The BG3 problem: four protagonists competing for the spotlight will not make a good cast … The dynamic of a PC protagonist with companions for supporting cast has worked great for all party based RPG's before
This is of course a totally valid game to want to play and it is more in the spirit of the original BG games, though there are games like IWD and Solasta that take a different approach.
But despite having little interest in actually playing them as origin characters, one of the things I like best about the companions is that each of them feels like someone who *could* be the hero of their own story. While I’ve never played table-top games, I think it must be more like that, as all players will want to roleplay engaging characters and not play second fiddle to one protagonist, and the story is the party’s rather than one person’s. I love that I can get some of that feeling without needing to do anything so sociable or well-adjusted as play with other, real people!
My problem is that a custom character is still at risk of being the least interesting member of the party, and that we need far more in-game opportunities to flesh out their character and background and have the game respond to that, for example in companions or NPCs asking more questions of them with some interesting options for responses rather than it always being us asking the questions. There’s obviously a limit to the options that can be given and someone who wants to roleplay a really wacky character is going to have to use their imagination, but it feels like there are some general things that the game can help us express and then respond to. For example: did we live in BG or were we only visiting? what were we doing when captured? were we born in BG or did we move there? do we have mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, lovers and/or children? and if so are we worried that they could have been captured or killed in the illithid attack? what about our background, e.g. if a criminal are we reformed or still in the life, or if a guild artisan what sort of craft? Anyway, I’ve gone off-topic again, so I’ll stop belabouring the point.
