Baldur's Gate 3 Avoiding Shadowheart and the Artifact for ALL of Act 1 

that's especially confusing to me because I rebound it as F5 save and F6 load lmao, I was watching and thinking "something is off and I don't know what"

You changed the default key bindings for quicsave and quickload? WTF is wrong with you? 😂

wait... you have the button used for saving quick RIGHT next to the button for reloading instantly to your last save? That is... risky

@@mattc9598 Exactly what I was thinking!

@@mattc9598mine are set to Q=Quicksave, E=Quickload. guess how many times i’ve put my W finger on E and lost a few minutes of progress :) still better than the defaults

Hahaha so accurate

Some things have to be rail roaded tbf. The players are ABSOLUTELY sabotaging themselves.

Lol vanilla i put it in a backpack and tossed it in shars abyss. Game over. XD

​@@noahdude628 This game could show you a cut scene of you turning into an illithid since you don't have the artefact instead of just forcing it onto you

@@calxcalibur then you wouldn't know why and just stop playing for being punished for playing the game.

I couldnt imagine a more perfect way to end up with the artifact 🤣

Now down here comes the Shart

I was hoping for that...

DISG4STİNG

And now I want that in game

I laughed every time. What a stalker! 😆

I prefer to imagine it like the DM desperately trying to introduce the cleric players character naturally but the other players just ignore her.

"You know what, FUCK IT! She is a ninja and randomly appears! And you wake up with the artifact in your pockets. It comes back to you if you throw it away, FUCK YOU!"

I almost exclusivly hate Shadowheart just because she’s the only companion forced into your group. You can ignore all the others.

@@ReplicatorFifthyou know you could just kill her right

Hahaha i know right! 🤣🤣

Video game logic

I wouldnt know, lae'zel murdered her 🤷

@@maddocks2379bro let the reptile woman murder a baddie💀

Hahaha I hadn't even thought of that 🤣

Ah, I thought she was talking about the secret entrance to Mol's hideout, since she was sitting right in front of it.

Mol steals it, questline over 😂

Haha it was very odd entering the mountain pass and hearing "try something else". I'm used to hearing that at the Grove doorway.

Emperor-chan refuses to not be noticed by Tav-senpai.

This is why I just shove shadow heart off the nearest cliff

I didnt know he did that 🤣🤣 thankyou. Need to go throw away my netherstones real quick.

When I was figuring out how the House of Grief shrine-activated lock worked, I put Gortash's Netherstone in an act of desperate frustration, then he freaks out at me. At that point, I wanted to go into the Astral Prism and pick him up by the neck like Homer does to Bart.

@@Souls4Hire Even funnier if you drop all 3 netherstones in the steel watch foundry and then blow up the building

What a champ 🤣

Nooooo

Amazing comment

The Beacon, the one of two Skyrim items I won't loot...

I love that they did this. I cannot imagine how much thought and planning went into all of the "what if the player does this?" scenarios! A+ Larian!

The amount of depth is absurd. In act 3 there are some choice combinations that wern't accounted for and people will say either you did something you didn't or act like totally opposite from how they treat you one line to the next. But thats understandable given how many choices carry over between acts, thats an absurd number of permutations.

Breaking Wyll’s pact and saving his father makes the game go crazy, it can’t comprehend it. Even though it’s not that difficult to pull off. Everyone treats Ulder Ravengard as dead right when you break the pact. Wyll said he’ll mourn the loss and Florrick got pissed before I even went to the iron throne. I go down there, find him, and Mizora shows up. Surely she’ll kill Ulder Ravengard in a cutscene so I can’t intervene right? Wrong! She summons some explosive spiders, which I just had Gale dimension door Ulder right out of. Mizora still taunted me and Wyll for “sacrificing his father” when the dude was chilling just a few feet away. And then of course Wyll totally broke, all his dialogues repeating with the “if his dad is dead” version first, and then the “if his dad is alive” version after.

@@athenaleonard1046 Oh that's so interesting! Is that in the latest version do you know?

@@athenaleonard1046 thats a bug usually she comments on him being alive

Hahahah 🤣

“Why would my character recruit you?” “BECAUSE I’M PLAYING THE GAME, JACKASS!” “I walk away. It’s what my character would do.” “Ugh, fuck this. I’m going home.”

@@noitsbecky1278 I've heard so many horror stories of people who like roleplay too hard in DnD.

