BG3: Karlach is a Bleeping Disney Princess 001

Everyone in the world is doing this, and so am I. This is the start of an origin playthrough I've dubbed "Karlach is a Bleeping Disney Princess." She's going to split levels between Barbarian and Bard, taking Lore Bard and Wildheart Barbarian to sing and talk to the animals. The rest of our team is also Disney themed. Astarion takes Warlock 2/Druid the rest of the way to be Beauty and the Beast, Gale sticks as a Wizard going Transmutation to be a Fairy Godmother (and so we can have Giant Karlach). Laezel embodies the trickster heroes like Peter Pan, Robin Hood and the Huntsman going HunterRanger/Thief Rogue. Shadowheart will be full on Maleficent as a Draconic Sorcerer, and Wyll is obviously Prince Charming as an Oath of Ancients Paladin.

This first video's audio is a bit low, for some reason. All the later videos have the same settings, but don't have this issue. Either way, we're on tactician. I still don't know what a Dream Guardian is for, so I just hit randomize. What's fun is Barbarians can just get mad at the pod Shadowheart is stuck in and rip the lid off. Shadowheart is the worst cleric ever, passing on Bless and other good spells for a weird assortment at Level 1. We do re-do the bridge fight because I trigger the Cambion spawn too early so they can reach the rest of the party. That's fine; re-attempting means we can give Shadowheart good spells to grab the commander's weapon. Karlach falling goofily is also kind of funny; I have also decided Shadowheart's artifact is her weird, creepy d20.

The lack of a Dodge and Ready action after playing Solasta with @jonusfalcon really grates on me, as many times I'm finding myself in the perfect position to use these actions. I'll casually point out that Astarion, who is very close to the Intellect Devourers, remains unhunted by them. Is it because he's dumb or because of his deep dark secret that IS IN NO WAY TELEGRAPHED every time he opens his mouth and you can see his teeth? Knowing his secret, or at least educatedly guessing at it, does make his "Of course it will turn me into a monster" comment more interesting.

Origin Characters also get a bunch of interesting little tidbits, like Karlach warning Gale about being burned when she pulls him free. When we get to the looter room, we do defeat them in piecemeal by closing the door behind them as they walk in. Kind of silly, but effective. I also hate that the Scrolls of Revivify look different than every other scroll, which causes me to not realize we have any.

BG3 is a good game, but there's so much sloppy design (UI, ground effects, clarity of what can/can't be looted, which items you can pick up when right clicking to open a context menu vs. left clicking to auto-pick up, etc., etc.) that I'm not sure how it is getting 10/10 scores. It is a solid 8 or 9 game, one of the better ones, but it is not perfect, and the glaring flaws present even in just this opening that will carry through the rest of the game turn a fun experience into one punctuated by tedium and frustration. The trap room can be solved in a few ways -- disabling the trap, or triggering it in Turn Based Mode and running out before they trigger, then never going that way again.

Also, apparently, if you look at Shadowheart's character sheet, she is inexplicably afraid of wolves.

00:00:00 Opening, Karlach's Stats and Dream Guardian
00:12:15 A Nautiloid in Hell
00:34:15 Connect The Things, Fight the Devils!
00:52:00 Shadowheart Breaks Things
00:55:08 Karlach Arrives, Meets Shadowheart, Adventures
01:08:17 Intellect Devourers and Astarion
01:20:27 Level 2, Wounded Illithid; Finding Our Fairy Godmother
01:36:25 Looter Fight, Topside and Failing at the Door
01:54:04 Looter Fight, Underground, Try 1
02:06:06 Looter Fight, Underground, Try 2
02:22:15 Clean Up and First Rest
02:45:35 Karlach First Night Narration
02:49:30 Back to Adventuring: Ruins Trap Room, Karlach and Soul Coins
03:03:34 Open Book, Fight Undead, Meet Withers
03:27:39 Rescue Lae'zel and the Gate Fight
03:43:46 Exploring The Grove: Part 1 of Many
03:54:19 Bugbear Assassin, Level 3, Dragon!
04:05:20 Squirrel, Zevlor and Solving Tiefling Problems
04:14:45 Wyll Won't Be Our Friend; Rage!
04:20:16 Disneyfying Astarion, Laezel and Shadowheart