Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Keep only three party members

Would it be a bad idea to keep only three party members at a time? If you meet a potential fourth member, then either send them away (not to camp) or swap them for one of the others and send this other member away. No other members in the camp.

I look at this from the roleplaying side. I can only have three members actively participating. I also don't want to constantly change the active members. I think that is unrealistic. And surely it's not fun for any of the other members to always sit on the bench in the camp and never be allowed to go into action. Why not just send them away?

But how would the game react to this? Will I need one of the characters later on and he/she will be gone?

When you play through the game again, you can put together a whole new party.

This is generally how I play. In fact, I quite often kill potential party members I don’t plan on recruiting. Usually Lae’zel (she is a bloodthirsty Gith), Shadowheart (worships a dark goddess), and Astarion (pulls a knife on you when you meet him). Wyll and Gale I just ignore.

If you plan playing this game through a lot (as I do), there really isn’t any reason to grab a bunch of benchwarmers you aren’t planning on using.

I do not expect that the game would be "unplayable" - as in "impossible to finish" - without Origin X or Y. Some quests will not be available, but a playthrough must be possible. This has been a feature of like games since, like, forever?
Personally I plan to recruit my trio quickly and then stick with them until the end.
Same as Solagon I will kill or ignore - not even recruiting as campers - the Origins I don't care about.
Maybe in the next playthrough ...

The game is meant to be playable/completeable (is that a word? it is now) with a full party of 4 regardless of who is in that combination. It's perfectly viable to only recruit the ones you intend to use. There are some situations and quests where there's a definite advantage to having spesific people with you though. It should also be possible to finish the game solo, they talked a bit about it in the last part of the Panel from Hell where they had Shadowheart only, though that is naturally harder.

I intend to do exactly this, so as to keep the other companions fresh for another playthrough.

not taking on everyone also give you a chance to avoid disapproval from them if you notice. companions react to everything you do as long as they are in the team. they barely react to things once in the camp. so you can take companions that approve of one behaviour and then have another companion on a different encounter to approve of a different behaviour (which may disapprove from the previous companion). it protects you from losing approval because of different decisions you make, as companions view things differently.

For my first run, I will take Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Minthara and kill all the rest. Maybe I will try to sleep with all of them and see how they react.

Yeah, the fact that some party members just stay in camp while others go on adventure bothers me too. However I'm going to accept it because I am curious about the origin quests that if I am not mistaken was hinted at by the devs. Maybe it is possible to fix their problems and make them less pitiful? Or maybe it will just cause more trouble who knows? Anyways I am curious. I also think the story will be more deep and entertaining if you have a span of party members with their own story woven into the main story. Hirelings would be boring.

That doesn't rule out just keeping 3 party members for each playthrough. But for me, I'm not going to play it over and over, as I do think, even with all the options in game that the first playthrough will be the most exciting one. So I'm keeping all potential party members I meet, just in case I need them for deepening or broadening the story.

I agree though that you most likely can finish the game without specific characters in your party. In EA you cannot drop story items from inventory I think, so I think if you should at some time lose your ability to finish the game you wouldn't just be allowed to play on until at some point you become aware you are missing an item or a person no longer obtainable in order to finish. That would be cruel, and not at all fun. However, I wonder about Shadowhearts artifact though. I would think it is key to the story.

Thank you all very much for your thoughts so far. I would send all the others away (don't kill them) and see if you may meet them later on in the game. Who knows? STOP no spoilers please.

I think it's reasonable to assume you might meet at least some of them later on if you don't recruit them yes. It's not like they're helpless after all. At least the ones who aren't in a bad situation when you first meet them.

Well, if we already have the possibility to keep them in the camp, at least I would like to see them doing something in the camp like walking around, swimming in the lake, preparing food, hunting, so they could be away and unavailable for awhile.

In BG1 and 2 I played mostly with 3 custom and 3 pre-made...Imoen, Jaheira.

This time I may play with 2 custom and 2 origin characters at a time.

besides the main character, I plan to build a hireling to replace Astarion as main Scout/Rogue/Archer...but Astarion will get his minutes too.

I plan to keep changing the line=up..so to speak.. according to story, maybe used spells, etc.

I will be telling Astarion from the get go, see yaaaa later dude.

So yea

Shadowheart

Lae'zel

Gale

For my first play through,

Second play through was thinking of the dark Urge,

So

Astarion ( I am interested in Astarion's story with the master and all )

Wyll

Karlach, Now i heard there may be a issue with Wyll and Karlach, not sure myself as I have never played wyll. Will see if it is a problem ill let them figure it out so to speak, may the best devil win.

Then who ever loses Ill pick up Minthara,

As for Halsin, Ill never be able to look at him again lol

Then there still is Minsc and Jaheira, so honestly who really know lol... We shall see in a week!

Most companions are like Boa constructors. They can be nice and loving but if you release them into your backyard and leave them to their own devices there's going to some issues.