Baldur’s Gate 3 gained its acclaim from both fans and reviewers thanks to the well-written cast of companions you can recruit along your journey. Despite being one of fans’ favorite storylines, players have recently cast a critical lens onto Karlach’s companion quest.
The Hellion out of Avernus is one of the many core companions you can recruit in BG3 Act One. Her conflict is exceedingly straightforward from the moment you meet her. Inside of Karlach’s heart is an infernal engine which has placed a time limit on how long she can remain on the material plane.
The only solution to Karlach’s infernal dilemma is seemingly simple—frustratingly so for Reddit user BeausGloriousAbs. “Karlach’s story lacks options despite multiple capable allies and is really a single item fetch quest,” the user wrote. The post outlines how Karlach’s story falls short, especially when compared to the likes of Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Astarion, and others who both received major dungeons to capstone their storylines while being seamlessly integrated into the main story.
Karlach’s questline has been the subject of debate since BG3’s initial launch. Larian Studios stated Karlach was the last companion added to the game, fulfilling an empty frontline role among the companions. Karlach is also one of the few characters to receive story updates post launch, as Patch 2 gave her an extended ending.
We certainly understand the frustration around both Karlach’s questline and the relatively few ending options her character contains. Considering the strength of our party, there are tons of practical solutions to the Hellion’s heart outside of collecting Infernal Iron.
User Ethan-Hollis points out one possible solution, stating “true resurrection can very easily solve her problem.” It’s entirely within the realm of reason that we could willingly kill Karlach, remove the infernal engine, and then use a high powered Shadowheart to cast True Resurrection to bring Karlach back.
Although the ensuing thread is filled with potential options to circumvent Karlach’s inevitable trip back to Avernus, we can’t help but feel we’ve forgotten BG3 is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Much like the TTRPG, Karlach’s story is considerably railroaded by the in-game DM, although this ultimate destination for Karlach appears to be necessary to complete a wider story arc for the character.
Given the commercial success of BG3 and how we’ve only left our beloved characters at level 12, it’s extremely likely we will revisit the Storm Coast and beyond. The added epilogue scene even hints at the fact that we might descend to Avernus ourselves, as Karlach and Wyll (should he venture to Avernus with Karlach in your ending) both mention a permanent solution to Karlach’s infernal engine in the Nine Hells.
Whereas Astarion, Shadowheart, and even Durge all received well-fitted endings that complete their character arc, Karlach’s story has plenty left to tell.
