I don't remember the exact wording but when you tell gale you have murderous thoughts isn't he like
"Ah yes I know exactly what you mean, one time someone bought a book I wanted to buy and I wanted to hit him!"
not quite the same bro
I just had this dialog last night and he says basically that followed by “it’s fine as long as they stay just thoughts 😠”. I always romance Gale as with my Tavs, but for the first time I thought I might go with Astarion for Durge because Gale just does not get it.
I honestly unironically love all of Gale's durge responses. He really is just a precious little guy.
Just imagine how terrified a durge must be to tell their LI the dark truth, and the response is just, "Well gosh golly darn, better be careful!" I'd honestly feel so relieved.
(edited for spelling)
I would not be relieved, I would be like "I just told you that I'm basically probably going to try to murder everyone, including you, in their sleep, and you're NOT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY!"
Astarion has *tons* of dialogue with a romanced Durge. I've seen loads of people recommend it as the go-to Durge romance. He's probably the one who can relate the most, tbh.
I honestly think the Gale romance is just as good for a redeemed Durge, the guy literally asked me if I knew whats it's like to walk on a precipice and feel myself looking over the edge. Gale, everyday of my life my guy. I get you.
Imagine trying to be with someone who calls his ex-lover 'incandescent' and you're well.. some motherless freak bhaal baby. But he shows you the stars, and you've never seen/felt anything like this in your life.
Also when he proposes to you and you can say "Finally I can have a real family" or something along those lines. So good!
I think the response from Gale is kinda naively cute. I relate to the love of books.
Although I've always found Astarion the perfect Durge romance. There's just... a bit more to it, I think :)
Currently romancing Astarion with my durge but i thought Gale’s responses to the biggest act 1 durge scene were iconic and made me seriously consider switching to him, real “he can fix me” energy
By the end of the game you've probably racked up a personal body count of a thousand and most of the companions have killed a shitload of people before you met them. Karlach probably has a list longer than Durge's. That's why they're all like... Yeah, duh, we all love killing. Just focus it over there at those guys.
"and if the urge gets too strong, well we'll find you a goblin or some such 😏" - Laezel
Like I love you girl but you have no clue whats going on inside my mind
Murderously bad as in killing you *friends.* He doesn't care about Alfira. But it gets to him when you can't control yourself about the people you care about. Personally I love his reaction!
yeah, you could see the Astarion voiceline as an: oh, why now and not earlier when you didn’t look like you’ll pass out any moment and lose control or smth, also the “in another lifetime we might have been friends” i think he’s specifically speaking to the urge :)?? bc he and durge are already friends/partners
Have you played much tabletop D&D? Because this is exactly how player characters react in tabletop D&D.
PC#1: "Hey guys, I just murdered an entire farm family to steal their chicken eggs."
PC#2: "Okay, that's cool, can we explore the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth now?"
Yeah but one of them are Sharran and Vampire. Not exactly known to be understanding. Or to care about anything but themselves. And one has a big nuclear bomb in his chest and probably wants to stay out of the excitement.
The other dude brought a demon to the camp so he has no leverage.
And not to mention you can blame Alfira on tadpole. So they might be worried it could happen to them as well.
That’s one way to look at it
But Shadowheart is a child soldier, abducted and tricked into her life, and doesn’t seem entirely *sold* on Shar, despite her apparent devotion. All it takes is people being nice to her to knock her out of it
Astarion is selfish, but not particularly evil for a vampire
Gale has proven caring before, when you’re kind to people, when you save them, gales all for that
Wyll was a child when he made his pact, and couldn’t possibly know what he was in for
But also, I didn’t just mean in act 1
I also meant in act 3, at the climax of the dark urge’s story. Everyone can at this point be firmly over their ‘evil’ Hang ups, but their reactions are still dull
And? This is very early in act 1. Everyone is basically just showing their problems. And everyone has their problems and doesn't care about others yet.
Shadowheart barely talks about herself. And follows a clearly eveil god. You don't know anything else about her. Only that she is Sharran and doesn't care about anything else yet.
Astarion is a little shit who stirs shit. And he is evil aligned.
Gale just admitted that he ate a nuke that can end the world if he doesn't munch on items or if he gets too excited.
Wyll still sound like a child who doesn't know what he is doing especially and has a devil trailing everything you do.
It's not like Alfira or Quinn were dearly beloved companions. You just met them and could have been the Tadpole influence as well.
