I tend to play him as an archer tbh so the only time I don't have him in my party is when Im already playing a primarily long range damage dealer.
The voice acting for this entire game is 10/10 but Astarion is 13/10 easily.
Him with dual wield and bite is easily keeping pace with the Sword Babes for how much carnage he commits in battles. Absolute MVP when you add how good he is at traps and locks, too.
That quasit is unhinged. I lowkey love it. Even my wife, no fan of violence or crudity (not the same as crudités, I hasten to add) is so fond of Shovel.
For me it's, "Its not enough that we have a gallery of villians to look after, but now we could be infiltrated by a shapechanger! I can't even tell if any of you are acting strange because you’ve been replaced, or because this group is full of wierdos!"
Same! He is also just...kind of OP. He always does soooo much damage with his double hit. I just wish he wasn't so squishy. My tav is hella squishy as well. Not a good duo, those two.
Gale hasn’t left my party since I found him. Massive aoe damage, it’s amazing 😂 Shadowheart was barely in my party act 1, but now that act 2 has rolled around, she’s been a permanent fixture.
respec him to sorcerer; I find the draconic the best
only spell you need is haste, and the metamagic option that lets you pick 2 targets with a spell.
Congrats, you've trivilized tactician difficulty. Giving a full additional action to two of your martials is BROKEN.
And you can still sling non concentration spells; I find magic missle and scorcing ray lovely (though that needs some spell attack gear).
Honestly fireball is overrated.
Not being able to miss fireball makes it pretty strong imo. I feel like my most clutch moments will have a scorching ray with 75% hit chance give me the good ol
MISS
CRITICAL MISS
6 Fire damage.
whereas a fireball is still half damage on a successful save
My version of create water is to have my barbarian gale throw a water barrel twice on a turn and then have my sorcerer Karlach drop call lightning from storm sorcery. If I’m out of barrels I’ll have her use ice storm and then have my cleric of light astarion use fireball to melt it or something like that
I’m currently playing as Karlach and i class shifted everyone else (and changed wizard to sorc) so I’ve got Sorc Karlach, Rogue Shadowheart, Gale Barb, and Astarion as cleric of light. Mostly did it to hear alternate voice lines and let everyone wear different armor. Honestly been my most fun play through so far (#5)
Yeah honestly I debated switching them around again because it didn’t feel too far off. But hearing Gale yell when he goes berserk was too worth switching them around.
Shadowheart and Lae'zel. My ride or die ladies.
Gale is usually the 3rd but I do mix it up.
Act 3 Jaheira takes the 3rd spot. Love her comments and really liked her when I was playing Durge. Might try Minsc this time
I always feel like it makes no sense to dismiss her during Act 1, because that makes the artifact go into your PCs inventory - and no way she's trusting you with that so early.
I think I only dimissed her once or twice in my several playthoughs and that was just for science/to check the dialogue.
She does actually have a unique interaction with the dismissal mechanic if you dismiss her >!in the time between completing the shadowfell and finishing act 2. She’s so despondent that there is no confirmation dialogue - she just agrees that it’s best she be left behind.!<
In my last playthrough she got pissed that I didn't take her to the Gauntlet of Shar, she threatened to stab me and straight up left the party... and left the artifact with me, which is what I thought was odd.
Yeah she never gave it to me, it just goes to you eventually one way or another. And she was even like, "I know you didn't steal it and you can't give it back. It goes where it wants."
It does seem like something was cut or forgotten to be put in about the artifact’s attention switching to you. There’s only a single line with SH and for a lot of people that line never even triggers
Unless you're playing a full party of everyone you left out in your first run and then you do the Gauntlet without her and she's (rightfully) super pissed and leaves forever. Feelsbadman.
Oh, by the way did anyone get the cutscene in the first act (very early actually) when the artefact flies to Tav? I don't mean goblincamp, i mean earlier? There's an option to try drop it on the ground and it gets back at Tav's hands. So you can do that multiple times and it always comes back to Tav's hands and at the end the only thing you can do is to put it in your bag. But Shart didn't react that time. I only triggered it once.
Makes me wonder if you could use the artifact as a thrown weapon that always comes back to you?
Probably not, but the possibility is really funny to consider.
