Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback More Origin Companion Recruitment/Encounter Opportunities

With Lae'zel, if you don't rescue her from the hanging wooden cage, you later encounter her on the road where the Githyanki and the dragon kill a bunch of Flaming Fist, right before you enter the mountains. If you approach and trigger the cutscene, you can either recruit her after the battle, or Lae'zel ends up being killed by her fellow Gith. If you don't recruit her after the battle, she'll wait for you in the mountains. Or if you skip that cutscene/area and go on ahead to the mountains, you find Lae'zel's corpse and the dialogue "Cut down by her own kind. How awful." or something to that effect. Now, you can resurrect Lae'zel and still recruit her if she's killed, or you can just let her stay dead.

For those that don't know, you have something like 4-5 opportunities to recruit Shadowheart, since she and the Prism are important to the plot. The last "recruitable" location is outside the Goblin Camp in Act 1, where she just stays and stands around waiting for you to "come to your senses" and come back for her. If you leave her there and travel to the mountains/shadow-cursed lands, the Prism magically shows up in your inventory. However, if you return to Shadowheart at the goblin camp, her dialogue remains unchanged, including that she doesn't seem to realize you now have the Prism, and your dialogue options likewise reflect the premise that you don't have the Prism when you do.

Basically both you and Shadowheart are subject to amnesia where any story progress comes to a hard stop unless Shadowheart joins your party, and only then will she acknowledge that the "Prism chose you".

Wyll only has 2 chances to recruit him. Both are in the druid grove, and if you recruit Karlach ahead of Wyll, he disappears from the druid grove, and you become unable to recruit him as he just kind of disappears.

if you don't get him out of the portal to begin with, its heavily implied he just dies. So in those cases, its fine if he just vanishes. Not so much if you pull him out of the portal but decide not to recruit him.

Once you move on to the mountains/shadow-cursed lands and the Prism magically arrives in your inventory, leaving Shadowheart, she shouldn't just be standing around the goblin camp with amnesia (and you, also, having amnesia). Few Origin characters are as adamant about returning to Baldur's Gate than her (for her 'mission'). Shadowheart also reveals at some point that the Shadow Curse doesn't affect her like it does the others, as she is "blessed by Shar", so she wouldn't have a problem showing up there.

It would definitely make sense for Shadowheart to appear multiple times after the Goblin Camp.

One could be at the Mountain Pass / Rosymorn Monastery, where she's panicking about having lost the "weapon". Possibly she fears that the Gith managed to take it, and you have the opportunity to reveal to her you have it, or lie to her and say you don't have it. If you tell her you have it, at first, she'll accuse you of stealing it, and you have the option of telling her it just showed up or a number of other options. If she believes you didn't steal it, she'll say she doesn't know why the artifact chose you and insist on joining your group to stick close to it, perhaps imposing herself into staying at your camp (a la similar to Halsin) until she can get it back. If you lie and say you don't have it, she might insist on teaming up to find it by snooping around the Githyanki Creche. In both instances, you can accept or refuse her.

If you still haven't recruited Shadowheart or you went through the Underdark instead and she is unaware that you have the Prism, she could appear again in the Shadow-Cursed Lands, either at the Last Light Inn and/or outside Moonrise Towers, where she'll talk about having intended on cutting her losses and heading for Baldur's Gate, but was blocked by the Absolute's army camped out on the road to the Gate with no way through, allowing you another opportunity to recruit her.

If you still haven't recruited her, then you might encounter her at the entrance of the Gauntlet of Shar, which she found by eavesdropping/spying on some of the Absolute forces or sneakily tailing Balthazar inside, since she's not as affected by the Shadow Curse. Perhaps she might join your party as a temporary member when you do the Gauntlet (similar to Halsin in the Goblin Camp), and then at the end you get the opportunity once more to recruit her as a full party member (or not, depending on what actions are taken).

The last opportunity to encounter Shadowheart and recruit her would be in Baldur's Gate in Act 3, perhaps not far from the House of Grief.

Currently, Astarion is only recruitable at the Nautiloid vessel, where he stays until you move on to Act 3 and that area becomes inaccessible.

The most obvious second encounter opportunity you could have with him would be where he sneaks into your camp and tries to drink your blood (not unlike the cutscene you get if you recruit him, but slightly tweaked). Your options are pretty much the same here as they usually are. You can let him drink your blood, refuse, attack him - or, this time, you can allow him to stay in your party.

If you don't recruit him and don't kill him, perhaps a third encounter could be at the goblin camp where he's mingling trying to learn more about the tadpole and the "Absolute", since he's more inclined to learn how to control/master the tadpole and keep some of the benefits it gives him to break away from Cazador. Once again, you have the opportunity to recruit him (available both when you help Halsin or when you help the goblins), or kill him along with the goblins and True Souls if you decide to help Halsin. Alternatively, Astarion could conveniently "disappear" when the killing starts (similar to Abdirak/the pain-worship guy), or you can speak to Astarion and spare him/warn him to go before you kill everyone.

If Astarion is still alive but not recruited at that point, he might be found in the Underdark around the Grymforge, once again trying to get closer to the Absolute and a way to control the tadpole. Once again you can recruit him, ignore him/let him go, or kill him.

