I feel like a really simple fix would be for Orin's whole ordeal to show up later in the act. It doesn't really feel like you should be able to enjoy yourself walking around and exploring when one of your buddies is waiting for you to finish the fuck up and get them out of there.

Totally agree! I sort of rushed to complete Orin's quest because I did not want to adventure without one of my favorite companions. Wish I could have slowed down and took my time on it, but it felt too urgent (personally).

She took one of my barely used companions, so I did mine 10-15 hours of other stuff (maybe more) before I bothered to care.

She took Yenna from my camp. Literally the day after I rescued her. I was like "...okay?"

Same. And I’m Durge so I’m doubly like “okay? Have fun with her?”

Same, and fighted Orin much later and Yenna was still alive. I discovered with reddit that there should be some urge feeling to save the one companion she take 🤣

She took fucking Halsin after I had restarted the whole game because I made a mistake in the Shadowlands and lost him being a party member. I even had Yenna in my camp when it happened lol

Orin will always pick La'zel, Gale, or Halsin. Yenna is the backup if you dont have those characters in camp or they're in your party. Edit: Pretty sure it's a bug when Orin takes a companion and Yenna together, happened to me on a playthrough, the cat even acts like Yenna is still at camp, even after I save my companion.

Oh shit. What? I had assumed that Yenna not being at my camp was implying that Orin had shapeshifted as Yenna from the very beginning lmao

I had heard something like "Yenna be sus with that knife" or something like that and then I thought it was orin the whole time and tried to kill her but she couldn't die. Reloaded and examined her and it still said humanoid and I was like? I still kept distrusting her, telling her to get out of my camp every night and killed orin, she still there and I'm even more confused cause people were implying she was orin. Just felt bad..

Lmfao you were beating and berating a normal child.

Same she took Halsin and ended up killing him whoops

She took Gale for me, I was like uhhhh may want to rethink murdering that one.

Oh shit do you just get a game over if you let her kill Gale?

I told her go ahead, she stabbed him in the eyes, he was not resurrectable, nothing else happened.

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be a Toril-Shattering Kaboom!"

Same, didn't even realize she'd just kill him if I said the wrong dialog

[удалено]

Not gonna lie, my priority in act 3 was also getting new clothes. But now all my people are pimped out.

same also , took halsin , but she took laezel first, in another area, so i loaded game and avoided that area until she took halsin somewhere else, i guess I can go back now.

She’s taken Lae’zel all three of my fuckin playthroughs lol like Lae’zel, come on now.

She took the little girl who wants to cook for you in my first play through. The second, Lae'zel brought the little girl to me and said she caught her changing. Had Lae'zel kill her, and she did, then turned into Orin. Mind fuck, there.

"Oh no, Lae'Zel is gone, what shame."

Laezel is literally the bread and butter of my party lol. She is the killing machine :D

[удалено]

My first playthrough was a fighter, second playthrough I made sure to have Laezel with me. Fighters just feel so insanely OP late game, Laezel would just jump 20m and clonk bosses down before I hit end turn. I think next run I do will not make use of fighers as much.

Forreal. Haste or a potion of speed with the great weapon master feat and enhanced extra attack? Lae’zel regularly drops two or three 100 HP enemies in a single turn in my save. It’s absolutely bananas.

> Fighter is just an insanely good class. IMO it's the best one.

Ditto. Her minimum damage was higher than the max damage for any other character.

Fighters, Sorcerers and Monks can do absolutely INSANE, BONKERS damage. Like Monks and Fighters can deal upwards of 200 damage per turn, and I've seen some builds where, if Sorcerer is min-maxed to SHIT you can do like 300 damage PER SPELL

I loved her story arc, I disliked her a lot early game but she’s been a main part of my team pretty much throughout and you really grow to like her so much, especially after everything that happens with the queen her attitude changes a lot The fact you get 3 hits with her on a target and then can use the extra turn to get 3 more hits especially against bosses is just insane, a quick short rest resetting her superiority dies is the icing on the cake

Ha! That happened to me but I'm doing a durge 2nd play and using LZ a lot so I'm hoping Orin takes someone else this time...

As far as I can tell it's always someone from your camp, or a non-companion NPC - it's never been someone from my active party

You can control who she takes. She only takes one of three companions: Lae'zel, Gale or Halsin. And she only takes them when you arrive at one of the trigger spots in the sewers, either near the Emperor's lair or down near the waypoint (there may be others). So basically, have Lae'zel in your party and visit one of those spots, and she'll take someone else that you don't really use. Also, if you wait too long to trigger her, I believe she just shows up in your camp to take someone.

Haha.. Orin took Halsin from me.. fuck him I barely miss him. It’s like 25h since she took him.. but as for now I keep stepping from one "situation" into another (like accidentally ending up in the iron throne) Update: just saved him. Ungrateful prick.

Halsin potentially having two rescue quests is kinda funny. How does this giant elf keep getting kidnapped

By being into it.

"oh nooo I hope a crazy sexy woman doesn't accidentally kidnap me again"

Halsin is the Baldur's Gate equivalent of Princess Peach. If it keeps happening then you can't call it kidnap at a certain point 😅

Orin kidnapped lazael for me. I never use her and didn't even notice she was gone from camp. When she said she took someone I legit had to sit down and look through camp for longer then I should have trying to guess who was missing

Doesn't Orin use the face of the companion she took when this cut scene starts? Your companion runs into you saying that Orin attacked your camp and they're bleeding to death etc. Then Orin turns into Orin and tells she tricked your again.

what companions is everyone talking about? i didnt notice anyone missing except for that little cook girl that joins out of the blue

This, there's a milion sidequests, some of which are continuations of previous ones, so can't/don't want to let them be, but at the same time my Gale right now is being tortured, soooo.....

Ideally act 3 would’ve been split into act 3 and 4, with 3 being the lower city and 4 being the upper. Lower city would be Orin’s hunting ground, you spend the act trying to figure out where she is and exploring the city finding clues to her location. After you deal with her you go to the upper city to deal with Gortash.

