Baldur's Gate 3 player mistakes a companion for a joke character after an unlucky first battle

There are so many ways any individual Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough can turn out. This is what makes the game so replayable even a few years after its release. Even if you try to replicate the same choices, there’s no telling what will happen. It’s easy to miss unique events such as this weirdly powerful sheep companion, or this fascinating scene with Minthara that only has a 1 out of 100 chance in happening. This is especially true on your first time playing when you have no expectations. A player shared a story to the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit about how they mistook one of the main companions as a joke character thanks to a few unlucky rolls in their first battle.

Baldur’s Gate 3 player mistakes Wyll as a joke character after he dies in the first battle

The Baldur’s Gate 3 companions are all varying levels of iconic. Some of the most memorable moments from the opening hours of the game are meeting the various characters like Gale, Astarion, and Karlach. The moral dilemma and feud between Wyll and Karlach serves as a great introduction to player choices and consequences. Wyll might have the most action-forward arrival to the story, jumping down a cliff to take out a few goblins as they attack the gate of the Grove. But how is anyone to know the significance of this character if things don’t go according to plan?

User Iwasdracula on Reddit shared the story of their first time playing Baldur’s Gate 3, explaining that Wyll had a “cool” intro, but that was quickly followed by him getting killed by goblins in the first turn of combat. Their reaction to this circumstance was “…oh that was a funny scripted event…” The dichotomy of such a great intro, paired with immediate comeuppance was too ironic not to see as a joke. The player moved on after the fight, never revived Wyll, and “missed out on his entire story.”

On one hand, it’s a shame that this player missed out on an interesting story. But on the other hand, it’s so rare to find a game that can still manage to have such unique stories to each player. Even with how popular this game is online, the fact that a player could miss out on a main character is awesome.

Other players shared some insights in the comments, with one player pointing out that while Baldur’s Gate 3 was still in Early Access, Wyll dying in this fight was much more common “because he literally JUMPS AND TAKES FALL DAMAGE since it wasn’t a cutscene back then.” Apparently, many other players missed recruiting Wyll even with the introductory cutscene and him surviving the fight. This might just have to do with the way the conversations play out after this fight. There’s a whole back and forth with the people of the grove before the players are able to enter and talk to other residents.

Some users also wondered how this is possible, how Wyll could actually be killed in the first turn of combat. While not likely, a few unlucky rolls from the goblins, such as a critical hit or some high damage rolls, would easily do the trick. This definitely is a rare occurrence, but with thousands of people playing Baldur’s Gate 3 every day across multiple platforms, it’s a large enough pool of outcomes to have this happen a few times to a few unlucky Wylls.

One user, hilariously points out: “Bro he’s on the game art,” pointing out that Wyll is heavily featured in the game’s key artwork. But, I would argue it’s easy to miss the significance of the key art while playing the game, and by the time the player sees it again, they may not even have a clear memory of the character to connect it to the key art. However, this is still a great point.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has so many variations in how the story plays out, it almost begs the player to have multiple playthroughs. Especially playing for the first time without knowing what to expect, there are bound to be so many encounters missed. In my first time playing I nearly made it all the way through act one without ever finding Astarion, just by not walking through the right areas. Many other video games condition us to be stuck to a much more linear experience, so when we finally experience something so unimaginably open-ended, it’s easy to see why a player could interpret an encounter like this.

Baldur's Gate 3

August 3, 2023

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