Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Suggestion: Nere as a companion

I would love to see Nere become a companion! From a RP perspective he could serve as conduit to glve the players a glimpse into drow society from a perspective of a man (as a mirror to our female drow companion). His banter with Minthara would have been hilarious too. I could see potential for an interesting rivalry mechanic going on between them. On a shallow note, I like his character model and outfit, he would have been a pretty addition to my drow Tav's camp.
The game clearly favours the good path, which is a shame because both routes are equally valid and the amount of content should be comparable.

I made a similar post here
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=891924&page=11
The game is definitely lacking evil companions, terrible trade off in any hostage situation or prisoner exchange.


Right? I absolutely agree. I killed him for the boots, hells with saving him if he isn't gonna join me. Same goes for Dhourn, he has part of the ice staff.

All in all, we could use a Bard companion and Nere would definitely fit the bill, especially for an evil playthrough that is lacking companions.

It is a little bit redundant since we already have Minthara. Maybe Nere orders one of the duergar or gnomes to accompany us instead. I think he�s crazy enough to give us a person as a reward, lol.

Hmmm, I don't think it'd be redundant. It's common knowledge that the cost is too great when it comes to recruiting Minthara. (losing Halsin, Karlach, and Wyll) so it would be nice to have another companion who could accompany you. It's a plus that he is evil aligned, however the very fact that you are also able to convince him to abandon the Absolute gives him so much potential as a character imo.

Nere is probably the best example of how lacking and generally railroady the evil routes of this game are. He has unique loot that yu can't get if you let him live. He dies anyways if you spare him, despite his offer to recruit the Order of Soul Spiders as allies (seems like obvious cut content for the endgame where you gather all your allies for the final battle), doesn't reward you with anything meaningful if you save him, and is written in such a way to make you despise him, even if you are rp as an evil character.

And to boot, his death is required for the resolution/continuation of several plotlines. The whole thing with the Deep gnomes and Barcus, and his head for the Myconid questline.

You get nothing of worth for helping him and lose on a ton of things in tradeoff. Nothing in his interactions has any followup later in the game despite indicating it will. It's a huge letdown, honestly.

Honestly, I kinda like him better than Minthara in some respects. Despite her great acting, I'm kinda disappointed with how Larian wrote her to be nicer and more accepting despite being an evil-run exclusive party member. Nere is at least consistently a reprehensible person, and he's faithful to Lolth, which would be a nice break from the 'ubiquitous heretic drow party member' that D&D rpgs love so much.

I get this comversation is a bit old now (a year)

I recently did another playthru and honestly, I still can't get over the fact how much you loose if you go sorta evil.
Nere seems to be much more significant that he actually is. At least as much as Jaheira is.

Making Nere new companion for evil characters would be great. I know it would require getting the voice actor back to record some voice lines, but that's pretty much it. If they make him be recruitable only if you actually play evil that could limit the possible other companions you have. So it wouldn't require all companions to have anything to say about Nere. Maybe only Minthara should need some interactions with him. But the rest seems to not really aknowledge Minthara either. So Nere too could be "ignored".


Nere has musical instrument, weapons, tadpole, shoes. He is pretty much set to have regular gear as other companions. He could use Absolute Outfit as his camp clothes - would be nice to see that piece of clothing actually used.



I get that there are more liked evil characters. However, most don't really seem to have no reason to join you and/or don't offer anything new. As it was already said, male drow, faithful to Lolth. It simply makes him way more interesting than any other regular human/half-elf mean person.
Not to mention getting him as companion would make it feel earned, consider that it means we have to not deliver his head/not finishing that quest.

It would be complicated to have both Minthara and Nere in the party. The latter should be completely subservbient to the former, according to Drow culture and civilization. That would probably clash with Nere's ambition to replace Balthazar as nr. 1 commander under Ketheric. It would have to be either Nere or Minthara, for a credible party. So we would gain nothing.

I too have always wanted, desired that it was possible to recruit Nere. He would be a very interesting and fun companion to have in the game in my opinion. But who knows... at this point, I doubt that Larian will have a way to make it happen. Maybe some modder could do it.

This game is filled with companions whose interests and motives clash. Yet that is what makes them so charming.
Didn't Wyll try to get Karlach's head? And what about Shadowheart & La'zeal; if you don't intervine, they kill each other.

If written well, their dynamics could prove very thrilling. (or they could just ignore each other, just the way Halsin & Minthara do it on good playthru)

I could see Nere being an interesting companion, especially with unique interactions with Minthara, similiar to what you see with Karlach and Wyll, Shadowheart and Lae'zel.
That said, I never thought much about him being a companion but I have always thought it would have been nice if he reappeared in act 3 and became an ally for the final fights.

It feels like he should have been a companion for the evil route. Also there is (or was? not sure if it was changed because I didn't see it last time) a dialogue response you could say to Minthara at the Goblin Camp, where your character mentions having spoken to Nere. I thought it was very odd since I'd never met him before. That made me think there was cut content for him.

Nere as Companion?
YAY!
Imma fix him!!111

Nere is the most pathetic character in the whole game. There are so many more interesting candidates for evil playthroughs, like Z'rell, Balthazar, even Gortash, if you agree to work with him.
Nere is just such a whiny and weak character. Heck, even if the reasoning is 'Want hot drow' there is still the drow crew near the Spectator, that are tied to Grymforge.

I never knew about this dialogue, the few runs where I sided with Minthara have always been before exploring the Underdark. I wouldn't be surprised if there originally was more content planned with him, either way I think it's a shame we can't get him as an ally.

Another elf/drow while we still don't have any half-orcs, dwarves/duergar, dragonborn, halflings or gnome companions? Why??

I bought a DnD game, not an elf community sim.

There is a certain lack of evil companions, especially when Minthy also bugs. I never considered Nere as a potential companion, but my Dark Urge would immediately offer the Shadar Kai "He who was" a new job since he apparently no longer follows the Raven Queen's orders. His talents open up completely new possibilities, which the Dark Urge immediately recognizes and almost send him into joyful ecstasy.

I would also like Z'rell, if you as evil Durge/Tav have wiped out Last Light Inn and the Harpers are not at your side in the fight for Moonrise Tower, you should be able to make her an offer.

Or when you kill Karlach, Mizora offers to accompany you instead of Wyll.

Nere would be one of my last choices in the series of possible evil companions.

Z'rell is
Both Balthazar and Gortash literally send you to do their dirty work. THere is no way they would camp with you and fight side by side you.

Z'rell is interesting as she's half-orc. I could see her be devastated by Moonrise Tower being wiped and open to joining you. But I don't really see anything she's give us especially in terms of intersting dynamics for the crew as whole. Minthara would most likely just kill her, or die trying. As her motives would be 'She sent me to death.' With Nere their rivalty would have more depth due to how drow society is.


"He who was" sounds as an interesting choice, I do agree on that. I could see him join Dark Urge, but not regular evil Tav. I feel like his reason to join would be even more shallow than Nere's (or Halsin's)

The "strange ox" would also be a highly orioginal evil companion. Simply disappearing in Act 3, it makes you wonder if there was another role for it planned also.

Strange Ox can help you in final battle. But you need to not forget to pick the apple to get it behind walls. (Like I did)

That's the problem I see, what motives do these characters have? Why should they want to join? The current story of these characters does not reflect that.

Like you said, “He who was” would be a good companion for the Dark Urge. That he no longer follows the Raven Queen's orders could be a reason for wanting to join the Durge.