Early Access Baldur's Gate 3 Will Only Have 5 Companions

Following the Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay live stream at PAX East, a barrage of news about the upcoming title has hit the Internet. Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke spoke openly, on stream and to various publications, about the Early Access release of Baldur’s Gate 3 and about how companions will work in the game

“The reason we’re selling it through Early Access is we have this many permutations, this many systems that are all working together,” Larian’s CEO Swen Vincke told VG247 during the PAX East livestream. “So it’s going to take us some time to get everything to a state where we can say ‘okay, now it’s robust and it works in every single fashion.'”

While more companions are set to be released at a later date, the five available with Early Access are as follows:

• Half-elf Cleric “Shadowheart”
• Githyanki Fighter “Lae’zel”
• Elven vampire spawn/Rogue “Astarion”
• Human Wizard “Gale”
• Human Warlock “Wyll”

Origin characters are locked to both race and class, but your own custom character can have all kinds of combinations. Each companion will have a special origin story and prebuilt background written into the game. It’s not clear how much of this will be apparent in Early Access as only the first act will be playable.

The Early Access version will only feature the first act and five companions; the eventual final release version will feature more, although the number has not been announced.

Baldur’s Gate III will release in Early Access on PC and Google Stadia, and would likely not run on PS4 and Xbox One. Hopefully we will hear more about these features closer to release, in the meantime we will be pouring over every bit of footage we have.