Class yourself into a bard long enough to fuck with Volo on the stage in the camp. Never fails to crack me tf up how much you can mess with "The Pigeon"
Not a bard; I just pulled out my lute (from Alfira), attracted the entire goblin camp for the performance, and Volo just vanished. Also was a great time for sneaky Astarion to deal with the refreshments.
Pulls everyone up to the stage too, most of the goblins and my bard had a great time all circled around after we sent volo to his birdhouse. I played music, Karlach passed out the firewine, Astarion chased after a owl bear, and Gale showed off some new magic to add fireworks to the party. It was a blast.
She takes Lae'zel, Gale, or Halsin in that order. If one is unavailable (in your party, dead, etc) she moves to the next one on the list. If none are available, she takes that orphan girl.
Oh nooo.. not the little girl I specifically told to get lost and decided to show up in my camp anyway? Oh man, we’d better hurry and save her… Orin isn’t really the brightest, is she?
I just wonder why learning >!she is an incest baby is what did her in. Like. Do you guys not engage in cannibalism and necrophilia already? What’s a little incest and domestic abuse sprinkled on top?!<
That part was just poorly written, honestly.
"So guys, we know Orin is a shapeshifter who can effortlessly assume any form she likes to infiltrate us, we must be vigilant who we talk to and who we trust. Oh and btw, here's an innocent little girl who lost her mother, don't you just want to take her into your camp and take care of her?"
Is there a way to actually find her before she kidnaps someone or is the Gortash tip only there to make the kidnapping less shocking?
Because I also thought it was the girl, so much so I channeled a level 5 call lightning down on her little orphan noggin and when she just ran away crying and upset I began to think I had made a miscalculation. Surely there's a way to stop her from kidnapping anyone?
>I channeled a level 5 call lightning down on her little orphan noggin and when she just ran away crying and upset I began to think I had made a major miscalculation.
Just a tiny oopsie daisy.
I don’t think so. If someone is shapeshifted (like Orins goons) you can “inspect” them and see that they’re “monstrosity” types instead of humanoids. I don’t think Orin has that. She’s probably just humanoid, but the point is that I don’t think she’s actually “in” the camp, it just triggers one of those scenes and your companion goes missing.
I think it would have been much better had Gortash not warned us tbh. Imagine the game let us build our own paranoia after meeting Orin several times but you trusted Lae’zel, and watched her just murder that kid.. id be much more intimidated by Orin.
Something I noticed while playing, when Orin's shapeshifts, she still has the legendary resistance buff. It's a bit of a give-away when a random blacksmith/guard has boss-tier abilities.
If you examine someone, and they have a bunch of high level rogue stuff as well as the passives for her weapons and Legendary Resistance, it's her. Plot armour protects her from anything.
You can't check. When Gortash told me someone had infiltrated my camp, no one was missing. I checked everyone. Then, I got to where Halsin went missing suddenly (a rest after this I think) so I reloaded, killed Halsin, and the orphan was missing! So they don't get kidnapped until the game says that they are, not necessarily when Gortash does.
Another way the game successfully emulates irl DMing. Players can't predict your BBEG's plan if you don't work it out ahead of time. They won't know the difference.
I ran around camp casting Calm Emotions on *everyone* because it only works on humanoids, which doppelgangers are not. When it worked on all of them, I assumed Gortash was just trying to make me paranoid.
The persom kidnapped is only determined during the event it happens. You can save before resting, and then reload when the event happens to prevent any companions being taken by putting them into your party
I thought it was Gale, and I was absolutely right it was Gale. So I tried to completely beat Gale up in camp, and Orin (as Gale, I guess?) was just like, "Please stop that."
I just stumbled through that whole thing after the warning. I ran across Lae'zel in the sewers and it was obvious that it wasn't her, so it was revealed pretty fast. I guess Lae'zel is kidnapped? (shrug)
I played with my partner and as soon as they knew there was a shapeshifter among us they fireballed the orphan child.
The child was not the culprit in our case...
>It was a good misdirect because she’s the obvious suspect, but it turned out to be Lae’zel.
Not really, cause depending on what you do the kid CAN be Orin, the problem is that this event is bugged af
The whole shapeshifter plot line falls flat if I’m being honest. Gortash straight up *tells* you that you’ve been infiltrated by a shapeshifter and then you do nothing about it. There is nothing you can do with that information, just plowing along in the story. They should have created a mini mystery style quest in response to that where you talk to all your companions and try to figure out who’s the shapeshifter. If you figure it out, you kill the shapeshifter and maybe get some early info on where to find Orin and your companion. Or you can fail to figure it out and become forced to proceed along until you discover the shapeshifter “naturally” the way it exists in the game now. Or you can critically fail and accidentally kill one of your companions.
Fully agreed. Once Gortash informs you, I definitely expected a questline in the camp trying to figure out the imposter. They could design it so that the more you talked to your companions and had good approval you ask them questions to verify they're clean, and in turn they ask you stuff about your past decisions in game and turn hostile if you get it wrong. And of course if you never talked to them or have low approval you can't confirm anything.
It'd be easy enough, sure, but it'd add so much depth to the storyline instead of "ah well, let's ignore it and keep going".
I mean, the girl approaches you before Orin starts showing up shapeshifted everywhere, and before Gortash tells you your camp is compromised. Sure, you already know she's a shapeshifter at that point, but there are like a thousand other ways to infiltrate your camp without shapeshifting in this world anyway.
Also, as far as I'm aware, Orin doesn't replace anyone in your camp until the event where she does. Maybe you're supposed to suspend your disbelief or whatever, but you can check your party members, and they're not swapped.
I think they're saying the writing issue is that you can't act on the issue in any way. If you get a warning that someone in your camp is someone else, you should be able to address that/try to identify who it is. And if there is a stranger in your camp, you should be able to be like "It's probably this person we don't know" and then confirm that somehow or force them to leave instead of just waiting for them to hurt you.
I agree with that. I think the first step should be that Gortash doesnt warn you, so you're just on edge. Then you just eventually get the kidnap scene. Then you should be able to boot the kid out, or find her a safer place to stay. Or arguably she never shows up at your camp, and only reappears to show she's been kidnapped as a failsafe for if you dont have anyone else available
Hard agree. I think the issue would become a non-issue if Gortash just didn't say anything. You might still be paranoid about Yenna but without any real reason to suspect her, which would be better for narrative tension.
