I FINALLY got to play it. Finally. I've wanted to play it since it came out in 2023. 5e? I'm in.
First character:
I had all these plans over the years but I blanked on character creation. Just went with default pretty non-binary Elf as a Fighter, got bored of that and respecedd to Hexblade 1 Paladin 11. Smite was so good, having SAD for my 20+ in Charisma, Hex Weaponry, Eldritch Blast go brr, Paladin tankiness. I broke my Oath by being too morally flexible, the breaking point was letting the Hag live. Oathbreaker was OK but I think I would have preferred to stay Vengeance.
Companions/The Party:
Lae'zel was my first companion and she stayed the whole game! I liked her honesty and could tolerate her whole alien POV. Anytime I felt she was too harsh or direct or whatever I just reminded myself she was from another plane of existence. She really like my whole 'do things my way' approach so ended up falling in love with my character. Woo! She went Barbarian Berserker 9 Fighter Champion 3 IIRC.
Gale I rescued from a portal and I liked his wit and friendly nature so he was in. I kept him as a Wizard for a little bit but as soon as I could I re-specced him as a Life Cleric. I was playing on Balanced so didn't need THAT much healing so re-specced him again as a Light Cleric and he was very useful in Act 2 especially.
Astarion I kept along and made him my Assassin 3/Gloomstalker 6/Fighter 3 I think was the split. He was my designated Thief/Sneaky guy. Enemies LOVED trying to find him while he was Bonus Action Hidden.
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Most fights would open with Astarion shooting something 3 times and hiding, Laezel raging and walloping stuff 3 times, my Tav and Gale reacting to whatever the situation was afterward. Gale was a bit up and down - bleh in Act 1, excellent in Act 2, mixed in Act 3. I chalk it up to not being familair with what was possible: started to enjoy throwing around Wall of Fire and whatnot by the end with him. Much simpler with Astarion and Laezel. My Tav was a tank by the end, dishing out radiant smites and explosive damage so was great.
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I briefly had Shadowheart in the party but she wildly underperformed (I read later due to her poor build) but next time when I run with her, Wyll and Karlach I'll respec her as a better cleric.
Act 1
What a dense first Act! I tried to beat the Commander before he got backup cambions... and failed. The cambions killed me. So I reloaded for the first time. Got off the ship and collected my party, found the grove, side with them.
I pretty much did every single quest in Act 1, I think, bar one or two. I killed a lot of people. I found the Hag and broke my Oath to get her sweet hair +1 to my Charisma.
I tried to hear the Goblins out, managing to diplo my way into their camp and trust but seeing all the slaves, and murder, and torture... I was like, fuck these guys. Was really handy strategy here and later on: befriend a side just enough, hear them out, then betray them and kill them en masse or in groups. I was able to sort of systematically wipe out the goblins and get their delicious experience points.
I was level 7 when I left the first act, which is a lot. I also acquired the legendary weapon, the Blood of Lathander, for my Oathbreaker-Hexblade monstrosity Tav so I was well set up for a trip to the Shadowlands.
Act 2
The Shadowlands were really easy for me - a Light Cleric and Radiant Paladin? A Gloomstalker rogue? GWM Barb Laezel? It all just clicked. Once again found myself siding with the 'good' guys in a no-brainer.
Sheart ditched me after I cleared the Trials of Shar without her, first companion to no bueno. Fine. Wasn't using you anyway!
Act 3
I was level 10, almost level 11 (out of 12 level cap) by the time I reached BG so was telling myself I wouldn't do every quest; leave some content for next time.
There is a lot to do in the city, I LOVED everything to do with the circus,
Killing Orin was tough but managed to knock her off the battlefield with Illithid push.
Ansur was easy with the one Scroll of Otiluke's I had used there.
Gortash was too tough/I lost the will to push on so I resolved to keep him until he gets himself killed by the Nether brain later.
I accidentally made the Emperor the wielder of the final spell of the game and missed out on becoming an illithid! I had a head canon as my Tav being a Illithidphile(?) so was annoyed when I realised I missed it, at the very end of game. Luckily I reloaded and fixed it later, as below.
I expect when I return on Tactician and Honour Mode I'll be using Act 3 a lot more to get experience points so I'm kind of glad I skipped a lot of the content.
Ending
I finished it December 30th 2025 but I think in my eagerness to skip bits of dialogue it didn't show me any character-specific endings? I didn't actually fully finish any of the companion quests so maybe that's why. Did a quick search there and seems like it's usually pretty quick. I did finish it 3 times back to back:
1. Gale-bombed the brain. Partially because I could not kill the red dragon/mindflayer spellcasters/etc the way I wanted to. Cut to BG citizens cleaning up corpses and celebrating lmao.
2. Reloaded further back and became a mindflayer myself (as I had originally meant to) fought and subdued the brain. Domination. Everything was so much easier the second run to the Nether brain; partially because I knew what I was doing this time but also Mindflayer Tav was what I really wanted. I didn't mean to make the Emperor the Orpheus vessel or whatever but missed the dialogue cue for what I wanted. Good thing I had a save.
3. Reloaded at the choice at end 'dominate or destroy' and destroyed it. Mindflayer Tav killed themselves after. Seemed 'canon' as an ending as what I neglected to mention is Laezel was my lover but got pissed and left the party/attacked when I disregarded Voss too much. Had to recruit a Dwarf Barb off Withers at the pre-endgame checkpoint. So Tav killed themselves to stop the hunger/maybe be rejoined with Laezel somehow in Sovengard/destroyed the Netherbrain-Crown etc.
Astarion remarked that he could be in sunlight in the 3rd ending. Karlach died as I hadn't done her questline. Laezel was in all 3 endings so nothing to see there. Gale was his usual cheery self but didn't go to see Mystra so his quest wasn't 100%. Wyll was free from his bondage so I was happy with that. Shadowheart ditched me in Act 2 because I didn't bring her to the Trials of Shar.
Next time
Will definitely go back to it in a few months but was so burnt out by the end. I need to play through on Tactician and Honour mode so that's a whole thing to look forward to. Will probably get the full endings with the companions then. I had reached level 12 early in Act 3 so kind of lost interest in seeing all quests through, but I tell myself I will have plenty to look forward to in a second or third run! Also there's all the Dark Urge stuff to do. One of those runs will be a Durge playthrough!
I'm really looking forward to the second run but am completely wiped out from BG3. Haven't binged a Christmas game like that since Twilight Princess came out on the Nintendo Wii.
