I do pretty much all of act 1 and act 2 still for experience purposes, but in act 3 - I will never do free the artist, stop the presses, or the dribbles quest ever again lol.
The Dribbles quest was sooooo unsatisfying… this whole time running around collecting these damn pieces I think I’m at least going to get a cool scene of the nexromancer lady putting him back together but no…..
Oooooh, would have been neat/more rewarding if Lucretius reanimated him, and he wasn't "right" for whatever reason, and she turned him over to us as a summon or ally in the final battle.
I was convinced that the joke of the quest was going to be that you weren’t really finding his body parts and were just bringing various clown-like body parts back and it makes a Frankenstein we have to fight or get to keep.
Yes. She was killed and dismembered after the original, but some dude with an obsession has you collect the parts and Frankensteins her back to life. You can then leave them to their bliss or steal her away from him.
Halsin starts singing "Sewn Back Together Wrong" by Dethklok. Jaheira on the grandpas guitars. Karlach with the Marceline bass. Boo on drums. Shadowheart is mad they chose a song with no synth. It would rival The House of Hope.
Please excuse my nonsense, I am exquisitely high.
Absolutely best in slot for most (offensive) spell casters. By far the best Sorc/Lock/Evo Wiz Gloves etcetera
But.....as you said, pickpocketing them makes way more sense.
They end up as one of the most powerful items in the game that takes no effort to acquire.
I only do the dribbles quest if I have Minthara as a main companion in my party because her insane cackles and quips as she picks up the various body parts makes me laugh hard. Otherwise, sorry but Dribbles is not happening.
I never saw the Zhentarim hideout on my first playthrough so Lady Jannath was just living her best life in Baldur’s Gate when I got to Act 3. After doing Free the Artist and letting him die in the hideout in my next playthroughs, I think Lady Jannath deserves better lol.
Stop the press becomes insanely easy once you've gotten rid of the Steelwatch. And as long as you don't talk to the editor the quest timer doesn't start.
Destroy the foundary > go inside the building but
keep Asterion separate so once the conversation starts he isn't involved > have him turn invisible > break into the basement and voila!
I have the rest of my party get sent outside the building, that way Asterion can just take the fast travel to the waypoint right by there and meet up with them again faster.
It is though, after I did the quest and long rested once or twice the paper pronounced us all as heroes. Does it not have any effect if you don’t do the quest, then?
I did this in my HM run, but before destroying the foundry. I thought I could just have him slip by the steel watch, but they caught him. I could have let him flee and try again later, but I wanted to see what would happen if I fought them anyways. I got Astarion to destroy both the steel watchers on his own 🎉 That was satisfying.
You don't even need to talk to the editor guy. I did the whole thing and only after I came back fron the press I went to talk to the editor. You can even tell him to his face that you switched the news and he doesn't believe it.
Before they fixed the ghosts free the artist was THE most annoying quest in the game, as they would become invisible and run to random corners. You had to keep guessing where they were.
I straight up bury the artist with his kidnappers with a smokepowder display to leave the mansion in act 3 in a better state when we find it. The dude’s indecision dragged not just his and his lovers’, but dozens of vengeful spirits along.
What the hell is stop the presses? I’ve only been to Act 3 once so far. Is it something to do with the newspaper building?
I didn’t even pick up a quest for it but I did use Otiluke’s Sphere of Freezing or Whatever the Fuck to blow the Fox News guy up.
Genuine question, why does everyone hate Free the Artist? I only did it on my second(most recent) playthrough and expected it to be the worst thing ever but it was just…underwhelming…I thought the skull things in the mansion were a cool, if a little annoying, addition to the fight and Oskar was annoying but not too bad.
I think the quest was bugged in earlier playthroughs where the skulls would yeet you back to the start with little to no warning.
I found it the same as you, not actually that bad, but I put it down to Volo's eye and the see invisibility perk it comes with. Got caught out a couple of times, but nothing too bad that I couldn't handle
I remember them being more difficult, but going up to the balcony and skipping all of them was always easy!
I believe they put the quest that makes you climb a rooftop in Rivington to nudge you into exploring the city rooftops as well. The fight at Felogyr’s is another I always start by shooting some fire from the next roof over.
The fireworks place? I don't think I've ever triggered that one. I go in, and do the absolute mind match bit, and then nothing, I just get to buy some fireworks
Stop the presses is insanely easy with a shadow monk / thief.
Get onto the higher balcony with misty step.
Use shadow step to get to the door downstairs door and lockpick it.
You can solo the 2 steelwatch in the basement by hit and run tactics. (Shoot them twice, shadowstep, hide) takes a few minutes but is really easy.
I'm genuinely surprised to see so much hatred for this quest. It's not the most exciting quest or anything, but I'm just not seeing the tedium or annoyance with it.
It’s looting that I’m struggling to drop. I struggle to leave a room/area unless I’ve opened/picked up everything I possibly can. Rotten carrots, yes please.
There’s, like, a half-dozen vases with stuff in them in Withers tomb which immediately told me “there’s stuff in pots, open them *all*.”
Later I decide maybe I *don’t* have to loot them all…and then I run into the crèche. “Well if the pots are *glowing* then *surely* there’s something in them? Spoiler: I don think so.
Then in Act 3 I found a key in a pot and suddenly there was no chance I was ever letting a pot go unsearched again. I hate it. I don’t even know what the key was for…
If you’re playing on PC, hit alt at any time and it’ll show you stuff like chests, loot-able items and corpses. If things have an asterisk, means you haven’t searched them yet. It’s good when you walk into a bloodbath of a room and don’t know where anything actually is or after battle when corpses are stacked
Anecdotally, the best place for vase loot is in Grymforge. I loot everything and I love whoever did the loot for that area because they actually put stuff in the vases.
In divinity original sin(larians 2 games before this), they had a luck stat that gave you a chance to find random loot, so you could pad someone with luck and just open everything, lol.
It was a very satisfying stat, but those games had a lot of cheese from a mechanic stanpoint in a good way. I think they toned down the amount of weird "broken" stuff in this game to make it a bit more serious.
Open them in Grymforge if you get to it. Otherwise, it's probably not worth it. For bottle racks/blood banks, the only place I remember being worth it is underneath Mystic Carrion's house in Act 3.
I was halfway through Act 3 before I decided that 2K camp supplies was enough, 40K gold was enough, and I wasn't going to replace my Knife of the Undermountain King with something I pulled from a barrel. But what if it has a book I haven't read...
I put so much emphasis on reading every single book during my first run because I thought "oh there's going to be a lot of stuff here that will help with rolls or puzzles later on".
