Baldur’s Gate 3 drops the ball with Druid companions

Baldur’s Gate 3 features Druids in an important role at the start of the story, but the game drags its feet when it comes to adding them as party members.

One of the most unusual aspects of Baldur’s Gate 3’s design is that it gives you two Druid party members, even though there are no established characters that use the Bard, Sorcerer, or Monk class, making them prime targets for player choice.

The two Druids in question are Halsin, the imprisoned Archdruid who is cited as someone who can heal your tadpole problem, and Jaheira, a major character from the first two Baldur’s Gate games, seen here as an old woman who still staunchly supports the Harpers.

The issue that fans have, especially on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit, is the time it takes for you to unlock Halsin and Jaheira as party members. Act I has a major focus on Druids, but you don’t get any Druid characters until that storyline is over.

“It annoys me to no end that we get zero Druids during the two druid questlines and then two Druids right as both quest lines end,” one user wrote, while another said, “I agree, they waited too long to have him [Halsin] join the party.”

“By the time I recruited Halsin, I already had an established party of characters I knew how to use,” another fan added , “I felt it was too late to learn an other class. So I didn’t, and just left him at camp for the entire remainder of the game.”

The timing is off for the Druids, as one user said, “You get access to him far too late, same with Jahera & Minsc, though they are legacy characters. If only Bear Daddy was recruitable after the Grove, I’d love to take him in the Underdark (not a euphemism. Maybe).”

Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you several great characters off the bat, with Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, Lae’zel, Karlach, and Wyll all being found within the first few hours of the game. This gives the player a lot of time to grow close to them, incentivizing you to keep them in the party, rather than going all-in on newbies.

The Druids and Minsc take way too long to be introduced to the story, especially as they miss the part where they would have been the most relevant. There’s a crisis going on with a Druid Grove in Act I, but the major nature lovers aren’t in your crew when the conflict is ongoing.