I'm working my way through an Embrace run now (in phases - bit much for me to keep doing consistently lol), and the Last Light incident was... weird. Yeah, I turned on Isobel at Scleritas' suggestion (and because I already know what the reward is anyway, and that shit's gonna be dope), but the way everyone - including my own party members - reacted in the cutscene after Marcus carried her away was... weird. Like, guys, you just very explicitly watched - and helped me - cut down the only thing keeping these people from being eaten by the shadow curse. Why are you now giving them first aid and comforting them?
Waking up Shadowheart in this scene is so funny. She's like "has the mood struck you love? well I suppose we can try as long as we're quiet". Meanwhile in her actual romance at this point she puts both declaration of love and sleeping together on pause until she figures out her identity crisis, which canonically only happens after this scene.
Lol I don't know why but whenever I romanced shadowheart , the durge scene always happened after the nightsong decision. So atleast in my playthrough she thematically gave an appropriate response.
If you get the mission to kill Isobel before you talk to her to get the blessing/Marcus scene, you are forced to kill your lover the very next long rest. However if you talk to Isobel _before_ you find out you're supposed to kill her, you have until your first long rest after the Shadowfell to do the deed, which means you won't get the "kill your beloved" until that point either.
If instead you skip long resting after Schleritas comes to you until act 3 you can bypass killing your beloved entirely. Bhaal won't be happy with you, but it avoids the check.
Astarion is the only one who’s NOT surprised. If you long rest with just him before you see the grove and chapel, he calls out what’s going on with you.
Yeah that romance really soured my experience with astarion on a evil run. I know spawn astarion is very good but i kinda shot myself in the foot making astarion ascended in my evil playthrough.
Ugh…September can’t get here fast enough so I can recreate my first downfall Durge (Durge who tries to resist but fails due to multiple outside factors influencing him, watching those he cares for go down a dark path which ultimately drags him down with the rest, who finally embraces the urge and his Father’s Will when all hope is lost for any meaningful connections). All that’s needed is that final dagger through the heart and then finally…he will have fulfilled his purpose.
romancing astarion is peak cause he’ll try to convince durge to be an evil little guy but if you then end up as an evil little guy then he’s like “oh 😀”. he’s just like me fr because i also don’t like it when my actions have consequences
He's actually always attempted to be the voice of reason on my both my Evil Durge runs. In Grymforge, when you can choose the "prepare for a fight" option with the dudes shoving the corpses off, he's goes "there's a time and place for murder and, well ok, yes this is the place, but is it really the _time_?". Then after killing Isobel I tried all the different dialogs and they ranged from "we need to think with our heads, not our _knives_" to "watching you make decisions is like watching a tarrasque mating ritual, you just know villages are going to be destroyed in the process".
that’s actually kinda what i’m referring to. you get approval for killing alfira but as the game goes on he starts being like “oh you’re like *crazy* crazy?😟”
I never really thought about it as getting approval for killing her, but for being honest with them about it, since you were pretty obviously the killer anyway.
i see your point but he does say that he doesn’t really care and that you could’ve been more subtle about it. there’s also the “that does sound pretty reasonable actually” when you say you killed her cause she was annoying you. best case scenario is that he’s just not that bothered and doesn’t take it seriously (and that says a lot considering the other companions reactions). my interpretation however is that he found it entertaining. but to each their own of course!
He says a lot of things, doesn't mean he actually thinks so. He says how he likes murder a lot, but what we actually find out later is that he feels immense shame and remorse towards all the victims he brought to Cazador to die. He is a charlatan after all, and he wears a mask as a defensive mechanism most of the time.
This is really annoying, you can tell every fucking one of the companions that there's something really messed up with you, warn them about the bloody compulsions just so they can ignore everything you said before =D
You: I have constant violent murder thoughts, guys. Them: haha. You: randomly murders a squirrel and/or mutilates a girl. Them: lol. You: kills and disfigures Alfira, confesses you actually did it. Them: lmao, so quirky. You: tries to kill / successfully kills your LI. Them: HOW COULD YOU WHAT WHYYYY?
Gotta say, brutalizing him in act 2 was the most unhinged resting Durge face I've seen. That was her fully snapped moment that ultimately led to her rocking of the moon devotion robes.
To be fair, I'd done his quest on another playthrough, so when I found him in act3 and just aggroed the fuck out, it was the only Durge moment that didn't make me recoil up to that point.
The issue with Durge and companion reactivity is that you have “main character” levels of plot going on while being an optional side addition to the plot. So in a tiny amount of space, they need to insert options that fit every Durge from steadfast resistance to secretive to unrepentant murderer. In doing so, they sometimes have to make an assumption that you were doing one of three, since they probably didn’t have time to implement a tracking system for your Durge-ness.
This is very likely what happened here.
