Baldur’s Gate 3 Players Think They’ve Found Evidence of an Unused Companion Character

Some Baldur’s Gate 3 players who have been augmenting their game using mods have been raising suspicion that beloved NPC tiefling bard Alfira may have been planned for a much larger role at some point during development. While Baldur’s Gate 3 players have fallen in love with the likes of Astarion, Karlach, Shadowheart, and other great companions, it seems like there could have been more fine folks joining in on the journey.

While she’s not a member of the playable roster of heroes, Alfira is a difficult character to miss in Baldur’s Gate 3. Any bard in training who wants to learn how to play an instrument will have to help her compose a song in remembrance of her late mentor. On a less heartwarming side of the game’s lore, most Dark Urge players who’ve woken up with blood on their hands are likely to be familiar with this character, as they may have had a brutal run-in with her.

As shared on Eurogamer, the potential that Alfira possessed for being a party member has been brought up by players working their way through the game’s third and final act while also using a certain mod that is designed to provide more information on speech interactions, including which companions will react when you choose a specific dialogue option. With the OIO – Overexplained Interaction Options mod active, Alfira’s name gets dropped in a few places that it wouldn’t normally have appeared in the vanilla game, alongside the names of other companions.

Alfira May Have Been Planned as a BG3 Companion

According to some players who have used the Overexplained Interaction Options mod, who have posted their findings on Reddit, the mod informs the player of which companions will approve or disapprove of the choices they make during dialogue options, essentially making it a form of datamining that gives the player a little extra hint as to just what to say to get the best reactions out of their companions. As a result of the recent findings, some longtime players are claiming that the option to have Alfira potentially react to scenes for which she can’t possibly be present has been around since the game’s exit from early access back in September 2023, which is usually an indication of content that was left on the cutting room floor during development.

Still, there seems to be a lot of excitement and hope from the player community that developers may, at some point, see fit to add Alfira as a full-fledged companion, adding a built-in bard option to the current cast of characters. Still, this seems a little unlikely considering her current status as a highly potential victim of The Dark Urge (although Withers has the power to revive dead characters). But even with Larian Studios moving on from the Baldur’s Gate series, the news that Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are picking up the torch could mean we haven’t seen the last of Alfira.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Dungeons and Dragons inspired RPG developed and published by Larian Studios. Featuring both a single player and cooperative element, players create their character by selecting a starting class, take on quests, level up, and engage in turn-based combat using the D&D 5th edition rule set.

Released

August 3, 2023

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

Number of Players

1-4

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players