I adore every single interaction we get from the fey patron
What do you mean i can't have them meet. The Original Patron would love to have tea with smarmy the devil!
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A sequel to this (re:during a very harrowing week in the shadowlands Tav Orion lost their powers and started catching up to their (until that moment basically immortal) life)
I honestly love how easy it is to cheese the Gauntlet of Shar, and all while working completely within the system of both the game, and the faith itself.
Like, the "cheating" solutions fit so perfectly into Sharran teachings that I'm pretty sure that's what you're meant to do, honestly. Sure, you can brute-force it by playing by the presumed (never explicitly stated!) rules, but in the domain of a faith the main point of which is secrecy and deception, completing the trials easily by skewing the rules but without violating any explicit ones and avoiding all penalties is what sounds to me like what would actually be befitting of a Dark Justiciar's thinking.
The Self-Same trial is defeated by being somewhat cautious, and just sneaking in through the door until you spot them. In one surprise round, you can quite literally vaporize all of the shadow clones without them ever getting to lay a hand on you. They are very easily defeated in one or two rounds just by a counter-ambush. That's perfectly logical, strategic thinking that's totally within the rules.
The Soft-Step trial, literally all it needs is for you to get one character to lockpick the door and waltz in, and you can have them stand next to the altar as someone on the other side activates it. You don't even need to sneak, you just have to think slightly outside the box and take what you want, which is literally written on the wall of the inner chamber, as part of Shar's wisdom.
But the Faith-Leap trial might be my favorite, because on top of any jump-enhancing technique making an utter joke of it, it's also literally defeated just by Shadowheart being Shadowheart. Like literally her base strength is high enough that she doesn't need the paths, she can just leap from platform to platform, and end up on the other side without ever needing to wade into the darkness. Her being her is the greatest folly to Shar's trial, which is just... so thematically fitting.
Doesn't matter if you're trying to redeem Shadowheart or support her decision to become a Dark Justiciar. This is what the entire gauntlet of Shar feels like.
Astarion disapproves of the most random shit sometimes. What do you mean his rogue ass doesn’t approve of threatening rats to get them to tell me where treasure is?
Also, he’s not the one casting Speak with Animals right now, he doesn’t even know what we’re talking about.
He’s such a judgy little bitch, and I love him for it. But it does occasionally make me angry. LIKE I’M SORRY I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE A BUNCH OF TIEFLING REFUGEES FOR DEAD, especially while I’m playing a Tiefling myself, but I’m glad you’re putting yourself first cause you’ve been through shit, my love.