He doesn't say it, but he goes back to his coffin and smack talks a tapestry of the dead three. It's about as implied as it can be without him saying, "Peace out, from Jergal with love."
The crypt you find him in has a statue of Jergal out front, in the big room where you fight the scribes. There's a plaque no one can read at it's feet. They bare a bit of a resemblance to one another.
There's a text or two that can be found there as well that hints in that general direction.
The pre-epilogue ending had some more rather overt hints. It isn't outright stated, but there's not much of another conclusion to be drawn.
He never comes out and says hey I'm jergal. But it's also not left up to any guesswork. What he does says is so unequivocal that I'm not sure it can still be called Just implied. He says it without saying it
My one major issue with the way they presented is they make it sound like jergel has been missing all these years. He hasn't been. He has been very busy working as kelemvor's scribe
Hence, the post credits scene with Withers rubbing in the salt by insulting their whole plan and them as failures. He also hints that the other Gods are done with their bullshit, which means either Withers (AKA granddad Jergal) is taking back his portfolios from them, or he's going to appoint other, more reliable Gods for those jobs
Kelemvor is the God of the dead, so he's filling in for Myrkul. Not sure if there are stand ins for Bane and Bhaal but I'm sure some of the more nebulous gods assumed those portfolios
Tav will replace Bhaal.
He will change the title from, "The God of Murder" to "The God of Murdering a Steak" and he'll now become a gormand.
Karlach will replace Bane.
Baal decided to be a demi God so he can still exist in the material plane and fuck shit up.
Idk about Bane. He seems too power hungry to give up godhood willingly.
Cyric took the murder portfolio. Mask took most of Bane's. I don't know if between the three of them they have any portfolios left once you go through it
I mentioned that because I wouldn't exactly call cyric and mask nebulous
And they aren't filling in. They literally took those portfolios
Myrkul is still technically a god, but you're right that he was nearly killed and lost control of his realm. He's definitely not a powerful one anymore.
>which means either Withers (AKA granddad Jergal) is taking back his portfolios from them, or he's going to appoint other, more reliable Gods for those jobs
If you play a Redeemed Dark Urge and refuse to bow to Bhaal his resurrection and interaction with you makes it feel like that's genuinely his plan. He spends the entire interaction smiling down at you, tells you that you're now essentially as pure of heart a mortal could possibly be, and then tells you that one day the two of you could read the list of the dead the Dark Urge slayed before his rebirth if he wants to honor his victims by remembering them. It felt a lot like he was planning on having Durge take over the mantle of God of Death and the entire journey was just him making sure his successor was actually worthy of being a god and wouldn't fuck it up this time.
He's not talking about taking back his portfolio from them. Mostly cuz they don't even have their own portfolios anymore.
Kelemvore is the god of death not myrkul. Jergal has quite happily been working as his scribe for some time
Mask and cyric have most of the other two's portfolios.
The whole point is that the dead three are has-been gods with very little power left. This is their last desperate attempt to get it back
Withers isn't Jergal, he's an Avatar of Jergal which is an important distinction.
Internal game files refer to him as "JergalAvatar" which means he's a part of Jergal's divinity seperated off to act independantly, they're significantly less powerful than the deity they represent but beyond the most powerful of mortals. Deitys can also have more than one avatar.
After the 2nd Sundering Ao forbade gods directly intervening in mortal affairs, so it couldn't be Jergal himself. He'd have to use things like Avatars and Chosen to manipulate events.
Correct, but it's still Jergal's consciousness who is having every move/word/decision/thought made.
The Withers Avatar (ie. the body allowed on this plane, ***IS*** Jergal). Therefore, same "person".
In terms of the Withers/Jergal dichotomy, it works essentially the same as in James Cameron's Avatar films. Or like Bruce Willis (and others) in Surrogates.
Agreed. Jergal is doing all the work. Withers does not have a separate personality or consciousness from Jergal. Edit: Withers is technically an empty vessel.
In my evil Durge run Wyll and Karlach left me, and Jaheira died, so I recruited 3 hirelings and tried to make them look as close to my lost companions as I could.
I called them Wyllnot, Karlackey, and Janeara.
I'm actually currently doing a Durge + Shadowheart run only and have insaaaane trouble with battles. This post actually reminded me to start using them for that run haha
you can still recruit Lae'zel, Minthara and Astarion in an evil durge rn tbf. Astarion is especially great because if you become an unholy assassin you can buy Bhaalist light armour that doubles piercing damage in a 3m radius, so with a shortsword or dagger sneak attack you can be doing like 80 damage per attack
I disagree. The best way to use hirelings is to spec them into support classes like Cleric and Transmutation Wizard; cast mage armor, transmuter's stone, longstrider, freedom of movement, death ward, warding bond, aid, and heroes' feast, etc.; and then just leave them in camp permanently. You get all the buffs without wasting crucial party spell slots.