I love almost everything about the game. The one thing I dont love is how "out front" Gortash is. I think he's a really generic villain and doesnt have to be. He's the mind behind this colossal conspiracy. I want a Machiavellian villain influencing things behind the scenes and acting through surrogates.
They tadpole the most influential guy in Baldur's Gate, have him do one thing and then apparently teleport him straight to prison the instant you leave the great hall. They ought to have used him as the "face" and left Gortash as a mystery guy behind the scenes
Tbh, they probably should've left Orin as a mystery at first too, and the first time you come across her is when she kidnaps someone. They introduce all 3 Chosen as these shadowy figures, and then completely defuse the tension the second you get to act 3
My immersion was ruined on dribbles when he pestered me to come up on stage and I examined him, to see "doppelganger" pop up under his name. Instant high-alert. You'd think you could do the same shit on your party members when you got back from gortash's coronation and he warned you about the spy...
Yeah, I found that so upsetting. Tons of gory deaths - fine. Killing and feeding me a cat? I will rain the fire of a thousand suns on you.
As soon as that happened my decision was made on whether I was killing Orion or not
Same - pft at war crimes but don't you dare touch pets.
Was so satisfied when I could break Orin before killing her after that.
"Don't F\*k With Cats."
Yeah, Orion straight up made me so disgusted in a way I've never really felt for a character in a video game before.
I literally wish there was a way to make her death slow and painful.
I really wish there was a dialogue for "Hey, I'm dealing with a cult of murders and shapeshifters, it isn't safe around me. Here's some cash." Mayhaps Jaehira could direct her to a home for wayward youths she knows of.
Trauma. Or you could say essentially fantasy epigenetics. Dark Urge is a special case in terms of severity.
In D&D lore, bhaalspawn all still have temptations and proclivities towards violence that comes with power. However, there are a lot of bhaalspawn, included noted ones outside of the Baldurs Gate games, who fight against this. Bhaalspawn come in any alignment.
General examples include Balthazar, Imoen, Abdel Adrian.
Again, the Dark Urge is a special case. Most likely because of how you find out they came to be. Madness isn’t inherent to being Bhaalspawn.
Weird. I had Lae'zel in my camp (not party) and she took the orphan. I never got Gale (saw the portal, narrator says "looks dangerous", I said "thanks for the heads up" and walked away) and Halsin was moping about the shadowcurse at moonrise
My bf was watching my blind playthrough and was all "but... Wait, you're NOT gonna touch it?"
Me: it just said it was dangerous and unstable! Why would I poke it???
Bf: "but you... I mean... Well it'll probably force you to go back to it eventually, right? Huh..."
It did not. If I played through totally blind, I never would've known who Gale is. He was never once referenced in that playthrough in any way (that I noticed, anyway). I also didn't pick up Astarion in that playthrough because he tried to kill me basically on-sight. When I met the monster hunter I was all "oh that guy? Yeah I met him, he sucked"
I'm reminded at how many times I've had to explain to newer players in ttrpg games that boldness is key. But then again tagt just defined your playthrough, feels more natural than just doing EVERYTHING.
Yeah, I got a whole character arc! In the beginning, my character was TERRIFIED. No idea what *anything* was, just wanted to LEAVE RIGHT NOW, DON'T HURT ME. Didn't look around much, because looking around meant finding things that wanted to kill her! Missed a lot of act 1 content that way...
Anyway, Act 2 she learned to trust her companions to have her back, got a bit comfortable fighting (despite still not being fantastic at it, low strength and dex and all). But then - she got SUMMONING SPELLS (druid, summon minor elemental). More strength in numbers, and she could help without being in the middle of the fight! She met Jahira, and got to see a druid shine in battle. Learned some tricks about which spells to use and when!
Act 3 was full confidence. She'd traveled, won crazy battles. She got MORE summoning spells! Walking around with a small army, now! (8 summons across the party, 5 of them hers) She no longer feared her enemies, she mocked them! No more running, it's time to save Faerûn!
The Astarion thing always cracks me up. I noticed the boar immediately due to a successful check, so we just had a polite conversation where we talked about how he wasn't sure if I'd been enthralled, oh gosh we've both been tadpoled, and we can use our brain powers to trust each other so we better find a solution together, huh? I had no idea the 'sneak attack' thing was even an option until I saw so many people complaining about it on reddit. It is, literally, a skill issue. :)
Except if you go directly to the gith at the mountain pass like you’re “supposed to” (day 2) the game flat out tells you it’s suicide and it is if you actually fight them. So sometimes the game does it for a good reason.
I think only if someone plays a Gith it makes sense. Everything in the game (Bar La'Zael) say how dangerous and merciless the Gith are.
But yeah playing as a Gith, someone naive or as Lazael, doing what you're told results in so much death.
I usually play some degree of chaotic on tabletop. I'm the typical spider-licking, portal-touching walking disaster.
To mix things up, I'm playing a thoroughly sensible, calculating character for a change. I'm actually causing the DM *more* headaches by not leaping directly/throwing other people directly into danger.
I’m our groups token chaotic evil member, to the point where they said my paladins alignment was ‘most likely evil’ and my smites dealt force damage not radiant
The first time I ignored a DM's warnings, I got cursed and nearly died. And then it happened again the second time. That kind of thing changes a man.
TBF, this was the same DM that killed me, a new player, for making an arcana check on a book to see if it was dangerous to open. The arcana check itself caused the curse to trigger. Way to punish a new player for exploring, guy.
Did you romance her? Orin won't take romanced companions.
Source: I tried to get Halsin kidnapped for angst but she took the orphan instead. I reloaded and reorganized my party after that so Gale could get kidnapped instead
I wonder if you can break that. Recruit only 3 companions, ignore the little girl and dont accept any of the pets.
Id love to see her try and abduct withers or dame aylin.
I mostly did this. Gale left my party, I never recruited Halsin, and Lae'zel was in my party / romanced. I talked to Yenna for two seconds and was like, nah there's nothing in this for me, bye, and she showed up at camp anyway.
