You can’t “ruin” the storyline, it’s all based off of choices how your story will go. If you keep playing, you will get to the end of the game, maybe just not an ending you might have wanted
Generally, pretty much anything goes to get you to the end. If you talk to characters (NPCs and companions) and *listen* to them you should be fine. And even if not, you can't 'miss' the main quest - it's just not possible.
You can (and will) miss some/many smaller things because all choices affect the story and some are mutually exclusive. But that's fine. It's how this game works - you *cannot* do everything in one run.
There are ways to suddenly 'lose' (end the game) but they are rare and shouldn't happen if you pay attention. You have to do something *really, really* stupid to get a game over. And then there's always reloading! Just relax and enjoy. And avoid spoilers!
Each companion will have their own quest line as well, which again, you can follow, or you can ignore. I won’t spoil anything, but some definitely pay off more than others. Some are tied into the main quest, but some are just side quests that result in better gear. As you go, any time there is something that happens that updates a companion quest line, even if they aren’t with you, that companion will have a marker on them either with you, or the next time you are in camp.
There are no "wrong" choices per se. There are suboptimal ones but nothing is going to prevent you from getting to the end of the game except choices that lead to instant death (for those who like to FAFO even when the game warns against that choice). If you save often, it's not a problem.
thanks for the comment. i didn't know fafo was an acronym now.
so, i think i am unintentionally efin around because i am wanting to find out what could happen. like, i can't not see what this dialog does because, based on experiences in other games, progression systems, i should be safe. i've already died many times from silly conflicts.
My first time through, as a long time fan of these types of games, I saved so many times so I could see all the dialogue. My second time through I knew more what type of experience I wanted and stuck to choices that character would have made based on my made up back story. Third time through I just wanted to romance Gale so did what he wanted so I could have his romance scenes and ending. I took a pause on my durge Minthara romance to go play warhammer Total War a while but I will be back. There is no wrong way to play, have fun, if you miss something, do another run and RP how you want to get that experience. It is impossible to do everything in one run because as some things close, others open.
Hey that's the fun of it! Thats what saves are for! I can't tell you how many times I looked at the very obviously horrible option, the game even giving me a chance to back out, and went welp, imma just do a little savey save aaaand-- *death*
On your first run, you will make "mistakes" that will impact your later gameplay. There is a companion (Halsin) I didn't rescue in time on my first playthru and I missed all his content throughout the rest of the game.
I was still able to complete the main storyline, no issues at all. But I was totally inspired to do a second playthrough with a checklist guide.
It's cool to do a first run wild and unguided, just play. It makes the second playthrough much more fun.
Yeah first time I left act 2 halsin was like "I wish we could have done more" and I didn't know what he was talking about until I wanted halsin my current run (I'm on my 4th total, but first I'm finishing because of the Act 3 bug on consoles that got fixed) and I saw the curse drop and the tree spring and I was like "Well fuck man, this is beautiful"
Larian actively markets this story-branching as a **feature** of their product, and encourages you to "take chances and explore." The story-branching looks (sorta) like this. I'm staying vague and mostly spoiler-free, but much of this can be figured out by even casually-familiar players.
-- There are four or five(ish) "major endings," as of upcoming Sept 2024 Patch 7
-- The 7-8-9+ epilogues with each ending vary by companion + romance/choices
-- The big final battles vary by NPCs you helped (or didn't help) along the way
So, by this logic, there are something like 4-5 "major" endings, times 7-to-9 companion epilogues, times 25-ish possible NPC allies for the final fights. That's 700-to-1200 permutations. You could make this number even larger, if you count "kind or unkind things you did for the NPCs along the way," but those are not truly endgame-influential things, merely "make you feel good or guilty."
The only eight or nine things that can outright end the game (requiring a go-back-to-save), as far as I know, are
-- Being overtly disrespectful to a (demi)god who can wish you into atoms
-- Causing an infernal being who owns your soul to die (depends on main char)
-- Getting caught + consumed in a demonic ritual (depends on main char)
-- Killing an alien being after it warns you "you will sprout tentacles if I die"
-- Letting your inner magic go nuclear-detonation (depends on main char)
-- Not rushing to help an alien being when it says "something's very wrong"
-- Returning to earlier (Act 1, Act 2) territory after being warned 3x not to
-- Telling an amped-up githyanki to end your suffering (or botching social roll)
-- The standard whole-party-dies-in-combat stuff (standard game play)
I've tried not to get too spoiler-y in the post above, but you should ask yourself during play:
-- Do I want to try help-the-people heroism? Or sacrifice others for personal power?
-- Do I want to set up 'happy' later-lives for my companions? Or let them wander?
Neither one of those choices are 'right' or 'wrong,' but they will inform the myriad sub-branches, both in terms of major endings and NPCs helped/harmed along the way.
>-- Returning to earlier (Act 1, Act 2) territory after being warned 3x not to
really! that's actually good to know. i suppose it's the game master than warns u about these things?
