Baldur’s Gate 3 might be over two years old, but players are still finding odd discoveries and exploits, even in the first act. Like, let’s say, stealing a dead body to force a grieving Flaming Fist recruit into following you around the Sword Coast.
“I had just finished Waukeen’s Rest and was looting everything not tied down in the courtyard outside,” u/biochip said. “But amongst the Flaming Fist corpses I wasn’t allowed to loot without causing hostilities was Flaming Fist Jacek, whose body was being prayed over by his faithful First Recruit Ephren. Being the soulless scoundrel I am, I had bard Karlach play a little ditty over by the fountain to distract Ephren while I looted Jacek’s corpse and, for good measure, picked up the corpse itself and mashed it into my pack. I then promptly ran away”.
I saw Ephren calmly walking in my direction. She stopped next to me, kneeled, and started her prayers again from the top… for her buddy’s corpse… which was still INSIDE MY PACK.
Leaving no evidence behind, you’d imagine that would be the end of it – a sordid tale of a loot goblin with no morals, shamelessly pilfering from the dead in front of their comrades, going as far as to stuff them into an already stuffed backpack. But, for some bizarre reason, Ephren started revering u/biochip, or at least their bag, as though it were Jacek’s corpse.
“As I ran around the countryside, she inevitably followed,” they explained. “When I leaped across the broken bridge, she teleported to the other side, kneeling behind me and again reciting her litany to Helm.”
A Free Flaming Fist Companion? Sign Me Up
That might sound like it would get annoying, but as it turns out, you practically have a free companion by doing this, since Jacek will aid you in combat. Sure, you can’t control them like members of your party, but it’s extra muscle all the same.
The only downside is that she won’t follow you through zone transitions, meaning that she’s limited to the Act 1 overworld. Still, as u/biochip said, that’s a “substantial amount of content” that Ephren will help you with.
Case in point, u/biochip brought them all the way to the Gith by the Mountain Pass, and they jumped right into the thick of battle, which is a huge help if you’re on higher difficulties like Tactician.
There are some kinks to work out to see if this really is a viable exploit or just a fun little distraction to spruce up the next 300 hours of gameplay. Commenters like u/cultjake want to know if Ephren will stick around after a Long Rest, or if that breaks the sequence, which will determine just how useful she really is for clearing Act 1, and already players are working out just how quickly you can ‘recruit’ her.
u/puiwaihin claims that you can make Ephren show up “Wherever you want” by stashing the body, even in camp, while u/cultjake suggests that she could be recruited as early as Level 2 if you made a beeline to Waukeen’s. Others are less fussed about the practicality of it, and simply want to know what would happen if you brought the corpse to Highberry House, where Jacek’s daughter lives – a little morbid, but then again, we are stuffing bodies into bags for free companions here.
It’ll be fascinating to see what the community does with this little trick, which is exactly why u/biochip shared their discovery on the subreddit. “I look forward to seeing what kinds of shenanigans you silly gooses can get her involved in,” they ended their post. Who knows, maybe this is the ticket to making Honour Mode a breeze. Or maybe it’s just a one-way path to having a grieving stalker follow you around.
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Engine
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Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full cross-platform play.