Alternatively and/or instead of the Grymforge, if you take the mountain path, you can meet with him again at the rendezvous camp in the Shadow-Cursed lands where the guide with the moon lantern escorts you to Moonrise Towers, where he will be very insistent on working together now that you're getting close to the "source" of the tadpoles' power.

If he's still not part of your party and still alive in Act 3, perhaps he can be found meeting with Raphael.

Currently the only place Wyll shows up at is the Druid Grove. Firstly, in the training area teaching Tiefling children to fight, and then standing around the Grove entrance after you defeat the goblins. Wyll will still become unobtainable if you side with the goblins and Mynthara, but if you save the grove and side with Halsin, but don't recruit him, you can encounter him later on the road.

If you don't recruit him at the Grove, then the next place Wyll would show up at is Waukeen's Rest, helping to break down the doors of the burning building, regardless of if you have or haven't recruited Karlach. If you haven't recruited Karlach, he'll talk about how he's still looking. If you found her but didn't recruit her/help her fight the Paladins, you can tell him where to find her, at which point he'll either ask you to join him, or if you refuse, he'll run off on his own to confront her. If you then go to where Karlach can be recruited, you'd get a cutscene involving both of them, where you can take either side, let them fight it out to the death, or recruit them both. If you already have Karlach in your party, he can confront her and you, with similar options (take one side, let them fight, stop them from fighting, etc). If you tell Wyll where to find her but don't follow, the game can randomly choose a result (one dies, both dies, neither dies) after you get to a certain point of the game (start of Act 2?).

If Wyll survives, he (possibly Karlach as well, if neither die/and or team up) can be found at the Tollhouse at first. He/They can be encountered then between Trielta Crags before the Shadow-Cursed lands but won't go through it (without you) because of the curse.

If you don't recruit him in Act 1 or 2, he/they can later be found in Baldur's Gate, perhaps in the outer city/Rivington among the refugees? Perhaps having aided the Fist and the Steel Watch against the "invading" Absolute army you see when you very first enter the city, after the curse has been lifted and they are able to travel to Baldur's Gate more freely.

As far as I'm aware, you can only ever recruit Gale at the Nautiloid crash/broken portal, same as Astarion.

Given Gale's unique condition involving the Weave, it would make sense to have Gale appear in the same locations where you would normally pick up items that he would ask to absorb if he were in your party, attempting to get those rare items for himself if flying solo. When you come across him outside of such locations, he would mention in dialogue that there's an item of great value that he's after and hint that he needs to get to it quickly. Each time, if you haven't already had him join up with you, you can either accept or deny joining with him, as well as agree or disagree to let him have/get the rare and powerful item for himself (including the option to kill him off as competition, if you like).

If you still haven't recruited Gale at each of these rare item locations and haven't killed him, then he can be found again at the Myconid Colony in the Underdark, making friendly with the mushroom people. If asked how he managed to find his way there (without going through the Selune temple or the Shadow-Cursed lands), he'll mention using a feather fall spell in a spider cave that brought him down to the Underdark, and he'll suggest partying up with you to head to the Grymforge, at which point you can accept or refuse.

If you didn't recruit him but killed the Absolute cultists at Grymforge, he can be encountered again at the Last Light Inn if you still haven't recruited him to your group, having taken the elevator from Grymforge to the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

If you decide to free the Nightsong and let them live, then he joins you and the Harpers in the assault on Moonrise Towers and Ketheric Thorm (alternatively, if you kill the Nightsong, perhaps he dies with the Harpers). This also still allows you to trigger the Act 2 ending unique to Gale, if you want. If Gale survives, you can talk with him after the battle, where you can invite him to your camp as a permanent companion or send him on his way. If you refuse to team up with him, he heads to Baldur's Gate on his own.

If for some reason you STILL didn't recruit him through all of Act 1 & 2 and he's still alive, he can be found in the main city area of Baldur's Gate. Perhaps around Sorcerous Sundries.

Karlach is one that probably wouldn't need a lot of changes since her joining is contingent on you killing the "Paladins of Tyr", and with one of them being a merchant players might rely on to get rid of loot (unlike the Tieflings who capture Lae'zel, who are just NPC fodder), it wouldn't be a great idea to just have the NPC's auto-die to Karlach without you participating in helping her, at least prior to Act 3 when that map is closed off to you and it doesn't matter anymore. Open to suggestions if other people think otherwise though.

The one thing that would possibly change would still be player-triggered, if the players meet with Wyll after finding Karlach's location and telling him where to go. If the player tells Wyll where to find Karlach without joining up/following him there to confront Karlach with him, the game will randomize results between one of them dying (Wyll and Karlach), both of them dying, or neither dying/possibly teaming up. If only Karlach, or both Karlach and Wyll, survive, first they can be found at the Tollhouse.

If the player moves on to the mountains/Trielta Crags and she's still alive, then they can encounter Karlach (and possibly Wyll) again near the entrance to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but won't enter it/go through it without you due to the curse.

If you don't recruit Karlach (and/or Wyll, if both) in Act 1 & 2, she/they can later be found in Baldur's Gate, perhaps in the outer city/Rivington among the refugees? Perhaps having aided the Fist and the Steel Watch against the "invading" Absolute army you see when you very first enter the city, after the curse has been lifted and they are able to travel to Baldur's Gate more freely.