#alj plays bg3

[astridellejo]

So Karlach Joined My Party

You know what they say about D&D being free therapy? Yeah, I think Baldur's Gate 3 might be offering something similar.

I have many thoughts about Karlach and I have sussed out it is because I can kinda relate to her. She's a bouncy bundle of ADHD energy. She was isolated and touch starved. She projects smiles and kindness to the best of her ability because she so desperately wants those gestures reciprocated. She wears her heart on her sleeve, or more accurately, she has an engine that burns so hot and bright that it bursts through her chest. Her metaphorical heart is full of unexpressed love and joy because of years trapped in Avernus. (In my case, my Avernus was my isolation and depression.) Now she's free to express herself and she feels so alive!

Karlach's idle animations show her bouncing and dancing and flapping her hands and having little conversations with herself. These are all things I do when I think no one is watching (or if I'm feeling comfortable and safe among friends). I feel like this game character has given me permission to be more open expressing my ADHD idiosyncracies instead of masking them and pretending to be 'normal'.

So here's this character who reminds me so much of myself, and I as a player have found this character to be worthy of being romanced and loved by my game avatar. Very interesting. All of that kinda sounds like a very roundabout approach to self-acceptance and self-love, things I have struggled with my whole life. And it implies that I believe myself to be worthy of being romanced and loved (or at least I'm starting to believe it). That's lovely.

The next step is overcoming my abandonment issues and how they lead me to sabotage my relationships. Which character do I have to romance to solve that problem?

[Image Description] My BG3 Tav, Asta, stares wide-eyed at the exploding tiefling across the river. Karlach is crouched down and fully aflame. "HRRRRRR," she groans. Then she bursts with a fierce bellow, "YAAHH!"

As Shadowheart and Lae'zel bicker/flirt in the background, threatening each other with swords and daggers and poison and stabbing/crushing each others' hearts, Asta anime nosebleeds at the sight of Karlach (who is drawn suspiciously similar to the way the artist draws their own self-portraits).

Karlach smiles and says, "Hey there, soldier! The name's Karlach. Nice to meet ya!" [/Image Description]

[astridellejo]

Baldur's Gate Playthrough - Episode 5

Okay. Whew! I have finally defeated one of the goblin leaders, Priestess Gut, without it immediately descending into a gauntlet of dozens of angry goblins attacking us. Headed back to camp for a bath and a long rest. The rain really made us all super grimy. And the goblin guts I guess.

Gale and Astarion were waiting at camp just like I told them to. Along with a couple other folks. I talked to Gale and he says he's got this weird condition where if he doesn't eat magic, he explodes. And he wants my bracers. No, dude. No. I like those. I need those. I will find you something else to eat. Astarion didn't have much to say. Not the chatty type I suppose?

The bard we rescued from the goblins was also at camp. He says he's a doctor, or perhaps doctor adjacent. I'm not so sure, though. Anyway, bard boy was ready to jam a needle through my eye to get the tadpole out and I'm like, "Um, no. I need my depth perception. Thanks." If it can get into my head without damaging my eyes, then I'm sure there's a way to get it back out of my head without damaging my eyes. I mean yeah, I'd love to get this squirmy thing out of my head quickly, but I'd like to keep my vision as well.

Lae'zel was meditating in camp and not very talkative (not like she's super talkative to begin with). So I took a walk by the river where there was this, corpse, standing there. I guess he can bring people back to life or something? I don't know. Anyway, I carried on with my walk and got hit with a fierce headache and collapsed. When I came to my senses, Lae'zel was crouched over me and fully prepared to slit my throat. Somehow I managed to convince her not to kill me and everyone in camp. Clearly she is stressed out about this tadpole. Girl, I get it. We're gonna get these creepy crawlies out of our heads. I promise!

Met a woman in my dream last night. She's a drow like me, but there's also something different about her. Something powerful, and possibly dangerous. She was apparently the one to break my fall from the crashing nautilus. While I did take her hand, I'm still wary of her advice about using the tadpole's powers. I get the impression she might have only saved me because I'm useful, not because she's altruistic.

Anyway, it's a new day and I still have two more goblin leaders to deal with. Blerg. But the sooner I get that done, the sooner I can get Halsin back home so he can … wait … shit! He can't help. He said I needed to go to Moonbeam Tower or something. Ugh! Why did I make this promise to the druids?! Because I decided to be the altruistic one.

I wonder if the goblins have found Gut's corpse in her private office. Oh shit. What if they brought her back and now we have to deal with her again. Ugh!

[astridellejo]

Baldur's Gate Playthrough - Episode 4

I promised the druids and tieflings that I'd deal with the goblin encampment. My party has rescued Halsin, but I haven't yet killed the three goblin leaders.

I'm a drow, and people often assume the worst about me because Lolth. Eye roll emoji. Hells, the goblins assume I'm one of their allies. But I'm not a fighter. I'm not an aggressor. Honestly I'm a scrawny little bookworm. So I try and mediate. I try and smoothe ruffled feathers. It's difficult, though, because I keep running into so many people whose first instinct is murder. (Have I already mentioned I'm a monk?)

