Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion NPCs you would take with you as companions

Hey

I always notice that I find some of the NPCs interesting in the conversations and plots and would love to have them as companions in the group.

For example, in Act 1 at the beginning, there are a few that always give me the idea to take them with me.

Depending on how I play the game, so more good or more evil, these would be:

Sazza the Goblin, who is in the cage and you can free her and then go with her to the Drow boss in the Goblin camp.
In an evil group, she would please me well so as a somewhat stupid, but loyal companion, from which I then make a real fighter hehe....

Or Kagha herself, the druid wannabe chief and her snake. Somehow I like her whole way and it would be conceivable to take her on the evil as well as good playstyle.

Then there would be Lia the tiefling lady who, when talking to her brother and the budding mage, is so committed to staying and helping.
She seems so self-sacrificing and kind. For a good playthrough, I would definitely like to take her along.

These are only 3 examples, there were here and there so one or the other candidate.

Do you also have the desire to have exactly the NPC in the group and if so which one and why?

I don’t think they'll do it. They would have to make dialogues/stories/romance for any additional companion. And seeing how Halsin (a character that wasn't supposed to be a companion) ended up... I would say nope. :p

But there are mods that make NPCs playable (sort of) if you play on pc. I wanted to install one of those but couldn't because I play on my Steam Deck and if modders don't leave the code to manually install I can't do it.

Xeph. A fairly irrelevant npc, but I liked her enough.
I'd have to think a bit more for some others atm.

I agree with Sazza, Alfira seems cool too, We need a bard somewhere, plus being another Tiefling on top is an added bonus,

Barcus gets my vote. I’m sure I could come up with others I’d be happy to have along too, if I thought about it for a bit, but I definitely would have loved Barcus to become a potential companion.

Barcus! He basically travels with us anyway, moving through the acts as we move and even joining our camp for a bit. I think he's great, I'd love to have him around more (and I'd totally create an awesome shorty to romance him if that was a possibility).

Edit: Jinx with Her Majesty the Queen.

And yes, I’m sad that my deep gnome arcane trickster’s crush on Barcus will go unacknowledged and unrequited

Balthazar would've been a great evil playthrough companion. What a glorious man. The fun things he and Mystic Carrion could talk about.

Another vote for Barcus, he is just such a well written character and has ties to all three acts.

Nettie, give me a dwarf companion!

I absolutely love this idea! I really wanted them to end the EA like that actually...
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=794758#Post794758

I think they still could, since EA hasn't exactly wrapped just yet. I'm sure I could find a reason to pick any of the Act 1 bit players in BG3 honestly, they all already have great introductions and great potential barks.

It would be a lot of fun! I think they did tease some characters more than others though. Nadira and Alfira, Rolan and the gang, Nymessa and Zorru, Arka, Xeph, all with the honorable mentions among the tiefs. I love em all! Any of the deep Gnomes or Duergar or Mushrooms, they're all great!

I'd have to pick Sazza though! I mean right? Lol

The gobbos were so well done here!

I think they could do this for animal companions or familiars as well. I'd love a black hound myself! A Good Girl to run around with the Best Boy and the Owlbear! I just think that would be very charming in BG3. I'm letting my true colors show here, Cult of the black dog! Lol



A black cat too!

Can't go wrong with these callbacks hehe




ps. I really do think that the hirelings system needs to be recalibrated. If it worked like that, where the player could either create a fully custom hireling or hire an NPC from among the existing Bit players in the first Act, it would have been an instant hit!!! I think it's important not to overthink what goes into a companion of this sort, basically it's the VA, the visualization and the hook that grabbed people. They don't really need to be vehicles for massive story delivery, although they can help support that with their one liners hehe. I think they just need to really go back to what made a companion work in BG1, cause you didn't need a whole ton there. For VA the best part is that they could just call back the people who they already got in the rolodex, and have them add some new expanded flavor in that way. Since the actors would already be familiar with the roles, they wouldn't have to like re-explain it again ya know. They could just dive right in. It would be really cool! I mean they couldn't really predict how people would respond to each and everyone one, or pick favorites like that. In this case, ribbons all around right? They could do them as still-alive or as ghosts of the recently deceased too, depending on if the player is a Tav or a Durge or an Origin companion. So many ways to do it! And if players aren't satisfied with that, then they can always go fully custom and pick and choose from all the many combinations of the constituent elements. It would enhance the replay by orders of magnitude and be a great first leg up on an expansion. Importantly though, the animal companions never truly die (they yelp and flee combat, or just phase out), worst case they go to the Beastlands, so we can cross the rainbow to still find them. That would be sweet! I mean we dont' need to fight the saccharine on that one right, just lean totally into it! Could be done so well! heheh

I would say Ellyka. She is the tiefling that warns you about the gith patrol. From the way she looks and acts she could be a ranger. Anyway, you do get to ask her to join your group. She answers with what I consider the best line in the game: "What? Just follow you around?", with an appropriate facial expression. I considered it to be a brilliant show of self-mockery by the developers, an insider's comment on how strange it is that your companions just follow you around and take orders from you without any reason to do so. It would have been great if she could continue in that same vein, as an (unwilling) companion. She would probably be good at scouting ahead and advising against doing really stupid things.

