Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback This is not romance!

In context, I'm not so sure. However, benefit of the doubt and all that.

It was. We really needed an awkward breakfast moment to make it complete. "So . . . Uh . . . Good eggs huh? mmm. what should we do today? "

Please click the source on that Wiki, and ask yourself what timeline a book written in 1989 would take place in.

You are talking about Mystra, the goddess of magic after Mystral, and keeper of the weave for many centuries, and murdered by Cyric.

I'm talking about Mystra, the new goddess of magic who arose at the same time the most high of Netheril was put down by Elminster and the Srinshee over Myth Drannor

Mystra is only ~14 years old at the time of baldur's gate 3! Citation: "The Herald", Ed Greenwood, 2014, about the Second Sundering, the reestablishment of the weave, and the birth of Mystra

That was my take away from it, and, it's true. In so far as a Custom Character is concerned, we have our backstory that we make up, and nobody else may have ever even heard of us.

Ed Greenwood?

What would he know about Forgotten Realms lore?

T'cha.

In Death Masks, which takes place concurrently with the campaign module Storm King's Thunder, Mystra is even seen by a homeless guy in Waterdeep when she's bugging Elminster, later she (seems to) castigate the blackstaff, but mostly leaves things to her chosen when they're available.

She is a young and brash goddess, possessing many of the old Mystra's memories, but being her own person, and especially being a lot more secretive with her chosen

My GUESS is that Gale is on the knife's edge of becoming a new chosen of Mystra or dying horribly. Mystra is currently recruiting, big time

In fact Laerel is Open Lord of Waterdeep only because the reborn Mystra commanded it, in Death Masks they directly comment on how unusual it is for a god to take such a direct role in mortal governance, but Mystra is super keen on increasing the number of spellcasters in Faerun, and creating more egalitarian access to The Art

Out of sll the gods I figured Mystra would be the one more active ones. She has her own little fanclub and everything :p

Both sound like good fits when you listen to Gale though. Maybe he was sincere at first but later the god perceived or felt that he was trying to use her for his own gain and decided to dissapear.

Would explain why she suddenly was gone and why Gale went to such extremes to try and get back into her good graces.

Also. Punished by making him lvl 1 again. Thats harsh!

Damn, she took all her toys and went home.

I am aware, here, from the same Wiki.

"In the Year of the Ageless One, 1479 DR, while recuperating in a cabin in the King's Forest, Elminster felt Mystra's presence calling to him. He found her much diminished, possessing the body of a bear that had guarded a cache of items Mystra's still-mortal form had collected. She asked her most trusted servant to find new candidates to become Chosen and to recruit Cormyr's War Wizards.[20]"

Anything not altered means there is no opposing evidence to contradict it in new materials. Mystra herself is not looking for new Chosen, the current Chosen are the ones doing that. Did you forget about the other consequences of the time of troubles such as Ao directly commanding all gods that they cannot directly interfere with the mortal world in any way whatsoever? This is why gods now have champions. The only setting in which this rule does not apply is Eberron FYI.

Please try again, sources and citations.

You like The Second Sundering right?
The Second Sundering
"Most of the gods created many Chosen among mortals, trying to gather as much power as possible to be as high in divine ranking as they could before Ao completed the new Tablets of Fate, sealing their status and portfolio.[9] People started to claim they had been "chosen" by the gods and granted special powers, some apparently for "divine purposes" while others had no idea why"

"It was the wine talking"

I can't decide if she is a tsundere or if she doesn't want a personal relationship.

Lol.

For the op - romance is a very loose term that in video games generally means "if I'll say what my waifu wants to hear enough time, she will allow me to bang her". If that's what you meant by romance perhaps it's better without it.

Depends how you look at it. To me there's romance in the game as it is now. It just hasn't developed into obvious levels yet, I guess. Unless you count the dreams you have with the tadpole mindfucking you with the hallusinations of you prancing around on the summer meadows with your dream beau. Don't think the burn is slow enough for my liking though. Shadowheart is fine as a slow burn, if you're into the drag-pull way of romancing and don't mind her baggage as something overtly familiar or uninteresting. The NPCs let it slip in different ways they're looking for love, not just a night in the sack.

