Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Are the EA companions the only companions?

With so many other classes available to be put into the game I was wondering if there are other companions of other classes we'll pick up along the way that aren't in the early access yet? Has Larian confirmed anything about this yet?

We vaguely know that there should be more companions.
Details about their number or identity are vague.

It’s completely unknown if we should even expect to see any of them (let alone all of them) during the Early Access.

We honestly don't know much. Some here advocate for Non Origin companions but we don't even know if Larian has considered that as an option.

There is some datamining revealing some interesting Origin companions, but a lot of that is speculation based on incomplete pieces of code and writing.

Yeah, that's always a bit hazardous; and experience from released games is that you find loads of unused content when sifting through the assets so it's impossible to say how much of what's been found will end up the same, or changed or deleted altogether. It's an interesting exercise but I think it's too easy to make assumptions that it's somehow definitive... btdt etc.

There should be more companions coming to the game, yes.
While datamining should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, and not everything that is in the datamining will end up in the game, and plenty of things that aren't visible in current datamining at all will end up in the game, I doubt very much that a Baldur's Gate game will be limited to just the 5 companions.
I'm sure there will be more companions to be unveiled yet.

Wait, Wyll can actually die in that fight...? I have never had it even close to him dying cause the gobbos like to focus Gale or the mercs at the gate.

We are looking at eight total Origins characters IIRC. Four male, four female. We don't know if any more will be added further in development. Also unknown if non-Origins party members will be recruitable, but I really hope so-although I don't know which characters outside of maybe Minthara really give that 'possible party member down the road' impression.

This is me I really WANT to like the game but when the origin characters all make me want to just kill them every time they open their mouth I get a little depressed lol. I really hope they add in some "boring" (read, not assholes) characters that don't have some dark haunted past. I'm a tofu and potatoes kind of guy for the most part, open hostility from my companions generally rubs me the wrong way.

On topic:
There is some another Origin characters as companions promissed ...
Most people presume there will be 8 Origin characters in the end.

But as far as i know, one of first things that was told by Larian is that there will be some "mercenary" function, where you can get some companions without strong believes, or stories ... so i would dare to presume, we shall get missing classes there.

Not just that ... you can even kill him on purpose, and Zevlor will still greet you as rescuer.
I didnt yet managed to kill everyone before fight ended, usualy at least one Tiefling remained ... but reaction about you attacking them is lacking.

Smells like monetised DLC. A lot of the time all the DLC actually does is unlock the content that's already in the game. I don't know Larian's MO but its becoming common practice in the market, sadly. Still, so long as it's not a Squirrel riding a skeleton that spends 30 hours patronising me I might consider it.

We haven't even got the rest of the game yet - I don't think DLC is even on the horizon right now for Larian? They've got to release the main game first...
Datamining is most likely showing us what will be, or is being considered to be, in the rest of the game.

Larian doesn't really do DLC. As far as I recall they only sold 1 bit of DLC with DOS2 - Sir Lora The Squirrel for $2.99.

It came with my Definitive Edition.

Having said that, I think if Larian sells additional content, it will likely be additional campaigns. Which is fine. I hope they do.

From Larian's track record, DLC is not even being considered right now which is something I like. The only DLC for DOS2 was Sir Lora which most did not even have to buy. I at least I have confidence Larian would tell us if they were planning on DLC like full on Origin companions.

On that, I really hope we get one Origin for each class with Artificer added on. So we really do get a full party with just the origin companions, and then instead of the DOS2 Mercenary system, we can recruit less complex companions of various classes through quests or hiring.

My ideal wish for companions is that we have 3 of every class and they have personalities that lean towards good, neutral, and evil for each class (not locked as alignment since they are thankfully moving away from that crap.) Have as much of an equal split between sexes and races as possible as well. Obviously most of these would have to be non origin companions, hopefully we at least get one of each class for these. This would probably make the majority of people happy although I am sure there would still be complaints that some exact combination isn't what they want.

As for the OP's concern, I am sure we are getting more companions, they said before release that they were giving us the "neutral" and "evil" ones first. The "good" ones are coming.

Three's a little excessive, that'd be fifteen companions already based upon the EA classes so far, and the companions are all voiced. That's just not viable. At most it will be one per class with a variety of male and female characters that can be romanced.

Actually it'd be way more than that. There are 12-13 official classes, and one officially unofficial class. Assuming Bloodhunter will not be a thing, we will still have the following: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard and maybe Artificer. Not having Artificer would mean 12 origin companions (one for each class) and 24 non-origin companions (2 for each class) for a total of 36. With artificer that would become 13 and 26 meaning 39 fully voiced companions.

