Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Gale's New Bio - Heavy spoilers even for EA Players

While you might not discount them, an evil megalomaniac probably would.

Ok, i didn't realize people were on the fence about this. I'm sorry if i hurt your feelings.

Its all fine, it was rude of me to call your take a 'cool story', I apologize.

Well having a more basic or grounded story doesn't mean that the character can't be powerful. I can come up with basic ones off the top of my head.

- A Rogue/Assassin 'sell sword' you meet at a pub who offers his services for gold or treasure. You can tie a couple of minor quests to said Rogue and then they just have a snarky attitude and provide amusing/interesting/alternative commentary about the world and quests.
- A Paladin hero who wants someone like-minded/good to adventure with in order to continue to fulfill their oath. They could have similar smaller quests and provide an entirely different take on quests.
- A unknown Bard looking to make a name for themselves by following around the powerful hero to write songs/stories about them.

I dunno - I am sure it would be easy to come up with more and more of them. So if you ask me "Would you take one of those characters or the HELLMACHINE WITH THE BLAZING HEART CHEST THING THAT ENGULFS HER IN FLAMES?!??!?!?" my answer would be - I guess it depends on my character, their personality and what I am looking for at that particular time. I don't see why chest-machine girl would be more appealing than any of the three options that I gave so long as they have an interesting personality/fit the party.

I mean, I would prefer Karlach because Karlach seems fantastically wholesome, but I'd prefer her without the infernal engine. Even with the blood war stuff still intact.

I was thinking more like Bronn from Game of Thrones.

But this guy also works, haha.

Those are some of the most boring and dull ideas I have ever heard for a D&D game. If Larian were trying to create a game that helps people suffering from insomnia get some healthy hours of sleep then your ideas might be on to something but alas that is not what they are trying to do.

I do think it's a fair criticism about everyone having overly convoluted backstories (except maybe Laezel), but I'd maybe have one counterpoint. We as the players know about this, but a lot of the details are locked behind approval ratios, so the character may not know. I've seen a playthrough where they didn't take Gale along and while he still asked for artefacts at camp, the player's approval never got high enough that he mentioned the orb or Mystra. Likewise I've benched Wyll and never heard about Mizora once. So for that playthrough he was just a bog standard warlock, maybe not even that. So who knows what happens later in the game when you don't get high approval? I mean if you don't take Astarion along with the gur scene I think he refuses to tell you who he's after. Who knows? Perhaps we're only supposed to think these guys are super duper extra ordinary if we actually get to know them?

Yes, but the story is that they are. Isn't that a bit like closing your eyes and start yelling the world is gone?

I'm also not sure what happens if you try to ignore and not actively kill those NPCs you don't want around. For example - what becomes of Astarion if you let him go? Does Gale blow up if you don't feed him artefacts just because you weren't an asshole when you first met? Definitely their stories don't disappear from the world. I'm quite sure we will run into Astarions' vampire daddy anyhow. If we could play just without them (like in DAO actually) it would be a different matter. I honestly don't want to deal with most of the origin characters. I actually rather have them as villians I have to kill later than endure their whining

True. I bet you find modern Marvel movies to be the pinnacle of story telling or think Tolkien is garbage.

"LOL WHO WOULD EVER LIKE A STORY ABOUT A HALFLING AND A STUPID RING?!?!?1/1/ WHY DOESN'T FREEDO HAVE A TICKING TIME BOMB IN HIS CHEST AND GODPOWERS?!??!?!"

I have some better ones that you might like...