I don't think of the romances we have, even leave room for the "plain screwing approach", if you're into holding on to that thought any length of time. Some people seem to think Minthara fills the position in the game, but she's basically the most devout romantic of the lot. She's like the possessed Drow version of Merril from Dragon age 2, who also was estranged from her kin, on a overblown suicidal trajectory and was actively manipulated(though not yet possessed) by a supernatural entity. They both also blurt out that they love the PC after the first time you have sex. While the scared Minthara, "whose entire being is laid bare before you" after you screw her, just doesn't say it in such an obvious way. But there are those adorable telltale romantic gestures: like her bungling an assassination attempt and her affirming her belief in gender equality(saying something like "you're mine and I'm yours") after you convince her you're also still a useful tool to the absolute.

in Death Masks she is directly, and personally, ordering Elminster. She seems to be rapidly regaining power with the fall of Shar's Shadoweave scheme

Given the completion of the new Host Tower of the Arcane at the hands of one of her chosen and the creation of a kind of Avengers of Wizards (A netherese lord, the most powerful drow wizard, a cloud giant, and one of her chosen, this happens in the last 3 R.A. Salvatore novels), and one of Mystra's Chosen literally running waterdeep at her command (again, death masks), it stands to reason that she is rapidly gaining power, because she visited Gale in person (citation: Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios)

I'm not arguing with you that her Chosen are her hands in Faerun, so the question is "why visit Gale personally?", my guess is that she wants to recruit him, since she's recruiting right now (Companions, Death Masks). Mystra doesn't personally solve anything for her Chosen, she merely commands them, but old Mystra visited potential chosen before they became chosen, and there's no textual evidence against new Mystra doing that.

It lets him grow to be a better person than he was before.

Or at least take a more optimised build.

For the love of... It's the first act and what we see is only the start of the relationship. Just because it starts with sex doesn't mean it doesn't evolve, and it differs from character to character. Just be patient. They did a good job in DOS2, so I'm sure this will be fine too.

They've done romance very well, from what we've seen so far. You can either have a one-night stand from Laz / Ant, or persue Shadow / Gale for an actual relationship. Usual RPGs is basically you tick a few boxes or do a quest and they suddenly fall for you, in BG3 it (so far) looks like a more grounded approach where you can sleep with someone who's horny at a party or take some time to actually court somebody. This also feels natural with the companions personallity types - you've got the implulsive and more mature adventurers.

No, as you said her influence is defined by the actions of her Chosen and not herself. One of her chosen must approach the mortal champion and first be offered this knowing fully what he is committing to. Ao directly forbade gods to influence the world in any other way. This was a direct consequence of the time of troubles, the Era of Upheaval and the Second Sundering.

Think about what you are saying very carefully. You are saying Mystra directly contacted a mortal and forced him into a contract without explaining anything when more than enough of her power has become capable in order to do this and either:

a) Gave him a task that he failed, invalidating him as a potential chosen.
b) Approves of his thirst for power despite this being the thing Mystra hates and has suffered at the hands of AND places all the restrictions that currently exist on magic.

You are saying that you think that MYSTRA trusts a power hungry mortal and sought him out and still seeks him out despite his added on ineptitude and the damage he is doing to the balance of the weave with his subsequent actions. Please.

I'm of this opinion too. The 'romance' at this stage is a 'getting to know you' roll in the sack. Hopefully a deeper relationship is possible with at least some of the Companions as the game progresses.

Although, I'm not sure I want to pursue that option with the current crop.

When you are talking romance in RPG's like this, I can only picture Marvin. "This is going to end in tears". For some reason as a community we can't handle this topic well, it is so subjective, one likes to think it will mature, but we have some high hurdles to jump in this area for us all to be in somewhat of an agreement.

I'm voting for tsundre tied to a crisis of faith. She worships the goddess of loss not the the god of hope and new beginnings.