@@emperman and funnily enough, from the promo/marketing materials just before launch he also had a pretty much similar beard to Kethric while recording (well, more white, less gray)
Mapo I have to say, I very much enjoyed this whole getting in trouble and prison breaking part. It felt very unique, quite clever and I could tell you were having a blast with it. Such a great moment.
In regard to Wulbren not breaking the wall, he did ask you for a distraction. 😅 When I had played this part I started combat with the warden and guards so they wouldn’t go and open the gates. This kept the Teiflings in the cell and allowed Wulbrin to rescue them. Once Wulbrin escaped, one of the guards noticed and ran to open the gates, thus confusing the ai of the gnomes and Teiflings. The game must have it where the Teiflings prioritize escaping their own cell when the gates opened, even if Wulbrin is on his way to bust down the wall.
Also just a tip, authority only works on the non-infected servants of the absolute. You cant use it on other true souls, which is why it couldnt be used on the warden.
Chin up! Most of us kept away from Moonrise until it was too late and the prisoners were murdered. Cal's demise was sad, but for a first run I'd say the casualties were kept to a minimum!
Clearing the dock is a good idea. If you don't break the walls and just open the gates, they will leave out that way. Love that you care and count the ones you lose along the way.
This was a really good episode. Thanks for stickign to your guns on that prison escape, I'd been livid with Wulbren, his AI must have been messed between wanted to get into the fight and wanting to fight the guards + the tieflings already being out of their cages, so there was no need for him to actually break the walls
This was awesome. I loved that you really made intelligent use of all of your abilities and figured your way out of that encounter with all of its complications! That almost puzzle-like experience was such a huge part of what I loved about this game. Appreciate the commitment here to not reloading!
So on the issue of not being able to talk to characters about stuff sometimes, I think they designed the game and thought of it like a D&D adventure, where you wouldn't be able to leave a dungeon or encounter type area like Moonrise half done, go and talk to a bunch of the people involved in the nearby village and bounce between the two at will, just like logistically if the DM was being realistic about it (or without it being unfun in a videogame with stuff like time passing and people leaving/quests getting failed if you take your time, which people would hate if the game did it a lot). Whereas obviously, in a videogame with the teleport waypoints (which I think are a good choice for QoL), you are going to take advantage of it and the game seems permissive and built out enough that someone might expect them to have dialogue for every permutation but that is ultimately very difficult to really do, they've given it a good go though but like, what would being able to tell the people at Last Light that you've found their loved ones but you haven't rescued them yet add and would it be worth recording dialogue for. They seem to expect you to kinda clear out an area, either via dialogue or combat, or a bit of either AND then go and talk to the relevant people when it's done.
The thing is, with how the game works and actually accounts for insane amount of permutations, and how you actually can revisit certain NPCs/areas after certain discoveries, dialogue with new info, story changes, even small ones, you start to expect it in 100% of the cases (fairly or not, it doesn't matter, even tho it is a videogame, and there is no real DM to adjust). And when, in some corner-cases, it doesn't account for some small things, you "feel bad", even tho you really shouldn't, because you're already getting borderline interactivity madness in 100+ h of your personal experience. In this case, Jaheira doesn't really care for prisoners (not in a callous way, just not the priority), and never even asked for them to be rescued, so there is no need for her to have lines, they add nothing. Telling Bex that her husband is alive doesn't really change anything, especially since he is asking for to leave to BG, which could only result in her dying or saying something "I won't go without him". But for Barcus, with how he is preparing as special thing to help you to rescue Wulbren, there probably should've been an option to tell him to hurry up, because you actually found Wulbren and about to rescue him.
It’s such a fun episode! I had no idea Araj can ask you to call “your vampiric friend” when he’s not around, because I used to take him with me everywhere. Btw, thank you for this decision - not making Astarion bite the drow. And I haven’t expected the scar scene to play after talking to Raphael, I thought it’s already too late, but it seems you’ve get a dozen of approval, and it worked. The prison part made me literally scream like if I was watching football or something like that xD because as a rule on your playthrough you’re so patient and eager for your investigation, but here imho the problem was - you haven’t investigated the environment. In my first playthrough I was imprisoned there too, but I’ve jumped into this hole 🙈 and found another area underneath, and the way up + the hidden area behind the cells, and I’ve broken the walls myself, not with Wulbren. And the Warden’s tower - you could enter it from outside, jumping up along the wall, through the window on the second floor.
"as a rule on your playthrough you’re so patient and eager for your investigation, but here imho the problem was - you haven’t investigated the environment. " - exactly, he is so careful not to walk over to the waypoint this whole playthrough and here he just started doing shit =)
I think this might be my favourite episode so far! It’s so much fun watching you embrace the situations you find yourself in and have fun with them rather than just reloading constantly (like I sadly tend to do 😂)
I still feel like he should consider multiclass Rogue for this RP reason. 3 Levels of Rogue Thief even give him an additional bonus action which is actively great for Monks, plus all the new dialogue options and, you know, skill expertise for scenarios just like this episode. He's incredibly Rogueish as is.
