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  • I find all the party members insufferable. I change their classes almost immediately for better synergy or I switch them out for the soulless NPC's Withers has. Ironically, I've been D&D 5E Dungeon Master numerous times and I find the party members to be absolutely authentic characters real people would play. Good work Larian, ya made the characters so table top believable that I want to find a new group to play with.

    • I loved the character design because I hated the characters too: Lae'zel was a close minded warrior, Shadowheart a smartass, Gael Mr nice guy not so nice when you do something he doesn't approve, Astarion the vampire rapist... Etc.

      But then I kept on playing and I realized they were really deep characters. Lae'zel was indoctrinated super hard, but she's smart and can recognize when things don't make sense, even if she totally believes those things. Shadowheart has been lying to everyone, including herself, and putting a mask on; but she's a really sweet woman. Astarion was abused in every possible way for centuries, and being a total asshole is his way to cope.

      My point is, yeah, the characters are flawed and can come across as dicks, but many real people do too until you understand their circumstances. Not saying that what they do is justified, just that they are interesting characters and redeemable from my PoV.

      • I feel like a lot of characters were just standard RPG archetypes with maybe a wrinkle added in. Like Wyll is the classic "Warlock that makes the deal for the right reasons" and the wrinkle is that he has dad issues.

        Compare him to one of my favorite RPG companions. Classic elf wizard nerd with an abusive father that made him hit the books and hit him also... but because of his childhood trauma his soul's past life, a foul mouthed woman from a long time ago awoke within him and sometimes he dissociates and she takes control because she wants him to be assertive... which, along with his fears of animancy, caused him to have an obsession with control, and why he accepted to join the baddies some time before you meet him.

      • Oh they're great characters and well written. I just don't like them though. I can't justify my tastes.

  • I don't think the writing is particularly good, and it is particularly problematic in Act 3. The pacing falls apart, all urgency disappears and there is also a big problem with the villains. Gortash and Orin are pretty bad characters and the nebulous blob that is the Nether Brain is not a compelling antagonist. The Emperor is a pretty interesting character, but he sadly doesn't really play out as an antagonist - which I find a massive waste in itself. It also felt like some parts of the plot only make sense if you're playing as Dark Urge.

    The companions all being extremely horny and protagonist-sexual gives off a weird vibe, and the progression and design of the relationship system is extremely bad. As an example, Shadowheart can say you're her soulmate that changed her whole life on like the second day you spend together! There is also a severe lack of bonding moments that are purely adventure party/friendship and not avenues for everyone else to hit on you.

    There being literally 0 consequences for dabbling in Mind Flayer powers felt weird and bad and generally undercut the impact of the entire main story. There is no reason not to fill out your whole tadpole tree (including becoming half illithid), and there is no reward for completely abstaining. No specific dialogue, no impact on the ending. Not even an achievement.

    Lots of small attempts at fanservice for fans of BG 1&2 feel like surface level lipservice made by people who never played the originals. The Flail of Ages being a shitty rare regular flail sold in a random shop is just depressing.

    I wish they left more BG 1&2 characters alone if they didn't know exactly what to do with them. Jaheira is mostly fine, but even Minsc felt out of place and shoehorned in and the character assassinations of Viconia and Sarevok just felt terrible. Especially since the role of both of those characters in the plot could have easily been replaced with brand new NPCs.

    On a similar note, it strikes me as extremely weird that they seemingly outright refused to have any voice actor reprise their role. Heidi Shannon has disappeared from the face of the earth so Jaheira needed to be recast, but Grey DeLisle (Viconia) and Kevin Michael Richardson (Sarevok) are still out there working for example and Jim Cummings (Minsc) was asking random fans at cons to remind Larian he exists.

  • The alternate party member NPCs are generic stereotypes, and far less interesting for that. They don't hold a candle to the NPCs in something like Wrath of the Righteous, who subvert expectations in a wonderfullly interesting way.

  • I don't like the main characters (except my character he is perfect in every way) but I love all the interesting side characters.

  • Haste isn't a great spell, even twinned by a sorcerer.

    The moment the caster loses concentration, the recipients lose an entire turn. Even if the fight lasts a few turns and you manage to keep concentration, you're sacrificing a lot of action economy for that extra action. And if you do lose concentration, you're likely in a net negative for action economy.

    At higher difficulties, it's even worse. The extra action only grants at most one attack (the extra action ignores the Extra Attack feature). And enemies are smart enough to do everything they can to pile damage on your caster until it drops.

    It's not a bad spell, but it's not the gamechanger lots of people seem to think it is. Especially with items like haste potions and haste spore grenades, which can't be interrupted (though still need to be timed well).

  • 140 GB is wayy to much

    Can’t they just make an optional smaller version with only hd textures and not so high quality audio ?

113 comments