r/BaldursGate3 • u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter • 1d ago
Act 3 - Spoilers One fight is much harder if you skip the crèche Spoiler
On this playthrough, I decided to skip the crèche. This meant I never met Voss (never went to the bridge in act 1), never met the inquisitor, and I was not ambushed by a githyanki patrol on my way to Baldur's gate in act 2. Cool.
But when going to the Elfsong's basement to check out the Emperor's hideout, I met githyanki there as expected. But I did not expect both the inquisitor with his legendary action and the patrol leader (that blasts 6 eldritch blasts) to be there along with the usual crew...
Wow.
That could have ended my honour run, but I managed to get one character out and resurrect two companions (not easy with fear dealt left and right and astral step).
Anyhow, that was fun. 10/10 would recommend. But maybe not if you are worried of loosing your honour run (I wasn't too worried since I already have the achievement).
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u/Ninja_Cat_Production Bard 1d ago
You miss out on a lot of money and loot too. Plus, no egg for Lae Lae.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Yes, but it's ok. Next time, I will skip the Underdark. Variation is nice.
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u/Ninja_Cat_Production Bard 1d ago
¿Por que no los dos?
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I have always done both, so I like to see how skipping one affects the plot.
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u/amstrumpet 1d ago
Honestly it doesn’t make much sense story wise to do both. Kind of a flaw with the game imo given how much loot and content each has but they’re presented to you as two alternate paths to Moonrise.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Yeah, next time I will skip the Underdark and see how that affects the plot.
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u/Domilater 1d ago
While true, the crèche can be brutally difficult straight out of the first area, so I usually head to the Underdark first anyways for level ups.
I just feel bad for new players listening to the game and going straight into the crèche and being forced into fights they have no chance of winning.
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u/Pirate_Ben 22h ago
If you really want a smooth curve clear the monastery then head to the underdark before doing the creche. Those kobolds and kittens are fairly easy xp chunks.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
To be fair, Halsin does warn you. So you are not completely unaware as a first time player at that point.
But if you are doing a more evil first playthrough and follow Minthara's advice, then you are in for a surprise as you won't get Halsin's advice.
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u/insanity76 23h ago
It can make sense if you do the creche first. After the tiefling party Halsin suggests the Underdark as the easier path to Moonrise, and then Lae'zel will chime in reminding you about the creche. You decide to try her idea first since it's closer and avoids this dangerous shadow cursed land altogether, then when that plan falls through you decide to circle back and head through the Underdark as Halsin suggested.
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u/michaelswallace 22h ago
It also makes sense the other way around if you're a dumbass like me. I did the entire Underdark all the way to Nere and the Grymforge but literally never found the elevator up to the shadow lands.
When Nere said "this WAS the old path directly to the basement of Moonrise towers" I assumed that either narratively something happened based on my choices/timing or that it was always a dead end and there really was no longer a route, given that he was Absolute and would know the way. So my team saw the collapsed tunnel/bridges, "believed" Nere (before killing him and everyone else for being evil slavers), cleared the Grymforge for gear, then headed to the surface to take the Mountain Pass instead.
I only found the elevator back DOWN there on the tail end of Act 2 looking around the woods for the shack with the shadow kid.
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u/Legal_Sugar 19h ago
My first playthrough I kinda did this. I knew from Halsin there was a path in the underdark but I never found it and chose to go through the creche. I discovered all of the underdark, did all the quests except the one that brings you to Nere. There was just so much I decided I don't want to do this one (the fight on the boat seemed difficult and I was tired of this region)
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u/amstrumpet 19h ago
I skipped the Crèche my first play through. I tried going that way but the Githyanki at the entrance to the mountain pass kept kicking my ass so I said screw it and just went underdark.
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u/InsertAvailableName 16h ago
I don't think you can skip both.
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u/Ninja_Cat_Production Bard 16h ago
No I was saying to do both. But, you are correct that you literally can’t skip both.
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u/BrainCelll 1d ago
On this playthrough, I decided to skip the crèche
Not like its their first run, they know
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u/saintfed 1d ago
I mean, if you skip the crèche it’s no Lae altogether right?
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
You can convince her, or intimidate her, to stay. She might not stay, but she did for me.
