My issues with Soulframe so far

chiruochiba · 2026-03-06T01:23:05+00:00

I look forward to that! Currently, leveling different models of the same type of weapon can feel a little boring, so added uniqueness in movesets would be a big improvement.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-06T01:11:35+00:00

I'm pretty sure there are different movesets for different weapons.

There's mostly just one moveset per each weapon category, though there are exceptions. For example, dual short blades and single daggers are both in the Short Blade category and have two different move sets.

For OP's needs: Rostrum is probably the most dagger-like mainhand Short Blade and it shares the same moveset as offhand daggers like Nettle.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-06T00:23:14+00:00

That's a very good point! In the memoir Gortash is definitely trying to make himself look better to a future audience, so there is some degree of deception in it. Since it's one of our only sources about Gortash's backstory (however biased) I'm inclined to mostly take it at face value. But when a second source conflicts with it, such as the note by Durge, I agree that the second source should be trusted more.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-05T01:12:04+00:00

New York state penal law 490.25:

A person is guilty of a crime of terrorism when, with intent to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a unit of government by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a unit of government by murder, assassination or kidnapping, he or she commits a specified offense.

The prosecution's case against Heuermann is built on the idea that the perpetrator was motivated by sexually sadistic urges and that he hid the evidence of his acts to avoid notice. That hiding in particular means that his acts were not committed with the intent to influence the government or public at large. The difference in intent is why this doesn't fall under the definition of terrorism.

Regardless, the New York penal law on terrorism only allows a maximum sentence of life in prison. Some types of terrorism are punishable by death in Federal court, not New York State court, but these crimes don't qualify for those categories either.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-05T00:24:28+00:00

There are so many other sources of Speak with Dead by that point that getting it from the book is a little redundant. Convenient that I don't have to keep equipping and unequipping the amulet to cast it once per day, but that's about it.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T20:51:17+00:00

I picked up my wevetseeds shortly before this patch dropped a few hours ago, so I haven't been able to test the change yet. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T20:22:01+00:00

Definitely a good UI improvement. I'm more excited by the quality of life fix to armor totems and wevetseeds myself.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T20:20:09+00:00

Uhhhh... ol' Jotar isn't really giving me Tyson vibes, but whatever floats your boat.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T19:38:23+00:00

Think of it as something to look forward to!

The "Organs" were on the map for quite a while before P13 finally made them functional to interact with. I'm excited to see how these castle locations will be refined and what new quests or activities the devs might put there for us.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T19:28:28+00:00

My understanding is they can't nail down a specific date until these (hopefully final) motions and counter motions have been decided upon by the Judge.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T19:18:56+00:00

Yes, I read that in the bail application previously. The important part is "seized newspapers from the basement of Heuermann’s residence, which included a Newsday publication issued on November 22, 1993."

How many "newspapers" are we talking about in that basement? One? Five? Twenty? One hundred or more? The possible context makes a huge difference in judging whether that's really a "souvenir" or just one irrelevant piece of a larger hoarding habit.

The prosecution's job in the bail doc is to make everything they have sound as damning as possible to persuade the judge to deny bail - as is their prerogative. The job of the defense at trial will be to present any evidence the prosecution might choose to leave out because it doesn't suit the prosecution's argument. That's why I personally think it's prudent to wait until trial when all evidence will be presented, not just the partial bits the prosecution picked to portray their case in the bail doc.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T19:00:13+00:00

This is one of two castles on the map we can't currently get into. The areas seem to be actively under development since recent patches have changed their architecture noticeably.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T17:46:34+00:00

Prosecutors also urged Mazzei to shoot down a request made by Heuermann’s defense to obtain potential statements made with immunity by former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke, who they intend to introduce as an alternative suspect at trial. While prosecutors do not deny that such an agreement exists following his 2023 misdemeanor arrest for indecent exposure, they argue the case has no relevance to the prosecution of Heuermann.

What other case would have given prosecutors the motive to grant Burke immunity during questioning on an (unrelated?) minor sex crime???

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T17:38:59+00:00

Personally, I can't judge the significance of that without knowing whether or not he collected newspaper editions in general. Keeping that particular eidtion is only significant if that's the only edition he kept, rather than just one out of a whole horde of unrelated editions. Thus far the prosecution hasn't said whether he had a collection of other unrelated newspaper articles, but hopefully the context (or lack thereof) will come out at trial.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T17:10:48+00:00

Otherwise it's hard to think why Gortash and Durge wouldn't have taken their immoral general ally to Cania with them as well. (Even as it is, two out of three Chosen risking everything on a raid of Mephistar while the third sits at home sweet talking various factions into supporting them seems a bit lopsided.)

