Larian Studios
Posted By: Phaedrus Bug: Grouped companion not following - 07/07/22 08:24 PM
At some point in my patch 7 playthrough (MacOS, for what it's worth), one of my companions (Astarion) seems to have decided not to follow me any longer, despite being grouped with the main party. If I switch to Astarion, everyone -- including my PC -- will follow him as expected. However, he doesn't follow me, and since my PC is the face character for the party, this means I have to make sure to babysit Astarion to ensure he makes it where the rest of the party goes. I've tried ungrouping and regrouping, re-arranging portraits, multiple restarts, toggling and untoggling sneak mode, etc., to no avail.

I couldn't tell if this bug has been reported, as prior searches seemed to turn up examples of folks being confused about how the grouping mechanic works. I've played other Larian games (like DOS2), so I'm familiar with the mechanic, and this is definitely a bug. I can't identify an explicit trigger, unfortunately. Oddly, Astarion is consistently the only companion who has this issue, though I have not tried e.g. leaving him at camp and taking on another follower (he's too critical to my party!).
Posted By: Honza09 Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 12:44 AM
I have similar problem. I have all characters linked in group of four. They should move toghether and follow my main character. But for some reason they do not. Thery act like they would be split into two groups. I think the group mechanic did broke when i used group hide button.
Posted By: Phaedrus Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 12:48 AM
I confirmed that if I swap Astarion out for a different party member, they will follow as expected. However, if I try to swap a second time to bring Astarion back, he still won't follow properly. frown

And the putative link to Group Hide could be correct, since I do use that feature fairly frequently. Alas.

This was my first real playthrough so I'm kind of sad about it, but I think I may just wait for Patch 8 to land for MacOS and hope I don't encounter the bug again.
Posted By: Malrith Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 11:01 AM
Same issue here, but with Gale.
I swapped him out for Wyll and continued playing but now I realize that boh Gale and Shadowheart -the two characters I had benched- completely disappeared from camp and are nowhere to be seen.
I'm stuck with my current party :<
No idea how to fix this beside restarting my playthrough, but I'll wait for a fix before I do so.
Posted By: Kernya Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 05:43 PM
Same issue, also with Astarion. Started happening during/after the dark crypt area. I do use the group stealth (shift-c) action a lot and I noticed it had started not acting as expected when at Kagha's room in the druid's grove. Had to manually select every character and unstealth/stealth them as the group stealth was unresponsive. No idea if it's linked.
Posted By: BeeBee Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 08:33 PM
This issue has been identified with Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae'zel and now Gale. The only way to keep them within the grouped party is to make them the leader (although how would that work if all of them are standing there stubbornly, hm.?)
Same problem in the new patch. Happened in goblin camp near female drow boss.

example

Posted By: Eliaures Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 09:45 PM
Another one, same issue. Patch 8, Shadowheart was the problem. It seemed to be tied to stealth. She behaved like I've seen previously when I have one or more "hidden" characters and the unstealthed leader moves and the stealthed characters do not follow. I could make Shadowheart the leader and the others would follow but she stayed stationary if any other character was leading the party in movement. This occured after a group stealth occurance and I unstealthed some but not all the characters. I loaded a save prior to the stealth encounter and Shadowheart follows any leader just fine.
Posted By: Tuco Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 10:22 PM
Because the only thing worse than the toilet chain control scheme is a toilet chain that doesn't even work.
Posted By: Apollyon Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 10:42 PM
I have a custom party consisting of a ranger, cleric, mage, and bard. It's not just the in-game companions. My ranger will not follow and must be leading for everyone to follow. It happened fairly soon into my play through.
Posted By: BeeBee Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/07/22 11:23 PM
Hi, just tested this "scientifically" with a party of Custom Character Bard, Shadowheart, Astarion (who stopped following at Sazza's escape) and Lae'zel (who stopped following during the Nautiloid escape). ---> this is clearly linked to the "sneak/stealth" option, which is what both had in common.

