TLDR: In the world of DND/BG3 the lack of agency in Karlach's ending feels out of place, and could be greatly improved with the addition of a few words of player dialogue at the end: Implying that, when the player or Wyll goes back to Avernus with her, they will be looking for a way to fix her heart so she can return to Faerun again one day.
For the past week I've been immensely enjoying the game. However, a couple of days ago I got into Act 2, and progressed Karlach's quest to the point where you learn of her "terminal diagnosis". I generally try to avoid spoilers in RPGs like this, but I've become super invested in her character and wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any of the quest markers for fixing her infernal engine. I was surprised, and extremely disappointed, to learn that actually there is nothing that you can do to help her, and your only choices are for her to return to Avernus or die. I understand that bad things happen to good characters all the time, and fundamentally you all are the authors of this story, so if you want to doom one of the best characters to a terrible fate its well within your right. But, with that being said, as a player, this has left a really bad taste in my mouth. One of the key elements of an RPG like this is that players have some agency in shaping how the story progresses, and, of course, have to live with the consequences of the actions we take.
Again, tragic characters exist and these can be written in incredibly moving and powerful ways (see the Last of Us 2). However, the way this story is set up, it seems more like the option to save her was just cut, and in a world where Wish and True Resurrection exist, along with a handful of other potential solutions that are dangled before the player, it seems almost cruel to force one of your best characters into a binary ending where you get to choose one of two terrible options. Maybe for some player's stories dying makes sense, and maybe for some it makes sense for her to return to Avernus, but in a story where you can survive having a magical nuclear bomb stuck in your chest (Gale), its just odd that there aren't any other options. As it stands I'm not particularly interested in playing out a game where my favorite character has a terminal condition that (in the DND world), shouldn't really be that hard to fix.
I don't think I'm entitled for you to make any changes to the game, I just wanted to let you know that myself, and (given the huge popularity of her character), many others, are/will be disappointed in how this has played out. I think, in the long run it would be amazing to see some quests added to flesh out her storyline and give a potential option to fix her heart (see Definitive Edition). I understand that would be a huge amount of work through, and so, in the short term, I have a suggestion that would take absolutely no work to implement: add a single line of dialogue from the player character (so it doesn't even need voice acting) implying that either they (if you choose to return to Avernus with her), or Wyll (if you take that route), will help her look for a way to fix her heart so that she can return to Faerun. It would be extremely nice to know that, if you choose to send her back to hell, there is at least a glimmer of hope in the future. (This also seems pretty solidly in line with how her ending plays out should you choose to play as her, as it's implied that her return to hell isn't permanent).
I appreciate all the work you've put into the game, and I think the level of disappointment I feel is a testament to the otherwise amazing writing and storytelling. Again, I don't want to come across as entitled, but as a huge fan of everything else that your studio has done I hope you can appreciate where I'm coming from.
