Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Hopes for further party members

I too would not be satisfied if we only get the Companions that are currently confirmed or presumed.

Personally :

• I'd be disappointed if we don't get at least 12 to 16 companions. In part, I'd want this number range just variety of character personalities and backstories, and replayability.
  
  Basically, more Companions means more narrative content, and I like narrative content.
  
  BG2 had 17 Companions. I seem to vaguely remember (maybe from Panel From Hell 1, or some similar pre-Early Access communication) Larian saying that, compared to BG2, BG3 would have fewer Companions but each would be more developed. I never bought into this argument, as it kind of implies that Larian has the same budget as Bioware. But I think that Larian has several times the budget Bioware had, even before the opening of EA, which brought in a lot more money.
  
  I remember Swen saying in some interview that, at some point, they decided to upscale the studio rather than downscale the plans they had for the project. That was a few months after the start of Early Access. So I hope that they decided, among other things, to review their initially-low number of Companions and to add a good few of new ones.
  
  
• I'd like to have full Class diversity : at least one Companion per Class in the game.
  
  If we assume only the 12 PHB Classes (i.e., no Artificer from Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything), that means at least 12 Companions.
  
  This is because I think there shouldn't be an orphan or left-unattended Class. And it shouldn't be the case that if you want to play with such a non-represented Class, you have to make it your PC's Class.
  
  For instance, I might want to play with a Monk, but not necessarily as a Monk. This could be because the few PC+Backstories that I came up with are all spell-casters, and I can't come up with a character that could fit as a Monk.
  
  Also, if there are at least 2 Classes not represented among the Companions, creating a PC from one of those non-represented Classes might not solve the problem. (For instance, if I want to feature a Monk+Paladin+Bard combo in my party, and neither is represented by a Companion, well, I'm stuck.) (Note : no, I don't want to create 2 or 3 PC in the same playthrough.)
  
  
• I'd like to see more Race diversity among the Companions.
  
  So far, out of the confirmed 5 (Gale, Wyll, Shadowheart, Astarion, Lae'zel), and most-presumed 3 (Karlach, Minsc, Jaheira), we have : 3 Humans, 1 Elf, 2 Half-Elves ; as well as 1 Githyanki and 1 Tiefling to bring a bit of change. Not a single short Race —Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome— or (Half-)Orc. That would call for at least 4 more Companions.
  
  
• I'd like for there to be enough Companions so that, for each main Story-Path(*) that I chooses to pursue, there are enough path-compatible Companions(**) that I still have some interesting choices for party-composition.
  
  This presumes : (a) sufficiently many Companions compatible with my path, and (b) that those compatible companions can cover the main party-roles.
  
  So long as I seek to assemble a reasonably-balanced party (say, a front-liner in combat, a spell-caster in combat, a Face for conversations, a dexterous one with Sleight of Hands for exploration, etc), I should be able to freely choose my Main Story-Path and my PC's Class.
  
  For instance, if I choose to master to tadpole and embrace its powers, rather than seeking to get rid of it, then :
  • If only 3 Companions agree to stick with me, then I obviously don't have any choice about who will be in my adventuring party. Not cool.
  • If 5 Companions agree to stick with me, then great, I can choose my party. But if they are all squishy and ranged back-liners in combat, that means that I have to either create a front-liner PC, or be shoe-horned to playing with a full-ranged party. Not cool.

For context,
(*) I tend to think there will be basically 2 main Story-Path. Well, maybe 3, but least those 2.

• Seeking to get rid of the tadpole. That will likely involve foiling the nefarious plans engineered by the Absolute.
• Seeking to conquer the tadpole and its powers. That may or may not involve reaping for ourselves the benefits of the nefarious plans engineered by the Absolute. (I wouldn't be surprised if ascending to godhood is a possible ending.)

(**) I don't expect all companions to be ok with every Story Path.

• Lae'zel seems to be the kind who will want to get rid of the tadpole. I can see her evolve on a number of points (e.g. faith in Vlaakith, disdain for Toril folks, etc), but I don't see her accepting to have a Illithid abomination in her body.
• Astarion is clearly more interested in master the tadpole. I'd be disappointed if he can be convinced to quest for tadpole removal.

In fact, I'd be disappointed if every Companion can be convinced to follow us on every Story Path. Rather, I feel that, for each Path, there should be at the very least one Companion that refuses to follow us.


And to be clear : I don't consider that a hollow, personality-less, malleable/editable/make-your-own Mercenary will do the job. Larian has been very silent about what exactly they had in mind when they mentioned a Mercenary system, so it's up to everybody to guess how those would work. But I don't think they can make Mercenaries something I'd remotely want to use. So I want Companions, not some create-an-extra-character-on-the-fly Mercenaries.