Baldur's Gate 3 — Playthrough Chronicle
1. Character Overview
You are playing a Human protagonist — a custom Tav rather than one of the origin characters — currently at Level 4, on Tactician difficulty (DifficultyHard with Larian's ruleset). This is a challenging road: Tactician tunes enemy AI and encounter strength upward, meaning every significant fight has demanded real thought and resource management.
Your active party at this save point is:
Shadowheart (High Half-Elf) — Level 4
Lae'zel (Githyanki) — Level 4
Karlach (Zariel Tiefling) — Level 4
Halsin (currently in Bear form) — Level 5, a striking presence and sign of how far Act 1 has progressed
You've met Astarion, Gale, and Wyll, and their approval ratings suggest you've kept them warm even outside your active party.
2. Act 1
The Nautiloid and the Crash
Your story began the way everyone's does — consciousness returning on a mind flayer vessel crawling with ceremorphosis horrors. You freed Shadowheart from her pod, fought through the imps on the lower deck, and alongside the ship's own helm guardian, contributed to bringing down the mind flayer piloting the craft. You managed to lobotomize — rather than destroy — the intellect devourer that became a follower, and you freed the disembodied brain it had been controlling. The ship fell. You woke on the ravaged shore of Faerûn with a tadpole behind your eye.
The Chapel and Lae'zel's Recruitment
One of your earliest choices shaped your party permanently: when Lae'zel was captured and caged by tieflings near the roadside chapel, you intervened. The tieflings left of their own accord, Lae'zel was freed, and she joined you — already sizing you up, already impatient. At the chapel itself, you cleared out the bandits above, put down every skeleton in the crypt below, and encountered something rarer: a quiet audience with Jergal, the Lord of the End of Everything, at his tomb. The God of Death noted your passing. The encounter is the kind of thing most travellers don't survive long enough to remember.
Shadowheart, meanwhile, had already been with you since the ship — you'd used the pod release mechanism to free her yourself, and she brought her locked silver box with her, its contents unknown to you but clearly not to her goddess.
The Risen Road and Karlach
Heading toward the Emerald Grove, you took the Risen Road and found Karlach — the tiefling with the infernal engine burning in her chest — already wounded and cornered. The Paladins of Tyr who'd been sent to hunt her down attacked. You fought alongside Karlach, and the paladins were permanently defeated. You learned they were, in fact, cultists themselves, a detail that makes what might have seemed a grey call feel considerably cleaner in retrospect. Karlach joined you, blazing and alive. You've since told her about Dammon and the possibility of repairing her engine — hope delivered, even if the fix remains ahead.
You also discovered a Zhentarim shipment on the road, reading Nineringers' letter and finding both agents alive — threads of the Black Network left dangling for now.
The Emerald Grove
The Emerald Grove became a genuine hub of entanglement. You entered through the guarded entrance, talked your way past (or through) the tensions at the gate, and embedded yourself in the life of the place.
The tiefling refugee quarter held its own dramas: a child thief caught in the act, a confrontation resolved, relationships with the refugees carefully tended. You were befriended by the tieflings. The irritated tiefling subplot, however, ended without improvement — whatever that particular grievance was, it wasn't resolved to satisfaction.
In the druid quarter, you uncovered the Shadow Druid plot — the snake court was attended, the ritual observed, and the kid was freed from whatever hold they had over them. You learned the rune's appearance and pressed deeper into the druid lair. The apprentice's storyline was seen through: you took the poison, you reached the conversation about Arabella, the door was opened and closed in the right order, and the tadpole scene was completed. The sacred pond's bird was eventually released, departing on its own terms.
The captured goblin thread played out in a notable direction: you rescued the goblin rather than leaving it to the grove's justice, a small mercy that set off a chain — the goblin sworn to avenge those who'd wronged it, the resolution flagged as complete. A curious act of compassion toward an enemy faction's foot soldier.
Most critically: you learned the names of all three goblin leaders — the Drow (Minthara), the King (Dror Ragzlin), and the Priest (Gut) — and were pointed toward the goblin camp by Zevlor. You know what you're walking into.