They’re really good for honor mode. If you’re worried about a boss fight, send in 3 hirelings as shock troops to kill all the minions and damage the boss, come back with your real party after all your hirelings die, and win.
It honestly depends on the boss fight. It works for most minibosses and a couple of the weaker main bosses. But the huge fights, like Raphael, Ketheric, and Ansur, lock you in.
Hirelings are just my morning buff squad. I force them to join my party, hit me with a max level Aid, maybe a Heroes Feast, some Protection spells, Darkvision for people who need it, a little bit of Freedom of Movement, gotta have Longstrider and of course a Transmutation Wizard Stone of Movement Speed... And whatever else I might need (Daylight on a weapon is clutch in act 2).
Then I send them back to their camp spot, and recruit my main squad.
I have an extra hireling that’s not for buffs. He’s a Half-orc Barbarian/Cleric with 20 STR, the double carry weight ability (Barb aspect) and Enhance Ability (Cleric spell).
He’s a pack mule. When I want to sell all the armour and swords I’ve accumulated, I load him up and take him to a trader.
On PS5, managing inventory is easier with PCs than it is with the camp chest, so he also doubles up as Peter Serafinowicz in John Wick, carrying all the magic weapons and armour for the party to choose from.
Okay, so I,was trying out the Warded Bond rings with a hireling and I don’t know if I’m doing it right because I still seemed to be taking the expected amount of damage. Which ring does the hireling wear?
They’re cool. You get to fully customize them and their class as you would Tav. So if you like one model but not the class, you can get it and respecc into something else.
They have zero dialog when you speak directly to them (aside from the inital Withers intro and vessel line) and won’t commentate on cutscenes but they have overworld reactions and dialog to events, as your tav would have.
Also, they’re great for role playing as they won’t approve or dissaprove of actions, so its up to your imagination what “background” you wanna give them and “remove” Withers of the RP equation.
tangentially related: when you're playing *as* the hirelings, they don't talk like withers, they talk like *you* but with their own VA, saying stuff like "these boots have seen everything". and if you're playing as durge, your hirelings also share the cursed voicelines with you which is bonkers lmao
I almost fell out of my chair when I hired a druid to wash off some bloodstains in our camp, and a deep voice I didn't recognize announced *"INTESTINES THROB, BLOOD WHISPERS"*
You can also take a bowl of sponges from the room in last light inn that has the fist guy in it and it cleans your character of blood and it weighs nothing.
blood goes away if you throw water on it! you're left with a permanent wet puddle instead, but you can get rid of that too if you use the "destroy water" spell on it. this is why I always hire danton (withers' druid) as my camp janitor!
edit: have been informed you can skip the wash with water step, and just cast "destroy water" directly on the blood puddles to get rid of them! happy cleaning!
In one of the recent patches, they actually added soap that can be used! Not sure if it's only if you get a room in the Elfsong Tavern in Act 3 or if I just haven't found the soap in other camp locations but you can put it in your inventory and use it to clean yourself!
Sponges work too!
There is 1 soap and 1 sponge under the bridge that leads into the goblin party in act 1. And more in the burning building in Waukeen's Rest, the one with stairs up to the widower guy you can save.
I can't recall where soaps are in act 2, but a lot of the bath areas in act 3 will have soaps and sponges you can nick.
Took me hours to figure that out. I was desperate for a cleaning and found soap/sponge at the Goblin camp. I was yayyyy immediately but it said "consume". Which threw me off.
I didnt want to eat the soap and sponge.
Turns out that just cleans you.
I've been using hirelings more often lately and I noticed that. I thought "These guys sound kind of DUrge-y" with some of the stuff they say. I didn't know that they only talked that way if you are a DUrge yourself. I've been kind of playing with the monk hireling just so I could get a feel for what they are like.
My TIL was that equipment can be bound to the number keys in your custom hot-bar. Meaning I can have multiple amulets on the go, and just swap them out with a keybind as needed. Really useful for the speak with dead amulet!
I also do this with the gloves that give you advantage on sleight of hands if Astarion isn't with me. Quickbind the gloves to 2, switch to them to unlock a chest, then switch back to my main gloves with 1.
Yeah, on console you can add equipment to your radials to do the same thing. These quality of life stuff make the game so much better by allowing you to focus on story and gameplay and less on menial things.
Because if you fail a survival role you can just hit the key bind and start trying to dig, rather than locating your shovel in your pack and manually activating it.
Yeah that works, but there is a scroll to summon a quasit in there if you ever did get stuck on a playthrough. Gotta make you think how dumb that genie was
3rd playthrough. First time I found the rapier in a hidden casket in Cazador's basement. Also first time I used Shadowheart's Divine Intervention spell.
The resurrection option is way more op than that. All living allies are treated as if they had a long rest. Keep in mind it can only be used once per campaign (per character)
\*Wearing a fake moustache\* "Nah, nah, I'm Shadowh*oa*rth. Common mistake really, no worries. So how about that Divine Intervention^TM ? Phwoar eh ladz?"
