UI, Controls, QoL :
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Part 5.
Roleplay, Story, Immersion :
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3.
Mechanisms :
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4.
Longer term considerations :
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Part 5.
CREATING AND PLAYING A (CUSTOM) CHARACTER
Roleplaying through conversations. Could we have more dialogue option for different personalities ? Could we have more opportunities to say a bit more than "what do you know about X", "can you help me with problem Y" and "I agree to/refuse/don't care about/want payment for this quest" ?
I would like options to express a bit more personality.
For most of the vague profiles suggested below, there are already some options here and there in the game. But they are few and far between. Examples :
- A light-hearted, uplifting, or optimistic person.
- A charming, flirty, or teasing person.
- An eloquent or sophisticated person.
- A sarcastic, blasé, dry-humoured, or pessimistic person.
- A confident, ambitious, arrogant, or obnoxious person.
- A wide-eyed, thrown-into-adventure nobody.
- A caring, generous, can-do, noble heart.
- A loyal, principled, idealistic person.
I suppose one may add "rude, unpleasant asshole" in the list. I'm not personally asking for more of these. My evil characters are usually not evil from insulting, robbing or killing everyone they talk to. But the option should probable be there as well.
Note 1 : these are just some, broad personality traits. Any reasonably complex character (let alone a real person) will likely have several of them. For instance, Astarion is flirty and sophisticated.
Note 2 : repeatedly selecting dialogue options associated with a personality should not lock a PC out of the other options. This is not meant to serve for a personality [tag] system, regardless of whether these personalities are chosen at the start or statistically-learned from our past choices.
Note 3 : a character associating strongly with one personality profile doesn't need to have an opportunity to express it in every other conversation. There should be enough options for each personality, here and there, so that we can feel like we are maintaining one personality and playing the character, throughout the story.
Note 4 : these are just dialogue options, and purely for roleplay/flavour. They absolutely don't need to lead to different conversation outcomes. It is already widely the case that several dialogue options will lead the NPC we're talking to to follow up with the same dialogue lines, with the possibility of a small prefix to react to our specific choice. And the PC is not voiced (thankfully). As a result, adding dialogue options should not cost an excessive amount of resources.
Could backgrounds have more impact, notably during conversations ? A Background currently means selecting two skills, and not much else. This is quite underwhelming.
It would be great if the Background could provide new dialogues options.
In fact, our Background and Class should certainly have more importance than our Race in the dialogue options we are presented with.
Indeed, our Race can sometimes influence how people react to us (notably if we're Drow or Githyanki). As far as what we choose to say is concerned, our Race might occasionally give us some particular biology (elves don't sleep), or we might react differently to other people of our Race (like Tieflings). Other than that, Race-induced dialogue options generally lean toward very cliché Race stereotypes (Halflings are friendly, Dwarves are grumpy, ...), that WotC is really trying to move away from (see TCoE and Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineage).
Our Background is more important to who our character is than their Race, and thus more likely to influence what we say. I'm not requesting that any Race-induced dialogue options be removed, but we should have at least as many Background-induced dialogue options.
Note : naturally, a given dialogue option can be offered to several Backgrounds. An Artisan/Merchant and a Noble might react the same way in some situations. A Charlatan, a Criminal and an Urchin might propose the same approach in some situations.
Appearance. The requests in this subsection are about the appearance of our characters. Some of them involve how we choose this appearance, during character creation screen. Overall, the character creation screens are currently very lacking. They are not-quite-greatly organised, both from a logic and from an ergonomic standpoints. I won't do a subsection about it, as Niara made a very good post on this. I hope these screens get thoroughly revised toward the end, once the options we have to choose during character creation (and the rules of the game) have been finalised.
Could we have war paints and tattoos/war paints on the body ? War paints would be awesome for some Barbarians, Monks, War Clerics and other warrior classes. I'm not sure whether they should be tremendously different from tattoos in the code, but the patterns and colours are significantly different.
And it would be awesome to have tattoos/war paints on the arms and chest as well, instead of just the face, seeing as many Barbarian and Monks will go unarmoured.
Some Druids and Goblins already display such paints, so it would be sad not to be able to create the same kind of characters.
Could we have more face shapes ? And, importantly, have them not tied to Races ? I don't think there's a good in-universe reason for this gating, so I really don't understand the rationale for this. All it does at the moment is making some Races unappealing because their selection of available faces is bad.
