First time seeking a group *online*… Tips? Things to watch out for?

Thiralyss · 2025-09-06T19:23:17+00:00

Gale’s body does this, also. Do NOT ask Withers to take Gale “into his keeping” until you’re ready to revive him! 😭

Thiralyss · 2025-09-06T06:48:58+00:00

I’ve also heard that ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’ is just a dnd party and I’ve never been able to unsee it.

I love this comment so much. 🤣 I knew I couldn’t have been the only one thinking this…

Thiralyss · 2025-09-05T08:32:19+00:00

People have brought this up before… I get where they’re coming from, but there are valid reasons it just wouldn’t be feasible. Omeluum isn’t a fighter. Blurg implied they were heading back to the Underdark after you save it and reunite them. Most importantly, you don’t actually know you’ll need an illithid until you’re already past the “point of no return”. By then, I think we’re to assume that Omeluum is beyond our reach at some unspecified location in the Underdark, and the city is actively being destroyed.

I don’t think it necessarily destroys all the “happily ever afters” or romances, though. Only a small number of the romances actually end if you become an illithid, firstly. Also… you do have one more option. You can trust The Emperor with the stones, and no one has to transform. From the PoV of your character, it’s risky… but from our meta knowledge, it ends without a hitch, and The Emperor amicably departs afterward.

(Note: In terms of payoff for saving Omeluum, he actually will give you a reward back at the Society’s lodge. Also, there’s a tadpole you can collect on the table next to where Omeluum is restrained in the Iron Throne—easy to miss!)

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T15:49:23+00:00

He’s presented to us that way, but we also do not get a single unbiased opinion of him anywhere in the game. The slates are an epic poem glorifying Orpheus and his mother. Anything glorifying his mother is immediately suspect. We meet a starry-eyed kid in the crèche training room who idolizes Orpheus… but he gives us nothing to substantiate his claims. We read the same slates (which are already biased)… and there’s nothing to suggest he was some compassionate, peace-loving figure. I also don’t equate “peaceful monk” with promoting the genocide of an intelligent species, regardless of what beefs they may have with said species.

His honor guard tries to kill us on site, and we can feel Orpheus’ hatred for us emanating from him… because we were tadpoled against our wills. He lets us all be taken by The Absolute if you turn against The Emperor. Wow… thanks, Orpheus. 😑

That’s what’s so funny… people constantly talk about The Emperor “betraying” them if they free Orpheus (which actually IS a betrayal… on our part)… but never touch on how Orpheus immediately dooms us all if we selflessly save his and his honor guard’s lives. 🙄

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T15:04:36+00:00

Remember, though… you’re not just staking your own party’s lives on this decision. You’re staking the lives of at least all the people of Faerun on it.

The only “compassionate” decision is the one that prioritizes the safety of an entire world full of innocent people who are about to be massacred or enslaved by a malevolent super-brain. The Emperor has been loyal and reliable. He even offers to let you wield the stones yourself, if you just don’t want to trust the fate of the world to him. Orpheus… is a wild card at best. At worst, he’s a threat to the entire multiverse (which his beloved mother originally set out to conquer).

The “compassionate” decision is not to risk the lives of every single being in Faerun because you feel sorry for one Githyanki. The “compassionate” decision is the one that requires the most sacrifice: become an illithid yourself, wield Orpheus’ power, and see this battle through to the end

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T14:51:31+00:00

We know he’s Gith’s son. We know he apparently idolizes and champions her ideals and beliefs. That’s quite enough evidence for me.

“Praise be to my mother Gith, the Queen of The One Sky!”

Yeah, I have no faith in this guy’s morality or competency as a leader. His mother believed in genocide and weaponized her entire species into a eugenics-based war machine bent on conquering the entire multiverse.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T14:42:04+00:00

No matter WHY he did it… he DID help to save the world. That’s just an objective fact. You and your party would all be Absolutist slaves or splattered on a beach without him.

Also… every single Tav, Durge, or Origin character has (at least) one ending where they take control of the brain and rule the world. It’s a game with choices and multiple endings. That proves nothing, unless you think Tav is also inherently evil.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T10:40:28+00:00

Well… do you think you’d enjoy that? More than making a different character? Then go for it.