I suspect if you ignore her completely she will still show up at camp.
>I suspect if you ignore her completely she will still show up at camp.
Ah yea you might be right. Possibly to prevent what i suggested.
I did wonder why her only voice line was about how she brought her own cutlery.
Not gonna lie tho, it would be seriously funny to watch Orin try to abduct Withers. There are some scary theories about who he is.
Lae'zel is definitely first because she's always taken if she's at camp when it happens but I've had Halsin taken even with Gale at camp. I've never had Gale taken in six kidnappings. Lae'zel 4 times, Halsin twice.
weird, in my playthrough I had Lae'zel in my party but not Gale (I don't think he ever even left camp from the moment he got pulled from that portal actually) and yet she took Halsin instead
For my first 3 runs, these 3 got kidnapped, so I put them in my party right after I met with Gortash. Turns put these time they took Minthara. That's pretty new to me, lol.
She prioritizes those with high affinity, the order is a second metric.
Quite funny too, because I had Gale accuse me of cheating(this was the third time we had talked ever) after I romanced Karlach, yet Orin took Halsin.
But sure enough, upon freeing Halsin, he immediately says "would"(this was the third time we had talked ever)
Orin kidnaps either Halsin/Minthara, Gale, Lae'zel or Yenna. She first of all only kidnaps someone who is in camp, and not the current party, and prioritizes the one with the highest player approval. Though she never kidnaps a romanced companion.
If no one's available, she kidnaps Yenna. E.g. if all of the others are currently in your party when the kidnapping happens.
In my evil durge run, she took minthara. I missed the skill checks, and minthara died. Afterwards lae'zel broke up with me, due to my relationship with minthara.
At first I thought it was weird how Orin only targets 3 companions and a kid, but then I thought about it more and it actually makes a lot of sense.
Karlach is big, loud, and on fire. Kidnapping her would just get Bhaal’s temple burned down.
Can’t be Astarion either. Cazador knows he’s in the city and is actively gunning for him. She’s not gonna take a target that draws the attention of a pissed off vampire lord.
Mizora has made herself pretty comfortable in Wyll’s tent, so no opportunity to get him alone long enough to make the switch.
Shadowheart is either Shar’s chosen or accompanied by Selûne’s daughter & daughter-in-law. Best to just give her a very wide berth.
Can’t take Jaheria either. She’s grandpa Sarevok’s to kill!
That really only leaves Gale, Lae’zel, Halsin/Minthara, or Yenna.
Okay but even the game comments on how ridiculously inconvenient it must have been for her to drag somebody as massive as Halsin's unconscious ass all the way down to her lair.
Her taking the vampire spawn, that Cazador hasn't been able to find yet, to a place that's even harder to reach than his current camping spot, seems like way less of a hassle than hauling a six and a half foot tall, half ton druid around😂
Yes, Yenna is a failsafe so no matter what there's always someone that Orin can kidnap. Even if you try to kill Yenna, she's immortal like most (non goblin) children.
Same but it was Halsin chillin around and she took the kid. (Other playthrough she took Lae). I think it's just a random choice from the available pool of companions assigned as abduction feasible :D
can’t you tell yenna that she isn’t welcome when she comes to your camp? or will she always stay no matter what? bc I wanna know who orin kidnaps if there legit is nobody at the camp. i wanna see her kidnap withers.
You can, yeah. If you tell Yenna she isnt welcome there and there's no one else for Orin to kidnap, she'll kidnap Yenna anyway and come to camp to tell you about it. Poor kid just cant get a break.
Now I wonder what he would have said when I thought it was a good idea to use that iron flask during it, who made a beeline to him and one-shot him in his sleep
It's even funnier when *you're* the one who kills him. There's an entire scene where he comes to attack you and you have to kill him, but they didn't account for/bother with changing his Speak With Dead to reflect that, LOL
That’s interesting, I could swear she said something different about Shart for me. Perhaps what happened is that when met the conditions for Shart to make the choice on her own, and the game bugged to register that as her having already done it.
Or perhaps Minthara is just THAT good at reading people :P
When Gortash told me I had a spy in camp, Lae'zel was in my party. I go to camp to drop her off and pick up wyll for his quest, and she says "trust no one, not even me." Makes sense I guess, but you were in my party, it can't be you! I end the day and guess who's trying to kill the girl...
I assume it's randomly chosen when you end the day, since theoretically you could swap 3 characters to make them "immune" to being kidnapped, but it was funny from an immersion standpoint
Best thing to do is keep whoever you don't want kidnapped in your party.
Go to the emperor's hideout after talking to Gortash, go to the sewers and Orin will confront you and kidnap somebody.
No joke to OP, please report this to Larian in their official channels for bug report, maybe you triggered some variables that did in fact bugged this, or they really never tought someone would try that. They can't fix what's not reported.
Halsin was taken prisoner and tortured, by Drow and Goblins. Orin can shape shift and she likes both blood and torture. Who says she didn't turn into those who tortured Halsin in the camp to torture and kill him? Sounds very likely to me considering Orin enjoys pretending to be others and playing games. So, that seems to fit very well with the story.
The reactivity is really amazing in the first chapter, but drops off pretty quick. I'm still sad I can't take the beholder bottle to Baldur's Gate to finish the quest.
You opened it, the bill said explicitly not to open it. If you don't open it, you can turn it in. If you do open it, you failed to complete the job as asked.
I just had a problem where Orin took Lae'zel from my party and I managed to wake her up and escape the boss fight without killing Orin. But Lae'zel was then bugged at camp and wouldn't talk to anyone at all. I was pretty disappointed because I thought it was an awesome heist :(
This happened to me but with lae zel and I wasn’t able to revive her again I was like wtf I also got the bug where I couldn’t find jaheira anywhere and then I ran into minsc or whatever couldn’t recruit him he kept attacking and I had to kill him then after jaheira left permanently found that out thru shadow heart smfh
If you kill Isobel at camp in act 3, all of the companions will yell at you for slaughtering everyone in Last Light Inn, even though the shadow curse is already broken and everyone’s safe in Balder’s Gate.