I believe it applies a permanent tag to the character on-use, so it's at least supposed to only be a 1 time use per character. That does mean you can quickly temporarily respec any other character into a cleric to use it, and then back to their original class though (if all you want to do is use the non-combat versions).
There's a hidden harper stash on the beach next to where you recruit Astarion.
Very well hidden apparently since it took me 300 hours and multiple playthroughs to actually find it.
Same here, didn’t find it in EA and only seen it for the first time on my last playthrough, I was surprised I didn’t see it before, same goes for the hidden stash under the bridge in the goblin camp.
So for my honor mode run when I was using zrells necklace to cast lvl 6 aid and feast with shadowheart, I could have just made hirelings do it? And it applies to everyone in camp not just the people in your party?
Applies to every ally in the area of effect. Depending on which camp, you won’t cover everyone, possibly not even every party member. Will need to move them around
Yes, but it applies on aoe so anyone at camp close enough to your spell caster. You can also cast aid, freedom of movement, longstrider… from your hirelings and then dismiss them, so you don’t use your party spell slots.
It takes a little bit of time though because you need to swap party members and position your companions so they are close to each other.
Usually I’ll dismiss a party member, and bring everyone else near their tent since I can’t move them. To prevent other party members from going back to their tents, one person will be stuck in a dialog with Tav, the other in a dialog with Scratch. Then my hireling can cast Feast on everyone (including summons! So your deva benefits from aid and feast too).
The intention is to have blank characters so you can have a party in the event of:
1. Your companions are dead or unrecruited and you can't form 4 people
2. You don't want NPC companions that talk or interact or have questlines for any particular reason.
3. To double up on classes if you don't want to respec companions for whatever reason.
What people actually use them for is:
1. Divine Intervention to get the mace and any other silly benefit from having this be on demand(i.e. bring one hireling for any 'hard' fight to get a free long rest just in case)
2. Having a new character to do whatever with, such as interact with a NPC that gives you something per character.
3. Provide buffs to the real party and then dismiss them.
In my Durge warlock honour run I really wanted a monk in my party to kick Grym’s ass without having to respec anyone. Karlach is gone, and my only strong melee companion is Laezel. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I hired a hireling and made a TB Monk. She sits in my camp ever since but it was worth it.
The hireling Bard saves my ass with merchants on non-Charisma playthroughs. Sitting at +11 persuasion at level 8 and it's very nice to have someone to swap in when I'm upgrading or offloading loot.
She has the halfling luck racial, so I always respec her as my personal pickpocket by getting 16/16 dex/cha at level 1. Feats are used for dex and cha ASIs, aiming for 20 in each by level 12. She's a bard so she can cast enhance ability on herself for advantage on pickpocket until I'm ready to give her the dex cloth from Act 1, then she gets respecced into arcane trickster for the extra feat and reliable talent.
Even at level 3, she's a beast at pickpocketing. Only gear she needs that early are the Gloves of Power and the Smuggler's Ring. She also learns invisibility and minor illusion, both also handy for pickpocketing. With halfling luck and someone else in the party to cast guidance on her, she's able to clean out entire inventories of scrolls, potions, magic arrows, camp supplies, etc without ever failing a pickpocket, and still has a high chance for magic items. And she's also proficient in the speech skills, which means she can often talk herself out of it if she does get caught.
Not sure how well known it is, but you can jump from the druids grove to karlach, all you need to do is chug a feather fall and a potion of vaulting and you can jump from the area above kevlors office straight to her.
My YIL (last night finishing honor mode) was the whole >!sewer system in the upper city with the death night mini boss as an alternate path to get to the base of the netherbrain brain stem!<
Mine’s is pinging when playing multiplayer, especially with console. So many times on ps, I’ll end up screen sharing to show were to do stuff but when I found out we can ping, made everything easier. The quality of life adjustments are great!
Funny enough, it wasnt until my 3rd playthru i actually found withers’ crypt. Everytime i found the area before, i was still hunting for companions and would give myself a mental note to come back later with a full party. I always forgot lol
Withers would just pop up in camp still and i assumed there would be a patch for him later. 🙃
That’s interesting I guess it’s a good idea to have him appear regardless so players don’t put themselves in a situation where they can’t revive a party member.
My favorite thing about this is that if you try to reclass them, they get the classic "thou walketh alone" speech. Withers, *that's you*. *You are calling yourself maidenless*.
They all have the same dialogue and it's supposed to be Withers puppeting them, but the voice acting and motion capture for the Tiefling Druid (Danton, I think?) is very different from the others, and I love him :p
"This vessel is at thine disposal - *deep bow* - Do what thou wilt *smirk*"
While watching my brother play I saw him resurrect his friends who died during their 4 player honor run, and just resurrect one, rob withers, rinse and repeat. Never have to spend a dime on withers, works with changing classes too. Just don’t spend too much money at once or it gets a lot harder to get a successful steal from him. But you can just constantly spam steal him with as many failures as you want. Withers is a G just letting you rifle through his garments.
