Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Who would you recruit from Act 1 NPCs? (some spoilers)

Yeah very true. You definitely miss out on something when walking in someone else's shadow. I rather like the idea that standing next to many of these NPCs, the Player might feel rather more important in driving the story as opposed to just receiving it. But also not going so far that the story-ins are just eliminated and disappear, which is sort of what going all custom party or custom mercs would feel like. Having seen how mercenary type systems tend to work lately, and recalling how full custom tended to play (the old gold boxes say or IWD style) I'd think its actually more engaging if the player is given some props to work with. These NPCs already have some charm working in their favor, such that it'd feel more engaging to try a different class or whatever, as one of them. The Extras, the bit players, the indispensables!

They are sort of like in-between, not a total blank slate, not a fully developed character of the sort we see from Origin Companions, (or say the Lead stars/romance-type Companions of a BG2 or DA) but exist really more like prompts in this reimagining of what an EA experience could be.

They're serviceable templates because they're not fully spec'd out, but they're also a bit better than just Rando Pre-Gen Named Chars at a launch screen, which is another thing we see done in other games that's a little unsatisfying. Instead our bit players have just enough characterization to give an actual impression to work with and some gameplay oriented motivation or incentive to dig deeper, just from a collectors vibe. If customization within some reasonable parameters was on offer they could create the same flexibility in terms of class or builds that players like to test and tease out.

Also whatever challenge type rating is needed to make them function (strong or weak enough) as an NPC in the main campaign, that needn't necessarily translate into what attributes etc are available to them once recruited and graduating to Adventurer. The narrative for a Halsin or a Minthara getting knocked down a peg, or someone else getting bumped up, could be easily devised and explained away as party of the recruitment magic - the old mind trick working like lvl drain basically to put them just right for the experience. But they'd then have a way to get all the build variety on display at the appropriate scales.

It could be used as a vehicle to deliver plot webs too, that are simple on the face of it (basically one offs), but once strung together would make the whole thing more like a tapestry of competing goals. It's really more of an aesthetic choice here right. That one thing you liked about something in their look or their sound, the first impression, the delivery. Building off that gives the player ideas for characters and party comps and makes the whole process more endearing, more than just a second Custom main character could ever feel.

Here's an example... say for some reason Zorru is my favorite. Or I've just got a Zorru itch I need to scratch, cause I've gone that far down the line in EA hehe.




ps. Oh for sure the 3 arguing Tiefs! How could I forget! We'll need another row here soon! hehe