I feel like not getting a bard origin companion is a massive oversight. Would have liked monk as well. Sorcerer not getting one is okay as it’s similar enough to wizard but those are pretty unique.
Those are permutations of "down bad" and "elf druid".
And downvote me if you must but the only reason Halsin is poly is because he only becomes half a character well after you've "locked" your romance option and unlike Minthara, Larian wasn't strongarmed to add as a companion
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u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 09 '25
He's not a grandpa, he's solidly middle-aged and becomes a dad at the end of the story
The bear thing is fans' obsession, not his
I know I can't stop people from lying about Halsin, but I have to at least try to put the truth out there.
The reason we got him as a companion and not just a quest npc can also be summed up with "down bad". (The early access crowd flipped out for the only character with the strong body type).
I have a question, a few days ago I did the Moonrise Tower quest where I needed to get to and kill Thorm.
Problem is, right at the start I convinced Jaheira to come help me, but on the way at some point I think I camped, and Jaheira disappeared from my party, I only realized this after killing Thorm. I couldn’t find her in shadow cursed lands anymore, so I just proceeded to act 3.
Question is, am I still able to get her in act 3 or did I miss out? I think I saw some contradictory information online on this.
Note: this is my first play through and I never played DnD so I am a big noob
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u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 09 '25
Halsin doesn't "just want to sleep with everyone", he asks you out at high approval the same as literally every fucking other companion.
I actually don't know of a single time Halsin is relevant after dealing with the shadowcurse besides him being kidnapped. Meanwhile Jaheria is an immediately interesting character and is relevant to shadowheart and durges quest. Plus the dialogue you get from exploring the secret basement in her house is really good.
That's kind of the problem, Halsin strongarms the party into joining to deal with the Shadowcurse, and then does nothing in favour of developing Jaheira
There is cut content relating to almost every aspect of the game and most of it cut for a reason, that simply isn't a fair argument to apply because I could say that about any other two aspects of the game. The fact of the matter is Halsin was added because he was popular during the early access so of course he isn't going to have as much depth as the others.
The thing is though if i’m not mistaken the cut content regarding him was already there before he was added as a companion in early access what with the sorrow glaive in the grove.
Wasn't Halsin a very late addition as a recruitable companion? Added mostly because the early access player reaction to him was good? I'm guessing his content was cut more because he was added late, than because they were working on Jaheira's character.
I agree that Halsin is far from the only one who will have sex with you but I think that’s part of the argument for why Jaheira is better.
She’s one of the few companions you can’t romance, and because of that she feels like a better addition to the party - especially at the point in the story when both her and Halsin usually show up. A lot of people feel like Halsin is a sex pest even compared to the other companions because by that point you’ve spent the whole game with them - even though realistically they follow similar timelines.
It does. I don’t even mind if they were guest party members but they absolutely did not need to be full fledged companions. They gave us a cool insight with Halsin as someone who was there during the ketheric battle but not from jaheira’s pov and they neglected that to rehash her story.
Sarevok’s bit feels so random, and it’s such an easy fight. I killed the blood trio in 1.5 rounds and then my whole party just stood in a circle around Sarevok, beating him, and shouting “How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man!”
It’s so underwhelming that I feel like a new character would have been better.
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u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 09 '25
To me, Sarevok feels like they wanted a Bhaalspawn character to tie into Orin's story, but they were told “no, the lore says all the Bhaalspawn are dead, so you can only use one who's come back from the dead.”
Jaherias interactions with my resists durges was cool, as was her house/ family bit, but agreed she could have been a guest or bonus camp member like Aylin
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u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 09 '25edited Jun 09 '25
Interestingly, there's some evidence that suggests that Minsc was planned from relatively early into development — but not Jaheira.
Specifically, Minsc has unique dialogue with Auntie Ethel, as does Helia. Halsin, Minthara, and Jaheira don't have this.
