I'm finally ready for the final showdown with the Elder Brain. These last couple of boss battles have been a big pain in the butt but I finally slogged through them. I'm referring to the fights against Ansur and Orin.

@Cyldewinder - It didn't occur to me to choose Shadowheart as the active character but the hotfix took care of the problem the next day regardless.

Finally finished the game tonight. It took me 231 hours.


The epilogue cutscenes were poignant, compelling and satisfying. I will definitely replay this game in a couple of months.

I'm on my 2nd run now. What a great friggin game

It's certainly my "Game of the Year". My only complaint with the game is that the Level 12 cap is much too low. I got level 12 with about 25-30 hours of playing time left to go.

I finished my second playthrough yesterday. I really feel I should give this game a rest but I'm suffering from withdrawal I don't want to burn myself out on the game because I believe there won't be another like it for some years to come.

While I made pretty much the same decisions as in my first run, it was fun to see how things could still work out differently. I also discovered some side quests that didn't do the first time and I am sure there are still a few more hidden in there. I was very happy with my own character build (9 levels Ranger Hunter + 3 Rogue Thief) and that of my companions. In my first run I didn't fid much use for Wyll or Astarion, but this time they could really shine. I heard that Trickery domain is generally considered worse for Shadowheart, but I liked it. Her Channel Divinity seems pretty weak with Trickery (I think I used it only once and it lasted maybe one turn) but I really liked the other spells that she gets.

Personally I do not mind the level cap, but I understand the criticism. I quite enjoyed being able to play with a finished character for more than just the final battle. I would not mind it if XP came a little slower.

I used Wyll a lot due to his awesome counter-spell ability. That spell saved my a$$ in several of the tougher battles in act 3.

I think Astarion makes a great Assassin/Gloomstalker which for me is maybe the best pure DPS build. Certainly the best first-strike.

My main is a warlock, and yeah, counter-spell is great since it almost always intercepts the strongest enemy's first shot, which presumably is his/her strongest attack. That's a battle-changer. So I didn't use Wyll, although I could have just respecced him.

In my second run on Tactician I'm running a party of all women. Maybe this time I can keep Jaheira alive.

I was not very impressed with Jaheira the few times I used her. She was almost always going down during a battle and her spells weren't that great either. She was like a poor man's version of my Gale.

Just started my second playthrough of this great game. I went with a custom character this time. Class: Fighter Background: Noble Gender: Male. I would like to romance someone different this time around but so far the pickings are rather slim! Laezel? NO! Karlach? NOPE! Hmmmm..maybe Jaheira?

How about Minthara? Take a walk on the dark side.

Not very noble though. Good conflict for the storymaking.

I did it all for love.

S!

Thanks for all the good advice in this thread, invaluable as I wended my way through about 160 hours of BG3. What a ride!

I learned early that my TAV Paladin was a bad choice for me as my approach in every fight at the start was just to rush in and bash everything in sight - I should have gone barbarian. And I also cheesed most of the big fights by starting the fight with a whatyoucallit spirit buddy while my party sat back at a choke point and I just lured a few bad guys to me at a time through grease, ice, fire and insects.

I missed huge parts of the plot because I used the cheese strategy when I first met Gortash and I killed him and got his stone already at his inauguration. I also couldn't be bothered to have fat chats with Ketheric or Orin and just killed them as soon as I found them. Unpredictable fights, especially Orin, but luring her out to attack my party meant I saved her hostage.

Then I got to the courtyard fight before the Netherbrain and saw how many #%&*$# enemies there were again and I lost the will to live! I saw another ten hours of monster by monster slaughter, even with all my allies. So I read that you can and I told Gale it was time he finally showed what he was good for. Cool ending, and everyone except him lived happy ever after so that's nice, right?

Second playthrough, I'm going as Karlach - more true to my inner nature! Grunt, bash, smite!

Wow, now that is a radically different ending from what I got! I played as Gale in my first playthrough so I got the "happy ending" with Shadowheart and I ended the story on good terms with Mystra.

Apart from motivating Gale's death wish Mystra was not a thing in my playthrough. My party was me, Gale, Karlach, Sheart or Jaheira so Shar and Gorlach/Zariel were more in focus. I did some quests with Minsc for laughs later (I gave him the clown hammer, that was a hoot). Vampire for the side quest. I had Laezel along early but she annoyed the hell out of me so I killed her and used her armor for half the game. I developed a gamelong hate on Githyanki.

The biggest challenge for me in the whole game was after killing Gorlach in Act 2 every Steel Watchman/guard 8n the castle was out to get me so finding a way to sneak through the castle to Act 3 was a nightmare. Lost ten hours right there until I realised I didnt have to drag my party with me I could put them in camp, escape solo, and then reunite with them! D’oh.

Finished as friends with the druids, rangers, guild, the angel chick n her sidekick, halsin, city watch, the squid dude, vampires … that’s about it. Didnt use any of them bc like i said, cheesed the whole Courtyard/Netherbrain boss thing and went for the quick n easy ending

I’m terrible at puzzles n drawn out boss fights - zero patience - so I always try to avoid! Love the fact in this game you often can… Gorlach n Orin both decided to come after my party in person which made dispatching them faster than my cowardly strategy deserved.

My biggest gripe - the map and travelling. Why you can’t just click on the visible map and go there… or at least until you hit a natural barrier…. Grrr.

My favorite thing … making barricades w explosive barrels n fireworks, luring the legions of dumbos to group up behind them and then BOOM.

My favorite spell … insects. My favorite fight tactic was to make sure my enemies were wading through clouds of insects to get at me. Reminded me of summers in the Ontario woods!

And a PS

Looking back on the narrative from a writing perspective I think it was elegantly done - what started as an individual quest to rid yourself of the parasite in your brain led you to companion after companion until finally you were on a common quest to save the world (and either get rid of or embrace the parasite in your brain). Many opportunities for light side / dark side choices along the way and so many decisions or interactions with real consequences. A++.

Too bad you didn't go to the Watchman foundry first to destroy it so that it disables all of the Steel Watchmen in Baldur's Gate like I did in my playthrough.

Yeah that was the prob with offing Gorlach in Act 2. Still, got the job done! Another nice thing is that even if you don't follow a linear path, the number of loose ends or dialogues that don't match events is minimal, which is amazing considering how many branching choices there are!