Pickpocketing 900 gold requires 25+ slight of hand skillcheck... and his Astarian has only +8 or something, him stealing it back would be failing 80-90%
Omg yes! You finally met Ketheric! Ive been waiting for this moment since tou first started the game, it is perhaps one my favourite cutscenes in the whole game, so freaking cool
The shadow cursed lands ia my absolute favorite zone in the game. Fantastic unique boss fights (like gerringothe), amazing characters and story (freaking awesome ketheric intro and infiltrating moonrise and the various options in doing so), and by the end when everything was wrapped up I really felt great about what my character had acompished in the area.
When I did the prison break they broke through the walls themselves but then apparently just farted around by the boat instead of actually leaving. I went back to the inn assuming they sailed away on their own and they were like “everyones deaaad”
I'm no fan of Wulbren, but your job during the prison break was to distract the guards while Wulbren broke down the walls. Instead you stood still and watched as a guard wandered over, spotted Wulbren, then ran to open all the cells and alert the floor. Cal's blood is on your hands as much as Wulbren's. But huge kudos for sticking to your guns and not save-scumming any of the numerous (self-inflicted) catastrophes this episode!
31:20 - 32:14 To be fair, your approval with Astarion would have been higher had you chosen to attack Gandrel (Gur hunter) in Act 1 through the dialogue option, rather than after ending the conversation. Choosing to allow Astarion to kill Gandrel and/ or making Astarion let him live was one of those key moments in Astarion's quest line and bypassing the dialogue to do what was previously just offered completely negated any potential dis/approval. You also had/ have the option to choose the attack dialogue/ option but activate your knock out passive which sometimes opens up more branches in the story as well. :)
>was one of those key moments in Astarion's quest line That is just not true, sorry, even more so, he had all the important dialogue and discussion with Astarion about "why Gur hunter is after you" and Cazador in general (except for couple other ones and approval he didn't get), you can literally check that episode again to see for yourself. I know this as well, because I've played this with different choices and outcomes it is optional that, while interesting to experience and reflect upon, it didn't take anything from the experienced story so far, not to mention it is not "key event", unless, as pure Astarion fan you project your own value on certain event, which is fine enough (same with some cutscenes that add like 2-3 lines of info otherwise provided through other means if it is really important, just within N+1 design, if it isn't that important and missable - it will be missed)
@@nickrubin7312 Ok, well we have a difference of opinion. I would call that scene and any other companions scenes that offer more than a plus/ minus 1 or 2 (5, 10 or more, in either direction) more important or key moments as it has a greater affect on the pro/degression of the "relationship" to the player character. Should I have said 'more important' rather than key, to appease yours and anyone else's descriptor preferences, probably it seems but I'm not changing it now. It offers a big bump or decrease in his approval. As with the bite scene, which Mapo chose not to part take in and got the reflective dis/approval for that scene. By choosing not to attack in dialogue and then attacking afterwards, he unfortunately lost out on reflective dis/approval. Yes he got the full and appropriate interaction from the dialogue choices he made, I'm not disparaging that. But by immediately pivoting, he missed out on other reactions and dis/approval that fit what he seems to have had in mind after the conversation ended. I can't tell if your saying I'm a pure Astarion fan and it's skewing my point of view or if it's a general statement. If it's the former, I'm not. I've played the first part of this game (Act 1) more times than I care to think about to get all dialogues/ interactions to find out different outcomes for the goblin/ tiefling parties. I've played the game through 6 times with different romances each. I don't have a definitive preference, I like all of them. If it's the latter, then that logic applies to any companion which one could have any preference for given anyone's viewpoints/ interests.
I love breaking into the cells. And then leaving to tell everyone at Last Light he in in the prison. I assume no conversation because the Devs for once didn't anticipate players leaving mid gaol break. 😀
After not making Astarion biting Araj, theres actually a really important Astarion “!” which explains a lot about him- i think it was overridden by the scar one tho 😭
O man you make it so complicated 😅👌🏻 ran a few trials down in the dungeon but I basically killed all the guards got the confiscated gear handed it to Wulbren
You can equip the giant strength club in the offhand by equipping it while holding a second weapon then give the right hand weapon to another character holding a shield and nothing, that way you have both the bonus and a free hand to deal better damage with monke.
There is an easy way to break the walls yourself, but you did far better than my first attempt where i opened all cells and everyone (prisoners and guards) but my party ended up dead.
huh... looking at that whole final encounter in the prison.... i guess the way i did it is one the optimal routes, i also had Wyll multiclass with Bard and i made him to separate from the party and perform a Bard song right at the entrance of the Warden office so he could get the attention of the Warden and all the passing guards (i was extra careful with Wyll's placement because at this point i already knew that Bard Songs can only distract NPCs once per long rest). While he was at it i sneakily destroyed both scrying eyes that patrolled that hallway with my other 3 party members and after it i gave the tools to Wulbren so he could break out and get the Tieflings without alerting anyone (this way the allied AI's do what they are supposed to do and not get broken like in this case). Then finally i entered turn-based mode with Wyll, used dash to quickly move out of the place where the guards were gathered... reunite with the party and get out of the prison before the Warden and others could do something about it. And i didn't have to worry about missing loot because i returned to the prison area after completing all other secondary missions in Act 2 and therefore proceeded to attack all of Monnrise.
