Sounds like early level BG to me haha, the amount of running away I did on my way to the inn...

Yea, I tried (and failed/reloaded) the githyanki encounter, and also another in that area with some gnolls (several times). I'm exploring more of the map in an attempt to gain a few levels and hopefully not get totally rekt in the process. Oh man... Ox, that's some crazy stuff in your screenshots. Sounds pretty awesome. I've already been planning out another run at this game and leaning into the evil side.

Err... spoiler regarding a certain one-horned character


I did manage to pull off a few good fights, like an enormous spider in a certain area. That fight was tough... in the very last round it knocked out 2 of my party members, and everyone else was pretty badly injured. It was very satisfying.

Oh, I failed to mention that as a cleric one of my spells is talk to animals. It's actually pretty cool. I'm glad I picked it up. It's not game breaking or anything, but pretty neat being able to converse with any animals you stumble into.

Adding two pics.

Whoops, a second party member turned on me. This one even attacked me so I had to kill him. I'm down to two recruitable NPCs right now, after I also refused to help another one earlier in the game and didn't see her again. Man, this game feels like the perfect old school RPG with amazing polish and quality of life upgrades. I love that there are actually consequences to my actions.

There are a lot of unexpected situations you can get into which could potentially change a LOT, and I've told myself that unless it was unintentional (accidentally pick up an illegal item or something) or ends up in an unwinnable flight, I'll roll with it. I might be breaking the game, who knows, but so far so good.

Who are your favorite NPCs so far? From the 'starting roster', let's say.

It's been that long since a proper DnD style game that I suppose we've all slipped into 'bad' gaming habits. I know we all do replays occasionally (or for me, re-attempts to actually finish one...) but we're so used to "Here's your wizard. Cast unlimited spells until you run out of mana. Chug a potion. Cast unlimited spells" that having to remember that actually you might need to ration or combine actions to get the best out of them is a bit alien. Definitely fun though; I've been playing IWD2 since I finished the first one many, many years ago and it's taken some adjustment.

Keep us entertained with more depravity please Ox!

I had that animal whispering perk in Original Sin Satis, always fun to chat to the animals. Some just don't wanna talk but I do remember in the first town in OS there were a couple of oxen pulling a cart that have a proper conversation with you. Seems Ox is chatty

Send all your food to camp, absolutely no point in hauling it with you since you only use it in camp and the camp box is directly linked with the rest mechanism. Make sure you have access to blind effect, wether its the spell darkness or pets who poke eyes and they can blind every turn wo rest, this will make huuuge difference in fights. You should have two damage dealers in your group, the other two should be helping these two to max their combat prowess. Or get a paladin and just annihilate everything.

Find Withers and you can recruit thralls to fill your empty spots. Unless you somehow managed to kill him as well. He's in a tomb with undead pretty much at the starting place after the crash.

I guess you guys skipped the pathfinder games. They operate under a different license than regular dnd but the difference is not that big.

I actually find the game a bit boring and poorly paced. The biggest issue how the story is trying to convey a feeling of urgency but the game world doesn't support this as you are free to explore every shelf and barrel. So far from the companion side only two storylines have been interesting, that of wyll and karlach as they are somewhat tied and that of Lae'zel. The others I don't really give a fuck. Astarion is the very definiton of annoying. So far only Karlach dialogue has gotten a burst of laughter out of me. Anyway i'm hoping things get better once the city of Baldur's Gate opens up.

The team I roll with mostly is beastmaster as me, wyll as warlock, karlach as barbarian tank, and lae'zel warrior dps. Most fights are doable so far, not a whole lot of strategizing needed - I see face, I hit said face. . Lae'zel is especially dangerous with 20ish damage per hit and she can attack twice, or when i use the extra action skill then 4 times. My BM can match/outdo that normal damage when I get lucky and hit with the sneak attack and then immediately follow with the second attack+second hand attack. Wyll is the pincushion as ranged enemies love attacking casters but he's got plenty of ac and hp and with a retaliatory spell can really fuck up someone's day.

I guess the power of jade is stronger in me than I thought.

lol. Initially I found Astarion really annoying, but he grew on me a bit. When we had a discussion about which party member's blood I'd prefer to drink, it really amused me. Also when I told the monster hunter who he was and he was like... wtf?

@ox .. regarding thieves and dex... shit, you're probably right. I'm probably wasting those strength potions.
@peltz .. I only recently learned about not having to haul around all that food. Thanks for sharing... I was carrying so much unnecessary weight around.

