Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

Well, let's get back to Karlach, then. Time to remind people, old and new, how trivial Karlach's problem is in the grand scheme of things when it comes to DnD.

Below are some examples from in-game, that would offer solutions, but are never explored.

Spoilers, of course:


But we did all we could.

Karlach's fiery, poignant and bittersweet endings would work if the game was set in another setting. Set in the modern, real world? Most definitely. Sci-fi? Most probably. Low fantasy? So and so, but could work. High fantasy DnD? Not at all.

Also, if you're a cleric, you get the ability to ask for literal divine intervention once in your life at a high enough level. Using that to save someone you care about from a horrible fate seems 100% aligned with how most of the good gods in the setting operate. Again, it's a game mechanic, but if you have a character that can *literally invoke divine intervention* and then tell them "yeah, nothing you can do, problem is unsolvable" people are going to ask questions, heh. Also, it'd give divine intervention a use that doesn't feel really underwhelming, which all the current options do, to me.
(though in fairness, this would lead to kind of a snowball effect where there's a question of why you can't use it in literally *any* quest once you're level 10, and that's a can of worms I can understand not wanting to open.)

But as you just said- the craziest thing is the Gondians. If you're a writer and you want Karlach's heart problem to be unsolvable, that's a storytelling choice- I don't care for it, but I'm not the writer here- but if that's what you intend, why in the name of all that's sane would you have people who, from what the game tells you, have already solved that problem- and then just refuse to let the player even try to follow up on it? It's basically a choice *guaranteed* to make people frustrated and unhappy. I know I've said before it's not really useful to speculate on what is/isn't cut content or why certain things were left out, but I would love to know how that particular decision got made. it just feels baffling to me.

According all clues in the game it is almost 100% sure, that the gondians were ment to fix the heart. Why it is not in the actual released game, thats the question we all here wish to know.

I mean, plot-wise I'll give them that
I believe there's a way to fit those endings in the setting, but this ain't it, and also the fact that they are the ONLY endings possible - now that doesn't fit. You can screw up beyond repair in D&D, sure, but just saying 'eh, no options' and throwing your hands up in the air? In D&D?! Yeah nah.

And what I said was negative exactly? The fact that doing more for Karlach is a waste of resources? Most of you said that adding one fetch quest is a monumental and impossible task, some even wanted her questline to be entirely reworked, why would they do that? The game sold and everyone are happy, nobody will bother with few guys on some forum, especially (if i'm wrong about that one then correct me) knowing that larian was close to bankrupcy before BG3. Maybe that most of the players don't give a damn or know about the forum? Hard to do so if it barely works and creating the account is a damn chore to go through.

You can be old school so what? Facts are that 90% of the community doesn't give a damn about forum, and this so called community isn't even half as big as you think, to say it plainly nobody gives a damn about what you think because this whole thing has no presence outside of this forum, and if it was deleted today, most of the players wouldn't even notice.

Also it's just so funny to me, you don't want to do anything, you don't want others to do anything, if you are sooo sure you gonna get salvation in DE, DLC or whatever why even bother? Or do you truly belive that larian is going to waste huge amount of money to please like 20 dudes who are crying on forum. Because yes that's how many people are actually active here. Hell make it 100 so what? They have millions of fans straight up eating from their hands, why would they waste tons of money to please few guys on god forsaken forum?

Can you two just leave stupid naive poor us to rot on our non-important half-working god forsaken forum in peace? We like talking about Karlach with like-minded people in a small community, and every time we're having a normal conversation you come to derail it to your inflated egos. What's not clicking?

Fine, we're sheep, we aren't doing anything (and yes we don't want people to write articles and yell about how Larian is bad lol), Larian will ignore us and nothing will happen. Take a congratulatory cookie for being the almighty correct ones, put it on the shelf and leave for some place where smart people are.

------------------------------------------------------

*sigh*

So anyway! I actually recently found out the answer to the question of "Can't ascended Astarion bite Karlach to make her a spawn with the consequent regeneration thing". He very canonically cannot! So that theory is definitely off the table.

Just another one to the ignore list. You wanna complain about people 'crying' on this? Fine, but your posts sound more like crying than 99% of the posts on the forum.

This is a thread, on a Larian forum, literally one of the best places to talk about the game, because we want to. It's clear Larian has some understanding that the players want change, that's why the Avernus extended ending happened so far. Clear enough that there is an interview with the voice actor talking about the 'campaign' (their words, not ours) for this change. And the voice actor has clearly recognized how that a lot of people are interested in this, that they've had to state, multiple times in interviews, that they CAN NOT make a statement because it could easily endanger her career by telling/suggesting what the writers should write.

Larian has done stuff in the past for their previous games, like the Extended Edition for Divinity 2, so it's possible they'd do it again. Do we know for certain? Of course not, Larian seems to keep everything very close to the chest, and that's their right as a developer to do so. But whether or not they do, we're all still chatting here because we enjoy the discussion. But all you two wanna do is rain on peoples parade for not going to extremes or for trusting a company that we think is actually doing good things in the industry.

If you don't want to whine in response to what the thread is literally made to discuss, then go somewhere else? Far be it from me to tell you how to get your kicks, but you're just being rude for the sake of being rude, you don't add anything to this. You think you've failed to make a positive impact so you're just trying to cause a negative one.

Really like that they're crossing stories over like that. I never really considered the vampire spawn option (plz no), but it's nice they thought about it.

Ayo look, a new song for our girl! This one is much more serious... Love the angle tbh.

(really echoes the taunts aunt Ethel chooses for Karlach based on hidden inner insecurities)

I just really want to know what are you planning to accomplish by repeating the same things over and over again for more than month with the same 5 people

accomplish talking to like-minded people, hope that helps

Great song!

I also wanted to build a little bit of your idea some pages back on going back to hell as part of her quest.

Oh yeah I also

Defending the operating table sounds like a cool idea, something i had in my mind was holding her hand through the surgery and havimg to pass checks to keep her going through the pain to finish the surgary

We can ask you the same question. You and Feris are a broken record. Why are you still here? Just leave.

I teared up... Let us save her, goddammit!

I'd love that! Kinda like Volo poking your eye out but with DC checks that get higher and higher for maybe 3 turns or what's the usual amount. She said she's got a really high pain tolerance given they actually did this shit to her in the first place, but since they managed to remove her heart without her remaining dead, some magic was used for sure. Reversing it should be just as possible as making it happen, IMO

I can't see any other reason than that they did not anticipate Karlach's popularity (which is mostly due to her voice acting, no?) and thought she'd be just fine with her current, limited and very railroaded "story arc". But as she turned out to be one of the most popular ones, they have a decision to make.