Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General [Poll] What will your first playthrough look like ? (Player Character, Companions, Party, Romances)

This is a follow up of the previous polls about the composition of your party and your Player Character.

Think of this as being "Your First Playthrough Poll 2.5, Bigger And Hopefully Better".


You can take the poll here : What will your first playthrough look like ?


Also, let me know if you have any question about the questions.

(And apologies to those who feel that this is too many polls on the General top page, especially since each is an evolution of the previous one.)

Look I appreciate the effort to which you went for that poll but I don't think I've thought that far ahead. I was thinking about planning out all 3 of my playthroughs with 3 unique parties of 4 characters, but I'm rethinking it entirely. I'm not going to plan my game. My first way through, I'm going to play an amnesiac fish-out-of-water who is taking the game as he goes along.

Having said that, romancing Shadowheart or Karlach.

These are getting way too spamming. i'm not filling any more out. What's next "What will your first meal be in-game?"

...Well? What will it be bob?

Oh but my interest in this was not necessarily the same as yours, and it turns out it isn't. I'm just linking to yours because it's the thread that got me interested in this. (Personally, I'm more interested in seeing how the various characters/options are received by other players. My own playthrough is ... mostly determined, it may change actually, but likely not because of ideas I'll have read.)

Way-to-early findings.

Most people will make a Custom Character for their PC. A minority of those will pick up the Dark Urge Backstory tag.

The most popular party members seem to be Shadowheart, Karlach and Gale.

The least popular is currently Minthara, despite all the naughtiness she offered in EA. I presume this has a reasonable lot to do with her being (probably) accessible only on a playthrough where you'll embrace the power of the tadpole and possibly join the cult of the Absolute. But most players will go for a "good" playthrough at first.

For the romances, people seem more interested in Karlach and Shadowheart. Jaheira currently beats Halsin and Minthara, which I wasn't expecting. I did cast a vote for her, so I understand/agree, I just wasn't expecting she would have something resembling a broad appeal. Bear in mind that this is based on way too little data, at the moment, to be significative.

I can't imagine that recruiting Minthara is possible while also not doing the evil thing she wants me to do, so she'll be forever out of my reach. Otherwise she'd definitely be on my list and I would have voted accordingly. That said I don't find Halsin remotely interesting, but it's only natural to pick him up as the alternative.

For some weird reason i like filling out polls and questionnaires, so the more the better

About the possible romances, Larian said that "most" companions can be romanced, right? Or am i misremembering?
So my guess would be that either Minsc or Jaheira or possibly both of them can't be romanced..

The game is a long way off. I just spent the last few hours just working through D&D character builds and cross referencing with what is in the game to see which of the things I'd like to do I can do.

What we do know is that everyone except Minsc and Jaheira definitely can be romanced--all the origin characters, Halsin and Minthara. So since "most" means "not all," at least one of Minsc and Jaheira cannot be romanceable. Romancing Minsc pretty much has to be off the table just because of his mental state so that leaves Jaheira as a maybe. I personally tend toward a no, even though I think she would be an interesting romance partner.

There's a certain symmetry to having neither legacy character be romanceable, and blocking Minsc but allowing Jaheira would also unbalance the numbers--which Larian seams loath to do.

Well, to each their own kink.


I decided to put all the Companions in the list for "which Companion romances are you interested in exploring ?", as I thought that was the best I could do with incomplete information. Likewise, I decided to not include any Non-Companion romance. I would expect the game to contain a good few small (or perhaps not so small) romances with Non-Companion characters, from prostitutes in Baldur's Gate to casual encounters/hook-ups with NPCs we interact with a bit more (e.g. Lakrissa, Aradin, etc). But I don't know who. In retrospect, I could have added an option titled "Non-Companion romances/encounters (if any exist)". Too late now.

_____
Edit :


It is true that currently there is 5 Males and 5 Females balance among the Companions. And perhaps there is also a Male-Female balance among romanceable Companions. But if we look at the Races of the Companions, we see that Larian made the 10 Tall Races (3 Humans, 3 Elves, 2 Half-Elves, 1 Tiefling, 1 Githyanki) and 0 Short Races. So their concern for balance or symmetry seems very variable.


PS : damn that slow/unresponsive forum.

lol, waifu war is a tie between Karlach and Shadowheart

I also voted for Jaheira for romances, but for me that was a vote by process of elimination: all the other companions got eliminated by my preferences until only Jaheira was left. But I'm really not at all interested in a romance with her. As I've been saying, I don't have a viable romance option in the game.

Ah. Well I don't know if that was clear enough, but this question asked for at most 4 answers. So you could have chosen less than 4. Including 0 obviously. No question is mandatory.

Anyway, I was kind of surprised myself when I listed her with my 4th pick, but the more I think of it, the more I think that I'd be really interested in explore her romance, and that I'd be a bit disappointed if it turns out she's not romanceable.

When I specifically put 0 as number of partners, I was mostly thinking of people who don't want romances (/"dating sims") in their fantasy adventures. But I'm glad it also covers players who would have liked one, but don't find the companions appealing enough.

REQUEST

Does anybody here hang out on Larian's Discord and would be kind enough to share a poll link over there ?

I have Larian's Discord in the servers I'm following/subscribed to, but I can't write there. At least, not without first giving my phone number, but I'd rather not do that, and I've been fine with just lurking until now.

I have made a copy of the poll for Discord, and I would be grateful if someone could post the link over there.

I'll have to really think it through with the multi class change. I honestly don't know.

I'll want Halsin, SH, Minsc, Jaheira, Astarion, Gale and Karlach at some point. I'm not investing much into Wyll and Lae'Zel unless I commit to an evil playthrough. I think.

I'm considering cha classes for Tav. I for sure don't want a druid because of Halsin, a barbarian because of Karlach. I'd minimize the Druid levels in Jaheira. I'm not sure what can be done to improve Shadowheart. Gale is the mandatory haver of int. Astarion because he's funny.

I chose Astarion, Gale and Halsin for my party, but honestly that could totally change - except for Astarion. I will tie him to myself for the whole playthrough. Really hoping the romance for him can become wholesome, though before the PFH I honestly did not even think about that possibility, I always just assumed it would end in heartbreak. Here is to hope!

Then you contributed to making the top most used-in-party character a tiny bit less popular.



While I'm here, any one could help with this ?

I'm not sure but I absolutely want Minsc and jaheira by my side =) And if it's possible I'd love to romance