Larian Talks Romance & Companions in New Divinity – Reddit AMA October 2026

So, sadly, no matter how many times I rewatch it (because watching it once is simply not enough), the Divinity reveal trailer hasn’t told us much about our party or the companions. It’s understandable; Larian has been saying that the production is going full steam, but there is simply too much to do yet to talk about details of this kind. That being said, we the obsessed ones will collect any crumbs we may!

And so, after Larian Studios announced a Reddit AMA event on Twitter a day ago, we already have a lovely thread to comb through for any hints and details.

Perhaps to discover some valuable life advice…

Well, who needs that anyway when we get to ask the devs about Companion interactions and Romance!

Companions: Bonds Beyond the Player

We will open this section up right with the set of key responses on the topic — the ones that address the common criticism of the community that the attention of the party members in Baldur’s Gate 3 revolved a bit too much on the player, even when the game played around with spicy rivalries and funny banter:

u/dunkitay: With each game you’ve improved in writing a story and narrative for your games. What are some of the things you would like to improve narrative wise compared to your previous entries?

Kevin Vanord | Senior Writer:

Companion relationships. Firstly, to have more interaction between companions – not just with more and better banter, but to have them develop deeper relationships with each other, just as they do with players. Secondly, to ramp up player friendship and romance more subtly, so relationship building feels natural.

u/KF-Sigurd: One of the criticisms of BG3 writing is that the party members don’t have as much of a relationship between each other or talk to each other as much as other RPGs. Is that something you’re considering when creating Divinity?

Adam Smith | Writing Director:

Yeah, the goal is to have more interactions between party members, and it won’t always just be talking.

Huh, uh… I suppose we can save some of the guesses on “won’t always just be talking” for the next section of this post. But, that’s quite exciting to hear, isn’t it? One of the best aspects of Larian Games were the characters that feel vibrantly distinct and belong in the world in their own unique ways.

If our companions form meaningful connections without the need of our supervisory gaze, this will give them much more of a feeling of agency, and a space for more of the fun stories and banter to catch up on later!

By the way, just a reassurance from the devs themselves that we aren’t crazy in obsessing over the topic:

u/Dazzling-Ad-3848: Will divinity have a similar approach to companions as previous titles? A big highlight for me was the different storylines for companions in bg3 and of course the romancing!

Adam Smith | Writing Director:

They’re a hugely important part of the game and I already love some of them dearly. We have big ambitions for them and we’re already complicating their lives, and our own, with the narrative design.

Hugely important, you hear them?! I am interested in a hugely important part of the game! So what if I travel back to the campsite multiple times just to trigger the character events?

Speaking of which, the devs do seem to be holding back on something when asked about the Baldur’s Gate 3 camp serving as the interaction space between the player and our band of chaotic hooligans:

u/Kylar5: In BG3 I really enjoyed the aspect of ending the day and going into the camp to interact with your companions (not so much for refilling the spell slots). Will there be something similar in Divinity?

Adam Smith | Writing Director:

We’ll give you space to build your relationships with the companions. I won’t go into too much detail here.

And, yes, you won’t have to refill any spell slots 😀

The options could be compelling. Perhaps the events on the road in the style of Dragon Age: Origins? New cool HQs, some extensive base of operations? (Also, yes, I am purposefully ignoring the topic of spell slots. Harrumph!)

And, to close off this section, more of a general question about NPCs, but one that will be fantastic for the experience with our companions:

u/GinPatch: Will interactions with NPC be mo-capped like BG3? One of my fav things was how every NPC felt unique to interact with

Greg Lidstone | Head of Animation:

Me too! In fact, we just built 4 new vo/performance capture volumes with more in the works

Between the spectacular writing and the endless dialogue trees & their resolutions, you know we will struggle to put this thing down every evening, once again. Curse you for your narrative masterpieces!

Romance: Aiming for Even More Depth

Now let’s discuss some of the juicy bits. (Remember — “hugely important”!) First, let’s revisit what Kevin Vanord, the Senior Writer has told us in the previous section:

Kevin Vanord | Senior Writer:

[…] Secondly, to ramp up player friendship and romance more subtly, so relationship building feels natural.

The rest of the discussion was about the companions forming more meaningful bonds with each other without the intervention from the player, so the topic remains the organic interactions and immersion. If you are a fan of romance in RPGs you know perfectly well that, depending on what character you go after and how much you focus on the main story, your romance plotline might end up feeling like it’s progressing a bit too fast once you come back to catch up on it.

Yes, the subtlety and complex reactions might mean it’s easier to mess things up, but Larian Studios would be one of the best teams to make a rewarding experience out of that. Perhaps that will just mean more time spent in the early bonding stage where friendship blossoms more deeply, and I will personally take that any day.

And, it sounds like the devs are attempting to give more attention to the romance plotlines in general:

u/Frequent_Working_142: BG3 had a fantastic romance that lasted through most of the three acts. Are you doubling down on this ? Is there an even greater focus on it ?

Adam Smith | Writing Director:

When we’re designing and writing the romances, the goal is to make them memorable, and to have them feel like a natural part of a character’s personality and relationship with the player. That means we discover the way to tell the romances as we develop the companions and their stories, alongside character artists, cinematic artists, animators, performance directors, actors and other developers. I hope we’ll manage to push deeper into the depth and complexity of romance, love and some other (not always positive!) emotions. And I’m very excited to see what our cinematics team cook up.

What did I say about Larian being the team to do something meaningful with the complexity, folks? I bet you were vibrating in your chairs reading that particular response (or maybe it just looks that way from my perspective because I am).

Reassuringly, the devs also touched on another topic that is of so much importance to us all–…

… ah, erm. Well, let’s just leave them to it for now, shall we?

Though, if you’re wondering if Larian intends to keep pushing the envelope, then the answer is always yes. Here’s something directly from Swen Vincke:

And, well, if the devs don’t manage to deliver on the content we want to see, it sounds like the community will be able to contribute their creations once again! Though, perhaps not right on release.

u/offlinegamepass: Will there be mod support?

Artem Titov | Head of Gameplay:

Yes. We will be providing modding tools, but we haven’t decided yet if this will be for release or not

Regardless, we know it will be a blast. For now, folks, sadly just the crumbs. We will watch out for those and try to keep you updated!