I’m playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 as a monk. I’m really into the roleplaying aspect of roleplaying games (it’s in the name, come on), but I didn’t expect my monk’s balanced approach to all the chaos of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 to have such a profound impact on my own life.
After creating the most pious, monkly githyanki I could think up, I made sure to play the game in Richmond’s sandals. Who cares if I, Ben, want to help Halsin regain control of the druids? Richmond wants to reconcile all sides, even if that means taking out Kagha and thereby saving the refugees, Halsin be damned. What’s the val🎉ue of one life if it saves many? Hopefully she’ll be reincarnated into the body of that infuriating squirrel and a million playersജ will deal toe-based justice to her over a million playthroughs.
However, one thing I didn’t anticipate was dealing ജwith romance. Rich💞mond is a monk, so naturally he’s taken a vow of celibacy. The problem is, his companions either don’t know or don’t respect this vow. As his relationships with the likes of Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Gale have naturally grown, he’s had his fair share of propositions, all of which he’s respectfully turned down. However, I didn’t quite realise the impact that having a romanceless run of Baldur’s Gate 3 would have on my relationship to the companions.
First of all, I picked Gale to join my party this time around for pragmatic reasons. I needed a wizard as backup, and he sure is one of them. I may or may not have changed my mind and respecced him to be a bard, but that’s a testament to his character that I kept him around and not anyone else. If I’m brutally honest with myself, his posh boy look with one dang♊ly earring was a complete turn off for me, and he therefore languished at camp for the entirety of my first playthrough. I didn’t care for his affliction, I didn’t want to know more about him.
This time around, with romance off the cards, I find him interesting and engaging. It’s not like I picked my companions the first time around purely bꦰased on who I most wanted to get down and dirty with (only Astarion receives that accolade), but I certainly picked dialogue options that kept everyone happy, just in case I ever caught feeliꦚngs.
Note: My colleague Rhiannon Bevan also realised that her favourite part of romancing Astarion was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:breaking up with him
Removing romance from the equation has made me a better friend, a better person. I’m no longer picking dialogue options for my own personal gain, I’m picking based on what response I think my companions need to hear. When Gale tells me about his thirst for magic items and I don’t have any on𝓰 my person (I swear he’s hungrier the second time around), I tell him that I’ll get him some – and I mean it this time. The Goblin Camp can wait, I’ll exit all the way out of this dungeon and spend far too much gold on some rip-off axe for you to chow down on, pal. That’s just what friends are for.
The same goes for other companions too, but Gale is by far the strongest example. Lae’zel a♐nd I have the githyanki connection, and I’ll support Shadowheart in her quest for Shar so long as she doesn’t bring imbalance to the p♐arty – my monkhood is about more than just celibacy, after all. You may have thought that it was impossible to play a celibate run of Baldur’s Gate 3, or that it would ruin the experience, but I’ve found the opposite. My friendships have been enriched by the lack of intimacy, and my party is more cohesive thanks to our platonic bond.
The romances in the game are great, deeper 🍌and more emotionally complex than most of its rivals’, but Richmond’s vow of celibacy led me to discover the true meaning of companionship, and I’m having just as much fun in Baldur’s Gate 3 without camp’s carnal distractions.