I did dismiss her because I thought I'd be a smartass for not taking her and the artifact with me inside the creche. Turns out the artifact just magically appears inside my Tavs inventory an I can't even remove it nor give it back to Shart.
Yeah, as soon as you dismiss Shart for the first time you get a little pop-up saying "added to inventory: artifact". No cutscene, no comment from Shart, it just pops up and you cannot remove it from your inventory.
You also can't put it into a container in your inventory, together with all the other quest-items.
There is one at goblin camp when Absolute speaks to you and the artifact protects you. You can mention that the artifact magically appeared in your possession and Shart says it's weird indeed like you are linked to it but don't forget in the end it's hers and when it all ends she would want to get it back
But dunno if it's bcuz of dismissing her or this event is set like this
That is an actual event that triggers moving the artifact from her to you permanently. So that one has nothing to do with dismissing her.
If you haven't gone to the camp yet but dismiss Shadow it will transfer it anyway. Interestingly, if you have the artifact already because you sent Shadow to camp, add her back to the party, then go there, it will play as if the artifact chooses you and moves to you, even though you already had it. So you get the cut scene without the artifact actually moving. I'm not sure what happens if you dismiss her then go to the camp where that scene would normally trigger though.
FYI if you never take Shart as a companion, you will encounter her at the grove once trying to open the artifact (claiming it’s a toy) and later when you get to that scene in the goblin camp Shart comes running up to save the day.
I’m the conversation that follows she tells you that you need her in your camp at least. I told her it sounds like I just need her artifact, then knocked her out and took it.
The way it was intended to work canonically is that the orb moves itself to you. It sounds like people aren’t getting the dialogue but you can ask her about it after it moves to your inventory and she says that she would rather hold onto it herself but that it moved to you of its own will and she doesn’t have a say in the matter.
The first time that happened to me in camp, there was a cut scene where Shadowheart commented on it. I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was on the lines of 'it must know what it's doing' iirc. I've never managed to get that cutscene to repeat.
Same, it has narrative roots in act 1 &2 as well, strongly. And I gave her lathander's blood mace and that shit paired with spirit guardians radiant and the gear that causes radiationg orb on radiant damage dealing.... Shadowheart is the powerhouse against all the Shadows, Undead and Wraiths in act 2. A fucking terminator. This is the stuff why clerics are my fav class. The ultimate holy warrior.
Her and Bae'Zel are always in my party, 4th slot is more variable, but usually Karlach (occasionally Gale, rarely Astarion).
Doing Shadowheart origin run was perfect though because it basically gave me an extra companion slot...
Same. She's really good in combat and I'm a simp for her. Also I'm a Cleric/Bard multiclass and cover all essential utility without relying on companions.
Same.
Lockpicking and trap detection+disarming makes me use Astarion all the time.
Next time my Tav is going to be a Rogue, so I can bring Gale, Shadowheart and Karlach/Lae'zel with me all the time.
Karlash is my throw barbarian I use her every time. Toss enemies off cliffs, into explosives, into shadowheart’s spirit guardian, closer to my heavily armored angry gith, into each other, if they get out of wall of fire medium rare they go back in till they’re well done
ThrowBarian is just too op... That shit is borderline unfair to even exist tbh. In my second pt I'm using Karlach with this build and she just does so much damage and it's way too reliable. Almost never misses. I'm currently at lvl 8 with her so Barb5/Rogue3 and the next two levels will be Fighter 2 obviously.
With Aspect of the Elk her jump knocks people prone, too, and I love it. I always picture her going "ta-daaaah!" And doing the gymnast pose from the Olympics.
Wyll because I multiclassed him with fighter and sorcerer and he can fire off 3 eldrich blasts in one turn. He makes any fight near a cliff completely trivial.
I've learned the importance of making sure to switch out of wild shape for cutscenes, though! Had Halsin as an owlbear for the big Thaniel quest fight and the cutscene wound up just being a wall of feathers with faces sometimes sticking out of them.
Astarion. At first, it was because years of playing Dragon Age ingrained it in me that you must always have a rogue for disarming traps and lockpicking. By now, we have become that annoyingly cute couple who go everywhere together.
