Lae’zel herself has some choice words for all the haters out there.
Well she’s canonically a callous soldier who believes that murder to purify the bloodline is not just acceptable but good and a bigot towards anyone not of that bloodline, including the PC, so maybe some of us prefer other companions for legitimate reasons? Not that there’s anything WRONG with wanting to keep her around for RP or entertainment purposes, of course 🤷
In contrast, the blazing inferno with a heart of gold (or of hell-machine if you want to get all literal about it) that is Karlach is both my favourite video game character in years and ideologically consistent with the character I’m playing, at least in my first playthrough.
Me: “I could take Karlach along because she’s positive and approves of my choices… but I’d RATHER take Lae’zel because she has great banter with Shadowheart and Astarion.”
The fun early party banter for me is listening to Wyll try to hit on Laezel, get shut down, then hit on Shadowheart and get refused because she’s not playing second fiddle to Lae’zel.
I decided to just respec my favorite companions as needed to keep them in the party. So Karlach is a ranger now. She’s not as combat-effective as a rogue or bard, but it’s a lot less of a stretch for her background.
Have you found rogues to be super combat-effective? I’ve been running Astarion consistently for traps and locks, and I’ve found that he really takes a backseat to my warlock and Minthara in combat. Provided he can get in position to hide and pull off a sneak attack, he’s more effective than Shadowheart, but only if I’m playing conservatively, i.e. trying not to use any of her spell slots.
Astarion with his default trickster subclass trades melee effectiveness for a selection of spells. If you respec him to a thief, he can hit pretty hard, and there are some build guides out there that can make him (or any thief rogue) downright fearsome. This one looks pretty good: https://mobalytics.gg/blog/baldurs-gate-3/rogue-thief-build-guide/
I think I specced him wrong because he was hitting like a truck but is almost a weak link for me in act 3.
She’s not as combat-effective as a rogue or bard
Uh… ranger 5 rogue 3 into fighter 6 ranger 3 rogue 3 is one of the best dps comboes, with two hand crossbows and the sharpshooter feat, scaling dex.
I get that Fae’run has racial abilities built into its design, but ya’ll real in here trying to defend indoctrinated, active brainwashing and racism.
Lae’zel is your weak of ego, racist uncle; everything different offends her, and any evidence that she is wrong must be conspiracy. Even when faced with everything Vlaakith is doing wrong, you’re met with a series of mental gymnastics: “No, it must be the Doctor!” “Well it has to be THIS Creche, they’re lying about Vlaakith’s wishes!”
Even when you finally get through to her and she agrees to turn on Vlaakith, she spends the entire next act droning on about her new favorite religious figure/political leader. She’s functionally incapable of living for anyone other than a perceived god-king, and I’m shocked that doesn’t genuinely disgust more people.
When you frame it a certain way of course it sounds awful. Let me try the opposite.
Lae’zel has been indoctrinated since birth by a crazy religious and xenophobic culture. The second she’s told she’s being lied to she doesn’t believe anyone because people don’t change their mind about their entire belief system through one line of dialogue from a person she just met.
However after a few more hard facts being shown to her, such as said religious culture trying to kill her and being lied to by the head of said fanatics, she realizes all of her people are actually indoctrinated slaves and starts to fight for the future of her people by rallying around the one person who can actually do something to stop it all.
Not sure why her breaking away from the brainwashing and indoctrination and trying to help free her people after seeing the truth is a bad thing here? Also fun fact, if Orpheus turns into a mind flayer and dies at the end she goes to free her people anyway, it wasn’t just about him. She didn’t just become a zealot following a new person, she became dedicated to freeing her people. Orpheus has that capability so she wants to free him.
And yet Astarion’s effectively a rapist, but that didn’t stop the author from intimating that he’d have been a better romantic choice if only 100k+ players were “better at romance”. I mean… thaFUCK?!
I liked her right off the bat. I don’t know if she is meant to be super likeable, but she is a gith… Having been a huge fan of Planescape Torment almost solely because of a big conversation between a githyanki and a member of a race that is the exact opposite of the gityanki that explains the ins and outs of the blood war and with an absolute torrent of lore and background to the race in question, Lae’zel is pretty fucking spot on for what I expected from such a character.
I kinda feel like people who have no history with Star Trek would have the same thoughts toward Klingons as they do Lae’zel if some Star Trek RPG came out and got a bunch of new potential fans to try it. So many people I’ve talked to about BG3 have never once played D&D and know nothing of Forgotten Realms. Such a player definitely wouldn’t understand why Lae’zel behaves the way she does, and you wouldn’t get much context unless you actually pushed through with her story.
