Isn't that a self created problem? If you want to play a good cleric, you can, in fact, roll one up. If I were going to play as Shadowheart, it would be to play her as she is presented, and the same holds true for all of the companions. Regarding "wasted resources", I've touched on this a couple of times in the various iterations of this thread, but if they're going to be companions, w/out being able to play them as the main character, their backstories would have to be written anyway.
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.
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".
