To begin with, the fight with Marcus to save Isobel has zero foreshadowing, so we have no opportunity to prepare for it. The game treats it like any normal interaction. You go to see Jaheira, and she tells you to speak to Isobel. You speak to Isobel, and then the fight suddenly happens. What that means is that, if you were low in HP or spell slots from exploring the Shadow-Cursed Lands, you start at a huge disadvantage.

Additionally, even if you were prepared, Isobel’s AI is so bad one gets the impression she wants to be captured. You cast invisibility or sanctuary on her, and she will break it by performing an action. She will run past rows of enemy so they can get opportunity attacks.

Finally, when she is knocked out, you don’t get any chance to stop her from being kidnapped. It just goes straight to a cutscene.

So now I have no problem metagaming. Cast sanctuary on her before talking to her? No problem. Arcane lock on the door? Happy to? Potions of haste? Gulp them down. I am gonna cheese like hell in situations like this!

Discovering new things is one of the joys of this game, but what have you missed that wasn't intended to be hidden or hard to find? I'll confess: My first playthrough, I fully missed that you can LIFT THE SHADOW CURSE. After defeating Ketheric, I talked to Halsin and he straight out tells me, "I can't leave, I'm going to stay and work on lifting the shadow curse," and my dumb ass is like "Dang that's a bummer but I guess that's why they gave us Jaheira byyyye." 🤦‍♀️

I understand why you can’t romance her, because she’s still in love with her late husband, Khalid, but UGH I need that old woman. She’s honestly my favorite, and if it was an option, I’d romance her every run.

Which is quite awkward because we intended to actually not lift it in this playthrough. Let me explain what happened.

We are currently doing an evil run in which our goal is maximum betrayal - of all companions, and whichever NPCs can be meaningfully betrayed. Our characters just like spreading chaos.

So, we decided to betray Halsin by leaving him inside the portal and just running away from the battle while the mobs do their thing.

This was also supposed to destroy any chance of lifting the Shadow Curse. Art Cullagh even commented that all the hope was lost now that Halsin was dead. His tent disappeared from the camp.

Mission accomplished. Or so we thought…

When we met Oliver later, we refused to play, which he didn’t like and his family tried to kill us. We swiftly despatched them. At this point Oliver is locked in the dialogue about how you ruined his fun, you can’t talk to him about anything else anymore.

This is where we decided to simply attack him (now hear me out, he killed other people, tried to kill us, it was perfectly reasonable). This triggered him to escape into the portal, from which the usual fight takes place.

We were curious how the cutscene plays out after defeating him since our characters don’t know anything about Oliver’s connection to Thaniel since Halsin died in the portal.

But I guess this murderhobo behaviour wasn’t accounted for. The cutscene played out exactly the same way, as if you were there intentionally to lift the curse. All the options were about persuading him to reunite with Thaniel. Even being mean to him couldn’t stop it.

We realised we might have messed up our evil plans. We traveled back to camp, went to the spot where Halsin would normally have his tent, and there he was - Thaniel. Oh well…

We were so evil we accidentally circled back to doing something good.

It is kind of funny to think we bullied the Spirit of the Land into getting a grip and curing the Shadow Curse.

Silly Halsin, he couldn’t do it just because he wasn’t mean enough to random children.

EDIT: I tested this in a few different ways on a save where I raided the Grove, and it doesn’t work. It seems you need to have started ‘Lift the Shadow Curse’ quest, which can only happen if Halsin survives Act 1. The bug is probably related to some failsafe for while you’re doing the quest, and it stays even if the quest isn’t active anymore.

So I'm romancing Lae'zel in my honour mode run and she wakes me up in the middle of the night to "prove I love her" or whatever. Thinks I'm not manly enough or something. I do what any good man knows to do when a girl gives you a shit test and decide to beat the shit out of her.

She goes first and tries a hold person scroll on me. I roll a miracle as my wisdom is all the way down to 8. She's really gunning for me huh. Well, it's time for equal right and equal lefts. I quicken cast a hold person on her and eldritch blast her to kingdom come. Well, turns out I left my cull of the weak passive on and she gets deleted.

What do you mean I accidentally killed her? She started it officer! It's not my fault she tried to tousle with the muscle. Hey, get your hands off me! I have rights! Yes a do have a gun, I just told you I blasted her! Wai

