There was Helia for a time (if you've seen her in Chubblot's data mined info from EA). First a gnome, then a Halfling who was also a Druid and a Werewolf. That would have been cool! But then we'd have too many Druids. 😅
Astarion was made a high elf because the producers of the game listen to Neil deliver 3 lines and decided they needed to go snooty elf. No way you can convince me otherwise.
It would be cool if Larian dropped the Modding Tools with all the cut stuff that's in good enough shape for Modders to utilize. "Here's stuff, make of it what you will."
@@andromidius theres a ton that people have found already, theres dialogue about minthara being pregnant, auntie ethel has insults for the cut werewolf companion and other races that were never finished, there are companion banter lines about romances that are meant to play while walking around the map, and others
I am afraid you will be disappointed. This won't be skyrim. There are few games that have that moddability. So you shouldn't expect it for the BG3 modding tools.
They will most likely still release a "Definitive" edition with a lot of cut content added back in. Here's hoping we get to go to the hells and the upper city
Some of these kind of make me sad Larian's so against DLCs. I would love a Vlaakith, Avernus or Candlekeep DLC, or more companions or even origin characters.
I think Larian was just plain burnt out on DnD and I also think that Hasbro/WoTC probably came back with some less than stellar "deals" for DLC and BG4, so Larian took the high road and bounced. Sucks for us, but I get it.
Yeah gotta remember, going with the existing DnD IP limits what Larian is able to do with DLC's. Think Larian created content for all the areas they were allowed to under the license (sword coast, baldurs gate city etc). So if we did get a bg3 DLC, it would likely have to be set in the same areas with mostly the same lore figures.
People have noted that Wyll has the least content of the main companions, and I’m guessing that cutting the War College contributed to that. Poor Wyll.
Or cutting the hell's because 1 massive issue I have with wyll's story is mizora barely plays a role. She doesn't give the player any reason to break or keep the pact and wyll is perfectly fine with either option as well. And his complete lack of an evil outcome for his story. Personally I think killing karlach should send wyll down a path of complete obedience to mizora. Having a duke ending, blade of frontiers, blade of avernus and blade of mizora endings
@@damionbaxter4912My favourite "evil" playthrough was being a Zariel Tiefling Warlock Tav and headcanon roleplaying her as someone in service to Zariel. So she did everything she could to get Wyll to become the best tool he could be for Zariel and Mizora, even putting up with those traitor Tieflings in Act 1 (though ensuring their demise in Act 2). There sadly wasn't much in the way of in-game dialogue to support my little headcanon roleplay, but it still worked out pretty well with the delightful situation of: Romancing Wyll in Act 2, telling him to keep the pact and devote himself to it in Act 3, then, after securing Wyll's soul forevermore for Zariel, sleeping with Mizora for my reward: Finally having a taste of the power of the Hells which my character craved and breaking poor Wyll's heart now that my Zariel mission was done with him. All this to say, I agree there could be a lot more fun to be done with dark path Wyll routes!
@@Ashbrash1998 yeah of the core companions they were added late, I think Karlach was added the last. Not sure when the non-core ones were written in (Halsin, Jaheira, Minthara etc)
Wyll had a different backstory in early access. If I remember correctly, he was the Blade of Frontiers not out of any noble reasons, but because he wanted recognition. He lost his eye to Fezzerk (the goblin by the windmill in act 1) which you could loot from the goblin's corpse. Also you could romance/sleep with Wyll in act 1 rather than having to wait until Act 2. Both versions of Wyll are interesting in their own ways, but the EA version was a bit more *spicy*. Wyll is a sweetheart though and I love his kind nature compared to the more chaotic companions.
Having Ketheric in your camp sounds like a cool "evil" version of having Dame Aylin in your camp. So a good playthrough gets you Aylin, an evil one Ketheric, and Isobel can be in either (depending on choices). Fun to imagine a world where they put that in, but for now I'm just excited to see what the evil endings are going to be like, only did the one evil playthrough and was pretty unimpressed ngl. Loved the 8 or so different good playthroughs I did though!
Yah It kind of sucks cause evil paths loose a lot of companions and options. Wish we had a choise to recruit a few more folks maybe an evil char in act 3 to counter getting Minc.
Love the companions, but I was bummed we didn't get a half orc companion (shocker, I know), or a dwarf companion. Hopefully next time! The n+1 stuff was interesting to hear about, I didn't know about that. Great video Wolf!
A halfling paladin or monk follower of the Halfling Pantheon would have been stellar. Halfling lore is even more obscure in this game than dragonborn lore, which is odd because dragonborn are far rarer in Faerûn (especially the Sword Coast).
a half orc warlock would've been sooooo good. Shame they didn't remedy the original series' lack of half orc companions. I think Gromnir is the only voiced half-orc NPC at all...
There was apparently another cut companion that actually has some content in Act 1 in the game logs. I can't remember their name, I think it was "Halia" or something? But she was a halfling werewolf (I think, I'd have to do some research). Auntie Ethel has some voice lines that would require some backlog digging referring to this cut companion. Would have been cool to have a werewolf companion.
Well, you get 6 classes relatively early (Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard). Four of these are different races (Gith, Human, Elf, Tiefling). You have a choice of two druids but can get neither in Act1. Same with a paladin (if you wish to play with the evil version of a paladin it happens a good way into Act2). Bad luck if you wanted a bard, sorcerer or monk. If you want to be a gnome, halfling, dwarf, dragonborn or half-orc, you'll have to make your Tav into one. If you want an elf (or elf variant) companion, there are 5 (Shadowheart, Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira, Astarion) which is at least two too many. There are three humans too, but one of them is only available rather late (in Act 3).
They should have Left in the Shadowheart part where she comes to Camp if you Ignore her; Which she threatens to attack you and the camp It would have made more sense to Add this, instead of just having the Artifact show up in your Inventory after you go to the next Area without her
Ketheric as a Companion....that would have been awesome!. It's so honourable that Larian revealed some of those changes. It's Closure for them and and Fans. Also I would have loved to see Aasimar playable race and Dayme Ayelin as a companion
I'd say the term "dropped content" is more accurate than "cut content" for things let go earlier in the development process for game flow reasons, as opposed to things removed at the last minute because "we have to get the game out the door"
Yeah it seems to me the only actual cut content is some Karlach stuff, Minthara’s quest, a werewolf companion, and the upper city. Everything else that is talked about is stuff that was dropped a long, long time ago. Having said that, I’m still hopeful that we’ll see some cut content restored since a decent portion of it was already done, and cut within the last few months of development, but I doubt it will come to pass with recent news. Who knows what these next few updates will bring. They say no new content while in the same breath promising new endings. It’s honestly all a bit confusing what the near future of this game holds.
cut content is where I subscribe to the analogy that games are like bonsai trees, sometimes you have to cut parts away so the rest can grow into something amazing.
@@TykoBrian7 there's a section of the city (upper city) that's blocked off where the rich and the powerful live, where players have no access to it because it was cut from the game
@@tami3456you got that wrong. That wasnt cut. They ADDED the small glimpse on the upper city as a final setpiece for the finale. Thats why they teased it. Initially th upper city part wasnt planned at all.
The problem with a Tiefling Astarion is that their teeth are already pointed, so you'd never really notice. They needed the fangs to pop out more, so going Elf wasn't bad. 👍
I'm also excited for the early access rollout of Larian's next game. It was fun to watch pieces of the game revealed, and your channel was a big part of building hype surrounding those events.
