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This post is an immediate follow-up to my previous post on my 8th playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. If you somehow are reading this essay without reading that one, this essay will be incomprehensible to you.

It might be incomprehensible anyway. There are some things here that elude me too.

If you still want to read this post, I’ll begin with my usual BG3 warnings:

• I’ll try to avoid spoilers, but there will be some. Every link to the BG3 wiki or a YouTube video is a spoiler.
• These are the maunderings of an unskilled player. If you want to solo Honor mode, you’re in the wrong place.
• The post is long due to many screenshots. It’s more of annotated photo album than an essay.

The Three Protectors

In my initial BG3 post, I describe the hirelings I get for each playthrough. They cast buffs on the party like Warding Bond, Mage Armor, and Freedom of Movement.

The game offers a pool of 12 hirelings. I use the ones that present as tall women. If you look at the photos in my other BG3 posts, you’ll quickly see why: so I can look at the digital images of digital women in their underwear.

You can control the appearance and names of the hirelings, to the same extent that you can adjust the appearance of your own custom character (a “Tav”) after you’ve created them.

In prior playthroughs, I gave the Protectors names that were a combination of functional and whimsical: Ward Bond, The Blade, and Ai’Kandii. This time around I decided to give them a bit more dignity.

Let’s meet them, shall we?

The source of these names is an old online handle of a friend of mine: Angela Karmawings. Apart from the simple fun of acknowledging a friend, I also had a vague hope that this might encourage her to try BG3.

You may notice something: Having named these utility characters after someone I knew, I was not as inclined to strip them down to their underwear (or less). In part this was because I always intended to send my friend pictures of her “namesakes” as I proceeded through playthrough 8 as Wyll. I have no idea if seeing these digital women in digital underwear would have offended my friend (I didn’t ask), but it didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

The function of the Protectors was to cast buff spells. Their specs were suited to that:

• Angela – Level up as a full Druid, for Longstrider, Protection From Poison, Freedom of Movement, and eventually Heroes’ Feast.
• Karma – Level up as full Cleric, for Warding Bond, Protection From Poison, Death Ward, Remove Curse, and Heroes’ Feast.
• Wings – One level of Wizard, for Mage Armor; followed by all remaining levels in Cleric for the same spells as Karma.

The reason for having three hirelings (the maximum permitted by the game) is spell slots. I’ll save a full “spell slot lecture” for some other essay. To keep it simple: in D&D you’re only allowed to cast a fixed number of spells per day. By having three Protectors, I made sure that there were enough spell slots among them to cast buffs on the entire party (including any minions). This also freed up spell slots on the main party, so those slots could be used for Fireballs and whatnot instead of buffing each other.

A special mention should be made of Warding Bond, since I previously described the spell incorrectly. Warding Bond is a mutual spell between caster and target. The target gets +1 to Armor Class (another mini-lecture in the waiting list) and Saving Throws (yet another), and Resistance to all forms of damage.

Resistance means that all damage of a particular type (e.g., Fire, Acid) taken by the target is halved. Warding Bond gives Resistance to every form of damage. That’s a pretty big benefit!

The penalty is that the caster also takes whatever damage the target takes. Since the target is taking half damage due to Resistance, this not too bad. However, there were times I returned to a campsite to find that Karma or Wings had been killed due to the damage sustained by their Warding Bond targets; while the characters on the adventure would get Healing, the Protectors in the camp typically did not.

Playthrough Goal: Make Druids Work

I didn’t just make one Druid work, I made two of them work!

But the circumstances were strange, and got stranger as I went along.

There’s an encounter roughly one-third of the way through the game that’s difficult and a bit tedious. It’s worth doing because it rewards a couple of useful items.

The encounter has rules that Larian intended for the players to follow to defeat it. However, the player community discovered a different and faster way. It involves using a Druid in one of their Wild Shapes, having other players cast particular buffs on the Druid, and the Druid jumping on top of the monster.

Get it right, and the monster is slain in one blow. Get it wrong, and the combat can become so complicated that it’s tempting to restart the encounter from a game save.

I’d tried the trick in two or three of my previous playthroughs. Since I didn’t have a Druid character in my adventuring group (remember, I hadn’t figured out how to make Druids work yet), I used the Druid from the Protectors. I had her replace one of the regular party members just for that one encounter. It failed, each time for a different reason.