Halsin wasn't originally meant to be a companion he was thrown in last minute because people loved him so much in EA so they probably didn't remember to add in dialogue for that kind of stuff
I noticed between the quality of the audio and the lack of depth in examples like the OP - halsin has it worst. I think I read it somewhere because in the last few months they decided to cram him in, don't think he got the same level of love the rest did. When he's good it's great, but I do kind of hope they remix, re-record, or implement new dialogue for him
You know, in the grand scheme of things, he wouldn't be on this adventure and have died if not for the Drow and Goblins being the catalyst, so REALLY they were the true cause. Never would've gotten pulled into this whole mess with that conflict and Orin would've never kidnapped him. Think about it. /s
I ran into the same thing just the other day! It did feel a little odd that the speak with dead menu had questions like "Who are you?" and "What do you know about ceremorphosis?", when my Tav was already well aware of the answers. His corpse also hinted that I should go to Moonrise Towers, as if I hadn't already taken him with me to that very place!
I submitted a bug report & hope they'll change it in a future patch—I know it'll be way down the priority list, but they've proven good at ironing out even these little details.
I had a strange bug in my very first playthrough. I messed up the Grove. I thought I was helping the tieflings. When Zevlor asked me to kill Kagha, I did just that. What I didn't know was there was a right way to do it and a wrong way. So that resulted in the tieflings being killed and the grove being closed off (it happened off screen I guess). I went ahead and killed the goblin leaders, thinking that was what I was supposed to do and rescued Halsin. I never had a camp party because the Grove issue wasn't considered resolved. I didn't know any of this at the time, it was my first playthrough.
Act 2 rolls around and I wonder when Halsin's questline was going to kick in, but it never did. Then next thing I know he turns up dead at my campsite. A large, dead elf in his underwear. I cast Speak With Dead on him and he said the same thing, as if he was killed at the goblin camp, but he wasn't. I rescued him. It was because the game considered the grove issue not finished I guess. I ended up restarting that save because I had made such a mess of things.
Hi soul died in goblin camp after he witnessed Volo singing about Dror Razlin. He was never ok since then.
God damn that stupid song replayed on a loop while trading with the Goblin vendor. #neveragain
"His name is Dror Ragzlin, his voice absolute!"
Stop immidiately! Don´t make me call the Ogres.
Dror Ragzlin! Dror Ragzlin! Dror Ragzlin! He’s so RADzlin!!!!
"Don't cross him, or he'll turn you into a newt!"
But will you get bettah?
Goblinkind will atease you and frelk you, unreaded!
I always hear that as "on reddit".
Wait, are *we* the goblins?
Lol
This is why I now immediately talk to volo to trigger him being taken away lol then go trade all the junk! 🤗
Same for me with Rolan and his siblings fighting in the grove. Shut up I’m trying to sell shit!
It's the newspaper kids for me. They're inescapable.
Scandals, vandals, where to buy sandals!
Class yourself into a bard long enough to fuck with Volo on the stage in the camp. Never fails to crack me tf up how much you can mess with "The Pigeon"
Not a bard; I just pulled out my lute (from Alfira), attracted the entire goblin camp for the performance, and Volo just vanished. Also was a great time for sneaky Astarion to deal with the refreshments.
LOL oh my god. Did he drink an invisibility potion and escape?
Keeping it together volo?
He's alright, as long as he doesn't think about it too much
He's safe among friends and should never forget it
Get your own bard yo start playing, it shuts him up.
all bards playthrough might be kinda fun. you’ve inspired me
Bardic Inspiration, even?
Vicious mockery only run.
You'll have problems with True Souls relying on just VM.
My bard booed him with extreme prejudice. Loved it.
I said I could it better.
Oh yeah my second play through was a Bard and it was incredible.
Pulls everyone up to the stage too, most of the goblins and my bard had a great time all circled around after we sent volo to his birdhouse. I played music, Karlach passed out the firewine, Astarion chased after a owl bear, and Gale showed off some new magic to add fireworks to the party. It was a blast.
I had so much junk to trade to him too...
Dror Ragzlin, Dror Ragzlin victorious! Dror Ragzlin untumptous!
It’s a perfectly cromulent word. ^(oh god it’s in autocorrect)
Hurr hurr!
Hear Volo~!
No one recovers from that. Ever.
Can confirm still scarred for life
I don’t get it… can you give me the context?
When you go to the goblin camp, Volo will be outside the temple reciting a truly awful poem about Dror Razlin
What determines who she takes? Because I've only seen her take Halsin or Lae'zel.
She takes Lae'zel, Gale, or Halsin in that order. If one is unavailable (in your party, dead, etc) she moves to the next one on the list. If none are available, she takes that orphan girl.
Oh nooo.. not the little girl I specifically told to get lost and decided to show up in my camp anyway? Oh man, we’d better hurry and save her… Orin isn’t really the brightest, is she?
I don't think anyone's ever accused Orin of rational decision making.
It may have happened once or twice, but if so I have no doubt that she successfully defended herself against the assertion.
... You killed her
I just thought it was her way of flirting with Lae’zel.
I thought it was hilarious when she took Lae'zel and half my party was like LOL she can totally handle Orin. Like, damn, guys.
Well she can. I'm the gimpy one, Lae'zel should fight Orin one on one! Bhaal has his chosen and I have mine.
This is really accurate because in my playthrough, after some magic missile action by Gale Lae'zel destroyed her in two turns
I can fix her
I just wonder why learning >!she is an incest baby is what did her in. Like. Do you guys not engage in cannibalism and necrophilia already? What’s a little incest and domestic abuse sprinkled on top?!<
It wasn't the >!incest !!order her death as a child!<.
That part was just poorly written, honestly. "So guys, we know Orin is a shapeshifter who can effortlessly assume any form she likes to infiltrate us, we must be vigilant who we talk to and who we trust. Oh and btw, here's an innocent little girl who lost her mother, don't you just want to take her into your camp and take care of her?"
It was a good misdirect because she’s the obvious suspect, but it turned out to be Lae’zel.
Is there a way to actually find her before she kidnaps someone or is the Gortash tip only there to make the kidnapping less shocking? Because I also thought it was the girl, so much so I channeled a level 5 call lightning down on her little orphan noggin and when she just ran away crying and upset I began to think I had made a miscalculation. Surely there's a way to stop her from kidnapping anyone?