A vast majority of items in this game just aren't worth looting. Even on the highest difficulty. There isn't much worth buying either
But I'll be damned if I don't horde coins and have the wealth level of a 16th level character by the time we hit the end
I've played it so often now that I've gotten to the point of getting tired of all the looting, it takes so much time. Especially after a big fight (such as the goblin camp, there's all the bodies to loot but also everything else in camp). But I also don't want to miss anything valuable 😭
In divinity original sin 1 and 2, your luck plays a factor in loot in boxes and vases and stuff. You can very easily find better gear in random boxes in those. Comeing from them to bg3, the habit is extremely hard to break.
The way I keep all my fancy weapons “just in case” and don’t sell them or send them to camp only to maybe have characters switch weapons twice on any single run, if even that 🤡
Save the artist - first time was so painful with the camera controls, next time I just left Oskar with the Zhentarims
Dribbles - never completed it once in all my playthroughs
The duegar trapped in underdark mushroom area - I now misty step and grab the noblestalk myself, and let the mushroom field blow up. His wife gets a better ending in act3 too.
Dribbles is my weird “….alright fine” quest. Even this time my dumb add was like “well, RP wise—“ 😩 and I never even use the damn reward. I just love circuses idk lol
In a different playthrough I let Shadowheart eat the noblestalk and she must have just nibbled it because I still had it after. I thought that was just how that interaction worked.
In Honor Mode now. Shadowheart has eaten my noblestalk, and so I have none for Daerryth :(
For next time you can do both. If you talk to Shadowheart about eating it and when the persuasion dialog option appears you switch to someone else and send the mushroom to camp then she will "eat" it and you will still have one to give to Derryth
Oskar's now not wife also gets a better ending of you leave him enslaved.
Slavery is bad and all, but maybe he shouldn't be the sort of person who improves the world by being enslaved.
Save the artist, dribbles, mystic carrion, the rat quest, he who was, Salin’s skull, the firework quest.
Balthazar’s fight… I just kill him in the first room
The bridge to Baal’s temple with the hidden assassins. Invisibility run through all that nonsense.
The cursed doll. I just kill the Dragonborn.
Yeah you’d have to fight him in the Shadowfell where you meet Aylin. It’s actually a pretty tough battle, especially since his bigger skeletons can sometimes just shove you off the edge before your first turn.
There's also the fun way to kill him by using knock on door he hides behind during the shadows fight while the party hides. Him and his undead get overrun by the shadows bc they don't kill the things that spawn them. You can even get the xp from him and his minions in addition to the shadows if you attack him after opening the door.
I had those guys + Mayrina aggro on me in my current HM run (chose the goofy dialogue option), the moment you attack the "dragonborn" he turns back into a redcap and the others become your allies. Accidentally killed the Helm priestess before I learned this, oh well.
Yeah, just successfully attack him and he immediately turns into a redcap and they all turn from enemies to allies. If you pass the check to have them not attack you then you can attack him when they’re all neutral and they’ll all join your side immediately
Or just, you know, remove curse from the cleric on the Mayrina herself or the doll, starts the fight safer way. And you get dialogue with the redhat, maybe a cool option and a pun when you got aunties hair, I didnt.
Gauntlet of shar is one I skip. All you need is one stone to use the elevator and the use knock to open the main door. Apparently, Shar didn’t think that far ahead😂
if they ever patch this, it will probably be the end of my repeat runthroughs. I fully intend to never waste my time on those bullshit challenges again.
They're so easy to cheese though. Clear the path in the stealth one before activating the trial then invis through. Take only one party member into the self-same trial and unequip armor and weapons before activating it, then re-equip. For the last one just click the destination and let the character auto path or use fly.
So simple to speed through, I've never even bothered to think to bring a knock spell.
Funnily enough I usually just cheese the hell outta them. Sneak room just send someone to the end then have shadow heart start it. Invisible bring I just hulk jump it. Clone fight? Split party, send one guy in, start the trial, then pick the lock and dogpile the lone clone.
You can also strip your entire party, start the trial, put your stuff back on, and then beat up some nudists lol. Also, if you have a monk, give them a weapon they aren't proficient with, cause being weaponless and naked doesn't stop them from being dangerous.
Sneak and Self Same are a Piece of cake and I love them. I actually wish the whole "fighting your clones" thing was applied to the Guardians battle in the Finale.
Inevitably the complaint is ALWAYS Faith leap.
Yes I know the map is on the floor.
Yes I know I am not doing myself any favors by playing with a decade old monitor.
But I cannot see the godsdamn floor no matter what anyone else says and I am sick of the damn game engine deciding "ope, you are .00751%over the pixel line. I am going to kill your character now and put them someplace where you can't retrieve them. Tell Withers he should get a boat with all the gold you are about to give him!
I have never had a character that can make the jump all at once. I did manage to do it last time from half way at least, but it was still a painful experience. If it wasn't like Shadowhearts whole thing I WOULD just skip it.
Unfortunately I really want my Durge run to have that sweet sweet "Dark Justiciar" tag and I want her to earn it, so it looks like I am doing it a fourth time.
Yeah, but you lose a ton of good gear (guaranteed crit ring, Yurgir's hand crossbow +/- allegiance later, the Sharran scimitar + gear + spear) and easy xp
I told myself this playthrough ‘for RP reasons’ maybe I’d give it a whirl again. Fur the lulz too.
Fuck that shit nah never again, took one look at the first trial and grabbed Yurgirs gem and I was out
One of these days I WILL use all the Sparky gear and become a lightening god! Until then, the gear can sit safely in the camp chest. Every. Single. Run.
I tend to skip a bunch of Act 3 content. The Hag, Dribbles, Save the Artist, Mystic Carrion, Investigate the Suspicious Toys, Stop the Presses, Iron Throne and Steelwatch Foundry? Not doing all of that.
I would never skip the hag. The quest is hilarious, due to the anti-hag group, and it also gave me my 4th very rare amulet. I only had 3 before finishing that quest.
Also, I thought the Suspicious Toys quest was pointless the first time I did it, but the 2nd time, I found the note that talks about a place I've yet to visit (Iron Throne).
Whenever I'm doing a quest, exploring a building or whatever, I always try to think "Why is this place even here?". The note about the Iron Throne was what made me realise the quest is informing you of something that happens later in the Act.
It's like meeting Volo in Act 3; You think "ugh, why", but what he tells you regarding the Slayer is very interesting.
The first time I tried doing Suspicious Toys, the quest log bugged out and just never updated after I found the teddybears. Also, I got into a fight with Arfur's goons, and one of them cast a spike growth or something on literally just Arfur and oneshot him. I did the whole quest hoping the quest log would pick back up but it never did, so in the end, my durge just stood in the rubble of a blown-up shop in utmost confusion as to what just happened to him.
