Summary
- Baldur’s Gate 3’s main cast has incredible chemistry, as evidenced by their banter lines.
- Wyll is particularly good at sassy one-liners.
- Gale has the aura of a third child, as we all know.
Baldur’s Gate 3‘s party companions are near-universally beloved, and for good reason. There’s incredible chemistry within the main cast, and the voice acting and motion-capture work bring to life these wonderfully written characters. There’s no better place to observe this chemistry in action than during the inter-companion dialogue that plays while the party explores Faerûn.
This “party banter” has become a staple of party-based RPGs. It’s a means of bringing forth the personality of characters and projects a companionship among the entire party, rather than just the player character and each individual companion. Baldur’s Gate 3’s party banter is incredibly biting and sarcastic, which is a common tact among friends.
The Best of One-Liners
The community recently came together in a Reddit thread by KristiColleen to discuss which inter-companion dialogue is the best. There are certainly some good candidates on display and, even though I have a soft spot for the dry humour of Lae’Zel, it would appear that Wyll is undoubtedly Baldur’s Gate 3’s king of sass.
Wyll: I used to believe the beauty of first love was unable to be surpassed. But Gale – you are so much more tolerable now you’ve found your second.
Gale: I’ll take that comment with the sincerity and good will I assume was intended.
The above banter put forward by crockofpot is representative of Wyll’s sarcasm. There’s no doubt the Blade of Frontiers has a good heart, but he certainly isn’t opposed to a sardonic comment or two.
hell0kitt details an interaction between Shadowheart and Wyll at the Basilisk Gate, where Shadowheart insists on speaking about the gallows and hanging despite Wyll not engaging in the conversation. This prompts Wyll to end the dialogue with, “What a picture you paint. Quite detailed, quite colourful… quite unnecessary,” more or less telling Shadowheart to stop being so edgy.
There’s also the popular interaction between Gale and Minthara that is often cited by fans of the drow, this time posted by maiz-of-light.
Minthara: Do you have elder siblings, wizard?
Gale: You’re about to say something awful, aren’t you?
Minthara: In Menzoberranzan, after a house has two sons, every subsequent male-born child is slaughtered at birth, as it is useless, even for breeding. You have the aura of a third child about you.
Gale is the butt of many of these biting remarks, probably because of his relative affability and his burgeoning god complex. My favourite piece of banter was posted by sindelta, who catalogues a brief interaction between Astarion and Lae’Zel.
Lae’Zel: I am perfectly charming, I’ll have you know. On Crèche K’liir, I was known for my dazzling smile and charisma.
There are plenty of other good choices in the original thread. If you want to get a kick out and are a habitual wiki scroller like myself, you can check out the dedicated banter pages for each character on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Wiki.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.