Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Companions: how have your views on them changed from first impressions?

In my evil/dark urge playthrough, I reached Moonrise Towers last night. Loved the opening to act 2 in general, but Minthara... Well, there's a change in my impressions! First game I don't think I even spoke to her, just put a smokepowder barrel beside her desk because I just saw her as any other enemy. But now... I can already see why she has so many fans. I love that there's so much extra depth there for a second playthrough, rather than having every path open in my first game. This was easily the best scene so far in my evil game, partly because I hadn't seen it before

Minthara - Is like the rainbow coated in color black, you'll assume she's all dark and black but once you start scraping it off, my first impression changed to see her in more complex layers that of a rainbow, wanted to explain this in the most poetic way possible.

So, would you say that she's...a rainbow in the daaaaark?



I had to, sorry XD

For me, the core 4 haven't changed; Astarion, Lae'zel, Gale and Shadowheart are likable and compelling companions in their own ways. I omit one or two on a run only for keeping their inclusion fresh.

I realized in original play-through Karlach and Wyll were tier 2 companions, in terms of story and likability, and this hasn't changed. I had high hopes for Karlach on release, but she didn't match expectations of what I thought a Blood war veteran would be like. I might recruit 1 of these just for interactions.

(I consider Wither's followers kind of more interesting in that they include uncommon races.)

Jaheira and Minthara are wonderful non-origin companions. They're really well grounded in the setting and enhance a play through. Originally I was inundated with companion choices, so didn't appreciate them as much. Prefer to recruit either/or so that one can get plenty of party time.

Minsc and Halsin were and remain tier 2 non-origin companions. Minsc comes far too late and I'm not really into comedic companions, though I could see myself including him in a sillier run. I found Halsin not compelling as a companion compared to his npc roles in the story in Acts 1&2.

Overall, Jaheira, Minthara and Astarion have improved the most favourably since original play through. And to be clear, six well liked companions is plenty enough for me.

Yeah, I rarely took Minsc out and didn't feel like I was missing much. I'd talk to him in the Elfsong most evenings and hear any updates to his thoughts, and I got all of his background, and that was fun; but rarely actually had him in the party. Except that I specced him as a gloomstalker ranger, and used him when I wanted a max stealth party.

Minsc has some really funny banter when you have him in your party. Well, if he align with you humour prefrences that is, I know many don't find him funny.

Well, my Tav felt dumber after every conversation with Minsc, but I must admit that he brought some much needed comedic relief into the last sessions. Some of his lines are such WTF-material that even Astarion is nonplussed by them sometimes. During Act 3, I sometimes felt like a showrunner making sure every character gets enough screen time.

One of my most memorable moments was overhearing Minsc telling Astarion how he thought fishies was the perfect dish for him.

Thanks, Minsc! The keyboard really looked thirsty for some coffee.

Gale: Thought he was a decently nice guy at first (I give a lot of credit for this to his voice actor), with some inconsistencies thrown in. But my views on him completely changed for the worse during Act 3 when playing as Dark Urge. I started to warm to him some more again though after seeing banter between him and Minthara.

Shadowheart: Immediately jealous of her voice. Wish Larian would have given an option for a similar high-pitched voice for Tav, but for some reason that was forbidden and only reserved for Shart.
Not much changed regarding my initial views on her. At first I thought she was made to be just a pretty face type character who is a little aloof, but have noticed a tiny bit more nuance to her character since then.

I didn't know a thing about D&D or Baldur's Gate, so I had no idea what to expect with all of the different subclasses or fictional races.

I rarely team up with Wyll, Karlach and Gale. I feel like Wyll's story has potential but it's almost as if the writers gave up on him. Or that his story seems overshadowed by characters like Karlach and Mizora. At least Mizora seems interesting and she makes sense since Wyll's a warlock, but I forget about her most of the time and get her name mixed up with Minthara's. Karlach annoys me. She's like some marvel or dreamworks character, like she's gonna break the fourth wall and wink at the audience. Always skipping and hopping around in camp. Gale is a mess. Just a mess. It's funny because the warlock and wizard classes caught my attention at the start, so I was actually interested to learn more about Wyll and Gale.

Astarion's introduction was terrible. Poorly written. He's really funny and I like his snarky comments (find myself agreeing with him on most things, like his comments about the druids hospitality). I understand why a lot of people find his character overrated. I wish the game allowed more options for your character to interact with the companions and befriend them without instantly focusing on romance. I often wonder how a platonic relationship would've worked out between Astarion and Tav. I feel like BG3 lacks a lot of options for the player while still being overly detailed, but I'll avoid turning this into a rant about the entire game. Anyway, Astarion's character design reminds me of Marshal from Animal Crossing or Bede from Pokemon.

Shadowheart annoys me. She's just back and forth. What's funny is that I somehow got Shadowheart to open up to me about her purple prose backstory around the same time I had thoughts on sacrificing her to BOOOAL. Jenevelle Hallowleaf... father was a werewolf... I mean they added everything into her story. Tries too hard to be mysterious. Shar worshipper but no one ever gets the chance to point that out, which I find weird. Your character might get the chance to notice other deities, and Gale claims to know everything so he should probably notice that Shadowheart is dressed as Shar's mascot. I care so little about the artifact.

I often joke that Lae'zel is a personal trainer, life coach and executioner all in one. She's crazy but she stands on business I guess. So I respect that. Her ears remind me of a cactus. I care so little about the creche.

Halsin is the worst. Could've turned into a rat or a bumblebee to escape the prison the goblins had him locked in. I hate Halsin. Minthara could've just taken a short walk around the corner and would've found the grove. She's boring.

Jaheira is cool. We have Jaheira, why do we need Halsin? Sometimes Halsin 'accidentally' dies during the fight at the goblin camp. Strange how that keeps happening in my game...

That may just be what happened due to the game having to be wrapped up. I thought his story was solid and relatable until the end, and then he got a Game of Thrones-finale with so many question marks. For instance, the Avernus layer of the Nine Hells/Baator that I know from older D&D books would kill an unprotected low-level character within rounds. That's why IG, my Tav considered him off his rocker after losing his powers. To me it was a bit of a bummer so close to the end, as the whole campaign arc otherwise fit even older editions of the Forgotten Realms settings neatly.