Co-op Characters Permanently Locked to Host’s Party in Baldur’s Gate 3: Bug or Intended?
Several gamers of Baldur’s Gate 3 have raised concerns on forums about a situation where co-op characters become permanently locked to the host’s party. This means that when the host is offline, the other players cannot interact with these characters or have AI companions. It is uncertain whether this is a bug or an intended feature, but if you encounter this issue, we’ve gathered information to help you navigate it.
What to Do If You Can’t Remove Your Friend’s Characters
Image: PC Invasion
During an ongoing campaign, when a friend joins your game, they must create a custom character. However, even when your friend leaves the game, their custom character remains in the party and cannot be removed, ever. This poses a significant problem as main quests often require these characters, and you can no longer invite AI companions. Unfortunately, co-op characters seem to be permanently locked to the host’s party.
Similarly, if someone joins your campaign as a companion, they are also locked into your party like a custom character. This means you cannot interact with them to bench them later on. Additionally, joining a session in progress as a companion is not possible, even if they are benched at the camp. You can only select a companion from a new multiplayer game; loading a single-player save won’t work.
Related: How to romance all companions in Baldur’s Gate 3
This issue also affects the origin characters, such as Astarion. If your friends choose any of the origin characters at the start of a new campaign, those characters will be permanently locked to the party. You won’t be able to interact with them at the camp unless you’re playing in multiplayer mode, and removing them from the party won’t be an option.
If you encounter this issue, you have two options to attempt a “fix.” The first option is to restart your campaign and start as a solo character again. However, some players have had success by loading a quick save or manual save from before their friends joined, reverting the game to a solo campaign.
Image: PC Invasion
This potential bug has been exploited by some malicious players to grief others. To prevent unwanted individuals from joining your game and purposely causing this issue, ensure that your Online Visibility is set to Closed, Invitation Only, or Friends Only. You can adjust this setting in the in-game settings menu. Simply go to the Gameplay tab and locate the Default Online Settings section.
Author’s Note: I wrote this guide while playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Steam Deck.