For this playthrough, I gave the trick another try. I got out Angela and had her replace Lae’zel. Lae’zel said she didn’t mind.

I set things up. Angela made the jump.

One jump, one blow, no waiting. The monster fell. Success!

Druid Angela

I decided to “reward” Angela by giving her a try as a regular member of the party.

I’d tried to make a Circle of the Land Druid work before. I didn’t think I’d succeed now. But it was worth a shot. Also, I thought maybe the Real Angela would enjoy getting pictures of Druid Angela while the latter lasted.

To give her the best chance to succeed, I gave her Adamantine Scale Mail, which was one of the items she’d help me to get. She replaced Lae’zel in the party. Lae’zel simply had to accept it.

I also gave Druid Angela Mourning Frost, a Cold-based staff that Wyll wasn’t using; Wyll did not cast Cold spells. This established Angela as an Arctic Druid. This video wasn’t released until after I started evolving Druid Angela in that direction. I was pleased to see that my choices generally agreed with those of the maker of this video:

It worked. It may be that I began to understand the area-control powers of a Druid of the Land, especially when I made use of her spell Conjure Woodland Being. The Dryad created by this spell can summon a minion of her own: a Wood Woad.

This was the start of what Druids are known for: having a huge coterie of minions under their control.

In the same way that Eldritch Blast was Wyll’s “bread-and-butter” spell, Ray of Frost was Druid Angela’s. For multiple enemies, there was always Ice Storm.

I supplemented with gear such as Coldbrim Hat, Winter’s Clutches, and Necklace of Elemental Augmentation.

With so many icy surfaces around, the Hoarfrost Boots (which prevent slipping on ice) became essential to her.

As with Wyll, she often used her Bonus Action to make a off-hand attack. However, her off-hand attacks were more effective than Wyll’s, mainly due to making sure that her off-hand weapon had various cold-based enhancements. I go into a bit more detail in the “character gear” section at the bottom of this post.

All of these icy surfaces made things more complicated for the melee fighters. Without special gear, they were just as likely to slip and become vulnerable as any other enemy. Fortunately, there are various items (like the Disintegrating Night Walkers) to keep them from slipping.

I was almost sorry to figure that out. It’s fun to see Karlach slip on the ice.

Druid Angela contributed more and more as time went on. She proved to be an experienced diagnostician.

Of course, she couldn’t save everyone.

Her understanding of the spiritual world was unmatched. Her time in the Fugue Plane had served her well.

Although her main expertise was in Cold-based spells, Angela was a Druid and could Shapeshift. The only form she ever used was Panther:

There are lots of ways to become Invisible in BG3. Panthers have Prowl, which is unusual in that it does not have a time limit, can be used any number of times per day, and does not have pre-condition like “must be Obscured“. This means that Panther Angela could turn Invisible whenever she wanted and Pounce on an enemy.

The main thing I hoped to achieve with Angela’s Panther Prowl is to Surprise the enemy. This essentially gives the party an extra turn in which the enemy does nothing. Unfortunately, I could never get this to work. Druid Angela could do more damage by charging in with the rest of the group.

Angela the Hireling

I have to give more context for the rest of essay to make sense (to the extent that it does). Angela was a hireling. They don’t even have the personality of random monsters. They’re like living robots.

Their backstory, such as it is: The game has an Ultimate Evil that the party must defeat by the game’s end. Over the years, many have failed to defeat this enemy and died. Some of their souls found their way to the Fugue Plane.

As Withers says in the screenshot, they want another chance at fighting the Ultimate Evil. Withers can’t fully bring them back to life, but he can bring back their forms without their personalities.

They still have their bodies and souls, but their minds can’t connect from the Fugue Plane. Whatever manner of speech they have comes from Withers.

If you speak directly to them, they react mechanically.

If you looked at the speech lines in the above photos and went “Ugh,” all I can say is: Yeah, I agree.

From the standpoint of game mechanics, I understand this. Hirelings are not meant to be characters to engage with. They’re placeholders to fill roles in an adventuring party, or as campsite attendants to apply buffs.

The story isn’t about them. It’s about you.

Druid Angela the Protagonist

Something strange happened.

