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Is that evil goddess worshiper the only option for me if I want a healer companion? And is that githyanki the only tank for me to pick up?

Last edited by IanTheWizard; 25/09/20 04:25 AM.
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More companions will be added further into early access.

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Originally Posted by Warlocke
More companions will be added further into early access.

Do you mean further into the storyline or the game development? I hope there will be more options at the beginning of the storyline.

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Originally Posted by IanTheWizard
Originally Posted by Warlocke
More companions will be added further into early access.

Do you mean further into the storyline or the game development? I hope there will be more options at the beginning of the storyline.


Further into the development process. It seems like all of the companions will be introduced during the tutorial in the abyss and then you will be able to find them again shortly after.

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Originally Posted by Warlocke
Originally Posted by IanTheWizard
Originally Posted by Warlocke
More companions will be added further into early access.

Do you mean further into the storyline or the game development? I hope there will be more options at the beginning of the storyline.


Further into the development process. It seems like all of the companions will be introduced during the tutorial in the abyss and then you will be able to find them again shortly after.

Thank you. smile

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Please don't take these as definitive confirmations since these are just some statements I vaguely remember reading a long time ago, but I believe that it was mentioned in some old Q&A that each writer on the team was writing one companion each.
If I recall correctly there are 12(?) writers on the team which also coincides with the fact that the D&D 5e PHB has 12 classes.

Based on these two things I'll make the bold assumption that there'll be 12 (or at least around 12) companions, so to answer your question: yes, there'll be more companions added later on.

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Originally Posted by Bukke
Please don't take these as definitive confirmations since these are just some statements I vaguely remember reading a long time ago, but I believe that it was mentioned in some old Q&A that each writer on the team was writing one companion each.
If I recall correctly there are 12(?) writers on the team which also coincides with the fact that the D&D 5e PHB has 12 classes.

Based on these two things I'll make the bold assumption that there'll be 12 (or at least around 12) companions, so to answer your question: yes, there'll be more companions added later on.


That would be very cool to see 12 or more companions and being able to have a fully fledged origin character of each class able to join your party. Looking forward to playing EA first as a Lawful Good Fighter and seeing how these arguably more neutral and evil aligned characters respond!



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I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/09/20 05:14 PM.

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.

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Originally Posted by Bukke
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.


Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/09/20 05:32 PM.

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I personally love creating my own characters, but there are some people who actually prefer to play predesigned characters. It seems odd to me but to each their own.

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Originally Posted by Bukke
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.


Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because of what you explain. But here it looks they're trying to lead custom characters to another level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else ?


I think that custom characters are going to be more fleshed out than they were in D:OS2, but they're still not going to be at the level of an origin character because they have a more singular set of goals and are scripted as such. There would be no way for anyone to take into account every possible aspect of a person's personality and then add in countless options to account for the nuance in every single decision that they would make from a human perspective.

Sure, you can inject yourself into a custom character and fill in the gaps in your mind, but it's far easier to see a predetermined character work through their issues in a way that's formatted to make sense because they're scripted.


I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought.

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Originally Posted by Bukke
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.


Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?


I could be mistaken but I think that the origin characters not only have backgrounds but backgrounds built into the game. If you create a custom character your background can only be built into the game as much as they allow in character creation (like, race/class/background/etc). Origin characters could already know NPC's in the game. Let's take Laezel for example, she might know someone or something in the game where another githyanki, like a custom character, doesn't. Origin characters might also have events that happen to only them, events you would never see without that specific origin character. Like Astarion; we saw a scene with his vampire lord but if Astarion wasn't in the party we would never have that scene and following dialogue/gameplay. Even if they allow custom vampire spawns, it's likely any custom vampire spawn wouldn't trigger that event because they aren't Astarion.

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That's exactly why I don't like origin characters.

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Originally Posted by qhristoff
That's exactly why I don't like origin characters.



ok.

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Originally Posted by qhristoff
That's exactly why I don't like origin characters.

