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

Which is why Astarion's ending is second most controversial overshsdowed only by pure garbage and bullshit Karlach fans were given? Lae'Zel is propably the least popular among the origins and her whole arc is arguably the best of all so that argument is kinda invalid. Also, when exactly Karlach was rewritten? Because since the release she's been propably the most popular companion/romance and I find it quite hard to believe nobody noticed her in EA.

And you think that screaming into the void on the forum 95% of playerbase will never visit will change anything? I'm not sure if I should be envious of you being so hopeful or pity our naiveness. Time for making noise passed long ago and back then nobody was interested in doing anything

Again i feel i must make a PSA announcment. Ignore feris, dont bother engaging. Lest this thread which is literally about giving ksrlach a better ending- is flooded with only posts and about how larian wont do it and for everyone to give up and responses to it.

The game is not even released on all platforms and you already know that there will be no support for it and of course no future updates? Wow a fortune teller.

Has anyone ever told you that you're a genuinely unpleasant person?

Yes, but I am still extremely curious of what Feris means about this "not doing anything". What else people could have done? There was a petition, there was the largest feedback thread, there's new feedback posts about Karlach quite often in their new feedback section, there's this, one of the biggest feedback threads in their own forums. Their tweets get mentions about Karlach.

I have no clue what else there is to do.

He has a habit of ignoring that question every time someone asks, so I shall repeat that his only idea which he ever voiced in this thread was "to ruin Larian's reputation (of listening to their community)", which was deeeefinitely a way to get results.

I stopped playing about 3 weeks ago. I was in Act 3. I kept dawdling and hoping the Karlach story would get updated where I'd have a choice for a happier ending. Since it's not happening, I'm going to just keep waiting.

I hope that eventually Larian will add alternate paths to her story, allow the option to get her healed/fixed. I have a good aligned character. Karlach is the only companion that really fits with that kind of personality. She's the only one that isn't duplicitous or manipulative. She's not living consequences of bad decisions, she was betrayed and had horror inflicted upon her. I want to see that resolved in a happy manner for her. This is a fantasy story, not real life.

Once Larian add this content, I'll start the game over and be able to finish it this time. Right now, I have 85 hours in the game and I'm not going any further. If they never fix Karlach's ending, then I'm permanently done with the game. It was a good enough ride. It's a shame that I can't play more, but in the scheme of things, life is too short to do optional/elective things in my free time that don't make me happy. Those couple of hours a day that are mine are too important for me to waste them doing things that will leave me upset, sad, or disappointed.

This is pretty much the same for me. I have not progressed beyond Act 2 because I got spoiled about Karlach's endings. I have absolutely no desire to finish the game as it currently is, and it's a shame. And if they do stay determined with their railroaded storytelling about her, my party will remain in Act 2 forever.

Ah, so basically shouts "you didn't do anything" and offers no actual things of what needed to be done. Gotcha.

This is genuinely how I've had to play. I get to Act 3 and refuse to progress further because Karlach features heavily in all playthroughs I got going. If they never fix it, I'll never finish it. I don't wanna half-ass something and live in a headcanon whilst everyone else gets their "live long and prosper" ending

As someone who lives in a headcanon land A LOT, I say "ouch" x) But jokingly. It's a personal preference, of course (and I would also very much like to have a satisfying canon instead! Please! I'll happily move back to canon land!).

In all seriousness though, I think this is the first time I see people so often dropping their playthroughs because of a lacking/frustrating character arc or knowing their end. Seen people stopping watching shows or reading books because of something that already happened, but as far as games go? It's either rare or was just happening out of my eyesight. If it's the former then it just emphasizes how dire the situation is, I think.

As already discussed, there are other games that do the terminal patient tragedy, sometimes with your followers, sometimes with your own character, but usually people can somewhat stomach that enough to finish the overall story. Because it's painful, as it should be, not frustrating. The way for many players Karlach's situation becomes unbearable instead of poignant or whatever is... telling.

Exactly! Well said

Those games are often very linear, games where you follow a set story. This is supposed to be DnD, a game where you carve your own story in the world's setting. And there is absolutely no reason not to have a good ending along with the bad ones. Just let the player make their decision on the matter, and call every possible ending canon to their respective player.

I understand the out pouring for options but personally do not see the Karlach ending as all that bad. You have essentially three options.


While you might hope for another option, these are actually pretty solid from a lore/story point of view. I appreciate others want a different ending but there is a point to where it just gets untenable. I mean how many different endings should they create? There is no way to please everyone so you do what you can and that is all you can do.

exactly and still without an answer

You.. are surely not serious?

Yes you are completely right that she has 3 various endings. But the main issue in this whole thread is, that her whole story in act 3 feels incomplete.
so this is not about please everyone, but to return something what was I'm almost sure already in the game

My dude....how many? Legit one more...just one...where her questline is succusful....like every other companion
The mindflayer option is a option given to every one for shits and giggles. And from a lore persoective..like...so many ppl here have pointed out dozens of reasons why her lack of a good ending makes ZERO sense in dnd lore...

I think it bears taking into consideration that:

1. Her quest feels very short and un-interactive (a fetch quest for two pieces of material and an interaction with a character you're going to be interacting for the main quest anyway - compare that to Shadowheart or Lae'zel who have literal locations for their development alone).

2. Her quest and her 'problem' also severely lack any forks in progression or proper player's input - we can't do anything major, we can't really challenge anything, and the final choices are generally always the same. We can even skip her upgrades completely and that won't change anything about the endings available to her. Again, compare that to Astarion or Shadowheart.

3. There's an abundance of options that directly refer to her situation in-game, in canon text, but we're not allowed to interact with those opportunities in any way, which makes the "We did all we could" conclusion of her quest sound extremely out of pocket. We did nothing, in fact. We weren't allowed to. Which feels incredibly immersion-breaking in a game where we can approach most problems (personal or not) from different angles.

We are not hoping for another option just because. There's a lack of content when compared to the other main Origin characters (excluding Wyll who actually got even less timing-wise and scene-wise - and even so his quest can't be that easily skipped!), there's a lack of player agency and there's a direct feel of missing a piece of a quest because of all the dangling threads. It's not unreasonable or mean on our part to hope for Karlach to receive the same treatment the other characters do. Which would include being able to actively and substantially alter her fate like we do with most others, instead of being so passive that we could literally not speak to her once and get the same result.

Hey hey guys, for me this a “Justice for Karlach” emotional support thread, so please let’s not mess it up with unwarranted pessimism, or invalidating the goal that so many of us are passionate about!— justice for Karlach. I’m optimistic that Larian Studios will take action, however long it takes, to add content that so desperately needs adding that its absence has caused countless players to no longer want to finish the game.

And, like others have said, it should not be too difficult for Larian to add a small expansion to fix Karlach’s heart in Act 3, given that there are already different types of infernal metals floating around that apparently have no purpose. I just picked up some infernal alloy (different from infernal iron) myself in Act 2 that has no discernible purpose. I truly do think that they will fix this. I think that it’s just a matter of time honestly. Just gotta be patient and positive. And write to Larian about your thoughts, feelings, ideas if you feel passionately about it.

Edit: Wholeheartedly agree with everything tarraxahum said