- My Bard leads --> only Shadowheart follows
- Astarion leads --> Bard & Shadowheart follow, Lae'zel stays put
- Lae'zel leads --> Bard & Shadowheart follow, Astarion stays put


This impacts scenes, dialogue abilities, and basic party management. It is incredibly annoying, please Larian take a look at it and fix it (or tell us how to override that command).
Posted By: JandK Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 01:59 AM
Same issue here. Everyone stopped following everyone after I used stealth in the grove, specifically in the room with Kagha's locked chest.
Posted By: XANi Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 02:44 AM
It also persists thru saves (tried save with all characters connected and all disconnected). In my case only my created character follows whoever else leads the party
Posted By: Xothan Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 12:16 PM
I had a similar problem except no character will follow any other character. It persists through long rest and through saves. It initially started right after I hit the group stealth button.
Posted By: Poze Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 12:30 PM
Similar issue here, Gale & Shadowheart won't follow anyone but my custom Bard + Lae'zel will follow Shadowheart or Gale.
Pretty sure it happened after a stealth visit in the owlbear-cave so same mechanic as mentioned some times above.

Edit: Had to revert my save ~20min back and then when I had just caught up my game crashed and I have to do it all again LOL
I had this same issue. It happened after I had some characters stealthed when first encountering the Grove/goblin fight. Shadowheart stopped following. I tried unlinking/relinking. Group linking/unlinking. I tried going to camp and swapping her out, bringing her back. The other companions would follow fine if Shadowheart was leading. Unfortunately, I don't think I can keep going through this playthrough (trying out the bard) if this is going to keep happening.
Posted By: Kryptix Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 03:06 PM
For me this happened to everyone when Lae'zel interrupted the first long rest with her messaging for everyone to move along, now my party of main character (warlock), Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale no one follows which is a pain to control...
Posted By: Igniz13 Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 04:26 PM
Same thing explicitly after group stealth. Group stealth doesn't even force people to stealth anymore. Don't get the option for add bonuses from Shadowheart anymore as if they're not in the group.
Posted By: Ranxerox Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 04:51 PM
The only way I have ever found to fix this is to reload a save from prior to the problem occurring. This happened in an earlier patch but was fixed..now unfixed I guess.
Posted By: AmmoMonkey Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 09/07/22 07:42 PM
This seems to happen to me if i go into turn based mode, stealth, steal something and exit turned based mode, all my companions stop following. If i end the turn and let the npc take a turn then kill turn based mode its fine.
This happened to me around the hag's lair. It was definitely connected with stealth, but not necessarily the group stealth toggle. It happened once when I hid to pick a lock on the teahouse and had Shadowheart (not stealthed) cast guidance in the check. After this, when I unstealthed, she wouldn't follow as described in other comments.
This bug is kinda the deal breaker to complete patch 8 for me smile
Posted By: MarcoNeves Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 05:58 AM
I can't get ANY companions to follow me now.... this is unbearable! LARIAN!!!!!! PLEASE make this your TOP priority!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We cannot even play the game if this is not fixed or at least a workaround is found!
Posted By: PETER87 Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 06:17 AM
Same issue here!!

Ever since the battle at the grave where I used stealth, no one follows me.

I tried to fix it by re-load, group in & out at the camp but nothing works.

Can't play the game at all until Larian fix this issue!!!
In my actual playthrough I lost already two character. They just didn't follow me. So I did stay at camp and used another one. But now in the underdark camp both characters that didn't follow are missing. It's astarion and laezel. Even when triggering the bridge githyanki scene laezel doesn't show up. They are just gone.

Usually happens when in the goblin camp fighting with gut and drow rgzlin the the drow.
Posted By: Criminon Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 06:55 AM
This just happened once again. At this point the game is unplayable until this gets fixed.
Posted By: Mego Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 12:26 PM
This Game is really annoying ._.
Posted By: wbochar Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 02:34 PM
I've had similar issues; I snuck up on Asterion (before the conversation/intro) pickpocket him, then unhide and the story intro started. Then, sent him to the camp and went to continue the story and the rest of the party would not follow.
If I make one the npc's leader, then only character that follows is the primary -- the rest stays put. It doesn't matter if the party is split in different ways.
a reload doesn't fix it, restart and reload doesn't fix it. An earlier save works.
I guess I will have to avoid hide with my rogue for the time being.
Posted By: Alex Fowl Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 03:43 PM
Definitely stealth bug.

