I very much prefer my custom characters to be blank slates. I would hate it if one of my characters had, for example, the Red Princes’s storyline. This is a D&D game, and a big part for me in playing D&D is coming up with why my character is the way he is. I don’t want to be beholden to an origin story.
Whatever way Larian is planning on more thoroughly integrating custom characters into the story I don’t want it to intrude upon my imagination. There are so many possibilities within races and classes that I don’t want them dictating any of that.
———————— Just going to separate this thought ——————————
Personally I never saw an issue with origin characters having more story. It’s a game that is over 100 hours. Do you really need to squeeze out that extra hour or two from doing 4 character specific quests instead of just 3 (when played with 1 custom protagonist)? And as far as feeling like the protagonist is part of the story and the world: I’m the party leader! It’s all my story. I’m the one making all of the discussions.
From what's described, regardless of whether you use a pre-built character or a custom origin character, your responses will ultimately be personalized - variations of class, race, sex , will all provide certain options in conversations, as will the gestalt of your previous answers along with any special pre-built options from a characters defined background. While you MIGHT be missing those background options - or have fewer than a pre-built character, you will still have a wide variety of options. By let's say the 20th or so conversation tree, you can expect player 1, player 2 and player 3 to have enough variety in their chosen responses that each will have different options - even if playing a custom origin character.
