Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Any Lae'zel fans here? Her story is great (spoilers)

Nobody appears to talk about Lae'zel. And granted, I did not like her much at the start of the game, and I suppose it's the same for most players.

And now early in Act 3, "like" is still not exactly how I would describe my attitude towards her, but I've become a fan because of her story. I think it's one of the best companion stories ever told in a roleplaying game. And a significant reason why I think so is that she can go through a great deal of character development without being changed in her core identity. I always appreciated her fierce loyalty, misplaced as it was, and her determination. That's still there. And you could argue that she's still "lawful evil" because she now has a different cause to be fiercely loyal to (I had to chuckle when I got that conversation - I thought "well, Lae'zel remains Lae'zel after all") which may be better for her people but still not what you might call "good". And still, so much has happened to her that she seems to be a different person at times, and she's more reflective too.

Obviously, I'm talking about one particular outcome of her story. I haven't seen the others, but I suspect it's the one most players will see. I haven't romanced Lae'zel and I probably never will, but she has earned a great deal of respect from my player character in spite of the fact that they still don't see eye to eye on many things, and a great deal of appreciation from me as a player. There's also a moral in that which I very much like.

What does anyone else think?

Yes, Lae'zel is a great character with a well-executed journey. I romanced her and there were some very sweet moments, such as when you duel her and, if you lose, Lae'zel And, in general, when after/during the creche: Like you say, she manages to keep her core identity while undergoing some big development. Of all the characters, Lae'zel is perhaps the one where Tav knows exactly where they stand and while she might just kill you, it'll only be when the present situation is resolved. Comparing her to everyone else (except Wyll who is terminally bland) demonstrates how honest and forthright she is -- she's just not a very nice person. But she's also young and naive in her own way, conducting herself like the perfect little Gith warrior with a status in their society she doesn't actually possess, and of all the characters you can travel with, I'd say she's one of the least morally objectionable.

Unfortunately, there are things that bother me. The first is the conflict between Shadowheart and Lae'zel which can culminate with Shadowheart pulling a knife on her and threatening to kill her and cover it up. There are no options to take Lae'zel's side beyond immediately killing Shadowheart. Which is a shame because Lae'zel is correct that Shadowheart is carrying a gith relic. I think this fight is supposed to fire off in one of your first long rests, when you don't know what the artifact is or does, but for me it happened well toward the end of the goblin camp and so it was just really weird. It's one of the few times where I thought BG3's reactivity was sorely lacking.

I loved Laz, I like that she changes and grows without having to be 'redeemed', give up her culture or soften. Her story was great and strongly written without compromise to presumed audiences comfort.

I really like Lae'zel and her storyline. I'm still in act 1, but did the crèche and had that visit in camp. Lae'zel is really growing so much as a character, that she is becoming one of my favourites. I'm really excited where her story goes from her.

And somehow related, you all tried the troll answer with too, right? Right?

During the EA I was like "oh you, I'm gonna break your shell of aggression real fast with some intimidation rolls from my charismatic paladin" and I was laughing that it actually works.

Finally with the release I had to frienzone her in my play, as a romance with Karlach was well advanced and I felt that Karlach was not into trouple. Laz came in an instant, wanted to smell me and taste me, we fought in the camp, she was totally in love... and I had to say no. Man what a heartbreaking moment, you see how sad she is, but she does not let a tear comes out. And now she's really polite, calm, already sat in the camp like she was in mourning lmao.

Fortunately relationship is maxed out even with this hard friendzone, so she trust me whatever happen. It was particularly useful in the creche ngl.

I find she's touching the more I advance in my game. She remember me Neytiri in the first Avatar movie, totally dedicated to her people, feared of the strangers, aggressive, but feels as fragile as a leaf inside.


Fun fact :

I, uh, didn't quite realize what would happen if I denied her. I was floored by her showing up out of nowhere and demanding I do something game-ending. Then my game ended in a different way. And then I reloaded a save before I entered the mountain pass and went the other route, I didn't want to deal with that crap.

I'm still in Act 1 and enjoying Lae'zel. She doesn't seem as irritating and grating as she did in EA. My favourite moment so far is when you ask her does know what happens when someone transform into a mindflayer - the face, the voice and the description as she goes into the blow-by-blow account really tickled me.

The only game ending answer is the trollish one
Otherwise you can deny it

Lae'zel is one of my favorite companions. In EA I hated her for her attitude but in full game and in special after creche quest, I really apreciate her and I like her story and changes. I know she's as she's and my Tav, being a rogue nor good nor bad but some chaotic, has some discrepances with her but in spite of all, she's a 90 apreciation for me...

Or you can just skip all that, keep playing the game and change Lae'zel's mind later! Did that yesterday, it was great. My only regret is missing part 2 of the book on Orpheus.

Yeah, I really like Lae'zel. Seeing her loosing her faith during teh creche quest, first
was heartbreaking, but I think, it will make her grow as a person. ANd yes, despite my little halfling being really good, she is at high approval already.

Personally, I liked lae'zel. So much my character gave her some much needed attention. Unfortunately she attacked me. /Shrug.

Easily one of the best, without a doubt. Seeing her development is great.

