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 still believe in Larian. They have always been known for listening to the community. They're obviously very busy with the console release right now, but we're only required to give constructive criticism and offer our opinion on the issue. I personally think that Karlach just didn't get finished because she was a completely different character in Early Access, but I'm very grateful to Larian for our Karlach we have now. We love her so much and just want to be able to do our best for her in Act 3. Let's hope Larian hears us.

JUSTICE 4 KARLACH

This 100%. I have full faith in Larian that they will do their best to address our concerns. If I didn't believe that they would listen to us I would have written it off as a loss and simply moved on rather than camping out on their forums. Part of the reason I get so reflexively defensive when people say that we're "demanding" things or "taking shots at Larian" is because it's simply not true. Larian asked US for feedback, so I'm providing feedback on what I think would improve the game.

Yeah. I think something that needs to be said is that the existing content for Karlach isn't *bad*. The scene with her talking about having the courage to be grateful even knowing she's dying soon actually made me tear up a bit. The writing for what *is* there is great, I think the existing endings should stay as options. And the fact Larian is listening and making changes is awesome and I applaud them for it, even if the first effort in this direction feels like it misses the mark a bit.

It just feels really, really bad that you're never given a chance to even *try* to solve the problem- even as the game shows you multiple perfectly plausible possible solutions- that's so frustrating. It's even more so when you compare it to the other companion quests, where there's almost always some way to address their problems. With Karlach, there just.... isn't any option to even try, and that's what makes people so frustrated with it. it feels like Karlach and the PC just give up immediately after Dammon says her engine is going to fail.

Just to be clear, yes she is going back to Avernus, which is one of The nine layers of Hell. But she doesnt die. Avernus and The The other layers of Hell just as any other plane in Forgotten Realms can be travelled to (with difficulty), whilst still living. I was referring to her eventual death x amounts of years after BG3 ends.

Except she literally doesn't want that. She wants to cure herself and be free and if that fails, she'd rather die than go back to avernus. And the problem is that despite many potential ways of actually fixing the issue we're not even allowed to TRY any of them. I'll leave out cheesy ways like scroll of true resurrection and all, but Gondians, Steel Watch or even Dammon should be able to figure out something. If not, why can't we get a deal with Raphael, Mizora, Mystra or other god or even Zariel herself? Either do something for them or promise a favor in future? Hell, maybe we could just buy Karlach's freedom with Soul Coins, but we'd have to get our hands a bit dirty to get enough of them? Can you use any argument why we can't do anything out of the listed things? And please, don't use "real liferino not fair tragedy so good" because we are already able to bail out a guy with nuke in his chest who was ordered a suicide mission as the only way to redeem himself by a LITERAL goddes of magic so that argument isn't really working there

Even if we can`t fix her engine at all (imagine: we do everything and this doesn`t work), there still exists one good ending option! That`s a one of a reason why I against full tragic for her, it`s just unlogick, even without a fix she can logically get at least pointing good ending (as ).
And this option is -

please, tell more about additional possible outcomes if playing as her.

Exactly this, we are not calling for retcons, we don't want to change anything. We just want something that has been heavily hinted and we aren't even close to being toxic about it. We are simply pointing out things that should be in game and most likely has just been cut. Those are very huge plot holes that simply need to be addressed

Never thought about it this way, but as she

MC&Friends can embark on a quest of obtaining a WISH spell or scroll of true ressurection or whatever we can think of since imminent catastrophe isn't looming over our heads now while she chills in the House.

I'm not sure if you noticed (and I mean no offense) but she wanted to LIVE more than anything else. Not to die, or go back to Avernus.

You are absolutely right, dear creator of the thread. Karlach, more than all of our party members, wanted only to stay in her hometown with her loved one and her friends.

Just in case I remind those who say that we are.
1. "Please just change the endings instead of these." No, these endings are fine, they can be. The problem is that there isn't another one. Karlach's quests are practically empty compared to the other companions, during the whole playthrough until the very end you can't help but feel like you accidentally missed a quest needed for her somewhere. Despite the fact that I tried in a huge number of ways that at least hinted at developing the story differently. I speak at least for myself: I was attentive to the clues scattered by the developers and didn't google any quests at all, the more enjoyable it was to solve these puzzles. But in the case of Karlach, after much searching, I googled and found nothing
2. "We are asking Larian to get things done urgently." I myself work in IT companies, I have a lot of friends from gamedev, I know that such improvements are not done quickly, just in case I pay attention to it to other people. The fact that they released a new epilogue so quickly is already very cool. Personally, I wish they would have just written that it was a work in progress.

This is pure speculation and has no basis in anything Larian has said, but I suspect they didn't say "this epilogue is a work in progress" because of timing. Think about it, you're between the game releasing on PC and console, and a significant issue among the players has come up that will take time and effort to correct. You can put a band-aid on it now that's not perfect, but it is something. You want to maximize sales before Starfield comes out, so you can't just come out and say "this game is still a work in progress despite the 1.0 tag". If you do that think of how many people will just say "I'll wait to buy it until it's finished", hell most of us are saying something similar and we already have the game. While I definitely don't appreciate the somewhat underhanded wording by the PR team, I'm not exactly surprised they didn't want to advertise the game still has some unfinished elements.

Basically if they just used different words people wouldn't be that mad. Obviously they won't say the game is unfinished before ps5 release and this is perfectly understandable. I just wish we got some hint that they are listening and we just need to wait. That being said, what Sven said in recent interview, and in patch 2 may be enough of a hint. I really can't wait for a new content patch

The game is polished enough to release to the public. The PR company wasn't fooling anyone about anything, the game is great. There are just some points that I wish could have been finalized.

That's if you disconsider the things they advertised months ahead of release which aren't in the game. I agree that, mechanically and technically, it could've been a LOT worse (I mean... we can all look at Starfield...), but saying everything is as advertised is objectively incorrect.

Edit, so that I don't cause anyone's blood to boil: not saying they don't deserve credit for what's there, just saying that's no reason to not hold them accountable for what was advertised and isn't. We can like something and also be fair and honest about its shortcomings, otherwise there would be no improvement and growth in the world.

They deserve all the credit in the world, we just want one loose end tied up. Just make Dammon be able to fix the engine, or gondians, or whoever. One more simple fetch quest is more than enough, and then we can calmly wait for Definitve Edition and what not. I get that adding one quest may take a while, but on the other hand, once the ps5 release is done, I don't think asking for simple fetch quest to tie quite important storyline is unresonable

Agreed, but I wasn't referring to that. There are elements which have been advertised (see the Upper City as the most glaring one) and haven't been delivered. I'm not trying to derail the thread, but I can't in good conscience let this slide.