Dude if I had a player make an entrance like Shadowheart does if you ignore her I would be impressed as hell, if a little wary in-character

@@noitsbecky1278 No buddy. You don't get to impose a character that do not mesh at all with the rest of the group on the group just because you're a player. The proper answer is to communicate before the game to make character who can at least tolerate each other. But, as a dm, if a player decide to make a paladin knowing full well that the group is full of pure chaos I veto it. If the player makes a fuss I kick him out. Same if there is a campaign theme, reluctant character is one thing but a character meant to go against the theme of the campaign ? change or get out. I used to be on pure freedom side but i've seen my campaign go to shit because of those players. So now, I work with the player to define the parameters before we start but EVERYONE has to stick to it and anyone who tries to take me for a fool gets the hammer. You definitely need to make a character that make a modicum of sense in the context you're going to play in. Meaning that if you're trying to get hired by someone you NEED to be able to make a case for yourself. if your argument is "I am a PC therefore I have to be accepted no matter what" then : no and get out.

As a DM, I always allow my players to do any characters they want. And I often choose less chaotic style of group, with serious characters and their owners. Even if the group is just murder homos, I try to involve them into the story to make their actions actually have a goal and a reason. If someone trying to ruin my group's experience, I am not kicking them out or banning them from my table. I am just showing them that their actions have consequences. Attacked important for plot NPC, who was just trying to talk to you? Well, actually, he was an important person in this city. Here is your bounty, and, by the way, those guards are already approaching you. No, no, don't roll initiative: they already casted hold person on you. Enjoy your days at jail, killer, hope you'll like that. Trying to go solo play? Oh, guess who doesn't like that. One of the villains, who was watching your actions, need full group of adventures for his plans. And you are not that important for him. So, you are teleported to his castle, and he explains you, that you'll have to stick with your group... oh, you attacked him? Too bad for you - he casts Power Word Kill. Need a new character sheet or you have it yourself? No matter what my players try, I always find a way to punish them through the game mechanics, because(I believe) that is what a good DM will do.

That man doesnt like to be ignored it seems!

Same here, I was very confused as to why he just showed up

Same here i was confused as hell in my first playthrough. I discover yesterday you have to find him before the tiefflin party or he will randomly pop up

i just wanted to get to a camp first before doing a dungeon and forgot about the catacombs lol

Same, went there but didn't wake up him on the first run and when he popped up in camp I was like "Who the fuck is this?..."

This is what I thought would happen 😆

Cue Credits

speedrun strats. nuking gale to end the game in act 2? boring, outdated, tasteless. the optimal any% run is now Take Naps Until You Go Squid Mode

That'd be a fun "any%" run.

Oh I can imagine! But thankyou for your hard work Larian 🙏 I'm enjoying your permutations thoroughly 😆

Hahahahah 🤣🤣

This is honestly what I *expected* was going to happen to me when I wandered off without her 😆

@@Souls4Hire I think they patched it and now the artifact simply appears in you inventory at camp. The mindflayer ending was instant game over

@@thearcanamodernau8130Why would they patch an ending like that. That’s such a cool ending, I mean you can always just save and reload if it’s an issue, the sheer fact that you can even do that is awesome.

​@@noahmatt4476you can still get the turn into a mindflayer ending if that's what you're wondering. I think it happens if you try to return to Act 1 instead of proceeding to Act 3

​@@noahmatt4476 Even better in really early versions there was a bug where you could save in the game over screen and if you loadrd that save you had a full party of mindflayers and the game would continue as normal.

Oh that's so interesting! I'm definitely reloading a save and giving that a try! Thank you.

Oh, the SCP coffee man

Yes! I would have really enjoyed a couple of alternatives ways for her to accost me! Haha. Someone else in the comments suggested that the scene you're talking about was cut in EA 😞

​@@Souls4Hire yeah you are right. She was supposed to be the dark urge before it was changed. Which i think is a good change.

This scene was in the game during early access, but was removed before release which I'm happy about because it really didn't fit her character (at least the version that exists now)

Yes!! I am quietly hoping that someone releases a set of dice with the artifact as the D20. Would be fun.

platonic solids be like that

Yea it is quite intentional.

