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

I think the most honest answer here is "Not everyone agrees that 'no good ending' tragedies - especially the ones that happen by default without an explicit failure on the player's part - are fitting or needed in a fantasy choose-your-own-adventure setting where you can influence everyone else's fate".

People die in D&D, sure, but that usually involves stuff like "explicitly gave themselves up for the others to live", or "another character had to choose between saving this and that", or "the rest of the gang tried resurrection and failed" or at the very least "players failed to pick up any related missions which DM tried to give them or screwed the quest up and this is the consequence of that". A somber no-escape tragedy that passively happens to a character works amazingly in other settings (that's also why V works, no happy endings is the cyberpunk genre's whole thing), but to place a doomed character in a D&D and not even make an adventure out of trying to undoom them? Some people will have problems, yes. If that was my DM I would definitely let them hear that as well.

Sure, a videogame will always be more limited than literal human imagination, but as other characters in the game demonstrate - that's not the obstacle here.


I think you're misunderstanding that point a bit. Karlach wouldn't, there's no doubt about that. Tav, however, or whatever character we're playing, might, depending on the player's choices (IF there were such choices presented).