Wait, Volo is a merchant? I've never come across the dialogue option to trade with him. I'm going to have to look into that, might be a bug or I'm just wildly unobservant. I was wondering why he kept hanging around the camp other than wanting to stick that clothing needle in my eye

Yeah, it's nice to get that Action Surge feat and be able to launch an extra round of Eldritch Blast. Since they start out with such low Strength I spec Dexterity up a bit (along with Charisma) and concentrate on finesse weapons, bows and throwables. If you want more melee, Pact of the Blade for Warlock overcomes the strength deficit and combines nicely with a Warlock/Fighter, especially with the extra attack you get later on (level 5 I think). You can end up having an Infernal fighter that can spam something like 5 attacks if you do it right by incorporating the Battle Master subclass for Fighter. I'm still trying to find the right balance to include the Arcane knight sub-class to add more magic. I keep forgetting that I can respect at any time. Really need to play around with that more. I've noticed in the forums a lot of folks suggest 3 levels of Warlock, 2 Levels of Fighter and then go the Sorcerer route. Haven't tried that yet though.

I haven't checked online, but it seems like Rogue and Warlock might mesh well too.

Volo is a trader IF you start the conversation about the parasite with him, and then the option to trade should appear. It's NOT a dialogue option, but shows up as an action like trading would for random characters in the game, so on the bottom of the screen.

Ah, that's another option I always forget about. Thanks!

So, I'm now making my way through the Shawdowlands and am really starting to "see" the limitations of playing on the Steam Deck; some items are impossible to pick up because of the size of the screen. Everything is so small and crowded individual items are impossible to focus on. It took me half an hour to push a button last night!

I know there's a way to pick up everything in sight, though; I did it once but for the life of me can't work out how I did it.

I bought a Steam Deck too, and have also found it difficult to play some games. Games need to be designed specifically for small screens, like mobile games for phones, for them to guarantee to be playable on small screens. But games for PC and consoles are generally made for larger screens like PC monitors and TVs. TVs used to have small screens (20 inches or less), so the old console games from that era were designed accordingly. But nowadays, 30+ to 50+ inches are common for TVs.

I did finally work out how to pick up small items, and it's great! Holding down the A key on my Deck brings up every single interactable item in the immediate vicinity and allows you to pick up what you want, open crates, and get to that pesky button or lever that you can't quite reach. It's made the game so much easier.

I'm on my way to Moonrise towers, having wiped out the Gith and scammed their egg away from them. Lady Edith lies dead on the ground and looted, since her plans were despicable.

Regarding the Steam Deck, I find that simpler games like Fallout 76 and Metro 2033 were great on the deck because there's not so much small detail. BG2 and Veilguard play well but it's difficult to see what's what.

I sold her the Owlbear egg instead. It takes a Persuasion check, but I guess that's the middle of the road choice.

My party is in the same vicinity. Just left Last Light and hit the first shadow denizens. Doing a couple side quests to buff XP up a bit before moving on to Moonrise. Shadowheart still seems to be the enemy's "alpha strike" target about 50% of the time. I'm guessing because she's a cleric? My Warlock/Fighter-Eldritch knight is doing well at 3 levels each, Eldritch Blast is too fun especially with Action Surge from the Fighter levels. I went the extra fighter level to get Eldritch Knight thinking the spells would be useful, but now I think I get why folks who want spells multiclass in Sorcerer rather than going the extra fighter level. I might respec at 7 with that progression to see how it turns out.

Okay, then my next character will be evil Drow.

Giving Astarion levels of Fighter has turned him into a killing machine. I still don't play Karlach properly, I guess.

I still have to get moving on that evil character I built. Been playing more of an Elven "gigachad" in this active playthrough That "Pact of the Blade" for Warlocks is great. Really helps make melee a lot more impactful for a Warlock/Fighter especially if you can find or buy a decent weapon. Gloves of Dexterity are a boon as well, don't have to worry about Dex saves...much. Probably jinxing myself, but I'm actually really surprised how well this multiclass is doing. Ended up unintentionally soloing and doing well against a herd of psycho fish folks hiding out in the Shadowlands, although they seemed like kind of an XP bonus, not very tough and sort of stupid.

Yeah, Astarion is a ridiculously good character. Even after re-specing I've had to equip the heck out of Shadowheart to make her a close equivalent (very thankful for the "Gloves of Thievery"). In this playthrough Astarion didn't seem to fit in with the group I'm taking through the Shadowlands. I'll bring him back in the party once we get close to Baldur's Gate.

