Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Custom Party for Single Player

I haven't played BG3 in a long time and I don't think I will again due to a serious 'flaw' that makes it an unenjoyable experience for me. I don't know how many people out there love the recruitable NPCs available and the diatribe of tripe we are forced to endure. I and plenty of people I have discussed BG3 with would much prefer the chance to start a single player game with a complete party created by us. It's how my friends and I always played the original and then used the same method for every single BG variant. I find it much more enjoyable to play with my party rather than someone elses. Is this a popular idea or do most people prefer the forced companionship of, in my opinion, terrible NPCs?

Fortunately we’re all different and many of us, like me, enjoy what we’ve seen of the BG3 companions to varying degrees (and I always prefer the pre-made companions in other cRPGs too). Others are okay with some but can’t stand others. And some folk, like you, can’t stand any of them.

There is a workaround in EA that lets you create a custom party, though it’s a faff and quite resource heavy during character creation. If you’re not aware of it, though, and want to try I’m sure I can dig out a link.

We’re expecting there to be a more official in game option for custom parties in the full release in August, though it’s not clear whether there’ll be the option to create a four person party from the start like the EA workaround, or just to “hire” custom characters as per the twitter link someone shared in another post where you brought up the same point.

You can start the game with your friends and play as whomever you wish. Player choice.
We will also have the choice to get hirelings if you don't choose origin characters.

The option to start a full single player custom party would be nice (possible now by opening multi instances of the game) but larian *might* provide official support for this.

In case you are not aware you can create custom party using the multiplayer feature and multiple instances of the game. Hopefully, 1.0 will have an in game way of doing it for people who want it.


I have enjoyed both type of games before, but in general I do prefer to create a single avatar, and than play with companions. To me story and character interactions are the primarily appeal of cRPGs so companions with story content and to whom I can talk to is a big boon. I am not really liking any of the companions currently on the offer, but I will still take the current bickering party, over a mute cannon fodder.

OP I understand you. I feel the same way. I really hope that you can create your custom party right from the very beginning.

Larian have said that this will be in the full game. You can actually already do it but it’s not convenient.

One thought as I've never played multiplayer, if four people are playing the tutorial, does Laezel simply not show up? What about SH?

In EA they show up talking to "dismiss your weakest warrior" and blablabla. The real problem is you are only allowed to create three custom party member, with four you can't add /switch companions to the party...

EDIT: As The Red Queen said Lae'zel was an exception as temporarily fitfth party member. "Us" was a temporarily pet / familiar / summon. But later on it was as I described.

I did the singleplayer custom party fudge and Lae’zel joined as a fifth party member in the prologue just as she does in single player (just for the prologue, she won’t after the crash). SH didn’t join. IIRC she just said she’d make her own way and ran off, but may be misremembering. I can’t recall what Us did. I think they might not have been freed in my playthrough?

EDIT: I had a save at the beginning of my custom party and can confirm Us and Lae’zel will join as normal, making potentially a party of six. SH won’t join, she’ll say there are too many of us and we’ll draw attention so will be better off on her own.



(PS If you notice that the character portraits are pixelated in this screenshot, then that's one "feature" of the custom party workaround. My system had to work really, really hard to run four instances of the game which is what you need to do for character creation, and I had to turn settings right down. You can turn them back up once you're back running a single instance of the game, but the portraits are stuck with the resolution they had when the game started. Though actually I've just previewed and the whole image looks pretty poor quality for some reason, so it perhaps doesn't show as much as it does in game!)

I’ve never tried getting Shadowheart, but yeah, you can play with 5 characters at this point, just like with Halsin in the temple. Makes getting the flaming cambion sword a breeze.

If I’m playing with a custom party I just end up killing or ignoring the companions. 🤗

I recently started a new playthrough of Wrath of the Righteous, and as soon as I got the option, I ditched all the pre-written party members and rolled my own, and it's sooooo much better not feeling like I have to pander to their needs.
I also don't have to deal with Owlcat's build decisions either, instead creating the team I want that covers all the bases I require (I've gone hyper-traditional with rogue, wizard, cleric, fighter, ranger and my main, a bard).

I would dearly love the ability to do this in BG3, even more so if I could have a party of six like in the originals. I can't stand the modern drive to reduce party numbers. I know they're probably not going to change party size so close to release, but I know that it will be the very first mod I either download or implement myself.

I think that the relatively modern CRPG that made me realise I could have more fun with a team I'd rolled instead of one provided to me by the developer was the NWN2 expansion Storm of Zehir. That also gave me an appreciation for stronghold maintenance and upkeep in RPGs.