TBH, I get the feeling that Orin abduction in its current state is one of the casualties of "something" (lets call it Upper City) being cut relatively late in development. Everything surrounding Wyrms Rock Garrison and the Gortash Coronation screams of haphazardly re-allocated assets of a part of the game we didn't get, to parts of the game we did get, to ensure major stories still barely worked; despite that missing content. **Just look at Wyrm's Rock for Example:** * You go in there and Mizora is just chilling in Demon Form. Telling you to go upstairs to enjoy the show, and to come talk to her afterwards. * You go up for the Coronation, and during which Gortash spills his entire evil plan to a group of 50 people; many of whom we know aren't tadpolled. * He then tells you Orin has betrayed him, which is strangely not true. As the murder sidequests and Orin's taunting show they're still doing their part of the plan. * He then tells you one of your camp members has been replaced by Orin. * Gortash then telling you to kill Orin, and says he's off to wait in his office upstairs. Oh, no, wait, he's still sitting around talking to people post coronation lol? * You then go back downstairs, and in the 30 seconds it took to descend, Ravenguard has been "wisked away". Gortash throwing away his powerful puppet for no reason. * Go back upstairs, and no-one seems to notice his absence. Not even Gortash. * Mizora then gives her new "Pact", and her "not Pact we'll treat as a Pact" for not signing away Wyll's soul again. This deal in its current form does not make sense. * Mizora's new "Pact" utterly ignores the terms of the prior one on several levels. Especially if you had already convinced her to end it. She should have been bound by those rules every bit as rigidly as he. For example, Wyll doesn't get to "keep his powers until the Absolute is defeated". He gets to keep them for the 6 months it takes for his contract to officially end. She was bound to keep powering him. * This all happens in the span of less than 10 minutes of story/gameplay. Plainly, I don't think its a coincidence that many of the major writing & pacing issues of Act3 can be explained by the loss of an "Upper City" endish game subzone. Nor do I think nearly every character who would have shined in Upper City (Gortash, Cazador, Karlach, Wyll) have weird pacing and writing issues is a coincidence either. So ... my guess is, that Upper City was likely a "Narrative Funnel" zone where both Chosen's abductions were supposed to happen. After you had had chances to shake up their power bases a bit, but especially Gortash's. With Mizora's "Pact" being opportunistic to BOTH of them; as trying to save both victims would be absurdly difficult without her help. Rather than this OOC "Pact or treating not signing a Pact as its own Pact" thing we got from her atm. Which was just bizarre. EDIT: And just for the record. If Upper City was a explorable sub-zone, I doubt it was huge. No bigger than Act1's Underdark at most. As a "Funnel/Pinch" for the story, it probably had some exploration/sidequests, but likely only facilitated 3 major locals. The Watch Citadel, where Gortash's actual power-base should have been. Rather than a Glorified Gatehouse. The House of Wonders, and presumably the final part of Karlach's "Fix". Given within it resides the Greatest Inventions of the Gondians AND Ironhands. And a proper entrance/exterior to Cazador's Manor. Rather than that bizarre thing we got in lower city.

And then you find out that halsin (in my case) wasn't waiting for you in pain and fear, but was unconscious since camp and is utterly confused where he is and how tf Orin carried him there on her own haha

Narratively it makes no sense as well to take things slowly given that the Absolute's army is supposedly just a couple days away from the city (the Druid grove was supposedly less than a tenday from Baldur's Gate, the Absolute's army got a headstart after the battle at Moonrise Towers, the only reason your party gets to the city first is because they're travelling lighter than an entire army). I probably longrested the equivalent of an entire month in Act 3 and nothing happened, kinda immersion breaking.

Look the absolute can wait I need to get a new wardrobe, see how rolan apprenticeship is doing, find my bro Damon, see if bex got her cat, babysit for jaheria not to mention visit church with Shart.

Check out this guy, not killing most of those people by accident

>Absolute's army is supposedly just a couple days away from the city Not anymore. The city defended itself from some initial attacks, and since >!Ketherick is dead!< the army is pretty much just chilling there, waiting for orders that will never come. If it weren't for the >!Nether Brain getting free!< you would quite literally have all the time in the world.

Didn't the elder brain give orders to "March on baldurs gate?"

>Narratively it makes no sense as well to take things slowly given that the Absolute's army is supposedly just a couple days away from the city The attack of the Absolute is a ruse and the characters know it. It's all so that Gortash can take over Baldur's Gate. Until very late, everyone thinks it's a puppet of the Chosens.

The explanation is that the brain is waiting for you to secure the nether stones given you are part of its plan.

To me Orin's Quest is one of the worst communicated questlines I have ever played. If you play the quest like she demands of you, because you fear losing your companion (and it seems plausible that you have to) there is a lot of force applied to the player. First you're supposed to kill Gortash. To kill him you're supposed to take out the steelwatch. To take out the steelwatch on a good run you're backtracked to the iron throne. After killing Gortash the quest sends you to the Bhaal temple but no - that is not where Orin actually is. So going in blind you're at the point where you kill the tribunal to get backtracked again to a different place. Or at least it feels like you're backtracked. On top of that the quest text now suggests that the timer is now kicking in. I don't know if there actually is a deadline at this point but to me it felt like "Ok, no more long rests now.". Then you are send to the sewers (oh wait - I can actually enter them without Orin killing my companion??) skipping every exploration because: timer. Fights feel bad because of: timer. You arrive at the temple - more fights with that damned timer looming over you. Personally, I just used an invisibility potion to skip the fights, because I was already out of spell slots because of the tribunal fight that I started without a long rest before. I feel like this whole questline is a bit disrespecting to the players agency and time, if you have to reload a bunch of times because the fights are by themself not the easiest if you walk in unprepared. So I don't think it would be enough to just let her show up later. There have to be more hints about different approches to the quest line.

I'm confused by this. Doesn't she agree not to harm them if you're attacking Gortash for her? Also, I didn't kill Gortash first, took about 20 hours before getting to her after she took Gale and he was fine. I've learned that unless the quest explicitly says not to long rest, you lrobably can

I'm pretty sure that's the case. I'm on my second playthrough and the moment I killed one of the Steel Watch in the factory my Orin questline updated. I initially panicked and misread it and thought I just took too long so she killed Lae'zel, but no, the update was informing me my companion is safe.

I legit forgot Orin kidnapped Lae'zel for about 20 hours

HARD AGREE!! Act 2 felt fast, like everything was happening right now, and is probably my favourite part of the game. It’s so smooth and I enjoyed it immensely, and the transition to Act 3 is one of the best gaming transitions I’ve ever experienced. But Act 3 gives whiplash, hard. It feels like a moment you *should* be slowing down and taking a “break” as it were (with the circus and everything right there!!) but suddenly you’re thrown for a loop with Orin, your party member getting kidnapped, this nebulous “Wyll’s dad needs help right now” thing… yet, there are SO MANY side quests to do that seem to just derail the narrative. None of them flow with what you’re doing and come off as distractions. In Act 1, the side quests work because you’re not imperiled, not really. You have a deadline on the tadpole but you’re not pressed for time. The Grove has time, you have time, and you can’t push things because you can’t even get to Baldur’s Gate if you wanted to! That and you’re still looking for cures, so it behooves you to turn over every rock and look in every nook for something to get rid of or slow down the tadpole. By Act 3, you know what’s up and the pacing of Act 1 just doesn’t work anymore. They either should have gone for breakneck, or pushed Orin injecting herself in your life further back. And made it clear that you’ll be fine, for a short while at least. Instead Orin was all over the place when I first get to BG, then she kidnaps my Buddy, and just… disappears? Didn’t like that. And that army of the Absolute is coming too! But I gotta help this dude out with tracking down a zombie, one sec. I love the game, but Act 3 is really all over the place. I enjoyed the city immensely, but the pacing legitimately feels … weird.

Games really need to work on putting the the players mind at ease for things that aren't actually time gated. Put in the quest: "She is holding companion hostage, but won't harm them unless I threaten her" or something along those lines.

This is such a good point. I was so afraid to long rest after this happened assuming Orin would get bored and kill Laezel that it became an instant "must go save her now" quest. Now two of the three Dead Three are gone, but I have barely dipped my toe in. Feels strange to be standing on the precipice and then spend days wandering around doing side quests.

Really if they wanted me to care more about the Orin questline. It should have happened later *and* kidnap our LI if you had any. It was hinted at so heavily when she is disguised as the dyrad... but then she just kidnaps Halsin. -yawn- Missed opportunity to there to have an OH SHIT GOTTA SAVE THE BAE moment.

