Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Player Character Backstory

So as we all know, in good old D&D one of the most important things about a character is their backstory, it defines how they behave, how to roleplay them, their class and pretty much everything about the character. Sadly, no matter how many pages you fill with detailed stories your characters went through that led them to be an adventurer, Baldur's Gate 3 or any D&D based video cannot interact with the character's background you've written.

Personally I really liked the mini-quests addition in patch 5, the one that gives you a little something for doing something your character would do. This made it feel meaningful when you fought the goblin pack outside the druid's grove, and all members of the party attempting to get in survived, for example.

This is what a game needs to feel like D&D. The roleplay, the need to behave like your character would, this what connects the player deeper into the game and makes the player feel involved.

I have a suggestion for a method to deploy this. You know those boxes in every character sheet that no one ever fills? The ones titled: Flaws, Bonds, Ideals, Personality Traits and Allies and Organizations. Well those boxes are the key for Baldur's Gate 3 to enable further roleplaying in the game. You see, all of these boxes are an instance of one's behavior and place in the world.

My suggestion?
In the character creation, add these boxes for players to choose from a pre-written list (perhaps from the player's handbook) of ideals, flaws etc. while in game, reward a player for acting according to their personality traits. For example a character with the flaw "power hungry" might be rewarded in some form for abusing the power of the parasites.
Furthermore, the option to add bonds and organizations makes the character a more distinct part of the world, this can be expressed by special dialog options, for example by being part of the Zhentarim or flaming fist.
One last thing, another method to perform this change is by allowing the player to choose an alignment. There are already dialog options for different alignments, and allowing the player to choose one will set in stone the character's behavior.

Anything like this needs to be optional. It is already bad enough that we don't get a custom background option. I and many others do not want to be stuck with all these limits to create our characters. The reason a lot of people do not fill those boxes is because none of the given options fit the character concept.

For alignment, hard disagree. The character's behaviour should never be set in stone by this. Alignment is fluid and 5e thankfully has realized this. For this game, if it is even mentioned on the character sheet it should just be there for flavour.

We've already had some good alignment debates, suffice to say, the concept of fluid alignment doesn't really track for me.

As for the 'importance' of a backstory, I would be careful here lest you have a party of level 1 characters with, what you might call elaborate histories full of feats and experiences that make no sense for someone struggling to tangle with some goblins.

Another less flattering D&D stereotype is the party of newbies with really try-hard backstories that throw a fit when they faceplant in the innkeeper's basement.

We already do, Larian calls them "Origin Characters"

I would love the Master of Disguise Rogue Background with the ability to change your appearance throughout the game or at least have 1 persona you could change into as a special ability. So, you could create 2 custom character appearances at character creation, one for your main appearance and one for your alternate ego.

My wife played this where she was an wood elf rogue arcane trickster named Diadell who was a master of disguise. Her alternate ego was a human named Anna the Barmaid. Now that was fun.

But, more to the point of the OP, yeah, I miss being able to even just write in my own backstory onto my character. I really wanted to do that with all of them. I know no one else will see it, but it was always fun to have.

I think one of the things that really bugs me about Larian's stance on D&D 5e Tabletop not being able to be translated into a video game format is that when my wife and daughter and I play D&D we use an app on Google Play Store. It guides you through character creation, has every race or just about, every background including custom ones, has every rule built in, a ton of regular items including all starter equipment, helps you with level ups so you don't have to do all the brain work yourself, manages spells, manages HP... I mean, it does it all, and it's really easy to use. It even has the background options like flaws and stuff.

So when I heard BG3 was going to be based on D&D 5e, I thought to myself, "Surely if a simple app can manage characters that well so that I can actually create and manage 6 characters myself with no problem at all, SURELY BG3 with all its budget and such can pretty much take that app and put it into the game and it'd be awesome with graphically rendered characters and settings and enemies using the stats from the app, because all monsters are in the app too, and just put all that data to video game characters. Then tweak the rules a bit, because yes, some things wouldn't really work well in a video game, I get that, and you've got an awesome D&D 5e game.

And by rules that wouldn't work, I mean things like spells that help you detect weather patterns and jazz... you know... things that wouldn't really have any value in a video game. I don't mean rules like height advantage and backstab and all those homebrew things they developed.

So, ahem... sorry... back to the topic... Why the heck not give people the option to add backgrounds and such? I mean, seriously. It doesn't have to be mandatory, just like in the app. You don't want to put in a background, then don't. Just skip that tab and move on. But for those who want a background, why not include a simple background section that players can reference now and then just for fun to see what kind of personality and background concepts they developed in case they've forgotten? Plus, it helps players remember their concept for their character more if they write it down when they create the character.

Anyway... Character creation is simple right now, and I get that for those who don't play D&D, they don't necessarily want a ton of options. They just want quick and easy and move on. But you've got to give the hardcore D&D fans what they love too. Even if I have to click a button to open a separate window or tab or something, at least let me have the option to spend some serious time on my character if I want to.