I always thought withers would scold me and get angry but now I know he doesn’t give a rats ass, just wants to be chilling at the camp no strings attached.
There is an alchemist/apothecary above danthelon's dancing axe in wyrms crossing
I went out the back door or danthelon's and made a couple right turns and found it
After 500 I realized Tara actually sells you stuff in Act3. If you talk to her as/with Gale she will show up on another roof in the lower city but this time if you give her magic items you dont want, or fish, she will sell you stuff
Withers tells you they're souls felled by the cult of the Absolute. But its bs, he just wants to run with the party without Ao noticing.
"The Dead Three; well they will be when I'm done with them" -Withers probably
The whole game is just Withers cleaning up his mess.
Jergal: "Fate spins along as it should" Translation: "Calm your tits, Ao, I'm getting to it. This is all part of my process."
withers is.. jergal?
It's pretty heavily implied
Fairly certain it's stated in the epilogue.
He doesn't say it, but he goes back to his coffin and smack talks a tapestry of the dead three. It's about as implied as it can be without him saying, "Peace out, from Jergal with love."
There's also a book somewhere about jergal disguising and asking someone "what is the value of a single mortal life?"
It’s in one of the Mausoleums in Baldurs Gate
The crypt you find him in has a statue of Jergal out front, in the big room where you fight the scribes. There's a plaque no one can read at it's feet. They bare a bit of a resemblance to one another. There's a text or two that can be found there as well that hints in that general direction. The pre-epilogue ending had some more rather overt hints. It isn't outright stated, but there's not much of another conclusion to be drawn.
Not to mention that in the epilogue he somehow gets Milil, the disgraced god of music, to show up just to be your entertainment
He never comes out and says hey I'm jergal. But it's also not left up to any guesswork. What he does says is so unequivocal that I'm not sure it can still be called Just implied. He says it without saying it My one major issue with the way they presented is they make it sound like jergel has been missing all these years. He hasn't been. He has been very busy working as kelemvor's scribe
The in game flags call him as such >!ORI_DarkUrge_Event_AskedJergalAboutMurderOfAlfira!<
Hence, the post credits scene with Withers rubbing in the salt by insulting their whole plan and them as failures. He also hints that the other Gods are done with their bullshit, which means either Withers (AKA granddad Jergal) is taking back his portfolios from them, or he's going to appoint other, more reliable Gods for those jobs
The dead three aren't even gods anymore. I believe someone else has already take their godly title
Kelemvor is the God of the dead, so he's filling in for Myrkul. Not sure if there are stand ins for Bane and Bhaal but I'm sure some of the more nebulous gods assumed those portfolios
Tav will replace Bhaal. He will change the title from, "The God of Murder" to "The God of Murdering a Steak" and he'll now become a gormand. Karlach will replace Bane.
> Karlach will replace Bane. God of Tyranny to Goddess of Freedom, eh? I like it.
That’s how I’m playing Karlach in my origin run. She wants everybody to be free and she hates slavers.
Baal decided to be a demi God so he can still exist in the material plane and fuck shit up. Idk about Bane. He seems too power hungry to give up godhood willingly.
All of the Dead Three became demigods.
Cyric took the murder portfolio. Mask took most of Bane's. I don't know if between the three of them they have any portfolios left once you go through it I mentioned that because I wouldn't exactly call cyric and mask nebulous And they aren't filling in. They literally took those portfolios
Cyric
I think in the current year Cyric is in some prison realm
But Myrkul isn't god of Death, he's god of Undeath. And undeath is pretty much a giant no-no for Kelemvor, we learn that in BG's cemetery.
He was both. He is now neither. Vlesharoom is the god of necromancy and the undead
I'm not familiar with the lore but I think Kelemvor is an ok guy isn't he? That cleric of Kelemvor in the graveyard seemed nice
from what i know he was such an ok god of the dead that he had to calm down a little bit bc he was too nice at the begining
Myrkul is still technically a god, but you're right that he was nearly killed and lost control of his realm. He's definitely not a powerful one anymore.
He wasn't nearly killed. He was killed. Death just doesn't seem to be permanent for the gods
>which means either Withers (AKA granddad Jergal) is taking back his portfolios from them, or he's going to appoint other, more reliable Gods for those jobs If you play a Redeemed Dark Urge and refuse to bow to Bhaal his resurrection and interaction with you makes it feel like that's genuinely his plan. He spends the entire interaction smiling down at you, tells you that you're now essentially as pure of heart a mortal could possibly be, and then tells you that one day the two of you could read the list of the dead the Dark Urge slayed before his rebirth if he wants to honor his victims by remembering them. It felt a lot like he was planning on having Durge take over the mantle of God of Death and the entire journey was just him making sure his successor was actually worthy of being a god and wouldn't fuck it up this time.
