I’m sapphic too, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. As a newer player (I started the game just around a month ago), I wanted to add onto this thread just to share my feelings about this problem and keep it alive. Personally, Karlach has been the only party member I actually wanted to romance (yes I do have a type lol), so that made the thing with the endings hurt even more. However, after thinking about it for a while, I’ve realized that there’s another big reason why it bothers me so much.

Here’s the thing. In this game, there are generally hundreds of different ways to overcome obstacles. You can stack oil barrels and explode all your enemies. You can bypass puzzles with lockpicking. You can use moves like Blood Money to deal ridiculous amounts of damage per turn. Heck, you can even instantly defeat bosses by turning them into sheep and shoving them into chasms. In addition to this, the game also offers a huge amount of narrative freedom. I like playing as strongly good-aligned characters, but the game doesn’t force me to play that way. If I wanted to play as an evil character, I’m sure I’d find just as much interesting route-specific narrative content as I’ve experienced while playing as a good character. This holds true for almost all of your companions’ stories, as well. I love the fact that this game offers you the option to help these characters and really make a difference in their lives. From beginning to end, the game offers players an insane amount of choice and freedom and agency…except, of course, for Karlach’s story.

Although I really don’t like the endings themselves, the thing that pisses me off more is the fact that in the third act, there literally isn’t anything I can do to even try to fix her engine. I can’t even ask Dammon about it in the city. Her quest is completed as soon as her engine gets updated a second time. In a game that’s ostensibly all about player freedom and forging one’s own narrative, this limitation feels super out of place. It feels un-Larian.

Furthermore: a lot of my enjoyment of this RPG comes from its narrative, and my ability to, well, role-play. My redemption run Dark Urge character, a Seldarine drow Oath of Vengeance paladin named Sola, is an incredibly tenacious character who’s willing to go to insane lengths to support the people she cares about. Especially Karlach. So, even if Karlach has given up hope for a way to permanently fix her engine by the time she tells you it’s breaking in act 3, my character would respond to this news by doubling down on her efforts to help her girlfriend. She wouldn’t just jump straight to “let’s kill Zariel,” either—she would comb through the entire city before bringing that idea up with Karlach, because the last thing she wants to do is hurt her by dragging her down into Avernus again. The lack of an option to do literally *anything* breaks my narrative immersion. And my heart.

I legitimately had to put down the game once I learned that there was no way to even try to fix the engine in act 3. It would have been one thing if players could at least ask people, or if there were a solution that required some sort of horrific sacrifice, like turning her into a full-on Warforged or something. I might be okay with either of those options, because at least that would preserve the feeling of player agency. But I am really not okay with her quest just ending in act 2. It legitimately feels like something from a Bethesda game. I sincerely believe a quest this low-quality does not belong in BG3. Karlach deserves better.

Last edited by GrassEnjoyerSola; 12/01/24 01:59 AM. Reason: added a sentence