Originally Posted by ladydub
Originally Posted by Nicottia
Also, when it comes to Isobel, there is one glaring plot hole. Shouldn't she be an undead like the rest of her family? Sure she could still worship Selune but she could also hate her new 'unlife', it would make for a much more compelling plot. But no, all we know is that she has frequent nose bleeds and coughs blood, why?

Exactly. Orin mentions Ketheric’s “crypt breath” when he’s close… seeing Isobel make out with Aylin was… ew.

And there are actual rules concerning full resurrection in DnD, you have few days tops, depending on the power of the cleric, condition of the body, soul departing etc… after 100 years Isobel would barely be a skeleton, let alone a pretty young woman. Also! She says after death all went black… again, not DnD. She would’ve become a petitioner in City of Judgement and would’ve been taken by Selune to her domain. Her death wouldn’t have been “blackness”, she would remember those things.



As for changing what happens after ACT 2… I’d actually start with ACT 2, in which you fight the illithids in Moonrise, not Thorm, so:

1. Remove Thorm, Emperor, Orin and Gortash, remove the crown and all nonsense connected to it, just make illithids and their Grand Design an actual big bad. PC motivation - remove tadpole, avoid becoming a mind flayer.

2. Develop Durge subplot x100, make it canon - Bhaal wants you to be a murder machine, wants to corrupt your soul but also wants you to die in the end to take it, because if you become a mind flayer - you lose the soul, Bhaal would not want that. So you’re fighting your heritage and the illithid domination, you’re fighting for YOUR OWN SOUL.

3. Good Ending - you defy both the Grand Design and Bhaal, save yourself, Neutral Ending - you commit to daddy, beat the illithids, but become Bhaal’s chosen full time and go to his domain after death, and Bad Ending - you become a mind flayer, lose your soul, planar war breaks out etc.


I absolutely agree in general with your observations that this plot after careful analysis is convoluted, incoherent and not cohesive.

I particularly like your second point and fully support it. I always felt that the Dark Urge story should have been the canonical story both for contiguity with the previous two chapters and for richness of interaction between your avatar and the created game world.
I think the problem with this lack stems from the multiplayer nature that this game and the latest Larian games in general want to have. Therefore if a player hosts his game he would become the protagonist of the story while the others who join the game would be comprimarios. I completely understand this, but it is undeniable that when playing in single player mode there is a certain lack of involvement and centrality of your avatar in the game. With Dark Urge this is slightly mitigated, but by choosing Tav as the origin it becomes overt. All the characters around you are more important than you and more considered than you, and it seems as if your avatar never had a past and isn't even the advocate of its future.
In that sense I much prefer the simpler, but better written story of the first two BGs and the sense of involvement of my avatar is enormously greater, while BG3 still remains a great game.