this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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Baldur's Gate 3

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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story-rich, party-based RPG set in the universe of Dungeons & Dragons, where your choices shape a tale of fellowship and betrayal, survival and sacrifice, and the lure of absolute power. (Website)

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I'm currently slow going through BG3 with many different playthroughs (as you do when you can't decide on a player character). I've noticed that evil characters are locked out of what seems like the majority of companions though. Does anyone know the complete list of the companions available to evil characters are?

So far, I know the following are probably locked out:

  1. Minsc
  2. Jaheria
  3. Wyll
  4. Karlach
  5. Halsein

Evil gets Minthara, but is that it?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

On this note, does anyone have experience with Minthara later in the game? Does she even have a companion quest chain like everyone else? From what I've read her interactions are more limited compared to other companions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Most of the way through Act 2. She definitely seems like she was hastily wallpapered over to cover up missing content. She doesn't have an entry in the companion quests, has a dialogue tree to get her thoughts on other companions (instead of just chiming in like the others do), and cuts off the romance with a "perhaps we will lay together again."

Someone on Reddit did say that they were told Minthara missing content is a bug when they submitted a support ticket, so I'm putting my evil run on pause until a few more patches.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'm very late into act 3 and she has completely stopped talking and is stuck with one dialog response if you manually speak to her (cannot even remove from my party) since coming in to act 3, so I would believe the note from the other poster that it is a bug. She hasn't had nearly as much content as any of the other companions by a long shot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Trying to figure this out too. She just told me to meet her at the tower.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I'm playing evil and I'm only level 4 for now, but I would assume Astarion and Shadowheart must cause problems to good characters? Astarion doesn't even try to pretend to be good, and Shadowheart… she's a freaking cleric of Shar, it's hard to get more evil than that. :D

I actually gasped when I saw the "cleric of Shar" label in her character sheet during early access, and I decided to go evil for that reason, when creating my main character upon release. To give you an idea, besides all the various conflits with Selûne and the Harpers, Shar is responsible, with Cyric, of the assassination of Mystra, the goddess of magic (she was later resurrected by Ao, the overgod). This is what caused the Spellplague, the massive multiplanar cataclysm that marks the beginning of the 4th edition. And she did it basically because she was jealous of Mystra, and wanted the weave for herself (well, her own version of the weave, which was called the shadow weave). Oh, and also, her ultimate goal is to bring back the whole creation to nothingness, where things were pure and simple, in her views. So yeah, Shadowheart serves her. Is that evil enough for you? ^^

Here the Forgotten Realms Wiki page on Shar, if you want to know more. That wiki is the best source of information on the Realms, besides the books.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Shadowheart is a big softie, though. She approves when you pet the dog, nobody evil can approve of that.

Edited to remove spoiler.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know if it's like this for anybody else but your spoiler is showing as plaintext for me :(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Oh no, I'm sorry! It looked okay on mobile but I've had trouble getting spoiler tags to work right lately.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Note that there are many reasons for a good character to serve an evil God in a world where they KNOW gods exist.

Nobody living in the harsh north wouldnt go without occasionally sacrifice food to The Frostmaiden to avert the worst of her wrath. And no sailor would dare go on ships without asking Talos for fair winds. They dont need to sacrifice humans. For most common people, those lost at sea or disappeared in snow was all the sacrifice the Gods needed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sure, common folks do opportunistic prayers (although, in my games, praying to Shar or Bane even occasionally would certainly be frown upon by authorities in the Lords Alliance). That's quite a stretch from becoming their cleric, though. :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the case of Shar they are tasked to kill a disciple of Selune, Mystra or Lathandre every few years. Does that count as a sacrifice?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Those rules are for extremists, cultists who recide in big, multi-religious cities, where they are usually banned.

Or at least thats my headcanon, how else would Shar have as many followers as she does? Nobody would throw away a priest who drew followers to their cause just because the priest didnt believe in the sacrificing part. Of course we as players know the meta that Shar is evil and will corrupt most who follows her to eventually do bad stuff, but people in game doesnt care about religious politics and every religion calls out the other religion for walking the wrong path. Townspeople might form a small cult of Shar in a small town just because they were in grief for something and she's the one who promises to remove that grief. Over time that becomes a bigger church. And an easy recruitment center for extremist Shar cultists.

This makes for better stories than "All priest of Shar has to kill a Selunite", imho.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure where you are in the game. This command is for the special heralds of Shar. You discover about it in the underdark in an old fortress of Shar.

It's more about the religious war than attracting adept, and Shar cult is forbidden on most places I believe. Which they don't care because they promote secrecy.

There's something elegant about this cult that is about secrecy that protects it from its enemies and will better catch new acolytes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess it depends on your definition of evil. Because you could add Gale to that list; it's pretty evil to not help him at the portal. But I'd imagine you can still get Wyll and Karlach. I tend to play evil as "what benefits the PC most?" Killing Karlach or the grove right when you get there isn't necessarily what benefits most. If Wyll and Karlach leave if you kill the grove, that's another story, haven't gotten to try that yet.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, Wyll and Karlach both leave the party if you attack the Grove. You also have to succeed a persuasion roll to keep Gale with you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the info. I have a Durge evil run waiting in the wings after I finish my current playthrough, good to know who I'll be working with. May as well not even recruit them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is a good question. I'm currently playing a lawful good Tav, but this would be great to know.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you mean by evil characters? There is no morality system in game. If you kill one of them just because "it's the evil thing to do" then yeah you can't recruit them. I feel very confident you can easily get all of the "origin" NPCs regardless of play styles. I think Halsin and Minthara are an either or. I haven't gotten past Act 1 though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can't keep Karlach if you side with the goblins iirc. She always wants out immediately after.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. I'm talking about getting them in. Haven't gotten far enough or made controversial decisions to warrant folks leaving.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very early game and my evil party as a Paladin is Lae'Zel, Shadowheart, and Astarion. Gale, Wyll and bearu seem like they're not gonna play ball.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Who the fuck is bearu?