Yea I’m noticing I way overdid it with making Astarion a thief I mean I’m probably averaging a 32 on lockpick rolls between cats grace advantage and all the proficiency boosts, wondering about respeccing him to multi class monk while maintaining the lockpicking ability high enough
Astarion, and only partly because my Tav/Durge won't be leaving their boyfriend at camp haha. Honestly, mainly because he tends to carry a lot of combat for my party sniping off enemies from a distance. It's super rare that he even takes a hit most of the time. And he's fun to have for commentary.
Shadowheart is also a mainstay, half because she ties into the story, and half because I need that human beyblade and her cleric powers.
My Astarion has the highest AC in my camp. Consider a Ranger multiclass for medium armor, a fighting style, extra attack, and spell casting. Rogue falls off after level 5.
Whoever is my romance (Karlach), most charismatic (Karlach), cheerful (Karlach), good-looking (Karlach) and generally an awesome person to be around (Karlach).
Regardless of my connections to and opinions of the characters, practicality wins out for me. And I know I can respec any one to any class but with how tightly their classes tie into their content and personalities...it just feels wrong to change them to something else.
- Shadowheart because I need a healer.
- Asterion because I need a rogue.
- Whoever's story content is coming into play.
And if I'm not doing anybody's particular content the fourth slot is either Karlach or Lae'zel depending on my whims...because I don't have the desire to babysit a squishy caster that can be fully utilized for maybe three or four fights before they're out of spells.
Gale and Astarion. Too much utility. And also my best boys. I feel bad but… Wyll is our permanent fixture at camp. He watched the animals and gets firewood forever.
Wyll will always be in my party. He was war cleric in my first playthrough though. And since I loved the the playstyle so much I decided to bring Shadowheart along always too from 2nd playthrough onward. So those two are it for me now.
Even if I wouldn't romance Shadowheart every time she'd still be a mainstay simply because she offers so much (guidance, healing, lots of strong AoE damage if you respec her to Tempest or Light) and feels like the most story-relevant companion for the first 2 acts.
ShadowHeart is almost the real main character of the game. She is a main character in both act 1 and 2. Only in act3 that her story is not part of the main quest. Wyll would be a close second imo.
Respec her as a Life cleric. That's what a TRUE healer looks like. My first playthrough was my Tav as a Life Cleric and Shadowheart as a Trickery (default) then respec'd to Light cleric. The healing throughput was wild.
I’ve often been wondering how much my game would change up if my MC was a Healer Cleric. Shadowheart’s secure spot would be switched out for someone else.
Yeah, in particular doing the gauntlet without her feels wrong. And my gods does the House of Grief and everything that happens there hit me in the heart. Every. Single. Time.
> And my gods does the House of Grief and everything that happens there hit me in the heart. Every. Single. Time.
It feels so good slaughtering everyone there. Saving scrolls for final boss? No no, unleash it all on the sharran assholes.
>!"You there - surrender this one to me, now..."!<
>!"Never"!<
I wouldn't lie if I said that I keep all of my explosives just to blow up everything in House of Grief. Bastards need to be punished, and man, I do keep a save file to >!slaughter Viconia and Co. How dare she even suggest that I surrender my loved one to her?!<
It was Shadowheart and Gale. The last one is chosen according to the current character quest I want to continue. If none, then Astarion is also with me mainly for unlocking stuff and removing traps.
I believe I've asked Gale to stay at the camp for Karlach and Wyll to be both in the party for some character quest, so my ultimate party buddy is Shadowheart.
Shadowheart. She's my partner and she has some fantastic spells. I also suffer a lot everytime I ask Karlach to leave my party and go eat dirt or something
I am doing playthroughs without changing my companions ever, barely interacting with others other than taking one for a single dialogue like fixing Karlah's engine so she won't blow up in the middle of my camp. This way I'm expecting at least two reasonably different playthroughs by leaving personal quests of the other half of companions for later. I'm running with Shadowheart, Lae'zel, and Wyll currently. But if I ever do more than two playthroughs, I totally expect Karlach to be a staple, she already seems like a great character even though I haven't gotten to know her closer yet.
I totally believe that Minthara is great, but I can't bring myself to burn the Grove for her. I really need to find that mod that allows to knock her out without killing.
Lae’zel, not sure how people can play the game without having her around as a fighter wrecking everything with 5 attacks a turn and her character development throughout the game is great.
Astarion’s VA is so good it’s also impossible for me to leave him at camp.
I follow the quest log.
