Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback CHARACTER CREATION: Detailed thoughts

NOTE: I just want to say that overall I am enjoying EA a lot, and look forward to the improvements coming over the next few months. I played a little bit of DOS, but fell out of it, mostly due to trying to play on console. I think BG3 will receive a lot of unfair comparisons to it, but there a couple I do want to make. I do not think they are the same game, and I vastly prefer BG3.

The positives:

- Hairstyles: Most RPG games like this have terrible hairstyles. Absolutely awful. I love Dragon Age a lot, but they got some ugly hair in that game. I want to emphasize that I do like the current hair options a lot. I hope that more will be offered in the future. I would especially like to see some longer braided hairstyles, or longer styles in general, especially for male appearance (I need that long elf hair).

- Preset Faces: I'll get more into the negatives below, but I do think that the existing preset faces are very nice, and rendered beautifully. I definitely get an immediate sense of this being... a person. I don't know how to describe it.

- Skin/Hair/Eye Colors: I'm happy with the large variety of coloring options I have for skin/eyes/hair, etc. It is a little limited, but overall I feel like I am able to accomplish what I want with the options available. I wish there was a whiter option for the hair - still looks a little yellow/blonde.

Overall, it is beautiful. Beard textures could use some work, but overall even the hair looks like actual... hair. That's nice.


The negatives:

- Missing customization options: I think this is due to EA and being very early in, but it is very clear that some basic customization options are missing - such as:
Scars: very surprised to find there are no scars/scarring options for the face/body, especially in a D&D game
Limited makeup options: The only makeup options affect the eyes. We need makeup for cheeks and lips too.
More sliders/preset option: Faces for sure, but also in terms of height and body type. More muscular, skinnier, fatter, tall, short - FFXIV is an example of a character creator that did this decently. Sliders would be ideal, but some preset options would be fine as well. Let me make my short elf.

More Beard/Hair options: The existing hairstyles are very nice, but again, would like to see more! Mostly though, the beard options are pretty lacking. The texture is a little weird - but the biggest complaint I have is lack of stubble. It's either full beard or baby face. Would like to see more beard/stubble options.

Preset Faces: While the preset faces are gorgeous, they are extremely limited. I would highly, highly suggest two things... either adding in sliders so we can make custom faces and get creative in addition to the preset faces, or add more granular preset options - being able to choose between different preset lips, eyes, eyebrows, that kinda thing. The preset faces are very pretty, but let us create something ugly! If we want! Or, just something unique. If you stick with the preset faces only, we need a looooooot more options. I'm talkin like 20-30 per character/appearance combination. At least.

Overall

The one comparison I am going to make to DOS/DOS2 is this - realize that your target audience for BG3 is a little different. This game is very much targeted at people in the the DND/TTRPG community, and people who have played the previous BG1/BG2 games. Either group is very familiar with d&d or very familiar with the BG games in general. Both of these groups of people have one major expectation coming into a BG3 game - we want to create our D&D characters. That is the first priority.

I am getting the sense that character creation has been ham-stringed due to the time being spent on the set origin characters. And while I do think they will probably end up being neat, and I will eventually play as one or two of them, my first priority is gonna be to create my d&d characters. The limited set of preset faces is the biggest hindrance to this, and will be an even bigger issue in Multiplayer when you look at your friend that has the exact same face you do. It was advertised that there would be 150+ faces - and I don't know if that's overall across all races/appearances, or if they just haven't been released yet, but getting to choose between only 5-6 faces and that's your entire character customization available beyond coloring... that's very disappointing.

I urge you to focus on the custom character options in addition to the set characters you are developing. I'm hoping this will be expanded on as this is EA. As mentioned above, I would suggest at the very least adding a lot more preset faces to choose from, and at best sliders. As a compromise, more granular preset options. That way people who want something simple can just choose a preset face, and those who want to get more into the nitty gritty can do so. Everyone wins!

I am very much enjoying actually playing the game (beyond the bugs I knew I'd run into due to the nature of EA) but having a very samey character that doesn't represent what I tried to create at all is a big bummer.

Thanks for reading!

This 100% please listen larian.

