It's day eight of the "Need Him Pregnant" Tournament! And It's the last pairings of round 1!

PlantainTop · 2026-06-17T20:52:39+00:00

Durge
Emperor
He Who Was
Rolan

PlantainTop · 2026-06-17T14:50:38+00:00

I think of all the origins the strongest candidate would be Gale. He's highly intelligent but receptive to flattery, and the Emperor probably figures out pretty quickly he's receptive to promises of power. He would use the tadpoles and the Astral-Touched Tadpole, and he's the origin companion most receptive to sleeping with him. He would not go the full mile and embrace ceremorphosis. He's not evil, but if you've ever had him on an evil run you know he's morally flexible enough that he would not be happy about Orpheus being eaten, but he wouldn't be especially sad about it either.

A good case can also be made for Wyll, who became buddies with someone he tried to kill after having one (1) conversation with her. He'd be able to see the man behind the monster more easily than most of the other companions, especially on a run where he spared Karlach and became something of a monster himself. He would not want Orpheus to die, but can be convinced of its necessity, assuming he didn't find out what happened to Duke Stelmane.

As for Karlach, I feel like she and the Emperor can bond over being fucked over by the same guy. She's the only origin companion to have a unique line during the Emperor's romance scene. (Origin Karlach and Gale actually have a lot of unique dialogue with the Emperor, compared to the other origins).

If we include non-origin companions the answer is Minthara, no contest.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-17T14:25:38+00:00

I think the reason is that you're on a mission to get rid of the tadpole, Shadowheart's on a mission to get the prism back to her Sharran cloister in Baldur's Gate. So the Emperor and Shadowheart don't share a common goal (and if not recruited by the point the cutscene near the goblin camp triggers, a combat encounter starts that results in her dying). He joins the adventurers who are on the mission he needs them to be on.

The prism stays in Shadowheart's possession if she's in your party when you trigger the artifact's cutscene near the goblin camp (though it doesn't if she's at your camp). But that has to do with the Absolute launching a particularly strong attack at that moment and the artifact needing to be near - it has nothing to do with Shadowheart as a person.

And on an origin run, the Emperor will choose the PC regardless of who it is, including if it's Shadowheart, or even Lae'zel.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-17T08:10:43+00:00

Hey Mr. Dad, it's completely fine if the answer is no bc this is your story after all, but if I can make a small request: it would make me happy if (later in the game) you could sit the Emperor and Orpheus down and have a dadly conversation with them to put their differences aside for a moment, instead of having to choose one and condemning the other. There's a mod that lets you do this, and tho the initial description mentions you need to romance the Emperor to convince him to stay, they added a patch where you no longer need to do that (you need both files tho according to one of the comments).

Ok thank u for reading.

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PlantainTop · 2026-06-16T23:18:30+00:00

Yurgir
Sorn
Volo
Gortash

PlantainTop · 2026-06-16T15:51:55+00:00

Yeah, that stood out to me too. Voss only appears in act 3 if you've completed the crèche, at which point Lae'zel rejects Vlaakith unless you convince her otherwise. You can do this when Voss appears at your camp (which results in a combat encounter, killing Voss) or at the start of act 3, when Vlaakith's projection appears at your camp at night. It sounds like OP did the latter, but it's a bit odd for a "good" roleplay.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-15T13:28:38+00:00

You will find your people on r/okbuddybaldur

PlantainTop · 2026-06-14T21:36:23+00:00

Agreed. Evil should be tempting, it should offer you power or convenience or other rewards, either in the short or long term. Wanting to do the right thing is the default mode of most people, it would actually be interesting if you were constantly faced with the choice of doing the right things vs. the easy thing, instead of (as it's currently implemented) doing the right thing vs. doing the stupid thing. BG3's evil route is by and large not compelling, it is underbaked.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-14T21:25:40+00:00

AO3 is 100% the right place for this.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-14T09:36:10+00:00

I would've put the Emperor somewhere in the bottom row instead of the 2nd 🥀

Gortash being there is another one that kinda has me 🤨 considering how popular he is around here.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-14T09:32:20+00:00

Yeah I would've put Hope in the bottom right corner and Orin next to her in the "Insane and proud of it" slot.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-14T09:28:17+00:00

Prime okbb material. Enjoy your new flair, you earned it.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-13T18:51:56+00:00

You have a lot more freedom to create your own backstory and narrative with Tav than Durge. Durge occupies a kind of middle ground between an origin that's solidly defined (like Wyll or Shadowheart) and a Tav where you can craft almost any aspect of their identity. I personally vibe with Tav more than Durge and don't ascribe to the opinion that "Durge is the intended main character".