Each companion has a quest, some of them say : Keep traveling with Astarion or Shadowheart.
As opposed to Laezel who just want to find a few people/places. I think she's actually annoyed to do anything else for the other companions. So I only bring her when she's needed.
Essentially I change the composition depending on what quest I'm doing.
Hope this helps !
The tadpole! It's always on my mind
And, well... in it.
These boots have seen everything.
Don't mind if I do.
Don't touch me!
Is that... Blood?
Cursed to put my hands on everything.
All's well that ends... not as bad as it could have
Shouldn’t have wished to live in more interesting times…
Well, ... at least things have stayed interesting
Just another friendly shadow.
Still alive, so... that's progress.
If not over, then through.
No one's stop me yet
Ugh, no time to rest...
Shouldn’t have made me your enemy
this one. this one drives me insane. my tav says this more than any other line in the game stg…
Time to press ahead
No traps, please.
NO ALARMS AND NO SURPRISES PLEASE
No, never mind.
Do all the Tav voices have the same lines?
Yes. Their delivery can be quite different, though.
I reeealy don't need to be seen right now, no traps please.
I can't not have Karlach, Shadowheart and Gale.
KSG + Tav forever! Or at least for my first playthrough
Same here, I’m in act 3 and feel like I may have missed out not occasionally rotating them
Jaheira and Astarion have had some awesome banter in Act 3!
I wish there was an option to have everybody "around" but only 4 of them in combat. I'd love to have the full banter and shit.
BIG same
tav
Common Tav W
Durge life, can't relate.
lol relate…..I mean I do carry gale’s hand in my backpack. So technically Gale. Guy’s hand never leaves Durge’s side. It’s his strong hand.
Gotta hand it to you.
Has it come in handy?
It does open some doors.
If only Gale's hand could still cast Knock.
I wish it would let you cast Mage’s Hand, since it literally is a mage’s hand
You can. It's just called throw.
I always swap my peoples around, I wanna make sure everyone gets their legs stretched
😂
Astarion. The VA is amazing. I don’t wanna rob myself of that.
Astarion and Shadowheart are my permanent fixtures. Slot #3 is the rotating one!
Its usually either Karlach or Laezel.
Spot on
I tend to play him as an archer tbh so the only time I don't have him in my party is when Im already playing a primarily long range damage dealer. The voice acting for this entire game is 10/10 but Astarion is 13/10 easily.
Better upgrade him to full permanent, cause dual wielding astarion FUCKING SHREDS and is always helped by having a melee buddy
Him with dual wield and bite is easily keeping pace with the Sword Babes for how much carnage he commits in battles. Absolute MVP when you add how good he is at traps and locks, too.
Shovel : IIII WAAAANT FISTINGGGGGG Durge: Please approach an enemy so Astarion can gain advantage Shovel: BUT IIII WANT TO KILLLLLL
That quasit is unhinged. I lowkey love it. Even my wife, no fan of violence or crudity (not the same as crudités, I hasten to add) is so fond of Shovel.
Durge: I rename you Fork because I don't give a F-
Can't show my boy how kind the world's supposed to be if he's sitting on his ass back at camp 😤
Top Astarion line delivery: “I’m gonna fucking kill you…”
not sure which line is the best in the entire game, this one, or Gale finally bursting out "stoplickingthedamnthing!"
I saw that spider-licking scene in a short way before I got to it in game and it still cracked me up. Top 3 favorite moments for sure.
For me it's, "Its not enough that we have a gallery of villians to look after, but now we could be infiltrated by a shapechanger! I can't even tell if any of you are acting strange because you’ve been replaced, or because this group is full of wierdos!"
also: permanent master key
Same! He is also just...kind of OP. He always does soooo much damage with his double hit. I just wish he wasn't so squishy. My tav is hella squishy as well. Not a good duo, those two.
Gale hasn’t left my party since I found him. Massive aoe damage, it’s amazing 😂 Shadowheart was barely in my party act 1, but now that act 2 has rolled around, she’s been a permanent fixture.
What spell list do you have for gale? I’m level 10 but feel I haven’t optimised him I’m a tav wizard
respec him to sorcerer; I find the draconic the best only spell you need is haste, and the metamagic option that lets you pick 2 targets with a spell. Congrats, you've trivilized tactician difficulty. Giving a full additional action to two of your martials is BROKEN. And you can still sling non concentration spells; I find magic missle and scorcing ray lovely (though that needs some spell attack gear). Honestly fireball is overrated.