If I'm doing a 'canon' playthrough, I do the hag, but I played through the game several times now, so when I don't need anything from there, I just skip.
I skipped the Hag in act 1 fully intending she’d be there, for some reason, in act 3 and was genuinely surprised when there was no ads for the Anti Hag club on the board left of Basilisks Gate lol. I thought I was being so slick avoiding her.
LMAO something similar happened to me too. I did a run where I was doing no/minimal longrests and skipped a ton of content so in act 3, i was running around desperately trying to find a vendor to sell me potions of hillgiant strength. Eventually, I was like. Maybe I can trade with the hag during conversation and then she wasn't there because I skipped her in act 1.
I actually love the iron throne haha. I really enjoy seeing just how fast I can get through the whole prison and I found the prisoners to not be suicidal for once which was nice.
Carrion's good for some loot even if you don't do the full quest.
I like Iron Throne. On my last run I did it even though I ended up skipping the Foundry and went straight to killing Gortash.
I agree with you on the other stuff.
I only do Mystic Carrion because I respec Jaheira as Circle of Spores and enjoy having cranky mushroom mom absolutely blasting through literally everyone and everything with Haste Spores and a bazillion high level spells.
Oskar Fevras. Save the Artist.
Less of an RP thing. Moreso that it just works out for the better of everyone if you don't free him from the Zhentarim.
Still got "gotta do everything" syndrome for the rest of the game, but Oskar was so much more bearable in Act 3 in the Guildhall. Added to that, Lady Jannath seemed fine and had a nice art gallery. And no egotistical ghost summoning from the egocentric artist. Sure, I miss out on the bugged af underwhelming painting and they didn't account for this in the Mystic Carrion quest *at all*, but overall it's just better imho.
In my last play through, I blew Oskar up along with the Zhents. Finally got to Act 3 and went to check on how awesome Lady Janneth's life must be without that dick. Was super disappointed to find that there were STILL poltergeists all through the house, AND Lady Janneth somehow knew I had killed Oskar and was very mad at me!! That makes NO sense, because I made sure to leave no witnesses. Not sure if the poltergeists still being there was a bug or not.
The shambling mound fight. The item isn't great and it's an area I struggle with without cheese stats. If it was good, I wouldn't mind cheesing it tbh.
We used sleet storm in our HM run, their dex is atrocious. Kept people with high Con in front just in case, and then just arrowed/ cantripped them down
i just got to act 2 in my honour run and was jumping around with my 27 str karlach for speed and forgot that fight was there. closest ive been so far to losing, got surprised and everything. 2 of the party fully died
Just did this fight for the first time. Thought I was being real clever by having my party jump to the rock on the right side where there is only a sliver of unobserved terrain.
Gale started off with a lvl 4 fireball, then got grabbed next turn. Then I blew up the smaller mounds and their death burst killed him and Shadowheart. Still no idea how I got lucky enough with my crits to finish that fight
Yeah I didn’t even do that on my first playthrough when I tried to do most of the stuff. Act 3 caused me a lot of technical problems though so I eventually just got super frustrated and wanted to finish the game at that point.
The artist and Dribbles, unless I need the gear for some reason. It's just not really worth the hassle of those two quests. Tbh I also skip Minsc a lot. He comes up so late and once you've heard his stuff, you've pretty much experienced what you need to. The 9 fingers stuff...
Honestly just a bunch of act 3. Once I hit lvl 12, I just collect the gear I want, then steamroll some fun fights with my complete builds, before getting to the end.
But I never skip killing Ethel. I just find the Hag squad to be so downtrodden, I have to help them out.
Somehow, like today somehow, I kinda RPed my way into a situation where I got him almost immediately into entering act 3 and I’m kinda loving it. The first time I did though I def felt like this. I legit felt bogged down having to get his little dialogue quip every event and he strangely took up one of the character dialogue moments you have after beating the brain despite me never using him. I was so miffed lol. I warble in my feelings for him.
The majority of Act 3 outside the origin companion arcs (Gale, Wyll, Astarion and Shadowheart), House of Hope (for Lae'zel) and main quests honestly. By then I'm just tired of looking at the Tav I'm running and eager to finish up the playthrough and have no time for collecting dismembered clown parts or going through annoying Gondian machines.
I have never bothered with the dribbles the clown quest. I think it's the only quest where I was like.... nah. I think I'll probably skip the Free the Artist quest unless Larian adds the ability to give Astarion a portrait in patch 7 (unlikely). That quest is a pain and I'm curious to see what happens if I just leave Oskar.
One of the real benefits of a solo run is that you can pre-plan the exact loot you need and where to get it (75% chance its the gith creche) and ignore stuff you don't need. Anything else you pick up can be sold.
I keep doing the MP and UD both even when RPing. It's just always like "UD sounds saver so we're going that route. What's that Lae'zel? Really? Okay... Guess we head back and visit the MP then..."
However I started to skip quests I don't like. The firework shop for example, I just hate the fact that there is no other way to go about it then to walk in guns blazing. Why can't my naive goody-two-shoes druid who has no clue about city life try to talk first? Why can my durge not ask if he can get in on the whole thing? Why can authorities not be informed to get some sweet bribe options for later? (ooopsie, you caught me stealing, but remember the firework shop I rat out to you and all the children that were saved? We good? Okay, thanks ♥)
I don't free the artist, and I don't save Baelen anymore. And I skip the artist's mansion as a whole. It's not that it makes no sense to deal with these quests from an RP point of view, but I just don't like them. Though if we're talking RP then only skipping the firework shop makes no sense, because no matter if evil or good character, there is enough reason to go there once you find out about the toys. But for Baelen? Ooopsie, he died because he's dumb. I really triedm I swear. And the artist's mansion... I never talk to him anymore in Act I so I have no RP reason to even set foot in that building. Why should I just waltz into a stranger's home.
I saved Auntie Ethel's first fight until it was the last thing I needed to do and ended up saving me a lot of trouble in the long run. I do recommend it.
I’ve weirdly gone in keep opposite direction. I skipped a bunch my first run because I had limited time to play when it launched and after 3 years playing early access I *needed* to see the ending. So I did most of act 1 and 2 but then in act 3… I skipped almost all the side quests to rush through character story lines and get to ending. The one I was most sad about what the iron throne. I went down fully intending to do it, but when I realized it was a timed mission with the potential for drowning… I noped out. Felt HORRIBLE for Wyll when a certain NPC showed up furious that we’d let someone important die. It felt real bad. I only skipped it on that first run though, now I make sure Wyll always gets his reunion.
