Baldur's Gate 3: Quicksave is my favourite spell

[IlyaP]

Apparently the quest with Wyll's father is still a bit broken? Seems he's meant to give Tav a helpful book and instead keeps it on his person despite all animations and appearances suggesting otherwise. 

Ended up having to pickpocket him to obtain the text the game insists he gave up. 

Definitely one of the weirder bugs I've encountered in Act 3. 

 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

I’m early in Act 3 so can’t comment on character quests but the Minsk recruitment quest was slightly bugged as I triggered it by going directly to Guildhall and Jaheira suddenly started talking about Minsk as if we’ve been looking for him all along and we know exactly who he is even though we never discussed him till that point.  Beyond that quests that require long rests to conclude often need atleast 2 rests in a row to properly proceed, otherwise it’s all been good so far.

[IlyaP]

43 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Jaheira suddenly started talking about Minsk as if we’ve been looking for him all along

She didn't even do this until we met her kids. Weird.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

15 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

She didn't even do this until we met her kids. Weird.

I didn’t even know she had any lol , well gonna keep her in my party for a little longer to trigger this ( don’t tell me where they are) , my permanent party most of the time basically is - shadow heart, Wyll /(sometimes Lazael),  Karlach and myself (paladin) . Although I keep getting Astarion out during dungeon crawls for lock picking, he is ridiculously good at it

I did organically find Karlachs friend which was a nice touch. Love these unique unexpected moments with companions 

 

Fair warning - there is a quest called stop the presses which in my opinion cannot really be completed without looking up YouTube guides and it triggers on talking to the editor in Baldurs mouth so be warned before going there !  I found it to be the most tedious quest of the game tbh

Edited March 4 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Kalbear]

Stop the presses is pretty easy to complete - especially if you just kill every reporter. 

[IlyaP]

8 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Stop the presses is pretty easy to complete - especially if you just kill every reporter. 

That's, uh...*x-treme*!

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

31 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Stop the presses is pretty easy to complete - especially if you just kill every reporter. 

I’m not roleplaying as a psychopath unfortunately, I was saying in context of doing it stealthily. I’m trying to be as pacifist as possible as killing NPCs in this game deprives you of a lot of content I’ve seen.

If you don’t save Arabella you miss a really good payoff in act 3, ditto with other tieflings. Even goblins like Sazza keep coming back. So same with the villains. Aradin also reappears in Act3. If you do the presses mission stealthily there’s some satisfying dialogue with the editor and his lackey reporters later which just add to my RP experience….Adding positive news also changes the vendor economy and adds loads of new npc dialogues.

I actually really like this feature cause it really rewards your choices and makes even insignificant npcs matter across all 3 acts, really adds to the immersion.

Edited March 4 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Kalbear]

Oh, I talked with them all first. And then I found out he was in league with gortash AND was firing good reporters, so the boss and his guards died. The rest of the reporters didn't care. I was able to add a good story to the press without any issue either. 

In any case the point is that the quest is as hard as you choose it to be. 

Edited March 4 by Kalbear

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

13 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Oh, I talked with them all first. And then I found out he was in league with gortash AND was firing good reporters, so the boss and his guards died. The rest of the reporters didn't care. I was able to add a good story to the press without any issue either. 

In any case the point is that the quest is as hard as you choose it to be. 

Fair enough, I was worried that you’ll have to murder every reporter as well as the nearby guards in that part of the city so I didn’t consider it. The game dosent make it clear what triggers the nearby guards and what dosent so I’m trying to avoid violence in the crowded city areas itself. 

[IlyaP]

1 minute ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

Fair enough, I was worried that you’ll have to murder every reporter as well as the nearby guards in that part of the city so I didn’t consider it. The game dosent make it clear what triggers the nearby guards and what dosent so I’m trying to avoid violence in the crowded city areas itself. 

Given the amount of sequential/process confusion that folks here alone have displayed, I can't help but get Arx vibes from DOS2 again, with Arx in the release version of DOS2 being quite different from the definitive edition that released approximately (approximately!) a year later. 

Like, nothing that I've done in the lower city or Wyrm's Crossing was due to the game guiding me. I honestly just entered random buildings, and talked to people, and stumbled my way into most of the quests - for example, the one with Wyll's dad and the location in which he's kept? Completely fell upon that by chance by discovering some priests of Umberlee singing a haunting song which led to wandering around some random building which led to clues to Wyll's dad. 

