Baldur's Gate 3: On the Highway to the Nine Hells

[Fez]

2 hours ago, Relic said:

I got two achievements today that 6% or less of players have unlocked - A long rest using only booze as supplies, and recruiting a hireling. 

I got the booze one too.

The whole hirelings system just seems odd to me. We can already respect any of the companions anyway. And I think the hirelings are all appearance-locked, right? So they aren't even good for adding another custom character as a workaround for the multiplayer issues that exist. I guess they're useful if you happen to kill/drive away too many party members and can't get a full team otherwise?

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Relic said:

I got two achievements today that 6% or less of players have unlocked - A long rest using only booze as supplies, and recruiting a hireling. 

I got the booze achievement yesterday. I should do the hireling one because it's easy as hell.

I confronted the githyanki creche and they really went a bit wild with that one.

Spoiler

Tons of DC 30 skill checks - so you need natural 20s to pass - and a very confusing morass of choices. I managed to keep Lae'zel on side but now have to fight my way out of the creche, which is a bit difficult because I got all but annihilated in the fight against the inquisitor and the game won't let me camp. I was searching around for some kind of hidden exit to bypass the githyanki on the way in but no luck.

 

[karaddin]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I got the booze one too.

The whole hirelings system just seems odd to me. We can already respect any of the companions anyway. And I think the hirelings are all appearance-locked, right? So they aren't even good for adding another custom character as a workaround for the multiplayer issues that exist. I guess they're useful if you happen to kill/drive away too many party members and can't get a full team otherwise?

I think they're there so you can still have a party if you killed everyone. This isn't a spoiler for dark urge, just that I'm pretty sure all of them can be killed when you meet them.

On an unrelated note, I saw a 10 minute any% speed run last night which is both amusing and absurd.

Spoiler

It uses Gale and takes feather fall and enhanced jump as cantrips and just starts long jumping across the map. Kills the mindflayer in the crashed ship for some extra xp then heads straight for the mountain pass near the goblin camp.

The artefact cutscene plays when you hit the zone transition and warps shadowheart to you, which is helpful because the area unlock gives him level 2 and he needs sanctuary from her lol. Keeps jumping along and meets the other wizard just before act 2, then continues and jumps directly to moonrise and hits level 3.

Goes downstairs to the dungeon and jumps straight into the oubliette and there's a spot that lets you misty step into the end of act 2 area, at which point he goes straight to the elevator, gets the cutscene and Gale blows himself up which is his secret ending that finishes the game in act 2.

 

[Corvinus85]

Finally beat Dzor. The spiders lazily stayed back. I guess I needed to move the fight into the ante-room for them to participate. Instead I ungrouped my companions and positioned them inside the throne room before walking in with my character and the druid which triggered the fight. I placed Astarion and Shadowheart up in the rafters to snipe people and they easily dispatched the cultists that scrambled after them. I positioned Gale by the war drum so they couldn't call for help - it worked somewhat in that none of the goblins rushed to the drum despite Gale being taken out of the fight by Dzor. Then it was a matter of smashing Dzor with everything I got and wiping out the rest.

Apparently all the Goblins hate me now so I had to get out through the collapsed passage above. I had preemptively taken out the drunkards on the upper patio back when I was searching for Halsin.

[briantw]

On 8/10/2023 at 11:43 PM, Corvinus85 said:

I stumbled upon a bugbear fucking a female ogre. They didn't let my party leave without a fight. This game is something else.

I did the same but didn't have to fight.  My character (a Barbarian with the Dark Urge) made fun of the bugbear for being tiny and pathetic and he stumbled away in shame.

[IlyaP]

On 8/11/2023 at 1:43 PM, Corvinus85 said:

I stumbled upon a bugbear fucking a female ogre. They didn't let my party leave without a fight. This game is something else.

Horny. The word you're looking for is "horny".   

Seriously freakin' horny.

[Relic]

6 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Finally beat Dzor. The spiders lazily stayed back. I guess I needed to move the fight into the ante-room for them to participate. Instead I ungrouped my companions and positioned them inside the throne room before walking in with my character and the druid which triggered the fight. I placed Astarion and Shadowheart up in the rafters to snipe people and they easily dispatched the cultists that scrambled after them. I positioned Gale by the war drum so they couldn't call for help - it worked somewhat in that none of the goblins rushed to the drum despite Gale being taken out of the fight by Dzor. Then it was a matter of smashing Dzor with everything I got and wiping out the rest.

Apparently all the Goblins hate me now so I had to get out through the collapsed passage above. I had preemptively taken out the drunkards on the upper patio back when I was searching for Halsin.