Posted By: Krisstina Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 05:28 PM
After 6 hours of play, the bug of followers unfollowing the leader persists. I'm with my main character, Will, Gale and Lae'zel. ?If I choose my character, only Lae'zel, follows. If I choose Will as the leader, only Lae'zel follows. If you choose Gale as the leader, only Lae'zel follows.
Frustratingly, I finally got back to playing BG3 after a hiatus and just now that it has subtitles in my language, the game bugs like this. smirk
Posted By: Alarius Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 08:20 PM
This definitely happens when you use the group stealth option and then have one character leave stealth (in my case it was the main character). Only Shadowheart follows my main, and only my main follows Shadowheart. Not sure why that is though. Wyll will have Shadowheart and Main following, but not Lae'zal. Lae'zal will have Shadowheart and Main follow, but not Wyll. Very odd.

I was stealthing, broke stealth on main to attack some goblins in the cave - then had Wyll join in but kept Shadowheart and Lae'zal out of combat. After combat the above happened. It's persistent and a reload of the game doesn't fix it.
Posted By: cypheroftyr Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 08:45 PM
This happened to me yesterday with Astarion and the fight with gnolls. It also is tied to the stealth/hide mechanic. If I click group sneak, my Bard and Wyll go into a stealth post. Astarion and La'zael do not. If Astarion isn't the leader he just lolligags behind.
Posted By: Aevy Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 08:46 PM
Confirmed bug. Shadowheart just won't follow. Larian, please fix this ASAP
Just adding myself to the list. This happened to me too, also with Astarion.
Posted By: MarcoNeves Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 10:09 PM
Gonna keep bumping this. I'm adding my own comment here, bc I cannot continue to play this game until Larian fixes the grouping/linking/sneaking mechanics. No companion is following me at this point. I've tried everything, and I know this is a known issue. But it has now ruined my previous playthrough, and the current one as well. And this time, it happened as early as the Druid Grove. Larian, please redouble your efforts on fixing this ABOVE ALL other issues, as at this point, from what I can tell it's a WORSE issue than Crashes.
Posted By: magiccozmo Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 11/07/22 10:30 PM
Originally Posted by MarcoNeves
Gonna keep bumping this. I'm adding my own comment here, bc I cannot continue to play this game until Larian fixes the grouping/linking/sneaking mechanics. No companion is following me at this point. I've tried everything, and I know this is a known issue. But it has now ruined my previous playthrough, and the current one as well. And this time, it happened as early as the Druid Grove. Larian, please redouble your efforts on fixing this ABOVE ALL other issues, as at this point, from what I can tell it's a WORSE issue than Crashes.
Well, I disagree that it is worse than crashes.. especially crashes when trying to save...
But, hopefully a company like Larian can work on multiple problems at once (:

And yeah, BOTH the crashes on saving AND the not following issues are major problems.
Lae'zal just started refusing to follow me, after ending a fight where she was in stealth.
Posted By: MarcoNeves Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 12:29 AM
Gonna keep bumping this ad infinitum.

Larian, pleeeeeease fix this asap. I'd really love to play patch 8 this week still.
Posted By: Imweezel Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 06:56 AM
Having this problem as well, I noticed it occurred after stealthing, seems I was right on that. This has hit both playthroughs I was attempting now, both with Lae'zel and one with my own character, gotta' wait it out until it's fixed. I was so excited for gnomes too. :c
Posted By: Cyrus Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 08:56 AM
Same here with Shadowheart >_<
Posted By: Njrider Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 11:58 AM
Same here. Running a stealth build so I’m constantly in and out of stealth and splitting my party. Every couple encounters some or all companions stop following once I’m grouped back up.
I'll throw in another, "me too" to keep this going. Started with one companion but came and went and seemed to fix itself.

Then, once I got to the blighted village, it seemed to make the party as 2x2. They would be chained together as 4, but they seemed to only work in 2's. If I made the party stealth, only two would go into stealth. If I moved the party as a whole, only two would move.

But only a little bit after that (less than 20 minutes), it became that no companion would follow anyone else no matter the grouping or grouping order. Same with stealth. Nothing but reloading from a previous save has helped.

