Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Please make Halsin a companion

Agreed. It is not smart, in my view.

To me, that's overspending resources on one idea : giving players some amount of freedom at character creation if they choose an OC as PC.

My personal guess is that overall few players will play through the game more than 2-3 times. Since Larian seems to design the combat gameplay to be very fun at first (in some sense) but not necessarily very deep (in my view), I think that the story, not combat, is where the replay value will be. That story is overall fixed, though there will be several paths through it. It's certainly too early to be precise on this, but I feel that the extra content gained from playing a given OC as a PC instead of a Companion will not be that major a replay factor. So, having 8 Origins Characters instead of 4 doesn't add so much replay value, and mostly just add choice.

Each of these additional options is probably bringing less and less value (decreasing marginal utility for those who like economics), yet it has the same cost. People were fine playing Lara Croft, Solid Snake, Geralt or Link in games where you couldn't choose your character. I think giving 3 or 4 options (say, a Fighter, a Rogue, a Cleric and a Mage) would have been nearly as valuable as giving 8, but for half the cost.

There's also the thing about Origins being snowflakes, since they're all be potential MCs and apparently need to be 'special'. I think it could easily get pretty tiring if all the companions followed that trend, which the next two lowkey already kind of do (Helia - werewolf - and Karlach - champion of hell).

And to be honest Halsin isn't plain dude material either, while still seemingly having a backstory less eccentric than the rest.

Hail and well met,
I've come up with a great theory that could include Halsin as an OC, even though I'm totally down for non origin companions.

1. Halsin was doing researches on a tadpole and who knows... Maybe this one thought this beefcake is a better host than the dead drow.

2. Volo said the tadpole in Halsins druid lab was just a duplicate. But then... I'd never ever trust Volo. No one ever should. Not even with INT 9, or 8... Or 1. Probably Minsc would believe him, since I always got the feeling he was a child in a massive man's body.

3. The group of adventures got hunted down an killed. Except for Halsin, who was taken hostage by crazy goblins, who worship the absolute. Maybe they didn't kill him because he secretly has a tadpole? Hmmmm?

4. He's super keen to travel with the MC, knows about the tadpole and is way too nice to not hide something. Yeah, he wants to do some good stuff, undo the shadow curse, but what if he was also looking for a cure, to get rid of the tadpole?

5. Please Larian, notice me (actually please just notice my theory to include Halsin)

Maybe I'm super wrong, but what do you think?

Not sure if I already said +1, but here it is, just in case (better than Justin Bieber):

+1

Not into guys, but he would definitely be the coolest Bro of the bunch.

Halsin >> Gale >>>>> Astarion

Halsin =? Minsc

-> Probably he would clash a bit with the manly man role Minsc might play.

I agree with Drath that there are diminishing returns for the Origins concept, and that beyond a certain point it is wasted effort. However, I believe I may have hit on a solution. One you likely have all hit on too, at one point or another, with varying preferences. Something that could simultaneously unburden the pressure on the Origin Companions to suit all tastes, reduce fears of a party lock, and provide the sort of variety and novelty one might wish from a BG. For a very minimum investment in terms of Dev zots, using material that already exists. Well, at least during the EA at any rate.

So let your views be known - Feedback forum fans!

Early Bird Special!!!



Act now, for big Daddy Halsin, Mint Condition, and many more!

Mail away by EA Xmas, and maybe they'll even arrive by EA Mayday!? lol

Sounds great! 😊

This pic needs more Halsin!

Well after all, he litteraly tells us: "I studied them, more up close than anyone would dare." ...
Or something simmilar, i cant remember (nor find) exact wording.

Anyway, since there allready was datamined Druid Origin character, and since Halsin have his own role in Act 1 story ...
I dare to say that Companion is the best deal we could be potentialy offered.

If I understood it correctly, they started with the evil characters, so Lae'zel, Shadowheart and Astarion are all supposed to be rather cruel or underhanded. Gale or the Tiefling from the hells might or might not be supposed to be 'evil'.

If neutral or good characters are still to be implemented, there could be a whole bunch. Some people mentioned Minsc, Halsin might be another one. But if the current characters are meant to be overwhelmingly evil then there would be a whole lot of characters still missing.

As far as i know (read as: if i remember it corectly) Swen told us that they didnt implement "Good" companions yet ...
Meaning curently we have Evil and Neutral guys to pick.

Halsin might not be another one ...
Note that every Origin companion need to start the story exactly as our Tav ... on Nautiloid, with tadpole in his head ... i highly doubt that is even possible for Halsin, since he have quite important part in whole surface Act 1 Druids vs. Tieflings vs. Goblins quest.


Wich would be kinda sad if you ask me. :-/
Since that would leave us without option to play Origin Monk, Sorcerer, Bard ... and either Paladin or Barbarian, depending on what i said in spoiler. :-/

So i deeply hope that Larian manage to create some interesting characters for those aswell. :P
Or they allready managed to hide them from Chubblot.

That would mean, we would get at least 1/3 more characters? Interesting.

If I count it right, we have 6(?) potential chars right now (Including Karlach), this would mean at least 3 more characters.


I suppose Minsc wouldn't be an origin character, since we know his origin We have already played it in BG1 and BG2. 3-4 origin chars are enough in my humble opinion, but that's subjective of course.

Yes, true, I heard about Helia.

This makes me think again about portrait.
It would be so much better with beautifull portrait than with the awfull ones we have now.