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The “Zapper Disaster” turned out to be the defining moment of playthrough 11. In order to describe it, I have to break with my practice in these write-ups:

• I have to discuss some system-related stuff earlier than I would otherwise prefer. In my playthrough 10 write-up, I said I’d save the D&D-based details until the end. I can’t do that here.

  I’ll make it as simple as I can, for the benefit of those who just want story and prefer to skip the system.

  

• I have to be more spoilery than I’d normally choose to be.

  If you’ve followed my BG3 series and you’re even mildly familiar with the game, you may have noticed that I avoid mentioning things that I feel would affect the joy of discovery in someone’s first playthrough. For example, I don’t directly mention the name of the Ultimate Big Bad, show images of the main race of antagonists, or describe the story’s MacGuffins.

  

  I’ll be as indirect as I can, but this time I have to name names. I’ll also go over the result of a story decision that some players may want to explore on their own.

  

  TL;DR: SPOILER ALERT!

One of my starting goals for playthrough 11 was to use this build for Shadowheart:

The video’s author doesn’t mention it, but this kind of build is known as a “bug zapper”: The spell Moonbeam does a fair amount of damage in a small circle. It actually damages its target twice: Once when the spell is cast, then again at the start of the target’s turn. After a character casts it, it can be recast by the caster without spending a spell slot.

Moonbeam does “Radiant” damage. This is handy, because there are few beings in BG3 which are resistant or immune to Radiant damage. (Contrast this with Fire damage: every dragon, demon, and their relatives are resistant to Fire.) Also, there are items that pile on secondary effects when their wearer does Radiant damage.

By the time Shadowheart reached the Last Light Inn, she had most of these items. The bug-zapping had not become instantly fatal to its targets; despite the title of the above video, it’s not that amazing a build.

As I said, the party reached the Last Light Inn. After introducing themselves, and perhaps purchasing some unique items, a party will often visit Isobel. She extends a protective boundary around the Inn, to keep a shadow curse from infecting everyone within.

I already knew from my previous playthroughs that at the conclusion of the party’s first conversation with Isobel, there was going to be an attempt to kidnap her. How one responds to it is up to how the player wants to evolve the story. For playthrough 11, since I intended for it to be a generally “good” playthrough, my plan was to defeat the kidnapper.

As I expected, the kidnapper attacked. I set up a defense around Isobel. I had Shadowheart cast Moonbeam on the kidnapper, to hurt them and make them more vulnerable to other attacks.

And then…

What happened next was so fast that I couldn’t take a screenshot.

There was a crackle sound effect of Moonbeam affecting a character. Suddenly a cut-scene began to play of the kidnapper’s feet striding across the ground, which cut off after only a second; I think it was the beginning of a longer scene that would have shown the kidnapper’s victory and abduction of Isobel.

But there was no full cut-scene, no warning, no clear record of what happened. All I saw was that the Inn was now instantly shrouded in Shadow. The people in the Inn, whom I’d been counting on for items and quests later in the game, were now all dead, transformed into cursed creatures.

I could have restored the game to my last save point. But I decided “what the heck” and chose to play the game from there, to see what happened.

So what caused this?

I think it was a combination of factors:

• I’m not sure whose turn it was when the Zapper Disaster occurred. I suspect that Isobel, who had been hit at least once by the kidnapper but was still healthy enough, had moved into the Moonbeam’s circle.

  The non-player characters in BG3 are programmed to avoid hazards like this. It may be that because Isobel was surrounded by a circle formed by my party, the kidnappers, and the kidnapper’s minions, that there was nowhere else for her to move.

• Given that the full cut-scene did not play, it might have been a game glitch.
• Remember my post on controller drift? I was still using the buggy controller. It might be that the controller sent an unintended signal to the location of the Moonbeam as Shadowheart moved it.

  

For the rest of that Act in the story, I could no longer make use of the resources at the Last Light Inn. I had to rely on what I could get from the Enemy Camp.

Among the casualties was Alfira. She was instantly reduced into ash.

I’m sorry, Alfira. You were the best of Bards.

I continued to play Shadowheart as a “bug-zapper” afterwards. But I don’t think I’ll ever use that build again. (For one thing, if you’re not playing a solo bug-zapper, there are better builds for Shadowheart.)

Next time: Romancing a Wizard.