The game companions are diverse, a high elf, a half elf (which are different species) and human who is more like a fiend then human, a tiefling, a human who is more bear than human, a literal alien! with the githyanki. That’s diverse for dnd standard 🤦🏽♂️
I wanted dommy mommy Kagha to join me after we redeemed her and she has to travel with us for redemption for her mistakes after getting kicked out by daddy bear. I was surprised the big bossman bear daddy joined us instead.
In an alternate universe, Larian announced work on BG4 and Wizards of the Coast is celebrating more releases and D&D community events. What do we get? One of the most reviled companies in existence just pissed off Swen. And i mean pissed. F*ck you Hasbro. F*ck your greed and short sightedness. Please sell off your beloved assets? Sell it to someone worthy of the business.
Halsin should've been a Half-Orc. God's Favorite Princess should've been a Dwarf or Gnome Larian did such great work on MoCap tech where the eyeline could shift so it's heartbreaking that the companions didnt showcase it
Sadly we don't get the Halfling-Wearwolf Bard companion that was people find in the datamine. There also many character in the game that you can ask to join but they refuse it. (Those are probably also characters like Kethrich that didin't made it in the end) Forexample Zevlor.
We don't have the mod tools yet, sooooo, these things won't be canon, but, depending on how much can be done with modding tools, we might see the creation of whole new areas. IF Larian is extra super gratuitous, it'd be beyond awesome if it included an optional side-package of all the cut half-developed, unfinished content it might have in an archive somewhere. That kind of thing would be fun for modding community to pick up on things Larian experimented with, and since mods don't need to be canon, or lore friendly, that stuff can get recycled, and used by mod community. I have my fingeys X'd, but, I don't actually expect that level of gratuity.
DANG I wish they went through with the Ketheric companion arc, I did everything on my play through when the game came out to please him (even at shadowheart’s expense) was hard, but the strongest decisions require the strongest wills haha I really hope they add it in the definitive edition or something
Gale mentions in 1 conversation the bar in waterdeep with the well the leads to a giant dungeon. I hope they or kidders add little content in existing areas. Hunters stash are all empty and it would be an easy fix to add treasure etc to those. I’d be happy with little things including a better Karlach ending
Guessing they probably couldn’t afford him Simmons 😂 but I got him redeemed in my play so just skipped to the Myrkel fight. He was such a great character that I would have loved him as the final boss but having him a follower especially if you save his daughter and the night song would have been very interesting because you’d probably end up dealing a lot of drama. Would have been epic if you could join him
Wait, they changed Astarion to be more attractive despite having 3 other hot guys to romance but decided to save all the less human races for female romances?
i think too that a dwarf or a gnome would've been cool to have as a companion, or even some of the other less used races. a half orc or a dragonborn for example. i can understand that elves (or demi elves) are the easiest to design, but at some point, we almost never meet most of the other when it would've been dope to have a backstory with one of the less common races. durge could've been a companion for example, or ansur with some persuasion check. or idk 😭
Dragonborn = OG 'Durge' so... On flipside; Id like to see Larian open up the companions via Jergyl where we can create them. Not the lame ones that they force you to use.
I’m disappointed we didn’t get a character of one of the shorter races. My guess is Lairan didn’t want to deal with the animations in the case of romance scenes and such but it’s disappointing. And I know Dragonborn got added late in development, but I wish we could have like one really significant NPC, even in act 3. They are so cool looking.
Which explains not guardian dragonborn and hireling options, I made dragonborn companion through mode and mouth is glitched as if it think's it is human or something like that.
On the topic of race diversity on companions, wasn't there a gnome companion named Helia in the files during EA? I remember hearing about her on chubblot's datamining videos. Kind of a bummer there are no companions from any of the small races tbh
Meanwhile, Bethesda makes an ever increasing number of NPC's "essential", in each new game, because they're too afraid of players breaking their games 😆.
@@WolfheartFPS it is, but you have to admit. They kinda did. Tons of cut/ no more future content and a canceled already in the works dlc with little to no explanation Any other company would get dragged over it
@@methodman6725 I have a feeling that there is more going on in the background than we'll ever know. Even though Sven says all is "A-ok", the quickness that support for DLC and BG4 was dropped and the disappointment that was expressed about the entire team at WoTC that helped start all of this tells me that all was, in fact, NOT "A-ok" WoTC and Hasbro are garbage companies that are run by garbage people and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were some shady dealing going on in the background. And honestly, I think Larian is just happy to be free to tread their own path again.
Was it actually confirmed that the last patch to the game would be more elaborate evil playthroughs/endings? It would be cool if they added the section of the Upper City we were supposed to have in Baldur's Gate, maybe in the definitive edition? Who knows
@@holysecret2 Yeah I hope they surprise us with a definitive edition with some of the cut content they wanted to make in the game, but even if they don't, the game is amazing as it is
Would have loved a dwarf and a shortie (gnome or halfling) in place of Halsin and Wyll. Karlach could easily have been a half-orc, it would fit her fighting barbarian background. Obviously changing these characters would also affect the peripheral characters that cycle around them (like Wyll and his father, if Wyll was a gnome/halfling). Halsin as a dwarf could almost be dropped in as-is, without much else changing. It's not that i don't like (most of) the existing characters. It's hard to dislike Karlach, for example. Also, hard to change Shadowheart, (though I'd make a minor switch to wood half-elf) as she is the pretty girl that many like to romance and mod in sexy gear for, and the same applies to Astarion, the handsome bad-boy. I'm not a fan of Shadowheart, but that's just me. Not a fan of Wyll either, but I admit I'm no Warlock lover and dislike his scarred face with odd eyes. Lae'zel is perfect because she resonates with all the Githyanki scattered through the game. Gith are painfully thin, especially the males, but that is how they were originally portrayed, many years ago. Gale is human, which is fine, though if you made Karlach a half-orc you could have switched Gale to a Tiefling. Obviously you couldn't change Jaheira or Minsc, as their races are set in BG1. Minthara fits her role so well as a drow, I wouldn't think of changing her. Wyll as a shortie would mean one less human. Halsin as a dwarf would mean one less elf-type of which there are too many. Karlach as a half-orc is a straight swap, the only tiefling companion lost but one half orc added. Also, if Gale then was made a Tiefling, both races are represented. So companions races would now be Minthara (drow elf), Minsc (human), Jaheira (high half-elf) Lae'zel (githyanki), Astarion (high elf), Shadowheart (wood half- elf), , Halsin (dwarf), Karlach (half-orc), Gale (tiefling), Wyll (gnome or halfling). Still too many elves but now there is a dwarf, a half-orc and a gnome/halfling. Bottom line, well, it is as it is and most companions are at least interesting with their story-arcs. It's not my ideal race mix, but it isn't like it is bad. The racial choices get noticed more due to fewer companions overall than in BG1&2, which due to the detail involved in creating modern-day BG3 characters, is pretty much a necessity.
Well, they could have both with Karlach. She could have been a Half-Orc, but when she was sent to Avernus and got her Hellheart, she turned to a mix of a Tiefling/Half-Orc, making her a unique race combo due to her lore. So you would have a Tiefling AND a Half-Orc in your Party, without completely changing Karlach. She would look somewhat different, but not too much. if they capitalized on that idea, they could've also made the option in her story of totally healing her, making her a full Half-Orc again, or repairing her machine and let her stay a mix of Tiefling/Half-Orc OR pimp her machine to the next level, making her a full-blown Tiefling or even a mix of Tiefling/Demon.
@@TheMarcHicks huh, I just googled it and he's not in the original games. That's really strange, I remember seeing a bunch of people talking about him being an old character
We also know from unused Vicious Mockery lines from Ethel about another companion that was cut. Helia was a halfling werewolf, never specified what class but I'd guess ranger.
