It’s really hard to care about Wyll as a character inBaldur’s Gate 3. He’s widely considered one of the most underdeveloped Origin characters in the game, his personality is extraordinarily bland in comparison to many others, and his game-wide arc is unsatisfyingand feels the least important.
I’m not the only one who feels this way – my colleague Vaspaan Dastoor let him get dragged to hell by Mizora andfelt nothing but amusement, while editor-in-chief Stacey Henleyalso thinks he’s painfully boring, but necessary in the grand scheme of things.
Finding out that Baldur’s Gate 3 actuallyhad a lot of content for Wyll that was ultimately cutmade a lot of this make sense. At GDC 2024, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke revealed that the game would have given Wyll his own “big moment” at a war college, giving his arc the satisfying conclusion that most other characters get and allowing him to carry the same emotional weight of fan-favourite characters like Shadowheart and Astarion.
Spoilers for the final act of Baldur’s Gate 3
There are a lot of Wyll-lovers out there in spite of his lack of character development, and I can understand why. There was a whole lot of potential in Wyll’s character that was never quite realised, and others see that. A lot of those fans also came from Early Access and were disappointed with the way the character had changed in the full release. I think the character’s ultimate flaws exist possibly because of his time in the spotlight being cut, but it’s also largely because of his characterisation – or lack thereof – throughout the game.
Wyll doesn’t have much to do in Baldur’s Gate 3, and most of his quests revolve around his father’s disappearance. you may have him there when you find out his father is the Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard, and later take him to free Mizora in the second act, but otherwise he feels fairly extraneous in the grand scheme of the story. Sure, he has a cool background, but in practice he’s just a nice dude who wants to do good things. He’d probably be a good friend, but he’s not very interesting.
I figured that since he’s a Baldur’s Gate native and the third act is where everybody’s stories wrap up, maybe his story would finally interest me as I approached the finish line. A sneaky plot twist might change my mind, after all. But there wasn’t one. I got him to turn down Mizora’s bargain. We rescued his father without her help, and he immediately sent him to free a dragon that turned out to be dead and therefore useless.
Note: The fact that you can determine his choice regarding Mizora’s bargain is another huge flaw in itself. You can let other characters choose their fates for themselves, but Wyll doesn’t get that.
I had a couple of conversations with him immediately after where he hinted at maybe wanting to be the next Grand Duke, but he immediately changed his mind when I looked at him askance and said, “Mm, maybe not, babe.” And that was it. Wyll’s personal journey over. No growth, no change, nothing. He still has a martyr complex, and that’s how it will always be.
His wanting to be the Grand Duke was also very out of character considering that unlike Astarion and Gale, he’s never hinted at being power-hungry or wanting that kind of political responsibility.
We now know that Baldur’s Gate 3won’t be receiving an expansion or a Larian-made sequel, which I think is the right move onbothcounts. We also know that this doesn’t mean Larian will stop support for the game, and we will still seemore ending cinematics added in a future patch. A lot of people were hopeful for DLC themed around Avernus, expanding on what happens with Wyll and Karlach after the end of the game and giving Wyll some much needed closure, but that’s out of the question now.
It’s possible that we’ll get more Wyll content in these extended ending cinematics, but Vincke was clear that we will not be getting “new content”. We might still see Wyll being developed a little further by the end of the game, but it seems very unlikely that we’ll get any significant improvements to Wyll’s characterisation throughout the game, and that sucks. I love Baldur’s Gate 3 but it does some of its characters dirty by leaving them severely underwritten –Minthara, anyone?– and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to know that the game’s most sidelined character will probably stay that way.
Baldur’s Gate 3
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Baldur’s Gate 3 is the long-awaited next chapter in the Dungeons & Dragons-based series of RPGs. Developed by Divinity creator Larian Studios, it puts you in the middle of a mind flayer invasion of Faerûn, over a century after the events of its predecessor.
