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

Yea I'm planning on doing the Phantom liberty stuff next month. As for karlach that is what we've all been saying is she wasn't an origin companion and was a late addition so it makes sense her story is more linear than the ones who were planned from the jump. However, that doesn't mean that a fix wasn't planned out it just means the fix wasn't implemented into the full release because as previously stated she was a late addition. It also makes me hopeful we will see more content for her specifically since she was such a late addition. We can speculate reasons as to why they didn't plan or didn't impliment the fix for her at this stage. We really don't know outside of looking at the game and connecting some dots. I've already said my peace about enriched infernal iron so im not gonna retype it all but to me it's clear that a fix was in the works but didn't make it to release for some reason or another.

#JusticeForKarlach

It just occurred to me, Dragon Age isn't exactly averse to having characters otherwise fated to die avoid death either. Origins has the old god baby thing that lets the Hero of Ferelden and Alistair/Loghain get out of dying from killing the archdemon, Fiona got cured of the taint in the books and lives a relatively normal life, or at least as normal as a mage can get in that world, Avernus from Origins' Soldiers Peak DLC lived for over two centuries despite the taint having a 30-year limit because of blood magic and his experiments, the Inquisitor loses an arm to save them from the mark killing them in Trespasser and the HoF (assuming they lived past Origins) is off looking for a cure to the Calling.

It's not as open-ended of a setting as DND and not as bleak as Cyberpunk, so...

I'd love to see some dlc that expands either act 3 or past act 3 for the companions like some of that dragon age origins dlcs. It would be nice to be able to see endings ranging from pure evil dark urge to as happy as you can get. It's something that bg3 is in a unique position to pull off that most games fail at.

Oh yeah, I remember the "Your hand is killing you" thing was VERY convincing in Trespasser the way they build up the tension, I was fully expecting to watch my Inky die by the end there. And yet!

Good point, by the way, the Inquisitor and the Warden being the biggest examples.

(also lest we forget than even Shepard in the infamous three colored ending choice of "die, die or technically die" has a chance to survive under certain conditions.)

I did not know you could save shep at all I thought the whole series just went grim dark at the very end lol

It was a really shitty end. But if i remember correctly the red* choice. And ensuring enough support for the end fight theres a post credit scene of him taking a breathe in the rubble

With Shepard, all of endings were doomed and yet, when fans asked of some hope because back then the endings were questionable and caused a lot of uproar (god, i was there and saw everything. The fans certainly weren't happy), Bioware then added a nice little scene of Shepard taking a breath in the red ending which would imply she/he survived and their LI not putting Shepard's name on the list of other lost people in the battle. It was nice.

All bioware's endings were usually full of hope but some trade off in the mix. I think the only protagonist from a bioware game (dragon age, to be precise) that came out unfazed was Hawke. Until Inquisition happened where you get to decide Hawke's fate in one of the missions with the Wardens. Still, much better than what we currently got with Karlach.

It legit took all of my will power not to throw my controller out the window when thst ending came about. After a 3 game journey of character investment and again *choice* supposedly *mattering* to be given that ending (,i refuse to call them different endings ) was just the biggest slap in the face to the fan base. Like who ever was doing the writing for that section just blows my mind how they thought that was going to go down well. But by then EA had dug their claws deep into the IP.

They didn't do themselves any favors my claiming every choice mattered and hyping up like 18 endings at one point. The ending was bad but they weren't doing themselves any favors in the marketing department either.

Okay y'all, let's not get too deep into the matters of the infamous trilogy ending

To be honest with you I'm not a big fan of comparing games - stories are all different - but since occasionally someone does, well, that one is a good example of players' feedback being listened to in RPG business.

Fair enough. I would very much prefer to just stick to karlach content and theories in a positive form in general

It'd be nice if they cap off the year after they rake in all the awards to announce some dlc or a DE. that's pure wishful thinking but it would be a good time to capitalize on all the free publicity. Obviously still hoping to see a happy ending for karlach come out of that as well. Especially act 3 content

Yeah, I think an announcement after the nominations/awards by the end of the year would be sweet... but I also think Larian has to be sure first if they have plans for a dlc (a DE is more of a possibility than a dlc).

