#bg3 solo

[lutethebodies]

Cannor x Minthara Duo Run: Three Days We'd Stay

Check out the Cannor Solo Duo tag for previous entries.

The Duo Run returns with another belated post of Three Days In Act Three (cue the Jane's song). Notes and screencaps for in-game Days 28-30 below the cut:

The unexpected discovery of Jaheira's dead body in our power couple's Rivington camp meant Day 28 wasn't done after all. Passively argumentative, dejected, and caked in dirt, they warped to the tombstone shop but the lock was impassable without a password. Fine, guess Dolor is on the docket for today. Cannor and Minthara sought Devella at the Elfsong (remember, they'd ignored the temple-murder quest starter) and got the go-ahead from her.

On a whim, they stopped at the Society of Brilliance en route to camp, but found (for my first time) the entire place soaked in blood thanks to Ptaris, the gith-egg baby. Found him by the basement dock (which I'd also never visited before) and persuaded him to not kill us. Looted the society lodge after, then did the same for Lavernica's basement (Cannor needed that +1 shield), Crimson Draughts (Araj wasn't there, even though we'd left her alive in Act 2), Danthelon's basement in Wyrm's Crossing (because no Jaheira means no Harperganger ambush), Faygo's (for miscellaneous gear), and Sharess' upstairs (to harass Raphael again and empty all the wardrobes).

Only then did our heroes deign to get violent on this day, defeating the shapeshifers beneath the Open Hand Temple. Going topside to the circus, Cannor and Minthara accidentally set half the performers (including Lucretious and Popper!) against them by sloppily failing a lockpick check (trying to keep the displacer cage shut). The Dribbles quest was now happily needless. Returned to the lower city and camped near the wine festival. At night, Yenna (who'd made her way to camp despite repeated refusals) was abducted by Orin.

Day 29: Shouldn’t have slept on the wine festival; Dolor escaped. Our power couple then took on a crazy fight at Facemaker’s (for me, the first time in a long time) but the little clothier was saved and forever grateful. With more loot sold, our heroes entered the Bhaal hideout for Sarevok. Amazingly, Cannor pickpocketed him twice via invisibility and freed Valeria. Sneaked out of the crypt, picked a fight with the death knights on the way out, and barely beat them. Short-rested and went after the blood ghosts, but escaped without fighting Sarevok since no Irresistible Dance scrolls were at hand. Purchased same at Sorcerous Sundries and camped in the tombstone shop to take him on the next day.

Day 30: Cheesed the shit out of Sarevok first thing, using (in order) ranged Branding Smite, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Sunbeam, four divine smites (action surge rules), ilithid charm reactions, another Irresistible Dance scroll, another Sunbeam. Even then Cannor and Minthara were still a bit short of Level 11. Sold all the crazy-heavy (and crazy-valuable) loot to the Lower City Central Wall traders, then (on another whim) dug up the beach cache before warping to Wyrm's Crossing and unloading junk and unused potions. Used a looted pass to get into the fortress (hello again Blaze Elin, you're the hottest yet chillinest cop we've ever met), then eluded the Steel Watchers via Invisibility and sneaked into the prison to free Florrick. Finally hit Level 11 after disintegrating one of the guards (then dashing away instead of wasting our time on the others).

After Florrick promised her help in the fight to come, our heroes returned to the Lower City, delving into the sewers to find the Bhaal temple. Along the way, Minthara introduced a new word (alurlssrin) to Cannor's vocabulary. They celebrated by chugging more Invisibility potions to sneak past the meddlesome Farslayer Trial, then disarmed all the blood traps to enter the temple. Made short and bloodless work of Orin, using a Telekinesis scroll to throw her off the nearby cliff; for her remaining hostile cultists, speed potions, trip/disarm attacks, many-targets arrows, smokepowder bombs, fireball, and sleet storm sufficed to dispatch them in a few more rounds. Returned topside and camped near Facemaker's. At night, Cannor finally showed pity on Yenna and let her stay at camp—perhaps because Minthara's toxic kisses finally had an effect on him.

So, only three in-game days into Act 3, one Chosen is already defeated. I think we're gonna linger a bit in camp and then explore the entire two regions some more before blowing up the foundry and getting cut off from the fortress. But that's another story for another time.

[lutethebodies]

Cannor x Minthara Duo Run: Act 2 Wrap Notes

Now organized under the Cannor Solo Duo tag for previous entries.