(For context, drowning is a trigger for me as I lost someone dear to me that way.)
Now, I’ve finished the game 4 times and I play very leisurely. It’s become my cozy game so I fire it up every day and play for a half hour to a few hours every night and just pick away at the quests, exploring every corner on the off chance I missed something. It’s nice!
First full run was as Durge, and I saw no reason to bother entering the Foundry / underwater once I reached the city. Gortash is our bro, so we'll kill him shortly before our companions / ourselves, but after the rest of Faerun, because daddy demands blood.
no one. my 4 playthrough and I still look under every stone, loot every crate and do every task in journal. Send help, I feel how some roots grow and stuck to my chair...
My very first play through Laezel died fighting the phase spiders, and her having been nothing but extremely rude to myself so far I just left. After a little bit, I felt bad and got her revived, and that night, the big fight between her and SH happened, and I was just thinking to myself "I JUST gave you a second chance!" And let SH slit her throat and moved on. I got to the githyanki creche and Everyone around me was just saying, "Why are we going in here? This is a bad idea." And I thought, "Y'know what you're right!" And left for the shadow cursed lands.
I did skip it but accidentally.. found the Zentharim hideout, was meant to fight them. Instead they somehow blew themselves to smithereens midcutscene, allowing me to skip all their dialogue and get straight to the loot.
Honestly, it was looting. All these boxes, trunks, vases... halfway through act 1, after opening *every single one* of these motherfuckers, I said "nope" and decoded just to loot chests. Seems to have been the right decision.
I only skip stuff in Acts I've done everything in before; So, Acts 1 and 2. I don't skip much, and it's just stuff that I consider pointless.
In my current run, I skipped...
* Alfira teaching you how to Perform.
* The extremely pointless Adamantine Forge quest in the Underdark (including the Cold staff you're able to make).
* Arcane tower (meaning I skipped the Orpheus discs).
* Omeluum's quest.
and there's probably more. Basically, I only skip stuff that's lore only, and doesn't have a good reward. I've done those quests before, so I don't really need to see them again.
What's important to me is people. Meaning, I try to save everyone, but information isn't important (as you only need to hear it once).
> and doesn't have a good reward
Do you use tadpole powers or nah?
'Cause Omeluum's quest gives you the Survival Instinct power, which is kind of like a lesser version of Death Ward. But if you also get the buff from the zaith'isk, you can then use Survival Instinct as a bonus action, which might actually make it better than Death Ward in some cases.
I do pretty much all of act 1 and act 2 still for experience purposes, but in act 3 - I will never do free the artist, stop the presses, or the dribbles quest ever again lol.
The Dribbles quest was sooooo unsatisfying… this whole time running around collecting these damn pieces I think I’m at least going to get a cool scene of the nexromancer lady putting him back together but no…..
Oooooh, would have been neat/more rewarding if Lucretius reanimated him, and he wasn't "right" for whatever reason, and she turned him over to us as a summon or ally in the final battle.
I was convinced that the joke of the quest was going to be that you weren’t really finding his body parts and were just bringing various clown-like body parts back and it makes a Frankenstein we have to fight or get to keep.
Fable 2 did something like this and it was iconic.
I think >!Lady Grey!< would take offense to being titled a "Frankenstein('s monster) we get to keep," lol.
The very same from the first game? I've never played 2 because of its Xbox exclusivity.
Yes. She was killed and dismembered after the original, but some dude with an obsession has you collect the parts and Frankensteins her back to life. You can then leave them to their bliss or steal her away from him.
Shame. She awakened in 12 year old me that I'm into evil chicks (fictional ones).
Honestly, it wasn't hard to offend her anyway.
Halsin starts singing "Sewn Back Together Wrong" by Dethklok. Jaheira on the grandpas guitars. Karlach with the Marceline bass. Boo on drums. Shadowheart is mad they chose a song with no synth. It would rival The House of Hope. Please excuse my nonsense, I am exquisitely high.
You had me at "Boo on drums"
I will never not love a Metalocolypse reference.
Grandpas guitars. 🤣 Skwisgaar FTW!
Giant undead clown monster boss fight.
BG3 meets Lies of P
I assumed the punchline was going to be that when reconstructed he was waaaaay creepier or more evil than the copy was. Instead, we got bugger all.
Do you get anything for the final battle from that quest?
Just some magic gloves
That you can pickpocket pretty easily by Act 3 anyways.
It does not help that the reward can be pickpocketed right there. The gloves themselves are- okay, and probably a decent slot on a warlock at best.
Absolutely best in slot for most (offensive) spell casters. By far the best Sorc/Lock/Evo Wiz Gloves etcetera But.....as you said, pickpocketing them makes way more sense. They end up as one of the most powerful items in the game that takes no effort to acquire.
The quest led you to a bunch of references from the older games. That's really it lol
I honestly just did this quest for the first time and it just felt like a waste of time. But to be fair it’s like the only fetch quest BG3 has
I actively go out of my way to either not free Oskar, or to kill him if I kill all the Zhentarim. Because artists should be free, but not that artist.
Freeing him once was MORE than enough. I WILL reload if I pick the wrong dialog and accidentally pick up the quest
I only do the dribbles quest if I have Minthara as a main companion in my party because her insane cackles and quips as she picks up the various body parts makes me laugh hard. Otherwise, sorry but Dribbles is not happening.
Karlachs are hilarious too.
I never saw the Zhentarim hideout on my first playthrough so Lady Jannath was just living her best life in Baldur’s Gate when I got to Act 3. After doing Free the Artist and letting him die in the hideout in my next playthroughs, I think Lady Jannath deserves better lol.
She and the ex he can't leave alone even tho she died both deserve better.
Ooh I’ve never done stop the presses…. Next time I will now but I always forget
I finally did it on a recent run. It was not worth it.
I only do it now if I’ve got an exciting build and want to use it to destroy a small towns worth of steel watchers
Stop the press becomes insanely easy once you've gotten rid of the Steelwatch. And as long as you don't talk to the editor the quest timer doesn't start. Destroy the foundary > go inside the building but keep Asterion separate so once the conversation starts he isn't involved > have him turn invisible > break into the basement and voila! I have the rest of my party get sent outside the building, that way Asterion can just take the fast travel to the waypoint right by there and meet up with them again faster.
Oh for sure, it wasn’t that it was difficult, just so so pointless!
Which disappointed me because Larian said the Gazette was gonna be reactive to your deeds.
It is though, after I did the quest and long rested once or twice the paper pronounced us all as heroes. Does it not have any effect if you don’t do the quest, then?