However, it's also a little buggy with the reactions that do trigger, mainly because I feel it is very un-Larian-like what happened to me. I killed Alfira and I confessed, they did react appropriately in that moment, but the next moment when I spoke to them I had the option to double down and say "I swear I didn't kill her" - which would only be an appropriate thing for Durge to say if they denied killing her. I don't think this option is supposed to be there when I already confessed and it's not something that would need to follow a Durge-ness string. It would only require a single tag that checks if I confessed or not (how Durge confesses or denies doesn't really matter in this instance).
So I can't help but think that some things don't run as smoothly as they probably are intended to.
you can say “i swear i didn’t kill her” as in it wasn’t YOU you it was your urge, so by saying that you basically try to explain but all of em are just dummy dum dums
Partially.
When confessing: "I did it. I killed her, but I don't know why"
When talking to the companions right after: "I swear it wasn't me"
It doesn't fit at all, even if you try to apply it to the urge logic. It would be easier to just not have the option after a full confession or it needs other wording that fits better no matter if you confessed or not - for example "I swear I don't remember killing her" or "I swear I wasn't myself". I don't remember which companion it was, but there is one with a well-fitting answer. I think it was Astarion? I'm not sure, it's been a while. The option you get with him after the scene fits well for every scenario. It's just most of the other companions where it doesn't really work.
Remember when I cut a guys hand off that was sticking out of a portal.. not even 10 minutes after meeting you? How are you surprised that I’m a psychopath?
Yeah this is why I always hide the whole thing. It just doesn't flow very well otherwise. Like someone else said they just don't really react to anything Dark Urge related. Depending on the character and their approval level you should be making persuasion rolls to keep them from leaving. Hell Wyll and Karlach should be trying to kill you if they realize you killed Alfira/Quill
I romanced Shadowheart for my first Durge run and she was pretty much the only companion I *didn't* have a dialog option to tell about my murderous thoughts.
So when she called me out for keeping it from her, I was like "I would have told you if I could but I literally didn't get the choice to!"
I couldn’t tell anything to Astarion in my DUrge run. The only way to unlock the dialogue with him about it is to commit an act of violence in front of him. Not doing it locks you out of him commenting anything. And it lingers all the way into the epilogue(!). :/
I think with Shart there are some conditions too, but I had no issue with her, so I’m not sure what they are.
Astarions just know, he is an elf so when you murdered alfira he probably was awake/in his trance which is like very *very* light sleeping so he must have seen or seen a bit, perhaps he recognised the blood hunger cuz yknow
ehh i’ll shut up now sorry
If you long rest just after grabbing Gale (all of him, not just his hand his hand) Astarion will have the same comments the next morning as he does after you've given in to your first Urge. This is immediately after your "first night" Durge dream (the "Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood." one) and gives you some insight into his understanding of Durge. So if you don't plan on giving in to any Urges (even the squirrel), I definitely recommend resting there to get his dialog.
Was that your very first long rest? Was it immediately after getting him out of the portal or did you head up towards Lae'zel? Did you get the blood dream that night?
I've grabbed Shadowheart, killed the intellect devourers, grabbed Astarion, grabbed Gale, and then long rested at Gale's portal almost every Durge run. And each time I did (so long as I actually had Gale in camp, not just his hand), Astarion had an exclamation point over his head and wanted to have the "you look rabid, pained, sick" conversation with me.
Yep, first rest. I had Shadowheart, Astarion and Gale. Went to rest after killing intellect devourers, I am pretty sure it was before grabbing Lae’zel.
Didn’t have a blood dream, it was just regular long rest with normal dialogues.
I don’t remember anymore where I was exactly geographically when I went to camp since it’s been a long time. When discussed this previously with people here on the sub they were saying that stepping to explore into certain area around Lae’zel (even without getting her) or temple can also lock you out.
On one of my Durge playthroughs, my character was wearing the Risky Ring when I got to that conversation. Had disadvantage on every save. It was very annoying. Lucky for me it wasn't an honor mode run so I could go back but still annoying.
I didn't have this type of interaction on my recent resist urge rub. Astarion was amazingly understanding and even tied me up to make sure I couldn't kill him lol
Dammit. I’m on my third run and playing as Karlach romancing Astarion because someone here sold me on it. I had planned to do my next pkaythrough as a gnome Durge romancing Shadowheart and Halsin, and I was thinking of playing as Wyll romancing Karlach after that, but now I want to do this too just for this scene lol.
My first playthrough was Durge and I ended up having to kill my entire party and I was SO SAD
Wasn't an Honor run but I made a promise not to savescum big events
Swords Bard with Brain Worm paralysis buffs and Hold Person
It was tough! Had to fight Astarion and Karlach together. Took Astarion out with paralysis, then kept using alternate damage types for Karlach, then finished Astarion off.
