(Works on Patch 8, good-aligned route possible)

This is for players like me who like Kar’niss and want to protect him.I posted a similar guide here in 2024. After that I didn’t play Baldur’s Gate 3 for a long time, and the method in that old post no longer works. I’ve received a lot of DMs asking for a working solution, so I decided to rewrite a guide that works after Patch 8 (the method is different from the 2024 one). I tested it in-game a couple of days ago and it works.

Please confirm these points first:

1. This cannot be done in Honour Mode, because it requires fast hands + constant save/load attempts.
2. Your character must be at least level 7.
3. You have never attacked Kar’niss and have never tricked him out of his lantern.

If you want to ask:

1. I want to do the good route. I don’t want to harm the Harpers, and I don’t want to harm Kar’niss either. Is it possible?
2. Can I have both the Pixie Blessing and Kar’niss at the same time?
3. Can Kar’niss be controlled? Can he be brought all the way to the end of the game?

The answer to all of the above is yes. See below ↓

### My process (Upper half)

1. After taking the elevator out of the Underdark forge area (the place where two duergar were drinking earlier), walk to the position shown in the picture. You will encounter the Harpers. Help them in the fight. After the fight they will return to Last Light Inn first.

2. Continue walking to the next marked position. You will meet Kar’niss and his group. Choose the friendly dialogue options and let him escort you toward Moonrise Towers.

3. Stop at this position. Do **not** go any further forward!

4. At this point, return to camp and ask Withers for a Druid hireling (the hireling **must** know Dominate Beast) and a wizard companion who knows Polymorph (I used Gale).

1. (Turn on turn-based mode) Have Gale polymorph Kar’niss into a sheep, then immediately have the Druid hireling cast Dominate Beast on him. There is a chance it fails on the first try, so save and reload as needed until it succeeds.

2. (Everything from here must be done while Kar’niss is still a sheep) Immediately send everyone back to camp. Have your main character talk to the Druid hireling in camp and tell the hireling to wait in camp (**do not dismiss him**). Then immediately add the Druid back into the party. The sheep will successfully become your pet and will turn back into Kar’niss.

3. Save and load.

4. Kar’niss successfully joins the party. Send the hireling back to camp. Kar’niss will automatically bind to your main character.

9. In camp, double-click Kar’niss’s portrait and have him examine the lantern. Release the pixie inside. The pixie will give the whole party the blessing buff. After that you no longer need the lantern.

10. Return to the main story. Trigger the cutscene normally at that location. After the cutscene finishes, Kar’niss will simultaneously pull everyone in the party up to the top of the tower. From there you can play however you want.

**Q: The pixie gave Kar'niss the bell. How can we get it back from him?**

**A:** Have a companion sneak around behind him, crouch, and right-click to pickpocket it. You’ll get it that way!

1. After this you no longer need the Druid hireling. However, this same method can be repeated with a Druid companion. I used it this way to give Ketheric’s dog to Halsin.

### Lower half:

1. After going to the Shadowfell (Shar’s domain) to meet the Nightsong (Aylin) and finishing the scene, the entire party except Shadowheart may get pulled up to the top of the tower by Kar’niss to fight Ketheric. If you don’t want everyone pulled up, leave your companions waiting on the rocks outside the cutscene trigger range. This way only Kar’niss and Squire will be pulled back to the tower top. Everyone else can then go out normally and fight their way up from the bottom of Moonrise Towers to reunite with Kar’niss and the dog. Don’t worry — Kar’niss and Squire will also help you fight Ketheric. After that comes the usual mid-fight scene where Ketheric kidnaps Aylin again.

1. During the Act 2 final battle, after defeating Ketheric, Aylin may flag Kar’niss as an enemy and trigger her temporary hostility, causing her to attack you. Have any companion touch Ketheric’s corpse to trigger the cutscene. Watch the cutscene, save, then loot Ketheric’s body. If Kar’niss disappears, don’t worry — just reload and he will reappear. After that, leave one by one through the portal. There is no need to fight Aylin.

2. Return to Moonrise Towers and finish everything in the tower. Aylin and Isobel will come to your camp. Aylin may have a bad attitude toward you at this point and refuse to talk. You don’t need to give her any gifts. Just take a long rest. When you wake up the next day her temporary hostility will be gone and you can talk to her normally.