That's a good question which I don't want to detail fully for you. Suffice to say that you will be guided by one or two "friendly voices," as the game progresses, and your relationship with these "voices" will evolve + change during the course of the game, and you can mostly implicitly trust the "voice" until maybe 60% or 70% of the way through, at which it becomes, well, more complex.
This traveling-between-zones thing has confused many players (including myself) in the past -- as a basic rule, if it warns you "Be sure to clean up loose ends before proceeding," the game is suggesting that, yes, you will be able to return to this land, but some of your NPC relationships might end (poisoned victim might finally die, burning building might finally collapse, big magic ritual might finally complete), changing the plot somewhat. I take this as a signal to save (before proceeding forward) and then experimenting with what changed.
*If it warns you "things will be permanently changed" or "you may not be able to return,"* that's a more serious no-going-back warning, which will not ruin your game, only limit continued exploration of the older stuff.
**IF IT WARNS YOU "DON'T DO THIS, I'VE WARNED YOU 2x OR 3x, IF YOU CONTINUE I'LL BE ALL DONE WITH YOU AND I CAN'T GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY," THAT IS A VERY BLATANT UNSUBTLE HINT. ONLY IGNORE THIS FOR SAVE-FIRST ENTERTAINMENT.**
Okay in trying to be as little spoilery as possible in case op reads this, is #3 regarding a specific Cambion or is it an origin specific thing? Bc wow I really need to play through some origin characters lol, I have played like 5-600 hours mostly in 2 multi-player games.
#3 is... vampiric in nature, and, in the case I'm referencing, is only game-ending if you play as that origin character. (There are a couple of dice-rolls involved.)
Yes, with the exception of.two things, both of which the game loudly telegrapsh to you as 100% definitely going to end terribly, virtually any choice you make in gamewill.not.stop you from being able to see the resolution of the games final content.
Will that ending feel as satisfying to you as if you had made the "right" choices? Well, that's a question only you can answer. You can play through the game as a virtual Saint or as a generic murder-hobo pretending the npc''s aren't real people in-univsrse.
In character creation the game asks you to in put "who your characteris" and that question doesn't stop until the credits roll.
Yep. Killing people will cut you off of their future content (which most characters have) and does have consequences, but it will not ruin the entire run. The journey has so many options that people treat it as a rogue like, but you always arrive at the same conclusion, just with almost unrecognizable paths
Yeah the primary objective is either take over the netherbrain or destroy it. Dosent say anybody else to live. Killing Isobel in the shadow cursed lands kills literally everyone there and in all the acts the only important people you HAVE to kill is gortash, let heroic and orin with this is mind everybody else is just a road block. Don’t like that quest just kill him. FPS too low in act 3 just kill literally everyone and you get like 50FPS someone already tried it and can confirm
There is a couple of choices you can make that will lead to a straight game over but only like 2 or 3. The rest of your choices will just affect different quest lines and have different outcomes for some of your companions which may help or hinder you later on but it will all end basically in the same manner save a few details.
You can definitely lose within the first few minutes of crashing if you don't recruit anyone and go straight to the weakend Mindflayer still on the ship.
One of the most awesome things about this game is that it is VERY hard to break it. You can kill NPCs, intentionally do everything "wrong" (i.e. suboptimally or evilly), and there are still paths forward. In fact, some of the coolest things about the game can only be found if you really mess stuff up.
As an example, there's one NPC in early Act 1 that has a failsafe if you kill him. Then another failsafe if that person is dead. And a third failsafe if you somehow go waaaay out of your way to kill both of those failsafes in completely separate areas, and this person doesn't show up unless both the other failsafes are dead. So most people will never even see this NPC.
There's also an important party member that shows up early in Act 1 and has a main quest tied to them. If you ignore them, they show up at several different places. It's actually impossible to progress the story far enough to miss the Maguffin they carry which is vital to the story, despite the game being nonlinear and having a rather open world style in Act 1. It's quite fascinating how many failsafes there are for this one particular item.
I’ve been sitting here for ages trying to figure out which NPC you’re talking about but I can’t! I thought I’d seen everything at this point, who is it you’re talking about??
I knew about Shart, I finally relented and let her join my party when I found her sitting in the grove playing with the important, secret artefact like a damn fidget spinner (i love her dgmw, but in that playthrough I was roleplaying a githyanki who was pissed at her for being rude on the nautiloid). Apparently Zevlor is the one with the multiple failsafes! The game *really* wants you to have that victory party!
Basically, you need an NPC to talk to in order to get the camp celebration. So if you kill Zevlor, someone else takes his place. And if you kill that person, a third NPC takes their place. I haven't tested out how easy it is to kill Zevlor without aggroing everyone... might be doable in the initial goblin attack when you first arrive, or with stealth.