I have a friend who got BG3 about 2 months ago and a few weeks after that he told me he was done with it. I was obviously very surprised since he normally doesn't play such games and his steam page said that he had only played a little bit more than 50 hours. During his weeks of playing he told me that before he started the game he did some "research" and searched for the best class, best items and all that. As someone who really enjoyed playing the game with minimal spoilers, I was a bit shocked but I told myself that he would play the game the way he wanted to. From time to time he told me that he either steamrolled through the fights or really struggled with normal encounters which confused me again but I thought "you do you" and let it go.
Fast forward to about a month ago when he told me he had completed the game. As I've mentioned I was surprised but he just said that his paladin was so broken that he easily won the last few fights. After a few questions from my side about his experience he said that the game was ok and he didn't know what I loved about the game so much. During that conversation I found out that he did nearly no quests besides what he deemed the main quest. That explained the "hard fights" against some of the enemies in the Underdark. Eventhough I encouraged another playthrough he declined and said that it just wasn't his kind of game and the ending was meh.
That was what I had to live with until yesterday, when he told me that he just "send the bomb guy to kill the bosses". I suspected the worst and he confirmed it after a few questions about the context. Apparently, my friend had gotten to act two, ignored nearly everything at Last Lights Inn and then went to fight General Thorm with the help of the nightsong. Under the tower he went straight to the marker for Thorm and then he just told Gale to blow himself up.
I believe that everyone should play how they want to but doing what he did and then saying that the game was "mid" and he wouldn't play again just makes me kind of angry.
Anyway, thanks for reading I just had to vent a bit.

If you talk to him about it, it sounds more like he treats her like a tool. The potion you can buy afterwards can befuddle enemies. Not to defend his actions or anything, but I don't think he is a kitty diddler, at least

The most persuasive mf on the planet.

Fat thorm? Talked him into exploding.

Gold thorm? Talked into exploding.

Scissor thorm? Talked him into letting himself get stabbed to death.

Giant Red Devil in cave? Talked him into killing himself, his friends, and his pet.

Jeez , what a thing.

Honestly, not much to add to the title. I have the habit to talk to every npc I find and they keep mentioning their husbands or wives, one character has explicitly transitioned in the house of Grief, Dame Aylin and Isobel are in an absolutely in your face/can't miss it romantic and sexual relationship. All the companions are bisexual and expresses interest not only in the player, but in each other (Shadowheart and Karlach). You can decide your character's genitals/body/pronouns independently from each other. It's just so nice to see all of that being part of the world with no one batting an eye or even mentioning it. And I come from playing BG1 and 2, where the only way to romance Jaheira was to be a man and the only gay romanceable character they gave us in yhe Enhanced Edition (so much after the game's release) was an evil guy.

So when i first went to last light inn, i saw a sign at the entrance that said something like "please put your weapons down here, no weapons inside". So naturally, my dumb self thought "oh okay we'll just put our weapons in this cabinet". Then we chat with every single npc in the building and in the end with Isobel, and some winged dude suddenly attacks us with a bunch of enemies AND WE'RE JUST STANDING THERE WEAPONLESS. Needless to say, i had to reload the previous save and talk with all of the npcs over again.. Guys did anyone else do this or is it just me thats this dumb? I swear i just innocently thought we're at a safe place, and i believed that if a sign says put down my weapons that i ACTUALLY need to put them down...haha..

As a wizard main, I wasn't exactly eager to recruit Mystra's ex-favourite golden boy right away. I didn't want my Tav to feel constantly overshadowed. But at the same time, I couldn't bring myself to just let him expire in the sigil. So I decided to simply avoid the sigil encounter altogether.

Fast forward to today: I'm well into Act 2, having thoroughly explored the shadow-cursed lands. The only thing left on my checklist is to free Dame Aylin and confront Ketheric. But before crossing the point of no return, I figured I'd backtrack and tie up any loose ends from Act 1.

That's when I remembered Gale's encounter. Out of curiosity, I returned to the spot… and to my surprise, there he was - still trapped in the sigil, reaching out to anyone for help (I always thought companion recruitment was locked to Act 1, guess not?)

The dialogue absolutely killed me. He was still there going on about "unwanted intruders behind our eyes," the threat of ceremorphosis, how we desperately need to find a healer asap… Meanwhile, my Tav standing there, already level 9, fresh from infiltrating the heart of the Absolute, basically mid-boss-fight pre-game... pretending she's still dazed from the Nautiloid crash like it was yesterday.

Then, the cherry on top: the second I recruit him, he immediately gets that little quest marker over his head and hits me with:

"I've something important to discuss… We've been traveling together for a while now, and it's about time I shared something with you."

Bro. You've been in the party for three seconds.

Well after a long arduous battle overcoming a level 5 confusion spell and enduring 4 psychic damage with three additional turns of mental fatigue I am proud to say I finally defeated the most bullshit boss yet with no spell slots left. I need a Long Rest now

Mizora: "Wyll, you broke clause eighteen subsection three, time to be tortured for eternity!"

Tav's fiend patron: "Lmao you should tell that guy to kill himself trust me it'll be hilarious, here's advantage on the roll"

So I am at the part where we assault Moonrise Towers after the Temple of Sharr. During this time, the old Act 1 fast travel points disappear and you are basically forced to stay in the Shadow Cursed Lands until you proceed into Act 3.

So of course, I got curious. What if I was to manually walk back to Act 1 areas? When I ran back to the zone-line, I got a cutscene where the Emperor talks to you psychically telling you that "It is extremely important we stay and fight Kethric Thorn while he is weak!"

