Baldur’s Gate 3 actor reveals one major Karlach ending is worse than you thought as there’s “not much Karlach left” by the end of it 

Baldur’s Gate 3 is now a year old, so it’s pretty okay to start talking about the game’s endings. While Larian Studios added an extra ending to the game after launch for the fans, one of the other BG3 endings isn’t as happy as players believe. 

Specifically, and spoilers now, Baldur’s Gate 3’s Mind Flayer Karlach ending is as horrible as it sounds. The stunning, fiery Tiefling character had a pretty rough pick of endings on launch with her returning to Avernus, allow her to die after fighting the Netherbrain or allowing the Mind Flayer tadpole to take over. 

Karlach’s Mind Flayer ending is actually pretty awful

For many, this ending seemed like the obvious choice as Karlach expresses that returning to Avernus is a fate worse than death. Although, at least now she can return alongside the player and Wyll as one hell of a team.

As it turns out, Karlach’s Illithid transformation is as horrible as it sounds. While many have noted that the character still feels similar to the party member we’ve grown to love, something is off, and it turns out that not much of the original Karlach is left. 

In an interview with PCGamer, Karlach actor Samantha Béart explained that Larian and the performer worked to make sure players knew that Karlach is mostly gone after picking this ending. While what’s left may look and sound like the Tiefling, and somewhat act like them, they’re definitely not them. 

“If you choose to go down the Mind Flayer Karlach [route], we talked a lot about what that meant and how much Karlach is left.” Béart said. “Not very much. This is now an impersonator playing Karlach.”

Béart explained that the stifled movements of the once over-acted Tiefling are purposely changed to be more like an interpretation of what we’ve seen the character do over dozens of hours. It’s a haunting copycat of the character and, yes, it’s not a good ending. So what’s the best ending? Turning off the game and crying, probably. 

Unfortunately, Karlach doesn’t really have a good ending in Baldur’s Gate 3. Every ending is bittersweet or downright horrible, and those kinds of heartbreaking choices are unfortunately what makes a really great RPG. 

For more Larian coverage, read about how the studio is working on two new games! What? Two games, Larian. That’s insane. At least they have a brand new storytelling department to support them in their quest to make two entire RPGs.

Additionally, read our interview with Owlcat Games producer Anatoly Shestov who believes you need to be crazy to make a game on the scale of Baldur’s Gate 3. He also wants to make an SCP CRPG with an actual budget which sounds actually kinda awesome!