Damn..... i didn't know what i missed.... in my first playthrought of the game i also infiltrated the Towers but never entered the Throne Room out of fear of hitting a point of no return, so after exploring almost all Moonrise i left the place and ended up setting [REDACTED] free first... so i ended up not seeing this first cutscene of Ketheric. Also.......................... "it's like J.K Simmons but..... Not" *J.K Simmons staring menancingly at Mapo in the distance* xdddd
It is a pain to watch sometimes how the lack of environmental investigation and enemy behaviour observation before any decision complicates things so much 😂
Oh you can’t imagine how giddy I was to find an Oblodra here 15:50. I love the Legend of Drizzt books (which are about a drow ranger) and one of my favorite characters in the whole series is related to her. His name is Kimmuriel Oblodra and he’s my little blorbo. He’s got a soft-spoken, blank faced super powerful psionicist thing going on and he hangs out with mind flayers. He is the second in command to my actual favorite character in the series, another drow by the name of Jarlaxle Baenre (and *his* whole deal is that he’s a flamboyant pirate leader of a band of misfit mercenaries and also rules a pirate town in the north called Luskan.) Anyways it’s nice to see some more of his family alive, though she’s mean to Astarion, who is also my blorbo, so I’m not a fan of Araj herself.
I had finally caught up to your let’s play of this so I was enjoying your Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect play through while waiting but I couldn’t help but keep checking your channel to see if you uploaded the next part for BG3, lol. 😂 Excited to quickly watch this episode and then feel the massive void again. 😅
I'm glad you allowed astarion to have his own autonomy and didn't force him to bite araj for the potion. And now you got a bit more approval so slightly nicer greetings and he shared his scars scene with you ❤ Also, I hope Rolan hasn't died but he likely has since that's a timed mission to find him. Guess we'll find out next episode
@@theoceanman5761 He got proper confused when tieflings started running out, and he didn't have the time to break the wall (in my 1st run he did start breaking, before the fight started). He basically went I gotta bail and then went crap I gotta break the wall as the well, and went back and forth between these 2. At this point, the easiest solution is to eldtich blast the wall yourself, even tho tieflings might still be running through the breach in Wulbren's cell. Glorious mess and plan for the dungeon gone wrong :), very fun watch.
i would of reloaded due to durpy AI :o when i did the prison i got thrown in jail on purpose then broke them out myself had no idea if going in the main door would of worked or not haha
Sometimes the best solution is the most straightforward one. Not every puzzle requires you to go back to camp, rethink your strategy six times, shuffle party members around, take a partial rest, go back and talk to another NPC…sometimes you gotta just push the big red button!
I don't know if you know this or not but if you talk to a trader with someone that has high charisma they sell things cheaper and buy your stuff for more. So if you start trading with wyll you will get more.
Honestly, the gnomes AI is shitty af, but I can say it's easy to hate Wulbren not just because of his behavior here. Thanks for the episode was funny to see it from a perspective of a new player, hope you weren't too annoyed by it
Not that I’m inclined to defend Wulbren but that wasn’t exactly a smooth plan at any point. I think a bit of gamer brain took over after you noted the Warden didn’t react to the cell door being open. Poor Lia.
The attention grabbing effect of playing music (proficiently, mind you) only works once on any NPC in an area. How long that cooldown then takes not sure, never experimented enough. Maybe zoning in and out would reset it.
Mapo, I don't know how to put this - but if you want to be covert and observe, starting a prison riot and going on a kleptomaniac spree are perhaps not high on your to-do list?
Sorry to say, this bad habit of nipping back to camp every five minutes to change undies / party members is spoiling the flow and the sense of place and adventure. The opposite of never wanting to long rest in the beginning. Still watching, still enjoying, still thumbing and commenting, sorry, sorry, I know, many ways to play and all that. Great episode!
Fun episode. Imagine being that one goblin and rolling nat 20 twice, but forgetting to examine Kethric to see that he is immortal :). Prison break could go so many different ways. The story was told through the gameplay, and that's your canon ;), it is a very good dungeon/puzzle situation fitting the DnD campaign. Congrats on keeping everyone alive, well, except Cal. I actually don't know how it plays out from now, when one of the siblings (Cal or Lia) dies, and one survives, quite an interesting permutation you got here, albeit a bit sad one. Prison map is one of the many when doing alt path or exploring with camera actually helps a lot, to see all the possibilities. Ofc Wulbren bailed as soon as the fight started, his plan was stupid to begin with. And yes AI is quite cowardly-dumb in this case, both tieflings and gnomes. Although tieflings were already on their way to the other cell when Wulbren wasn't even close to starting to hit the other wall, so it wouldn't matter. If the fight didn't start so soon, or Wulbren would be closer to perform and action and not dash, if not hitting the wall already, then he would've followed through with the plan. Doesn't mean the wall couldn't be broken through other means, or even sides, that's for certain ;).
