2023 has been the year of great sequels. From Remnant 2 to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, these sequels have outshined their predecessors. And the recent addition to that list is Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3. Released on August 3, 2023 (although it has been in Early Access since 2020), the game has been met with overwhelming praise from both critics and fans. Aside from that, there are some in-game bugs that have been particularly frustrating for some players. One such bug is making the party members’ portrait black in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Out of the many games released this year, Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the few that is fairly well optimized and free of major issues. However, bugs like these are common occurrences and, as such, can be dealt with fairly easily. So, here are some workarounds that might help you with resolving the “black party member portrait” bug in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Black Party Member Portrait Bug: Is there any fix yet
For now, you will have to make do with the following workarounds since Larian has yet to release an official fix for this bug. That said, here is a list of workarounds that can fix this issue for good:
Restart BG3 –
A simple and quick restart of Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best troubleshooting steps for most issues and bugs. While we don’t guarantee that the bug will be completely taken care of, you should still restart the game and check whether the issue gets fixed itself.
Use Mask of the Shapeshifter –
Some players were able to resolve this bug by shapeshifting. As such, the Mask of the Shapeshifter is a great tool for that. Simply use it and shapeshift yourself or the character whose portrait is in black into one of the many disguises available. After doing so, take a look at the portrait and check if the issue persists.
Change your class/Respec through Necromancer Withers –
Besides shapeshifting, players also found that changing the class or respecing the character fixed the issue. Don’t worry about losing your progress, though. After respecing, you will just have your character level returned to 1. To change a character’s class or respec them, you can go and talk to Undead Necromancer Wither. Pay him 100 gold, and you will be able to pick a new class.
Level up your character –
Well, you can just continue leveling up your character by completing various quests and exploring the in-game world to eventually get rid of this bug. This has been stated as an effective workaround by many for this bug, so make sure to try it as well.
Repair the game –
Sometimes, game issues are tied to missing or corrupted files. Thankfully, Steam offers a quick and easy way to deal with this type of problem. Simply open Steam and then navigate to Library. Once you are there, right-click on Baldur’s Gate 3 and select Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files.
Try switching APIs –
Another workaround that you can try is switching between APIs. Players have found that the bug is more frequent when using the Vulkan API, so you could just switch to DirectX. Additionally, those who are already using DirectX are recommended to use Vulkan.
Update the game –
So far, Baldur’s Gate 3 has received multiple hotfixes that have resolved a lot of bugs and errors in the game. In case you haven’t updated the game since its launch, we suggest you do so as soon as possible. After updating the game, check if the issue persists.
Load a previous save –
It might be that your current run is simply bugged. The best thing to do here is to load a previous save and then check if the bug occurs.
If nothing else works, you can either wait for an official fix or contact support. Anyway, you can check out DigiStatement for more such guides on Baldur’s Gate 3 and other CRPG games. Also, read: Baldur’s Gate 3 Unable to Swap Party Member Issue: Is there any fix yet