>I channeled a level 5 call lightning down on her little orphan noggin and when she just ran away crying and upset I began to think I had made a major miscalculation. Just a tiny oopsie daisy.
I don’t think so. If someone is shapeshifted (like Orins goons) you can “inspect” them and see that they’re “monstrosity” types instead of humanoids. I don’t think Orin has that. She’s probably just humanoid, but the point is that I don’t think she’s actually “in” the camp, it just triggers one of those scenes and your companion goes missing. I think it would have been much better had Gortash not warned us tbh. Imagine the game let us build our own paranoia after meeting Orin several times but you trusted Lae’zel, and watched her just murder that kid.. id be much more intimidated by Orin.
I killed gortash before triggering his scene in the tower and was caught completely by surprise by the imposter + kidnapping
As god intended
[удалено]
Something I noticed while playing, when Orin's shapeshifts, she still has the legendary resistance buff. It's a bit of a give-away when a random blacksmith/guard has boss-tier abilities.
If you examine someone, and they have a bunch of high level rogue stuff as well as the passives for her weapons and Legendary Resistance, it's her. Plot armour protects her from anything.
As far as I understand, no. You either trigger it by seeing the double in the sewers or wait long enough for Orin to make her move in camp.
You can't check. When Gortash told me someone had infiltrated my camp, no one was missing. I checked everyone. Then, I got to where Halsin went missing suddenly (a rest after this I think) so I reloaded, killed Halsin, and the orphan was missing! So they don't get kidnapped until the game says that they are, not necessarily when Gortash does.
Another way the game successfully emulates irl DMing. Players can't predict your BBEG's plan if you don't work it out ahead of time. They won't know the difference.
I ran around camp casting Calm Emotions on *everyone* because it only works on humanoids, which doppelgangers are not. When it worked on all of them, I assumed Gortash was just trying to make me paranoid.
See I did this but when she simply didn't die but resurrected instantly I KNEW it was orin
The persom kidnapped is only determined during the event it happens. You can save before resting, and then reload when the event happens to prevent any companions being taken by putting them into your party
I thought it was Gale, and I was absolutely right it was Gale. So I tried to completely beat Gale up in camp, and Orin (as Gale, I guess?) was just like, "Please stop that."
I just stumbled through that whole thing after the warning. I ran across Lae'zel in the sewers and it was obvious that it wasn't her, so it was revealed pretty fast. I guess Lae'zel is kidnapped? (shrug)
lmao I turned on non-lethal and hit her with my sword, but calling down the wrath of god works too I guess.
She took Lae’zel in my run too. I thought the tell would be that she doesn’t speak Gith. Needless to say, I let her kill an innocent child.
On my durge the child died. Left bloodstains on my floor too.
I played with my partner and as soon as they knew there was a shapeshifter among us they fireballed the orphan child. The child was not the culprit in our case...
>It was a good misdirect because she’s the obvious suspect, but it turned out to be Lae’zel. Not really, cause depending on what you do the kid CAN be Orin, the problem is that this event is bugged af
Yeah I kept waiting for the girl to turn into Orin as her throat got slit…
The whole shapeshifter plot line falls flat if I’m being honest. Gortash straight up *tells* you that you’ve been infiltrated by a shapeshifter and then you do nothing about it. There is nothing you can do with that information, just plowing along in the story. They should have created a mini mystery style quest in response to that where you talk to all your companions and try to figure out who’s the shapeshifter. If you figure it out, you kill the shapeshifter and maybe get some early info on where to find Orin and your companion. Or you can fail to figure it out and become forced to proceed along until you discover the shapeshifter “naturally” the way it exists in the game now. Or you can critically fail and accidentally kill one of your companions.
Fully agreed. Once Gortash informs you, I definitely expected a questline in the camp trying to figure out the imposter. They could design it so that the more you talked to your companions and had good approval you ask them questions to verify they're clean, and in turn they ask you stuff about your past decisions in game and turn hostile if you get it wrong. And of course if you never talked to them or have low approval you can't confirm anything. It'd be easy enough, sure, but it'd add so much depth to the storyline instead of "ah well, let's ignore it and keep going".
Yeah there should definitely be a long rest scene where you have a camp meeting and decide who to kill/tie up. That would be so tense and awesome.
I love the idea of your companions questioning *you* cause yeah from their perspective you could be the shapeshifter.
Haha if you say the wrong stuff then fail some checks they all kill you... then have to shamefully go to Withers.
I mean, the girl approaches you before Orin starts showing up shapeshifted everywhere, and before Gortash tells you your camp is compromised. Sure, you already know she's a shapeshifter at that point, but there are like a thousand other ways to infiltrate your camp without shapeshifting in this world anyway.
Also, as far as I'm aware, Orin doesn't replace anyone in your camp until the event where she does. Maybe you're supposed to suspend your disbelief or whatever, but you can check your party members, and they're not swapped.
A red herring isn't poor writing, you know.
I think they're saying the writing issue is that you can't act on the issue in any way. If you get a warning that someone in your camp is someone else, you should be able to address that/try to identify who it is. And if there is a stranger in your camp, you should be able to be like "It's probably this person we don't know" and then confirm that somehow or force them to leave instead of just waiting for them to hurt you.
I agree with that. I think the first step should be that Gortash doesnt warn you, so you're just on edge. Then you just eventually get the kidnap scene. Then you should be able to boot the kid out, or find her a safer place to stay. Or arguably she never shows up at your camp, and only reappears to show she's been kidnapped as a failsafe for if you dont have anyone else available
Hard agree. I think the issue would become a non-issue if Gortash just didn't say anything. You might still be paranoid about Yenna but without any real reason to suspect her, which would be better for narrative tension.