I personally didn't see any specific connections to when or why this started, but I do split and use stealth a lot, and from what I see, that seems to be the common thing for most people.
Posted By: Zarna Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 02:29 PM
Same thing here. First group had two customs and two companions, stealth broke and I could only have one pair (one custom and one companion in each) functional at a time. Restarted with four custom characters, this time didn't even make it past the first grove fight without stealth breaking. It doesn't seem to matter which character I click on to group stealth, someone always gets left out of it and two of them will not follow any of the others. Stealth is mainly how I play, hoping this gets fixed soon.
Posted By: BeeBee Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 04:09 PM
I'm just checking here twice a day to see if the issue was **stealthily** solved but nope, everyone's still suffering and being forced to play solo.

Maybe this is Larian's approach to encouraging solo builds?
Posted By: BeeBee Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 08:43 PM
And it's fixed!! Hallelujah! Larian just dropped Hotfix #25 :

Hello everyone,

We’ve got another hotfix for you today, addressing a couple of troublesome crashes and issues. It’s not a party if your members stop following you into the unknown, so we’ve had a little chat with them about following your instructions more closely. Now, your followers should…follow you. Thank you for taking the time to report these issues to us so we can fix them swiftly!

FIXES
Fixed an issue where party members would stop following the character you’re controlling, including crashes that could occur relating to this issue.
Fixed a crash related to switching hair colours or highlights.
Fixed a crash that would occur when ending long rest and then saving.
Fixed a crash related to pickpocketing and trading, and using items whose ownership changed.


Thank you so much for the devs, this was a tough one!
Posted By: MarcoNeves Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 12/07/22 08:43 PM
New patch just came out fixing this! Fingers crossed!
Confirmed with shadowheart, cannot be fixed.

Fixed with Lzel and the wizard by disbanding them.
Posted By: Skinofgods Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 13/07/22 01:44 AM
Have this happening, is there a way to fix it?
Have removed them and brought them back, toggled follow and unfollow, closing the game and loading the save, etc. Nothing works. This is on Stadia.
Posted By: rockin501s Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 16/07/22 04:22 AM
I can't believe I hadn't registered here earlier. Wanted to be sure to share my experience with this issue since patch 8 update on Stadia.

Shadowheart is currently being salty to the rest of us and stopped following. Issue for me started after using a combination of group sneak, separating members, having some in sneak, others not....then changing my mind and toggle regroup and toggle group sneak on/off so everyone gets on same mode. That's when the matrix glitch happened. I noticed it slightly when group sneak wasn't working for everyone, even tho full party were linked together. I ended up clicking on shadowheart and maybe a few others to toggle sneak manually. Shortly afterwards, my companions had a brief moment of lagging behind MC moreso than before. Then noticed shadowheart was not following I and being impacted by the same issue others have shared.

1. Shes shows as connected and linked with whole party, but doesn't move.

2. Setting her as leader or selecting her as current character has the other 3 members follow her. Setting any of the other 3 as selected character she will not follow the rest of group.

Nothing in-game will resolve the issue or fix it. If you continue to play it may introduce more bugs and issues. Like the character acting weird and glitchy at camp. I saw posts where it could start impacting more characters....like covid! I haven't tried loading previous save file yet, which I think may be the current workaround for now.

Instead...Im playing a little bit more of my current playthrough. ....Not recommended.

IE. - I swapped out shadowheart for Wyll. The issue wasnt apparent. Thought I was in the clear. Nope....now Wylle has an imp familiar that died but still shows pic frame next to him. So I camped and was still showing. Of course I tried casting it again and now have 2 imp pic frames. 1 dead, 1 alive. I can still double click on the dead ones frame and it takes me to it's buriel site in a different area.

Last thing I'm doing with this current playthrough is continuing the story using only 3 total party members. Only for a lil bit tho.
Posted By: ElricSkye Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 30/07/22 07:17 PM
I have also encountered thus bug. Lae'zel refuses to follow the group.

I had just finished the hag quest, saving Mayrina. Gave her the wand and she wandered off with Connor. Lae'zel was still following at this point.