@@Souls4Hire there’s a mod for that! It’s called “Mysterious Artifact Dice” on nexus mods. Edit: I just realized you meant a physical set of dice. Lmao

inevitable as the passing of time, you cant escape

After all the nonsense he's put me through in the past, I hope he's stewing about this 🤣

Yea this always confuses me actually. They do have tadpoles, they can use illithid authority independent of tav and take the tadpole modifiers - they just wont accept new tadpoles. They're always "hesitating".

Like another post said in this comment section, your character just turns into a mind flayer, then end credit scene

I keep Shadowheart in my camp because I dislike her so much. So, she just gives it to you at some point in her story? Because for me, it sort of appeared out of nowhere, literally dropping in front of me in a tiny cutscene.

@@ArDeeMee i kept he in my party a lot of the time, but at some point i left her in the camp and the artifact came to me too. So i don't actually know what happens if she's always with you.

they did an awful job what do you mean? this scene never once triggered for me. i literally know nothing about the artifact yet at the beginning of act 2 i can just give up info to Jaheira and shadow heart doesn't bat an eye.

Oh that's interesting!! Adding this to my list of things to try 😁

Oh or at least mix it in with the other outcomes! That would have been fun 😁

Poor scratch! Witness to so many atrocities.

😂😂

Oh that's interesting!! The voice changes!??

Yea lol I was messing around trying to cheese the game a bit one day and I got the cut scene entering the mountain pass and the artifact does not appear and the voice says something along the lines of "seek them out and aid them in their endevours". I was like wtf???

HAHAHAHA. Oh I am doing this as soon as I finish work today 😆

I am honestly blown away by how many alternatives the game spins up for my odd behaviour. I would have loved to be in the brain storming sessions at Larian that were "what if the player does this weird thing?"

Hadn't even considered it like that! Sorry Shadowheart, I'm already a cleric!

What are you talking about? She's trickery domain. She makes a pretty poor healer. She's got nothing on my Life Cleric Tav. 😉

@@Draelos You don't even need Clerics, pots are better overall. I'm just saying for new players she has the heal spell by default. Same as Lae'zel being a warrior tank. My friend missed both and ended up kiting till he got Karlach. It was painful. Best Cleric subclass is tempest imo the dmg is great

@@ramixaleandros5893 True, none of the classes are required, but I can see how some are more helpful and forgiving for new players that don't know the system or items. Tempest clerics are very strong, with great damage synergies. I'd put them in my top 3 along with Light and Life clerics.

Imagine if the Shadowheart origin story playthrough was just chasing a Tav npc around the map 🤣

Haha at least you're happy to see her everywhere 🤣

Shadowheart is the real difficulty modifier 🤣

Hahahahahah 🤣

Absolutely! I only realised that my custom key bindings are not actually the default AFTER I posted it. Hahaha. Will add a pinned comment addressing this. I have my F5 as reload and my F6 as save 😅

Interesting that it appeared in Astarion's inventory!

The developers were so clever to put all of this in!! 😁

Oh thats interesting! I didnt even consider what happened to her if she *died* on the Nautiloid! Does her body just show up on the beach?

@@Souls4Hire yes. it's the 2nd body and lae'zel shows up there too if she dies. in my current playthrough i let them both die cause i didn't want to put up with ither of their shit lol.. playing a Githyanki Sorcerer and i already know what happens if you b line to the creche... so i don't want to know about the creche in game until after i finish the grove/goblin thing. FTI if you got to the creche before completeing the grove thing, then the ritual completes and you are locked out.. though if you steal the idol, i guess it won't seal it off.... haven't tried that yet.

Thankyou so much for this!! I cant wait to try this!

One day I'm planning to do a playthrough where I try and avoid Raphael I imagine the game will force his cutscene just before the end of an act or inbetween the acts or something, but I want to know which it is. I've heard he only starts trying to go after you after you've progressed on any of the 'cure' main quest lines, so if I make note of which areas he can appear, do the stuff there before progressing any cure paths, then avoid those spots after doing the cure lines and see what happens

This is a great idea! I might do a reload to that point and just keep avoiding him. See where he goes! It was interesting that he didnt trigger because I even went looking for him on his hill he often appears on - but nothing happened.

He probably shows up in a lot of places if you miss him My first encounter was when I was in the goblin camp fairly certain that it was after I killed them all Astarion just got done being whipped and Raph teleported in behind one of the wall pillars (I had no idea what to do so I chose to hold the scream in and the guy left) I couldn't see him so it made the whole thing feel even more confusing than it normally would A few dialogue options later and I'm left sitting there going wtf just happened while simultaneously being hyper nervous because my entire party was very low

Raphael is supposed to trigger after you use your illithid powers for the first time, which begs the question if you avoid using them (which means also avoiding shadowheart in the prologue) will it just not spawn Raphael?

