Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Create 1 Character vs. Create 4 Characters

The original premise given in the Kickstarter was that you create only ONE character, but could have a party of 4. The other three characters would be from the pool of companions who break out of Fort Joy along with the main character.

Some people expressed a desire to be able to create all 4 characters themselves. So let's take a look at the pros and cons of those two positions.


Create One Character only
Pros

• Creates a stronger focus on that character. ("This is MY character.)
• Allows for additional party members to have hidden agendas and origins.
• Allows for Companions to have specific dialogue for them only, like what Bairdotr and Jahan had in DOS 1.

Cons

• Less of a sense of connection with the additional PC's.
• Hidden agendas of companions could interfere with the main character's goal.

*****


Create All Four Characters only
Pros

• Makes all characters seem as important as the first one
• Picking their origins may allow for better party cohesion of goals (or not, depending on preference)
• Better synergies between party members?

Cons

• Creating all party members means picking their origins, thus revealing their personal goals.
• Makes all companion dialogue generic based on their origins and race, no unique dialogue.

*****

EDIT: Part of the issue depends on what Larian decides the role of the companions in the prison break should be: full fledged characters with personalities and unique dialogue, or a collection of racial, origin, and ability score modifiers.



While I can understand why someone would want to create all 4 characters, I would hate being forced to create all 4 characters. In my view, that would take away too much of what would make the game special.

What do other people think?

Or all not important.
I remember when I played Legend of Grimrock or even Eye of the Beholder back in the days.
There was no "Me" so I didn't had any feeling for any of them. I felt more like "a being" controlling them.

I prefer the "create 1 character" way as a gamer.
Even in DOS, my companions were always the last to get gears and/or attentions. I was keeping them alive because I needed them and was not really interested by what they were saying.
For me, there is always that poor 4th guy who always gets the junks of the other.

For story driven games like DOS, creating 1 character in single player mode makes the most sense to me. I like the old "create a party" games like the Bard's Tale series and SSI gold box from the past, but that was more about tactical balance than it was about the narrative. NWN2 was able to blend the two to some extent in Storm of Zehir and that was pretty interesting, but it doesn't really match the vision I'm seeing for DOS2.

So for DOS, I would say create 1 character per player (multiplayer should allow each real player the opportunity to create a character).

Add a "randomize button" to the creation screen and this issue will be solved

That depends on what Larian decides the role of the companions in the prison break should be: full fledged characters with personalities, or a collection of racial, origin, and ability score modifiers.

"randomize" does not give your other characters a personality. It would be much more immersive to those players who play... ehm... not-multiplayer if premade companions would interject their own opinions now and then. If we unlock the Love&Hate Stretchgoal they should automatically respond out of their pool of dialogue options.

My guess would be that they make it like Pillars of Eternity.
There is one char and this is your story. You will find companions with their own personality and goals, but you can create the entire group if you like.

In D:OS1 you found 4 companions and each one had a personality and a quest. But you could als buy henchman if you like.

The question will be if you can create all chars at the beginning or if you create one char and you can hire others later (like in D:OS1 or PoE)

In multiplayer, everybody creates his own char. Their backgrounds and goals are hidden from each other because each player creates his char seperately. ( Well, the hiding gets difficult with a split screen.)

Please no random chars.
Like in D:OS1 there should be some premade chars to choose from, but you can modify them however you like. I would suggest something like arcanum. You can chose between some premade chars with their own race, look, skills and back story or you create a completely new char. Unlike arcanum the backstory of the premade chars should actually matter in D:OS2. Maybe you can have the option to automatically level up the premade chars like in arcanum (for new players who have no experience with character creation). Of course, the default option should be that you build your char yourself.

They can do both. Give us some companion NPC's, AND make a guild where we can just custom make an NPC to join the team.

I prefer making one character and adding companions who have their own backgrounds and stories that I have to learn about. Making the whole team always ends up with some meta-built super squad that becomes just a bore to play.

I personally only plan on playing multiplayer, and I would hate for 3/4 of my party to be forced to play one out of a set of premade characters instead of their own character, and I am certain I am far from alone with this opinion. The option for each player to create their own character definitely needs to be there.

On the other side of the spectrum, I can absolutely see how getting companions with unknown motives instead of a whole team that you designed yourself would make the singleplayer experience more enjoyable (unless you're REALLY into roleplaying), so that option is surely needed as well.

I think a good solution could be to ask, at the character creation step, how many characters you want to create (or in the multiplayer case, ask each player if they want to create their character), and then just fill in the "non-created" slots with companion NPCs. That way, should a player want to control a pre-made character in multiplayer, they can, and should a player want to design their entire team in singleplayer, that's also a possibility. Everybody wins.

You should mention this post is only relevant for single player, in which case I totally prefer creating 1 character FOR THE FIRST PLAYTHROUGH, as long as there is a real promise of interacting and interesting stories linked to companions.
However, for subsequent playthroughs, I'd prefer to be able to create my characters. There is a real community dedicated to optimization and speed running, or any other kind of "emerging" challenges. One Rat Farmer playthrough in Legend of Grimrock, perfectly balanced team in Baldur's gate, improbable party of warriors only in PoE... This is fun, and can provide great replayability to a game.
But really, in BG1 and 2 you could already create every character right from the start and just decline other companions. But you could also do the game the standard way and create only the main char.
I do not think this would be very hard to implement.

As far as MP goes, because I had a feeling the whole "create a char or play the host's companion" issue was about Multiplayer, it's very simple : everyone should be able to create their own character, and I can't even see that as up to discussion. The matter of revealing the origin story is inexistant, as the coop partners just don't have to tell you. Likewise, the matter of unique dialogue won't matter, since everyone is free to choose his own dialogue option.



Absolutely. Give this man a cookie.