This is brand new information for me! I don’t have a Tav/Durge that’s in Act 1 right now, thank you for giving me a reason to start yet another playthrough so I can try this out, I need to meet (and maybe try to kill?) this npc!
I think the game is fun because there’s no wrong options. You just kinda gotta go where the narrative takes you based on your choices. Would siding with [redacted] in act I be wrong for a “good” run? Probably! Would it be great for an evil run? Absolutely! Just let the narrative shift your character and vibe!
No wrong choices. The main story has so many failsafes it will railroad you if you're luck is in the gutter.
I went in blind and lost companions on my first playthrough... That's fine. My suggestion is go with your gut, turn karmic dice off in the settings, explore as much as you can and don't reload bad rolls. Let the dice decide.
It also applies to enemies, and it helps them too to hit you more often, though not so many critical hits. But getting hit more often hurts, so karmic dice turned off is better. Embrace the random.
There's like 3 game over choices at most, and also you can all die in combat. Nearly everything else can be finished in any number of ways and it'll simply adjust the story accordingly, often in a depressing but interesting way, sometimes in a buggy dialogue way. aka there is no wrong choice.
(un)fortunately no, you can't f up the good ending in any way until the very end of the game when you can purposely commit the bad thing.
There are some decisions that seem to be important and they may change the "road" (in a metaphorical way) which leads you to the ending but the main ending only changes at the very end with one decision.
There is some fake info on the internet about how e.g. eating tadpoles too much can lock you out of some endings but it's absolutely not true.
Some people do genocidal kill-everyone runs. The story does not break.
I accidentally sequence broke 3 times in my first run. This ruined some individual quest lines (one of which was a main-story one), but the story still progresses. (Act 2 has a 2 stage bossfight that requires narrative setup, and I glitched through a wall to skip to stage 2 without even having made stage 1 possible - stage 2 didn't make much sense, but I could still play.)
In another run, while deliberately trying to gltich things, I did managage to 'softlock' myself by leaving Gale's unconcious (but not dead) body in an inaccessible area, and so I couldn't continue the game because I needed my whole party, but they patched that later on so I was able to keep playing that run.
There are some choices that are an immediate game over, but then you can just continue from your previous save. If you save often, that could be as little as 1 line of dialogue ago, and if you save less often, probably just a few rooms ago.
If your character doesn’t die, then the story isn’t ruined. People suggest following a single storyline because many storylines contradict each other (protect these people vs kill these people for example) it is impossible to do every quest in one play through for that reason.
mhm, i'm overwhelmed with choices and interactions that i can't decide what to do half the time. it seems repeat playthroughs is highly recommended so i try playing with that in mind.
There’s a big mix of endings. Good, bad, bitter sweet, and everything in between. There are only a few blue screen of death moments where you can prematurely die permanently before you reach the ending. My advice is to play the game as spoiler free as possible for your first run. The decisions you make have real consequences. Save often. Sometimes failing is funnier or better than succeeding. Sometimes being an idiot pays off.
Believe me, I tried to choose all of the worst options (especially from a metagaming perspective like killing Halsin at the goblin camp). By the end I had 2 origin characters and had a Withers hireling to fill out the party. I was still able to beat the game and was astounded at how adaptable the story was. You can't really mess things up. Honor runs you can but that's only because you can't reload when you die. Otherwise, do what you want. The show still goes on.
Seriously. I have legitimately considered a pure psycho solo Durge run and tried to kill all the origin companions as soon as I could. Surprisingly, Astarion put up the biggest fight. I didn't get far, not because of the game, just because my computer is slowly going the way of Karlach's heart, except less cool and interesting
There's nothing you can do in this game that would "brick" your game. There are several non-standard game overs but the game tends to make it very obvious to the player that they not do what will cause the game overs. Whether you are evil, good, chaotic, lawful, etc, the game still has a big bad you have to fight and several endings for each character depending on what you did during the game or choices you make at the end of the game.
There are tons of things a player could do, thus multiple playthroughs.
My advice is literally play through the first time with no expectations, quick save after every conversation and fight so if you don’t like how something went for your story you can go back to your quick save, there’s one specific thing that comes to mind when I’m thinking choices that end your game, you just get a game over screen cause u let whomever I’m thinking about suck your soul out of you lol. But like I said a quick save can save you lots of time if that happens. I will also say that depending on your choices a quest might be cut short ?? But it’s usually when your playing evil, as long as your trying to be a hero and morally good I don’t think anything should be ruined by any way ? That’s the best I can do for info/advice. Don’t be afraid to make a bad choice ! Most of it is dialogue any who so have fun with it.
oh and side note - you will miss something. No way of avoiding it, Bg3 is jammed packed with sm cool interactions and the every time I play through I find something new !!
do you mean like long rests? i've done two so far and, well, it was interesting. the thing about long rests that i don't understand is when to do them. the quests i usually encounter feel urgent, as if i might regret a long rest if i don't speak to this one person or follow up with one request. how do u know when a long rest is a good idea/safe?