Belated post, in which our heroes put a bow on Act 2 with less than a week of utterly destructive shenanigans in the Shadow-Cursed Lands and then a bit of Rivington/Wyrm's Crossing and the Lower City. Notes and snapshots for in-game Days 24-28 below the cut:

Day 24: Apparently Cannor and Minthara were less discreet in clearing Moonrise Towers than they thought they were; Roah Moonglow wasn't too pleased to see them. "What do you care, Zhent? You and your crew are still alive." But since our power couple is rolling in cash and unused gear, the halfling was easy to bribe. Cannor then sneaked some smokepowder barrels up to the roof, again right under Ketheric's nose. Left the old man to keep pondering where Aylin was; our heroes briefly warped to the Gauntlet to unlock Shar's inner sanctum before returning topside to burn lots of smites and slashes on the githyanki—ambushing them as they'd hoped to ambush in turn, and defeated them. Camped at Last Light.

Day 25: Warped to the Gauntlet and entered the Shadowfell. Without Shadowheart, killing Aylin is off the table, even with spear in hand, so the aasimar was freed to go wage her holy war on Moonrise. Following her there, our heroes found the mostly-empty Towers already occupied by Jaheira's Harpers. Cannor traded with Talli briefly before going downstairs to the prison, taking on the surprise-attack Death Shepherds and their necromancer buddies, who didn't prove to be strong opponents when faced with smokepowder arrows and Wall of Fire scrolls. Up on the roof, barrelmancy wasn't much help against Ketheric; he was too powerful to one-shot with it, but smokepowder arrows and Aylin's smites did for him just fine, though. Jaheira didn't come to the roof to congratulate Cannor and Minthara or ask to join them, though (maybe because they didn't talk to her in the throne room? Who knows). Camped on the roof before entering the mind flayer colony.

Day 26: Jaheira remained in the throne room and our power couple jumped into the slimy colony. They destroyed all the intellect devourers, Chop, and purged the pods. Ganked the Bonedaughter weirdo and her entire crew with one fireball. Used two Walls of Fire to kettle and burn the necrotic lab zombie horde. With that, they moved against Myrkul's apostle, freeing Aylin once again to help them. Cannor got bone-chilled but Disintegrated the mind flayer while his lady paladin pals smote the Apostle. They were kind enough to allow him the killing flourish. Afterward in the throne room, a tense conference with Minthara saw our couple agree to disagree for now on taking over the Netherbrain. An equally frosty exchange with Jaheira led to denying the High Harper a place in the party (which earned a surprise approval from Minthara). Jaheira promised a stay of "one awkward day in your camp" before moving on to the city herself. Cannor and Minthara camped on the road to Baldur's Gate.

Day 27: However in the morning, Jaheira is not in camp, so our power couple moves on to Act 3. I always assume it takes at least one in-game day to travel to Wyrm's Lookout, since the party gets there at nightfall, but perhaps it's longer. For our purposes it'll count as one day. Cannor and Minthara take as much R&R as possible before the unleashed Netherbrain invades their minds and the gith attack camp. Their fight inside the Astral Prism is an unexpected breeze, thanks to Cannor's effective Hold Person against the main githzerai monk and Minthara's ruthless smites and (thanks to 2 levels of Fighter) action surge. Our heroes are nonplussed when the Emperor reveals himself, and when they're returned to Wyrm's Rock, the bard callously stomps on the Astral Tadpole (he never uses it; he's way too vain to physically transform and way too wary of being under further parasite control). Strangely, Jaheira's empty tent is now in camp!

Day 28: In the morning, the High Harper herself is in Wyrm's Rock camp. She is unacknowledged in Minthara's dialogue choices—the "opinions on our companions" option isn't there—but Cannor can talk to her, as it appears the game is giving him one last chance to recruit her. Or perhaps this was a one-time option to have her along for the Prism fight? Regardless, she's also in the Rivington camp, which our heroes discover while they cavort around town at the smithy, the circus, and the refugee camp. Orin showed up to do her cringey Bhaalist thing, and of course Minthara was rightfully triggered about this. Cannor brushed the changeling off as a raving lunatic and promised the drow vengeance. Minthara asked him to prove it, so he assented to slurping up all the remaining small tadpoles (13 in total! Yikes!).

