Baldur’s Gate 3: How to change controllable companions in co-op

While playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with a friend, you’ll soon realize that certain players have control over different NPC party members. With two-player co-op, you can have two NPC companions, and with three friends playing at once, you can have one. But what if you want to switch who gets control over which party member? Let’s go over how to change controllable companions during a co-op Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough.

How to assign companions to players in Baldur’s Gate 3 multiplayer co-op

The game won’t tell you outright how to do this, but I can promise you it’s possible. How you can change your controllable companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 co-op is through the menu screen. While you’re in your multiplayer co-op game, any player can press the ‘Esc’ key, then select ‘Session‘.

In this Session screen, you can pick and choose which players have full control over specific NPC companions. You can only have four characters in one party, so as stated before, you’ll either have two or less companions available to control in co-op. You’re free to recruit every companion, but you’re still stuck to the max party size.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

To switch the controllable companions, just click the arrow buttons to swap them around. Each player has a column to fit any companion they can control. By control, I mean they will follow your own character around in Group mode, and they’re controllable in and out of combat. If that companion’s turn arrives in combat, only you can control them, not any of your friends.

Swapping out for a new companion works the same way as it does in single-player. Head to camp, tell your companion they should stay, then ask a new companion to join you. They should automatically assign to your control, and if they don’t, you now know how to fix that.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on Steam.