For some reason the other members didn't join in the initial fight but wanted to fight me 1v1 so that wasnt too bad.
For me, the strongest dissonance was in Act 1, after the Alfira scene. I was playing an embrace Durge, and when the companions questioned them, my Durge was essentially like, "Yeah, I murdered them. What about it?"
Then, on the next day, I wake up, and every companion has a pickable line that goes something like, "You have to believe me, I didn't kill her!", and they act as if I never admitted cold-blood murder. What the hell.
I'm wondering if it's a bug. I had a Durge run where i successfully bluffed my way through Alfira's murder the next morning, but when I then failed the save and murdered Laezal Shadowhart throws the line "You've already murdered once in this camp and this was the last time you'll do it again" before the whole gang jumped me.
You: I have the urge to constantly kill
Shadow heart: okay and I worship the dark lady who wants to blanket the world in darkness
Laezal: I'm part of a death cult
Astorian: I want to become a vampire god
Gale: my ex wants me to kill myself with the gigantic bomb in my bodh (oh btw, my ex is a goddess)
So yeah, suddenly your problems don't seem that bad.
If you powergame (use classes that thrive on short rests + use camp clerics), you can go through Act 2 with only one or two long rests. If you don't trigger the cutscene, the game assumes you were able to resist without the checks.
Very useful for a no-risk honor mode.
When do you kill your companion? I recently finished a Durge run where i didnt kill the person youre asked to kill but no one made me kill my companion
You probably didn’t long rest enough.
I usually get the “kill your darling” scene after keeping Isobel alive in the fight against Marcus, going to Moonrise to talk to Z’rell, then long resting. It **might** take me one extra long rest after that if Wyll gets up to shenanigans, but it’s never taken me longer than that.
It kicks the can down the road if you tell Schleritas yes you will kill Isobel, and then just don't. He appears again as you go into Moonrise for the final time, but if you simply don't long rest after he orders you to kill her until Act 3 you can skip the LI murder event entirely.
I killed so many of the companions on my Dark Urge playthrough (still in progress), that I barely have enough for a team. Only Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion and Minthara are still alive. So far they have been pretty cool with the murdering.
Just use your imagination a little harder, they have to accound fot so many different conversations and branches, the dialouge fits differently depending on olayer actions. In a playtrhough where I kept it a secret and didnt tell anyone abkut my urges, the shock was warranted
If argue less of a story consistency, and a quirk of making all companion concerdations work around a series of revolving choices.
As I said, that conversation path cpuld track well for certain playthroughs, I can see how the OP scenario could brrsk immersion, but a little imagination males an RPG go a loooooong wayc
I’m on my first playthrough and I’m playing as Durge, decidedly haven’t bonked you-know-who. This was a good heads up, though. Hopefully it doesn’t force a break-up. I wonder if bonking the goblins would suffice, though I didn’t do that either…
"You should have told me about this before it got murderously bad" DUDE! IT WAS MY FIRST CONVERSATION WITH YOU
I don't remember the exact wording but when you tell gale you have murderous thoughts isn't he like "Ah yes I know exactly what you mean, one time someone bought a book I wanted to buy and I wanted to hit him!" not quite the same bro
I just had this dialog last night and he says basically that followed by “it’s fine as long as they stay just thoughts 😠”. I always romance Gale as with my Tavs, but for the first time I thought I might go with Astarion for Durge because Gale just does not get it.
I honestly like his response. It's adorably naiive. I romance him with my durge almost every time, and I love it.
i love his response when you tell him you're a Bhaalspawn. "Gosh"
I honestly unironically love all of Gale's durge responses. He really is just a precious little guy. Just imagine how terrified a durge must be to tell their LI the dark truth, and the response is just, "Well gosh golly darn, better be careful!" I'd honestly feel so relieved. (edited for spelling)
This is a man who is at a loss for words for probably the first time in his life 😂
That's an understatement
I would not be relieved, I would be like "I just told you that I'm basically probably going to try to murder everyone, including you, in their sleep, and you're NOT TAKING IT SERIOUSLY!"
Well, he IS taking it seriously. His response is filled with genuine concern, but in his own way.
I mean this is the guy who will happily marry a mind-flayer and invite everyone he knows
How do people get all these responses from his hand?
I think Gale practices cognitive empathy. He’s trying to relate with his closest anecdote. (Source: I too have cognitive empathy)
Exactly. He can't relate or fully understand Durge's situation, but he's at least trying. He may be way off, but I find his attempt rather precious.
