Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Multiplayer Discussion Local / "couch" co-op questions

Hi all,

So I have not played this game yet – I'm waiting for the PS5 release. I'm super excited at the idea of playing with my girlfriend, but I've got a few concerns.

Context: She's not super into games, and there's a solid chance I end up playing myself after the first 10 hours, lol.

1.) First and foremost, if I start a "couch co-op" campaign, am I locked into the split screen mode when she's not playing?

2.) If I can play the co-op campaign solo, what are the implications? Any disadvantages to this as opposed to a single player campaign? Like in terms of NPC interactions/side quests/etc. does having two player-created characters in my party limit me in anyway?

3.) Is there an alternative option, such as having her jump in on my solo campaign as desired?

4.) If the answer to #3 is YES, can she still create her own character or does she simply choose a pre-existing member of my party? If she can create one mid-campaign, is that character locked into my campaign forever?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I've been playing with my partner and I think I have experienced all of this. One thing about the way Larian handles couch co-op with split screen is that the "first player" is the main character. If another controller isn't connected you ended up playing the other person's character just like you would your own. That means that you won't have a specific backstory for that character like you would for one of the other characters like Astarion, Gale, etc. But you can switch between solo and multiplayer as much as you want. In that regard it feels pretty seamless.

One thing I've never tried is seeing if I can leave her character at camp. I have a feeling you can't and you have to use that character.

If she does want to join mid campaign and she hasn't created a character then I believe that will be an option. My understanding is that anyone who joins your campaign at any time has to create a new character.

Hope this helps!

No, you can play solo, but see next question.

Custom characters can't be removed from the party, so you can play solo just fine but the extra character will take up a party slot and doesn't have any dialogue. It won't affect your playthrough otherwise.

She can drop in to pick up her character at any time you are playing, or even create a character partway through your game.

Yes, once she joins the game, she will get the character creation screen. Then the extra character is locked into your campaign forever.

Being able to remove custom characters from the party seems to be the biggest feedback point, so hopefully Larian adds this in a patch down the line.