Don’t worry too much about Starfield. I have played to first few hours - I mean I had to check it out but have happily come back to BG3 to finish it.
I will go back to Starfield, it is an OK to Good game IMHO but BG3 is a great game. I will reserve my final judgement to until I have finished but unless Act 3 really ‘jumps the shark’ it is one of the best games I have ever played.
I am going a bit melee heavy with my party.
I have myself (Paladin) and Karlach, and then Shadowheart and Astarion.
Man, in real life I’d hate to have Astarion with me. But I love his dialogue and if you know how to play a rogue he can do tons of damage. I play him as arcane trickster so he also brings a few spells.
I… just don’t like Gale and Wyll. Gale is so squishy and Wyll is… dunno. I just don’t like the dude. So it is the girls and the elf.
He is the one character that I have literally never used. Mainly because I have been playing a Rogue/Thief and one in a party is enough - I am at the point where there basically isn’t a lock I can’t pick, trap I can’t disarm or sneak stab-in-the-back that I can’t succed in (and do massive crits). It has got to the point that it is probably not worth doing his character quests now?
Especially because my second playthrough will be as Wizard or Sorcereor and I will definitely need him in the party then and that will be some ‘new’ content to play.
It will also let me ditch Gale and Wyll, because I hear ya… but I find Gale the least annoying of the two.
For me it is Lazael. As soon as I had Karlach I didn’t use her. She is just less fun to have around and less interesting to play, and I fill her role with my main character. I only swapped her in for some Githyanki-specific things.
That could be taken a couple of ways… I would say the same but that is only because I am still ‘dating’ her 
Haha, no. I friendzoned her really hard. She was the first who wanted me, but I refused. She has a nice line of dialogue at a later point if you do that, in which she expresses frustration.
I went on a date with Shadowheart but she doesn’t want more it seems. I might be a victim of the broken romance bug, because I did all the romantic stuff but there was no chance for…physical stuff after the goblin camp victory celebration, which is the point she would do something if I read that correctly.
But I am still not sure if I shouldn’t date Karlach instead, who is so much fun to have around and has been quite… vocal about wanting to be touched ever since I splashed a bottle of water on her after I walked past her and heard her say “I wish there was a way to cool me down”. It was meant as fun and I didn’t expect a dialogue, but there it was.
I know I sound like a broken record by now, but this game is SO great.
X 
I can’t remember the last time I was so invested in the characters and story of a ‘game’.
@Harry_Bumcrack Thanks for the tips. I’m currently working on solving the Open Hand Temple murder although I did get sidelined a bit by Raphael. Should’ve ran the minute I saw him. 
@Aginor Thanks for the tips. I turned off weighted dice a while back and noticed a difference. I’ll put a bit more work into Karlach using your suggestions.
I’m also at a place where I’m not sure if I should continue to trust the Emperor or support Lae’zel. She’s grown on me a bit and has proven herself handy in combat. The storyline has me conflicted in a frustratingly good way.
I really enjoy my time here in Denmark, but man I can tell you I am eager to continue playing BG3 as soon as I am home again.
That is my chief dilemma at the moment as well - I am just going to leave it for as long as possible, play it by ear and make a call when the time comes?
The following is spoiler(ish) if you have played either BG 1 or 2, and possibly meaningless if you haven’t?
If you get the chance to save Minsc, do it and include him in your party at least once. He still has his maybe real, maybe not, miniature giant space hamster companion. The first time he said “Go for the eyes Boo” made me want to play the first games again 
Nice!
I found Mol! Man, I pretty much lost hope… feels like I won a prize! Huzzah!!!
I am a touch late to the party, the girls bought me BG3 for my birthday …(a touch early its next week)
so far I am damned impressed, Dialog is brilliant, characters i have met so far are very interesting and game mechanics seem logical so far
As I am waiting for the XBOX version, I had a friend stream a walkthrough of the tutorial. (He was restarting with a new character). I’ve never even seen D&D and have never played any sort of turn-based combat RPG. So the whole idea was a bit foreign. But I knew from actively reading this thread that it would be great. I just wasn’t prepared for it to be so beautiful and so unswervingly adult. I can’t wait!
The what character do I play and the ‘Level Up’ path can be quite daunting, especially if you have never played D&D before. Start with, what class you want to play (e.g. Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, etc) and then choose a race based on that. e.g. I’m am playing as a Rogue, so Drow or Halfling gave the best bonuses for that class.
This is a pretty good guide, especially for character creation (best builds, etc) to get you started:
If you are like me you will be swapping characters in and out of your party just to hear their dialog and the banter between them.
I watched an online interview with the actor who voiced Karlach. Apparently her’s was the last character to be done and had the least lines at time of release, but she still spent over 240 hours in the studio.
Nice. Have this bookmarked
Phew! just when I think I am getting close to the end game I find something else to do. On the surface there didn’t seem a lot to do once you reach the lower city in Baldur’s Gate other than the main quest and the companion quests - wow was I wrong. If anything Act 3 has nearly as much content as the previous two combined… or at least it seems like it?
For a start if you thought you had seen the end of Auntie Ethel back in Act 1, guess again.
And the game keeps ramping up the difficulty, although I have now reached Level 12 the ‘House of Hope’ took ages, literally hours of save scumming to complete.
And I have yet to take on Orin and Gortash
oh my god I’m not ready to hear this!
I just left the underdark and I know for sure I left stuff undone. There’s so (too) much to do in this game, and it’s so (too) good! I have no idea when I’m even going to be able to play anything else.
Ideally I’d pause for now and come back to it so I don’t get burnt out - practically feels like I’ve already played a ‘whole game’ just doing act 1. But there’s no way I’m not gonna keep playing.