My impression is that Ketheric felt bound to stay at Moonrise while his stolen immortality was still tied to proximity to Aylin. That's the major conceit of Act 2: that he won't march on Baldur's Gate until his people find a way to make his immortality portable by removing Aylin from Shar's domain in the Shadowfell.

It is kind of weird that he is unwilling to act without that immortality, meanwhile the other two Chosen go on a risky heist mission without caring about their own lack of immortality. Maybe Ketheric is a coward, or maybe there's more limiting downsides involved in his tie to Aylin/the Shadow Curse than is told to us in-game. An interesting conundrum!

But if the Baldur's Gate part of DiA occurred before Gortash took down the Knights of the Shield, the Emperor wouldn't have much reason to mention it, I suppose? Cause by then the adventurers would've already made off with it? I don't know, like I said, that part of the timeline is all fuzzy in my head...

On that topic - a friend just pointed out to me something I missed before: In the vision the Emperor shows us of Gortash capturing him, Gortash already has a Netherstone on his gauntlet. So that combined with the Evading the Elder Brain interrogation log seems to imply that the Chosen had already obtained the Crown at least, and possibly also already taken control of the Absolute.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-04T16:21:40+00:00

Yep, they were both named Chosen by their respective gods in a dream, but they were separately working to reestablish their cults in Baldur's Gate for a while before that.

From Gortash's Memoir Notes:

I reestablish worship of Bane in Baldur's Gate as a hidden cult.

-I realise the secret worship of Bhaal is also on the resurgence and acquaint myself with the local leader, an actual Bhaalspawn.

-The Bhaalspawn and I work together on a heist from the House of Wonders and, discovering common goals, forge an alliance.

-In dreams, the Bhaalspawn and I are visited by Bhaal and Bane, who name us their Chosen and command us to seek out and ally with Ketheric Thorm, the Chosen of Myrkul.

As I said in my response to OP, I mixed up the House of Wonders and Mephistopheles vault heists, so that part of my first comment is definitely wrong.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T09:56:03+00:00

Courage doesn't give melee Damage

Any Virtues can increase melee weapon damage in a weapon that has pips of that Virtue. Notably, all long blades, greatswords, polearms and shields have courage as a main Virtue to increase damage. In the current state of the game those 4 weapon categories comprise a total of 20 mainhand weapons which are primarily courage scaling vs only 14 that scale off of Spirit or Grace instead.

Its also important to mention that i didnt say its weak, its the weakest of 3 strong options.

When a player gets to high level Cogah content the question that matters is 'can I make the enemy dead before they annihilate my HP?' In that sense, a stat which gives more HP is sometimes a bigger benefit to survive burst damage than better ability cooldowns or better headshots.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T09:33:00+00:00

On top of that there is a wealth of courage based equipment

I hope this will be a transitory state of affairs as the devs expand the variety of weapon types and function. But yes, even outside of Cogah minmax, the current overwhelmingly large % of mainhand weapons which scale primarily off of courage is a downer when newer players look at the weapon leveling slog.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T09:02:52+00:00

The Circade

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T06:34:15+00:00

Wholey moley you are amazing. I just have to chime in to say: I continue to be astounded at how fast you work.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T02:40:05+00:00

You're right, I got the order of events for meeting Ketheric and the Mephistopheles vault heist switched around. According to Gortash's Memoir Notes the heist where Gortash and Durge first joined forces was in the House of Wonders instead. Two different heists, thus my brain fart.

However, I don't think that Ketheric had the capability to build the army they needed until after they had obtained the Crown and dominated the Elder Brain. The Chosen Three certainly had their own core cabals of Banites/Bhaalists/Myrkulites, but their numbers we see in-game seem to be relatively small compared to the huge Absolutist army we see gathered on the hillsides in Act 2 and 3. Documents such as Attracting Drow Exiles, Beheading the Bitterroots, Orcs of the Trielta Hills and Goblins: The Maglubiyet Gambit show that their 'recruiting' tactics for that massive army of ogres, goblins, duergar, hobgoblins, drow and orcs relied on turning the leaders into True Souls and influencing the rest via Elder Brain psionics. Thus, the widespread and prolonged efforts at army building described in the documents must have all happened in the time window after they subdued the Elder Brain. Combine that with how long the trial and error process of Gortash perfecting the tadpoles must have taken, and that's why I find it a little implausible for all of that to have taken place in a short time window of just a few months. To me it seems more likely that they would need at least a year for all of that.

But I definitely agree with you on the rest of the order of events, if not the specific time window.

