#katplaysbg3

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I love how extra you are, babe.

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I should not be allowed the Internet because when Buck and I start talking about how our faves need to look for every run, and then I can just make memes happen.

FYI, this is fuccboi prime Astarion:

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Friends, I am NOT OK.

So, my necromancer is romancing Astarion. Alright. I had the friendship version of the Act 2 scene with Gale. Afterwards, he wants to talk and says, "Hey, thanks. I needed you to talk me out of the kys situation."

me the whole time:

My Galemancer heart is not OK. I am not fine.

So, after this heartbreak, I'm like, "FINE. I'll go kiss the vampire... maybe that will make me feel better?" It did not.

ASTARION PLEASE! I'm sobbing over the wizard, and you're giving me attitude. I'll remind you that this is our height situation:

This will never not be funny to me. I'm always thinking in the back of my mind, "I could yeet this bastard to Baldur's Gate easy..."

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I asked Gale what else he liked about me. I feel like I didn't get a very satisfactory answer. We have worms in our head. Tell me I’m pretty. That being said, the way this top accentuates the orb mark is very nice.

I didn't get a chance to play any more yesterday because I was busy editing the podcast I recorded with a friend. We discuss patch 8 and general shenanigans around D&D, DMing, and MMOs. It's a queer nerd gaming podcast by some neurodivergent yappers. Once it's up, I'll post a link.

Halsin is me when they tried to make me a manager. No, thank you...

I've also decided that for my own sanity, I'm skipping over a lot of Act 1. I've played it so many times I'm done. So, I'm doing the bare minimum of the Underdark and Grymforge to move to Act 2. However, if there was a time I would destroy the creche, it would be this team. Everyone's in insane mod armor. I'm an artificer, which is a bit OP on top of it. Can't escape me now, gith! I have a gun! Two guns, actually!

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me, posting publically: I get why some people think Gale's annoying... Gale this run: what if I was just the absolute sweetest, hmm?

I know you're hearing that in Tim Downie's voice, too.

So, I deleted the run where he'd been annoying because I thought I would record a run for YouTube, but I changed my mind, so a new artificer run started. I will admit that I am biased, but this latest run's timing has him as the Gale I know and love. Instead of telling me about Tara or the Blackstaff incident after saving the tiefling child from the harpies, it was the conversation where he tells you about the orb for the first time. Then, we meet Kagha, and he talks about his happiness that we saved Arabella.

Additionally, can we talk about this? Everyone, even stone-cold Act 1 Astarion, gets upset over Alfira:

This just surprised me because of the attention to detail. Thanks, Larian.

Oh, and a new experience! Took a long rest in the temple to Jergal and Gale told me to "Go to Hell". No. Really.

It was ultimately an opener to a conversation about how fucked our situation was, but I'd never seen the scene before. He says he'll wake me in the morning. Also, he gave me this look. I'm not well.

As a girl who has a thing for competency and hands? Not well at all.

Meanwhile, Astarion and Shadowheart?

Thanks, assholes. You're lucky I love you two. Gods...

I definitely need to find some good armor for Shadowheart. Hells, I'd take even her dark justiciar armor. Everyone else is all dressed up, and she's in her level 1 noob gear.

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This corny idiot (affectionate)…

This is the first time I've gotten this one through upwards of seven playthroughs of Act 1. He's hustling to make me regret that earlier post.

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HEARTBREAKING: The Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point

So, yeah, the House of Hope. This is Ari, my half-wood elf ranger, my first playthrough. It's not finished, and like every true BG3 fan, I have started several since. With this one, I'll admit, I got frustrated. I have a lot of characters in classes I'd never play, and I'm playing all of them at levels I never reached, so I don't have any idea WTF I am doing.

Luckily, Buck and my nesting partner came to the rescue. My partner has an excellent grasp of the systems of D&D and how I play games, so he and Buck were able to help talk me through the basement fight. Once they did that, I could get through Ansur, Orin, Cazador, and the Sharrans on my own. So, ordered some pizza, fed the pup, and got started on the House of Hope!

Putting the rest under cut because it's spoiler-y. Proceed with caution.

BUT! Before we do? Free Astarion pic. Stay cunty, my friend.

Ari: We've all gotta have a thing. My thing is kissing the sad-faced idiot to the left of me.

This is the face of a man who's like, "I'm going to perform the shit out of this ritual!"

Also, I fucking hate these robes. How are these in the game? My man looks like a sack of potatoes. That is BURLAP. That is a very rough, loose weave. It is mad itchy, like gains AC because no one wants to touch it itchy. It has a cream turtleneck... or worse, a turtleneck dickie?! Bro is rich (thanks to this reddit thread, this is now my headcanon) and powerful af, and they put him in these? Larian truly hates Gale Dekarios. Also, the glasses, which I love, make him look like a dork, but that's on me and I accept it. Fucking nerd. I love him.

These three consistently serve the best expressions. Halsin? Chillin. Astarion (who I ascended in this playthrough for the story)? "So, a new little freak then? That tracks..." Ari? Alarmed and moving backward toward her very powerful wizard boyfriend. Like, "hey babe, please tell me you have Hold Person prepared, just in case..."

