Remove ads

I cannot be caged! I cannot be controlled! - Baldur's Gate 3

Okay, how the fuck do I beat Viconia? I wanted to do the companion quests in Act 3 before everything else, but maybe I should reach level 12 (I'm level 10 at the moment) before I tackle that BDSM nun.
 
Ulmicola said:
Okay, how the fuck do I beat Viconia? I wanted to do the companion quests in Act 3 before everything else, but maybe I should reach level 12 (I'm level 10 at the moment) before I tackle that BDSM nun.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Summons. Ghoul Backup Dancer Squad assuming you finished the book quest, Planar Ally on Shart (Angel is best beatstick), and a copy of Scroll of Summon Elemental for each party member. If you have a druid or other caster who has it innately upcast for a Myrmydion.

This fight is a numbers game, in that the more bodies you have the less you suffer.

Or stealth barrelmancy if you have the resources I guess. Never tried it.
 
My pursuit of Ketheric was a touch less climactic than it should have been.

After the big tentacle seizes Dame Aylin, I knew exactly where to go to pursue. The basement. So I went down the stairs, said hello to Jaheria, mentioned I was in pursuit, she might have heard a rumbling earlier, then I went down to the prison and the big meat pit.

And... that wasn't actually the right way. So my party climbed out of the meat pit (covered in blood, mind), told Jaheria they'd gone the wrong way, and went back up to the roof so they could reach the basement in the intended way.

I felt as if all those Harpers were judging me the entire way back.
 
Sir Bill said:
My pursuit of Ketheric was a touch less climactic than it should have been.

After the big tentacle seizes Dame Aylin, I knew exactly where to go to pursue. The basement. So I went down the stairs, said hello to Jaheria, mentioned I was in pursuit, she might have heard a rumbling earlier, then I went down to the prison and the big meat pit.

And... that wasn't actually the right way. So my party climbed out of the meat pit (covered in blood, mind), told Jaheria they'd gone the wrong way, and went back up to the roof so they could reach the basement in the intended way.

I felt as if all those Harpers were judging me the entire way back.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Clipping into the final boss zone from the basement IS a speedrun strat, but only if you do that BEFORE stage 1 of the Ketheric fight.

Also companion chatter telling you where to go is an underappreciated guidance mechanic.
 
Ulmicola said:
Okay, how the fuck do I beat Viconia? I wanted to do the companion quests in Act 3 before everything else, but maybe I should reach level 12 (I'm level 10 at the moment) before I tackle that BDSM nun.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My preferred way to do it is to immediately run up the stairs and cast a bunch of AOE hazard spells. In particular, stacking Cloudkill on top of Sleet Storm is really effective here.
 
I'm going to assume that the shapeshifters are inherently an NPC race in regular DnD considering how they all come with freeform shapeshifting, teleportation and mind reading (plus probably other psychic powers) and that's way too nice of a skillset for PCs.

And no talking to Thrumbo if you've killed Mystic Carrion before, RIP Thrumbo for this run.

EDIT: I wonder what happens if I kill the Zhentarim hideout before rescuing the two idiots.
 
Last edited:
spacemonkey37 said:
My preferred way to do it is to immediately run up the stairs and cast a bunch of AOE hazard spells. In particular, stacking Cloudkill on top of Sleet Storm is really effective here.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Level 11 now; Halsin can cast Sleet Storm, Gale can cast Cloudkill. I'm torn between having Lae'zel or Shadowheart as the third companion: the former can probably kill Viconia in one turn, since she can attack an obscene amount of times in a row, and I got her a spear (from that circus genie) that explodes when thrown and always comes back, so it almost counts as an area spell of its own, while the latter has Selune's spear with Moonlight, that might help against Darkness, and some very cool summons.

Also, Gale is decked from head to toe in Lorroakan's gear, while Lae'zel got the Emperor's old clothes. :p
 
You know, it does occasionally make me feel a bit... iffy... in games to talk someone into dying, and Ketheric was one of the heights of that. Just the whole, "If you want to be with your family again, go kill yourself" feels a bit off to me, even if it's a hundred percent true by the setting's cosmology.