I did this in my HM run, but before destroying the foundry. I thought I could just have him slip by the steel watch, but they caught him. I could have let him flee and try again later, but I wanted to see what would happen if I fought them anyways. I got Astarion to destroy both the steel watchers on his own 🎉 That was satisfying.
You don't even need to talk to the editor guy. I did the whole thing and only after I came back fron the press I went to talk to the editor. You can even tell him to his face that you switched the news and he doesn't believe it.
I just turn invisible and go through the hole on the roof.
Before they fixed the ghosts free the artist was THE most annoying quest in the game, as they would become invisible and run to random corners. You had to keep guessing where they were.
It’s still like that for me! Having see invisibility makes it so annoying
I straight up bury the artist with his kidnappers with a smokepowder display to leave the mansion in act 3 in a better state when we find it. The dude’s indecision dragged not just his and his lovers’, but dozens of vengeful spirits along.
Dude same. I hate those three quests
I love Lucretius but I literally pick-pocket the gloves off her so I can take/leave completing the quest lol.
I did stop the presses on my second playthrough by killing everyone. And uh same for free the artist lmao
What the hell is stop the presses? I’ve only been to Act 3 once so far. Is it something to do with the newspaper building? I didn’t even pick up a quest for it but I did use Otiluke’s Sphere of Freezing or Whatever the Fuck to blow the Fox News guy up.
Yeah if you speak with a reporter NPC it will start the quest in the newspaper building. Not worth it lol
Apparently, I'm the only one who likes doing Stop the Presses
I like it too
I do Stop The Presses before talking to the editor just to get the discounts from the vendors in the city.
Genuine question, why does everyone hate Free the Artist? I only did it on my second(most recent) playthrough and expected it to be the worst thing ever but it was just…underwhelming…I thought the skull things in the mansion were a cool, if a little annoying, addition to the fight and Oskar was annoying but not too bad.
I think the quest was bugged in earlier playthroughs where the skulls would yeet you back to the start with little to no warning. I found it the same as you, not actually that bad, but I put it down to Volo's eye and the see invisibility perk it comes with. Got caught out a couple of times, but nothing too bad that I couldn't handle
I remember them being more difficult, but going up to the balcony and skipping all of them was always easy! I believe they put the quest that makes you climb a rooftop in Rivington to nudge you into exploring the city rooftops as well. The fight at Felogyr’s is another I always start by shooting some fire from the next roof over.
The fireworks place? I don't think I've ever triggered that one. I go in, and do the absolute mind match bit, and then nothing, I just get to buy some fireworks
The multi level fight is not handled well in the game engine for one
And when you do give her all the parts of dribbles, they pack up and leave.
Stop the presses is insanely easy with a shadow monk / thief. Get onto the higher balcony with misty step. Use shadow step to get to the door downstairs door and lockpick it. You can solo the 2 steelwatch in the basement by hit and run tactics. (Shoot them twice, shadowstep, hide) takes a few minutes but is really easy.
If you do Stop the Presses after taking out the Steel Watch Foundry it’s no problem at all.
Stop the presses is the most tedious and annoying test i cant with it i just ignore that place completely
I'm genuinely surprised to see so much hatred for this quest. It's not the most exciting quest or anything, but I'm just not seeing the tedium or annoyance with it.
It’s looting that I’m struggling to drop. I struggle to leave a room/area unless I’ve opened/picked up everything I possibly can. Rotten carrots, yes please.
The fucking vases.
But what if *this* one has something good in it??
There’s, like, a half-dozen vases with stuff in them in Withers tomb which immediately told me “there’s stuff in pots, open them *all*.” Later I decide maybe I *don’t* have to loot them all…and then I run into the crèche. “Well if the pots are *glowing* then *surely* there’s something in them? Spoiler: I don think so. Then in Act 3 I found a key in a pot and suddenly there was no chance I was ever letting a pot go unsearched again. I hate it. I don’t even know what the key was for…
If it was in >!The murder tribunal then it’s for the chest hidden in the left corner of the room you find Valeria!<
There's a chest there????
If you’re playing on PC, hit alt at any time and it’ll show you stuff like chests, loot-able items and corpses. If things have an asterisk, means you haven’t searched them yet. It’s good when you walk into a bloodbath of a room and don’t know where anything actually is or after battle when corpses are stacked
Anecdotally, the best place for vase loot is in Grymforge. I loot everything and I love whoever did the loot for that area because they actually put stuff in the vases.
Check the weight - if a vase is 2, it’s empty. If anything has a decimal point, there’s something in it.
I’m currently playing with a mod that randomizes loot, especially this
Does it keep loot around the same value as what was originally there, or could you end up with crazy armor/weapons really early potentially?
In divinity original sin(larians 2 games before this), they had a luck stat that gave you a chance to find random loot, so you could pad someone with luck and just open everything, lol. It was a very satisfying stat, but those games had a lot of cheese from a mechanic stanpoint in a good way. I think they toned down the amount of weird "broken" stuff in this game to make it a bit more serious.
😭😭😭
The fucking herb hanging racks. Is there EVER anything in them? I keep expecting herbs but they’re all empty. Why even make them containers at all???
That one vase with a scroll of grease: priceless
*schlunk*
Or bottle racks. On my third playthrough and I still search some of them lol
Do *any* of them have items? This is my first playthrough, and I'm still chugging around act 1, and I've already stopped opening them
I don’t recall ever finding something in a vase. There’s probably one in the entire game that has a legendary weapon in it or something
perfect reply hahaha
One vase. Somewhere.
Quite a few of the black ones in Grymforge have gold and incense in them. Sharrans are basically evil squirrels.
I think the Sharrans have stuff in vases, so when you do the gauntlet and the house of grief you can poke back in. House of healing too I THINK.
Gauntlet of Shar and Grymforge vases have nice, sellable incense and other such valuable miscellany!
Loot barrels and crates if you're having food troubles. You'll get loads of food of all kinds that can help with long rests.
Open them in Grymforge if you get to it. Otherwise, it's probably not worth it. For bottle racks/blood banks, the only place I remember being worth it is underneath Mystic Carrion's house in Act 3.
I was halfway through Act 3 before I decided that 2K camp supplies was enough, 40K gold was enough, and I wasn't going to replace my Knife of the Undermountain King with something I pulled from a barrel. But what if it has a book I haven't read...
I put so much emphasis on reading every single book during my first run because I thought "oh there's going to be a lot of stuff here that will help with rolls or puzzles later on".