The rest of this (very long) day was taken up by sneaking past the Rivington checkpoint into Wyrm's Crossing, Feather-Falling onto the fortress island, sneaking through Wyrm's Rock Fortress' secret western entrance using smokepowder (and then invisibility plus dashes), and entering the Lower City to gear up at Stormshore (also selling all their stolen idols at the Tabernacle), then shopping at the Devil's Fee and Facemakers (Dolor wasn't at the wine festival yet) before briefly visiting the dockside camp (I never use the Elfsong). Jaheira is not in the Lower City camp; she left to "find her old friend," saying so in a farewell note with her Harper pin as proof. Yenna is in camp, though (despite Cannor telling her to get lost back in Rivington) but the girl is ignored for now as our heroes move on to Jaheira's house. It is totally empty of adoped kids, animal familiars, and Khalid's Gift (though Cannor does get his hands on Belm).

A long day done, our dirt-caked power couple returns to Wyrm's Crossing to shop with Danthelon and Carm, then returns to the Rivington camp, where to their surprise they find Jaheira's dead body, hovering slightly off the ground where her tent should be. Huh. Well. Perhaps they should have recruited her after all.

[lutethebodies]

Cannor x Minthara Duo Run: Act 2 Notes

Now organized under the Cannor Solo Duo tag for previous entries.

Our power couple has moved on to Act 2 for good, after a few days raising hell in the Wilderness via the Silence Gambit. Notes and snapshots for in-game Days 16-23 below the cut:

Day 16: With Minthara still only at the initial +5 approval, mining commenced at all but a few Act 2 locations—Last Light, Moonrise, Shadowed Battlefield (where they found poor Lae'zel), and Reithwin Town—to boost her to +19. That's the mathy way of saying they respected an ox's privacy, bullied the drider convoy, freed some feral gnolls, and made Z'rell envy-cry on the inside so bad she killed her pet ogre with a thought. Camped back at Last Light, where the dream visitor made an unwelcome return.

Day 17: Defended Isobel from Marcus and the winged horrors, using speed potions, bardic slashes, and divine smites, with one hit of Lesser Restoration for the moon cleric. Took care of a few other minor things, warped to the mausoleum, annoyed Raphael, and entered the Gauntlet through the cloaker room (surely a pun for cloakroom). Minthara now at +30 but she still needs a point or two to fully trigger the romance. Camped in the Gauntlet.

Day 18: Went after Balthazar and his undead slaves first thing. Fittingly, the approval point for stealing his mother pushed Minthara into romance territory. Our heroes celebrated by cheesing all of Shar's trials and clearing the library of animated armors, hitting Level 8 afterward. Camped in the Gauntlet again.

Day 19: Dealt with the entrance-way armors next, then went after Yurgir. Persuaded Nessa to help (after many many reloads; it's a DC 30 so even the bard had a tough time). Sadly the displacer beast died in the subsequent fight, but Cannor and Minthara demolished Yurgir woth Hold Monster and fiend-slaying arrows, then sniped the merregons with extreme prejudice. With Minthara now at +32 approval, kissing commenced. While the BG3 wiki says 30 is necessary to trigger her romance, in my experience 31 is what will actually start the dialogue, and 32 is what gets her kissing.

Warped to LLI to trade with Talli, then back to the Gauntlet to exterminate the rats (with two Walls of Fire and several Many-Targets arrows). With the Gauntlet done early (except for the Shadowfell), the power couple returned to LLI and kettled the meenlocks in the basement there, then called it a day.

Day 20: Accidentally triggered the Reithwin square fight with the cursed drider convoy while peeking out the tollhouse window. That's a first! Retreated to the Shadowed Battlefield to take out all the blights and deal with Oliver's family (since he's a useless, bratty appendage in grove-raiding runs). Warped to Moonrise for zapping as many scrying eyes as possible, then climbed up to the sub-roof balcony to firebomb the winged horrors. Camped up there for the night.

Day 21: Cleared all of Moonrise upstairs. Busted the gnomes out of prison without killing anyone, by first untying the boat and then using strength potion and Ragzlin's hammer on the back wall. Had to leave early before the guards could get there, though. After that, returned to the mausoleum warp point to clear the cursed kua-toa with two well-placed bombs and a few lightning arrows. Returned to Moonrise prison to clear it, which was work as only a duo, but Wall of Fire was once again the hammer for hitting all nails. Camped there.