LOL, that's exactly why i like origin characters

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Originally Posted by deathidge
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Originally Posted by Bukke
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.


Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?


I could be mistaken but I think that the origin characters not only have backgrounds but backgrounds built into the game. If you create a custom character your background can only be built into the game as much as they allow in character creation (like, race/class/background/etc). Origin characters could already know NPC's in the game. Let's take Laezel for example, she might know someone or something in the game where another githyanki, like a custom character, doesn't. Origin characters might also have events that happen to only them, events you would never see without that specific origin character. Like Astarion; we saw a scene with his vampire lord but if Astarion wasn't in the party we would never have that scene and following dialogue/gameplay. Even if they allow custom vampire spawns, it's likely any custom vampire spawn wouldn't trigger that event because they aren't Astarion.


And what's the problem in your exemple if Lae'zel or (the awfull) Astarion aren't Origin characters ?
You can still have this kind of background and interractions if they're in your party but NOT playable characters...

Correct me again if I'm wrong but I don't really think playing Sebille as your main character in DoS2 is TOTALLY different than playing with her in your party... right ?
I mean, are you going to replay BG3 way more times than DoS2 because there will be more "origin" main characters ?

The number of companion is what matters for the replay value but do you really care about the ability to play them as a main character ?

I'd rather like to know Larian is working on custom voices and custom background for custom characters than spend LOTS of money so every companions have their voices in every dialogs related to every quests/dialogs (main or side) in the game.

Origin character is just the fact that you can play them and I can't see why this is absolutely necessary to really improve their story or background...
Players still enjoy BG1/2. Players enjoy P:K, Players enjoy Wasteland, Players enjoy Dragon Age, Players Enjoy PoE, players enjoy ...
I guess Origin characters wouldn't be a part of DoS's success if Larian was able to create interresting custom characters, which is their goal for BG3.

More than that : I think Origin characters is a true limitation for them because they're stuck in their story telling : everyone HAS to start the story at the same place and HAS to have to exact same main problem/quest.

Originally Posted by Warlocke
I personally love creating my own characters, but there are some people who actually prefer to play predesigned characters. It seems odd to me but to each their own.


Predesigned characters doesn't need to be origin characters.
I.E there are predesigned characters in BG1/2 and I don't think anyone find the main character's story inconsistent in those games, especially in BG2 where a (too short) side quest is related to your class.

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/09/20 07:31 PM.

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Originally Posted by Bukke
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.


Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?

I'll be optimistic and assume the lack of character-specific dialogue options are due to the game still being under development. If I were you I wouldn't expect character-specific choices for every NPC interaction, but I'm almost certainly they'll be there in one way or another.

And yes, you're correct about DOS2's custom characters being criticised for feeling lackluster in comparison to the origin character which all had their own unique interactions, personal quests etc.
As you already said it seems like Larian took these complaints to heart and are trying to put a greater emphasis on custom characters (likely through extensive use of choices unique to your race/class/background and so on) so I'm under the impression the origin characters mostly are there for two purposes
a) To act as an option to play 'as' a companion NPC for those interested in that
b) To act as a sort of 'premade character' template for indecisive people, players not necessarily familiar with 5'e character building and so on.

At the end of the day the origin character system was a DOS2 implementation meant to be a creative spin on traditional RPG companions. I'm assuming they liked the results or the reception since the system is getting reused for BG3. Since they seem to be cautious about not leaving custom playermade characters in the shade I think the origin characters mostly just are playable characters for the reasons I listed. Personally I'll be using a custom character for my first playthrough.

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I hope there are more companions. Will be very boring with only 5.

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They already said there`ll be more after the EA

https://youtu.be/qboLvZ5YQSg


I kinda like the origin characters mechanic. Specifically I like to have both options.

It´s like being able to play the Witcher with Geralt, a character with a past, a story, personality and connections to the world and enjoy the run and then you can replay the game again being a dwarf, or a sorceress, an elven rebel or a Rose knight instead of the witcher.





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