Summary
- The Guardian in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be created to have any race or appearance, but their role in the story remains the same.
- The Guardian initially appears in the game’s first act, contacting the player character through dreams to warn them about the Absolute, and encourage the use of illithid powers.
- Interactions with the Guardian mainly happen during dream sequences and are influenced by the player’s choices in embracing or avoiding illithid powers.
While character creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a complicated process to get through, one step in particular is less confusing than it might seem – the Guardian. Developed by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 shares many aspects with the developer’s previous games in the Divinity: Original Sin series, such as the ability to choose between playing a preset Origin character with their own unique story, or a fully customized one. However, like previous Baldur’s Gate games, and unlike Divinity, the mechanics of Baldur’s Gate 3 replicate those of tabletop Dungeons & Dragons very closely, with BG3 specifically emulating the fifth edition of DnD.
As with most RPGs of its scale, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a comprehensive character creation process, allowing players to freely choose their character’s race, class, skills, attributes, background, and appearance. With so many options available, character creation can easily take up the majority of a player’s first session with the game, as even decisions choosing an Origin hero in Baldur’s Gate 3 demand careful consideration. Even after players are done creating their characters, however, there’s one additional hurdle to cross before the game truly starts, as players will be asked to create and customize a character to serve as their so-called Guardian.
How Creating a Guardian Works in Baldur’s Gate 3
Guardian creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 can be confusing to first-time players, as the game offers little explanation as to who the Guardian is or what their role in the game’s story will be – and with most of the same race and appearance options (besides Dragonborn) available for Guardian creation, it’s entirely possible for new players to overthink their options. Fortunately, however, Guardian creation in Baldur’s Gate 3 is mainly cosmetic – their race and appearance will have practically no impact on their role in the game’s story. Instead, other decisions made during gameplay will affect how the Guardian acts.
Who The Guardian Is In Baldur’s Gate 3
The Guardian is an intentionally mysterious character in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it may take decently long time for players to see their first appearance in the game’s story. They initially appear in the game’s first act, contacting the player character through their dreams to warn them of the mysterious Absolute, one of BG3‘s overarching villains, and to encourage them to use the illithid powers afforded to them by the mind flayer tadpole implanted in their head. From then on, players may hear their Guardian speak when they miss an attack or if an enemy succeeds on a saving throw in battle, encouraging the use of illithid abilities.
Importantly, early encounters with the Guardian will only happen when players take a long rest at the camp, and may vary for each playthrough depending on how fast players progress through the story and how many times they make use of illithid checks in dialogue. After the first dream encounter, players will gain access to the illithid powers menu, which will allow them to use extra mind flayer tadpoles found in the world to gain unique abilities and passive effects. Notably, the Guardian pushes for players to embrace the illithid powers, bidding them to seek out more mind flayer tadpoles and use them to enhance their abilities.
Story-wise, the Guardian’s exact identity and motivations are kept vague and mysterious until much later in the game, with the Guardian claiming that they are simply another adventurer with their own mind flayer tadpole. Taking different dialogue options while speaking to the Guardian, as well as deciding to lean into or away from using illithid powers, will have an effect on how the dream sequences with the Guardian play out. Notably, each character in a multiplayer playthrough of the game will have to create their own Guardian, and will each have individual, private dream sequences with them, and tadpole-infested companion characters like Shadowheart will also have dialogue about them.
How The Guardian Plays Into BG3’s Story
Despite being an unavoidable part of character creation, however, the Guardian’s role in the story will remain the same regardless of which of Baldur’s Gate 3‘s races players choose for their Guardians, or any other details about their creation. A player character’s relationship with their Guardian will develop in the story depending on their interactions in dream sequences, how much they choose to embrace their illithid powers, and their choices in other parts of the game’s story, with the Guardian’s player-chosen race, appearance, and voice serving mostly as cosmetic options.
Interestingly, the Guardian has also gone through some significant changes from the game’s early access period – before the full release of the game, players were instead prompted to create a character that they “dreamed of” and were “attracted to,” and some of the associated dream sequences leaned towards being more overtly romantic. In the full release, the Guardian is instead painted as more of a mysterious benefactor, being the one to rescue the player characters from the mind flayer pod and nautiloid crash at the beginning of the game, as well as protecting them from transforming completely into a mind flayer.
As players progress through the story, the Guardian will slowly reveal more about their part in the conflict, the nature of the mind flayer tadpoles, and information about the Absolute. Notably, as any tadpole-infected companion characters will also make contact with a Guardian in their own dreams, players will gain the opportunity to convince other party members to embrace their illithid powers as well, allowing them to use mind flayer tadpoles to give companion characters the same illithid powers that players can access. The exact identity of the Guardian, however, is one of BG3‘s biggest mysteries, and isn’t fully revealed until some of the later parts of the game.
Although the Guardian is a major part of game’s story, and one of its most compelling mysteries, the story around the character doesn’t change depending on choices that are made in character creation. Instead, interactions with the Guardian mostly revolve around the dream sequences that happen during long rests, and whether the player chooses to develop their illithid powers through the use of mind flayer tadpoles. So, though it might seem like a major choice, players are free to customize their Guardian however they would like in Baldur’s Gate 3.
