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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a big game and early on, the direction you choose to move in can slow down your progress towards recruiting a well-balanced party. Of course, you will inevitably swing back around, but if you are desperate for a Barbarian, you might have to wait tens of hours before you find someone who fits that bill.
Thankfully, there is a solution – Hirelings. These happy chappies are not quite as well hidden as story companions and are specifically designed to fit into your party and fill roles you need filling. They have drawbacks of course, so in this guide we are going to go over everything you need to know about them.
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How To Unlock Hirelings In Baldur’s Gate 3
Unlocking Hirelings is really quite simple. Firstly, you need to unlock Withers. This undead fellow can be found in the ruins right at the start of the game (after the tutorial). It’s filled with bandits for the most part, although plenty of undead will spawn once you get to Withers.
Withers himself is also undead, although he is far more sentient than the corpses you have been fighting recently. He spins some riddles and wanders off. He then appears in your Camp, and this is where his powers come in handy. Talk to Withers in camp and he should offer to respec your character, revive the dead, and eventually, hire Hirelings.
It only costs 100g to hire Hirelings, which is quite the steal since Baldur’s Gate 3 will have you flush with cash pretty early on if you are an avid explorer.
Benefits Of Hirelings
Hirelings are almost identical to your story-based companions and serve a similar combat role. These guys have very little in terms of personality or impact on the narrative (none, even), but what they do offer is access to a class or race you might not currently be flush with due to story progression.
They level up like regular companions, need to be equipped like them, and heck will be thrown into the fires of battle at the earliest opportunity. They are, for all intents and purposes, party members.
Here’s a list of all the Hirelings on offer:
- Eldra Luthrinn – Dwarf Barbarian
- Brinna Brightsong – Halfling Bard
- Zenith Feur’sel – High Elf Cleric
- Danton – Tiefling Druid
- Varanna Sunblossom – Half-Elf Fighter
- Sina’zith – Githyanki Monk
- Kerz – Half-Orc Paladin
- Ver’yll Wenkiir – Drow Ranger
- Maddala Deadeye – Human Rogue
- Jacelyn – Half-Elf Sorcerer
- Kree Derryck – Duergar Warlock
- Sir Fuzzalump – Gnome Wizard
The Downsides
There are some downsides to Hirelings, with the first being they reduce the number of interesting interactions between your party and the world. Hirelings don’t really do much outside of fighting and dying so you are losing out on some character development by bringing them.
You also can’t customise them as much as you might hope. Sure you can give them gear and dictate how they level up but you can’t make a custom character. Their class, race, name, and gender are all locked. It would have been nice to run with 3 Hirelings of your own design, but alas, that is not possible.
Finally, they are a bit redundant. Withers will happily change the class of any companion you’ve found, so even if you lacked a Paladin, you could turn anyone into a Paladin to fill that gap whilst maintaining the character dialogue that comes with story companions.
Overall they are a neat addition, but not one we used all too often.
That’s all we have for Baldur’s Gate 3 for now. Be sure to check out our other guides and lists for more Baldur’s Gate content.
