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

Considering there are approximately 86 lore-accurate ways to save Karlach already that Larian just ignores, I wouldn't count on it.

I’m certain it doesn’t work. But WHY? I’m curious what’s the specific roadblock they put there.

For me WOTR is much better. I like mechanical complexity, mythic paths are very fun and actually influence the plot and the ending. Overall plot was complete enough for me on release and didn't suffer from "this companion is written so bad I'm gonna wait for EE". Main story is more reactive to the player.

It isn't perfect either. The game was and still is ridden with bugs and some endgame mythic paths are lackluster. But I had more fun.

I mean, even if you don't like your mythic path end there always be a perfect secret ending. It's really hard to get, but change your ending is possible.
I really wish something like this for Karlach.

WOTR is great. Until I had 80% of the game completed, I still didn't know who will be the boss at the end. Companions and their quests were awesome, epilog was awesome, described in details consequences of my decisions and my romance ended exactly as I wanted, because it whole made complete sence in the story.

Of course the game has some issues, but in such a big story is it kinda "expected".

I just checked Wrath of the Righteous real quick, and it seems all of the female romanceable characters are evil, aside from one chaotic neutral succubus. Not exactly spoiled for choice there, hahahah.

Edit: I forgot about the Queen but she's not exactly a standard companion.

Probably, Wenduag and Camellia were evil, but I romanced that succubus - Arueshalae and her quest was really good when she was alone and desperate at the beggining and happy and with my Tav at the end, so good ending for sure. I wish the same thing will be possible with Karlach.

When I took Karlach with me to Cazador's fight every bat that tried to bite her immediately burnt to death, so I have a big suspicion that the upgrade only helps her external temperature.

That's if we're ignoring the "not being able to explore options" part.

(Also, from what I've heard about ascended Astarion's attitude, I'm not quite sure Karlach would even want a (yet another) master over her like that.)

This is what I was thinking too. Karlach already suffered for ages under the tyranny of a demon master, she would probably not accept being under astarion as her master.
Now I got a question tho, Im not very well knowledgeable in DnD, but how would Karlach becoming a spawn would make the engine go away?? Would it stop working if she died and came back as a spawn or would it just explode??

Regarding dnd lore and vampire spawn for a minute, was anyone else expecting astarion to like...you know...revert baxk to mortal status after cazador rather then remain a spawn? The whole master vampire trope etc etc. I thought that was in dnd lore but i could be wrong (ill keep future posts pointed on karlach but this has been on my mind)

I believe vampires have to be ritualistically killed otherwise they poof away and regenerate their bodies.

Redemption and aligment change is a major theme of WOTR. Spoilers incoming.

Camellia is
Arue is a demon and
Wenduag is
In regards to Karlach only Camellia's path is kinda similar because

Fair enough, by the way, I don't think being a spawn saves you from getting exploded from the inside, and vampire venom would do nothing to the engine I don't think... Astarion himself is clearly killable by explosions, as the gameplay shows :")

For some reason I got hung up on the "can he even bite her" part first

Oooh

...in that case if not for the whole master-spawn thing and the fact that our girl is unbiteable that would be an almost funny way to circumvent the engine problem.

Filed right under all the other means of resurrection and regeneration we have to ignore which don't even require her to never see sun again.

Although I gotta say why the hell do I have to revive Astarion personally then if he walls in battle, does tadpole block THAT ability too (I know that the answer is 'gameplay', I know)

Funny that every day the ever expanding lists of not only inlore but ingame ways Karlach could effectively get a more positive outcome grows.

Glad we're all still around, keep the voices loud and chins up.

Interesting! So she probably still burns everything.



Oh, of course. Karlach as a character would disapprove of _everything_ related to this idea.

I was just thinking of possible loopholes that I haven’t seen explored in this thread yet. Her story has quite a few holes in the game so I was wondering if perhaps they forgot to close down some unlikely avenues. But it seems they did, even if in a sort of lazy way.

Speaking of which, I’d totally bargain with Vlaakith for the prism/Orpheus for her Wish spell to fix Karlach.

I mean, if Karlach can’t live, why should anyone? Not in my play lol

I would prefer if they scrap exploding engine plot point altogether. If they don't and introduce a fix there would be virtually no reason to go down her 'explode' route. Routes must be equal in terms of reasons why should I chose one or another.

For example if they refactor her story into power fantasy one, then there could be a valid choice between going full power demonic unhinged barbarian who clocks her engine to the moon and decides to avenge herself, kill Zariel and take the place in Avernus for herself, or stabilize the engine giving up some power and go adventuring with her friends while fighting off occasional Zariel lackeys or two, e. g. Ultimate Power vs Ultimate Frienship.

There's ABSOLUTELY a way to still have her explode ending.

If Dammon die, if the Gondians die, if Barcus Wroot doesn't become the Ironhand leader.

There's tons of ways to do it.

I do see your point, but the "take the place in Avernus for herself" route is hardly in-character for her, no matter how you slice it

General revenge - maybe, sort of (although it doesn't really satisfy her, as Gortash shows), but power doesn't seem like her style. And I wager none of us really want to see the character herself re-written - we love her for a reason, and her being different from the other companions in terms of her struggle is part of that reason, I think.

I'd say in her case the routes should me more equal in terms of "likely to happen", rather than reasons.

As in, I'd say the 'best' option should be hard to get and easy to miss or screw up, so that the 'bad' routes still bear significance. Well, that - or maybe the price should be steep, so the player theoretically has motivation to NOT go that way?