Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Which companion(s) won't make it?

She seems more or less normal already - for a drow.

He needs magical items from you! How can you not hate him?!

I mean what is a person compared to a magical artifact, even if I have no real use for it??


Seriously though, I personally don't really like him because of his attitude. But considering the current situation I could work with him. Even if that means that I am forced to use him as a recycle bin for magical artifacts.


I have voted Astarion, because he is an undead Abomination, which most my characters loath. Only a few evil characters of mine have necromantic leanings.
And I have voted for Lae'Zel. My nicer/goodish characters dislike her agressive and hostile targets - and her being a loyal soldier of an evil empire.
My evil characters will not take her, because she is more loyal to her queen than to anything else and will be of no help should they clash. Which is likely because the events of the prologue.

Minthara is someone I have not voted actually, because I have a hard time "counting" her. My good characters will (technically) not reject her, since to them she is just an antagonist. And my evil characters may be intrigued by her.

Basically recruiting Minthara meant losing both Wyll and Halsin, at least if EA is to be trusted. However, the fact she is a companion might mean she has more depth than it catches the eye. No idea.

From the way it was talked about in the last panel from hell, it sounds like she'll still be mutually exclusive as a companion in regards to Halsin. Which means that the aid the grove/aid the goblins split is still probably in, and a lot of people (myself included-who is planning to do an evil run first) had problems justifying siding with the goblins for a multitude of reasons that have already been discussed to death.

You also kinda alienate most of your party members. Wyll leaves automatically. Gale has to be talked down from leaving, shadowheart sulks (and it breaks her romance). Now we know that you'll also have to miss out on Halsin. And based on datamines/things larian has said previously, it seems like Minsc/Jaheria/Karlach are unlikely to be your friends after our murder spree either.

Even from a purely mathematical-non RP perspective, it doesn't seem like a fair trade. During the PFH Swen indicted that Larian considers her a 'reward' for sticking through with all the murder till that point.

Which is a real shame, IMO.

That was my first thought, too. Are you all already planning your Dark Urge playthrough? 😄

But to be fair, Minthara died in all of my playthroughs so far - I sided with Halsin, and a fight with her then seems to be unavoidable. But I've never killed any of the other companions.

Maybe I am in a minority here in this forum, but if I could, I would take all of them along.
I am glad that I can have all of them at camp and that the party won't be locked.

Honestly I most likely will get everyone too. Astarion is expendable/skippable in the unlikely event we can make the hirelings exactly how we want them though, because then his only use (party rogue) evaporates. I don't like him and I certainly don't trust him.

Minthara as I will be siding with the druids on my first run. Astarion is on thin ice, if he stays so unapologeticlly evil till the end of Act I he is gone - not dead, but I don't want him around.

Man I wish there was someway to get Minthara without slaughtering the Tieflings. She looks so cool. I am about to finish me 2nd playthrough and just fought her as she dual wields maces like a beast.

To the OP, youur missing an option, None!. Love them all as characters, that being said I certainly have my favourites, but that has a lot to do with limited spots.

Will probably take me 5-6 playthroughs to use them all actively.

The one I used the least in EA was Astarion closely followed by Wyll, but not because of their personality or anything like that, simply class/party composition. I did pop them out when I knew I would encounter stuff pertaining to their character/backstory though. And they didn't disappoint.

Don't think it's possible to recruit them all in one playthrough. At minimum either Minthara or Halsin must die each playthrough.

No, the option isn't missing. I'm sure there's a lot of people who won't kill off any companions. Indeed it wouldn't surprise me if that's the majority of players. I was curious about who becomes a corpse when turning companions into corpses is a thing though. I added the criteria of the choice being made based on what we know so far since act 1 isn't all there is to them. And also in some cases there are rewrites (much for Wyll, some for Gale) and I figure there might be more than one particularly annoying character. Finally I imagine people will do several playthroughs in which they make very different choices, meaning everyone or no one gets the axe, so I spesified "first playthrough" to prevent all boxes being ticked.

Otherwise I probably would've made the poll go
"Are there any companions you're likely to kill off?
1. Yes, I'll kill...
2. No, I won't kill any of them
3. I'm undecided/don't know yet."

I'm not saying people shouldn't express their opinion if they want all the companions to live though. By all means, go ahead. It's just not part of the numbers I was interested in for the poll though.