Increasingly in my mind, the game’s story became more about Druid Angela than it did about Wyll, the ostensible party leader.

The matter became critical roughly 2/3rds of the way through the game. There’s a game event that gives characters a chance to greatly increase their power. The most important aspect of the new abilities is increased mobility on the battlefield.

For role-playing reasons, you can choose not to accept this power. Among other things, that will make combats harder. I’ve already acknowledged my lack of skill in this game. In past playthroughs, I had my character and all the other Origin characters accept this upgrade.

This an important enough decision that game has a song about it:

Some playable characters can’t make this choice: Jaheira, Halsin, and Minsc. None of the hirelings can either.

I knew I was approaching the point at which Druid Angela would become a liability in combat. My plan was to reach that decision point, then transfer her items to Minthara, and respec Minthara to match Druid Angela’s class and abilities.

There would be no problem giving these powers to Minthara. The other Origin characters, for story reasons, raise objections to adopting the abilities. Minthara enthusiastically accepts them.

I was all set…

…and I couldn’t do it.

I knew I had to continue with Druid Angela. I would simply have to adapt my combat strategy (such as it is) so she could remain part of the party.

Minthara took her demotion with good grace.

I’m still trying to figure out why I couldn’t make the switch. It was the logical thing to do.

Intellectual Curiosity?

Part of it may have been intellectual curiosity: What are the limits of what a hireling can do in the game’s story?

It turned out that were times when the game would “push” Wyll forward even when Druid Angela was the one who was performing the task at hand. I found it helped to keep Wyll far away from certain interactions.

On one occasion I left Wyll far behind and had only Druid Angela and Shadowheart approach an encounter. Rather than let Druid Angela get any credit, the game shifted its focus so that the script was taken from when Shadowheart was the lead character in the story.

Wyll’s Story?

Part of it may have been that Wyll’s story was too familiar.

In my Gale playthough there were little bits scattered throughout the game that were Gale-only. There was none of that with Wyll, at least none that I hadn’t seen before when Wyll was a regular member of the adventuring party. There were some pronoun shifts (“You” instead of “Him”) but that was pretty much it. This is understandable given the difficulties with the Wyll storyline that I mentioned in my previous post.

So it might have been one of those hallucinations you get while you’re in a sensory deprivation tank. You see nothing, and your mind starts filling in the void.

This time, that void was the story of Druid Angela.

Was it the name “Angela”?

It might have come from naming the hirelings after someone I knew. I kept sending screenshots to Real Angela about Druid Angela: “Hey, look at what Angela the Druid did today!”

As anyone knows who’s ever told a story to a child that features them, you begin to amplify that person’s role in the tale in order to engage them.

That last point became ever more emphasized as I continued the playthrough. I put Druid Angela in the forefront of every encounter. She was the party spokesperson.

Wyll was still needed for those times when a Persuasion check was required; for example, when dealing with vendors. The rest of the time, it was Druid Angela who was the focus.

It got to the point where I was basically writing Druid Angela fanfic. I sent a couple of stories to Real Angela, who seemed to like them. (No slashfic; sorry folks.) (Well, maybe one slash… we’ll see…)

In fact, in addition to what’s in this essay, I plan to add at least two more posts with Stories of Druid Angela, the Hero Hireling.

Would this have happened if I hadn’t used the name of a Real-Life person for the fantasy hirelings? We’ll see in my next playthrough, in which I plan to name the Protectors Sabrina, Marie, and Chase.

Halsin

Let’s shift our focus to a different Druid.

I already had one character in the party who (a) didn’t have access to the advanced powers, and (b) had a build that I’d previously couldn’t make work. Let’s go for broke and do it again.

What helped me make the decision was this video, which gave me a plausible build path for Halsin as a character.

This video with a similar build but a different leveling strategy was released less than a day ago as I type these words:

It worked. I could make Halsin function in Owlbear form.

Halsin replaced Shadowheart in the regular party. She wasn’t contributing all that much anyway. It was Karlach who doing all the Rogue-based stuff.

Barbarians have an ability called Rage, and a Druid’s Owlbear shape has an ability called Enrage. It turns out that the two abilities stack.

The problem is that all of the following use a Bonus Action: Rage, Wild Shape, Enrage. It’s very hard to do all three in a single turn. You have to make it a two-turn setup in combat: First, Rage, attack with a weapon; second turn, become the Owlbear, Enrage, attack. This wasn’t easy for me to coordinate.