The game lets you reload saves as long as its not Honor mode.
You can also do what I do and somewhat treat it like a rogue like where a save may end but that's okay because that's where that story has to end but that doesn't stop you from making new ones.
There are a few insta-tpk dialogues, though you should be fine in most cases as reloading is an option unless it's Honor mode
Consider, the main quest of the game is finding a cure, somehow.
Of course most of the actions and choices have consequences, so if you don't like an outcome you can load a previous save, therefore save often. A good thing of this game is that you can save during dialogues. Don't stop yourself to carry on the game, you could always restart another run and take different choices to enjoy those outcomes.
I had a problem on second act, where I delayed to in a certain place full of enemies and I failed the resque mission. So... maybe in second act prioritize that if you want to do a 'hero' run.
I had to kill all of my party members + any companion i had in HM and i still reached the netherbrain just to die like a stupid f*ck because my ego was too too big
As long as you don’t die or get an early ending which as far as I’m aware there are only 2 then yeah, it’ll just affect your ending and companions and I guess the loot you get.
You can lock yourself out of certain side content but it's (almost) impossible to fail the main quest. The one thing I can think of that could lock you from completing the game, however, can be noticed immediately. So if you have a save five minutes before, you can just reload and complete the game with no issues (unless you're on honour mode.)
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it autosaves if >!the Emperor leaves you.!< At that point, if >!you don't have the hammer and Raphael is dead!< you're screwed.
You can't mess it up but you may not get the desired story you want.
That's good in terms of how re-playable this game is on. I'm doing my third. Some people have done countless runs, and the unique combination of your main character, your companions and choices really do change the story.
Also, I haven't played a game for that long or longer. In fact this is the first 'real' game I have played in, gosh, since 2009? So I do get where you are coming from. If you feel like you are a bit off the rails now, then maybe restart, but I think there could be value in pushing through then playing again and making different choices.
I'm doing an evil Drow Dark Urge run now that the choices are kinda dark. Even make me uncomfortable, but it is a completely new story.
Seriously don’t think like that. This is a game where you need several play throughs to see everything. Just play the game.
Let me reiterate it’s impossible to get all dialogue/cutscenes in one play through.
You get quest logs in your book.
It's unlikely that you'll get everything like you want it on the first run, but it's not "ruined", it's just how your adventure went.
The game is quite flexible.
This is a story of your people, and your choices *will* influence how they are afterwards. You can fuck up their lives if you choose poorly, but as for the main storyline itself? You cannot break that. You will see it through to the end regardless.
Like others have said you can't "fail" the game, though you may not get an ending that fully satisfies you as most of them can be bittersweet.
Most people do multiple playthroughs because wether you like it or not chances are you're gonna miss some things. Hell, on my first playthrough I missed like 4 companions and an entire area lol...
On my current chaos run, the tieflings died to the thorn ritual, the goblins were wiped out, mayrina was saved, with Halsin dead the curse wasn't lifted. Went straight to the steel watch foundry before the iron throne. There's nothing you can do that locks you out of facing down with the brain
I think the worst that can happen if you make all the “wrong” decisions is you lose your companions.
But even then you can always hire dudes from wrinkles lol
It’s a role playing game. All your choices just help to shape the story. You can get to the end regardless. I’d just advise saving often so you can go back if you feel you messed something up.
I recommend you save by pressing the F5 before talking to people. There is a dialogue option that can cause a very powerful person to become angry with you. Other than that, pick the choices you want! Saving just lets you backtrack if you make a decision that you can't live with. I recommend only reloading if you're all dead and it's game over or if you can't stand your game cuz of a decision.
When people say "ruin the story" they might mean miss out on something or not get an ideal outcome based on good vs evil etc. Only people who have done 1 or more playthroughs are aware of what's ruined. You won't know on your first playthrough! The game is really meant for multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything.
You can’t “ruin” the storyline, it’s all based off of choices how your story will go. If you keep playing, you will get to the end of the game, maybe just not an ending you might have wanted
Accurate, although there are a few choices that will result in instant game overs.
...which would still be an (game) ending.
Hey, I rememberyour! You defended me when I posted about the LSAT! Thanks for being so awesome and encouraging. I appreciate you!!! 😎
Challenging vlaakith Making a deal with Raphael, stealing from Raphael but not taking your contract.
Making a deal with Raphael doesn't result in a game over tho
I think he meant making the deal and steal afterwards.
This.
In which case you can reload a save, yea
Generally, pretty much anything goes to get you to the end. If you talk to characters (NPCs and companions) and *listen* to them you should be fine. And even if not, you can't 'miss' the main quest - it's just not possible. You can (and will) miss some/many smaller things because all choices affect the story and some are mutually exclusive. But that's fine. It's how this game works - you *cannot* do everything in one run. There are ways to suddenly 'lose' (end the game) but they are rare and shouldn't happen if you pay attention. You have to do something *really, really* stupid to get a game over. And then there's always reloading! Just relax and enjoy. And avoid spoilers!
thanks for this, it's reassuring. i do tend to listen to my companions as they usually talk sense.
