Baldur’s Gate 3 players are being trapped with their friends, and there’s literally no escape

Baldur’s Gate 3 players have found out the hard way that playing in multiplayer is a choice you can’t escape from.

The RPG title has enjoyed a successful launch period, surging up the Steam charts as thousands of players begin their adventure across Faerun. Baldur’s Gate 3 offers several playstyles, choices, and actions to choose from, all of which can be done in a group of up to four people.

But players have noticed that choosing multiplayer is a choice that significantly alters the game and cannot be escaped from because characters created by others become locked into your party.

This leaves players unable to change their party composition in camp and, if a friend decided to choose an origin character to play as, they cannot talk to them—locking them out of romancing and other features.

When approached for comment, however, Larian Studios confirmed the design is completely as intended and explained why this is the case.

“It’s designed to play like D&D where, if you want to play a campaign together, you begin and continue the campaign to the end,” Larian Studios told Dot Esports on Aug. 4.

As that choice is permanent, Larian Studios advised the best approach is to have two campaigns going, one for single-player and another for multiplayer. While you can drop in and out of the latter, the party will remain the same.

While frustrating for players who may have started multiplayer without knowing this, the consolation is that Baldur’s Gate 3 offers huge replayability so no single player is likely to ever be the same.

Related: How to change difficulty in Baldur’s Gate 3