I pressed the rest button, went back to camp. Spoke to Wyll (telling me about how he and Mizora met and got his powers). Did a full rest and resumed adventuring.

It was at this time Lae'zel stopped following me. If I take her over and move, everyone follows her, but she won't follow anyone else.

It seems like it is something related to resting, possibly with something being flagged. Rested a lot of times before this and it only happens now.

I reloaded a previous save. She was following again. Once I did a full rest, it happened again. Same character. Same issue. This time I chose different options with Mayrina so I doubt it's that.

Reloaded again. Figured I'd do some testing. This time, I did a full rest before speaking to Mayrina. Ignored Wyll's convo. So far, everyone is following normally after. Spoke to Mayrina. Rested again while ignoring Wyll. Everything is normal. So I rest again, this time doing Wyll's convo. Everything is still normal. Bug hasn't hit.

Maybe it triggered because of location? I still haven't figured it out.

EDIT: I should point out that I am not a stealth build. I only unlink my MC (rogue) to move ahead and disarm traps. I have not used group stealth once.
Posted By: sollis68 Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 30/07/22 09:56 PM
Same issue ElricSkye (with Lae'zel not following) happened after Goblin Camp fight...re-loading or changing party does not seem to help. So, I either have to go back to a much earlier save, move on without her, or let her lead!
Yep, Lae'zel just stopped following me too after a long rest, though I was in the Underdark. Loading the save just before the issue occurred and then long resting causes the problem to recur, but loading a save from a few days ago lets me rest and she still follows.

I wonder if this is a new issue with hotfix 27, or a recurrence of the issue that this post was originally about and was meant to be fixed with hotfix 25. And is it just Lae'zel?

Crimsonrider has also posted about this issue with Lae'zel at https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=824374#Post824374.
Posted By: Wompoo Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 03/08/22 07:05 AM
All companions stuck hard, cannot select them, cannot give them commands... after fast travelling to Selunite Outpost from main camp site.
I'm having the same bug with Lae'zel. Not sure what triggered it. I think she stopped following after i rested after the vision cutscene at the goblin camp. Seriously ruining my run.
Originally Posted by mollyharlequin
I'm having the same bug with Lae'zel. Not sure what triggered it. I think she stopped following after i rested after the vision cutscene at the goblin camp. Seriously ruining my run.

Hurrah! This seems to have been successfully fixed in the hotfix that has just dropped. I had savegames both where Lae’zel had already stopped following and where she’d reliably stop following on the next rest, and in both cases she now keeps up with the party.

Looking forward to finishing my drow bard playthrough that I’d set aside due to this bug. But I’ve now grown attached to my deep gnome rogue … choices, choices!
Posted By: Yeronoco Re: Bug: Grouped companion not following - 08/08/23 10:08 PM
Originally Posted by The Red Queen
Originally Posted by mollyharlequin
I'm having the same bug with Lae'zel. Not sure what triggered it. I think she stopped following after i rested after the vision cutscene at the goblin camp. Seriously ruining my run.

Hurrah! This seems to have been successfully fixed in the hotfix that has just dropped. I had savegames both where Lae’zel had already stopped following and where she’d reliably stop following on the next rest, and in both cases she now keeps up with the party.

Looking forward to finishing my drow bard playthrough that I’d set aside due to this bug. But I’ve now grown attached to my deep gnome rogue … choices, choices!

Still not fixed for me. I'm currently backtracking a bit and I'm at a point where Halsin stops following me after a single battle on the mountain pass. No specific battle, doesn't matter if kobolds or giant eagles, he just stops following. Tried regrouping, restarting, leaving him in camp for one battle and recruiting him again after that, to no avail... Verifying files through steam also did nothing.
Having the same problem, also with Halsin. Tried every trick in the book. Even tried hopping way points. Hope this gets fixed soon
Hey, idk if you tried this, but I fast traveled back to Last Light and now Halsin's fine.
This was a specific issue with early access that was fixed last year. I'd suggest if folk are experiencing a similar problem with the full release that a separate thread is created (and that they report it to Larian).

I'll lock this old thread so as to not get old EA and new release issues mixed up.
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