Baldur’s Gate 3 Companion Controversy: Players Demand Immediate Changes for Ultimate Gameplay Experience
Baldur’s Gate 3 players express discontent over the treatment of a beloved companion, urging Larian Studios for necessary alterations in response to their dissatisfaction
Highlights
Some players are requesting changes to the character Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3, as they believe she is underutilized and difficult to recruit.
Recruiting Minthara to the party in the quickest manner requires a hilariously wicked choice, which unfortunately means forgoing other quests and content. Larian Studios' Patch 1 failed to completely satisfy players' worries regarding Minthara's recruitment, and it is doubtful that she can be made readily recruitable considering the game's careful balance between good and evil playthroughs.
Some players of Baldur's Gate 3 are urging Larian Studios to make changes to Minthara, arguing that the Drow Paladin is not given enough attention for no good reason. Minthara has been a sought-after romantic option in Baldur's Gate 3 since the early access phase of the game, but recruiting her has always been a very expensive task.
Warning! Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 1 and 2 ahead. The quickest way to include Minthara in your party is by assisting the Goblins in destroying the Emerald Grove in the first act of Baldur's Gate 3. This option is presented as a humorously evil choice, which is why many players end up missing the opportunity to have the only Drow companion in the game. Ignoring the quest completely also allows for recruiting Minthara in Act 2, but this leads to less experience points and almost identical drawbacks as raiding the refugee camp. It forces players to miss out on various quests, loot, and merchants. Additionally, destroying the grove results in losing three other companions, and ignoring the questline means missing out on Halsin.
Unsatisfied with this situation, a vocal group of fans has taken to the internet to demand "justice for Minthara." A recent Reddit post by user RinVG, requesting changes to the character, received nearly 6,000 upvotes in less than 24 hours. This post also sparked various pleas for Larian to make the Drow Paladin easier to recruit. Some players argued that it doesn't make sense to tie Minthara to an evil playthrough because she herself is not a completely immoral character. Others pointed out that the consequences for not killing her and the rest of the Goblin Camp in Baldur's Gate 3 are too severe.
Patch 1 of Baldur's Gate 3 implemented some fixes to Minthara's dialogue triggers and cutscenes, but did not alter the underlying mechanics of enlisting her help. The likelihood of Larian actually making her recruitable while still saving Emerald Grove seems questionable. Although it could be done in a way that fits with the lore, as Minthara's moral allegiance is nuanced, the rewards for being evil in Baldur's Gate 3 are already quite limited.
Moreover, if players choose to role-play as a completely immoral adventurer in Baldur's Gate 3, they will unfortunately miss out on several hours of gameplay content. This further creates an imbalance between the choices of good and evil playthroughs. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Larian Studios, the game's developer, would consider allowing non-evil characters to recruit Minthara in future updates.
Baldur's Gate 3 is currently available for PC, with a PS5 version set to release on September 6, and an Xbox Series X/S version currently in development.
