Of the six Origin characters, four were available in the EA period. Only Beast and Fane were not. I'm only in Act 3, but I can clearly see why now:
The writers do not appear to have had any clear ideas what to do with Beast. I've been playing with a party of Beast (Avatar), Red Prince, Lhose, and Sebille and while I don't know the specifics of Ifan and Fane's story arcs in detail, I've heard that people consider them to be the most story-heavy characters in the game, if not downright mandatory for understanding the story.
Each character has a main quest, and each has a little trail of breadcrumbs leading them from place to place. Beast has about three breadcrumbs over three acts.
His first breadcrumb is Lohar in Driftwood. Lohar wants Beast to deal with Mordus in Wrecker's Cave. So you do that, you go to the cave and deal with Mordus, and find the letter from Justinia, and then Lohar gives you a letter with no names attached and tells you to go to Arx. Mordus's quest is early Act 2, and Arx is Act 4. So for the majority of Act 2 and 3, Beast has no breadcrumbs.
Beast- Meet with Lohar in Driftwood, then
- deal with Mordus in Wrecker's Cave, then
- find Justinia's Letter, then
- report back to Lohar, then
- get told to go to Arx, then
- ??? (Not there yet)
Contrast this with the Red Prince and Sebille.
The Red Prince- The Red Prince has to talk with Stingtail, then
- the Lizard in Amadia's sanctuary
- a Lizard in the Driftwood Undertavern, then
- The Paladin leader at the Bridgehead, then
- A spirit in the Stonegarden graveyard, then
- Sadha at the camp, then
- A War Owl on the Vengeance, then
- Head of the House of Shadows on Nameless Isle, then
- ??? (Not there yet)
Sebille- Stingtail in Fort Joy, then
- Griff in Fort Joy, then
- Zaleskar just outside of Fort Joy, then
- nothing much at all for 10 levels and two dozen hours, then
- kill Roost Anlon, then
- talk with Sahelia, then
- find the Head of the House of Shadows on Nameless Isle,
- or do Sahelia's request, then
- ??? (Not there yet)
Lhose is the other one whose story is pretty disconnected from the others, but even then she has some breadcrumbs which progress faster.
Lhose- Sahelia in Fort Joy, then
- Malady on the Lady Vengeance, then
- Jahan in Cloisterwood, then
- The Advocate on Bloodmoon Island, then
- Bloodmoon Archives, then
- the Corrupted Tree, then
- Back to Jahan, then
- Jahan's warning at the end of Act 2/start of Act 3, then
- ??? (Not there yet)
Beast just doesn't seem to get a lot to do in the story, and no I don't think "he'll have more to do in Act 4" means anything because everyone probably has something to do in Act 4. There are long stretches of nothing happening. Heck, after Driftwood town and Wrecker's Cove, I don't think I've seen more than a handful of [BEAST] tags in dialogue.
It almost feels like "well, I guess we should have some kind of Dwarf origin, if we have to." It's disappointing.