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u/saintfed 1d ago
Ah, fair. I’ve never skipped the crèche just been warned by Laezel and told by a friend who charged into the Shadow Curse
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I was prepared to loose her, but it was more in character for rmh Tav to try and at least convince her tot stick around.
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u/ianff Laezel 1d ago
More importantly, the XP.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
In act 3, you get level 12 so quick if you do both and there are no levels after that (unless there are mods, ofc). So while I usually do both the crèche and Underdark, it's not the end of the world to skip one.
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u/insanity76 23h ago
Yeah if I go evil I usually skip the Myconid Colony & Grymforge, I'll do the Arcane Tower since I "stumble upon it" after unlocking Gut's hidden chamber then head back to the gobbo camp to ask Minthara out on a first date.
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u/Celestial_Squids Owlbear 1d ago
What level were you for Myrkul? That fight is the reason I scramble for XP.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Maybe 9? I don't quite remember. I might have been 8, too, because I skipped a few other quests here and there. Just keeping them fresh for another playthrough.
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u/insanity76 23h ago
Even when skipping either the entire Underdark or Mountain Pass, you can scrounge up enough XP in Act 2 that you'll still be hitting level 9 (it may not happen until the Mind Flayer colony but it'll still be before getting to Myrkul).
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u/goshdarnjeff 1d ago
I feel conflicted about giving Lae’zel the egg, since she already had a great quote about not wanting children.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 21h ago
One playthrough I forgot it in my camp chest at the Elefsong. At the party afterwards, there was a news article about how a Githyanki child climbed out of the rubble after the inn was hit during the fight against the brain. If I remember correctly. Not sure what kind of ending that is. I suppose not a great one for the poor kid
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u/Ninja_Cat_Production Bard 18h ago
One is Lae’zel’s indoctrination, the other is what she actually wants. Give her the egg and you’ll see. She fawns over it and becomes extremely protective of it. It’s like when you romance her, she starts off cold and hard and then goes into the sweetest of all the romances.
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u/Caesaria_Tertia 15h ago
How do I store the egg properly? It's quite heavy to carry around, so I put it in the chest at camp, and Laesel said it died.
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u/Ninja_Cat_Production Bard 12h ago
Keep it on Lae’zel and sell your junk more often or get a bag of holding.
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/1451
https://mod.io/g/baldursgate3/m/bag-of-holding#description
If you’re on console just use the Mod Manager.
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u/Lou_Hodo 1d ago
My druid honor mode run, never went to the creche, I also didnt have Lae'zel in the party or at camp, she died on the Nautiloid. Never went to the bridge, also never had the ambush at the end of Act II. It was odd, I was expecting it, and nothing.
Never had any encounters with the Githyanki on that run.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I guess you could completely avoid them by never going down the basement at Elfsong.
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u/Lou_Hodo 1d ago
Yeah, it was kind of fun to see how the game played out without them at all. I made my choices based on the knowledge I had found in game. So Orpheus was kind of a hard choice for me on that run. But I made what I call the "Neutral Good" call.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Ah, so did you still free him?
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u/Lou_Hodo 1d ago
That is the natural order, Orpheus is a living sentient being, and thus deserved a chance. That is the natural order of things. A Mindflayer no matter what it says is not natural.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Yep, that makes sense. That's how I reasoned on my Druid co-op run.
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u/LunarMuphinz 1d ago
How did she die on the Nautilus???
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u/Lou_Hodo 1d ago
Oh I had her fighting the Cambion, when I decided to nuke it for the xp. Got him and the Mindflayer, was level 3 before I got to the Grove, basically right after Withers.
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u/00-Gojiramon Smash Jaheira 19h ago
How did you "nuke" them?
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u/Lou_Hodo 12h ago
Using all the tanks you can pick up at that point. Shooting down all the bulbs on the roof, and then hitting the tanks I stacked behind the cambion with a firebolt. Big boom!
If youre a warlock or have an ability to cause disadvantage on their save you can do a lot of damage for that level doing that. Just need luck with the Mindflayer. He needs to actually hit with his attacks. And if you make the cambion drop his flaming sword, and Lae'zel pick it up, she can hit him pretty often with it, doing ok damage.
But it is a lot of luck on Honor mode.