EDIT: Thank you for freeing them! As a Gnoll player, I can understand Barnabus hating being made to dance according to someone else's will. And before you ask, no: I do not subscribe to Wizard of the Coast's efforts to make gnolls disposable encounters and nothing more. I liked the old days where you could play a gnoll without needing to get into an argument with a WotC toady who says that from a lore standpoint 'That's impossible!' 'You can only play what we tell you to play!' That company has lately been making some questionable content and decisions (the Spelljammer outcries, the Dragonlance problem, the 2024 re-launch and attempt to do away with the 2014 5th Edition ruleset, trying to force everybody to only buy PDFs from them and make it difficult for people to homebrew shit, because it's cutting into their profit margins, flagrantly defying and marginalizing the one thing that made D&D fun in the first place: Freedom of Imagination), so to the 9 Hells with 'em I say! Screw _their_ opinion on anything!
I think Gnolls as cursed demonspawn are cool, but they should exist and be playable outside of that too. Every race needs the option to be someone you can share a drink with in a Sigil bar.
I think many players dont like the idea of a proxy face of the party. Mapo might be one of them. Often times it does not work anyway, because the player character is automatically forced into the conversation. I always regret it a bit when I play a Tav whose main stat isn't charisma.
@@alexanderpallinger1944 PC forced only in auto-triggered conversations marked as important, otherwise it is still pretty much the same as DOS2 (any party-member could beface of the party). For initiated scenes by the players, it still initiates with controlled party-member. And forced/prioritization was added at some point due to the players feedback after release, since not all used to Larian design straight from DOS2 when any party member can interact equally and triggers convo, and preferred the more classic approach of PC being the only face of the party. It is questionable approach, to adapt their design like this to supplement the deman, but ngl kinda works
![A Canopy of Beauty and Wonder | Baldur's Gate 3 | Blind Playthrough [Part 32]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/INp9791wzYM/mqdefault.jpg)
![A Canopy of Beauty and Wonder | Baldur's Gate 3 | Blind Playthrough [Part 32]](/img/tr.png)
I’ve could watch Thorms introduction over and over again
1:08:55
J.K Simmons is such an amazing actor.
It goes incredibly hard.
Omni man vibes
1:12:21 JK Simmons actually does voice Ketheric Thorm! i was really excited to see your reaction haha
Brother it's his face too how didn't mapo see it lol
"It's like JK Simmons, but not" ... gold
@@emperman and funnily enough, from the promo/marketing materials just before launch he also had a pretty much similar beard to Kethric while recording (well, more white, less gray)
Mapo I have to say, I very much enjoyed this whole getting in trouble and prison breaking part. It felt very unique, quite clever and I could tell you were having a blast with it. Such a great moment.
In regard to Wulbren not breaking the wall, he did ask you for a distraction. 😅 When I had played this part I started combat with the warden and guards so they wouldn’t go and open the gates. This kept the Teiflings in the cell and allowed Wulbrin to rescue them. Once Wulbrin escaped, one of the guards noticed and ran to open the gates, thus confusing the ai of the gnomes and Teiflings. The game must have it where the Teiflings prioritize escaping their own cell when the gates opened, even if Wulbrin is on his way to bust down the wall.
"He cant be killed Jaheira what do we do!?"
Jaheira who already told him that: 😑
Also just a tip, authority only works on the non-infected servants of the absolute.
You cant use it on other true souls, which is why it couldnt be used on the warden.
Chin up! Most of us kept away from Moonrise until it was too late and the prisoners were murdered. Cal's demise was sad, but for a first run I'd say the casualties were kept to a minimum!
Clearing the dock is a good idea. If you don't break the walls and just open the gates, they will leave out that way. Love that you care and count the ones you lose along the way.
1:10:53 That throw is always very impressive just imagine if he wasnt immortal, I follow that goblin for sure
1:13:18 That was the goblin from the windmill in act 1
This was a really good episode. Thanks for stickign to your guns on that prison escape, I'd been livid with Wulbren, his AI must have been messed between wanted to get into the fight and wanting to fight the guards + the tieflings already being out of their cages, so there was no need for him to actually break the walls
The best parts of this playthrough begin with "I have an idea..."
This was awesome. I loved that you really made intelligent use of all of your abilities and figured your way out of that encounter with all of its complications! That almost puzzle-like experience was such a huge part of what I loved about this game. Appreciate the commitment here to not reloading!
