#i'm playing her as a life cleric so it's a bit different but fun!!

[karaokebearwithal]

Mutuals Mutuals Come one COME ALL!!!

Put your various sona's and appendages together for the unveiling of a lil' something I've been working on while being distracted from animating Dame Aylin's wings (Its long, hard, fun as all hell but the concentration required to do so seems physically impossible for a beast of my genus)

I drew all my moots tavs/pseudo-companions!!! It took a bit, but it was well worth it! Everyone's design is so unique and fun to figure out. (10 is a big number of moots)((which I am very grateful to have :3)) So without Further Ado!!! (there will be so much more Ado):

(page break cuz the images are 400x400 each but 10 times, I also go on for a bit about how much I like each Tav/pseudo-companion character) ((if anyone can give me tips on how to size pieces in a normal style digitally i'd be very grateful))

First of all is Sivvus the Fey Prince (he/him)! This elusive Eladrin Tav belongs to @thedomesticanthropologist! A gorgeous yet seemingly cold-hearted druid who tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Though if you want the challenge you can see for yourself if you can try and get close to him to see if Sivvus is as closed off as he seems to be. To be quite honest, Sivvus really grew on me. A very fancy Eladrin with a high society (fey society) upbringing ( with very good looking mood boards to match) and the like only for him to be thrust into the bg3 world with a worm to boot. He is charming! Also his backstory? <3 Defienetly go read it! 10/10 would draw the snob again :)

Second off we have Gum (He/They)! A Githyanki Cleric of Mystra. Being @piipaw's Tav you'd find this charming fruit lover trying to live a peaceful life after escaping from the creche that raised them. I like Gum a lot as the concept of a githyanki trying to find their own way in Faerun while also having no idea about any of the social customs is very gripping to me. I recommend greatly to check out the blog for Gum fics, fanart and a very cool moot . :)

Next is H'rayn of Verkos (she/her)! Now different from all the character's I drew, H'rayn is not a Tav! She's actually a pseudo-companion character with a lotta lore and history! She even has her own quest, party banter, approval and disapproval things. It's the whole deal!! @githkisser made an amazing post all about H'rayn . If you want a ton of indepth and fun info that's really really well documented, I cannot overstate how much you should it check out! I find myself going back to learn more about H'rayn as she really is as well thought out as in game companions! It's quite fun thinking up of ways tavs can interact with her and the art is mwah!!! very good indeed :3

4th! Tavern (Tav) the Bard! (they/them) This darling bard ran away from the circus.....from birth! Created by @avocado-writing, Tavern plays their way into your heart with their silly antics, warm heart and eldritch pocket dimension in their chest!

Tavern is a doll to doodle and I am amped to draw them even more in the future. The heterochromia and the inclusion of instruments does make them a fun challenge (i will draw instruments accuratley with these paws eventually). Go check them out!! :D

5th! Hvinidyr the Barbarian (he/him)! @star-bear-art (I just realised after all this we aren't actually mutuals. Which is funny since we kinda have the same name and theme with the bear thing XD) If you wanna see wonderous art of Hvinidyr as well as the other companions, go look right over here!

Winnie (Hvinidyr) has a lot of forms depending on the time period you wanna look at. The one I chose was the most recent with the large scar tissue all over the left (right? I'm horrible at directions, my paws don't make an L shape for me to tell). He was really fun to sketch out (and probably later colour in) and has a really unique design that I appreciate :)

6th Vierlin the Enchantment Wizard (and a lil' bit rouge)!!!(she/her) @sybaritick's Tav!!! Now!! This classic drow has a keen intrest in enchantment magic, teaching her crafts to nobles in Amn. After the whole tadpole fiasco, she also finds another use for her multitude of arcane skills. Most notabley depicted with a local wizard.

Now I won't get ahead of myself here but the fics that Sybaritick wrote about Vierlin are like....licking a warm pan of thickened maple syrup or a fancy meat meal with so much demi-glaze you're left smacking your lips for at least 20 mins after eating. Its indulgent. And I couldn't recommend it enough!! Read it!! (it took me a good 8 times to get the 'ie' part of Vierlin's name right, the letters look the same to me)

7th Fink the Spores Druid (they/them) belonging to @causticcontemplation! They're a pretty short Tav a 2.5ft and have a whole modern AU fic about them!!! You can read all about it here! (the pun name is amazing!)

I found it cool to use the fic to figure out how to colour them in, I ended up sending an anon ask instead and it helped great! Lovely Tav 10/10!

8th Korydass the Druid!! (She/her)!!! Conjured by @cfcreative, this seemingly non-emotive bronze dragonborn lights a spark in viewers as her tail and love for nature portrays otherwise. Art of Kory is many and also very good. Reading through her lore is fun watching her dynamics with the different origin characters change as she opens up to the party.

Now I do have slight bias, I like drawing Kory the most since her head shape is less humanoid. It's just so satifying, also her design is crazy awesome to work with so all around its great recommend I like her a lot :3

9th Asheera the Paladin (she/her) produced by @optiwashere.

To be quite honest I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for Asheera's fics. They are EXCELLENT. If you want to go through a journey of a half orcs struggles, successes and gripping romance with Shadowheart, VAULT YOURSELF into Opti's A03 page and devour. You will have negative regrets about it just like I! Asheera is great I love her a lot I am the most normal about her.

(I'll keep it brief since this post is long enough to cross a river)

10th Quin the Bard (he/him) composed by @quinthebard (who'd have known?)

This darling plucky bard is the star of an ongoing comic that is very dynamic and very gripping. (My fave panel is this one). Despite being 100, Quin still maintains his joyful and kind nature when traveling with the tadpole gang.

Definetly one of the most friendlies Tavs out of all the ones i've drawn. (he was also the first i drew out of all of these!) He's a delight!! Go check him out! Thanks to all my moots for giving permission, having such great characters and being such lovely moots! <3 <3 <3

(Any pronouns or other changes that want be changed, feel free to DM about it. I love those! )

[sinfuego]

Okay I know I said I wouldn't do any more fhjy theories cause I'm not that interested I them but. I'm having Thoughts.

Cassandra has become "unmade" as Brennan put it, but I think this means that she's just become a different kind of divinity. One that wants to make Kristen's life hell, as promised at the end of that little speech.

How did this new divinity come to be? Anger. At the beginning of the fight, the red stuff coming out of Kristen was her anger at Kristen/fear of her own death. They created the Rage Mages, and on Ally's Nat 20, you can see Brennan said all of the red stuff inside her was expelled. From this, we can assume that red stuff=divine rage or something like that.

However, despite expelling all that rage in the beginning, Cassandra was still angry. According to how Brennan described that moment with Kristen's insight check later, that moment after she expelled her anger, when she was passed and was about to say that it wasn't fair, this anger was a lot healthier. However, the Rage Mages all beat up on Cassandra until that anger too, soured into something that transformed Cassandra into whatever deity she is now.

Now this is conjecture, but I have a feeling that this new deity is a deity of injustice, or unfairness. Why? Because that's what Cassandra was most angry about. The unfairness of the situation.

