Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Halsin companion!

Kill the actual archdruid and make him the replacement. He's a terrible leader, so it'd be a good way to explain that too.

That's exactly what I had in mind.
And some druids choose Halsin while some choose Khaga...

Halsin is the typical Elf I feel.
Not interested if not for a compagnion that is very much like himself.
Probably another Elf that is a Druid too. He seems very focussed and looking at the future and his place in life.

To make him just a romance option to any stray whatever would feel wierd.
Even if I do not intend to create a character "for him" anytime ever.

°bro-fists him°

You guys keep mentioning the level thing but no one mentioned the no character thing

What is so interesting about Halsin? He is a very generic character with stereotypical lines.

Yes, but he's hot, and probably an animal in the sack.

The more companions the better. I was hoping Kagha and Halsin would come along with the druid class. There should be a companion for every class. ideally 2 companions for each archetype actually, so we can have a class exemplar along each path, whether the good or the villainous. That's the BG way to do it.

I hope we get more regular companions in addition to these origin companions we have currently. There are plenty of NPCs in act one that could work, they don't need the full VO origin treatment, just the barks. Act 1 already feels like a team up anyway, aside from the big bads pretty much every other NPC we run into could work. It's better anyway if they are sort of generic and blank slated, lower level archetypes types when recruitable, for the option to shape their level progression later. Halsin would work well like that. Maybe Halsin and Kagha from the druids, Sazza and Minthara from the gobs, a couple Tiefs? That would round it out nicely and make the game feel less like the fab 5, and a bit more like a baldur's gate game to me.

I actually found him fairly likable from the get go, but boy if this community didn't put its best effort in trying to make it become an insufferable meme.

Also, not every half decent character needs to "become a companion right now".
See similar requests for Minthara or the failed Bard of Cringe Alfira.

And yes, "the more companions the better", but ideally not by recycling B-tier NPCs.

What do you mean?

Speaking for myself ... exactly that.

Halsin is just a regular guy in our pleiade of exceptional characters with übercool backstory.
He is just something else.

B-tier is fine with me, as long as there's some decent variety.

In BG1 practically every area you visited had least 1 NPC trying to crash the party.

Without even wandering off the beaten path, you were bound to run into a dozen hangers-on by the time of the Bandit interlude. Just walking the main highways or stopping by the taverns. Wander a little further and you'd run into a Kivan or Shar Teel or whoever. Often times they were just thrown at us as "maybes" along the way, without needing to be anything particularly special or stand out. Just trapped in a mine or some such. Pretty much exactly like Halsin lol

That's not a good comparison. We both know no one will accept companies like the ones in bg1 anymore, and no one is planning making Halisn into this kind of companion. If Halsin is a companion, they'll have to put more work into him.

They just need to release a good looking masculine alpha male companion so this Halsin nonsense stops. This thirst has more to do with a type than actually Halsin. Larian are only serving the fancy and sensitive man type so far for companions and they're all physically weak. Halsin is the only alpha male around.

Barbarian, Paladin and Ranger are still missing. I would also like a human male warrior companion considering with Karlach already two of our warrior companions will be the strong non-human female type. What if I prefer more down to earth races over aliens and devils? Every party needs a warrior.

The datamined male companion is more comic relief than alpha male so the game still needs another if he really is a companion. I hope he won't be.

Well I guess I don't know what people might accept these days, but I think a comparison to BG1 is always worthwhile exploring. Part of worked well in that game was the companions felt like part of the story, or a natural outgrowth of the story, and not like THE story itself. It was kinda nice that the companions in BG1 were rather blank slated archetypes, similar to Charname as the protagonist, so the player could project the story onto them. Rather than having the NPC companions dictate the beats of the story. I was always more inclined to take the BG1 NPCs along for the ride, but it's not like we need a whole massive library of voiced dialog and cut-scened camp material for a simple character to still carry. They could put more work into him sure, but honestly I'd be happy even with what he is now, while they build that all out.

