Finally finished getting all of the signatures for this wonderful print by Pauline Kilme. It took one year and started with Astarion’s signature and ended with Karlach’s. I’m not one to seek signatures for things but I love this game so much that I wanted to have something special for it. All of the actors are also wonderfully hospitable in person and it was a pleasure meeting all of them. Looking forward to my next quest!

So she could hang out with her vampire boyfriend. Her name is Zenith and I love her.

For the longest time I thought the city the ship trolled through in the opening cinematic was Baldur's Gate, before finally noticing that the flags and uniforms aren't those of the Flaming Fist. So now I have no idea what city that was.

Related, I have also been curious to know where the snow-covered mountains the ship briefly traveled to is. My assumption is somewhere in one of the other campaign settings, as a sort of cameo.

Truly a mask off moment.

Artwork by me!

It's my first playthrough, I would kill, live, raise hell and sell my soul for Popper. He is absolutely adorable and he cannot do any wrong.

I also decided to sneak in a picture of my Tav, her name is Tav

I tried the Shovel Evolved and Us Evolved mods on my last run, and they were both soooo good. (Us has always been my favourite summon, but Shovel basically became my MVP with this mod, since you can get her so early.)

I recently started a new playthrough, and I noticed modded Shovel now has idling animations in camp, so I went to check the mod update notes, and it turns out both Us and Shovel now hang out in camp when you dismiss them and wander around to do things, plus they’ll show up at the epilogue party!

Both mods are available on Nexus and the in-game mod manager. Here are some of the other highlights:

Shovel:

• Available as a permanent summon to all classes/subclasses
• You can swap her summon scroll to another companion mid-playthrough
• Levels up with you to gain new powers and extra attacks
• Learns new spells (including Cloud of Poo Scrapers, lol) and skills by interacting with certain items that are already in game

Us:

• Levels up with you
• Gains expanded powers after interacting with a certain in-game Act 3 item that can help you evolve

Both of these mods feel really organic and RP friendly. They don’t change the original recruitment method for either summon, aside from making Shovel’s more accessible.

Who are Shovel and Us? How can I find them?

Both Shovel and Us are available as permanent summons in the vanilla version of the game. Shovel is a cheeky quasit (imp), who is recruitable in Act 1. Us is an independent/aberrant intellect devourer (brain kitty) you can get as a temporary ally on the nautiloid and potentially summon permanently in late Act 2. Both are really helpful in combat and fun to talk to.

Recruiting Shovel (Act 1 Spoilers): ‘It’s only fun when Shovel does the fisting!’

1. Enter the apothecary’s cellar in the Blighted Village. (Through a door in the floor, behind the counter.)
2. Look for a lever hidden behind a pile of crates in the corner of the cellar to open a secret passage behind the bookcase.
3. Open the first casket on your right. (If you touch any of the other caskets, animated skeletons will pop out and attack.)
4. Summon Shovel:

• Vanilla: Follow the steps here.#Summoning_and_permanently_acquiring_Shovel)
• Modded: Have any character use the scroll in the casket to summon Shovel. That’s it! The scroll stays in your inventory and can be swapped to another companion at any time. (But moving the scroll to someone else or into a different container will dismiss her until you use the scroll again.) Also make sure to take ALL the items from Shovel’s casket. These will help unlock some of her modded abilities.

Recruiting Us (Prologue Spoilers): ‘Friend! We are here for you!’

1. In the second chamber of the nautiloid (just outside the chamber where you escape your pod), use the elevator to ascend to the upper platform.
2. Pass a check to free the brain from the lobotomized elf. (If you’re squeamish, definitely look away after you pass the check.) Do not injure the brain!
3. Talk to Us to gain it as a linked ally while on the nautiloid. (Don’t attack it or tell it to leave.)
4. Don’t let Us get killed in combat. You’ll get separated after the crash.

Recruiting Us (Late Act 2 Spoilers):

1. Visit the illithid colony. (Not the oubliette, but the place you jump down into after facing Ketheric atop Moonrise.)
2. After jumping down into the colony, enter the first sphincter on your right to find Us trapped in a cage. Talk to it.
3. Get the key to the cage by either passing a dialogue check with Chop or killing him. (Bugbear dude in the same chamber, says ‘chop’ a lot. Interesting conversationalist.)
4. Free Us and receive its summoning spell.

Enjoy your brain kitty and happy fisting!

Card 13/15 of my BG3 Oracle Deck is ready!

I don't recall seeing a male Deep Gnome that wasn't bald. Is it about genetics or culture? I'm trying to make a character that doesn't look too weird by Faerun standards. Do we have evidence about the reason why Deep Gnomes are bald?

He's so baby girl. I'll let him eat all the boots he wants 🖤

Not sure if something like this has been posted before, but I gave myself a challenge to have a weapon strike with as many dmg type riders as possible. This was my first attempt and I am feeling pretty satisfied with the results.

I am only lvl 8 in this honour run, and feel like I could improve this quite a bit by the time I get to end game Act 3.

Would love to hear any opinions or feedback or advice! Thanks for looking!

I beat my very first try at honor mode tonight and I’m pretty proud of the accomplishment. This community really gave me the tools to do it. Sorry to have yet another one of these posts in here, but I found others very helpful and want to pay it forward. My party: Tav: 6/6 vengeance paladin/sorcerer, half orc. The orc racial bonus relentless endurance saved my ass a couple times so highly recommended. Extra divine simites and twinned haste really made him shine.