So on the issue of not being able to talk to characters about stuff sometimes, I think they designed the game and thought of it like a D&D adventure, where you wouldn't be able to leave a dungeon or encounter type area like Moonrise half done, go and talk to a bunch of the people involved in the nearby village and bounce between the two at will, just like logistically if the DM was being realistic about it (or without it being unfun in a videogame with stuff like time passing and people leaving/quests getting failed if you take your time, which people would hate if the game did it a lot).
Whereas obviously, in a videogame with the teleport waypoints (which I think are a good choice for QoL), you are going to take advantage of it and the game seems permissive and built out enough that someone might expect them to have dialogue for every permutation but that is ultimately very difficult to really do, they've given it a good go though but like, what would being able to tell the people at Last Light that you've found their loved ones but you haven't rescued them yet add and would it be worth recording dialogue for. They seem to expect you to kinda clear out an area, either via dialogue or combat, or a bit of either AND then go and talk to the relevant people when it's done.
The thing is, with how the game works and actually accounts for insane amount of permutations, and how you actually can revisit certain NPCs/areas after certain discoveries, dialogue with new info, story changes, even small ones, you start to expect it in 100% of the cases (fairly or not, it doesn't matter, even tho it is a videogame, and there is no real DM to adjust). And when, in some corner-cases, it doesn't account for some small things, you "feel bad", even tho you really shouldn't, because you're already getting borderline interactivity madness in 100+ h of your personal experience. In this case, Jaheira doesn't really care for prisoners (not in a callous way, just not the priority), and never even asked for them to be rescued, so there is no need for her to have lines, they add nothing. Telling Bex that her husband is alive doesn't really change anything, especially since he is asking for to leave to BG, which could only result in her dying or saying something "I won't go without him". But for Barcus, with how he is preparing as special thing to help you to rescue Wulbren, there probably should've been an option to tell him to hurry up, because you actually found Wulbren and about to rescue him.
Easily the best episode yet
Prison breaks, casualties of war, Mapo understanding more and more mechanics every second
Fuck yeah
It’s such a fun episode! I had no idea Araj can ask you to call “your vampiric friend” when he’s not around, because I used to take him with me everywhere. Btw, thank you for this decision - not making Astarion bite the drow.
And I haven’t expected the scar scene to play after talking to Raphael, I thought it’s already too late, but it seems you’ve get a dozen of approval, and it worked.
The prison part made me literally scream like if I was watching football or something like that xD because as a rule on your playthrough you’re so patient and eager for your investigation, but here imho the problem was - you haven’t investigated the environment.
In my first playthrough I was imprisoned there too, but I’ve jumped into this hole 🙈 and found another area underneath, and the way up + the hidden area behind the cells, and I’ve broken the walls myself, not with Wulbren.
And the Warden’s tower - you could enter it from outside, jumping up along the wall, through the window on the second floor.
"as a rule on your playthrough you’re so patient and eager for your investigation, but here imho the problem was - you haven’t investigated the environment. " - exactly, he is so careful not to walk over to the waypoint this whole playthrough and here he just started doing shit =)
RIP Cal the Tiefling. Your death is Wulbren's Fault.
And now try to explain this to Rolan 😢
@@siliqua4584 Rolan is long time dead by now probably xd
@@ragenaros4475 no he's not, he has to meet him and die in combat, he can't die off screen
I really hate Wulbren, but that was not his fault.
The act 2 storyline is my favorite part of the game
I think this might be my favourite episode so far! It’s so much fun watching you embrace the situations you find yourself in and have fun with them rather than just reloading constantly (like I sadly tend to do 😂)
I like that Mapo is infected by Kleptomania that sends the party into all sorts of escapades at every encounter. XD
I still feel like he should consider multiclass Rogue for this RP reason. 3 Levels of Rogue Thief even give him an additional bonus action which is actively great for Monks, plus all the new dialogue options and, you know, skill expertise for scenarios just like this episode. He's incredibly Rogueish as is.
Getting caught for stealing is my favorite part of an infiltration mission^^.
Glad you got to meet the big bone Ketheric himself.
Lmao, I love how much trouble Mapo went to to avoid giving up 900 gold (which you could just pickpocket back afterwards, I presume)
Pickpocketing 900 gold requires 25+ slight of hand skillcheck... and his Astarian has only +8 or something, him stealing it back would be failing 80-90%
Thorms introduction is so good! He is such a good villain!
3:19:14 “I’m also on my own”
You were arrested so the game did you the curtesy of unlinking you. XD you never linked back up after that combat.
Oh hell yes! Introducing one of the coolest villains in videogame history!
You can't dual wield weapons that aren't light, unless you have the Dual Wielder talent.
Three and a half hours!?! What did we do to deserve this?
This is one of the coolest introductions to an antagonist ever.
LOL you had a easy way out of the Prison !!!! had you gone to the boat and sailed out from under right to Last Light lol
Omg yes! You finally met Ketheric! Ive been waiting for this moment since tou first started the game, it is perhaps one my favourite cutscenes in the whole game, so freaking cool
Oh shit! Moonrise towers time hold on let me get some snacks!
