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vinthetiefling · 7 months

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Baldur’s Gate 3 was worth the wait.

I’ve spent over a decade searching for the next game to inspire what I felt playing Dragon Age Origins. That’s not to say I’m not enamoured with the creative beauty of Legend of Zelda, the epic storytelling of the Witcher, or the existential freedom afforded to you in Disco Elysium. For me, the greatest source of that feeling is the ability to fail and to have those failures fleshed out and made real. To witness those failures having a meaningful impact on your story and where it’s headed. There are countless forks in the road, which might explain why I retained so many save states despite routinely culling them.

Sure, high rolling is nice. High rolling kept some of my favourite characters from turning on me or becoming consumed with power. I even built a sorcerer with high persuasion in anticipation for what lay ahead. But the hidden intricacies—the people you notice or fail to notice in a flooding room, the choice to give into a whispering dark urge, the fate of a prince with no bearing to your backstory—are where we cut our own paths, and where we unwittingly stumble into failure.

Whether you want to come into the game with a preset alignment, decide on a case-by-case basis, or even throw it all out the window and veer from good to evil—that’s on you as the captain of this ship! And make no mistake, you are the captain. Even when the characters have their own bonds, belief systems and priorities outside of your mad dash to remove the tadpoles.

The writing was ingenious. There were characters I never saw myself caring for who demonstrated vulnerability and complexity, making me wade into hell to save them. Other characters I’d pegged under a certain alignment or archetype. They later proved themselves capable of doing a 180 and becoming a problem later. There were those who showed an incomparable ability to adapt and those who held strong to their beliefs. I also loved the touch of recruiting potential enemies into your party where they would prove to be invaluable assets to the team.

That’s not even touching on the choices you’ll be able to make in Acts 1, 2, and 3. Tdlr; It would be one hell of a task to make two runs resemble each other.

Here’s the lowdown on my run:

Character:

Vin the tiefling was a divine soul sorcerer conjured in pencil on the back of my rogue’s player sheet back in 2017. He was a backup in the event that I died. Eventually, I brought him out and his stats made him the face of the party, which was unfortunate for me as a naturally uncharismatic person. His shenanigans later saw him captured, petrified, amputated, crushed beneath the falling tower of a lich and transformed into a weapon of Bhaal. My favourite trait of his was his refusal to die. My sparkly glitter dice kept him going, and in the spirit of that, Vin was reborn in BG3 as the son of Bhaal.

Origin:

The dark urge didn’t pull any punches. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so uncomfortable playing a character in a game—one who embarks upon his journey by smiling over the bodies of a nautiloid wreckage. So began my fight for control over Vin. There were moments when the game took my autonomy away, which added to my helplessness as I witnessed him kick a squirrel and commence the torturing of a captive under interrogation. I had no idea which scenes the urge was going to leap out in, and that made for a wild time. My best bet was to simply avoid situations where the urge might pull my strings. But that was hard to do when Faerûn was set on falling apart. I was a puppet, and Bhaal was my master. I was so rattled by what Vin did to Alfira, I did nothing but play with Scratch after. It was real, the discord struck between my trauma and head-in-the-sand coping.

Combat:

Wizards might have the ability to consume scrolls over sorcerers, but with Vin’s persuasion, intimidation, deception and performance checks, he was more than happy to leave the thinking to the experts. I built him as best I could to his configuration in the home game. While divine sorcerer didn’t exist as a subclass in BG3, my next pick for him was draconic bloodline, which provided a healthy boost to my AC. In a great stroke of luck, Vin’s detect telepathic and telekinetic feats were largely mirrored in the illithid powers provided by the consumption of tadpoles. My main spells were a combination of fire bolt, shocking grasp, burning hands, fly, haste, fireball, telekinesis, and chain lightning. I hoarded explodable barrels and bottles of flammable grease, and the invisibility afforded to me through Alfira’s sacrifice helped me wipe the board clean. Godspeed, Alfira. You saved many lives by helping me kill efficiently.

Story:

Act 1—We saved the tieflings and druids by destroying Minthara and the goblins. Her armour was great on Wyll for a time. Gale and Vin seemed into each other, until the weave scene happened and I decided to keep it friendly. My closest bond was with Shadowheart, who showed an intelligent and practical approach to whatever Faerûn threw down at us. We helped the myconids and befriended Omeluum. Then, we saved the Grymforge gnomes by eldritch blasting the duergar into lava and honking Nere’s nose with a shocking grasp. It’s a shame he was so terrible and evil. I thought we had a connection.

Act 2—Imagine my surprise when Jaheira joined my party after hunting Vin like an animal in the shadowfell. The urge wanted me to take out Isobel and revel in the horrific fall of the Last Light Inn, and I told it to shut up. We saved as many prisoners as we could in Moonrise, masquerading as an evildoer in front of Z’rell who was super into it. Then we cleared the Gauntlet of Shar, where Shadowheart spared Dame Aylin and became a Selûnite. I’ve never seen a more bloodthirsty Aasimar. Balthazar went down in like two hits. We sweet-talked Mizora into an infernal rapier, apparently missed Zevlor in the illithid pods, and destroyed Ketheric. Vin slow danced with Wyll. Oh. And Halsin glitched out of my party after we saved Thaniel, so I painstakingly went back to the beginning of Moonrise to save him. His name is now a curse in my house.

