So how many playthroughs are you in now? Surely this is a timeless classic that can be experienced again and again...
I've done three;
1) Gale origin (Swords Bard), traveling with Shadowheart (Cleric, Light), Karlach (Paladin, Ancients) and Lae'zel (default). Went with the Karthillid ending (I thought the resulting squid would be incinerated; the epilogue really drags you over that one...). I didn't recruit Wyll or Astarion but the game's pretty flexible about it, you can complete the whole Ravenguard questline and he never mentions his son; Astarion showed up as a zombie during Cazador's ritual. I missed some content here (I killed the Hag's hostage, for instance, I couldn't convince the chief Gondian that I'd actually saved his daughter and I couldn't buy the dwarven thrower because the scummy Shar merchant ran off). I didn't realize until subsequent playthroughs with a non-bard PC, but having a CHA-class PC (particularly one with persuation expertise) is a huge QoL boost.
2) Dark Urge (Drow Cleric of Selune) traveling with Shadowheart (Lore Bard), Lae'zel (default) and Jaheira (Moon Druid). Gale martyrdom ending; otherwise good ending slides, Karlach and Wyll go off together, Lae'zel goes off with Orpheus, etc. Did the Shadowheart romance after pumping and dumping Karlach; seemed like a waste, I didn't think the romance angle added anything. I liked the Dark Urge content with Jaheira and Minsc, but I wouldn't reccomend it for a first playthrough. Less [Selune] content than I would have thought. This was generally a completionist playthrough, but it was a bit of a downer not getting to finish off "the Emperor" personally. Increasingly obvious throughout this playthrough that the ideal party is: 1) Swords bard with dexerity gloves, 2) spirit guardians lawnmower cleric with radiant orb gear and survival/perception from somewhere (Gith or Elf), 3) Gith Battlemaster with 16 INT + Astral Knowlege, 4) another martial, probably Duergar Paladin.
3) Non-Durge Duergar (Cleric of Laduguer), traveling with Shadowheart (Swords Bard), Lae'zel (default) and Merc (first the gith monk, then the duergar fighter with dwarven thrower). Decent amount of [Duergar] and [Evil God] content here. I tried the Lae'zel romance and it actually has a nice flow to it, much better than Shadowhussy. Orpheus went squid and then we finished off the Orphosquid to close the circle; very nice ending riding off with Lae'zel to start a psionic master race of Duerguar/Gith hybrids. Leaving with Lae'zel does result in Karlach being incinerated, but whatever, she said she'd rather die than go back to Avernus.
Will there be a fourth playthrough in the near future to try out these new classes? Only time will tell but 9324223 character build options that have no connection to the game-world don't really do much for me (see Owlcat games).
