Lae’zel herself has some choice words for all the haters out there.
Laezel is fucking awesome. Give me brutal honesty over whatever shadowheart is doing. I’ve been lied to enough in my life. MC is a more chaotic self insert and the gith story is my priority.
Well she’s canonically a callous soldier who believes that murder to purify the bloodline is not just acceptable but good and a bigot towards anyone not of that bloodline, including the PC, so maybe some of us prefer other companions for legitimate reasons? Not that there’s anything WRONG with wanting to keep her around for RP or entertainment purposes, of course 🤷
In contrast, the blazing inferno with a heart of gold (or of hell-machine if you want to get all literal about it) that is Karlach is both my favourite video game character in years and ideologically consistent with the character I’m playing, at least in my first playthrough.
Me: “I could take Karlach along because she’s positive and approves of my choices… but I’d RATHER take Lae’zel because she has great banter with Shadowheart and Astarion.”
Which of course is a valid choice too. Personally I prefer the banter of other companions but that’s just subjective 🤷
I’m having fun with her in my evil party. Next run she won’t fit in but I’m enjoying her character. I wouldn’t know there were haters if it weren’t for the articles lol.
I decided to just respec my favorite companions as needed to keep them in the party. So Karlach is a ranger now. She’s not as combat-effective as a rogue or bard, but it’s a lot less of a stretch for her background.
Have you found rogues to be super combat-effective? I’ve been running Astarion consistently for traps and locks, and I’ve found that he really takes a backseat to my warlock and Minthara in combat. Provided he can get in position to hide and pull off a sneak attack, he’s more effective than Shadowheart, but only if I’m playing conservatively, i.e. trying not to use any of her spell slots.
Lae’zel is fantastic though. Battlemaster Fighter is great and you can fairly easily get a whole ton of Githyanki exclusive items that make get a complete beast.
Also an ambush has an undead patron warlock NPC, so I wonder how much of that class is in the game.
I liked her right off the bat. I don’t know if she is meant to be super likeable, but she is a gith… Having been a huge fan of Planescape Torment almost solely because of a big conversation between a githyanki and a member of a race that is the exact opposite of the gityanki that explains the ins and outs of the blood war and with an absolute torrent of lore and background to the race in question, Lae’zel is pretty fucking spot on for what I expected from such a character.
I kinda feel like people who have no history with Star Trek would have the same thoughts toward Klingons as they do Lae’zel if some Star Trek RPG came out and got a bunch of new potential fans to try it. So many people I’ve talked to about BG3 have never once played D&D and know nothing of Forgotten Realms. Such a player definitely wouldn’t understand why Lae’zel behaves the way she does, and you wouldn’t get much context unless you actually pushed through with her story.
As for mechanically playing with her in the party… She is just a fighter. Arguably the least interesting class. And with all the other good melee focused classes, I really only had her specifically for story cuz fighters are kinda lame. All they really do is swing weapons. 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, I think the Klingon analogy is spot-on. Her writing is excellent, and completely consistent with how the githyanki have been portrayed in Planescape, BG2, and D&D in general. Also, I was surprised at how much the character resembles her voice actor. Curious to see the rest of the cast, now.
I get that Fae’run has racial abilities built into its design, but ya’ll real in here trying to defend indoctrinated, active brainwashing and racism.
Lae’zel is your weak of ego, racist uncle; everything different offends her, and any evidence that she is wrong must be conspiracy. Even when faced with everything Vlaakith is doing wrong, you’re met with a series of mental gymnastics: “No, it must be the Doctor!” “Well it has to be THIS Creche, they’re lying about Vlaakith’s wishes!”
Even when you finally get through to her and she agrees to turn on Vlaakith, she spends the entire next act droning on about her new favorite religious figure/political leader. She’s functionally incapable of living for anyone other than a perceived god-king, and I’m shocked that doesn’t genuinely disgust more people.
When you frame it a certain way of course it sounds awful. Let me try the opposite.
Lae’zel has been indoctrinated since birth by a crazy religious and xenophobic culture. The second she’s told she’s being lied to she doesn’t believe anyone because people don’t change their mind about their entire belief system through one line of dialogue from a person she just met.
However after a few more hard facts being shown to her, such as said religious culture trying to kill her and being lied to by the head of said fanatics, she realizes all of her people are actually indoctrinated slaves and starts to fight for the future of her people by rallying around the one person who can actually do something to stop it all.
Not sure why her breaking away from the brainwashing and indoctrination and trying to help free her people after seeing the truth is a bad thing here? Also fun fact, if Orpheus turns into a mind flayer and dies at the end she goes to free her people anyway, it wasn’t just about him. She didn’t just become a zealot following a new person, she became dedicated to freeing her people. Orpheus has that capability so she wants to free him.