Day 22: Cleared the Moonrise entrance, though Cannor was briefly down after two Thunderous Smites from Malik. Romanced Minthara actually yelped "No! You can't die!" which was a first; only origin companion romances had done this in my earlier playthroughs. Other fights today were tougher than expected too, like the Reithwin main square harper/shadow fight, but our heroes did hit level 9 after—multiclassing to Rogue (Cannor) and Fighter (Minthara). Celebrated by looting the pub and hospital and then clearing the zombies from the inside and outside of the morgue. Warped to Moonrise for some +2 studded leather and cleared the dorm and a bit of the main hall. Camped round the back.

Day 23: Cleaned out the oubliette hook horrors and knocked off a few more Absolutists in Moonrise's main hall. In Reithwin, Cannor chugged some hill giant potion and pushed two meazels into the river; Minthara smote the other two. Did the bidding of He Who Was, and this time the shadar-kai wasn't even mad about the stabbing. The mason's guild shadows were tougher than expected but still got handled. Our heroes were burning through their scrolls (and therefore gold) however, so they sold some unused Act 1 loot to Talli and cleared the remainder of Moonrise—even the rooftop necromancer (with disintegration) and her necromites (with kettling), completely under Ketheric's nose. Camped at Last Light to take on Big K in the morning, which I'll get into next time; I know these kinda read like laborious "trip to the zoo" diaries, so thanks for making it to the end.

[lutethebodies]

More Notes on a Duo Act 1/Act 2 Playthrough

Here's Part 4 of tracking my swords bards' 14th playthrough day-by-day in-game, sans hirelings and (most) companions. Continuing from Solo Notes, More Solo Notes, and Duo Notes. This entry wraps up all the Act 1 stuff in the span of six jam-packed long rests, all below the cut:

Day 11. Nuked the spectator first thing; Minthara baited it and then Cannor shot the smokepowder/oil barrels behind the creature to incinerate it in one hit. Went for the drow studded leather afterward. Then relieved the kua-toa of their fake god. Then did for the hag and redcaps in the swamp (smites work wonders) and sent Mayrina and her zombie-husband on their way to the city. Our heroes were running low on barrels, so Minthara stole four smokepowder containers while Cannor distracted the Zhent with performance. Called on the ogres again to help with defeating Filro and the hook horrors. Decided to keep them on to see what they could do vs Grym or the phase spiders. Warped to Moonhaven and camped.

Day 12. Finished up Moonhaven by making the sussur dagger, destroying the phase spiders, and snagging the Poisoner Robe for Minthara's collection. Feather-fell back into the Underdark and returned to the Forge area. When four Zhent smokepowder barrels failed to make a real dent in Grym, Cannor called for the ogres to use them as bait, then while they died horribly, he crushed Grym with the forge’s hammer. That reduced it to 2hp, but then Cannor and Minthara had to do the super-heating thing again to finish it off. Underdark and Grymforge complete, they returned to the Myconid Colony and camped.

Day 13. Turns out the Zhents were salty about smokepowder barrel theft. How unfortunate—for them. After dealing with that, our heroes did other sorts of Act 1 cleanup, like drinking Omeluum’s potion (Cannor), and snipe-bombing the bridge gith (without Voss and Lae’zel, they were no match for Level 6 Minthara). Proceeded to the monastery and demolished the gremishkas. Camped in the creche (also shoutout to this location in general, one of my favorites in-game, for the late-afternoon sunlight, weird alien vibe, and eerie ambient soundtrack).

Day 14. Deciding to get the gith before the gith figured out they were infected, our heroes took on the whole creche stealthily and methodically, clearing the main hallway, infirmary, dorm, training room, and hatchery (where Minthara decided to swipe the egg for Esther after all). Hit level 7 after the latter. Camped in the crags.

Day 15. Finished the job, clearing the entrance, back door, captain's quarters, and inquisitor's room (both of the latter with barrelmancy). Lied to Vlaakith's face by promising to kill the person in the prism. For the first time ever, Cannor nuked the monastery—getting out with no injuries. Camped in the crags.

Day 16. Used some standard kettle-barrelmancy for the Death Shepherds first thing, because fuck them. They traumatized me so badly on my first playthrough a year ago and I've never forgiven them. I've always despised undead and give them radiance and fire in-game whenever I can. Anyway, our heroes traded with Esther one last time and then warped to Last Light and Act 2, leaving Act 1 permanently. Day 16 will continue next time.