You can destroy the war drums, by the way

[IlyaP]

So this is confusing. If you go across the water in the Underdark, and you take out any of the draugur, the rest of them seem to simply vanish, and the person trapped behind the rubble is no longer trapped. Or alive. 

What?

[karaddin]

2 hours ago, IlyaP said:

So this is confusing. If you go across the water in the Underdark, and you take out any of the draugur, the rest of them seem to simply vanish, and the person trapped behind the rubble is no longer trapped. Or alive. 

What?

The trapped true soul dies if you long rest twice after you get to grymforge I think, are you sure you didnt just do that? Or leave the area?

[IlyaP]

13 minutes ago, karaddin said:

The trapped true soul dies if you long rest twice after you get to grymforge I think, are you sure you didnt just do that? Or leave the area?

I got there, and then....I pushed two dwarves around, and then...I may have rested? It was a while ago now. But when I got back upstairs, Nerra or whatever his name was, the dickhead drow who was violent towards gnomes, was dead. And there was poison gas in the space behind the doorway. 

Much confuse.

[karaddin]

6 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

I got there, and then....I pushed two dwarves around, and then...I may have rested? It was a while ago now. But when I got back upstairs, Nerra or whatever his name was, the dickhead drow who was violent towards gnomes, was dead. And there was poison gas in the space behind the doorway. 

Much confuse.

Lol the poison gas is in there with him while he's trapped, no idea what else happened there

[Werthead]

16 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Finally beat Dzor. The spiders lazily stayed back. I guess I needed to move the fight into the ante-room for them to participate. Instead I ungrouped my companions and positioned them inside the throne room before walking in with my character and the druid which triggered the fight. I placed Astarion and Shadowheart up in the rafters to snipe people and they easily dispatched the cultists that scrambled after them. I positioned Gale by the war drum so they couldn't call for help - it worked somewhat in that none of the goblins rushed to the drum despite Gale being taken out of the fight by Dzor. Then it was a matter of smashing Dzor with everything I got and wiping out the rest.

Apparently all the Goblins hate me now so I had to get out through the collapsed passage above. I had preemptively taken out the drunkards on the upper patio back when I was searching for Halsin.

A good piece of advice, the same for any Gatelike which features creature XP, is to kill absolutely every enemy on the map to level up further, even if it means bailing on an area and coming back later. The courtyard fight on evacuating the goblin camp is crazy, but very worthwhile from the XP you get from it.

[Trebla]

9 hours ago, IlyaP said:

So this is confusing. If you go across the water in the Underdark, and you take out any of the draugur, the rest of them seem to simply vanish, and the person trapped behind the rubble is no longer trapped. Or alive. 

What?

For the record, the Early Access ended right as you were supposed to cross the lake. So that is officially 1/4 of the game. I'm right at that part and I'm close to 40 hours in!

[Werthead]

I just entered the Underdark, fought a freaking beholder at the entrance (!) and now reached an area defended by Arcane Turrets, which are very annoying. I think this is very close to the end of Act I. My characters are now all well into Level 6 and I'm 30 hours into the game.

Two weeks and two days to finish this before Starfield. I need to up my game.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Werthead

[karaddin]

3 hours ago, Trebla said:

For the record, the Early Access ended right as you were supposed to cross the lake. So that is officially 1/4 of the game. I'm right at that part and I'm close to 40 hours in!

Ah I didn't get that far the first time I tried early access, when I did it a month ago or so you could go past that point - just the next section in the underdark - so I guess they extended it at some point.

[IlyaP]

11 hours ago, karaddin said:

The trapped true soul dies if you long rest twice after you get to grymforge I think, are you sure you didnt just do that? Or leave the area?

Wait, so...are you saying that I could like, sleep my way all the way to Baldur's Gate to avoid dealing with enemies? 

That's amazing!

[Arakasi]

I need to find some settings that work for my deck since this game gets very hot and drains battery fast.

[IlyaP]

18 hours ago, Werthead said:

the same for any Gatelike which features creature XP,

Gatelike?!

[Luzifer's right hand]

The XP system is pretty conservative with peaceful approaches getting less on top of losing out on loot. 

Going peaceful and attacking afterwards is probably the best approach I guess.

I have progressed a bit and I'm liking the system a bit more than in the Divinity: Original Sin games. That hulk style jumping seems to be the most effective way to move in most situations is a bit weird though.

 

[Heartofice]

9 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

The XP system is pretty conservative with peaceful approaches getting less on top of losing out on loot. 

Going peaceful and attacking afterwards is probably the best approach I guess.

 

I have definitely lost out on XP by just talking my way out of situations. My second run through I initiated a lot more fights and was level 4 in no time. Which made fights easier.