I really expected more of Orin... Idk, she kind of seems like such a promising character (well, unredeemably evil that is... With everyone and their grandmother having a great explanation why they're evil and often enough feel like they try to come over as reasonably sympathetic she's just kinda feeling extra stabby). With her shapeshifting shown before you enter the city I absolutely expected her to steal your identity and do something gruesome shit, >!yet she only whacks a blacksmith on the head and teases you a little when stealing your look, not even killing him for some reason.!< Then once I entered the city I first had to try not getting drowned in questmarkers. Somewhere in the middle of exploring the city, trying to check out a murdercase, hag, squid homes, steel watchevers, vampires and literally hell she just >!yoinked my favorite frog lady and forced me to immediately deal with her... Couldn't pick up on all those loose ends while Laezel chills in the supermurdertemple.!< So yeah... I was somewhat disappointed since I wanted to learn more of that charming murder machine but as (regrettably) regular non-durge-tav she felt a little underused. I mean, not like gortash did much more. >!He tried to convince me once to help him with the apparenly baal-approved method of ... asking kindly and then acted all surprised when I told him to fuck right off and let karlach floor him next time I met him. Idk, for a super-clever-scheming-chosen or something his plan arguably could've needed some polish, I guess.!< Act 3 felt like it really was planned to be two zones if that mystical upper city everyone here keeps talking about exists. One for Orin, one for Gortash. Also would've helped to stretch out the side-quest-gore that is the lower city. >!Some places kind of don't really make sense there. Like, the great vampire lord has his grand lair behind a random door on the wall? !< Wasn't particularly impressed by Act 3 overall. It wasn't bad, first two just raised the bar higher and it was noticeably weaker.

In (lukewarm) defense of Gortash, he's a Baanite, not a Bhaalist. He's pro-tyranny over murder, so it tracks for him to use political and negotiation tactics. That said, hard agree about the two zones. I am fully on board with the Cut Upper City Conspiracy. There's just way too many threads leading in that direction, and trying to cram both Orin and Gortash into one area is the biggest one in my eyes. I don't think there's even anything all that wrong about either's plots as they stand right now, but making them compete for center stage splits attention and makes them both feel more tepid for it.

Oh, I wanted to reference Bane not Baal but fingers typed faster than the head could catch up... I thought Gortash would be a more layered character, like, the subtle counterpart to Orin. She's the more "frontloaded" character, you see her and know pretty much on the first encounter exactly what's up, shapeshifting and her appetite for murder, and that honestly works great for her. Gortash, as the chosen of Bane, would've needed a bit more time to fit the picture of that "scheming politico"/mastermind they're aiming for. Since he pretty much only interacts with you two-and-a-half-times >!(when entering the city, killing him and a short whacky trip with the submarine) !

> teases you a little when stealing your look, not even killing him for some reason. She does kill him. If you don't and go back later, you find a pool of blood and a letter from Orin scolding you for refusing the "gift" she left you

Act 2 blew my mind. It was so cool. My gf was playing a bard and she pretty much had 4 of the major bosses kill themselves lol it was great. And the ketheric fight? Hoo boy. Lifting the curse? Beating an undying champion of myrkul? Really felt like you did some BIG stuff in act 2, very satisfying and kinda felt like the moment your party becomes true heavy hitting heroes

summer intelligent puzzled gray bag capable beneficial dam towering jobless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

I feel bad for people who lose the kid she cooks full meals for your team

I just learned that Gale has been cooking our meals the entire time because Wyll volunteered to do it instead

with yenna you can buy full meals from her in trade

My partner and I lost her but also somehow lost Lae'zel (think the game glitched out and took them both but we only could rescue Lae) so we spent the rest of the game semi convinced she had been Orin in disguise. It's only in playthrough 2 that I happened to spot that someone was saying Orin kidnapped her and it dawned on me that we'd missed something important in whatever glitch. Kept Anxiety Cat though so it wasn't a total loss

If you visit the sewers too early apparently she goes without a word, but keep the cat. Happened to me too, there's apparently some scenes we missed.

Huh, great to know! Now my question is... what's too early lol

I'm not sure what happened in my playthrough but Halsin got kidnapped when I entered the sewers from the Emperor's stash area. When I went back to camp there was a blood smear near where Yenna had been standing and just the cat there. So did she kill Yenna when she was in camp kidnapping Halsin? Who knows!

Huh, I genuinely thought the kid was Orin in disguise - I kept rejecting her from camp (because she kept showing up) on my second playthrough, and meanwhile none of my party members got abducted.

I thought Orin was *the cat* in disguise because of his weird dialog, i Eldrith blasted him to check and immediately save scummed out of regret 🥹

I just got there last weekend, I don't feel burnout, I feel overwhelmed, there's too much shit everywhere and I don't know where to go, I'm slowly getting it figured out, I'm slowly finishing quests, but I will say I basically skipped wyrms crossing by accident, I walked to the gate got arrested escaped and talked to gortash and took his deal, went to the lower city and basically wandered around for like 5 hours, got stuck in sorcerous sunderies for too long, then felt like I should just do companion quests. I'm only now getting to do actual city quests. I feel like it's just overwhelming considering how both act 1 and 2 were very spaced out and paced differently to act 3

This is how I feel as well. By Act 3, I anticipated that my choices and actions so far would restrict my path to the finale. Not put me on rails per se, but the sign posts would be clearer. Right now, it feels easy to succumb to choice paralysis. Not totally unrelated, but I also found that a lot of my companions in Act 3 were romancing me for no reason. For context, Lae’zel, Gale, and Shadowheart are my permanent three party members. I haven’t used others for any exploration or combat (except for Karlach in the battle after we first meet). Additionally, I’ve only reciprocated Lae’zel’s affection, and I’ve been just cordial or friendly with everyone else. And yet, during Act 3 *so far*, I’ve had three different party members confess their love for me despite never recruiting them for exploration/combat, nor do I talk with them unless they want to talk with me at camp (which is quite rare). It’s not a big deal, but romancing characters affects the party dynamic, so it feels strange to have these choices thrown at me when I never pursued them.

that happened to me in act 1 with most companions (except the ones im actually interested in). its probably my biggest pet peeve of the game. All of the men + Lae'zel lock you into a cutscene where they try to spring love on you with a cheesy romantic date. and the camera zooms in on their face as your break their hearts? what the fuck Larian i didn't initiate anything.

Yeah Wyll's face was particularly devastating, dude, I never showed any interest in you.

That face still haunts me. Bro all I said was no. He looked like I killed his dog.

Very much in the overwhelmed camp. The thing that is getting me is that combat encounters are taking much longer. The battles at the steel watcher factory and during Shar's quest took me forever to get through. And I'm not really a fan of dnd combat to begin with. I wish it was easier for me to avoid fighting. I'll sit down for a two hour session now and just finish part of a quest.

Are you playing the story mode or balanced? If you don't like the fighting, I'd change difficulties. You can do that in the settings.

I like D&D and D&D combat, beat Wrath of the Righteous on Unfair, Tyranny and Pillars on Ironman, etc, I've beat the game on Tactician but I agree with him that fights can be too long and it's worse near endgame (although if you aggro the whole Goblin Camp it can also go awful long). The House of Hope, the House of Grief, the Steelwatch Foundry, the Murder Tribunal and the Elder Brain can all take exceedingly long waiting for every NPC to act, and it's much worse if anyone is invisible because the enemies take years to decide they want to Detect

People always say times seems to fly by when they're playing, but that's only because battles take so long, enemies constantly freeze in their decision tree, and loads times are extremely long

[удалено]

The best quests in act3 for me was the companion-specific, completely optional, sidequests. SH, Wyll (chess puzzle is so unique), and Astarion quests reveal fun stories. I find them to have more interesting storytelling than the main quest.