3. Kar’niss can be brought into Act 3. As everyone knows, on the first night in Act 3 you get ambushed by the Githyanki and need to enter the Astral Plane. Kar’niss may disappear before you enter the Astral Plane. Don’t panic — once you’re inside the Astral Plane, save and reload and he will reappear.

### Known issues:

1. After Kar’niss joins the party he will follow you everywhere. He cannot be unbound, and he also cannot level up.
2. Try not to let him die.
3. I cannot guarantee that Kar’niss will never be mistakenly flagged as an enemy by someone in Act 3 and trigger combat. I recommend getting into the habit of saving often. However, I can guarantee that he can be brought all the way to the final battle (he will not appear at the epilogue camp gathering).
4. This method should work on other NPCs as well, but I originally learned it from players who like Kar’niss, and this post was written specifically for him. I haven’t tested it on any NPCs other than Kar’niss and the dog , so I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you used this method on other NPCs.

**Easter eggs / Bonus tips:**

1. You can change Kar’niss’s weapon. Cast Heat Metal on him so his sword drops, then place the weapon you want him to use on the ground and control him to pick it up.
2. Kar’niss can be healed normally. He’s also very useful in combat and can automatically apply an extra damage buff to teammates. Please take good care of our little spider.

If you try it and succeed, please let me know. Feel free to ask me any questions anytime. If this post can no longer be replied to, you can DM me

This just missing an owlbears at the top lmao

When you‘re at Last Light Inn, talking with Isobel and Markus comes in, when Isobel asks you what‘s going on, you have three options: tell Isobel Markus wants to kidnap her, stay silent, or telepathically agree to help Markus.

During my Honour Ruleset run, I got curious what the second option will do.
What happens, is that Isobel (&rest of LLI) becomes hostile and Markus turns ally.

All your companions react as if you consciously chose against Isobel.

On the other hand, my Durge now has a new set of jim-jams.

Very simple question that i’ve always wondered.

If you are playing durge and are mostly evil apart from not raiding grove back in act 1, why would they still follow you if since act 1 you’ve just been fully evil on most part. Especially after you become chosen again, why? Why would they ever follow and fight with a literal chosen of bhaal, who is pure evil?

I understand it’s for gameplay reasons too, but i’ve always wanted to have a valid headcanon to why they or other companions don’t turn on you as you’re arguably just as dangerous as netherbrain.

I am hooked on this game and realized it's a difficult game as it's not my usual genre to play (e.g. Dungeons and Dragons?). Certain mechanics are probably not straight intuitive to me and I gotta admit I google a lot almost every other step.

And this. This! I realized a day after getting this achievement that I was supposed to kill it with that? No wonder it was SO difficult. Not to mention that I managed to spawn the "firelings" enemy because I took too long and still failed. 300 HP and not to mention the immunity and resists. Anyway, all good. The fun continues. Glad I got this game.

I see this image every time I boot up this game but I never really clocked that I have no idea what kind of sword Lae’zel is wielding? It’s not a Gith Silver Sword or any other two-handed sword I have seen in the game.

I started playing a month ago and I've been so addicted. I've not had enough time to sit and finish the whole game, nor do I want to rush it.

But wow, as I read tweets and posts about it, it's insane how much more different everyone's experiences are, in terms of what their game looks like.

I've never played a game like this, so I wasn't aware that approaching NPCs as much as possible would change your game. I didn't bother with anything except the main story for the first act. Here's what my game looks like:

- I don't even have Laez'el. She died after the Nautiloid crashed and I didn't know I was supposed to rescue her.

- I don't have the Owlbear cub because I just happened on their cave and killed them both.

- The only reason I have Karlach and Astarion is because I actively searched up how to find them.

- I don't have Minthara. I killed her in the encampment because I didn't know you could recruit her.

- I don't remember what exactly, but I made some decision about the Nightsong and Shadowheart got mad and left my party. Didn't know that could happen.

- I did get Scratch though, thank god. He's okay.

- I've had absolutely no interactions with Githyanki except for Orpheus, who i turned into an Illithid

- I did rescue that Goblin guy on the windmill but accidentally blew him up in the prison later. Did not know he was important.

- I killed the Strange Ox but apparently he has some importance later?

