As someone who is not yet done writing a big feedback report (and the completion seems to get closer at a very slow pace), I'm happy to see other big feedback reports coming up.
I'm on a very different side when it comes to the Specialness of the custom PC though (point 1.1)
I'd really like the PC (full custom, semi-custom or Origins character), and the companions, to not be so special. Special One stories are boring (in my opinion). We've seen it from Baldur's Gate 1-2 to Star Wars (with Episode 9 more recently) to every second big adventure in between. Of course the characters triumph in the end : they're Special Ones.
I think it's also great to have 4 adventurers around a table, with no one being More Special than the others, and not being Special at all. In the Forgotten Realms, companies of adventurers become heroes on a regular basis, through a great adventure or three. Our tadpole-induced adventure is just one such adventure.
Point 1.4 is an interesting one.
Given that Larian has already assigned personalities and goals to all the Origins companions, which we can observe if we don't play as them but instead recruit them, it raises the question of how much we can really roleplay them if we take them as PC.
I suppose Larian can try to find a balance. Leaving some aspects of their personalities open to interpretation/modification by the player, while maintaining some sense. That may include some restrictions on some dialogue options. (I wonder if Shadowheart could even recruit Lae'zel ...) My guess is that most people who will pick an Origins Character won't be so interested in roleplaying as they will be interested in living the adventure and discovering the main story. Very much in the style of what JRPG typically do.
Anyway, I won't play an Origins Character, so I'm just interested in this from a great, theoretical distance.