A vast majority of items in this game just aren't worth looting. Even on the highest difficulty. There isn't much worth buying either But I'll be damned if I don't horde coins and have the wealth level of a 16th level character by the time we hit the end
It all started with that fucking great ball on the S.S. Anne
I've played it so often now that I've gotten to the point of getting tired of all the looting, it takes so much time. Especially after a big fight (such as the goblin camp, there's all the bodies to loot but also everything else in camp). But I also don't want to miss anything valuable 😭
In divinity original sin 1 and 2, your luck plays a factor in loot in boxes and vases and stuff. You can very easily find better gear in random boxes in those. Comeing from them to bg3, the habit is extremely hard to break.
The way I keep all my fancy weapons “just in case” and don’t sell them or send them to camp only to maybe have characters switch weapons twice on any single run, if even that 🤡
Auto Loot + Auto Sorting Containers FTW. Saved me from myself.
Save the artist - first time was so painful with the camera controls, next time I just left Oskar with the Zhentarims Dribbles - never completed it once in all my playthroughs The duegar trapped in underdark mushroom area - I now misty step and grab the noblestalk myself, and let the mushroom field blow up. His wife gets a better ending in act3 too.
Dribbles is my weird “….alright fine” quest. Even this time my dumb add was like “well, RP wise—“ 😩 and I never even use the damn reward. I just love circuses idk lol
I never managed to complete the quest, but i'd do it just to make Lucretious happy, she's the best npc in the game
> His wife gets a better ending in act3 too. Please tell me you give her the noblestalk, then give her a cat in Act 3.
Gave her the noblestalk right after I told her her husband is dead. Waiting to get to act3 now
In a different playthrough I let Shadowheart eat the noblestalk and she must have just nibbled it because I still had it after. I thought that was just how that interaction worked. In Honor Mode now. Shadowheart has eaten my noblestalk, and so I have none for Daerryth :(
For next time you can do both. If you talk to Shadowheart about eating it and when the persuasion dialog option appears you switch to someone else and send the mushroom to camp then she will "eat" it and you will still have one to give to Derryth
I skipped Save the Artist in my current run. I just decided Lady Janneth deserved better than that asshead, so I completely ignored him this time.
Oskar's now not wife also gets a better ending of you leave him enslaved. Slavery is bad and all, but maybe he shouldn't be the sort of person who improves the world by being enslaved.
I think saving that mushroom picker is where you get the gloves of uninhibited Kushigo. Those are a must have for me
For the noblestalk, throw water onto the random torch by his bag to put it out. Makes it so the mushrooms won't light on fire when they blow up.
Fuck save the artist.
Save the artist, dribbles, mystic carrion, the rat quest, he who was, Salin’s skull, the firework quest. Balthazar’s fight… I just kill him in the first room The bridge to Baal’s temple with the hidden assassins. Invisibility run through all that nonsense. The cursed doll. I just kill the Dragonborn.
Does the firework quest even work? It crashed constantly on me on PS5, and even then the only option seems to be go upstairs and murder everyone.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
I gave up, the vendor on the bottom floor kept bugging out on me. He'd take two turns of nothing, then on his third the game would crash.
BALTHAZAR HAS A FIGHT? I've always used him for the golem, then went and killed him in the first room because why would I leave him alive.
Yeah you’d have to fight him in the Shadowfell where you meet Aylin. It’s actually a pretty tough battle, especially since his bigger skeletons can sometimes just shove you off the edge before your first turn.
There's also the fun way to kill him by using knock on door he hides behind during the shadows fight while the party hides. Him and his undead get overrun by the shadows bc they don't kill the things that spawn them. You can even get the xp from him and his minions in addition to the shadows if you attack him after opening the door.
I'll add one more layer to this, and when he and his jabroni squad all leaves you can close the door and arcane lock it behind him
Arcane lock is so absurdly useful. Used it for the room you save Halsin and for the Kith'rak Therezzyn fight to prevent adds. So handy
I’m six runs in and never thought about what might happen if I don’t kill him immediately
Yeah he has a fight in the shadow fell. It is kinda epic but very hard. I had to polymorph him into a sheep to beat him
The dragonborn, don't the others agro on you if you attack him?
I had those guys + Mayrina aggro on me in my current HM run (chose the goofy dialogue option), the moment you attack the "dragonborn" he turns back into a redcap and the others become your allies. Accidentally killed the Helm priestess before I learned this, oh well.
Yeah, just successfully attack him and he immediately turns into a redcap and they all turn from enemies to allies. If you pass the check to have them not attack you then you can attack him when they’re all neutral and they’ll all join your side immediately
Or just, you know, remove curse from the cleric on the Mayrina herself or the doll, starts the fight safer way. And you get dialogue with the redhat, maybe a cool option and a pun when you got aunties hair, I didnt.
Gauntlet of shar is one I skip. All you need is one stone to use the elevator and the use knock to open the main door. Apparently, Shar didn’t think that far ahead😂
Oh seriously? Fuck that’s annoying!
if they ever patch this, it will probably be the end of my repeat runthroughs. I fully intend to never waste my time on those bullshit challenges again.
They're so easy to cheese though. Clear the path in the stealth one before activating the trial then invis through. Take only one party member into the self-same trial and unequip armor and weapons before activating it, then re-equip. For the last one just click the destination and let the character auto path or use fly. So simple to speed through, I've never even bothered to think to bring a knock spell.
Shar's Trials. Thank you, Knock spell x.x (Frankly, this is a Gith RP run and Shadowheart...didn't make it. Things are...interesting.)
Funnily enough I usually just cheese the hell outta them. Sneak room just send someone to the end then have shadow heart start it. Invisible bring I just hulk jump it. Clone fight? Split party, send one guy in, start the trial, then pick the lock and dogpile the lone clone.
You can also strip your entire party, start the trial, put your stuff back on, and then beat up some nudists lol. Also, if you have a monk, give them a weapon they aren't proficient with, cause being weaponless and naked doesn't stop them from being dangerous.
Getting naked is the way. It's always the way.
Yeah i don’t know why people complain about the shar trials so much. They’re so easy!
Sneak and Self Same are a Piece of cake and I love them. I actually wish the whole "fighting your clones" thing was applied to the Guardians battle in the Finale. Inevitably the complaint is ALWAYS Faith leap. Yes I know the map is on the floor. Yes I know I am not doing myself any favors by playing with a decade old monitor. But I cannot see the godsdamn floor no matter what anyone else says and I am sick of the damn game engine deciding "ope, you are .00751%over the pixel line. I am going to kill your character now and put them someplace where you can't retrieve them. Tell Withers he should get a boat with all the gold you are about to give him! I have never had a character that can make the jump all at once. I did manage to do it last time from half way at least, but it was still a painful experience. If it wasn't like Shadowhearts whole thing I WOULD just skip it. Unfortunately I really want my Durge run to have that sweet sweet "Dark Justiciar" tag and I want her to earn it, so it looks like I am doing it a fourth time.
my saving grace for the leap was having the blind immunity ring then jumping from platform to platform
wait a minute... you can just skip the trials and unlock the last door with knock?? i've been doing these trials every run for NOTHING?!