- Had no idea about the Necromancy of Thay

My mistake was not actually exploring the world and interacting with everyone. I got better at that once I reached Baldurs Gate but it was kinda too late. Well, it's only a lesson for my next playthrough!

Are there any other things that you think I would've missed? It's very likely tbh I was an idiot initially.

Enjoy

My heart is so full and I’m so so happy 😭

At his signing I told him Astarion’s story means a lot to me, he asked me three times during our conversation if I’m well and safe now, that he’s really proud of me for overcoming things and was glad I had the story to help me process things and heal. He also gave me a hug 🥹 I don’t typically cry when I’ve met other people I look up to but I actually ended up sobbing as soon as I left his table LMAO.

He’s genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to! If you ever have the chance to meet him I cannot recommend doing so enough ❤️

Missing stuff includes

- Sussur Dagger and Sickle
- Everburn Blade
- Adamantine Mace
- Adamantine Scimitar
- The Spellsparker and The Sparky Points
- Shar's Spear of Evening
- Spear of Night
- Blood-Bound Blade
- Moonlanterns
- Staff of the Emperor
- Kurwin's Cauteriser
- Staff of Interruption

- Ring of Evasion (Gale only)
- Ring of Protection (Requires stealing the Idol of Silvanus)
- The Myconid amulets

If there are console commands, I do not know how to activate them. I would quite like to complete my collection of armor.

How would you build your character if you wanted a lot of asshole dialoge options?

Origin should would be Durge I guess. ​

Only Gith, Duergar and Drow have lots of asshole/evil dialoge options afaik.

At least one cleric level for an evil deity. After Shar a Shadowheart exclusive Lolth has the most evil deity options followed by Vlaakith.

I have done a Paladin of Shar(Oathbreaker) playtrough as Shadowheart and remember quite a few evil options so a Cleric/Oathbreaker multiclass might be the way to go(only Shadowheart gets the Paladin of Shar tag without cleric levels).

Are there other classes that get some interesting evil dialoge options? Necromancy wizard maybe?

So I just lost my first honour mode attempt to this dork. I went into this fight confident because I usually don't struggle that badly, but then he proceeded to humble my ass. My party consisted of my open hand monk Tav, Minthara, tempest domain Shart, and stealth archer Astarion.

I made the rookie mistake of NOT examining him like I do with every boss/miniboss and I have learned my lesson. I got him down to half health before he even had a turn, and then him and his goons immediately obliterated Minthara and Shart. Not sure if I wanna try again right away but it is the last achievement I need and it's going to bother me.

I'm honestly surprised I even made it that far. If I managed to complete this run it would've been my 6th time beating the game. How many honour mode attempt did you guys make before you beat it? I need motivation 🥲

Yeah, I just picked dark urge warlock and just started killing people, I killed gale, karlach, romanced the vampire twink, killed the Druid camp, then goblin camp, then at act two I killed them resistance people, then the fellas over at moonrise towers. Heading over to baldurs gate now to continue my killing spree, I’m not trying to be edgy the thought just came to my head “man, just kill em all.” So yeah. . . I let scratch live and he stays at my camp.

I never did this before, but I guess there's a first time for everything :D

It has hit 20 000 mods after just 3 years! The only games which hit 20 000 mods faster on Nexus are Skyrim and Fallout 4.

BG3 is also still the second fastes game ever in total downloads with only OG Skyrim having more downloads in the first 3 years after release.

I stole powder barrels from nearby storage, surrounded his throne with them, and dropped an Alchemist’s Fire from the rafters. The fireworks show ended him right there, but it also caught the attention of the whole camp, so I had to fight my way out.

How did you dispatch him? Did you discover a quieter way? Or did you just start a good old fashioned scrap?

Really, I think I’ve only been with Karlach, Shadowheart, and Gale.

Gale has a fun personality and Karlach is the best, but I find myself going back to Shadowheart again and again. I think she has the best blend of personality, looks, and backstory.

Who is your favorite?

Be me

Playing regular mode

Easy

Kinda bored

Decide to try highest difficulty

Kinda hard, really engaging

Recruit my squad

Decide to go get my owlbear pet

Decide to fight mother

Good xp, best her many times before

Cocky.jpeg

Round 1 beat her pretty good

Round 2 call for mate

Wut?

Two owl bears???!

Death.png