Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Inclusion in the bodytypes? Character Creator

I'd also point out that a flaw of a system where a character built to appear overwheight would get thinner and more fit or scrawny characters getting bigger and more fit would be that it would lead to all characters ending up with the same build. It would take away the variety that's the point of rpg character creation. I don't think it would be all that interesting as a system as a result. The closest analogue we currently have is how in Witcher 3 Geralt's beard would grow over time. That works because it's a way to personalize a character that's already very set and default. It made him more unique from player to player rather than less.

Ultimately, such a feature could (should?) be reserved for a more "realistic" mode, but I don't see this as judgmental any more than...

Starvation/malnutrition resulting in a slimmer character.
Sleep deprivation causing a character to appear haggard.
Poison/disease crippling a character and/or rendering them visibly ill.
Certain moral/ethical choices shifting a character's Alignment.

These are all instances of a character suffering the consequences of an adventuring lifestyle.


Not necessarily. An elf that is, for example, an expert swimmer and archer is going to look different from the maul-swinging human pack mule of the party.

Yes, but none of them are associated with real life prejudices that have a proven negative impact on people’s real lives, as there’s a mounting body of evidence that fatphobia does. I think it would be totally inappropriate for BG3 to implement features that would reinforce harmful stereotypes about fat people, and any feature like the one you suggest would have to be done extremely carefully to avoid that, and definitely not in a way that singles out fatness for special treatment.

To explain a bit further, while it might be the case that on average fat people are less active than thinner ones, it would be stereotyping to jump from that generalisation to assume of a specific fat person that they’re not active, or that every fat person is inactive, which is uncomfortably close to the harmful stereotyping of fat people as lazy. We’ve already seen counterexamples to that in this thread, and there’s absolutely no reason to assume that anyone’s custom character should be average either (just as the fact that women are on average not as strong as men shouldn’t mean that I’m prevented from creating a strong female warrior who bucks that trend). But it feels as though the feature you suggest relies for its “realism” on that stereotype of fat people being inactive, as the only reason they’d lose weight in the course of the adventure is if they were more active or ate less, and while it’s possible that would be the case depending on our character’s backstory, we’re given no specific in-game reason to believe it must be so, and the game is neither forcing us to move vast distances in a day nor giving us reason to believe food is scarce.

That’s probably about as much as it’s appropriate to say here without venturing too far into sensitive real world topics, so I would just recommend that any further discussion on this point keeps in mind that this is a subject that does have a bearing on folk’s everyday experiences and that we should be alive to that when discussing the topic in an open forum.

I remember old Sims games having this feature. Eat a lot and don't do sport? Your sim gets fatter. Do sport and eating healthy? Your sim gets fitter. While it isn't a 100% accurate to real life, it was a neat feature for a life sim, as it allowed for variety in the sim population and it promoted objectively healthy behaviour. I honestly don't think this kind of feature is harmful for anyone, unless you are the kind of people who think video games is a mirror of real life like the people who though violent video games make people who play them violent too.

Bottom line is, is this feature worth adding to BG3? Eeeeh... I have never seen a DM tracking weight in a tabletop session, so I wouldn't miss it.

Personally, if I wanted to play an active, fat character in the game but it forced them to lose weight, I’d feel pretty irritated and judged, particularly if I were an active fat person in real life. I don’t think that’s equivalent to moral panics about violence in video games, particularly as (as far as I’m aware) there’s no evidence that playing violent video games causes violence, but there is evidence of the harmful effects of weight-related stigmas and the fact they often have the counterproductive effect of making people less likely to exercise or to lose weight. This feature would be about the game ruling out certain fat characters as invalid due to generalisations, and specifically fat characters that have positive traits. As I said, it would feel very like ruling out high strength female characters just because women on average aren’t as strong as men, and I would object very strongly to that.

No one is going to debate that exercise and a healthy diet (alongside getting enough sleep, not drinking or taking drugs, staying off the roads, and tons of other stuff) are good for us, but if you read testimony from folks who experience fatphobia in real life, one thing that understandably gets their goat is that too often when a fat character appears in media their fatness is medicalised and/or the story becomes about weight and the need to lose it. Which of course is also what has happened in this thread. I think it’s totally reasonable for those folk to just want to play a fantasy game, or read a games forum, as a fat person without it feeling like it’s getting preachy about a healthy diet and active lifestyle. It’s not like anyone doesn’t know!

That’s one of the sensitivities I alluded to that we should be alive to and not trample over. My approach with stuff like this is always to seek out and listen to the folk who experience the prejudice in real life and try to understand their perspective, and where available (as it is in this case) read up on research that has been carried out on the topic, rather than assuming I can decide what is and isn’t harmful from my own experience when that isn’t relevant.

PS I do agree that there are sim type games where mechanics around diet and exercise would be in keeping with lots of similar mechanics for other attributes, and so not problematic unless done badly, but that’s not the context we’re dealing with here.

That just means that all elves end up looking the same, all humans end up looking the same, etc. It's just determined based on race. I can't imagine a game being so specific as to devote the time and money necessary to properly model the intricacies of how various forms of exercise and activity impact physical appearance and weight loss/gain unless that were all the game was about. Otherwise yes, you'd get a system where no matter what you start with, your character just ends up defaulting to a median character build set as 'fit'.

