Lae'zel or Karlach for melee companion??

[Eckoh]

Fighter vs barbarian for tge melee companion??? Karlach can see in the dark, I think Lae'zel might be more overall damage.

[JasonB]

My party tends to be top-heavy with weak casters, so I would go for whoever you can pump the most strength into. You know, so you can do wild strength-based stuff like throw an entire human being off a cliff if things get sketchy.

[Eckoh]

Gale is useful... its just hard to deside what group to use. I also want generally "good" people as I am going for a chaotic good style MC. Lae'zel can be a bit of a ♥♥♥♥♥.

[Eckoh]

Just a bump cause this got buried..


I'm thinking I might run both depending on area... dunno if I want Wyll in the goblin camp when Karlach can just throw goblins...

[Illuminary]

Honestly depends on your group. I got a spore driud Tav, Shadowheart as war priest not trickery but use her as buffer and potion/scroll tosser/aoe firebombing, Lae'Zel as the fighter but also shooting fire/acid/snow arrows in groups, the Karlach raging as bear in front. The druid spiky growth spell is pretty OP in areas like goblin camp so you can cast it in the middle and watch everyone just die on their own from it. If I was playing a martial class I'd probably just want Lae'Zel because of action surge.

[LazyLiz]

I have both and am angling for a 3some

[mutantbeth]

i alternate between the two. i either bring laezel and shadowheart or wyll and karlach then choose between gale or astarion depending how im feeling

[Blackdragon]

Karlach = modern liberal politics + constantly breaking the 4th wall. Betrays you if your politics don't agree with hers.

Lae'zel = goal-oriented, efficiency motivated, not held down by moral scruples, will not betray you even if you disagree, can be argued with and convinced to do something even if it goes against her creed, if it is actually necessary/efficient.

Romance wise both are freakish, Lae'zel more so but Karlach has a saccharine sweet personality that is completely out of place in the setting generally and with regard to her character specifically. Actual sex with both is why the phrase "bumping uglies" was coined.

To me it wasn't even a choice. Lae'zel all the way, and keeping relationship professional. Karlach's head I kept as a souvenir. Nice collection of extremities so far (two heads and a hand).

For darkvision, get the Sunwalker's Gift ring from the merchant in the Underdark (Society of Brilliance guy in the mushroom area). I simply stole everything from both the hobgoblin and the mindflayer, including this ring.

[[Kartell]Captain Data]

Originally posted by Eckoh:

Fighter vs barbarian for tge melee companion??? Karlach can see in the dark, I think Lae'zel might be more overall damage.

There's no reason why you shouldn't use both in your party.

Karlach is the raw-damage-type while Lae'Zel can be geared towards survival and support (Battlemaster) while still dishing out almost as much raw damage as Karlach. Both are best choices for melee combat, although both can be missed on recruitment.

You don't have to free Lae'Zel in Act 1 and even can kill her permanently.
You can't recruit Karlach if you sided against the Tieflings, also in Act 1.

If you lost both recruiting chances, you're out of melee experts.


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When it comes to romance, I'm all in of Lae'Zel. Karlach is probably the better fit characterwise, but comes with several downsides (storywise) which you need to keep in mind, especially if you got to those plot points already.

Plus: once fully locked in, Lae'Zel won't sleep around anymore. "She's all yours".
Karlach never did that to begin with, but as I said, there's some more story attached here.

[53yoGamer]

Lae'Zel turned against me in Act 1 , so I had to kill her. At first I was shocked, but then I accepted the story turning and now I am free to walk with Karlach xD

[guppy]

Originally posted by Eckoh:

Fighter vs barbarian for tge melee companion??? Karlach can see in the dark, I think Lae'zel might be more overall damage.

Met Karlach fairly late as I was doing a mop'up of the blank spots on my map. I swapped her in to replace frog lady after she also pulled a knife on me ( by now you'd think they would realize that pulling weapons on me gets you confined to camp.. but anyway )

Had her as 'eagle' at first but that was fairly disappointing, switched her to bear for level 5 which so far seems a vast improvement. She dishes out the damage and can take a fair amount of punishment.

I keep forgetting to try her vending machine trick, hopefully that will do something useful :)



I'm stil only moping up the act 1 overworld and trying to decide if I should go straight for underdark or see if there is any part of the mountain pass that can be done with out leaving - so things may change later, but from years of playing D&D I tend to think that barbarians are tanky one-trick killers while fighters have a bit more options ( and generally do bit less damage ).

But remember that if you like one better than the other you can always just talk to the lich in camp and switch their classes, for what little I've seen of her story so far I don't think it would matter if she (either of them really) was a barbarian or fighter

[taiji2078]

Lae'zel all the way. Hitting 3 times is better than twice as Karlach does on base setup, without any respec.

Also Lae'zel hits like a truck with the bow at max level, doing about 10 extra damage on my setup compared to Karlach's crossbow that shoots only twice. Both have equipped very high quality rare items and are level 12 with all maxed out.

Lae'zel also has better range, because she can charge and you gain like 3 extra moves from that.

On the actors side ... did you see the actress behind Lae'zel ? :D She's w o w :) So yea, Lae'zel is my choice all the way.

Spoilers below ... if you didn't play the game yet, don't read.

The only bad thing is that I romanced Lae'zel in the beginning of the game, then I was going for some achievements and I tried romancing the others and now everybody is ignoring me completely. Way to go Larion ! My camp feels now like a cemetery. RIP dialog options.

Story wise, Karlach's story will be over in like 2 chats with the smith and after finding 2 pieces of infernal iron. Lae'zel has a beautiful story that will develop later in the game, so that's another reason to keep her all the way. Just make sure you don't offend her, because you have quite some chances to lose her along the way :)

[Sigvuld]

Originally posted by Blackdragon:

Karlach = modern liberal politics + constantly breaking the 4th wall. Betrays you if your politics don't agree with hers.

Lae'zel = goal-oriented, efficiency motivated, not held down by moral scruples, will not betray you even if you disagree, can be argued with and convinced to do something even if it goes against her creed, if it is actually necessary/efficient.

whyyy did it IMMEDIATELY go into politics oh my god lmfao a do-gooder character going "i like to help people and make sure bad people don't hurt them" isn't politics jesus h christ

[twitch|spider0666]

I am rotating everyone in order to gather millions of supplies and rest less offten.
But honestly pick both. All depends on many aspects.. If those 2 butchers have support than they really shine.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

I find lea'zal more usefull.
Mostly due to her githyanki psionic jump ability.

[Many-Named]

karlach is super cool to have in your party