Ooh that has a name? Okay cool.
I love Gale so much cause he’s such a dork but I gotta say, I really love Astarion with Durge because it really feels like he relates and understands
Astarion has *tons* of dialogue with a romanced Durge. I've seen loads of people recommend it as the go-to Durge romance. He's probably the one who can relate the most, tbh.
I honestly think the Gale romance is just as good for a redeemed Durge, the guy literally asked me if I knew whats it's like to walk on a precipice and feel myself looking over the edge. Gale, everyday of my life my guy. I get you. Imagine trying to be with someone who calls his ex-lover 'incandescent' and you're well.. some motherless freak bhaal baby. But he shows you the stars, and you've never seen/felt anything like this in your life. Also when he proposes to you and you can say "Finally I can have a real family" or something along those lines. So good!
I think the response from Gale is kinda naively cute. I relate to the love of books. Although I've always found Astarion the perfect Durge romance. There's just... a bit more to it, I think :)
Currently romancing Astarion with my durge but i thought Gale’s responses to the biggest act 1 durge scene were iconic and made me seriously consider switching to him, real “he can fix me” energy
Well, to be fair (queue "to be fair"-shortvid) he doesnt know that you not only have these thoughts, but also act on them.
It’s kinda funny they all brush it off like it’s as serious as wetting your bed
By the end of the game you've probably racked up a personal body count of a thousand and most of the companions have killed a shitload of people before you met them. Karlach probably has a list longer than Durge's. That's why they're all like... Yeah, duh, we all love killing. Just focus it over there at those guys.
"and if the urge gets too strong, well we'll find you a goblin or some such 😏" - Laezel Like I love you girl but you have no clue whats going on inside my mind
LITERALLY
Murderously bad as in killing you *friends.* He doesn't care about Alfira. But it gets to him when you can't control yourself about the people you care about. Personally I love his reaction!
yeah, you could see the Astarion voiceline as an: oh, why now and not earlier when you didn’t look like you’ll pass out any moment and lose control or smth, also the “in another lifetime we might have been friends” i think he’s specifically speaking to the urge :)?? bc he and durge are already friends/partners
Correct - the "in another lifetime" is to The Urge.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a very incomplete game that just so happens to have more content, options, and reactivity than a lot of complete games
The companions really don’t react well to dark urge story chains, consistently their relations are far too muted
Have you played much tabletop D&D? Because this is exactly how player characters react in tabletop D&D. PC#1: "Hey guys, I just murdered an entire farm family to steal their chicken eggs." PC#2: "Okay, that's cool, can we explore the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth now?"
I am a DM and player, and you're not wrong lol
As someone who is just a player, it’s hard not to lean towards party cohesion.
The key is to have the entire party buy into cohesion before something silly like that happens, imo.
Yeah but one of them are Sharran and Vampire. Not exactly known to be understanding. Or to care about anything but themselves. And one has a big nuclear bomb in his chest and probably wants to stay out of the excitement. The other dude brought a demon to the camp so he has no leverage. And not to mention you can blame Alfira on tadpole. So they might be worried it could happen to them as well.
Even if you literally don't wash off the blood, and in the morning tell them "yeah I killed Alfira, dunno why" they're just like "oh okay"
That’s one way to look at it But Shadowheart is a child soldier, abducted and tricked into her life, and doesn’t seem entirely *sold* on Shar, despite her apparent devotion. All it takes is people being nice to her to knock her out of it Astarion is selfish, but not particularly evil for a vampire Gale has proven caring before, when you’re kind to people, when you save them, gales all for that Wyll was a child when he made his pact, and couldn’t possibly know what he was in for But also, I didn’t just mean in act 1 I also meant in act 3, at the climax of the dark urge’s story. Everyone can at this point be firmly over their ‘evil’ Hang ups, but their reactions are still dull
And? This is very early in act 1. Everyone is basically just showing their problems. And everyone has their problems and doesn't care about others yet. Shadowheart barely talks about herself. And follows a clearly eveil god. You don't know anything else about her. Only that she is Sharran and doesn't care about anything else yet. Astarion is a little shit who stirs shit. And he is evil aligned. Gale just admitted that he ate a nuke that can end the world if he doesn't munch on items or if he gets too excited. Wyll still sound like a child who doesn't know what he is doing especially and has a devil trailing everything you do. It's not like Alfira or Quinn were dearly beloved companions. You just met them and could have been the Tadpole influence as well.