Gale: 4/8 sorcerer/wizard. I followed this https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/OFZUwejrFX build and can’t recommend enough, meta magic chain lighting 3 per round on wet opponents seems like cheating

Shart: 12 light cleric, a little boring but the support and damage is helpful, put her in radiant gear through act 2 which really made her shine

Astarion: 4/6/2 thief rouge/gloomstalker ranger/fighter. Initially I was using throwzeker Karlich here until Astarion really comes online at level 8. I just keep coming back to duel wielding cross bows with crit gear for him.

For the game itself, I feet I over-prepared for many fights. If you can get through act 1 as people say, you really are good. Myrkul went down in 1.5 rounds by putting everyone in place with invisibility potions and nuking him. The nether brain final fight was the easiest it’s been, I decimated the dragon before it could move.

The only real struggles I had were when I was not prepared, The Thorms were nearly the end, I wasn’t ready for the Geraldine’s legendary action and it nearly took me out.

What I’m most happy with is it didn’t take easy routes around big story points, (almost) everyone got their happy ending. I slayed Rapheal to get the hammer and free Orpheous, I didn’t let Gale nuke himself, Shart rejected Shar, I didn’t ascend Astarion (but really wanted to for the 1d10 necrotic damage) but I did it once and hated him, I saved every teifling and every Gondian. The only thing I messed up was when I went to the iron throne, Ravenguard was already dead… I didn’t realize you have to talk to Mizora first… so Wyll sold his soul to save him, meaning Karlach died. Not happy about that, but it can’t be perfect.

And finally, a big shout out to the real MVP: Volo, for unwillingly financing my whole run via pickpocketing. Couldn’t have done it without your scolls and camp supplies buddy.

This is from the wizard tower. Those raisins can't hurt anyone anymore.

I bought BG3 about a year ago for the PS5. I had never played any tabletop DND and never played any CRPGs before in my life. In fact, I have very little experience with any kind of turn-based gaming. But the rave reviews got me really interested.

I found the game to be very well-crafted and compelling, but also pretty overwhelming and dense. It got to be too much for me by the time I'd hit the Goblin Camp. I started and dropped the game 3 times previously, with different classes/builds, anytime I got to the Camp cause at that point it just got a bit too difficult. I had no idea how to approach killing the 3 leaders and freeing Halsin. I think there was one time when I managed to kill Priestess Gut but I got my ass handed to at the Worg Pens. I just got annoyed and gave up.

About a few days ago, I decided to give the game one last attempt with a new character. Created a Half-Elf Warlock with focus on Intimidation/Persuasion and decided to play more carefully, explore every single nook and cranny of the world, talk to everyone and get my levels up before hitting the Camp.

And what d'ya know? I actually did it! 4th time's the charm I guess, because I FINALLY beat the camp, killed all 3 leaders and rescued Halsin.

The biggest difference, honestly, was that I was Level 4 this time instead of Level 3 like the 3 times before. I explored the area around the Blighted Village and Emerald Grove a lot more carefully and did a few more fights and quests, which got me through to the level 4 threshold.

The difference was actually HUGE. In previous attempts, I would get curb stomped by Minthara or Ragzlin almost immediately, even after trying the fights like 9-10 times.

This time? I literally killed all 3 leaders in a single attempt, along with rescuing Halsin as well. I couldn't believe it! It wasn't a cake-walk or anything, but it was crazy how much...easier...it seemed this time around. That extra level, along with my own growing knowledge of the mechanics, really helped, as I felt like I was able to build my party much more effectively.

Along with my Warlock player character, I had Shadowheart, Astarion and Karlach in my party and it really made the battles a lot simpler. I would usually start with Astarion going into sneak mode and firing some sneak arrows for big starting damage, follow up with setting up Cloud of Daggers from my Warlock or pushing people around with Eldritch Repelling Blast, using Sanctuary on Shadowheart so she can't be damaged and then buffing/healing/using Hold or Charm or Silence where needed, and then using Karlach's Frenzy mode for straight-up ass-kicking massive damage.

That Illithid ability Cull the Weak is OP af as well. I gave a bunch of tadpoles to my player character, and it's hilarious to see enemies just fucking explode and die after they hit like 3HP.

Man I feel fucking great right now. Feels like I overcame a massive obstacle and although I'm sure the game will get even harder than this down the line, I feel that I can take on whatever challenge it throws at me. It's probably not a big deal for experienced players but it's satisfying as hell for a newb like me.

I'm going through my fourth full playthrough right now and I feel like a Hunger of Hadar merchant.

Every difficult fight seems to have a simple solution, and it's funneling enemies through a narrow hallway (or famously the narrow doorway technique) while casting Hunger of Hadar + Spike Growth or some other aoe terrain control. Then it's as simple as watching the enemies kill themselves trying to get to you, and even when they do they get eldritch blasted right back in (or Karlach just throws them back in lol)

I've watched a lot of videos on complicated OP builds that require a certain combination of equipment, spells, feats, and class specific interactions that trivialize the game, but this combo seems the easiest to pull off, no?

Do you think I'm missing an even easier combo that makes every combat encounter feel like a walk in the park? Other than dual crossbows of course.