Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Anyone else just doesn't want to play the game past Act 2?

The impact of the act 3 antagonists (Gorthas/Orin) gets epitomized perfectly if you side with Gortash and he just randomly dies to a stroke when you face the Absolute.

They could have turned the Emperor into a fully fledged antagonist trying to usurp the Brain after you've done all the work for him and it would have been more interesting because then you'd at least have an actual villain with plans and motivations who was developed over the course of the the entire game. Instead we get this half-assed "you force my hand I join the brain" plot point that turns him into another NPC you one-shot on the first turn of the fight.

As it stands, you're not even fighting the Brain, just some mindflayers and a random mind-controlled dragon. It all just feels so disjointed and meaningless. There are no interactions between any of the characters and the only "meaningful" choice you make happens before you even go fight the brain. And even that choice - to squid or not to squid - is completely inorganic and disconnected from the rest of the game's narrative and choices so it feels like they included it at the last moment as some half-measure to add any sort of stakes to the encounter.

It's just kinda bewildering to me when people claim BG3 as this new "Gold Standard" for RPGs when one of the most important parts of an RPG (namely its story) is so utterly lacklustre. It's even a step down from Divinity Original Sin 2 and that game's main focus sure as hell wasn't its narrative.

Well, most reviews, including that made by players, are likely written when people when people are still in act one, possibly in act two. Considering the size of the game, and due to turn based combat, it's not possible to finish it that quickly.

My guess is that the emperor was supposed to be the final antagonist, who played both the party and the three chosen, perhaps in order to reassemble the regalia of Karsus, and gain complete control of both the elder brain and all the illithid. By comparison, the netherbrain doesn't even make sense as a concept of an antagonist. This genius-level intellect, who is so superior that you need an illithid to match it in power, is somehow not clever enough to get itself unstuck from a building. Thus conveniently allowing the party to climb and defeat it. Even as the building-crushing nautiloids, who could easily free it, are flying by.

Possible. Would certainly explain the grandiose title "Emperor". Having him as an actual antagonist could have been interesting. His backstory mirroring our own could have been used to set up a much more meaningful confrontation. With the way they wrote his story it's kinda going nowhere no matter what you choose.

Aside from the Steel Watch Factory, and Gondian Prisoners I enjoyed Act III. Lots of cool stuff and it was fun to complete the companion quests. I agree with the issues around pacing but feel the developers were caught between a choice of; A) more logical pacing and less Act III content or B) more content and illogical pacing. I'm glad they made Act III as large as it is.
As far as the Emperor ...meh it's fine. Larian isn't the first storyteller to have trouble creating a memorable ending.

I have found the best way to play a custom Tav is to come up with a way to link the backstory you imagine to one of the Origin characters similar to how Wyll and Karlach are linked, or like the tension between SH and Lae'Zel due to Prism etc. or linked to something or someone in Act III. Far from perfect and requires knowledge of the story but it has helped.

I don’t know, I suppose you could do that, but for me nothing feels as good as

when i was 18 years old, i will say act 3 is good, just i find emperor is a squid that makes me feel not good.

when i was 28 years old, i will say act 3 is good but i feel sense of dissonance.

when i am 48+, i say emperor put in a very wrong place, since the chess game maker aims to know "the value of mortals" via tav.
the chess game maker won't maneuver your trump card via a playing tricks creature.

i would like to see the myth --

an illithid myth of an entity called the Adversary, an illithid whose partial personality was strong enough to subsume the mind flayer's personality and sought to overthrow illithidkind under the innocent guise of a fellow mind flayer.

the myth implements on tav. and with nether spell, tav even can keep his/her original body if he try to against his/her tadpole.

this is, i think tav should be able to control his trump card -- the prism at least gaining the control in early stage.

whereas the original dream lover -- daicy who is tav's tadpole, this is a much reasonable and better setting.

Interesting. While I hadn't considered head cannoning my Tav in relation to the Origin characters, there were certainly times when I had to find justifications for keeping companion plots moving. (Lae'zel, for example: After getting attacked by a Githyanki patrol - who's stated orders are to kill us - I'm still going to take Lae'zel to the creche? And when the 'cure' at the creche nearly kills her and we immediately get attacked again, I'm still supposed to be cool with going further into the base to talk with their leader? What?)



Same. I've been playing on and off - and even occasionally joining the discussion here at these forums - out of a kind of curiosity and cognitive dissonance. There are some elements of the game that I really do appreciate, but the main plot writing has been one disappointment after another.

My first playthrough was as a Good Durge and yes that was a powerful moment, but I don't think I would enjoy as much the second time. Still haven't tried an evil Durge as I've read you lose a lot of content.

One thing I did find odd about Act III was how little interaction I had with Gortash ... maybe I did something wrong but I only interacted with him twice and both were pretty short.

the true powerful one should be tav, because durge is failed the trial in 15 years ago.
the fallen one suddenly becomes good, just because you put your soul into durge's body.
so the good durge actually is tav-urge, that in your control.

or you will only see the npc dark urge's pure chaotic evil.

Exactly. Dilemmas like this got me thinking of ways to make sense of Tav's purpose. Tav as a bounty hunter who decides the best way to bring Astarion to Cazador is to befriend him, lead him to Baldurs Gate and then betray him (or because you've grown fond of him you betray Cazador). A Warlock sent to discover just what the hell Raphael is up to, a Harper sent to find Jaheira and Minsc. Obviously none are as satisfying as a true custom character working with a good DM but still better than aimless Tav wondering the realms and getting caught up in the Absolute crisis by sheer chance.