Baldur's Gate 3 investigator says Larian "neutered" one of the RPG's major factions, stopping its NPCs from using their "most important" D&D class feature

Some of Baldur's Gate 3's trickier fights might be so difficult because the NPC allies fighting alongside you have been bugged since launch, with one analyst suggesting that Larian deliberately "neutered" almost an entire faction. 

If you, like me, found that Baldur's Gate 3 Act 2 is a much less pleasant place to be than Act 1, the chances are high that you, like me, struggled with some of its battles. On my first playthrough, there were plenty of difficult encounters, but one of the hardest was the assault on Moonrise Tower. With Jaheira and the Harpers by my side, I thought I stood a pretty good chance, but in the end it took multiple attempts and some cheesy strategy to make it through.

As it turns out, that's because any fights where you've got the Harpers by your side aren't exactly fair. As pointed out in a lengthy Reddit post, user NCBlizzard alleges that 22 out of the 25 Harpers that appear in Act 2 are affected by a peculiar piece of code that dramatically hinders their ability to help out in a fight.

That piece of code is Extra_Attack_Blocked. Traditionally, it appears when a character is affected by a condition that limits the number of actions they're able to take in a single turn - if a character that can cast multiple attacks is hit by the Slow spell, for instance, they'll gain an 'Extra_Attack_Blocked' tag in the game's backend.

NCBlizzard points out, however, that Larian has actively applied that block to "almost every single Harper and Fist in Act 2." 22 Harpers and six members of the Flaming Fist have had their extra attacks permanently shut off. This would be a pretty major hindrance even for a well-rounded faction, but 18 of the 25 Harpers you meet throughout the game's second act are martial classes. That means that for the Fighters and Rangers that make up much of the Harper ranks, NCBlizzard argues that the Extra Attack ability - which they should have access to at their levels -  is "quite literally the most important power spike available."