[lutethebodies]

Notes on a Duo Act 1/Act 2 Playthrough

Continuing from Solo Notes and More Solo Notes, originally inspired by @trappedinafantasy37.

In a previous post I mentioned that this is my swords bard's 14th go-round in Faerun, but I'm not sure I've said why: I imagine this to be a Groundhog Day-like purgatory, where he's condemned for various sins to do the same thing over and over again until he gets it right. For various metagame and non-Faerunian-lore reasons, it works really well as his story, and it's a handy excuse to RP when doing umpteen-dozen replays.

Anyway, by his tenth day of infection, Cannor was done with trying to solve this problem alone, so he did what any good grove-raiding lonely swords bard would do: seek out the killer drow princess where she said she'd be. Before that, though, there were things to prepare—like hitting Level 6 for good gear—and metagame-dancing to do in order to get there properly. Day-by-day wall-of-text breakdown and screencap-dump below the cut:

Day 10: A long day to start things off. Cannor traded a bit wit Derryth before warping to check on Shadowheart, who said she'd wait by the goblin-camp mountain pass entrance. He dealt with one last goblin (the looter-trader, who died thinking he could take on the Enemy of Justice bard) and went to the pass, but Shadowheart was gone (just like a Sharran to stand someone up, right?). So Cannor warped to the bridge-area pass entrance and kept out of sight while Lae'zel materialized and approached Voss and his gang. With Lae'zel occupied there, she wouldn't show up at the Trielta Crags warp point, so Cannor warped back to the goblin camp pass entrance and moved on from there.

That triggered the force-camp scene with Raphael, but despite his 10 INT Cannor's no fool—he knew a full day hadn't passed already—so the bard zapped Raphael with Ray of Fire to make him go away. Then he "camped" to make the devil-magic go away too, and when that was done the Astral Prism mysteriously materialized among his effects. Now in the crags area, Cannor traded with Esther (remaining non-committal to her egg deal) and then proceeded to the monastery creche. He saw the gith abusing halflings there, but couldn't really take them on solo, so he sneaked in the back door, where an utterly shocked gish told him to see the kith'rak.

Cannor was watched closely while doing business with the gith trader (the Dex gloves are an essential item for his build), but he foiled their paranoia by warping to camp and re-speccing with Withers (where I routinely switch his +1 ability from DEX to CON now that the gloves bump DEX, so he's now DEX 18 CON 16). But he's not completely geared/leveled up, so he hit Level 6 after kettling the kobolds to get Sleather+1 from the Zhent trader. Incomplete gear-up plus loneliness also meant prematurely proceeding to Act 2. He warped to Grymforge, picked up some torches, and took the elevator to the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

There, he triggered the Shadows vs Harpers battle and took a hit before going invisible to survive. The Harpers weren't so lucky, so he looted their soon-to-be-cursed bodies and fled to Last Light Inn. There, some chode named Marcus lied to help him get inside, then Cannor told THE Jaheira everything so she'd be less of a middle-aged crank (which, fair—he can relate—but Harpers always make his eyes roll). By now obscenely flush with cash, Cannor completed his gear-up with Talli (Cloak of Protection, various consumables) and began assembling what he hoped would be a flattering welcome/care package for the drow (Yuan-Ti scale and a big shield to go with the Wondrous Gloves and Nere's boots).

After a brief break at camp (from which Barcus had left to remain at Last Light), Cannor returned to the inn entrance to make his patented no-pixie-mad-dash to Moonrise Towers and rescue the princess. This he duly did (details described elsewhere before, but man this never ever gets old), with the only difference being Sazza was there! SHE CANNOT BE CAGED. So in addition to freeing the Purple Murder Kitten, Cannor also released the Scarlet Mini-Punker to go do her thing, whatever and wherever that might be. Stay classy, Sazza. So, it was time to impress Minthara by 1) showing up to rescue her ("I didn't think anyone would come for me"), 2) bullying his way out of Moonrise like a fucking boss ("You really do have a way with words"), 3) and allowing her to recover at his camp while perusing a generous stash of weapons and armor with her name on them.

