This article contains spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.
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While Baldur’s Gate 3 provides players with a variety of diverse companions to join their adventure, it’s a noticeable hole that despite all of their differences and their range of traits, one thing that is missing from the party is a bard, and though you can multi- or re-class your party into bard with Withers’ minimal fee, those lovable bard personalities and traits can’t be added in. Thanks to a mod for the game on Nexus it appears a certain Tiefling bard may once have been an intended companion, and whether you’ve encouraged her to finish her song or she’s met your shaking hand as the Dark Urge, you’ve no doubt encountered Alfira.
Fans have always been drawn to lovable Alfira, everything about her interactions with the player and their selected party to her character design, which has always seemed a bit too complex for your standard NPC. It’s been a reoccurring topic of discussion in the months since the game’s full release that players would love to be able to recruit Alfira into their party, so it makes sense that they would pick up on these details in her interactions.
The Overexplained Interaction Options mod allows players to see which of their dialogue selections will result in approval or disapproval from their party members, ensuring your selections don’t cause your approval rating with your chosen partner and party to slip. Fans using the mod have noted multiple instances where Alfira appears beside dialogue options in the game, indicating that she was once intended to be a companion during these interactions.
Screenshots shared to Reddit show instances where Alfira approved of the player cracking a joke during Dribbles the Clown’s performance at the Circus of the Last Days, and again if the player chooses to help Mayrina work through the situation she may have ended up in due to her involvement with Auntie Ethel.
While Alfira’s companion status didn’t make it into Baldur’s Gate 3 as a full feature, there’s still a lot to experience with the character. Should you make decisions that keep Alfira alive throughout the game you can encounter her in all three acts, but should you play as the Dark Urge you’ll lose her during Act 1 as the Urges overtake you in your sleep (unless you take the steps to spare her and sentence an alternate NPC to death, of course).
Even if you do opt to end her in Act 1, you still get to experience the endearing scene where she, full of naïve excitement and pure intentions, asks to join your party…so that’s a win, somewhat? And if that’s not enough, there’s always the Transform Into Companions and NPCs – Ring of Metamorph mod available for non-console players as well where you can at least pretend.
Which Baldur’s Gate 3 NPC would you add to your party given the chance? Chat with me about it in the comments or on X @amazingspidrhan, where I myself will tell you all about how I want Ethel as a companion.