But it was definitely a bit jarring to go from trying to appeal to his old emotions to Dame Aylin just flying in and promising to do incredible violence. I mean, I was trying something here.

Then when I pursued him the second time, managing to skip the second phase of his fight by just talking to him about his family, then Dame Aylin swoops in, stomps his skull and goes "Boom! Headshot bitch! I'm going to romantically make love to your daughter on the ruins of everything you've tried to achieve in life!"

Don't get me wrong, after everything Ketheric's done and everything that she's been through I really don't fault her for it, but like, trying to redeem literally everyone is kind of my... thing, you know? Okay okay I get it, I'm an outsider here, this is your scene and that's fair. You can handle this your way.

(I do like the Dame Aylin, this isn't a complaint, I just found the contrast amusing.)
 
Sir Bill said:
You know, it does occasionally make me feel a bit... iffy... in games to talk someone into dying, and Ketheric was one of the heights of that. Just the whole, "If you want to be with your family again, go kill yourself" feels a bit off to me, even if it's a hundred percent true by the setting's cosmology.

But it was definitely a bit jarring to go from trying to appeal to his old emotions to Dame Aylin just flying in and promising to do incredible violence. I mean, I was trying something here.

Then when I pursued him the second time, managing to skip the second phase of his fight by just talking to him about his family, then Dame Aylin swoops in, stomps his skull and goes "Boom! Headshot bitch! I'm going to romantically make love to your daughter on the ruins of everything you've tried to achieve in life!"

Don't get me wrong, after everything Ketheric's done and everything that she's been through I really don't fault her for it, but like, trying to redeem literally everyone is kind of my... thing, you know? Okay okay I get it, I'm an outsider here, this is your scene and that's fair. You can handle this your way.

(I do like the Dame Aylin, this isn't a complaint, I just found the contrast amusing.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oath of Vengeance Paladins have places to be and skulls to crush.
 
The Curious Fan said:
I'm going to assume that the shapeshifters are inherently an NPC race in regular DnD considering how they all come with freeform shapeshifting, teleportation and mind reading (plus probably other psychic powers) and that's way too nice of a skillset for PCs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The ones you see in the game, yes, they're "Monsters". Since 3.5 edition, though, D&D has had a nerfed "player-friendly" version of Doppelgangers around in the form of the Changelings, who actually originated in a different campaign setting, Eberron.

5th Edition actually has two versions of the Changeling - the updated Eberron version, in Rising from the Last War, and a Feywild-associated "generic" version in Monsters of the Multiverse. They're both basically the same, other than the latter having the Fey type and adhering to the updated "pick your stat bonuses" method BG3 uses, and both center around a "look like whoever you want at will" feature and getting two free social skill proficiencies - none of the telepathic or psionic bullshit monster Doppelgangers get.
 
Nerdorama said:
The ones you see in the game, yes, they're "Monsters".
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Like Astarion where to be balanced he has to be a really shoddy example of his monster type to make the playable cut. I'm guessing there's also some fuckery where they're all born inherently evil and thus end up joining murder cults over any of the other jobs they could easily get?
Nerdorama said:
D&D has had a nerfed "player-friendly" version of Doppelgangers around in the form of the Changelings, who actually originated in a different campaign setting, Eberron.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The thing Orin is I'm assuming, still a freeform shapeshifter with weapons and armour included but missing other parts of the kit.
 
Last edited:
The Curious Fan said:
Like Astarion where to be balanced he has to be a really shoddy example of his monster type to make the playable cut. I'm guessing there's also some fuckery where they're all born inherently evil and thus end up joining murder cults over any of the other jobs they could easily get?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Astarion is a weird case because

1. Vampire Spawn are already nerfed versions of Vampires and
2. He's both missing a lot of features and a lot of weaknesses to make him playable, all handwaved by Tadpolium.

