Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Custom character feels lackluster compared to origin

I was really looking forward to BG3 but now, after over 24 hours in game I deleted all my savegames and am contemplating whether to start over and give it another shot or just put it in my "DONE" category on Steam. I know 24 hours is nothing but its enough to see some obvious problems with how the game unfolds.

I first started a Half-Orc Eldritch Knight, wanted to experience the game from a Half-Orc point of view. I soon realized playing a Bardlock would be more my style and restarted the game after a few hours. Sadly I basically got 0 reactions to being a Half-Orc which was disappointing. I expected at least a little racism towards my character but hey, I was just a few hours in.

My second character was a Half-Drow Bardlock. Combat gameplay was great but character interaction was again lackluster. There's no character interaction uniqueness to a Half-Orc Fighter or Half-Drow Bard. Basically everything plays out the same regardless of race or class. Neither get anything unique storywise.

Now we come to the origin characters. Wow those have some great stories. Its almost like the developers intended origin characters to be the main character and custom characters are an afterthought.

For example if you wanna play Warlock why would you play anything other than Wyll? He does everything a custom character would and he gets an interesting storyline. My custom Half-Drow Bardlock will never get a chance to interact with his patron, it's like the patron doesn't even exist while Wyll has a entire questline and cutsceens.

Custom characters just feel like sidecharacters there to observe the real protagonists of the game, origin characters.

I understand the time it goes into developing an entire storyline but I really wish more would have been done with custom characters and less with origin. A few simple quests related to your background or class would have fixed this issue. For instance if you choose a Warlock have him interact with his patron, a few short quests is enough just to differ him from a Fighter. Add on top of that a few short quests related to each background and you have a custom character that doesn't feel like a sidekick to origins.

I know this was already discussed but this is the Suggestion and Feedback forum so I'll make my voice heard. As far as I can tell this was also a problem with Divinity 2 so maybe its something Larian should look into when designing their next RPG or just make a DLC that addresses this issue.





On a sidenote I really enjoy Wylls story but I hate the way he looks, especially his hair so if anyone knows a way for me to change his appearance it would be greatly appreciated. I think its ridiculous I can completely change a origin characters class into something that doesn't fit into their storyline but can't change something as simple as a haircut. As far as I can tell mods cause frequent crashes so maybe the location of character models so I can edit the line that defines his hair?

I've been using mods since day one and my game only ever crashed twice (and one of those times was when I manually deleted patch 3 files to fix a quest broken by said patch). That is to say that mods can cause problems, but for the most part they are not game breaking, especially if it's simple cosmetic stuff. Just make sure to have a separate save before installing a mod in case it does mess up your game somehow.

As for the character origin, the dark urge has a fully customisable appearance and its own story.

Personally I much prefer custom origin because I want to be able to come up with a backstory myself, but I see how for some people it may seem lacking. My first playthrough was on a tiefling sorcerer and quite a few quests felt personal. My current character is a human fighter and while I do seem to get fewer race/class specific dialogue choices, it still feels different to my sorc because I play her as a character with a very different mindset.

Why would I want to play Wyll?

I play sorc/wiz too, why would I play Gale?

For me personally, they have interesting story but I don't vibe with their story at all. And even if I do, I'd still play my own custom character.

Unlike in DOS2, BG3 offers more unique dialogue choices that reflect my character/class so that my custom character doesn't feel same-y as my other custom characters.

So yes, I disagree with you, but I kinda understand where you came from.

@TP : Did you get as far as the druid grove ? In my second playthrough as a drow I get plenty remarks concerning my origin, on first meeting different people at the grove. (Zevlor, Nettie, Kargha all comment on my race, in different ways.)
After the first acquaintce is made , my race is no longer an issue, but there are some Drow specific reactions during conversation. Not major story-altering options of course, but I get reminded of my race regularly.

Yes, I'm looking into the Dark Urge and it will probably be my next character. Although as much as I loved Baldur's Gate 2 I was hoping we'll move on from the whole children of Bhaal theme.

As for coming up with a backstory myself I agree and if I could come up with one here and make it fit into the world somehow that would be great but unfortunately we don't even have the option to write it down in the game as we had in Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and other D&D games. My fantasy for my first character was to be a Half-Orc Eldritch Knight, born out of a marriage of one of the sons of the Orc king of the Dark Arrows and the daughter of a wealthy trader from Silverymoon. His martial part comes from his Orcish blood while his magic comes from his mother who was also a Wizard and made sure he gets a good education in Silverymoon.

Well, that fantasy was crushed fast with the [Baldurian] tag in game. Combine it with the fact that all the custom male voices in character creation sound like Larry from accounting and it made my Half-Orc unplayable.

If they're going to make custom characters an empty shell then at least make it a completely empty shell, don't add tags that disable custom backstories.


Well, for Wyll the answer would be the ability to interact with his patron. Something no other Warlock in the game can't do. I'm not asking for much, maybe two quests unique to Warlock where we interact with a Archfey or Cthulhu. It doesn't have to be a long quest line. Same for other classes, just a few quests to add unique flavor to them and maybe a extra cutscreen at the end depending on choices made.


