What does 8’/2.5 mean?
I could no longer play with Real Angela on a game she hosted, but what about a game that I hosted?
Real Angela was willing, but she had her own exploration through BG3 and didn’t want to spoil that. She said she’d join me for a part of a playthrough I hosted if:
- I’d show her something she hadn’t seen before.
- It was the consequence of a choice that she wasn’t likely to make.
That second point deserves a bit more explanation. Real Angela likes to have her characters make decisions that she would make in the same situation. She’s a decent person, and prefers to make “nice” choices as she goes through the game.
I’m more comfortable with playing a role. I can put myself into a mind-set and stick with it through a playthrough. I compose mental stories about the characters I play in BG3 and similar role-playing games. My BG3 playthroughs have gone through arcs of tragedy (playthrough 9), wickedness (playthrough 13), murder (playthrough 15, still on-going), and redemption (playthrough 3).
The practical consequence is that I’ve seen cutscenes that Real Angela is not likely to ever see.
This is not to say that Real Angela is stuck on playing “good” characters. In her playthrough 3, she’s playing the Dark Urge, a character specifically provided in the game for those who want to play as a murderer. In the long run, she plans to play that character twice: once to follow the path of redemption as I did in my playthrough 3, and once to follow the path of darkness as I’m doing in my playthrough 15.
In thinking about her plans and what I experienced, as she progressed through her third playthrough I advised her to take the Dark path. This is because there a specific scene involving redemption that I experienced when my Dark Urge character romanced Karlach. I thought that Real Angela, who’s already fond of Karlach, would appreciate that scene more with Karlach than she would with Shadowheart, the character she chose to romance in her third playthrough.
Real Angela also has a different perspective on the characters of Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale than I do. She formed a negative opinion of them in playthrough 1/14. That perspective was modified somewhat as she romanced Astarion in playthrough 2/14.5 and Shadowheart in her third playthrough, but she doesn’t plan to romance them in any future playthroughs; she learned what she wanted to know.
So, for example, if I show her the consequences of romancing Shadowheart in one of my playthroughs with a different set of choices than she’s making in her third playthrough, it spoils nothing for her. She never plans to see it on her own.
That left a question for me: From the game saves that I had, what could I show her?
As I was looking through old playthroughs and considering which ones to keep, I took a look at a save of playthrough 8. It contained a sequence that one gets if one romances Karlach (which she definitely plans to do again) but does not romance Halsin. Right there was something that Real Angela wasn’t likely to do, since she’s really fond of the big bear guy.
As I looked through other cutscenes in that playthrough, I realized that I was essentially sitting on a set of scenes that resulted from choices I’d made for Wyll that Real Angela never would have made. I could also make some different choices from that point that, again, I knew Real Angela would not choose.
Thus playthrough 8’/2.5 was born. 8′ (pronounced “eight prime” in math) because it’s an alternate version of my experiences in playthrough 8, forked from a mid-game save; 2.5 because it would be Real Angela’s partial playthrough after her second one, 2/14.5.
What’s in it for me?
I went through playthrough 8 to its conclusion. I had tried, and failed, to make the hireling Druid Angela a protagonist in the major cutscenes.
What was the point of revisiting that playthrough?
For one thing, since that playthrough a year ago, Larian released Patch 8 of BG3. I’ve written before about two of the major changes introduced by that patch: cross-play and photo mode; I’ll have much more to say about photo mode in a future essay.
One change that I haven’t written about are the new sub-classes. While I play BG3 mostly for the story variations, having new abilities and options is also fun.
In playthrough 2/14.5, I experimented with two of the new sub-classes: Arcane Archer (adds magical arrows to a Fighter’s abilities) and Glamour Bard (use music to pin enemies down while Real Angela finished them off).
For 8’/2.5, I further explored the new sub-classes. Wyll became a Hexblade Warlock, turning what’s normally a ranged spellcaster to one who can go toe-to-toe with the enemy. Real Angela experimented with a Swarmkeeper Ranger, using nature spirits like moths, bees, and jellyfish (yes, you heard that right!) at her command.
As I said before, in playthrough 8, I proved to myself that I could make a Druid of the Land and a Druid of the Moon work. The new Druid sub-class is the Circle of the Stars. With an additional year of experience under my belt, I had no trouble making that class work in 8’/2.5.
With whom did I make that build work? Now we get to…
A meeting for the ages. Or for two seconds.
The Druid in question was, of course, Druid Angela. Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. Or at least what I was waiting for:
To be fair to Real Angela, when she introduced a hireling named William in playthrough 2/14.5, I didn’t have much of a reaction either.
I have boasted before how well Arctic Druid Angela worked. She was the one who took down most of the major bosses, including the final Big One. Star Druid Angela worked so well that I renamed her “Galaxy Angela” to reflect her multi-stellar performance.
Real Angela had tried to make a spellcasting Druid work before, without much luck. She always reverted to making them shape-shift into an Owlbear. I thought Real Angela might want to play Druid Angela so she’d get hands-on experience with a working spellcasting Druid build.
No. She was content to be a “tourist” in 8’/2.5. When Mor’lith was part of an adventure, she just controlled her own character, while I controlled the other two.
“Other two”? I was controlling Galaxy Angela, and either Lae’zel or Karlach. Mor’lith makes three. Where’s the fourth?
In theory, that would be Wyll, the ostensible avatar character for playthrough 8.
Except that, even though I knew how difficult and unlikely it was, I still wanted to see Druid Angela have the lead role in the cutscenes. And Real Angela was willing to aid me in that quest.
Since I’d already tried that in playthrough 8, we knew we’d have to up our game.
There was only one way to do it.
This is a multi-part essay. Here are links to all the parts:
- Part 1 – Druid Angela and Mor’lith
- Part 2 – Renewal
- Part 3 – Drama
- Part 4 – Reality