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

Dropping by to give my support.

They did Karlach dirty in every way lol

We need all the support we can get!

Justice for Karlach!

Agreed, agreed. I really want to finish the game but I can’t handle her endings. They’re just too awful for somebody who is such a lovable character. So I’m just playing completely ignoring her, which makes me REALLY sad. It’s not how I want to play. I’m hopeful that I can do a Karlach-centered playthrough sometime in the future though. She’s just such a compelling, sweet, likable character, that I’m kind of obsessed. If anybody knows of ways that I or others can support justice for Karlach, other than posting online, I’d be happy to be made aware of that.

Just registered to add my voice for a better ending.

As it is now, I don’t want to finish the game.

Hello and welcome to the family! As it stands, there' SO many og us who refuse to finish the game, you're not alone. Thank you for voicing your opinion!!

I just started act2 during my second playthrough and compared to my first playthrough when everything was new to me and I was excited by the game I see how empty Karlachs quest is.. 15 minutes in act2 to complete it and 14minutes of it I did different mandatory things not related to Karlach just to reach the Harpers camp.

It wouldn't be that bad if you could spend another 5 minutes in act 3 and actually get what you were working for but hey, guess we gonna get our fetch quest in 2 years right?

And yet doing the same thing again in act 3 just so the story makes any sense and isn't complete illogical, forced pseudotragic mess is impossible so would it seem

I was going over the dialogue files of the game, and I found something that might be strange.

There are some dialogues for avatar Karlach that mention her having a second upgrade while still in Act 1.

I never found those lines in game, as Dammon only offers a second upgrade only in the Last Light Inn, in Act 2. But they are still in the game files. So I am wondering if we were supposed to be able to have Dammon upgrade Karlach's engine twice still in Act 1, while he is still at the grove. Otherwise I don't know why there would be dialogue lines for her having had a second upgrade in the Camp Party romance dialogue files, and also in other exchanges that happen soon after, still in Act 1.

Here is one example. She has the condition KarlachSecondUpgrade and KarlachSecondUpgrade = False. I think we only got in game the second one, but it seems there was another path planned, perhaps?

Aren't those just a regular voicelines about spending night together with the condition being her engine getting upgrade or not? I remember something similar, maybe there are slight differences if she's played as origin but I don't know. Maybe there were slight tweaks to the voicelines but i'm sure it's nothing special and I heard them

I was thinking last night..

Having her get fixed in the post 6 month epilogue would probably make the most sense.

Assuming the correct people survive, IE Dammon and the Gondians, having a scene where she is fixed would be the easiest to implement. Her story would still hit the emotional beats, it wouldn't require a massive quest redesign and would fit with the story.

After 6 months, Wyll will no longer have his powers, it would give Dammon enough time to find a solution and line up with him "Not giving up", and fit with the idea of us going to Avernus just until we find a solution.

It would be really weird to send Karlach BACK to Avernus after 6 months with a warlock who lost his powers and would make no sense since they've had 6 months to find a permanent fix.


Of course that wouldn't be the first thing that didn't make sense about her story so I dunno; here's hoping...

Only problem here, is she still would have NO story. Just still 2 fetch quests that fail and if you dont romance her then you could just ignore them.

First and foremost i like everyone here want her to have a happy ending, and the 6 month thing would give her that potentially.
But honestly. Karlach is straight up unfinished. And deserves added content. And an in game way to fix her. I will still be pushing Larian to seriously consider revamping her questline. As that is one of the top requests from the fanbase.
Every other origin character needs some tweaks here and there for sure. But to truly do karlachs story justice (Justice for Karlach!) She neefs more then a few minutes at the end of "and it allll worked out see?!"

That's all true. Her questline is a joke.

I guess the deream-achieve would be a more fleshed out story line that either leads to a fix or will give a fix post-epilogue. And also more NPCs and unique areas for her.

Just bouncing an idea that might be the path of least resistance for the devs.

Unfortunately I think we will not see completely reworked questline at least in acts 1 and 2 because this will need an enormous amount of work to implement her "new" story into "completed" acts. As act 3 is very "work in progress" in actual state, it makes complete sence to add as much content as possible here(and this applies basically to every character and location they want to update).

The option from Sunriders Destin with fixing her "automatically" in avernus in the epilogue is also a very possible option, because this is an easiest way to do that. Basically epilog cutscene and few lines of text.

I hope for the first option for sure.

I getcha, all ideas for a better outcome are good. Im just hoping that larian sees we want more then a few lines of dialogue at the end and cinematic in the long run.
Also i dont really think anything NEEDS to be added into acts one or 2. For karlach. I think if anything her added content should be after gortash fight. (That VA work after the fight is to good) something after that would be the most satisfying i think, right when she is at her lowest we find away to get her fixed either through avernus or gondians. But let it be IN GAME let us be able to pursue her questline and give it a proper ending.

I know the 6 month epilogue is the path of least resistance for the studio. But lets shoot for the stars here guys.
Even if it takes a year and no changes until a game of the year edition or DE. Id much rather larian goes all in rather then a bit of pokish abd call it a day.

One thing that really bugs me about her Avernus ending is that there's no option for the *whole party* to accompany her to Avernus. I can't think of a single party member who (on their more good-aligned path) would balk at going to Avernus to help out Karlach (maybe Lae'zel, given that leading the Githyanki revolution seems at least somewhat urgent).

Yet in my most recent playthrough (romanced shadowheart) the game only accounts for Tav, Wyll and Karlach returning to Avenus...even though Gale was *just* waxing poetic about how fond he is of our group, and how he wants to see what we'll do next. To say nothing of the fact that shadowheart had literally no reaction to Tav disappearing off to Avernus without her.

Overall it just feels very sloppy.

Yeah this never made sense to me.

Like, Wyll, by his own admission, is losing his powers. So he's just gonna be some rando running through Avernus? Ok lol

I been saying, if this was an actual D&D campaign the whole gang would definitely be going on a new adventure to Avernus to help.

hi everyone.

i have another question which isnt necessary about discussing the endings, its more about the lore/roleplay in terms of the "return to Avernus"-ending.

a little background: im almost finished with my evil Dar Urge solo run and for my nextrun i want to play with only one companion (basicly Duo Tactician). i decided to pick Karlach and aim for the "return to Avernus"-ending (imo the currently best ending).

while thinking about which class i should pick, i came up with the question (which is the reson for this post):

"Which class would be a good choice to assist Karlach in Avernus?" i want to say, that i dont know very much about dnd lore, spontanous i would say paladin or cleric?

as a quick bonus question: are their any benefits/advantages for a redeemend Dark Urge (choosing the good path)?



a big thank you in advance for every answer


PS: in case the answers are to big or someone have th feeling, that this pot disrupts the main topic too much, send the answers as a personal message (if possible, still dont know exactly, how this forum works)

EDIT: to clarify, the questions are about the lore about avernus/bhaalspawns/ and so on. of course, ingamewise i could play any class i want.

Adding my voice to the pile. It’s sad to see that the only options we have for our best girl are so bleak. She deserves a happy ending. A ride off into the sunset.