I need some news lmao.

I don't mind waiting a year but man I feel the same I NEED some info that theyre atleast working on a happy ending for the giant red cinnamon roll. I'm not familiar with larians business habits so I have no idea how likely they are to roll out dlc. I know the DE for divinity was a year later so I'll bank off that time frame I suppose

They dont announce much. Unless its literally right around the corner. Which is good for their creative processive. But terrible if like us were waiting for some pretty specific add ons lol. They have had a policy od no dlcs as they by princible try to ensure no micro transactions or pay to win tactics. But due to how bg3
did abd the major outcry for a dlc for it. Their lead director came out and specifically said *dlc is not off the table in the future* so thats pretty big just to leave the door open for a company like this imo. But yes im of the mind that ill give it a faithful 1 year til august 2024 before i go doom/gloom but i have a feeling we wont be waiting that long. I think a GOTY edition might even happen in june/july depending.

I think the most we can hope for this year is patch 5. I can see them ship that one with the xbox release (allegedly happening in december), as they did with patch 3 and the playstation release.

But I do wish for a good Karlach ending as a christmas present. Even if its just an announcement that it's happening. It's unlikely they'll say anything, but one can dream.

A karlach happy ending would be the best Christmas present even as an announcement. I think you're right about path 5 by the end of the year as well.

Realistically speaking, though, what do you all think would be the earliest date possible for a good Karlach ending?

This isn’t a rhetorical question. I don’t work in the gaming industry, so I have no idea how long it would take. I’m guessing that at least a year from now, but that’s truly a wild guess.

It was even bigger mess than that. The red ending was supposed to be "bad" as originally it made mass relays explode and scorched the surface of the Earth. From what I know the Shephard taking breath was ALWAYS there which was horribly confusing considering everything else with the ending and how bad already it was. It was later changed with extended cut, they added the scene with LI and even called that "Shephard lives ending", they also added the epilogues where aftermatch is explained by either Hackett, Shephard AI or Edi, but it didn't fix the biggest problems about the ending, just made it tolerable

And this is EXACTLY why the two are comparable.
I remember when they doubled down with the ‘it’s fine deal with it’ all I could think was.

The relays are dead so by the established lore FTL is now all but gone therefore everyone I brought to Earth is now stuck in the Sol system, half the species can’t eat human / carbon based food and earth has no way to support them.
The only logical outcome is a species like the Krogan ends up eating everyone as we all starve to death.

I think the relays exploded in two endings leaving only the green one (I can’t believe I still remember this after all this time THAT is how terrible it was) as the only ending where you didn’t condemn earth and all your friends to a horrific fate.

They eventually released the ‘citadel dlc’ which I never played as after calling us entitled children for months and generally doing everything they could to gaslight us into thinking it was actually high art I was done.
I never bought another of their products again and was very glad that andromeda flopped.

I loved the games up until that last point but it’s a case of the bad being so bad that it ruined the lot.

The problem is I could still play the first 2 games and 90% of the third and it still was good.

This ending ruins the whole third act which is the point where your choices start to come together, if you are railroaded then there is no point playing or replaying because as good as Act 1 or 2 are you know it’s irrelevant.

Karlach is forced to die or run into hell and by what we have seen from the opening with countless swarms of monsters under the control of this apparently extremely powerful arch devil that makes even the lesser devils we meet and treat as bosses look weak the only conclusion I can come to is we die or get captured.

Now Conrad you are a 40k fan named after the edgiest primarch, what would a devil that has no empathy or care do to someone that has defied them now that they’re at their mercy?

If we are lucky they will kill us fast, if unlucky they will get creative, perhaps they make Karlach kill Tav and Will then dump her in a cell with our corpses. That’s just the PG13 thing I can think of.

With a few lines of text they can change this, and that is just the most basic minimum effort way they could do it.
As others have said the 2D / 3D assets for a better ending are already in the game you could probably just throw in a few voice lines or text.
This is why I find your ‘IT WOULD NEED A COMPLETE REWRITE!’ stance confusing.