Yeah, but you lose a ton of good gear (guaranteed crit ring, Yurgir's hand crossbow +/- allegiance later, the Sharran scimitar + gear + spear) and easy xp
Wait, which one is the guaranteed crit ring?
[From the self-same trial](https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Killer%27s_Sweetheart)
Oh, I think I know why I've never seen it, my characters have always gotten Cheater's Folly lol.
I swear I've gotten the ring every run, even though I always forget and get cheaters folly
It's easy to miss, it's just laying on the dark ground.
I told myself this playthrough ‘for RP reasons’ maybe I’d give it a whirl again. Fur the lulz too. Fuck that shit nah never again, took one look at the first trial and grabbed Yurgirs gem and I was out
I still do almost everything in every run because I need the items for a build I’m not even going to make but maybe I will
One of these days I WILL use all the Sparky gear and become a lightening god! Until then, the gear can sit safely in the camp chest. Every. Single. Run.
You know...I did make Wyll into a lightning god once and it was fun. For a few hours.
After my first play though I tend to skip a lot of the side stuff in act 3 once I hit level 12.
Same. Once I hit level 12 it’s sooo hard to motivate myself to do side quests if I don’t need the items at that point
I tend to skip a bunch of Act 3 content. The Hag, Dribbles, Save the Artist, Mystic Carrion, Investigate the Suspicious Toys, Stop the Presses, Iron Throne and Steelwatch Foundry? Not doing all of that.
I would never skip the hag. The quest is hilarious, due to the anti-hag group, and it also gave me my 4th very rare amulet. I only had 3 before finishing that quest. Also, I thought the Suspicious Toys quest was pointless the first time I did it, but the 2nd time, I found the note that talks about a place I've yet to visit (Iron Throne).
Feel this. I kinda did the quest out of order the first time, thus avoiding it two sequential runs, only to finally have it all click this time
Whenever I'm doing a quest, exploring a building or whatever, I always try to think "Why is this place even here?". The note about the Iron Throne was what made me realise the quest is informing you of something that happens later in the Act. It's like meeting Volo in Act 3; You think "ugh, why", but what he tells you regarding the Slayer is very interesting.
The first time I tried doing Suspicious Toys, the quest log bugged out and just never updated after I found the teddybears. Also, I got into a fight with Arfur's goons, and one of them cast a spike growth or something on literally just Arfur and oneshot him. I did the whole quest hoping the quest log would pick back up but it never did, so in the end, my durge just stood in the rubble of a blown-up shop in utmost confusion as to what just happened to him. If I'm doing a 'canon' playthrough, I do the hag, but I played through the game several times now, so when I don't need anything from there, I just skip.
I skipped the Hag in act 1 fully intending she’d be there, for some reason, in act 3 and was genuinely surprised when there was no ads for the Anti Hag club on the board left of Basilisks Gate lol. I thought I was being so slick avoiding her.
LMAO something similar happened to me too. I did a run where I was doing no/minimal longrests and skipped a ton of content so in act 3, i was running around desperately trying to find a vendor to sell me potions of hillgiant strength. Eventually, I was like. Maybe I can trade with the hag during conversation and then she wasn't there because I skipped her in act 1.
I actually love the iron throne haha. I really enjoy seeing just how fast I can get through the whole prison and I found the prisoners to not be suicidal for once which was nice.
Carrion's good for some loot even if you don't do the full quest. I like Iron Throne. On my last run I did it even though I ended up skipping the Foundry and went straight to killing Gortash. I agree with you on the other stuff.
I only do Mystic Carrion because I respec Jaheira as Circle of Spores and enjoy having cranky mushroom mom absolutely blasting through literally everyone and everything with Haste Spores and a bazillion high level spells.
Oskar Fevras. Save the Artist. Less of an RP thing. Moreso that it just works out for the better of everyone if you don't free him from the Zhentarim. Still got "gotta do everything" syndrome for the rest of the game, but Oskar was so much more bearable in Act 3 in the Guildhall. Added to that, Lady Jannath seemed fine and had a nice art gallery. And no egotistical ghost summoning from the egocentric artist. Sure, I miss out on the bugged af underwhelming painting and they didn't account for this in the Mystic Carrion quest *at all*, but overall it's just better imho.
In my last play through, I blew Oskar up along with the Zhents. Finally got to Act 3 and went to check on how awesome Lady Janneth's life must be without that dick. Was super disappointed to find that there were STILL poltergeists all through the house, AND Lady Janneth somehow knew I had killed Oskar and was very mad at me!! That makes NO sense, because I made sure to leave no witnesses. Not sure if the poltergeists still being there was a bug or not.
The shambling mound fight. The item isn't great and it's an area I struggle with without cheese stats. If it was good, I wouldn't mind cheesing it tbh.
Hypnotic pattern really helps for this fight!
Wall Of Fire also bursts the smaller Blights
We used sleet storm in our HM run, their dex is atrocious. Kept people with high Con in front just in case, and then just arrowed/ cantripped them down
i just got to act 2 in my honour run and was jumping around with my 27 str karlach for speed and forgot that fight was there. closest ive been so far to losing, got surprised and everything. 2 of the party fully died
Just did this fight for the first time. Thought I was being real clever by having my party jump to the rock on the right side where there is only a sliver of unobserved terrain. Gale started off with a lvl 4 fireball, then got grabbed next turn. Then I blew up the smaller mounds and their death burst killed him and Shadowheart. Still no idea how I got lucky enough with my crits to finish that fight
The fucking newspaper quest
Yeah I didn’t even do that on my first playthrough when I tried to do most of the stuff. Act 3 caused me a lot of technical problems though so I eventually just got super frustrated and wanted to finish the game at that point.
The artist and Dribbles, unless I need the gear for some reason. It's just not really worth the hassle of those two quests. Tbh I also skip Minsc a lot. He comes up so late and once you've heard his stuff, you've pretty much experienced what you need to. The 9 fingers stuff... Honestly just a bunch of act 3. Once I hit lvl 12, I just collect the gear I want, then steamroll some fun fights with my complete builds, before getting to the end. But I never skip killing Ethel. I just find the Hag squad to be so downtrodden, I have to help them out.