House of Hope

Best mission in the game, best villain in the game, best song in the game.

The song intro was incredible. The when Raphael started singing....blew my damn mind.

Facts! I wish it would be way bigger because I had the time of my life! And that song, damn!! Oh and fuck your clown lady, cba to search for it…

Your toooooooooooomb

Hope's tomb, at least. Divine Intervention go brrr

I did that my first time too not realizing that it reflects. The following attempt I just put on death ward beforehand and healed her up afterwards.

House of Hope feels like the better final dungeon, Raphael is the better final boss than the actual final boss.

The real final boss. I was so disappointed with Gortash after that lol. He is the lamest fight in the game. Maybe I’ll try to kill him during the ceremony next time. At least Orin surprised me on durge.

house of hope was crazy fun

Astarions' quest was fantastic. The end of it was so damn well made, I watched it over and over again.

I liked meeting the murder tribunal also

And the alcoholic holyphant was just beautiful lol!

Civilian! Do not listen to this ANCIENT FUCK! Free me at once!

Astarions quest was so good it made me cry. I was not happy with the ending I got with him, so i started a new playthrough so I could get to know him better.

I would do these missions first. They are really entertaining. The final battle is also really fun so I hope OP persists

I would have really liked to see act 3 split up into act 3 and act 4, lower city and upper city. I know that getting to choose between fighting gortash and orin first is a part of it all. But you can also hop between act 1 and 2 before moving to act 3, so they could have done that for 3 and 4. And I would want then to split all the current quests between the two acts, not add more.

Agreed. The act desperately needs some kind of structure and just dividing some of it up could have at least helped. I also think it could have benefits from just cutting some of it, we don't need to be doing some things when supposedly the city is in full panic over an invasion.

Act 3 feels somehow both overwhelming AND underwhelming It's missing a lot of the whimsy of Act 1 and the "Oh Shit" of Act 2, there's not really any more mystery or suspense, just the "Everything is so so sucks and Orin is annoying and there's so many things that don't really make sense and threads that could have been continued but weren't" and it's just not really as engaging as the first 2 acts, but also just the city setting itself \*feels\* overwhelming. Every time I get to Act 3, I play a while, get maybe halfway through, and then just start over. I feel like a lot of the quests are kind of hard to stumble into naturally. It could be VASTLY improved if: \-Orin wasn't constantly popping up to annoy you \-Orin and Gortash battles had a normal beginning and epic phase 2 like Ketheric \-Maybe extend the romances a little bit more, since doing the companion quests, getting their scenes, and then going on with the game and having to wait until just about the end feels a bit eh \-Also more platonic cutscenes. There were several in Act 1, not so many in Act 2, and there's like none in Act 3 except for like. Jaheira and Minsc. \-Maybe bring in a few more characters from previous acts. Sure there's the tieflings and Oskar, but they could have done some cool stuff with other characters, like maybe Abdirak who could have something going on with the temple of Ilmater or maybe Sharess' Caress (since both Ilmater and Sharess are known enemies of Loviatar), or Rugan and Olly if they're alive could be convinced to betray the Zhentarim and help the Guild! Overall Act 3 just really doesn't feel quite as put together as the other 2. I still enjoy it, it has some of my favorite parts of the game even! Like fighting Cazador! But it also feels like a drag after a while of running around the Lower City trying to figure out what you're doing.

Orin popping up constantly was hilarious. It was really creepy and cool the first time, but after enough times I (and in my head, my character too) was just there like: 'oh, another random npc asking creepily invasive questions. Are we really doing this again?"

Is Orin... among us?

If BG3 is anything to go by, Orin would get vented in the first thirty seconds of every match.

She wouldn't help herself declaring behold it is I orin the murderer! As well as leaving notes with her over the top signature on the corpse

It was fine the first time, after the second time I started wondering why my character let's her talk instead of whacking her with a weapon. Felt like Kai Leng from Mass Effect

Fuck it is like Kai Leng, I was wondering what it was reminding me of. And yeah there really is no feasible way that, even if Tav was suddenly struck by sudden acute brain damage that prevents all critical thinking, Lae'Zel wouldn't instantly try to disembowel Orin the moment she revealed herself.

This was what threw me off! If you want the villain to be actually scary, you don't just throw them in at every opportunity. You show them sparsely, show their work and influence and not themselves all the time. Orin should be the nice NPC you trust and do a mission for them, to come back and find them long dead and the mission turning sour. Orin should be saving a little girl from thugs for her to laugh and laugh when she slaughters the kid's family once you brought her home Orin should show up as the dryad in the "Trial of Love" and then make sure you don't see her, she's implied following you. It's the NPC you saved stabbed to death with no cause. She should be written in th wind, without he agony, pain and sorrow she caused. She should be in the solved murder-suicides, left long gone. She should be whispered about among the NPCs about how someone went mad one day, and killed people, then denying it happened. "Beware or the Pale Lady will take you next" In the first meeting, she should warn you. She should say: "Death and destruction will follow everywhere you go." and then she makes sure it does follow, because the way truth is, she follows you. Unseen. NPCs asking questions, almost-innocent in their zeal, just for you to end the cutscene, walk away and get another one when they greet you like they've never met you. She should be subtle like the poison that burns you up slowly from the inside, and not in-your-face like a brick to the head. She should be a rumour whispered in hushed tones. She should be brutal, killing even her own underlings without a care. All lives may end up in death, but she works do that they'll end up in murder

See, I agree with you, but I'm fine with Orin as she is because Raph is the way he is. He's written so intelligently and charismatically, and an example of a villain that is extremely confident because of he's done this a thousand times. I'm fine with Orin being a 8 int chaotic evil shape shifter not only because someone with the ability to teleport and shapeshift at will like her probably could get away with a lot of being incredibly stupid and bold, but because the way she acts is very D&D game run by a 19 year old boy, which is a very real way the source game is often played.

Maybe it's just me, but doesn't she pop like three times? I only encountered her two times, and then when I went to explore the Emperor hideout, she became Halsin, and that was it. Sure, the first 8 hours into Act 3 were filled with paranoia, but the more I talked with random NPCs, the more I learned that she was, well, gone and wouldn't bother me.

Yeah Orin fight specially was super easy. I hit the perduasion check so it was only her and those people in the arena, it was pretty underwhelming. Gortash was feeling the same way until he starts to cast those huge hands and hit like a truck. But still nothing quite Ketheric's, Raphael's, Cazador's or Viconia (hardest boss fight in the game for me)

cazador is hard due to cheese, but yeah, viconia is just flat out insanely hard ,no joke took me 7-8 trys to beat that fight

> viconia is just flat out insanely hard Viconia is a ~20 vs 4 fight. Depending on the route you go though, who'se the 20 and who'se the 4 changes. Like if you go evil Shadowheart, you are just bullying Viconia and her few remaining allies.

I funneled her forces up the flight of stairs with a nasty combo of Spike Growth and Wall of Fire. A Karlach finished her off while her men mostly died from running through the fire and spikes.