As for mechanically playing with her in the party… She is just a fighter. Arguably the least interesting class. And with all the other good melee focused classes, I really only had her specifically for story cuz fighters are kinda lame. All they really do is swing weapons. 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, I think the Klingon analogy is spot-on. Her writing is excellent, and completely consistent with how the githyanki have been portrayed in Planescape, BG2, and D&D in general. Also, I was surprised at how much the character resembles her voice actor. Curious to see the rest of the cast, now.
Neil Newbon has like 85% of Astarion’s face, it’s uncanny to look at him. They pretty clearly used the actors’ faces/mocap pretty heavily in the character designs.
Laezel is fucking awesome. Give me brutal honesty over whatever shadowheart is doing. I’ve been lied to enough in my life. MC is a more chaotic self insert and the gith story is my priority.
Lae’zel is just intense, and a lot of folks can’t handle that. She doesn’t do anything by halves, and it makes her great.
I’m also very sure she’d be the Crazy Ex that burns your house down, but, y’know. Good with the bad.
Shadowheart doesn’t lie to you, she very directly witholds information because she doesn’t trust you, and as she gains trust and actually remembers stuff she opens up to you.
u don’t talk crap about my waifu shadowheart
Is this available anywhere besides tiktok? It won’t play in the mobile browser and I’m not installing that app.
I use Lae’zel for my evil run, but she does have kind of that evil cat vibe. Like how every cat not only acknowledges it is a cat, but somehow feels that it is the epitome of what it means to be a cat.
Also, as I think it’s pointed out, githyanki are canonically space Nazis. Early in her character arc there is definitely the notion that she is only helping you to help herself and that she has no problem with “final solutioning” you.
The notion? There’s a cinematic where you need to have a roll to avoid her killing you right before you get the first dream cutscene.
I’ve only played D&D for a couple years and don’t have extensive experience with githyanki lore but my impression is they’re not so much bent on genociding other races as they are exterminating the mind-flayers that enslaved, tortured, and fed on them. Everything about the structure of their society and their philosophy on the value of life hinges around that. They became hyper militaristic - only the strongest and most capable are valued. They seem to regard other races as largely weaker or simply unworthy/uninteresting, but aren’t looking to kill or subjugate them, they’re just irrelevant.
I’m only ~near the end of Act 2, but Laezel’s development has been some of my favorite stuff about the second act.
I really love the lore, especially as it pertains to the Planescape setting. It’s part of the Proclamation of Two Skies:
After the gith destroyed the illithid empire, Gith, a warrior-queen and leader of the rebellion, declared that the People would not rest until they had discovered and destroyed all remaining illithids in the multiverse; then, the People would be free to conquer all of the planes of existence and bring war to all other races. Many of the People’s hearts shared this goal. Zerthimon argued that the People already knew freedom and should begin to mend the damage done to their race. He too expressed a goal that was in the hearts of many of the People. Still, Gith insisted that hers was the only path and that they would be “under the same sky” in the matter.
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Lae’zel is fantastic though. Battlemaster Fighter is great and you can fairly easily get a whole ton of Githyanki exclusive items that make get a complete beast.
Also an ambush has an undead patron warlock NPC, so I wonder how much of that class is in the game.
She sounds like a fun character, after the intro, first bumped into her at “the bridge”, couldn’t deal with the dragon peeps at the moment so I thought the situation would stand still until I intervened… well, resouding nope on that.
She ded, wouldn’t even talk to me with undead talking spell. Failed her hard.
Actually meeting the character some time next playthrough is something I’m looking towards
Be sure to really look around the entire wreckage of the nautiloid. Gale, Astarion and Lae’zel are within like 20 feet of each other.
I’m painfully aware, but this is how the dice were cast.
Yeah i have no idea how but I also missed her. I was waiting for her to pop up somewhere but now I’m in act 2. Oops.
In Planescape: Torment Dak’kon was absolutely my favorite character. I really wish WotC would explore the other half of the Gith people.
Reading the unbroken circle of Zerthimon lined up philosophically for me, and seemed to (at the time, like 1999) line up with Bhuddist philosophy which I was reading then too. Typical teenager in the Christian south looking for alternatives.
I have the rune of torment as my only tattoo (just the basic symbol, not TNO’s personal additions) for a few reasons, but to this day I can look at it and be inspired by Dak’kon’s words.
Endure. In enduring, grow strong.
Lae’zel is great. Some of you people have very bad thoughts.
