Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Are you dissapointed with companions variety?

We have 10 companions (Dark Urge is not a companion and I still have to wrap my head about this weird Origin/Backstory kind of situation). Most of them are humans, elves and half-elves. No gnomes, halflings, dwarves, half-orcs or dragonborns. I am not saying they must be included just for the sake of it, but to me it seems kinda dull.

Just look at companions in Pathfinder games — they have some really memorable examples (an evil gnome-crusader? hell yeah). For me there is a problem that there are not so many interesting characters in BG 3. Lae'zal is boring, Wyll is meh, Astarion being a vampire sounds cool, but he is too edgy, Shadowheart is fine (has some intrigue), Gale is kinda ok due to his background and mechanics (spoilers), Karlach might be interesting, Halsin for now is just any druid, Minsc and Jaheira both have nostalgia elements (though I don't really find Jaheira interesting), Minthara is just an evil drow (or did I miss something about her in EA?)

And I totally understand that everything can change in a final game and companions can get additional depth. Hope it will be the case

P.S: 2 druids (Jaheira and Halsin) for some reason.Why?

1 - Jaheira - male demographic demands a Mama Bear MILF to fantasise about
2 - Halsin - female demographic demands a Bear of a Man to fantasise about

Yes.

Yeah, I'm dissapointed, not much variety in races and a lot of angsty stuff in nearly every character.
I could do with one or two more down to earth and/ or carefree characters.

Quantity of recent memes and comments about Halsin suggests that not only female demographic fantasise about Bear of a Man

I'm less disappointed with the variety and more with their writting. The EA origins are all surprisingly uncharismatic and antagonistic - they all get me to the point were I don't care about them. I don't see the point in helping them or even bother having them around as I don't care about their opinion or story. They are all high maintainance, judging and annoyingly 'superior' without any redeeming qualities.

I also don't care about companion races... He/She/They can be as unusal as it gets, but if they are badly written I won't bother. I don't even care if they are evil, neutral or good - all can be done in a manner to get you hooked and interested in their fate. EA has sadly shown none of that for me.

The one complaint I have though is adding Haslin to the small group already containing Jaheira. He might have been a fitting camp follower or contact NPC, but not party member. And since romances seem to be this extremely important part of the game (...) he could have even gotten his pointless sex scene. But I rather not end up having just the choice between Minsc, Jaheira and Haslin.

I miss an overly positive companion, and a dwarf companion. At the same time I'm intrigued by our current companions, so I'm ok with how the situation is.

Speaking of pathfinder, I really loved Linzi and the urghatoa girl in kingmaker, but in wrath of the righteous they were all uninteresting. I guess that with the companions it's always an hit or miss.

I think it's working.

Yeah, I instantly remembered Khelgar and Grobnar from NWN2. Good memories

In party members, I'm always more interested in content. What difference does it make how a character looks if he's not interesting to me?
In the first two parts of Baldur, you also did not have much racial diversity, and I perceive this quite normally, since according to the lore of the universe, people are one of the most common races.

No I think it's fine. The current list of companions is awesome as is. Maybe a dragonborn would have been nice but really not an issue for me. But I don't really care for the very short type or races like gnomes, dwarves, and halflings...if any of those were possible companions they'd never get to leave camp in my playthroughs. Githyanki is probably my favorite D&D race which was a huge draw for me when they first revealed the game. If anything I would have liked a second Githyanki companion. I think Lae'zel may well end up being one of the most memorable companions in any RPG.

I am indeed disappointed. Especially in the relative lack of good companions.

Ditto. And I would add, the lack of a nice female romance option.

I'm okay with the current bunch. I like Lae'zel and Shadowheart for the most part, indifferent about Gale and Wyll (never recruited Wyll, tried recently but since I'd already done the goblin fort...) and have a slight dislike for Astarion. One thing I keep experiencing in RPGs though is that characters can very quickly become a lot more interesting when your initial feeling was indifference or resentment.

More companions would certainly be nice, though I have no strong feelings about what they should or shouldn't be.

EDIT: I only found out about Karlach in the last newsletter (hadn't really explored that area previously), so I quickly backtracked to check out that content before it changes on launch. Think I'll like her though her whole heart situation is a bit unique snowflake for my taste. Time will tell I guess.

I don't get this-are Minsc, Jaheria, Karlach and Halsin not 'good' enough? Unless you are referring to the overall numbers, in which case I agree, because Baldur's Gate needed more companions total. But from the revealed companions so far, outright evil ones are in the minority. And Larian themselves pointed out that going the evil route is going to be 'lonely' that Minthara is a 'reward' for going down a path that's going to see you alienate/kill the tieflings/your party members etc .....and also somehow she's supposed to equal all of the good characters they were showcasing in the stream? Larian really thinks that recruiting MInthara is equal to Jaheria, Minsc, Karlach and Halsin I guess....but then suggested she might also give you the 'Spider's Kiss' if you mess up her romance or something.

But diversity aside from alignment is lacking. No gnomes, no halflings, no dwarves, no dragonborn (even if I don't like them, the 'hey look we are getting a DB companion...no wait we are not' thing was I'm sure disappointing to their fans) It's cool that we got a drow companion, but her recruitment requirements are such that I suspect a lot of people aren't going to have her in heir party. So most people are going to be stuck with humans, half elves, and elves as their only options.

Classes are OK, but only in the sense that wit the exception of Jaheria/Halsin, there's no class repeats. But several classes aren't represented, and none of the iconic classes have duplicates (One cleric, one fighter, one rogue, one wizard)

I'm okay with it. So far it is only Astarion I dislike, and the others are tolerable. As long as the story is interesting, I'm good.

Not enough good companions for me

"Good" exists on a scale. For some the only criteria is just not being evil. For others, "good" is being christian good. CRPG are often very manichean so the lack of outright completely good companion is a bad thingnfor them.

Jaheira is not good. She is neutral.

And downplaying the evilness of certain other companions doesn't fly. To claim Minthara is the only truly evil companion is just plain silly. Three companions are outright evil, and at least two more have strong evil leanings at a minimum.

Jaheira and Minsc are recycled characters and Jaheira is neutral. I was looking forward to get another new good character, therefore my hopes foe Helia.