And this next bit is even more conjecture, but I think it's fun, so come join me in leaping to conclusions:

At some point, one of the red things said "Cassandra." That was when all of the Rage Mages started to attack the goddess. Which leads me to believe that maybe, that fear of dying, that rage at the unfairness of it all, was planted in Cassandra. My theory is that someone had a conversation with Cassandra about her place as a goddess, about what happened with Yes!, about how Kristen hasn't been a very good track record as a cleric in the past. Someone who, during that conversation, planted something magical in that doubt, so that when it manifested, it would turn the goddess into something else. Into something spiteful and unfair.

Kipperlilly Copperkettle is a power leveller. Kipperlilly Copperkettle wants to twist the rules so that they favor her. Kipperlilly Copperkettle says she wants everything to be fair, bjlut she doesnt play fair.

And Kipperlilly Copperkettle was looking into Cassandra.

In conclusion: Kipperlilly Copperkettle and the Rat Grinders wanted Cassandra to become a goddess of unfairness so that they could get Krosten in even more trouble and also to have some kind of divinity helping then

[utilitycaster]

If you could build a character to screw with Bells Hells (in an ideology way Deanna already did the other) how might you build them?

You know, this is a very difficult question for a couple reasons:

The first is that the party itself has a pretty wide range of ideologies! I think it's very hard to faze Fearne or Chetney (unless you're his ex, apparently) simply because she's so open to experiences and he's lived such a long life. Imogen and Ashton are both very cynical, but I think they'd mostly be disgusted at worst by a super perky and naive person. Laudna likes most people, as does FCG, and Orym is unlikely to make waves even though he does have plenty of personal preferences.

The second is that I firmly believe that you can make a character that intends to push people's buttons...but you are here to work with the party, if you're playing a PC. I've been thinking about this a lot actually, what with all the "Emily breaker of DMs" discussion, because on NADDPod's various commentary shows (both the Patreon-only Short Rest after show, and also a lot of their D&D Court/Hearthside Chat episodes) she always talks about being very sensitive to both party composition and wanting to play a character who very much has a reason to be there and to bring everyone together. I find that aspirational, and so some friendly ribbing or playing someone who will challenge a character ideologically is fine, but I'd be reluctant to be actually antagonistic.

So I think like, the true answer is "Aabria sufficiently messed with the party by being a cleric with a complicated deity relationship, which messes a bit with both FCG and Imogen, and also was Chetney's ex so that got him good, but at the same time her build was incredibly beneficial to the party composition; she has won, and no one's going to top that." But were I to attempt to compete: I mean, I'm going to take @captainofthetidesbreath's suggestion here and do cleric of the Dawnfather/Chronurgy wizard:

Cleric of the Dawnfather now is going to fuck with everyone, especially if you are just straight-up a generally nice person who follows the Dawnfather and has no specific ties to Vasselheim or the larger church hierarchy. I think a life or light are the obvious domains to pick; the domain itself won't really affect how the party feels about you.

Chronurgy wizard who just knows Ashton's whole deal immediately is going to totally mess with them.

I think the combination of cleric and wizard would do all kinds of wild shit with Imogen's understanding of power; following a different god than FCG and having very high intelligence/knowing the world isn't flat is going to be a whole fun thing there as well.

For maximum fuckery: Be an elf who's like...450-500 and a survivor of Molaesmyr. This achieves several things. First off, you can feasibly call Chetney a young man while being middle aged yourself, and see what the fuck happens. Second, you can just hate Ludinus for petty reasons. Literally if anyone breathes any positive words about the Vanguard be like "did you know? Ludinus HATES dogs." Go full Bitch Eating Cookies on him. This is hilarious and great because it shuts down conversation but you can just be like "no I have ideological reasons, obviously, but more importantly, he failed to reimburse me for 400 gold worth of high quality paper."

Be very slightly dismissive of druidic magic. Not in like a bad or hurtful way, but just enough to make Fearne and Orym sort of grit their teeth a bunch. Also, just be like...not into Pâté. Like, not freaked out, not upset, just. Not into it.

EDITED: I was so caught up in the flavor and details I forgot this was a cleric multiclass and your wisdom has to be decent so take either the observant feat or locate object and make it super hard for Fearne to steal from you. (Sorry, I am envisioning this as like 2 cleric levels and the rest wizard, so I'm thinking of them as mostly wizard).

Have an ring of mind shielding that you have made invisible.

[spiritsong]

A fun anecdote about Aune's name —

So, I've had this note on my phone for YEARS that is just a list of names that I enjoy that sound at least vaguely appropriate for a fantasy setting. I pick from it whenever I'm playing a video game and need a name for my character. The name Aune had long lived on this list, but I had yet to use it.

Before I even got my hands on the EA version of the game, I already knew I wanted to play a half-Drow Cleric of Eilistraee. Though I didn't know that I'd be multiclassing her as a bard yet in the full release, I was at least RPing that she was a dancer and musician, as per the Sword-Dancer tradition. I came up with the bones of her backstory — that a tragic and mysterious event that occurred at the time of her birth gave her a unique understanding & intimacy with the forces of life and death, and as such, ending up as a Life Domain cleric felt right to her. This seesawing between two opposing forces would be symbolic of her journey in understanding her own morality and concept of self. (Also, from a meta standpoint, this backstory gave me the space to change my mind and class as a necromancer while still keeping the same character, because I just really love necromancers.)

I also already knew that she would live some time as a slave, as she'd be born to a parent with a decent social status in Lolthite society (so raising a half-elf would be unthinkable). And of course this would play into her personal connection to Eilistraee.

Well, some time passed after that, and it occurred to me that maybe Aune wasn't an appropriate name for a Drow. Obviously at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, but these sorts of things have a way of bothering me until I can't function anymore lmao so I decided to look up a naming resource. I found a detailed list of prefixes and suffixes in the Drow language, along with associated meanings, allowing you to build a name that's suitable.

WELLLLL imagine my surprise when I found:

Prefix Aun—, meaning: crypt, dead, deathly, death Suffix —aun, meaning: dance, dancer, life, player *Suffix —e, meaning: servant, slave, vassal

yeah. I was honestly a bit scared lol

but if I had been toying with the idea of playing a different Tav, that discovery IMMEDIATELY put the idea out of my head.

Aune was ~ meant to be ~

*Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, Aune's given name was Aun, but the —e was added on when she was first sold as a slave. In present time, she refuses to drop the letter; she prefers to keep it as a reminder of what she endured and how it has shaped the person she has become.

another fun little detail is that the Aun— is the feminine version of this prefix, and —aun is the masculine of the suffix. I was happy about it turning out that way because Aune is agender

[shadowgasps]

It's so funny how different pieces of media can pull such different reactions around similar concepts. Like. I've never been super drawn to the gods in the pantheon in cr for some reason. I'm a Cleric Stan but don't connect super heavily with any of the cr gods. I liked the Wildmother from cr2 fine enough bc I love Caduceus and Fjord and their relationship. The Matron of Ravens is cool mostly just bc im interested in her ascension. And the Changebringer has a fun aesthetic with all the floaty hair. The god I think im probably drawn to the most that we've seen in cr is Asmodeus from what we got of him in Calamity and now in c3. But other than that I don't have very strong opinions on them. Which is totally fine, I don't watch cr for the God stuff so it doesn't detract anything for me. It actually kinda makes me like cr3 more than most ppl I think bc I'd be ok with and interested in any outcome we get from the major storyline we're following about the gods rn.

