Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Qu: Are all the PC and NPCs a-holes in BG3?

Sorry if this question has been asked before, I am a new forum member.

Backstory, my daughter loved BG as a teen and got all editions, Icewind Dale, etc. What she liked most about those games are the interactions, dialog, and storylines far more than combat. Fast forward to today, she's in grad school and we were looking for something to play together online. I suggested Divinity 2 as I just got it and have enjoyed it. She bought it, tried it, and has really been dissatisfied with, basically in her words, almost everyone in the game are a-hole d-bags. She really doesn't like any of the characters and then most of the NPCs and just stopped playing the game. She is comparing this to the previous BG editions and, in her mind, they come up short. This has given her trepidations about BG3 being the same as it's coming from the same studio.

So my question for those that are playing the early access of BG3, how are the characters, the interactions, dialog, etc in BG3? Is it more like the legacy versions or is it more like Divinity?

Thanks.

My impression: Boring and predictable companions. You know right away that every companion has a secret and I find the use of an inflated number of companions with secrets boring anyway. In the previous games they didn't have secrets, or at least not to an exaggerated extent, they were just strong personalities from the start like Edwin the Red Wizard from Thay or Jahreira the Harper (which she only revealed to the party). Just a few characters had real secrets like Xzar and Montaron and were therefore a bit more special because they weren't that common. They are also all annoying "a-hole d-bags", but rumor has it that in EA only the "evil" companions are introduced anyway.

A found characters in BG3 a bit less obnoxious, but quite a bit of the same mean-spiritedness remains. There is plenty of footage of the game by now, so she can judge it by herself.

Companions are so much a matter of taste that I’m not sure she could take anyone’s word for it. Plus we only have part of the game and don’t know all the companions yet, though are expecting Minsc and Jaheira from BG1 & 2 to be able to join us later in the campaign. But even in early access, I think lots of folk have found characters either amongst companions or NPCs that they’ve really enjoyed. Others, of course, have been disappointed.

Personally I’ve found something to interest and engage me in all the companions so far, though with some reservations and whether they work in the end will only be shown when we get the full game.

The interactions are far more in depth than BG2 and certainly than BG1 where companions had very little dialogue at all (though many had a lot of impact despite that!). It may be more like Divinity 2 for all I know, but I’ve never played it so I guess I’d say the interactions are more like Dragon Age than BG, but to me that’s a natural evolution. I’m reasonably confident that I’m going to be content with the companions and interactions in the final game, and it’s still possible that I’ll be more than content if they live up to their full potential.

As to whether folk we meet are a-holes, I think it’s fair to say many of the individuals we meet are flawed in various ways. But then I think the same is true of BG1&2 and I’m not sure they’re any worse. So, in short, I think she may need to read or watch some reviews and clips when the game is out and make her own mind up whether she wants to give it a go.

People hate Aerie, people love Aerie. The same with Anomen, Jaheria, Minsc and most everyone else. And you'll find that range of opinion for BG3 too. Without experiencing it for yourself I'm not sure what we can do to help you.

Also take into account that at this point we've been running through the same material, and character beats, that some of us have grown to resent them all a little.

My impression is that the characterisation trends and styles are very much in line with what you experienced with Divinity - Everyone has that same standoff-ish defensive and insulting personality baseline; they may all have personalities beyond that, but they are for the most part all that same sort of rude, something-to-prove type of character who will tend towards insulting you in order to feel like they've got the upper hand, and the inclination to treat every dialogue exchange as a competition to be 'won', or to find a chance to advertise their superiority. It's everywhere, in almost everyone, with very few exceptions and with a moderate does of passive racism mixed in, which you usually have no recourse to object to or pull them up on.

That was my experience with Divinity, and it's been a repeat performance here as well. The writers of divinity games, and now BG3 seem to think that this is the normal baseline starting point of all people, with extremely rare few exceptions.

Yep, definitely a matter of taste . My impression is different from Niara's, except for agreeing with the fact that we too often don't have the chance to come back when someone is rude to us. But I personally don't experience three out of five of the companions (Wyll, Gale and Shadowheart) as standoffish or insulting as long as my character isn't intrusive or rude (ie an asshole) to them. If I play a character who pesters them with questions they don't trust me enough to answer or does things they've made clear they won't like - like try to read their minds - then relations can break down, but in my view that feels reasonable enough. But, that said, if your daughter didn't like the characters in Divinity and Niara has played both and thinks the BG3 characters are similar, then your daughter's tastes may be more like Niara's than mine!

(When you say Divinity 2, do you mean exactly that, by the way, or are you talking about Divinity: Original Sin 2?)

Red Queen has a point - my experience was specifically with Divinity: Original Sin 2, which lacked a lot of the silly-fantasy humour of earlier divinity games, and thus which made the other elements I complained of more visible and intrusive.

