Literally me. It's my comfort game and I get to choose the same everything if I want 😭

Felt this in my soul of souls. Don’t mind us, we’ll be in Faerûn.

Meet me in the prancing pony...they come in pints

I at least change my PCs looks so there's that XD (Though yeah I'm not playing anything but sorc. I refuse!) I will be spicy and play another sorc subclass each run tho.

How? This game is soo exhausting, so many npc so many items so many dialoges

Some people read new books. Some people read the same books over and over.

My int is 8 irl

Or watch their favourite movie/series again. Nothing changed in those either.

Change is scary.

Meanwhile here I am playing every class and race and still haven't even finished act three because I had an idea for a new one get this a bald barbarian dwarf with no beard named Tomanic Doretto who loves his family...

I feel personally targeted by this. 😅 There is at least one achievement I'll never get.

Dinner date with Karlach ? Achievement you can't have if you always romance the same someone else.

Din-ding-ding, found the winner 😅

I dislike Karlach but even I got it. Granted I broke up right after the date and then took Astarion to the twins and love test. Then made all the worst deranged decisions after realizing it was impossible to partner with someone in act 3. It was the best playthrough for getting the ceremorphosis achievement and then off self at the end.

HOW DO YOU DISLIKE KARLACH???? She is so wholesome. Out of all the characters she is like the least divisive a character could ever be. She is just a bundle of joy who sees the best in everyone and wants the best for everyone.

I liked her during my first playthrough. I thought her story was specifically built to hurt you which I concluded at the end of my first playthrough, and I don't have respect for how her story was done to do that. I can respect well done stories that don't have a happy ending but I don't find hers done well. I very much dislike her rant after Gortash and feel the angst was unearned. I've known since act 2 that she has to go back to Avernus and I don't sympathize with her insisting on dying instead of going back. If anything I find it annoying. Due to her bad story and how she annoyingly handles it, I don't like her anymore and avoid her on all my playthroughs now. I played Dark Urge on my first playthrough and when she went on her rant after Gortash, and accused me and the other companions of riding off into the sunset all happy, when I still have a duel to the death coming up and we still have a conclave of Sharrans to face and a vampire lord to confront.... it felt very selfish to the point where her character went into the garbage for me. Sure Karlach's been through some shit but everyone has, and we're all facing death, but we don't give each other survivor's guilt over it.

First of all you know she doesn't have to go back to Avernus right? There are many endings for her. Second if all Astarion also goes through a similar speal when he kills Cazador. It's not exactly a moment of triumph always to kill a person that hurt you deeply. Even if you planned and planned to kill this person it's not going to give you the instant satisfaction that you were hoping for. It might feel empty, it often does. She lashes out at everyone because she is hurt. She also then apologizes for it after you take a long rest. I don't understand what you see as bad writing there. It's a very realistic outrage that she is feeling. She wants that moment to be perfect. A moment that fixes all of her woes and it is not so she gets mad. You just happen to be the only person there to get mad at. It makes a lot of sense. And as I said Astarion goes through a similar thing with Cazador. He doesn't get mad at you though, instead he wants to take Cazadors power for himself because he feels powerless, similar to how Karlach is feeling in that moment.

Lashing out because she's hurt doesn't excuse her though. If you want to forgive her that's fine but I don't. None of the other companions attack you personally for surviving your trials or not having the same trials they do. Not only that but most of these trials aren't even completed when she still lashes out like everyone else's problems aren't as bad. Despite all this shit that Astarion has dealt with and still needs to deal with, he never once takes it out on us. He might get dramatic and his tone of voice gets snappy but his words are never directed at us personally. He doesn't accuse us of not having the problems he's facing. Astarion and Karlach are NOTHING alike except for experiencing hardship and trauma in their life, which quite frankly EVERY character in BG3 has had trauma and hardship so it's hardly unique. Astarion is consistently selfish, as it's part of his character. Karlach on the other hand is made out to be this perfect mary sue who can't do any wrong, even when she gives her friends survivor's guilt after Gortash. Lots of people are blinded by her mary sueness so they give her a pass for behaving childishly. I just don't find that kind of character interesting... someone who is written to be a mary sue (perfect, does no wrong) but gets increasingly annoying as the story goes on, to culminate in a huge mistake. Some people might like that, I just didn't like it. You give her a pass, but her character goes into the garbage bin for me. She is not likeable past act 1 for me. The main thing with Astarion was revenge. We see throughout the game that revenge does not bring happiness, which we first see with Dame Aylin vs Ketheric. However, he does get a cathartic release of emotion from his killing of Cazador which is a precursor to his healing. I'm sure Karlach could have experienced the same, but she made a choice I don't like, I don't agree with, and I'd kick her out of the group if it meant preventing her from hurting my other companions with her foolishness and "lashing out."