Ultimately though a thing to remember about D&D 5E is that players and NPCs don't play by the same rules as far as character design goes. It's not like 3.x where everyone is built on the same building blocks and the only difference between a "player race" and a "monster" is formatting. Doppelgangers are NPC-only because they lack a player statline or any attempt to balance them, not because they're inherently evil. I mean they're certainly not usually presented as FRIENDLY, but that's not why you can't play them. They just aren't playable and 5e doesn't feel the need to justify that the way 3.x did.
 
Nerdorama said:
Astarion is a weird case because

1. Vampire Spawn are already nerfed versions of Vampires and
2. He's both missing a lot of features and a lot of weaknesses to make him playable, all handwaved by Tadpolium.

Ultimately though a thing to remember about D&D 5E is that players and NPCs don't play by the same rules as far as character design goes. It's not like 3.x where everyone is built on the same building blocks and the only difference between a "player race" and a "monster" is formatting. Doppelgangers are NPC-only because they lack a player statline or any attempt to balance them, not because they're inherently evil. I mean they're certainly not usually presented as FRIENDLY, but that's not why you can't play them. They just aren't playable and 5e doesn't feel the need to justify that the way 3.x did.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Karlach is weird, too - perfectly playable (in fact, she's my heavy hitter of choice), but I think she'd fit the Berserker sub-class much more than the Wildheart sub-class, and her Outlander background doesn't make sense, since she grew up in Baldur's Gate: the Urchin background would make more sense. Maybe Larian had another kind of backstory in mind for her?
 
I had Karlach as Wild Magic barbarian in my main playthrough, which I thought was pretty flavorful for the magic malfunctioning hell-engine in her chest, but it ended up feeling a bit underwhelming. The extra spell slots were neat, but the wild magic surges never really felt impactful enough, and the level 11 bonus allowing to try and reroll them didn't really feel worth the effort most of the time unless I was on an actively detrimental one.
 
Ulmicola said:
Karlach is weird, too - perfectly playable (in fact, she's my heavy hitter of choice), but I think she'd fit the Berserker sub-class much more than the Wildheart sub-class, and her Outlander background doesn't make sense, since she grew up in Baldur's Gate: the Urchin background would make more sense. Maybe Larian had another kind of backstory in mind for her?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Outlander is probably meant to represent spending the last decade fighting and scavenging across the plains of Avernus. Though that said, 5e Backgrounds are really supposed to represent someone's occupation pre-adventuring, and most BG3 characters don't really have those, on account of already having long careers before the game kicks them down to level 1.
 
Welp got right to the end of Act 2 (before the party goes for a swim and Shadowheart makes a big stabby choice) and I got slammed with the Quest Items bug. Spent like two days trying to uninstall mods and get the game stable, finally managed to isolate the mod that was using Mod Fixer and uninstall it, got the game stable...and it's still borked.

Debating whether or not to keep fucking around, putting a pin in the game until the next hotfix, or just starting a new game from scratch.
 
So I started a Honour playthrough and finally understand why you find such an overabundance of crap throughout the game.

You NEED it.

Shit is brutal.
 
Ulmicola said:
Karlach is weird, too - perfectly playable (in fact, she's my heavy hitter of choice), but I think she'd fit the Berserker sub-class much more than the Wildheart sub-class, and her Outlander background doesn't make sense, since she grew up in Baldur's Gate: the Urchin background would make more sense. Maybe Larian had another kind of backstory in mind for her?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
She did go through some changes as she made her way through development towards being an origin companion.
Pidl said:
Just so you know, closing the game via Task Manager let's you avoid a game over.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Especially important when the elevator disappears midway through the gauntlet of Shar and your party is plummeting to their deaths :V

Might have to hammer it multiple times to ensure it closes fast enough to avoid saving though.
 
Last edited:
In pdox games I copy the save file and put is somewhere else. Not sure if BG3 will allow that
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top