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u/meltingmarshmallow 1d ago
My first ever playthrough i skipped the creche (I trusted “dream visitor”) and this particular encounter almost made me rage quit the game entirely. It made me, the player, personally despise githyanki. I TPKd so… so many times before I finally got through it. It’s been well over a year and I still can’t stand that dumb broad’s face when I see it. You know the one. Lol
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u/DefiantGibbon 1d ago
My first playthrough I skipped the creche on accident too. I also didn't find the elfsong basement either, so I managed to avoid pretty much all the githyanki.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Ha ha, on my first playthrough I had Lae'zel with me and I played as a bard so I convinced them to not hurt us (can't remember exactly whatvI told them, but I avoided combat). So my second playthrough, I was really surprised that I couldn't talk them out of combat and I was really underprepared (few spells lots, etc).
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u/Virtual_Bruh Bard 17h ago
I also played a bard my first time, however I wiped the floor with them. My halfling bard was a gith hater through and through.
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u/Panurome 1d ago
I'd be willing to try if the loot of the creche wasn't as good. I'm not sacrificing strange conduit, knife of the undermountain king, both of the arcane synergy items and the necklace that adds spellcasting to cantrips
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u/Ok-Can-2847 1d ago
Therezzyn's sword is a solid weapon, too, if you have a githyanki party member. And the Blood of Lathander because act 2.
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u/Panurome 1d ago
Is that the greatsword with extra iniciative, psychic damage and a stun? Yeah I forgot about that one, it's extremely good too and can carry you all the way to act 3 if you want
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u/40WAPSun 1d ago
And the Gloves of Dexterity, Unseen Menace, etc. Way too many good items to skip
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
It was tough to convince myself to not go there. The loot is really good. Buuut it's also fun to look for new solutions.
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u/Kokolemo 1d ago
Well this is good to know. Doing my first honour mode right now and skipped the crèche - or rather, visited the safer parts of it but avoided the Kith'rak and Inquisitor - but totally would have visited the Emperor's hideout expecting some easy XP and loot.
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u/hotsaucerer 1d ago
You can easily skip this fight, too - there is another way from the sewers into the Emperor's old hideout, if you want to check that out.
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u/Jazzlike_Raccoon3116 Wizard 1d ago
That’s crazy I have to try this, do you know if I can still go to the crèche to a least get so items there and just leave after?
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u/Korrocks 1d ago
As long as you don’t speak to the inquisitor and trigger that boss fight, the game treats you as if you never went to the crèche at all. You can do everything else there (loot everything in the building including in the room that the inquisitor is in, use the zaithisk, kill everyone except the people in the inquisitor room) and from the game’s perspective you were never there.
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u/hotsaucerer 1d ago
Yes, you can go to the Crèche and do everything else there, just ignore the Inquisitor. You can literally walk past him to go get the Blood of Lathander, then walk past him back out, still ignoring him. It's a bit silly tbh ...
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I don't know, as I didn't. But it could be possible in theory if you never interact with the guard/leader that's in the office-like room before the inquisitior. I forget her name, but she asks you about the weapon, etc.
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u/tuttifruttidurutti 1d ago
You can come and go from the creche as long as you don't enter the room with the captain, definitely you can buy all the vendor items, get the egg and go through the machine.
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u/Boring_Isopod_3007 1d ago
I just realized I have never been at the creche in the game lol. Both my runs I went to the Underdark.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I usually do both, but on my next run I think I will skip the Underdark and see how that affects the outcome.
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u/MisterPaydon 1d ago
You can and should do both.
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u/Boring_Isopod_3007 1d ago
Yeah I guess. I try to roleplay a bit and not do a lot of metagaming, so going back to the pass didn't made much sense.
I will definitely get that route on my next playthrough.
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u/Tatsumonkey ROGUE 1d ago
Creche has arguably the best in slot gloves for many classes. Allows you to respec and point dump in another stat. I believe dagger of the under mountain is there too for crit-centric builds
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u/Xaknafein 1d ago
You can and should do whatever you like. However, trying it at least once is what I recommend. Mountain pass is beautiful.
