Baldur's Gate 3 stops at level 6 D&D spells, but one player managed a level 7 screwup that locked them out of the RPG's final fight

gamesradar.com:

In a multi-layered mistake that can't be adequately described within Baldur's Gate 3's conservative six-level magic system, one unlucky player has soft-locked themselves out of the RPG's final fight through an absolute clown fiesta of death and death gods, inadvertently writing the ultimate lesson on quick-saving. 

Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 2 ahead.

Reddit user palomAstra shared their misfortune with the CRPG's community earlier this week. Their mixup sounds impossible at first blush: "Finished Act 2 without getting Netherstone." You know, the stone you get from the unavoidable Ketheric and Myrkul fight? The stone that jump-starts the climactic events of Act 3, and one of the three stones necessary to take on the big bad at the end of the game? Yeah, that one. 

How did they do it? It all started with the first fight with Ketheric on the Moonrise Towers rooftop, palomAstra explains. Shadowheart was separated from the party after beating Ketheric, so only three of their party members actually jumped down into the Mind Flayer colony. Shadowheart was then stuck up top with the entrance to the colony sealed. 

If you're screaming that this is the point where palomAstra should've reloaded a save, you're absolutely right. Alas, it only gets worse: the player laments that they "definitely should have reloaded a (now-deleted) save like 100 hours ago."

Instead of, at worst, redoing the short Ketheric tower fight, they pressed on in the Mind Flayer colony, ultimately reaching the bottom and beating Ketheric again with their three-person team. However, they died during the second stage of the fight after Myrkul was summoned. 

But remember, Shadowheart is still safe on the surface. In other words, the whole party didn't