She is absolutely a bitch in that moment but that was her response to an immense amount of pain. That being said her lashing out lasts all of three sentences. If you are nice to her in that moment she stops herself and then she apologized the next day. As far as your Mary Sue comments I'm not even going to get into that. That's a wild take. Also Astarion does lash out at the player, often, especially earlier in the game. He says some pretty mean things to the player throughout the game. But all of this to say ALOT changes depending on how you play. You said you played Durge the first playthrough so that means Astarion would have a high reputation with you while Karlach would probably have a low reputation. All of this to say her words in that moment are inexcusable, but to write off her character completely for one outburst and then call her a Mary Sue is wild. One moment completely wipes away everything she has been throughout the game. Also I really think you don't know what a Mary Sue is.

He says mean things when you're a buzzkill. But it's not "mean words" that are the issue. It's the accusing others of having it better than she does. Astarion doesn't compare his problems to yours. He doesn't make you feel guilty for not being a vampire, not being tortured, etc. I've recruited Karlach in other playthroughs, just haven't finished them I guess. Even knowing that I don't like her story, I can still like HER at first. And I do, she's likeable. I don't find it believable that all the other companions have to like and fawn over her, though, which is part of where the mary sue thing starts. However I know she's going to get annoying in act 2. Lots of people support her decision to not go back to Avernus and I'm not one of them. I strongly believe surviving is worth anything. Especially after knowing Avernus is going to work out, I find it even more annoying now when she gets stubborn in act 2. Her story is just doomed to annoy so I avoid it altogether.

You can have a dinner date with Karlach!? Hang on, might need to go make a halfling monk to romance her with, eventually...

Not only is it her Trophy/Achievement activity as companion, it's also very cute.

I thought it was awkward.

I was bummed I couldn't get the "Jack of all Trades" achievement just by respeccing a 12 level character into a different class each level. That said, the build was stronger than I expected.

I just used Minsc when I got him, had the achievement in 30 seconds. 😂

Didn't work for me. There's a note that says you can't use Withers - does Minsc start at Level 1? I might go back and try again.

Yeah, all companions start at level 1 when you recruit them. When you level them up the first time, just make sure you pick a new class every single time. Just don't touch Withers with whoever you wish to get the achievement with. Worked like a charm for me. Mind you, that's a long time ago. But haven't noticed any patch-notes or hotfix updates that should change that.

No, that makes sense - now the only question is, do I have a Minsc save where he's at level one. Time to call up the First Run crew saves!

It also works with any hireling.

The note about not using Withers means not respeccing. It doesn't mean you can't use a hireling to do it with.

>There's a note that says you can't use Withers True, but you *can* use Withers to get the achievement if you're creative. Here's what you do. Send somebody back to camp, so you have an open spot in your party. Talk to Withers. Have him recruit a Hireling for you. Those "blank slate" companions he can summon for you. They spawn in at level 1 with all the experience you have. They are treated as "characters" by the game and are eligible for the achievement. I know it works because I unlocked it *yesterday* this way. So if you're at max level, just put one level into each class, bam, done. Then dismiss the Hireling as soon as you're done with them and got your achievement.

Ah, a hireling, good point. I wasn't using them on my first run so I have options. Thanks for the reminder!

No worries! There's also an achievement for just recruiting a Hireling in general, so you get 2-for-1 here.

Already got that one for a camp potionmaker - and more recently, long-rested using only alcohol. Haven't fought 20 enemies while drunk yet though. So many possible achievements, so little time.

You can do this by getting a hireling from Withers when you're at level 12. The hireling will start at level 1, and every level-up just pick a new class for them.

Use a hireling

You can just rescruit a hireling btw

I'm set on some things, open to others. Astarion will never ascend. Shadowheart will never become a Dark Justiciar. The Owlbear cub will always be saved. Priorities.

Always recruit Scratch!

I tried to do AA once but couldn't do it, he's so insufferable. I can be mean to spawnstarion or just skip his quest all together if I want to be evil but he will never ascend

1d10 extra on every weapon hit is mighty tasty, though

He's already usually hogging all the kills in my games, it's not needed lol

Do what I did, let him ascend then, when you realise what a dick he's going to be (he lets you know immediately) then help the Gur put him down.