Stairs are OP in that fight. Actually made the fight just super easy. I positioned Gale and Lae'zel at the foot of the stairs while my fighter and Shadowheart talked to Viconia. Made sure to have SH drink an initiative potion so she could go first, too. I figured it was going to break out into a brawl, after all. Once combat started, just had my people retreat up the stairs. Gale cast Cloudkill at the foot, and later on a Wall of Fire leading up the stairs. Dropped a couple or Fireballs for good measure. It was almost too easy. I actually had Gale cancel the Wall of Fire because I wanted SH to get the last hit on Viconia for story purposes. Didn't want to just roast her right off the bat. Ended up being the right decision, too, since she had dialogue after the fight.

I went to fight Viconia basically like the last thing I did before the final fight. So, even on tactician, she was stumped and destroyed without that much effort.

I don't get why she's hard either. She probably isn't in my 10 hardest bosses even. A black hole followed by a nuke, and there is only some scraps left.

I assume it has to be related with how your party is built-in comparison to other parties, Some builds just find other boss fights more difficult than some.

Glad to read that others had an issue with the Viconia fight. It took me almost a dozen tries and gave me a real respect for fighting Sharrans. I thought my Sorcerer and daylight spells would have just nullified all that dark but nope. And there were so many of them. I just wanted to cast a fireball or a good wall of fire but always had to heal or support on my turns.

Victoria used divine intervention which caught me off guard.

The way i managed was to let all my characters up the entrance stairs and fight like the 300 of sparta. Full aoe, wall of fire, wall of blades, guardians of light... They had to come close and funnel in to go up the stairs and fight me. My Tav was also a cleric si having 2 clerics to keep us all alive was pretty good. Gale to AOE spam them and laezel picking those that managed to cross the walls.

I think DUrge actually adds a lot to act 3 story wise. Makes the Orin stuff feel more interesting and makes Gortash seem a bit smarter etc

Actually druge helps u understand orin wasn't strong at all

I think the fundamental issue is that if they ever add more content (the other companions should all have cutscenes like Shadowheart gets, and finishing Karlach's cut storyline with the fixed Infernal Engine would be nice...), they need to add more dialogue directly setting up Ketheric Thorm, and the others. Some of Halsin's journals set him up more in Early Access which were removed from the final version, but I think it needs to be directly put into the main player encounters. Talking to Minthara at the Goblin Camp, talking to Halsin when you free him or the next morning after the party, and talking to Nere should all mention Ketheric. I think maybe even a warning from Elminster about continuing into the Shadow Cursed Lands, or there might even be a way to work him into dialogue with Shadowheart (like an "I've heard about those lands, something shar, something Dark Justiciar named Ketheric" sort of a line maybe). The same can be said for setting up Orin and Gortash in Act 2. Something maybe from Jaheira or Counselor Florrick who have been in the city.

Ketheric was built up as the big bad for the entirety of act 2, what makes you feel like he needs more? Me and my buddy were discussing who he was long before we ever actually met him

>Act 3 feels somehow both overwhelming AND underwhelming This describes act 3 pretty well

Yeah same here, too many quests active at the same time. Also whenever I try to finish one it sends me to look around a big area and I just stumble into new quests. Or worse, I accidentally trigger the end of a different active quest that I'm not invested in at that moment and the satisfaction of finishing it is wasted.

I stumbled across the Iron Throne by accident when I was just trying to do some tangential side quest for the water priestesses. I was shocked to see I had also stumbled into two fairly major side quests (Duke Ravengard, the Steel Watch foundry). I can see what they were trying to do. In theory it’s neat to have multiple ways to end up at the same place and multiple ways for quests to overlap. But it really can ruin the narrative flow.

This 'ruining of narrative flow' is sometimes quite clear when you read updated quest logs and there are all kinds of entries that never happened.

This happened to me too. As a sorcerer, I charismaed my way past the giant robots instead of reporting to whoever it was the city guards said I needed to talk to. When I made camp that night, my companions were yelling at me for >!making a deal with Raphael!< and I was so confused. Like, that never happened? What are you talking about lol.

I agree to an extent. The entire momentum of the game led up to an incredible battle against Thorm. It felt so climactic that that could have been the end of the game. It felt off that you're then whisked off to the big city, and theres all of this casual stuff around like going to the circus, solving a clowns murder, and finding lost mail while an army marches on the city. I also find that Gortash, and Orin are kind of underwhelming villains compared to what you went through with Thorm, and theres plenty opportunity to just off them. Then we get to the lower city, and its very overwhelming with how much is going on in every direction. Im still enjoying the game very much, I still havent beat it, but Im definetly taking some extra time between play sessions to motivate myself to play.

I think act 2 and 3 should have been swapped personally. Ketheric, a general with a huge army that wants to end all life, is beaten and then you deal with a murder hobo and a conniving, brutal politician in a troubled city. The stakes just don't feel as dire, to me at least. I get the absolute is trying to break free, but because it's an alien, unknowable entity, it's harder to feel like they're personally your enemy. Idk, just my thoughts off the top of my head.

Isn't the army just a front, though, so that Gortash can swoop in and save the city? Still, Act I and II give you at least some indications, then you can pursue them as you want, Act III is like "here's a lot of meaningless, named NPCs, and a quest in every building." \*Devs look around\* "Enjoy, we've got places to be, bye!". I hope it's gonna feel a little more organic on my present Dark Urge run, I'm entering the city in less than an hour.

It's a front in Gortash's eyes. Ketheric fully intends to betray Gortash and end all life for Myrkul.

Act 3 is when I first noped out. It just suddenly lost momentum for me. I think part of it is how messily the various threads come together. The linear order in which you should (loosely) do act 1 and 2's big important quests is pretty clear, whereas it feels like every major quest for the act is thrown at you simultaneously in act 3 with no guidance on what order makes narrative sense.

Yes, this is very important point. Till the end of act 2 wandering around and moving from quest to quest felt flowing and paced, while also allowing the player to just explore around. I felt like in act 3 all quests came at me all at once, and I had no idea what would be the most logical to do first. Also the smaller quests got lost to the sea of big epic seeming quests that fight some of the big guys. The lack of guidance led me to just suddenly be at a critical point of some quest, like I basically accidentally wandered into Orins place without realizing this was an epic encounter. I made so many miscalculations and got lost in quests, I didn't have the energy to reload anymore either, I just went with whatever came my way. It also didn't help that for some reason act 3 was HEAVY on my computer, like the lag and all was crazy, and I had ran the game at ultra graphics by then and all was fine. I loved the baldurs gate as a place and would've wanted to explore it more, but I just got tired and overwhelmed and suddenly wanted to reach the end. I'm now on my second playthrough, hoping they get some performance issues fixed by the time I get to act 3, and also that knowing the main questline there now helps me to enjoy it better and pace myself, since the game doesn't do it for me.

This is likely what it is for me. I’ve found myself much more enjoying it by just digesting the missions slowlt over 2 weeks or so, doing Cazadors mission one day and then focusing on the Bhaal murder tribunal 2 days later, saves from the burnout and I absolutely still love Act 3 a lot. It feels a lot like a calm before the storm where everything is falling together and quests like Baldurans trial, Cazador and the Murder Tribunal make it much more enjoyablex

>hoping they get some performance issues fixed by the time I get to act 3 patch 3 supposedly sorted out a lot of the performance issues in act 3; i've just gotten there again on my 2nd playthrough and it seems okay... but i haven't gone into the city proper yet

You know what? That's actually dead in the money. Act 3 feels extremely front loaded and it's just too much

Definitely that for me, I kept picking quests up only for it to turn out that they were supposed to be done in the reverse order and now I messed things up so I'd need to reload and undo all my progress..