- So there is like... A WIZARD! AND HE HAD A THREESOME WITH LIKE... FOUR DIFFERENT GODS EVEN THOUGH IT WAS A THREESOME TO LULL THEM INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY! BUT THEN HE KILLED THE GODS AND STOLE THEIR POWER BUT THEN ANOTHER GOD LIKE TOOK HIS POWER AND NOW HE HAS NO POWER AND HE IS ON A MISSION TO GO KILL THE GOD AND GET HIS POWER BACK AND HE GETS SUPER POWERS!
- Then there is like... a Rogue... BUT HE ISN'T JUST A ROGUE HE CAN SPEAK AN ANCIENT TONGUE BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH HE LOOKS LIKE A HUMAN HE IS A DEMON LORD GOD-MAN BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW IT AND HIS MOM WAS A DRAGIN SO HE CAN TRANSFORM INTO A DRAGON ROBOT AT THE END OF THE GAME AND FIGHT THE BAD GUYS!
- Or like... A WARRIOR! BUT THE WARRIOR WAS... CURSED BY THE DEMON LORDS OF SADNESS AND HIS BLADE INFLICTS SADNESS ALL OF THE TIME! AND HE NEEDS TO GO KILL THE DEMON LORD OF SADNESS AND LITTLE DOES HE KNOW HE IS ACTUALLY A SUPER POWERFUL ANGEL THAT CAN MAKE HIS SWORD ON FIRE AND IF HE DOESN'T HE WILL EXPLODE AND NUKE AN ENTIRE CITY!

You can have 'boring and dull' ideas that are actually great if the characters are written well. Or you can Michael Bay it up over and over thinking that is actually interesting or entertaining.

I'd love some boring and dull characters, to bring some balance to all this madness.

Yep.

In addition you could, you know, give them interesting personalities. People don't have to be vampires, have nuclear bombs in their chest or be on a quest from a god in order to be interesting or entertaining.

Yes but we don't need no one else but tav to be that chosen one. The rest could just be adventurers helping you out for whatever reason they might have.

You really haven't played much D&D have you? A D&D party is almost always made of crazy powerful party. Hell at the higher levels(18-20) D&D parties can end up against some of the craziest stuff imaginable like gods and leviathans and deal with reality bending powers. There are no simple "this guy just wants a friend" characters in a D&D party.

Guys, clearly we have different opinions on writing, characters, and what it means to have fun with them. That's fine! Maybe we can just appreciate each other's different perspectives?

That's a absolute minority of the games. Statistics have shown most campaigns run around level 4-8. Its even just a small part of the PC games, since you usually only play the last 10% of the game on such high levels.

And no - the level of storytelling Larian is using for the characters is not common. I'm going to be honest and say I think its on a very questionable quality level when you need all the craziness to make a 'interesting' background. And as said so often around here - if everything and everyone is special, no one is.


But hey, all the power to you if you enjoy it. You are one of the lucky ones who are not disappointed by what Larian has shown so far

I have played a decent amount of D&D. I haven't played all of the way up to level 18-20 because going up absurdly high in level seems foolish for the very reasons you list and there is a reason there aren't a lot of campaigns made for those high of levels. At least there wasn't when I played. I also didn't make every character I ever created some over the top story, because it isn't required to have fun or tell a story.

Also I believe Imoen is the first companion you ever meet in a Baldur's Gate game, if I recall. And she is literally just some girl that you grew up with who doesn't have many unique or special qualities about her at all... and she is LITERALLY just your friend. She quite literally just wants to follow you around and help you out because she is loyal to you.

Now - she becomes more powerful as time passes because she is adventuring and gaining experience. But she wasn't on a mission from a god. She didn't have a nuclear bomb in her chest. She wasn't a tortured vampire. She didn't make a deal with a devil. Not that any of those ideas are some awful thing - they are fine. But as williams85 said, not everyone has to be a 'chosen one' in a story.

I guess I will wrap up by saying...

1. I think the first game proves you wrong.
2. Your D&D games sound like they would be abysmal, like a fight for everyone trying to be more important and 'cooler'/'more powerful' than the next character. You should try branching out a bit.

I was talking about D&D in general, not just videogames based on D&D. And it's not a case of if everyone is special nobody is but a case of nobody but the most special people can last on a D&D party because D&D parties often deal with world changing affairs and many members of D&D parties have some sort of affiliation with real deities that are real from the very early levels. If someone in a D&D world just wants a normal life or to do ordinary stuff they definitely have no business adventuring with a D&D party because D&D parties always adventure into the most perilous places.

I'm not surprised about Gales new backstory. In another game, I would have found it interesting, but since all of Larians character are over the top, I just shrugged.