Besides, every race could instantly gain a handful of faces if you un-tied the faces from the race : there's a bit of animation to do, but it would not require hiring new face models.
Could we have more hair styles ? And, importantly, have them not gated ? Some new hair styles would be cool.
But probably cooler would be if you un-tied the hair style proposed from the Race and Sex chosen. Just like for the colour of hair and eyes, you could possibly give immediate access to a list of usual suspects. And ticking a box would give access to all hair styles.
Could we have more body shapes and sizes ? In terms of body shape, we could maybe have options like slim, fit, chubby, bulky. Given that Halsin is bulky, it would be a pity to have a Half-Orc Barbarian that cannot be larger than fit.
For size, we could perhaps have, say, 2-3 sizes per race (shorter, average, taller).
Of course, we could also have sliders.
Options for Tieflings : could we have the option of having no tail ? If you can spare some time to give us a handful of options for the tail, all the better. But it would be really, really great if we could at least choose "no tail".
Options for Tieflings : could we have better horn styles ? The majority of Tieflings depictions, especially in official 5E art, have a certain kind of horns. In terms of shape, they usually originate from just-above-the-eyes like one or two "eye brows". In terms of texture and colour, they usually look as if they're covered by normal skin. I think this style looks pretty cool. The horns you have given to Tieflings are more similar to that of many ungulates, and Satyrs in DnD. Could we please have the other horn style as well ?
Shape request : could we have a real "no horns" option ? The supposedly no-horn look you currently offer looks a lot more as if the horns were cut out. There's still a protuberance.
Shape request : could we have small horn ? I mean, really small horns. The lengths could be about half, and about a third, of the length of Patch 2's Horn 4-5.
Finally, could you please separate the choice of a horn shape and from the choice of a horn texture ? Hair style and hair colour are two different things. The same should go for horns. In Patch 2, Horn 4 and 5 are the same shape with different texture.
In your Hotfix #3, you teased us because the characters we were creating didn't use demon eyes, tails and horns often enough. The thing is, the choice of horns you gave us and the way it's presented at the moment aren't exactly top notch.
More clothing options (especially for Wizards, at the moment). At the very minimum, it would be great to be able to choose the colour of clothes. Especially for something like mage robes. Those green robes are so plain.
It would also be great to have various robe cuts.
And, you know ... Wizards could wear clothes other than robes. Like what the default Warlock wears. Just make this garment not be an armour : it doesn't really look like one. But it looks cool and it looks like something a Wizard might wear.
(I mean, what's that thing with Wizards and robes anyway ? Maybe we make boring Human Fighters, but you make very boring Wizards too !)
Wearing casual clothes. For the armour-wearing classes especially, but for all classes really, it would be great if they could wear a normal set of clothes, as opposed to just underwear, when they are not wearing armour.
By "armour" here I mean anything we can put in the armour slot in the Equipment screen. A Wizard not wearing a robe, or a Fighter not wearing armour, would then be in casual clothes.
Changing the appearance after character creation. It would be nice to have the option to edit our appearance after leaving character creation.
Some changes might be fully compatible with immersion (changing the make-up, or the hair-style if hair length is not increased). Some changes would not be compatible (face shape, tattoos, eye colour). But so what ? This would clearly be a purely QoL/cosmetic feature, and completely optional.
Could we avoid having to cycle through a list ? For instance, the hair style, facial hair, tattoos and make-up options would greatly benefit from being organised differently.
A rotating list, like there is currently, becomes impractical to cycle through as soon as there are about 10 elements in it. So, for voices, it works alright. But with 30 hair styles, it's horrible.
The way we choose skin colour is much nicer : visual and grouped by categories (it would be even better if the categories could all start to the left of the line).
Deities. Everyone should have a deity. Druids, Rangers and Paladins usually have their spells granted by deities, just like Clerics (I know, it could be a domain, ideal, philosophy, etc, but generally their magic comes from a god). So having them select the deity who grants them spell should really be the bottom line.
Now, almost all of the inhabitants of the FR have one deity they worship more than others. So it would be great to have the option to select a deity for everyone, regardless of the Class.
Naturally, the option "none" should be offered in the list of deities (just like you can choose "no hair", "no make-up", etc). This would apply to everyone, including Cleric and other Divine Casters, so that players can play characters who don't particularly follow a deity.