With WBN I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The Spirits are what interests me most about that world right now. The bits we've gotten of Naram and Orima have been my favorite parts of that story so far. I'm so interested in meeting more spirits and understanding more of how that pantheon works. I can't wait for when The Man in Black comes back into the picture. I am 100% a spirit apologist and will defend all of their rights and wrongs. I want only the best for them and would lay down my life for any one of them.

Listening to NADDPOD im smack dab in the middle. Obviously the vibes are different bc its majority a comedy podcast but I find the gods and pantheon interesting and fun but am not super invested either. Moonshine and Bev have a funny and cute relationship with their gods and I enjoy their interactions with them but I'm not as fervent a God apologist as I am with WBN. The major baddies being evil worshippers of a near godlike woman who think theyre the righteous good guys is a great concept which I enjoy. But the thing I like most about that concept is she was a person who got to god level power, and not that she just is a god.

None of these things are better or worse in my opinion. I love all of these worlds and stories. I love Matt and Brennan and Murphs dming and am greatful to have all of their beautiful works of collaborative art. It's just interesting how with the same framework of dnd different reactions can be pulled about the same subject. I just really love ttrpgs and the ppl who play them <3

[lizadale]

MIss, do you remember the Simentio misadventures? Well, I've started playing Miitopia, that can be just as wacky.

Sadly neither Dimentio nor Luigi are the protagonist. You see, at first I've decided to do Lena from Ducktales because i thought it would be funny.

But when came the time to make the second Mii i remembered that i would need to make 9 more cartoon ducks, on the emulator and I'm not that dedicated to the joke.

Anyway God (the actual name of the character) brought Luigi, Dimentio and Nastasia to this world to help this tini cartoon duck to defeat the Dark Lord (her father that i forgot the name) with only the clothes of their body and no coin or magic abilities to their name.

Luigi found a frying pan thrown outside a Inn. Dio found a magic wand "laying around" and Nastasia is hitting everything with a stick. (Luigi's a chef, Dio's a mage and Nastasia is a cleric.)

On their first day together, because they were also yeeted to different places Dio gifted Luigi a Box, an actual empty box, Luigi was moved.

The morning of the next day Luigi told Dimentio that he didn't sleep well because he talks, loudly, in his sleep, according to Luigi, he kept saying "It's going to be ok" over and over.

When they fight together if they aren't praising eachother every turn they are helping eachother, and i think that's so sweet.

Speaking of fighting, Dio is as frail as a wet paper bag. He's also Dio. Like there was a boss fight where he got hit by a slime and got down to half HP, and he was going to be hit by the boss, but Luigi took the hit for him, Nastasia tried to heal him and he said "no thanks I'm fine >:c" in the same turn Luigi went like "come on dude, here's some special healing food" and he was like "omg, that's delicious, thanks a bunch <3" then he got one hit by the boss who did 20 damage for his 15 max HP the next turn. (That's when i got the tutorial to the life sprinkles)

Also, can you believe that he knows a move that can one hit everything that hit everything, but allies, and he refuses to use it? He also knows lightning and it's his favourite move (or maybe it's Luigi's favourite, because 95% of the time he uses it, Luigi assists it)

Luigi on the other hand is hard carrying everyone. He heals double of what Nastasia heals and he does an equal amount of damage as Dimentio, the assigned hitter. When Dimentio (or anyone, but only Dimentio gets the chance) praises him, he gets a damage boost too.

But Nastasia is not just there. She have a ability that let her one hit anything she wants. She doesn't want to that much :v but there's nothing i can do. The quote that she says when she kills a enemy is "And Fuck you."

Anyway, Dio and Nastasia doesn't stop bickering. It's hilarious. He commented that there's a hole in his shoe and she told him to "cease complaining" he said that his legs will hurt when i press the run button and she told him something like yeah sure. She once told he wants a cat and he said after a bit i want i dog. (Luigi told me too for both, he's precious)

Nastasia got into a fist fight with Lena the cartoon duck btw. It was a random event that got both mad at eachother.

Sorry for babbling. But it's wacky and very fun. (Btw, do you have any ideas for the killing quote for Dio?)

~(V●ᴥ●V)

I CAN'T BREATHE

(he'd probably say something dumb and flirty. maybe just "Ciao~<3", emphasis on the ~🖤)

[random-introverted-blog]

I intended to write a reply way sooner. Anywho here it is! YouTube complication videos bout BG3 are so useful for fanfics and more! I bet you’ve seen the ones about Astarion’s assist voice lines (Shadowheart has her own video too).

They deserve just playful banter & casual flirting. The entire group seems pretty shippable with each other because of the similarities & differences they all have. That’s such an interesting & angsty idea, SH just escaping a life of shadows then Astarion being doomed to one. 

Ascended!Astarion & DarkJusticiar!Shadowheart being together just contractually for power & playing a game together but accidentally falling for each other would be so interesting. Neither of them want to lose the game. 

Both of them were used to causal flirting at meant nothing since they start from the time they met.  It had been one comforting inconsequential constant & just for fun + didn’t mean anything but this. This was terrible. It’d muck up the simplicity. It’d be ridiculous. Why now? What’s so great about that person anyway? I don’t relate to them! Me in love with that diva? What?! That’s preposterous. Just a rival-ally I happen to be contractually marr- ahem…with. Why would you suggest that? Away with you.

(^Them Tsundereing. Impromptu dialogue. You just inspired me I suppose! They’d both amp up the pressure and flirting (probs the possessiveness and jealousy too) but would still try to make it look effortless and like they don’t give a damn any more than the usual act)

Exactly, it could happen or could work.

I have so many thoughts about them. They’re both my favourite characters & I just ship em too after I thought about them.

I read some of your writing and it is phenomenal. Hopefully you have had fun. You seem on a roll since you wrote so much. As a fellow writer, I applaud you and congratulate you. 

I’ll dub myself Bloodmoon anon I guess? 

What’d you like to be called? 

-Bloodmoon/ 🩸🌕 anon 

Hello, Bloodmoon anon! Missed you, darling. I've spent a long while thinking about this, went back and studied YouTube videos, took notes and boy do I have a wall of text for you lol.

Yes, I have seen those assist lines and I'm a tad sad we don't have many snarky or genuine "kiss you better" like lines from Shadowheart. She's the cleric, come on 😭.

All the companions deserve playful banter and casual flirting! Personally, I think the two most shippable are Wyll and Karlach.

But Astarion and Shadowheart fostering a relationship only for her to have to choose between living in darkness again or living with Astarion would be very angsty. I feel like that idea is better written post game though. Maybe they had inkling of feelings throughout but for one reason or another failed to pursue. There IS a line you can get with Shadowheart where you can ask her "We started a romance earlier but didn't follow up" and she basically says "yeah, maybe in another life" like way to tell me to reload my playthrough Shadow-waifu... That aside, this could be the way you pave into a SHxAst relationship post game.