Use your judgement about sense. They all have their flaws too 😁
Each companion will have their own quest line as well, which again, you can follow, or you can ignore. I won’t spoil anything, but some definitely pay off more than others. Some are tied into the main quest, but some are just side quests that result in better gear. As you go, any time there is something that happens that updates a companion quest line, even if they aren’t with you, that companion will have a marker on them either with you, or the next time you are in camp.
There are no "wrong" choices per se. There are suboptimal ones but nothing is going to prevent you from getting to the end of the game except choices that lead to instant death (for those who like to FAFO even when the game warns against that choice). If you save often, it's not a problem.
thanks for the comment. i didn't know fafo was an acronym now. so, i think i am unintentionally efin around because i am wanting to find out what could happen. like, i can't not see what this dialog does because, based on experiences in other games, progression systems, i should be safe. i've already died many times from silly conflicts.
My first time through, as a long time fan of these types of games, I saved so many times so I could see all the dialogue. My second time through I knew more what type of experience I wanted and stuck to choices that character would have made based on my made up back story. Third time through I just wanted to romance Gale so did what he wanted so I could have his romance scenes and ending. I took a pause on my durge Minthara romance to go play warhammer Total War a while but I will be back. There is no wrong way to play, have fun, if you miss something, do another run and RP how you want to get that experience. It is impossible to do everything in one run because as some things close, others open.
Hey that's the fun of it! Thats what saves are for! I can't tell you how many times I looked at the very obviously horrible option, the game even giving me a chance to back out, and went welp, imma just do a little savey save aaaand-- *death*
Try that at >!Last Light Inn!<, you will want to reload but it's worth seeing once
On your first run, you will make "mistakes" that will impact your later gameplay. There is a companion (Halsin) I didn't rescue in time on my first playthru and I missed all his content throughout the rest of the game. I was still able to complete the main storyline, no issues at all. But I was totally inspired to do a second playthrough with a checklist guide. It's cool to do a first run wild and unguided, just play. It makes the second playthrough much more fun.
Yeah first time I left act 2 halsin was like "I wish we could have done more" and I didn't know what he was talking about until I wanted halsin my current run (I'm on my 4th total, but first I'm finishing because of the Act 3 bug on consoles that got fixed) and I saw the curse drop and the tree spring and I was like "Well fuck man, this is beautiful"
icic, this is helpful. i just met this guy.
Larian actively markets this story-branching as a **feature** of their product, and encourages you to "take chances and explore." The story-branching looks (sorta) like this. I'm staying vague and mostly spoiler-free, but much of this can be figured out by even casually-familiar players. -- There are four or five(ish) "major endings," as of upcoming Sept 2024 Patch 7 -- The 7-8-9+ epilogues with each ending vary by companion + romance/choices -- The big final battles vary by NPCs you helped (or didn't help) along the way So, by this logic, there are something like 4-5 "major" endings, times 7-to-9 companion epilogues, times 25-ish possible NPC allies for the final fights. That's 700-to-1200 permutations. You could make this number even larger, if you count "kind or unkind things you did for the NPCs along the way," but those are not truly endgame-influential things, merely "make you feel good or guilty." The only eight or nine things that can outright end the game (requiring a go-back-to-save), as far as I know, are -- Being overtly disrespectful to a (demi)god who can wish you into atoms -- Causing an infernal being who owns your soul to die (depends on main char) -- Getting caught + consumed in a demonic ritual (depends on main char) -- Killing an alien being after it warns you "you will sprout tentacles if I die" -- Letting your inner magic go nuclear-detonation (depends on main char) -- Not rushing to help an alien being when it says "something's very wrong" -- Returning to earlier (Act 1, Act 2) territory after being warned 3x not to -- Telling an amped-up githyanki to end your suffering (or botching social roll) -- The standard whole-party-dies-in-combat stuff (standard game play)
I've tried not to get too spoiler-y in the post above, but you should ask yourself during play: -- Do I want to try help-the-people heroism? Or sacrifice others for personal power? -- Do I want to set up 'happy' later-lives for my companions? Or let them wander? Neither one of those choices are 'right' or 'wrong,' but they will inform the myriad sub-branches, both in terms of major endings and NPCs helped/harmed along the way.
>-- Returning to earlier (Act 1, Act 2) territory after being warned 3x not to really! that's actually good to know. i suppose it's the game master than warns u about these things?