I'd add that I find Gale to be one of the few exceptions that I mentioned - but not so for Wyll or Shadow.

really? of the group Gale is the one I trust least... he will totally sell your soul out from under you

I would say that even if you don't trust him (I'm with Niara in that I do overall trust him, even though I do believe he's holding some stuff back) he's still one of the more polite and well-mannered members of the group.

How much I trust the companions is another matter (and one already much discussed in another relatively recent thread). I think most of us have played enough cRPGs to learn to distrust appearances. But here I was talking about appearances and manner, and yes I think if you're a friendly, non-asshole to Gale, he appears to be a friendly, non-asshole back, as (in my view) do Shadowheart and Wyll ... at least to begin with, though of course we uncover things in the game that may concern us. And I should say that, despite the fact that in different ways I think both Lae'zel and Astarion, the other two early access companions, do act like assholes when you meet them I still think they're fun companions and I like them anyway (especially Astarion).

If we're comparing with D:OS2 rather than BG1&2 then I should be able to contribute more, but I only played the first act of D:OS2 about three years ago. I don't recall if or how much the characters or interactions were behind the game not grabbing me, but at least I can definitively say as it's my personal experience that it's perfectly possible to be meh about the first bit of D:OS2 and yet love BG1, BG2 ... and BG3!

Gale is generally nice and respectful, except for when you first meet him. When he says you look like a Rashemi staring at a blackboard... that seems unnecessarily rude. In fact, I'd argue that he seems like a subtly different person after that initial conversation.

Okay, I'll give you that . I've tended to just take that as "you're looking at me as though you're thinking wtf is this guy rambling on about?" but it could be rude if he actually thinks you are too stupid to understand what he says rather than that he thinks you're reasonable to be looking at him in disbelief when he's going off at tangents. And it's possibly racist against the Rashemi depending how we take that element! Plus there's the slightly sleazy bit with Shadowheart. In short, yes, I think Gale's intro could do with a bit of rework and isn't wholly consistent with who he seems to be once you chat to him more.

I must admit that I like some slight "inconsistencies". Video games have the tendency to shoehorn characters into a single narrow archetype and never deviate from it, making characters very bland. By varying a bit the way characters express themselves, they feel more human than just a narrative tool.

That is also a fair point, and Gale being painfully awkward when first meeting someone, or even having somewhat snobbish and sleazy attitudes when he doesn’t watch himself, doesn’t seem entirely off brand. But I do agree with JandK that it can feel too clumsy currently and clearly gives Gale too much work to do for some folk to warm to him after poor first impressions. “Consistent” was a bad word choice of mine, as I also agree that some level of inconsistency and tension between different character traits can make characters feel more real, but done without care this can be too jarring and I can sympathise with people who think Gale’s intro is an example of this.

I say that as someone who so far likes him despite his flaws, but I think with some minor tweaks Larian could preserve the awkwardness and tendency to elitism (and even the misplaced attempts at “charm”) without alienating some players from the get go, which feels undesirable in a companion and probably not what the writers intend at this point.

But now I think I am retreading old ground from that thread I linked above, so I’ll stop.

The answer is personal preference, watch videos and play the game.
I enjoy having different companions in my party at different times, and companions can have different reactions to the others that make it interesting. I plan to have all companions play out their story arcs from august...and if i want a break ill do a hireling playthrough.
To be confirmed...but looks like we might keep all companions into act 2 and can change their class. That will prevent the "i want one wiz in my party, and thats me, therefore i will never have Gale in my party" syndrome.

There are some good NPCs out there: Halsin, many of the named female tieflings and a couple of the males, and Volo are all perfectly polite and some even nice. Something to keep in mind about your teamates is that they are all about to die and are in crippling pain on a regular basis. Regardless of any dark history, that level of stress, pain, and fear would make anyone cranky and standoffish.

I would say that most of the characters in the originals were pretty crappy at first too . BG1 barely had any interactions with your crew and BG2 had mostly sad/solemn/cranky options though you could eventually influence some of them to be less so. Of your starting companions, Imoen was the only one who hadn't lost a close loved one between games, and both of you were tortured endlessly by the opening dungeon.

I would say that there is a much better chance of influencing the characters in BG3 towards niceness and real companionship than there is in DOS2. I absolutely agree that almost everyone in that game is pretty much an a-hole. In DOS2 only a couple of the followers (and an NPC or two) seem kind, but they have their own tragedies to deal with as well.

I never enjoyed the recruitable characters much in any of the Baldurs Gate games and I own them all. My preferred game style is a fully customised party of my own without all the drivel that comes with NPC party members. BG3 has the worst, in my opinion, NPC party members. I can't stand them! I hope there's a way to create a custom party without having to use these creatures.

The issue here is, can we create custom merc’s or are the pre/generated with their own name, stats, feats, perks, etc?..