Anyway, this game allows you to ignore the origin characters if you want, and have your own custom party. You just miss out on the character interactions/conversations, and have to have them all in your head - or with your friends on Discord while playing together in multiplayer. That is fine.
This is NOT fine. Not even in the slightest.
You can flippantly say "You just miss out on the character interactions/conversations, and have to have them all in your head" but this is absolutely unacceptable to me. Not having those interactions and conversations between my PC and my companions and among my companions means the game is not a Baldur's Gate game.
