Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Which Origin Character are you looking forward to playing?

Astarion looks like me, strangely. I like Elf Race too, so I go for that. I let my hair grow long like that sometimes, usually little bit shorter. My nose is like that little bit smarter. Lips arent so full. But damn close. Im more handsome, Astarion looks like some druggie.

A little off-topic: would it be possible to start unlocking some of the OC before the full release (for testing purposes)?
E.g. Lae'zel could be done almost painlessly - she was there almost since the beginning and probably made the same journey as PC. Then she just wouldn't get caught in a cage after the crash.

why do people keep lying about this? pre-made characters have been a thing in D&D for ages.

Isn't the whole "wasteful" aspect just mean you're assuming it somehow means they had to cut corners? but there is no proof of that and how could it when this is a feature that was planned from the beginning. Stop pretending like the feature somehow took things away without any evidence of such a claim.

You should try it out. there is no good reason to ignore a different way to play the game purely out of ignorance. It's always better to just have an open mind just to see the value in something different and gain a new perspective. no one is making you not make your own character.

I mean their personalities are only defined in the context if they exist in the "timeline" where you make a character. but in a scenario where you control them then their defining traits are free to change however you desire to what ends and reasoning you want.

A feature which is totally at odds with the legacy of previous BG games. I don't believe they are cutting corners but it is to be expected that other aspects of the game will suffer for having to create several fully fleshed out Origins Characters (just think of all the voice acting, lines, animations etc.), rather than concentrating on creating one story for a custom PC. We can see this in the current implementation of custom PCs who very much take a backseat to the super hero Origins characters; granted the custom PC experience might improve but judging from previous Larian games, I doubt they'll do them justice, they're too enamoured of their OCs.



It's not out of ignorance at all, what a bizarre statement to make. OCs simply do not appeal to some gamers and I too have absolutely no interest in playing someone else's character in a BG game. Happy to do so with relish in games like The Witcher or Mass Effect.


I mean, you're stating the obvious here; of course you are free to play them how you see fit; that wasn't my point...my point was that their personalities are very much defined, so it seems out-of-character or even unimmersive to suddenly play Lae'zel as some caring goody two-shoes. Granted some evil characters in films and fiction have a moment of redemption (or the opposite) but there is usually plenty of storyline leading up to that momentous change ie. not being able to play as Darth Vader and RPing from the outset him as a kind superhero. Each to their own though.

I agree with you. I can see the appeal in playing a pre-made character (there are, in fact, some tabletop d&d games where the character is assigned to you by the DM, and the fun is the challenge of playing it to the best of your ability) but I think the OCs should have been just regular companions. As a MC we can experience their stories way better IMHO, having an active part in solving them and, as a consequence, creating a bond between us and them.
If we play as an OC on, the other hand, we risk misplaying them, acting contrary to their nature.

Companions as Garrus of Mass Effect are so deeply rooted in our hearts because we had the chance to befriend him as Shepard. Playing directly as Garrus would have been a fun adventure game but nothing like having him as a companion.

I have nothing against people who love to play as an OC, my only concern is that, in developing them, Larian is going to forget MC behind, leaving it too passive of a presence to be believable.

That has nothing to do with ignorance and I agree with Maximuus.
I'm a long time D&D player and I would never play with premade characters. For me, the point of a rpg is, that you can get creative and play, what you want. An OC takes away from that. And yes, you can play for example Lae'zel as a good character ( to use Etruscans example), but it wouldn't make any sense at all.
By all means, have the OCs, but If I see, that it takes away spotlight from my Tags, I will be very cross. I'm wary of that, because of Divinity, where you get more story with playing an OC according to many people here.

I have argued in the past in length that "Origin" system hurts both writing for our Protagonist, and our Companions. I would be happy for Larian to prove me wrong, and for BG3 have both customisable, expressive and compelling player character, and a great cast companion, but at the moment both are plagued with issues which I personally trace to "because the origin system will exist". Larian clearly pours money and resources into the project, but that won't solve issues that come with creative decisions. Larian's decision to keep doing origins, cuts deeply into what some players, including myself, consider core of an RPG experience. If a design makes writing protagonist and companions more difficult, in an RPG, I think that decision needs to be reconsidered... it's obviously too late for that, but not too late to express dislike for that decision.

I did in D:OS2, mostly because custom character experience was barren. While custom character is far better in BG3 it still seems to have adapted many same issues as D:OS2. I suspect Origin system will likewise don't escape the issues of D:OS2.