@@iterationfackshet1990 I didn't know about tadpole usage triggering Raph that explains the fortress encounter There are two spots Raph is set to trigger regardless of tadpole usage First spot High area you must jump to on the road from the first big goblin fight has a spider pouch guarded by small spiders Second spot Broken bridge leading to the gnoll encounters goblin village side There may be more but I have yet to not encounter Raph because I have not made an effort to avoid him in these spots post playthrough 1

Oh that's really interesting to know!

Apparently Shadowheart needs her emotional support Tav though 😆

@@Souls4Hire lmao. She doesn't work as emotional support for me, I don't want to be her support 😆

@@Souls4Hire And yet she doesn't show any emotional support to my DU (who is in FAR worse state) and acts like a self-centred bitch. Viconica could have her for all I care, especially considering that SH dissaporves Wyll breaking his pact with Mizora. Well, enjoy the same restriction of freedom with Viconica, SH, since you dissaprove people breaking free from abusive relationships 👋

Its so good!

Hahaha I did the same thing with Wyll! I saw him jump out in the cutscene at the grove and then couldn't find him again! My friends asked if I was playing with a blindfold. 😆

Harper Tumeril looks super unconvinced 🤣

Totally agree!!

Haha Morgana can rest assured I like Shadowheart very much 😆. She was just the unfortunate companion running around with the mcguffin.

Someone else mentioned shoving her off the nautiloid! I have no idea how but I'm definitely going back to see if I can! 😆

@@Souls4Hire Don't even gotta shove. If you take control of her you can just make her jump off.

That's so interesting! I'll give this a try too! Thank you!

Yup! Did test this. She sure does 😅

@@Souls4Hire damn 👀

I'm going to post an "alternative endings" video because some peoples ideas in the comments have had some really weird results!! Loving all these ideas 😊

Oooo thats a fun tip!! Thankyou so much! 😃

Totally agree! I keep doing odd things that I think "no way they catered for this!" and then the game responds to it and I'm just blown away!

Oh that is so interesting!!!

Oh that is so interesting!! I didn't know that!

Oh I like that idea! Make it a goal to obtain!

@@Souls4Hire forces the player to interact with shadowheart in a narrative way rather than teleporting her onto the player

Oh i love this idea! Adding this to my list! And yes, she pops into grymforge as soon as you click the elevator to act 2 :(

Yea did some more testing to see if there was a way to sneak in but it seems the devs put a lot of work into it to make sure they had all the possibilities covered! 😁

Yes!! I love that there is an alternative cutscene for if you try to scurry to another area without her or the artifact. I managed to trigger this scenario in the alternative outcomes video by legging it from the nautiloid to the creche without stopping 🤣.

They used to have a different outcome for her, but they changed the backstory, identity, and motivations of the Prism's occupant. Her outcome didn't make sense anymore, so it was scrapped because to the Prism went from being a trap to a necessary plot device to stay alive. They have to keep throwing it at you. Before, Shadowheart started hearing a voice when she was infected with the tadpole on the nautiloid. If she is recruited by you, the voice is suppressed in your presence. However, if you leave her behindz the voice starts driving her mad, telling her to find you and kill you. She starts seeking you out to quiet the voice because she can't sleep or think, but eventually, she just shows up at your camp in the middle of the night and attacks you, having finally lost against its influence, forcing you to defend yourself and kill her.

Yep! Would have loved to find her standing on that bridge with her arms folded tapping her foot or something 😂

I'd love if we saw an update in future with a few more heads! And hair...and tattoos...😅

Someone else mentioned that in the comments! Apparently the artifact comes to you at some point but you have to deliberately avoid approaching her body. Next thing I'm gonna try doing 😁!

@@Souls4Hire to quote Deadpool: That's just lazy writing🤣

​@@momqabtnah in context it's important. The artifact is the 'maguffin' of the story. The story literally doesn't work without the artifact (it protects you from an automatic game over) so it has to show up at some point

@@momqabt if you dont have the artifact, then its literally game over. So how is it lazy writing when the alternative is a perma death scene? which as many have pointed out, can happen through multiple different actions.