D&D General Which BG3 companion?

[haakon1]

Karlach is awesome. The nicest rage-aholic you could ever hope to meet. I love the little dance she does when the party is hanging around not doing much. Her back story is overwritten. Like, a lot. She's a former senior enforcer of an Arch Duke of Hell, who's on the run. Before that she was the chief enforcer of an underworld figure who sold her into slavery. She's a whath level barbarian when you meet her? Maybe 3rd?

1st when I met her.

For converting her as an NPC for one of my 3.5e Greyhawk campaign (just getting underway with a third spin-off from the ongoing original campaign), my explanation is she was Level Drained. That’s the AD&D term. In 3x terms, Negative Levels that she failed saves on so they became permanent. (Not sure that’s even a thing in 4e or 5e. Darned convenient for a DM melding characters from different levels from different campaigns into reasonable compatibility in Older Editions.)

My explanation for how she got from FR to Avernus to Greyhawk is Dismissal during the Blood Wars. By 3x rules (at least), Dismissal sends a creature to their native plane, and Karlach is from the Prime Material Plane (variations on the name by edition exist, because “reasons”). But the PMP has multiple worlds - Dismissal from Avernus to the PMP can (as I read it and run it) land you on the “wrong” world, and anywhere on it. The rules also call for a 30% of the entirely wrong plane, so wrong “crystal sphere” doesn’t feel like a stretch to me.

On the plus side for everyone’s favorite Tiefling, I’d say no tadpole nor Nautiloid, since my campaign will not be about that.

On the minus side, I’ve already established that Sword Coast Common and Greyhawk Common are different languages, but I would give her Infernal as a free language. So she has to use gestures and grunts to communicate until she levels up to 2nd and can use Skill Points to learn the local Common. Or needs an Infernal speaking translator. (Tongues isn’t going to exist in a low level group.). Which is actually a lot of fun, imho.

 

[Gradine]

Karlach is awesome. The nicest rage-aholic you could ever hope to meet. I love the little dance she does when the party is hanging around not doing much. Her back story is overwritten. Like, a lot. She's a former senior enforcer of an Arch Duke of Hell, who's on the run. Before that she was the chief enforcer of a underworld figure who sold her into slavery. She's a whath level barbarian when you meet her? Maybe 3rd? I mean... sure. But I'll give that it's a sympathetic backstory. Mechanically, I just don't find her as fun to play as Liesl. Love chatting to her though. And we always prioritise getting her heart fixed up as opportunities arise.

Asterion has a good backstory. Yeah, he's a monster but his choices were... literally non-existent. Again, kinda low level for all that he's done, but maybe people who act solely according to another's will don't get XP. That gripe aside, he's great fun. Mechancially lots of fun; I love a bit of sneak and snipe. And such a bitch. Love him. Sneer at me more, please!

It is fairly heavily implied, if not outright stated, that whatever the brain worms did essentially sets the party back to level 1. Gale definitely brings it up (not that I blame you if you skipped through his dialogue...) but also everything you learn about the Dark Urge PC as well. I think I recall Wyll talking about losing some of his abilities too at some point, but I can't quite remember.

It's a bit video game logicy, but hey, if it's good enough for Samus Aran or Sora, it's good enough for the Idiot Wizard of Waterdeep.


Also re: Shadowheart and gameplay, the issue is her domain (and I guess, her starting stat spread). I've ran her as both Light and War domain and she's wrecked shop, particularly the latter with the holy weapon you can get out of the gith creche. Need to bump her Str in the latter case, though.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

It is fairly heavily implied, if not outright stated, that whatever the brain worms did essentially sets the party back to level 1. Gale definitely brings it up (not that I blame you if you skipped through his dialogue...) but also everything you learn about the Dark Urge PC as well. I think I recall Wyll talking about losing some of his abilities too at some point, but I can't quite remember.

It's a bit video game logicy, but hey, if it's good enough for Samus Aran or Sora, it's good enough for the Idiot Wizard of Waterdeep.

Oh... I must have missed that in the all the dialogue. I'd assumed Gale got level reset by Mystra. But for the rest I just assumed overeager writers.

Also re: Shadowheart and gameplay, the issue is her domain (and I guess, her starting stat spread). I've ran her as both Light and War domain and she's wrecked shop, particularly the latter with the holy weapon you can get out of the gith creche. Need to bump her Str in the latter case, though.

Good suggestions. Thank you! I'll give that a try.

 

[Seramus]

It is fairly heavily implied, if not outright stated, that whatever the brain worms did essentially sets the party back to level 1.

Yeah, many of the characters comment about being weaker. Astarion, for example, is pleased he can go out into the sun but says he is too weak to even catch random animals to eat. Wyll, Karlach, Gale, Dark Urge, and Minsc all mention being weaker than they used to be. Though, in the case of Gale I think he says it has more to do with his "Issue" than the tadpole.

 

[Longspeak]

Was Minsc not on the list?

Karlach, natch. Shadowheart and her slightly evil, mostly tragic self. Jahiera, for the mom vibe. Minthara for the "Mom's hot friends I'm afraid of" vibe.

I've started BG3 like nine times and only once has Astarion lived to see Baulder's Gate.

 

[Chaltab]

Was Minsc not on the list?

Karlach, natch. Shadowheart and her slightly evil, mostly tragic self. Jahiera, for the mom vibe. Minthara for the "Mom's hot friends I'm afraid of" vibe.

I've started BG3 like nine times and only once has Astarion lived to see Baulder's Gate.

Damn, what difficulty are you playing on?

 

[Longspeak]

Damn, what difficulty are you playing on?

Tactician. The Astarion thing... I kill him.

 

[Chaltab]

Oh... I must have missed that in the all the dialogue. I'd assumed Gale got level reset by Mystra. But for the rest I just assumed overeager writers.

The only one that doesn't really make sense is Halsin who is somehow an Archdruid despite being like 7 or 8 when you recruit him. That's kind understandable since he wasn't supposed to be a companion at all until it was requested by horny people fans.

Jaheira also doesn't have a tadpole but she has the excuse of being 150.

 

[haakon1]

Jaheira also doesn't have a tadpole but she has the excuse of being 150.

Plus, doesn’t everyone share XP when they join the party? I leveled her up to 9th for her first outing with the party.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Edwin...oh wait.

Should have been in the expansion pack