Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

I’m a bit confused reading that there’s

It really seemed like the writers were clearly telegraphing there would be some way to help her.

I love a good tragedy, but it would feel a lot more earned if our character actually
You go through hell and back for half the other companion quests, but with Karlach
It would be a lot more meaningful if after trying everything, you realize
Pausing my Karlach playthrough for now -

Reloaded my last savegame of my first playthrough with the final conversation with Karlach and watched the "extended epilogue" yesterday. I was somehow shocked and irritated how out of character Karlach acted.


I appreciate the work Larian is investing but I still have hopes for a happy ending for Karlach and my Tav.

While I'm generally agreeing with the overall displeasure with the endings - obviously - I really wish people would
All that being said I once again repeat that I really hope that this is a bandaid and her actual quest will be fleshed out down the line, so that whatever endings we get feel actually deserved according to the way we played (preferably including actually HELPING her) and not just frustratingly set in stone. Lest someone thinks I'm defending the current state of things as good enough.

So I was going to respond to this yesterday but the forums were kinda nuked all day, I wonder why.

Honestly I'm impressed with Larian studios, it's pretty amazing to see them put out such a major patch so quickly. I do love and appreciate their commitment to making the game better and better. So I'm happy and impressed with the devs here for all they've done to get this in our hands right away.

However as soon as I saw that patch 2 was being released so quickly I knew that Larian would not deliver on a new ending for Karlach as they promised. It was obvious, there was no way they'd be able to implement that much new content that quickly.

In the end Karlach's endings are still hot garbage.

This isn't the ending your fans and customers want, this isn't the ending she deserves. Worse yet the way you presented these changes gave us a lot of false hope, now it feels like you straight up lied to your customers. And for what?

So yeah, I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Looks like we'll need to keep beating this drum for a long time to come.

#JusticeForKarlach

The thing is, that this is not a fanservice in terms of fans want good ending, we will give them what they want. This is more like we gave our fans incomplete game and we should do our best to fix it and reclaim our reputation. (this applies for whole act3)

Quite. They’ve have been better off just saying they’d patched a couple of things that weren’t triggering properly and were working on bigger improvements. Details to follow in time.

So predictable.

THIS!!! So much this. I literally just made my account just to get onto the forums just because I felt like I needed to talk about this!

Larian, WHAT THE HELL?! This isn't what we wanted and this isn't what Karlach deserves. And yeah, I was extremely skeptical as well, I wanted to hold off playing until the new update to see what to make of it. But now? Seeing you, as I expected, oversell what you were giving us only to leave us disappointed? It's not even a new ending! It's just a fancy new cinematic tacked onto the ending we hated!

This is the kind of thing that makes me feel ignored and destroys my trust in a studio. It makes me feel like the game isn't worth continuing. Which HURTS to say! I love the game! I want to keep playing it, and I want there to be more amazing and successful queer-friendly games like this one! But I'm sick and tired of having to deal with nothing but unsatisfying endings. Not just in Baldur's Gate III but in so many other things too. Maybe I'm being overdramatic but...this hurts. At this point I just expect to constantly be let down. I can't keep doing this...

Unlike Caios I think I might actually be a little mad. My disappointment is immeasurable but it would be a lie to say that I'm not mad.

The new ending is OK enough for me.

I mean you couldnt even go to Avernus with her if you romanced her and had Wyll as Blade of Avernus with you

I respect that, I think the new ending is quite good. I love the dumb 80s vibe it has.


Is it an improvement? Certainly. It is not however a satisfying ending for someone who worked so hard to fix her.

I'd have hoped they'd add a fix for her heart. With everything we can see in the game, it's absolutely not plausible that she can't have a happy ending.

It's definitely plausible but the thing is, I am at a point where I don't believe it's ever going to happen. I think this is all that we're ever going to get.

I'm so tired. I'm so very fucking tired. I'm sick and tired of screaming and screaming and screaming and being ignored.

The thing is, I wouldnt consider this as cool to be honest. Its, as far as the information goes, completly out of character for Karach to just wip out 2 cigars and smoke them saying she gave em up a long time ago, yet she never mentioned she was smoking once in her life. That would be okay if she didnt tell us that, but the fact she basically told us her entire backstory and what she did and went through, it feels so weird they just popped the "Im a Smoker" sticker on Karlach...

I agree, but I'm gonna chalk that up to "Oh no guys the fans are REALLY mad about Karlach and we gotta throw something together."

Is it dumb? Yes.
Is it campy? Definitely.
Is it in character? Probably not.

Do I think it's an acceptable peace offering until they add something better? Sure, for now.

Also, I HAVE to add it, and no, I won't spoiler-tag this. Smoking is BAD. This was a really silly and cheap move.

Out of nowhere. Out of character. Out of place.

Glad I'm not the only one who thought it was extremely out of character. If Larian wants to give us a peace offering, they're gonna have to do better than this.

But I still doubt that they ever will.

In every companion's story, the player has agency in how things unfold, EXCEPT for Karlach's story. It literally makes no difference if we never even found her by the river, she still only has the same options for her future than if we DO meet her and run around the Sword Coast trying to fix her engine. And this didn't change that.

Yeah Im not totally against the epilogue at all, it would be fine if it wasnt for the basically false advertisment from Swens side with his "The ending she deserves" "A lot of people are going to be happy with this" " a thing a lot of people asked for"

Its clear as days that this scene wasnt made specifically for us, it was already premade and lost along the way somewhere. That makes it even more disappointing that the running scene is at like solid 15fps... Its not polished at all, sure it was rushed, but they didnt make this from scratch either

I dont think anyone really expected a COMPLETLY new ending, but people were more hopeful as well, especially because the way they phrased it, it wasnt really hinting towards an "expansion" on an already existing ending... To be its basically the same ending as before, just a bit longer and more "clearance" I guess

False advertising at it's finest. I doubted that the "new ending" would really amount to anything at all. And I was right. It really didn't and honestly it felt insulting.

Maybe my pessimistic outlook is because I've dealt with exactly this kind of thing from many other games and studios, to the point where I've completely condemned and sworn off ever playing anything they created ever again. So my past experiences with other studios and other titles might be coloring my perspective a bit. But right now? I don't feel like Larian is ever going to do anything else about it. I know people are hoping for Larian to address this and give Karlach a "proper" ending, trading this slap-dash band-aid of an ending and finally giving the full-on surgery Karlach's story so desperately needs. But as things currently stand, I have no reason to believe Larian will EVER do anything of the sort. Whenever a studio fucks up to this extent, I don't think I have ever seen any studio address it and resolve it in a satisfying way.

Maybe my sapphic ass is just too used to being baited, backstabbed, and disappointed. But with everything I've seen, I don't see why I should hold out hope that "maybe this time will be different."

Don't lose hope just yet. We've been heard once, this time it might be different, we are all rooting for Karlach Hang in there friend, we're in this together

They literally didn't hear us though. They just released this trashfire that they tried to pass off as a "new ending", possibly in hopes that we'd shut the hell up.