There are RPGs with player made characters. There are RPGs with defined, pre-made characters. Larian wants both, and as it is usually the case when pursuing two conflicting designs, they are in a real danger of not taking full advantage of either approaches.

I am, because they had to.
As they say "You can't have your cake and eat it, too", so when they spent a disproportionate amount of of work on a single character to "make it work" from different perspectives, they are IMPLICITLY cutting somewhere else.
Which is why we have a very narrow selection of companion (that even "data leaks" don't seem to expand significantly) and quite possibly also why we haven't "demanding" features like your average day/night cycle that has been a staple (and a standard) in the genre since Ultima in the early '90s, if not even before.

I can see myself giving Shadowheart a try, because:
- based on what we see in EA I think she has the most interesting connection to the main story
- I like playing sneaky witch thief characters (the first BG3 character I rolled without any foreknowledge was a half-elven trickery domain cleric, only to abandon that playthrough when the first companion I found on the ground was the same!)

That said, like many posters on this thread, I do hope that Larian somehow manage to make custom characters as real and compelling as the origins, and would much prefer to play my own character(s). I personally feel that having the controlled character voiced in dialogues would make a huge difference to how present they feel in the game world compared to the companions, but I know that’s a separate and controversial topic in its own right. And there are of course other ways of bringing custom player characters to life, as has already been well-articulated in this thread.

(Regarding “wasted” effort on origin chars, I’m genuinely curious to see how much totally new content there will be to make these main player characters rather than controllable party members. I wonder if there’s a way of doing it that doesn’t need massively more than would be in the game anyway. Possibly not!)

Not a huge fan of playing Origin characters, I really like to think of a backstory for a character, play them out that way and feel like I make them mine.

In the off chance that I would be persuaded however, I'd possibly play Shadowheart.

I think this game already gives me more to match my char to what's going on inside my head than any other DND based game I've played before. Neverwinternights left almost everything up to your imagination, it's still an great game! Planescape Torment sort of railroaded you, but's that's great too! Baldur's Gate was a fucked up mess if you played elf, still great! Imoen is human, how is she the same age me if we turn out sisters! A mess, but a fun mess. Remember how much fun BG1 was? once you chilled out about dying every 5 minutes? taught me valuable life leasons like don't try to fight wolves when you aren't wearing trousers.

BG3 is shaping up to be a lot of fun for any race/class with huge replayability. I'm worried that I'll spend too much time on this after full release - and that's my biggest worry. All origins and multiple Tavs.

Wyll is the big "needs work", but I think could be a winner for me long term. After him I'm looking forward to Shadowheart for the mystery, and Gale to find out what he's up to with Tav/everyone. I'd love for Larian to go off-piste with Astarion, but the vampire stories are soo well trod at this point.

Edit: Theory:

I don't know.

None. Have no interest in playing any of this characters at all. In such games I create my own character, who is "me" in that case. "I" look how I want, the race I want, class I want, have skills I want and make choices I want. It is my story.
Through all my playing in BG3 I always start conversations only with my character (unless the game throws me into dialog with random character after fight which is infuriating) and have no interest in trying othervise. Me is me, and they are not me...

I totally agree with this. Unlike many here I don't find them a waste of resources, as I look forward to have them as companions. It doesn't matter they're not optimized because the game is easy enough for them to dealw ith it anyway. I find all of them itneresting in their own way and really look forward to see how their story archs play out, but there is no need to play them myself as I sort of do anyway when I control them as companions.


So instead I'll make a list of the most interesting ones.

1. Karlach (pretty sure she'll be a companion)
2. Shadowheart
3. Astarion
4. Wyll
5. Lae'zel
6. Gale

Like we have an amazing line up of choices for BG3, so sad really rofl. 2022 RPGs, 6 playable NPCs, OMG what amazing choices!! But wait! TWO MORE coming! lol.
BG2 in 2000 had like 18?? Add a dozen more with mods (which will clearly NEVER happen with BG3)I dont give a damm if its not <AS DETAILED> 18 is 18, and most in there had great content and nearly all were memorable, wether you liked them or not.
God do I hate this <origins> story thing. What a waste of content Why cant the game concentrate on your main character and story and supporting cast of tons of amazing NPCs?

I don't like games with prepared characters, the reason I never got into Witcher games for example. So a big fat "no" to origin chars. I want to experience them as companions, nothing else.

I want to more know about Gale's relationship with Mystra and how he really got that Destruction Orb.