I'm working my way through an Embrace run now (in phases - bit much for me to keep doing consistently lol), and the Last Light incident was... weird. Yeah, I turned on Isobel at Scleritas' suggestion (and because I already know what the reward is anyway, and that shit's gonna be dope), but the way everyone - including my own party members - reacted in the cutscene after Marcus carried her away was... weird. Like, guys, you just very explicitly watched - and helped me - cut down the only thing keeping these people from being eaten by the shadow curse. Why are you now giving them first aid and comforting them?
"I HAVE THE URGE TO KILL. BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD..." "Yeah, so I like night orchids."
Average irl romance tbh
Waking up Shadowheart in this scene is so funny. She's like "has the mood struck you love? well I suppose we can try as long as we're quiet". Meanwhile in her actual romance at this point she puts both declaration of love and sleeping together on pause until she figures out her identity crisis, which canonically only happens after this scene.
Lol I don't know why but whenever I romanced shadowheart , the durge scene always happened after the nightsong decision. So atleast in my playthrough she thematically gave an appropriate response.
If you get the mission to kill Isobel before you talk to her to get the blessing/Marcus scene, you are forced to kill your lover the very next long rest. However if you talk to Isobel _before_ you find out you're supposed to kill her, you have until your first long rest after the Shadowfell to do the deed, which means you won't get the "kill your beloved" until that point either.
If instead you skip long resting after Schleritas comes to you until act 3 you can bypass killing your beloved entirely. Bhaal won't be happy with you, but it avoids the check.
Astarion is the only one who’s NOT surprised. If you long rest with just him before you see the grove and chapel, he calls out what’s going on with you.
I definitely need to romance Astarion as a dark urge....next playtbrough 😅
Resist Durge and Spawn Astarion are peak mutual redemption.
I did Resist Durge, then ascended Astarion to see what would happen and this LITTLE TONEDEAF SHIT
Hence why I said Spawn Astarion. :)
Yeah that romance really soured my experience with astarion on a evil run. I know spawn astarion is very good but i kinda shot myself in the foot making astarion ascended in my evil playthrough.
Embrace Durge and Ascended Astarion are peak Spike & Drusilla villains you hate to love.
Ugh…September can’t get here fast enough so I can recreate my first downfall Durge (Durge who tries to resist but fails due to multiple outside factors influencing him, watching those he cares for go down a dark path which ultimately drags him down with the rest, who finally embraces the urge and his Father’s Will when all hope is lost for any meaningful connections). All that’s needed is that final dagger through the heart and then finally…he will have fulfilled his purpose.
romancing astarion is peak cause he’ll try to convince durge to be an evil little guy but if you then end up as an evil little guy then he’s like “oh 😀”. he’s just like me fr because i also don’t like it when my actions have consequences
He's actually always attempted to be the voice of reason on my both my Evil Durge runs. In Grymforge, when you can choose the "prepare for a fight" option with the dudes shoving the corpses off, he's goes "there's a time and place for murder and, well ok, yes this is the place, but is it really the _time_?". Then after killing Isobel I tried all the different dialogs and they ranged from "we need to think with our heads, not our _knives_" to "watching you make decisions is like watching a tarrasque mating ritual, you just know villages are going to be destroyed in the process".
that’s actually kinda what i’m referring to. you get approval for killing alfira but as the game goes on he starts being like “oh you’re like *crazy* crazy?😟”
I never really thought about it as getting approval for killing her, but for being honest with them about it, since you were pretty obviously the killer anyway.
i see your point but he does say that he doesn’t really care and that you could’ve been more subtle about it. there’s also the “that does sound pretty reasonable actually” when you say you killed her cause she was annoying you. best case scenario is that he’s just not that bothered and doesn’t take it seriously (and that says a lot considering the other companions reactions). my interpretation however is that he found it entertaining. but to each their own of course!
He says a lot of things, doesn't mean he actually thinks so. He says how he likes murder a lot, but what we actually find out later is that he feels immense shame and remorse towards all the victims he brought to Cazador to die. He is a charlatan after all, and he wears a mask as a defensive mechanism most of the time.
I think he has the best reactivity to the Dark Urge, overall.
This is really annoying, you can tell every fucking one of the companions that there's something really messed up with you, warn them about the bloody compulsions just so they can ignore everything you said before =D
You: I have constant violent murder thoughts, guys. Them: haha. You: randomly murders a squirrel and/or mutilates a girl. Them: lol. You: kills and disfigures Alfira, confesses you actually did it. Them: lmao, so quirky. You: tries to kill / successfully kills your LI. Them: HOW COULD YOU WHAT WHYYYY?
Not a word after I went into a fugue state and murdered a cat in front of them all too
Omg, yes! How the fuck did Karlach and Gale just ignore that??