Halsin’s abilities were nowhere near the combat powerhouse of Karlach’s Monk or Lae’zel’s Paladin Smites. But he had a powerful ability (a Bonus Action) called Crushing Flight. He could crush an enemy forcing them Prone, then use his Claws on them.

It worked often enough that it was worth keeping him in the party. In a future run, rather than waiting until I have a good build for him, I plan to recruit him the moment he becomes available. This will give me a chance to learn his combat setup gradually.

Minsc

You can’t recruit Minsc into the party until it’s relatively late in the game. While I suppose it might be possible to add him when the party is at level 8, realistically you’ll be at level 11 or 12 before he joins.

You don’t really “level up” Minsc in the way I did with Druid Angela. You add him to the party, decide the role you want him to play, and respec him.

Why did I decide to add Minsc to the group? Primarily it was this video:

It was a bit like the “Wyll’s Story” bit from above: I knew how well Monk Karlach would do. She could almost (and maybe not just “almost”) defeat the rest of the game on her own. I wanted to give some other build a try.

Also, it was “in for a penny, in for a pound.” Neither Druid Angela nor Owlbear Halsin could use the advanced powers. Let’s add one more party member who can’t use them either.

Thus, Minsc replaced Karlach in the party.

As a build, this was only OK. The problem was that even though I gave Minsc the best melee gear in the game (there’s a list near the end of this post), his chance to hit was shockingly low. This was much worse when using the signature ability described in the video: Whirlwind Attack.

To give him a chance to hit, I had to turn off one of key Feats: Great Weapon Master. In effect, when respeccing him I wasted a Feat. I could have respecced him again, but at this point I was nearing the end of the game.

Besides, Minsc was cool with it.

If I were to play Minsc again, I think I’d go for an archery build if I wanted to stick to the Ranger class assigned to him by the story.

What I learned in this playthrough

As I’ve said, I learned how to make a Druid of the Land and a Druid of the Moon work for me. In the future, I’ll consider recruiting Jaheira as soon as she becomes available and see if I can do the same with a Druid of the Spores.

Although he’s not a Bard, Wyll picked up Proficiency with Musical Instruments. Through this, I learned that if you play an instrument near one or more other Bards, they’ll start to play the same song you do.

Gathering people to one spot while you play is not just a cute effect. While folks are paying attention to you, your party’s Rogue can pick their pockets… or poison their ale barrel.

I was reminded that love is love:

I learned that it’s possible to field a party that doesn’t have the advanced powers. I had to make sure that just before a battle they cast Enhanced Leap on themselves (Druid Angela, Halsin, and Minsc all had this ability) and used a Potion of Flying. That potion is hard to get late in the game. In future playthroughs, I’ll be sure to build up a stock to give the team more options.

I mentioned before how I learned about tossing Healing potions in a previous playthrough. In this playthrough I finally figured out how to use the console controller to throw items and enemies with Telekinesis or just having a high enough Strength. I only figured this out during the final battle, when it was of only modest use. But in my next playthrough, watch out for ballistic Goblins!

Plans for playthrough 9

I’m still mulling my options. Now that I’ve played as all the Origin characters, I want to do a few runs where I play a character of my own design (a “Tav”).

The obvious thing to do is a play as The Dark Urge and make Evil choices. However, I want to save that for after the big Patch 7 release in September. It will include some extra cinematics for those who choose an Evil playthrough.

I’m leaning toward playing a Bard of some sort. Now that I’ve a better sense of how to use crowd-control spells, I think I could make the Succubus build work now, instead of playing her basically as a Warlock as I did in playthrough 3.

Or maybe just go pure Bard:

I’m also tempted by an Eldritch Archer build, but I think I might save that for playthrough 10:

I’ve played a series of playthroughs in which I made mostly “good” choices. If I’m saving “Evil” choices for later, that leaves one more category: smart-aleck choices. There’s usually one such option in every dialog. That would suit a Bard.

I’ve had a lot of success with Cold-based builds: Angela as an Arctic Druid; Karlach as a Cold Barbarian and Minsc as a Cold Archer in playthrough 3. I haven’t quite got a Lightning-based build to work yet, but I think I’ll hold off on that in favor of a more ambitious build: Karlach using Heat.

