The lack of future dlc or expansion is unfortunate, but kinda expected for me. Larian doesn't create dlcs, so I'm fine with it. In actual state we have "at least something we wanted", an offscreen engine fix based on our imagination that she and Tav found new engine in Avernus and save Karlach for good.
This is faaaaaaaar better than when I finished my gameplay when no patch was released so far. (I romancer her and I even was not able to go with her to Avernus). So this whole thread was successful at the end.
The avernus ending cutscene + mentions of a forge in the epilogue party are nice I guess, but I dont know if I'd go as far as to say this thread or other karlach related feedback could be counted as having been successful.
In the end, Karlach still has a really lackluster questline - a fetch quest that basically ends in act 2 already, whereafter the game proceeds to railroad us into accepting her fate, not letting us try finding other potential solutions. I could forgive a boring questline that isnt as intirguing or polished as astarions or shadowhearts quests, but the biggest offense with karlachs questline is how it makes the player/party look like the most uncaring clowns who wont put any effort into looking for potential cures for karlach ("we did everything we could for karlach" my goddamn ass lmao). Additonally, its really shallow writing to have the game treat her condition as some incurable condition that is not fixable in anyway, considering all the wild shit the party survives through or other characters as well (or the fact this is dnd, theres like countless spells that would fix her condition lol).When writing a tragic story, there has to be immense care put into it, and this was far from that - Karlachs story just feels super handwavy and only exists to present cheap drama.
For me personally, this really ruins karlachs character for me, and my overall enjoyment for this game. I mean cool, they find a forge in avernus during the 6 month period post-final fight, but I still have to put up with Karlach talking in act 3 like shes doomed/how she wishes she wasnt dying, and all my dumbass tav can say is ''maybe we can save you'' but then not... actually try anything. Suffice to say, its very frustrating and Im disheartened that larian is happy to leave karlach in this state, alongside with wyll and minthara who are also clearly really neglected characters.