Helia was, I believe, intended to be a bard. I suspect the "werewolf" trait was absorbed by another character related to Shadowheart's questline, but that's merely a guess. Also, Helia was apparently supposed to be imprisoned in the goblin camp in her wolf form; obviously this was replaced by bear-form Halsin.
No dwarf companion is unfortunate but no halfling one is a tragedy. There are a couple notable dwarfs in the game but if I'm not missing someone halfings basically only exist as two merchants in act one and two.
- Shadowheart was kethrics daughter: makes a ton more sense. Lost memories/ half elf/ selune and shar connection etc. Isabelle and her divine lover always seemed out of place. - Astarion was really toned down re evil. More of a Kogan type from BG2. I suspect Casador was actually far more reasonable/ careful archtype keeping a ‘depraved’ and ‘corrupt’ magistrate with a taste for innocents under control… - data mined info had far more massive clashes with the gith vs the absolute. Ie: ‘the butcher ‘ vs Voss. Also - why has nobody stated the obvious: no dragons affected by a mindflayer tadpoles? I think this was also mentioned from data mined info when Voss was at the bridge near the inn. They were battling cultists not flaming fists and a cultist kamakazied themself into the dragons head but slammed a tadpole into its eye. What a lost opportunity that was! - I could go on and on from data mined content but to put this in perspective the d and d module called ‘mincs guide to (not sure if it was to battling evil in Baldurs gate or something like it) I suspect larian used this to flesh out most of the current events in baldurs gate. Lorroakain was actually meant to be Edwin in disguise…
Comparing budget and development time, team size and hype, BG3 is offering massively less content than BG1 & 2. Think just of BG2 for a moment: Korgan yes or no? Changes the game completely! Keldorn or Dorn? Edwin or Imoen? I could go on and on… The way you handle Bodhi vs Shadow Thieves in Chapter 2-3… What cleric do you get? Even if you have plenty of choices in BG3, the story is still more or less the same, especially in the first act… I agree that Ketheric’s arc is built with so much hype, and then… puff… it’s gone… Then, 6 characters against 4… the level cap that is massively higher. As much as fighting an elder brain is “nice”, the story of Act 3 didn’t catch up with me… it’s not a villain that I feel prompted to fight for the future of the FR, as Irenicus was (or my goodness, Sarevok!). Even Amelyssan was an incredible antagonist, playing at your side for the whole game until the last point! I don’t know… as well made a game BG3 is, its replayability compared to the other two chapters is severely limited, and the Larian footprint of having so slow combat makes it hard for anyone to replay it many times (unless you’re a streamer of course, but would you even more?!)
Man, all those ideas they didn't go through with sound awesome. I also always had the feeling there was something off with the end of Ketheric's story in chapter 2.
If you had a crystal ball,.... how long do you think it will be before they announce their new project? I am SO excited for the new title, but ALMOST as much as that, I'm super happy to stay part of the Wolfpack! :D TY for continuing to cover BG3 and Larian Studios! I sure hope the next game will also support Apple. They kinda corner the market for us OS players!
Here is how I see larians statement about dlc: expanded content is much different from a continuation of the story. I think act 3 will get the dos2 treatment. They cut content that sorely needs to be reintroduced, I think players should suggest to larian to about using the gondians to fix karlach: its a gaping glory hole sized opportunity missed for karlachs story. The gondians made the infernal engines that power the steel watch, there is even dialogue for origin karlach involving the steel watch recognising her as one of them. If the gondians made the infernal engines, then why the f-ck can they not fix karlach for good if the player kept enough infernal iron. Or why doesn't gales scroll of true resurrection make karlach regrow a heart like it would within the context of 5th edition game at the table. Larian should have had a 2 year roadmap planned for finishing their flawed magnum opus, the mod support they plan kinda sucks too as it boils down to spells/classes/armor and not a world editor for custom campaigns or fan made "dlc". Narratively, the game is incomplete and I do not care about what cope larian says: it will forever live within broken mediocrity along with dragon age origins as a 7/10. I love it, and it's out of love I criticize it sorely. It needed 2 more years in the oven.
On the karlach front, i agree. If they don't want to do that, then maybe give us some gameplay in this hells hunting demons. If you're MC karlach or if you romanced her, you get to accompany her as well and help her out.
Could be a rights/license issue....anything "new" (and unless they had already made it and decided to not use it, then it is considered new) would have to be approved by WoTC, and I think by WoTC firing everyone that had made the initial deal with Larian, it probably strained relations between the two companies somewhat. Remember that they own the Divinity IP, so they can do whatever they want with it...not so with Baldur's Gate.
The companions in Wrath of the Righteous are a good example of diversity done right. A lawful evil ruthless hellknight... _gnome_ . A very well-written character, by the way. A Kitsune who is... well, it's complicated. A beautiful, high-born half-elven girl who is... yeah. A neutral evil Aasimar (!), who is really not that evil, just a jerk. A succubus on the path to redemption is more of a traditional "repentant sinner" trope, but someone has to be a waifu.
On the topic of cut companions, I'm still mourining Helia, the halfling werewolf bard. She even had voicelines. I play her right now as my DUrge character (since werewolf is not playable, I substituted with resisting Durge). I agree, that there should have been more race variety among the companions - and some shorties. Given, how popular Barcus Wroot is, I'm wondering, if he wouldn't have made a great companion.
I would’ve loved the war college because it would’ve been better than having to fight OP Gith monks RIGHT AFTER defeating Ketherick and Myrkl…I had to restart that fight sooo many times 😂
I know we got Minthara, but I really wanted another Drow companion in the mix from start, but I suppose that got axed because of how militant and devout Lae’Zel was. Having another character (say from Menzoberanzahn) who was also very militaristic and devoted to Lolth would have clashed with Lae’Zel, and then we couldn’t end up discovering “Drow Mommy” Minthy. Though seeing Minthara have to intetact with Drizz’t could have lead to comedy gold, with everyone having to restrain Minthara from going for his throat in the name of Lolth.
Race of companions were less important than personality of companions. I would like to have another companion that surprised me how good they were like the original Minsc, Deekin or HK-47. JK Simmons expensive. To have him record hundreds if not thousands of lines as a companion would probably have been prohibitively expensive.
Definitely should have had another race companion. I would have swapped Halsin for a dwarf myself. That said, I wish companions all came with unique class skills, to encourage you to keep their original class. For example, Halsin has a unique animal form, even if it's a color swapped bear. Astarion could have a unique illusion ability while rogue. Etc.
Loved BG3, its in my top 5 favorite games of all time. However, the lack of variety in companions absolutely bothered me. There was no reason 5 of the 10 companions needed to be elves. Not having a dwarf companion was a mistake, no short race companions at all was just bad. And several of those companions could have easily had their races changed, and nothing about them would have been different. Halsin imo should have been a half orc. Hell, he even jokes about people thinking he was part half orc, because he's such a large elf...unnaturally large for an elf at that. Minthara imo should have been a goblin. They could have easily written that role for Sazza. You rescue her from the druid Grove, help her to get back to the goblin camp. Then she reveals she's the leader of the goblin horde. Nothing else rely changes after this. While I like Jaheria, she's another elf and yet another druid. Halsin already filled this role. Did we need two elf druids as companions in the same game?... Her spot could have went to either a dwarf or a dragonborn companion. And instead of a druid, made that person either a monk or a bard.
The one problem I have with Astarion is that in original D&D lore Elves couldn't become vampires. The act of transitioning to a vampire killed them. In general any demi-human couldn't become a vampire. There was only 1 vampire elf, Jander Sunstrider and this was a curse and not natural vampire turning.
