Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Karlach

I really need this bug fixed on my PlayStation 5 digital copy where Karlach's Romancing will not activate in act one no matter what I do it's been like this for a whole week ever since the last patch dropped before that all I had to do was upgrade her engine then not kill the owl bear but now you can get her to the highest approval rating possible in act 1 and it still won't activate meanwhile everybody else is ready to romance as soon as their approval rating hits medium. This is very frustrating and completely ruining the gameplay for me. Please fix at your earliest convenience so I can go back to enjoying this wonderful game of yours until then I'm taking a break I just can't enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 right now.

This was reported by a couple of people on the technical problems forum, and I also never had Karlach’s first romance scene trigger on my current playthrough, even though there were many opportunities. So this seems to be a real bug. And my goodness, is it a bad one. You may be waiting a while for a fix, as the last few hotfixes haven’t seemed to do too much.

The folks who reported it on the technical problems forum chose to spend the night with her at the tiefling party, but the scene didn’t trigger even then.

You may want to consider submitting an official bug report to Larian, so that they are aware.

Karlach's romance has been buggy since release. In my Gale playthrough after her first romance scene (in shadowlands) didn't trigger, the romance continued but her act three scene didn't trigger either. In my dark urge run her approval was stuck on neutral.

I've submitted at least eight of those I've also tried submitting the problem on other forms. Good to know I'm not the only one having this problem. Not finishing the game until it gets fixed

I had one playthrough as a Tiefling Druid the very first time I bought the game in her romance activated without a hitch after I spared the owlbear she didn't start glitching out until after this patch that added new kissing cutscenes ironically.

If they fix the bug will Karlach trigger after the tieflings? Did she in the past

In my current PT I went for the Karlagh romance and in Act 1, I could tell her how much I wanted to do "naughty" things with her if her condition would ever allow it. And she loved this also. Her approval rating is at max.

Then when we get to the inn in act 2 and have her heart fixed up, she says she can't wait for physical contact and that she will visit me this night.... but of course she never comes.
After that "heart-fix" the sweet dialogue options with her have disappeared .

Then some camps later, La'zel comes to me and wants to fight and then make love. If I consent, and talk to Karlagh the next morning she gets all jealous and tells me I shouldn't use her as a playtoy.
If I turn Lae'zel away that night and go talk to Karlagh next morning there's nothing, once again. I can only tell her to stay in camp.

Very annoying to have the build up in act 1 and then when there is the "liberation", nothing anymore.

Did another cutscene trigger in the place of the one where you were supposed to get Karlach’s initially? Sometimes a scene with Wyll will trigger instead…

That's what happened to me my first playthrough Will's dancing romance scene would always appear first then Karlach's scene would happen the next night I took a long rest

Yes, on the rest after Karlach promised to see me, the cutscene with Mizora demanding the rescue of Zariël's asset triggered.

Is Karlach fixed now?

It should trigger as soon as get her approval rating from neutral to medium or high like everyone else

Sadly no so it's back to street fighters six and Nickelodeon smash until the next patch up date

Happened to me on my Xbox X game the first scene didn't trigger at all,
after 2nd upgrade still nothing 100 % friend zoned now guess I will continue with Shadowheart though I have some way to go until we become a couple in act 2 not done the gauntlet yet though.

Well the new patch dropped but the Karlach bug still persists so it's back to street fighter 6 and Nickelodeon smash until the next patch notes drop. Hopefully the next patch will be the lucky one that gets me back into this game.

Well now the romance suddenly triggered.

So we had
-> Have Dammon repair her heart, she 's so happy and says she'll come to me that night. Next camp rest, Mizora cutscene happens, no Karlagh coming over.
-> After this camp the option to tell her what I'd like to do with her disappears from conversations.
-> next camp : nothing
-> one or more camps later : Lae'zel wants to fight me and then make love.
----> If I consent, Karlagh gets jealous and tells me I treat her as a toy.
----> Id I don't consent, no change.
(I continued the game not consenting and effectively breaking the romance path with Lae'zel)
-> More camps follow with no change. I didn't count them
-> Then "boom" out of nowhere, she has the exclamation mark when we enter camp. Says she'll come to me that night and she does.
-> Now we have a "kiss" line in conversation.


I have absolutely no idea what triggered the romance. It was a camp like any other and nothing special happened during game play earlier. Before and after the trigger, approval rate was max.

This is an old bug with Karlach's act two scene getting overwritten by another scene instead of queued. This is what happened in one of my playthroughs, but the outcome was that neither act two nor act three romance scenes triggered, even though in all the dialogues the romance was ongoing.

So it sounds like they half-fixed it, where it is still buggy, but at least the scene happens.

Every single patch noteEvery single patch note notice gives me depression now. I'm giving up hope that larion Studios will ever get their characters to work properly in this game

Just a little thing regarding a possible Karlach's romance blocker in Act 1: Laezel
(patch 6 hotfix 9, or "Hotfix #25")

Apologies if this is widely known, but i actually found information suggesting the opposite of what i found to be true.
So, i want to post this to make sure it is somewhere to be found, in case anybody would have same problem.

If you have a thing going on with Laezel while trying to woo Karlach (before or during the Tiefling Party in your camp), Karlach will brush you off saying something like:
"Aah, come on. Why spoil a good thing! You point, i Rage..."
This was after visiting Damon and doing the first repair on Karlach, and choosing some flirty lines with her there.

I had to load an earlier save and end the fling with Laezel first (i did so before going to the camp for the celebration).
After that Karlach was finally ok with my advances, and her reply changed to something along the lines that she likes me a lot too (and later stopped by my bunk to have a chat as it should be).

Seems like if you have a thing with Astarion, she doesn't mind, but my thing with Laezel was somehow a problem.
I saw some posts basically saying that Karlach doesn't mind "sharing" in general during Act 1, but clearly that is not true (or there are other things that influence it).