And honestly, I would love for resources to go to this, and I have ideas on how Zarna's idea could work. In particular, you just make non-origins less complicated. They are fully voiced but not to the level of origin companions, they maybe have one quest instead of the overarching storyline Origins would have, and in general as characters they are more shallow. That said, I wouldn't want them to be generic, I mean more shallow like how half the cast of BG1 was pretty shallow and just had something iconic to them, like Tiax. In fact, this would be a great escalation to BG1's companion list as well as an opportunity to flesh out the world and add interesting stuff to it. You could have them as "quest rewards" or part of certain encounters like BG1, some could be a bit more complex and have a bit of a plot, and some could just be an opportunity to add someone wacky to the group, like the world domination planning and (self-proclaimed) ascending god, Tiax.

I do realize it is a bit much though, perhaps excessive, but honestly, it feels like the ideal to me and could really push BG3 to be even greater, and it could be something that is slowly worked on over the course of the EA. having a large cast like this gives players way more opportunities to engage with the world and customize their party to their own specifications. Obviously some would not be that good or fall flat as is inevitable with a huge cast, but if addressed in EA that could be solved and we could really see our group grow. Heck, there have been multiple threads on characters who would make great companion characters and I personally have a list of some I REALLY REALLY want to be made into full companions.

My final point for non origin companions is it would give us the opportunity to test way more things. It could be really beneficial for EA for players to have experiences with multiple of the same class (and possibly different subclasses) in a party, seeing how they interact and giving their feedback. Perhaps a party of warlocks could break an encounter cause of a glitch or exploit, or 4 druids wildshaping at the same time in a specific area could cause a crash. By giving us more characters to work with, they increase our ability to test things and give substantial feedback.

(Unrelated, if it isn't clear I might have liked having Tiax in my party in BG1, helps he had an innate summoning ability. But he was kinda a one note insane dude, but that was perfectly fine.)

Edit: I also want to note that Larian has also taken on the challenge of giving voice to many many many corpses in the game, and giving voice to basically every animal in the game, so I think the issue of voiceacting is a lesser issue to the actual issue of programming, writing, designing, and animating 39 distinct companion characters (while likely giving each something to make them more distinct like Astarion's Vampirism). I believe there is a challenge in that, and while I am being hopeful, I think taking on that challenge would bear great fruits so to speak.

I sincerely doubt the game will ship with all D&D classes available to the player, let alone as companions. It would be extremely generous if it does, but developers aren't usually known for their generosity. Far more likely are paid for content packs to unlock some of the classes and I know that hasn't been Larian's style to-date but DOS2 got around that by allowing you to chose your companion's class when you first recruited them. BG3 uses set classes and is a far bigger game than anything they've done so far. Forty fully voiced companions would be unprecedented. If you want a good idea of the amount of companions the game will have just take a look at the make up of your camp.

They promised everything in the PHB will be guaranteed in the game. that means all 12 base classes and all the subclasses printed in the Player's Handbook. I said elsewhere but Larian is not know for DLC at all. The only paid DLC I can remember from them is Sir Lora from DOS2 and even then it was free to most everyone, I bought it anyways cause I was gifted the game and I felt guilty. Heck, DOS2 added Quality of Life improvements and new mechanics completely for free well after the game was done, when any other company would have monetized it. If Larian has any goodwill from me, it is their monetization which is by far generous. So no, they will likely not be locking any of the 12 base classes behind DLC. And I SEVERELY doubt they will lock Artificer behind paid dlc either if they choose to add it. DLC is just not their thing, and I like that.

Also yes 39 would be unprecedented, BG1 only had 25, meaning this game would have 14 more than that one. But my counterargument to that is many good games push the limits of their genre, and there is a clear limit here to push and a clear reward for doing so.

I will say the camp can easily support 13 Companions easily, 39 would be cramped though but I have a feeling this won't be our permanent camp meaning it will change and we will get a larger one that could accommodate the entire group.

Edit: in fact, if they start monetizing like any other company and do DLC like "Artificer class + companion" I will genuinely feel betrayed and a little embittered. I would be fine with genuine expansions as in Witcher 3 level of Expansions and I am definitely fine with the giftbag system DOS2 had, but to do DLC like the other companies will basically lose me completely, and it will feel like they will have betrayed everything they built up with their company.

I personally would prefer fewer, but well written and well voiced companions that are an integral part of the story (like we have now) rather than heaps of poorly written companions.

IMHO the writing and voice acting in this game is EXCELLENT, and that requires quality, good (well-paid) actors, and time to get it right. They're already taking their time with the game as it is. It would be very, very hard to maintain that same level of quality across so many companions, and tie them in to the main story. If some of them were noticeably shallower or somehow lesser than others, I'm sure there would be more complaints...

I understand where people's wish for more and more companions is coming from (to cover all the classes so you could balance your own party however you want, to cover more alignment options for how you like to play, etc) but in terms of game design and the sheer amount of time, effort, and paid actors, it just doesn't seem feasible.

It could be SLIGHTLY more feasible to have more if at very least there wasn't the need to write these companions from multiple perspectives, according to having them as companions or player characters.
That's the sort of stuff that tends to inflate costs significantly. And I still question the assumption that the pay off may be worth it.
In fact I openly doubt it.