Baldur’s Gate 3is a relatively well-put-together game, especially considering how large and expansive it is. However, after almost two years of patches, a morbid, yet hilarious, bug involving Karlach is still present in the game.
I am, of course, speaking about Headless Karlach — the brainless barbarian. The setup for achieving this bug is elaborate, but if successful, you’ll have a headless friend for life.Reddit user Klondyrecently triggered this bug and provided a step-by-step explanation on how to recruit the now-hornless tiefling.
The Brainless Barbarian
Naturally, this bug is related to the quest involving the Paladins of Tyr, a group of do-gooders to whom you may promise to bring Karlach’s decapitated head. You’ll need to trigger this dialogue and agree to bring Karlach’s head, or else the option won’t be available when you encounter Karlach.
First, you’ll need to one-shot Karlach from a stealthed position. Then, you need to send a companion that isn’t the player character to trigger dialogue options with the body. Then, switch from the companion in dialogue to a stealthy companion, and position them behind the body in stealth. Finally, have your last companion cast a Scroll of Revivify on the body, bringing Karlach back to life.
Everyone will be pulled into conversation with the tiefling except for your stealthed companion. With that character, pickpocket Karlach and remove her head. If everything went according to plan, Karlach will now be headless, but recruitable through normal conversation.
There are funny implications of this — you can speak to Wyll before reviving her, which will count as having killed Karlach for Wyll’s quest. You can also bring her head to the Paladins of Tyr, who will be thankful for your service, and blissfully unaware of the headless horror that’s about to slaughter them for their transgressions against her.
Karlach’s throat, including her throat ‘hole’, still moves when she speaks, which is… neat. If you put a helmet on Karlach, then it will simply float above her head, which is definitely neat.
Perhaps hornless Wyll and headless Karlach could form some sort of crime-fighting duo? It’s an easy setup for a quip about her being the brains of the operation.