So an Ascended and Dark Justiciar relationship... A little bit trickier to see with the Sharran Shadowheart ending I saw but we can bend things around, for sure! Part of the fun of fanfic is bending canon, after all. SPOILERS FOR THE EPILOGUE FOR SHARRAN!SHADOWHEART AND ASCENDED!ASTARION FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN IT YET BEYOND THIS POINT

Shadowheart canonically becomes mother superior of the Baldur's Gate cloister, and if asked will tell you she actually sympathizes with Viconia now. And though she'll practically clamber onto the dining table and preach "Lady of Loss, now only $19.99 plus shipping and handling, call now and get two Lady of Losses for the price of one" at the start of the dialogue, clearly wants Shar to give her a way out. She's feeling overwhelmed. If you tell her you're living a quiet life, she'll admit to being a little jealous of you because "a little calm and solitude would be a tonic". When you ask her how's life being mother superior she will go off on a rant about how exhausting it is and that she misses the comparative simplicity of "your little group against the odds". And if you romanced her and she left you, you can hit her with the "You're not the same woman I fell for" and she basically gives you a tough girl "nor are you the same person who fell for me..." before segwaying into "👉👈 but I'm sure there's still plenty for you to like and indulge in for tonight 😏".

Astarion, if you break up with him, will admit that he has missed you and there's something lonely about all the power he has. And I have no doubt if the opportunity were presented to rekindle something, that he'd happily take you back. He'd be a total asshole about it, that I'm almost sure, but he'd still welcome you back. He seems reasonably calm and not like the fanfics have written him to be. But I do get a mild sense that he is still obsessed even if just a teensy bit.

END OF SPOILERS THANKS FOR STILL READING

All that said, you can certainly swing their stories toward "two lonely souls seeking carnal/physical solace in each other but end up way more entangled than either of them wanted/expected". And once they do realize they're catching feelings, then the toxic tsundere power plays start rolling in. Then they're just trying to out yandere each other and that could be scary, hot and hilarious all at once.

Aww, thank you! It means the world to me that people enjoy my work! Without that, I'd have no reason to post. Much less pressure to write privately for myself, but knowing there are people like you out there that my writing can make happy or boost your mood is what I really write for.

What would I like to be called? Not sure! You and anyone else can call me what you'd like, within reason of course. Could call me by my ao3 username, could call me an abbreviated name of this blog... Doesn't matter, as long as it's not malicious or bullying.

[zeawesomebirdie]

Going insane in your askbox again <3 true friendship right there. Anyway so you've probably noticed I am so so into Baldur's Gate 3 right now so I just want to let the thoughts out in a discombobulated fashion. There are no fun parallels here (or are there? I think I can do fun parallels) this is just word vomit because I can't play the game until either my dad finds a way to let me play from across the Channel or until Christmas. Because I couldn't bring my good PC all the way to England and my laptop sure as fuck doesn't have the specs to play it. So.

I don't know how much you've seen of it but one of my favourite things is explaining media to people in too much detail so I will pretend you only know that there's hot characters in it. It's an RPG based on the D&D system (and set in a D&D world) where you're an adventurer kidnapped by one of those yucky psychic-powered tentacle monsters, a mindflayer. You and the whole ship of kidnappees have those nasty little mindflayer tadpoles inserted in your brain (like in TCW on Geonosis, this time it's through the eye), and even though you blow up the mindflayer ship and save yourself by the end of the tutorial, that little tadpole is going to make you into a mindflayer in a few days (that's how they reproduce). So you embark, originally, on a quest to not transform into an actual monster, and it all spirals from there. On the way, you get to meet other people who have common interests with you, the main ones being six other people with a tadpole in their brain, who can team up with you & become your companions because they also don't want to become mindflayers, but there's also lots of cool NPCs of course.

The game plays pretty close to actual D&D, if you've played it/seen people play it, so there's all the classes (except artificer alas), the spells, the combat is turn-by-turn, and you roll dice for a lot of stuff that requires skills. There's a lot of options for how you play things, dialogue, actions, etc, and it doesn't feel as "good normal thing to do vs the most cartoonishly cruel thing ever" as a lot of those immersive RPGs do (it does sometimes but way less). The story looks pretty insane from what I've seen trying not to spoil myself too much, and I say that in a very positive way.

And okay, I'm going insane about the story, sure, but mostly it's the companions. The main six are really fleshed out and interesting, their voice actors all did a great job, their writing is great, and they're so so compelling aargh. In order of when you meet them, we have... 1) Lae'zel the Githyanki, a race of alien looking green guys from a different plane of reality with a very warrior culture. They have a deep hatred of mindflayers, so Lae'zel is extremely intense about finding a cure for the tadpole issue, and they're very ferocious, so she's pretty abrasive if you haven't befriended her. 2) Shadowheart the cleric, who's a bit racist at first to be honest, and very mysterious... In part because she doesn't remember much of her life, in part because she's secretive about the bits she does remember. Then the next two are in the same area and you can see whichever first, but 3) Gale of Waterdeep, the scrungly wizard, and yes he really is so scrungly. Wizards in D&D are the spellcasters who weren't born with magic but who studied it and who owe their powers to hours of reading books, consequently he's kind of a nerd. He also asks to eat your magic items pretty early on because he's got a condition where he needs to eat magic or bad things happen. 4) Astarion, my beloved, the pale elf, the vampire spawn. Yes, him, you know who it is everyone posts about him and they're correct to do so, I mean what's not to love? He's a vampire, he's hot, he's judgy and flirty and fucked up, his morals are atrocious, absolutely great character. 5) Wyll Ravengard, the Blade of Frontiers, a charming knight in shining armour type, who given his skill with a rapier you'd think is some kind of fighter, but actually he's a warlock with a patron who's both hot and suspect. And 6) Karlach (pronounced Kar-lack, not Kar-lash), a tiefling with a burning engine for a heart and the nicest personality of any of the companions honestly. She's tall, she's strong, all the lesbians want her, and because of the engine-for-a-heart thing she runs really really hot and subsequently she can't touch things (or people) or they burn.

That's the main guys, which you can also play as if you want (but it's not the best idea for a main playthrough, you're better off creating your own adventurer and then maybe on a second/third/etc. playthrough trying one of the origins characters, or the Dark Urge, which, that's something else entirely, ignore that). They're all interesting and fun and I want to do their quests so bad and I would romance all of them at the same time if I could, but alas they're not all into polyamory. My first run is 100% going to be romancing Astarion, because I love them all but I am positively insane about him.

Now I've tried not to spoil myself too much but let's be honest I still managed to, so, eh, but it's more like sunlight through the leaves of a tree, there's still a lot of shadows, I just have a clear-ish picture of a certain amount of stuff. From that picture, I'll say that I love interactions between the companions especially, like I find all the similarities and differences between them so interesting, and the different relationships they could have fascinate me.