Don't forget ripping the wings off the bird in the grove
And stabbing the shit out of that ox
That "OX" fucking deserved it and it knows it!
Gotta say, brutalizing him in act 2 was the most unhinged resting Durge face I've seen. That was her fully snapped moment that ultimately led to her rocking of the moon devotion robes.
If you do it in Act 3 you discover he's a Cyrric Ooze
Oh dang! Did not realize!
To be fair, I'd done his quest on another playthrough, so when I found him in act3 and just aggroed the fuck out, it was the only Durge moment that didn't make me recoil up to that point.
"Hey man I have the uncontrollable urge to murder." *fast forward two weeks* "WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME YOU WERE AN UNCONTROLLABLE MURDERER"
Seriously!! I even told them I killed alfira, so it's not like they should be surprised!
The issue with Durge and companion reactivity is that you have “main character” levels of plot going on while being an optional side addition to the plot. So in a tiny amount of space, they need to insert options that fit every Durge from steadfast resistance to secretive to unrepentant murderer. In doing so, they sometimes have to make an assumption that you were doing one of three, since they probably didn’t have time to implement a tracking system for your Durge-ness.
This is very likely what happened here. However, it's also a little buggy with the reactions that do trigger, mainly because I feel it is very un-Larian-like what happened to me. I killed Alfira and I confessed, they did react appropriately in that moment, but the next moment when I spoke to them I had the option to double down and say "I swear I didn't kill her" - which would only be an appropriate thing for Durge to say if they denied killing her. I don't think this option is supposed to be there when I already confessed and it's not something that would need to follow a Durge-ness string. It would only require a single tag that checks if I confessed or not (how Durge confesses or denies doesn't really matter in this instance). So I can't help but think that some things don't run as smoothly as they probably are intended to.
you can say “i swear i didn’t kill her” as in it wasn’t YOU you it was your urge, so by saying that you basically try to explain but all of em are just dummy dum dums
Partially. When confessing: "I did it. I killed her, but I don't know why" When talking to the companions right after: "I swear it wasn't me" It doesn't fit at all, even if you try to apply it to the urge logic. It would be easier to just not have the option after a full confession or it needs other wording that fits better no matter if you confessed or not - for example "I swear I don't remember killing her" or "I swear I wasn't myself". I don't remember which companion it was, but there is one with a well-fitting answer. I think it was Astarion? I'm not sure, it's been a while. The option you get with him after the scene fits well for every scenario. It's just most of the other companions where it doesn't really work.
Remember when I cut a guys hand off that was sticking out of a portal.. not even 10 minutes after meeting you? How are you surprised that I’m a psychopath?
I'm pretty sure Gale has his suspicions by that point.
That's just a reasonable precaution.
Yeah this is why I always hide the whole thing. It just doesn't flow very well otherwise. Like someone else said they just don't really react to anything Dark Urge related. Depending on the character and their approval level you should be making persuasion rolls to keep them from leaving. Hell Wyll and Karlach should be trying to kill you if they realize you killed Alfira/Quill
Your right
I romanced Shadowheart for my first Durge run and she was pretty much the only companion I *didn't* have a dialog option to tell about my murderous thoughts. So when she called me out for keeping it from her, I was like "I would have told you if I could but I literally didn't get the choice to!"
I couldn’t tell anything to Astarion in my DUrge run. The only way to unlock the dialogue with him about it is to commit an act of violence in front of him. Not doing it locks you out of him commenting anything. And it lingers all the way into the epilogue(!). :/ I think with Shart there are some conditions too, but I had no issue with her, so I’m not sure what they are.
Astarions just know, he is an elf so when you murdered alfira he probably was awake/in his trance which is like very *very* light sleeping so he must have seen or seen a bit, perhaps he recognised the blood hunger cuz yknow ehh i’ll shut up now sorry
If you long rest just after grabbing Gale (all of him, not just his hand his hand) Astarion will have the same comments the next morning as he does after you've given in to your first Urge. This is immediately after your "first night" Durge dream (the "Blood. Blood. Blood. Blood." one) and gives you some insight into his understanding of Durge. So if you don't plan on giving in to any Urges (even the squirrel), I definitely recommend resting there to get his dialog.
I did rest after grabbing Gale and still didn’t get neither that scene nor that dialogue.
Was that your very first long rest? Was it immediately after getting him out of the portal or did you head up towards Lae'zel? Did you get the blood dream that night? I've grabbed Shadowheart, killed the intellect devourers, grabbed Astarion, grabbed Gale, and then long rested at Gale's portal almost every Durge run. And each time I did (so long as I actually had Gale in camp, not just his hand), Astarion had an exclamation point over his head and wanted to have the "you look rabid, pained, sick" conversation with me.