I mean, why not have different bodytypes? More options are always good. And I don't really care in a fantasy game, what is realistic and what not. So I would be ok with the overweight active adventurer.
Star Wars The Old Republic has different bodytypes from very slim to normal to very muscular to slightly overweight. Online to have the options.

Hard to believe you can play a tank without being allowed to be built like a tank, ngl.

Hi folks, a reminder to keep general political commentary not specifically related to (potential) game features out of this thread. And indeed any others.

I have just removed a post that appears to violate that rule (along with a response quoting it), though as it wasn’t clear what the poster actually meant I have PMed them and may reinstate the post, suitably edited, if it turns out it was just poorly expressed.

I have a feeling it's more of a "I like what they have, I don't need it to change, so I'm against the change".

What about San Andreas style? The more camp supplies and food you eat, the larger you get. More strength checks=more jacked. Lack of resting and eating leads to weight loss. I guess this would give larger characters an incentive to rest and heal more, and thinner characters incentive to rest and heal less, though.

Okay folks, I know I’ve been one of the worst offenders, but I’m going to call it now on discussion of weight gain/loss mechanics on this thread.

If anyone particularly wants that feature and/or wants to discuss it further then they can create a new thread, but going forward let’s keep this one to discussion of different body models at character creation, rather than mixing it up with the possibility of body shape changing over time which has no necessary connection with the OP’s suggestion.

Yeah, probably. I always like more choices in a CC.

Physicality of our characters changing with play style could only work, if the game revolves around making live style choices - in that case our characters look would act as feedback to our choices. Jamming physical changes to game like BG3 wouldn’t work, as it is not game designed around making those choices - we pick our race and class, whenever we save, ignore or slaughter tieflings, but not really what our characters diet is, and how they spend their days, or how much their exercise.

Just one last reminder of the above. Hopefully there won’t be any further posts on that subject here, but if there are I’m going to separate the topic out into a separate thread.

The resource cost implications of supporting multiple phenotypes in player characters will vary from one game to another, depending on the exact features the game supports.

It is sometimes possible to use simple limited scale factors for character height and radial width without making the clothing system look wonky, but it tends to be more difficult if you have major bodyshape alterations, as each piece of clothing typically needs a new version for each new bodyshape.

Layered clothing just adds to the complexity, of course, and imagine the possible effect on all those complicated multi-character animations in BG3 if the player's body parts are not quite where they are expected to be...

As it stands, I believe there are theoretically 18 bodyshapes from the 9 races ( ignoring sub-race differences ) each with 2 genders that players can pick from, although several races seem to share the human bodyshapes, so relaistically, there are probably 12 distinct "average" bodyshapes.

If you added bodyshapes for "skinny", "plump", "weedy" and "buff" for each race/gender combo, you would have 60 different bodyshapes which every wearable item would need to be tuned for, and every animation would need to consider. It is unlikely this would be practical before the August release window, unless this is a feature they already have that is not in EA.

Maybe if enough players express interest it might be a post-launch addition, since Larian have a decent reputation for enhancing their games.

Aside from making clothing fit different body types, you’d also need separate animations. A person of average build, heavily muscled build, and heavy set build would each stand and walk differently.

So I’m short, this ain’t happening.

And by animations also consider Focused Examination: Intimate Choreography with Small-sized Characters
That's a lot more work to put on your plate before we've really seen them finish the antipasto.

It's hard to figure out whether this is supposed to be a genuine request or trolling in this day and age...

...all things considered, I remember NWN1 having a "default" and a "heavy" model for every race and both sexes. "Heavy" fell more into a "burly but also rotund" category there, though. Still, with all the animation work required and the already abundant clipping with the existing models I highly doubt that this is in any way a priority to implement. I am not sure how the armor being fitted to models is done by Larian, but given how there were several cases of wardrobe malfunctions for certain suits with non-standard body types I am kinda worried that they are all adjusted by hand instead of having modifiers for the models.

Myself, I'd rather see slimmer halflings and slightly portlier gnomes. Halfling women have an... anime-like look to them proportions-wise, for the lack of a better term. Most female models could use a bit of adjustment. Being able to get rid of abs and body hair (everyone except for elves and gnomes has it) on men would be a welcome touch, and not even that difficult - heck, modders have already done both to my knowledge, since it's just texturework/layering that doesn't need any mesh alterations.

I'd absolutely love more bodytypes!! For all types of characters. So heavier but with evident muscle definition, or heavier but softer and that also goes for leaner/thinner builds for all genders than are currently available. We probably don't get height options aside from the very specific per race ones but that would be a major boon as well and really add to the individualization of your hero and let them stand about and be connected to the player.

In my case I would have loved to have a more lean but toned option for my males as it fits my preference for them much more. I know some players find them too thin already, but I'm the opposite. I actually was a little disappointed that my elves looked a bit too thick for my taste.


Please note that this post is not about whether Larian will, or can, or should (have) and it isn't about potential technical difficulties & resources etc. It's voicing a wish/want from a personal perspective as a particular player, that's all. It's still valuable for Larian to know, if not for this project, then maybe the next.