A Baldur's Gate 3 streamer has suffered the ultimate act of misfortune, accidentally murdering Lae'zel just as the character's voice and mocap actor tuned into the stream.
Streamer Luality - who's shown off the skill to solo some of Baldur's Gate 3's hardest bosses in one turn but has also suffered its worst luck thanks to a 1-in-160,000 dice roll - has recently fired up a new playthrough as Origin Astarion. During a cutscene in which the vampire is visited by his abusive master, Luality's stream was raided by Lae'zel actor Devora Wilde, who's been streaming a characteristically ruthless playthrough of the game as a pink-haired Gith called Bae'zel.
Mere moments later, Luality triggers another cutscene. While Cazador's appearance is mostly something that only Astarion Origin players will be familiar with, its successor in this playthrough is far more infamous. A pretty hungry vampire by the time the scene rolls around, Astarion asks the player for a bite - or a drink. It's pretty easy to get him to stop once you've had enough of him leeching off your character's neck, but if you fail the associated roll, it's possible for the vampire to drink you dry, killing your character. In fact, that fate even befell Astarion actor Neil Newbon during his own stream.
As a different character, you can stop Astarion from drinking with a pretty easy DC5 saving throw, but if you're playing as Astarion, you need to pull yourself away. Sadly, Luality failed that saving throw, rolling a four on her Wisdom save. The result was rapid exsanguination of Lae'zel, who was apparently foolish enough to let Astarion take a drink.
Despite the easy check, this exact cutscene is one that plenty of players have fallen foul of, though comparatively fewer have found themselves on the side of the biter rather than the bite-ee. To my knowledge, Luality is the only one to have murdered a beloved RPG character in front of the person who helped bring said character to life, at least during this specific cutscene, but given the bloodthirsty nature of Wilde's own playthrough, I imagine she'll be relatively forgiving.
Elsewhere, one Baldur's Gate 3 player found a new 'skin' for Astarion - but it's probably not one he'd enjoy wearing.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.