Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion BG3 story wishlist and criticism thread (Spoilers inside)

Despite being portrayed as a protector/ally there is an option within the game that leads to him revealing his true feelings towards you.
Not an outright villain but a selfish person that would use you and even threaten you. And what does happen after his diabolical plan to free himself is revealed? Nothing, the game ignores the scene completely and treats him as your buddy instead of a forced ally.

Another thing that makes no sense with the Emperor is his willingness to join the Netherbrain without even giving players the chance to explain themselves or even convince him. (Sure he's afraid of Orpheus being enraged and attacking him but him joining the brain without a second thought is a bit far fetched. What I'm trying to say is that his desperation is not properly conveyed.)

Was it really necessary for the story? I understand that sometimes writers have to make small plot holes (ignore within universe explanations) to tell their story but the whole forced 'someone has to turn into a mind flyer' is a bit to much for me. Orpheus seemed strong enough, having the option to convince the emperor to work with Orpheus? Making another deal with Raphael/some devil for some kind of amplifying artifact etc.
Even if we ignore all of that for the sake of the story does the player character really need to stay a squid? Mystra snaps her fingers and turns the mind flayer Gale back to human so why not the pc?

Out of all the chosen Gortash has to be the worst one. His involvement is rather no existent, Ketheric gets a whole act to himself and Orins involvement with the Dark Urge pushes her above the non character status but Gortash what does he have.
He is and was (during the EA) portrayed as silver tongued schemer and a politician and yet we see non of that. Throughout the game he has 3 scenes and after that he just dies. (either by your hand or the netherbrain disintegrates him)

If that elusive upper/noble part of the city is ever introduced into the game I do hope his story ends up being expanded upon.

I know this is a sensitive topic and that people are really looking forward to that happy ending but my main issue with her story has to come down to the lack of choices we are given in helping her. In a world filled with gods/archmages/magical artifacts/practitioners of a smith god you are telling me that the best you could give us was two conversations with some random tiefling smith?
Give us an option to pursue those leads even if they end up being for nothing at lest I would know that my character tried. And if there is no happy ending where she is cured I would really like a scene with my character and romanced Karlach in Avernus instead of just a black screen.

(I already wrote a whole post about this but hey. https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=887465#Post887465)

I would really appreciate if companions that my character is romancing would not actively flirt with others. If the choice to give players options within a game are that important let them be so in a non contradictory/ out of character way.

So, Shar. What's happening with the whole Shar and Sharans are interested in the githyanki artifact? Did I miss something or did that whole plot point just fall apart?

Same with Shadowheart, I would really appreciate if the out of character scenes were changed. And was that burning in the sun scene really necessary? I understand the need for humor but there is a time and a place for that. (way to ruin a moment)

There is a whole character within the Durges story not being used because the writers decided to kill Alfira and the question is why? Because Alfira ended up being loved by many during the early acces and her death would be shocking?

Let Alfira have her story and bring back the Dragonborn bard. (Also put some pants on her, she shows up in her underwear alongside other bugs that follow this storyline)

The lack of githyanki involvement after the creche is rather disappointing. In all honesty I expected something along the lines of Neverwinter Nights 2 where you would be hunted down by some githyanki general but what we ended up getting was one ambush while exiting the shadowlands and Voss/Raphael deal

The whole thing just feels lackluster. For every evil choice you make you are punished by losing options/companions/quest ect. making evil playthroughs rather boring and not enjoyable. (the only alternative you do get is Minthara and her storyline/quest is broken)

And that ending 'hail me/absolute/Bhaal' black screen, really? That's it?

What would be nice addition to the ending is some kind of a reunion or celebration after killing the netherbrain, something similar like the DA:O post coronation room where you can talk to your companions/lovers.

I wish Emperor and Dream visitors are separated. For now, we have dream visitors as illusions and also some unexplained abominations during the final battle. They should be warriors (and you should be able to customize one for your character) enslaved and kidnapped by Emperor, you should be able to romance them and free them along with Orpheus.

The romance should be based ONLY on your relationship level and dialogue options, maybe some of your choices during the journey - that includes completing personal quests. It SHOULD NOT be based on the certain long rests and certain events which block any romance options if you missed them. You should be able to develop romance anytime during long rests.

It felt forced, like "the writers must think of some great sacrifice in this particular moment, although they didn't really built it". I lost my motivation to finish the game after this. Good that it was the final-final, because I didn't feel like playing anymore after this. As a person who doesn't like to make NPCs suffer, I felt forced to sacrifice my own character.

I'd love to have back his old background in the game (corrupted magistrate who was selling criminals to vampires until he tried to cheat Cazador and got turned into his spawn). It would make him less one-dimetional victim. As for stuff that are rather impossible anymore: I want his personality from early access back and his old version of realtionship with Cazador (personal slave, not just one of other spawns that are "family").

I want back his cut questline. The very idea of doing quests for him, getting more context about Astarion's situation and seeing how such situation would work with Astarion in the party at all.
Also, I would like them to make Cazador more diginified and clever. Right now he is more pathetic than terrifying.

The "Down the river" song that was refering to the Daisy situation, Raphael's offer to get rid of the tadpole, old, not-so-nice companions and so on.

Allow him to become a full-fledged vampire on his good path [it's illogical he doesn't, he has Cazador right there and can drink him to become stronger without ascending, just your regular vamp business as previously explained by him].

And then allow him to turn the PC as well for the fun of it (giving them an actual choice in the matter this time with neither yes or no breaking the relationship). It would be an entertaining scene, I'm sure, and I'd love to see it!

Allow me more evil-ish ending options.