Where are my halfling companions and more specifically dwarf companions. I really liked Yeslick and Korgan from Baldurs gate 1 and 2 respectively. Also Alora from Bg1 was the best companion even though she was only in it for the last third
I really wish we had a short companion- whether it be a dwarf, halfling or gnome. Divinity had Beast, Dragon Age had Varric and Oghren, the previous Baldurs Gate games had a crap tonne of companions, but there were plenty of dwarves, halflings, gnomes and even a goblin. It definitely feels like a sin not including a short companion.
Yes one of the smallest complains I had in BG3 was different race companions. After played BG2 in the old days I'm used to have chooise of so many companions dwarves,half-orcs,gnomes etc would had loved to seen atleast one of those. But maybe modders can fix that eventually?
Lack of race-based companions is my number one of very few negatives. I wish they had a companion for each race that had a male/female toggle, so you could interact with them as males or females for your main, but definitely,9 ever race should have had a companion option. No Dwarf is a D&D sin, even Divinity had a Dawrf lol.
even tho I love the companions, I too kinda wished for more diversity in the races aspect tbh.I really was hoping for a gnome companion, hell, dragonborn would be also interesting too,but oh well.and yes, we need more dwarves.Mainly elf player here, but I do love me some dwarf, even if they would dislike me in most universes 😂😂 I just want stubborn,sturdy, bearded man/woman who would complain constantly but also had my back if the need arises haha
no halfling, gnome, or dwarf companions, just hirelings with no personality.... Would love to see an update where you can have them in the party as full fleshed NPCs. Also, let us have Alfira...
I think the lack of race and class diversity for the companions makes sense if you consider it in light of the original plan for companion lockout that was originally planned. Way back at the start of EA, Larian had planned to make players choose a small group of companions like they did in DOS:2 and the rest would be functionally lost as companions. They changed that idea some way into EA. It makes sense that there'd be less diversity and fewer companions overall, if you think about the monumental chaos that would ensue if you need to make all those original companion templates maintain continuity and FIT into camp until end game!
Something that personally devastated me was Wylls character. He was so interesting with conflicting morals and mystery. I loved his old va but I feel im in a minority. He was my favourite character until the new iteration and he had so much cut content New Wyll is still great and the VA is amazing but personally I loved EA Wyll.
I just wish BG3 let you make all your characters from the start (like Solasta). The companions are cool, but I want to do a run through with just my characters. Not respecced companions or hirelings.
What a pity, Candlekeep would have been such a strong link to the originals. But what I wondered the most was that most of the story actually played on the surface. Since the latest DnD campaign book was named “Baldurs Gate: Descent into Avernus” I thought that the game mainly plays in the nine hells and we have to deal with the Blood War.
Listening to all the cut content. As cool as it would have been, if they had tried to include it all, most of us would be dead of old age before it was released. If ever. As Dirty Harry once said, "A man's got to know his limitations." Sven's N+1 design is what used to be called rubber band narratives. You can stretch the paths, but the game design is built in a way that the end paths are always reached. Just my thoughts.
I'm not super bummed about not having a dwarf companion, if only for the reason hardly any of the dwarves in the game seemed "dwarfy" at all. Just about any dwarf you run into in the game could just as easily (and better, in most cases) have been an elf or some other, more common, race. Only the Duergar seemed to actually match their setting and personalities with their lore. Seeing constant dwarf druids and other leaf-loving vocations constantly bummed me out.
Yeah, the lack of variety in companions is a con in the game, but what really bugs me is the lack of equipment in the first 2 acts... it's like the only moment when you feel really equiped, is when you are finishing the game and there's little to do... i would love more items for druids, for example; and it's even worst when you play as a bad guy, because you are locked out of some of the most important weapons and stuff, like the ones that Dammon sells, or the robe for Eldritch Blast build.
Dang it I'm so sad! I love Ketheric so much!!!!! I wanted to save him so badly, it broke my heart hearing we could have had him with us if it wasn't cut. Still love the game of course but would have wanted this more then anything.
I have a feeling that Larian was playing it safe in regards to diversity in companion races. Half Orcs and even Dwarves have been a subject of some contention among the WoTCNazis who have infested that company over the last few years, not to mention some of the more perpetually offended amongst the fan base. Plus Dwarves and Half Orcs didn't really have that much of a story arc in the game as the much as the other races.
I still can't believe that we didn't get a Dwarf. 1/10 Also not sure why I started pronouncing Astarion weirdly but it is what it is.
Gimly DLC or pitchfork ! teeeeth ling wink wink
There was Helia for a time (if you've seen her in Chubblot's data mined info from EA). First a gnome, then a Halfling who was also a Druid and a Werewolf. That would have been cool! But then we'd have too many Druids. 😅
Same. No respect for the stout folk lol.😉
I am surprised we didn't meet the Dwarf along the road again, who we safed from Ethel's lair.
@@youngimperialistmkii Play testers didn't like the short folks.
Gotta agree with you, a dwarf would've been an amazing companion.
Or a halfling. They don't get the love in D&D that they deserve!
A Halfling Bard or Sorcerer would have been crazy,
And if you are Durge you make cook him if you failed a saving throw
Not a fan of dwarf companions. I did play DAI and Varick while ok was well his contributions were overrated. So I was happy with the companions.
@@ANGRYWOLVERINE2060-ft2nc you should play dao or neverwinter nights 2. great dwarf companions
Astarion was made a high elf because the producers of the game listen to Neil deliver 3 lines and decided they needed to go snooty elf. No way you can convince me otherwise.
You can tell Kethric would of been willing to join you guys, that would of been so sick even though I understand why he was obviously cut
kethric was way cooler than the angel and cleric imo
That would’ve been Way Cooler!
would of
@@Angels-Haven Did you just incorrect someone? Lol
@@scratthesquirrel5242incorrect. Dame Aylin and Isabel were the best camp NPCs
It would be cool if Larian dropped the Modding Tools with all the cut stuff that's in good enough shape for Modders to utilize.
"Here's stuff, make of it what you will."
I have to wonder if there's much cut voice acting too. If they drop all that in a big mod creator bundle...
@@andromidius theres a ton that people have found already, theres dialogue about minthara being pregnant, auntie ethel has insults for the cut werewolf companion and other races that were never finished, there are companion banter lines about romances that are meant to play while walking around the map, and others
I am afraid you will be disappointed. This won't be skyrim. There are few games that have that moddability. So you shouldn't expect it for the BG3 modding tools.
They will most likely still release a "Definitive" edition with a lot of cut content added back in. Here's hoping we get to go to the hells and the upper city
@@bbbk123 very unlikely. they'll add some stuff here and there but not this much
Some of these kind of make me sad Larian's so against DLCs. I would love a Vlaakith, Avernus or Candlekeep DLC, or more companions or even origin characters.
larian don't have the rights, hasbro said they wanna do dnd games every year for the next 7 years though
I think Larian was just plain burnt out on DnD and I also think that Hasbro/WoTC probably came back with some less than stellar "deals" for DLC and BG4, so Larian took the high road and bounced. Sucks for us, but I get it.
Yeah gotta remember, going with the existing DnD IP limits what Larian is able to do with DLC's. Think Larian created content for all the areas they were allowed to under the license (sword coast, baldurs gate city etc).
So if we did get a bg3 DLC, it would likely have to be set in the same areas with mostly the same lore figures.
People have noted that Wyll has the least content of the main companions, and I’m guessing that cutting the War College contributed to that. Poor Wyll.
