Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Why is Larian sticking to the origin system?

This sums up my thoughts I think.

I haven't played Larian's other games so I can't say how well the concept worked or didn't there. BG3's origin system kind confuses me a bit and seems weird with half the companion options we currently have. Origin companions are technically pre-gens, and for Wyll and Laz I think they appear to be ok options for their selective classes. I can see the character screens for them in my head with little bio's like the following.
Wyll: Having traded his soul for the power to escape certain death, Wyll uses his Warlock powers to help defend those who can't defend themselves while trying to find a way to reclaim his lost soul.
Laezel: Her people having been at war with the Mindflayers for millennia, Laezel is a proud Gith Warrior eager to pit her strength and fighting skills against the deadly threat of the Mindflayer invasion.
These characters are not really to over the top, that we've seen so far. They might work fine as origin options.

The other 3 companions though I'm not so sure on.
For the most part you are right robertthebard. For Wyll and Laezel that seems to be what you get. Shadowheart is where I start finding things a little confusing though. As she is presented she is the cleric of an evil god. Larian wants the evil playthrough to be a viable option so SH seems a valid dark character option. But if popular speculation holds true she ISN'T an evil character. IDK but if I bought BG3 without playing EA I think I'd be let down I wasn't getting a fully evil character storyline for the evil character I decided to try. This potential redemption arc seems fitting for a companion but a little at odds with being a MC.

Gale's backstory is a little bonkers and it will be interesting to see how they handle the "eating magic items". That really is info the player should know before picking Gale, but will they have a disclaimer warning them they will have to sacrifice gear as they go and will there really be some kind of time limit, like eat an item every 10(arbitrary number) long rests or game over?

Astarion I'm honestly just prejudice against. This is not Twilight or VtM. Undead are not people in D&D. Astarion died and ceased to exist like 100-200 years ago or whatever. He is here for fans of vampires from other IPs.

I just wish BG3 and Larian games in general, weren't multiplayer first, single player second games. But that's the direction Larian have picked and we just need to accept that.

On the contrary, one of the main reason I am picking BG3 is for its multiplayer. Being able to play with friends has been the one of the most fun gaming experience I had in years.

I would be totally fine for it to be designed primarily as a co-op game if it didn’t affect the single player experience but in this case it clearly does. That is my major gripe with it.

Yes, as presented, she's the cleric of an evil goddess. If you're playing as her, you're free to go all in on that. Some of the choices that are made dependent upon Tav's dialog/other choices won't be hindering that in any way, because Tav won't exist. I don't know what information is available on the character screens for the companions during character creation, because we can't play as them during the EA, so maybe Gale's little idiosyncrasy will be touched on there. It would make sense, just as it makes sense that we don't know about it until he actually tells us now. As for Astarion, I'm on the fence, as I have been since the beginning. Undead may not be people, but, if they're a playable "race" in 5e, then exceptions will have to be made, whether at the table, or here. It's not like Vampires are mindless zombies at the end of the day, regardless. My concerns revolve around things like "can't cross running water", given some of the environments we have so far, rather than the issue of "but he's undead".