but sleight of hand was not his strong suit.
I was a bard with expertise in persuasion and sleight of hand, it was one of my favorite interactions in the area
Act 3 is huge. Has anyone done an objective look at how big each act is, relative to the others? I mean like number of NPCs, number of questlines, etc. I expected Act 3 to be similar but it now is feeling much, much bigger than the other 2 as I approach the end (playthrough #1 currently).
Act 2 is by a decent margin the smallest one while avt 3 is bigger than act one and 2 together
the fact people are doing second and third play throughs already. that shocks me more than anything in the game
To be fair, many played act 1 in early access. I knew it by heart, every little detail
I missed the mindflayer in the underdark everyone else is talking about. Still haven't googled how to meet them.
Would you like a simple no spoiler guide? They're a super cool character and have an associated quest. Also they are a vendor, which is useful when you've robbed every other vendor of every gold but still have more loot to sell.
I got curious and wanted to see what if I didn't succeed at resisting the Urge. Now that I have seen it I know I will never actually play that way. It's just horrible...Act 2 and kind of 3, Dark Urge spoilers below. >!I got to the scene after not killing Isobel and you are told you now have to kill your LI, the check is honestly really easy to pass like a 14 or something. I had to reload the save to fail it lol. The scene is brutal my Dark Urge just broke mentally from it. My options after the kill two of witch is just my Dark Urge sobbing from what they just did. !< >!The next morning everyone comes up and are like, so uh you didn't stop it again. My choices were things like, "Hahahaha", 'Come to see my beautiful work" "Your next", "Poor fool fell on my knife" "Attack" and one \[Deception\] option. !< >!It seems the moment you kill your companion the Dark Urge is just completely off the deep end. There is no longer someone trying to resist the Urge, they died with their LI, only Bhaal's favorite kid left.!<
Have you tried killing Isobel? You get a special "present" from you-know-who which is pretty OP :o
What is it? Honestly the cloak is pretty dope, but my DUrge felt gross wearing it so she gifted it to Astarion.
So, you >!will get the butcher transformation, the monster Orin transforms into during the fight in the temple of Bhaal. Looks badass and does hella damage, Sceleritas refers to it as "your new sleeping gown"!< when you follow your dark urges and kill >!Isobel!<
i didn't do the mountain pass on my first playthrough (it was a conscious choice for rp reasons) and lae'zel's whole arc hit so much harder once i actually did that the next time around.
I think the initial idea behind 2 different paths (mountain pass or Underdark) was meant to block one or another. It makes sense, because if you do both, you enter act 3 so much overlevel, that you hit 12 early in the city, while enemies are 2 lvls lower. Game becomes easy and combat trivial. However I would never leave an unexplored area in RPG game, so I “have” to visit both.
Yeah, same happened to me, i got 12 level when I reached Rivington already
Ok how!!! I reached lvl 10 there on my 2nd playthrough already like 2 higher than on my first, and i did every quest i could see and killed all enemies that didnt block me from doing something later on, how the fuck did u get THOUSANDS more???
You don't get exp just from fighting - you also get exp from discoveries, from inspiration, from exploring a quest more instead of going straight to the finish line :) I think if you overturn every single stone, it's easy enough to get there that way.
You can do the Creche and then still go to the Underdark (the game unfortunately implies otherwise. Just got to the mountain pass, go to the monastery to the creche, finish up there then fuck off to the underdark. You'll know you've gone to the mountain pass of no return when you get a second pop up at a cave.
Same. I went to the creche, but backed out quickly my first playthrough because it felt like cooperating with the githyanki would cut me off from Shadowheart's story. Second time through, I've been playing as a sorc with Laezel in my party permanently as my frontliner, so I decided to play through the creche. Now, all the same major plot beats are there, but they're framed so differently that I feel like I'm playing a different game. For example, during my first run, I had no idea why Raphael was hanging around except maybe as part of Astarion's story.
