Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Animal Companions in BG3 like Wilson the bear.

If you don't know who Wilson the bear is, he's a bear party member in Baldur's Gate 2. I've attached a video I found of him:


My question is, do you think we will have or be able to recruit animal followers or companions in Baldur's Gate III like Wilson the bear? I think it would be a neat idea if we could.

DISCLAIMER: The video I've attached isn't mine and doesn't belong to me, it's someone elses. I'm only linking to the video. So any permissions/copyright stuff will have to go to the original creator. I don't own, or have any permissions or rights to this video, so anything like that will have to be directed to original creator.

What are your thoughts? Do you hate animals, or do you want to have some animal buds?

BEAMDOGS CONTENT ISN’T CANNON!

That’s my thought.

For a second there I thought I have missed something in my multiple BG playthroughs.

I love animals but they make for poor conversationalists, which is not what you want from companions. Still, never say never. As long as the animal companion has a robust dialogue tree and a romance option I am open to the possibility.

Couldn't you make an exception for this one furry and fluffy bear? Joking aside, I find it Interesting that you should say that. What makes it non-cannon for you?

Animals are poor at conversation, however they make an excellent point for conversation. Imagine going to a tavern with an animal! It would create a great scene, maybe the owners or bartenders would throw or order you out of the bar! An example of the top of my head, or maybe an animal doesn't know how to behave in a tavern or in a city causing a lot of issues.

You wanna romance an animal like Wilson the bear? I don't blame you. Have you heard his voice?

It was released 15 years after the original and, most importantly, I didn't like the additions (though I must say I didn't explore it much - in BG1:EE new companions were poorly introduced clearly breaking design conventions and sticking out like a sore thumb. Though, nothing I have heard suggests that I am actually missing much). Luckily, in BG2 new companons didn't violently thrust themselves on you, so I didn't much care.

Dragonspear is on my list "to play" but for some misterious reason I can't get to it.


Possibly. I really liked being able to introduce my pet companion as a ranger in PoE2 to everyone. I would definitely take a fluffy bear over a novelty mind-flayer companion, or whatever else was suggested before. As long as Wilson will have "bear hug" ability, granting a companion a bonus roll to morale I am good.

They should do the Grizzly-man thing though. Everytime your rest in camp there is a chance the bear with turn on you and eat your face while you sleep.

Considering the dog in DA:O was my favourite companion, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea afterall.
https://youtu.be/5xufYmNy9mc

EDIT. They do have a glorous bear model in BG3 already:
https://imgur.com/RyDwtAP

I think we might get an owl bear cub at some point.

With a party size of only 4, I can’t imagine ever giving up one of those slots for an animal companion. It would have to be really well implemented.

Yeah I have to agree that the party size reduction automatically makes it impossible for me to be willing to take along not just animal companions but even other odd-ball or unusual or quirky companions. My three companions would be chosen in a very structural way to cover what I consider to be necessary party functions, and NOT on the basis of who's most interesting. A sad fallout from the party size reduction decision.

If we have a bear, I prefer something like Okku of NWN2, you can talk philosophy with him.
It would be cool if you have a decent animal companion, but if they are going to use the beastmaster of 5e I think that´s going to be less than optimal he he.

Yes, agreed. Okhu was awesome. I always included him in my parties.

Fair point. I don't mind the EE content whatsoever, but I don't really have any intentions of playing Dragonspear either. I don't know, I think I prefer having the gap in between BG1 and BG2 than this new story thrown in.

That bear model does look awesome! Thanks for linking it.

Didn't Larian say it would be possible to beat BG3 through dialogue only? I imagine you would be able to complete the game with any party or just going solo, so personally I would take all the odd-ball, quirky and unusal companions.

I think the concept is sound - there is a narrative gab between BG1&2 that can be explored. But 15 years is a long time and BG status, design style and writing style has change a lot. It would take a very fine touch to create new content for BG that wouldn't feel out of place, and from what I have seen and heard Beamdog didn't quite nail that.

If this turns out to be the case, then that alone would sell me on the game. But I am not at all convinced of this at this point. So let's wait and see.

But to this discussion, yeah it's always the odd-ball, quirky, unusual companions that I tend to love having in my parties in party-based games. The whole point of playing a party-based game, for me, is those companions and having interesting and fun interactions and relationships with those companions. I never ever use generic characters or mercenaries in place of NPC companions in any game.

I would say this is subjective. I liked SoD and thought Beamdog did a pretty decent job with that game. Same thing with the EEs and the added content and companions in those games. Some of those companions I liked and others I didn't, just like with the vanilla games. For me, the issue is that after 20 years of replaying those games so many times, I am ready to move on to other games. That's why replaying the IE games has now given way to replaying the PoE games and P:Km.

Looks like this could be a thing - if you count Intellect Devourers

So far we got
And Owlbear cubs. And while it might not eat your face, it can aparently eat your dog.

Well from the livesteam it looks like we will be able to talk with animals

That would be cool.


I've never played NWN2, could you talk a bit more about Okku?

For sure agree with you. There's nothing worse or uninteresting than some boring, ''strong silent type'' generic fighter companion. I too dislike generic characters. I actually prefer someone with personality, even if that means I go under powered, because even then that makes the game much more of a challenge which can be fun.

I'd like to know, what are some of your favourite oddball, unusual and quirky companions in RPGS or any games?

Yes all the stuff outside of combat in a cRPG is what makes the game interesting and enjoyable to me. Therefore, to get the max enjoyment from those other elements, I am quite fine with playing the game on a lower difficulty level if that's what it takes. The "challenge" of combat is definitely NOT what I care for in my games. I play videogames to relax and destress, and overly challenging combat actually goes against what I'm looking for in a videogame.

Speaking of animal companions, in P:Km, I usually play a character with some levels of a class that gives me an animal companion. I do the same with Amiri, and Ekun comes with his dog. So across the three of us, we end up with three animal companions. Awesome!

As for quirky companions in other games, my memory fails me in remembering character names. I know I always liked having Jan Jansen in my BG parties. The druid in PoE is hilarious. Bioware always did a pretty decent job of having some interesting characters in their games, and I recall finding at least one great companion in each of the DA games (but again can't quite recall names). But also, sadly, I think recent cRPGs have shied away from including quirky companions in them.