For example, and yes I have Astarion tunnel vision, there's an interesting dynamic with him and Wyll, or him and Karlach, there's room for fun stuff with him and Gale as well, and honestly if I knew Shadowheart and Lae'zel well enough I could say there's something there as well but I don't - except that Lae'zel and Astarion are often together in the morals thing. Oh yeah there's a companions approval thing, so sometimes when you do an action they'll approve or disapprove, and it's weighted based on how important the issue is to them. Lae'zel approves of violence, Wyll approves of helping people, etc. Well Lae'zel loves violence, because that's her culture, and Astarion - also likes violence lol, and he doesn't like stopping to save all the pathetic lifeforms you encounter. So in that way they're both focused on the goal, curing themselves from the tadpole, unwilling to stop and help every damsel in distress, and they think the best resolution to a conflict is someone's blood outside of their body.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel have this hate relationship where at the start of the game Shadowheart is kind of against Lae'zel's people (kind of rightfully so, their reputation as fierce warriors who'll destroy anything as long as it means getting rid of a mindflayer isn't exactly wrong), and Lae'zel isn't nice to anyone but especially not those who antagonise her (and people love to make them fuck about it, which. Yeah. Yeah, make them fuck about it). Karlach is part of Wyll's backstory, he was meant to kill her because she killed people but you can like, smooth things over and uncover truths or something (I haven't played that part yet!) and she can join your party and it's good now, but there's a connection there. I'm trying to connect Gale to someone but honestly I don't know now that I think about it, I need to look into him some more he's so fun to me.

But you could argue that there's things that they all have in common - I feel like, off the top of my head, they all have this authority figure who sucks in their life? Gale has Mystra, the goddess he follows (followed?) who apparently sucks violently as a person, Astarion has Cazador, the vampire who turned him and abused him for centuries, Shadowheart has I think Shar, her goddess, Wyll has Mizora, his patron who's hot and shitty, I mean she's a warlock patron, Karlach has I believe Zariel, who - kept her trapped in one of the nine Hells?, and Lae'zel has whatever the fuck is happening with the Githyanki and their queen Vlaakith which honestly sounds like a shitty cult. Like they've all got fucked up authority figures <3 it's different flavours, like Astarion and Karlach actually have a fair bit in common with the way they were treated (but they're opposites in the way they reacted, which to be fair they weren't in the exact same situation so y'know - Karlach is joyful and passionate and pretty straightforward, Astarion is sarcastic and secretive and guarded, and also he approves of you letting children get hurt), or Gale and Shadowheart who both have religion/deity issues, and Wyll and Karlach share a person from their past that sucks, but like. Lil group of fucked up homies <3 I can't wait to hold all of their hands while we decimate whoever hurt them.

I'm not kidding btw there's a scene at the start where you can literally crush the skull of the mindflayer who abducted you (off screen but it does make a crunch) and I can't wait to do the closest thing to that that the game will allow to Cazador :) I think I'm also going to have a Reaction to Gale's storyline but I've managed to keep the details fuzzy for now so I don't know more.

So hi this is me chewing at drywall desperately waiting to get to play the game <3 how's it going in DC land, having fun with all the Robins? I personally think you should look at Gale a little, he has a vibe in common with Obi-Wan (the "looks like an english professor, is actually pretty slutty" vibe) and also he says pish posh unironically and he wears pyjamas at camp (everyone else just takes off some layers and looks kind of dressed for the club, he full on gets the velvet pj top out, it's incredible). Though Wyll is also very charming, like I keep going on about how Astarion is incredible because of course I think that, and Gale has the nerd charm, and next to that Wyll looks a little Less (and he has hours less of content I think), but the man has a charm. And the ladies are great too, it's just that you're less into women, but -

Oh wait I forgot to say: you know how in D&D there's 6 stats, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, and the highest any of your stats can be at character creation is 17 and the lowest is 8? Astarion, unsurprisingly, has an 8 in strength, he's a rogue, it's normal; Gale also has an 8, but he's a nerd who loves books, so that's fair; and Karlach and Lae'zel both have 17 in strength, because they're great warriors, so that tracks. Shadowheart has a 13, which is fair for a cleric, and Wyll - Wyll, even though he's great with a rapier, is a warlock, and warlocks cast with their charisma, so it's not his highest stat, but it's fine, it's not going to be the dump stat either, right? Wrong. 8 strength for Wyll. It kills me every time. You've got those three women, two of whom could snap you in half and the third who could probably win at arm wrestling against random men, and three men, all with 8 in strength. 8 for an adventurer is pathetic, to be clear. 8 is your dump stat. The human average is 8 or 9. Adventurers are well above human in terms of stats. 8 in strength is normal for a wizard, but man, Wyll on his own, but also the combo of all of them having 8 in that one stat? It kills me.

(for the anecdote, their stats are roughly as follows: Astarion has an 8 in strength and a 17 in dexterity, normal for a rogue, and only 10 in charisma, which is truly enough to get him into bad situations and not enough to get out of them; Gale is a squishy wizard who, obviously, put all his points into intelligence, which - in D&D intelligence is book smarts and wisdom is street smarts, and it's the casting stat for wizards, so that tracks, his charisma manages to be higher than Astarion's also; Lae'zel has a 17 in strength and an 8 in charisma, which also tracks, she's a warrior and she doesn't need words to make people pay attention to her, she's also got a good constitution; Karlach also has the 17 strength, but her 8 is in intelligence, normal for her background and normal for a barbarian, and she has the same constitution as Lae'zel, a respectable 15; Shadowheart has a 17 in wisdom, which actually shines an interesting light on her character now that I think about it, and she's got the same 8 in charisma as Lae'zel, which, they should kiss about it; and Wyll's 17 is in charisma, which makes him the most charismatic of the group, which tracks with his vibe and the way he behaves on top of making sense for game mechanics, because once again warlocks cast with charisma. This game is turning me into a D&D player the way 3½ years of my bestie talking my ears off about the TTRPG didn't)

Actually I didn't even get to the fun point of Karlach and Astarion being contrasts in so many ways!! Because she's nice, he's mean, okay, but also. They're both kinda touch starved, but she's once again very open about it, she's overtly sad she can't touch people or pets because of her burning skin, and it feels like if you helped her with that she'd be trying to start a cuddle pile every evening at camp with zero shame about it, and also apparently there's a horny aspect to the no touch frustration thing if you're in a romance with her, because you both want to go for it but her skin says no. Astarion has spent 200 years obeying every order of a very cruel vampire lord, and he's both kind of desperate for someone to be nice to him, but also really really against people getting close to him in every sense of the term. He does also like cuddles though <3 and then there's the Wyll-Astarion thing, where Wyll is this very prince charming kinda guy, saves the widow and the innocent, just goes around helping people all the time, absolute bleeding heart, and Astarion spent 200 years suffering, hoping that someone would help, and nobody came - which is part of why he disapproves of you helping people, seeing people be so nice everywhere makes him mad, because he certainly didn't get any kindness for most of him life! You're saying that there are kind adventurers who help poor victims of fate, that there's actually a lot of those guys, it's just that none of them crossed his path, ever, in 200 years, when he was one of many and his sire is somewhat notorious?

