Originally Posted by Zandilar
Originally Posted by VincentNZ
Originally Posted by Raflamir
An Eder-type companion would be great. He was so un-special and it was nice.


Yeah he was special in being so aggressively normal, something this game really lacks. Apart from the PC, who seems remarkably shallow compared to each and every companion who could rightfully be the protagonist of his own game.


As has been pointed out, it's like that because the origin characters are intended to be the protagonists of their own games.

In some ways, the custom PC is the Eder of the game. I am not really sure why Larian decided to follow along in the same ruts as DOS2, but I suspect it's because they want to differentiate themselves from the original makers of the BG series (Bioware/Black Isle).

In any event, I second a lot of the things mentioned in this thread. I have seen people mention that there'll be more companions in the game by launch, but I haven't found any actual evidence of this... And I wonder, if they haven't already started with them, do they realistically have enough time to include more companions?

I found myself at the end of the Goblin Camp story in the home base, with no one really interested in my character except Astarion. Which is a bit awkward because I prefer to play wlw characters, and neither lady liked a good hearted PC, regardless of their gender. It might not be a big issue to some players, but romance is important to me in my RPGs and to be left out just because someone early in development decided to make both female companions either out and out evil, or at least evil adjacent does not feel real good. BG1+2 had the advantage of having a fairly big selection of companions, and so gave the player a better choice of who would accompany them on their adventures.

Anyway... I'm going to put BG3 away for a few months and come back later when the EA has advanced a bit and see what changes. (And keep an eye on the forums in the meantime.)

Z.


Yeah, I get that. Basically the Origin characters are unused PCs that now act as companions. So your custom NPC is a clean slate apart from the tadpole- so far that is. I am fine with having little to no backstory, and tendencially I have nothing against companions that have a crapton of baggage attached. However, they are so annoying about it. They hint at that there is more to it, and when asked they say something along the lines of "this is not the time" until it is the time and it is all slapped into your face again. Otherwise there is no real interaction and not a whole lot of natural dialogue.
Eder is a fine example, because you meet in that village go along a quest together and he has constant remarks that reveal parts of his past, so I build up a relationship and then help him. Sagani on the other hand is pretty open and straightforward rightaway, so I can ask for the background and the quest attached to her and then decide, if I want to follow it.
In BG3 there is little of that sort, oh there is that banter of Shadowheart being a constant idiot to Lae'zel and some might have a dialogue option after seeing something. To put it into TES:Oblivion NPC speech: "I do not know you and I don't care to know you." It really feels like they created a custom party, then painted some companion character sheets on them and gave up halfway through. The result is a throwaway party, supported by the fact that Larian said that the party is set after Act I implying some of them leaving/dying/whatever.
That is also why I think, they will add real companions later in the game, that are not Origin characters and Minsc being one part of it. And then let the other PCs fade into non-existence. Or actually bring them to life, which would take a lot of rework including quests, dialogue and voice files.