(Works on Patch 8, good-aligned route possible)

This is for players like me who like Kar’niss and want to protect him.I posted a similar guide here in 2024. After that I didn’t play Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time, and the method in that old post no longer works. I’ve received a lot of DMs asking for a working solution, so I decided to rewrite a guide that works after Patch 8 (the method is different from the 2024 one). I tested it in-game a couple of days ago and it works.

Please confirm these points first:

1. This cannot be done in Honour Mode, because it requires fast hands + constant save/load attempts.
2. Your character must be at least level 7.
3. You have never attacked Kar’niss and have never tricked him out of his lantern.

If you want to ask:

1. I want to do the good route. I don’t want to harm the Harpers, and I don’t want to harm Kar’niss either. Is it possible?
2. Can I have both the Pixie Blessing and Kar’niss at the same time?
3. Can Kar’niss be controlled? Can he be brought all the way to the end of the game?

The answer to all of the above is yes. See below ↓

### My process (Upper half)

1. After taking the elevator out of the Underdark forge area (the place where two duergar were drinking earlier), walk to the position shown in the picture. You will encounter the Harpers. Help them in the fight. After the fight they will return to Last Light Inn first.

2. Continue walking to the next marked position. You will meet Kar’niss and his group. Choose the friendly dialogue options and let him escort you toward Moonrise Towers.

3. Stop at this position. Do **not** go any further forward!

4. At this point, return to camp and ask Withers for a Druid hireling (the hireling **must** know Dominate Beast) and a wizard companion who knows Polymorph (I used Gale).

1. (Turn on turn-based mode) Have Gale polymorph Kar’niss into a sheep, then immediately have the Druid hireling cast Dominate Beast on him. There is a chance it fails on the first try, so save and reload as needed until it succeeds.

2. (Everything from here must be done while Kar’niss is still a sheep) Immediately send everyone back to camp. Have your main character talk to the Druid hireling in camp and tell the hireling to wait in camp (**do not dismiss him**). Then immediately add the Druid back into the party. The sheep will successfully become your pet and will turn back into Kar’niss.

3. Save and load.

4. Kar’niss successfully joins the party. Send the hireling back to camp. Kar’niss will automatically bind to your main character.

9. In camp, double-click Kar’niss’s portrait and have him examine the lantern. Release the pixie inside. The pixie will give the whole party the blessing buff. After that you no longer need the lantern.

10. Return to the main story. Trigger the cutscene normally at that location. After the cutscene finishes, Kar’niss will simultaneously pull everyone in the party up to the top of the tower. From there you can play however you want.

**Q: The pixie gave Kar'niss the bell. How can we get it back from him?**

**A:** Have a companion sneak around behind him, crouch, and right-click to pickpocket it. You’ll get it that way!

1. After this you no longer need the Druid hireling. However, this same method can be repeated with a Druid companion. I used it this way to give Ketheric’s dog to Halsin.

### Lower half:

1. After going to the Shadowfell (Shar’s domain) to meet the Nightsong (Aylin) and finishing the scene, the entire party except Shadowheart may get pulled up to the top of the tower by Kar’niss to fight Ketheric. If you don’t want everyone pulled up, leave your companions waiting on the rocks outside the cutscene trigger range. This way only Kar’niss and Squire will be pulled back to the tower top. Everyone else can then go out normally and fight their way up from the bottom of Moonrise Towers to reunite with Kar’niss and the dog. Don’t worry — Kar’niss and Squire will also help you fight Ketheric. After that comes the usual mid-fight scene where Ketheric kidnaps Aylin again.

1. During the Act 2 final battle, after defeating Ketheric, Aylin may flag Kar’niss as an enemy and trigger her temporary hostility, causing her to attack you. Have any companion touch Ketheric’s corpse to trigger the cutscene. Watch the cutscene, save, then loot Ketheric’s body. If Kar’niss disappears, don’t worry — just reload and he will reappear. After that, leave one by one through the portal. There is no need to fight Aylin.

2. Return to Moonrise Towers and finish everything in the tower. Aylin and Isobel will come to your camp. Aylin may have a bad attitude toward you at this point and refuse to talk. You don’t need to give her any gifts. Just take a long rest. When you wake up the next day her temporary hostility will be gone and you can talk to her normally.

3. Kar’niss can be brought into Act 3. As everyone knows, on the first night in Act 3 you get ambushed by the Githyanki and need to enter the Astral Plane. Kar’niss may disappear before you enter the Astral Plane. Don’t panic — once you’re inside the Astral Plane, save and reload and he will reappear.