The raiding party came, and the gates were opened — but the resolution was peaceful. The goblin raid confrontation was resolved without the grove falling. The tieflings live. The druids' lockdown is still in place, waiting to be broken by Kagha's judgment or the completion of the Rite, but the refugees survived the immediate crisis. Zevlor has been sent to Syla (or Saha — the scout leader) as a further diplomatic move.
The Goblin Camp
You walked into the goblin camp, and you walked in talking. You gained access through the checkpoint — the party was spotted, but you proceeded — solved the temple puzzle, and navigated your way to the throne room. You found Volo performing his ballad for goblin entertainment, talked to him, and sent him to your camp. He subsequently escaped and made his own way there (or was escorted safely out).
You persuaded the torturers rather than killing them, and you freed their prisoner. You interacted with the Voice of the Absolute's scrying eyes — and noted the presence of Orpheus's resonance in the camp's divine machinery, a detail that may mean little now but will mean more later.
Most importantly: you found Halsin in the wolf pens. You introduced yourself, heard his situation, and freed him. He's now in your party — currently as a bear, Level 5, which tells its own story about what has been fought since. Halsin has asked you to deal with the goblin leaders as the condition for his full cooperation in lifting the Shadow Curse.
The three goblin leaders are dealt with — Priestess Gut is confirmed dead (GOBGoblinPriestStateDefeated). The flags for Dror Ragzlin and Minthara's deaths aren't named in the set flags, but the chicken-chase owlbear replacing the chicken in Ragzlin's arena, combined with Halsin's confirmed recruitment and the camp being fully traversed, strongly suggests the leadership has been dismantled. Halsin would not have joined as a party companion otherwise.
The Forest, the Underdark, and Beyond
You've ranged widely. In the forest:
You defeated the owlbear — permanently, not just driven off — meaning the owlbear cub's fate is now its own, separated from its mother.
You hired the School Ogre, a useful piece of muscle.
You found the Selûnite stash and, crucially, convinced Shadowheart to take notice of it — a delicate moment given her devotion to Shar, and one the flags confirm succeeded.
You opened the mirror in the Thayan Cellar and discovered the lab beneath — arcane horrors catalogued and moved past.
A dying hyena was encountered and granted a peaceful death. A small, humane choice on a hard road.
The goblin ambush on the road was pacified, not fought — another diplomatic resolution.
You've also briefly touched the Underdark — the gnome-in-a-barrel is present, and someone claimed the reward from the sword in the stone. The Underdark remains largely ahead of you, but you've crossed its threshold.
A pixie is confirmed inside a lantern — GLOPixieStateInsideLantern — and you know about Loviatar, suggesting encounters with the Loviatar-worshipping flagellant have also occurred.
3. Companion Status
Companion Status Approval Notes
Shadowheart Active party ≥ 10 (warm but not devoted) Knows she's a Shar worshipper. You've discussed her incurable wound, her suspicions, the Selûnite ritual. The box remains closed. Lae'zel makes her weary.
Lae'zel Active party ≥ 10 (functional respect) Recruited at the chapel. Has fought in the raiding party. Knows gith hunters are near the Mountain Pass. Beginning to show something like emotional investment — she's asking about Zorru. Romance has been opened as a possibility.
Karlach Active party ≥ 10 (warmly received) Fought the paladins at her side. Told about Dammon. The infernal engine is a ticking problem.
Halsin Active party (Bear) — Freed from the wolf pens. In party. The Shadow Curse is his obsession and his burden.
Astarion Camp ≥ 50 (high approval) The bite scene has been unlocked — he's fed from you, or the opportunity exists. The boar incident has been discovered. High approval suggests tolerance or active encouragement of his nature.
Gale Camp ≥ 35 (good standing) Recruited. Has disrupted a waypoint. You know about his need for magical items — and have given him two already. Elminster is apparently on his way or has been encountered. Gale has been swayed toward the Crown of Karsus as a possible path, which is a significant ideological flag.
