Save the Artist is the worst quest in the game

[Vakula]

Seriously, this quest is absolute donkey balls. So frustrating. And in the end, your reward is a painting, and its not even your character! They should really patch this crap. Its so jarring cuz the rest of the quests are so excellent.

[Jeronimosss]

The reward is disappointing, I agree, but the quest itself is rather enjoyable, imo. What do you hate about it?

[Anima Mundi]

There's a lot of useless quests, that are a lot of trouble for basically no reward.
In the end they are there, just for ppl to RP their characters.

I think just BG3 was not the designed to be the kind of game where completionists chase every single quest and all. Like i only did the Artist quest once because i was RPing a brainless do gooder Paladin

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Jeronimosss:

The reward is disappointing, I agree, but the quest itself is rather enjoyable, imo. What do you hate about it?

The invisible ghosts which you only have a chance to see with the “see invisibility” spell. Also getting constantly knocked down when trying to go up the staircase. Getting an absolutely abysmal reward doesnt help either. Could have at least been some useful gear in addition to the trash painting.

[Anima Mundi]

On the last patch they switched up the Skulls resistances to make that part of the quest a bit less annoying

[victorvnv]

That’s literally the whole point of the quest, that sometimes when you work hard you get nothing.

I really liked the quest tho as it exposed these cheap “rich” guys, when you go to the house they have these display cases where it looks like there are valuable things but they are just basic swords and cheap items .

I found it funny although it sucks that skipping the quest doesn’t have any repercussions either

[Quacksalber]

Yeah it's awful. On my last playthrough, I clicked somewhere and my party decided to walk through the house, after which some poltergeists we didn't kill got aggro when we walked past to do shadowheart's quest and I was then locked in TB mode for 30 min trying to get my deva out of the line of aggro. And the "reward" is either bugged or the devs trolling us. Even if you reload until you get the picture you want, it changes into something else when you get home. Plus all you can do with it is toss it on the floor. Also the pathing in that house is abysmal. Best way to do it is cheese it by flying to the roof.

[Lans]

Did anyone else have a party member spawn 20ft underground below the house when zoning in from camp? Or have the permanent invisible ghosts that ignore detect invisibility unless you Google it and throw bottled water at them? Or had groups aggro from 3 floors beneath you & behind closed doors when you entered a room they weren't in?

This quest is my go-to for the GOTY / Larian walks on water crowd. This game has enough bugs to make Bethesda blush, and sold itself on edgy deviant sex content instead of actual game content

[Annahri]

The problem I have with this quest and some others in the lower city is that they feel so disconnected. I don't have this problem with the quests in Rivington. We just came out of a massive battle and you can slow down a bit so they can pick up the pace again. It kind of feels like the calm before the storm. Plus quest such as the temple murder actually lead somewhere.

In the lower city there are quite a few quests that don't lead anywhere. And by that I mean they don't serve the plot. Now, not every quests has to, but the problem is that the pace has been picked up again.
We are now actively trying to get the other stones, the brain quacks are getting more and more frequent. But somehow there's a time consuming quest where we help some rich people get rid of ghosts. And the Emperor, who keeps pushing us to stay focused, is completely fine with this. Yes I know he's got his own agenda, but still.

And that's why this quest and a couple of others like it really bug me.

[Senkoau]

I can't help but wonder if there was cut content that resulted in an unsatisfactory end like you get for Karlach. As in they orignially planned to do more with him and you could help him do something for a better reward.

[Dank Sidious]

It's absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage especially if your character did the mistake of getting the permanent see invisibility eye. I've triggered fights with the ghosts without even entering the mansion and it becomes a hassle to deal with that BS.

The best way to handle it is to use a character with fly and skip as much of the quest as possible by just directly flying to where you need to go and solving the ♥♥♥♥ asap. Or never activating the quest in the first place.

[Revenant]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

That’s literally the whole point of the quest, that sometimes when you work hard you get nothing.

Come on, now. The game is literally about the "quest hook -> fightfightfight -> reward" gameplay loop. That's virtually the only thing you do for the entire game. What's more likely:

1. They created an unsatisfying quest with a bad effort-to-reward ratio.
2. They think "only 99% of quests give rewards, not 100%" is some kind of meaningful life lesson.

[Anima Mundi]

Originally posted by Revenant:

Originally posted by victorvnv:

That’s literally the whole point of the quest, that sometimes when you work hard you get nothing.

Come on, now. The game is literally about the "quest hook -> fightfightfight -> reward" gameplay loop. That's virtually the only thing you do for the entire game. What's more likely:

1. They created an unsatisfying quest with a bad effort-to-reward ratio.
2. They think "only 99% of quests give rewards, not 100%" is some kind of meaningful life lesson.

Hmm. there are quite a lot of quests that reward absolutely nothing but XP. This one at least gives a useless painting that you can drop on the ground at camp.
Pretty sure teaching a life lesson is not what they were trying to do here

[Anima Mundi]

Originally posted by Dank Sidious:

Or never activating the quest in the first place.

Exactly, lesson learned after the first playthrough :D

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Annahri:

In the lower city there are quite a few quests that don't lead anywhere. And by that I mean they don't serve the plot. Now, not every quests has to, but the problem is that the pace has been picked up again.

I think these exist for a) flavor, b) replayability (I keep finding new ones even on 4th or 5th replays), and c) (probably most important from a gameplay sense) to allow under-leveled parties who missed content in Act 1 and Act 2 to catch up to level 12 before the finale.

[Mike Garrison]

I have only played this quest through two times. I have (accidentally, I swear!) killed Oscar in the Zhent camp by explosive deflagration. I have also just left him there a captive.

I find it amusing that if you just leave him as a captive you later find out that he has become a Zhent forger! He's pissed at you, though, even though he likes his new life better.