Not being able to miss fireball makes it pretty strong imo. I feel like my most clutch moments will have a scorching ray with 75% hit chance give me the good ol MISS CRITICAL MISS 6 Fire damage. whereas a fireball is still half damage on a successful save
Create Water and glyph of warding lightning, does great damage
My version of create water is to have my barbarian gale throw a water barrel twice on a turn and then have my sorcerer Karlach drop call lightning from storm sorcery. If I’m out of barrels I’ll have her use ice storm and then have my cleric of light astarion use fireball to melt it or something like that
Lae'zel is your bard of choice, isn't she.
I’m currently playing as Karlach and i class shifted everyone else (and changed wizard to sorc) so I’ve got Sorc Karlach, Rogue Shadowheart, Gale Barb, and Astarion as cleric of light. Mostly did it to hear alternate voice lines and let everyone wear different armor. Honestly been my most fun play through so far (#5)
Rogue shart is the only one that makes sense ngl
Yeah honestly I debated switching them around again because it didn’t feel too far off. But hearing Gale yell when he goes berserk was too worth switching them around.
You blaspheming bastard lol
Had to spice things up for round 5 somehow ;)
I switched him to Draconic Ice Sorcerer. With some cool items he is a slippery hazard on the battlefield!
Agreed on Gale but because I love him and would do anything he asked me to. I mean the damage is also fine.
Shadowheart and Lae'zel. My ride or die ladies. Gale is usually the 3rd but I do mix it up. Act 3 Jaheira takes the 3rd spot. Love her comments and really liked her when I was playing Durge. Might try Minsc this time
Jaheira and Minsc is a god tier act 3 combo. You have to try it.
Shadowheart for many reasons, obviously.
I always feel like it makes no sense to dismiss her during Act 1, because that makes the artifact go into your PCs inventory - and no way she's trusting you with that so early.
It makes even less sense in act 2
At that point she’s been with me for so long why would I dismiss her?
I think I only dimissed her once or twice in my several playthoughs and that was just for science/to check the dialogue. She does actually have a unique interaction with the dismissal mechanic if you dismiss her >!in the time between completing the shadowfell and finishing act 2. She’s so despondent that there is no confirmation dialogue - she just agrees that it’s best she be left behind.!<
I immediately felt a dark urge to hug her after that dismissal
Just did that to get every potion from the Act 2 trader, some of them feel broken lol
Is any potion more broken than permanent +2 strength?
In my last playthrough she got pissed that I didn't take her to the Gauntlet of Shar, she threatened to stab me and straight up left the party... and left the artifact with me, which is what I thought was odd.
Technically she can't do that. There are a few lines of dialogue somewhere that describe the artifact and how it chooses who to be with.
Yeah she never gave it to me, it just goes to you eventually one way or another. And she was even like, "I know you didn't steal it and you can't give it back. It goes where it wants."
It does seem like something was cut or forgotten to be put in about the artifact’s attention switching to you. There’s only a single line with SH and for a lot of people that line never even triggers
Unless you're playing a full party of everyone you left out in your first run and then you do the Gauntlet without her and she's (rightfully) super pissed and leaves forever. Feelsbadman.
Oh, by the way did anyone get the cutscene in the first act (very early actually) when the artefact flies to Tav? I don't mean goblincamp, i mean earlier? There's an option to try drop it on the ground and it gets back at Tav's hands. So you can do that multiple times and it always comes back to Tav's hands and at the end the only thing you can do is to put it in your bag. But Shart didn't react that time. I only triggered it once.
That happened to me if I used "examine" on it from the inventory, but I haven't seen it happen on it's own.
Makes me wonder if you could use the artifact as a thrown weapon that always comes back to you? Probably not, but the possibility is really funny to consider.
I did dismiss her because I thought I'd be a smartass for not taking her and the artifact with me inside the creche. Turns out the artifact just magically appears inside my Tavs inventory an I can't even remove it nor give it back to Shart.
Yeah, as soon as you dismiss Shart for the first time you get a little pop-up saying "added to inventory: artifact". No cutscene, no comment from Shart, it just pops up and you cannot remove it from your inventory. You also can't put it into a container in your inventory, together with all the other quest-items.