A Heat build is a difficult one to make work, because you’re constantly taking Heat damage even as you’re trying to deliver it. It basically only works on a character with Fire Resistance, like Karlach. It’s also a “late-game” build, in that it doesn’t really start to come together until Act 3.

I’m probably being too ambitious for my own good, but I think it’s worth a try.

As for relationship goals: I’ve romanced all the available female characters in the game, some more than once. I’d like to return to Shadowheart’s embraces again, but I feel I have to be fair: I haven’t romanced Astarion, Gale, or Wyll yet.

For spoiler-based reasons I hinted at in my first BG3 post, I’ll hold off on Gale until I play Karlach again. Instead, I’ll play female characters in playthrough 9 and 10 to see how Astarion and Wyll kiss. (Sorry, folks; I’m just not into male-on-male action. If you are, please play Baldur’s Gate 3 and let us know how you enjoyed it.)

Character gear

Again, these are notes for myself, and for more experienced folks to mock me for my choices.

These are the end-game gear load-outs for the remaining party members (I presented Wyll’s in my previous post). I include some of the items I used as I leveled up the characters.

Druid Angela

STR 12, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 8, WIS 18 (+2 from Feat), CHA 8
Leveled up 12 Levels of Circle of the Land Druid, picked Coast for first set of Land spells, Arctic for the rest
Feats: Duel Wielder, Alert, +2 WIS
AC 17 (no Mage Armor at the end, but Halsin cast Warding Bond on Angela)

Head:
Hood of the Weave for +2 Spell Save DC
also worked with Coldbrim Hat, Diadem of Arcane Synergy

Cloak:
Thunderskin Cloak – Probably a mistake, as I don’t think I had anything that applied Reverberation at the end
Also worked with Cloak of Elemental Absorption

Body:
Robe of the Weave for +1 Spell Save DC
Also worked with Icebite Robe (for Armor of Agathys) and Adamantine Scale Mail

Boots:
Hoarfrost Boots, so no tripping over icy surfaces that she caused to make a weapon attack
Disintegrating Night Walkers are a better choice, if no one else is using them

Gloves:
Helldusk Gloves (for +1 Spell Save DC, though 1D4 fire on weapons doesn’t hurt)
Also worked with Daredevil Gloves, Gemini Gloves (twin-cast Ray of Frost), Winter’s Clutches

Rings:
Snowburst Ring
Ring of Elemental Infusion
Also Callous Glow Ring / Coruscation Ring combo

Neck:
Necklace of Elemental Augmentation

Weapons:
Main hand: Markoheshkir, with Kereska’s Favor set to Frost of Dark Winter
Take care. If you unequip this staff (for Drakethroat Glaive or Wild Shape, for example) you lose the buff until the next Short Rest
Off-hand: Mourning Frost, with bonus from Drakethroat Glaive set to Lightning (the Cold bonus does not seem to stack with Mourning Frost)
Also used Knife of the Undermountain King, Club of Hill Giant Strength (in an effort to power up the attack of the off-hand weapon)

Bow:
None; she’s not Proficient in any ranged weapons

Notes:
As with Wyll, I wanted to make use of her Bonus Action for an off-hand attack, because otherwise it was wasted.

Druids have the Cantrip Shillelagh, which adds to the damage of a staff or club they’re holding, and uses their Wisdom instead of Strength. This would have been great for an off-hand attack, except that it only applies its bonus to the main-hand weapon.

That means for Druid Angela to use Shillelagh with her Bonus Action attack, she’d have to cast it then swap weapons between hands before combat. This is easy to do on the PC version of BG3 (just drag-and-drop icons), but is time-consuming on the PS5 version. As noted above, it would also cost her the Frost of Dark Winter buff, which was more valuable than the Shillelagh damage bonus.

So I did my best to amplify her off-hand attack without Shillelagh and without compromising her main Cold-spell Actions.