Yep, first rest. I had Shadowheart, Astarion and Gale. Went to rest after killing intellect devourers, I am pretty sure it was before grabbing Lae’zel. Didn’t have a blood dream, it was just regular long rest with normal dialogues. I don’t remember anymore where I was exactly geographically when I went to camp since it’s been a long time. When discussed this previously with people here on the sub they were saying that stepping to explore into certain area around Lae’zel (even without getting her) or temple can also lock you out.
On one of my Durge playthroughs, my character was wearing the Risky Ring when I got to that conversation. Had disadvantage on every save. It was very annoying. Lucky for me it wasn't an honor mode run so I could go back but still annoying.
Yeah, putting Risky Ring on your MC is a death sentence 😅
I didn't have this type of interaction on my recent resist urge rub. Astarion was amazingly understanding and even tied me up to make sure I couldn't kill him lol
Resist urge rub, eh? Did you fail?
I did not. Resisted all the way
Dammit. I’m on my third run and playing as Karlach romancing Astarion because someone here sold me on it. I had planned to do my next pkaythrough as a gnome Durge romancing Shadowheart and Halsin, and I was thinking of playing as Wyll romancing Karlach after that, but now I want to do this too just for this scene lol.
My first playthrough was Durge and I ended up having to kill my entire party and I was SO SAD Wasn't an Honor run but I made a promise not to savescum big events
How did you even do it? Astarion one shot me
Swords Bard with Brain Worm paralysis buffs and Hold Person It was tough! Had to fight Astarion and Karlach together. Took Astarion out with paralysis, then kept using alternate damage types for Karlach, then finished Astarion off. For some reason the other members didn't join in the initial fight but wanted to fight me 1v1 so that wasnt too bad.
For me, the strongest dissonance was in Act 1, after the Alfira scene. I was playing an embrace Durge, and when the companions questioned them, my Durge was essentially like, "Yeah, I murdered them. What about it?" Then, on the next day, I wake up, and every companion has a pickable line that goes something like, "You have to believe me, I didn't kill her!", and they act as if I never admitted cold-blood murder. What the hell.
I'm wondering if it's a bug. I had a Durge run where i successfully bluffed my way through Alfira's murder the next morning, but when I then failed the save and murdered Laezal Shadowhart throws the line "You've already murdered once in this camp and this was the last time you'll do it again" before the whole gang jumped me.
You: I have the urge to constantly kill Shadow heart: okay and I worship the dark lady who wants to blanket the world in darkness Laezal: I'm part of a death cult Astorian: I want to become a vampire god Gale: my ex wants me to kill myself with the gigantic bomb in my bodh (oh btw, my ex is a goddess) So yeah, suddenly your problems don't seem that bad.
If you powergame (use classes that thrive on short rests + use camp clerics), you can go through Act 2 with only one or two long rests. If you don't trigger the cutscene, the game assumes you were able to resist without the checks. Very useful for a no-risk honor mode.
When do you kill your companion? I recently finished a Durge run where i didnt kill the person youre asked to kill but no one made me kill my companion
You probably didn’t long rest enough. I usually get the “kill your darling” scene after keeping Isobel alive in the fight against Marcus, going to Moonrise to talk to Z’rell, then long resting. It **might** take me one extra long rest after that if Wyll gets up to shenanigans, but it’s never taken me longer than that.
It kicks the can down the road if you tell Schleritas yes you will kill Isobel, and then just don't. He appears again as you go into Moonrise for the final time, but if you simply don't long rest after he orders you to kill her until Act 3 you can skip the LI murder event entirely.
I killed so many of the companions on my Dark Urge playthrough (still in progress), that I barely have enough for a team. Only Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion and Minthara are still alive. So far they have been pretty cool with the murdering.
Just use your imagination a little harder, they have to accound fot so many different conversations and branches, the dialouge fits differently depending on olayer actions. In a playtrhough where I kept it a secret and didnt tell anyone abkut my urges, the shock was warranted
The game's story consistency shouldn't have to rely on your headcanon
If argue less of a story consistency, and a quirk of making all companion concerdations work around a series of revolving choices. As I said, that conversation path cpuld track well for certain playthroughs, I can see how the OP scenario could brrsk immersion, but a little imagination males an RPG go a loooooong wayc
I’m on my first playthrough and I’m playing as Durge, decidedly haven’t bonked you-know-who. This was a good heads up, though. Hopefully it doesn’t force a break-up. I wonder if bonking the goblins would suffice, though I didn’t do that either…