Or cutting the hell's because 1 massive issue I have with wyll's story is mizora barely plays a role. She doesn't give the player any reason to break or keep the pact and wyll is perfectly fine with either option as well. And his complete lack of an evil outcome for his story. Personally I think killing karlach should send wyll down a path of complete obedience to mizora. Having a duke ending, blade of frontiers, blade of avernus and blade of mizora endings
@@damionbaxter4912My favourite "evil" playthrough was being a Zariel Tiefling Warlock Tav and headcanon roleplaying her as someone in service to Zariel. So she did everything she could to get Wyll to become the best tool he could be for Zariel and Mizora, even putting up with those traitor Tieflings in Act 1 (though ensuring their demise in Act 2).
There sadly wasn't much in the way of in-game dialogue to support my little headcanon roleplay, but it still worked out pretty well with the delightful situation of: Romancing Wyll in Act 2, telling him to keep the pact and devote himself to it in Act 3, then, after securing Wyll's soul forevermore for Zariel, sleeping with Mizora for my reward: Finally having a taste of the power of the Hells which my character craved and breaking poor Wyll's heart now that my Zariel mission was done with him.
All this to say, I agree there could be a lot more fun to be done with dark path Wyll routes!
I know him amd Karlach were the companions who were written/edited last compared to the others.
@@Ashbrash1998 yeah of the core companions they were added late, I think Karlach was added the last. Not sure when the non-core ones were written in (Halsin, Jaheira, Minthara etc)
Wyll had a different backstory in early access. If I remember correctly, he was the Blade of Frontiers not out of any noble reasons, but because he wanted recognition.
He lost his eye to Fezzerk (the goblin by the windmill in act 1) which you could loot from the goblin's corpse.
Also you could romance/sleep with Wyll in act 1 rather than having to wait until Act 2.
Both versions of Wyll are interesting in their own ways, but the EA version was a bit more *spicy*. Wyll is a sweetheart though and I love his kind nature compared to the more chaotic companions.
A half orc companion would’ve been SICK
Dorn Il-Khan =o
Having Ketheric in your camp sounds like a cool "evil" version of having Dame Aylin in your camp. So a good playthrough gets you Aylin, an evil one Ketheric, and Isobel can be in either (depending on choices).
Fun to imagine a world where they put that in, but for now I'm just excited to see what the evil endings are going to be like, only did the one evil playthrough and was pretty unimpressed ngl.
Loved the 8 or so different good playthroughs I did though!
Yah It kind of sucks cause evil paths loose a lot of companions and options. Wish we had a choise to recruit a few more folks maybe an evil char in act 3 to counter getting Minc.
Reminds me of being able to have Loghain in Dragon Age Origins if you made certain choices. It would have been pretty cool for sure.
Love the companions, but I was bummed we didn't get a half orc companion (shocker, I know), or a dwarf companion. Hopefully next time! The n+1 stuff was interesting to hear about, I didn't know about that.
Great video Wolf!
Thanks orc... I mean halforc!
A halfling paladin or monk follower of the Halfling Pantheon would have been stellar.
Halfling lore is even more obscure in this game than dragonborn lore, which is odd because dragonborn are far rarer in Faerûn (especially the Sword Coast).
a half orc warlock would've been sooooo good. Shame they didn't remedy the original series' lack of half orc companions. I think Gromnir is the only voiced half-orc NPC at all...
There was apparently another cut companion that actually has some content in Act 1 in the game logs. I can't remember their name, I think it was "Halia" or something? But she was a halfling werewolf (I think, I'd have to do some research). Auntie Ethel has some voice lines that would require some backlog digging referring to this cut companion.
Would have been cool to have a werewolf companion.
Helia, and her voice lines are awesome!
it always confused me why the "undead army marching on the gate" story went completely nowhere the second you got to Rivellon
I guess they stopped because of Ketheric’s death? Maybe Gortash and Orin didn’t want to make that move without the 3rd netherstone?
Best BG3 content creator on UA-cam
🍻
Totally Agreed!
I honestly thought that like a bunch of rpgs, we would have gotten one companion for each class and race. Was super sad we didn't get that.
Well, you get 6 classes relatively early (Rogue, Fighter, Barbarian, Cleric, Warlock, Wizard). Four of these are different races (Gith, Human, Elf, Tiefling). You have a choice of two druids but can get neither in Act1. Same with a paladin (if you wish to play with the evil version of a paladin it happens a good way into Act2). Bad luck if you wanted a bard, sorcerer or monk. If you want to be a gnome, halfling, dwarf, dragonborn or half-orc, you'll have to make your Tav into one. If you want an elf (or elf variant) companion, there are 5 (Shadowheart, Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira, Astarion) which is at least two too many. There are three humans too, but one of them is only available rather late (in Act 3).
But Gnomes…do we really need them? They’re always the cause of some trouble. Especially Ironhands.
Halsin does theorize he has orc somewhere in his family line, maybe he was planned to be more orcish and not just a humongous elf? 😂
@@TheFantazingo Good point - we don’t get a Half-Orc companion!
They should have Left in the Shadowheart part where she comes to Camp if you Ignore her; Which she threatens to attack you and the camp
It would have made more sense to Add this, instead of just having the Artifact show up in your Inventory after you go to the next Area without her
Ketheric as a Companion....that would have been awesome!. It's so honourable that Larian revealed some of those changes. It's Closure for them and and Fans. Also I would have loved to see Aasimar playable race and Dayme Ayelin as a companion
I bet you alfira was a cut companion and Im so bummed about it. Shes literally perfect for a bard companion.
but she's not. she has even less screen time in their intial plan
@@alexwang3282 oh sorry didn’t know you had the list of cut companions. 🙄
I actually thought the same about Volo, until I discovered he was a famous lore figure in DnD!
I really liked her. I was super bummer we couldn’t get her to join us. The only timeline where that happens is real bad for her.
Thank Gods they changed their mind with Astarion
Amen! 😄
I'd say the term "dropped content" is more accurate than "cut content" for things let go earlier in the development process for game flow reasons, as opposed to things removed at the last minute because "we have to get the game out the door"
Yeah it seems to me the only actual cut content is some Karlach stuff, Minthara’s quest, a werewolf companion, and the upper city. Everything else that is talked about is stuff that was dropped a long, long time ago. Having said that, I’m still hopeful that we’ll see some cut content restored since a decent portion of it was already done, and cut within the last few months of development, but I doubt it will come to pass with recent news. Who knows what these next few updates will bring. They say no new content while in the same breath promising new endings. It’s honestly all a bit confusing what the near future of this game holds.
@@Harry_S._Plinkettupper city part was actually added afaik. As a nice final setpiece. Seemingly it was not planned to be in the game at all.
nah I love him as he is, but I do think that either Shadowheart or halsin should have been a tief and an orc
Any confirmation about a definitive edition for BG3?
cut content is where I subscribe to the analogy that games are like bonsai trees, sometimes you have to cut parts away so the rest can grow into something amazing.
I wouldn't have cut the upper city part :/
@@tami3456what upper city§?
@@TykoBrian7 there's a section of the city (upper city) that's blocked off where the rich and the powerful live, where players have no access to it because it was cut from the game
@@tami3456you got that wrong. That wasnt cut. They ADDED the small glimpse on the upper city as a final setpiece for the finale. Thats why they teased it. Initially th upper city part wasnt planned at all.
Perfect Analogy!
Larian made a good business decision by making Astarion an elf. A lot of the female players bought BG3 for Astarion.
1000% agree.
I bought it for Astarion and stayed for karlach 😂
All things considered, he was still handsome as a Tiefling. They just gave him a glow up making him an Elf.
The problem with a Tiefling Astarion is that their teeth are already pointed, so you'd never really notice. They needed the fangs to pop out more, so going Elf wasn't bad. 👍
That wouldve been interesting though, to make the vampire reveal less obvious.