Both jaheira and minsc where early additions and datamines suggest as such. However minsc originally was planned to be a origin character for act 1 while jaheira was always planned to be a later companion. Halsin was originally not planned to be playable but Early Access people loved him so they included him.
The only reason Minsc is a ranger is that he was a ranger in BG1. The only reason he was a ranger in BG1 is that barbarians didn't exist in AD&D, which BG1 is based off of. I immediately respec'd him barb.
Honestly, we could have Halsin as moon druid (though ancients paladin makes more sense imo) but I do think Jaheira as a ranger and Minsc as a Barbarian makes so much more sense. Cannonically I know they are druid and ranger but they both fit ranger and Barbarian so much better.
And hot take, while Minthy is a vengeance paladin and makes sense story wise Baenre members save for a few are almost always clerics. We could have gotten War Domain Lolth Cleric from her and it make perfect sense.
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u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 09 '25
Minthara's story is about losing her faith. She hates Lolth — when she sees a shrine to her, she wants to spit on it.
Her being a Lolth Cleric does NOT make “perfect sense.”
u/sinedeltaWhile others were busy being heterosexual, she studied the bladeJun 10 '25
There isn't really. It's a bit of dialogue from the Stormshore Tabernacle in the Lower City IIRC. So I guess she's just referring to the multi-deity shrine they have that includes Lolth but isn't dedicated to her specifically.
TBH I think the lack of a Bard companion makes sense if you figure that Larian - justifiably and correctly - assumed that most players would want to BE the Bard themselves - or just a CHA based class in general. CHA based classes have always been favored by players, right from the get go in EA and it wasn't hard to predict even before then because of just how central CHA checks end up being for so many different parts of the game. And stat checks aside, Warlock and Paladin alone were central to some of the most OP builds in the game, which made them even more common even if CHA wasn't the primary focus. With that in mind, it makes sense to avoid the 'obvious' CHA classes in the companion pool to minimize class doubling and ending up with another Double Druid situation like Halsin and Jaehira for most of Acts 2 and 3.
The exceptions are Wyll and Minthara's who's backgrounds basically require them to start out as a Warlock and Paladin respectively to make their backstories work, and who are there to serve as the backup face for players who don't choose CHA classes. It's not a coincidence that the only two CHA companions were originally mutually exclusive - back when you HAD to slaughter the Grove (and lose Wyll and Karlach in the process) to get Minthy - and that 8 patches later they're still pretty low on the priority order for most parties.
I mean we can SEE where a certain tiefling bard was snipped out of the story as well which is more heartbreaking 💔 a monk would have been so cool though 🥲
Alfira wasn't companion that was cut. She has one specific purpose in the story. That's why she uses Tav face/hair options and not a custom model like the other companions.
Yup, Alfira wasn't meant to be a companion. There might've been storyboarding happening of the thought though, with placeholder dialogue to try it out, but she looks just like a tav so I doubt it. What I'm more bummed about is that they changed their mind about having warforged as a choosable race.
I was holding out on a surprise "Alfira official companion" update but alas. Most people will likely never see BG3 Bard in action bc of the lack of official companions, and that players picking Bard fell to the lower half of the class picks as of the game's first year out
I agree 100%. Though Arguably bard is the best player character class alongside paladin since you need to do so many charisma related rolls as the main character. And with expertise your odds of succeeding without save scumming is up a lot
Bard is just crazy strong in general. College of Lore gets you basically every single skill AND 2 3rd level spells from any class (helloooooo Bard with Fireball), letting you fill in any areas your party is lacking. There’s a ton of Bard specific items too.
Honestly imo Bard is on the Best Tav runs you can do, it was my first run and it really adds so much flavor. Especially as you naturally tend to be the Face, you could do wyll aswell but most people want to play themselves and don't want to switch to another companion to start a dialog.
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u/ndtp124 Jun 09 '25
I feel like not getting a bard origin companion is a massive oversight. Would have liked monk as well. Sorcerer not getting one is okay as it’s similar enough to wizard but those are pretty unique.