The deity should be written on the character sheet : it's useful to remember/understand a character, and it encourages roleplay.
Please, give us more deities to choose from. The following are well established deities, and I'd say their inclusion is between fairly important and pretty much required : Sune, Lliira, Sharess, Lathander/Amaunator, Torm, Talos, Umberlee, Auril, Malar, Sylvanus, Mielikki, Eldath, Chauntea, Milil, Gond, Deneir, Azuth, Velsharoon, Red Knight, Garagos, Valkur, Uthgar, Mask, Tymora, Beshaba, Waukeen, Loviatar, Talona, Leira.
Note : you have made us encounter a Druid circle dedicated to Sylvanus, a Cleric of Loviatar, an inn called Waukeen's Rest, etc. Since you mention all this lore, it would be a pity if players cannot have access to it as well.
Non-Humans should have more than one deity option. Non-Humans are currently neglected. When creating a non-Human Cleric, we currently have the choice of either going with the only racial deity given (or the only two, in the case of Drows), or going for a much rarer story of a Cleric worshipping a deity from another society.
Maybe there is no need to include the whole pantheon for each race (although ... maybe not), but it would be nice to guarantee at least 4 deities per race, just to say that players had a real choice.
Suggestions : Berronar, Clangeddin, and Dugmaren ; Solonor, Rillifane, Sehanine and Hanali ; Vhaeraun ; Baervan, Baravar and Callarduran ; Arvoreen, Brandobaris and Sheela ; Gruumsh, Luthic and Obould.
Evil worship options. The following are generally not considered deities (except Asmodeus), but they have worshippers : Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, Glasya, Zariel, Demogorgon, Orcus, Graz'zt, Malcanthet.
It would be cool if our character could worship them (especially useful for a Fiend Warlock).
Could we have deity-related dialogue options ? Obviously, there are many deities (more than backgrounds), and I'm requesting yet more deities (see above). Writing unique dialogue lines for every single one of them would be unreasonable.
But firstly, the deities can be grouped in clusters : the Triad, the Gods of Nature, the Gods of Fury, the Gods of Knowledge, the Dead Three, etc. Often enough, a dialogue options will be relevant and could be provided for a whole cluster.
Secondly, many dialogue options will be related to the general portfolio of the deity, creating more overlapping. For instance, an adept of Mask, Shar, Lolth, Vhaeraun, Baravar, or Brandobaris could suggest a discreet or duplicitous approach.
I also mentioned earlier (about the redundant tags) that the worshipped deity could code for alignment (if you need character alignment at all), giving godly characters (not just Clerics) dialogue options as well.
There should be no restrictions for the choice of a deity. It is entirely possible to create sex-race-domain-deity combinations that are unusual or do not make much sense. (Examples range from the Light domain Cleric of Shar, to the male Drow Cleric of Lolth, to the Half-Orc who is a Storm domain Cleric of Hanali Celanil and a cruel murderer.) That's fine. Aerie was a weird combination, and perfectly justified.
People who don't know the lore but still want something that makes sense should be helped. Two suggestions :
- In the description for each deity, the text could mention the domain associated with that deity, as well as the typical sexes and races these deities usually grant favours to.
- Similarly to the system used in the Character Appearance tab, for the choice of eye, skin and hair colours, there could be a limited list of lore-compatible deities that match our sex-race-domain choices. But players could actively decide to click on "Show All" to access the full list. So they would know that, if they pick something else, they go unconventional.
Better presentation for the list of deities. This is the same problem as with the lists of hair style, facial hair, tattoos and make-up. It is really not convenient to cycle through a long list.
For the deities, currently, your list isn't even sorted alphabetically, or by pantheon, or anything obvious (to me). It feels as if you just dumped new options on one side of the list as you added them. Please organise the options. For deities, grouping them by pantheon at the first organisation level is probably the way to go. Then, within each pantheon, alphabetical sorting, or some thematic grouping could do.
Skills. Could we choose the skills given by backgrounds ? Currently, each background gives a fixed pair of skills. However, it is often tremendously easy to imagine a sensible backstory for a character of a given background justifying perfectly certain skills which are not the ones given by default. One could consider associating to each background a list of skills, as is the case for classes, but that idea would immediately run into the same problem : a character's backstory that justifies perfectly certain skills which are not proposed. So my suggestion is rather to go straight to :
- pick a background,
- choose any 2 skills.
