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

Copying my last feedback, will probably be my last for a while since I put in 450 hours in BG3.

The near-unanimous consensus on Karlach is that her story feels incomplete in Act 3. She is the only companion (to my knowledge) whose ending does not change regardless of your previous choices in the story. The choices are 'death' or 'Avernus' and you make them in the last 30 seconds of the game. Very unsatisfying. It SEEMS like, from all the clues, that a new ending to fix her heart ought to be added.. And don't make it easy. Make the fix ending only available if Dammon, Barcus Wroot and all the Gondians survive deep into Act 3. Make it so you have to broker a deal with Gortash, potentially putting your kidnapped companion at risk. Make it difficult and rewarding but give the people what we want!

And I just wish we got one quick quest so we can at least enjoy the story we are invested so much. Just let us fix her engine with a simple fetch quest and then we can wait for all the stuff that may be to come in DE

The whole story is about fixing the engine, we are showed too many solutions and can't use any of them. One fetch quest and one scene at the end is enough, we don't need much. Just Karlach saying that now she free and can do whatever. Minimum effort, yet it ends the whole affair and we all go home.

Is it harder than defusing a nuke and bailing a guy out of a suicide mission ordered by a literal goddess? If not, your argument is irrelevant. Her engine isn't anything out of ordinary, literally nobody is bothered by it and a refugee in the middle of nowhere is able to modify it with close to nothing at his disposal. This isn't some ancient piece of technology that's been lost for millenia but Zariel somehow found it and decided to turn her into some kind of doomed goddess of death, she's literally just a soldier like many others with A LOT of ways out that we can't use because either someone had very poor grimderp moment and decided to act like edgy 13 year old on wattpadd or because of cut content. If it's the latter, then all we need is confirmation that we will get the ending we want and the whole affair ends

Plus, as Karlach is rather a (chaotic) good aligned character, having all the helpful people saved and kept alive in your game, i.e. playing on a good alignment, can be an intelligent way to challenge the player "if you want to play a good samaritan then prove it and you will be rewarded".

And as you only know at the really end of the game that all those people are the only ones that can help Karlach, it should be a real "difficult" mission to save her. You are not even aware about all these prerequesites during act 1 and 2. You only understand during Act 3 if your choices/actions in previous acts have a positif or a negative impact for having a good end on Karlach quest.
Karlach's quest is not the most exciting quest, and I'm not sure it can be a "better" entertainment than "gimme some infernal metal" during act 1&2 tbh. But adding some butterfly effect from other totally not-related quests can add a lot of depth to Karlach's personal quest, where success depends not on which boss you have to beat, but on who you have to save.


In that way, everyone can be satisfied, the players that want a coherent good end, those who swear by the adage "nOt EvErYoNe CaN hAvE a GoOd EnD", and Larian who don't have to touch anything before Act 3 except putting triggers on some quests to activate the final new Karlach's quest+cinematic, which would be the only thing to develop.

You know what I just realized now? Karlach's personal quest basically DOES NOT HAVE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PLAYER'S CHOICE! One of the main pillars on which any story RPG rests! More precisely, they are, but they are INCREDIBLY few and they all essentially go to the same depressing ending for this character. And there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING the player can do to get the ending they really want for this character they like.

On my first playthrough, I had her fixed 2 times in a row during Act 2.

On my second playthrough - after Patch 2 and Hotfix 5, I've recruited Karlach earlier and fixed her 1 time at the grove. But for the second time, Dammon says - "see you in Baldur Gate!". WTF?? I don't have the second piece of the infernal metal, but when I find it, then what, Dammon will refuse to proceed till Act 3??

I think he speaks about BG after first upgrade all the time, but you will find him in act2 in the smithy same as before the patch.

^Oh, that's a relief, thanks.

Give us literally anything, how can anyone even consider her story full if we do literally nothing in act except for doomer sad dialogs. How can anyone consider her story completed, and a good tragedy if we weren't even allowed to fail? Sure in DE we can have complex questline and all, for now I just want to enjoy the game and a story Im about to spend about 50 hours or so, and one simple fetch quest allows this. We really aren't asking for much

I liked Karlach too. But I wonder, do all of you posting these "better ending for Karlach", "better ending for Astarion threads" understand that, it is all of them? All the companions, the entire game in act 3 is still EA. They rushed an unfinished game out the door knowingly.

