The subject of friendship with companions in BG3 has come up a number of times, often in threads discussing romance and sex.
As I don't think they should be mutually exclusive, or even necessarily related, and in my view friendship and camaraderie between the party members is at least as important as romance, and probably even more so, I thought I'd create a thread where we could discuss that specifically.
I have seen a number of people saying they don't feel they can make friends with their companions in BG3 outside of romantic or sexual relationships. That's not been my personal experience of the game, and I've found a number of moments with my friends amongst the party genuinely moving, such as
giving Karlach a friendly hug when her issue was fixed enough to touch her, joking with Shadowheart after giving her her favourite flower, supporting Gale as he faced up to and railed against his possible imminent demise, and helping Astarion see there could be more to him than the desire for power and supporting him through his confrontation with his master.
All these things of course can also take place within the context of a romantic relationship, but given for me they weren't they had a distinctive feel as moments of real friendship.
BUT ... I lap this stuff up, and would never say "no" to more and better, so what else would folk want to see to help bring friendships to life? If you didn't feel that you were friends with your companions but wanted to be, what made you feel that? (Having seen a few comments about the endings despite trying to avoid spoilers, I'm wondering if part of it is that some of the stories don't have satisfying conclusions.)
A slightly different, but for me related, topic is that of party camaraderie, which I do think is lacking in BG3. I don't get enough of a feel of the party members bonding with each other as well as with my main character. I like that they all have commentary on each other's personal quests, but I want to see them interacting with each other, and to interact with them as a group, more. I think this would require more and better banter, more of party members giving their views on events as we adventure, eg suggesting where to go or what to do and getting involved in NPC dialogues, and I'd also love it if we got mini-scenes of companions interacting with each other at camp or conversations we could eavesdrop on like those between Mass Effect 3 companions on the Normandy between missions.
What do you folks think?
