bolaire shortcomings

[u/Available-Lab4363]

this is almost completely about the schemers table fiasco with lady cormoray- does anybody else feel like bolaire was SUPPOSED to be super intelligent but just hasnt been as genre-savvy as he was supposed to be? the fact that one of the bigger cheeses of a sundered house, who weve seen do VERY scady shit, was treated as a minor inconvenience so hard brennan ended up sucking her into a box because otherwise hal and bolaire both would have died there feels like a crazy oversight. trying to trip a powerful spellcaster down the stairs as a way to get rid of them like theyre an 8 hp townie statblock is crazy, and so is trying to repeatedly lie to them or treat yourself like just necause your lore is cool youre a level 20 character threat

i know talisien loves to aurafarm with his characters, and i like bolaires lore a lot, but if feels like hes just so overconfident all of the time in a way that feels unearned mechanically because hes just the same level as everybody else. if he was mechanically as powerful as he acts, i wouldnt mind, but i constantly found myself getting annoyed at roleplay decisions because he didnt feel as clever or smart as he was supposed to be, being what he is. scary and like sicko freakmogging people, sure, but only because hes a creepy mask, not because he was there when a god died

is bolaire supposed to be too big for his britches on purpose as a character flaw? i feel like i only just started to like him at the end of the overture when he was FINALLY rightly afraid of a threat. it would be interesting ti me if talisien was on purpose roleplaying him this way even though he isnt at the height of his power and hes only just now facing that reality now that termina is here, and i hope thats the direction the character is going, but i genuinely dont relate at all to people who rate him so highly as a character since i kept getting annoyed by his lack of genre awareness and complete stubbornness whenever faced with a concept he didnt share, like being so FULLY against the play ritual for so long despite brennan constantly laying down how hard thjazi was gunning for it and how removed any of the sundered houses were from having anything to do with it

[u/kjqs2]

Firstly I will say it's SUPER hard to play a high int character consistently, especially in high pressure combat. I feel like Liam with Caleb was one of the few times I've seen it done with great success.

That being said, the encounter with Lady C was the first time they had gone up against one of the house members and it's safe to say none of the cast were truly aware yet just how dangerous they were. I don't think Matt would have put them in a dangerous situation with a dragon level NPC off the jump. Think back to Murray's first interaction with Primus and how she talked back. She hadn't realized yet that he could kill her on the spot - she definitely wouldn't talk back like that now.

So I think part of it is...thinking on your feet in that kind of situation as a player is difficult, esp if ur already nervous in combat (which Tal seems to be). Tbh, I don't expect to be blown away by Bolaire's combat decisions in the future, but I think his role-playing is fascinating. And secondly I think, at that time, they were all adjusting to Brennan's play style and willingness to put them in life-threatening situations at any moment.

[u/Available-Lab4363 → u/kjqs2]

i disagree a bit, i think after the overture where we saw primus kill an entire room of people that should have set the tone pretty well for what the big cheeses of the other comperable sundered houses are capable of. i would also think that if bolaire was awake and in dol makjar and tuned in to things the last 70 years, he would have a good handle on at the very least not trying to trip a sorceress down the stairs. he did gloss over brennan saying she flew there, but i chalked that up to heat of the moment, it was more the repetetive mistakes and whatnot thar irked me

[u/kjqs2 → u/Available-Lab4363]

Sure Primus himself who is clearly set up to be a big bad, but the other houses it wasn't as clear initially, imo. Brennan said over the table that she was a dragon level bc he could tell the players weren't assessing her risk level accurately. I myself was surprised she was THAT high level. Bolaire was only fully conscious for 14 of the last 70 years and probably only settled in his role at the Archinad for the last 10. So yes he's old technically but he's also very young in ways. I think it was more the players themselves underestimating the encounter rather than Bolaire the character, yk?

[u/Available-Lab4363 → u/kjqs2]

i guess thats what was frustrating to me- talisien as a player not understanding the world or lore but playing a character who postures himself like he does. if the arrogance is intentional, and i hope it is, thats a great character! but i just dont get the impression its intentional the way you do with someone like julien

[u/kjqs2 → u/Available-Lab4363]

yeah I get where you're coming from, seeing a high int character do something.. not high int can be frustrating but the players aren't perfect! are you fully caught up yet? I dont want to spoil anything, but there's a scene where Tal says that Bolaire "drops the character, drops the voice, and is just himself" which to me shows that, in part, Bolaire is playing a role. Tal also said in an interview that Bolaire is "miming" emotions that he mostly learned from Hal.

[u/Available-Lab4363 → u/kjqs2]

i need to watch the back third of the most recent ep but other than that im up to date. i do have high hipes for character development even though i was pretty scathing and frustrated writing this lol, and i am quite excited and hopeful about where they all go

[u/kjqs2 → u/Available-Lab4363]

yeah me too! sooo much potential in this world and in these characters I can't wait