Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Mercenaries - NOT Like DOS 2 Please

For whatever reason I find that when it's possible to recruit fully custom Mercs at a midpoint, if I end up creating a second custom character, I almost always lose interest in them or the entire playthrough shortly afterwards. At least in both Pathfinder games I found that to be the case for me. Same deal in BG2, whenever I tried it with more than one custom character at a go. I could do the full custom party and get into it, but splitting the difference never seemed to hold my attention. Still, I think it's good to have fully custom Mercenaries available, for other people who do like those kind of Mercs, and to capture the fully custom party vibe of older games.

For my part, I'd prefer a basic scheme where many NPCs (or even most of the NPCs we meet in the first act) would be willing to sign on with the party for the right price. Perhaps a lot cheaper than the fully customizable merc, but with more quest flare. So instead of a flat cost in gold, it could be something else more specific to that particular NPC, to persuade the rando to tag along. BG1 would be my ideal model, where just about every area had a possible recruit. While recruitment quests in BG1 were usually fairly simple (visit a specific area, kill/save somebody etc.) they nevertheless added a bit of charm and a jumping off point, even if they weren't much beyond a couple voice barks. Just about every NPC we encounter in BG3 already has way more characterization and voice content in-place, from their limited cutscenes, than just about any of the BG1 NPCs had, so I think it could work in a very similar way. Having some more limited respec on those types characters would be fun, because then you get an added challenge of how to best kit them out starting from whatever you're given as a base/initial vibe they give off. In BG1 some companions were just better than others, but even for the companions who had a weak stat block or whatever, it was still fun to find ways to make them 'the best they could possibly be' with certain equipment combos or dual classing (if human) and other stuff like that to make it a bit more engaging.