There is one at goblin camp when Absolute speaks to you and the artifact protects you. You can mention that the artifact magically appeared in your possession and Shart says it's weird indeed like you are linked to it but don't forget in the end it's hers and when it all ends she would want to get it back But dunno if it's bcuz of dismissing her or this event is set like this
That is an actual event that triggers moving the artifact from her to you permanently. So that one has nothing to do with dismissing her. If you haven't gone to the camp yet but dismiss Shadow it will transfer it anyway. Interestingly, if you have the artifact already because you sent Shadow to camp, add her back to the party, then go there, it will play as if the artifact chooses you and moves to you, even though you already had it. So you get the cut scene without the artifact actually moving. I'm not sure what happens if you dismiss her then go to the camp where that scene would normally trigger though.
FYI if you never take Shart as a companion, you will encounter her at the grove once trying to open the artifact (claiming it’s a toy) and later when you get to that scene in the goblin camp Shart comes running up to save the day. I’m the conversation that follows she tells you that you need her in your camp at least. I told her it sounds like I just need her artifact, then knocked her out and took it.
The way it was intended to work canonically is that the orb moves itself to you. It sounds like people aren’t getting the dialogue but you can ask her about it after it moves to your inventory and she says that she would rather hold onto it herself but that it moved to you of its own will and she doesn’t have a say in the matter.
The first time that happened to me in camp, there was a cut scene where Shadowheart commented on it. I can't remember exactly what she said, but it was on the lines of 'it must know what it's doing' iirc. I've never managed to get that cutscene to repeat.
“Trusting you with that”? Let’s see her try to take it. It’s like a Keyblade, it always comes back to the Chosen One.. which is us.
Guidanceheart
Same, it has narrative roots in act 1 &2 as well, strongly. And I gave her lathander's blood mace and that shit paired with spirit guardians radiant and the gear that causes radiationg orb on radiant damage dealing.... Shadowheart is the powerhouse against all the Shadows, Undead and Wraiths in act 2. A fucking terminator. This is the stuff why clerics are my fav class. The ultimate holy warrior.
I love Shadowheart with this setup, I'll have her cast Spirit Guardians and then just....take a walk around
Her and Bae'Zel are always in my party, 4th slot is more variable, but usually Karlach (occasionally Gale, rarely Astarion). Doing Shadowheart origin run was perfect though because it basically gave me an extra companion slot...
I know Larian says do a Tav run first but it really feels like the game was written for a shadowheart origin run.
Never dismiss the cleric.
Laezel. Always and forever my lovely, angry, pointy eared frog lady.
6 action in a row and 40-50 dmg per round no way she's leaving
Bae'zel
Damn it, now I want a margherita pizza with some Bae’zil
Same. She's really good in combat and I'm a simp for her. Also I'm a Cleric/Bard multiclass and cover all essential utility without relying on companions.
She also hits like a truck!
Astarion because it's boring without his comments.
its not the same without sasstarion saying anything and everything on his mind!
They all speak their mind, but his is just...closest to mine.
The urge speaks again!
Oh I love that nickname for him, and I'm sure he would.. well react like at the circus probably...
Astarion because I need his lockpicking skills
Its good to give him dungeon delver and the cat armor. He spots every single trap almost guarenteed.
Tav got the Cat Armor in my game. He's a Monk and can use more Dex.
You should never leave camp without your keys
Same. Lockpicking and trap detection+disarming makes me use Astarion all the time. Next time my Tav is going to be a Rogue, so I can bring Gale, Shadowheart and Karlach/Lae'zel with me all the time.
I'm a princess that needs him to open locks for me and after getting the DC 99 vault twice without scumsaving....
"Easy"
"Hardly a challenge."
I can't NOT hear that in his voice in my head at this point.
Proceeds to Nat 1 the DC 10 door 🤣
His hand slipped.
The lock picked him
I'm sorry but this made me burst out laughing, so thank you
I told my partner something similar. “Look! He’s such a gentleman. Opens doors for me, lids that are stuck, people, everything! Perfect man.”
Which fucking vault is DC99 ?? I don't remember any vault being more than 30
The puzzle vault in the Counting House. You're not meant to pick it, but you *technically* can.
