Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Backgrounds Influencing Conversations

Would love to see our chosen background have greater value in the game through conversations with the party and NPCs.

Here are some examples:

Charlatan -
Known by all merchants, they are feared and adored by many.
PC holds a personal business that when meeting with a fellow businessman, the PC can obtain intel on certain subjects.
Wyll takes note of PCs background and will talk of maybe one day owning their own business.

Criminal -
PC is wanted for a specific crime and must utilize disguise-self in certain circumstances to ensure to not be taken into custody (perfect for a possible jailbreak).
Astarion encourages PC to work together to steal a specific item off of a noble.
Relationship rates with Astarion increase faster with this background.

Folk Hero -
PC will be confronted by NPCs with pleas for their help, acknowledging PCs past achievements in saving townspeople, met with fame and awe.
PC is given a name by the folk people is is known far and wide by that name - Example: The Shadow
The Blade of Frontiers (Wyll) views PC as a rival but also a valued ally - “The Blade and The Shadow. Ha! No one would dare to stand a chance against us!”

Nobel -
Astarion shows great dislike for the over-privileged and makes snide comments about leaving their feathered bed behind.
Merchants will increase their prices in wares, remarking on the PCs status all the while trying to haggle out more money.
Officials will hold nobility with great respect versus those who are of a criminal background.

What do you all think?

Would have been awesome, but I remember Swen talking about this ages ago and saying that it would just be too many more permutations, and I certainly understand that.

That's a bummer. But I can see your point.

Well, if anything it is precisely the things the OP is talking about on which Swen ought to have focussed his permutations. Unfortunately, right from the very beginning, the BG3 devs have been focussed on the wrong things (for example VO, cutscenes, etc.) while neglecting the the important things.

Astarion's background is noble. As I recall, he even mentions how strange he finds camping outdoors, to which I believe Tav can respond with something about how it's no feathered bed, but it will do. Something like that anyway.

In general, I like the point being made, that it would be nice to incorporate backgrounds to help Tav come alive in the setting.

That said, I accept the difficulty of a custom character from a game design standpoint. I suppose I'm hoping that the origin characters get a lot of attention when it comes to that kind of stuff, specifically because the writers have had a chance to cater to those particular individuals.

I do agree with that. Absolutely.

This is your opinion. We finally have 2022, not 2002. VA is definitely what every game should have right now.
Cutscenes are also a thing that strongly influences (positively) the reception of the game
Slightly restricting your choice is not a bad thing, I prefer quality over quantity.

+1 I would prefer it as well. I think that rather then production value, Larian's lack interest in character building is the reason - Origins, over customs. Rather then giving players tools to customise their PC, they will deliver a group of pre-made NPCs to choose from.

It would be too hard to account for everyone's personal backgrounds doing something like this. I would prefer dialogue options so we can choose to use them if they fit our characters and ignore them if not. I certainly would not want to see any game changing things like nobles having to pay more and criminals or charlatans being treated with suspicion and followed everywhere by guards. How would complete strangers know your background? The only way I would be ok with having background stories like you mention is if we had custom backgrounds or an option to not have it forced on us.

They should add custom backgrounds anyway, considering even the PHB allows for swapping proficiencies.

Indeed. But perhaps Larian are right to emphasize the things they've chosen to emphasize because that's what today's gamers are looking for: a whole lot of WIZZ, BANG, POW cinematics and voice-acting and gimmicks. Superficiality and coolness over depth and substance. It's what we're getting in every entertainment medium. Heck even sports have degenerated down to this nowadays.

Are there any background specific dialogue options currently in the game? I don't recall any... Would be nice for an occasional bit of dialogue flavor.

Nope ... as it was said abowe, Swen specificaly said they will not do that ...

I don't think it would need to create any additional permutations if it's just dialogue flavor.

Any difference in text is basicaly permutation.
Since they need to write it, animate it, most importantly record soud for it, and keep it in mind for futher uses or references.

Well that's assuming that we are actually getting a fully voiced protagonist. If not, it's really just an extra line of text.

Extra line of text NPCs have to react on.

Yeah, by dialogue flavor I meant that it would not have any bearing on the NPC's reaction. No additional voice or motion caption required.

This might be too many permutations or require too much extra VA. Larian should at least allow players to swap their skill proficiencies for their chosen background, because the PHB backgrounds have an uneven distribution of proficiencies.

So ...
Basicaly you say that you want dialogue option the game will not even recognize? O_o

You can aswell say it out loud by the PC and result should be the same. :-/

I will agree with you there. Larian's approach to writing PC lines is to keep it undefined (unlike let's say Obsidian school that aims to offer variety of characterized responses). One might as well try to spice things up in their heads, rather then expect for little flavours to be added based of backgrounds.