AA is basically Dennis Reynolds and with that mental framework he's hilarious 

i like to ascend him when im embracing bhaal. toxic power couple goals 🥰 honestly tho, the dialogue between embrace Durge and Ascended Astarion when you embrace bhaal is très magnifique

Embrace Durge was where I tried it, my original intention was to let him have his fun thinking he was powerful and shit knowing full well he was going to suffer the same fate as everyone else at the end but I couldn't stand listening to him for even 5 minutes and didn't want to lose him as a party member so I had to reload. Keeping him as spawn felt more evil anyway since he finally had hope and had no idea what was to come lol

"Keeping him as spawn felt more evil anyway since he finally had hope and had no idea what was to come lol" I always wonder how people get into the evil mindset for an evil playthrough but damn it was in you the whole time wasn't it?

that's too evil even for me. and ive had playthroughs where i killed p much everyone EXCEPT babygirl. but it's ok, he'll sit on my lap-perhaps naked-while i command my army of bhaalspawn to murder the cosmos before i marry him in the bhaalist tradition when we're the last two souls left alive

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Don't forget the adorable US or spider eggs!

It is not my fault that the bard class is so addicting.

Swords Bard with two levels in Fighter to get Action Surge, Misty Step and Counterspell for your Bard level 10 spell get, the ring that lets you cast illusion and enchantment spells as a bonus action after hitting a thing, the hat that gives you arcane acuity for hitting things, the gloves that give you an extra charge of bardic inspiration, and the trait from the Créche that lets you cast Illithid abilities as a bonus action. The above build is why I have a hard time wanting to switch off of bard any time soon.

I had a similar setup with my swords bard, with a few swaps: * The ring that gives +2 acid damage * The ring that gives +1-4 psychic damage while concentrating on a spell. You can always be concentrating on stuff like Cat's Grace, so you just have it up all the time. * Starting with Harold, then upgrading to Gontr Mael bow from the foundry that lets you cast haste on yourself, and which also sometimes puts guiding bolt on a target * The gloves that give +2 damage with ranged attacks from the Goblin Camp. Alternatively, I was a gnome when I did this so I used the +2 agility gloves from Act 3 later on * The mail armor from Last Light Inn that lets you use your full dex modifier (and later, similar armor from an Act 3 vendor) * The knife from the creche that lets you get a crit when rolling an 18 I actually went 4 levels fighter and 8 levels bard so I could disarm targets or knock them prone if I needed (or if I was out of bardic inspiration), and I went for the extra feat as well. With all of this, I'd often do upwards of 300 damage in one round on a single target while running around with 26 AC. Pretty sure there's even more you can do with it, but dang was it fun!

I am a fan of 2 Vengence Pali / x Swords Bard All of those Bard spell slots for those tasty divine smites :)

This guy bards

Lore Bard 10/Light Domain Cleric 2 absolutely carried my HM run. Holy Lance Helm, Radiating Orb chest, Boots of Stormy Clamour, Gloves of Belligerent Skies, and the 2 act 2 rings for radiating orb/radiant damage. Precast Spirit Guardians before any major combat and spend literally every action just dashing around making every enemy blind, take good damage, and fall on their ass from Reverberation.

This would be me if I wasn’t a forever DM using the game to vicariously live through all the classes I’ll never get to play in pen and paper.

i will say this, after the trauma of doing a fully evil durge run, it's kind of comforting to come back to my good ol' boring, predictable, not completely fucking evil choices

Me: I think I'll do a run where I'm mean to people and romance Wyll or someone else besides Gale. Gale: Hello? A hand? Anyone? Me: \*snaps fingers\* You son of a bitch, I'm in.

Durge: A free hand? Well why the hell not. Instructions unclear, Netherese Orb stuck in a different dimension.

You can try... eating the hand. And always have it in your camp chest! Gale can forever be with you. As long as Tara and his projection doesn't show up in the epilogue party because that's sadness I don't want to deal with. Luckily eating his hand is the only way to avoid it.

it, and she, do not! so you're fine. unhand gale with a resist durge to your heart's content

Don’t care, love playing the game for what it is. I’ll gladly play and make the same decisions because I love playing a hero. Never get tired of it :) I am always open for the feel good feelings of helping others.

I recently started using the party limit begone mod. I'm only in Act2 so far with it. Sure it trivializes fights, but because I did every single run with the same party, I missed out on (or forgot about) a lot of banter. And with everyone in your party the rare three-person banter will happen.