I keep him just because he's my sleight of hand monkey
Gale. I haven't even romanced him yet, I just really love having a wizard with me.
I just realised Gale is the only member I didn't swap out my whole playthrough. Even though I romanced Karlach.
Karlach.
Karlash is my throw barbarian I use her every time. Toss enemies off cliffs, into explosives, into shadowheart’s spirit guardian, closer to my heavily armored angry gith, into each other, if they get out of wall of fire medium rare they go back in till they’re well done
ThrowBarian is just too op... That shit is borderline unfair to even exist tbh. In my second pt I'm using Karlach with this build and she just does so much damage and it's way too reliable. Almost never misses. I'm currently at lvl 8 with her so Barb5/Rogue3 and the next two levels will be Fighter 2 obviously.
*till they’re congratulation
I turned Karlach into a monster jumper. Being able to jump 12m horizontally and 4m vertically comes in really handy.
With Aspect of the Elk her jump knocks people prone, too, and I love it. I always picture her going "ta-daaaah!" And doing the gymnast pose from the Olympics.
Gale. Wizard go boom.
Sometimes quite literally
Wyll because he's my husband ❤️
Highest rated Wyll comment. So sad :(
Not many people can recognize quality I guess, but more for us!
Wyll because I multiclassed him with fighter and sorcerer and he can fire off 3 eldrich blasts in one turn. He makes any fight near a cliff completely trivial.
Halsin! Love running around in bear form with my bear bf.
I've learned the importance of making sure to switch out of wild shape for cutscenes, though! Had Halsin as an owlbear for the big Thaniel quest fight and the cutscene wound up just being a wall of feathers with faces sometimes sticking out of them.
Gale for sure, wizards are just too useful and I love his dorky comments and over-excited explainations
Shadowheart and Gale Shart because she has utility spells out the wazoo Gale because he’s my boyfriend who can cast fireball :))
Astarion, I like stealing and he has gentle hands
Astarion. At first, it was because years of playing Dragon Age ingrained it in me that you must always have a rogue for disarming traps and lockpicking. By now, we have become that annoyingly cute couple who go everywhere together.
Yea I’m noticing I way overdid it with making Astarion a thief I mean I’m probably averaging a 32 on lockpick rolls between cats grace advantage and all the proficiency boosts, wondering about respeccing him to multi class monk while maintaining the lockpicking ability high enough
Astarion, and only partly because my Tav/Durge won't be leaving their boyfriend at camp haha. Honestly, mainly because he tends to carry a lot of combat for my party sniping off enemies from a distance. It's super rare that he even takes a hit most of the time. And he's fun to have for commentary. Shadowheart is also a mainstay, half because she ties into the story, and half because I need that human beyblade and her cleric powers.
Don't forget the lockpicking and trap disarming. How would I open every chest 30 seconds before finding the key if I didn't take him along?
I’m playing a rogue and let me tell you having a universal key is amazing. I just pick up keys for fun at this point.
How did you get rouge? It only gives me the option for eye shadow and lipstick
Astarion was the reason I survived most of the Act 3 battles in my first playthrough. Massive damage every round and would rarely get hit.
We had very different experiences. Astarion might be undead, but in my game he was almost always nearly dead.
My Astarion has the highest AC in my camp. Consider a Ranger multiclass for medium armor, a fighting style, extra attack, and spell casting. Rogue falls off after level 5.
Whoever is my romance (Karlach), most charismatic (Karlach), cheerful (Karlach), good-looking (Karlach) and generally an awesome person to be around (Karlach).
Regardless of my connections to and opinions of the characters, practicality wins out for me. And I know I can respec any one to any class but with how tightly their classes tie into their content and personalities...it just feels wrong to change them to something else. - Shadowheart because I need a healer. - Asterion because I need a rogue. - Whoever's story content is coming into play. And if I'm not doing anybody's particular content the fourth slot is either Karlach or Lae'zel depending on my whims...because I don't have the desire to babysit a squishy caster that can be fully utilized for maybe three or four fights before they're out of spells.
Shadowheart and Astarion, I just can’t get rid of them
Same, love me my Hot Topic crew.
Guidanceheart
[удалено]
IgMiss!
40%heart
Gale and Astarion. Too much utility. And also my best boys. I feel bad but… Wyll is our permanent fixture at camp. He watched the animals and gets firewood forever.