I got the scene where you go with Wyll and Karlach to Avernus and thought this was a fine bittersweet ending. Leaves things open to continue.

However, Shadowheart my romance? Not a single word to me after the final fight. And all the other companions has at most 2 sentences. The entire sequence is 3 min long at most and just fades to black. I reload and let Karlach die just to see what changes, ah the game tells me I killed Shadowheart (honestly Ridiculous for a final release) then 2 sec later I am talking to her for 40 sec, fade to black. THE GAME IS NOT FINISHED.

Now Larian if you see this, I can feel the effort you put in to act 1 and 2. But this game still has continuity issues, AFTER 3 YEARS IN EARLY ACCESS. And I dont care, if you make good on it with a definitive edition, because if you do this will be THE RPG of the next 20 years at least. And honestly, after three years in early access, I feel like you owe it to us, because this game is still lacking a lot of what was promised. And I will even pay all over again for it, because I believe that THAT game, will be worth 2 x price.

All the pieces are in the lower city. Dammon has a Diabolic Forge (does he even USE the thing?!), the Steel Watchers recognize her as a defective Watcher and have Enriched Infernal Iron, the Steel Watcher tells you exactly what is wrong with her engine which is apparently almost a prototype for what keeps them running, the Gondians improved upon the design and could easily figure out a way to fix her.

So in theory the quest would have you talk to Dammon, talk to a steel watcher while she's in your party, talk to Dammon again.
"Apparently those metal monstrosities running about think I'm one of them and it told me that my 'insert tech description here I can't remember it clearly atm' is what's wrong with my engine."
Dammon has a eureka moment, "Of course! But honestly.. that seems to be a bit outside even my skill level.. Tell ya what. Go see if you can save those Gondians from Gortash's whip. If you can pry apart the watchers, and get them out safely, try and get one of their engineers to come here. Between me and some gnome tech geniuses with the Diabolic Forge in the house, we'll fix that heart if it's the last thing we do."

Done and Dusted. Hell they could probably go the route of making her a whole new engine. Which unlocks her blue flames full time. (Don't judge me she looked hella cool.)

Also Dammon losing his ability to forge items out of Infernal Iron in Act 3 is really suspicious.

Think it's safe to say that's a largely accepted fact at this point, yeah... And it can never hurt to have as much feedback out there, both about the entirety of the last Act, as well as specific elements - increases visibility and awareness that we're paying attention to both the big picture and the details which compose it. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, and there are a lot of wheels in need of lubrication:))

What? I wasn't making any such argument. Did you mean to reply to someone else?

It's almost like she has made up her mind and won't let you decide her fate for her. It's almost as if she doesn't accept that anyone would force her to live in literal Hell (again). It's almost as if people need to learn to respect her choice.

Larian has improved THE ending that we have in the game NOW. That doesn't mean they won't work on a new ending. All this doomposting is ridiculous. What did people really expect on such short notice? The game was released a month ago, we had two patches, one of them improved the ending by making her stance clearer.

Because there are so many options for trying to fix her engine, any new content would obviously take more time. Just wait. They have already said they have called in the voice actors again - for what do you think that is, if not for "tying loose ends" as they put it?

That argument would have a lot more weight if people were arguing she should be sent to Hell, but... no one is, as far as I can tell. Karlach isn't suicidal. She doesn't choose to die, she'd rather die than go back to Avernus. There's a huge difference.
How is it not "respecting her choice" to want an option for her to not die, when she's literally always talking about how much she loves being alive?

With the content in the game now, it is impossible to fix the engine, full stop. Of course her reaction reflects that. Everyone knows (including Larian, as it is stated in the patch 2 notes) that people want more options. I really have a hard time seeing why people keep coming back to bash the writing, call it a tragedy trope or tragedy-baiting or bring their personal lives into the thread.

Respectfully, you appear to be replying to something I never said. I never brought up anything about tragedy-baiting. I also agree that it'll take time, but Larian appears to be aware of the problem. I've said so explicitly.
All I was saying is it doesn't make much sense to complain people who want a better ending for Karlach aren't respecting her wishes, because what they're looking for seems to be perfectly in line with what she says she wants.

No its not lol ,and even if it was there is a plethora of ways to fix her but we aren't allowed to explore them