Originally Posted by Drath Malorn
So, after watching the final Panel From Hell, I feel it might be useful to summarise the situation regarding Player Characters, Companions, and basically the kind of adventuring parties we'll be able to assemble.

Larian didn't give much details about mercenaries, as far as I can recall. Maybe I missed those though. Anyway, let me recapitulate the options for Player Characters and Companions only.


  • A Companion is a Non-Player Character (NPC) that you can recruit in your party.

  • An Origin Character (OC) is a character fully designed by Larian. They have fixed game stats, Backstory and personality. They can be chosen as Player Characer (PC) at the start of the game. Otherwise, they will be a Companion that our PC can meet in the game.

  • A Semi Custom Character (SCC) is a PC only. We can customise their game stats, ideally their personality as well to some extent, but they have a Backstory, which is fixed and somewhat precise. (Example : Gorion's Ward.)

  • A Fully Custom Character (FCC) is a PC only. We can choose their game stats, personality, make up the backstory ... everything. (Example : what we had so far in EA with the Custom Character.)

  • A Backstory is a ... backstory, that is pre-defined and used by the game. (You might be tempted to call this an "origin", with lower case o, but I'd strongly encourage you not to.) Thus a Semi-Custom Character is a Custom Character with a Backstory, whereas a Fully-Custom Character is a Custom Character with no (pre-defined) Backstory.

It might sound a bit formal to lay down definitions, but communication is based on shared definitions. When people start changing the meaning of words throughout a dialogue, or not caring about the words they use, there's a risk of miscommunication happening.


From what we've been told, including during the Panel From Hell 8 (Release Showcase), the situation for Companions and PC is the following.


Origin Characters.

  • Gale
  • Astarion
  • Shadowheart
  • Lae'zel
  • Wyll
  • Karlach


Non-Origin Companions.

  • Jaheira
  • Minsc
  • Halsin
  • Minthara


So there will be a total of 10 Companions in the game.


Custom Character options.

At the moment, it remains unclear wether we will still be able to play as a Fully-Custom Character, the way we could so far in EA. That is to say, a Custom Character with no game-defined Backstory.

What we were shown during the Panel From Hell is the Dark Urge. This is a Backstory exclusive to Custom PCs. So the Dark Urge is a Semi-Custom Character. It is unclear to me whether this is the only pre-defined Backstory that we will be able to choose at character creation, or if there is at least one more but Larian showcased only one during the Panel From Hell 8.


Larian's previous communication described this as the 7th Origin :

Originally Posted by Larian, in Community Update 20 (as of 07/07/2023)
With the addition of Karlach, our number of Origin characters now rises to six. She will join Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart, Lae’zel, and Wyll like a well-meaning, devil-fighting bat out of hell, rounding out the moral spectrum of playable characters from good to bad, and the shades of grey between. But she won't be our final Origin - you'll have to tune in to next week’s Panel From Hell: Release Showcase for that.

Larian made it quite clear what they mean by Origin :

Originally Posted by Larian, in Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access FAQ (as of 07/07/2023)
What is an Origin character?
Origin Characters are pre-designed characters. You can select them during character creation to start your adventure in their shoes (not available during Early Access, but will be added at launch) or you can recruit them during your journey. Origin Characters come with personal backstories, quests and motivations, and have unique ways of interacting with the world, whether you're playing as them or alongside them. If recruited as companions, their previous experiences and attitudes will influence their opinion about what you should do and how you should behave. Everything that you do or say might influence the course of your relationship with them, and determine whether you'll become friends, lovers, rivals, or bitter enemies.
If you create a custom character, you have the freedom to define your race, class and appearance, and you'll still find yourself embedded in the story of Baldur's Gate 3 through personal connections to the events that unfold. Exactly how is something we'll let you discover as you play.

It is then plain and clear that the Dark Urge is not an Origin Character. You can't recruit them during your journey. For the good and simple reason that the Dark Urge is not a Character. It is a Backstory.

So, Larian's communication was incorrect. That's not entirely the first time.


Perhaps more importantly, that means BG3 will really have only 10 Companions. I had been hoping for 12. (Or even 14 in some best-case scenario, but I was hoping that 12 would be a realistic baseline. Especially after it was revealed in Panel From Hell 7 (Patch 9) that Minsc and Jaheira would be Non-Origin Companions. Origin Characters require more development resources than a mere Companion. So I was hoping that Larian having agreed to use Companions that are not Origin Characters, contrary to the goal they had stated before Early Access, meant they would be able to provide more Companions in total.)

Larian's Community Update 20 suggested that there would be only 11 Companions (well, at least 11 Companions, if you want to imagine that Larian revealed that Minthara and Halsin would be Non-Origin Companions but kept some others under the lid). That's less than I was hoping for, but ok.

Panel From Hell 8 (Release Showcase) just lowered the expected number of Companions to 10. As far as I'm concerned, that's quite the disappointment.



On top of the loss of one expected Companion, I also want to note that, with the latest revealed information and assuming that Larian does not have more Companions in stock, it is now clear that Larian has designed no Companion from any of the Short Races (Halflings, Dwarves, Gnomes). So long for diversity.

But hey, given how they wrote unique dialogue options for Races (Dwarves get access to unique quarrelsome lines, Halflings to unique diplomatic-friendly lines), and given that they decided to implement the Paladin's Oath as a rigid mechanics and to implement the Bard's Perform Action as Singing only, I was already seeing Larian as quite old-school and not much of a "21st century GM" who is somewhat interested in being open, flexible and making everyone feel welcome at their table. So my disappointment about this lack of short Companion is quite minor, compared to the reveal that Dark Urge is just a Backstory.

The hope for 12, the belief there were 11 after the community update, and the fact that there are 10 is salient. It is anchored in your expectations and hence your disappointment.

There is nothing in the panel from Hell that indicated you would not be able to make your own non origin custom character, in fact quite the opposite. When they were stepping through all of the char customization options the screen clearly said non origin custom char. The Dark Urge is a new category, Origin char that you can fully custom. Fully custom non The Dark Urge Tav is still in game.

Yes they should update their FAQ now that they introduced a non recruitable Origin.

Me personally i am excited by this for 2 reasons. 1 it essentially allows me to play as if i were a Bhallspawn in BG1 and 2. 2) and this is more important for me, it opens up for future development work to marry the concept of Custom Origin char with the system that existed in Dragon Age Origins to have a D&D game in the future that is heavy narrative based and have a custom origin for every race that is fully reactive on top of pure custom chars.

The lack of short race companions is disappointing to me as well. Halfling werewolf would have been cool, although why does everyone need to be so exotic just like the intro to the game it is all a bit too over the top, again my opinion and my tastes/expectations there.

To me this is still by far RPG of the decade the work on it is amazing.

Will it have my char i play D&D with all the time an elven gish that in recent editions was bladesinger, no. Will it have companions that i inherently like given my worldview and biases, nope. Will i have an awesome time and will the companions actually be interesting chars, heck yeah. I will love the heck out of this game and i love the potential this game represents for the future of digital D&D gaming.

Last edited by Relampago; 07/07/23 09:13 PM.