I like everyone. No, not really, but almost. Would have loved many more characters to choose from. Would make the game even more re-playable for me.

But some favorites are:

Kagha. She has such potential, and I saw someone on Discord having some great suggestions relating to her journey through the game. Would have been amazing. Could work as a both good and neutral character (don't think she's evil though since she clearly wouldn't accept bringing the goblins to raid the grove, but yeah, perhaps later you can convince her to align more evil I suppose.)

Sazza, the goblin. A redemption arc for a goblin would have been fun. And to be fair, just getting everyone's reactions to having a goblin friend would be great. Also. Sazza can work on both good and evil routes (not that I ever have it in me to go evil).

Alfira. I mean, who doesn't like the cute bard?

Nettie. She's sweet. I like her. Would love a dwarf companion. Justice for the little ones, they've been a bit overlooked.

Barcus. He's adorably annoying, but I can't help but want to help him anyway.

That young gith boy from the monastery who reads forbidden books, don't remember his name. I just want to save him and show him the world. Let him meet Orpheus in the end etc.

Hmmm... any of the following in no particular order or any particular reason: Alfira, Mizora, Wulbren Bongle, the Warden from Moonrise Towers, Dammon, one or all three of the troll stooges, Gandrel

Barcus remains my dream companion. Sweet soft humor, determination, heart of gold - he is perfect!

Dammon as an Artificer would be cool.

Kahga had so much potential. Way more than Halsin, IMO. The fact that she could be evil or repentant depending on how you handled her quest would make her a pretty unique companion if Larian went that route.

Nettie. Like Kahga has better reasons to leave the grove than Halsin, but more of a nicer character than Kahga. Pus a sort character, which we have no companions of currently.

Sazza. There aren't any short companions right now. She's pretty fun and has a good reason to not stick around the goblin camp if you save her. Having her and Minthara in the same party would be awkward though I can see it being interesting.

Abdirak. Clerics are always fun to have around for an rp perspective. Great for feeling emersed in the setting. Abdirak is a follower of a pretty messed up god, but his fervor and charisma really makes him stand out. Honestly I'd take him over Shadowheart if I could.

Alfira. We don't have a bard companion and she'd fit the bill nicely.

Barcus. I just find him rather interesting. Plus he's a deep gnome, which is rather interesting.

Companions that could be added based on missing alignment / classes (including new class that can be potentially added):
Artificer - Barcus Wroot. As mentioned before, he basically already travels with our party and can just be allowed to participate in events starting from Grymforge release - get alongside us to LLI, save Wulbren from Moonrise Towers himself and so on.
Monk - new NPC, since we pretty much never meet them excluding the ghost and the ghost is incapable of fighting (as he needs a body to act on his own like shown in act 3). That could be for example a male githyanki from Creche Y'llek - the location is fitting for him and he could have cool story interactions with Lae'zel (being more peacefully aligned compared to her aggressive approach), Voss and especially Orpheus, who is a monk himself. I don't suggest Orpheus himself since he is capable of joining us way too late to become a companion.
Bard - Alfira. She could be not recruitable in Act 1 when she is busy with her new song, but could be recruited in Act 2 in Last Light Inn to help save other tieflings and then become a permanent companion. She wants to write a song about us anyway (for good playthrough) and travelling with party directly would be quite helpful. As for the Dark Urge nuances, people have already found a way to address their situation. If she is not fitting enough - they could reintroduce Helia and change things that they did not like about her that led to her being cut.
Sorcerer - that is more tricky, since we almost never meet any during the playthrough and the one we meet is both a bit crazy and busy with the last rites. I still suggest recruiting Wild Magic Sorcerer Delina somewhere in Baldur's Gate - she is an ally of Minsc and likely would not mind helping him and his allies save the city.
Good aligned Paladin (compatible with Halsin) - Zevlor. After events in Act 2 he gets separated from his crew and searches for a new purpose and that purpose could be helping us deal with Absolute directly.
Evil aligned Druid (compatible with Minthara) - Kagha. While she would not be fond of you destroying the grove, she could become recruitable if her plot is exposed before the siege happens and is banished from the grove and then your character finds her and convinces her to travel with you.

Alternatively on Kagha, telling her you know about the Shadow Druid stuff, but completely stand by her side on that, then kill Halsin and one way or the other evict the Tieflings, other shadow druids might take over and she herself goes on a journey with you, perhaps to spread shadow druid influence?

I totally forgot about Abdirak - it would actually be really interesting, having him as a companion or camp follower. For a priest of an evil goddess he was remarkable friendly - and certainly knows more about consent than Christian Grey

But still, I would most wish for Barcus, maybe in combination with the artificer class.

It would also be nice to have a monk companion.