The Wyll/Karlach story does seem a bit "forced", I mean one stowing away okay, but both. Also why do either have Tadpoles, in Avernus the ship was under heavy attack, no one would take time to capture either.
Gale is also a bit is a stretch, he is supposed to be, when he was captured, a POWERFUL archmage. The ship was making hit and run grabs, surely they would not have tried to grab someone that could in theory easily destroy the ship.
The truth is only Shadowheart and Lae'zel actually seem to fit being involved directly. I could maybe accept Astarion but after that your correct, the storylines seen VERY forced to make them work.
I mean I can sort of accept Halsin as he is trying to clear the land around the tower in Act 2 and he is discovered along the way, not just another Illithid experiment. Jaheira and Minsc, in my opinion, where done for pure BG effect. In the BG Novels Jaheira is dead and Minsc as noted was no longer available either. They feel like they where added, not for story effect but for the team to say, see we added some old BG into the game. Did they feel this was needed to give the game legitimacy?
Storylines in ANY RPG are going to use certain hooks and follow storylines that have been told before. That is cool we all get that. However I do agree that the "hook" in BG3 is WILDY overused for the companions.
I mean, you're right. Thinking about it, HOW did Gale get captured anyway? Dimension Door and Teleport exists, at the very least. Not only that, why bother tadpoling someone with a nuke in their chest? Why does tadpoling an UNDEAD work? Lae'zel fits, but it's an open question why the Sharrans were part of this at all. At best, it's a convoluted gambit pile up. How did the Sharrans found out about the prism and why did they want it, when it's only feature seems to be that it's anti-mindflayer?
