I’ve played over 300 hours ofBaldur’s Gate 3, which has made certain details about the game stick out to me. If you’d allow me to slip on my tinfoil hat for a moment, I think there’s one NPC in the game that was meant to have a larger role than they ended up with in the final build. And no, I’m not talking about Alfira, the colorful Bard who has a, let’s call it, unique interaction with the Dark Urge. This is an NPC I’ve only seen a small amount of discussion about.
A good percentage ofmyBaldur’s Gate 3play timehas been spent in Act One. This is a combination of me failing Honour Mode playthroughs, or starting the game fresh with a new group of friends. Since I’ve spent so much time in Act One, I pretty much know it inside and out, andthis NPC you meet near Waukeen’s Rest is still something that stands out as odd to me. Whether or not I’m right about my theory, they seem like a character with wasted potential.
Ellyka Could Have Been The Party’s Ranger
Ellyka Seems Like A Missed Opportunity For A New Party Member
As you approach the entrance to the Mountain Pass, just past the fast travel location to Waukeen’s Rest,you will encounter a Tiefling named Ellyka who is hiding from a Githyanki patrol and their Red Dragon. You can have a short conversation with Ellyka where she warns you about interacting with the Gith, and, notably, there is an option to ask Ellyka to join your party, though she declines. It is possible to trigger combat with Ellyka if you are a Githyanki character and pick certain dialogue options.
Ellyka fights with a bow, and taking a look at her stats, she has high Dexterity and Wisdom scores,which is common for Rangers inBaldur’s Gate 3andDungeons & Dragons. This piqued my interest in Ellyka, because Ranger is one of the classes that isn’t accounted for byBaldur’s Gate 3’s origin characters. Similar to how I initially thoughtAlfira might be the party’s Bard, I came to wonder if at some point, Ellyka was meant to be a Ranger who joined your party before having her role significantly diminished in later builds.
Jaheira Proved The Party Can Have Two Of The Same Class
Ellyka Would Make Two Rangers, But There Is Already Two Druids In The Party
Right off the bat, you might be tempted to say it wouldn’t make sense for there to be a Ranger party member introduced early on, because you do eventually recruit Minsc in Act Three. I understand thinking that it would make more sense that, if there is a missing party member inBG3, it would be a unique class like Bard, Monk, or Sorcerer that isn’t represented by a party member. However, the game’s other legacy party member,Jaheira, is also a duplicate class with both her and Halsin being Druids.
Given the Jaheira example,it doesn’t seem out of the question to have a Ranger party member introduced earlier in the gameas a way to have another option for balancing your group’s composition. Ellyka also isn’t introduced too far after Karlach (depending on your path through Act One), so she could have been a potential origin character, something that wouldn’t work with Minsc. It would have been a nice option to have more origin characters to choose from, even if it would mean a bigger headache for Larian when it came to crafting meaningful stories for them all.
BG3 Would Have Benefitted From More Origin Characters
Some Classes In BG3 Don’t Have Associated Party Members
As a long-timeD&Dplayer, I immediately gravitated toward making my own character inBaldur’s Gate 3. In fact, I’ve yet to play the game as an origin character aside from the Dark Urge. However, I still think the game would have been improved by having a few more class options from the jump. For one thing, it would be nice for newer players who aren’t as attuned toD&Dclasses to have a wider option of starting characterswith a somewhat predetermined build to start out with.
Aside from helping newer players,Baldur’s Gate 3’s origin characters were a great way to get me to try out new classes that I’d frequently stayed away frominD&D. The idea of playing a devout religious character never really appealed to me inD&D, so I’d never tried out Cleric before. However, Shadowheart showed me both how much I enjoyed Cleric’s utility in combat, and how you could craft an interesting backstory for this type of character. It’s also hard for me to play anything besides an Evocation Wizard now that Gale showed me how useful they can be.
Even if they weren’t origin characters, it would have been nice to get a Monk or Bard character for similar purposes.Having a full range of classes to use would allow even solo players to have an optimized party. Whether as an origin character or a later recruit, it would have been nice if Ellyka was able to join the party and help fill the Ranger slot earlier than Act Three when you pick up Minsc.
Ellyka’s Role Has Wasted Potential
There Is A Clear Indication Of A Possible Questline For Ellyka
Another reason I started theorizing about Ellyka potentially being a scrapped party member is that there are hints at where her story could have gone, were it developed further. After your initial encounter with her, Ellyka will show up dead in a cell in the Githyanki Crèche. If you use Speak with Dead on her, she will tell you that she came to the monastery tofind The Blood of Lathander.This could easily have been a companion questline for Ellyka, and also a way to hint at the magical mace’s whereabouts.
Given how much we already know aboutBaldur’s Gate 3’s development process, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that my theory here is off base. After all, if there was meant to be another canceled origin character or party member, we’d probably have heard something about it by now. Still, every time I encounter Ellyka on a new playthrough, I can’t help but feel like she was meant to be a bigger part of the game than she ended up being. To me, she’s right up there with Alfira in terms of characters who I’m surprised didn’t get more development.