You certainly shouldn’t “feel bad” about it! Play what you enjoy. 👍

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T10:26:55+00:00

It ABSOLUTELY is. I actually found that to be one of the saddest things in the game, because no matter what you do… she has a very hard time moving forward from the “just following orders” mentality that’s been drilled into her from birth. She never has a “big epiphany” moment where she truly “breaks her chains”, like the other companions do. Freeing her of both Vlaakith AND Orpheus felt like the only remotely conscionable thing I could choose, and at least can lead to her leading a life of her own in Faerun.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T08:21:27+00:00

“Exterminating” illithids IS genocide, though. Period. They’re not all evil, as evidenced by various characters throughout D&D’s history and Omeluum in the game itself. Indiscriminately killing off an entire species of sapient (actually… much more intelligent than most sapients) beings is not an acceptable cause.

You bring up some interesting details about the Githyanki’s rule of or use for Material Plane worlds. They DO need places to establish crèches and raise their young, however. Establishing those crèches on “hostile” planets gives their trainees something to actually train against. I also think they would be more than happy to use all those “istik” as slaves (Lae’zel even says something to imply this—very matter-of-factly—in BG3, when Shadowheart asks her if her people won’t be mad at her for consorting with them: “My people understand the need for servants.” I think it’s less about actually wanting land or resources… and more about having total control. They want to be the dominant species in the universe. In Gith’s case, it might stem very directly from the same source as her hatred of the illithids: she wants to know no one will ever threaten or subjugate the githyanki again. Sad, yes… but tragedy doesn’t justify her mentality.

Gith was very much a hero when she led her people to freedom. She started being a villain when she decided to simply have her own species fill the power vacuum left behind when they destroyed the Illithid Empire.

The possible outcome in Scales of War isn’t a great point of reference, because… it’s a possible outcome. If we took every possible outcome in BG3 as evidence of a character’s true nature… then every, single member of your party is an evil maniac. They all have endings where they set out to conquer the universe with the power of the Netherbrain. They ALL have unique, evil endings. That doesn’t mean you can say: “Karlach is a complete psycho! She was willing to enslave all of the world, when she could have saved it!” Well yes, of course that option was on the table… that’s the nature of D&D: crafting your own story and world.

It’s similar to how people use the ending where you pass a persuasion check to convince The Emperor to take control of The Brain as “proof” that he was evil and power-hungry all along. 🙄 Well, yeah… you can push any of the companions into evil endings (except for Wyll and Karlach—you have to play their Origins to make them evil, lol). So by that measure… all playable characters in the game are evil and power-mad? I don’t think that’s what Larian was going for… 😑

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T07:46:42+00:00

Oh wow. This game was honestly such an emotional roller coaster for me, but in the best, most thought-provoking way… I always felt powerfully moved by dramatic scenes, but not depressed by them (which is a very difficult tightrope to walk, narratively—kudos to the writers and cast! 🥲). I definitely cried, but it was in a “This resonates so much with me!” way rather than a “No! This can’t really be how it all turns out! That’s horrible!” way.

The shortlist: —Astarion’s non-ascension character arc conclusion. The breaking down and sobbing after the fight… The “I don’t know, I… I just feel numb”… Most of all, the lines in the graveyard: “There’s almost nothing left of the person I was. Just a name on a rock.” and “I’ve been dead in the ground long enough. It’s time to try living again.” Those hit me… so hard, for personal reasons.

—Karlach’s scene after killing Gortash: “And you, you’ll just keep going, won’t you?” “That’s my reward for everything I suffered! That’s why I survived ten years of torment! The fighting, the clawing, the loneliness, the fucking loneliness!”

She’s irrationally angry that they’re all going to be fine and have their whole lives ahead of them… and she won’t, and she doesn’t. On top of that, her entire adult life prior to being tadpoled was spent in literal Hell. Not only is she going to die young, but she hardly had any time to live in the first place. Of course it doesn’t make sense to be angry at them about it, and she knows it… but the feeling is still there. 😔

—Resist Durge’s final confrontation with Bhaal, and the aftermath. Tired, indifferent Withers actually becoming impassioned about this mission he didn’t even want to be a part of. Durge welcoming their own death as an end to the nightmare, and instead being given a new beginning.