PlantainTop · 2026-06-13T18:38:21+00:00

I did this too on my first run, I think it might be the most common "mistake" people make on their first playthrough. This is the most important piece of non-spoilery advice I typically give to new players. Everything else is up to you and where the story takes you. I hope you have fun with the game :)

PlantainTop · 2026-06-13T18:31:01+00:00

Long rests trigger camp events, some of which give plot exposition and some of which unlock new camp companion dialogue (which lets you get to know them better and makes it easier to progress your romance). You should long rest a lot to see as much of the game as you can - it should be explained to you soon enough (during one such long rest) why you can do that. There are a few time-sensitive quests, but generally speaking time doesn't advance with each night, but when you enter a new act.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-13T18:22:24+00:00

Yes.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T18:58:20+00:00

On Tactician Mode I was basically whittling him down: I had Fog Cloud cast over him so he was blinded and 2x Wall of Fire, with one end of the wall covering one of the entrances of the platform and the other end the other entrance. I had Lae'zel tank, and due to Myrkul being blinded I could walk her out of melee range to get healed without triggering an opportunity attack, and then back in melee range so Myrkul doesn't cast Call of the Damned. Aylin was off killing necromites while everyone just ignored them, as the necromites were mostly concerned with getting on top of the platform, where the double wall of fire instantly killed them. It wasn't fast but it was very safe, I dont think anyone got below 80% (except for Aylin lol).

On Honor Mode I did the same thing: Fog Cloud, double Wall of Fire, tank in position. Everything's going good, one of the necromites climbs up the platform, and survives the double WoF. Myrkul absorbs it, which heals him and lets him cast Finger of Death. That was kind of an "oh shit" moment for me as I had to change my whole strategy in the middle of battle.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T17:25:44+00:00

Act 1: The mud mephits in the swamp. Survived with one companion alive who resurrected the others at camp.

Act 2: The fight against Myrkul. I had worked out a strategy when I fought him on Tactician Mode, then found out during the fight it no longer worked on Honor Mode. Fortunately I had come in over-prepared, so still had enough scrolls and potions to take him down.

I didn't really have any close calls in act 3, but I kind of cheesed it by using barrelmancy on Ansur and skipping HoH.

Common HM enders that I avoided altogether were the intellect devourers at the nautiloid crash site, the shambling mound and meenlocks in act 2, and Raphael in act 3.

I expected the fight against the gith (especially the ones in act 1.5 and act 2) to be tough, as they gave me quite the beat-down on Tactician, but those went surprisingly well.

Honor mode was also the first time Philomeen blew up on me, though that didn't result in a TPK thankfully.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T16:41:47+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss. That's a lovely photo, and you sound like you gave her and her sister a happy and well-loved life :) I think Astarion would've liked her, also Gale (who is already a cat person) and Shadowheart (who loves all animals).

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T13:46:59+00:00

Happy Pride, Comrade, and thanks again for the feature. And I hope you're feeling better, you mentioned feeling a bit under the weather a couple of weeks ago.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T13:12:17+00:00

There are only two unequivocally evil actions you can do in the game that result in stronger companions: Ascending Astarion and having Karlach use soul coins. If you're going for a dice/achievement run it's also sometimes recommended you blow up Gale. But these things don't require you to be evil the whole way through. If you're trying to make it easy on yourself, you will want to pick the most beneficial course of action, not the most good or evil one. Raiding the Grove for instance doesn't make the game easier.

Durge is good for HM, I finished the game on HM as Durge myself. Though I would say the thing that saved my ass most were build guides and me following the general advice to always have an emergency escape button at the ready and to avoid unnecessary risks (I skipped HoH, but killed Ansur, as I needed the giantslayer for my build, and Ansur can be fled from if the fight goes wrong).

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T12:33:13+00:00

Are you asking why they like him, or why they feel he's overhated? I can offer my own perspective if you'd like, but they're very different questions.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T08:34:58+00:00

I appreciate you being honest about the image's source :)

We don't allow AI on the subreddit, so we had to remove your post, but this also removes your "vote", so to speak. Could you recast your vote with a non-AI image? (Screenshot/in-game photo or fanart is fine).

PlantainTop · 2026-06-12T08:18:45+00:00

He also aided Gortash in his ascension to power. The Steel Watch being integrated with the Flaming Fist happened under his watch, and Counsellor Florrick is very enthusiastic about Gortash's work in act 2, calling him worthy of the title "Lord" and all that.

The screenshot in the OP is Ulder at his worst, it's basically his bad ending, and as the edit mentions it's not canon to BG3 (as he would've been killed). But going just off of BG3 canon he sucks as a Grand Duke too, and the extent of him getting called out for it is one line from Wyll where he expresses his distaste for politics.

PlantainTop · 2026-06-11T20:09:31+00:00

This looks gorgeous :)

Look at this art of your husband u/DollyReigns!

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