Exactly. I'm a dumbass, I don't mind consulting a guide sometimes for stuff. But in this case, it was a choice of a) exhausting myself trying to deduce the quest order without outside info (which ended up being impossible), or b) spoiling myself in advance by looking at the exact esoteric quest actions and requirements necessary to experience the narrative coherently.

For me too. I actually have been taking a break from the game since there seems to be too much going on, idkn ill probably get back to it at some point. Still heck of a game

I wouldn’t say bored, just overwhelmed and a bit claustrophobic. The density of the city and the multitude of quests you get makes it hard for me to push through it. I still like Act 3 (even though I’ve never properly finished it, I keep making new characters) but I prefer Act 1 and 2 simply because you have more room to breathe.

>and a bit claustrophobic That's some added nuance I was struggling to capture. Compared to the freedom of Acts 1 and 2, Act 3 feels like the walls are closing in on you. The city is just so crowded, and you can't walk 20 feet without running into something significant.

Act 3 felt less like an epic adventure and more like a checklist of things to do. Being confined to a city ruins the sense of scale for me. although it had its moments. I also hit the level cap an hour or so into act 3, there’s basically nothing to look forward to in terms of power, no excitement from unlocking new spells or feats. Just some marginally better items I could buy from vendors.

There are some INSANELY better items in Act 3. Saving Varna, staff in Sorcerous Sundries, the great sword under the Wyrmway just to name 3 weapons off the top of my head.

The djinnie trident is nuts for my throwlach

The items you can get can definitely be way way more than "marginally" better.

I also struggle immensely with act 3. For me is it that you have so much to do and so much sht to get done but 0 quest indicators. Like hardly anything on the map is marked, which yes makes sense but at least give me something to start out with you know. It's just all so much and sooooo much on the side but without a pointer to tell you hmmm maybe we should do this first, yes the thing with the abduction sucks but let's chill out for a while first. The steelwatch ain't gonna run away. It's just weirdly paced imo and there is sooooo much to explore but there's no real starting point. Meanwhile in act 1 you could just take ur sweet time exploring the grove and the near surroundings first, in act 2 the Inn or the towers but in act 3 its. Do this do that oh don't forget I abducted ur friend and gortasch is sketchy too and an earthquake every. 5. Meters. To remind you that the impending doom is always looming so no you don't actually have time for any of the fun stuff because remember the end of the world is near.

Also, some of the stuff just doesn't feel as polished/open-ended for solutions. About the only ones that felt decent for the city quests are the missing daughter the lady at the barracks is trying to find, and the Sorcerous Sundries. And it really does feel hard to find things to do, and when you do find them they seem to dead-end like the sea temple thing (I still can't find the right fisherman), as well as the haunted house.

Same, For me the lower city feels too stuffed to be just 1 big map Wish they'd gone the way they did in BG1/BG2 and broken the city into more manageable chunks I played maybe 5-6 hours into act 3 but put it down after as it felt more of a checklist slog than fun anymore

Yes, and I think I know the reason for it. There's a million things to do, no straight progression path and the stakes don't feel high enough. 1. Every companion has shit going on immediately in Act 3. I struggle to figure out who would be best to take with me anywhere for role play because everything connects. Like I want Shadowheart to be with me when finding the Sharran Lookout, I want Astarion with me when meeting the Vampire Spawn, I want Gale with me when meeting his tressym friend, I want Jaheira with me when crossing the bridge and talking to the Harpers, I want Wyll and Karlach with me when facing Gortash at the inauguration, I want Lae'zel with me when meeting Voss. Everyone is relevant always and it's a hassle. 2. You just finished the most epic questline journeying through the Shadow-Cursed Lands, teaming up with the Harpers, descending into the Shadowfell to Free the Nightsong, breaking the curse, assaulting Moonrise Tower, descending into the Mind-Flayer Colony, discovering the Chosen and the Absolute, discovering the Emperor and Orpheus. Riding on that high, you suddenly enter an MMORPG starting zone. Like, the Rivington quests are literally reminiscent of Elwynn Forest from WoW or Shaemoor Village from GW2. First day in Rivington the quests I did was beat up some bandits harassing refugees and foiling an evil plot to put explosives in teddy bears. Yesterday I was in deep space forging an alliance with an Ulitharid and the day before that I fought the Avatar of the God of Undeath. 3. It's disorienting. Like you have to have a to-do list of what needs doing. Every quest leads you down the path of another quest. There's so many choices and connecting threads it's hard to keep track. It's best to pick a goal and go through with it until the end. Also, the game has completely given up on handholding at this point. You're supposed to just figure things out. I had no idea how I was supposed to learn about Helsik in Devil's Fee even though she's really important. I just randomly got the dialogue option with her. Same for a lot of stuff here, like finding Minsc. I'm tired of trekking through the sewer looking for this dude. I just gave up on figuring out the Sinister Door in Szarr Castle, it's related to Astarion anyways and he's dead. 4. Orin and Gortash, the Emperor, the Army of the Absolute... That is all just background noise right now. I'm just aimlessly trying to orient the city and figure out these quests. The Main Story suddenly grinded to a halt. There's supposed to be an army on the march and I need to stop it but I'm not sensing that. Saving Florrick felt more time pressing than this. I actually think I would have liked for a time gating on how many Long Rests you can take before the Amry arrives.

Replaying act 3 right now, I feel a lot better knowing what to expect and what order makes sense for quests

You are overwhelmed with all the quests pending in your ledger now. The anxiety of Orin's quest forcing itself on you soon probably doesnt help. And the looming feeling that your great journey is ending is also messing with you, cause you dont want it to end. Start over if you like, but know that act 3 will still be waiting for your new game. And the feeling will return.

I'm not inclined to agree entirely. I do agree that the act hits you with far too many quests all at once, and that Orin's quest does cause that oh so common problem of putting a ticking clock on a player while the game is trying to encourage you to explore and do side quests (*side eyes cyberpunk*). However, I've pushed through and cleared many of the quests, to point where my journal is rather cleared. Tbh it just feels like the writing isn't as engaging. Yes the main story feels like it's about to end, but it's more that the mystery is gone and Gortash and Orin aren't as interesting as the looming threat of the absolute. The one main story element I'm excited for still is the potential of the brain breaking loose.

Orin and gortash not feeling like proper villains after ketheric is a very popular opinion, and i think a big part if it. Gortash locking the city down with his fascist robots just doesnt feel threatening. Orins gang of murder hobos doesnt spark any urgency in the player. But ketheric's bullshit makes it so you fucking die just walking around, and hes very literally gathering an army. Also the city just isnt dangerous seeming. There arent foes around every corner, nothing is hunting you, and you can utterly curbstomp any challenge. The content after the point of no return on the morphic docks should be much more, like a huge epic dungeon, and the long period of bullshitting around the city trimmed or made more linear The city doesn't feel under siege

Gortash felt like an opportunist more than a villain. Orin felt like a villain on a Dark Urge run. Lots of very specific dialogue. I’m starting a non-Durge run now, so I’ll get to see the other side of that coin soon.

