Bg3 Hot Take Edition

[u/Feeling-Classroom729]

I'm feeling spicy and I want to hear some of your hot takes about the game. Perhaps, I'll see the game from a fresh perspective and/or learn something new.

There's no limit to the hot takes you can share.

I'll go first.

Despite Araj's negative reputation, I think she's one of the best merchants in the game. In act 2, she carries the risky ring and the ring of free action, which is already amazing. But she also offers unique elixirs in act 2. In act 3, she sells sanguine explosives, which is basically a level 4 fireball that you can buy for less than 20 gold. Getting the unstable blood condition from her in act 3, can also be powerful if you build around it. The +2 to strength is super powerful if you're willing to torture Astarion, but even without that, she's still an amazing npc. She's a little pushy with Astarion, but she ultimately accepts his no. So, I don't stay mad at her.

I don't think completing a "good run" automatically makes your character good aligned. Basing your decisions around not making your favorite npcs sad is not a sound moral compass. I think there are more morally neutral people out there than people are willing to admit. It isn't a bad thing to be morally neutral. Jaheira is canonically true neutral in the older games, and people love her.

[u/RobertoPaulson]

My hot take is that I didn’t like the constant sense of urgency to move along due to the ultra high stakes of the main story line from the very beginning. It made exploring, and doing side quests feel like I was wasting time. I left a lot of side stuff in act one undone because of that sense of urgency, and I didn’t know I couldn’t go back until it was too late. I also played it immediately after Cyberpunk 2077, which had the same kind of thing going on.

[u/KathKR → u/RobertoPaulson]

My hot take is that people who complain about the sense of urgency didn't pay close enough attention. The game signposts you to Nettie who quickly tells you that there's something weird going on and there are lots of people who are infected but not changing.

Nettie is also one of the triggers for Raphael to turn up who literally tells you "shop around. Beg, borrow, and steal. Exhaust every possibility until none are left" (ie. play the game and do everything you want to do) and that he'll be there when your luck runs out, effectively turning himself into the canary in the coalmine.

And if that's not enough, even your two resident "experts", Gale and Lae'zel can start deducing something is weird. Ethel can. Omeluum can. Act 1 is full of people saying "You're not turning any time soon".

And then to top it all off, the Goblin Camp, which is neutra towards youl, triggers the Dream Visitor who flat out tells you they're protecting you and you won't become a mind flayer.

Even people who make it difficult on themselves by refusing to take long rests should be getting a few of these neon-accented clues.

[u/Frozen-conch → u/RobertoPaulson]

It made it feel like I had to get to the crèche immediately, so I tried to go immediately, and it made me so frustrated that it was telling me that I should be a higher level. Like why push this specific thing so hard if it’s gonna be awhile before I can do if

[u/AdditionalMess6546 → u/RobertoPaulson]

They really could have done a better job with that. A sense of urgency can be a great thing in a game, but once you find out the game is just lying to you, it drains all the tension.

A long rest limit would be awesome, like the turn limit on some battles. Make it so you can add a couple of extra days each time you go through one of the potential cures (Nettie, Ethel, Priestess Gut, the Zaith'isk, etc.)

[u/GalleonStar → u/RobertoPaulson]

If you don't have that urgency, the verisimilitude of the game disappears entirely, and you're no longer roleplaying.