Only four days after they hooked up at a party, drunk on horrible but seemingly necessary deeds, these crazy midlife-crisis-wrecks were back together. And she even seems to like him a bit, which is good and necessary, considering what had to come next—something he knew she wouldn't like—the dreaded Silence Gambit. It's a helluva thing to make a penitent return to the scene of their crimes, so while he didn't force her back to the Grove, there were still some things undone in the Wilderness for which he needed her help, so to the Myconid Colony they went. The blow was softened a bit by reorganizing all the gear and sharing their still-upwards-of-10k pile of gold before camping in the Selunite outpost for an uneventful night.

Day 10 was a long one, so I'll stop there and continue with the Act 1 Duo-Mayhem Diary another time. Thanks for the indulgence. Have a screencap-dump!

[lutethebodies]

More Notes on a Solo Act 1 Playthrough

Many months ago, out of curiosity, I began tracking in-game days on each playthrough. I've continued doing that up to and including this current solo (and eventually duo) run. More photos this time, to illustrate how (relatively) nuts this one got, because despite speculating that a solo run as a bard would be less violent, it hasn't gone that way (but hey, that means xp!). More below the cut:

Day 7 in-game: Cannor woke up hungover after the goblin party, infatuated with the drow who fucked him silly and who was apparently his only lead on this parasite thing. He sold everything looted from the Grove and Sanctum to Derryth in the Underdark. Hit Level 5 when checking on Brynna and Andrick in the owlbear cave but had to fight them (because apparently even there they got word that he was an Enemy of Justice). Took out the Paladins of Tyr but ignored Karlach. Retrieved some noblestalk for Derryth with two Misty Steps but couldn't be bothered to save Baelen. Tip-toed through the Underdark to avoid the bulette and camped high above the duergar beach for a blessedly uneventful night.

Day 8: Sniped the shit out of the beach duergar, even though Gekh Coal apparently discovered for the first time that he could Misty-Step up to Cannor's level to fight. Unfortunately he only had 7hp by that point and didn't survive an introduction to Phalar Aluve. Cannor proceeded carefully from there through the torchstalks to the Arcane Tower and methodically looted it, then sailed to Grymforge. He poisoned the slavers' beer and fought the gnome-killers on the docks, but realized direct conflict wasn't gonna work well in these parts. Went upstairs to yoink Philomeen's runepowder, then explored a bit for the best ground to take on the other duergar (pics below from the aftermath, because I forgot while it was happening).

This fight became a crazy-long slog against them and Nere, during which Cannor sniped everyone from above while hold-personing Nere until one of his goons realized she could cast Lesser Restoration. Nere also tried the Misty-Step route to directly face Cannor, but dude only had 3hp left, so he died on the rebar catwalk. That left dozens—perhaps scores—of combat rounds chipping away at the kettled duergar below: using up all his magic arrows and spells, then retreating out of range to hide by Nere's body. Amazingly, all the gnomes survived, so Barcus was invited to camp. Uneventful night.

Day 9: Unloaded tons of Grymforge loot at the Colony and went straight back to take out the merregon and hellboars. Then back to the Zhent storage room to snipe the minotaurs, which proved easy yet dangerous when they used the big mushrooms to jump up into the storage area—where there was no room for them to angry-charge. Sitting ducks (with horns). The bard was tired but full of moxie, so he thought "hey, why don't I use barrelmancy and call the ogres to deal with this shitty bulette?"

After a few reloads (one of which went hilariously sideways when Lump's crew attracted Filro and the hook horrors), the bulette was finally felled by barrelmancy, Phantasmal Killer, and a lucky crit of Mobile Slashing Flourish. Cannor paid 500gp to retain the ogres, then camped at the Myconid Colony, finally sick of solo-ing this shit. Day 10 would prove to be much longer, but less lonely. Stay tuned for its report.

[lutethebodies]

Brief Notes on a Solo Act 1 Playthrough

Inspired by @trappedinafantasy37's duo run of Origin Shadowheart and Minthara, I'm doing one of my own for Cannor's 14th playthrough (yes, that sounds like a lot, but only his 1st, 3rd and 8th have finished the game). The idea was to do it sans companions and hirelings until rescuing Minthara in Act 2, making RP choices such that this would make sense and avoiding violence if it would be too deadly for one character. As a bard, that should be relatively easy for him. More below the cut.

Five in-game days later, "RP reasons" have been mostly ignored (because metagaming is not a sin, folks) and violence has happened on the regular (Cannor is power-level Balanced but most everything else is Explorer, which is also not a sin). Since my playstyle is usually sneaky/stealthy/ranged when fighting, this has mostly worked well. The only combat that's been truly difficult—to a laughably high number of reloads—was the harpy fight. I've never cheesed that one well and he died Lured multiple times, but the first time he saved against the song he didn't miss, and they all went down.

