Summary

  • A mod revealed that Alfira may have been a recruitable character at some point in Baldur's Gate 3's development.
  • Alfira is a bard, and the game doesn't have a single recruitable bard. It does have two druids, for some reason. We do not need two druids.
  • Playing as a bard sucks, but I would've liked to have one around just for jokes and giggles. I wish we'd had the option, at least.

I’m not one for modding my games, but I know the Baldur’s Gate 3 modding community has created as many useful mods as it has funny ones. I generally believe a game should be played the way it’s intended the first time round – you can’t really judge something if you’re changing it from the get go – but mods like Overexplained Interaction Options for Baldur’s Gate 3 can be very useful for players with specific goals.

The mod helps players see which companions will approve or disapprove of specific dialogue options, which is particularly helpful if you’re trying to max out a specific companion’s opinion of you, or get somebody so mad at you that they leave altogether. Interestingly, in the game’s third act, there are a few stray references to Alfira, a popular NPC, approving or disapproving of certain things you could say. This isn’t certain by any means, but it suggests that Alfira may have been recruitable at some point, and she may have come along on your journey with you or joined you in the last act.

Players can first meet Alfira in the first act, as she sits in the druids’ Emerald Grove, struggling to write a song to commemorate her mentor Lihala. Alfira and Lihala were exiled from Elturel, and along the way to the grove where they seeked refuge, Lihala was killed. Alfira is immediately compelling – with lavender skin and pink hair, she stands out from the other tieflings, and the first thing we see her do is sing sweetly, surrounded by small animals like some kind of Disney princess.

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You can see her periodically throughout the rest of the game – she shows up in the Last Light Inn in the second act and on the roof of the Elfsong Tavern in the third. I was immediately fond of her, and it felt like I was supposed to be, since her character design seemed so different from those around her and because she had so much detail that the other tieflings seemed to lack.

But I don’t want her as a companion because she has sick hair and can write some decent bars. I want her as a companion because Baldur’s Gate 3 sorely lacks a bard. Sure, you can play as a bard yourself, but as my colleague James Troughton found out the hard way, being a bard in the game kind of sucks. Bards are very fun in actual D&D, generally acting as the personality hires of the party, but they’re a little useless in this specific game. Alfira would have been a welcome addition to the party, considering there aren’t many other major bards in the game. Maybe she could have taken the place of one of the two druids you can recruit.

You can have a lot of fun respeccing every companion into a Bard to hear their bespoke Vicious Mockery lines.

I’m sure that Larian nixed the idea for a reason, and the result was a better overall product. Lots of things have been found in datamined files – Alfira isn’t even the only potential bard companion that got cut – and it doesn’t help anybody to get attached to what could have been. But, you know. A bard companion would still have been cool. I’m allowed to be a little salty about it.

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Baldur's Gate 3

RPG Systems 5.0/5 25 9.4/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 96/100 Critics Rec: 98% Released August 3, 2023 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Larian Studios Publisher(s) Larian Studios Engine Divinity 4.0
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Baldur's Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.

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