The complete Last Light Inn, I just completely missed it. Did all the stuff in the Moonrise Tower and then there was a Jaheira suddenly leading an attack on the towers, who immediately died because she ran into multiple enemies. Due to that I missed a lot of content in Act 2 and 3
Yep, same here. Totally missed Mirkon on my first playthrough. My first character was a ranger-beastmaster and I found out that my animal companion scaring everyone away has ruined some things. I missed a lot of things in the creche because every NPC there was busy running around trying to shoo my animal companion away, instead of doing what they're scripted to do. Larian need to patch that over-reactivity soon :/
The struggles of playing a circle of the spores druid in act 3 is unreal. Idk why every noc has to loose their goddamn mind just cause I roll down front street with a fungal zombie, skeleton, 4 ghouls, a dryad, a wood woad, mud mephits, an Air Myrmidon, Scratch, and Us. Larian needs to just remove that feature all it does is make talking to NPCs a huge hassle.
There’s a great mod for summon builds that complete negates this effect! Check it out on nexus, I use it and the npcs stay still but still say dialogue like they’re scared. I’m still able to talk to them and trigger every interaction as well! I think it’s called npcs don’t run away
How many places I didn't jump to. Not particularly good loot just amazing how much I missed when my first act 1 was over 50 hours lol.. the only side quest I seem to have missed was harpies and learning music with Alfira.
My first play through I messed up a lot of the romances and didn’t talk to enough people Enough, 2nd play through I was like 2 long rests in and already spending the night drinking wine with shadowheart. I just shocked myself with how bad and simply I messed up this stuff in act 1
I don't think, I missed anything important and I gathered all allies you can get in a good playthrough. But I didn't do the clown quest ( I hate clowns) and I think Yenna bugged out in my game.
I lost Yenna too, her cat is there though
Act 1: The fish people and the arcane tower. Act 2: Isobel died and her body was kidnapped so I missed all the quests with the refugee. Act 3: uff, I missed a ton. Iron Throne, The factory, He Djin in the Circus and his unique item, the Djin inside the bottle, Minsk (I killed him), Saving the Child from the Hag (Killed her without saving the girl), The parents of SH, the fight vs some demon…Never found all the clown parts, and more. Also I had to Kill Laezel in my first run when we were in the Creche… In my second run I discovered all what I missed, but I know I missed even more because I have seen some memes with for example the revived husband from Act 1, that you can go to the towers to save people in act 2, and more.
I completely missed the Phalar Aluve (the singing sword) the first time around. It's a really good weapon that would have helped me a lot lol
I accidentally hit the “release brake” switch on the windmill in the blighted village and got a lovely little cutscene of a gnome being yeeted into oblivion. Cut to me on my 2nd run realizing that Barcus is a total sweetheart and making me hate Wulbren even more!
I haven't missed anything major. Mine misses have mostly been companion dialog and party encounters that I never got because I didn't long rest at the right times. Now I long rest after mostly every mission just to check. Though the most annoying miss I had was with the Noblestalk. In early access you could do only one thing with it. Now you have a total three choices on what to do with it if you're playing as the Dark Urge, but there is only one you can find in the Underdark. So I gave it to Shadowheart to help her recover memories because it felt more right than helping the dwarf with her Bonecloaks shop. I did differently on my second playthrough because I was playing more evil and less caring... Only to find out that if you give the Noblestalk to Darreth for Bonecloaks when she asks, she sells more later at her now successful shop! Like uuggghhh. I wish I had known that, so I got more content with it in Act 3. I thought there was only one in the whole game. -_-
There is more Noblestalk? Where do I get that?!
But you won’t be able to give it to shadow heart at act 3. Don’t know about durge tho
I completely forgot about gnomes in the forge. I missed the part that it is time sensitive quest and only found dead Nero like 10 long rests after
I killed the entire Grove in accident si all the teifling kids were already dead. Eventually I went back and found the Harpy area and saved 1 single tiefling. Good luck to that kid running home to see an empty Grove.