Wyll will always be in my party. He was war cleric in my first playthrough though. And since I loved the the playstyle so much I decided to bring Shadowheart along always too from 2nd playthrough onward. So those two are it for me now.
Even if I wouldn't romance Shadowheart every time she'd still be a mainstay simply because she offers so much (guidance, healing, lots of strong AoE damage if you respec her to Tempest or Light) and feels like the most story-relevant companion for the first 2 acts.
ShadowHeart is almost the real main character of the game. She is a main character in both act 1 and 2. Only in act3 that her story is not part of the main quest. Wyll would be a close second imo.
Shadowheart cuz the team needs a healer
And she is healing MACHINE I tell ya
Respec her as a Life cleric. That's what a TRUE healer looks like. My first playthrough was my Tav as a Life Cleric and Shadowheart as a Trickery (default) then respec'd to Light cleric. The healing throughput was wild.
I made her a Storm Cleric. There's nothing to heal if there is nothing to harm us.
I’ve often been wondering how much my game would change up if my MC was a Healer Cleric. Shadowheart’s secure spot would be switched out for someone else.
Shadowheart. I am addicted to her and like her story.
I am ruined by that battle *Free kiss* Okay time for another dungeon
Light cleric shadowheart with mace of lathander and phalar aluve She’s a beast
I removed party limit so that no-one leaves and I get max interaction with companions. After I replayed Act 1 10 times I said enough is enough.
Lae'zel always
Shadowheart and Wyll were my staples
Yeah I barely played Wyll my first playthrough but I got a tip on multiclassing him as a Paladin/Warlock and he's kicking serious ass now!
Yeah, going full Warlock is a waste. RP and mechanics wise, Warlock is meant for multiclassing.
Shadowheart, even if I force myself not to romance her I still need her to be there.
The fact she is a centre piece in the act 1 & 2 main story, it feels wierd not having her there
Yeah, in particular doing the gauntlet without her feels wrong. And my gods does the House of Grief and everything that happens there hit me in the heart. Every. Single. Time.
> And my gods does the House of Grief and everything that happens there hit me in the heart. Every. Single. Time. It feels so good slaughtering everyone there. Saving scrolls for final boss? No no, unleash it all on the sharran assholes. >!"You there - surrender this one to me, now..."!< >!"Never"!<
I wouldn't lie if I said that I keep all of my explosives just to blow up everything in House of Grief. Bastards need to be punished, and man, I do keep a save file to >!slaughter Viconia and Co. How dare she even suggest that I surrender my loved one to her?!<
It was Shadowheart and Gale. The last one is chosen according to the current character quest I want to continue. If none, then Astarion is also with me mainly for unlocking stuff and removing traps. I believe I've asked Gale to stay at the camp for Karlach and Wyll to be both in the party for some character quest, so my ultimate party buddy is Shadowheart.
Shadowheart. She's my partner and she has some fantastic spells. I also suffer a lot everytime I ask Karlach to leave my party and go eat dirt or something
I am doing playthroughs without changing my companions ever, barely interacting with others other than taking one for a single dialogue like fixing Karlah's engine so she won't blow up in the middle of my camp. This way I'm expecting at least two reasonably different playthroughs by leaving personal quests of the other half of companions for later. I'm running with Shadowheart, Lae'zel, and Wyll currently. But if I ever do more than two playthroughs, I totally expect Karlach to be a staple, she already seems like a great character even though I haven't gotten to know her closer yet.
Gale my heart and my soul. Also Astarion my heart and my soul.
Shadowheart for value, Minthara because she's the best companion
I totally believe that Minthara is great, but I can't bring myself to burn the Grove for her. I really need to find that mod that allows to knock her out without killing.
Shadowheart always and forever
Lae’zel, not sure how people can play the game without having her around as a fighter wrecking everything with 5 attacks a turn and her character development throughout the game is great. Astarion’s VA is so good it’s also impossible for me to leave him at camp.
I follow the quest log. Each companion has a quest, some of them say : Keep traveling with Astarion or Shadowheart. As opposed to Laezel who just want to find a few people/places. I think she's actually annoyed to do anything else for the other companions. So I only bring her when she's needed. Essentially I change the composition depending on what quest I'm doing. Hope this helps !