That's a good question which I don't want to detail fully for you. Suffice to say that you will be guided by one or two "friendly voices," as the game progresses, and your relationship with these "voices" will evolve + change during the course of the game, and you can mostly implicitly trust the "voice" until maybe 60% or 70% of the way through, at which it becomes, well, more complex. This traveling-between-zones thing has confused many players (including myself) in the past -- as a basic rule, if it warns you "Be sure to clean up loose ends before proceeding," the game is suggesting that, yes, you will be able to return to this land, but some of your NPC relationships might end (poisoned victim might finally die, burning building might finally collapse, big magic ritual might finally complete), changing the plot somewhat. I take this as a signal to save (before proceeding forward) and then experimenting with what changed. *If it warns you "things will be permanently changed" or "you may not be able to return,"* that's a more serious no-going-back warning, which will not ruin your game, only limit continued exploration of the older stuff. **IF IT WARNS YOU "DON'T DO THIS, I'VE WARNED YOU 2x OR 3x, IF YOU CONTINUE I'LL BE ALL DONE WITH YOU AND I CAN'T GUARANTEE YOUR SAFETY," THAT IS A VERY BLATANT UNSUBTLE HINT. ONLY IGNORE THIS FOR SAVE-FIRST ENTERTAINMENT.**
The game gives you warning pop ups when you’re avoid to wander into areas that change/progress the main storyline and map. There aren’t many.
Okay in trying to be as little spoilery as possible in case op reads this, is #3 regarding a specific Cambion or is it an origin specific thing? Bc wow I really need to play through some origin characters lol, I have played like 5-600 hours mostly in 2 multi-player games.
#3 is... vampiric in nature, and, in the case I'm referencing, is only game-ending if you play as that origin character. (There are a couple of dice-rolls involved.)
Yes, with the exception of.two things, both of which the game loudly telegrapsh to you as 100% definitely going to end terribly, virtually any choice you make in gamewill.not.stop you from being able to see the resolution of the games final content. Will that ending feel as satisfying to you as if you had made the "right" choices? Well, that's a question only you can answer. You can play through the game as a virtual Saint or as a generic murder-hobo pretending the npc''s aren't real people in-univsrse. In character creation the game asks you to in put "who your characteris" and that question doesn't stop until the credits roll.
ahhaha, thanks. ya i should not have skimmed over character creation.
Dude you can murder literally everyone and get to the end of the game
lol wut? this is real?
Yep. Killing people will cut you off of their future content (which most characters have) and does have consequences, but it will not ruin the entire run. The journey has so many options that people treat it as a rogue like, but you always arrive at the same conclusion, just with almost unrecognizable paths
Yeah the primary objective is either take over the netherbrain or destroy it. Dosent say anybody else to live. Killing Isobel in the shadow cursed lands kills literally everyone there and in all the acts the only important people you HAVE to kill is gortash, let heroic and orin with this is mind everybody else is just a road block. Don’t like that quest just kill him. FPS too low in act 3 just kill literally everyone and you get like 50FPS someone already tried it and can confirm
There is a couple of choices you can make that will lead to a straight game over but only like 2 or 3. The rest of your choices will just affect different quest lines and have different outcomes for some of your companions which may help or hinder you later on but it will all end basically in the same manner save a few details.
You can definitely lose within the first few minutes of crashing if you don't recruit anyone and go straight to the weakend Mindflayer still on the ship.
Imagining a new player taking this exact route is so sad.
One of the most awesome things about this game is that it is VERY hard to break it. You can kill NPCs, intentionally do everything "wrong" (i.e. suboptimally or evilly), and there are still paths forward. In fact, some of the coolest things about the game can only be found if you really mess stuff up. As an example, there's one NPC in early Act 1 that has a failsafe if you kill him. Then another failsafe if that person is dead. And a third failsafe if you somehow go waaaay out of your way to kill both of those failsafes in completely separate areas, and this person doesn't show up unless both the other failsafes are dead. So most people will never even see this NPC. There's also an important party member that shows up early in Act 1 and has a main quest tied to them. If you ignore them, they show up at several different places. It's actually impossible to progress the story far enough to miss the Maguffin they carry which is vital to the story, despite the game being nonlinear and having a rather open world style in Act 1. It's quite fascinating how many failsafes there are for this one particular item.
I’ve been sitting here for ages trying to figure out which NPC you’re talking about but I can’t! I thought I’d seen everything at this point, who is it you’re talking about??
Shart
I knew about Shart, I finally relented and let her join my party when I found her sitting in the grove playing with the important, secret artefact like a damn fidget spinner (i love her dgmw, but in that playthrough I was roleplaying a githyanki who was pissed at her for being rude on the nautiloid). Apparently Zevlor is the one with the multiple failsafes! The game *really* wants you to have that victory party!
Zevlor is the first one, Shart is the second.
Whaat, I had no idea about Zevlor, going to have to look that up, thanks! I knew Shart keeps hanging around if you ignore her tho haha
Basically, you need an NPC to talk to in order to get the camp celebration. So if you kill Zevlor, someone else takes his place. And if you kill that person, a third NPC takes their place. I haven't tested out how easy it is to kill Zevlor without aggroing everyone... might be doable in the initial goblin attack when you first arrive, or with stealth.