3:06 Metal Gnome Solid 😎
“Kept you waiting,huh?”
The shadow cursed lands ia my absolute favorite zone in the game. Fantastic unique boss fights (like gerringothe), amazing characters and story (freaking awesome ketheric intro and infiltrating moonrise and the various options in doing so), and by the end when everything was wrapped up I really felt great about what my character had acompished in the area.
When I did the prison break they broke through the walls themselves but then apparently just farted around by the boat instead of actually leaving. I went back to the inn assuming they sailed away on their own and they were like “everyones deaaad”
Doing the prison break clean is VERY hard on the first try
So much stuff that can go wrong...
I remember how nerve racking the prison break was for me the first time.
House Oblodra is *fascinating* , I wish there was more in-game lore on them.
I'm no fan of Wulbren, but your job during the prison break was to distract the guards while Wulbren broke down the walls. Instead you stood still and watched as a guard wandered over, spotted Wulbren, then ran to open all the cells and alert the floor. Cal's blood is on your hands as much as Wulbren's. But huge kudos for sticking to your guns and not save-scumming any of the numerous (self-inflicted) catastrophes this episode!
Been waiting for this one 😍
The prison break is always so challenging, even if you have a really great plan. The AI can mess everything up
31:20 - 32:14 To be fair, your approval with Astarion would have been higher had you chosen to attack Gandrel (Gur hunter) in Act 1 through the dialogue option, rather than after ending the conversation. Choosing to allow Astarion to kill Gandrel and/ or making Astarion let him live was one of those key moments in Astarion's quest line and bypassing the dialogue to do what was previously just offered completely negated any potential dis/approval. You also had/ have the option to choose the attack dialogue/ option but activate your knock out passive which sometimes opens up more branches in the story as well. :)
>was one of those key moments in Astarion's quest line
That is just not true, sorry, even more so, he had all the important dialogue and discussion with Astarion about "why Gur hunter is after you" and Cazador in general (except for couple other ones and approval he didn't get), you can literally check that episode again to see for yourself. I know this as well, because I've played this with different choices and outcomes
it is optional that, while interesting to experience and reflect upon, it didn't take anything from the experienced story so far, not to mention it is not "key event", unless, as pure Astarion fan you project your own value on certain event, which is fine enough (same with some cutscenes that add like 2-3 lines of info otherwise provided through other means if it is really important, just within N+1 design, if it isn't that important and missable - it will be missed)
@@nickrubin7312 Ok, well we have a difference of opinion. I would call that scene and any other companions scenes that offer more than a plus/ minus 1 or 2 (5, 10 or more, in either direction) more important or key moments as it has a greater affect on the pro/degression of the "relationship" to the player character. Should I have said 'more important' rather than key, to appease yours and anyone else's descriptor preferences, probably it seems but I'm not changing it now.
It offers a big bump or decrease in his approval. As with the bite scene, which Mapo chose not to part take in and got the reflective dis/approval for that scene. By choosing not to attack in dialogue and then attacking afterwards, he unfortunately lost out on reflective dis/approval.
Yes he got the full and appropriate interaction from the dialogue choices he made, I'm not disparaging that. But by immediately pivoting, he missed out on other reactions and dis/approval that fit what he seems to have had in mind after the conversation ended.
I can't tell if your saying I'm a pure Astarion fan and it's skewing my point of view or if it's a general statement. If it's the former, I'm not. I've played the first part of this game (Act 1) more times than I care to think about to get all dialogues/ interactions to find out different outcomes for the goblin/ tiefling parties. I've played the game through 6 times with different romances each. I don't have a definitive preference, I like all of them. If it's the latter, then that logic applies to any companion which one could have any preference for given anyone's viewpoints/ interests.
At least he didn’t miss out on dialogue from any of the important companions
Oh man he did the prison part crazy
Omg yesss I’ve been really looking forward to this one! ^v^
I've been waiting for you to meet the baddiest of baddies for so long
I love breaking into the cells. And then leaving to tell everyone at Last Light he in in the prison. I assume no conversation because the Devs for once didn't anticipate players leaving mid gaol break. 😀
After not making Astarion biting Araj, theres actually a really important Astarion “!” which explains a lot about him- i think it was overridden by the scar one tho 😭
Not Wulbren saying, he'd done it better after doing exactly nothing skdjksd
Cal always freaking dies in the prison break. It’s so hard to keep them all alive
O man you make it so complicated 😅👌🏻 ran a few trials down in the dungeon but I basically killed all the guards got the confiscated gear handed it to Wulbren
You can equip the giant strength club in the offhand by equipping it while holding a second weapon then give the right hand weapon to another character holding a shield and nothing, that way you have both the bonus and a free hand to deal better damage with monke.
