Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Which Origin and why

Pretty simple thread, which of the Five known Origin characters will you play first, and why?
For me, it is Wyll the Warlock. Why? Warlock is my favorite class, I love the lore about Fiends, Tan'ari, Yuggaloth, and Baatezu. I played Lohse in DOS2 for this reason. I like Human magic users. Also, I don't want to play a mage only character as they are rather squishy and for my planned team, I need to be well rounded.
You have Wyll the Fiend Warlock for firepower and a useful imp familiar.
Lae'zel Githyanki warrior that I will make an eldritch knight, making use of her innate magic with a few supplemental spells and melee focus fighting.
Shadowheart the Trickster cleric with healing and support/debuff.
And lastly, Astarion is a perfect candidate for an Arcane Trickster as he is a High Elf.
Now, to make them get along without killing each other.

I'm not answering this question because we don't know what origins will be available. Heck, we don't even know more than one sentence about the Warlock. So far, it looks like at least 3 of the 5 origins are evil aligned. None of them are appealing to me so far.

Is that something you do before playing a custom character ?
Not saying it's bad, it's just to understand how you like to play.

About characters we know... I couldn't absolutely ever play with that vampire.
Shadowheart looks okay to me, except about this ridiculous "name".
Will and Gale are also ok.

That means 1 cleric and 2 spellcasters.
I absolutely need a warrior, and that's probably something I'm going to play with my custom.
I like having a second melee unit in my party but I don't like Lae'Zel. I don't really like having something looking like an alien in my team

Don't really know what to do

none of them obviously.
ill pick shadowheart as a companion, cant realy speak for the others. Lazael mgiht be an option but i dont know if i want two fighters in the party.
but the mage sounds obnoxious and so does the vampire

I will first play a custom character, because that's what role-play is about, for me anyway. Also, I like the fact that custom characters do not have voice acting, and hope that is not changed.

In truth, I will likely never play an origin character, as I will have experienced their story in the game already. I will never play MP, so any aspect of origin characters related to that is wasted on me. It's more likely, in fact, that I would play completely custom parties, than play origin characters.

However, if I were to ever choose to play an Origin character, it would probably be Astarion, because he will not be in any other playthrough of mine, however many times I play ( assuming Larian don't add any more origin characters that are even less appealing to me than Astarion ).

If custom character is any good I will do that. Creating our own character is half of a fun in an RPG. I am not a fan of the origin system.

Very well then, addendum.

What will your custom player character be?

Please remember that while all the core classes of 5e dnd will be in the finished product, we are uncertain if all the playable races will be in the game's launch. Perhaps over time new races and subraces will be added in patches and gift bags, but for now, focus on the races that will be available for the Early Access.

Which are the following; Githyanki, Elf, Drow, Half-Elf, Half Drow, Halfling, Dwarf, Human, and Tiefling.
Core classes of dnd 5e are; Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock.

Use any and all details you wish to give. Race, subrace (if applicable), Class, Subclass, Origins/Background, Proficiencies, Character points, Alignment (if applicable), etc.

What will your party make up be, will you use the origin characters as companions or will you use customizable mercenaries.

Never say never, but I am unlikely to play BG3 before full release. Unless it will be really really well optimised for a get go.

There is a reason why first couple hours long session is dedicated to deciding whom I will play as. It will also be heavily influence by roleplay availability - what tags will catch my eye. Out of the ones you mentioned those are most likely:
Bard, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard

I think we are supposed to be a Baldurian. I don't see a Ranger as a city kind of person... so it's Bard, Paladin or Spellcaster (Sorcerer/Wizard). Being a musician I always liked bards, but I am always terrified that I will create a sucky one. So if I feel brave: Bard, and if not I will pick Paladin (If I feel like fighting melee) or Wizard/Sorcerer if I feel like playing a spellcaster.

As to care nothing "exotic", as I don't know enough about lore to roleplay properly. Half-elf most likely? Like I don't want to be a boring human, so lets be a slightly less boring hybrid.

I have a penchant for warlocks, So I think he would be my first. A pìty we do not know much about Wyll.

