Nah, I’m fully aware most people don’t know about Gerson, who exists only if you’re standing in the druid grove when the goblin leaders are dealt with, just so the scene can transition without you noticing.

But someone asked for possible variations, and I provided. And what better way to show the variation the game has to offer than to show the extreme examples of it? Note that I also pointed out the eight origins, which are so surface level that it’s the first choice you make in the game.

Well, in general, there’s eight different origins you can pick, all with unique scenes, dialogue and story choices. You can even get a unique evil ending with each one.

More specifically, there’s Quil Grootslang, a dragonborn bard who only shows up in camp if you’re playing as Dark Urge, and if Alfira is unavailable when her scene would usually trigger. Despite being a replacement character, you can talk about her with a dragonborn bard in the Lower City, but only if you actually met her.

There’s also Honk, a half-orc bartender who is proven to exist through notes, but only shows up physically to replace his bother Henk during a Karlach romance exclusive cutscene if Henk is unavailable. Honk has his own voice actor, and is referenced by name in spoken dialogue.

It’s unlikely you’ll trigger the crash. You pretty much have to go out of your way to even get into the room if Ethyl isn’t dead.

The smith, the reporter, the dryad, one of the guards, and a wounded thug on the beach. You’re probably missing the thug.

You can still visit him. You can even track down Thrumbo and do that whole thing.

It’s a fun time.

Yup, that’s him. If you leave the shop, he’ll chase you, so you can just walk to the edge of the bridge and get a shove ready.

If you don’t fight Ethyl, she won’t move to Baldur’s Gate. This means 1) the house you would meet the Anti Hag Support Group is occupied by generic bandits, 2) the people in the Blushing Mermaid are just regular people, albeit drunk or hungover, 3) Lora and Vanra are safe in their home and 4) Ethyl’s lair is sealed off entirely.

If you use barrels, you can trigger the lever to open the door anyway. If you then attack her mushrooms, she shows up angry and yells at you for killing her, and the game crashes.

If you DO fight Ethyl, don’t kill the Mask of Regret. If you let her live, she’ll turn up in the Anti Hag Support Group under the name Hydrangea Wubb.

There are five people in Rivington that Orin can impersonate. The first two you speak to will be Orin. If you talk to Gortash, Orin will not impersonate anyone else, and the ones you didn’t talk to will be themselves.

The two that Orin impersonates can be found dead in the Temple of Bhaal. If she didn’t impersonate two people, there are two humans who serve as backup victims.

If you free Oskar, he will turn up in Jannath’s Estate and get the whole place haunted. If you don’t free him, an art exhibition will be held instead.

If you speak to Naoise in Sharess’ Caress as Minsc, she can offer her Rapture speech to him. One of your options for “what will you be” will be Minsc, leading her to call him “The most Minsc”.

If you throw Naaber off of the bridge, he will swim to the shore. This happens to nobody else in the game.

If you use Speak with Dead on Naaber, you can ask him more than five questions, because he wants to talk too much for death to stop him. He will even complain when you end the spell.

Of course not. If you put a hand on her, it’d catch fire.

Luckily, there were no notes that required her to die. If there were, I’d have had a very hard choice to make…

I did a book collection run once. Collect as many unique books as possible in a single run. I got about 94% of the books in the game, which is as many as I think you can get in a single run. The remaining 6% is locked behind story branches that would eat into the 94% I did get.

And honestly? It wasn’t that fun. I had to scour rooftops, look around in vases, cross-reference the wiki, reload the game because I made a wrong choice that seemed like a nothing choice at the time… And all I got were some notes. And they weren’t even much better than the ones you get in a normal run.

And this was just books. I had to skip Gale’s content entirely just to collect an extra note. There is a robe you can only get if you kill Karlach. There’s simply too many branches for you to get everything.

You can’t get 100%. You might be able to get 95%, but it won’t be fun. From now on, I’ll just clear the map markers before moving on, and that’ll be enough for me.

Your mistake is giving weight to the opinions of guys who post their cheese strats to steam message boards. You aren’t less of a gamer because you haven’t learned how to cheese a fight.

You’re the one playing the game. Play it how you want.

As for tips to make it easier?

• When the game tells you something is urgent, it’s usually lying. You have all the time in the world, and nothing to fear from a long rest.
• Cantrips scale over time, so you can often use them rather than a spell slot.
• Barrel strats are beginner level cheese. Steal firewine and oil barrels, just in case you need it later.