Also, I decided to be autistic about the House of Hope. I have pretty annoying pathological demand avoidance, and this comes out pretty hard in video games. So, I decided I wouldn't do this the way it could or should be done. No, I was doing it my way, and if that meant save scumming, I would be save scumming and I did. A lot.

I wanted one thing: not to kill Haarlep. I found out you could not kill them, so I decided I wouldn't. The advice to use Supreme Sneak to break into the safe doesn't work easily. You will come out of stealth if you perform an action while using Supreme Sneak. This led to me shuffling as close as possible, trying to stay out of sight, etc., only to trigger the conversation immediately. Eff that. I had Gale prepare Greater Invisibility, which worked great for me. After this, I grabbed the hammer and the gauntlets and started hauling ass to the prison.

So, me? I'm an idiot. As I've mentioned, I have the unholy alliance of ADHD and autism. This means I get hyperfixated on details and entirely ignore other ones. This came together with me assuming that the bath in Haarlep's room only recovered HP, so the first few times I ran to the prison (especially when I tried after fighting Haarlep), no one had any spells; everyone was just running for their lives. You get to the fight in the prison, and it's a mess. I mention this to my nesting partner, who, bless him, knows this about me and says, "Hey... I think the bath is a free long rest. Test it for me?" Well, well, well... he was right! So, that, along with not doing the Haarlep fight, made that run boring but easy.

OK, so I'm in the prison. The first time I did this, I was stupid. Only Astarion and Ari were in the room when I started the fight and had Astarion try to free Hope. Why? First, I was clearly insane. Secondly, yes, Astarion has Longstrider and moves further, but he is 160 lbs wet and got destroyed. Do you know who moves quickly and has chest hair? Sing it if you know it! It's this guy!

Yes, I know I'm not normal about this man. Luckily, my nesting partner thinks it's hilarious. Also, this is him in some good armor in my artificer run. So much better. This is a man who used to be the archmage of the City of Splendors and possesses a scroll of revivify.

While he doesn't have much better survivability than our lovely Astarion, he does have something Astarion doesn't: many Misty Step casts. Also, I figured this out mid-therapy session, so my therapist got to hear all about how I'd figured out how I was going to smash them crystals. So, giving the hammer to Gale and everyone in the room meant that the enemies were downed before we had the crystals down, even with one of my primary damage dealers doing otherwise occupied.

Went upstairs, cleaned up the hallways, time to fight Raphael. Let's go!

Raph girlies, I get it. Big disappointed parent energy. I have trauma, I understand. Mine just came out as a need for Gomez energy. To each their own...

Firstly, I love that, even angry, Raphael is a diva. He's not going to be distracted by emotions. No, he has a monologue prepared, and by the gods, you will be listening to it. I also forgot that he has his own damn theme song, which had me cracking up trying to finish this fight at 11PM.

That is a great reference to Henry here, especially from a British guy.

So, Yurgir. I did kill him back in Act 2, but I thought, "what the hell, let me try convincing him!" I had three inspiration. First three rolls? Meh. I'm like, "OK. One more. I want one inspiration, just in case..."

It ended up being pointless because dude did fuck all, but I got it. I didn't have to fight him and that means I'm a Good Person.

So, remember I said I cheesed the ritual to get here? Well, it only makes sense that I should cheese the final fight. How, you ask? Well, a bit of luck and a geodesic dome. Thanks to an arcane recovery charge, I cast Globe of Invulnerability twice, leaving Gale, Astarion, Hope and Ari protected. At the same time, Halsin, as an owlbear, called Raphael out, WWE-style.

After that, I destroyed one of the soul towers, and owlbear Halsin could keep Raphael stunlocked until the last turn when he just beat the snot out of him. Everyone else took care of the cambions, who also enjoyed the warm embrace of the geodesic dome far too much for my tastes, but we got it done. Time to go back to the material plane, drop the gloves, and go home to kiss the wizard for a job well done.

Well, the kick in the ass is that after all of this, two days worth of playtime, I didn't even need to do it. See, my stupid idiot brain assumed that freeing Orpheus meant no one was forced to become an illithid. So, because the Gith have been a thorn in my side and Lae'zel accidentally became permadead in the Orin fight via a bug (she died by my accidental damage standing on the altar, but awake and freed), we're siding with the Emperor this run. Who am I gonna squidify? Wyll? No. He's just a baby.

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Because I can't leave alone well enough, I went into BG3 and Act 3. This act seems so daunting. There's so much to do. I am stressed. I did the circus (dryad and clown) and headed to the temple before realizing I should sleep.

I also completely forgot that there's a native screencap button in Steam. I will now be a menace with screencaps for BG3 and on my second DAtV run.

My short king. Since I'm a giant in real life, my Tav had to be extra tall as well. She's a half wood elf.

After being in DA for several days, I kind of lost sight of how extra Neil is as Astarion. It kind of knocked me back a bit, to be honest.

I asked Halsin why he was so big, and I half expected him to say, "Me? We're the same height!"