Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Halsin companion!

The exact size or geographical scale of a given Druid circle was left intentionally vague in the sourcebooks, but the sense was always that it covered a pretty vast area. In Faerun there are supposed to be many Circles each run by a Great Druid, 3 Archdruids, and 9 Druids in charge of presumably dozens if not hundreds of Initiates. But every Circle was supposed to be answerable to a single Grand Druid, and there is only one of those in the world at a time. Basically like Highlander, there can be only 1. Higher than level 15 Hierophants, meant that at some point that character actually was the Grand Druid, but was either defeated in a challenge or chose to move on and serve some even higher purpose. They're supposed to be among the most powerful characters in Faerun at that point. If Kagha is an Archdruid as well as Halsin, then they are both probably under levelled for their rank, though more recent editions of D&D play faster and looser with the whole concept. The sourcebooks were always just rough guides, and BG1/2 took plenty of liberties, but the hierarchy thing is pretty baked in so I'd expect them to give it a more developed treatment.

For the main class archetypes, Druid split off from Clerics pretty early. Like first we had Warriors and Wizards and Rogues, with the Priest class following hot on the heels. Each of those then split into like two or more branch archetypes in AD&D which were kind of the original class hybrids. Priests became Clerics and Druids, in much the same way that Rogues became Thieves and Bards. But of all the new classes, Druid probably had the most structured lore. To the point where just attaining higher levels meant occupying a certain station within the Druidic Order. To me it makes sense that a Druid would join the party and venture to Moonrise, since the mind flayer plague is clearly affecting the whole region, and not just these 4 PCs. The party just happens to be weirdly unaffected by the brain worm, whereas everyone else seems to be enthralled more fully by the worms, but Halsin as a Druid or Archdruid or whatever, should probably be trying to bring the party to his superiors to figure out what should be done with them. Not just sending them on their merry way through the Underdark.

Even if the party declines Halsin's initial invitation, I'd still expect him to be hunting after us regardless just to observe and keep tabs, which would explain him as a camp follower/healer. Though a more convenient and satisfying way to do it, would be to just have an option for him to actually join the party. I'd like to see Kagha doing the same actually, to me it just makes sense. That's what Druids in their positions would probably do. Let Nettie run the Grove and deal with the Tiefling problems, while they head off to deal with larger problems affecting the larger realm. Preparing to challenge and such, like proper Druids.

Perhaps Halsin and Kagha are each racing to reach the Great Druid of their circle along conflicting paths, to persuade the Great Druid to invoke "The Ban" on their rival? There are sound Druidic reasons that either might be banished from the circle, whether justly or unjustly, and that might provide another motivation for one of them to accompany or hunt the PCs after that point. Perhaps only the Grand Druid can lift the ban? But first the party has to find the Grand Druid. Easy plotline to dive into.

Also just since the idea came up earlier, I think a level drain or curse of the absolute plot conceit could well work for the entire party, and not just Halsin. Lae'zel should fire off a line about how the worm doesn't just transform the infected, but draws away their power. This is a good way, in-story, to give our characters a reason for starting the game at lvl1, when their backstories might imply that they were once more powerful. It has been suggested many times and seems easy enough to work into the amnesiac storyline we have going so far.

For a Shadow Archdruid, I think a look vaguely like this rough character sketch from Ulrich would be cool... Like all hooded and secretive, with a mask maybe instead of an armored helmet?



Or facing down a shadow totemic beast, like from that classic Brom illustration lol...



Halsin should have to throw down against some Villainous druids like that if he really wants the Arch status heheh.

Kagha has a good look right now for a Shadowdruid. I hope they don't mess with her look too much. She reads viper all day right now and looks pretty menacing even in the standard threads. I could see a set of armor with some darker leaves or something with more of a serpentor vibe for her battle duds though. Halsin could maybe get a battle suit as well, more themed on the bear. Druids might be advised not to dress so obviously, but clearly this game has everyone wearing their archetypes on their sleeves, as it were. So I could see some different gear-ups once they're looking to go on the road. I like that they gave us Kagha as a Shadowdruid counterpoint to Halsin. It'd be cool if the game kept them in competition in later acts somehow. Not that they need to make a standalone druid game out of all this. But there's a ton of material to mine just within the main druid cliches from the old handbook, if they wanted to lean into it as an aspect of the main flayer plotline.

I'd welcome the B-tier, and honestly Halsin and Kagha are like the A-team of the B-tier. It's not like people are clamoring for Nettie or Aaron to come along lol. I'll be annoyed if they saddle us with a halfling druid companion. Not opposed to shorty companions on general principle or anything, but it just seems like a lame showcase for a druid class archetype. A Halfling druid companion would feel too much like a 3rd Ed wow-factor thing for me, it's not new anymore, and not really the kind of callback I'm looking for here. Like I know halfling druids can exist, same as a half-orc druids or tiefling druids now I guess, but an elf druid feels less reaching, so why not just give us a pair of those instead? A classic druid questline dealing with the standard Hierachary of the Order and such would be nice here. Everything else is so over the top right from the getgo. Yanking some stuff straight out of the complete Druids handbook like comfort food goodberries would be kinda satisfying by comparison. At least for me.

If they really want to do something new with Druids, other than Halfling druids hehe, I still think the idea of Drow druids has some potential. Perhaps we could get a lense on that world coming from one of these druidic surface elves? Play up some tensions there, or old animosities, if they decide to go that route and actually develop something that fits for Druids from the Underdark. What does an Underdark Circle look like? That would actually be pretty novel.

5th Ed throws a lot of things at us as new char possibilities, but its up to the modules to show us what they actually look like in a fully realized game world. Some things are easier to picture than others. A Drow druid is hard to picture right now, as anything other than a 1-off type thing (like Drizzt for a Ranger was in 2nd ed), but perhaps with some more world building and an iconic character or villain or two, they could move the ball somewhere with that idea. Provide some scaffolding for those character concepts so that they actually make sense in-universe for Faerun.