Act 3—Vin slept with anything horned, tentacled and from the Underdark, along with his beloved fiancé. We defeated Cazador and set the spawn free, got the Orphic Hammer for Lae’zel, rescued Wyll’s father and the Gondians from the Iron Throne, reunited Gale and Mystra, cleansed the house of grief with fireballs and said goodbye to Shadowheart’s parents, usurped Gortash by letting Karlach get in the final hit, saved Matthew Mercer and his lovable space hamster, and put Ansur back down in the dirt. After pulling on Bhaal’s chains for so long, Vin became an unholy assassin then turned and rejected Bhaal himself.

When I crafted the guardian form that the Emperor took on, it was made to resemble Vin’s younger sister in our home game. What occurred lore-wise was a projection of the sister he never had because his real blood-kin was Orin. And what a villain Orin was! What an actor. Tormenting us as a fortune teller, a newspaper interviewer, taking on Lae’zel’s form in a way that almost convinced me if not for the corner she’d turned as a character! In the end, she was no match for my scrolls of hold monster. I might not be a wizard, but I’ve swindled enough gold to buy a mansion and I’m hotter than Elle Woods. That’s the sorcerer class, baby.

Romance:

Wyll fell into place for Vin, and the more thought I gave it, the more sense it made. He was the guiding light for our dark urge rehabilitator. Vin was written to be chaotic good in his mind but chaotic neutral in practice. In truth, his sense of justice is shallow. Sure, he steps in front of oppressors and a specific trigger for him is slavery, being a slave to his dread lord father and all. But he thwarts evil simply because he *can.* What’s funnier than subjugating the weak? Overthrowing those with all the power and stealing their crown. Luckily for the everyday person of Faerûn, Vin is a merciful ruler. I’m not quite sure if Wyll could see what I saw. To him, Vin was a shaker and mover, a trailblazer in a world of horror and cruelty. To me, Vin was a self-indulgent manipulator given a new set of keys. Can he fix me? He can try, one slow dance at a time.

Endings:

After staring at this decision for a good ten minutes, I trusted the Emperor by letting him kill Orpheus and destroyed the Netherbrain at the end of the final battle.

Lae’zel was convinced to stay after I let the comet prince be assimilated. This felt like the more evil outcome of the split in the road, to be honest. I doomed the Gith’yanki so I could live without tentacles. In accepting it, Lae’zel renounced her obligation to the Gith regarding Orpheus or Vlaakith. I stole her hope for change and left her with an ordinary, mercenary life. She seemed happy. But Lae’zel, I’m sorry. You deserved more.

Gale reforged the crown for Mystra and washed his hands clean of its power. I was happy with this outcome for him, but it also reminded me of why Gale and Vin fell flat as a romance. Gale was still utterly consumed by Mystra, and staring at her face before our little date sealed the deal for me. He would always be second to the goddess of the weave.

Shadowheart, Jaheira and Minsc have a fresh start to look forward to. I suppose the latter two will find new work around the city. I especially enjoyed having a harper in the mix after watching D&D Honor Among Thieves. And as for Shadowheart, her parents are gone, but she’s broken from Shar’s clutches and the world is hers. I see her becoming entrenched in her new Selûnite status and rising peerless among their ranks.

I legitimately thought we’d killed Astarion before he ran from the sun. As he never ascended, the tadpole was the only thing protecting him. It was hinted in our discussions that he would go to the Underdark to offer guidance to the spawn once the battle was over. If that isn’t an enormous change from the cutthroat we first met, I don’t know what is. He showed the greatest capacity for change and self-reflection, and for that, he went from one of my least liked to most beloved characters.

At the behest of his father, Wyll became Duke Ravengard. But it was a fairytale ending and a ball and a wedding that came at the cost of someone else. Who better to rebuild Baldur’s Gate when his warlock powers have vanished? With Gortash gone and the power vacuum ripped wide open, who else could wield such empathy and an unwavering sense of justice? While it was a form of drudgery compared to being the Blade of Avernus, Wyll seemed a perfect fit. Without knowing what was at the end of the string, I took it.

I’ve been building up to the hollyphant in the room.

Karlach died, and it felt not only devastating and real, but very dear to me as a person with something malfunctioning in their body. Her happiness for Vin saving himself hit like a dagger in the chest, because there’s hope for him, and none for her. She’s so happy for you while she’s dying. How do you make peace with that? You can’t. In her final moments, I saw how much Vin loved her—the real sister he never had—and that look on his face as she exploded will haunt me forever. I wished we could’ve saved her and given her a life in the city she loves. In hindsight, I know about Wyll and Avernus. I plan on making a run where Vin, Wyll and Karlach venture through hell together as the ultimate poly triad.

To wind down from the hype, there were battles that ruined my day. My heart was beating, my grip on the controller was strong, and the screams and laughter came from a primal place. My partner knew not to come into the room in the middle of Cazador because I was going to punch a hole in the screen. I’ve never been challenged quite like this, with special mentions to the Iron Throne and a final battle in which I did everything possible to avoid bringing out my beloved owlbear. My appreciation for clerics is at an all-time high, and I’d gladly put up with Lae’zel any day for what she brought to table.

It’s all a part of being alive, isn’t it? Life happens, and in that mess of sacrifice, temptation and broken promises, we find ourselves.

#baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #spoilers #review #a full and comprehensive rundown on the playthrough as best as I could summarise it #lae’zel #shadowheart #gale of waterdeep #astarion #wyll ravengard #karlach #jaheira #halsin #vin the tiefling #the dark urge #a tale of two moralities

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