This is brand new information for me! I don’t have a Tav/Durge that’s in Act 1 right now, thank you for giving me a reason to start yet another playthrough so I can try this out, I need to meet (and maybe try to kill?) this npc!
I think the game is fun because there’s no wrong options. You just kinda gotta go where the narrative takes you based on your choices. Would siding with [redacted] in act I be wrong for a “good” run? Probably! Would it be great for an evil run? Absolutely! Just let the narrative shift your character and vibe!
No wrong choices. The main story has so many failsafes it will railroad you if you're luck is in the gutter. I went in blind and lost companions on my first playthrough... That's fine. My suggestion is go with your gut, turn karmic dice off in the settings, explore as much as you can and don't reload bad rolls. Let the dice decide.
What does the karmic dice do?
Karmic dice forces roll balancing, so you can't get a run of good or bad rolls.
And that's a good thing in theory, no? Since there's no streak of 1s or 20s, which is highly unlikely to happen..
It also applies to enemies, and it helps them too to hit you more often, though not so many critical hits. But getting hit more often hurts, so karmic dice turned off is better. Embrace the random.
There's like 3 game over choices at most, and also you can all die in combat. Nearly everything else can be finished in any number of ways and it'll simply adjust the story accordingly, often in a depressing but interesting way, sometimes in a buggy dialogue way. aka there is no wrong choice.
(un)fortunately no, you can't f up the good ending in any way until the very end of the game when you can purposely commit the bad thing. There are some decisions that seem to be important and they may change the "road" (in a metaphorical way) which leads you to the ending but the main ending only changes at the very end with one decision. There is some fake info on the internet about how e.g. eating tadpoles too much can lock you out of some endings but it's absolutely not true.
Some people do genocidal kill-everyone runs. The story does not break. I accidentally sequence broke 3 times in my first run. This ruined some individual quest lines (one of which was a main-story one), but the story still progresses. (Act 2 has a 2 stage bossfight that requires narrative setup, and I glitched through a wall to skip to stage 2 without even having made stage 1 possible - stage 2 didn't make much sense, but I could still play.) In another run, while deliberately trying to gltich things, I did managage to 'softlock' myself by leaving Gale's unconcious (but not dead) body in an inaccessible area, and so I couldn't continue the game because I needed my whole party, but they patched that later on so I was able to keep playing that run. There are some choices that are an immediate game over, but then you can just continue from your previous save. If you save often, that could be as little as 1 line of dialogue ago, and if you save less often, probably just a few rooms ago.
If your character doesn’t die, then the story isn’t ruined. People suggest following a single storyline because many storylines contradict each other (protect these people vs kill these people for example) it is impossible to do every quest in one play through for that reason.
mhm, i'm overwhelmed with choices and interactions that i can't decide what to do half the time. it seems repeat playthroughs is highly recommended so i try playing with that in mind.
you might close off some side quests by making certain choices but you can never mess up the main quest. just dont kill halsin
“ There are no wrong choices, only different outcomes” ~bigdingus999 but also probably someone else said it first.
There’s a big mix of endings. Good, bad, bitter sweet, and everything in between. There are only a few blue screen of death moments where you can prematurely die permanently before you reach the ending. My advice is to play the game as spoiler free as possible for your first run. The decisions you make have real consequences. Save often. Sometimes failing is funnier or better than succeeding. Sometimes being an idiot pays off.
Believe me, I tried to choose all of the worst options (especially from a metagaming perspective like killing Halsin at the goblin camp). By the end I had 2 origin characters and had a Withers hireling to fill out the party. I was still able to beat the game and was astounded at how adaptable the story was. You can't really mess things up. Honor runs you can but that's only because you can't reload when you die. Otherwise, do what you want. The show still goes on.
thanks, the adaptability is interesting and something i have never encountered in a game before.
Seriously. I have legitimately considered a pure psycho solo Durge run and tried to kill all the origin companions as soon as I could. Surprisingly, Astarion put up the biggest fight. I didn't get far, not because of the game, just because my computer is slowly going the way of Karlach's heart, except less cool and interesting
You can complete the game with basically any story choices.
Pfft, what is that gasbag gonna do about it?
There's nothing you can do in this game that would "brick" your game. There are several non-standard game overs but the game tends to make it very obvious to the player that they not do what will cause the game overs. Whether you are evil, good, chaotic, lawful, etc, the game still has a big bad you have to fight and several endings for each character depending on what you did during the game or choices you make at the end of the game. There are tons of things a player could do, thus multiple playthroughs.