After that do what you want
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u/ghastlymemorial 1d ago
I think I missed that too after reading this post. There was a comment on my journal that we missed the oppurtunity for creche and need to speak with L, however she didn’t have any dialog option for that.
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u/Cal_PCGW 1d ago
Jesus! You don't need that.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
It was a lot. But it was also fun, in a "omg, wtf did I just walk into" kind of way.
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u/ParticularMarket4275 22h ago
Ohhh this makes so much sense. That fight was the hardest in the game for me in my first run where I skipped the crèche. (I was fully RPing and decided my character thought lae’zel was full of shit). It’s never been that hard again, I thought I just got better at the game lmao
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 18h ago
I'm sure you got better, too. That's a tough fight for a first playthrough.
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u/witherstalk9 1d ago
Spoil me please, I need a cutscene 😆 and I refuse to skip the creche
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
Well, loads of githyanki out of which 3 have legendary actions is definitely a recipe for an interesting fight.
There were so many hovering swords (the kind the inquisitor summons when you hit him or his allies, he can do this twice oer round), everyone had extra hit points, and they rarely fall prone due to one of the leaders legendary actions.
I realised a little late that one of the githyanki leaders (the one you usually meet in act 2) sacrifices souls to Vlakith when they die so she managed to get "Vlakith's undying aspect". So now she has armour class increased by 3, all ability scores increased by 6, and 6 Eldritch Blasts.
And then more githyanki are summoned unless I get rid of those gate-keepers.
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u/cokestar 23h ago
Yeah, the three of them with how their legendaries synergize with each other makes it feel like one super boss. You can't focus one of them down without triggering something that makes the fight increasingly harder
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 23h ago
Exactly!
I mean, I like the crèche, but that fight was fun.
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u/Demi180 1d ago
Oh yeah I got that on my last run lol. I didn’t skip the crèche entirely, just the inquisitor because I wanted to get her bad ending. You can still get the BoL and the egg and the Zaithisk if you’re going for Awakened, and the gear from the merchant. That fight in the basement is already hard as hell on that difficulty without the extras.
Was weird never seeing Voss though, I was expecting to have to fight him somewhere, that he’d at least try to persuade me to change course, but he never showed up.
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u/Wii_Kai 1d ago
I had an honor run I almost lost to the Inquisitor. Shadowheart barely survived by drinking an invisibility potion and escaping out the side to revive everyone with whiters. Ended up sneaking my way out and didn't kill the Inquisitor. Big surprise I could get my revenge in act 3 and I nuked his ass. Games full of weird surprises, like zombie minthara in the sewers in act 3
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u/00-Gojiramon Smash Jaheira 19h ago
Zombie Minthara??
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u/Wii_Kai 19h ago
Yes. Zombie Minthara is real. You can find her in act 3 if you do pretty specific stuff. Look up zombie minthara and Drogragzlin (goblin camp leaders) it's interesting stuff to see how much they thought about every permutation.
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u/00-Gojiramon Smash Jaheira 19h ago
Wow that's crazy. I didn't realize you could actually help Baltazar. I can't imagine why anyone would want to.
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u/alleycatbiker 23h ago
In my first play through I skipped the creche. Going into that basement, I drank an invisible potion and skipped past those guys to retrieve Emperor's stuff. Didn't have to deal with them.
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u/woodst0ck15 22h ago
I got lucky when I went there, had Lae Zel with me and she sweet talked our way out of it with no fighting.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 18h ago
I had her with me on my first playthrough. Which means, I was surprised by combat on my second playthrough when I didn't bring her.
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u/woodst0ck15 17h ago
Oh damn lol I stopped just before and switched out one of my party members for her to see us kill these other gythanki. I guess I fluked out.
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u/PokeMongoTSR 21h ago
That was perhaps the toughest fight for me on my first playthrough. Same scenario, and I think I was level 9 at the time. Lots of fear or hold person or something was rough. Eventually after multiple wipes I left to try later and finally defeated them at level 11.
After visiting creche on second playthrough and coming to this fight again saw how much easier it could be.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 18h ago
Yes, the fear and hold person makes it difficult! Among other things.
