Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Party Size Discussion

You currently have 5 companions available in EA - thief, cleric, wizard, fighter and warlock. Pick the class you want to play then choose the 3 from the 5 which will best compliment that choice. Pick whichever subclass from those available (typically 2 or 3) that tickles your fancy.
You will reach level 5 in EA.

I've edited my game to take up to 7 in a party. So far on 4 different play throughs there has been little game stopping bugs overall. In fact it's hard to tell if it's my modification of the game that causes the bug or something that is a overall problem that will be addressed in official release. In most cases any game crashing seems to stem from a cutscene. In terms of game difficulty I have had less total party kills than with the standard 4 sized party, but still had complete party wipes in the bigger battles. In reality with the current available roster of party members fights are somewhat easier with a larger party. In most fights at least 1, if not more party members are knocked unconscious. Usually it is Astarion as I use him as an archer and everyone hates archers.

I have not seen a single instance where party/NPC dialog doesn't function properly. I have witnessed random NPC dialog between all of the party members while moving around the areas. In short, even in the biggest battles i.e. outside the goblin keep where there are 20 or so goblins, on multiple levels attacking the 5 NPCs and my character; there was very little lag, no game crashing problem, or even party NPCs being ignored by hostiles.

During my latest run through with a full 6 member party- All have hit level 5 before heading down to the Underdark after saving the grove, so Party XP does not seem to be impacted.

its just kinda sad that Larian is turning to the casuals and inclusive developers. but yet not inclusive to expand the number of characters to 6? seems like 4 is really the magic number that larian is going forward for any of their RPGs and all these discussions have gone into deaf ears. but IKR, bestiality gay is the new thing we should focus on.

This article popped up couple hours ago on PC gamer

https://www.pcgamer.com/increase-your-baldurs-gate-3-party-size-to-8-characters-with-this-mod/

I saw the party limit begone updated like an hour ago. If it works I'm hoping the harder difficulty level scales alright just going with that mod. Got a few days here waiting in the wings, but it'd be fun to try the first out with 6 like I got in my head

This is only for companions and not for custom parties.... Are hirelings taken into account for this as well? I am waiting for a mod for a bigger custom party.

This. Its nice that we have bigger party mods but as far as I know none of them allows you to have a full custom party (thats Im looking for too)

The mod has been around since May. Today's upload is an update - hotfix compatible and a party of up to 16.

The mod is great!

Warning: Send a couple back to camp before boarding the underdark ship though, or it will bug out the extra characters it doesn't pick as your 3 you're supposed to have for that transition.

I am for at least 5 members 4 are just not enough ..

Yeah, I really felt the lack of characters in act 2. Gale and Wyll both have promised plot beats in the end of that area and because I couldn't manage without shadowheart to heal and a frontline fighter, I had to choose between them, which felt lame because I think a couple moments would have felt more engaging and interesting if I had had Wyll there.

For me the big thing is, with any game where "parties" are even a thing, whatever the party size is, it has to be *narratively* justified. Something about the setting must actually limit the size of groups, or at least they type of group the player's party is.
And when no alternate justification is offered, the only justified party size is "the entire group at once, you and all companions".

Baldur's Gate 3 provides no reason whatsover why you can't travel in groups larger than 4.
The only "reason" offered is the companions arbitrarily decide they don't want to be a 5th person, and the only conceivable reason for them to think that way is, well, that they are really, really stupid.

Unless Larian wants to come out and update the story to say "The god of numbers and arbitrariness has placed a divine, unbreakable law against travelling groups larger than 4." then they should have balanced the game around the entire team being present at all times from the get go. We shouldn't need a mod to up the limit, and we *definitely* shouldn't need a mod to increase difficulty after upping the limit, it should just be how the vanilla game works.

The camera and the AI pathfinding already struggle with a party of four.

And for that very reason, we can have a bigger party, because the struggle is already a thing and won't change. At least we would have a bigger party to compensate for that. I would be only too happy to accept that trade-off.

I really don't get the 4 party size, it's really sad and fun breaking.
The main issue is that you NEED a tank + a heal + you if you aren't you of the two mandatory (no I won't make mindfucking metabuilds).
Thus you are left with only one spot forcing you to miss a lot of fun and even whole skills.
I usually play a paladin two handed crusader type, I need a tank, often a warrior + a healer, often a cleric => then either I take a magic user or a ranged physical dmg dealer, but can't both and not even a fun last character like a bard or something.

Pathfinders did it, with success on two games, you probably could as well....
Therefore I'm using a mod even if it will unbalance the game because you know we are playing for fun mainly.

I completed the game on tactician and i tell you this: you dont need tanks or healers. You need 2 martial classes with GWs, potions of speed and feats for GWs. Laezel as fighter and MC as paladin deleted every boss in 1-2 turns with obscene amount of damage you get from haste giving you full action.

Right now BG3 is way too easy with 4 characters in the party, you can nuke every encounter, just buy and use consumables.

This is actually very nice to hear, given my very strong preference for melee martial PCs and parties.

I'll still insist on using a mod to increase my party size to six, and I will play only on story mode, so that hopefully I can literally zip through the onerous TB combat.

I agree with this answer.

For those who’ve tried the mod, though: how interactive are the extra party members? With five companions, for example, can you follow up on quests and/or earn approval for all five while they’re with you?

The only issues i've noticed is that Wyll got stuck with camp dialogue about his father after learning of the kidnapping; his camp dialogue options didn't clear up 'til most of the way through Act 2. Also after the meeting with Gortash, Gale comments on finally getting to Moonrise Towers... Though either of those could just be in game bugs completely unrelated to having Gale, Wyll, Laa'zel, Halsin and Karlach, in the group.

The only issues i've noticed is that Wyll got stuck with camp dialogue about his father after learning of the kidnapping; his camp dialogue options didn't clear up 'til most of the way through Act 2. Also after the meeting with Gortash, Gale comments on finally getting to Moonrise Towers... Though either of those could just be in game bugs completely unrelated to having Gale, Wyll, Laa'zel, Halsin and Karlach, in the group.

The only issues i've noticed is that Wyll got stuck with camp dialogue about his father after learning of the kidnapping; his camp dialogue options didn't clear up 'til most of the way through Act 2. Also after the meeting with Gortash, Gale comments on finally getting to Moonrise Towers... Though either of those could just be in game bugs completely unrelated to having Gale, Wyll, Laa'zel, Halsin and Karlach, in the group.