Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

Couldn't put it better. Not even failure, just nothingness despite the clear solutions.

Given our experience with Larian rewrites I wholeheartedly believe that if they'll try to rewrite it they will only make it worse lol

Karlach is the only character ending up where she was, ends up dying, or is a squid

3 terrible choices to choose from,
while all Karlach really wanted was to LIVE!! nothing else. Not power, not fame, not glory, just live to grow old with Tav. It's the most simple desire of all companions in the entire game and she is the one that gets denied. it just doesn't make sense!

I, too, made an account here just to keep being vocal about this issue, wherever it might be seen by the devs.

Enjoyed the game wholeheartedly for 30+ hours before I was spoiled about Karlach's quest progression and ultimate outcome.

The team did an outstanding job with the game. For the first time in years, I was losing track of time, playing for 6-10 hours a day, as someone with two jobs and a fully functional social life.
I have also not been made to feel for a character's fate since the Wild Hunt, so this was quite refreshing at first, only to become a kick to the gut after my discovery.

Now I'm at the point where I don't even feel like continuing unless this is addressed, and a proper ending implemented.

All in all, to the dev team, I implore you - give Karlach, and players by extension, a "good" ending. Let us leave on a satisfying note after a 100+ hours invested in a playthrough.

It really makes me not want to finish the game knowing what will happen. As one of the most positive and compassionate characters, she deserves an option for a happy ending. It's also a major peeve with me that Larian said that BG3 will have 17,000 ending variations for the game, but they couldn't squeeze in a good ending for her. Larian did her dirty and I sincerelly hope they will fix that.
#JUSTICE FOR KALRACH

#JUSTICE FOR KARLACH

i totally agree with you all. made a reddit post about this topic myself a few days ago. i still hope the whole karlach story was rushed and this is not the intended storyline.

anyways, i want to share my take for the good ending (i didnt complete act 3 so far, lost motivation; so there probably will be some lore/story complications:

- up to act 3 its basicly the same like now
- some scenes would be the same in act 3 (date sece or the dryad scene in the circus)
- my idea starts either when...
A) ...we met dammon in baldurs gate; he has an idea but needs the engine of a steel watcher
B) ...we talk to a steel watcher; it will regonize karlachs engine as its own (i think, through some comments on reddit, that this scene is already in the game)
in both cases we now know, that gortash has somehow repaired/inproved the infernal engines so they wont explode in the ""real"" world

===> skip forward to gortash-fight (i assume that he has a second phase like thorm too)
- before phase 2 starts, we get a dialogue with gortash: he offers his crystal shard and the secret about the infernal engines, as some kind of apology to karlach, in exchange for his life (insight check if he is honest about the offer) ***
- we then have two options:
1.) karlach kills him; fight ends OR phase 2 starts (this would be the "defualt"one/doesnt require a persuasion check)
2.) try to persuade karlach to accept his deal => the deal is done, karlachs engine wont explode; gortash excapes ###
=> to escape baldurs gate safely, gortash needs a distraction: he lets his steel watcher run amok; we then have to kill them, after the fight we see many dead innocent (if you want someextra dram, add dammon to the dead)

===> skip forward to after the final fight
- before the ending slideshow (like in DoS2) we have a dialogue with karlach where we can decide if we join her on her hunt after gortash
- if we chose this path we then have different ending slides:
1) karlach hunts gortash alone
2) karlach and tav hunts gortash as partners (if you romanced her)



!!!the whole distraction part can be ignored; i think it would fit since this would give karlach another reason to hunt gortash; also for this i took inspiration from lohse´s questline from DoS2

[*** for me gortash seems like someone who likes power and want to rise in the ranks, but most importantly he wants to live. maybe you could kinda compare him to petyr baelish? alternativly just scrap the dialogue part; after the fight we cast "speak with dead" and can ask him about the evil plan (for more details) or about his improved infernal engines.]

[### "but blook, how do you know that gortash isnt lying/really regrets what he has done to karlach?"; well, we know that gortash is a smart guy. so he knows, that if he want to survive, he has to offer something bifg, especially to karlach. so why not give her the "cure" for her engine and deguise it as an apology, so hopefully gortash gets in good/better terms with karlach.]



here you go,a good ending for karlach. dont even have to credit me, larian if you choose to use my idea




here 2 questions i have, which is still unsolved. maybe someone can help me here:

1.) when i completed the transsition to act 3/baldurs gate and the forced rest you have to do, ive got a new dialogue option: "we didnt had some fun time for quite a while." (not 100% translation). then karlach said something about "maybe the realationship cooled down a bit".

since this moment i wondered if i missed a romance-chance? i could imagine after the fight against ketheric thorm, but i am pretty sure i didnt had an option there. until then i only got 2: 1.) the kiss after i had to cool her down and 2.) after dammon fixed her the second time (in my case at the beginning of act 2, should be possible in act 1)


2.) what are the requirements for the date with karlach in act 3? do i have to enter a specific building before resting?




thank you very much for reading and helping with my questions.
and dont forget: #JUSTICE FOR KALRACH

Very disappointed with how the game handles her ending. I really expected better from Larian at this point.

It’s not that people are asking Karlach to be rewritten. Nothing like the response Wyll got.

People like the writing Karach has as a character. They don’t like that her quests are fetch quests with one particular NPC and an exercise in futility.

The worst part is how much more simple than this it is. The Gondians are a clear solution, you save them and their families, and as the player finds out, the core they created for the Watchers is literally a plane stable version of Karlach's. Its right under our noses for all of Act 3 and Larian saw fit to not even let us explore it.

wait, really? thats more embarrassing than i thought. im not an expert with coding/game design/etc. but this sounds like something they could fix in the next bigger update. to be fair, now i kinda exspect it.

Yeah, there are two simple fixes to the issue, either:

They really presented the solution and then said "uhhhhh, ignore that".

Yeah, the fact that it results in absolute nothing is worse than resulting in failure, even when its clear that it works and would work.

Yeah, the game kept patting me on the back for saving Baldur's Gate (which I barely cared about, my character wasn't even from the city, been there for all of a week maybe) and the world (which... I suppose so... theoretically), but it's my companions I really care about. And I barely got to talk to them afterwards, and two of them who still needed some saving - especially Karlach - got nothing.


Sadness.

That's another thing, the lack of endcards or anything to that end that explores your impact on other groups, people, locations and such is really damaging to the cherry on top the game could've had.

Thank you all for the continued views and support of this post. Lets reach Larian!

I'm hearing rumors that in regards to Karlach
Edit: If true that is a stipulation I find should be removed.

Yeah, the lack of epilogue slides damages potentially good endings, and her resolution when you play as her is better but still wanting..

I have two points to make:

A good ending where a character lives on should feel like a beginning, and this one doesn't. So they should expand on the "go to Avernus" option. At least show us that this is, in fact, a beginning of a new story. Show us a scene with them stepping out of a portal, taking up their new lives in this inhospitable place, but well, Karlach has always been good at survival, and now there are two swords instead of one, so that's fine. Maybe give a hint that they might find a permanent solution to her problem here where they make the stuff her engine is made of. As it is, with things just stopping, it is not satisfactory.

Meanwhile, I also think that "Karlach dies here" is appropriate as an ending. Karlach is a woman who lives in the present. Death comes for us all so why worry about it until it actually does. It is an attitude that fits her and calls back to the old heroic fantasy stories, expressed so vividly by Valeria in the old Conan film, calling out "do you want to live forever" as she jumps from a tower into a pool of water which may or may not be deep enough to survive the jump. It is a reminder that all good things come to an end, and it is telegraphed early enough to the player, so you can adapt to its possible inevitability.