@@16Pyres Another note of interest is that before his final vampire teeth here rendered into his head, they gave him Tiefling teeth. 😋
pretty sure making it less obvious would be the point
Plus Wyll can basically become a tiefling if you pick the obvious choice to refuse to kill Karlach and obviously there’s Karlach
I'm also excited for the early access rollout of Larian's next game. It was fun to watch pieces of the game revealed, and your channel was a big part of building hype surrounding those events.
Teethling lol
I wish Kethric was a playable character, so we could get a father-daughter relation redemption side quest
Literally how do you expect a father daughter redemption? Why would Isobel forgive what was done to aylin for 100 years? 😂
@@TykoBrian7 It could be a manipulative one where are never finds out
The game companions are diverse, a high elf, a half elf (which are different species) and human who is more like a fiend then human, a tiefling, a human who is more bear than human, a literal alien! with the githyanki. That’s diverse for dnd standard 🤦🏽♂️
yea i love elves but TOO MANY ELVES
I wanted dommy mommy Kagha to join me after we redeemed her and she has to travel with us for redemption for her mistakes after getting kicked out by daddy bear. I was surprised the big bossman bear daddy joined us instead.
Tiefling Mysterion would have been sick
Idea of Kethric joining the team gives me the same vibes as Loghain in Dragon Age Origins
Im very happy with the final makeup of the companions
In an alternate universe, Larian announced work on BG4 and Wizards of the Coast is celebrating more releases and D&D community events. What do we get? One of the most reviled companies in existence just pissed off Swen. And i mean pissed. F*ck you Hasbro.
F*ck your greed and short sightedness. Please sell off your beloved assets? Sell it to someone worthy of the business.
Halsin should've been a Half-Orc.
God's Favorite Princess should've been a Dwarf or Gnome
Larian did such great work on MoCap tech where the eyeline could shift so it's heartbreaking that the companions didnt showcase it
Sadly we don't get the Halfling-Wearwolf Bard companion that was people find in the datamine.
There also many character in the game that you can ask to join but they refuse it. (Those are probably also characters like Kethrich that didin't made it in the end)
Forexample Zevlor.
We don't have the mod tools yet, sooooo, these things won't be canon, but, depending on how much can be done with modding tools, we might see the creation of whole new areas. IF Larian is extra super gratuitous, it'd be beyond awesome if it included an optional side-package of all the cut half-developed, unfinished content it might have in an archive somewhere. That kind of thing would be fun for modding community to pick up on things Larian experimented with, and since mods don't need to be canon, or lore friendly, that stuff can get recycled, and used by mod community. I have my fingeys X'd, but, I don't actually expect that level of gratuity.
DANG I wish they went through with the Ketheric companion arc, I did everything on my play through when the game came out to please him (even at shadowheart’s expense) was hard, but the strongest decisions require the strongest wills haha I really hope they add it in the definitive edition or something
Gale should have been a gnome. I will die on this hill.
Halsin could have been a dwarf or orc. I could be convinced to surrender on this hill though.
Yeah, im all for Halsin dwarf and Gale gnome. larian seems allergic to small races.
The Internet. Where FOMO is an "I'm gonna die!" rather than just an "oh, huh, that would've been interesting".
Gale mentions in 1 conversation the bar in waterdeep with the well the leads to a giant dungeon. I hope they or kidders add little content in existing areas. Hunters stash are all empty and it would be an easy fix to add treasure etc to those. I’d be happy with little things including a better Karlach ending
Definitely a missed opportunity, I would have enjoyed a half orc companion or dragon born added to the mix!
NOPE. KEEP TEETHLING ASTARION TO YOURSELF
I don't know why none of the companions are dwarves or halflings when there are so many small holes that only they can fit through.
Guessing they probably couldn’t afford him Simmons 😂 but I got him redeemed in my play so just skipped to the Myrkel fight.
He was such a great character that I would have loved him as the final boss but having him a follower especially if you save his daughter and the night song would have been very interesting because you’d probably end up dealing a lot of drama. Would have been epic if you could join him
I hated his voice acting. Total waste of money !
@@TykoBrian7Go away you fucking troll.
@@TykoBrian7 Not everybody has a booming voice presume that is what you wanted. I always have respected JK. Since his Law and Order days.
Wait, they changed Astarion to be more attractive despite having 3 other hot guys to romance but decided to save all the less human races for female romances?
Sazza as a foul mouthed companion would have been funny.
i think too that a dwarf or a gnome would've been cool to have as a companion, or even some of the other less used races. a half orc or a dragonborn for example. i can understand that elves (or demi elves) are the easiest to design, but at some point, we almost never meet most of the other when it would've been dope to have a backstory with one of the less common races. durge could've been a companion for example, or ansur with some persuasion check. or idk 😭
Dragonborn = OG 'Durge' so...
On flipside; Id like to see Larian open up the companions via Jergyl where we can create them. Not the lame ones that they force you to use.
I’m disappointed we didn’t get a character of one of the shorter races. My guess is Lairan didn’t want to deal with the animations in the case of romance scenes and such but it’s disappointing. And I know Dragonborn got added late in development, but I wish we could have like one really significant NPC, even in act 3. They are so cool looking.
Which explains not guardian dragonborn and hireling options, I made dragonborn companion through mode and mouth is glitched as if it think's it is human or something like that.
On the topic of race diversity on companions, wasn't there a gnome companion named Helia in the files during EA? I remember hearing about her on chubblot's datamining videos. Kind of a bummer there are no companions from any of the small races tbh
Yup I remember hearing about that as well. Miss the Chubblot vids.
I agree, and that the companions should have been more widely diverse.
Meanwhile, Bethesda makes an ever increasing number of NPC's "essential", in each new game, because they're too afraid of players breaking their games 😆.
Ahh I loved morrowind and how you could kill everyone. It would tell you ifyou'd doomed the world LOL but you could still kill anyone.
Im glad with the companions / races we got.
i wish we ended up having more races for companions
Dragonborn don't work as a race... Nor do any of the other aniforms
So we are stuck at Level 12
from what I know Karlach and Wyll where add later on
So sad they abandoned this game
Abandoned is a bit of a strong word
@@WolfheartFPS it is, but you have to admit. They kinda did.
Tons of cut/ no more future content and a canceled already in the works dlc with little to no explanation
Any other company would get dragged over it
@@methodman6725 I have a feeling that there is more going on in the background than we'll ever know. Even though Sven says all is "A-ok", the quickness that support for DLC and BG4 was dropped and the disappointment that was expressed about the entire team at WoTC that helped start all of this tells me that all was, in fact, NOT "A-ok" WoTC and Hasbro are garbage companies that are run by garbage people and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were some shady dealing going on in the background.
And honestly, I think Larian is just happy to be free to tread their own path again.
I wanted to recruit Sazza.
Was it actually confirmed that the last patch to the game would be more elaborate evil playthroughs/endings?
It would be cool if they added the section of the Upper City we were supposed to have in Baldur's Gate, maybe in the definitive edition? Who knows
I really hope so. I hope they won't move on from the game until it's the best it feasibly can be
@@holysecret2 Yeah I hope they surprise us with a definitive edition with some of the cut content they wanted to make in the game, but even if they don't, the game is amazing as it is
Would have loved a dwarf and a shortie (gnome or halfling) in place of Halsin and Wyll. Karlach could easily have been a half-orc, it would fit her fighting barbarian background. Obviously changing these characters would also affect the peripheral characters that cycle around them (like Wyll and his father, if Wyll was a gnome/halfling). Halsin as a dwarf could almost be dropped in as-is, without much else changing.
