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

SPOILERS:

I've reached Act 3 romacing Karlach. Loved the character. I am a sucker for this combination of badassery and kindness. So I dove into her development. It was my main priority honestly.

When I had the interaction with the Steel Watcher, I felt the game was leading me somwhere, and I was sure that we would be able to fix her infernal engine. So, down to the factory. When I defeated the first Steel Watcher, it dropped the Enriched Infernal Iron. I found the better version of what is used to encase her engine, so I was even more sure that we would be able to fix her engine. All I needed was to help the gondians, and surely, since they had experience with the upgraded infernal iron version, they would be able to help. So I manage to save everyone on the Iron Throne. It was quite hard, but it would be worth it, because agaian, FOR SURE the gondians would be able to help the character I was investing time on.

So, I did everything and found strange when my OC didn't mention her heart to the gondians... OK, let's face Gortash. The speech she gave after it was awesome, and it would make the moment we fix her engine much more impactful. So not wanting to ruin my time investment in this character, I compromised to read spoilers for her endings.

For fucks sake... She has no good endings. How is that even possible? In my head we had plenty oportunities storywise to fix her. Fuck, she even mentioned a Wish speIl. I was mad at the writers for playing me dirty there... But after thinking a little, I came to the conclusion that her character is unfinished. Larian is not bad at creating stories. I prefer to think they dropped the ball somewhere, and compromised on releasing a finished character. It's not ideal, but it happens. What makes me worried is Larian saying that the last update gave her desired ending... I hope this was communication mistake, honestly. Her desired ending is simple: her engine fixed and away from Avernus, while being herself.

I dropped this campaign, and started anew, with few mods to spice a little. But I am steering waaaaaaay clear from Karlach and Wyll. Karlach for being unfinished, and Wyll because I feel his story is too tied to Karlach's, and I fear he is also unfinished.

Basicly line for line how i was my first playthough and the thoughts I had

Welcome to the "It's the hope that kills you" storytelling.

"Hope" is such a strange way to spell 'Plot holes'

So many players dropped their campaigns (or speedran to the end just for the sake of ending) after the Gortash scene/ Karlach�s monologue. That seems proof enough that there�s a BIG problem here.

I have a question: Can ascended vampire Astarion bite Karlach and make her a spawn?

He can�t bite her at first because she�ll burn him, but he should be able to after the upgrades. What is the twist for him not to be able to do that?

I�m very curious. It�d be wild if THAT allowed her to stay in Faerun, but someone would�ve already screamed about it if it were a possibility, I assume.

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.