It only triggers if you rest on the starting beach before recruiting too many companions.
“60 hours” …. “Halfway through act 3” What?
Yeah at 60 hours and almost done with act 3 this dude missed a ton of shit.
Not long resting enough is a problem I had in my first playthrough and I’m not doing much better in my second. I’m amazed at the idea of long resting before rescuing Lai’zel, that’s maybe two battles? Maybe some resources spent recruiting other characters?
Either way I’d like to see an improvement on when you need/should long rest. The illithid powers being tired is one hint, but you don’t know that until you try and use them. Characters complain, but rarely often enough.
I totally missed Lai’zel, went the wrong way. I’m sure there’s tons more I missed.
I never found Gale on my first campaign
I had to pull up a map and it’s possible to miss all four “starting” characters (Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale & Lai’zel) and while not easy, Lai’zel is the easiest to miss.
I do wonder what happens if you skip them.
I finished my first playthrough yesterday as the “heroic Dark Urge” referenced in the article and I can do nothing but echo their recommendations. The story came together so well that it feels like it should be canon and it has a lot of custom content.
I’m pretty sure that if there’s ever a BG3:DLC or BG4, the redeemed Dark Urge SL will be canon. What with >!Withers intervention, the warning about your own offspring, etc.!<
Or if there will be an official canon WotC novelization…
Knowing what they did with the (now canon) BG 1&2 novelization I pray WotC stay far away.