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

The changes made to Wyll are welcome. Still in middle of Act 1, but he comes across less as a boastful liar pretending to be a hero and more as a flawed, if still boastful and unwise, man trying to do his best for others. He seems to care a more about the well-being of those he claims to save this time around.

Shart has a few more quirks, which is neat. Lae’zel is Lae’zel.

Karlach seems to have a pretty thin personality so far. What’s there is good, but there’s just not much of it. Then again, she hasn’t fully opened up yet.

I am still in Act 1. I am really looking forward to meeting Minsc and Jaheira. I really like Gale and the new Wyll, though. Brillant characters I love talking to.

The rest are okay. I really wish we had a Lathander cleric instead of depressing little Shadowheart. It kinda feels like the party misses a benevolent, straight-laced, Lawful Good character. The religious heart. Shar's teachings aren't very inspiring. I hope the druid characters will bring in some level heads.

Would you mind elaborating a bit on the Wyll changes? Specifically things relating to his alignment.

He still has a big of a swagger for sure, but there is as reason for his wanting to do a certain task early on in the game, and if you have him when you meet said 'task', it becomes clear very quickly that he was deceived, and he freely admits it. As for his unique situation (being a warlock and all), he has no regrets for making that pact, and it's clear he did it to save someone/many someones. It seems obvious he put his own soul on the line to help others, and that causes him to suffer.

Small things
- his introduction is a bit cooler, but no real personality change
- he opens up at camp a decent amount. More than most of the early origin companions actually, it's a nice change not having just "shut up, we need to get healed" or "I'm a private person, don't ask me about that". Ironically, he feels much more fleshed out than the others at the start.
- at the point i'm at (About to start the journey to moonrise towers), I would definitely consider him a good companion.

It is a bit odd having two good companions be connected to the hells though lol. Larian's sense of irony I suppose.

I'm happy with the numbers. 4 Dudes, 4 Gals. Now that's balanced!

I have no issue with the companions and the fact that we can respec them is fantastic.

One complaint I hear a lot though is that most people seem to dislike Astarion, and if they dont take him they lack a trapper.

In EA I found using a Ranger specced with Stealth, Perception and Sleight of hand to be superior for both traps and damage including sneak hits, I can't remember which sub class it was but whichever one that adds damage to ranged attacks. I could just respec Astarion to that build for now kept him as an arcane trickster.

From Act 1 only:
To add:
In EA, his quest was to find Mizora and he was willing to torture a guy for it. In full release, he is introduced as hunting Karlach, whom he does NOT know is a tiefling and not a devil. When he finds her, he is clearly upset and is trying to talk himself into killing her, but you tell him she’s clearly innocent, and he will back off. He KNOWS he’s breaking his pact by sparing her life and he does it anyway and even after his transformation, I think he mentioned he’d do it again. He thanks you for stopping him, and his approval goes up, even though he’s just been brutally transformed.

The terms of his pact restrict his ability to say why he took it, but he makes it clear there was no other choice and that he would do it again. This is after his transformation too.

If you talk to him about how he became the Blade of Frontiers, his story emphasised the child he saved rather than his combat prowess. He says he leapt in to save the child almost automatically. He is consistently more concerned with the immediate wellbeing of the people he saves rather than being hailed as a hero.

Wyll is categorically unwise and shortsighted, make no mistake, but he WANTS to do the right thing, and he is willing to suffer for it.

I've moved this thread to the new Story & Characters subforum where it seems to fit better.

Also a reminder that with the release there will be many new players so be extra careful of spoilers, and use spoiler tags if in doubt.

Hmm. Well. I just got to the big choice scene in Wyll's personal quest. I was very much enjoying his rewrite up until now, but that was... bizarre. Makes me wonder if I'm fundamentally misinterpreting the lore here - coming at it too much from a real-world religious perspective rather than an in-game Forgotten Realms perspective. It'll be interesting to see other folks' perspectives on that choice, but I may just start leaving Wyll behind again.

Thank you the both of you.

It's been my suspicion ever since they announced the big rewrite of Wyll that he was rewritten specifically because of all the criticism that the companions were so very heavily skewed towards the evil side. I felt that maybe they decided to shift Wyll from shady and sketchy neutral-alignment guy to a more explicitly good-oriented guy. Sounds that way from what you both are saying here, which I certainly am happy about.