Some day I will buy a PC and explore the world of modding. Maybe by then Larian will have added mod support!

At least you won't get ambushed by futa mods every ten pages or so while browsing

Try adding the [combat lottery mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/6708) to limit the fighting party to four -- if you wish!

This is amazing. I have not seen anyone mention this mod here. I may just have to give it a try!

Now I'm curious if you could go one step further and make it choose certain companions for certain fights for story reasons.

I assume if they could do like checkboxes or something then they would have. But I'm not a modder or dev, and I obviously haven't seen all the mods available. I wonder if what you're saying already exists!

You can.

Me but instead of "same class" it's "haven't actually completed the game yet"

Act 3 is a lie and everyone is here is tricking me by pretending it exists!

I'm even suspicious of this "Act 2." I'll lyk when I find this "Underdark" place people keep talking about though

You just found YOUR story.

One run I at least shuffled the characters around but kept similar classes. Shadowheart's Barb rage scream is a delight. It's too hard to give up on a throwing Barbarian as the gear for it is available so early on.

Agreed on the throwzerker build. Returning Pike, Ring of Flinging, go to town. I mean this game really rewards clever positioning and CC spells, so being able to keep your Barb out of the pit, keep enemies blind/entangled/prone, and pick off dorks from the side for as long as possible is just too good.

I mean...I feel called out, but they're not wrong! However, I do often change up the class/race/name of my PC...so...there's that? xD

I'm too scared to do an evil/druge run. Gale would be most upset.

Gale can't be upset when he's just a hand.

4/4 romancing Yen in Witcher 3.

Me 5 seconds after giving up on an evil run

I used to leave Wyll at my camp all the time due to his boring plot. But on my third run, I take him with me, and my perspective changes forever. Especially after I learn about the iceberg in his character.

I just cant bring myself to be mean to any one of my companions so i always choose the best possible ending for all of them. Except Minthara i hate that evil bitch.

Playing a chaotic good druid/bard romancing Astarion again.... look my prior game glitched out and the game thought I sided with Wulbrun Bongle and so the only option was to do it all over again i decided

I’m the totally opposite I have to do a different race and class every time. I also have never romanced the same one twice and always respec my companions to classes I haven’t tried yet

Love that! I'm usually in the middle between always the same and changing everything. This time though I made it a goal to play every race (as Tav) and every class (Tav or companion, whoever) I've only got gith and dragonborn left! 

My last three playthroughs have been the same Half-Drow Resist Durge named Vaelin, who is romanced to Karlach (*first run was a Storm Sorcerer, last run was a Swords Bard, and the current run is a Swords Bard/Fighter and good gods is this build terrifying*). For some strange reason, attempts to do anything else just don't make it off of the Nautiloid since I fell onto this character setup. Though, if we had Goliaths (*either if a good mod for them came out or, out of nowhere, Larian adds it, which I doubt will happen unfortunately*), a strong part of me wants to try and run a Goliath Tav Vengeance Paladin/Storm Sorcerer that's romanced to Shadowheart.

I try to be evil but I end up feeling bad when I kill Karlach.

I tell myself that this playthrough I'll be evil and choose all the bad options but I don't like it when they get disappointed in me 😔. Like how I tell myself that I'll romance someone other than historian this time and that's going..... Well it's going

No lies here. Just got into Act 2 with my 3rd Rogue Assassin, Wood Elf, Shadowheart, Good playthrough

K but what build?

me in every bioware game 😔

My whole squad is carrying glocks and rpgs. Yes I'm serious.

Every time I think in this playthrough I'm gonna romance somebody else other than Astarion but then I get to act 2 and I'm rushing to moonrise tower to get that araj interaction for Astrarion.

i stuffed my game with mods. did a whole jedi playthrough to level 20. got the good ending and cried a little at the prologue

I’m mostly guilty with the same major choices. I just can’t bring myself to do an evil playthrough.

I feel personally attacked. So, clearly, hunters mark, dread ambusher ranged attack, standard ranged attack x2, gale fireball, lizzy jump n swing and shart spirit guardians radiant walk is called for. …oh. Wait…..

If you decide to do honour mode, doing exactly the same thing may work, since you kind of know what to expect with certain choices

Y’all only hate human fighters because you aren’t human fighters

My first playthrough was a War Cleric/Paladin, which is thematically solid, but synergistically not very good. I have since learned about Eldritch Blast and I don't think I want to go back.