Yes, I did. And other than someone calling me half-breed if I remember the insult correctly the game played out exactly the same as it did for my Half-Orc. This again wouldn't be hard to fix. Maybe make Nettie refuse Drows and Half-Drows as soon as they enter, it wouldn't chance much storywise since but it would add flavor to our character. Maybe even deny entry to the inner circle to such characters until they rescue the druid, we'd still get multiple options to finish Act 1 but with a different experience than playing other races.

I understand your problem, but beeing fair, your problem most probably is due to choosing Halforc and Halfelf (Drow). I think those races dont have any special interactions because they are not so special in the first place.

Playing a full Drow however, gives a hell amount of unique dialouges and Interactions, especially in Act I.

Beeing a Tiefling also has some, like beeing able to read Astarions Scars.

A Halfdrow however is still half human and there is very little reason for npc's to give credit for that

If I remember correctly there was previous feedback about DoS2 being origin focused leaving custom pretty lackluster. They already took this feedback into consideration and tried giving customs more. Origins currently can't change race or background and probably other stuff. Dialog goes by tags so you'll run into lines for race/class/background/deity and originating from Baldur's gate which you can not change. They have a good amount of companions but if it bothers you, you can always get Hirelings early on after first dungeon or create multiple custom characters.

Truthfully I'd recommend just picking something you like and sticking with it at least till end of act 1. I put roughly 80 hours into just that act and there is tons of content well worth the time.

I do understand your Feeling Bro.. i get it indeed there are some races when yu play as Taav that are not that Great like others point here in some posts..
but i Only Run into the feeling yu get with one origin companion.. and i actually avoid him since then..
and i really felt like the game wanted him to be the Main Protagonist and i was just his Sideckick and that really made me hate this feeling so much that like i said..
i never will ever save him or bring him back into my Tale. Never. i will only use him if im playing as Him.. and the Dude was Gale..
From all the others Origin companions i never felt like the Game Was Stealing my Role.. but with him i felt this way and i really hate it.
(there Tale most of then actually dosent have a Real Stake in the stuff Only 3 of then Have for Real if yu really stop to think about it.. the rest is just there for the Ride.. if yu just Forget then or kill then the game will even run Better actually becouse have plenty of then bugged in terms of quest.)

Could be. Still, while I haven't tried other races as far as I can tell from other discussions they're still lackluster compared to origin characters. All they get is a extra option here and there.


Yeah, I considered this, creating a full custom party like in Icewind Dale but I'd really like to see origin character stories. It's not that I have a problem with origin characters having their own story, I very much enjoy them. I have a problem with the lack of Tavs. For example in Baldur's Gate 2 almost all companions had a story with quests and an ending but so did Tav, he wasn't just a sidekick.


I feel the same way about Wyll. Next to him there's no point in playing any other Warlock since he's the only one that has the most important part of being a Warlock, interaction with your patron.

I think it would have been nice if they had started the game somewhat more like a DND tabletop game for lvl 1. Not immediately in the nautiloid after tadpole insertion, but begin with a short intro in Baldur's gate city. Where you, as a beginning adventurer can stroll about, buy your first equipment and chat with some NPC's, like in chapter 3. The intro could vary somewhat depending on your background (thief, soldier or sage would visit different environments.) It would be a nice start for your character. Then the nautiloid kidnaps you and you switch to the actual beginning. Another nice thing is that you could find the items you bought in the intro back on the nautiloid.

Yes, I love this idea. Maybe give one quest related to your class and one to your background in the prologue and one more for each in Act 3. That way Tav would be more than an observer in someone else's story.

I agree, it was my first time playing as a drow too and that fact was very much felt in the game. Perhaps with half-orcs really does not happen because they were not as drow in the early access, and they are still banalnano did not have time to write so much in the story. I'm curious as to how it is with drowborn.

If you compare the custom character (the wizard) and the original character (Gale the wizard), I completely agree that the former will lose out to the latter due to not as well written story and assigned role. Perhaps the creators didn't intend for the party to have two of the same class. And I'd like to see how such combinations could interact depending on the development of the relationship. Compete for the right to become the best in their class and place in the storyline (in the case of wizards to fight for Mistra's favour, for example). I wonder how the sorcerers could react if the patrons are different e.g. one has a Bestia and the other a Fairy, how they would be pitted against each other by their diametrically opposed patrons. Or how would both sorcerers with the same type of patron unite for the fulfilment of a common goal....

But I honestly have a different opinion. The original character is not as interesting to play as a custom character. I went through the game as Astarion and I was very disappointed by the lack of unique lines in the dialogues (except for one thing I noticed - Baldurian). When I chose Astarion, I expected it to be like in DOS2 when I played as Fane. Fane and the other characters had a bunch of unique lines in dialogue. And that makes sense, because these characters are pre-designed. Why isn't this in BG 3? After all, it fits what I think of as the "unique character stories" rule?