Baldur’s Gate 3 would not be Baldur’s Gate 3 if it only included one-dimensional “good” or “bad” characters. Still, there are certain characters that players joyfully embrace, but also some that the community simply finds annoying due to their nature. However, one of these characters seems to be quite a lovable hero behind his facade.
Which character is being talked about? It’s about the tiefling Rolan, an aspiring wizard, whom you first meet in the Druid Grove in Act 1. There, he argues with the other tieflings Lia and Cal about whether they should stay in the grove to help the refugees or flee instead.
From this situation (and others that appear throughout the game), you get to know Rolan as a rather headstrong and arrogant man who focuses more on himself and his personal training in Baldur’s Gate rather than on anyone else. Only Lia, Cal, and himself seem to be the most important to him.
For this reason, Rolan is labeled by the community as a selfish or annoying side character who prefers to complain rather than be helpful. However, under a Reddit post, some players reported that they were able to discover the opposite.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Players discover the true motives behind the facade
What do players say about Rolan? While Rolan initially comes off as an unsympathetic wizard without real talent, who constantly needs to be rescued and supported by players, some players on Reddit have more to say about him:
- “He expects a lot from himself. He wants his family to be proud of him. Overcompensation may look very much like arrogance, but in Act 2, you realize that his self-worth depends on how valuable he can be to others. When he can’t save the other tieflings alone, he’s way too hard on himself,” writes accursed_JAK.
But there are more opinions about his magic talent as well:
- “Rolan receives a lot of shit from players. But he’s actually a solid wizard,” writes SarcasticKenobi with the most upvotes under the original post, “His variations of common spells are better than our versions; he can cast Mage Armor on real armor instead of just robes. Also, he leaves a ton of corpses on the way to the Towers of the Rising Moon. (…) He just ran out of spell slots because of the number of enemies and needed our help.”
- AdParking3521 replies: “Yes, when you meet him in Act 1, you assume he’s just an arrogant show-off, but no. So many people survive in Act 1 because he’s there. Not that he’s particularly happy about it.”
This assumption is confirmed by the original post under which this conversation takes place. It shows what happens when Rolan is not persuaded to stay by the side of the refugees.
Why shouldn’t you miss Rolan in Act 1? The author of the Reddit post (Danofold) reports that he forgot to talk to Rolan in Act 1 and thus couldn’t convince him to help the refugees. As a result, a total of 6 other tieflings were never able to reach the next safe spot of the group. This includes Rolan himself, the tiefling woman Bex, and 4 children.
Another conclusion from this is that a lot of story content can be lost this way, which we don’t want to fully spoil here. Therefore, whoever wants to get the most out of their gameplay and the story of recurring characters should definitely talk to Rolan as soon as they see him for the first time in Act 1.
In the world of Baldur’s Gate 3, there is much that seems different at first glance than it actually is. This includes not only characters but also items, places, and other hidden secrets. One of these facades has been not just ignored by many players but never discovered at all: You can only see the true form of an enemy in Baldur’s Gate 3 when you fight it – and many of you probably missed it