Halsin

STR 10, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 9
3 levels Wildheart Barbarian, 6 levels Druid Circle of the Moon, 3 levels of Thief Rogue
Feat: Tavern Brawler (used Elixir of Bloodlust instead of Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength at endgame)
AC 22

Head:
Shapeshifter Hat
Also Bonespike Helmet, but never seemed to be close to anyone when he Raged

Cloak:
Cloak of Protection

Armor:
Flame Enamelled Armor – for the +2 Initiative
Also Armor of Moonbasking, Bonespike Garb

Boots:
Helldusk Boots
Also Mystra’s Grace for Feather Fall (never used); should have tried Disintegrating Night Walkers

Gloves:
Flawed Helldusk Gloves
Also: Bonespike Gloves (neither choice is great for someone who’s shapeshifted most of the time)

Rings:
Shapeshifter’s Boon Ring
Ring of Free Action: Silly to wear this and Helldusk Boots, especially with Freedom of Movement readily available.

Neck:
Fey Semblance Amulet: Again, a mistake; in fact, if you wear this with the Shapeshifter Hat, there’s a red X added to the item’s description.

Weapon:
Staff of Cherished Necromancy: solely for the damage with Shillelagh, which was higher than that with Torch of Revocation.
I never used any of the staff’s other abilities because Halsin had no Necromancy spells!

Shield:
Viconia’s Walking Fortress for the Initiative: Wow! While preparing this post, I just saw that this shield does not provide an Initiative bonus!
I never should have switched from Sentinel Shield.

Bow:
Hellrider Longbow for +3 Initiative (total initiative +8)

Notes:
As I was filling out the above links, I came to realize that I really short-changed Halsin on gear. I should have paid more attention.

The goal of the setup was to give Halsin a chance to go first, perhaps get in a good first strike if he pre-cast Shillelagh and Enhance Leap, then switch to Owlbear and do a Crushing Flight to knock some enemies down.

In general, gear doesn’t matter when you’re in Wild Shape. It’s the stats of the beast that matter. If you scroll up, you can see the stats of Halsin as Owlbear.

There are some exceptions: Shapeshifter Hat, Armor of Moonbasking, Shapeshifter’s Boon Ring, and Corvid Token all work while in Owlbear form. By the time I knew I was going to use Halsin in the party, I was already in Act 3 and the Corvid Token was no longer available. I also decided that the initiative bonus provided by the Flame Enamelled Armor was better for me than the bonuses from Armor of Moonbasking.

The STR bonus of the Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength would have also carried over to Owlbear form. In the end, I decided that the possibility of an extra Action outweighed the increased damage.

With Druid Angela casting icy surfaces everywhere, Owlbear Halsin had a tendency to slip on the ice and lose the rest of his turn. I’m not sure if the Disintegrating Night Walkers would have prevented this (probably not, since most gear doesn’t work in Wild Shape) but it would have been worth a try.

Minsc

STR 27 (Cloud Giant Elixir), DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 12, CHA 8
12 levels of Hunter Ranger
Feat: Great Weapon Master
AC 26 (highest of anyone I ever ran)

Head:
Helm of Balduran

Cloak:
Cindermoth Cloak (not that anyone hit him much)

Armor:
Helldusk Armor, largely for Fly
Also: Reaper’s Embrance

Boots:
Evasive Shoes for AC

Gloves:
Martial Exertion Gloves (which I usually forgot to use)

Rings:
Caustic Band
Risky Ring (and even then his hit chance was often lower than 50%)

Neck:
Broodmother’s Revenge (with Helm of Balduran, guaranteed Poison every turn)

Weapon:
Balduran’s Giantslayer
Also Sword of Chaos

Bow:
Gontr Mael
Also Hellfire Engine Crossbow, Fabricated Arbalest

Notes:
Why was Minsc’s hit chance so low? Without the Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength, I’d see 50% chance to hit for a normal attack and 25% to hit for a Whirlwind Attack. As I noted above, I had to turn off Great Weapon Master: All-in to give him a decent hit chance, which defeats the main benefit of the Feat.

That’s why he was the only one in the final end-game party without the Elixir of Bloodlust. However, as a 12-level Ranger, he got in a decent number of extra attacks.

Another indication of how inattentive I was: I never had him cast Hunter’s Mark, because having to Concentrate on it would cancel the Fly spell. It wasn’t until I looked up Helldusk Armor while typing this essay that I saw the version of Fly granted by the item did not require Concentration.

Epilogue

This almost makes me want to replay this playthrough to get the gear right. Who knows? Maybe someday.