Yes, I want to play my character and to have an interesting experience and not to be soft-forced to select a pre-created character because they have story and background which my character lacks.
That already annoyed me in other games.

For the character creation I kinda expect that more faces and option will be added in the course, so I don't complain much yet.

Yeah, I'm hoping a lot of this is already in the works... I'd love to know more details on what they are planning for the Character Creator beyond Races/Classes

I fully agree with this.

+1

+1

more dwarven braided beards please

I really hope they let us edit individual features.

"The one comparison I am going to make to DOS/DOS2 is this - realize that your target audience for BG3 is a little different. This game is very much targeted at people in the the DND/TTRPG community, and people who have played the previous BG1/BG2 games. Either group is very familiar with d&d or very familiar with the BG games in general. Both of these groups of people have one major expectation coming into a BG3 game - we want to create our D&D characters. That is the first priority."

^
This 100%, I have been playing D&D and TTRPG's for a long time. I was too young for the release of BG1 and BG2 but not with BG3 and one thing I am looking forward to is playing this game with my buddies with the characters as we've envisioned them. Adding that aspect of RP only helps to signal to BG3 fans that you understand their needs and wants that much more.

I couldn't agree more with capfoxtrot on giving us sliders to shape the major aspects of our characters. D&D is about enveloping this vision of your character into the fantasy of the story the DM is weaving. It gives us the freedoms to be whoever we want. Body shape, muscle density, height, weight, facial features, and age/wrinkles, along with more body markings such as moles/scars/freckles are all things that will add to that integral feeling D&D offers.

Agree with all the above. In addition, given Rpgs are often a blend between raw stats and aesthetics it would be GREAT to include:

1. Thayan head tattoos {ones that cover your scalp}
2. Racially themed clothing and armor styles at character creation.
3. Basic build models if sliders aren't making it into the game, the body model looks fine on casters and rogues but martial characters need more bulk.

In terms of the wider aesthetics whilst the armor models in EA are great, particularly the npc sets ir would be amazing if there was a wider availability of armor models to accommodate races not in the core realms setting.

Ie there is no drow armor in game and if I want to dress my githyanki like a githyanki I have to steal the NPCs armor in the opening act.

I had the following issue with the character creation:
It wasn't clear that by clicking "onward", I would skip nearly the whole character creation instead of just going to the next step.

I HATE the male Preset Faces!
I hope it is possible to choose the mouth, ears, nose, jaw, eyes etc..
I would also like more hairstyles options, most male hair is uninteresting.

New customization options would also be cool.
Ex: Tiefling tail options, Body/Weight, More clothing options, variations, colors etc..

Yes, some extent of facial deformation would be nice, eventually, as would adding body shapes.

saaame. that messed me up a couple times

Pls Larian this is beatiful, and your amazing game deserve more on character creation

This! All of this. I would especially appreciate the sliders for height and body. Spending my whole life short and smol I’ve finally embraced this unfortunate aspect and love making short characters. It really immerses me into games. It at all possible, please please!
Hubs asks to please give skinny-plump sliders. Let him make a dad bod! While he is understanding that his Gith is supposed to look slim- he’d have that grateful mist in his eyes if he could let Lary the Gith dash around healing with a dad pouch.

This post SO much.

I love spending hours upon hours on character customization, and what made this worse is the jab Larian sent to the community for the 'Community Created Character' being boring. Truthfully I stick to playing half-elf male/female because they have the prettier presets. The other presets and faces are boring or unappealing to me. If the community is creating something boring it means that we're not being given a wide range of options to explore our created. I would LOVE sliders. I would LOVE more character presets. I want to see varying eye shapes, nose shapes, mouth shapes, and body types. The hair does look amazing, keep it up!

There is Drow armor in the game. At least one wearable that I've found so far. There's a certain place I haven't yet visited but I expect to find more there.

Hair styles are great!

Some faces look so similar I'm wondering why they added both.

The start of character creation is weird with a high elf female cleric already created. I'd like to start from scratch without any pre-selections.

The order of selections can be improved too. Most important choices first i.e. race and gender > class > details.

I agree that some racially themed clothing would be cool for starting characters, but actually, both Drow Armour (Leather) and Githyanki half-plate (not Lae'zel's) is currently available in the game area