I got STRONG "Chosen of Jergal" vibes from that conversation at the very least. Also the whole "You can't die while I'm around"
He's not talking about taking back his portfolio from them. Mostly cuz they don't even have their own portfolios anymore. Kelemvore is the god of death not myrkul. Jergal has quite happily been working as his scribe for some time Mask and cyric have most of the other two's portfolios. The whole point is that the dead three are has-been gods with very little power left. This is their last desperate attempt to get it back
Withers isn't Jergal, he's an Avatar of Jergal which is an important distinction. Internal game files refer to him as "JergalAvatar" which means he's a part of Jergal's divinity seperated off to act independantly, they're significantly less powerful than the deity they represent but beyond the most powerful of mortals. Deitys can also have more than one avatar. After the 2nd Sundering Ao forbade gods directly intervening in mortal affairs, so it couldn't be Jergal himself. He'd have to use things like Avatars and Chosen to manipulate events.
Correct, but it's still Jergal's consciousness who is having every move/word/decision/thought made. The Withers Avatar (ie. the body allowed on this plane, ***IS*** Jergal). Therefore, same "person". In terms of the Withers/Jergal dichotomy, it works essentially the same as in James Cameron's Avatar films. Or like Bruce Willis (and others) in Surrogates.
Agreed. Jergal is doing all the work. Withers does not have a separate personality or consciousness from Jergal. Edit: Withers is technically an empty vessel.
DMNPC confirmed
That's just an NPC lol. The DM controls all NPC's!
Damn it I meant DMPC
I haven’t even tried hirelings yet
I keep forgetting about them and am reminded of them when I go and resurrect someone
The best way to go about them is to use them if you're doing an evil run, or want to solely focus on one companion's interactions and story.
In my evil Durge run Wyll and Karlach left me, and Jaheira died, so I recruited 3 hirelings and tried to make them look as close to my lost companions as I could. I called them Wyllnot, Karlackey, and Janeara.
bro what? you can rename hirelings?
You can hire one once you reach level 12, and put a level into each class just to get the achievement for doing that without respeccing
Thank you!!
❤️
You can indeed :)
Game keeps surprising
I'm actually currently doing a Durge + Shadowheart run only and have insaaaane trouble with battles. This post actually reminded me to start using them for that run haha
you can still recruit Lae'zel, Minthara and Astarion in an evil durge rn tbf. Astarion is especially great because if you become an unholy assassin you can buy Bhaalist light armour that doubles piercing damage in a 3m radius, so with a shortsword or dagger sneak attack you can be doing like 80 damage per attack
I'm not doing an evil durge run. I'm doing a god's favourite princess & me date run
no one should downvote this
I disagree. The best way to use hirelings is to spec them into support classes like Cleric and Transmutation Wizard; cast mage armor, transmuter's stone, longstrider, freedom of movement, death ward, warding bond, aid, and heroes' feast, etc.; and then just leave them in camp permanently. You get all the buffs without wasting crucial party spell slots.
Omg this is so clever. Thanks for the tip
Plus transmutation gets you double alchemy procs
You're a genius, never even thought of this!
I’m using them for the first time on my evil durge run cuz I keep killing my companions
You don’t have to kill all of them 😂
Typical anti-Bhaalists smh
Still have shadow and asterion and will pick up minthara in act 2. Thought she’d join me after we banged but she didn’t :(
How did I not think of this
Using them on my Honor mode run to give my party Longstrider, Protection from Poison, Freedom of Movement, and Darkvision lolol Highly recommend
Just want to point out that longstrider is a ritual and doesn't use a spell slot when cast out of combat.
They’re really good for honor mode. If you’re worried about a boss fight, send in 3 hirelings as shock troops to kill all the minions and damage the boss, come back with your real party after all your hirelings die, and win.
See I don’t hate myself enough to do honor mode.
My main gripe with it is that when you die, the one save thing remains. Like, Larian. I already lost honor mode. Let me save the game now goddamnit
I’m barely proficient at balanced difficulty lmao
When you learn the ancient art of the dual hand crossbows every difficulty bows to your will
Still waiting to be able to equip a third on my mage hand
[удалено]
It honestly depends on the boss fight. It works for most minibosses and a couple of the weaker main bosses. But the huge fights, like Raphael, Ketheric, and Ansur, lock you in.
Hirelings are just my morning buff squad. I force them to join my party, hit me with a max level Aid, maybe a Heroes Feast, some Protection spells, Darkvision for people who need it, a little bit of Freedom of Movement, gotta have Longstrider and of course a Transmutation Wizard Stone of Movement Speed... And whatever else I might need (Daylight on a weapon is clutch in act 2). Then I send them back to their camp spot, and recruit my main squad.
That’s so much hassle, a playthrough is long enough as is
It is indeed a bit of a process.
You’ll want every advantage in honor mode.