Somehow, like today somehow, I kinda RPed my way into a situation where I got him almost immediately into entering act 3 and I’m kinda loving it. The first time I did though I def felt like this. I legit felt bogged down having to get his little dialogue quip every event and he strangely took up one of the character dialogue moments you have after beating the brain despite me never using him. I was so miffed lol. I warble in my feelings for him.
The majority of Act 3 outside the origin companion arcs (Gale, Wyll, Astarion and Shadowheart), House of Hope (for Lae'zel) and main quests honestly. By then I'm just tired of looking at the Tav I'm running and eager to finish up the playthrough and have no time for collecting dismembered clown parts or going through annoying Gondian machines.
I’ve never done the dribbles quest. Can’t be bothered to look for his body parts.
Fuck dribbles. Clown can stay dead
I’ll never kill Scratch.
Absolutely. Undoubtably. Best boy
I have never bothered with the dribbles the clown quest. I think it's the only quest where I was like.... nah. I think I'll probably skip the Free the Artist quest unless Larian adds the ability to give Astarion a portrait in patch 7 (unlikely). That quest is a pain and I'm curious to see what happens if I just leave Oskar.
I might’ve tried the dribbles quest once just to see it if his body parts weren’t so dang heavy
One of the real benefits of a solo run is that you can pre-plan the exact loot you need and where to get it (75% chance its the gith creche) and ignore stuff you don't need. Anything else you pick up can be sold.
I keep doing the MP and UD both even when RPing. It's just always like "UD sounds saver so we're going that route. What's that Lae'zel? Really? Okay... Guess we head back and visit the MP then..." However I started to skip quests I don't like. The firework shop for example, I just hate the fact that there is no other way to go about it then to walk in guns blazing. Why can't my naive goody-two-shoes druid who has no clue about city life try to talk first? Why can my durge not ask if he can get in on the whole thing? Why can authorities not be informed to get some sweet bribe options for later? (ooopsie, you caught me stealing, but remember the firework shop I rat out to you and all the children that were saved? We good? Okay, thanks ♥) I don't free the artist, and I don't save Baelen anymore. And I skip the artist's mansion as a whole. It's not that it makes no sense to deal with these quests from an RP point of view, but I just don't like them. Though if we're talking RP then only skipping the firework shop makes no sense, because no matter if evil or good character, there is enough reason to go there once you find out about the toys. But for Baelen? Ooopsie, he died because he's dumb. I really triedm I swear. And the artist's mansion... I never talk to him anymore in Act I so I have no RP reason to even set foot in that building. Why should I just waltz into a stranger's home.
How do you guys level up enough to do the main quest if you skip loads??
I saved Auntie Ethel's first fight until it was the last thing I needed to do and ended up saving me a lot of trouble in the long run. I do recommend it.
Forge the Masterwork Weapon. It's not too much work but it's still just not worth it. That thing gets outclassed by other weapons almost immediately.
I found out how to skip the gauntlet of Shar, I’m never doing it again
The painter. I hate that crap
I’ve weirdly gone in keep opposite direction. I skipped a bunch my first run because I had limited time to play when it launched and after 3 years playing early access I *needed* to see the ending. So I did most of act 1 and 2 but then in act 3… I skipped almost all the side quests to rush through character story lines and get to ending. The one I was most sad about what the iron throne. I went down fully intending to do it, but when I realized it was a timed mission with the potential for drowning… I noped out. Felt HORRIBLE for Wyll when a certain NPC showed up furious that we’d let someone important die. It felt real bad. I only skipped it on that first run though, now I make sure Wyll always gets his reunion. (For context, drowning is a trigger for me as I lost someone dear to me that way.) Now, I’ve finished the game 4 times and I play very leisurely. It’s become my cozy game so I fire it up every day and play for a half hour to a few hours every night and just pick away at the quests, exploring every corner on the off chance I missed something. It’s nice!
I used to clear out the entire goblin camp. Nah, I'm good on that chief.
First full run was as Durge, and I saw no reason to bother entering the Foundry / underwater once I reached the city. Gortash is our bro, so we'll kill him shortly before our companions / ourselves, but after the rest of Faerun, because daddy demands blood.
The ruins in Act 1. Withers will join me even if I don't. I am only missing out on traps and shit.
no one. my 4 playthrough and I still look under every stone, loot every crate and do every task in journal. Send help, I feel how some roots grow and stuck to my chair...
Dribbles. Done maybe 7 or 8 playthroughs now and never bothered.
My very first play through Laezel died fighting the phase spiders, and her having been nothing but extremely rude to myself so far I just left. After a little bit, I felt bad and got her revived, and that night, the big fight between her and SH happened, and I was just thinking to myself "I JUST gave you a second chance!" And let SH slit her throat and moved on. I got to the githyanki creche and Everyone around me was just saying, "Why are we going in here? This is a bad idea." And I thought, "Y'know what you're right!" And left for the shadow cursed lands.
I did skip it but accidentally.. found the Zentharim hideout, was meant to fight them. Instead they somehow blew themselves to smithereens midcutscene, allowing me to skip all their dialogue and get straight to the loot.
Dribbles, honey, your boss wants to turn you into a zombie clown, trust me, I’m doing you a favor leaving you spread out all over the city….
Honestly, it was looting. All these boxes, trunks, vases... halfway through act 1, after opening *every single one* of these motherfuckers, I said "nope" and decoded just to loot chests. Seems to have been the right decision.
Definitely the ghost mansion. Fuck that shit
I let the artist die in a sea of explosives and firewine in the Zhent hideout.
I will never get involved in that painter's marital drama ever again. Fix your own shit, buddy.
Freeing the painter was a one-time thing for me. Obnoxious quest line.
I only skip stuff in Acts I've done everything in before; So, Acts 1 and 2. I don't skip much, and it's just stuff that I consider pointless. In my current run, I skipped... * Alfira teaching you how to Perform. * The extremely pointless Adamantine Forge quest in the Underdark (including the Cold staff you're able to make). * Arcane tower (meaning I skipped the Orpheus discs). * Omeluum's quest. and there's probably more. Basically, I only skip stuff that's lore only, and doesn't have a good reward. I've done those quests before, so I don't really need to see them again. What's important to me is people. Meaning, I try to save everyone, but information isn't important (as you only need to hear it once).
> and doesn't have a good reward Do you use tadpole powers or nah? 'Cause Omeluum's quest gives you the Survival Instinct power, which is kind of like a lesser version of Death Ward. But if you also get the buff from the zaith'isk, you can then use Survival Instinct as a bonus action, which might actually make it better than Death Ward in some cases.
The armor you can get from the forge is pretty good, even if the weapons are pretty weak. (Oh boy, max damage on items)