Real Lich Hours 16: The Risen Road
Added 2024-03-31 17:00:06 +0000 UTCWow, that's a lot of fire.
Comments
When I started my first playthrough of BG3, I unknowingly was falling back into the habits of another party based RPG that I love in my memory, the Mass Effect trilogy. In those games, especially in 2 and 3, you're encouraged to swap out party members to best meet the situation or mission at hand. Sometimes you need to bring a particular party member for a loyalty quest, but mostly for me, I liked to rotate my party members to keep things interesting, and it added great flavor. I was a leader who was choosing the best companions for the task at hand, and it lent to the role playing aspect of keeping my crew engaged and not feeling abandoned by Mr Space Cop. Early in Act 1 of BG3, I found myself trying to do the same thing. Swapping in Karlach to attack the paladins at the gate house, swapping in Laezel to speak with the Githyanki patrol, etc. I had nailed down some interesting alternative options for "tier 2" characters e.g. making Astarion an arcane trickster that I could sub out for Gale's wizardry. It opened the aperture of what was possible, but it was starting to be too much. I was fiddling with menus instead of gettin' on with the damn thing. It was only after listening to the first episodes of RLH that I heard you two talk about "who you're rolling with" as if choosing your 3 party companions was something you basically lock in on as an early decision. I decided to give it a try, and it has made the initial learning curve of BG3 so much more graceful. Only concerning myself with a party of 4 instead of maybe 9 companions feels like it's the choice the game wants you to make. I'm curious, is constantly swapping party members something you think is viable or even enjoyable to do? From a flavor perspective, does it make sense? From a time to value ratio, is it worth it? I'd love to get your take on this as I went into this game wanting to see all my companions' stories, but I've become comfortable knowing I'll only know the stories of Karlach, Shadowheart, and Gale this time around. The rest of the gang will have to wait for playthrough #2. You guys are the best, been listening since 2018, keep up the most excellent work.
John Sutherland
2024-04-08 14:10:55 +0000 UTCFor the Voss encounter, it's a little odd that Laezel runs off and drops her entire backpack into your main's inventory which over-encumbered me... I get why they did it, she might have items you need and don't want to lock those behind that interaction if it turns into a fight, but I had to get creative about what I kept and where I put the weighty backpack until I could finish that interaction and then go put all of Laezel's stuff back on her person. Multiclassing - It's cool stuff, in my latest playthru I went thief for sneak attack and dex prof as well as extra bonus actions, but then barb for rage and maim/bleed. Synergized well with my Astarion who I made an Open Hand Monk who ran around tripping and stunning and moving between enemies without being able to be attack of opportunity’d. Then my main maimed everyone constantly so they couldn't move or wasted lots of movement/turns trying to get up and then doing extra damage to bleeding targets with some items. Lastly Waukeen's Rest has an Easter egg of a painting of the Red Prince, I noticed this and one that looked like Fane elsewhere (can't remember where) and looked it up and there's a bunch of paintings of divinity chars throughout the game.
Limowreck
2024-04-06 07:35:06 +0000 UTCRelating to the scratch stuff, I was using him to sniff out traps in act 3 until he sniffed out a trap but then when I started disarming it he walked straight through it 🤦🏻♀️
Tayler F
2024-04-03 16:50:52 +0000 UTCIf people are interested in multiclassing, as Gary says there are a million guides out there - I actually quite like the class guides that fextralife put out on their YouTube channel that give an overview of each class as well as some suggestions for when to multiclass and what other classes synergize well, which was great for helping me understand some of the benefits and come up with some ideas of my own (looking at their channel it looks like they also have a general multiclass guide for people who just want to understand the general mechanics which seems useful). I became a multiclass convert on my second tactician playthrough after not touching it during my first game, and I love how much extra expression it adds to building a character (as well as potentially opening up some incredibly powerful synergies)
Jordan Parfitt
2024-04-01 18:51:44 +0000 UTCA couple minor corrections/clarifications about multiclassing as I have understood it so far - feats are in fact tied to class levels, not character level, so often multiclassing does result in sacrificing a feat, which seems scary but honestly the tradeoffs can very much be worth it. Additionally, the rules about initial class proficiencies are weird - I believe you only get things like weapon and armor proficiencies from the class you initially started with, so adding a fighter level mid game won't necessarily give you full weapon proficiencies, but you can get around this by respeccing with Withers and just putting your first level in fighter (or whatever you want the proficiencies for) so you get them that way.
Jordan Parfitt
2024-04-01 18:29:25 +0000 UTCWhile this isn’t directly related to this particular episode, I wanted to mention that in case you’re planning to hit the convention scene this year, RetroGameCon in Syracuse has only announced a few guests so far, but they’re bringing in the voice actors/actresses behind Astarion, Karlach, and Orin. The convention is in October, so they definitely have plenty of time to announce more of the cast. I know fast travel hasn’t been unlocked yet, but damn would those be some tremendous interviews for this series if you could pull that off. Hell, I think there’s a strong case for Gary and Kole to moderate a BG3 panel if there is one.
Scottmichael Farrey
2024-04-01 18:03:18 +0000 UTCFun fact I now never take Lae’zel with me because I disarm Vos for his weapon. Yes you get it later but what’s the fun in that. 🤣 I all so never start this encounter without being at least level 5. It’s possible at level four, but it just makes the battle easier at five and always at a High Point. Things I’ve learned from trial and error. 🤣🤣
Orins meat puppet
2024-04-01 13:00:24 +0000 UTCSo again first play through went at this blind. Didn’t seek help… just carpe diem the thing. Didn’t have Lae’zel during the dialogue. So I went and Got her. But then I immediately started attacking. Before approaching them. So Lae’zel started attacking me. Had to restart.
Orins meat puppet
2024-04-01 12:56:56 +0000 UTCYou can also simply watch Benryn burn alive instead of saving him. That'll earn you inspiration if you're The Dark Urge. An evil little touch! Also, I've never had a problem role-playing a multi-classed character on the tabletop in 5e. My wizard has been used to living in a tower, say, but after a few months on the road getting smacked by gobbers, he's got some basic Fighter skills. Great! The big catch is whether he actually has the STR/DEX stats to become a great Fighter eventually, or whether he'd be mechanically better off sticking to his day job. A better synergy might be a Paladin who practices lute in the evenings and ends up taking levels in Bard, which will benefit from high pally CHA. He ends up both preaching and leading the choir.
Joseph
2024-04-01 01:01:11 +0000 UTCHe is risen
Casey Francis Alger
2024-03-31 23:51:11 +0000 UTCThe "sorcerer who knows how to read" and "charisma based himbos" comments had me laughing out loud in public! Definitely interested in hearing more about multiclassing experimentation as someone who has also been resistant to it.
Daniel Runfola
2024-03-31 20:14:52 +0000 UTCIt is risen indeed
Mike Fowle
2024-03-31 17:02:56 +0000 UTCWatch yer step!
Joe Binson
2024-03-31 17:02:11 +0000 UTC
