i have never heard of anyone that liked abdel let alone the novels.
From what I gathered, even people who could have liked the novels were majorly turned off by Abdel. Dude's the perfect example of an oaf - huge, brutish, stupid... but for some reason the narrative keeps presenting him as a paragon of goodness. He's almost like a botched attempt to create a "super macho badass" tailored to American tastes but without understanding what Americans actually like about those characters.
Honestly his creator should follow the example of the author who wrote the Complete Book of Elves and publicly apologize for unleashing this thing upon the world.
from what little i know about the books abdel had done mercenary work outside candle keep before the story starts. so that already screws up the very start of the saga of you being a newly made adventurer lost in the woods.
Imoen was in on it from the start. She's Sarevok's woman on the inside. Ever wonder how Sarevok always seem to know exactly where you are and have been, even to the point of having time to both dictate and distribute wanted scrolls about you before you've even left town? Yeah. That's how.
I mean. Running around Candlekeep looking through private letters? Clearly she's some sort of agent. Maybe she's even an information broker. Remember how as soon as she finds out she's trying to probe you for more information about where you're going? She only wants to come with you and Gorion because she doesn't want her biggest cash cow yet to go out of her reach.
In other news, a 5th Ed D&D tabletop inspired game called Solasta: Crown of the Magister is kickstarting on Sept 3rd and will have a playable Alpha demo. Given what I've read about it I'm wandering if BG3 will be close to it in terms of gameplay.
I haven't played any TB games as of late, so I'd be interested to see how it plays especially since verticality plays what looks to be a big role in combat.
My dinasour brain hates the idea of BG3 potentially being TB but this might change that somewhat (my preference will always be RtwP however).
After what they did on gamescom I dare to doubt that possibility.
They didn't have the main people presented on Gamescom, but now their leads are in Seattle (btw, it's the city where WotC are located).
Looks like that video the tweet hinted at was just the announcement trailer of D:OS II's Nintendo Switch port. Guess I was right with it being not BGIII related.
The only thing bg3 related as of late were some tweets of Larian employees with octopuses and the statement "we are doing research" -facepalm- They do not even advertise "DoS fallen Heroes". Plenty of info into "Descent into Avernus" tho.
In other news, a 5th Ed D&D tabletop inspired game called Solasta: Crown of the Magister is kickstarting on Sept 3rd and will have a playable Alpha demo. Given what I've read about it I'm wandering if BG3 will be close to it in terms of gameplay.
I haven't played any TB games as of late, so I'd be interested to see how it plays especially since verticality plays what looks to be a big role in combat.
My dinasour brain hates the idea of BG3 potentially being TB but this might change that somewhat (my preference will always be RtwP however).
Silver
I played knights of the chalice or the old games ToEE & POE, D&D conversions that use TB combat, and even though the games are not very good the D&D 3.5 based combat was ok. So it is manageable but not what I called highly desirable.
But the Solasta game looks great. I have my doubts about the lack of races and classes but the rest of the game is promising. I will think on backing.
This was revealed in Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus.
The Council of Four member Duke Belynne Stelmane is under the influence of a mind flayer. It's basically taken over her and she's struggling to stop it and find the opportunity to seek aid. But so far it's left one side of her face paralyzed.
“Gnome Flayers“? Really...? Ugh! WotC's 5e naming sense alone makes me lose half my Sanity Points. But gnomish illithids growing tentacles out of their rectum? Nopenopenopenope!
Am I the only one who finds the Abyssal Chicken just looks silly and impractical, instead of scary or impressive? If this is the official WotC art style to be adapted to BG3, I won't be happy with the game. And the gnome flayer isn't any better.
By the way, here is a quote from Perkins (game designer for WotC) on it:
It's exactly what you think it is. It is a chicken out of the abyss. But what sold me on it were two things. One, you can make it a familiar. Two, the artwork kicks ass. The art for it basically sold the creature. If the piece of art didn't look as good as it does, it probably wouldn't be in the book.
