ranzware
There are plenty of potentially intense romances to get involved in with your Tav in Baldur’s Gate 3, ranging from being pummeled by your new ‘hot githyanki girlfriend’ to getting fresh with a full-grown bear, but none are potentially as hot as the ability to romance Raphael, the silky-tongued proprietor of the House of Hope and heir apparent to the archdevil Mephistopheles.
What a shame, then, that a route to romancing Raphael was strictly off the cards in vanilla BG3. Clearly, this is something that upset modder foundatlantis, as they have moved to rectify Larian’s obvious error with the release of Raphael Romance Route – Part 1, a mod that ‘adds a new quest that allows the player to romance (or alternatively ‘befriend’) Raphael.’
Featuring a new dialogue and location, any Tav with a desire for some hot bad guy romancing can start the quest by speaking to Raphael in the Last Light Inn, which is encountered in Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. Providing that you then help Mol win the game of Lanceboard she is playing with Raphael, a new quest will then begin, with ‘a mysterious White Pawn Piece’ added to Tav’s inventory.
Speaking in the mod’s notes, foundatlantis confirms that the mod’s new dialog ‘contains some class/origin/race unique options. I believe the ones with the most unique content are Wyll and Gale (followed by Karlach and Astarion). It’s a pretty big dialog tree, so even though I’ve checked for unfinished routes, there might be one or two left. Let me know!’ Included in the mod’s images tab shows a picture of Raphael sitting at a Lanceboard table with a variety of Tav dialogue and action options, the top one reading ‘Eager to get me on my knees, Raphael?’, as well as the ability to say nothing, kneel, or leave.
The mod’s creator also confirms that there are a bunch of easter eggs in the mod, too, with references to William Shakespeare, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hamilton, among others. Clearly, a good dose of thought and creative endeavor has been poured into this mod, and will continue to be according to the notes, as foundatlantis is also very clear that this is a work-in-progress project.
BETA the devil you know
Which gets us to the crux of the matter with the Raphael Romance Route – Part 1 mod—right now it is firmly in beta and, unfortunately, demonstrating a few pretty critical bugs. These include Lae’zel totally disappearing from the cage in Act 1, as well as that long resting from outside of camp does not teleport the player back to camp. So, while foundatlantis has said they are investigating these issues for future fixes, for right now they have specifically said that this mod should not be installed in any honor mode playthrough, or a playthrough that the gamer is heavily connected to. Simply put, it could bork it up.
Further, while there is an extensive dialogue tree in this Raphael romance mod, as you might expect from a project such as this, there is no voice acting from Raphael’s voice actor Andrew Wincott, with the mod’s creator inviting those Tavs with a devil fetish to ‘just like, imagine’ the silky sounds of this smooth operator while engaging in some flirting fun.
Therefore, to me this is a mod to keep an eye on unless you’ve got a bank of game saves on tap from previous, non-critical runs. If you’ve got many Baldur’s Gate 3 saves and, even better, got saves at the start of Act 2, before you’ve visited the Last Light Inn, then experimenting with this mod will likely be easy and fun. Install, head to the Last Light, get chatting up Raphael.
However, due to the bugs and early beta state of the mod, I think most gamers will likely be best served by waiting a few months before returning to the Raphael Romance Route mod, as by then there’s a good chance that foundatlantis will have had the time to develop the mod to a state where it is more bug-free.
From my perspective, any expansion to the game’s deep web of potentials is to be welcome, and especially so considering we are on the verge of getting Baldur’s Gate 3’s much-anticipated Patch 8, which delivers with it 12 exciting new sub-classes to play. I personally will be beginning multiple new playthroughs as soon as that patch drops, so hopefully, I can look forward to romancing Raphael in the very near future as a very Drunken Master monk.
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Kurt Indovina
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