Then they give you one obvious solution; the Githyanki creche.
And i bet that would be another dead end ...
Githyanki have purification ritual that is working on regular tadpoles ... same as the Hag had the way that was allways working before.
But your tadpole is different, and you would need to go to Moonrise towers no matter who you try ... that is my bet. :P
From an in-character perspective, we have a character that knows far more than most people in the setting about the tadpoles presenting a definite way to get rid of them. It's not even like she's vague about the method, she describes a process of removal and and I didn't encounter any reason to suspect she was lying at all in my playthrough. So from an in-character perspective, her solution is as close to a guarantee as we get.
Then they give you another direct solution; Halsin the druid.
Possible solution!
That is the problem in theese conversations, for some (unknown to me) reason people presuming that Halsin will be able to help you no matter what, but the only one who is recomending him to you is Nettie. The same druid that was trying to kill you, the same druid that was forcing you to swear her that you will comit suicide if anything goes wrong. Would she do that if Halsin would be bet for certain help? I dont think so.
And as far as i remember she told us: "
Maybe master Halsin would plucket it from your head." And that is important maybe! ... And a few dozen seconds we have here this confession: "You must find master Halsin, he
might be your only chance."
So as we can see, Halsin ... as well as Hag, as well as Volo, as well as Gut, and (lets be honest with each other) probably as well as Githyanki Creche ... its only possibility, nothing more. :P
I agree that they're all only possible, but they're possibilities that you have decent, clear reasons to think will work. I recieved no such reason to think the Absolute wasn't just a trap. The problem is that if the Absolute is a trap, then you go for it and you're almost definitely screwed because you're not likely to find out until it's too late. If you go for any other options, then you may have time to try another before it's too late. Going for the Absolute path to my mind has higher stakes for failure than any other path.
Then you have the Absolute and they give you a bunch of implied reasons
True ... but they are living proof of that solution you are looking for.
If they would be just possibility, same as everyone else who i named abowe, they would still start to change before you, since they werent on the same ship ... that is quite obvious, since they had enought time to gather goblin army and allready raid at least two settlements around.
So they can either work as your countdown, or are prooving that you are safe with them.
This is a good point, I can't and won't argue with it.
while also making your initial encounters with the group hostile
True ... but that is no rare around sword coast as it seems.
Shadowhearth is threating you to keep your distance, Astarion litteraly tryed to cut your throat, Nettie tryed to poison you ... why is killing few lowly insignificant goblins that no one care about any different?
Also a good point.
having no reason to think that the Absolute isn't some sort of Mindflayer trap
Sure it may be, no doubt about it ...
And if your character is ambicious enough, he might even plan to try turn it on them instead.
Just the same as Gale implies that you can try outsmart Raphael and beat him in his own game.[/quote]
At this stage that's still a stupid gamble because we don't know nearly enough about them, certainly not not enough to know if trying to turn it on them would even get us what we want. With Raphael at least, you know that he's almost certainly powerful enough to do what he says and you know what he wants. You don't know that about the Absolute so thinking you can turn their trap against them is kind of insane. Again, even though the other options aren't true guarantees (I still think that the creche is presented in a way that the PC would reasonably think that it is a guarantee though) the Absolute path is the biggest gamble because we're given so little and have to risk a lot even for just information.
I assumed so and it didn't cross my mind that it might not be the case until I read people thinking that here on the forums
Yeah, its nothing wrong about missing some clues, there is enormous amount of them after all ... i have found secret stash of Kagha on mine fifth playtrough.
and at no point getting a concrete incentive to work with them-in fact if you side with them I believe you lose Wynn, so that's an active disinsentive-it makes justifying siding with them hard.
I believe this is quite subjective ... i dont like Wyll, he seem to me like cocky brat ... so quite easy for me.
Also fair.
I can imagine only one way to adress this to player without breaking imersion of rest of the story, and its Narator ... something like:
"Once you look in her eyes, you can sence her parasite ... yet she dont display any signs of change, bad health, or even discomfort ... maybe if you stick around you also find a way to master your own tadpole."
But that would sadly break the secret about this whole option.[/quote]
I don't feel like it's meant to be a secret though. It's directly tied to one of the two main ways you can complete this part of the story. So something like what you suggested would actually be perfect because it doesn't seem to me that this is actually supposed to be a mystery. It's meant to be the "evil" path of this part of the game, while siding with the druids is the "good" path. If it were meant to be a secret then I feel as though it should be harder to even find the opportunity to join the cult. If it were meant to be a major secret then I would have no problem with having to untangle little dropped hints to learn about it. But to me, the structure of the game suggests that the Absolute is being presented as a second, equally viable option to the Druids and Halsin, so if that's supposed to be the case, then the information for why the cult is a good choice should be presented as clearly as the information for why the Druids are a good choice.
I think this may be the core of why I take issue with how it's presented thus far and the core of our different opinions. You're looking at it as a secret path to be unravelled, but I'm looking at it as a main path that should be as clear as the other main path but isn't, and so that lack of clarity is a failing rather than a purposeful feature in my eyes. For instance the fact that there are apparently shadow druids in the glade (whatever those are, I'm not really aware of the lore) is a secret that could very well impact how you interact with the group as a whole. The fact that that's something I completely missed in my playthrough to me signals that it's a piece of information that's purposefully hidden and that can impact roleplaying in a future playthrough. So I look at that and think "oh, that's a good, fun piece of design." This issue however feels like something is supposed to be an obvious so-equal alternative choice but they haven't given the same level of clarity as to why it's an equal choice. So if the Absolute path is meant to be a secret then I think it actually fails worse on that front because the option to join them is presented far too readily and easily.
To be completely honest it seem quite obvious, yet i like it isnt served under your nose ...
So there is at least chance that some people will miss it. The whole situation with Absolute cult seem to me like if DM create some plot, and then repeat for himself "Notice! Notice! Notice!" ... and if you dont, he will give you another clue, and another clue, and another clue ... until he gets tired and simply tells you.
The problem is that as I mentioned above, this seems to be one of the two main paths to complete this section of the game. The GM in this scenario is dropping hints while also giving you several far more attractive options to follow. If this were a real GM, I'd think that he was signalling me *not* to go that route.
Maybe the entity in your dream can say that she's something other than a Mindflayer, or mention that she can keep you safe from the transformation, just as an idea.
Dream entity is suppose to be mysterious ...
You have option to ask her what she is ... and she tells you "I think you allready know."
Come on! That is perfect!
And add, change, or remove anything would totally breat it.
When she said that, I assumed she was a manifestation of the tadpole trying to get me to use my powers more and hurry the process.
you have to give them at least one concrete point that they can latch onto and build logically from there.
I see what you mean, i just think that they are there ... you just need to search for them actively.
The problem is that every other option doesn't require you to search actively to find a reason why it's apparently viable. Which is why I take issue with the way the path is presented-when every other option is so clear, that's training the player to expect a certain level of clarity across the board. It's telling me "no option is truly guaranteed, but we're going to tell you what the options are and give you enough information to start weighing the pro's and con's." The information I get about the Absolute is so much more vague when it's being presented as the second major option in the game.
Because as it stands that path is all a bunch of "what if's" and "probably's" that rely on the character taking a lot on faith.
Yes, and that is good ...
If BG3-EA teached me anything, its that we cant take anything as grated and i love it, it keeps the story intensive.
This is why i loved so much Game of Thrones, (except finale -_-) since you have seen from the begining that every character is in existencial danger, it was much more interesting to watch their fates.
But again, the path is full of even more what-if's than any other paths, to the point that it becomes the least attractive.