Wyll Camp ≥ 30 (decent standing) You watched his training. You know he is a devil — the infernal transformation has been witnessed. Mizora's judgement has happened at camp. The Wyll-Karlach confrontation was resolved peacefully.
Minthara — ≥ 0 (baseline) Minthara's approval flag is set but she is not a companion, which is consistent with the grove's peaceful resolution — she was not given the grove's location and the raid did not succeed. She may be dead, imprisoned, or simply left behind.
Romance
The Daisy dream sequence has triggered — the entity in your tadpole has reached out once in the night, the first whisper of something both tempting and dangerous. You have not accepted the power yet, or the dream remains at its opening stage.
Wyll's Mizora's Judgement scene has played at camp — a private, consequential moment between Wyll and his devil patron, witnessed by you.
4. Notable Decisions
The Grove Survives. This is the defining moral axis of Act 1. You learned where Minthara was, you entered her camp, and you did not hand her the grove's location. The raid came anyway — the gate opened, goblin blades were drawn — but the confrontation was resolved peacefully. The tiefling refugees are alive. Zevlor lives. This was the harder path on Tactician: it required engaging the goblin leadership directly rather than simply allying with them for easy power.
Compassion for the Captured Goblin. Small, but telling: you freed an enemy combatant from the grove's custody. The grove wanted justice — or vengeance. You chose mercy for a creature most adventurers wouldn't look twice at. The goblin left sworn to avenge its captors. You handed a weapon to the future.
The Paladins of Tyr. You fought and killed the hunters without hesitation. Whether you knew at the time they were cultists or learned it after, the choice to stand with Karlach over agents of a lawful good deity is a statement about where your loyalty lies — with the person in front of you, not the institution behind them.
Gale Swayed Toward the Crown. This is the most quietly alarming flag in the whole dataset. Gale has a Netherese orb in his chest and a wizard's hunger for meaning — and something in your conversations has tilted him toward viewing the Crown of Karsus as a legitimate solution. You may not have intended this. The game registered it anyway.
Two Magic Items Fed to Gale. You've been generous, which keeps him stable and loyal, but also represents real inventory sacrifice on Tactician where every item matters.
The Owlbear Killed Permanently. You didn't drive the creature off — you ended it. The cub will find its own way now, unmoored.
Peaceful Goblin Ambush. Where another party might have welcomed the XP, you talked the ambush down. A pattern is emerging: you negotiate when you can, and fight when you must.
5. Trajectory
This is a principled Tactician run — not a power-optimised murder-hobo campaign and not a pacifist walkthrough, but something in between that takes the difficulty seriously while making morally considered choices. You've consistently chosen harder, slower paths: saving the grove means fighting the goblin leadership; freeing the goblin prisoner; talking down the ambush; peaceful confrontation resolution. These are not the choices of someone optimising for loot and XP. They're the choices of someone playing a character.
The party composition is telling. Shadowheart and Lae'zel are present but not deeply approved — respected partners, not devoted friends. Karlach is with you because you stood for her. Halsin is with you because you did what he asked. Astarion, at camp, has your genuine attention: 50 approval at this stage is meaningful, and the bite scene suggests you're leaning into his story rather than keeping him at arm's length.
Gale's inclination toward the Crown is a thread that deserves your attention before it becomes a complication. Wyll's pact with Mizora has been witnessed — his devil transformation, his patron's judgement — and the peaceful resolution with Karlach suggests you're trying to hold that friendship together without forcing anyone's hand.
The Underdark awaits more fully. Halsin's shadow curse weighs on everything ahead. Shadowheart's locked box and her goddess's mission remain unresolved. Lae'zel knows Githyanki hunters are near the Mountain Pass — a confrontation she's been wanting that hasn't come yet. Wyll's infernal contract is a chain that hasn't been broken or tightened.
The character taking shape here is someone who protects the vulnerable, negotiates where possible, fights when necessary, and carries genuine loyalty to the people they've chosen — while perhaps not fully confronting the thing growing behind their eye. The tadpole dream has come once. It will come again.