Cortyn wanted to gather a lot of power for her own Tiefling sorceress in Baldur’s Gate 3 at any cost. But a player constantly ensures that all plans are ruined.
I actually wouldn’t have played Baldur’s Gate 3 if a friend hadn’t strongly urged me to. Sure, I don’t regret it in the end, and it has even ruined all other games for me first. It was just a good decision.
That friend always plays a good character in RPGs. Mostly a bit towards “chaotic good” – but still good. Conflicts are resolved peacefully, people in distress are helped, and collaboration with devils is out of the question.
This also leads to the fact that he knows only the “good” versions of quests in most RPGs. Whether in DragonAge, Mass Effect, or Divinity, whenever possible, he acts heroically, selflessly, and as good as possible. Butterflies and dandelions for everyone, bad people should be gone.
Or, as we call it in demon circles: Boring.
When he invited me to Baldur’s Gate 3, my plan was clear: I would play a Tiefling sorceress who would put his overly good Halfling wife in some dilemmas. My fiery Cortyn is not fundamentally evil, but gaining power and maximizing my advantage should always be considered. I wanted to lie, cheat, seduce, intimidate, and explore and use the power of magical artifacts for myself. A forbidden necromantic book? I’ll read it. Dark pacts with beings from another world? If they grant me more power, sure.
Sure, I help the poor guy by the roadside drive the bandits out of his house. But nothing would stop me from taking the loot from the thieves, keeping it myself, and then saying, “Yeah, sorry, they just ran off with your gold. Nothing you can do, that’s life. And now pay me for driving them away.”
I’d show him what great decisions can be made.
At least that was my plan.
Fate keeps me away from power
In reality, his Halfling wife and also Baldur’s Gate 3 itself repeatedly throw a wrench in my plans.
We have an agreement to somewhat divide the storylines and NPCs. We always watch each other but don’t get too involved. So while I chat with Wyll, Karlach, and Gale, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Lae’zel are reserved for him.
We mostly handle it that way throughout the rest of the game world.
An incident seems magical? Then my sorceress leads the way and initiates the dialogue.
Seeing poor children who apparently want help? Then the Halfling wife gets to step in and offer her support.
Additionally, we have set a “never reload” rule. Whatever happens, happens. Decisions have consequences, and we stick with them until the end. Of course, exceptions are “Game Over” if we all die because some spell backfired.
The problem, however, is the situations where it is not foreseeable when something will happen.
Our first encounter with a being from hell happened literally out of the blue in bright sunshine. Since the Halfling lady went ahead and “triggered” the event, she also got to lead the dialogue again.
The wanderer turns out to be a high-ranking devil who promises to help us with our problems and also grant us lots of power. We would just have to make a pact with him. While my Tiefling in the background is already dreaming with big round eyes of hurling fireballs by the dozen and would wager not only her own soul but also those of everyone else, she is not allowed to participate in the dialogue at all. This is again taken over by the Halfling of my fellow player:
“Yes, nice that you talk to us. We are not interested in a pact. No, not even later. If anything changes, we’ll get in touch. Don’t call every week. Have a nice day.”
At the first opportunity, I push the Halfling off a cliff. By accident.
A new scene, a new decision. We killed an old witch and freed the prisoner. She actually wanted to bring her dead husband back to life from the witch and is now a little bit outraged that we interrupted that.
So we loot the witch’s possessions and take everything that fits into our inventory. While I take the witch’s nice staff, I hear my fellow player breathing quietly in the background as he takes something else.
We return to the former prisoner, who is standing by her husband’s coffin and is still completely devastated because we have taken away all hope of a reunion with him. Again, the Halfling gets to start the conversation.
During the dialogue, he casually mentions on Discord that he found this wand in the witch’s cellar. He pulls it out of his pocket, and my Tiefling’s eyes light up. A powerful wand, full of necromantic energy whose narrator’s description clearly emphasizes that it wants to be used.
Instead of giving in to this urge, the Halfling breaks the wand in half, and both the rescued woman and I stare in horror at the wooden splinters.
This has been the case throughout our entire gameplay. Whenever potential power of questionable origin lurks somewhere, the Halfling seems – clearly more by chance than design – to end up being able to lead the conversation or decide on important items.
Well, at least she couldn’t prevent me from improving my eye a little and I won’t let go of this strange book with the screaming face anytime soon…
Even though the game is now unfolding quite differently than I originally planned, we are having a lot of fun. It is this chaotic element of other people’s decisions that makes Baldur’s Gate 3 just a little bit better.
How are your co-op rounds going so far? How do you decide who gets to lead a dialogue and what decision is made?