If I make a custom character, I think I´ll go for a drow to see how that kind of character develops in the Underdark and in the surface. Possibly a bard because that´s not an option as a companion. Lore bard (Sage) for sure, to gather all kinds of information about the world in the run and flavour.

^.^

Right now my party would probably be a Drow warlock, Shadowheart, Astarion, and Wyll. Wonder if we could do it without a warrior.. and Im curious about having two warlocks in the party. Ill do a second playthrough as a wizard with Lae'zel, and Im not terribly interested in Gale right now.

The little we know about Wyll is that he "Noble by birth, Wyll made his name as the heroic 'Blade of Frontiers'. He keeps his pact with a devil well-hidden, and is desperate to escape the hellish bargain - even if that means rescuing the seductive creature that made the deal." so maybe he is a hexblade.

If that´s the case with a hexblade and a cleric you could have, in theory, a strong frontline. But we have to see what the game requires.

I hope they will have enough evil aligned origin characters to make a full evil party. So far there is Lae'zel, Astarion and Shadowheart(maybe) who are evil aligned characters.

I really hate that they decided to bring over the Origin idea from DoS2....I don't see why they couldnt just flesh out more companions, add plot decisions your companions could animate towards you, or simply spend that energy making rolled characters choices have more of an effect.

Hopefully they don't give the origin characters special abilities like they did in DoS2.....Role playing aside, and assuming all characters have access to the same abilities....you'll have Story emphasized playthroughs with each and every Origin and mechanics/combat playthroughs with rolled characters. DoS2 made it so the best story and mechanics were included in the Origin characters with absolutely zero reason to ever roll a character yourself.....I enjoyed it, but after a handfull of playthroughs I haven't touched it since. Great game, but it felt more like playing individual stories and not something you made yourself. Once you played it once with each origin, or even just as a companion, there was nothing to look forward to.

All that said....probably Bladesinger then an Arcane Trickster with the vamp guy.

You can make your own character too and never play an origin character like in DoS2 ... just saying.

Right now all the characters showed in the gameplay has the usual race and class features, not custom ones.

The ones that want to play an origin character would welcome the possibility to play it. And since the world reacts to tags (As githyanki as the gameplay showed) I do not think that takes a lot of resources and time to flesh out the characters because the dialogues could be used in all githyanki characters, origin or not.

Sure, but the general concensus seems to be that custom characters are rather barren when it comes to story content. Though Larian did confirm they are aware of the weakness and custom characters are to have more robust reactivity. We shall see.


Because it is a brilliant coop design. They pull double duty - you can have your own playthrough and your friend or randos and jump in and out and take over your companions. I did find companions in D:OS2 to be inferior to the competitin when it comes to singleplayer experience though. We will see how much they will improve on that design in BG3.

Can you explain me why origins characters are very differents about companions in other RPG ?
I know you can play with them but I don't really see any other differences...

This is a serious question, I only play SP.

Aren't they just companions you can play with and that have a side quest ? Are these side quests the reasons why they are that popular especially in MP ? (Meaning they all have the same main story + specific side quest)

Companions in other RPG's follow the hero around and support their story. In other RPG's, it tends to make the main character extra special and unique and more important. Origins can BE the main character, so any of them can be as important, and it makes it seem more like an ensemble.

I've tended to prefer to build characters that are melee with arcane features. But 5e seems to have some features that might make me think differently. The advantage/disadvantage rules, particularly for height advantage will favour ranged combat and mobility. Magic has also changed and is quite a bit more flexible.

Something like an arcane trickster would be my first guess, using Lae'Zel, Shadowheart and whichever of Gale or Wyll seems a better fit. Probably something elfy as a race, but I'd need to look more carefully at the 5e rules and how Larian implement them, which I won't do until there is an EA.

To put it into BG terms, It would be like if Imoen, also a baalspawn, also born and raised in Candlekeep, also Gorion´s ward could be the heroine of Baldur´s gate and could turn into the Slayer too.
Many people dislike that kind of mindset because they do not see the party as a party, but cohorts of the main character. An origin character has the same importance for the plot as your character (heck, sometimes "is" your character). It´s not "game over" when your MC dies.

I simply don't know enough yet to decide.