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

Spoilers Ahead!



This thread largely exists due to the major outcry of fans and players that has been building up over recent days, and is a credit to them and their tenacity about this topic. That said, this thread exists hopefully to reach the eyes of Larian's directing, writing and development team, and express our feelings about the hand we were dealt, and extend an olive branch for potential change in the form of an updated quest, endcard, cutscene or even a statement about a more positive outlook for Karlach's ending.



Ahead are Gale plot spoilers, please be warned;

All this said, Larian created a character that many of us love for her bubbly attitude, positivity, prowess and more, who's voice actress put lots of heart and soul into, combined with the writing outside of these endings being great.. But also saw fit to write her into a corner with ways out we couldn't grasp?


Larian, please consider this;

We'd appreciate it greatly, as the larger game is amazing, and seems to have had a damper put on it by this situation.

Thank you for an amazing game outside of this issue, I cannot express that enough.

The link to the original reddit forum post I created is here: Addressing Karlach

Check out the piece Gfinity wrote about our cause here: Justice for Karlach!

Good grief. Those are Karlach's options?! Does Larian have something against the characters they themselves created?

I heard about this but don’t know the spoilers. Kinda glad I got rejected. That’s a level of tragedy that would sour everything that’s been done about the infernal engine and the commitment you want to make to the character. Why is THAT the good ending for one of the most wholesome companions?

I have a nasty suspicion that Karlach's under represented story is because of her late addition to the game. Yes she was in EA but the other Origins had years and plenty of feedback to be fine tuned and reworked. Not to mention how early her story can end due to Wyll. Hopefully patches will arrive enabling us to give our girl a slightly better ending than what we have now.

The five EA origins seem to have gotten more love and content than the rest.

Probably right. I think her character class went through revision a few times. I remember hearing that she was a Paladin, a Sorcerer or even a Monk. All the other Origins (Except the Dark Urge) have a class firmly entrenched in their identity and story.

I find it rather interesting how both Divinity 2 and BG3 had this situation, where one of the last origin characters got shafted rather hard. In the case of Divinity 2, it was Beast, but he later got redesigned and expanded on in the definitive edition.... so here's hoping Karlach will get that same treatment!

Otherwise, it would be a MASSIVE bummer that one of the only unapologetically good-hearted characters ends up with the worst ending out of them all...

Made a larian account just to comment on this too. If the devs see this thread, I hope they know they made an INCREDIBLE game, easily my favorite RPG ever. But godsdamn did this sour the end to my first playthrough. It wouldn't have stung so much if they made it clear from the getgo theres was no fix, but her whole arc was built around fixing her up, they even foreshadowed it a couple times in different ways.
Its even more baffling when you consider the game had 1 scroll of true resurrection, and divine intervention in addition to the plot hooks that were dropped in act 3.

As another commenter stated, Im also hoping she gets the Beast treatment and gets her happy ending for a new release (probably GotY edition when BG3 clean sweeps).

I just kill Karlach for Wyll every time, the character doesn't interest me in the slightest. It's better for his personal arc.

Created an account just for this.

Please Larian, give our girl some love, she's by far the best companion.
Learning about her possible endings really made me want throw away my almost 100 hours campaign and start over so i can stay clear from her and not invest or worry about it, that's pretty sad.

Holy shit people on the subreddit are REALLY SALTY about Karlach being done dirty in her quests and ending. I haven’t gotten far enough to see how tough it is, but I roughly agree with the non-spoiler complaints. Bringing metal to a guy in each act is not a satisfying questline. Having it is even worse. For a character so well-received, I think some definitive edition enhancements are due.

I got voluntarily spoiled by the discord channel and I fully support the OP. My Tav is not even romancing her, and this still dampened my enjoyment of what otherwise looks to be a masterpiece.

This would have been easier to deal with if she hadn’t been so singled out in her misery, or if this made more sense plot-wise, but given the level of power Tav seems to be getting, not giving us an option to give Karlach a happy ending feels just… wrong.

It's just. In a world of such high fantasy, where we the players directly interact with powers beyond imagine regularly. Why are these her endings?
When -every -single- -other- -playable- gets to have horrible, horrible things subverted. Even a character who essentially the -same exact- problem.

I love this game, dearly. I love the way the world and characters were brought to life. I love the gameplay and mechanics, and I love most of the writing.

