Originally Posted by Black_Elk
For sure! hehe

Oh oh just picture this (cause I'm out walking the dogs right now, maybe I'll cook it up later) Ok so rather than clicking the 'Race' tab and seeing some boring list, what if instead we saw 9 base-avatar exemplars, all standing in a row - Like the Revengers! lol

So instead of just Tav the High-Elf Barbarian, we'd see all 9 fantasy race proto-characters, one from each of the available options. 9 gals basically instead of just the one, or if you click to change gender they switch out to 9 dudes. All together so we can see how large/tall they are relative to one another and start to get familiar that way.

When the player makes a selection, perhaps they give out a nice bark.

Maybe the Human says something classic like "It Shall Be" or if you pick the Githyanki they give out a clutch curse in Gith the way Lae'zel sometimes does. You know, where the base avatar lets us know, "right on! good choice!" To me that would just be a lot more fun, where they're all standing together like it's "pick me!" in dodgeball or something haha.

Now when the player confirms their selection, the others disappear and we zoom in to focus on the chosen avatar. This forms the basis of what we'll get to tweak, so the base avatar is sort of our generic whoever (wearing a simple tunic say) but now that we're into the process, when we select our background (changes the scenery) or choose our voice, we're excited about that tab. And when we get to Class it's like go time show time, and we're all stoked about it as the next step. By the time we actually get to Appearance, we've got a concept going. Sure you might back all the way out to choose a different race at that point, but it's not like just hopscotching around as much.

I honestly think that selecting Starting Equipment would be the most entertaining part of this whole character creation process, because that part is like playing dress up, which is always a lot of fun. I just think it's a big missed opportunity to get the player into a creative mindset, so I really do hope they include that at some point.

Also, definitely agree that when we're in the Class selection tab, we need to get more information about how that class progresses. I don't think it needs to be insane on the details, but a nice visual like a branching tree that we can expand if we want to preview that stuff. It should be available at any time from the character sheet too.

Oh and just because I haven't mentioned it here yet, but I feel pretty strongly that we should be able to relaunch the "Appearance" screen from the actual game at any point. At least for the stuff that's purely cosmetic. It's annoying to have to create a whole new character if all you really want is another haircut, or to swap out a head or whatever. I think they should treat this the way Portraits or Colors or Sounds were handled in BG1/2, meaning you could switch those at any point from an in-game menu. We should be able to change our name or our voice too. I think the player shouldn't be punished for just being kinda capricious about that stuff, being able to change it on the fly might save a playthrough if it gets the player excited again, whereas making a mistake or being stuck they might just log out in frustration. So yeah, let the player just go back and make some changes to that stuff if it isn't a mechanical thing but just a cosmetic one.
Was thinking the exact same thing going through your posts (I agree with all of it).

These classics came to mind:

[Linked Image from us.v-cdn.net]

Some other games have this concept built in character creation. An example:

[Linked Image from fifplay.com]

In a more artsy DnD style it could look like:

[Linked Image from explorednd.com]

Speaking of the art direction of BG3, I have to say I'm not a big fan. The character models seem too polished and fairy-tale like when Faerun has plenty of gritty. I have a list of about 20 characters since I played BG2, some that I like to recycle for new games, but, except for my dwarven cleric, I simply cannot achieve the remotest resemblance with this editor, and definitely not human males. Most faces look like retiring choir boys just old enough to hammer a nail into a wooden plank. It wouldn't hurt to add some faces that don't look like they were just wiped clean with baby tissues. The stubble beard looks too akward to help make your character look more rough or rugged. Perhaps adding a few sliders for age, complexion and body types wouldn't hurt either.