Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Opinions on amount of companions

You guys found the companions of other games better? I mean, could you stand Viconia or Jaheira, or Aerie? Keldorn or Anomen? Edwin, besides comic relief? If your only experience with them was in a starting portion of the game, i would probably have ditched them altogether, but during the game, their characters blossom, and you can actually bond with quite a few of them. Don't get me started on the EE new characters, who were beyond horrible.

Also, evil characters would leave if you did good deeds and reached 18+ reputation, and the opposite for good characters. So it's not new to Baldur's Gate to have NPCs being against something. Keldorn could even try to kill Viconia if you didn't intervene, and there were other occasions where characters would not get along. You could also reach high reputation pretty early, if you were a good character and went after it.

We also have no idea how the EA area will be implemented in the official release of the game, so i don't really get why people are so concerned about the NPCs. Let's see how they are after we actually play with them, when they are fully fleshed out. Some people are already convinced that the writing is bad. They seem to forget how the writing was in other popular games.

P.S. I think to this day, the most annoying character i have ever met in a game has to be Morrigan.

P.S. Dragon Age Origins. To unlock the reaver specialization, you had to desecrate the ashes of Andraste. If Wynne was with you, she would turn and attack you. If you did it while she wasn't there, she didn't even care.

I am sorry but not only i disagree, but criticism and insults, even veiled ones, do not go together.

Now let's take a look at the actual argument.

A Sharran priestess. Do you know till the end of the story, who is the character named Shadowheart? Should i spoil it for you through datamining? You are assuming way too much. Let me remind you she has her memory wiped. I hope i gave you a hint.

A pact with a devil can come directly from your family having made the pact before you were even born, and even a non-evil char can make a pact if they are close to death and it's the only way out. Your imagination is the ceiling. Besides, regardless of the charade Wyll does as the Blade, you have to really get to know him to understand his motivations. So how can you dismiss it, even from EA?

A werewolf that probably doesn't even exist in the game, or we have no idea if they were scrapped, but it's somehow pathetic. And, again, we have no idea even how this hypothetical character would be written.

I agree about Morrigan - horrible character, but great voice actress with the talented Claudia Black. Anomen was even worse, he might be my most disliked companion ever ( yes, even worse than Astarion).
Not hardened Leliana will attack you too, since f you desecrate the ashes btw.

No, you are completely missing the point. The specifics of these characters are not the point. The point is that Larian is taking the very cliched approach of "a character who should be evil is secretly not" and repeating that same trope again and again with character after character. That's my point. That is lazy writing.

Edit: Also, there was nothing "insulting" in my previous post. Was it harsh? Yes, absolutely, and I stand by my harsh critique of the quality of Larian's writing, especially with respect to their companion characters. But insulting it was not.

I think the point of Krom's post is that a lot of characters are cliché or off-putting at first blush, but become more realized people given enough time.

I think the point of Krom's post is that a lot of characters are cliché or off-putting at first blush, but become more realized people given enough time.

But if all the characters are the same basic story (comes across as evil at first, but turns out to be something else later on), then how is that in any way meaningful?

Seems to me that Larian has, from a writing standpoint, created effectively just one basic character, and then slapped on different outer shells on that one basic character to generate multiple characters. That is my point.

I don't think they have necessarily. We have the Sharran priestess that fits the mold. But Wyll is never presented as evil. He's presented as a somewhat naive man who made a deal with a devil in a moment of emotional weakness that he regrets and wants out of. You could say that that's a cliche arhcetype, but it's certainly a different cliche. We don't know anything about the werewolf yet so we can't judge her story on any level really. Lae'zel is evil and honestly, she's just evil in a very plain, open way. Same goes for Astarion. He's got a sympathetic backstory, but he's clearly cruel and sadistic now, whatever he was like before it all.

Sure. And I agree with all of your characterizations here. I guess the difference between us is whereas you see these differences among the characters as significant/meaningful, I don't see *enough* differences here that separates the base characters from each other in a significant/meaningful way. Reduce them to their base nature and they're pretty much the same (to me). To be quite honest, I feel that ultimately (and perhaps ironically) Lae'zel is the only one among the first five who is a well-written unique character.

But I will add this one thing aimed at you: I appreciate very much your attempt to at least try to honestly understand my point and sincerely try to engage in a discussion with me on it.

There is one thing that actually really bothers me, though. Towards the start of the EA, it was said that Larian was only providing the evil companions at first to get feedback on them, basically making an assumption that they were going to be less popular options upon release.

The weird part is, Fane was actually written by a guest writer. Sometimes I wonder how the plot would have gone if he wasn't there to contextualize it.

There is one thing that actually really bothers me, though. Towards the start of the EA, it was said that Larian was only providing the evil companions at first to get feedback on them, basically making an assumption that they were going to be less popular options upon release. Gale was mentioned to be a last minute addition meaning he wasn't considered one of that group for a time, though I assume this is also mostly because not having a wizard party member in a DnD game (no, Wyll isn't a good enough substitute for the arcane caster role) would have been VERY awkward.

But now it's known that we're only getting 2-3 more party members, and one might have been scrapped. So as far as 'good' companions go, there's only Karlach and Minsc, since Helia might have gotten the axe. The whole thing about evil companions being tested first seems very dishonest when it looks like what actually happened was that the 'evil' companions were just the ones that were written and finished first.

But I think it would really help if the final number of possible companions would be announced in the next PFH, since many players seem to be worried about this.

The weird part is, Fane was actually written by a guest writer. Sometimes I wonder how the plot would have gone if he wasn't there to contextualize it.

There is one thing that actually really bothers me, though. Towards the start of the EA, it was said that Larian was only providing the evil companions at first to get feedback on them, basically making an assumption that they were going to be less popular options upon release. Gale was mentioned to be a last minute addition meaning he wasn't considered one of that group for a time, though I assume this is also mostly because not having a wizard party member in a DnD game (no, Wyll isn't a good enough substitute for the arcane caster role) would have been VERY awkward.

But now it's known that we're only getting 2-3 more party members, and one might have been scrapped. So as far as 'good' companions go, there's only Karlach and Minsc, since Helia might have gotten the axe. The whole thing about evil companions being tested first seems very dishonest when it looks like what actually happened was that the 'evil' companions were just the ones that were written and finished first.

That would be great! I don’t think it likely Helia was cut (although you never know!) but am curious if any new Origin companions were added that haven’t been datamined and also if they added any non-Origin companions!