I keep finding new things every time too. Like I have been playing for a couple thousand hours and every single run I find some hidden item or mini area, or I'll fall into some secret conversation or encounter I didn't realize could go a completely different way. One thing they did do a pretty good job of was to capture that spirit of finding some badass equipment buried on the outskirts of a farm, or a wizard's ring stashed in a tree which recalls to mind BG1 for me. I think if anything they must have set a bunch of decoys by having things like empty hunters stashes and vases with never anything inside. I'm sure there is someone just 1 vase that has something worthwhile inside it, but I stopped even clicking on them long ago. Too much effort there, perhaps someday someone will find a vase with an artifact inside. Like that's where I'd hide the Orbs of Dragonkind for sure, since in this universe it seems every amphora and urn is like a complete void. Just staring into the abyss hehe.
I generally don't mind that the game has a few randomized tables for treasure chests and such, since the tables themselves seem to be basically set. The merchants as well. Other times I wish there was no rng type loot at all, but that's all just mostly scrolls and potions. Like every item that's named or on a monster, that stuff is all fairly consistent in the BG way, which allows for some routing. I haven't found anything that would be the equivalent of like killing Drizzt for the best equipment in the game immediately with a fondue maneuver. Hunting basilisk with Korax the ghoul. Using the belt of the antipode to collect whitewolves. Or ankhegs and ankeg armor and a mountain of gold. On the other hand there are a few shortcuts and fights that can be made a lot simpler with a little prep, it's just a lot slower on the uptake. In BG1 I feel like if I wanted to I could skip the entire main campaign and be at Durlag's inside of an hour with enough stuff and xp to make that interesting. In BG3 I haven't found a quick way to exit Act I and enter Act II or III that doesn't take me like a whole week of solid play lol.
Sometimes I miss the little things, like Shovel, but usually I forget my earlier disappointments and just press ahead if it's honorable. Sometimes I get very frustrated though. Like that one time I accidentally killed Rath and Silver trying to do some non-lethal drills with the Druids. The whole AoE permadeath for recruitable companions or random NPCs. I mean I feel like they should have just allowed resurrection scrolls and spells to work on everyone. There's nothing like a chunk out going on in this game, except for those instances where an NPC can be killed before they can join the camp.
We did manage to recruit in Minthara so that was a plus. Jaheira makes me the most nervous. I don't want to take any chances so I just sorta casually pickoff everyone at Moonrise Towers. We set Minthara up with the second suit suit of heavy adamantine, but not sure how heavily she'll be in the rotation. It looked pretty good for going twinsies, although I think her more natural substitution would be with Lae'zel, I have her tapping in for Shadowheart when she does come along. I liked the idea of having a team with 3 giant swords.
A flaming acidy sword, a psych sword, and a silence sword. Silence sword doesn't hit as hard, since she doesn't have any special rings, but with the smite it's pretty decent. She'd probably end up with a Halberd or something, but for the color coordination it seemed to work best. Setting her up to do some healing was a little trickier since I don't want to blow actions on that usually, instead she uses the amulet and the gloves to get everyone all blessed out. Her stat block was rough so we had Withers rework her for a couple extra hitpoints and better base CHA for the auras and such. I dumped her DEX from 12 to 10 to make that happen, but I figure she'll be in the armor plate and such eventually. We took the opportunity to even out our own stats as well. I always get nervous dumping anything below 10, since I don't like seeing the -1 come up first. Even though I'm sure it doesn't matter I just gave myself all 10s and a 11 in Wisdom. The Dex gloves we never take off from this point I don't think so I won't fret off that. Minthara might make better use of them for the occasional crossbow bolt, but my AC is pretty low otherwise so I got greedy there. Circlet of Int I don't really need, but I suppose if ever there was a point to take a lvl in Wizard it's probably right here at lvl 7.
Main reason would be for spell versatility, since Wizards get prep 4 spells wearing the Circlet that would allow me to keep some useful stuff like Hold Person or Haste, without having to give up the Flavor on Shadowblade. Also allows us to prep longstrider and use Arcane Recovery on a lvl 1 spellslot to eat for Sorcery points. That one doesn't seem as important with the Hound of Ill Omen doing the bites, but it's better to have an extra Sorc point in the bank before having to do a combat, since probably I nap after regardless. I think at the high end it could be rough, because then we are limited to just a single lvl 6 spell known, since we can't write a lvl 6 spell, also the final feat. Although for that it's sorta like just for flash on the endgame stats. I think it might be a lot better mechanically to just be a S'wizard and always have 4 wizard spells ready to go. Downside is I have to find the scrolls first, and sometimes being spoiled for choice on spells or hotbar real estate can be a bit intense. Hard to decide. I think if I'd kept Gale in the rotation wouldn't matter, but he's sorta benched till Act III anyway. It's a tough decision because once I go S'wizard I usually don't back hehe. Here I wanted to just try pure class Shadow Sorcerer and save my multiclass antics for later. Why I've been trying to get back to the Ketheric fight, since last time I did a Multiclass Death Cleric Shadowsorcerer. I think Shadow S'wizard would be very powerful, but I kind want to save it and also take my 3rd feat for a change hehe.
I think my best use of the Spellcrux amulet is to give it Shadowheart so she can upcast and summon 3 skeletons for free, then replenish that slot. For Din I kept the Pearl of Power we bought from Blurg, since that allows me to Prep Twin Haste as freebee then restore the slot with the amulet. Or the Alternative we can switch Amulets and she just does one Skeleton for free, while I plan for double Ice Storms or something like that. Seems to work reasonably well. For the Thorms I try to just do them all at once on the same rest, right after we get the Dark Lady's blessing for +5 Charisma. I just talk them into exploding themselves avoid the fuss. I sorta gave up on trying to be completionist with the minor XP gains, cause at this point things can get scary. Don't want to die to some random Needle in the haunted forest. I gave Wyll and Gale a boost up, since I will use them for Firewalls to try and save Halsin but probably not much else. I felt bad backbenching Gale, but as soon as I learned my own fireball I sorta kicked him to the curb again. Fireball is not really the best, but it's so satisfying to use that I feel like I need to take it or I'm not a proper Dragon Sorcerer. Wyll we practically forgot even existed until Mizora showed up again to remind us. Same deal with Astarion and his devil stuff. I do what we can but not really the top priorities for me. Instead I just always want to make sure I have Jaheira so I sorta race towards clearing out the Towers to make sure she doesn't have any problems on the way towards the roof. I figure Karlach would want to team up like 'meet your heroes' but I get nervous slotting in new Characters at the last minute. The Ketheric fight can be pretty intense, and if I'm not used to doing all the moves it's a bit of a bust. I think they really botched the Halsin incorperation into the crew. He really should have come online for the whole end of Act I so we have plenty of time to practice Druid stuff. Instead he shows up right before Jaheira does, sorta all the thunder gets stolen out from under him. Just seems like it would have been way better for him to be around during the Underdark. Or at least to join up earlier like Minthara at least can do some stuff in the early part of Act II. Like heading back to Moonrise immediately to kill Z'rell!!!
This is always her big play for me. She hops on board to rescue the other prisoners like Narkina 5
"One way out!" and then at least everyone can respect her for that hehe