I can't decide if this kind of freeform, unguided gameplay is brilliant or not, as it's quite at odds with the first 2 acts, where Larian did a decidedly good job at guiding me around and giving me an idea of where to go. It's also miles different from the approach taken by Bioware in BG1/2/ToB, which did, I would argue, a better job of giving players a bit of guidance and information about where to go, what to do, etc. 

They're two different styles of gameplay guidance, admittedly, with neither being better or worse than the other - but a reflection of the kind of design approach taken by each studio. De gustibus non est disputandum and all that. 

[IlyaP]

9 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

The game dosent make it clear what triggers the nearby guards and what dosent so I’m trying to avoid violence in the crowded city areas itself. 

This has frequently been a passive annoyance to me. Like I mentioned with Jaheira's house above - the game never led me there, I simply randomly walked into it to clear away the fog of war on the map. 

I know Larian are trying very hard to mimic the freeform play of a TTRPG, but this game also has a story to tell, and needs to not forget that. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Also, I had THAT encounter in the sewers with Orin( I’m playing a DU character) and now annoyingly enough, the narrative has a sense of urgency that is really telling me to get on with the main quest of dealing with Gortash/Orin but I’m just gonna continue to ignore it and explore the city… just irritating to have even more urgency created on top of the tadpoles, brain and invading army. Plan is to finish the city side quests and some companion quests, then deal with the baddies.

Edited March 4 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Is cross play ever going to come to this game between PS5 and PC? I wanna play Co-op with my friend whos a PS5 gamer.

[Kalbear]

While the game implies a sense of urgency it is basically a lie. Take as long as you need. 

What really pissed me off js a weird combo of events; 

Spoiler

So if you go to the Iron throne before saying you'll save or doom wylls dad you find him dead. I hate that. And that of course only happens after a long rest.

 

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, Kalbear said:

While the game implies a sense of urgency it is basically a lie. Take as long as you need. 

Is this actually true, though? I've done sections where, because I took too long, someone ended up dead, like the kid with the harpies in Act 1. It seems like there's some kind of invisible background timer for certain plot points/quests spinning somewhere in the background. 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

2 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

Is this actually true, though? I've done sections where, because I took too long, someone ended up dead, like the kid with the harpies in Act 1. It seems like there's some kind of invisible background timer for certain plot points/quests spinning somewhere in the background. 

This was in context to the companion kidnapping quest in Act 3, there are plenty of time sensitive quests otherwise in the game, like Counsellor Florrick dying in the fire, Nere dying in the under dark etc 

[Kalbear]

Yeah, I'm not talking about in general, just for that part of Act 3.

Interesting to me that in act 3 you have to rescue florrick (again, jeez) quickly or they'll die. But that's the only one. The other supposed urgent events are not actually timed.

Which is pretty funny to me to think about.

[IlyaP]

9 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Interesting to me that in act 3 you have to rescue florrick (again, jeez) quickly or they'll die. But that's the only one. The other supposed urgent events are not actually timed.

I managed to rescue her from the jail cell, but then overheard somewhere (I think in a conversation among randoms on the street) that she was dead despite my efforts?!

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

2 hours ago, IlyaP said:

I managed to rescue her from the jail cell, but then overheard somewhere (I think in a conversation among randoms on the street) that she was dead despite my efforts?!

See the gather your allies quest log to check if she’s alive or not 

Edited March 5 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Here’s a buff tip for you guys - respec your characters and pay 400 gold as offering at the temple in the lower city at any of the dieties- you’ll get a permanent +2 saving throw buff that can be renewed for free after every long rest at that same diety without paying any gold again. Respec to level 1 before going to the temple to avoid paying 4500 gold as the offering scales with level. This must be done for every character. 
 

Im role playing my characters in terms of their armour looks so I don’t always go for the best armour stats just the most appropriate looking armour (my Shadow Heart ain’t gonna wear any justiciar gear !) so hence this buff was quite useful to look up on.I also don’t pickpocket gear.

In other news I did the Cazador quest and the game rewarded me for freeing 7000 souls by…claiming my paladin broke his oath…sigh this is the third time it’s happened and the renewal amount is now 10k so I’m like fuck it I’m gonna remain an oathbreaker this time !

Edited March 5 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II