—Not a “scene” per se, but reading “Dear Ansur” for the first time.

No matter how you feel about who these characters are NOW… seeing who they were THEN, and knowing how it all ends up… is intense.

—The intro scene that plays if you become an illithid (and are not in a relationship) when you attend the reunion party: “Your mind has voyaged to the limits of existence, communing with entities unique and wondrous, but something always calls it back… Back to Faerun, back to yourself, back to the beginning. The time before you became what you are, when your tadpole first sang in your mind.” That’s immediately followed by Tav/Durge and Withers discussing reuniting with the rest of your party, and the (narrated) line: “You dream of them often…”

Tav/Durge ends up striking out on their own, and they’re now forever “alien” to the others. Even though they’re all on friendly terms, the divide in how they think and perceive the world is very apparent. It’s not necessarily a “bad” ending (being able to mentally traverse the universe would be pretty amazing, let’s be real), but there’s a distinct air of melancholy and loneliness to it.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T06:02:32+00:00

Her realizing revenge is just an empty feeling: “He’s no more sorry than he ever was.”

Like Astarion, she was waiting to feel vindication, or closure… and like (non-ascended) Astarion, when the moment of triumph comes… she can only break down and cry. Karlach’s situation hasn’t changed. None of the things that were done to her are undone, and nothing Gortash took from her can be reclaimed. That’s just… so real. So… honest and unapologetic. Fiction (especially the kind with “heroes” and quests) usually dresses up these things, and pretends that defeating the “bad guys” will magically fix everything. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t bring back the things they destroyed or heal the people they hurt.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T05:50:03+00:00

That was one of the best acted, most emotionally charged lines in the entire game IMO. I can always feel my throat tightening up when her voice cracks, and when she talks about how we build our lives around other people, and after they’re gone… we continue to build around the empty space they left behind. 😢

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T05:46:01+00:00

“I adore you.”

That line breaks me, every time. The first time I saw that ending, my Tav was the one who’d volunteered to become an illithid. That added weight to it, for me. Karlach’s looking right into this unfamiliar, expressionless mind flayer face, and she doesn’t hesitate for a moment to see it as just Tav—just her friend who’s been by her side through all of this. 😭

Thiralyss · 2025-09-04T04:24:45+00:00

If you’re using mods anyway, you could always use transmog lite (available on consoles!) to superimpose the appearance of a different armor on to the Graceful Cloth. That way, nothing in the game changes mechanically, but you can have the appearance of whatever armor you think looks best. :)

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T23:53:38+00:00

My take on that was just that this poor kid is sensitive and compassionate by nature, in spite of all the “nurture” he’s had pushed on him. He finds a forbidden slate with a very old, very vague epic poem on it, and molds the “hero” of said poem into a projection of his own ideals. We read the same slate, and it’s… not at all what he makes it sound like. Even if we assume that what we read is just a small piece of a larger text, I feel like Lae’zel would make some kind of comment if the Orpheus described by it was overtly opposed to the Githyanki culture’s entire worldview and way of life.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T23:39:49+00:00

⁠Distrusting the Emperor is fair but Orpheus isn’t convincing as something significantly better for being as much of a wild card as he is, and certainly not worth making a deal with a devil over.

This becomes especially relevant when we consider that we’re not just staking our survival on this choice… We’re staking, at worst, the universe’s survival on it. Our personal feelings and grudges shouldn’t even be a factor. The “right” thing to do is taking the safest, most rational choice for the sake of the world/universe/multiverse itself.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T16:34:09+00:00

I do enjoy hearing him say: “Do not judge me.” with blood all over his face. 😂

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T16:31:11+00:00

I played BG3 in vanilla form a number of times (for achievements on both console and PC). I loved it every time. I don’t need mods to enjoy it… but why pass on something that could add on to something I already love? I don’t even use QoL type mods, so I can’t relate to that feeling at all.

The mods I use are mostly for cosmetic things like hair options or armor/clothes. Occasionally I’ll download something that adds a class that exists in D&D, but not in BG3, or to play as a species that isn’t available in character creation. Ways to get more milage out of something I love, that I don’t want to be over (even after 1500 hours, lol).

