There are a lot of reasons to love Karlach. She's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3's badass barbarian, and if your player character isn't a heavy hitter, it's crucial to have someone who can dole out double the body blows every turn. She can run for a long time, jump a long way, and has a really good chance of pushing opponents halfway across the map. She's invaluable in battle, which is why she's rarely left my party after I found her. But, she's just as useful outside of a fight, for a much less glamorous reason: Karlach can carry a lot of crap.
Baldur's Gate 3 has been a gigantic breakout hit which means that it's the first complicated RPG that a lot of players are getting into. So, though "encumbrance" has been a fairly common mechanic in crunchy RPGs for a long time, this is the first time many players are encountering it. And, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:like w💮eapon degradation in the recent Zeldas, it can be a divisive mechanic.
Games need friction to be interesting. It isn't especially fun to be completely overpowered and easily win every fight. I bounced off 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:One Piece Odyssey earlier this year because 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:every battle was incredibly easy. I couldn't engage with the interesting things the combat system was doing because I obliterated every enemy before I had a chance. The question is: how much friction can you put up with and in what context? Maybe you like banging your head against the wall when you're fighting a Souls boss, but hate having to worry about getting malaria or checking a physical in-world map in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Far Cry 2. Me? I'm pro-weapon degradation in Zelda and only really ge﷽t annoyed at the game when I want to gꦚet to the top of a cliff and have to wait for it to stop raining.
I'm similarly pro-encumbrance if the developers feel like it helps them create the feeling they want the player to have. That doesn't mean I don't get annoyed when my puny Tav can't pick up a hunk of Waterdhavian cheese without throwing his back out, but I support irritating mechanics if they serve the game's greater good.
But, if encumbrance is the yuck that spoils your yum, Karlach is the key. I knew this, to a certain extent, because I've been playing this game for 100-plus hours, and I use her as an item hoover when my player character is pushing his inventory limit. I didn't realize how far I could push it until a recent story beat in the Lower City when I arrived at the docks and was told to make myself scarce by a dwarf who was arranging a shipment for Lord Gortash. I lied and told him I was there to pick up the shipment, and he gave his goods to me for the fairly reasonable price of 1000 gold. Parting with that cash got me a bunch of jewelry and other stuff, but the best part of the deal was that I got several heavy Firewine Barrels.
These are a welcome supplement to my playstyle because, between Gale and my player character, I have two wizards in my party and practice pyromania whenever I get a chance, covering everything in grease and then hitting it with a blast of flame. Firewine barrels are always a helpful addition for covering more of the battlefield in fire. The only problem is that, at 40 kg, most characters can't carry more than one (if that) without becoming encumbered. You have other items you actually need, and big barrels of boom juice don't always make the cut.
Baldur's Gate 3 isn't the first Larian game where lighting everything on fire was a viable strategy. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Divinity: Original Sin 2 similarly let you use🦄 chemical reactions to bring down your foes.
But, my level nine Karlach has a carrying capacity of 440 kg. At the moment, even with three Firewine barrels and enough thingamabobs to overflow Ariel's grotto, Karlach’s only a little over half capacity. For comparison, my level nine Tav can carry 120, Gale can hoist 163, and Shadowheart can deadlift 180.
I always knew that Karlach was strong but, now, looking at the numbers, I appreciate her on a whole new level. She is the defeater of encumbrance and sh꧙e will carry and hurl more barrels than Donkey Kong ever dared dream.