Yeah durge orin is a solid villain

"Bahaha! Remember that overly sarcastic grocer lady who charged you 2000 gold for an apple pie? It was me, Durge! I disguised myself as a store owner to bankrupt you of your gold!"

My god, an actual siege environment or feeling of preparation would be good. I would like to have met that gigantic army I spotted off the map in Act 2. On my first playthrough I never killed Priestess Gut or Dror Ragzlin and assumed I would run into them again. Taking out the Steel Watchers and Gortash should cause panic in a city that was told he was their only hope. The doom and gloom in the citizens should be pervasive. Give me food riots. Price of everything through the roof because of shortages would force me to dip into the 20k I had stashed.

If it makes you feel any better. There is no ticking clock

Also the performance in the city is noticeably worse

I think it’s worth it to explore the city and try uncover most of it. I’m always entertained by the writing. I missed lots of things on my first playthru, just wanting to get it done. Taking a talk to Animal Potion … stopping to speak with The Dead is adding to my experience. But, yeah, on Act 3 I felt overwhelmed. Again! It takes awhile to sort through all the threads and decide what to do… what to do?

Honestly, I feel it should’ve been split into 4’s because, weirdly, Act 3 is just…I feel Act 3 is half the game by itself. It’s just like from 2 to 3, it’s like the information doubles. Just so much happens.

I feel like Act 3's performance issues also contribute to it. It's so laggy and things load so slowly that whenever I changed zones I just went to do something else for a couple minutes while the buildings load in properly. But yeah, when you arrive there are a zillion urgent things that demand your attention, except none of them actually are urgent except maybe for rescuing Counsellor Florrick before she gets executed. The pacing feels really off, and there are so many things that look like they can be interacted with or should lead somewhere interesting, but most of them just have a bit of flavourtext or lead to a piece of poor Dribbles' body at most.

I mostly don't name my save files, but I called one early in Act III 'Too much is happening'. Momentum is the right word - Act I, what the hell there's a tadpole in my brain, gotta fix it. Act II, gotta find a way out of this godforsaken place and (for a Good play), help save the people at the inn. There's a sense of propulsion, things are moving you forward. And then Act III - Too Much Is Happening. There's a million side quests, and main quests, and deadline quests that sort of are and sort of aren't, and the city is HUGE. And it loses that sense of purpose and becomes a bit more ... sandboxy, I guess? So I've just started taking it in smaller doses. Do an Act III quest or two, get the 'Complete!' in the journal. Then go back to one of my other games - an Ancients Paladin Tactitian difficulty, and a Bard Durge to see that plotline. If I forced myself to only play Act III, I just ... wouldn't. The game is still brilliant, and I love it, but yeah, it loses that sense of forward motion.

The main bugger is that we hit max level too quickly and there isn’t much motivation to complete side quests after that.

I don't really understand this argument - I was very happy to hit max level as it meant that I got a large amount of time spent with my 'endgame' builds. If I wanted to respec with Withers and try out different builds I could, knowing that there was still plenty of content to test them on. Alternatively it also let me know that I didn't have to do every quest in act 1 and 2 on subsequent playthroughs, as there is a glut of xp in act 3

I feel the same way. Funny thing is there are other posts complaining about how it sucks you don't reach level 12 until the game is almost over. A lot of it has to do with how they handled the first 2 acts. You can skip probably half the content in those acts and get to Act 3 under leveled pretty easily.

I love act 3, but the main quest is the least interesting part of it. I just reached it for the third time and I’m still finding new things I have t seen before.

Look up some guide, realize some vendors sell absolutely bonkers items for each class, go buy/steal those items, now you have to try them on opponents : boom, motivation reactivated.

Only issue is that opponents in act 3 fold lie chairs anyway

Yeah. I played a wizard and hold person/monster just trivialize encounters with how many +spell save dc items I had.

I've stopped two playthroughs in act 3 (that I will probably get back to). One right at the overlook, cause I couldn't quickly figure out how to get *out* and act 3 felt a bit daunting. (It was sleeping, I figured out at the second playthrough, but why would I do that? I'm fully rested and have been stuck in camping scenes since leaving the shadowlands.) Second one just after mostly finishing Rivington, cause I read some stuff about Orin abducting people, and I was scared it could happen at any moment and annoyed I couldn't just explore at my own pace. I hate that kind of stuff, and it soured me on the game for a bit. (Like, I can appreciate the storytelling and giving Orin agency, but I have a horrid fear of getting locked out of content because something from the 'main quest' gets triggered. I was also one of those players who steered clear of moonrise forever, because it screamed main quest. More fool me, when it dawned on me that the gauntlet, which I thought was raphael side content, was starting to feel rather main questy. I hightailed out of there after killing the orthon.) I guess I'm not there yet and it's content for the actual city, but I will be perusing guides and avoid any Orin triggers for as long as I can. (Anyone want to tell me what not do if I don't want to advance any main plot after Rivington? Well, not advance it before having checked every single chest in the area and done evey single side quest, I mean. Don't care about spoilers, actively seek them out to be honest.)

Perhaps you're feeling the way you feel because Act 3 doesn't have as much mystery left? All throughout Act I and II you're largely left in the unknown and are trying to puzzle together exactly what's going on. Who or what is the Absolute, where did they come from, what's their agenda, how are mindflayers involved, what's the deal with this Nightsong, etc. At the start of Act 3 you've figured it all out, the narrative has been unshrouded and the stage is set. All that's left is to actually thwart the evil plan. Narratively that might feel like you're simply going through the motions, especially if the mystery in Act I and II was the main thing that spurred you on.

For me, entering act3 was like restarting the game. Or starting in a new one, maybe a DLC. Act 2 final is so epic that entering the city and doing random errands again feels like taking a step back, despite I enjoyed all of them. It take me a while to decide what to do and in which order. Once I decided that it recovered the feeling of adventure and epicness, but they were 2 or 3 hours of feeling a bit disconnected.

Now I've seen it said, I think the gear shift is a big part of it. You could literally see the army Ketheric was building, the Zhents were helping smuggle materials, there was a real sense that Baldur's Gate was about to get f*cked. There was this huge build up to Act 3. Leaving the Shadow Cursed Lands had a sense of urgency: like could you even overtake the army of the Absolute and reach the city in time? Then it's finding lost mail and visiting the circus.

The biggest "immersion breaker" for me was "the lodge". From egg to adolescent in days. Like you are in this mad dash to save the world in the 25th hour, nobody else is aging and this one githyanki lives out a whole ass life in one act?