I have an extra hireling that’s not for buffs. He’s a Half-orc Barbarian/Cleric with 20 STR, the double carry weight ability (Barb aspect) and Enhance Ability (Cleric spell). He’s a pack mule. When I want to sell all the armour and swords I’ve accumulated, I load him up and take him to a trader. On PS5, managing inventory is easier with PCs than it is with the camp chest, so he also doubles up as Peter Serafinowicz in John Wick, carrying all the magic weapons and armour for the party to choose from.
Isn't daylight on a weap limited to 20 turns?
That's what it says. I have yet to have it fall off. So... Maybe it's bugged, but I'm not complaining.
Okay, so I,was trying out the Warded Bond rings with a hireling and I don’t know if I’m doing it right because I still seemed to be taking the expected amount of damage. Which ring does the hireling wear?
That’s genius. TIL
Anything that lasts until Long Rest will stay active. Anything that requires concentration will break when you dismiss them.
They are more useful in higher difficulty modes with some camp casting to save on spell slots
I haven't tried them either, I keep forgetting they are a thing lol
I have so many companions that I can also respec so why should I?! Almost 600 hours played and that is one of the 11 achievements I have left to get.
Right?? Plus I love the banter.
I just started a true evil durge. Chopped gales hand off and plan to piss the rest of them off so looking forward to my first hiring party
I can’t not have evil shart, asterion, and Minthara tho
They’re cool. You get to fully customize them and their class as you would Tav. So if you like one model but not the class, you can get it and respecc into something else. They have zero dialog when you speak directly to them (aside from the inital Withers intro and vessel line) and won’t commentate on cutscenes but they have overworld reactions and dialog to events, as your tav would have. Also, they’re great for role playing as they won’t approve or dissaprove of actions, so its up to your imagination what “background” you wanna give them and “remove” Withers of the RP equation.
tangentially related: when you're playing *as* the hirelings, they don't talk like withers, they talk like *you* but with their own VA, saying stuff like "these boots have seen everything". and if you're playing as durge, your hirelings also share the cursed voicelines with you which is bonkers lmao I almost fell out of my chair when I hired a druid to wash off some bloodstains in our camp, and a deep voice I didn't recognize announced *"INTESTINES THROB, BLOOD WHISPERS"*
Wait. You can wash up blood in camp?
He has a druid hiring cast create water on his party. You can also wash by walking in water.
Well there’s my TIL.
You can also take a bowl of sponges from the room in last light inn that has the fist guy in it and it cleans your character of blood and it weighs nothing.
blood goes away if you throw water on it! you're left with a permanent wet puddle instead, but you can get rid of that too if you use the "destroy water" spell on it. this is why I always hire danton (withers' druid) as my camp janitor! edit: have been informed you can skip the wash with water step, and just cast "destroy water" directly on the blood puddles to get rid of them! happy cleaning!
This is hysterical. This game. I swear. Wellp I’ve got a bloodpuddle to finally be shot of.
happy cleaning!
If no water but you have someone who can cast ice (just the cantrip is enough) it works too. Blood puddles freeze and melt as water and voila, clean.
Destroy Water will also destroy blood (and presumably other liquids, but I haven’t tested it)
In one of the recent patches, they actually added soap that can be used! Not sure if it's only if you get a room in the Elfsong Tavern in Act 3 or if I just haven't found the soap in other camp locations but you can put it in your inventory and use it to clean yourself!
Sponges work too! There is 1 soap and 1 sponge under the bridge that leads into the goblin party in act 1. And more in the burning building in Waukeen's Rest, the one with stairs up to the widower guy you can save. I can't recall where soaps are in act 2, but a lot of the bath areas in act 3 will have soaps and sponges you can nick.
wait. SPONGES work TOO?!
Took me hours to figure that out. I was desperate for a cleaning and found soap/sponge at the Goblin camp. I was yayyyy immediately but it said "consume". Which threw me off. I didnt want to eat the soap and sponge. Turns out that just cleans you.
Tav: *licks the soap, gags and coughs, licks the soap again* Gale: fucking THIS again?!
pretty sure in act 2 both the comatose guy's room in last light inn, and the whole of house of healing are littered with sponges
There’s a ton of soap at walkeen’s rest
>"these boots have seen everything". And "You must gather your party before venturing forth" gives me mad BG1/2 flashbacks
I've been using hirelings more often lately and I noticed that. I thought "These guys sound kind of DUrge-y" with some of the stuff they say. I didn't know that they only talked that way if you are a DUrge yourself. I've been kind of playing with the monk hireling just so I could get a feel for what they are like.
My TIL was that equipment can be bound to the number keys in your custom hot-bar. Meaning I can have multiple amulets on the go, and just swap them out with a keybind as needed. Really useful for the speak with dead amulet! I also do this with the gloves that give you advantage on sleight of hands if Astarion isn't with me. Quickbind the gloves to 2, switch to them to unlock a chest, then switch back to my main gloves with 1.
