Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Companions: Origin vs Non-origin

If I'm reading into it correctly, there seems to be a line that divides playable companions into two groups: The tadpoled ones which are also playable as origin characters, and the rest of them. For the sake of simplicity I'll call them Origin and Non-origin.

Naturally this makes me wonder if Origin companions will enjoy an elevated status in terms of story content, relevance, depth, reactivity and overall sense of importance to the plot. Now of course I'm fully an advocate of everyone playing with whatever companions they most enjoy regardless of how integral they are to the story. After all the point is to have fun, whether you prefer Shadowheart and her intriguing artefact or a silent and non-judgemental mercenary. That said, I suppose the goal of this thread is to ponder the question: "If I enjoy an Origin and an Non-origin companion equally much and can't decide which to take, will I get more out of the Origin?"

Origin companions seem to have a lot more going for them. Without going into spoiler territory, their tadpoles and dream visits indicate that their ties to the main storyline are very strong. Each of them also has an overarching personal goal, as well as scenes and dialogue options only accessible when choosing them as your main character. I believe Sven himself said that playing through an Origin character's story after you've already experienced them as a companion will provide much more insight into their behaviour. All of this implies that Origin companions will have a lot of depth and even if we see their actions from a 3rd person perspective, we can assume there's more complexity behind the scenes.

So far this doesn't seem to be the case for Non-origin companions. They get no special powers, dream visits or additional recognition. At this time it's probably early to speak of their goals, but from what we know so far,
In conclusion it seems to me that playing with Origin companions will make for a more involved playthrough, while Non-origin companions are to be seen more as likeable sidekicks rather than fully realized companions. I like the Non-origin characters we've seen so far and I'd love to be wrong. Is my impression right or not, or is it too early to tell?

Actually, I think it has to do with who the Protagonist is.

That is to say;

Tav can progress and has the tadpole thing, but Gale has his magic item consumption. Astarion can Eat people, Urge can murder folks and Wyll has his pact powers.
But, you can only ever 'upgrade one', depending who you play as. That's how I think it works.

Minsc actually has a goal in the whole story but I think, that is spoiler territory.

I assume NO-companions are just as well made as O-companions. The main differences, as I see it, is that the former have less content because they're recruited later, whereas the latter are more or less available from the start. And of course they also have more reactivity since theoretically they can be the main character and thus needs it. I don't see why the NOs can't/won't have quest lines or reactivity of their own just because there's less of it.

Do share please (in spoiler tags, of course)

That's what I remembered too. Although those two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

As such, I expect companions to have much less content overall on account of being late party additions. I do hope, though, that once they joint they will be just as interactable as the rest of the party.

Hopefully they have great quests as I was planning on my party being Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc! I hope we don’t get them too late in the story! Halsin should be in Act 1 at least.

In a video when Jaheira and Minsc were announced as companions, a writer said Jaheira had an in-depth quest.😊

Halsin has his Shadow Curse quest and also might be a werebear!

One thing I was wondering is if non-origin companions can be used in conversations like origin companions can. If not and if I use the non-origin companions, that would solve my problem of companions stealing dialogue that starts automatically!

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That's what I remembered too. Although those two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.[/quote]

Yeah, those two can in fact go together.

ETA: spoiler tag. I forget everyone doesn't know this stuff like the back of their hand. Still getting used to transitioning to full release and an influx of folks who are coming in new to the game. Apologies.

I did put that info in spoilers for a reason, you know. Since the information is not that wide spread.

If we maintain a psychic link with Boo, we will finally learn his real name is

No magic is strong enough to make Minsc to serve an evil being. Even if that was the case, Boo wouldnt let him anyway.

I added a spoiler tag to my post, per fylimar's suggestion.

Thank you, I changed my post too to not quote the spoilery stuff

Interestingly, Sven said in an interview that the way he recommends playing the game is non-origin (and not Dark Urge) so you can see the origins in third person. Then on a replay, you can see what they were thinking at various beats along the story path (or note the difference between normal and depraved playthrough if you opt for Dark Urge on a replay).

i think totoro is right.

but everyone seems a bit misunderstand non-origin meaning here. our customized player character -- tav, is a non-origin character, and is the core among of the origin characcters.

just one point that tav isn't the third person perspective , actually tav is the first-person perspective.

and the views of the origin characters are just replay, via legend npcs' views to revisit bg3.