Baldur’s Gate 3: The Most Frustrating NPCs That Drive Players Up the Wall

Baldur’s Gate 3 is packed with memorable NPCs, but not all memories are fond ones. While plenty of characters earn a permanent spot in a player’s camp or heart, others make them roll their eyes so hard they can practically see their own brain. Some NPCs aren’t exactly evil—they’re just exhausting, reckless, or stubborn beyond belief. Whether they’re making terrible decisions, refusing to learn from past mistakes, or simply being a massive headache, these are the characters that grind a player’s gears the most as they travel through Faerûn.

NPC	First Encounter	Main Frustration
Naaber	Act Three – Carm’s Garms	Follows players around while trying every class
Society of Brilliance	Act One / Act Three	Takes Githyanki morality far too literally
Aradin	Act One – Emerald Grove gate	Abandons allies and never learns
Kagha	Act One – Emerald Grove	Endangers refugees and a child
Valeria	Act Three – Sharess’ Caress	Writes off murders and blames refugees
Wulbren Bongle	Act Two – Moonrise Towers prison	Obsessed with revenge at any cost
Mizora	Act One – camp	Won’t leave Wyll or the player alone
Zanner Toobin	Act Three – Steel Watch Foundry	Painfully difficult to keep alive

Naaber – The Wannabe Adventurer Who Won’t Take a Hint

First encountered in Act Three inside Carm’s Garms, Naaber is a self-proclaimed adventurer who latches onto the player like a lost puppy. He follows them around the shop and then through Wyrm’s Crossing until someone finally agrees to talk to him. Sure, Naaber is meant to be comic relief, but comedy doesn’t always land when a character is also a relentless nuisance. He cycles through different classes with the confidence of someone who has no clue what he’s doing, and players can’t help feeling a little sorry for him even while their patience wears thin.

The real kicker is that Naaber isn’t even a new phenomenon. Every previous Baldur’s Gate title had an ancestor of Naaber designed to irritate players, which means this annoying streak runs in the family. Some players get so fed up that they simply kill him—and, hilariously, nobody in Wyrm’s Crossing seems to care. Talk about adding insult to injury.

The Society of Brilliance – Too Literal for Their Own Good

Choosing just one member of the Society of Brilliance as frustrating is tough because most of them share the blame depending on player choices. The group gave Lady Esther the job of obtaining a Githyanki egg from a creche, hoping to raise the child to be peaceful and moral. On paper it sounds noble, but in practice it goes sideways fast. The child, named Ptaris after hatching, took the idea of morality completely literally and decided the Society of Brilliance was immoral—then killed its members.

Blurg and Omeluum are usually spared from player frustration because they keep to themselves, but if the player handed over the Githyanki egg in Act One, those two still share the same grim fate. The whole mess stems from the Society not understanding that Githyanki, even newborns, take things at face value. They bit off more than they could chew, and the result was a disaster entirely of their own making.

Aradin – A Walking Red Flag From Day One

Aradin is often one of the first non-companion NPCs a player meets, and first impressions are about as bad as they get. When the party encounters him by the gates of the Emerald Grove, he has already abandoned Halsin during a goblin attack. He cares about himself first, last, and always. If he survives the encounter, he shows his true colors by being rude to the player and openly racist toward Tieflings.

To make matters worse, Aradin never learns from his own mistakes. Once the player reveals the truth about the Nightsong in Act Three, Aradin shows up at camp looking for a fight—only to end up dead in most playthroughs. It’s a fate he arguably deserves, but also one that could have been avoided if he had even an ounce of common sense. This guy is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Kagha – The Druid Who Lost the Plot

Druids are supposed to protect life, but Kagha seems to have skipped that lesson. After Halsin goes missing, she names herself First Druid and immediately sets her sights on banishing the Tiefling refugees from the Grove. If she gets her way, those refugees are essentially doomed to be slaughtered by hostile goblins outside the gates.

Kagha can be shown the error of her ways, especially if players uncover the Shadow Druids hiding in the Grove, but that doesn’t erase how frustrating she is beforehand. Depending on player choices, she may even allow a frightened child to be killed by a snake. Her holier-than-thou attitude and willingness to be manipulated make her a thorn in the party’s side throughout Act One.

Valeria – The Celestial Detective With Blinders On

Act Three introduces Valeria, a floating celestial elephant and self-proclaimed detective who couldn’t find a clue if it smacked her in the trunk. Instead of investigating a murdered priest properly, she would rather pin the crime on a refugee seeking shelter. She ignores the bigger pattern of murders happening across Baldur’s Gate, which forces the player to do the real detective work.

Valeria eventually gets herself captured, requiring yet another rescue. To her credit, if players hand over enough evidence before that point, she can recognize her mistakes and reopen the case. Still, her initial laziness and refusal to connect the dots make her one of the most exasperating characters in the city. She really can’t see the forest for the trees.

Wulbren Bongle – Obsession Over Gratitude

Wulbren Bongle, leader of the Ironhand Gnomes, is rescued from Moonrise Towers prison in Act Two, and the thanks players receive is basically nonexistent. He quickly proves himself ungrateful and cruel, especially toward Barcus, a fellow Deep Gnome who risked everything to find him.

By Act Three, Wulbren asks the player to blow up a factory with innocent Gondian gnomes still inside. His obsession with making the Ironhand Gnomes famous has completely blinded him to basic decency. Wulbren can’t see past his own ambition, and he goes about achieving it in the worst possible way. Watching him refuse to listen is like dealing with a broken record—frustrating from start to finish.

Mizora – The Fiend Who Overstays Her Welcome

Mizora is the patron of Wyll, and she is not going anywhere quietly. Players meet her in camp during Act One, and she remains a presence for the whole adventure. The most frustrating part is that there’s no clean way to get rid of her. Even when players get the chance to kill her in Act Two, doing so risks dragging Wyll down to Avernus—so most people have to grit their teeth and let her live.

If players manage to break Mizora’s hold on Wyll, it still doesn’t end. She hangs around camp, taunts the party, and dares players to try killing her, knowing full well she’ll just disappear and come back later. Like a bad penny, she keeps turning up.

Zanner Toobin – The Gnome You Desperately Try to Keep Alive

Zanner Toobin is one of the Gondian gnomes held captive inside the Steel Watch Foundry in Act Three. He has been blinded by the Absolute’s followers, but he still tries to help the player destroy the factory that produces the Steel Watchers. His magic is useful, but keeping him alive during the ensuing fights is a full-time job.

Players often find themselves reloading saves over and over because Toobin or the other Gondians keep dying in the crossfire. His determination is admirable, but the stress of protecting him makes the entire sequence feel like pulling teeth. A no-win scenario with an NPC who insists on putting himself in danger is enough to make anyone throw in the towel.

Even with all the updates and discussions still buzzing around Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2026, these NPCs remain some of the most irritating characters in the game. They aren’t all villains, and a few can change for the better, but the path to that change is often paved with headaches. Still, that frustration is part of what makes the game so memorable—because nothing brings players together quite like complaining about the same annoying characters.