Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Karlach endings, narrative inconsistencies [SPOILERS]

SPOILERS

I'm sure there are plenty of posts griping about the "17,000" endings condensed into basically 2 endings with a few trite companion one liners.

I'm going to complain about specifically Karlach's endings.

Larian is telling us that with a scroll of resurrection on Gale, possibly two contract writing devils, communing with one or two deities, knowing Elminister who could cast Wish, a master smith, Withers the resurrection machine and and D&D rules bent like a circus contortionist... With all that...


That's bul****

Sort of a capstone on all the other weak endings.

I encourage you to chime in to complain. It almost make the 200 hours ending in disappointment feel a little better.

Justice for Karlach

It doesn't make sense.
Even when you ignore all the spells to protect you from heat and cold, ressurect the dead or regrow hearts its not as if Avernus is the only hot plane of existing.
There is for example the plane of fire for example...

Yeah im feeling this too, there is def a spell that can regrow bodyparts

Yep. Either restore the original narrative where tough luck felt like a core theme or give Karlach the same heroic treatment as everyone else gets.

Exactly. Nearly all the others have a heroic ending (albeit brief one liners).

The drop off in companion interactions in Act 3 along with the narrative inconsistencies breaking my suspension of disbelief absolutely ruin immersion.

Justice for Karlach

Its baffling that with so many fixes to her engine in sight that the character with arguably the easiest issue to fix, doesnt get a fix.
This is D&D, there's always a way.
#JusticeforKarlach

I agree with everything so far but also wanted to add its annoying that Wylls stuff overwrites the Tav romance ending. I believe it should simply be another option instead of an override as well as the potential option for all 3 of them to go.

Also if they want to fully embrace the tragedy I wouldn't mind an ending where Tav could perish with her in a final hug/kiss but would rather a happy ending be implemented 100x more. I am awful at role playing so my Tav was simply a bored noble before being abducted and actually loved all the adventuring. Them passing with Karlach wouldn't be that bad since she wouldn't be that interested in going back to a boring loveless noble life. Not sure I would actually be able to follow through with the ending I just requested though, I don't handle tragedy that well lol. I would prefer her slaying demons with Karlach and Wyll way more if we are stuck unable to repair/upgrade her heart.

After reading all the data mined cut content related to Karlach and her endings, it's clear that:

1) Karlach was always going to die (even if Illithid, her heart was going to burn her up!)

2) Larian cut scenes that would have provided a lot more closure with the companions


I'm surprised she was always slated for death given all the clues in Act 3 that her engine could be fixed. Makes the narrative inconsistency all that more disappointing.


https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1toM2E_7-cpiCvpvXQMjKt_Brh2ChhL2o

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15umpxk/to_those_disappointed_in_the_endings/

So the good news is, there is an unfinished epilogue. The bad news is Karlach got a less wretched ending than intended, because anything could happen next?

Okay, so here's how to win:

1). Play as Astarion
2). Ascend
3). Go to Avernus (where Zariel is supposedly spooked)
4). Freedom?

I'm not sure if anyone else has a chance, though Minthara (!) and Gale certainly seem willing to keep searching for a cure/attempt to overthrow Zariel.

Karlach's always-dead ending feels like it fit perfectly with a lot of the earlier content. Much like how Wyll represented a 'I took a deal with the devil, and as much as I regret it, the powers are very useful' perspective, and Gale a 'I'll take the power, I can control it, I'm smarter than the devil' perspective, Karlach feels like she would've slotted in as the 'I will not make any deals with the devil, even if I have to die because of it' perspective. Which might've worked really well before they dropped that whole aspect of the plot.

I, too, am disappointed by the endings for Karlach. As someone who also has heart problems, I was happy to see that representation in a video game for that first time I've seen. Only to find out that you can't save her and she still dies despite all the work you put in as one of your companions. It just drives the point home that most people like me don't get their happy endings, even in a video game. Even when we can save the world and heal wounds with magic and even resurrect the dead like it's nothing.

In terms of my head canon I assume part of the problem is that Karlach's soul was probably traded away, not just her body, so that would complicate things, because infernal contracts almost always involve somebody's soul. Though we're never told if a contract was ever formally signed or if the contract was only with Gortash. It's the lack of specific detail that really makes this difficult for me.

For such a serious issue, there's a lack of real discussion about other options in dialogue; your character can occasionally say stuff to the effect of "we'll find another way", but there's never any discussion about what those ways might actually be. Meanwhile every time returning to Avernus is discussed, Karlach shuts the idea down in no uncertain terms (understandably) but when Wyll offers at the end she immediately accepts with no discussion of that. There's never any real discussion about going back purely as a temporary measure until a permanent solution can be found; Dammon says he won't give up looking for a way, and as others have pointed out there's no shortage of possibilities in D&D, but we never get to really explore any of them.

I'm currently running an actual D&D campaign set around Baldur's Gate, and I purposefully set it 40 years into the future so I could handwave events in BG3 I wasn't aware of yet; while my intention is to now establish a bunch of it as canon based on my first playthrough, I'm very likely to change some things too, and Karlach's fate is definitely going to be one of them. Especially since I already established my player character (Filius Hempenbrow) as a retired adventurer in his early 70's, with a wife the players haven't met yet, and the core of the campaign is an unknown entity that seems able to grant impossible wishes but has an agenda of its own…

I've never heard that it's possible to trade away someone else's soul, against their will. And Karlach never mentions her soul being tied up in the mess.

I think Karlach was simply sold into slavery, no soul involved. Also, in the cut endings with Withers, her soul / spirit joins the companions gathering 6 months after endgame.

Yet the former


who is able to bring back her spirit from the Fugue Plane or where it ends up back the Material



is unable to bring her back...

Solid plot/conclusion through and through, lol.

The worst part of it for me is that there is no build up to it, it feels really random when it happens since there is no sign she is struggling going into the final fight.

Given the inconsistencies and how little effort we actually put into finding a cure in Act 3, Karlachs ending doesn't come off as tragic. It just comes off as needlessly cruel.

100%true. Most of this is discussed in topic here https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=877286#Post877286 . The worst thing is that in game with 17000 endings I played good character, romanced her, did every quest and help everybody who can possibly help us, had infernal ores, gnomes talked about they have better heart model and so on, but the game doesn't allow me to save her due to cuts from Act3, which at the end was really cruel. We all have to hope for future patches. In this case, there is literally no reason to bad ending at all.

Karlach definatly is the one character that absolutly deserves a good ending.

Shes absolutly the most good character and the game has so many ways in what it could deliver a good ending to her.

Just some simple ideas

1. Shadowhearts godly intervention spell : ask the god to rescue her (very pricy use but fair)
2. A wish spell : could be done by the Jinn @ circus, or a scroll hidden somewhere.
3. The Infernal marmot in Act3 could be a choice of wheater to use it for its origin quest or make a stable heart out of it for Karlach

This are just the first 3 that come do my head, each of them rather easy to add and this character really just deserves it.