Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Baldur's Gate 3 - NEW TRAILER - GAME AWARDS!

Do we?
And i mean it, since as far as i know (and maybe i missed something) people just expressed their desire for him as a companion, dont really know about any assumation that this is happening.

Wich can be read in multiple ways ...

For example as that they were not originally planned as companions ... BUT Larian can still see the desire of comunity, look at story of that companion, figure if there is anything in the way ... and if not, fullfill that desire. :P
OR
It can just as easily mean that Larian allready did all abowe, just hide it well enough to make it suprise for final release, since Swen himself repeately said that there will be lots of them.

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I dont think this is true ...

Implementing class? > Done, its playable class.
Implementing model? > Done, that character allready exists.
Recording voice lines? > Yes, this one will be needed ... BUT! (and this is important) The actor A, who would voice character A, would most likely cost simmilar (if not the same) amount of money as Actor B, who would voice character B.

So there is no additional value, this is at best argument for "not having many companions" ... but once you decide that something will be a companion, it dont really matter what class or race they take.

After all, many people are also speculating about Minthara ... a Cleric ... but we have Shadowheart.
One of Minthara lackeys is a Half-Orc ... they are typicaly Fighters, Barbarians, or Rangers .... but we have Lae'zel, Karlach and Minsc.

Why not both?

I mean, its fair to want some diversity ... and im 100% on board on this, i would absolutely want to see at least one companion per class ...
Ideally for both good and evil party ...
Even if (in worse case scenario) they would be just storyless mercenaries ... bcs i really dont want to be cut out of Warlock just bcs he is ... whatever Wyll is supposed to be, i doubt i would manage to express that politely ...

But why should that come of cost for some beloved and desired characters?
If Larian put us before question: Would you rather have Halsin as a companion, or should we invest that amount of money into some class that you would miss otherwise?
Then comunity would vote 50/50, and all that this shows is this question itself is bad ... no matter what you pick, you piss off half of your fans, so you REALLY should rip some million for your own greedy mouth and invest it here. :P

Well right now we dont really know how many companions BG3 will have do we.

We were promised in the past that more are coming ...
But it seems they are stuck in the traffic, or something.

I believe that confrimation of non-origin companions is great news tho, and it itself opens HUUUUUUGE amount of options for NPCs who can go with us, even if just as a storyless mercenaries ... i for one keep suggesting Aradin and his group, Nettie, some of those armed Tieflings, Alfira and lots and lots more.

Yes, most of them would be classes we allready have ... personaly, i can live with that, even welcome that to be perfectly honest.

See this is dark side of Diversity ...
You are actually more restricted ... or at least i certainly feel that way.

My Tav is a Wizard ... i want to have healer in my group, tank and some utility guy ...
Therefore i go with Shadowheart, Lae'zel and Astarion ...
But my Tav is a Good guy (girl actualy, but nevermind) ... so my party essentialy hates me and i hate them.
But my options to pick someone else are Wizard and Warlock ... not really tank, nor healer, nor utility guy ...
So basicaly im stuck with theese.

So ... having option to recruit another Fighter (Aradin for example, even tho he also seems like an ass) would mean that i can finaly get rid of Lae'zel ... and that would be good, great even!
Same goes for others.

And just before someone (again) comes to adress this ... yes im aware that in this game "you dont need to have fill all roles, and some companions as Shadowheart can fullfill ... well basicaly all 3 of them" ... thats why i said i want to ... mmkay?

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When DnD movie trailer come up ... there was lots of such discusions in Reddit ...
I loved how everyone eventualy come to conclusion that "its totally fine if your DM allows it, wich they totally should, bcs its almost exactly the same animal as Cave Bear statwise, just lot more cool."

So ... i gues our DM "just allowed it". :P

We discussed this a little bit in the thread about the film trailer. For the film specifically they were trying to cram in as many signature monsters as possible, and monstrous shape is something Druids could do in older editions. Still holding out that it'll be something added back to high-level Druids in the future, but moon Druids are already overtuned, so it would need some thought behind it other than just "owlbear cool".

Comeon Rag. Do you really think that all resources companions take is: class, model, and recorded voicelines, that somehow written and implemented themselves. Unless you suggest that Minsc/Jaheira won't be companions per say, but sidekicks like in PoE2 - so characters with no content past initial recruitment. That would make more "companions" more viable, but we have seen no evidence for that.