Let me keep the Crown and decide what to do with the world - give the option of current ending with all the mindflayer stuff and becoming brainwashed Absolute repeating some bs about "all hail me", but also give some other ones, lively ones that fit different characters. Taking over Baldur's Gate, chasing immortality, getting rich af and living the good life, going to Avernus to mess with the devils, anything really that humanly and fun and corrupt, but in an entertaining way!

Let me give the Crown to Gale as we have agreed and see what he does with it!

You get rewarded for your efforts by literally having your allies gathered in a cramped room. You get to speak to them. That's it?

Why does the Emperor abandon everthing he fought for simply because Orpheus is liberated? It makes no sense after the trust relationship that was built throughout the game. Even if we were not the best of allies, the Emperor did the utmost to fight the Elder Brain up to that point. He saved us from the fall at the start of the game so that he could have allies against this threat. Not only this is the dumbest part of the game from a hero / indirect protagonist turned mind flayer that just dies uncerimoniously by your hands, but he would be the perfect foil to liberate his city, instead of forcing the player, or Karlach, or Orpheus, to become one at the very last moment.

This is a bad plot twist coming out of nowhere. Perhaps the player can decide to kill the Emperor AFTER he helps us destroy or control the brain. After all, he did kill his dragon friend and tricked us with the dream guardian. Otherwise, there is absolutely no "freedom" of choice here. Just a fixed game narrative forcing the player's hand, no matter what.

If there's one thing that can't wait one year for cut content to be restored is access to the upper city (and Avernus?) to, of course experience its content, but fundamentally to have Karlach fixed. Make it a DLC, I don't care. In a universe of true ressurrection scrolls, her bad ending only makes sense if the player chooses not to help her. Again, no choice here. Just narrative forcing the player's hand. In this case, to have her turned into a mind flayer instead of the player.

Here I was in Act 3 continuing to collect infernal armor thinking that I could give it to our favorite blacksmith, expert in infernal gear, to possibly continue to upgrade and/or have cool gear created for us, just like in act 2. I ended up realising I could no longer do that again. To this day, I wonder if I missed something here.

Although I had a great time with the other subplots I played out in my first full playthrough, I strongly wish that the Cazador storyline had a little more to it besides barging in on the guy abruptly and having a few different options to kill him as soon as you make eye contact. It felt like a rush to the finish line for Astarion's story after all the hyping up he did for two acts. The fact that the only resolution with Cazador is to kill him is probably what bothers me the most because of there being other points in the game where you can ally with your rivals, and I liked how some things unfolded very differently as a result.

It feels disappointing to not have that option in this particular scenario, when it would have been very interesting to see another unique outcome to the Astarion storyline if you were able to successfully hand over Astarion in exchange for a tense alliance with a more seasoned vampire who's supposed to have a lot of political power within the city. You'd lose Astarion as a follower, of course, but in exchange you get to hear more of Cazador's backstory and some combat scenarios might be made easier, avoided all together, or otherwise altered by having him as an ally.

Cazador did express concerns in a journal entry about how Gortash's influence might disrupt his operations, so it felt very strange that Cazador wouldn't recognize the player's party as the perfect new pawns to deal with this problem for him while he figures out exactly what new powers becoming the Vampire Ascendant grants him and what his new limits are.

It just seemed like a missed opportunity to do more with that story, and it was a little bit of a letdown that you could only pretend to betray Astarion to Cazador, when usually the game would let you intentionally betray your companions or other characters you meet along the way. It really added to the roleplay of playing out a backstabbing villainous character, so it feels odd to encounter situations where it's suddenly not treated like a valid narrative choice.

On the note of Gortash, I loved that the game let you ally with him, though I am very sad at how short lived it is. It would have been nice to get to do a little scheming around the city and, in the case of playing Dark Urge, catching up on old times before he gets Power Word Killed by the big brain. I also wouldn't mind having an Insight check that allows your character to take notice of when he's about to swipe the stones from you and stop him from doing so, to save him from getting himself killed by the Netherbrain, have him actually help in the finale, and see whatever fate awaited him in the end cutscene.

I would've liked to see Sceleritas around more in the Dark Urge origin, even if it was only as a summoned combat companion that occasionally makes entertainingly morbid quips. He was a fun character whenever he was on screen, so I'm dying for more of this guy.

Forced Illithid transformation choices. It is definitely a taste thing, but shouldn't we be given an option to prevent that this choices to be the ultimate ones? - I spent the entire game avoiding to become illithid, not taking the tree skill and all this for nothing?

At this moment, I think it's better to ask Gale to commit self delete because that's the only way the Gith having a concrete choices. I don't know if it's possible, we'll see.

Enough said was already, but just another small tweak that won't require much (re)-work: they needs to fix Wyll offering to take Karlach back to Avernus over the player. If the player doesn't offer Karlach to go to Avernus together THEN and ONLY THEN Wyll should interfere.
Some relationship-meter related checks can be added. Like, easy check if relationships are good or perfect, and no check at all if the player romanced Karlach. Failed check or choosing other option would result in Wyll's offering his hand.

I honestly cannot comprehend why it's not implemented like this right now. It pisses me off even more than her ending itself. Wyll, get back, nobody asked your opinion! I am not sure, but Wyll himself may not be the reason. I guess if he is not in the party, you cannot take Karlach to Avernus unless you've romanced her. Thus solving this problem just means connecting our options to relationships and dialogue choices, not to romance. Especially, even if I haven't romanced her, I had our relationships on max, she told me that she loves me (maybe as a friend) and adores me, surely she would rather go to Avernus with me and not with Wyll.