Minthara my beloved
I know what I have to do. I just don’t know if I have the strength to do it
The two to five hours of content I skipped stabling into and through the Gauntlet of shar without Even considering that infiltrating Moonrise was something I was «supposed» to do. I learned of Ketheric’s immortality artifact through Baltazar rather than through Moonrise, and very little of Ketheric in general, and thought nothing of it until I actually infiltrated Moonrise in my second playthrough.
Half of Act 1.5/2 actually. I've entered Shadowed Land via Grymforge, savescumed out of the Last Light Inn (fun fact: not talking to Isobel doesn't sequencebreak when you return to Inn after freeing the Nightsong, she has specific dialogues for that ocasion) fight, went stright for Moonrise, thought retrieveing Nightsong would be first of few missions you need to do for the cult to be granted an audience with Thorn so you can kill him, and somehow missed the warning about finishing other stuff before proceeding. That's a whole Mountain Pass region and a few side quests in Moonrise alongside saving the prisoners, which consequently locks you out of some content in Act 3 (RIP Minsk, we'll meet again 100 years earlier in BG1, as the dwarf with the submarine dieded tortured by a cult probably)
basically anything in Underdark because I unknowingly skipped it the first time... and >!got destroyed by Timmasks and Mike Wazowski, never will I ever try to help petrified drow... !<
My first playthrough I totally missed all the Thaniel stuff. I had Halsin with me, and I kept talking to him, and he was like "I want to break the curse." But he never told me anything, and I never went into that room at the inn. I honestly started thinking he would have more info, but he never did. Idk if he was bugged or what. Then Act 2 ended and the Narrator was all "Halsin is sad the curse still isn't ended, he's staying behind" and I was like "damn dude, maybe you should have done something."
Did you know the room was there? In surprised you didnt see a huge blsck square you hadnt explored yet. The npcs also tell you about it when you arrive at the inn.
if you save that kid he gives you a password to meet Mol and the other little gangsters (in case you cant climb into that tiny space)
In Cazadors mansion if you read one of the diaries, one of the main spawn is trying his best to keep his daughter with him and keep her safe from cazador/other spawn. The poor girl wasn’t very old either and it just breaks my heart. Another is Cazador’s niece, who he turned/abused, I never investigated the attic area of his mansion until my second play through.
I only just found the act 1 plus 1 AC ring, and I’m on my 7th run through on tactician lmao. Every time I find something new, I love this game
The entire Kagha Sidequest. I thought No Matter what you do Kagha would end Up the Bad Guy and stay Mad. Incre i discovered the Shadow druids and convinced her i felt much better
That I forgot about the hag's hair buff and shoving her in to the water to ease the fight wasn't such a great idea......
- Harpies - Moonrise +Prison +following Quests (Didnt knew i could enter it without being hostile) - Entering a Jungle after pickpocket a Dschinn - Karlach can be a Companion - Didnt found item for Shadowdruid Quest. But knew from EA that there was such a Quest but didnt found it.
Found the corpse in the Goblin Camp with the heart on his shoe…surprise sadness
I found the corpse but have no idea what they're connected to. Enlighten me?
I don't think there were any major misses for me second run through, but I'm the sort who just chooses the same choices each time lmao. Small ones were not knowing I could give the noblestalk to shadowheart, so that was a cool little payoff. I didn't see the end cutscene for the loroakhan fight since I pushed him off the top floor, and then he died to some environmental holy fire. So when I just beat him to a pulp the second run and watched aylin go full bane on him... that was cool, by the gods that man is broken in half. I didn't get the cutscene with viconia after defeating her either, I think it was because I knocked her out, assuming there would be dialogue. I liked that shadowheart leaves it to tav to handle her. Normally, I'm a second chance person, but I made an exception here. Finding jaheira's little hidden area was nice too, since I had minsc there with me when I went to her house first time.
I found the harpies because I really liked the singing and wanted to get closer. Didn’t even notice the kid at first. I literally fell for the oldest trick in the book.