Baldur's Gate 3's approach to romance comes in every possible shape and form one can imagine. Because Baldur's Gate 3's companions are player-sexual, anyone can be romanced regardless of gender. Some characters are strictly monogamous, while other characters are okay if players have multiple lovers. Some are essentially one-night stands, whereas others feel more like soul bonds. And there are even a few surprises from non-companion characters.
SPOILER WARNING: THERE ARE MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR BALDUR'S GATE 3
What's immediately clear is how different every romance in Baldur's Gate 3 truly is, and depending on what players want out of the game, Karlach is one that is as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking. Indeed, Karlach's romance storyline gives players the highest of highs, tempts them with bad options, and can see her beautiful spark die all too soon.
Baldur's Gate 3: Karlach's Budding Romance
When players first meet Karlach, she is being hunted by "Anders" who players later learn is just a devil after her. Her initial meeting also puts her at odds with Wyll, Blade of the Frontiers, but players are able to show them how alike they really are. Karlach was forced, for a decade, to fight in the Blood War, but she didn't want to. The opening Nautiloid in Baldur's Gate 3 was her way out, and her relationship with the player, romantic or not, gives her the freedom, family, and love she deserves. Pursuing her is a romance of temperance; while players may want to jump straight to it (and Karlach desperately wants to be hugged, at least), no one can touch her because of her infernal engine.
What follows is Karlach's good heart showing through time and again, and her personality being so sweet, innocent, and pure that it's amazing the Blood War didn't do her worse. She has anger and rage, at the devil who captured her and at the friend who betrayed her (Gortash), but she also just wants to go on a date with a player. She wants to grow old, have children, and otherwise live a simple and loving life, even if there are some adventures thrown in. Watching her nerd out when players meet Jaheira and Minsc in Baldur's Gate 3 shows how well-rounded of a character she is, and that makes her so easy to love.
It's a twist of the knife by Larian Studios, then, that someone so easy to love is also so easy to lose. Out of love or friendship, Baldur's Gate 3 players will need to find a mechanic for her infernal engine, find some special material, and repair her engine so she can touch anyone without them exploding. In completing this quest, however, players find out a heartbreaking truth: her engine is too hot for the material plane and, at some point, she will die from it. She could return to Avernus, but that is a fate far worse than death given she could be enslaved and forced into war again.
Even then, that doesn't seem to affect Karlach too much. Baldur's Gate 3 players can communicate with her that they'll be there until the end, that they'll find a way to repair the engine, and so forth, but she ignores her own fate to be the happy-go-lucky Karlach she's always been. That is, until players defeat Gortash and the reality of it all sets in on her. This beautiful woman, one who laughs if a Dark Urge Baldur's Gate 3 player warns her that they're trying to kill her, suddenly breaks down about her fate, losing everything she has gained, and knowing that her love will just be able to move on. Players can say anything they want, but the truth is, there's nothing one can do to help someone who knows their fate is sealed. They can still push for an answer, but there's a sense of pending doom - there's no good answer. And while there are opportunities, the best ending is one that breaks hearts.
Baldur's Gate 3: Karlach's Final Days Are Filled With Love
As players proceed toward the ending of Baldur's Gate 3, they will come face to face with several opportunities to save Karlach, but the cost is constantly too high - if someone is playing a good character, at least. For example, one opportunity that presents itself is for Karlach to become an Illithid to stop the Netherbrain. This transformation would save her, and there's nothing wrong with loving an illithid. But, for good characters who have resisted the transformation throughout the game, putting this responsibility on her doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem like it would mean she'd have a happy life, whereas Wyll will offer to take her to Avernus. There, she'd live but literally be in hell which is something completely different for her. With as vast as Baldur's Gate 3 is, perhaps there was another method, but going into the final fight alongside her, and everything she is, is as good as any other.
And so, the best ending it would seem sees players take the Netherbrain out alongside her. Once the Astral Prism/Emperor's protection is gone, she will step out onto a dock and realize her time has come. She will die, saying goodbye to the world and going out a hero. Players can be there right beside her at the very end, but every laugh, every nerd out, and every moment in the hours upon hours-long Baldur's Gate 3 journey comes to the fore. And players have to say goodbye.
It honestly has no right being such a good story, such a beautiful romance, and such a heartbreaking ending. This is just one story among several in Baldur's Gate 3, even when just focusing on romances, but it's impossible to forget this moment, impossible to forget Karlach.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC. A PS5 version releases on September 6.
