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

As an avid Skyrim modder (including using ElevenLabs to voice my own followers), AI voice is almost indistinguishable from real VA. To see an example, search "Skyrim Mod: Penitus Oculatus - Updated Voice Lines" on YouTube. It uses ElevenLabs voice cloning to clone the original VA and create new voice lines for this character. Unless someone told you it was AI, you'd think it was the original VA who recorded the lines. As long as you aren't creating adult (or other inappropriate) content or making money from the mod, I think it's perfectly ethical.

It's not "the gang goes to Avernus" though. It's Karlach and Wyll (if you made specific choices in his story) go to Avernus, and Tav, but only if Tav romanced Karlach.

That ending is also not available if you are playing Karlach as an origin character (you can't take anyone with you to Avernus in that scenario).

Karlach was a very late addition to the game. She was not available as a companion in the EA, nor was she visible in any promotional artwork (meaning they didn't even envision her as a companion at the start of development). Hell, her appearance was only finalized a few weeks before launch. Given how little time they had to develop her, they went with the simplest story possible: collect 2 items and die, lol. I don't think any writer is happy with that "story". They simply wrote what they could in the limited time they had. Keep in mind that the character needed to be integrated into existing quests, so the writers' hands were tied. They almost certainly weren't allowed to write new quests as the dev team wouldn't have time to implement them.

i highly doubt the writers are satisfied and i fully believe they had cooked up much more, time and technicalities got in the way for sure, the quality and direction dips in the parts we all pointed out and it's pretty obvious (at least to me) that what we got was what was salvageable in the limited amount of time everyone on the team had left.

If you play as Karlach, there is a scene where the entire party joins you to Avernus? I haven't played as Karlach.

Edit: Nevermind, read wrong!

Well whatever happens, I'm gonna keep screaming about it until they actually give Karlach a good ending. A REAL one. Not this fucking forced tragedy garbage. It's hard to keep my hopes up but I can do that much.

Aye, will be screaming about it along with y'all.

It's ironic isn't it, that the last addition to the gang, which happened mainly because players said "yo these mf all edgy and dark, where's our spark of joy?", would also get least development. In the deluxe and collector's editions, you get to peek into the artbook and a page for each companion there says a bit of what was the inspiration behind them etc.

Karlach's literally says that she was added pretty late on and went throigh multiple stages of creation, once a ranger, even a paladin, before settling on barb. None of her concepts show the engine heart in her chest/glow so that too must've been a very late addition. Going with the characters they've had already, they surely did add her to whatever was available already so they could launch it and went with it.

Problem is, everybody fell in love with Karlach and demand her story and ending/s to be just as meaningful and affected by your choices as the other companions. They ought to do something about it, for real.

JUSTICE FOR KARLACH!

Well, if Larians care that much about quality of their game as they claim they should have cut Karlach from the game on release entirely to be added in later dlcs or expansion, rather than leave this half assed origin companion with embarrasingly short and boring questline.

This is what I did, not that quickly though. It made the tone of her story really weird and inconsistent, though I think it'd feel that way regardless.


This ending was kind of ridiculous also because shortly before it, you can convince Lae'Zel to stay with you, then after she agrees immediately ditch her and go to Avernus. Lol.

Don't have to romance her to go as gang (Karlach, Wyll and Tav). Think I had <40 approval with her too, though maxed out with Wyll ().

I was romancing Shadowheart and when I picked that Karlach ending option, I just left her after making her , so no final chat with her. Reloaded quickly after to have only Wyll go.

Just a reminder that those people you call "incompetent developers and writers" came up with this game and characters. Be patient

Yeeaah I get the frustration and the critique- its why were all here- but we really should reframe from insulting the dev and writing teams, they worked their asses off for this game and even after launch they are working hard on these big patches.
They are looking for feedback which we are clearly giving at now 63 pages of posts lol but we can be respectful while doing it.

Justice for Karlach!

Agreed. the discourse it's still civilized for the most part, luckily.

I don't think anyone called them those things.

I don’t think people are doing that. I saw a lot of the opposite, in fact. They are competent and that is WHY the issue with Karlach feels so glaringly absurd.


You can choose to go to Avernus with Karlach even if you romanced someone else, but you won't get the 'cool' cinematic, it simply jump cuts to credits. It's a bummer, since you abruptly left your romantic partner to be with your friend (sorry Astarion), so I think the cinematic should trigger as well.


Yup. If you play as Karlach origin, you are faced with either dying alone or going back to Avernus stronger, but alone. It defeats the whole purpose of her having company and demeans the powerful monologue she has after Gortash when she mentions how lonely it all was.

It makes for an even sadder ending, imo.

My boyfriend and I were so disappointed with how at the end of our playthrough,
We thought surely we missed something? So in my solo playthrough,... it wasn't my first choice and I wouldn't call it satisfying, but I let her in the interest of avoiding what happened last time.

Determined to see if there was something more for her I tried a third time, thinking a Karlach Origin playthrough might be able to offer some catharsis, some hidden secret that lets things end in a satisfying or at least sensible way. (I also thought romancing Wyll as Karlach might be cute, since for some godsforsaken reason Dammon isn't an option for her even though he himself seems like he would have been interested.)

I was wrong on both accounts.

Not only did Wyll's romance feel uniquely bad and unfitting for Karlach (his beautiful words about spending forever together, to a girl who has maybe two more long rests to live after what was ironically an incredibly slow burn romance), but the ending was only marginally better than my second attempt.

Disappointments all around.

The entire time we were in the House of Hope I was hoping we'd find some hidden schematic, some hint or material unique to the hells that would help Dammon solve this head-scratcher and make things better her.

No hope there.

The desperate "Maybe if we save up enough soul coins we can trade them to a devil for something that will help?"

I can understand a character having a tragic end - I enjoy some good angst and even the "bad" Astarion romance end felt satisfying for what it was even if it isn't my character's true canon.
It doesn't need to be happy but it does need to be narratively satisfying. Trying and failing would have felt better than not even being able to try.

At no point after the first 30 minutes of Act 2 did it feel like we were allowed to even try to help her, even though so many possible avenues of hope for a solution existed.
Like why are there so many different icons for metal? I got my hopes up every time we downed a steelwatcher. In fact a steelwatcher confusing her for another steelwatcher made me think maybe the Gondians could help too.

So, so many threads we could have followed if we were allowed to even try or dare to ask.

I'm probably just repeating what's been said over and over in the past 63 pages but... I needed to vent.

Venting and repeating what has been already said by many before you is the absolute right thing to do here, it's a feedback thread! The fact that the points brought up are almost always the same solidifies them and keeps the flame alive. Welcome to the venting club!

I remember reading somewhere that Karlach was the second most played origin at some point. I wonder how many of those campaigns were people like some of us here, playing as her to try and find something - anything - more satisfying to her story.

I know it was my motivation to do it.

Do I have to remind you what happened with Bioware and CDPR? Game already sold and will likely win GOTY award, putting more resources into it is a waste

So what? Nobody is willing to do anything about it, maybe except complaining into the air, hoping Larian noticed and maybe in few months or even years they'll eventually do something about it. The game already sold well and has great reviews, the outrage is mostly contained here and even here all people do is praying that DE maybe will come and maybe it will fix the issue. They don't have to do anything and wouldn't be surprised if the didn't because why would they? They have money and most fans are happy, they can just use their current success and focus on a new project