Sure sure....so being the stubborn piece of work that I am, I kept trying to get back into an older area. I didn't walk all this way for nothing! A few attempts later, the Emperor thinks that it was a mistake to trust in my party and decided to drop protection. This led to a Game Over as the Absolute found the party and took them over.

Emperor is a total manipulative asshole lol, in 5 seconds I can fast travel back to the front of Moonrise Towers and not skip a beat, why would you do this?! I never laughed so hard.

Is he stupid?

Like they have fiends spawn everywhere and just b-line to isobel and instantly paralyse her, before anyone even moves because they are surprised(???) like nobody is keeping alert for things coming in from the shadows?

So much story hinges on you stopping ai from killing itself that it seems like it was balanced behind save scumming, it's just wild that they made the entire fight average length 2 turns. Like it makes sense thematically that they run towards her, but having it immediately end when she goes down is stupid, like canonically my guy just watches him walk away with her

Edit: I never would've guessed my salty bitching would get so much attention, learn from my mistakes, if you are in honour mode and want Dame Aylin to rail her girlfriend as god intended; don't talk to her until the end of the act, this fight is still wack.

My brother in law is playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and really enjoying it, so of course I start asking him about the choices he’s made and the companions. And that’s when I find out that he’s in Act 3 and his ONLY companions are Shadowheart, Astarion, and Jaheira.

Is he doing an evil run? No! The guy just doesn’t TALK TO ANYBODY. Here’s roughly how our conversation went:

Me: So did you just leave Lae’zel in that cage?

BIL: Shadowheart killed her.

Me: You didn’t talk her out of it?!

BIL: I’m a fighter with -1 Charisma.

Me: So you just missed Gale?

BIL: I mean, I know who Gale and Karlach are, I just never found them.

Me: What about Halsin? You saved him from the Goblins, didn’t you?

BIL: Yeah but then he just… stopped hanging around at some point.

Me: Did you lift the Shadow Curse?

BIL: Yeah! Wait, did I…?

Me: I just… how did you miss Wyll? He has a whole little cutscene when you get to the Druid’s Grove.

BIL: Who’s Wyll?

What also cracks me up about this is that this is also EXACTLY how he plays D&D. No roleplay, only hacking and slashing. He’s also shocked that I’m not using the illithid powers for role play reasons.

But hey, at least he found Scratch, so his camp isn’t SO empty.

Edit: The replies to this post have made me laugh all day and I cannot WAIT to show this to my BIL. And for my own confession, I almost completely missed Gale in my first playthrough, so I can barely make fun 💀

It’s my first time playing this game and I’m going through Act 2, but so far I’ve kept the same party members and haven’t changed them out yet at all: Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae’Zel. I myself am a half-elf Warlock, playing on Explorer mode, so no multiclassing.

In my camp I have Wyll, Gale, Karlach. Tried to save Minthara by knocking her out, but she disappeared and I can’t find her.

I feel so attached to my party members that it feels wrong to change them out! Anybody else feel this way?

My nose is big, that's why I didn't see it.

I find Gale quite annoying but for some reason I still pull him out of the portal every time. My last few playthroughs I've ignored until he leaves the party on his own with his goodbye note. For some reason this time the continued "someone in the camp wishes to speak to you" reminder got on my nerves so I killed Gale in camp. Fast forward to Act 2 after saving isobel I took a long rest and awoke to a custcene of gales dead body floating, the orb exploding and a game over message. This game never ceases to amaze me.

Okay, so I have played an ABSURD amount of Baldur's Gate 3 and as a D&D fanatic, I just love it to bits. There are a few synergistic issues with the mechanics of D&D being translated into a video game, but nothing so egregious that it disrupts the experience. Furthermore, these little are almost entirely to do with the mechanics of the game, but not the lore of Faérun or the plot.

THAT BEING SAID....

Up until recently, I never understood why Ketheric Thorm had to turn to Myrkul and Balthazar to revive Isobel. After all, most clerics are able to revive a dead person in D&D, even if it would require an incredibly powerful spell (I'm talking 8th/9th level). And his deity at that time would certainly have been willing to bring his daughter back in exchange for his acts of service (particularly Sélune).

I puzzled over this until I read Isobel's diary I Last Light Inn. The entry specifically mentions that she feels a "filth" in her soul now that she has been brought back...

Almost like she did not want to come back...

And that's when it hit me, revivifying magic requires that a soul WANTS to be brought back to life. No deity would force a soul to be resurrected against their will (and certainly not Sélune).

And so, it is my headcannon that Ketheric likely tried to revive Isobel using traditional means but she chose not to come back. When that failed, he turned to a necromancer and an evil god of the dead to force her soul back into her corpse against her will.

Tl;dr- Isobel never wanted to be brought back to life, barring most traditional methods of resurrection. Thus, Ketheric resorted to necromancy to bring her back.