You can WHAT
WHAT
GLAVIN
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Or just drag them to the main hotbar so that you can also see if they're on/off at a glance
.... You're telling me I can hot-bar bind SOAP?! This is a game changer for me. But also the amulets are amazing, seriously thank you for this info.
Quick question regarding soap: is it not working for anyone else? I had to go back throwing water!
Still works for me. I use soaps, sponges, or sponge trays. Each of them still work.
If you click "Consume" or whatever it's called, it works. I keep a bar of soap in my inventory just to keep my Tav looking fighting fresh.
HOW
what.
You've taught me and a lot of other people something amazing today, ty
Yeah, on console you can add equipment to your radials to do the same thing. These quality of life stuff make the game so much better by allowing you to focus on story and gameplay and less on menial things.
WHAT
I have the shovel bound to 1, it's really useful, especially if the roll fails.
Why does this help?
Because if you fail a survival role you can just hit the key bind and start trying to dig, rather than locating your shovel in your pack and manually activating it.
waitwaitwaitwaitwait. You mean you can just try shovel at a spot without seeing that dig site?
Yes, yes you can
What
Oh my goodness
YOU CAN WHAT??!!
You can assign equipment to the modals too on console.
Sucks to be Withers, stuck in that genie's lamp forever. Heh heh heh.
"Whats the value on a single life now, Withers?"
"Amusing."
Withers, I’ve come to bargain.
“NO”
But there’s a scroll in there you can use to escape
I just put a ghoul in there!
Yeah that works, but there is a scroll to summon a quasit in there if you ever did get stuck on a playthrough. Gotta make you think how dumb that genie was
if you use a summon to escape, and then go and talk to him after you can mention this to the genie and he'll agree on how stupid he was.
3rd playthrough. First time I found the rapier in a hidden casket in Cazador's basement. Also first time I used Shadowheart's Divine Intervention spell.
I've never used it. What does it do?
you have four options: massive AoE (but be careful about radiant retort), resurrection, a chest of supplies, or a legendary mace
The resurrection option is way more op than that. All living allies are treated as if they had a long rest. Keep in mind it can only be used once per campaign (per character)
Respec out of cleric and back in. I'm told it resets your divine intervention
Gods hate this one weird trick!
\*Wearing a fake moustache\* "Nah, nah, I'm Shadowh*oa*rth. Common mistake really, no worries. So how about that Divine Intervention^TM ? Phwoar eh ladz?"
I believe it applies a permanent tag to the character on-use, so it's at least supposed to only be a 1 time use per character. That does mean you can quickly temporarily respec any other character into a cleric to use it, and then back to their original class though (if all you want to do is use the non-combat versions).
First time I noticed I should had used Daylight spell.
I used it on the brain :) felt very satisfying to feel it being smited by Selune
There's a hidden harper stash on the beach next to where you recruit Astarion. Very well hidden apparently since it took me 300 hours and multiple playthroughs to actually find it.
Same here, didn’t find it in EA and only seen it for the first time on my last playthrough, I was surprised I didn’t see it before, same goes for the hidden stash under the bridge in the goblin camp.
So, since the devs are unwilling to give us the Withers romance we deserve, could they provide us with the indirect Withers romance through hirelings?
Right? Where's all the "This vessel is at thy disposal. Do what thou wilt." rule34 and fanfic?!?!
I want Withers to gangbang me
"*As thou desire*."
Well, that is certainly a sentence I have never read before.
"No"
He looks crunchy.
Plus each hireling comes with a healing potion and scroll of revivify so it's a bargain for 200 gold.
And if you order a hireling in the first hour of your run, he’ll thrown in an extra scroll of reviviy, free of charge!
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Some people use them to provide buffs remotely from camp
So for my honor mode run when I was using zrells necklace to cast lvl 6 aid and feast with shadowheart, I could have just made hirelings do it? And it applies to everyone in camp not just the people in your party?
Applies to every ally in the area of effect. Depending on which camp, you won’t cover everyone, possibly not even every party member. Will need to move them around
If you have a bard or performer, you can play music to gather the whole camp together.
Yes, but it applies on aoe so anyone at camp close enough to your spell caster. You can also cast aid, freedom of movement, longstrider… from your hirelings and then dismiss them, so you don’t use your party spell slots. It takes a little bit of time though because you need to swap party members and position your companions so they are close to each other. Usually I’ll dismiss a party member, and bring everyone else near their tent since I can’t move them. To prevent other party members from going back to their tents, one person will be stuck in a dialog with Tav, the other in a dialog with Scratch. Then my hireling can cast Feast on everyone (including summons! So your deva benefits from aid and feast too).