Actually, thinking of that, there's a dialogue with Gale where Astarion says that the others can go pray to their deities if they want, but he won't, and Gale asks him if he's every prayed to any of them. He just goes "oh, I did, every one of them. None answered" and like. Arghhhh. The god worldbuilding in those two sentences!! Because there's gods of lots of things in the setting. Gods of the forgotten, the downtrodden, the victims, the abused, and the implications of that!!! I love the idea of deities actually existing, but them being both very human and also completely inhuman. Human in that they are Like Us, prone to the same fits of temper, the same cruelty, the same extremes as us, including also kindness, but inhuman in that it's pushed to eleven and distorted, because they're not actually human, either they never were or they aren't anymore. This shines a light on the human facet of them, because here it's about people, even well intentioned, kind people, turning away from suffering because it's complex and nuanced and difficult to help. Astarion was a vampire spawn, and he'd done terrible things, and his master was powerful, so... The gods are like us, they look away from pain and misery too. Insane sentences. Especially because the other gods we see also suck: Gale's goddess seems very shitty, and Shadowheart's also looks uuuh bad. I love the "gods suck" because in D&D lore those aren't just the christian god, they're kind of human, and a little bit of greek mythology vibes I would assume, and for real some of them just ascended to godhood from humanity, it's a thing that happens. So. Yeah. Sucks for Astarion obviously but that makes my brain effervescent. It's so crunchy for the worldbuilding. None of them answered..... Chewing on drywall!!

ANYWAY this is a BEAST holy shit. I have many thoughts about this game. Crunch crunch crunch. Good night beloved sleep well thank you for at least reading the unhinged ramblings, when I get the game I'll be back with even less hinges <3 can't wait for the wedding I'm going to be honest <3 <3

Ram my beloved. This is me rn:

Thank you for the hinges in my inbox!!! This was a delight to wake up to!!! No I don't understand at all but I am loving this for you!!!! May you get this game soon!!!!!!

(And thanks for all the context, like half my dash is this game and I think my boyfriend is playing it but I have somehow remained Unknowledgable about everything, so I appreciate it!!)

You asked how things are going in DC land. So. Funny story.

I'm still recovering from covid, like I'm negative now but by the Force I'm still so sick. I can't write. Like at all. Like I can't even tell you the last time I was too sick to write, it never happens. So my current fanfic reading word count is a 1.5 million words in the last three weeks. And I now have plans to make a rec list. And that's not even all!

I've also written three folk songs for superbat. Because I am Totally Normal about themb. I have spent the last several months trying to write songs In General and then three weeks of covid later I have three. About stupid idiots being in love. Because I'm Clearly Normal about them. And I low key am now just going to write a whole entire album because why not, and because none of the songs are explicitly fansongs they just sound like normal folk songs, so who's gonna know but me anyway (and all of tumblr. Bc if I manage to finish this thing I will never shut up about it)

AND. And I've also watched several movies, and started another TV show, exclusively so I could understand more fic. And that is. Going. My parents are very confused. The librarians probably get a kick out of my requests. My brothers have already started teasing me. I am having the time of my life

Also Dick is my favourite character, he's beautiful and wonderful and such a good oldest brother I love himb he is baby. I'm still working on learning about the other Robins, but I've read enough fic and seen enough comics to know sort of who the others are, it's just that my interest in things tends to fall in the pre-90's category, which means Dick is the only Robin for a lot of what I'm reading/watching

I love you, I hope you are enjoying your weekend and you and your hinges are always welcome in my inbox <3

[invinciblerodent]

64 for any/all of your characters!!

64. What Tarot Card best represents your Tav?

Oh, I'm almost ashamed of how long I spent looking into this lol- I tried to work mainly off the Antonella Castelli "Art Nouveau" tarot deck (which is the one I have), but that booklet is very tied to those specific illustrations, so I kinda tried to go sorta off those, but also kinda interpret the cards myself lol (I'm, uh. not good at it, but it's fun!)

Iona Raedir: The Devil

Maybe not in the most traditional sense, but in the booklet I have sums up the meaning of this card as "magnetism, sensuality, magic, deceits, allurements, fascination, and suggestion", which I think is very apt for Iona- she is, at the end of the day, a straight-up dangerously charismatic person, who is also very deliberate about controlling people's perceptions of her.

Being a sorceress just coming into her power, not only is instinct generally just a big part of her relationship with magic, she is also overall a pretty magnetic personality, and while not evil, she was... probably closer to becoming a villain than even she would think. atm I'm kinda fascinated by just how close: like really, examining her a bit, it would have taken very small nudges in the wrong direction early on for her to go at a completely different angle with her character arc, and I could have easily seen her shifting from a more neutral/good-alignment to a straight-up evil one. Like this was already a period of upheaval in her life, and had she not been thrust into the position she is in as the "leader" of this band, it would have easily led her down an entirely different path.

I like to kinda credit Karlach and Gale with keeping her on a good path long enough for her to realize that she can relax, that she doesn't have to play her cards so close to her chest that even she forgets what they are, and that she can allow herself to be vulnerable. (she and Astarion in a relationship is really the one-eyed leading the blind, kinda. They are sort of two sides of the same coin who are very similar but also opposite, which, honestly kind of just makes me all the more fascinated with them lol.)

Arvid Trygg: 9 of Wands

My booklet's summary is a little weird on this one, but as far as I'm aware, this card mostly symbolizes perseverance, courage, and an ongoing struggle- which, as a war cleric, is kind of Arvid's bread and butter lol. His story overall is about sort of an inner conflict that's both moral and religious, and this... constant, ongoing struggle between what is right and what is fair. His character arc sort of boils down to him... learning to distinguish between duty, need, and justice, and essentially learning to put himself and his own wants and needs first.

He's a seasoned warrior right from the beginning, somewhat weary and worn like the man on the card, a mercenary-priest in a way, and as a worshiper of Tempus, tenacity and honor in combat are some of the values that he holds the most dear. His belief, it's sort of a deification of a struggle, which can... really easily become self-destructive. (I mean, had he not played the hero, I think he could have even evaded capture by the mind flayers.)

It really seems like Gale is overall just a very positive force in my characters' lives, because his love is pretty much the main thing that got Arvid out of that "holy struggle" mindset and into his own skin lol.

Petyr Wildbrook - 8 of Cups

He's not as detailed a character as the other two just yet (I'm only a couple hours into his playthrough lol), but I already know that the central theme for Petyr's game is going to be disappointment, and him learning to go against his immediate kneejerk response of withdrawal and escapism by just... trying one more time. He's kind of holding up a thematic mirror to Arvid in that that guy needed to learn how to let things go and give up being so damn righteous and self-sacrificing all the damn time, while Petyr needs to learn how to stand up for something, and not to hit the bricks at the first sign of hardship.

As much as I have of his backstory is basically that he is the son of druids and was raised in a Circle, but he is without magic himself, so rather than staying and trying to learn or finding another avenue to make himself "useful" to his community, he just... left. Abandoned everything. Rather than facing his feelings of inadequacy, he chose to become sort of that "lone ranger" archetype, just deal with the loss and the bitterness that left in his heart, and live in a way where he only ever had to answer to himself.

I think for him, act 2 is going to be a pivotal moment of character growth. Like, the Petyr from the beginning of the game would not stand by Shadowheart and support her as her world crumbles around her, but by that point, he's probably done enough growing to not run away at the first genuine human emotion???

Thank you for this question, I went entirely too deep into it lol!

[thornfield13713]

So, I am torn.

