AngusOReily

Time is a flat circle

Puka Nacua looks like he might be the real deal. Getting peppered with targets and performing real well as a possession receiver. It'll be interesting to see what happens once Kupp comes back, but I doubt he fades away entirely.

I disagree with your last point. Yeah, you convince him to not blow himself up, but for my Tav it amounted to "we'll find another way where you don't die." He does get pretty power hungry, but a few persuasion checks and he realizes he was backsliding and agrees with you to cut that shit out. He decides to get the crown for Mystra without seeking its power and she agrees to heal him.

There's redemption there, you just have to push him.

I had no issues with the last boss fight, but I had a Tavern Brawler monk on balanced. After one unfortunate tpk on the run up due to some knock back splash damage, I hasted my monk, dashed, and then jumped all the way to the top in one round. Both boss phases were done in two rounds as the monk action surged and flurried their way through health bars, with the temp member helping clean up with double aoe. The final phase was super underwhelming; it took more time to get in and positioned than to take out it's health. I was really underwhelmed! I'm avoiding monk on my tactician run, and installed a boss difficulty mod to see if I can get things to stand up in the face of my eventual and unavoidable min-maxing.

Lae'zel for sure. And probably dark Shadowheart? That's who i have been using for my evil durge run and they all seem to be on the same page.

You can probably still get Astarion. Lae"zel might be donezo depending on how many long rests you've taken. They're both gone for sure once you leave the underdark

Spare the hag and save Mayrina, then kill her later for a sweet legendary! It's all wins.

A +1 to hit isn't huge but when you're adding it to 3+ attacks a round on a blade pact warlock or to each EB beam with the robe in Act 2, it adds up.

There are definitely RP reasons not to spare her, but you can't discount a +1 as not being useful. It's a permanent boon that allows you to spend resources in other places. Maybe you don't buff to 20 and instead use it to raise a second stat to 18 easier (hair plus ASI to get 18, 18, 16). Or it leaves more room for feats. I know I'm just using min-max logic, but I can't turn down a bonus. That's also why Volo got to dig around in my skull on my first playthrough...

I have to disagree about a +1 being useless. It's a very early way in the game to get a bonus increase. If you dump 3 stats (say, strength, wisdom and int on a warlock, sorcerer or bard) you end up with 17, 16, and 15. You can take this +1 in your main stat and take and ASI at level 4 to get to 20. That will carry you through Act 2 until you get either main stat buffing gear or the buff from the Mirror.

As for the other odd stat, it's really easy to find a "half feat" to get this even too. Maybe something like Alert or Weapon Master to sound out your Dex, or Resilient in Con or Dex to grab proficiency in a strong saving throw you aren't proficient in yet.

Maybe it's just the minmaxer in me, but I'll never pass up the hair, even if I have to persuade Ethel to give me both. Without the hair, you can only get to 20 in your main stat at level 8, but without it you get that bonus at 4 and save room for feats. That makes it particularly useful for feat heavy builds, like GWM/PAM/Sentinel, who otherwise wouldn't get their main stat bonus above +3 until they get stat boosting gear in Act 2 (or more likely Act 3 in the House of Hope).

The best part about this build is you can build Dex-Wis with just a little Str in the late game. Dump Con, Int and Cha. You can get an amulet to set Con to 23, and chug potions of giant strength for fights you really want to nova. On a regular fight, dex and wis carries you (and maybe a +1 or +2 in Str for a little extra damage). But then you drink a lot to set your Str to 27 and just go nutty with the tavern brawler bonuses.

That WU stun deck is going to be annoying to play against in limited.

Oh my God, a few nights back I had three hours to play and just spent it respecting everyone and playing with their gear. And by everyone, I mean everyone. Even the people I have not had in my active party outside like a quest or two.

"Hmm, should this Act 3 companion go Ranger 8 / Barb 4? How best do I build them to dual weild? Which swords should they get? Let me change my party so I can see what everyone else has."

I beat the game two nights later only using the characters I ran essentially the whole game with. But honestly, I love messing with builds. The fact that we can just do it all the time to try something new or min-max just a little bit more ("hey, I just got a permanent bump to my main stat, let's see if I can rework everything to up a bonus somewhere...") is such a great feature.

Really glad they added respec and multiclassing, it's going to extend the life of the game for me for sure.

Late game they also feed you a bunch of strong gith fighter specific gear. Which is a bummer because I respecced her into a Tavern Brawler monk and she just shreds through shit like that. But, like Shadowheart, her story is so central to the plot, so she gets a ton of support and development. Gale is also pretty closely linked to the main plot, but Astarion and Wyll sort of aren't. Karlach is but I think her rewrite trimmed out on content (unless I'm missing something major in the last like 3 quests I have left in Act 3, which is possible).

I'd say that in terms of importance to the overall story, it's Tav, then Lae'zel, then Shadowheart. Lae'zel just has key story elements in every act that are personal to her, be it mind flayer or githyanki specific business. Shart's Act 3 is a little less central, but she's essentially the star of Act 2.

All that's a long way of saying, she has an interesting arc and a lot of race specific gear support to help her shine mechanically. More people need you give her a chance, even in good playthroughs, if they haven't already. I had her benched all act 1 as a very good paladin, then added her when we got to the creche stuff and never looked back.