Otherwise, it's been…kinda compelling! Recruiting Lae'zel was unavoidable on the nautiloid, but otherwise Cannor's ignored everyone. Well, everyone except Astarion (whom he knocked out for his camp clothes) and Shadowheart (whom he left waiting at the goblin camp mountain pass entrance). Cannor did so much stuff on Day 1 that he hit Level 3 and Withers showed up on his own. Things have been only a bit lighter on combat, but only because I'm finally leaning into barrelmancy. He's even collecting water barrels for a hypothetical lightning-based fight. Earned his first-ever Act 1 "enemy of justice" tag in the goblin camp, but that didn't prevent him from trading with Roah or talking to Minthara. Every goblin went hostile though, and the Ragzlin fight became a merry (and for the gobs, deadly) chase among the rafters.

Build-wise, a human swords bard with criminal background works well for this. Relatively high AC and good spell-swordiness for a squishy class, and Charisma checks cover what that won't. For gear, the Boots of Speed and Amulet of Misty Step help when fleeing/kettling during unavoidable combat (like the flind gnolls). Sleight of Hand goes a long way, and when it fails, Knock always wins. Also, consumables are critical—gotta keep certain scrolls, potions, and arrows well-stocked.

Cannor has just pulled off a successful grove-raid via selective barrelmancy, but I'm not sure how long a solo Act 1 can hang in there. I still need to deal with most of the Underdark and Grymforge, and I have no idea how the forge fight will go solo. He's not in possession of the Prism yet either. However, I'm also gonna try a few other random things for the first time ever on this run, like keeping Sazza alive or trying to nuke the créche with Lathander's Lance. And then there's Act 2 to deal with—which I've routinely and methodically cheesed for months now, but which now suddenly seems a lot scarier, almost like it was my first playthrough. Almost.

Stats and settings for this run:

[lunarreverb]

Just finished the silliest BG3 run that was.... not really a speedrun, but a mess-around solo run to see what happens if you effectively skip Act 1 and 2 (to the extent possible) and recruit nobody. Here's Bunnie the gnome; she's quick like a bunny!

Some of the most interesting things I found under the cut!

If you immediately jog over from the Nautiloid to the mountain pass area, Shadowheart will catch up to you and try to party up.

You can reject her company, of course; if you do, the artefact just appears in your inventory later after this brief cutscene saying ''you got the plot device.' The Emperor never addresses this at all but I have to assume it just looked at the both of you liked your main character energy better.

(For her part, Shadowheart will hang out indefinitely in front of the path to the mountain pass, insisting that you need her to come with you. She never seems to realize that the artefact ditched her, but seems to have the 'shielded' effect on her for as long as you can still go back to that area to check on her, so idk. I assume she dies/ceremorphosizes at some point after you leave the shadow cursed lands.)

If you leave for the mountain pass without encountering Raphael, he just shows up in your camp, and you do NOT have a choice to go to bed without speaking to him, lol.

What happens to Lae'zel is SUPER interesting. If you don't encounter her in the cage outside of the grove, the game gives you a second chance by setting her outside of the monastery, wandering around.

If you don't join her there, either, you will find her at the entrance of the Shadow-Cursed lands, extremely dead. I imagine this is just the game's way of making sure you see she's dead, but I would have assumed for sure that without player intervention she would've died in the zaith'isk? I wonder what sequence of events is implied by this? Maybe she broke out of the zaith'isk on her own, escaped the creche, but had nobody to warn her that she needed a torch in the Shadow-Cursed lands? Maybe the gith sent her on an errand before they let her have a turn in the cleansing machine? Unclear!

Your dream guardian comments that it's impressed by your efficiency by skipping over the grove entirely:

This is different from what it says if you actively durge the grove, where it insinuates that you did what you did to infiltrate the cult and asks whether or not you have regrets about that.

If you don't go to Last Light Inn at all, you can meet Jaheira for the first time at the bridge to Moonrise tower. She does NOT react well if you answer her question by saying "I'm busy, get out of the way"; this will aggro the Harpers (understandably). I ultimately decided to sneak around the back and I didn't canonically meet her for the first time until after defeating Ketheric. She will automatically join your camp for the one night on the way to Baldur's Gate, but she will leave forever (leaving you a letter saying "bye") once you get to the Lower City if you tell her at Moonrise you don't want her in your party.