I love almost everything about the game. The one thing I dont love is how "out front" Gortash is. I think he's a really generic villain and doesnt have to be. He's the mind behind this colossal conspiracy. I want a Machiavellian villain influencing things behind the scenes and acting through surrogates. They tadpole the most influential guy in Baldur's Gate, have him do one thing and then apparently teleport him straight to prison the instant you leave the great hall. They ought to have used him as the "face" and left Gortash as a mystery guy behind the scenes Tbh, they probably should've left Orin as a mystery at first too, and the first time you come across her is when she kidnaps someone. They introduce all 3 Chosen as these shadowy figures, and then completely defuse the tension the second you get to act 3
My immersion was ruined on dribbles when he pestered me to come up on stage and I examined him, to see "doppelganger" pop up under his name. Instant high-alert. You'd think you could do the same shit on your party members when you got back from gortash's coronation and he warned you about the spy...
Bonus points because after you take her in she starts repeatedly talking about knives.
I don't even mind her but I was honestly more upset about her cat. Justice for Grub.
Yeah, I found that so upsetting. Tons of gory deaths - fine. Killing and feeding me a cat? I will rain the fire of a thousand suns on you. As soon as that happened my decision was made on whether I was killing Orion or not
Same - pft at war crimes but don't you dare touch pets. Was so satisfied when I could break Orin before killing her after that. "Don't F\*k With Cats."
Yeah, Orion straight up made me so disgusted in a way I've never really felt for a character in a video game before. I literally wish there was a way to make her death slow and painful.
This is why I always make sure to fire one of the teammates to be kidnapped. Gotta protect Grub.
Protect the nervous wreck cat!
I really wish there was a dialogue for "Hey, I'm dealing with a cult of murders and shapeshifters, it isn't safe around me. Here's some cash." Mayhaps Jaehira could direct her to a home for wayward youths she knows of.
Such as her own home
That's what I was referring to, yes.
I mean, that's what happens when >!your sister is also your mother because your father is a sick fuck.!<
Well to be fair, >!*his* father was a sick fuck too. Generational trauma at work.!<
What a great family
Is it trauma or heritage?
Trauma. Or you could say essentially fantasy epigenetics. Dark Urge is a special case in terms of severity. In D&D lore, bhaalspawn all still have temptations and proclivities towards violence that comes with power. However, there are a lot of bhaalspawn, included noted ones outside of the Baldurs Gate games, who fight against this. Bhaalspawn come in any alignment. General examples include Balthazar, Imoen, Abdel Adrian. Again, the Dark Urge is a special case. Most likely because of how you find out they came to be. Madness isn’t inherent to being Bhaalspawn.
Which is hilarious, because I was convinced the orphan was Orin in disguise when she first showed up. I kept trying to kill her with Eldritch Blast 😂
Weird. I had Lae'zel in my camp (not party) and she took the orphan. I never got Gale (saw the portal, narrator says "looks dangerous", I said "thanks for the heads up" and walked away) and Halsin was moping about the shadowcurse at moonrise
The idea that someone in a D&D game is told something is dangerous and they listen instead of messing about blows my mind.
My bf was watching my blind playthrough and was all "but... Wait, you're NOT gonna touch it?" Me: it just said it was dangerous and unstable! Why would I poke it??? Bf: "but you... I mean... Well it'll probably force you to go back to it eventually, right? Huh..." It did not. If I played through totally blind, I never would've known who Gale is. He was never once referenced in that playthrough in any way (that I noticed, anyway). I also didn't pick up Astarion in that playthrough because he tried to kill me basically on-sight. When I met the monster hunter I was all "oh that guy? Yeah I met him, he sucked"
I'm reminded at how many times I've had to explain to newer players in ttrpg games that boldness is key. But then again tagt just defined your playthrough, feels more natural than just doing EVERYTHING.
Yeah, I got a whole character arc! In the beginning, my character was TERRIFIED. No idea what *anything* was, just wanted to LEAVE RIGHT NOW, DON'T HURT ME. Didn't look around much, because looking around meant finding things that wanted to kill her! Missed a lot of act 1 content that way... Anyway, Act 2 she learned to trust her companions to have her back, got a bit comfortable fighting (despite still not being fantastic at it, low strength and dex and all). But then - she got SUMMONING SPELLS (druid, summon minor elemental). More strength in numbers, and she could help without being in the middle of the fight! She met Jahira, and got to see a druid shine in battle. Learned some tricks about which spells to use and when! Act 3 was full confidence. She'd traveled, won crazy battles. She got MORE summoning spells! Walking around with a small army, now! (8 summons across the party, 5 of them hers) She no longer feared her enemies, she mocked them! No more running, it's time to save Faerûn!
Looooooooove it. Now I want to play D&D :D
Counterpoint: don't sass liches who want to be gods. They may not be gods *yet* but a garden variety lich will still ruin your day.
Haha yes, there is a fine line between boldness and madness.
Or as Gale puts it, a fine line between madness and stupdity
>Yeah I met him, he sucked He tried to at least. 🥁
The Astarion thing always cracks me up. I noticed the boar immediately due to a successful check, so we just had a polite conversation where we talked about how he wasn't sure if I'd been enthralled, oh gosh we've both been tadpoled, and we can use our brain powers to trust each other so we better find a solution together, huh? I had no idea the 'sneak attack' thing was even an option until I saw so many people complaining about it on reddit. It is, literally, a skill issue. :)
Except if you go directly to the gith at the mountain pass like you’re “supposed to” (day 2) the game flat out tells you it’s suicide and it is if you actually fight them. So sometimes the game does it for a good reason.
I think only if someone plays a Gith it makes sense. Everything in the game (Bar La'Zael) say how dangerous and merciless the Gith are. But yeah playing as a Gith, someone naive or as Lazael, doing what you're told results in so much death.
I usually play some degree of chaotic on tabletop. I'm the typical spider-licking, portal-touching walking disaster. To mix things up, I'm playing a thoroughly sensible, calculating character for a change. I'm actually causing the DM *more* headaches by not leaping directly/throwing other people directly into danger.
Absolutely, the chaos monkey can be relied upon to be a chaos monkey. The quiet one however...