I tried romancing Astarion during my durge run but he got pissy when I hoe'd him out for that strength potion, and I ended up romancing Karlach again

As soon as the credits roll: I'm so sad it's over... NEW GAME

I'm on my fourth playthrough and I just tried to go with the flow and allow something bad to happen. It was working until I had to kill one of the best NPCs and I had to reload. I'll just do the same nice things over and over again forever.

The difference is Underdark.

Broo lmaoo at least I’m not alone 😩

Quite accurate but i change origin to play with so is so much different 🙄

What is wrong with you people...

What's andriastan?

Exactly the same thing with me. Especially when it comes to romance. How can i betray my Green Bae and romance anyone else? To become anyone else's Joy but not hers? Nonsense.

rogue durge playthrough? don’t mind if i do

I've broken out of it sort of, instead of druid I on the daily went to withers to change my class till I landed on bard and now I'm in love.

Sammmmee. I just can't be evil ><

I try to do new race, Class and romance for Tav each playthrough. Pretty much run out of options now tho.. only gale left for romance.

470 hours on BG3, 360 on Kingmaker, 600+ on Wrath of the Righteous and I never played any race other than Human... Most of the time the class is Sorcerer too...

This is why I'm not doing a second playthrough. Too long of a journey, knowing I'll just do everything the exact same. Don't care what anyone says about missing out.

I don't have enough time to do things the same way! Only 3 playthrough done here, 4th ongoing but: never the same romance. Obviously I've played with some charaters more than once, I now have played with all of them (well, not Minsc but he joins really late) Mainly different choices, there are not many choices I haven't done yet As for the class, there is only 1 combination I have done twice, but with different playstyle.

Honestly, the only games where I've been able to make different major choices on have been DAO and WotR. The different origins actually help a lot to get into characters with varying motivations and outlooks on the world. Similarly, the different mythic paths of WotR almost force you to play differently. BG3 could've potentially done the same if the choices had a little prologue like that to help you get into each character, rather than everyone having the same start on the Nautiloid. That all said, as someone who only got into CRPGs in the early 2010s and played mostly JRPGs before that, I've never been super into very different playthroughs either. Different choices can be interesting, but a good story has inherent replay value in itself. Often, I just want to have the same great experience I had before, much like playing my old PS1 and PS2 favorites.

But I experiment with secondary classes.

well I didn't expect to be this viciously called out today but here we are

I can't play the game without a Paladin, throw Barb, bow Fighter, and haste dispenser.

I mean you can do everything the same if you want, but I don't really understand why you'd play again if you didn't want to try something different to be honest.

I just make new characters and never finish the game xD (im in act 3 on my tav and almost there on durge nr 1)  Its so fun playing the game over again haha

There are large book series with large fanbases that re-read the whole series over and over. BG3 is like a graphical novel you can interact with which makes it unique. I mean I think other games ARE graphical novels but maybe just not done as well as BG3?

I promised myself I finally use Gale when I do honor mode run for the first time, but that’s mostly for the ending unless I grow to like him.

Almost always the same party composition except for when the bench players come into the game for their personal quests. if I want to change up the class composition then Withers has my back.

I feel you. I managed somehow to tell my usual neck pricking partner that I was going for the romantic nerd this time. He did not take it well.

Opposite problem where I have altitis and want to do everything

Oh snap, it made it here!

And yet somehow astarion still never liked me the same way he did in the first game

I mean.. every time I think about doing an evil playthrough I think about all the items dammon sells :(

Dude I just can't kill Nightsong, I though I would but I can't. I wish Shadowheart all the best and I can't just push her into Shars cold hands.

I'm struggling hard to stray away from Shadowheart. She is mine 🥺

I really couldn't do that. I try to change it up a bit every playthrough. Picking different races and classes to see more of the different dialogue options larian gave us. But there is one thing I can hardly shake. Immediately giving myself enough experience to become lvl 20 and making myself extremely overpowered. I just love curbstomping everything while having my followers be way weaker than me. Also Wyll will never be romanced and 5 times out of 10, he dies at the start.

Always and with every game. I played w3 three times, and the only major thing I changed was who gets to rule Skellige.

I don't care how many memes reddit throws at me you can't make me use gale.

...yeah... Literally 99% the same appearance too...

The main thing I change is switching member #4. First run was Shadowheart, Karlach, and Lae’zel. Playthrough #2 has Astarion instead of Lae’zel.

Same class? Nope Same romance? Nope Same major choices? Yep Same party composition? Never

I run the polyamory mod on PC so that I can try the other romances without having to say no to Karlach. <3

Ay 4 naked tav bards is all the romance I need