Yes, we don't know definite amount of companions but what we know:

Companions in EA:
1) Shadowheart - Priest
2) Wyll - Warlock
3) Gale - Wizard
4) Lae'Zel - Fighter
5) Astarion - Rogue

Datamined:
6) Karlah - paladin/barbarian?
7) Helia - bard?
8) Minsc - ranger?

And now confirmed, assuming that translation is correct (I am still sceptical, for a variety of reasons)
8) Minsc again - ranger?
9) Jaheira (also datamined BTW, but with no connection to being a companion) - druid?

So that's 9. Hoping they will go all the way to 12 and cover all classes would be stretching it, based on the info we DO have. In my view anything beyond that can be chucked into the same well of wishes, as day and night cicle or real time combat.

Listen the more the merries, just as I would welcome more races and classes. Just saying that with Jaheira's announcement, Helsin is unlikely due to predicted low number of companions, and the overlap between the two. It is not a fact, but I find the odds worth betting at. And my motto is: better to expect less and be positively surprised, then expect more then was announced, and be disappointed later on.

And if Larian were to add more companions to make up for ones we might loose, adding those to evil path seems more important - many of existing companions and Jaheira and Minsc are unlikely to support us joinging the Absolute, so if extra spares are crafted they should fill this path, rather then piling more into the good guys camp.

It just adds insult to injury that they show atmospheric night scenes in trailers when the game does not even have night time.

When you actually go inspect that scene it'll always be a bright sunny day.

Lame.

Eh, there seems to be new ship crash that has nice night sky in the background - it just might be new opening cinematic.

Other then that, dark short seem to be from underdark or new areas (potentially the fog region and moonlight tower we didn't get to yet?) that could have darker vibe then the opening region.

Maybe they will discuss nonorigin companions at the PFH next week!!! It would be great to have it officially confirmed as well as find out more details!🐻🐻🐻🎄

I agree with this list and I am going to say that I do think we will end up with twelve companions IF Larian adds non-origin companions. If they stick to just origin ones - I doubt we get twelve. I am thinking seven or eight... the ones we have seen/obviously been datamined and then maybe one more added on top (Helia coming back).

Also, I think saying that class + model + voice = companion. I think a ton more goes into it than that. The need to design quests around said character, give them purpose in the story, have every companion be able to interact/banter with them, give them a purpose in camp, potentially write a romance for them, consider potential branching paths that they open up, etc.

Then on top of that you have to make them interesting because if some companions become insanely important and have massive narratives, then the ones who do not have huge narratives/importance will be complained about - this happened with D:OS2, so it is a thing.

Yes exactly, but the problem for me with BG3 is that it does NOT do any of those old school cRPG things. I get no roleplaying, no immersion, no replayability, no meaningful character development, and no enjoyable and memorable party companions. The game is pretty much a fancy movie where the player is just along for the ride, interspersed with gimmicky and tedious combat. That's BG3 in a nutshell as I see it.

Just as with movies and TV shows (and even sports) these days, sadly so too with video games it seems, the old way where something was super popular precisely because it was of high quality doesn't seem to hold anymore. Popularity of an entertainment medium now correlates with the lowest commonn denominator, which then translates to mediocre quality. This is why I nowadays tend to avoid "popular" movies and TV shows, because I know that precisely because they're popular they're sure to be crap. Perhaps that is how I should start looking at video games too, that the more popular they are the more crappy they will be.

Yup. Beast's story was sadly lackluster compared to all the rest.

All companions in DOS2 felt amazing and had these awesome impactful stories with a ton of backstories. Then there was Beast who was a pretty cool character, but unfortunately his story felt more like a minor side-quest than a companion story. Very little difference between having him with you or not.

Halsin has most of that already: He has a quest (shadow curse) and was investigating the tadpoles, is already in camp, and possibly has a romance (based on a tweet his voice actor made and then deleted). That would leave only banter, barks, and other interactions from your list.

I don't know what to tell you about this other than it has nothing to do with the game being 'old school' or not. It sounds like you just hate Baldur's Gate 3.

If I thought about this game the way you did and sat around on a forum talking about it all day - that would cause me to do some self reflection. There are a lot better things to do than sit around writing about a video game (of all things) that you just legitimately do not enjoy.

No need to personally attack someone. If you don't like their posting, feel free to ignore it. Making commentary on their personal life isn't helpful, and it's unkind.