There is an easy way to break the walls yourself, but you did far better than my first attempt where i opened all cells and everyone (prisoners and guards) but my party ended up dead.
huh... looking at that whole final encounter in the prison.... i guess the way i did it is one the optimal routes, i also had Wyll multiclass with Bard and i made him to separate from the party and perform a Bard song right at the entrance of the Warden office so he could get the attention of the Warden and all the passing guards (i was extra careful with Wyll's placement because at this point i already knew that Bard Songs can only distract NPCs once per long rest).
While he was at it i sneakily destroyed both scrying eyes that patrolled that hallway with my other 3 party members and after it i gave the tools to Wulbren so he could break out and get the Tieflings without alerting anyone (this way the allied AI's do what they are supposed to do and not get broken like in this case).
Then finally i entered turn-based mode with Wyll, used dash to quickly move out of the place where the guards were gathered... reunite with the party and get out of the prison before the Warden and others could do something about it.
And i didn't have to worry about missing loot because i returned to the prison area after completing all other secondary missions in Act 2 and therefore proceeded to attack all of Monnrise.
yes my beloved neil newbon
He’s such a treasure!
Damn..... i didn't know what i missed.... in my first playthrought of the game i also infiltrated the Towers but never entered the Throne Room out of fear of hitting a point of no return, so after exploring almost all Moonrise i left the place and ended up setting [REDACTED] free first... so i ended up not seeing this first cutscene of Ketheric.
Also..........................
"it's like J.K Simmons but..... Not"
*J.K Simmons staring menancingly at Mapo in the distance*
xdddd
It is a pain to watch sometimes how the lack of environmental investigation and enemy behaviour observation before any decision complicates things so much 😂
The prison escape arc.
Oh you can’t imagine how giddy I was to find an Oblodra here 15:50. I love the Legend of Drizzt books (which are about a drow ranger) and one of my favorite characters in the whole series is related to her. His name is Kimmuriel Oblodra and he’s my little blorbo. He’s got a soft-spoken, blank faced super powerful psionicist thing going on and he hangs out with mind flayers. He is the second in command to my actual favorite character in the series, another drow by the name of Jarlaxle Baenre (and *his* whole deal is that he’s a flamboyant pirate leader of a band of misfit mercenaries and also rules a pirate town in the north called Luskan.)
Anyways it’s nice to see some more of his family alive, though she’s mean to Astarion, who is also my blorbo, so I’m not a fan of Araj herself.
Fun fact, Ketheric IS voiced by JK Simmons
Ketheric Thorm is just the coolest
That went well !
I had finally caught up to your let’s play of this so I was enjoying your Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect play through while waiting but I couldn’t help but keep checking your channel to see if you uploaded the next part for BG3, lol. 😂 Excited to quickly watch this episode and then feel the massive void again. 😅
1:02:08 that’s so funny Bigby’s dog, Bigboy xD
I'm glad you allowed astarion to have his own autonomy and didn't force him to bite araj for the potion. And now you got a bit more approval so slightly nicer greetings and he shared his scars scene with you ❤
Also, I hope Rolan hasn't died but he likely has since that's a timed mission to find him. Guess we'll find out next episode
that prison break was so painful
I was having fun with it, maybe you should too
@Mapocolops I just mean wulbren’s AI, he let y’all down
@@theoceanman5761 No, he didn't. Wulbren asked Mapo to cover him, Mapo failed to do so.
@@theoceanman5761 He got proper confused when tieflings started running out, and he didn't have the time to break the wall (in my 1st run he did start breaking, before the fight started). He basically went I gotta bail and then went crap I gotta break the wall as the well, and went back and forth between these 2. At this point, the easiest solution is to eldtich blast the wall yourself, even tho tieflings might still be running through the breach in Wulbren's cell. Glorious mess and plan for the dungeon gone wrong :), very fun watch.
1:11:36 This is Absolutely an A+ character introduction ^v^
i would of reloaded due to durpy AI :o
when i did the prison i got thrown in jail on purpose then broke them out myself had no idea if going in the main door would of worked or not haha
Barnabus is Friend shaped
3 am mapocolops video.. yummy
I don't know how to check the approval metter on console but I really think its more fun to deduce how they like me with how they greet me.
Sometimes the best solution is the most straightforward one. Not every puzzle requires you to go back to camp, rethink your strategy six times, shuffle party members around, take a partial rest, go back and talk to another NPC…sometimes you gotta just push the big red button!
I don't know if you know this or not but if you talk to a trader with someone that has high charisma they sell things cheaper and buy your stuff for more. So if you start trading with wyll you will get more.
Honestly, the gnomes AI is shitty af, but I can say it's easy to hate Wulbren not just because of his behavior here. Thanks for the episode was funny to see it from a perspective of a new player, hope you weren't too annoyed by it
my lord this vampire talk 🤭😙
Mapoverse extended editions are almost as good as LotR extended editions.
well, almost 😆
I think someone made a mod that let's you be vampire.
