Part three: Companions - group balance and class-flexibility. Most of the games mentioned at the beginning have specific classes and roles reserved to their characters. And most times, these classes and roles play a core part of the character's personality. Usually, this means that the game developers have to compensate by making more companions available - since most people prefer not having companions that feel absolutely dreadful (to the player) or companions that are a complete mismatch in terms of alignment.
I agree with this and I think it's related to having the max party size of 4. In order to make a balanced party you will see most groups consist of the following 4 roles:
* Melee / tank
* Healer / support
* Caster
* Ranged / trapper
That means in BG3 you will see that you need the following:
* Fighter (Laezel), Paladin, Barbarian, Monk
* Cleric (Shadowheart), Druid, Bard
* Wizard (Gale), Warlock (Wyll), Sorcerer
* Rogue (Astarion), Ranger
There are rumors we can recruit 2 more companions called Helia (possibly a bard) and Karlach (possibly a paladin).
So if you can't stand the companion offers for a particular role, e. g. Astarion as the rogue / ranged you might feel forced to select the role yourself to have a balanced party. That is not good. You better hope the ranger companion (if any) is to your liking and can pick rogue levels.
I think Larian Studios could avoid these contraints if they increased the max group size from 4 to 5. Then you fill the roles you need for a balanced party with companions and select the class you prefer to play as the 5th. E. g. then you can have Laezel as a fighter and boost the front line by being a barbarian or monk yourself. With just 4 characters you can't pick Laezel if you want to be a melee yourself if you also want a balanced group.
If you can complete the game without having all roles covered then this is less of an issue. However, we don't know that so we assume we need a balanced party to avoid getting stuck somewhere. E. g. not having a trapper to open an important door.
This is not related just to BG3, but most group based RPGs. You feel constrained if the max number you have have in your party is too low. Personally I loved the original BG games, Icewind Dale etc. with the party size of 6.