If Minsc is a spellcasting Ranger, he's out. If he's a Barbarian like he should, I will give him a chance. IF they can explain convincingly why he's not level 15+. Same with Jaheira. I hope they don't mess up these legendary characters.

Minthara is only good for "look how evil I am" talk. The way she was groveling before Ketheric Thorm, not impressed. She's a Paladin but where's the conviction? She's out.

Astarion is out by default because the whole vampire schtick feels like such an afterthought and forced. Also not explained how an undead creature can get tadpoled in the first place. Entire vampire theme wasted by some blind desire to include a vampire companion too hard and too early and not do it properly.

Halsin is unfortunately out. He should have been a high level NPC as First Druid. The leader leaving his Grove when his Druids need him the most, because players grasped on to the first good aligned hot guy in EA and harped on him becoming a companion, is not believable or a good look for the character. Halsin's purpose as a character was to be a level 9+ NPC that would have shown the player there is a power structure in the world. That the low level party is not the shit. Halsin is the shit. But also a promise you can become that powerful later. He could have swooped in to save the party's ass at the darkest hour, by taking on a boss too powerful for the party and potentially sacrificed himself in the process. But such strong scenes are secondary to players' romance cravings over at Larian. Could have also given them the romance while keeping Halsin as an NPC.

Wyll is out unless the rewrite is substantial and successful. He was such an oddball being one of the lads, like serving a devil from the Nine Hells didn't change a person at all. It was more like Mizora was his boss at McDonalds you complain about. Needed much more significance to devils and warlocks there.

Gale is ok, just his backstory is so over the top I'd rather not have heard it at all. Karlach the same. Less would have been much more with these characters. But I need someone in the party.

Shadowheart will make it. But hopefully she has a redemption arc sooner rather than later for good and neutral parties. She has the potential to be the most interesting and cool out of everyone. I hope her real name isn't Karen.

You can level him as you want, respec him as you want. Hamsters and Rangers everywhere, rejoice!

For the same reason he's alive to begin with. He was pooped on by pigeons for over a hundred years.

Jaheira grew really old and grew tired of her AD&D ways. Who knows what's she's been up to? Maybe she settled down in Saradush for seventy years, sipping tea and knitting spider silk sweaters.
Anyway, I agree - but you can't blame them for not sticking to your head canon. Minsc was always a ranger, he will be a ranger. He'll likely have rage, though, just like before. So speccing hin into a Barbie might not be all that beneficial.

Ehm. She;s a paladin sworn to the Absolute. Thorm is her superior. Of course she grovels to her evil overlord. That's her job. Just like a Paladin of Helm would bow before a High Watcher.

Romance or not, there was no indication in EA that his character was planned to be like that. Halsin was in EA without being a companion or romance. He didn’t swoop in and save the party. On the good path, Tav saved him, and then Halsin temporarily joined the party to take out the goblin leaders, and then he left the Grove to travel with Tav and try to fix the Shadow Curse. If on the evil path, Tav fights and defeats him.

Astarion's first interaction in EA is threatening to kill you. Then you find out his "secret" in a very rude awakening way. No character I've ever made in any fantasy RPG/TTRPG would be like, "All good bro, come along for the ride."

I mean, they could explain Halsin with being a substitute too. Toss in one conversation where he was made archdruid before his time because the mighty archdruid had to go on a mission, was killed etc. Not ideal, but it should be addressed somehow.
Minsc is supposed to be tadpoled too, so he, like the rest of the party, suffered powerloss too ( and I can believe, I try to defend Minsc, I don't even like him).

He might just be a werebear rping as a archdruid.

I dont really think Halsin was even once adressed, called, or even mentioned as Archdruid ...
Unless i forgot something, all NPCs i recall called him "first druid" ...

And while i believe there are many Druid circles where being strong = become leader ... until someone stronger appear.
I think is perfectly possible that other Druids followed Halsin bcs he was simply old and wise enough.

Their circle is pretty scuffed yeah, got a hag and shadow druids operating freely in their house

As much as I would love this, we do get a chance to have him in our party in early access and he has druid spells that he can use. Call lightning, for example.

I'm holding out some small hope for the wearbear theory, if only because it seemed like such a great idea when someone mentioned it. That would add a considerable amount of interest to Halsin's character, imo.