Highlights
- Baldur's Gate 3 has a memorable roster of companions, with talented performances and well-written scripts that make for an innovative narrative experience.
- The game's selection of recruitable companions is not perfect for everyone, as it lacks representation of certain demographics and races.
- The main cast of companions in Baldur's Gate 3 may not fully match the diversity of its world, but each character has their own unique arc and undergoes major life changes based on player choices.
Baldur's Gate 3 has proven to be one of the biggest releases of the year, and the game's memorable roster of companions is a major reason for this success. With a talented set of performances and masterfully written scripts coming together, the narrative experience conveyed through the stories of Baldur’s Gate 3’s party members is nothing short of innovative. Players are sure to find variety across the game’s 10 different recruitable companions, but that still doesn't make its selection perfect for everyone.
The player character is able to utilize an impressive array of customizable options in character creation, with some races and classes going far beyond the typical Elves and Rogues of fantasy RPGs. It is reasonable to predict that Larian Studios would have chosen to represent the different demographics of Faerun relatively evenly within the player’s party, but this didn't actually turn out to be the case.
The Relative Homogeneity of Baldur's Gate 3's Companions
In a traditional RPG setting, having a party composed of members playing different complementary roles has always been key to survival, and this holds true in Baldur’s Gate 3. The game starts the player off with a cleric, rogue, wizard, and fighter in Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, and Lae’zel respectively, showcasing a very early emphasis on diverse party composition. All different races, these companions offer a similar form of variety through their actual cultures as well, but this trend unfortunately drops off as the game continues.
Wyll and Karlach can both be recruited if their pre-existing conflict is resolved, and their statuses as a human and tiefling respectively still keep the party quite varied. When Wyll receives his curse from Mizora in most playthroughs, however, his devil traits essentially make him yet another tiefling aside from his normal skin tone.
The elf druid Halsin and drow paladin Minthara are then mutually exclusive companions that can be recruited in Act 2, but the vast majority of players are likely to disregard Minthara due to her psychotic nature regardless of the diversity she offers. The next available party member, Jaheira, is a half-elf druid, making her far less unique despite her legacy status. Minsc finally brings yet another human to the team, with his ranger class only joining after most of the game has passed.
Underrepresented Groups in Baldur's Gate 3's Party
Baldur’s Gate 3’s available cast of companions have the potential to become RPG icons in their own right, but that only proves that the demographics that didn't make it into the party truly missed out. While the Dragonborn race has been featured prominently in promotional material through the Dark Urge Origin character, there are hardly any seen throughout the game.
Some halflings and dwarves make minor appearances, but their lack of a spot in the party leaves them feeling a bit more shallow than the more standard cultures. While several memorable and capable deep gnomes are featured prominently in their own questline across the game’s acts, the party of companions is ultimately composed of relatively conventional, human-like people.
The diversity of the main cast of Baldur's Gate 3 may not match what its world has to offer, but that doesn't mean they aren't distinct as three-dimensional characters outside what they are innately. Each of the companions is capable of their own unique arc, with several undergoing major life changes depending on the player's choices.
Plots like the religious struggles of Shadowheart and the violent trauma of Astarion touch different parts of the world, but the game still could have benefited from representing even more elements of the Forgotten Realms. Discussion of an expansion for Baldur’s Gate 3 is already underway, however, and the late inclusion of Karlach into Early Access has proven it’s never too late to introduce a new companion.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now for PC and PS5. Xbox Series X/S versions are in development.