The 5 origins already feel kinda tired. Why can't we have more of these rando NPCs from act 1 like B-tier mercs? At least it would do something to spice up the EA, with some more party comps and char builds on display. I sometimes think the EA would be more entertaining if it was more about throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Just having 1 companion per class seems way light to me, even for an Early Access thing. Why not just go more grab bag with it? Like maybe the player doesn't want to play their MC as a druid necessarily, but might still get a chance to see what Druids can do with Halsin or Kagha or some other druid companion. Right now I think they are too reliant on the force of personality with these 5 main origins to showcase the available classes. We need a couple more regular old Brawlers and acquisitive Rogue type companions milling about too, but if they threw a druid our way I wouldn't complain. There should be a dozen potential companions by the time we get to act 2 at least. That'd be my preference. They don't all have to be winners, just give a bigger spread.

If i had to gues ...
I would gues the main reason is the fact that our party keep discuising effects, dangers and potential solutions to the fact that they were tadpoled ... and any sensible person would run from them as fast as possible.

I mean, i would also like the option to have mercenaries allready possible ... and i would not mind at all that they would be without any deep stories, or strong opinions about our deeds ...
But it just dont seem to be fitting the story, unless we resolve our problem somehow ... :-/

First I want to say there is value in what you're saying in regards to bg1 companions, and while personally I don't find the idea appealing, I see where you're coming from. If just giving Halsin a companion status without putting much extra work into him is an idea you find satisfying, while I disagree, I am not opposed to it.

I also think there is a difference between companions that are good support for the narrative and companions that take over the narrative. I would say even someone like DAO Alistair still belongs to the former rather than the later imo.

Why I don't think they'll go there when it comes to your idea - I think Larian aspires to make a story driven RPG rather than a dungeon crawler, and you can deny it of you like, but I think bg2 as a story driven RPG is an improvement over bg1 when it comes to companions writing. I don't think they'll go back just because there is some
Btw, pillars of eternity 2 did pretty much exactly what you're suggesting with the sidekick system, and I don't know about you but I felt like it's a waste of resources and never used it, but I don't think it really hurt the game in a significant way so why not.

I also think BG2 is an interesting and apt comparison for the current game. Following the story beats there, we got Imoen as basically the main plot driver. Then Jaheira and Misc immediately, then Yoshi, and Aerie before even leaving the promenade. Then at least 1 recruitable companion in like every district of the city. Every class archetype was represented, with at least one other variant with a different race/alignment/gender or stat spread to differentiate them. Some hunks, some babes, some shorties, plenty of elves and wizards and whatnot, some throw aways sure, but enough variety so that choosing a party comp felt more distinct and like a reflection of the MC too in that way.

I think they could go as deep or as shallow as they want with the writing, but you can do a lot with barks and text and script, and not necessarily needing a massive VO acting sweep to prop it up. Most of the Chars in BG2 had just one or two "sequences" where they got the spotlight, or perhaps a little bit more if they were romanceable, but I think it was the variety of types that helped it feel like an epic. Some of those character ideas stood out more than others, even if just as sketches, depending on what one likes out of a D&D game. I kind of prefer an NPC with a little going on the side, but still fairly light on demands, as opposed to a straight Merc system like Pillars, which was really more like building a second custom PC. I think that's a cool feature to have too, but one I didn't make much use of there cause of course its fun to play with companions. I think most times the player is either doing it single player + all companions like BG, or single player custom party like BG LAN or IWD, or else some combo if MP with other actual players. Though there were still a few playthroughs where I rolled with a custom second that I can recall, and it was a good time.