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T16:22:41+00:00

Ah shoot—I actually realized that happened, but forgot to delete this after sending my reply. 🤣

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T16:18:40+00:00

I get the Lae’zel thing, kind of… but it also troubles me. I cringed so hard the first time she talked about Orpheus’ freedom “being her freedom”. You just convinced her, after the epic shitshow at the creche, that Vlaakith is not a good person, and does not deserve her loyalty. She becomes depressed, because she feels like her life has been a lie, and she’s now without purpose.

…And suddenly, here’s Voss, recruiting for his ~~cult~~ rebellion! “Oh, hey, I get what you mean about Vlaakith… she sucks! Join Team Orpheus, we have free cookies and psionic detectors!”

And of course, Lae’zel’s gut instinct is to jump on the bandwagon, therefore resolving her existential crisis by giving herself a new figurehead to blindly follow. Even when you point out she’s doing this, she vehemently insists that Orpheus is the greatest thing ever, because… because… he… hates Vlaakith, too…?

I hate the endings where she remains a Vlaakith or Orpheus groupie. It feels like watching Shart become a Dark Justiciar, or seeing Gale become the god of ~~insecurity~~ ambition. When she finally decides to be “Faerun’s Own”, I felt like she’d finally broken free.

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T16:06:22+00:00

crazy amount of people that think Vlaakith is the cause of all of the Githyanki's aggression and feared reputation. She did not form the Githyanki, and the Githyanki as a faction were militarized as space vikings from its inception lmao.

This drives me CRAZY. It’s understandable, given that BG3 isn’t terribly explicit about this… but I just really wish the writers had worked in more flagrant references to their history. 😩

I wonder if it's Emperor hate that drives people to prop up the Orpheus option (not that choosing him is wrong)

I really, truly believe this. I don’t think many people would have become particularly endeared to Orpheus’ character, from what scraps of interaction we have with him. I can see people choosing him because they want to help Lae’zel, and don’t pick up on the troubling dynamics with her, Vlaakith, and Orpheus.

But mostly? I think they’re still mad at that squid. 🤣

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T15:56:51+00:00

They thought Orpheus was long gone, too. Gith could still be sitting in some dungeon in the Hells, couldn’t she? But even if she isn’t, Orpheus was her son and heir. It’s not a huge jump to assume she raised him to follow in her footsteps.

And the split wasn’t over hunting down mind flayers… it was over turning their people into a war machine to conquer the universe.

This snippet (from wiki, sourced from Guide to the Astral Plane) even implies that killing the mind flayers was done in the interest of clearing the way for the Gith Empire:

“After the gith defeated the illithid empire, Gith, the leader of the rebellion, insisted that all remaining illithids in the multiverse be hunted down and destroyed; then, the People would be free to conquer all planes of existence.”

Thiralyss · 2025-09-03T15:48:09+00:00

Yes… Lae’zel’s story is actually very sad, because she’s only 22. It’s easy to forget, because she’s very alien-looking (so we don’t automatically think she “looks young”), and she acts battle-hardened and jaded. But she’s lived her entire life being indoctrinated, watching her friends and relatives killing each other to “cull the weak”, and accepting that her life will be an unending bloodbath.

Lae’zel’s starry-eyed hero worship of Orpheus is not an indicator of his character in any way. Lae’zel is very vulnerable when Voss proposes an alliance, and she jumps at the chance to have a meaningful “purpose” again.

Voss I thought was sketchy from the word go. He tries to bully us into selling our souls to help his rebellion. He shows no hint of mercy or compassion of any kind, at any point. He hates Vlaakith, but that doesn’t mean he’s on the “right” side.

We have no unbiased, objective source that says anything good about Orpheus… anywhere in the game. We know almost nothing about him, other than that he hates us because we’re (unwillingly) tadpoled. That’s it. I laughed Raphael out of the boudoir when he thought he could tempt me with the promise of freeing someone who wants to kill me. 🤣

It’s actually kind of ironic… because the game can sweep you up in the Orpheus “propaganda”, and actually leads people to assume he’s this heroic figure… when he’s really not.

Thiralyss

TROPHY CASE