Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Opinions on the main plot writing?

Well said, on all points (and especially the last one).

And to be clear, I do love the *concept* of the DU, and have said in the past that this concept is one of the (very, very few) truly good things to come out of this game. But I want my Bright, Shining Light Urge.

Yes! This is exactly my point on this issue as well.

I just about to finish my Durge playthrough and tbh, she is the most heroic and good character, I made so far. You start with some ... problems, but apart from one scene, you are in control, how you handle it. I can understand though, how people can find it too dark - I mean, that whole questline, with or without the Durge, is pretty dark. I love that, because I love dark fantasy and horror, but friends of mine for example can't play Durge and very nearly did quit the game during the abandoned village in act 2 (House of Healing) and later during the above mentioned quest.
The game has very dark undertones and that is ok for me.


I must say, I critizie here, but I love the game, really. I'm very invested. But because I am and Larian still is taking suggestions, I hope that some things might be changed or build upon.

I'd argue, that the D&D setting does not easily lend itself to though-provoking and nuanced story writing, especially if its mythology is taken at face value. It has a bunch of evil creatures, evil gods and even evil races that are evil just for the sake of it. Unless the writer is willing to critically deconstruct the tropes of this universe there is little possibility of a story that could engage the adult mind. With brilliant writers everything is possible, of course, but BG3 is not written by geniuses. The main story is shallow and even ridiculous at times. BG2 had Irenicus as main villain, an interesting and somewhat relatable person with complicated motivations, BG3 has the EVIL Elder Brain monster who is all about DESTROY!

The game is best enjoyed by completely ignoring its story.

By far the lowest point of the story is the Emperor promptly joining the EEEVIL Elder Brain, after the player choosing to free Orpheus. It is so dumb, it hurts.

I don't think it is possible. It might have been with how the urge was shown only in few dialogues in the EA, but as it is now, while you can play resist, the character's backstory is pretty much chaotic evil. I have made it almost through act two, and frankly, the more I've learned about the DU past, the less I've liked my character. And trying to learn about the characters past sometimes lead to a gruesome scene, as they tried to remember, so effectively my playthrough felt like it was about avoiding DU content rather than resisting it.

It is possible - with Durges background it is clear (and please only read this, if you don't care about spoilers),

This doesn't change much for me, tbh, considering a certain event happens only after they get tadpoled. And well, DU gets away with it, because none of the companions care, not even the good ones. Also, I'd have to metagme and reload some other events, which are optional, but I have not managed always to avoid them.

On a side note, from what I've heard the DU plot

My comment wasn't about you directly, it was more about the derailment of the thread and hyperbolic claims I've seen here that if you're vocal about the romance content then you're automatically a romance simulator player with brain rot who doesn't care about anything else and you have some evil agenda to destroy the game for others. I never said Astarion needs more romance scenes than the plot needs a rewrite. I wholeheartedly agree that the story is messy and needs the most attention. Act 3 is basicly in early access.


Interesting stuff. Personally for me, the Emperor made me want to use the powers less. It was too encouraging, too try hard in wanting to gain my trust. Just because some stranger who helped me once or twice told me 'this is good for you, use it, I will protect you' doesn't mean I wanna do it. In fact, it makes me feel dependent on him, and possibly being indebted to him, which holds zero appeal to me. I wish the game would allow me to swap

Same with Karlach - I don't want to So now if I want to finish the game the way I'd like to I have to keep this intellectually inept, one-dimensional person in my team.

There are also lots of mods for Sims which are explicitly sexual.

Yes cosmetic mods are a feature of most RPG modding but it is the ratio of cosmetic to non-cosmetic which tells the tale.

I'm not entirely sure you're actually putting more tadpoles into your head. I know the graphic for obtaining new Illithid powers is you pick up a tadpole and drop it into a part of your brain for it to burrow in. But it doesn't make sense for multiple tadpoles to exist within a single occupant.

Also, usage of the first additional tadpoles suggest "Absorbing its power", in addition to the Astral Tadpole being usable multiple times (How would it burrow into your brain and still be available to burrow into your companions too?). We already have several mentions of the singular tadpole gaining in power (Ormeluum's probing annoys it and it burrows deeper unlocking the new skill. The Zaith'isk you can channel power into it empowering all Illithid powers to be bonus actions). So it's possible that the singular tadpole is just taking the power from the additional ones, which it then uses to do some (Directed) ceremorphosis.


Umm... He's a devil. Meaning he doesn't do a charity. He'd want something in return for removing the tadpole. Ergo, he has a reason to stick around. To ensure you fulfil your end of the bargain as well as to tempt any other party members who didn't agree to his terms (Wyll and Karlach for example would be extremely resistant to his offer).