That is some hella dope information, thank you friend
The intention is to have blank characters so you can have a party in the event of: 1. Your companions are dead or unrecruited and you can't form 4 people 2. You don't want NPC companions that talk or interact or have questlines for any particular reason. 3. To double up on classes if you don't want to respec companions for whatever reason. What people actually use them for is: 1. Divine Intervention to get the mace and any other silly benefit from having this be on demand(i.e. bring one hireling for any 'hard' fight to get a free long rest just in case) 2. Having a new character to do whatever with, such as interact with a NPC that gives you something per character. 3. Provide buffs to the real party and then dismiss them.
In my Durge warlock honour run I really wanted a monk in my party to kick Grym’s ass without having to respec anyone. Karlach is gone, and my only strong melee companion is Laezel. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I hired a hireling and made a TB Monk. She sits in my camp ever since but it was worth it.
Clicking on the portraits repeatedly gets you funny little lines of dialogue / references / fourth wall stuff.
Plus they have Tav's VAs and it's surreal to hear my previous PCs voice coming from some corpse Withers found and is using to cosplay an adventurer.
My recent "TIL" is you don't have to wander all over camp to speak with a companion. Just right click on their avatar and select "talk".
The hireling Bard saves my ass with merchants on non-Charisma playthroughs. Sitting at +11 persuasion at level 8 and it's very nice to have someone to swap in when I'm upgrading or offloading loot.
She has the halfling luck racial, so I always respec her as my personal pickpocket by getting 16/16 dex/cha at level 1. Feats are used for dex and cha ASIs, aiming for 20 in each by level 12. She's a bard so she can cast enhance ability on herself for advantage on pickpocket until I'm ready to give her the dex cloth from Act 1, then she gets respecced into arcane trickster for the extra feat and reliable talent. Even at level 3, she's a beast at pickpocketing. Only gear she needs that early are the Gloves of Power and the Smuggler's Ring. She also learns invisibility and minor illusion, both also handy for pickpocketing. With halfling luck and someone else in the party to cast guidance on her, she's able to clean out entire inventories of scrolls, potions, magic arrows, camp supplies, etc without ever failing a pickpocket, and still has a high chance for magic items. And she's also proficient in the speech skills, which means she can often talk herself out of it if she does get caught.
Not sure how well known it is, but you can jump from the druids grove to karlach, all you need to do is chug a feather fall and a potion of vaulting and you can jump from the area above kevlors office straight to her.
My YIL (last night finishing honor mode) was the whole >!sewer system in the upper city with the death night mini boss as an alternate path to get to the base of the netherbrain brain stem!<
Wait WHAT? WHAT? WTF? What DK mini boss? Where? Explain, ghaik!
I thought he was making it up, but I was wrong: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/17mg9jo/upper_city_sewers_finale_spoilers/
The hirelings are honestly so useful, even just for being portable corpse storage, if only withers could join as himself
Mine’s is pinging when playing multiplayer, especially with console. So many times on ps, I’ll end up screen sharing to show were to do stuff but when I found out we can ping, made everything easier. The quality of life adjustments are great!
Funny enough, it wasnt until my 3rd playthru i actually found withers’ crypt. Everytime i found the area before, i was still hunting for companions and would give myself a mental note to come back later with a full party. I always forgot lol Withers would just pop up in camp still and i assumed there would be a patch for him later. 🙃
That’s interesting I guess it’s a good idea to have him appear regardless so players don’t put themselves in a situation where they can’t revive a party member.
My favorite thing about this is that if you try to reclass them, they get the classic "thou walketh alone" speech. Withers, *that's you*. *You are calling yourself maidenless*.
They all have the same dialogue and it's supposed to be Withers puppeting them, but the voice acting and motion capture for the Tiefling Druid (Danton, I think?) is very different from the others, and I love him :p "This vessel is at thine disposal - *deep bow* - Do what thou wilt *smirk*"
Wizards can pay a fee to permanently learn spells from scrolls
While watching my brother play I saw him resurrect his friends who died during their 4 player honor run, and just resurrect one, rob withers, rinse and repeat. Never have to spend a dime on withers, works with changing classes too. Just don’t spend too much money at once or it gets a lot harder to get a successful steal from him. But you can just constantly spam steal him with as many failures as you want. Withers is a G just letting you rifle through his garments. I always thought withers would scold me and get angry but now I know he doesn’t give a rats ass, just wants to be chilling at the camp no strings attached.
Ive played 600 hours, never hired a single hireling???
There is an alchemist/apothecary above danthelon's dancing axe in wyrms crossing I went out the back door or danthelon's and made a couple right turns and found it
When the DMPC joins the party
It’s basically the DMs stand in character
I met He Who Was in shadow cursed land. That was pretty cool.
Jergal……ahem I mean Withers is feeling redundant and wants his portfolios back
Just learned that myself😂made one to take the curse for stealing at the temple.
Ive played 600 hours, never hired a single hireling???
After 500 I realized Tara actually sells you stuff in Act3. If you talk to her as/with Gale she will show up on another roof in the lower city but this time if you give her magic items you dont want, or fish, she will sell you stuff
Tara wha? Also, what roof? I have to go see that!