When I say Mercs here I guess I just mean having a few BG2 style companions in BG3, you know something between a Mercenary custom (ala Pillars) and a fully dialed Origin like what we have so far. At this point a dozen companions done up BG2 style as compared to 5 Origins, would be sort of analogous to just having a few BG1 style companions in BG2, which I actually think would have helped flesh out that game a bit more. Like that was one of the first things people wanted to mod in, or which would eventually go into the Enhanced Editions, just more companions. The EE BG characters kind of feel like SW special editions to me, but I can still get why they did it. Cause more companions just makes for a larger sense of scale and grandeur. I wish for the EEs they had just used the BG1 characters when they entered the plot in BG2 (since they all made an appearance) instead of making new ones with no real connection to the official games. The Villain path in BG2 was always short a few slots, so I can see why they wanted a vampire assassin and a half orc blackguard. They were fun. I know everyone says its this huge expense and effort, but how hard is it to hire a bunch of VA actors and just fire off some clutch barks with a few vignette sequences acted out? Like is Halsin's day rate really that crazy, that they couldn't bring him back in the sound booth for a day, and fire off some more lines?

I don't know, I think they should lean into some of this stuff, like if the people are into cringe bards and crazy drow and druid guns, then why not? Just call those actors back for a barks session and hang a laurel on em. Seems like not the craziest thing ever to pull off. Even if its more story driven than crawler, I think it'd work for either really. I think players are just hungry, or maybe thirsty for more, and that's not surprising cause they only gave us the furious five, for like a year now lol. Of course people are looking for someone new to dive in on by now

I agree more is better, but I don't think this should be done at any cost. The most important criticism I have against your argument is that you seem to favour quantity over quality. I prefer 5 good and interesting companions over 10 mercenaries every day.

The companions of bg2 were more than what you say they were imo. Right now I cannot think of a single companion (minsc maybe...?) That didn't have at least one quest associated with them. And moreover, the companions were reactive. They talked about what is happening, your decisions and more. This is big and any additional companion that doesn't do it is a waste of time imo, especially when you can create as many mercenaries as you want in Bg3 if you don't care about story companions.

Like I said initially though, if all that Larian does is to give the option of taking Halsin with you as a companion (and to be fair, I don't think they need to do much more work to make it happen) I wouldn't mind it.

Halsin should be at least level 10 IF they make him a true member of the party, which, storywise, they should. Makes no sense for him to say he'll come with you but he'll just sit at your camp and do nothing. They have to at least come up with a REALLY good reason why he doesn't join you in fights.

So, the issue with him being a party member is he SHOULD be OP compared to the rest of your party, which then throws off balance.

So, good luck, Larian, solving that issue you created for yourself. Storywise, he should be a playable party member, but gameplay wise he should not for sake of balance. I personally would like him to be a playable companion, but only if done right.

It's too late to make him a companion since he's already been given such high status. What would make sense is Halsin sending a novice like Nettie with you as a companion. But the internet isn't thirsty for Nettie. They want an alpha male but Larian is only giving them intellectual, flamboyant and magical.

Maybe they are planning for Halsin to have a Gorion moment at Moonrise instead of making him a Druid merchant for camp or whatever. That would be better storytelling already.

Larian doesn't seem to think powerful NPC's sitting in your camp with nothing better to do is a problem though. We already have an undead there with unlimited magic power for player convenience. They always sacrifice storytelling for gameplay mechanics. Even when it's not necessary, like mr. skeleton.

But seriously, Halsin should stay at his circle to lead. They are just recovering from a hostile Shadow Druid takeover. What kind of a leader just takes off again and leaves his flock to their fate?

Why? O_o

Agreed!

Again ... Why?

Personaly i would welcome that option too.

Skeleton dont seem like good choice to travel with ... not sure about his speed, but he didnt seem to have litteraly any other power except ressurecting specificly your party members. :-/
Better example would be companions staying in your camp, bcs they are "abowe 4 members limit". :-/

That kind of leader that understands that he have bigger problems to solve ...
That kind of leader that understands that he made bad decision, that endangered everything he believed in ... and therefore isnt as competent for his position as he might think before. :P

But you are totally right ...
Halsin specificly offers his presence in our camp with words "if you allow me" we certainly should have option to not allow him. :P