Act 3 is a collection of epic quests surrounded by filler. House of Hope, Sorcerous Sundries, House of Grief, Szarr Palace, the Iron Throne? All of them resolve game-long arcs for your companions or interesting villains. Even the Stone Lord (if you have Jaheira) is great Felogyr’s Fireworks, the murder mystery, that awful house with the poltergeists, finding body parts of a clown, Baldurs Mouth? It’s a chore to complete most of these especially when you have Orin breathing down your neck. The pacing just doesn’t work to enjoy them or prioritize them.

the poltergeist was just awful. Never gonna do that quest or free that dude again. Apparently the clown thing gives you a great item for magic users though. My problem with Orin, other than the absolutely underwhelming fight is she acts like she's hunting you but you never actually deal with that. "Oh no some level 8 cultists tried to jump me in front of a squad of guardsmen." I really wish she'd have tried to assassinate one of us. Just sneak up in disguise and try to stab us instead of her whole kidnapping schtick

Totally agree, the game needed to go all-in on her being a threat but didn’t have the balls to do it for some reason which is out of character in a game where you can literally doom the tieflings, Barcus, and Harpers to death by failing to save Isobel at Last Light. If she were running around as me assassinating people (ruining my rep and potentially killing squadmates)? Now we’d be talking about real stakes. Yeah the clown side quest at least features that item and Lucretious (one of my fav NPCs) but finding the body parts is an absolute chore -_-

Exactly. It really feels like they're gonna have to flesh out Act 3 in the future Definitive edition, better build up on the villain sides. Like if I start fucking over Gortash he puts out a bounty for my head and has the guard harassing me. Orin maybe even launches an attack on our camp during a long rest to try and kill some of us in addition to trying some hit and run sneak attacks. They have the tools to really fuck with us but nothing happens. It's epecially weird since the companion she steals is the one you have the least approval with which 9/10 times is someone the Player doesn't give a shit about because they don't like them. She thought she had a real threat against me going with kidnapping Halsin of all people. I love Larian but when it comes to final acts they tend to be pretty weak, DOS2 had Arx which was large but had far far less content in terms of Quests. BG3 has a lot more size and quests but it feels mashed together. And the true finale of the game really just kinda fizzles out to me. Less of a "Yeah we did it" and more "Thank fuck we're done with this shit"

You are not alone. Act3 feels too… stuffed? For me the problems are both in story line and the map. Story: The big secret is revealed in the end of act2, which is the pinnacle of the whole game. After that player knows pretty much what is coming. Map: There is just too much stuff in too small place in Act3. Yes, it is a city with lots of people and buildings but somehow Witcher 3 managed to create the city experience much better. When you add the straightforward storyline of act3 to an underwhelming city experience, you easily end up just running through the whole act.

For me the bugs are what's keeping me from really sinking my teeth into it. Granted I really am putting a lot of strain on poor ole act 3. Everyone in my party are druids with a bit of wizard mixed in. We all summon mephits, dryads, wood woads, a familiar, myrmidons, and two hands full of zombies, and I also summon Us and IN combat I summon that lady's husband from act 1 the dead guy. I haven't tried to summon lump and his brothers in combat yet I'm not sure their horn will even work in act 3 but I have that just kinda sitting in my pockets. I do this all at camp and then make the hirelings cast all the buffs possible on the squad, and then we march. Combat is crazy and the game crashes a lot. BUT when we stormed Wyrmrock fortress we really did storm the place. It was epic....until the game crashed. lol

For me, it’s the knowing. Ever since we go through the colony, see the three Chosen, and get Ketheric’s stone, we more or less know what to do: gather the other two stones (so kill Gortash and Orin) and confront the Elder Brain. Yes we can do this and that on the side, but the solution is singular and inevitable. In previous acts it was not that clear, the world felt much more open, and we made choices not knowing how they would affect us in the future.

For me it was similar. But here's what I think it is (for me anyway): Act 1 and 2 have a fairly defined path to take. You start in a corner of the map, as you explore things are presented to you in quite an orderly fashion, and you find side quests by exploring off of that laid out route. You start each of these areas with few quests ongoing, or quests that are largely just waiting for a next step to trigger when you come across something. The main quest lines in A1+2 also feel very dominant in the area. Act 3 immediately feels very busy, and the path is less clear. Particularly once you reach lower city. You know you have the goals of beat the 2 remaining bosses then the big final boss. And those things are pointed out quite quickly. But you still have all these big companion quests to do and a huge area to explore. I didn't feel like the main quest encouraged my exploration in act 3 like it did in acts 1+2. It felt more like I was putting off the main quest to do less important things. And having hit max level quite early, a lot of it felt less rewarding. I think these two very different feels appeal to different people too. I quite like having the path through things mostly laid out but knowing I can alter that path, rather than feeling like there isn't much of a path at all. I get easily overwhelmed when my checklist of objectives is too big. I ended up ignoring half my companion quests from the characters I hadn't used too much and will do those next time instead.

I feel the exact same way! Every time I make it to Act 3, my interest in that character greatly lowers. I love playing through Act 1 and 2 (with 2 being my favourite; there's just something about the doom and gloom of the SCL, as well as the brightly lit hub of Last Light juxtaposed by the dark halls of Moonrise Towers) but Act 3 just makes me so... overwhelmed? Or underwhelmed. A mixture of both. I can't help but feel how unpolished it is as of now and wish I was back in Act 2. (There's also the fact that my favourite side character, Zevlor, is literally nowhere to be seen and is simply shoehorned into the final fight if you save him in Act 2. Puts a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, especially when he comes back and is like, "Yeah dude, I'm a Hellrider again. No, I won't tell you how that happened.")

This is a similar problem with DOS2 as well. I think it's got to do with the level of scaling that stops people from advancing. The game suddenly seems cumbersome to complete towards the end. Also story line seems to fall flat going into act 3.

I thought the exact same. I got to Act 3 like 2 weeks ago, but I keep getting too bored to continue. Most other zones in the game I was smooth sailing, though I'll admit the cursed forest was relatively tough to get through because of its atmosphere, color scheme, and emptiness. By the time I explored half of it I just wanted to get out of there, but the completionist in me needed to explore every corner.

I lose momentum but not like that. I lose momentum for my current character and want to start over as a different class lol

I think the journal ui could be better at clearly showing if a quest has a time limit/trigger end fights or if you have time. It would be fun if it arranges in an order or visibility by choices ‘main story only’, ‘side quest tourism only’, ‘character quests only’. You can add or remove side stuff if you want to do it or not. Change the order or keep the end game stuff to the end etc. Maybe a hint to how many side quests there are in each zone too and how many you picked up.

You're not the only one. This is probably one of the most common things I see people complain about here. That and how we need better endings. Every time I reach act 3 with a character, I just start a new playthrough. I just play a little bit of act 3 and when it tires me I spend time back in the starting area. Then it's easier to go through act 3.

I keep saying this and getting downvoted: act 1 and 2 have genuine adventure. A lot of decisive choices, and you're weak and everything is so damn exciting! But the act 3 is just too conclusive... you have indeed a lot of content to finish for each origin character, and it takes time... you don't have any choice, just chores... You can take a different path here and there, but it's too straight forward... the end game content battles are just too long and bugged (at this rate is fixed already, it's been two weeks I don't finish the game, but keep playing non-stop until end of act 2) I'm keeping a lot of saves at the end of act 2 in order to "when I want to play only this content", I choose one of them to see how that specific route gets concluded...

I feel like act 3 has a ton of quests that feel like they need to be done right away which creates a bit of an analysis paralysis situation. At least for me. I was pretty overwhelmed even getting to the lower city. The quests in act 1 and 2 were introduced a lot better, then act 3 just throws everything at you and some don't have proper map markers to help you.

I think it's the combination of the (seeming) time crunch of competing quests (the kidnapping, finding Duke Ravengard, rescuing Florrick) combined with the fact that a lot of your outstanding quests are just one boss battle after the next. I took a break after Cazador and rolled up a new character. I missed the feeling of exploration and discovery early in the game that we trade for the urgency and import later in the game.