The Gamers Arms

Took me fucking ages to realise that the fight with Grym the elemental was basically a simple puzzle! I actually almost killed him by just straight hitting him with everything I could but didn't realise that you need to keep the lava flowing to keep him super-heated and thus vulnerable. Extra spoileryness ahead

I got my arse handed to me anyhow, with the bastard on 8hp but now utterly invulnerable. Quit in disgust and went to bed, where I spent a long time playing it over in my head. Back on the following morning, and yes indeed, if you manouevre him near the forge hammer then drop it on him, you take out half his hits in one shot. He always goes after the last person to damage him, so you can just kite him from the outset. Someone placed at the bottom of the arena to ping him with an arrow, then everyone else do nothing. Off he goes, stops at just the right spot, and you pull the handle. Release more lava, kite him into it to heat back up, rinse and repeat. I barely lost a hitpoint.

Shame my brain takes a while to process these ideas though, guessing a good few of you spotted the obvious way through straight off

I did clock the hammer-bashing possibilities, but by that point it was just easier to bash the thing to death by hand and keep healing. Was a close one!

I would have finished him first time around too had I clocked the need to keep the lava flowing. Ah well, live and learn!

I can't think of a better (or larger) opening act to an RPG, to the extent that it could easily have been sold as a full-priced game in its own right.

I played as a good-natured, legally-flexible bard, and most of my choices involved smooth-talking my way into (or out of) things wherever possible. I talked Khaga down from child murder, I tricked my way into the goblin camp and I convinced the camp bosses that I was working for them, right up until the point where I killed them all. The only trouble was seeing all the options for an evil / jerk playthrough, because that looks like a lot of fun. My only truly dastardly deed in act 1 was killing the owlbear in the cave and then putting the cub out of its misery because I somehow missed the opportunity to adopt it (as I've since discovered is possible). I also apparently missed that the drow boss Minthara can join the party, though I expect that requires attacking the grove. I instead rescued Halsin, restored balance to the grove and helped the tiefling refugees wherever I could.

The highlight for me was undoubtedly Auntie Ethel. The atmosphere of pure malice and peril beyond what my party could probably handle was intense, but Ethel's spirited performance sells the whole thing perfectly. I ended up killing her in a very difficult fight and saving Mayrina, but I failed to convince her to leave her dead husband alone. Instead, I raised his corpse as a zombie to try and prove to her that he was nothing but a husk, which resulted in her trotting off to Baldur's Gate with her shambling husband in tow. Whoops.

Out of my party members, I mostly stuck with Shadowheart (my romance), Karlach and Gale. Karlach was by far the MVP, able to turn around even the most desperate of fights with some determined rage-smashing. The character arcs are all superb, though as mentioned previously, I wish the conversation options had a more overt 'this is meant to be flirting' warnings. Everyone - EVERYONE - had a moment where I'd been asked what I thought was a reasonable and platonic question which then led to them being snippy with me for having apparently led them on. I swear one of them was Gale asking if I wanted to go somewhere quiet to talk in the middle of a rowdy party with the tieflings, which in no way suggested to me that I'd be dragged immediately into a romantic starlit picnic where he wanted to feel me up.

Ironically, despite Lae'zel being generally a piece of work to talk to, she was the most accepting of the bunch when rebuffed, with the conversation amounting to "Wanna rut?" "Nah." "Fair enough."