3 hours??? YES!!
you did wish for rolls to fail more to use your inspiration 😂
i think Half-orcs and Dragonsborns where added late in the game development or something like that which is unfortunate but I wish it wasn't so.
Not that I’m inclined to defend Wulbren but that wasn’t exactly a smooth plan at any point. I think a bit of gamer brain took over after you noted the Warden didn’t react to the cell door being open. Poor Lia.
Wonder why he didnt slowly take out all the prison guards and eyebot things one at a time?
they know prisoners in tower))) u need save wulbern, not to find him, they already know where he is ))))
I always thought Lann Tarv reminded me of Beast from X-Men
The attention grabbing effect of playing music (proficiently, mind you) only works once on any NPC in an area. How long that cooldown then takes not sure, never experimented enough. Maybe zoning in and out would reset it.
risky ring is soooo op with an oh monk.
Couldn't Mapo give weapons and equipment to all prisoners if he did the "trade" with Wulbren?? wouldn't that have made the escape easier?
Mapo, I don't know how to put this - but if you want to be covert and observe, starting a prison riot and going on a kleptomaniac spree are perhaps not high on your to-do list?
idk if you have tried it again or not but the horn for the trolls works, just doesnt in some places for some reason
Not after act 1, so not anywhere in the shadowcursed lands.
I really hate non player controlled friendly AI - they make abominable decisions
Thorm is BADASS!!!!! lol
1:08:58
Early bg3 drop? since when? Well my night just got alot better.
Sorry to say, this bad habit of nipping back to camp every five minutes to change undies / party members is spoiling the flow and the sense of place and adventure. The opposite of never wanting to long rest in the beginning. Still watching, still enjoying, still thumbing and commenting, sorry, sorry, I know, many ways to play and all that. Great episode!
Fun episode. Imagine being that one goblin and rolling nat 20 twice, but forgetting to examine Kethric to see that he is immortal :).
Prison break could go so many different ways. The story was told through the gameplay, and that's your canon ;), it is a very good dungeon/puzzle situation fitting the DnD campaign. Congrats on keeping everyone alive, well, except Cal. I actually don't know how it plays out from now, when one of the siblings (Cal or Lia) dies, and one survives, quite an interesting permutation you got here, albeit a bit sad one.
Prison map is one of the many when doing alt path or exploring with camera actually helps a lot, to see all the possibilities. Ofc Wulbren bailed as soon as the fight started, his plan was stupid to begin with. And yes AI is quite cowardly-dumb in this case, both tieflings and gnomes. Although tieflings were already on their way to the other cell when Wulbren wasn't even close to starting to hit the other wall, so it wouldn't matter. If the fight didn't start so soon, or Wulbren would be closer to perform and action and not dash, if not hitting the wall already, then he would've followed through with the plan. Doesn't mean the wall couldn't be broken through other means, or even sides, that's for certain ;).
I fast forward to the Thorms introduction
Yeaaaa the dynamic-ness of the dialogue drops more and more as you go through the game unfortunately
I love this whole part when you have an Act 1 knocked out Minthara as well to rescue.
EDIT: Thank you for freeing them!
As a Gnoll player, I can understand Barnabus hating being made to dance according to someone else's will.
And before you ask, no: I do not subscribe to Wizard of the Coast's efforts to make gnolls disposable encounters and nothing more. I liked the old days where you could play a gnoll without needing to get into an argument with a WotC toady who says that from a lore standpoint 'That's impossible!' 'You can only play what we tell you to play!'
That company has lately been making some questionable content and decisions (the Spelljammer outcries, the Dragonlance problem, the 2024 re-launch and attempt to do away with the 2014 5th Edition ruleset, trying to force everybody to only buy PDFs from them and make it difficult for people to homebrew shit, because it's cutting into their profit margins, flagrantly defying and marginalizing the one thing that made D&D fun in the first place: Freedom of Imagination), so to the 9 Hells with 'em I say! Screw _their_ opinion on anything!
I think Gnolls as cursed demonspawn are cool, but they should exist and be playable outside of that too. Every race needs the option to be someone you can share a drink with in a Sigil bar.
Keeps trying to persuade and deceive people as his low charisma self when Wyll is right there. Has he learned nothing at episode 31 😅?
I think many players dont like the idea of a proxy face of the party. Mapo might be one of them. Often times it does not work anyway, because the player character is automatically forced into the conversation. I always regret it a bit when I play a Tav whose main stat isn't charisma.
@@alexanderpallinger1944 PC forced only in auto-triggered conversations marked as important, otherwise it is still pretty much the same as DOS2 (any party-member could beface of the party). For initiated scenes by the players, it still initiates with controlled party-member. And forced/prioritization was added at some point due to the players feedback after release, since not all used to Larian design straight from DOS2 when any party member can interact equally and triggers convo, and preferred the more classic approach of PC being the only face of the party. It is questionable approach, to adapt their design like this to supplement the deman, but ngl kinda works
1:03:33