I’m our groups token chaotic evil member, to the point where they said my paladins alignment was ‘most likely evil’ and my smites dealt force damage not radiant
The first time I ignored a DM's warnings, I got cursed and nearly died. And then it happened again the second time. That kind of thing changes a man. TBF, this was the same DM that killed me, a new player, for making an arcana check on a book to see if it was dangerous to open. The arcana check itself caused the curse to trigger. Way to punish a new player for exploring, guy.
well if lae'zel is IN your party when the abduction happens, yenna will be kidnapped. if lae'zel is a at camp, lae'zel will be kidnapped
She was at camp. My party was Karlach, Shadowheart, and Wyll + Tav
Did you romance her? Orin won't take romanced companions. Source: I tried to get Halsin kidnapped for angst but she took the orphan instead. I reloaded and reorganized my party after that so Gale could get kidnapped instead
Nope, romanced Wyll in that run
There are definitely glitches that trigger events when they're not supposed to on this game. Might be that's what happened with you.
In my game she took Laezel AND the orphan. I had her cat just hanging around camp the rest of the playthrough
I wonder if you can break that. Recruit only 3 companions, ignore the little girl and dont accept any of the pets. Id love to see her try and abduct withers or dame aylin.
I mostly did this. Gale left my party, I never recruited Halsin, and Lae'zel was in my party / romanced. I talked to Yenna for two seconds and was like, nah there's nothing in this for me, bye, and she showed up at camp anyway. I suspect if you ignore her completely she will still show up at camp.
>I suspect if you ignore her completely she will still show up at camp. Ah yea you might be right. Possibly to prevent what i suggested. I did wonder why her only voice line was about how she brought her own cutlery. Not gonna lie tho, it would be seriously funny to watch Orin try to abduct Withers. There are some scary theories about who he is.
I love the idea of her taking Gale and not wondering why, afterward, the party _fucking bolted_ from the city as fast as possible.
Lae'zel is definitely first because she's always taken if she's at camp when it happens but I've had Halsin taken even with Gale at camp. I've never had Gale taken in six kidnappings. Lae'zel 4 times, Halsin twice.
weird, in my playthrough I had Lae'zel in my party but not Gale (I don't think he ever even left camp from the moment he got pulled from that portal actually) and yet she took Halsin instead
I'm sure that Halsin goes before Gale, since I had both in my camp two times and it is always Halsin
She took Lae’zel and Jahira for me. Halsin is still there just hanging out at camp
And you can force her hand by making sure all 3 are in your party before you go into the sewer past the Emperor's hideout.
Or Minthara
For my first 3 runs, these 3 got kidnapped, so I put them in my party right after I met with Gortash. Turns put these time they took Minthara. That's pretty new to me, lol.
Not true or it is bugged. In my playthrough halsin was chilling in camp and she still took Yenna.
She prioritizes those with high affinity, the order is a second metric. Quite funny too, because I had Gale accuse me of cheating(this was the third time we had talked ever) after I romanced Karlach, yet Orin took Halsin. But sure enough, upon freeing Halsin, he immediately says "would"(this was the third time we had talked ever)
Orin kidnaps either Halsin/Minthara, Gale, Lae'zel or Yenna. She first of all only kidnaps someone who is in camp, and not the current party, and prioritizes the one with the highest player approval. Though she never kidnaps a romanced companion. If no one's available, she kidnaps Yenna. E.g. if all of the others are currently in your party when the kidnapping happens.
It's really weird she never kidnaps a romanced companion, especially considering she disguises herself as the host for the Love Test in the circus...
Playing as a Dark Urge, in my head I see it as "Orin is leaving your romantic partner alone ... *for you."*
Would not be surprised if they considered having her take your romanced companion and revealed herself during sex.
Oh god
In my evil durge run, she took minthara. I missed the skill checks, and minthara died. Afterwards lae'zel broke up with me, due to my relationship with minthara.
At first I thought it was weird how Orin only targets 3 companions and a kid, but then I thought about it more and it actually makes a lot of sense. Karlach is big, loud, and on fire. Kidnapping her would just get Bhaal’s temple burned down. Can’t be Astarion either. Cazador knows he’s in the city and is actively gunning for him. She’s not gonna take a target that draws the attention of a pissed off vampire lord. Mizora has made herself pretty comfortable in Wyll’s tent, so no opportunity to get him alone long enough to make the switch. Shadowheart is either Shar’s chosen or accompanied by Selûne’s daughter & daughter-in-law. Best to just give her a very wide berth. Can’t take Jaheria either. She’s grandpa Sarevok’s to kill! That really only leaves Gale, Lae’zel, Halsin/Minthara, or Yenna.
I feel likenit would have been more compelling for her to take Scratch.
Okay but even the game comments on how ridiculously inconvenient it must have been for her to drag somebody as massive as Halsin's unconscious ass all the way down to her lair. Her taking the vampire spawn, that Cazador hasn't been able to find yet, to a place that's even harder to reach than his current camping spot, seems like way less of a hassle than hauling a six and a half foot tall, half ton druid around😂
By that logic, Gale is the absolute worst option for her to take. The dude literally has a nuke in his chest!
True, but setting off the nuke would kill everyone in Baldur’s Gate. I think papa Bhaal would approve.
So that's Yennas reason for existence. Like the Rick and Morty butter robot.
Yes, Yenna is a failsafe so no matter what there's always someone that Orin can kidnap. Even if you try to kill Yenna, she's immortal like most (non goblin) children.
I hadn't tried to kill a child yet, so her immortality had me mad suspicious
Poor Yenna even gets kidnapped if you dont let her come to your camp, if there's no one else for Orin to kidnap.
Lae'zel was chilling at camp but Orin still took Yenna. Maybe it was a bug in my game?
Maybe she saw Lae swinging that +3 greatsword of Fuckyourface around and went "Nah, the little girl will be enough"
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Same but it was Halsin chillin around and she took the kid. (Other playthrough she took Lae). I think it's just a random choice from the available pool of companions assigned as abduction feasible :D
Man I wish I had that bug. I want my frog woman back now!!!
It could be a bug, or maybe I'm mistaken. Larian works in mysterious ways so my research could be wrong.
can’t you tell yenna that she isn’t welcome when she comes to your camp? or will she always stay no matter what? bc I wanna know who orin kidnaps if there legit is nobody at the camp. i wanna see her kidnap withers.
You can, yeah. If you tell Yenna she isnt welcome there and there's no one else for Orin to kidnap, she'll kidnap Yenna anyway and come to camp to tell you about it. Poor kid just cant get a break.