My advice is literally play through the first time with no expectations, quick save after every conversation and fight so if you don’t like how something went for your story you can go back to your quick save, there’s one specific thing that comes to mind when I’m thinking choices that end your game, you just get a game over screen cause u let whomever I’m thinking about suck your soul out of you lol. But like I said a quick save can save you lots of time if that happens. I will also say that depending on your choices a quest might be cut short ?? But it’s usually when your playing evil, as long as your trying to be a hero and morally good I don’t think anything should be ruined by any way ? That’s the best I can do for info/advice. Don’t be afraid to make a bad choice ! Most of it is dialogue any who so have fun with it.
oh and side note - you will miss something. No way of avoiding it, Bg3 is jammed packed with sm cool interactions and the every time I play through I find something new !!
DO PARTIAL RESTS i cannot stress this enough. A lot of things happen when you finish a day and sometimes they overlap
do you mean like long rests? i've done two so far and, well, it was interesting. the thing about long rests that i don't understand is when to do them. the quests i usually encounter feel urgent, as if i might regret a long rest if i don't speak to this one person or follow up with one request. how do u know when a long rest is a good idea/safe?
There are choices that will end the game, such as giving in to the dying mind flayer or sassing Vlaakith one too many times but other than that no
The game lets you reload saves as long as its not Honor mode. You can also do what I do and somewhat treat it like a rogue like where a save may end but that's okay because that's where that story has to end but that doesn't stop you from making new ones. There are a few insta-tpk dialogues, though you should be fine in most cases as reloading is an option unless it's Honor mode
Consider, the main quest of the game is finding a cure, somehow. Of course most of the actions and choices have consequences, so if you don't like an outcome you can load a previous save, therefore save often. A good thing of this game is that you can save during dialogues. Don't stop yourself to carry on the game, you could always restart another run and take different choices to enjoy those outcomes. I had a problem on second act, where I delayed to in a certain place full of enemies and I failed the resque mission. So... maybe in second act prioritize that if you want to do a 'hero' run.
thanks, i did not realize saving during dialog was allowed.
I had to kill all of my party members + any companion i had in HM and i still reached the netherbrain just to die like a stupid f*ck because my ego was too too big
As long as you don’t die or get an early ending which as far as I’m aware there are only 2 then yeah, it’ll just affect your ending and companions and I guess the loot you get.
You can lock yourself out of certain side content but it's (almost) impossible to fail the main quest. The one thing I can think of that could lock you from completing the game, however, can be noticed immediately. So if you have a save five minutes before, you can just reload and complete the game with no issues (unless you're on honour mode.)
Ctrl alt delete Honor mode reload.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it autosaves if >!the Emperor leaves you.!< At that point, if >!you don't have the hammer and Raphael is dead!< you're screwed.
Fair enough there. The game does auto save a lot.
You can't mess it up but you may not get the desired story you want. That's good in terms of how re-playable this game is on. I'm doing my third. Some people have done countless runs, and the unique combination of your main character, your companions and choices really do change the story. Also, I haven't played a game for that long or longer. In fact this is the first 'real' game I have played in, gosh, since 2009? So I do get where you are coming from. If you feel like you are a bit off the rails now, then maybe restart, but I think there could be value in pushing through then playing again and making different choices. I'm doing an evil Drow Dark Urge run now that the choices are kinda dark. Even make me uncomfortable, but it is a completely new story.
Seriously don’t think like that. This is a game where you need several play throughs to see everything. Just play the game. Let me reiterate it’s impossible to get all dialogue/cutscenes in one play through.
You get quest logs in your book. It's unlikely that you'll get everything like you want it on the first run, but it's not "ruined", it's just how your adventure went.
The game is quite flexible. This is a story of your people, and your choices *will* influence how they are afterwards. You can fuck up their lives if you choose poorly, but as for the main storyline itself? You cannot break that. You will see it through to the end regardless.
No right way to play, you can do pretty much whatever you want and still finish
Like others have said you can't "fail" the game, though you may not get an ending that fully satisfies you as most of them can be bittersweet. Most people do multiple playthroughs because wether you like it or not chances are you're gonna miss some things. Hell, on my first playthrough I missed like 4 companions and an entire area lol...
On my current chaos run, the tieflings died to the thorn ritual, the goblins were wiped out, mayrina was saved, with Halsin dead the curse wasn't lifted. Went straight to the steel watch foundry before the iron throne. There's nothing you can do that locks you out of facing down with the brain
I think the worst that can happen if you make all the “wrong” decisions is you lose your companions. But even then you can always hire dudes from wrinkles lol
It’s a role playing game. All your choices just help to shape the story. You can get to the end regardless. I’d just advise saving often so you can go back if you feel you messed something up.
I recommend you save by pressing the F5 before talking to people. There is a dialogue option that can cause a very powerful person to become angry with you. Other than that, pick the choices you want! Saving just lets you backtrack if you make a decision that you can't live with. I recommend only reloading if you're all dead and it's game over or if you can't stand your game cuz of a decision. When people say "ruin the story" they might mean miss out on something or not get an ideal outcome based on good vs evil etc. Only people who have done 1 or more playthroughs are aware of what's ruined. You won't know on your first playthrough! The game is really meant for multiple playthroughs if you want to see everything.