But Karlach's whole story is like being gifted a puppy, being shown how to and successfully caring for it. Only for your parents to rip it away and Old Yeller it.

Cept Old Yeller had more of a reason to be put down.

Bad writing or cut content. I would have left a DnD game if my DM railroaded that hard after making me believe in a different possibility.

Also created an account just to comment on this.

I'm not sure I even consider returning to Avernus as the "good ending" as it's essentially returning the slave back to the master, sure she has Tav, but it also robs her of freedom and the life she wants to lead.

I'm not expecting something done immediately, but I am hoping they're seeing this feedback and will work to somehow give us a chance at a happier and more satisfying ending, even if it only comes with a "Definitive Edition"

They had Astarion from start to finish, yet he got the same treatment. Neither of his endings are what he wanted or particularly desirable. The book of thay was a meaningless red herring and all that talk about drinking Cazador's blood was a lie. They set these paths up and then made them go nowhere. Hell, Gale's redemption to mystra is . You can tell SH and Lae'Zel were Larian's favourites.

Well I guess I spoiled myself. Whatever.

What is this German Fairy Tale ass writing? It’s like:

Hee hee hoo hoo there once was a magical mystical world full of talking animals and heroes trying to cure themselves and save the world and confront their pasts and fall in love. Hee hee hoo hoo there was funny stuff too! But then everyone died horrifically or went back to where they started. And that’s why little ones must eat their vegetables at supper. THE END.

Hope mongering is what this is. I have found myself inadvertently spoiled. I'm still in act 1 and just chose to romance Karlach. Everyone else is throwing themselves at my character, but Karlach, while thirsty as hell, *can't*. I liked that the relationship was going to have to build slowly. All of the nuggets of info gave me hope that it was just a matter of time before we figured things out. The idea of taking our time, being patient, was a perfect romance idea to me.

I know real life can dash our hopes in spades and sometimes in the most cruel manner. But I game to experience things differently than real life. If you know a character is doomed from the get go, you both can focus on quality of life and experiences, not wasting effort on false hopes. I would rather have known she was doomed, opted to romance her anyway...help her feel loved while she helps us despite her journey being a short one. Instead, we're going to have to traipse around doing futile quests and believing in false hopes. Ugh...

question for those who have made it to the end:
Ok..rant off.

It feels.. off that one of the most good hearted and positive characters, one that suffered greatly and that loves life and her newfound freedom with such intensity is the one that got the short end of the stick. for this? Really? I’m sorry but I’m so disappointed by this choice. Plus as the other said I’ve spent hours trying to look for a solution because of the steel watchers thing or even just because tav can say stuff like “maybe we can find a solution” until basically the end game lol. I wanted to replay this game multiple times, I couldn’t wait actually. But now I feel like I need some time off to heal cos I can’t bear recruiting my favorite character knowing what’s gonna happen lol. If you wanted to have a doomed character, you should’ve done something like BioWare did with Thane. This is being cruel. Karlach is one of the best written characters I’ve ever seen and she honestly didn’t deserve this treatment.

I can't be sure Gale doesn't have another ending. Maybe Elminster's instructions aren't the only way to earn Mystra's forgiveness. He's also bugged and may turn evil against your intentions. I guess the Gale conspiracy theory half won? Still, Karlach and Astarion... nobody seems to have found a secret ending.

Their quests are singular red herrings that fool the player for a while, but ultimately you can't achieve their hearts' desire. Karlach is more tragic. Much more tragic. Yet, I feel trolled on either account. Astarion just makes no sense. It eats at me. One of his endings isn't horrible... for Astarion, that is. It's just not what he really wants and not what the player is lead to believe would happen. It's so comically evil. The other, .

Ok not reading your spoilers Silver or quoting you because then I would see what’s going on, but a well written tragedy isn’t supposed to do that to you. The classical Greek form of tragedy invoked catharsis, not grief.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy

The old plays often had a character become his own undoing. But it sounds like some of the fates of our companions are undeserved and are really eating at people.

I hate red herrings. Subverting Chekhov’s Gun is a dick move. There are few things more satisfying than every small detail in a story eventually mattering, and few things more disappointing than seeing all the elements of a story turn up as nothing.

If Astarion says he needs to drink a vampire’s blood, damnit, I expect the opportunity to arise. If Karlach’s entire quest is centered around fixing her engine, shouldn’t a way appear, however costly? What was the Book of Thay FOR? Things should matter more, not less, in a story than in real life.