Baldur’s Gate 3 incorporates its potential companions in a way that allows players to meet and recruit them one by one during the natural course of gameplay. Unfortunately, this did not work so well for one character whom a player literally regarded as a joke character.
What happened in the game? The player and Reddit user Iwasdracula reports in a post in the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit that he accidentally thought the warlock Wyll was a joke. And not just in a figurative sense, but literally for a scripted event in the game’s storyline.
You first meet Wyll in a scene before the druid grove, which you must defend from attacking goblins. He has his own intro there, complete with a nearly cliché voiceline and a heroic pose.
In the player’s case, Wyll subsequently dies just moments later in the first round of battle. The player finds this so pathetic that he considers the situation an intended joke in which Wyll dies merely as a means to an end. He does not revive him, leaves him behind, and only later realizes that he missed Wyll’s entire story due to the misunderstanding.
Here you can see the animated short film for Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3, in which Wyll is alive:
“Provoke the blade and miss out on his entire storyline”
How does the community react to this? Iwasdracula’s Reddit post received over 9,000 upvotes and was commented on by many other players regarding the funny situation and Larian’s attempt to draw more attention to Wyll.
Demonfire737 comments that this scene with Wyll’s intro was specifically added to the game because many people simply overlooked him in the druid grove. Saelora writes that she somehow managed to miss him despite the scene.
TheIllogicalSandwich writes that in the early access of the game it was even more common for Wyll to die during his intro. He would jump from his position, which could lead to him dying from fall damage even without his scene. This made Wyll even easier to overlook, and players could not realize the relevance he has for the further course of the game, as demonfire737 explains.
What is the problem with Wyll? The addition of a scene for Wyll’s intro is just one of many changes that Wyll has undergone since early access. Due to all these changes, many of his character traits and storylines have been shortened, making Wyll seem “boring” compared to the other characters.
As a result of the reduced development time, Wyll feels like a generic, too nice “Disney prince” to many players, which for one player was exactly what she needed in real life.
The player has at least become aware that Wyll is not just an NPC for a funny moment. Wyll is not a joke character but a character whose story, despite his always heroic views, is also filled with complications. If you really want to read something about joke characters from Baldur’s Gate 3, you can read more about this here: The official figures from Baldur’s Gate 3 were so ugly that those affected received their money back and are allowed to keep them
