Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Companions

Do we know how many companions will be added at full release? i heard a rumor that there are not as many as in BG 1 or BG2? Is this correct?

I wonder if there will be companions without tadpoles, or if it will restricts us mostly to tadpoles bearers.

I'm 100% sure there won't be as much as in the earlier games even if it wasn't confirmed because it would be crazy to do so since each companion in bg3 requires much more work than a companion in the earlier games. as for how much we will get, I assume the total will be something like between 8 to 10, no more and no less.

We do no not know what the final total will be so we can only speculate.

If i was to be honest, I seriously hope for 12-13 Origin Companions (One for each class, 13 being if Artificer becomes a thing for this game)
And then a multitude of less sophisticated non-origin companions.

My ideal is impossible as I genuinely want a non-origin companion for every subclass, meaning if only PHB classes/subclasses then it'd be 40 non-origin companions. And if there was one for every officially released subclass then there'd be 113 to 118 non origin companions.

I'm expecting a companion for each class, which is still less than the number of companions in prior games.

I'm expecting the injured tiefling who escaped Zariel and the cultists accuse of being a devil in disguise as being the paladin companion. (or maybe ranger, we don't seem to have one of those yet)
I'm hoping Alfira is the bard companion.

I believe Halsin is the druid one already...

At this point I'm expecting 0-2 more Origin Companions, and 3-5 non-origin companions. Hopefully, in the terrible case where Larian does decide to kill off origin companions that aren't in our party, we'll still be able to have >3 companions through these non-origin ones.

Karlach=paladin, Halsin=druid, Alfira=bard, Minsc=ranger. All seemingly non-origin companions, although Karlach does have
We'd need: barbarian, monk, and sorcerer. I highly doubt there will be an artificer companion.

You all talking about Halsin ... you seem to forget about Helia. O_o
Wich, based on datamining should even be Origin character ...

Also i would not expect classes to be good base to determine any numbers, since Larian specificly told us that this game will contain mercenaries ... so any "missing" companion class, can be easily recruited there. :-/

It would be nice tho, to have all classes for Origin characters, that is true. :-/

I genuinely dislike the mercenaries mechanic, I'd rather the slots be filled by unique non origin companions.

Or fellow RL friends... a friend of mine and myself are hoping to play as a Bard and Paladin set.

I hope he is!!!

I'd hope that we don't meet all potential companions in Act 1; if the other current NPCs such as Alfira, Halsin, etc. are potential companions then in a sense it creates a bit of a 'claustrophobic' feel by meeting them all so early on and in such close proximity to one another. A bit of distance and some surprises in terms of companions wouldn't go amiss in my opinion. I don't want to meet potential companions every time I turn around.

I'd also like to see some non-Origins companions (can't stand the mechanic personally).

I do have to admit I'm likely never going to play one of the origin characters. It's one of the reasons I don't play many JRPGs. I don't really play an RPG to play somebody else's character.

I kinda want to update my opinion, the mechanic for mercs is "fine" (gritted my teeth writing that lol) but genuinely isn't for me. For others they do fulfill needed roles or even gives a chance to make a custom character for a friend, so I'd want it still in the game for others. But me, I am not recruiting companions purely to fill slots in my team, I'm doing so because I like "collecting" and playing with different characters that have their own thing going.
So even if they are super super shallow, that small bit of personality works for me a lot better than a generic player created Merc, that small bit skyrockets them for miles in comparison. I don't exactly want Mercs gone, but I don't want them to be even close to replacing proper companions.
I want companions to be throughout this game like past titles. Unique characters we can hire or recruit, who go to our home base and lend their skills to our cause. I'd like to hire Lump who'd come in as a already assigned Eldritch Knight with a horn to summon an ogre once a long rest (and there only being two so if they die they dead). Alfira to be a bard livening up the camp with her music. Flind's appetite satiated enough to keep the gnoll obedient, terrible for our enemies' lives and allies' stomachs. Abdirak being convinced or paid even more to join our merry band, ready to give and heal wounds as a life cleric, while never skipping out on the glorious pain. And so on, characters who joined us, not close to complexity of origin characters, but still unique, standing out and providing a different flavor to the game compared to before. Perhaps monstrous companions having such a tag so NPCs immediately disapprove and fear them, the rest operating under generic tags or perhaps even lacking the ability to initiate dialogue like an origin character to reduce complexity.
And compared to the potential enjoyment I'll derive from that, characters instead of blank slates, Mercenaries only feel like a pale substitute trying to take the place of a much better mechanic.

I am convinced we will get 0-3 more origin companions and zero additional other types of companions. I am pretty sure of this, though I truly hope I end up being wrong.

I believe it has already been stated somewhere that at the very minimum, we will have access to "mercenary" type characters and that it is likely NPC's might join up for specific quests - though how much control you would have over them is open to debate.

If memory is not serving me well today, I blame it on the anesthesia and pain meds - was just released from the Hospital after surgery and my brain is currently being devoured.

I used mercenaries maybe once in Pillars when I realized none of the companions I was getting were particularly well-suited to trapfinding (my fault...but I kept expecting to see a rogue)

Hope, you are well. Keep safe.

About companions. I think Helia is a bard, which sadly makes it unlike, that Alfira might join. I can imagine Abdirak as a companion, just convince him, that he will have the opportunity to spread the teaching of his goddess. Halsin is already in our camp, it should be easy to make him a full fledged companion. Karlach as the paladin companion and (sadly) Minsc are seemingly a given. Hopefully we will get another spellcaster, maybe a sorcerer/ess, a barbarian and maybe a monk.
I personally hope for more companions, but it doesn't seem too likely.

After thinking about it some more it's really hard for me to understand where all these predictions are coming from. When I look at Bg3 it seems like it follows the exact same design philosophy Larian used in DOS2 when it comes to companions and NPCs.

You have a list of companions you can recruit very early on, because they are all also origin characters which means Larian's writers are very limited in constructing the circumstances of their recruitment. They can't give you someone like Jolee, a companion you can only recruit at a remote location mid to late game because all the companions should also be able to be the MC.

As for Halsin and Volo - they also seem to follow the Malady troupe of giving you some support NPCs that will follow you around but mostly will be on your base (in dos2 case the ship).

You can be extremely optimistic if you wish, but know that right now this optimism has no reall indication of being possible, unless Larian will decide to completely change their plans, which is possible but I'm not sure it is the best choice anymore

Maybe it's just that - optimism. I'm not familiar with the Divinity, games, so this is my very first experience with Larian. I just took my experience with other games into calculation, but I don't know, what will happen companion wise.

Nothing wrong with optimism of course