10 companions in Baldur's Gate 3 are some of the best things about the game; they're all wonderful, fleshed-out characters with their own goals, skills, and quests. Some of them will stick around and develop with the player character, while others are strictly temporary and leave after a quest is completed. No matter how much their usefulness may vary, it's undeniable that every single companion brings something unique to Baldur's Gate 3.
There's also a robust multiplayer mode in Baldur's Gate 3. Players can invite friends or strangers into their parties, which can effectively turn the game into a long-term Dungeons & Dragons campaign in which no one has to go through the arduous hurdles of being the DM. Experiencing the story with friends can be truly rewarding - it's always fascinating to compare and contrast story choices, and see how different approaches affect everyone's experience. Plus, going into the game with a familiar party can be very helpful in combat - friends' characters can help compensate for each other's weaknesses, or come to each other's aid on the battlefield. Still, in conjunction with the game's party member limits, there are drawbacks.
There's No Way To Increase Party Limits In Vanilla Baldur's Gate 3
In the base game, Baldur's Gate 3 parties are always capped at four , including any player characters - but Nexus Mods Sildur can help change that. The mod, called Party Limit Begone, does just what it says on the tin: it increases the party member cap from four to sixteen, and allows up to eight players to at once, creating parties four times as large as in the vanilla version of Baldur's Gate 3.
This can help mitigate the many annoyances of the default party cap. There are no guest characters - a term used to refer to additional, contextual, often uncontrollable party in other RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest - in Baldur's Gate 3. That means that in order to accommodate an additional character unique to a particular quest, players can only pick two other companions besides themselves. Not so with the Party Limits Begone mod - there'll still be fourteen slots open.
There are some known issues with party expansion in Baldur's Gate 3, however. The party will need to be trimmed down to four in order to make long and short rests work properly. At a certain point in the game, the characters must build a boat in the Underdark to sail to the Grymforge; that boat can only hold four at a time. There's also no telling what having sixteen fully rendered, animated characters on screen will do to the game's performance. This may also damage the difficulty of Baldur's Gate 3, which is balanced for parties of four characters maximum. Of course if it becomes too easy, that can be diminished by cranking up the difficulty level.
Mods Can Fix The Most Annoying Multiplayer Feature In Baldur's Gate 3
One of the biggest annoyances with Baldur's Gate 3 is that any multiplayer companions who the party are permanent - they can't be removed. These characters have no voice lines, story, or personality - in other words, they're boring. This is a major problem for anyone who plays one session with a stranger, never to see them again, or who starts a campaign with friends but then decides to fly solo. Thankfully, with the Party Limit Begone mod, that's a thing of the past. The other characters will still be stuck in the party, but NPC companions can also . There's no chance of missing out on a companion quest because other players' characters are taking up all the slots.
Animal Companions & Familiars Technically Increse Party Size In Baldur's Gate 3
It's not quite the same, but there are ways to obtain non-humanoid companions to expand the party in Baldur's Gate 3. That all depends on character builds, though. At level three, rangers can choose a subclass. One of them, Beast Master, can summon any one of five Ranger's Companions at a time: Lupus the wolf, Verres the boar, Aranea the giant spider, Corvus the dire raven, or Ursa the bear. Each has its pros and cons, but the best pairing with a ranger is Ursa. Rangers often need a tank to take the heat off. Ursa can draw enemy attention with her roar, leaving the ranger free to fire at will.
Another way to summon an ersatz party member in Baldur's Gate 3 is the find familiar spell. It's available to wizards and rangers at level one, as well as warlocks, Eldritch Knight fighters, and Arcane Trickster rogues at level three. There are nine different variants of the spell, with each summoning a different companion: cats, crabs, frogs, rats, ravens, spiders, imps, Qasit, and Scratch (more on him later). Again, each one has its idiosyncrasies, but the best one is Qasim. He can turn invisible and inflict the frightened status effect on enemies, which gives them disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls for two turns.
It's entirely possible to have even more party in Baldur's Gate 3 by stacking the effects of Ranger's Companion and find familiar. In fact, since rangers can cast find familiar, one character can even have two summoned companions active at once. It's not exactly the same as expanding the party limit, but it can certainly be a boon in battle.
How To Get Pets In Baldur's Gate 3
It's also possible to adopt animals as pets in Baldur's Gate 3, regardless of class. There are four in the game: a baby mind flayer, a nameless spider swarm, an owlbear cub, and Scratch the dog. It can be fun to briefly command a mind flayer, or camp out with an owlbear in Baldur's Gate 3. Scratch, however, is the only loyal pet who can truly the party and stay there permanently.
In order to add Scratch to the party in Baldur's Gate 3, players will first have to find him guarding his late owner's corpse outside the Blighted Village. If they win him over, he'll begin appearing at camp, where the player character can interact with Scratch by petting him or playing a game of fetch. Eventually, he'll start digging up useful items, but he'll only give them up if the player character can beat him in a game of tug-of-war. Once they've spent enough time together, Scratch will grant the find familiar: Scratch spell, which allows for the party to summon him anytime.
The party limit is somewhat harsh for Baldur's Gate 3, a game that raises the bar for player freedom. Still, it makes sense for performance and gameplay reasons; the game probably wouldn't run too well or be very challenging if the player's party could have tens of people in it at all times. There are ways to get some temporary companions with spells or ranger subclasses, but the true expanded party experience is only possible with mods. It's important to take care when installing mods, especially for such a big, complicated game like Baldur's Gate 3, but when it comes to expanding the party, the benefits greatly outweigh the risks.
Source: Sildur/Nexus Mods