If you haven't done it yet with Karlach, you need to do the improvised weapon thing and have her use another enemy as the weapon. The dialog that randomly comes up is hilarious (after you do it a few times), as is the Steam achievement you get, "Kill Two Birds with One Gnome"

I definitely need to get Karlach chucking people around, because that will presumably get me through that timed sequence in Act 3 (?) where I agave up last time. I gave her the Tavern Brawler perk (I think that's what it's called) and I'm wondering if there's another one I should have picked.

I've seen the Tavern Brawler Feat mentioned for Karlach's build and it's supposed to be pretty good depending on how she's developed.

I usually go for the Ability bump rather than the specialty Feats. So, not sure how the Brawler Feat works in practice although I guess it increases that improvised throwing ability?

Just respec'd my Elven dude to 2 levels Fighter, 2 levels Sorcerer, and 4 levels Warlock. You definitely do get more spell slots and an OK variety of spells going with the 2 levels of Sorcerer rather than going to a Level 3 Fighter with the Eldritch Knight sub-class. I think the preferred build is to continue with the Sorcerer levels, but I'm curious how a Warlock buffed-up like that will work and will continue on that route.

In this playthrough my party is that Elven Multiclass, Shadowheart subbed to War Cleric, Karlach as a Berserker Barbarian with 1 level of Sorcerer which was not a good idea so, that will be respec'd away shortly. Then Gale as a pure Wizard, pretty much to game suggested spec, but I'm thinking of giving him a Fighter level. I feel like he needs at least some medium armor because he's still pretty squishy when conserving spell slots. I'm just starting our search for the Thorn artifact, so getting closer to that nasty sequence.

If you're referring to Iron Throne where you only have 5 to 8 turns to rescue all prisoners (8 turns at the easiest difficulty, only 5 turns at Tactician difficulty), then all four people in your party, not just Karlach, need to have the ability to "move" people. In my playthrough, I brought several Dimension Door and Misty Step scrolls with me. Scrolls can be shared and used by everyone, including non-spellcasters. Even the duke can use one to teleport himself out of danger. Misty Step can teleport one person (the caster), and Dimension Door can teleport the caster and another person, such as a prisoner. The teleportation travels about 60 feet, which is far enough to get from one end of a corridor to the exit. Naturally, you need to help the prisoners who are the farthest away from the exit the most.

Another way to teleport is to shoot Arrows of Transposition, which can teleport you 60 feet away, even if you are ensnared or immobile. Arrows can be shared, and everyone in your party has a bow. So this method provides yet another way for everyone, even non-spellcasters, to teleport.

Teleportation doesn't use your movement, which is a great way to maximize your mobility so you can rescue everyone and escape in time.

If you have a spellcaster in your party (such as Wyll), the Hold Person spell is useful against the enemies. Despite what they look like, those creatures are actually humanoids. So they can be incapacitated with Hold Person, which makes the enemy lose TEN TURNS at most (with a saving throw try at every turn). If your spellcaster has high saving throw DC, the enemy may lose several turns -- even losing just 2 to 3 turns will help you greatly. If your spellcaster has limited spell slots, bring some Hold Person scrolls as well. Hold Person is a charisma spell, so Wyll will be of great help here. His father is a prisoner too, so he has a good reason to be here.

One more tip about this rescue is that there is one door that can be used to lock in several enemies. Once locked inside, they will never be able to come out, and you have several fewer enemies to worry about.

Here is my video playthrough of the rescue, in only 5 turns at Tactician difficulty, using all the strategies above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF0u_2XW0nM

Wow! Awesome video GamingPhreak and some great tips on the segment.

That information will definitely come in handy.

Yes, that is the timed quest I was talking about. It stopped my game last time. After about 15 tries I just gave up. This time through, I've been lowering the difficult level to get past tough spots so I can actually get through the game. Once I've done that and am familiar with all of the mechanics I'll be able to do a decent playthrough, like I did with previous BG games.

I'll be watching your video very carefully before I venture in this time. I'm not there yet; still having fun rambling around Moonrise Towers and playing with party member builds. I've just finished rescuing the Nightsong and am about to do Halsin's little quest.

You're welcome, guys. My method is just one of many, I'm sure. I only did one playthrough of this game, so there must be many other builds that can improve mobility. Another way to move faster is getting the illithid power to fly, which lets you move at half the movement cost and avoid enemies' opportunity attacks if you fly near enemies.

One more tip: drink "Potion of Speed." It gives you an extra action for THREE TURNS, but you lose a turn afterwards. I did this in my video. My Laezel drinks Potion of Speed in the 2nd turn and gets two actions in that turn. She gets another 2 actions in the 3rd turn, and another 2 actions in the 4th turn. At the end of the 4th turn, she exits back to the submersible. In the 5th turn, she loses a turn, but it doesn't matter, because she already made it back to the submersible. In this timed objective, having all the extra actions far outweighs the loss of a turn at the end.