Artwork kicks ass? Honestly, I couldn't disagree more.
Indeed. It is no secret that the official beastiary has steadily gone downhill ever since WotC took over TSR's IP. But this is neither funny nor badass... it's just plainly assed. What's next? Celestial Hagfish? Honestly nowadays they don't even try anymore.
I'm not so keen on the whole "cutification" I see sometimes, where monsters etc have the over-dimensioned heads and eyes and look more cute than scary. The gnome mind flayer being an obvious example of this.
If mind flayers are now canonized to "breed" via taking over a host body and now also perhaps taking the form of them, then it kinda messes up all previous interactions we've had with them since they were then always of "human" form even if they were encountered in Underdark and probably breed from Deurgar or Swirfneblins. But I'm no expert on lore, so I might be mistaken here.
I'm not so keen on the whole "cutification" I see sometimes, where monsters etc have the over-dimensioned heads and eyes and look more cute than scary. The gnome mind flayer being an obvious example of this.
If mind flayers are now canonized to "breed" via taking over a host body and now also perhaps taking the form of them, then it kinda messes up all previous interactions we've had with them since they were then always of "human" form even if they were encountered in Underdark and probably breed from Deurgar or Swirfneblins. But I'm no expert on lore, so I might be mistaken here.
Mind flayers have always been able to infect non-humanoid creatures. The result is not a mind flayer though but an abomination of some sort, depending on the base creature.
Comments
Honestly his creator should follow the example of the author who wrote the Complete Book of Elves and publicly apologize for unleashing this thing upon the world.
I mean. Running around Candlekeep looking through private letters? Clearly she's some sort of agent. Maybe she's even an information broker. Remember how as soon as she finds out she's trying to probe you for more information about where you're going? She only wants to come with you and Gorion because she doesn't want her biggest cash cow yet to go out of her reach.
I haven't played any TB games as of late, so I'd be interested to see how it plays especially since verticality plays what looks to be a big role in combat.
My dinasour brain hates the idea of BG3 potentially being TB but this might change that somewhat (my preference will always be RtwP however).
Silver
They didn't have the main people presented on Gamescom, but now their leads are in Seattle (btw, it's the city where WotC are located).
Looks to me like they're going to shoot a new music video for their German industry synth band
I played knights of the chalice or the old games ToEE & POE, D&D conversions that use TB combat, and even though the games are not very good the D&D 3.5 based combat was ok. So it is manageable but not what I called highly desirable.
But the Solasta game looks great. I have my doubts about the lack of races and classes but the rest of the game is promising. I will think on backing.
"With your permission, a character who casts the find familiar spell can henceforth choose to conjure an abyssal chicken instead of a raven."
This is an abyssal chicken:
Now if I can summon one of these as a familiar in BG 3 I'm sold
Sweet mother of Mystra... I see the "abyssal" part... but "chicken"..? Also, what size are we talking about here?
By the way, here is a quote from Perkins (game designer for WotC) on it:
Artwork kicks ass? Honestly, I couldn't disagree more.
If mind flayers are now canonized to "breed" via taking over a host body and now also perhaps taking the form of them, then it kinda messes up all previous interactions we've had with them since they were then always of "human" form even if they were encountered in Underdark and probably breed from Deurgar or Swirfneblins. But I'm no expert on lore, so I might be mistaken here.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Brainstealer_dragon
Mind flayers have always been able to infect non-humanoid creatures. The result is not a mind flayer though but an abomination of some sort, depending on the base creature.
0:58 - Mindwitness (beholder )
2:20 - Tzakandi (lizardfolk)
3:00 - Mozgriken (deep gnome )
3:42 - Uchuulon ( Chuul )
3:50 - Urophion
4:28 - Mindworm
6:35 - Brainstealer dragon
7:44 - Neothelid
This last one appears on BG - SoD