So when I heard Larian was doing BG3 I was mostly happy, but I did have one concern, Larian's Divinity original sin series tends to umm how to put this... confuse "special snow flake" with "intreasting". it's not. characters with "super special magical afflications" (the ENTIRE batch of NPCs we have seem to fall into this) honestly aren't all that intreasting, and represent a, TBH, bit of a failure in the subtle world building that so often was seen in the past Baulder's Gate games.

Let's compare and contrast some of the characters from BG3 with characters you encounter early in BG1, (I use BG1 because most of your first companions in BG2 are carry overs)


BG1:
Imoen - she's basicly your kid sister, turns out she's a bhaalspawn sure, although I'm convinced that wasn't the original plan in BG1, but beyond that special thing that links her to your char, she's mostly pretty ordinary. It mostly serves as kind of a world building tool as it allows you to discuss your past with her etc.

Jahira & Kalheed - their big "secret" is simply that they are members of the Harpers. this serves as more of a world building tool, as it allows you to learn a little bit about the harpers etc. it also does occasionally work as a plothook.

The two Zhents- their name escaped me, but you learned a little bit about the Zhentarium etc through this, and saw their conflict with the harpers.

Misc: him and Dynaheir actually provide some information of rashimein, people mostly remember Misc for Boo etc, but you learn a lot about a far away land outside the game from them.

Basicly most of the companions serve as something of a gateway to learning more about the realms. they root the game firmly in the realms.


Meanwhile let's look at the companions from BG3:

Shadowheart: Cleric with a special secret, I dunno it yet but it looks like she might have some magical effect on her,

Astaron: He's a Vampire. there's a potential for a bit more later as it could create a fun conflict with a BG vampire's coven or something, and expand on that but.. yeah not getting much of a feel for that.

Gale: A waterhaveian mage...... who has to eat magic items because of course he does!

Wyll: I've not yet learned much about him but I FULLY expect he's not just some guy and will have something unuseal about him.


honestly, when you overload on this, it's less intreasting