A player reports on Reddit that after his choices for his Dark Urge in Baldur’s Gate 3 he unfortunately had to forgo a companion. However, this allowed him a new experience in Act 2, which he was very enthusiastic about.
Who does the player forgo? On Reddit the player ClintMcElroyOfficial reports about his current playthrough as “Dark Urge”, whose experience in the Shar Temple in Act 2 was significantly better than usual. And that was only because he had previously killed Shadowheart.
She was shortly before in a confrontation with Lae’zel, who was the partner of the player character in the campaign.
The player explains that he had planned from the start to resist the Dark Urge and to play the story of a “good” Dark Urge. To do this, he made his character a Selûne cleric to spare Isobel, her deity, in the second act, which was supposed to set in motion his character’s story and resistance.
“This immediately led to tensions with Shadowheart. It seemed that every decision she made, even the non-Selûnite ones, diminished Shadowheart’s approval,” ClintMcElroyOfficial explains in his post.
Shadowheart simply had little place in this player’s story. However, he was surprised how different the Shar Temple was without Shadowheart for his experience.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Shadowheart is no longer the main character of the Shar Temple
What made the experience so much better for the player? The player explains that Act 2 of the game without Shadowheart was a real refreshment:
I have to say that Act 2 without Shadowheart’s input was great. Especially the rescue of Lady Aylin was a cool moment where my Durge [nickname of the community for Dark Urge] really committed to serving Selûne and resisting her urge (and later Bhaal) for her friends.
To be honest, as much as I miss Shadowheart, I’m somewhat dreading future playthroughs where I’ll have to hear “Shar dies” and “Dark Lady this” throughout the entire second act.
ClintMcElroyOfficial on Reddit
The player was so inspired by this new experience that he was able to learn valuable lessons for his next campaigns: “Next time I might kill other party members to see how things change.”
How does the community react to this insight? Other players also report on their experiences where one or more companions left the group or they themselves “caused their disappearance”.
- toadofsteel: “In my first playthrough, I didn’t get Gale because I failed the checks to pull him out of the portal. It was as if he simply didn’t exist.”
- fernandojm: “In my first playthrough, I played as a wizard and Gale annoyed me with his superior nonsense about being a mage, so he eventually left.”
- ManicPixieOldMaid: “In my current run, I had Shadowheart let Lae’zel die, and that was also a nice change. The only person I miss is Gale. I told him to leave, and I still feel a little bad about it, especially since Elminster is still looking for him…”
- StaticHair: “Lae’zel has died in my last 3 or 4 runs. […] To be honest, each of those situations was her fault, and I didn’t really miss her attitude.”
The Dark Urge player is not the only one who killed Shadowheart for his love for Lae’zel. Another player reported a similar experience in Baldur’s Gate 3 where he wanted to impress Lae’zel. However, he did not expect this conflict to escalate so far: Player wants to impress his great love in Baldur’s Gate 3 but undermines a large part of the story