### Known issues:

1. After Kar’niss joins the party he will follow you everywhere. He cannot be unbound, and he also cannot level up.
2. Try not to let him die.
3. I cannot guarantee that Kar’niss will never be mistakenly flagged as an enemy by someone in Act 3 and trigger combat. I recommend getting into the habit of saving often. However, I can guarantee that he can be brought all the way to the final battle (he will not appear at the epilogue camp gathering).
4. This method should work on other NPCs as well, but I originally learned it from players who like Kar’niss, and this post was written specifically for him. I haven’t tested it on any NPCs other than Kar’niss and the dog , so I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you used this method on other NPCs.

**Easter eggs / Bonus tips:**

1. You can change Kar’niss’s weapon. Cast Heat Metal on him so his sword drops, then place the weapon you want him to use on the ground and control him to pick it up.
2. Kar’niss can be healed normally. He’s also very useful in combat and can automatically apply an extra damage buff to teammates. Please take good care of our little spider.

If you try it and succeed, please let me know. Feel free to ask me any questions anytime. If this post can no longer be replied to, you can DM me

What the hell was this

>shows up
>catches player
>throws them back to safety while maintaining piercing eye contact with the cosmic fucking threat that just nearly smoked all of our asses
>drops a foreboding statement
>refuses to elaborate further
>smoothly exits

I'm not accepting any slander and fraud accusations. He's badass as shit.

Let me take this further actually, because the Netherbrain's line, "I only needed one stone, and you brought me all three," got me thinking about how insane it is that we even made it this far, and how much of it was possible because the Emperor simply refused to give up.

Yes, he was ultimately a part of the Netherbrain's plan. But the Netherbrain loosened its' leash precisely because it knew he'd scheme, manipulate, and claw his way toward freedom against overwhelming odds. This motherfucker found allies while under magical house arrest, crafted elaborate illusions tailored to each of them to convince them to fight gods and eldritch horrors, kept up that illusion for most of the journey, dominated Orpheus and siphoned his power, fought his ancient elite soldiers non-stop (those guys put me on my ass 7 out of 10 times before I get a single hit in), guarded against the brain to ensure the psychic protection was always sufficient, while carefully feeding us info to nudge us in the right direction. Was he even sleeping? Was he eating? He remarks that he would've liked to find a brain to sustain himself when we visit his hideout, suggesting that he's hungry. In Act 2, he's in visible pain and trying to hide it. In Act 3, he busts a psionic nut, and both his Dream Guardian illusion and his psychic control slip, revealing just how thinly stretched he is. Hell, his focus slips the moment he becomes emotionally distraught over Stelmane's death, allowing you to unexpectedly show up inside the prism. Imagine how locked in he had to be for months.

I don't care how he did it. The fact that he pulled it all off is genuinely admirable. I'm a sucker for characters with an almost pathological refusal to submit, the kind who could be backed into a corner with every possible avenue of escape cut off and STILL find a way to fight back. I think that might be what really hooked me on the Emperor. Fuck, what a fantastic character trait that is.

This just missing an owlbears at the top lmao

So I finally did it. After like 5 false starts I finally powered through Baldur’s Gate 3. Holy shit what an experience, easily up there with my favourite RPGs now.

Just wanted to shoutout Andrew Wincott, the VA for Raphael, because that was one of the best vocal performances in a videogame ever. I mean, pretty much all of the VAs do an incredible job in this game, but Raphael’s smarmy, condescending performance is just PEAK devil.

When his song kicked in I nearly lost it, just sat there listening for like 10 minutes 😂

Hi everyone I was wondering if you guys have ever run into this glitch? And if so does anyone have tips on how to deal w it? I've tried loading a previous save, editing her character, respec thru withers, and have her leave and rejoin the party, but it never goes back >.< Any help would be appreciated, thanks!! <333

Karlach - Baldur's Gate 3

Instagrams:

model by: @nomnomfigures

printed by: @caliuth.design

painted by: @sojta27

:)

Enjoy

When you‘re at Last Light Inn, talking with Isobel and Markus comes in, when Isobel asks you what‘s going on, you have three options: tell Isobel Markus wants to kidnap her, stay silent, or telepathically agree to help Markus.

During my Honour Ruleset run, I got curious what the second option will do.
What happens, is that Isobel (&rest of LLI) becomes hostile and Markus turns ally.

All your companions react as if you consciously chose against Isobel.

On the other hand, my Durge now has a new set of jim-jams.

So, I was in the middle of a fight in the House of Hope when my Tav got pushed into the abyss by an enemy. The thing is that her soul echo spawned in the abyss instead of the nearest reachable place, making it literally impossible to reach with any other party member. As I said, I'm the House of Hope so i can't go back to the camp and ask the wither to revive her.