She does not survive the events of the game if you do not let her join your party, it seems. (I did not pursue the Minsc storyline and I do not know if it's possible to prevent this outcome that way.)

This next bit is REALLY wild; in all of my other playthroughs, I don't think I ever tried defeating Gortash before I disabled the Steel Watch. You can defeat Gortash at his inauguration, and the Absolute will immediately be your bestie about it and will helpfully murder any of the witnesses (including Ulder Ravengard, I think; I took care not to kill him but he vanished anyway.)

The next thing that happens doesn't actually make sense but is interesting nevertheless. Once Gortash is dead, the Steel Foundry is automatically blown up, and the Absolute speaks encouragingly to the player through the Steel Watchers:

I'm actually stumped about how the Absolute can control the Steel Watchers without the corresponding tadpoled brains in the Foundry (which I have to assume got crushed in the rubble?) Oh well. In any case, the Steel Watchers are friendly and will even be allied with you if you get into any scuffles with the Fist, until you kill Orin. After you kill Orin, every Steel Watcher is immediately hostile AND will sic the Fist on you, too.

(Funny story, I actually managed to down one of the Watchers next to the Steel Watch fan group on the north end of Wyrm's Crossing and uh. The Watcher blew up one of the fanboys. Oops. RIP Trinigan Gazotts.)

I kinda want to write a whole post about just this, but Shadowheart's parents are still put up on display in the House of Grief basement in spite of the fact that she is almost certainly (?!) dead and/or a mindflayer by this point:

You can talk to them but you cannot help them in any way. I'm aware that this is just a tease for Shadowheart's plot, but I want to nitpick this so bad. The Sharrans have regular prison cells in the building; what is the point of hanging up these two on the Spencer's Gifts lights indefinitely? Whatever bummer vibes Shar is getting off of them can not be enough to pay for their magical upkeep. Do the Sharrans have to take them down at mealtimes, or are they fed with sandwiches on sticks, or...?

The love test at the circus is NOT interesting; the dryad assumes that you are in love even if you are forever alone and gives her usual sales pitch about bringing the one you love to her.

If you didn't save Wulbren or Barcus, the entrance to the Ironhand Gnomes' cave is just blocked off.

Astarion's unfortunate end if you don't recruit him has been covered in great detail by other posts, but I will remark that it is funny to kill Cazador yourself as a gnome because you have to hop up to stab him. It's also very, very funny to see Cazador explain his whole evil plot to you, random gnome woman who just showed up, if Astarion isn't around. This man is desperate for somebody to think he's cool, so I guess he'll settle for attention from the cattle if he's gotta.

Volo still shows up tied to that trolley cart by the foundry, but there's no angry mob around him.

If you haven't encountered the inquisitor at the creche, or the avatar of Vlaakith in the shadow cursed land, they both show up in the Elfsong's basement

There is no hag plot if you did not encounter Ethel. The captain at the Blushing Mermaid is just as she seems, there's no hag lair, and Vanra and her mother want nothing to do with you. There's no hag support group; that house has a group of random hostile thugs in it instead (with a tenuous tie-in to Ninefinger's Guild).

In Act 3, Raphael will totally say "listen here you little shit" if you hassled him outside of the mausoleum in Act 2 by, oh, I don't know, casting Silence on him? (after which he does NOT give you the Yurgir quest, he just leaves).

Bluurg and Omeluum do not show up at the Society of Brilliance's lodge if you did not meet them in the underdark in Act One, but there is a letter indicating that they will show up later. I checked, and Omeluum is also not in the Iron Throne.

Nothing funny or new happened with Orin. I threw her in a pit. BUT worth mentioning? You can skip the entire Bhaalist powerword kill trial if you just send one invisible party member through the area and just find the warppoint near the temple afterward. You're welcome.

If you get to the epilogue alone, Milil will comment that he expected more guests, but Withers will speak as if multiple people are there no matter what

Also, if you are a lonely little mindflayer, this has no effect on the refreshments offered at the epilogue party. Mindflayers can drink alcohol, apparently, but obviously nobody is here to eat all the food Withers put out. WTF, pee paw.

And I think that's mostly all the was interesting or different in this run. It was a fun challenge!