I am getting towards the end of act 2 with Thoradin, which means my mind naturally turns towards my next protagonist, who is going to be Ned the drow druid.

Problem: I cannot decide who to romance.

On the one hand, Lae'zel finding love with a drow druid and bonding over both having massive god-queen issues and all the similarities and differences of their societies. On the other...I can never quite bring myself to turn back from letting Lae'zel go to save her people, and while there is romance in separating out of duty, I'm not sure it's an ending I'm here for. And I've been having fun ideas about a githyanki character who might do very well as a Lae'zel LI - possibly a discreet adherent of Orpheus, a weakling who was well aware that her people considered her only good for breeding and wanted a way out - with a happy ending together as part of the revolution in their society. Also, I'm told there are lots of fun Lae'zel-exclusive conversation options for romances with fellow Githyanki.

On the other - Astarion and an escapee from a cutthroat society who's trying to figure out what to do without the ruthless social rules that have dominated their life. Astarion and his big burly enbyfriend who is trying so hard to be gentle and careful and considerate right from the off because they know they were brought up in a society that was the very opposite of that, particularly towards men, and they don't want to slip back into bad habits. Going back to the Underdark together to found a new civilisation down there. Both of them new to the sun together. Astarion's Drizzt thing coming into play a bit. Also, on balance, my rogue/cleric cross works so much better as a partner for Halsin, being close in age, relatively chill, and a fun contrast. Also, the image of 'big burly bear elf and twink half-orc (he may be middle-aged, but he is still a twink)' is too good to miss.

So, once again I'm putting it to a vote because I love all my BG3 companions so much that it's always hard to decide who to romance with them. I may not choose the final result, but it's a good way of getting a clear idea. Also, please put reasoning for your choice in the replies - those often have more to do with who I choose than the vote itself, as seen with the vote for Rosie's LI.

[theswandragon]

Poem today was a vent and I don't feel like sharing, so instead I'm gonna ramble a bit about writing characters, something I've done a bunch of this past month

Specifically, four different characters. Little rambles about each?

(Characters in this case are for D&D, but for most of them I designed the character first and then made the game fit my vision)

(If you're one of the other players in these campaigns, these blurbs are spoiler-free)

Haywood Titanforce, a human life cleric with some secrets and quite a bit of history. I first created her for a metagaming-encouraged dungeon crawl, but recently gave her new life in a proper campaign. When I was fleshing out her story, I wanted to honor her previous life, and found little ways to incorporate moments from the dungeon crawl as events in her life. Part of that was an offhand joke about what god she worshipped, and I named one outside of the Life domain. Well, I wanted to keep that idea, but also have her still worshipping a Life domain god. So, how could I make a cleric who followed two gods? I ended up with her traveling far away from her home, and picking up another faith—a god from a completely different pantheon, with a different portfolio, as a part of how she gains power.

Kraktar Bone Cleaver, an orc bruje who was immortal for a pretty long time, but recently lost most of his magic and is trying to get it back. In the meantime though, he's trying to reconnect with the Old Ways of using magic, until he can once again master chronomancy. For writing him, I wanted to blend a few concepts together, spawned from the idea of having a character with incredible base stats and very little actual power at the start. I also wanted to make another old character, but not someone from a species that would normally live that long. His name is itself part of the story—the title he was given centuries ago by his tribe. He's also older than the regional mage guild, which was pretty funny to plan out with the GM.

Flora Cetea, a Luskara conjuration wizard (Luskara are a homebrew race designed by a friend of mine, basically humanoid sea monsters who can transform to human/elf to pass while on land). He's fun because all of his magic is done through plants. The idea came from a discussion on how copying spells works with 5e's rules, specifically the thematics behind it, and the discussion involved how each wizard's spell formulas are somewhat unique to the wizard. So I jumped off that to someone who doesn't use normal formulas at all, and landed on using specific plants to create consistent magical effects by channeling power into them. And he's a Conjuration wizard because that would be a lot of plants to carry around everywhere.

I don't have a name for the last one yet, and I don't have a ton of story for her either. What was fun for her though is the setting is one the GM has been running for a while, which gave me a lot of hooks to tie into. I needed someone simpler, and the party would benefit from a tank, so I took one of the hooks they gave me—a mercenary guild with some...problematic history and a minor cult issue—and put together someone trying to escape all of that, after they got in way over their head. Also she's trans, the guild she's leaving is almost exclusively male, so I get to play with that dynamic a little bit.

Edit, a day later: Her name is Heather

Mm, sleepy character rambles. Might edit for clarity in the morning. Not looking for critique, but if people have questions or comments I'd love to hear them.

[pheonyxian]

Baldur's Gate 3 Sexless Any% Part 3

I think some of my mutuals are using this as an actual way of knowing what BG3 is actually about so I figured I'd use this edition to talk about the plot and npcs a bit. Might slow down or stop these at some point? I thought the original premise was funny but I don't know if it's liveblog an entire 100 hour game funny. Regardless feel free to block the tag I'm adding if you don't want to hear any future rambles. Do love/hate it when a game I didn't intend to like so much gets its grubby mind flayer tentacles wrapped around my brain so hard.

The OC PC: RPing through the game as my OC Ank. I wasn't sure if picking an oc with strong psychic powers would rub against the mind flayer plot but so far it's been a perfect choice. Ank is traditionally a villain but I'm not playing a villain for my first play through, so it's been fun to rp him in a scenario where he's g o o d and his life didn't take a turn for the worse. He's also traditionally blind, but obviously the game isn't set up for that. I was originally just imagining cutscenes playing out differently if sight was involved, but maybe it'll be more interesting to consider him in a pre-blinded state. I'm sure certain repeated actions in the ocular region won't have any u n f o r t u n a t e effects.

Mind Flayers: The setup for the plot is that mind flayers have infected you (and your companions, and a large number of npcs) with mind flayer parasites and you have to remove them before you turn into fully grown mind flayers. Except for some reason you haven't turned yet and you get cool psychic powers with them.

The Guardian: In addition to making your own character at start, you also can character create your "guardian." Everyone I know just hits the randomize button because they've already spent an hour fussing over every detail of their character, but I knew this was coming and already planned my guardian out. And uh, like I said, Ank's traditionally a villain and the only guardian-like character he's ever had is uh... I'm going to be honest with you, if the guardian turns out to be the big bad of the game that's going to be funny as all fuck. I'm sure there's very little chance of that though, it's not like there's anything evil about telling you to s h o v e w o r m s i n t o y o u r s k u l l.

Withers: Withers is more of a mechanic than a character. I do want to know his story though. He's an undead or lich or something who will revive dead characters (for a cost) hire generic undead companions (for a cost, I guess if you want to resign your poor companion's unfortunate fate) and change your cast (for the same cost as undead friends.) I guess money still has use in the afterlife. I haven't had to use his services yet but I've had a lot of close calls and dwindling Revivify scrolls so it's only a matter of time.

Volo: Just Gale but a bard. Not a playable character Bard mind you. At least not yet. I don't know what his deal is. He offered to extract the mind flayer parasites with a pair of needles which I almost agreed to to see if he'd actually poke Ank's eye out.