It's not that i don't like (most of) the existing characters. It's hard to dislike Karlach, for example. Also, hard to change Shadowheart, (though I'd make a minor switch to wood half-elf) as she is the pretty girl that many like to romance and mod in sexy gear for, and the same applies to Astarion, the handsome bad-boy. I'm not a fan of Shadowheart, but that's just me. Not a fan of Wyll either, but I admit I'm no Warlock lover and dislike his scarred face with odd eyes. Lae'zel is perfect because she resonates with all the Githyanki scattered through the game. Gith are painfully thin, especially the males, but that is how they were originally portrayed, many years ago. Gale is human, which is fine, though if you made Karlach a half-orc you could have switched Gale to a Tiefling. Obviously you couldn't change Jaheira or Minsc, as their races are set in BG1. Minthara fits her role so well as a drow, I wouldn't think of changing her.
Wyll as a shortie would mean one less human. Halsin as a dwarf would mean one less elf-type of which there are too many. Karlach as a half-orc is a straight swap, the only tiefling companion lost but one half orc added. Also, if Gale then was made a Tiefling, both races are represented.
So companions races would now be Minthara (drow elf), Minsc (human), Jaheira (high half-elf) Lae'zel (githyanki), Astarion (high elf), Shadowheart (wood half- elf), , Halsin (dwarf), Karlach (half-orc), Gale (tiefling), Wyll (gnome or halfling). Still too many elves but now there is a dwarf, a half-orc and a gnome/halfling.
Bottom line, well, it is as it is and most companions are at least interesting with their story-arcs. It's not my ideal race mix, but it isn't like it is bad. The racial choices get noticed more due to fewer companions overall than in BG1&2, which due to the detail involved in creating modern-day BG3 characters, is pretty much a necessity.
Well, they could have both with Karlach. She could have been a Half-Orc, but when she was sent to Avernus and got her Hellheart, she turned to a mix of a Tiefling/Half-Orc, making her a unique race combo due to her lore. So you would have a Tiefling AND a Half-Orc in your Party, without completely changing Karlach. She would look somewhat different, but not too much.
if they capitalized on that idea, they could've also made the option in her story of totally healing her, making her a full Half-Orc again, or repairing her machine and let her stay a mix of Tiefling/Half-Orc OR pimp her machine to the next level, making her a full-blown Tiefling or even a mix of Tiefling/Demon.
Would have loved to have been joined by Nettie instead of Halsin.
Halsin is a returning character from the old baldur's gate games like jaheira and minsc so they can't just retcon his race
@@violette2139 really? I played the original games and never encountered him.
@@TheMarcHicks huh, I just googled it and he's not in the original games. That's really strange, I remember seeing a bunch of people talking about him being an old character
Not being able to go to the gith planet was a miss
3 small races and no small companion was a big L
We also know from unused Vicious Mockery lines from Ethel about another companion that was cut. Helia was a halfling werewolf, never specified what class but I'd guess ranger.
Helia was, I believe, intended to be a bard. I suspect the "werewolf" trait was absorbed by another character related to Shadowheart's questline, but that's merely a guess. Also, Helia was apparently supposed to be imprisoned in the goblin camp in her wolf form; obviously this was replaced by bear-form Halsin.
she was a bard
Yeah, where was the dwarven paladin 😅
No dwarf companion is unfortunate but no halfling one is a tragedy. There are a couple notable dwarfs in the game but if I'm not missing someone halfings basically only exist as two merchants in act one and two.
The one in act 2 also shows up in a quest in act 3, but only for one scene
A half-orc companion would've been so cool! Thank you for another amazing video Wolf! ❤
I wish we could play as glut through the entire game 😎
- Shadowheart was kethrics daughter: makes a ton more sense. Lost memories/ half elf/ selune and shar connection etc.
Isabelle and her divine lover
always seemed out of place.
- Astarion was really toned down re evil. More of a Kogan type from BG2. I suspect Casador was actually far more reasonable/ careful archtype keeping a ‘depraved’ and ‘corrupt’ magistrate with a taste for innocents under control…
- data mined info had far more massive clashes with the gith vs the absolute. Ie: ‘the butcher ‘
vs Voss. Also - why has nobody stated the obvious: no dragons affected by a mindflayer tadpoles? I think this was also mentioned from data mined info when Voss was at the bridge near the inn. They were battling cultists not flaming fists and a cultist kamakazied themself into the dragons head but slammed a tadpole into its eye. What a lost opportunity that was!
- I could go on and on from data mined content but to put this in perspective the d and d module called ‘mincs guide to (not sure if it was to battling evil in Baldurs gate or something like it) I suspect larian used this to flesh out most of the current events in baldurs gate. Lorroakain was actually meant to be Edwin in disguise…
Comparing budget and development time, team size and hype, BG3 is offering massively less content than BG1 & 2.
Think just of BG2 for a moment: Korgan yes or no? Changes the game completely! Keldorn or Dorn? Edwin or Imoen? I could go on and on… The way you handle Bodhi vs Shadow Thieves in Chapter 2-3… What cleric do you get?
Even if you have plenty of choices in BG3, the story is still more or less the same, especially in the first act…
I agree that Ketheric’s arc is built with so much hype, and then… puff… it’s gone…
Then, 6 characters against 4… the level cap that is massively higher.
As much as fighting an elder brain is “nice”, the story of Act 3 didn’t catch up with me… it’s not a villain that I feel prompted to fight for the future of the FR, as Irenicus was (or my goodness, Sarevok!). Even Amelyssan was an incredible antagonist, playing at your side for the whole game until the last point!
I don’t know… as well made a game BG3 is, its replayability compared to the other two chapters is severely limited, and the Larian footprint of having so slow combat makes it hard for anyone to replay it many times (unless you’re a streamer of course, but would you even more?!)
Man, all those ideas they didn't go through with sound awesome. I also always had the feeling there was something off with the end of Ketheric's story in chapter 2.
If you had a crystal ball,.... how long do you think it will be before they announce their new project? I am SO excited for the new title, but ALMOST as much as that, I'm super happy to stay part of the Wolfpack! :D TY for continuing to cover BG3 and Larian Studios! I sure hope the next game will also support Apple. They kinda corner the market for us OS players!
Here is how I see larians statement about dlc: expanded content is much different from a continuation of the story. I think act 3 will get the dos2 treatment. They cut content that sorely needs to be reintroduced, I think players should suggest to larian to about using the gondians to fix karlach: its a gaping glory hole sized opportunity missed for karlachs story.
The gondians made the infernal engines that power the steel watch, there is even dialogue for origin karlach involving the steel watch recognising her as one of them. If the gondians made the infernal engines, then why the f-ck can they not fix karlach for good if the player kept enough infernal iron. Or why doesn't gales scroll of true resurrection make karlach regrow a heart like it would within the context of 5th edition game at the table.
Larian should have had a 2 year roadmap planned for finishing their flawed magnum opus, the mod support they plan kinda sucks too as it boils down to spells/classes/armor and not a world editor for custom campaigns or fan made "dlc".
Narratively, the game is incomplete and I do not care about what cope larian says: it will forever live within broken mediocrity along with dragon age origins as a 7/10. I love it, and it's out of love I criticize it sorely. It needed 2 more years in the oven.
On the karlach front, i agree. If they don't want to do that, then maybe give us some gameplay in this hells hunting demons. If you're MC karlach or if you romanced her, you get to accompany her as well and help her out.
😂 ok
Could be a rights/license issue....anything "new" (and unless they had already made it and decided to not use it, then it is considered new) would have to be approved by WoTC, and I think by WoTC firing everyone that had made the initial deal with Larian, it probably strained relations between the two companies somewhat. Remember that they own the Divinity IP, so they can do whatever they want with it...not so with Baldur's Gate.