I agree with Lake Plisko. What is the point of even going to a forum dedicated to something if you hate everything about it? It is like purposefully going to an art convention just to stop at each painting to say out loud it sucks. Life is short, there is better use of your time.

I... didn't personally attack anyone?

I said it seems like he hates the game - which it seems like he does.
Then I gave him some advice afterward - which is that if you hate something then why sit around and post about it?

I'm not trying to be a jerk. It is just an honest assessment. If I bought a game (specifically an RPG) and thought:

I get no roleplaying, no immersion, no replayability, no meaningful character development, and no enjoyable and memorable party companions.

And that the combat was:

interspersed with gimmicky and tedious

Then I wouldn't waste my time sitting around and discussing it. I'm not sure why you think that is mean?

Hmm, what could possibly be the reason for criticizing a game that is in early access in the forums for that early access? That's a real puzzle.

I guess you guys are trying to argue that feedback is hopeless?

It is hard to respect someone continuously shitting on anything you like in such an edgy and cynical manner. Especially someone who separates himself/herself from the majority by calling their excitement threshold a "lowest common denominator". So adult-like, so edgy, so cynical. Can't be excited for anything except for straight up miracles. Seen everything, not impressed. Meh.

Well, no one is saying that. I have been critical of the game multiple times.

There is a difference between feedback/criticism and just saying everything about the game sucks. If you think literally everything about the game is terrible, even in early access, then odds are you just do not like the game.

Nope ...
What i say is that when you are creating a companion ... it dont really matter from perspective of amount of resources if that companion will be named Halsin and will be a Druid ... or Helia and will be a Bard ... or Jimmy and will be a Sorcerer.

Therefore argument about resources works only if you are deciding "another companion Y/N" ...
Once you pick yes.
You spend exactly the same amount of resources to anyone ...
Well actualy, allready existing characters (in this game) are bit cheaper, than completely new one, since you allready have *some* of those asets you will need prepared ... examples used abowe were: some voicelines, model, and story ... you dont need to spend another resources to create model of Halsin, you have one allready.

Im sory, but anything beyond companions we allready have is just pure speculation ...

Yes i know Karlach, Helya and Minsc were datamined in the past ...
But as dataminers themselves keep pointing out (and people keep forgeting or ignoring) datamining stuff is as far from any confrimation as any speculation between players!

After all, based on that datamining Minsc was speculated to be Origin companion ... now we "know" (presumng that translation is corect) that he wouldnt be one.
Based on that datamining Karlach is supposed to be a Paladin ... and yet, her Magic card clearly states Barbarian.
Based on that datamining Helya dissapeared completely, and in some original builds Halsin were supposed to be her!

Things in the files may change, they may have allready changed by the time you see this...

Its what you believe? That is totally fine ...
But dont tell me its something we "know" ... bcs that is simply not true.

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I certainly hope so ...

For that and many more, since i heared in another youtube video that another part of that german interview (that is still didnt even seen), Swen also confrimmed that some groups of the team are reporting "work done" and will from now on focusing solely on polishing and fixing, until the final release.
It would certainly interest me wich part of the game are set in stone, since we are here and geting close to 1,0.

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Then its good thing that nobody said that, right?

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not... but that is literally what you said my dude. Two people interpreted it that way.

I do!
At this point ... it is hopeless in my opinion.

We said all that can be said, during last two years ... some things stick with Larian, some didnt ... sometimes Larian learned their lessons (like area effects with cantrips), sometimes they didnt (like area effects with cantrips if our character stands in some enviroment that cantrip can interact with ... or just chromatic orb).

But this far in development, i truly, honestly, and with all possible repect ... i DO believe that feedback is meaningless from now on.

From now on, we just keep speculating about topics, bcs we like to talk about them ...
Maybe someone in Larian still read them i dont know that ...
But nothing in the world, not even Swen himself with nat 20, +5 from Charisma, profficiency and expertise ... would persuate me that any amount of feedback can change anything in this game dramaticaly.
We are too far for that.

Dont get me wrong tho, that dont mean that another Patch with some "major changes" cant come!
It certainly can!
But IF (and that alone is huge if) something like that will indeed happen ... decision to start working on that feature happened like half year ago, maybe even earlier.

//Edit:
Not even slight sarcasm included, i asure you.

And they were both wrong. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