Poll - Who are the best/worst Baldur's Gate 3 companions?

Gale
0 votes
good, absolutely the worst companion. Ricky Gervais in a wizard hat.
- The worst part is, as a wizard, he is easily the most OP member of the party as well, so I find unless I pick a wizard/sorcerer as a player character, he's pretty much mandatory.
- meh, I like him, and I hate Ricky Gervais
- I play a wizard specifically so I can stunt on him in every dialogue where he does his "oh, I'm the most effortlessly talented wizard ever" bullshit.
- Lmao now that you mention it even though I've only played like 1 hour of this game and just met him, he does kinda give those vibes. I don't totally hate him yet, he reminds me of Moss from The IT Crowd.

minthara - funniest no question
karlach - the one I would most want to hang with irl
shadowheart - goth bae

I'm surprised people are voting Lae'zel, she was like one more fash comment away from me spilling her guts in a hallway at one point lmao.
- She said one sentence to my tiefling after I released her from her cage and I regretted it instantly

I like Gale

the best companion is Halsin because he can turn into a fuckin dilophosaurus
- DILFosaurus

How is Shadowheart in the lead? Like she's not bad or anything, but if she's your favourite you probably think salt is spicy.
- She's pretty and nice
  
  She's highschool goth crush
- Hot take: Shadowheart as the main character is the best choice because you don't have to deal with her being an emo weirdo. Just respec into whatever class you want. Also you get better understanding of her backstory, and romancing Laezel or Karlach is extremely spicy. Also, to be the gothiest person alive you can go the evil route and romance Minthara.
  In terms of whose quips I enjoy most, its definitely Astarion. Hes so fucking gay, hes dripping with gay
- i played a few hours and was gonna vote for her purely due to disliking her the least out of the starter companions before i saw the girl reading this
- Because she and Minthara are the only "classically attractive" female companions and the majority of Hexbear users are still female-attracted people with relatively average standards for attractiveness. And Minthara isn't available until the later chapters.
  
  average standards for attractiveness
  i guess that's why it would be the average
- her backstory and quest are the most fleshed out and tied to the story, the main quest should have been more about Shar/Selune instead of the scuffed mindflayer bullshit, imo
- yeah. i didn't let her go blonde, so i assume i must have missed part of the appeal, but i really don't get it. everyone else is so much more fun. until i saw all those polls etc i wouldn't even have guessed that she had fans. she's kind of just... there
- TBF Shadowheart is the protagonist of the game for some reason.

I would kill astarion out of principle on the spot. he is well very written though and has a good arc. Minsc and boo should have been in earlier they were great 😭😭😭😭😭
- Second the Minsc comment. He comes in so late that I feel like I didn't get enough time in camp to see everything.
  
  I thought he was gonna be a generic meathead. I was wrong. I was so wrong

I romanced shadowheart on my run but have come to think Laezel is best girl
- The big brain move is to play as shadowheart and romance laezel.

I will judge anyone who votes for Wyll as I just met him in game and the first thing he does is call a goblin a roach.
Speaking of which, do I have to kill goblins? Is there away around it? I don't like hurting goblins.
- SPOILERS, i suppose.
  I actually tried befriending the goblins, but in this game they genuinely make them truly evil and despicable in every way. It honestly sticks out like a sore thumb. Burning down what is basically a church to the god of Hosting (one of the more primeval sins), eating people, bullying, slavery, lying, cheating, etc..
  It's honestly kind of weird because even Devils have some nuance in these games and there was some attempt to make goblins just genetically predisposed towards sadism and evil.
- you can ally with the goblin camp, thats what i did. if you go to the jail in the tiefling camp you can find a goblin in a cage who will take you back to the camp and let you join them (and then you can do the 'evil' run, which is great fun (AND you get minthara my beloved))
- You could just leave IIRC. You’re probably gonna get into combat with goblins, but you can also toggle to non-lethal attacks.
  
  This is embarrassing but... how do I do that?

Many of the characters have serious flaws that made me dislike them to some degree when we first met, but as you get to know them and progress through the story, they grow on you or they grow into better people (assuming a relatively good playthrough), so I ended up liking all of them to some degree by the end.
Some of the most controversial/off-putting ones have the best character arcs such as Laezel and Astarion (ok, I always loved him despite his evil quirks).
The one I liked least was probably Wyll and I have to say, despite really hating his holier than thou attitude in the beginning, by the end I only avoided bringing him along because I never learned to build warlocks in a way that felt engaging to play.
I didn't hate anyone by the end, but I also tend to favor deeply flawed characters who grow into better people in all stories. They are just more interesting and realistic.
- The only thing that saves Wyll is that his romance line is the most adorable tenderqueer shit imaginable, marred only by his incredible vanillaness.

Not super surprising a lot of people like muscle mommy.
- People keep calling Karlach that, I read her as more of a brash young lesbian with a traumatic past that really needs supportive friends and a hug.
  Now Jaehira, that's a muscle mommy.
- I'm more surprised that people here Like Lae'zel so much. I've only just started playing but she gives massive fash vibes
  
  fash in real life: horrid, evil, get the wall
  
  evil women in fiction, when they're being evil about fantasy nonsense that doesn't hurt anyone:
  
  (also i think you can help her out of her fash bullshit? idk i did the evil route and made her worse lmao because it amuses me, but i'm pretty sure you can help all of the companions become better people)
  
  Yeah I've only had a couple false starts and gotten partway through the first act and immediately sidelined her once I had someone to replace her.