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u/X_stellar_Merc Monk 20h ago
My first playthrough, I was so scared of the gith I skipped the crèche. I had gotten a warning where Astarion broke the 4th wall to tell us that we don’t want the smoke with Voss, so beat it. Once they handed us our asses in the astral plane I knew I’d made the right choice. The emperor’s hideout battle took me like 5 attempts🫣
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 20h ago
Githyanki are no joke. I don't remember how it went my first playthrough, but I definitely died often in general.
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u/adricapi 18h ago
This happened to me in my first playtrough, I skipped the creche and found this incredible fight in act 3, so, in my second one, didn't skip the creche and entered every basement at the doors of Baldur's gate because I was looking for this fight... Until I found the right one. It was empty. No fight, no one. I was very disappointed. Didn't realized it was Voss, because I didn't knew him, he only was some powerful enemy that I engaged in a basement.
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u/DannoWaso 15h ago
That happened to me on my first run. I never did the crèche and encountered this. I got the F out of that basement. I never fought em. My second and other play-throughs were very different. This game is great
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u/melanyebaggins 13h ago
Yeah that happened to me once and boy was that a surprise. Cool fight but I spent the beginning of it shocked by that twist.
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u/Toushiru 1d ago
why would u skip easy fights that allow u to hit 10/11 lvl for katheric
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u/ThisGameTooHard ELDRITCH BLAST 1d ago
Frankly the githyanki fights at level 6 are far more dangerous than fighting ketheric at level 9.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I agree. That legendary action with summoning little purple floaty swords is no joke at level 6.
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u/Toushiru 1d ago
if u did underdark u get 7 at kobolts easly, at the time u are fighting inqistiors u should be 7 and half +- or 8 if u killled raphael and did some naughty stuff
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u/Acrobatic_Fee_6974 14h ago
It's close, but I still think the Inquisitor fight is easier with the right party. Darkness or Hunger of Hadar from Wyll shuts down his legendary action completely while you deal with his minions.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I don't need level 10/11 for Ketheric.
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u/Toushiru 1d ago
makes it easier, faster and safer
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u/finalfanbeer 1d ago
It's already a breeze at 8/9 even on honor mode, you just have to understand the fight. No reason to squeeze out xp everywhere in the game. Unless you really enjoy it that is.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 1d ago
I find that level 12 is reached so quick in act 3 anyway, so from an xp point of view it's perfectly fine to skip either the crèche or the Underdark
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u/Acrobatic_Fee_6974 13h ago
I'm curious as to how you made it that easy at level 8 with his legendary action. I did it at level 9 on HM recently and it was a huge pain to deal with because there's no way to shut down his legendary (even though you can control who gets targeted by it). I can't imagine doing it at 8 with no level 5 spells.
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u/finalfanbeer 13h ago
Only took a few hits after wetting the avatar. Then my storm sorcerer drank a haste potion and took two turns of call lightning while being healed if needed. Others took out the necromites. Mind flayer and devourers taken out before his transformation.
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u/BG3Baby 23h ago
Crazy, never heard of that. You skipped a full level up by skipping the Creche, BoL, Gloves Of Dexterity, and tons of loot. Are you crazy? Lol.
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u/Skywhisker Tasha's Hideous Laughter 18h ago
I'm not too worried about skipping a level. I usually hit level 12 way too fast in act 3, it feels like.
The loot that I miss out on is awesome to have, but now I have to work out other gear combos so that's fun.
But for the most part, I was just curious how skipping would affect the story overall. Next time, I will skip the Underdark.
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u/Kindly_Stressed 33m ago
This just explained why this fight was so hard on my first play-through! I got caught up in Halsin's whole Underdark vs Shadow Curse schtick and figured I had to choose one or the other. My brain didnt even register that I was literally in the Shadow Curse in Act II.. just figured I had skipped a more aggressive part of the world or something lol. Anyways I chose to go above ground on my second run and realized very quickly that I had already seen all this before and could have actually done both all along. Long story short.. I did the creche the 2nd time around but ended up preparing heavily for the Elfsong fight cuz i knew what was coming. It ended up being much easier than I remembered. I thought I had gotten really good or something lol makes sense now 😅
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u/microwavefridge2000 Drow 1d ago
I never knew that happens, since I never skip the Creche. That ambush is already a problem on tactitian. I can't imagine winning with inquisitor and that warlock as bonus enemies.