Regarding that strength potion, unfortunately my easy source of potions is...er... gone. No more quick source of health, greater health and strength potions any more. Which is unfortunate, for sure. I'm still in the first map, murdering goblins in a base of theirs. I was just walking around talking to them, but after a failed "read mind" attempt everyone went hostile, so I had to put them down. Drow poison worked to knock out the Ogre, which was very nice, so then I just mowed through everyone else. I've taken to using colour spray, since it's got a convenient area attack and blinds creatures. The hit point limit is unfortunate, but what's to be expected from a level 1 spell.

Speaking of levels, my characters are all level 4 now, getting fairly close to 5.

Yeah Astarion grew on me as well...and not just because he's ok with all the evil shit I do. His backstory actually seems pretty interesting and I'm curious about how it will develop. As you can imagine, I have little insight in the stories of most of the other characters, but honestly all of them seemed intriguing enough (from the little I've seen so far from them).

@ Peltz yeah I used withers to recruit a wizard thrall. He's been pretty good and sort of the missing link in my ensemble (fighter, cleric, rogue and now wizard). It's interesting (but cool) that you are rolling without a 'real' mage (sorcerer, wizard). I know Wyll can hold his own but he probably doesn't have access to the same range of spells, but I could be wrong of course. I especially enjoy being able to do good AoE damage now with fireballs and the likes - none of my other party members could really do that effectively, which was a pain when fighting large groups of weaker enemies or just enemies clumped together.

I think I just made it out of Act 1 after playing feverishly for a few days Needless to say, the trail of blood I left behind me is...something to behold. I'm a bit worried about saying too much more because it might spoil things for people who are a buit further behind in terms of progress, but I'm having a blast. I feel like I'm really getting the hang of the combat and am now pretty easily carving my way through very difficult fights, fights that you aren't even necessarily supposed to trigger if you play like a normal human being. But I have spent a lot more time in act 1 than most because of my genocidal sprees and lack of direction as well.

To be clear: I don't usually just attack groups for no reason. I'll end up saying the wrong thing, or they'll demand something from me that I won't do, and then the shit hits the fan. Oh, on the NPC front: minor early game spoiler but

I didn't even kill Lazael the first time! She ended up getting herself killed another way after I didn't help her right after the crash...because I told her I'd only help her if she asked me nicely. She flat out refused. Later, when I went back to see if she had changed her mind, she was gone. And then the next time I met her she died before i could help it, and I had to resurrect her.

It's pretty amazing how many permutations there are to each situation tbh...and how much freedom you have to approach things, especially with the possibility of resurrecting, speaking with the dead, reading minds, disguising yourself, etc etc. Not to mention the environmental/combat options! Things like fly, misty step, hide, throw, etc. Hell, you can pick up some enemies and throw them at others/over cliff edges. Like Satis I have also laughed pretty hard a few times when I used spells or skills to toss enemies off cliffs and bridges, so much fun. Sometimes it's even amusing to see one of your own, full health, carefully placed characters arc over a cliff edge and instantly die.

I agree with Satis that they did a really good job with the characters' stories (for now anyway). Definitely not as jaded as you Peltz. Satis, you're gonna love the underdark I think...it's very pretty, huge and quite dangerous, so be careful. But at level 5 I think you should be ok.

Hahaha @ that Shadowheart face....honestly, before I read what you wrote, I thought it was Lazeal with Shadowheart's haircut That's how weird it looks.

Btw the voice acting for the companions is top notch too. Especially Astarion is spot on.

I'm gonna have to take a break from playing for a day or 3 but looking forward to starting act 2 and being a monster.

Astarion gonna Astarion

Nice. Astarion is definitely a personality. I agree though, it does sound like there are an absolute ton of options, all kinds of crazy stuff you can do. I've been using talk to animals for a while, which can get you some interesting information and encounters. I more recently started using speak with dead, which is pretty interesting as well. I need to use that more often I think. I also recently got misty step on a couple of my characters... that skill is awesome. I can get my archer to high ground instantly, or get Astarion out of a bad situation.

I had started on the underdark at around level 3 and was doing ok until a bulette absolutely wrecked my party. I decided to come back later, which I now have. My first encounter with a bulette went in my favor, but I did have some help . Currently exploring the under dark and murdering stuff.