And updates on companion stories:

Shadowheart: Decided that after a week of traveling and nearly dying together it was appropriate to breach topics again. Pretty sure the game expected me to ask these immediately once the option was available but like I said, we respect boundaries in this house. Anyway, Shadowheart's a cleric of Shar, who by context I'm assuming is bad. The way she put her worship didn't sound that bad, about embracing the darkness as a way of stripping falsehoods, right up until she started talking about toppling governments and killing innocents, so I'm keeping her at a 2/10 for being batshit insane.

Also her magical artifact is required for keeping me alive and she stole it and do we really want the e v i l cleric to have that kind of p o w e r over M E?

Lae'zel: Lae'zel sits at the very strange crossroad of honorable and completely ruthless. She's totally fine with killing your enemies but you have to do it the right way, and b r a i n w o r m s isn't the right way. I'd say the right way is whatever works. 7/10

Gale: All of my attempts to pry into Gale's backstory (boundaries? what boundaries?) were foiled by poor dice rolls so no updates on his dark and traumatic past. I did give him two magical artifacts to slurp up because he looked like he was going to die of heat stroke at camp. I've been avoiding spoilers but I had heard that it's hilariously difficult to not accidentally romance Gale due to a bug, and the fact that you can start his romance path without realizing it. Thankfully Ank is smart enough to realize that when you cast spells together that makes the air smell like rosewater it's time to high tail it out of there. 2/10 as smooth as a slip n' slide.

That said, I don't know if it's been patched yet, but according to the internet there's like a 50/50 chance the game thinks we've already banged. Tbd on that one. Sexless any% is slowly turning into Oops! Fucked Everyone thanks purely on technicalities.

Astarion: Based on the way people talk about him I genuinely thought the pompous personality was just a facade and that he'll eventually tip his hand and reveal he's been evil this entire time. But honestly based the bits of backstory he's (refreshingly, compared to the rest of these idiots) given out I think he's just the guy who, once given the keys to power, will drive right off sanity road. Regardless, he used to serve an abusive vampire lord so I guess we're going vampire hunting in the future. 10/10 bad influence gay best friend who tells you to chug and shove parasites up your eyes.

Wyll: Wyll is a warlock who serves a fiend that forces him to hunt down and kill demons, which sounds like a fine deal until some tricky wordplay came in. After refusing to kill Karlach (Tiefling, not demon) his patron changed him into a Tiefling too. Honestly? Upgrade. 6/10 nice guy but surrounded by more colorful characters.

Karlach: Ok here’s why Karlach is a 10/10 character even without taking sex appeal into consideration. She’s a Tiefling who served in some demonic war against her will and had her heart replaced with an infernal engine that constantly burns her and anyone she touches with searing hot pain. Despite this she has constant big sister energy and her biggest complaint is how touch starved she is. I don’t even care if it comes bundled with a sex scene, Karlach is getting a goddamn hug before the credits roll.

[ursbearhug]

I saw this funny exchange under a post defending clerics (or Shadowheart specifcially) because apparently people complain that clerics miss spells and tell these stupid hoes that clerics have weapons and armour proficiencies for a reason. And proudly call their Shadowheart AC tank.

Now maybe I'm just dumb but I don't actually care about AC of non-Tavs. Party gets the equipment that is leftover. Secondly, some of the best cleric spells are concentration. I guess if you're just a wincy bit luckier than I am and you don't lose concentration on first hit regardless of how good your saving throws are, then more power to you, but my gay ass can never land a saving throw. I wouldn't make cleric a tank because it won't work for me. And also, don't know about the rest of ya, but when I play, enemies striaght up disregard anything and everything to get to the dps. As far as I'm aware there is no taunting option in-game, so what even is AC tank?

Secondly, clerics can really exell as dps in your party. Both as sub-dps or sub-healers. I've finished few playthroughs without having real healing in party. Even on custom difficulties it is wincy bit tougher, more so early game, but not impossible. Cleric that cannot thrive as sub or full fledged dps, though, is Shadowheart specifically if you don't reroll her stats. I'm sorry but she has like 10 or 13 in both strength and dex, she will not land a hit to save her life. And sure, there are some people who don't understand that highelf cantrips cast off intelligence (which, semi-controversial opinion but int is one of the worst stat in-game and serve almost no purpose but to infuriate bitches or make you fail conversation checks) and that's valid. Game does actually pretty piss poor job of even explaining it. But Shadowheart, at least in my experience, cannot land cleric cantrips either. And unfortunately for her, slots that do increase spell DC or attack power are either taken by supporting items or are worn by more important characters. I don't know about you but I don't think she has ever landed cleric' radiant cantrip. For some reason you can have dps clerics and their one and only convenient damaging cantrip has dex save, because fuck you, that's why.

Finally, trickery domain is like... Not great? And as somebody rightfully pointed out "is the weapon and armour proficiencies trickery domain with us now?". Trickery domain is fun and games for like role-playing but in-combat it's subpar at best. Because light, storm and war clerics can actually be pretty decent dps. War one is really knocked down a peg by requiring that stupid points for bonus attacks but otherwise it really is good dps and great support to have.

I keep Shadowheart in most playthrough because that's a cleric and heals are at most valuable in first two acts. Later they become irrelevant really. Maybe honour mode is different in that regard but there has been a lot of situations where my Shart doesn't really have anything to do so I just see her miss cantrip to pass her turn.

But the line about proficiencies being in the room with us really made me snort and laugh out loud. Good one.

[seeminglyseph]

I did not bring Wyll to the burning building because I am playing the game mostly blind. so it is kinda funny in my head to be like.

"I thought we refused looking for the Duke?"

"We refused when some random noble lady asked and I figured like. 'Why the fuck are you asking me? I just showed up here, you don't even know who I am. I don't know who *you* are. Fuck off. If I don't commit, I don't get in trouble if I don't figure it out.' But then I found out it was Wyll's dad. And I like Wyll, and so I'm willing to put in effort to go find Wyll's dad. The difference is who asks for help, honestly."

which is a conversation Astarion and Lake had for literally no reason, but that I can't help but have little scenarios in my head. In this scenario Astarion learns that Lake is basically Chaotic Neutral. "May save your life, may steal your car." This may canonically not work for someone who is supposed to be a Selûnite Cleric but like. fuckin'. whatever. It was a fun goddess to be a cleric of and I admit I did not do a lot of research into her alignment and I suck at alignments and almost always play some form of Neutral. That's My Ninja Way, Bitch.

I should probably spend some time on the Forgotten Realms Wiki to figure out the lore I don't know for a bit. I am a fake DnD fan who knows more about Tal'Dorei than Faerûn. fuckin' oops. I'm sorry to everyone who knows me for every time I make a critrole reference especially since I care way more about the Mighty Nein than Vox Machina and Bell's Hells. which makes me like. The least relatable fan right now. Campaign 2 was my introduction to DnD and that's gonna hurt a lot of people's brain's and I'm real sorry 'bout that. One day they're animated series is gonna come out and it'll be easier to explain that. It was really good but there's just too much content to expect anyone right now to actually go watch and understand it...

[eventidc]

rae in bg3 is still my favourite 

[originalcontent]

Help me I’m getting significantly too invested in the mythology for this magic sword setting.