Anyway, to further avoid dealing with the goblin leaders in a timely fashion, I decided to backtrack to the nautilus to map more terrain and hopefully find some alternative to direct combat with the goblins, and I ran into a pale elf named Astarion. Then I met a guy named Gale who was stuck in a travel portal. They're both charming and suave, sure, but I don't know if I want either of them in my party. I told them to go to my camp and we could talk later about possibly joining. (I doubt it. With Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and hopefully my future wife Karlach, I'm quite happy with my party as it is right now.)

Scouring through the blighted village, I stumbled upon a cellar with a magic mirror. Managed to coax my way in and found some slick gauntlets that upped my monk AC. Nice. Free magical swag!

Okay. Back at the goblin camp. Ugh. I met a merchant there ("Merchant." A fucking slave trader.) and got myself a neat new staff that shoots fire. And I found a hand axe that does additional damage to things that are on fire, so I gave it to Karlach. I hope she likes it! (Does that count as flirting? I'm really bad at flirting.)

Now I know I made a promise that I'd deal with the goblin camp. But I still haven't figured out how to defeat the three leaders without getting another TPK. There are a lot of goblins in that camp, and only four of us. I'm going to have to find some stealth options. Which means more exploring the countryside! That's far more interesting to me than combat. Like I said, I'm a monk. I'm interested in traveling and learning, and the only reason why I know how to fight is because everybody else's first instinct is to just kill.

Ugh. People are the worst sometimes.

[astridellejo]

Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough - Episode 3

Head empty. Only Karlach. I wonder if it's possible for a monk and a barbarian to have a happy and healthy relationship? Beau? Yasha? Your thoughts?

Okay. It's been a week and I've had time to think about my play style. As usual, it's all below the cut:

The presence of the tadpole has established a sense of urgency in the game that I felt pushed me to try and get through the game as quickly as possible. I had this same problem when I played Breath of the Wild the first time. The urgency of Zelda's plea pressed me to try and finish the game quickly.

But I have to remember that urgency in the story does not necessarily mean urgency in the gameplay. So I reset my playthrough to just after my first long rest, and instead of going straight into the goblin camp, I set out to find one more person for my adventuring party. Oh, look! I found a doggo! Maybe I'll see the pupper later at camp?

Shit. I can't get across the river. So annoying. It's not even that far across. If only I could jum ... p. Duh. I can jump! Okay, people, over the river we go! No, Lae'zel, don't jump back. We're going this way. Lae'zel, come on! I know you want to talk to your gith allies, but they massacred us three times in another timeline. So, no. We're not going that way.

There's someone by the river. Oh my glob, it's Karlach! she's everything I hoped she'd be based on the fanart! That chipper and bouncy cherry red tiefling has melted me with her glowing furnace heart. (Better be careful, though, or she'll also literally melt me with her glowing furnace heart.)

Lae'zel and Shadowheart continue to flirt with each other with their banter on the trail. "I'll kill you," says Lae'zel. Shadowheart comes back with, "Yeah right, bish. I'd like to see you try." You two can get hot and sweaty together later at camp! Now focus! There's some bad guys you can kill.

I had my ass thrown from a rooftop in a fight with the folks Karlach has beef with, but somehow we won the battle. Hooray! This battle didn't kill my party! Immediately decided to take a long rest afterward only to discover someone at my campsite who wants to kill my new girlfriend. I don't think so, bucko. Wait, you want to join my party?

[Side-eyes Wyll.]

[astridellejo]

Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough - Episode 2

Six TPKs in four hours.

Four hours of play later, I've reloaded a save effectively deleting everything I did today. This is called 'fun'.

Fuck.

[astridellejo]

Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough - Episode 1

I'm about four hours in. This game is dangerous for my ADHD. Here's a quest! No, here's a quest! Where does this go? Where does that lead? Oh my glob my eyes are so bloodshot! Maybe I should take a long rest. Yeah, I'm saying that both to myself and my character.

I'll spare the timeline my nattering. Click if you want to read further.

Okay. I made camp. I seem to be getting on Lae'zel's good side, and Shadowheart made me smile. I mean she made my character smile. Have I mentioned my character is a Seldarine Drow Monk with the Sage background? Yeah. She's mostly a nerd. A nerd who hits hard.

In-game day two. My play style is extremely chill. Hopefully it helps that I'm playing in story mode. I don't really feel like fighting unless I have to. I also don't want traumatized NPCs to make bad life decisions in moments of stress and vulnerability. But holy shit some of these people just want blood for breakfast.

I've got a mind flayer tadpole in my brain. So that's not great. Gotta try and find the guy who can hopefully fix that. But later. Right now I've played for four hours already. Let's not go overboard with the gaming. I do need to do other things today.

One positive today: OMG this game is fucking great! I cannot believe this plays on my Mac Mini.

One negative today: Really? The fucking Wilhelm Scream? Ugh.

[astridellejo]

And So My Baldur's Gate 3 Experience Begins

Wait, I get to make two characters?! My player character is basically a drow version of my witchsona. A monk, obviously, because the monk class is my jam.

My player character's guardian is ... I don't know who that is yet. No spoilers.

(Accidentally crashed the game while testing to see if my monitor's v-sync functionality works. I guess it doesn't.)