BG3 The start of Act 3...

[Tridaria]

So having played BG1 & 2 years ago I was really enjoying BG3 Acts 1 & 2. Then at the start of Act 3 I get faced with, what was for me an immersion destroying decision fork ie. Emporer or Orpheus. Eventually I decide against the Emporer, because there's no option to select a middle ground that's so obviously implied and thinking he would disappear in a huff as per content on YouTube etc, but no, he turns red and stays, the Honor Guard also stay red, a no win situation, I have to kill everyone (I'm L10.5 at this point in the game). The upshot of this is the Emporer dies, we all turn sort of black and tentacular... end of game. Really dissappointed in such poor story telling (in this particular instance) and very disinclined to continue.

[Orion Invictus]

If you were actually immersed in the game, you would've known killing the guy keeping you from turning into a Mind Flayer would, y'know, result in you being turned into a Mind Flayer.

Or maybe you were RPing so much that you acted as your character would and are now upset about the results? But then again, you say you went on YT to make your decision for you, so I dunno.

[alanc9]

Hmm.... technically, isn't it Orpheus' power keeping you from turning into a mind flayer? The Emperor's just tapping into it.

So I see the problem. There's no way to convince Orpheus or the Guard that you're on their side.

[AxelMcT]

The part he disappears in the huff, happens a lot later on.

However, there is a lot more Gith politics to come.

Without going into spoilers, why did you go against the Emperor then?

[AxelMcT]

alanc9

Do the honour guard not just attack you and is it not impossble to communicate with Orpheus at that point?

[🅖🅞🅚🅤]

The ending is undercooked and essentially only has a binary choice, so yeah, it's definitely a letdown compared to the beginning of the game.

[LordNibbler]

Originally posted by alanc9:

Hmm.... technically, isn't it Orpheus' power keeping you from turning into a mind flayer? The Emperor's just tapping into it.

So I see the problem. There's no way to convince Orpheus or the Guard that you're on their side.

Yes, his power. But he's not more than the energy that powers the heater. Without the heater that energy is - for the time being - useless. And convincing the guards wouldn't help because you'd destroy the heater, still having no use for that energy.

The Emperor just tells you constantly that he is the only one, who keeps the group from turning into flayers - maybe he was right after all...

[Chadwick Strongpants]

Good news is, if you kill all of the honour guard, the emperor will cease being hostile and merely admonish you (and rightly so). If you decide to kill him, you turning into a mindflayer despite his repeat warnings throughout the game only makes sense.

Without going too much into spoiler territory, you'll have options later on that go very well against his interests. I suggest sticking it out for now and experience the rest of the game, it'd be a shame if you let that single instance ruin it for you.

[Ronin Gamer]

Character warns you something will happen if you take certain actions...
Person takes certain actions...
Person is upset thing they were warned about happening happened...

I'm finding this hard to understand, it should have been obvious.

[alanc9]

Originally posted by AxelMcT:

alanc9

Do the honour guard not just attack you and is it not impossble to communicate with Orpheus at that point?

Oh, sure. I didn't mean to imply that the OP made a good decision, either as gameplay or RP. I was just agreeing that it's an annoying situation

[Chadwick Strongpants]

Originally posted by alanc9:

Originally posted by AxelMcT:

alanc9

Do the honour guard not just attack you and is it not impossble to communicate with Orpheus at that point?

Oh, sure. I didn't mean to imply that the OP made a good decision, either as gameplay or RP. I was just agreeing that it's an annoying situation

I mean, kinda. But the consequences of doing that had been clearly communicated for a long time. Venting about it on the Steam forum and getting that worked up over it seems a little drastic.