As a matter of fact, this customisation of backgrounds is suggested in the PHB.
Please give a broader list of skills to the Clerics. Their list of skills is the shortest of any class. Which is pretty disappointing when the variety of cleric profiles is among the greatest, roleplay-wise. What is more, and the really annoying part, is that their list of skills has the very narrow-minded profile of "knowledgeable, soft-spoken, robe-wearing healer" painted all over it.
How come a former Urchin and now Trickery-domain Cleric who knows what makes people tick cannot have Deception ? This problem can be resolved with flexible skills-choice with backgrounds (see previous item).
But if my character is poorly educated, not too bright in general, bad with words, but a faithful, fearless and battle-hungry Cleric of Talos, Valkur or Tempus, I'm not sure what I could pick from the current list and still make sense.
Ability Scores and character builds. Could we have the option to Roll for our Ability Scores ? This is introduced as the default rule in the PHB.
It is far from being the most urgent work area, but I just wanted to request this option for the full release.
Could we have the option to use the Custom Origin rule our Ability Scores ? Technically, this rule is from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, and you only ever described the content of the PHB as the scope of the options you will provide (in the base game). But it's probably a rule that WotC would want to have in BG3, if they wanted you to avoid alignments. And it probably doesn't cost much to implement.
Please allow Multi-classing. If not by default, at least make it available as an option.
And if you really don't want to (I would have difficulties imagining the reasons but it doesn't matter), at the very least make sure that Multi-classing will be doable through mods.
In the Infinity Engine of BG1-2 and IWD, no amount of mods and game editor could give us a multi-class with 2 kits, because of engine/hard-coded limitations. It would be sad if multi-classing in BG3 was similarly impossible.
COMPANIONS AND PARTY
Please add some Non-Origin Companions. It would be great to be able to have a few more companions, beside the 8 already announced.
These additional companions would not be Origins Characters, and they would not have a tadpole (well, not necessarily). They would be, you know, just companions. People that we managed to convince to join us and help us in our adventure, who have a personality, who are nice to spend time with, who banter with other party members. They could provide the more casual and humane backstories.
I'd say 4-5 Non-Origin Companions would be great. Several NPCs that we have already met would make wonderful such companions.
- Halsin, the Elven Druid with the countenance of a bear, is one of the superstars. He has already made the arrangements needed for the Grove to keep running while he goes on an adventure with us. He has his own initial objective of cleaning the shadow curse over the land near the Moonrise Tower. Once this is done, he may find that he needs to oppose the plans of the Absolute, due to his faith and ideals.
- Alfira, the Tiefling Bard, is another one of the superstars. She has been through a tough loss. She may want to come with us, see the world and get inspired, instead of settle in Baldur's Gate and brood. And she has to finish her song, a work that seems intimately linked to the journey of overcoming the loss of her teacher.
- Minthara, the Drow Cleric (currently of the Absolute), complete the superstar line-up. There is a lot of potential for her to be a companion. Either if we start by helping her destroy the Grove. Or if we capture her instead of killing her, and she is made to realise she is infected by a tadpole : like the other True Souls, she is not aware of that infection, and probably would want to get rid of the tadpole like we are trying to.
Some other people we've already met could be cool too, like Sazza. Perhaps someone from Aradin's crew can be convinced to overcome being level 2 and losing at their first encounter with goblins. Perhaps Lia, Cal or Ronan (though they seem to have their own little arc). There have been many requests on the forums. There sure is demand.
Could we have the option to create a Custom Party ? It is already possible to play with a Custom Party, although it is a bit acrobatic to do so. It would be great if creating all of our party was given as an option, in the single-player mode.
There has been little detail given about mercenaries, just the mention of the name and that they might be implemented. It sounds as if allowing a player to create a party of Custom Characters would have all of the same benefits. But it sounds somewhat preferable story-wise : we would control 4 characters with the same tadpole issue, and thus a very good reason to travel together (if they didn't know each other already). Whereas I feel I'd have to pay a mercenary really good money for them to accept traveling with someone who risk turning into a Mind-Flayer.
One option doesn't exclude the other. But I hope that the option to play with a Custom Party will be readily available, as a priority over mercenaries.