At one point, to somewhat paraphrase, there's a moment where you get to ask her something like, "What about *your* wants and needs, Lae'zel?"

To which she replies something along the lines of: "(doing this thing to help someone else) ...is my want and need."

The depth of her character is great. She is, in her way, inspiring. And she is arguably the best of us. I don't regret having her in my party, not for a second.

Lae'zel was great. I had no strong opinions about her in EA but I ended up loving her story.

Ironically my chaotic good toon had better relations with the Lawful Evil Lae'zel then they did with the Chaotic Good Karlach. Lae'zel and I were at 100% approval while my arguments with Karlach about soul coins left kept me at something like 70% Karlach approval.

It meant I did things like kneeling before Vlaakith but that felt like being a polite guest. This is what you do in your culture and, out of respect to Lae'zel, I'll follow her example

I don't know if [spoilers]

I liked Lae’zel in the EA and was especially curious to know how they’d square loyalty to her people with adventuring and the tadpole. I think they came up with an interesting reason and a believable one for her character.

Yeah, that was a bit odd. I figured she'd be 100% behind us not exploiting trapped souls for our own benefit. I wish there was some other, more redemptive use for soul coins.

I used to love Lae’zelin EA. Now, after seeing her whole story I just think she is an Uber Mary Sue and my absolutely least favourite character.

Her story is great? Well, the story part about the githyanki is great, it added depth to the githyanki. The part about lae’zel is not so much…

Lae’zel tells you when she joins that she is a nobody, a young warrior from a creche who is devoted to Vlaakith. She tells us she hasn’t yet made a name for herself, but is working on it. She has a pretty strong personality to fit this and all this is great.

She also tells us she has 3 dreams:
1, to serve Vlaakith and make sure the Queen knows how loyal she is.
2, get a silver sword
3, ride a dragon

By the end of the game

So basically Lae’zel has all her dreams fulfilled while, potentially she does nothing for them as Tav can do all the work. She just keeps bullying Tav throughout the first half of the game, altough she does become a decent character in the second, but in the light of everything that is too little too late.

The worst part of this is, that if you play a custom githyanki Tav as I did for my first playthrough (who I specifically made to romance Lae’zel), you can feel that she just stole the githyanki story. On paper you both are the same, nobodies, young warriors fresh out of some creche. But everyone is fawning over Lae’zel and you are not even noticed. Voss calls you a slave, Vlaakith commends Lae’zel for training you well if you kneel before the Queen and later on will just not notice you, and you will get absolutely no silver swords or dragons as a thank you for your hard work. Despite being the same character, only you are custom Tav and she is Lae’zel. What makes Lae’zel so special that even Vlaakith knows her name? We are never told!

This is why she is a Mary Sue. Her dreams are fulfilled with hardly any work and this is nothing more than bad writing. This could have been fantastic. She could have been fantastic, even with the same story, if only it was less of a generic githyanki story and more customised and explained what makes Lae’zel so special. If the story also catered for what the game play mechanics did and recognised if custom Tav was also a gith and fitted it accordingly.

I like Lae’zel. One of the best companions in the game, I like her story and character development, and her fighting qualities (always took her to the party)

Well done you.

One can hope. My knowledge of the Gith is pretty spotty - I was never much interested in illithids or spelljammer - but I vaguely remember that the Githzeri believe that Gith had lost her moral compass during the slave uprising so her son might be just as evil. And, as you say, there is the worry that he could be more competent. But here's hoping that Tav's meddling will lead the Gith to focus less on raiding and more on killing ghaik.


Agreed - she doesn't even budge after she learns that one of the souls isn't evil. It isn't necessarily bad writing - I can imagine Karlach being in denial about her actions but it feel undeveloped. Feels like a potentially big plot point that boiled down to "enhanced potions for one of the origin characters"

@Timoleth

All of the Origin companions have a "Mary Sue" quality. I don't think dragon riding, silver sword wielding is a bad dream for a Gith and achieving it all by level 12 is quite and an accomplishment. But is so stopping the grand design. But is Mary Sue the best template to apply ? Is Lae'zel truly the best at everything? I thought she was written to be bit a bit thick headed and that's why follows Tav's orders.

I *completely* understand you not being happy that Lae'zel stole the thunder from your Tav! But that's a flaw of the Origin system. My Tav was level 1 cleric of Mystra / 11 wizard and there was no way I was to going to take Gale along with me only to steal the show from my Tav!

I'm saying that the point you are making is good one but I see it more as an indictment of the Origin character system than of Lae'zel specifically.

Supposedly this has been fixed with the Dark Urge but I'm not planning to play that until and unless Larian removes the DU's murdering of NPCs and animals.

Long story short: I think your complaint is valid but I think it's a problem with Origin system not with Lae'zel as a character.

sorry off-topic, but it's the first time I've seen it mentioned:

That was so weird, Karlach, this super kind girl, and wanting to not hurt puppies, was suddenly just totally cool with using trapped mortal souls, and the reason was something silly like "Well, they're already trapped so.." I honestly stopped caring about Karlach quite a bit after that line. It was such a weird personality shift, and made her seem super shallow.