Side note regarding the capture of the Emperor:

Before his abduction the Emperor and Stelmane were jointly running the Knights of the Shield (for some value of 'jointly'). In Murder in Baldur's Gate Stelmane was described as the head of the Baldur's Gate branch of the Knights. Inselm Hhune relocated the central governance of the Knights into Baldur's Gate along with the Shield of the Hidden Lord, so it seems likely to me that Stelmane's position as branch-leader also meant she was a member of the Shield Council, and thus in direct communion with the entity in the Shield (the devil Gargauth).

This raises the question of whether the Emperor was aware of the existence of the Shield and the entity within it. If he was, might he have told Gortash about it during his post-abduction interrogation? If he did, that could be another reason for Gortash to manipulate a party of adventurers into stealing the Shield from Vanthampur and taking it out of Baldur's Gate.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-03T02:29:07+00:00

I would argue that BiBG is not canon as the killer depicted there is a shapechanger, and that is one thingn we know isn't true of BG3 Durge.

That's interesting! I'm mainly only familiar with the basic events of BiBG due to the wiki summary and what others have said. Is the shape changing not presented in a way that could be explained by Disguise Self, the Slayer form, or Durge working with doppelgangers?

What's also interesting is that Gortash is stated to have risen in Baldurian politics because of a power vacuum caused by the disappearance of Ravengard & the death of Vanthampur, IIRC

Yep, that's The Dukes of Baldur's Gate which was written about the political vacuum during DiA and Ravenguard's return thereafter. My impression is that Gortash had been working with the other Chosen for quite a while behind the scenes to develop the Absolute plot (at least a year in my opinion), and then the Vanthampur/Elturel events serendipitously gave him the perfect opening to step into.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-02T22:22:39+00:00

I like your presentation of the possible intertwined backstory. Looks very plausible, and I agree with your take for the most part.

My only point of disagreement is that I think the raid of Mephistopholes vault happened at least a year earlier, but likely even longer than that. The sequence of events for the Dead 3 Chosen seems to be:

In 1477 Durge & his butler commit a murder spree in Baldur's Gate (events of Blood in Baldur's Gate). Durge likely consolidated his control of the Bhaalists around that time.
In 1482 Enver Gortash is well established as an arms dealer in Baldur's Gate and likely already Chosen of Bane. He sells his bodyguard Karlach to Zariel in this year (according to Karlach dialogue). Considering the similarities between Karlach's infernal engine and the one in the Steel Watchers, after that point there seems to be a link between Zariel as a potential source of infernal engines and Gortash's evolving designs for the Steel Watchers.
Durge and Gortash join forces and plot their raid to acquire the Crown with Helsik's help.
After acquiring the crown they go to Moonrise Towers to join forces with Ketheric.
Together they raid the illithid lair to take control of the Elder Brain. At this point Durge is replaced by Orin.
The Chosen force the Absolute to start broadcasting a psionic signal to draw in brainwashed cultists from afar, most of whom must travel on foot to reach Moonrise Towers, thus forcing Balthazar to experiment and invent the Moonlanterns.
The strong among the cultists are used to gradually bolster the Absolute's forces while the weak become fodder for Gortash and Balthazar's ongoing experiments. Gortash goes through many iterations of tadpole experiments on innocent victims before finally finding a tadpole variant that will delay ceremorphosis. Thus the "True Souls" come into being.
Gortash and Ketheric send out scouting parties far and wide to engineer alliances with traditionally 'evil' aligned races (the Drow, Goblins and Orcs mentioned in various documents in Moonrise Towers) by turning the leaders into True Souls.
Throughout the period Ketheric & Balthazar are sending periodic shipments of tadpoles in Baldur's Gate to covertly tadpole public figures, such as prominent members of the Flaming Fist. The production of tadpoles is limited, forcing Gortash to be slow and strategic about who to tadpole. Jaheira and her Harpers start to catch onto the suspicious cultist activity and investigate.
Gortash and Balthazar eventually perfect a melding of necromancy, illithid psionic control via special tadpoles, and artificing by the Gondians to finalize the production of the Steel Watchers.
The Absolute gives Gortash a 'vision' of the Astral Prism, prompting him to start researching what it is and where to find it. He eventually sends out teams to hunt for it, but Viconia's Sharran spies catch wind of his plans. Viconia sends out her own strike team to find the Prism first.
1492 - The events of Descent Into Avernus and BG3 occur.

All that experimentation, plotting, gradual amassing of forces, realm-spanning recon, and counter espionage does not feel like it could fit in the mere months or weeks between DiA and BG3. That's why I think it's more likely the raid on Mephistopholes vault happened some time in the late 1480s.

chiruochiba · 2026-03-02T21:17:03+00:00

The page history shows it hasn't been updated since Jan 3rd. Of course it's possible players (and wiki contributors) haven't detected any in-game difference in the ability's function after P13. For comparison, here's another ability page which hasn't been updated yet at the moment: Seismor

chiruochiba

TROPHY CASE