I also kinda struggle with curent backgrounds, since none of them fits my character entirely. :-/
I really hope we get more, but even if, some "custom" background would be mostly appreciated. ^_^

And i think your idea with checking boxes would be perfect for that kind of thing ...
You get some options and simply checks what your character like (read as: What inspires him) ...

You know, like when you want to play some character like Gray Fox, or Robin Hood, or dunno there is plenty honorable thieves in literature, pick your favorite.
So you want to create character that do have Crimminal history, but is not inspired with breaking every and any law that there is, killing inocents and betraying anyone s/he meet ... then you would choose Crimminal Background ... set of (dunno how many) Boxes would apprear and you would pick:
Thievery: ✓
Escaping from Prison: ✓
Hoarding gold: ✓
Helping the poor: ✓
Murder: X
Killing inocents: X
etc.
And then, since you un-checked two Inspiration sources, you would get option to pick them from other backgrounds.
This way we would be able to create litteraly any set of prefferences for our characters we would like. ^_^

The only problem i see here is that we would get exact tutorial for gaining our inspiration. :-/
It have its own magic, when you do something bcs its someting you just would do with that character ... and sudently you are inspired, this could kill that charm.

I like the idea to be able to choose life targets for the character potentially based on the background chosen like suggested by RagnarokCzD.

Get a reward if you reach a milestone on the road to reach these targets.
Get a malus if you do something opposite to your targets.

On top of that, it is probably a prerequesite for generic dialogs with NPC/custom NPC to get romance, henchmen, friendship, etc

@RagnarokCzD you mean not every human in the game is Baldurian?(sp) and want to actually check a box that you are not?!? What will you do with dialog, etc.... sarcasm/off

Seriously though, a few check boxes for my characters would be nice that have an effect on dialog, etc... Blank back story box is also nice... That way my murder hobo barbarian can live up to his ideal past

What? O_o
I believe if you dont want to play Baldurian all you need to do is not choosing dialogue choices marked with [BALDURIAN]. O_o

I was talking here about background you are choosing in game ...
This: https://www.dndbeyond.com/backgrounds

Great link! We are agreeing.

I agree it’s just a flavor thing IMO and I already don’t pick Baldurian. However, in the info/character sheet it says you are Baldurian and who knows what kind of things are happening or will happen in the background due to that. Who knows what kind of scripts or scripted events are locked to that keyword. This is EA and I am fairly confident this will be looked at later…

I’d love if they’d implement some kind of personal quest in character creation, similar to what Guild Wars 2 did. It could be something as simple as “Why were you in Baldur’s Gate” with a few options like:
* I was searching for the parents I never met
* I was looking for a powerful artifact
* I was seeking revenge
* I was running from the law

Think about how much it would add at camp if the companions actually asked you about your quest and you could divulge as little or as much as you want. And it would be so exciting if a random NPC mentioned “I met your father once” and gave you a clue to further your personal quest. Maybe you even start the game with some kind of letter in your inventory that provides your first clue.

Of course each quest would need at least 4 outcomes/paths in case you are playing co-op and everyone picks the same one. So for instance in one scenario, it’s a happy reunion with your parents, in another you find out they’re dead, in a third they are evil and maybe worshipping the Absolute, and in a fourth they are some kind of royalty or powerful beings.

Essentially it would just require some additional NPC dialogue and maybe one or two exclusive battles, but would add a lot of flavor to the PC and make them feel more like real characters.

I dont like this ...
Dont get me wrong it sounds good for some prepared PC, but not for fully custom person. :-/
They would never be able to include all options people would want and therefore theese things are better to keep blank and let players to "act like its there" even if its actualy not. :-/

I’d rather have some kind of in-game mission/objective for my character than for them for to be a completely blank slate. Right now the PC feels sort of lifeless. All the companions have something they are working towards, but the PC is just kind of there.

If you didn’t want to pursue their personal quest, you could just ignore it or maybe even have an option to turn it off. I also think you could make them general enough that they fit a variety of character types.

Tbh, they could just have both.

I am one of the players similar to Zarna above, and the blanker (? :D) my character can get, the better. I do everything related to background PnP style just for my own sake, even if it has no impact on the game whatsoever. c: But I understand very well why people would love the little bit of extra flavor of being able to choose some more background options. It really should not be that difficult for Larian IFFF they implemented these kinds of options to let a player leave the stuff blank or they could just leave an empty text box for the custom background-writers - similar to what they do in DnD Beyond, tons of suggestions based on the traits you've picked - but the possibility to fill the blanks should you prefer it that way.

Cool idea, I would much rather have more implementation and more options, world reactivity for PC than have origin characters at all. Mine will always stay as companions only.

I don't think rewarding characters for being static and 1-dimensional great.

What is in-character for Luke at the beginning of A New Hope is different from what is in-character at the end of Return of the Jedi.

If you have a character who values money, but also values friendships, what is in-character for them when they have to choose between the two?

It would be better to reward players according to their priorities.

If a merc type will defend the grove for a price, they should be rewarded with gold.

If a goody-two-shoes does it just because it is the right thing to do, they should be rewarded with gratitude and praise, and be done a good turn in kind at some point in Act 3.

The reward for playing a power-hungry character should be power, regardless of any checkboxes during character creation.