Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Art design for female characters

I don't see any reason why there can't be ugly characters alongside pretty ones, boobplate alongside purely functional shit.

Just make it possible to use a custom portrait so I can add my Luis Royo art :D and everyone who want "realistic" art can have that as well : )

Also I have a huge collection of art for my table top gaming, functional and sexy armor can absolutley be done, without resorting to the stupid "Aim Here" Cleavage.

Barbarians should be like Conan or Red Sonja. Fighters should have functional armor. Monk, Sorc and Wizard could be naked if they wish to.

Well now I want to play a nudist sorcerer in my next game. "Dammit, Krashnark! Put some pants on!"

In most of the D&D-based games i´ve played, the agile characters wearing nothing more than a few magic trinkets always ended having far more AC than the fighters with 120kg or plates and steel so I am eager to see how outrageous AC is going to get my future monk wearing only magical thongs.


I am pretty sure that there must be a Skyrim mod for that. Maybe they can port it.

Which actually makes more sense. Like how DAO's armor and defense mechanics work. Heavy armor doesn't make you harder to hit; it reduces the damage you take instead. If someone is hard to hit, it should be the high-DEX, lightly-equipped rogue. You should be easier to hit the more you are bogged down with armor, unless you are inhumanly strong. I don't know of a game that actually makes your character easier to hit the heavier armor they are equipped with, though. One of the things that "sounds dumb" in a video game, but actually makes sense.

Agreed. There is a very good mod conversion for IWD2 that does exactly that: the heavy armor provides damage resistance and light armour provides high ac (as in high chances of evade damage).

The To-hit roll in D&D has always been abstracted to mean a "damaging hit". In D&D terms a person in heavy armor is getting hit, but often not hard enough or in the right place to cause any damage to get through.

AC is a mechanical abstraction, it can mean anything from a blow glancing off at your armor, the enemy missing you, you dodgign your enemy, you parrying your enemy, or you simply toughing through the hit.

Now theres another thing that especialy third edition DnD players constantly rage at if its brought up: HP are also an abstraction. You dont actually get 20 fleshwounds before a kobolds tiny spear to the ankle finally kills you.
HP basically represent plot armor and grit.

So warrior types are not harder to hit, just harder to take down (they have more HP) and agile combatants (Monks, duelists, rogues, etc most of the time they have 150% more AC than heavily armored characters) are more adept to dodge damage but can take less punishment. Makes sense if you put it that way.

I still prefer the DR- based armor system of DAO, gothic or the old tabletop games Exaltado or Vampire: Mascarade.

I agree 100%, they should look at Star Trek Onlines character/bridge officer customization options which in my option are the best in video games.

That includes STO boob sliders and sliders for other features, face and body and uniforms. You can even customize the appearance of their space ships.

You can have a young buxom super model character or an old character with a pot belly, eye patch, and a scar.

What about multiclass Barbarian Fighters or a Fighter Eldrich Knight that uses Mage Armour spell instead of actual Armour?

I want an enchanted chainmail bikini, and that is just for my male characters ;p on a more seriously note, without boob plate you can't tell the gender of the character at all.

Honestly screw realistic Armour, I like Armour that looks cool.

i think guild wars 2 had an interresting compromise there, they included both western RPG artists and asian RPG artists in their team, so they have a very strange but endearing mixture of different styles that still feel coherent.

It's DND has armour there ever been "sexy"? Personally, I prefer it that they offer more revealing light armour or just clothing for DEX classes. The only bikini armour from DNDn games I remember was worn by the half Dragon girl in Icewind Dale

thats because you assume we are talking about one extreme or another.
Just look at the character portraits of baldurs gate or the female armors in neverwinter nights and youll know what were talking about here.

The argument is not realy wether or not you like sexualized fantasy characters but wether or not artists should be allowed to create them.
Id like to remind you that Original Sin 1 had its cover art censored because of this issue.

And yet Original Sin 2 armour design was skimpier than ever before in the Divinity series, so I wouldn't worry about Larian becoming puritan all of sudden

well the black ring, the rest not so much.
Im not worrying about Larian, im worriyng about Western RPGs in general and also WOTC.

I dont consider myself an artist, but as someone who is into digital painting and character design, i get annoyed by how close minded and puritan the western fantasy scene has gotten

I did not expect to get so much hate for such a simple request. I don't visit game forums often, so when I came back today to check if there was a reply to my post I was surprised to see that it was at the very top of the page.

To the developers: please keep in mind that most of your fans, like me, do not write often on forums such as this. The people who voiced objection to my request may be the most vocal fans, and they seem to have very strong opinions on the sexualization of female characters in games. But I'm guessing they are a minority and that the vast majority of people who play your games share my opinion that characters in games are not there to satisfy our sexual desires. And we would prefer you ditch the boob plate and skimpy outfits in favor of more believable and more humanizing portrayals of female characters.

I would like to point out that the setting is not earth but a planet call Toril and only one race is humans. Can you really say what elves, halflings, orcs, teiflings, gnomes, and dwarves like to wear?

Its not hate. But theres a red flag already, classifying criticism of an invasive idea as hate is ridiculous.

And oh boy, here it goes. Oh yeah, you the silent majority. The silent majority who wants ugly characters. The silent majority who keeps not buyign any actual video games yet somehow, despite beeing oh so silent, constantly gets pandered to by western developers, who in turn keep going bankrupt because their games look amateurish as a result.

But since you already resorted to an ad hominem by claiming that my opinion is centered on satisfying my sexual desires: Ie: fapping to video games, why would i even listen to you.
Clearly youve got some insecurities to work on yourself. I for one create Art as a hobby and have an eye for aesthetics, you aperently do not.

The idea that what you are asking for is somehow more "Humanizing" shows your skewed perception of reality.
Most women are beautifull. I genuinly believe this, i have seen vastly more beautifull than ugly women in my life. Perhaps that is because i am from a central european country where people generally know how to dress well, are not overweight and know how to take care of themselves. But uglyness is not part of beeing human, beauty is.

TL;DR Go back to ResetEra

Yeah that's complete bunk. First of all we're talking about a video game. Second it's a fantasy game. This "silent majority" thing is demonstrably false were anyone to consider the backlash nearly every game that "censors", or intentionally creates ugly female characters (Andromeda, Inquisition) ends up receiving.

Humans are innately sexual as well. It's literally a part of evolution and a fact of every sentient species. The majority of humans (because it's literally in our reproductive drive and survival as a species) want sexy females/males (depending on sexuality). Even if we disregard the fact of evolution and biology, we still have the social sciences and societal norms. There's a reason that advertisements and media use sexualized and attractive females/males.

So if you're telling me otherwise, you're either 1.) Lying or 2.) an outlier.