It's easy. The ring can mitigate negative effects of keeping the tadpole, much like if they had Raphael remove it. Without having to do Raphael's bidding. While still searching for a way to remove the tadpole like if they neither had Raphael remove it nor the ring.

If you really wanted, you could even write in some in-camp fighting over the ring as the story progresses and party members become more desperate to alleviate their concerns of their own tadpoles. Give it some LotR flair if you want.

Heck, tie in romances into it. Let you gift your partner the ring because you want to save them.


Honestly, it could have been interesting to see various thoughts and actions try and take over your character, with associated saving throws caused by its mind-controlling effect. As far as using powers and the like... Using the powers shouldn't affect it since that's just you using your (Partially ceremorphed) brain. Gaining powers however, could make the aforementioned saves higher and/or more frequent as that is you furthering the ceremorphosis process.

Allowing for a better representation of "Do I give in and obtain these cool powers? Or do I stay pure and retain my humanity?" as opposed to the current iteration of "LMAO lets just take all the T1 powers at no consequence"

All in all, it's not hard to continue the concepts outlined in Act 1 and make them have a cohesive Act 2 and Act 3 core story progression. 2 paths still lead to "Look for a way to remove the tadpole" and 1 path would be "Follow the whims of Raphael" which could conveniently coincide with the other 2 paths (It borderline does anyway if Raphael simply sends you to Yugir instead of pretending to warn you away from the place. Just make up a reason for Raphael to send you to Gortash + Orin + Brainsly in case you don't confront him at the house of hope)

I would never say, that because you liek romance, you are stupid or something. SOme of my friends are big romance fans and they are very intelligent. And I used Astarion as an example, because I saw your avatar, nothing more.
I just wanted to emphasise that the problem with the popularity of the romances is, that a lot of other stuff gets downed.

That certain event is because a certain father figure still has a bit of control over you - your story is to break free or embrace it

It's all good, no worries, again I was speaking of the overall feel the thread started to give, summarising multiple comments from several users. I think Larian should take everything into consideration but first fix whatever needs fixing the most, which currently is - the plot, plotholes, act 3 mess. In the end, it's up to them to prioritise whatever they want and they have multiple teams for different things.

Back on topic. What bothers me when it comes to writing is how the evil path is underdeveloped and mostly equated with just being a murder hobo who loves gore and leaving places as wastelands. A lot of things work strange too, and just make you miss out on content, to name a few: Gortash deal working out the way it does, Nere always being doomed, not saving Wyll's father not giving the dragon quest in an alternative way, no evil companions as a counterbalance to Jaheira and Minsc, etc.

I got it from another person.

That's patch 5 stuff I think, at least I never had it before the patch.

She was just chilling in my camp doing nothing.


Oh, that would explain. I finished the game during patch 3.

Ah! It was very nice and very cool, in any case. The new addition I mean.

I'm going to blatantly ignore a few posts to get back at the main story, and whether or not that is required; much in response to MalacPok above, and some earlier posts.


BG3, as it predecessors were designed to bring the D&D experience to a computer game. And even though I'm in no way impressed with the main story of this game it is *still* better than any of the stories we've ever played at the table. I mean, I don't know about you - but we usually just talk to some regent, go and find an evil cult/necromancer/monster/enclave and deal with that - to return for fame and treasure. It's not to say good stories aren't told within that frame, but that's the gist of it.

'Alduin, the world eater has returned. Dragons are roaming the sky. You must stop this evil.' - Good enough for me, really.

And the Baldur's Gate series has always done the same thing. There's a main plot that isn't complicated in the slightest - there's a big bad at the end, and regardless of how you get there, you'll always end up fighting that dude. In all of these games, it's much more about the journey than it is the conclusion. And it that, I think Larian succeeded with BG3 with flying colors. Playing the game - exploring and affecting the world around you is a *lot* of fun in this game.

Progressing through the actual main story is a bit of a drag here, though. And that is that there is no really good villain. The Three Villains have a lot of potential, but they all get a little introduction but by the time you meet them, you're already well on your way to deposing them. All the while the Emperor gets a *lot* of attention constantly, where he actually isn't really important in the grand scheme of things.

Maybe it just tells you how much easier it is to make a cosmetic mod, compared to a "systemic" mod. I 'm not a modder, but I'm just guessing that adding some hairstyles or clothings from the game to the character creation would be easier than improving the camera motion or the party's group-movement , let alone the storyline.