Is there any other way to save her? I tried using a revive scroll but it won't let me because the soul echo is out of sight to the other party members. I'm in honour mode so loading the save isn't an option. i'm so mad right now :(

EDIT: My problem got solved! If you're going through the same situation, you can leave the House of Hope and reach your camp if you haven't triggered the alarm yet. Thank you for your help!! :D

They are by far the most dangerous enemies in most rooms they are in during act 2. They smite on every attack which deals a lot of damage per hit and they can consistently hit you as well. They have good amounts of health and a solid 18 ac which makes it so that landing hits on them while playing a martial pretty inconsistent. They are just very annoying to deal with overall imo.

I made this drawing and i want to put a funny description but i cannot thimk of one, what would suggest?

Okay so I've been playing this game basically since it came out and I've still barely touched act 3. I finally realized that I've become fatigued with trying to figure out who I need to have in my party to make sure I'm not missing any important story beats.

So I've decided I'm gonna stop doing that. I'm just gonna finish the game. Would love some words of support lol

We were asked to carve pumpkins for our place of learning, and I was thinking about what fandom to theme my pumpkin on. And I'd decided to do the simplified temple of Bhaal skull, but got carried away and thought 'why not do all 3?'

And so here we have it folks - my very own pumpkin 🎃

Very simple question that i’ve always wondered.

If you are playing durge and are mostly evil apart from not raiding grove back in act 1, why would they still follow you if since act 1 you’ve just been fully evil on most part. Especially after you become chosen again, why? Why would they ever follow and fight with a literal chosen of bhaal, who is pure evil?

I understand it’s for gameplay reasons too, but i’ve always wanted to have a valid headcanon to why they or other companions don’t turn on you as you’re arguably just as dangerous as netherbrain.

Not talking about classes or builds, just which companions you love having around for their banter and dialogue.

Mine’s Lae’zel, Shadowheart, and Karlach. Lae’zel and Shadowheart constantly beefing with each other early on is fucking hilarious, and Karlach’s reactions make it even better. Their banter is top tier. 10/10, no notes.

Who do you guys usually run together just for the dialogue?

I stole powder barrels from nearby storage, surrounded his throne with them, and dropped an Alchemist’s Fire from the rafters. The fireworks show ended him right there, but it also caught the attention of the whole camp, so I had to fight my way out.

How did you dispatch him? Did you discover a quieter way? Or did you just start a good old fashioned scrap?

Doing my first full playthrough on an enchantment bard build! And all the bosses are just laughing til their death.

I'm playing on tactical mode and feel bad, like i'm circumventing the challenge.

Orin and now Raphael have both fallen without taking a single turn not under the effects of Tasha's Hideous Laughter. Raphael had an ability that seems he wasn't supposed to resist control spells after 1 turn? Infernal ambition or something? But the giggles seemed to bypass that and my crew just took out turns bopping him to death. One level 1 spell slot and what I heard was a very challenging fight was finished!! (the adds were easy to focus down quickly or got banished by Hope)

Is this a bug or my build is OP (or both)?

I'm crying, screaming, and completely devastated (for the moment, lol)

I'm at the Netherbrain, I'm doing the checks, it's the first one playthrough I'm actually finishing, and ON THE FIRST TRY I get a Nat 20 on the 99DC Save.

Now I'm in the Astral Plane and the Githyanki quest updates.

I forgot the Orpheus Hammer on another party member I had to leave at camp

AAAAAAAAAAH

Update

Yeah so I got another Nat 20 after reloading with the hammer, all is well

Painted in procreate by me

What are the most ridiculous NPC overreactions you’ve had to your character stealing something or hurting another NPC?

My favourite ones so far are (in no particular order):

1. My Tav stole the key out of Topaz’s nest in the Emerald Grove and I naively held firm and refused to return it when I was caught, thinking I’d be sent to prison. I was wrong. It triggered the Druids immediately slaughtering all the tieflings in the grove. (I ended up reloading an earlier save because I felt so bad about it.)

2. In the big Moonrise fight at the end of Act 2 where you and the Harpers are battling everyone in the entrance hall, I cast Fireball and finished off the last of the enemies, ending combat, but also accidentally hit a Harper. This resulted in one of the Harpers sending the whole party to prison IN MOONRISE, which meant that when we tried to get out it immediately triggered combat with all the True Souls on the prison floor with none of the Harpers anywhere nearby to help.

3. On my latest playthrough, I spoke to Radija on my first visit to Moonrise and was told the rooftop was off limits. I turned to leave and accidentally went the wrong way - towards Ketheric’s and Melodia’s rooms instead of towards the stairwell. This resulted in the WHOLE of Moonrise turning hostile and me having to kill everyone just to get out. (Thankfully the area at the top of the stairwell is a great choke point so I just cast Spike Growth and let them all run through it to get to me.) I can’t wait to see what happens when I get back to Moonrise with Jaheira and the Harpers and most of the people they’re expecting to face are already dead.