Yes, Wyll is very much a good character who was tricked by a devil, and signed the pact to do good deeds. I am over 30 hours in the game and to be truth, none of those NPCs feel truly evil. Each has some agenda, and some of those agendas may feel dubious at least, but non of them so far feels like a bloodthirsty madman or ruthless killer. I would have trouble to pin an alignment to them, if I'm being honest. Shadowheart is talking like a Shar zealot, but her personality is a contradiction to her words, she often approves your good deeds, which makes me believe there is much more to her story than meets the eye. I have some theories, but better to not spoil anything here. And Karlach, despite hailing from Avernus and being a tiefling is very much a good character. As goof as Wyll, I'd say. And she is a hell of a good tank, too!

I haven't yet recruited Halsin, only managed to talk with him once, but he seems like a decent guy, although not shy to spill blood to protect his people. It's too early for me to judge him fully.

The closest NPC to being evil that I recruited would be I think Astarion, but I'd rather say he is... complicated. I'd say his evil side comes more from a fact he is in this state for hundreds of years, so he doesn't care much about other humans. I know I won't recruit Minthara in this playthrough, because this one really is evil.

If you really want to label them with old-fashioned alignment, I'd say no companion is Lawful good, but none is chaotic evil either.

In short, Yes.

longer version: 4 dudes (blegh) an ugly eggborn with an attittude problem, shar follower, demonic thiefling and hard-to-get evil playpath drow.

To make race and class list complete we would need
- a short race like halfling, gnome or dwarf
- a scaled race, which means dragonborn.

As for classes we are missing
- Bard
- Monk

Helia would be obvious, although I have nit orogressed into the story enough to tell how much Halsin is using her concept or if she would be a bit too similar to Astarion
That would leave a dragonborn monk.

I’m disappointed simply because there’s no shorties. Where are our dwarf/halfling/gnome companions? I’m talking full companions, not hirelings.

Lae’zel is the only really “unique” npc out of the bunch. Granted, they’re all unique in their own way, but it just feels they put way too much focus on elves and humans.

Thanks for the feedback.

Isn't Astarion at least a bit on the chaotic side, therefore bordering on CE?

Nah, I'd put him on a Neutral Evil side of an alignment scale. He is not a ruthless killer and he is doing evil things, if they being him closer to broke the bond with his sire. Plus, he is in this state for a long time, which made him treat others as lesser brings at some point. This is at least how i picture him do far. I'm still early in the story, though.

He is nowhere near as deranged as, let's say, Camellia in WoTR.

Alignment in this game seems more like a representation of the character descriptively rather than a normative command, so alignment of characters can change based on the choices you make. When you first meet the characters, I would describe the alignments as:
Lae’zel: Lawful Evil
Karlach: Chaotic Good, leans Neutral Good.
Shadowheart: True Neutral (Neutral Evil if Shar bothers you)
Astarion: Chaotic Evil, leaning Neutral Evil.
Wyll: Either Chaotic Good or True Neutral.
Gale: Lawful Neutral, can lean more good or neutral.

Ultimately the lawful-chaotic aspect is less pronounced. Lae’zel is clearly starting evil, as is Astarion. Wyll, Gale, and Karlach are clearly good depending on some early choices. Shadowheart is very neutral early game, with a mix of good and evil opinions.

If you wanted to make a “good” party that is good from the start, it would include some combination of the following:
Wyll, Karlach, Gale, Halsin. Minsc has yet to show up in my game, but he would be an option too judging by BG1+2.

The most viable “evil” party would likely include:
Lae’zel, Minthara, Shadowheart, Astarion.

I'm well aware of that, but since kanisatha was trying to measure their ingame actions by a good old alignment standards, I was trying to share my perspective on the matter and maybe help a little with that.

I'm still dissapointed, that we didn't get Helia. I was hoping, that she would pop up anyway, since it was announced, that there will be some surprise companions, but some people have already finished the game and haven't mentioned her or any other small race companion.

Yes @Cahir is correct. But I do generally agree with your starting alignment interpretations, @Zerubbabel. And the key word there is 'starting,' which is what I've been saying again and again for people who keep bringing up that companion alignments can change depending on in-game choices. For me, regardless of this in-game reality with which I agree, it does matter what their history (and therefore alignment) is at the point when I first run into them, which is to say, their past matters a great deal to me.

Since I have stated I would only play the game with a mod that allows a party of six, my party, I think, would be Wyll, Karlach, Halsin, Minsc, and Jaheira/Gale.