Baldur's Gate

Whether or not it would be anything-exclusive came up on the previous page, actually. Short answer: no it won't. Rejoice! (Hamsters everywhere!)

<squeak>!

Now I'm wondering if this game will actually confirm if Boo really is a Miniature Giant Space Hamster or not. Though maybe it's better if it remains a mystery.

Edited by M84 on Jun 8th 2019 at 11:26:07 PM

Illithids eat space hamsters with lots of ketchup

Illithids eat big-brained dwarves. Gnomes riding space hamsters shoot ships shaped like illithid heads with giant lasers. The circle of life.

Wasn't there a spelljammer dock in Ust Natha? With some gith hanging around?

Oh yeah, let's hijack one of those babies.

> Illithids eat big-brained dwarves

unfortunately the big brained dwarf is near mythical

BG 3's going to be on Epic. They're just not putting it up on the store until release to avoid the store-wide sales.

Edited by Watashiwa on Jun 8th 2019 at 9:30:40 AM

It'll probably be there eventually, but right now, mentioning the name is inviting in a lot of bad flack, exclusivity or not. Me, I'm happy it's on my favorite stores, and I hope it continues that way.

It's already listed on Steam, so no need to worry about that just yet.

A franchise resurrection I was not expecting to be honest. A nice surprise.

Brought Baldurs gate 2 enhanced edition!

Yessss. Excellent place to start.

Just a quick heads up I nearly brought Baldur's Gate's 1 because enhanced because I didn't see the II was missing

(doh)

I have both games myself. Haven't touched them yet though. Probably should since I plan on getting this.

I played them both back in the day. I recommend playing a Paladin so you can use Carsomyr in II without necessarily needing to use Keldorn. Holy Avengers rock.

One thing I found annoying (albeit rather realistic) is that certain party members just cannot get along and will come to blows.

Edited by M84 on Jun 8th 2019 at 11:35:04 PM

Reminds me that I never actually played a Paladin. I might have been too much of an edgy teenager.

My standard party when I replay BG2 (which I do about once a year) is a paladin CHARNAME dual-wielding Purifier and Crom Faeyr, Keldorn with Carsomyr, Anomen with the Flail of Ages, and Minsc and Mazzy... well, it doesn't matter what they have, they're awesome. The sixth spot varies.

Then you get the Eye of Tyr and turn things up to 11.

That was quite an intriguing (and disturbing!) teaser!

One thing that struck me: I'm not steeped in D&D lore, but for some reason I had the impression that ceremorphosis was a rather slower process than what we see here. Was I mistaken, or was this faster than usually depicted?

If it was faster than usual, I wonder whether that was done simply for the sake of a more striking teaser, or whether it's plot-relevant. Perhaps the illithid have come up with a means to speed up ceremorphosis, thus more rapidly swelling their ranks?

It also occurred to me that the use of the illithid might make for a nice excuse to offer some non-standard "races", focussing specifically on those that are immune to mind-affecting abilities. As I said, I'm not an expert in D&D lore, so only the undead come to mind (so to speak :P) offhand; I think that constructs are immune, too, but I don't know whether a construct with a mind (as one would presumably want) would remain immune...

Something like that might make for a slightly different experience to the usual human/elf/dwarf/etc. options, while also mitigating the potential annoyance of having to deal with illithid mind-control, etc.

Although it might be interesting if the potential companions, on the other hand, weren't immune to mind-affecting abilities. Perhaps, as with The Thing, there might be the risk that one of them has been subverted, either by mind-control or implantation...

This is definitely different — the illithid tadpole (cute name for something horrible) implants itself and devours its host's brain in a few hours, so usually they're blessedly dead during the rest of the process, which takes about a week. Obviously not the case here. Much, much faster.

We're almost certainly going to get a gith companion, which could be a good excuse for psionics... which would be as good an excuse as any for a castaway from Athas (thri-kreen gladiator!), and I'm hoping for some Spelljammer stuff, even if it's just as tangential as another wildspace port like Ust Natha.

If we get a gith, I wonder if it'd be a githyanki or a githzerai.

Edited by M84 on Jun 10th 2019 at 1:50:15 AM

Have both in party and have to continually stop them from killing each other!

As a side note both games are now installed,right I'm playing Baluders 1,I hate how the fee to resurrect the dark elf in my party is like 200

@Unsung: Ah, thank you for confirming my thoughts regarding ceremorphosis! (Although I had it in mind that it took even longer than that—still, it's described as taking longer than in the trailer, at least!)

A gith companion does sound interesting. (Encouraged by fond memories of the gith companion from Planescape: Torment.)

I'll confess that I'm a little torn regarding this game, overall.

The concept seems rather interesting, and I played and enjoyed the Baldur's Gate games as well as Planescape: Torment. On the other hand, I feel that enjoyed them in spite of their use of D&D, not because of it. I feel that, for me at least, the D&D ruleset doesn't work as well in a computer RPG as I imagine that it does in a tabletop game. But then again, I'm not familiar with fifth edition—maybe that will make for a more appealing experience.

So I'm sort of cautiously following this for now. The discussion, at least, is interesting.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jun 9th 2019 at 1:31:46 PM

I mean, I don't actually have proof about the gith thing. I just think it makes sense. They have that history with the illithids, everybody loved Dak'kon, and out of all the planar races that have been in games, it really seems like they're the ones that keep showing up.

I'd kind of love a really in-depth lore-heavy githyanki companion, but it's kind of tough. A lot of portrayals of them really are about one-note villainous and xenophobic as you can get, so you'd kind of need to renovate them the way Dak'kon did the githzerai. But it could happen. Go play the first two Star Control games and look at how they handle the Ur-Quan, who have a similar backstory to the gith (despite looking more like neothelids).

I do play D&D, but for me the appeal is the setting more than the ruleset. The Realms have great factions and divine politics.

The problem with the githyanki is that their whole culture is based on being a bunch of hypocrites. They hate the illithids for being psychic expansionist slavers...and in their drive to destroy the illithids and never be enslaved again, have themselves become psychic expansionists.

Edited by M84 on Jun 9th 2019 at 9:21:50 PM

I wouldn't mind another Githzerai companion. I liked Dak'kon and the one in NWN 2 as well (whose name I suddenly can't remember.)