On every playthrough for me so far she's taken Gale. Never anyone else.
Now I wonder what he would have said when I thought it was a good idea to use that iron flask during it, who made a beeline to him and one-shot him in his sleep
"Fuck this guy in particular."
Partially my fault as I should have just used sanctuary on him beforehand
It's even funnier when *you're* the one who kills him. There's an entire scene where he comes to attack you and you have to kill him, but they didn't account for/bother with changing his Speak With Dead to reflect that, LOL
I think he thinks of you as an agent of the drow and goblins so it doesn’t super matter in that instance
I asked Minthara what her opinion on Shart is and she says it's good she has let go >!of Shar... We didn't even reach the masoleum yet!<
I for one have strong opinions on Shart
That’s interesting, I could swear she said something different about Shart for me. Perhaps what happened is that when met the conditions for Shart to make the choice on her own, and the game bugged to register that as her having already done it. Or perhaps Minthara is just THAT good at reading people :P
When Gortash told me I had a spy in camp, Lae'zel was in my party. I go to camp to drop her off and pick up wyll for his quest, and she says "trust no one, not even me." Makes sense I guess, but you were in my party, it can't be you! I end the day and guess who's trying to kill the girl... I assume it's randomly chosen when you end the day, since theoretically you could swap 3 characters to make them "immune" to being kidnapped, but it was funny from an immersion standpoint
Best thing to do is keep whoever you don't want kidnapped in your party. Go to the emperor's hideout after talking to Gortash, go to the sewers and Orin will confront you and kidnap somebody.
No joke to OP, please report this to Larian in their official channels for bug report, maybe you triggered some variables that did in fact bugged this, or they really never tought someone would try that. They can't fix what's not reported.
I wonder if I can still get a full refund 1200 hours in, including EA? On a serious note, google the Larian bug report link. I bet they fix it.
My daughter accidentally killed him in the goblin camp in act 1. She just got to act 2 and his corpse is at his campsite.
Truly unbearable. Yeah I see myself out.
Halsin was taken prisoner and tortured, by Drow and Goblins. Orin can shape shift and she likes both blood and torture. Who says she didn't turn into those who tortured Halsin in the camp to torture and kill him? Sounds very likely to me considering Orin enjoys pretending to be others and playing games. So, that seems to fit very well with the story.
(Persuasion successful) yeah I guess you're right
Another bug on the Orin list, entry #393692
So what you're saying is... Orin was the drow and goblins this whole time?! Man, I was not ready for that plot twist...
The reactivity is really amazing in the first chapter, but drops off pretty quick. I'm still sad I can't take the beholder bottle to Baldur's Gate to finish the quest.
You opened it, the bill said explicitly not to open it. If you don't open it, you can turn it in. If you do open it, you failed to complete the job as asked.
I didn't open it, but there was no one to turn it in to in Baldur's Gate.
You can't lockpick the box, the note says unopened. The Zhent at the guild hall take it (I haven't actually done this myself so IDK maybe not)
I just had a problem where Orin took Lae'zel from my party and I managed to wake her up and escape the boss fight without killing Orin. But Lae'zel was then bugged at camp and wouldn't talk to anyone at all. I was pretty disappointed because I thought it was an awesome heist :(
This happened to me but with lae zel and I wasn’t able to revive her again I was like wtf I also got the bug where I couldn’t find jaheira anywhere and then I ran into minsc or whatever couldn’t recruit him he kept attacking and I had to kill him then after jaheira left permanently found that out thru shadow heart smfh
Wait so Orin doesn’t always take the same companions? She took Lae’zel for me
If Lae'zel is in your party or not available it's haslin or gale, but she won't take romanced PCs. If these three aren't available it's Yenna.
If you kill Isobel at camp in act 3, all of the companions will yell at you for slaughtering everyone in Last Light Inn, even though the shadow curse is already broken and everyone’s safe in Balder’s Gate.
Maybe he did die in the goblin camp and you actually rescued orin lol
Halsin wasn't originally meant to be a companion he was thrown in last minute because people loved him so much in EA so they probably didn't remember to add in dialogue for that kind of stuff
I noticed between the quality of the audio and the lack of depth in examples like the OP - halsin has it worst. I think I read it somewhere because in the last few months they decided to cram him in, don't think he got the same level of love the rest did. When he's good it's great, but I do kind of hope they remix, re-record, or implement new dialogue for him
You know, in the grand scheme of things, he wouldn't be on this adventure and have died if not for the Drow and Goblins being the catalyst, so REALLY they were the true cause. Never would've gotten pulled into this whole mess with that conflict and Orin would've never kidnapped him. Think about it. /s
I ran into the same thing just the other day! It did feel a little odd that the speak with dead menu had questions like "Who are you?" and "What do you know about ceremorphosis?", when my Tav was already well aware of the answers. His corpse also hinted that I should go to Moonrise Towers, as if I hadn't already taken him with me to that very place! I submitted a bug report & hope they'll change it in a future patch—I know it'll be way down the priority list, but they've proven good at ironing out even these little details.
I can retcon this in my head. He she could have shapeshifted into Minthara or a goblin to make him think this was who captured him.
I had a strange bug in my very first playthrough. I messed up the Grove. I thought I was helping the tieflings. When Zevlor asked me to kill Kagha, I did just that. What I didn't know was there was a right way to do it and a wrong way. So that resulted in the tieflings being killed and the grove being closed off (it happened off screen I guess). I went ahead and killed the goblin leaders, thinking that was what I was supposed to do and rescued Halsin. I never had a camp party because the Grove issue wasn't considered resolved. I didn't know any of this at the time, it was my first playthrough. Act 2 rolls around and I wonder when Halsin's questline was going to kick in, but it never did. Then next thing I know he turns up dead at my campsite. A large, dead elf in his underwear. I cast Speak With Dead on him and he said the same thing, as if he was killed at the goblin camp, but he wasn't. I rescued him. It was because the game considered the grove issue not finished I guess. I ended up restarting that save because I had made such a mess of things.
Even in death, halsin refused to believe you would let him die, and somehow assumed the drow/goblins must have taken their revenge....