Agreed. They hinted at her possibly finding blueprints... her story isn't done.
The companions in Wrath of the Righteous are a good example of diversity done right. A lawful evil ruthless hellknight... _gnome_ . A very well-written character, by the way. A Kitsune who is... well, it's complicated. A beautiful, high-born half-elven girl who is... yeah. A neutral evil Aasimar (!), who is really not that evil, just a jerk. A succubus on the path to redemption is more of a traditional "repentant sinner" trope, but someone has to be a waifu.
On the topic of cut companions, I'm still mourining Helia, the halfling werewolf bard. She even had voicelines. I play her right now as my DUrge character (since werewolf is not playable, I substituted with resisting Durge). I agree, that there should have been more race variety among the companions - and some shorties. Given, how popular Barcus Wroot is, I'm wondering, if he wouldn't have made a great companion.
I would’ve loved the war college because it would’ve been better than having to fight OP Gith monks RIGHT AFTER defeating Ketherick and Myrkl…I had to restart that fight sooo many times 😂
I know we got Minthara, but I really wanted another Drow companion in the mix from start, but I suppose that got axed because of how militant and devout Lae’Zel was. Having another character (say from Menzoberanzahn) who was also very militaristic and devoted to Lolth would have clashed with Lae’Zel, and then we couldn’t end up discovering “Drow Mommy” Minthy.
Though seeing Minthara have to intetact with Drizz’t could have lead to comedy gold, with everyone having to restrain Minthara from going for his throat in the name of Lolth.
Race of companions were less important than personality of companions. I would like to have another companion that surprised me how good they were like the original Minsc, Deekin or HK-47.
JK Simmons expensive. To have him record hundreds if not thousands of lines as a companion would probably have been prohibitively expensive.
Definitely should have had another race companion.
I would have swapped Halsin for a dwarf myself.
That said, I wish companions all came with unique class skills, to encourage you to keep their original class.
For example, Halsin has a unique animal form, even if it's a color swapped bear.
Astarion could have a unique illusion ability while rogue.
Etc.
Loved BG3, its in my top 5 favorite games of all time.
However, the lack of variety in companions absolutely bothered me.
There was no reason 5 of the 10 companions needed to be elves.
Not having a dwarf companion was a mistake, no short race companions at all was just bad.
And several of those companions could have easily had their races changed, and nothing about them would have been different.
Halsin imo should have been a half orc. Hell, he even jokes about people thinking he was part half orc, because he's such a large elf...unnaturally large for an elf at that.
Minthara imo should have been a goblin. They could have easily written that role for Sazza. You rescue her from the druid Grove, help her to get back to the goblin camp. Then she reveals she's the leader of the goblin horde. Nothing else rely changes after this.
While I like Jaheria, she's another elf and yet another druid. Halsin already filled this role. Did we need two elf druids as companions in the same game?...
Her spot could have went to either a dwarf or a dragonborn companion. And instead of a druid, made that person either a monk or a bard.
WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!? That guy could've been a companion?!? Holy Shadowmommy, that would've been so freaking cool.
The one problem I have with Astarion is that in original D&D lore Elves couldn't become vampires. The act of transitioning to a vampire killed them. In general any demi-human couldn't become a vampire. There was only 1 vampire elf, Jander Sunstrider and this was a curse and not natural vampire turning.
Where are my halfling companions and more specifically dwarf companions. I really liked Yeslick and Korgan from Baldurs gate 1 and 2 respectively.
Also Alora from Bg1 was the best companion even though she was only in it for the last third
I really wish we had a short companion- whether it be a dwarf, halfling or gnome. Divinity had Beast, Dragon Age had Varric and Oghren, the previous Baldurs Gate games had a crap tonne of companions, but there were plenty of dwarves, halflings, gnomes and even a goblin. It definitely feels like a sin not including a short companion.
Yes one of the smallest complains I had in BG3 was different race companions.
After played BG2 in the old days I'm used to have chooise of so many companions dwarves,half-orcs,gnomes etc would had loved to seen atleast one of those.
But maybe modders can fix that eventually?
Bring Helia back!
Lack of race-based companions is my number one of very few negatives.
I wish they had a companion for each race that had a male/female toggle, so you could interact with them as males or females for your main, but definitely,9 ever race should have had a companion option.
No Dwarf is a D&D sin, even Divinity had a Dawrf lol.
even tho I love the companions, I too kinda wished for more diversity in the races aspect tbh.I really was hoping for a gnome companion, hell, dragonborn would be also interesting too,but oh well.and yes, we need more dwarves.Mainly elf player here, but I do love me some dwarf, even if they would dislike me in most universes 😂😂 I just want stubborn,sturdy, bearded man/woman who would complain constantly but also had my back if the need arises haha
no halfling, gnome, or dwarf companions, just hirelings with no personality.... Would love to see an update where you can have them in the party as full fleshed NPCs. Also, let us have Alfira...
I think the lack of race and class diversity for the companions makes sense if you consider it in light of the original plan for companion lockout that was originally planned. Way back at the start of EA, Larian had planned to make players choose a small group of companions like they did in DOS:2 and the rest would be functionally lost as companions. They changed that idea some way into EA. It makes sense that there'd be less diversity and fewer companions overall, if you think about the monumental chaos that would ensue if you need to make all those original companion templates maintain continuity and FIT into camp until end game!
Something that personally devastated me was Wylls character. He was so interesting with conflicting morals and mystery. I loved his old va but I feel im in a minority. He was my favourite character until the new iteration and he had so much cut content
New Wyll is still great and the VA is amazing but personally I loved EA Wyll.
I just wish BG3 let you make all your characters from the start (like Solasta). The companions are cool, but I want to do a run through with just my characters. Not respecced companions or hirelings.
What a pity, Candlekeep would have been such a strong link to the originals.
But what I wondered the most was that most of the story actually played on the surface. Since the latest DnD campaign book was named “Baldurs Gate: Descent into Avernus” I thought that the game mainly plays in the nine hells and we have to deal with the Blood War.
Listening to all the cut content. As cool as it would have been, if they had tried to include it all, most of us would be dead of old age before it was released. If ever. As Dirty Harry once said, "A man's got to know his limitations." Sven's N+1 design is what used to be called rubber band narratives. You can stretch the paths, but the game design is built in a way that the end paths are always reached. Just my thoughts.
I'm not super bummed about not having a dwarf companion, if only for the reason hardly any of the dwarves in the game seemed "dwarfy" at all. Just about any dwarf you run into in the game could just as easily (and better, in most cases) have been an elf or some other, more common, race. Only the Duergar seemed to actually match their setting and personalities with their lore. Seeing constant dwarf druids and other leaf-loving vocations constantly bummed me out.
Yeah, the lack of variety in companions is a con in the game, but what really bugs me is the lack of equipment in the first 2 acts... it's like the only moment when you feel really equiped, is when you are finishing the game and there's little to do... i would love more items for druids, for example; and it's even worst when you play as a bad guy, because you are locked out of some of the most important weapons and stuff, like the ones that Dammon sells, or the robe for Eldritch Blast build.
It's too bad the camp doesn't get dummies for displaying armor and weapon sets, paintings too.
Dang it I'm so sad! I love Ketheric so much!!!!! I wanted to save him so badly, it broke my heart hearing we could have had him with us if it wasn't cut. Still love the game of course but would have wanted this more then anything.
I have a feeling that Larian was playing it safe in regards to diversity in companion races. Half Orcs and even Dwarves have been a subject of some contention among the WoTCNazis who have infested that company over the last few years, not to mention some of the more perpetually offended amongst the fan base. Plus Dwarves and Half Orcs didn't really have that much of a story arc in the game as the much as the other races.