Here's how to Dominate an NPC Permanently in Baldur's Gate 3 using Polymorph and Dominate Beast:
I did not come up with this trick. I was taught it by speedrunners and I'm not sure where they learned it (I wish I did to give credit). It's been around for a very long time though it was never that well known. A lot of people keep asking how it works and I don't know if I explain it well enough in my video as it wasn't really the main goal so I'll explain it here:
Step 1: Be at least level 7 - Have Polymorph ready on any or your characters, and Dominate beast MUST be prepared on a dismissable companion. Not your party leader Tav character.
Step 2: Find a target - Your target must be able to be polymorphed, and dominated are the only requirements. Seems to work on nearly everyone. To make it easy to pull off you should isolate them. For example eliminate their nearby allies so they are the only target. You need to have combat end ASAP to be able to pull this off, and if they are a lone dominated target combat will immediatley drop.
Step 3 Execute it: Polymorph your target. Cast dominate beast on them using a companion. Go to camp as a party, and then I recommend entering turn based mode. You need to reach the companion before the domination and polymorph expire. If either one times out early the trick fails. Dismiss your companion from your party while the sheep and them are standing in camp. Next just wait until the Polymorph and Domination expire off the target. You will notice the polymorphed character disapear afterwards. This is a good thing. After the spells expired you add the companion back into your party. Hit leave camp, and the character should now be attatched permanently as a follower.
Step 4: Assuming you have the target controllable now you can Save the game and Re-load to fix their skillbar being empty and allow them to follow you into future acts.
NOTES: This is clearly not intended so there are some slight annoyances with it mainly you can never remove that companion from your UI afterwards. Even in death they will be stuck to your character as a follower. You can not reverse this process either. Be careful you don't dominate someone and risk breaking the game. Mizora nearly broke mine as she randomly disapeared and would crash the game if I talked to her in certain areas. If you're using this in honor mode be very careful. I am not responsible for your bricked games! Otherwise enjoy. It's pretty fun to control them without mods! Traders are fun targets as you can give them scrolls to use and pickpocket them for infinite gold whenever you feel like it. Long resting restores all spell slots etc for the followers + heals them to full. You cannot revive a lost ally.
Have fun!
