Characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 each have their own strengths and weaknesses, setting them apart and making them experts in their own field. However, the allocation of a specific attribute can be incomprehensible to some players, especially when they take a close look at the bodies of the companions, whom some seem to really want to showcase.
What are players criticizing? A meme sparked a discussion about why the strongest male companion, the muscular elf and druid Halsin, has less strength than the weakest female companion, Shadowheart.
In fact, Shadowheart has a base strength of 13, which is higher than Halsin’s – and this, despite the fact that he looks like he could muster the strength of multiple Shadowhearts.
Over 3,000 players agree with the post author (abfetrealb on Reddit) that Halsin at least looks like he should have more strength. However, his wisdom is his highest attribute, which has less effect on a character’s appearance. Players overlook that the developers of the game do not arbitrarily create muscular characters with low weaknesses, but that the attribute value distribution, as “wrong” as it may seem, is actually well thought out.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Illogical distribution is fairer than it seems
What justifies Halsin’s values compared to his appearance? Halsin does not always possess “only” a neutral strength value of 10. When you can recruit him and first encounter him, he is a level 5 druid and has a strength of 16 outside of his bear form, making him nearly as strong as the strong Karlach at level 3.
However, if he survives to the second act of the game and you want to recruit him, you start with Halsin at level 1, where he finally possesses the said strength value of 10 – the standard for his class. This is how the game prevents later-recruited companions from being significantly more powerful than those at the beginning. The same happens with characters like Minthara, Jaheira, and Minsc, which Odd_Ingenuity2883 points out on Reddit.
Whether to assign him a powerful strength value for the sake of immersion through your own leveling up is questionable, as his druid spells relate to his wisdom. And those who want to experience Halsin in close combat to utilize his strength should do so more in his animal form, in which the attribute values (except for intelligence, wisdom, and charisma) adjust to the values of the animals.
Why does Shadowheart have a strength value of 13? It makes sense that the other two female companions, Karlach (Barbarian with 17 strength) and Lae’zel (Fighter with strength 17), possess a correspondingly high strength value due to their class. But why does the cleric Shadowheart, as the weakest female character, still have a higher strength than all the men on the team?
Player Kuraetor is also asking this on Reddit: “She is a cleric of the Trickery domain! They don’t even wear heavy armor and have no weapon-related abilities! She needs wisdom, dexterity, and constitution!”
AISi10Mg_Enjoyer has a possible explanation for this: “She has the strength so that she isn’t completely useless when a player tries to attack with her mace at the beginning of the game” (Reddit), as this should prevent inexperienced players from becoming frustrated right away.
BaboonSlayer121 shares a comment related to the topic that he finds fitting: “Someone once described the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3 as a group of strong women and slippery men, and that hasn’t left my mind since” (Reddit).
Baldur’s Gate 3 does not force players to use a character’s starting attribute values and offers them, through Withers, the option to assign completely different classes with corresponding values. However, characters will not become more muscular or slim with increasing or decreasing strength values. So Halsin can also remain strong built as a primarily wise character.
If you want to know how to play Halsin best, you can find the appropriate build for the druid here on MeinMMO: Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Druid Build for Halsin – Which subclass, talents, spells, and attributes should one choose?
