Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Multiplayer Discussion Question re: Origin NPCs in Co-op

Tried Googling on this, seaching Steam and here, and even asking about this in some relevant YouTube comments, but not having much luck getting a firm answer yet...

I've got a group of 4 that I'll be playing with, but one player in particular (let's call them "Jim") has extremely limited free/gaming time (young children). Given the length of the game, Jim doubts they will have enough time to do co-op with us and also do a single-player playthru.

With everyone planning to make custom characters, I'm concerned Jim will miss out on all of the Origin NPC-specific quests since most of them seem to require that NPC be in the party to trigger the dialog (e.g. Karlach confronting the paladins, Lae'zel speaking to someone at the druid grove about another Githyanki, etc).

Sooo, I was thinking that instead of creating a custom character at the start of the campaign, that maybe if I joined once the others have already spawned-in at the Nautiloid, the host could assign me one of the Origin NPCs instead.

If we went this route, would this allow me to swap between Origin NPCs while in-camp for purposes of bringing the appropriate one along for any given quest? Would that allow Jim to actually witness some of the Origin NPC plot-lines, or does a player controlling such an NPC pretty much disable any such interations? (Remember, I'm not planning to join during the initial character creation and select a specific Origin character as my PC, but joining afterwards so the host can assign me whatever NPC is currently in the party.)

Any insight into how this works would be greatly appreciated, I don't want Jim missing out, but if my plan wouldn't work anyway, then I'd just as soon create a custom character.

Thanks!

Not sure, you can test this by running the game twice and creating the appropriate characters. I think you have to go into the files and run the exe to have the game run twice.

Oh, good call, @fallenj!

I'm guessing this won't work then. I loaded up my single-player save from right before Karlach's paladin encounter, and connected 3 other instances via LAN connect.

On each of those other sessions, the player is greeted with the character creation screen, and the only option available to them is to create a custom character. ALL of the Origin NPCs show a padlock symbol with a mouse-over tip reading, "Not available when joining a running session."
Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wxqp...rlkey=jt9hepwgv2cfr08apxh0nl5b7&dl=0

Oh well, guess "Jim" will just have to miss out on the Origin NPC hijinx. Such is the sacrifice for doing one's part to ensure the continued existence of the human race...

EDIT: And yes, as is well-known, once a player leaves the party, their "Tav" remains in the save game. Glad I backed-up my save folder before trying this! ^_^;
Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4qd5...rlkey=90ejh2gdhgbrao1xaqw2q9y3g&dl=0

oh wow, that's a let down.

The concern I would have with this is it could break the origin character storyline.

@Zentu Well with the current setup it's a moot point. There isn't any way to pursue the Origin storylines because we can't add ANY of them to the party when it's a 4-player team.