Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Why No Dwarves?

But if they designed him with a gnome in mind he would be a new Jan Jansen.

I mean, sure, making him a gnome now, just changing his model, would probably be okay. I don't think race plays into the companion's story in a any way (okay, Lae'zel and Karlach would still need to stay the way they are I think?).

Although I do prefer Gale as he is now, just sayin'

I think the main reason for Early Access was for Larian to collect data about the choices players made (well, it was not for communicating with players on their forum). Those data were likely used to bring game statistics in line with player's preferences. I think it is quite possible that they analysed the data and found out that a big majority of players did not play dwarves, and therefore there was no room for dwarves in their limited roster of companions.

I hate this forum so much right now, it is a mess to read or write anything here atm.

Vitany:

Not really, Jan Jansen was the comical relief, while Gales story is more serious.
As for Karlach: I don't think, she needs to be a tiefling, other races are forced to fight in the bloodwar too, as far as I know,so she could as well be a dwarven lady for example.
Same with the other companions apart from Lae'zel.

I know, but like I said: If they DESIGNED Gale as a gnome they would make him a comic relief. They designed him as human so he got a serious background.

Now, changing him to a gnome would indeed get us a non-comic character. Not that I would like it, but hey - mods exist.

I'm just pointing out the mindset - most people see the smaller races like a joke, it started way back and it's hard to break out of it. I would know, I can't take them seriously either thanks to their portrayal in media in general.

I recognise the comic relief worry (not that I object to comic relief, as long as that's not all a race is), but while it's something other games have perhaps been guilty of, it's not a problem I have with BG3. The shorter race characters it does have, I think, are good, solid, interesting characters with shades of light and dark like any others. In fact, given a lot of the dwarves we meet are duergar, probably more dark.

I actually find this almost more annoying. I think Larian have shown they are perfectly capable of creating compelling, complex shorter race characters, but still haven't given us a really prominent one as a member of our party.

Not that I want any of the existing companions to change at this stage, given I've got used to them as they are. Though obviously I'd not have missed them had they never existed. But still, I'd rather have a completely new shorter race companion (or Barcus!) than a reworked version of one that already exists.

I really wished, Barcus could have become a companion. I like him so much. Same with Nattie, I would have preferred her over Halsin tbh ( sorry Icelyn). Both are very well written imo.

But they have proven, that they can make serious small characters, like Barcus or Nettie or Raphaels dwarven helper. And from what voicelines I heard from the sadly scratched Helia, she was awesome too.

I'm with you. Nettie would have been great ad a companion. And Barcus feels just primed to be one as well. He's got his own journey that he's on, but you can befriend him, it writes itself. The only question is what class he would be. I don't think anything really fits him. Not even artificer if that were in the game. Not everyone who tinkers and can build things is an artificer.

I think, artificer would have been a good fit tbh. But I can see him as a rogue ( arcane trickster) with the guild artisan background. He would be ideal for people, who want a rogue in the group, but don't want to deal with evil Astarion in a good playthrough.
I mean, maybe we get some more non-origin companions along the way and Barcus is indeed one of them, I'll stay hopeful.

Perhaps we Barcus-lovers need to pick up some lobbying tips from the Halsin fans! You never know, if we try hard we might get an artificer class DLC with Barcus promoted to full companion at some point

(Nettie is great too, but I'll admit I was happy with her as an interesting NPC to meet and didn't really get companion vibes from her, whereas I agree with Gray Ghost that Barcus just seems primed to join our party. I didn't watch the Helia data-mined stuff and I don't think I'm going to now - if she was a potentially great gnome companion/origin that we didn't get (yet?) then it'll just make me sad.)

I didn't realize Helia was once supposed to be a druid rather than a bard. I'd always been opposed to Helia as a werewolf bard, but a werewolf druid? Completely fine to me. Maybe it's just that the druid and werewolf stuff feels like there's more synergy there than random werewolf plus bard.

A character that can shapechange playing a class that can shapechange is redundant.

I've never had any love for Gnomes. But the flatulent nitwit put me off that Race forever.

Yeah, I guess we can learn a thing or two from the Halsin and Minthara fans.
I really would have liked Barcus as a companion.

Helia would have been a halfling, I still have hope, that she might become a surprise companion.

Jan actually grew on me over time. And Tiax is my fave BG1 companion. But I can't abide Quayle. So for me it very much depends on the gnome.

Not fair!
They had Chubblot! And Icelyn!

Ah! Thanks for clearing that up. I'd also take a good halfling companion

Me neither ... for a long time.
Then i created one, in WoW ... just as a joke originaly.

Since then i understand ... Gnome cannot be explained, it have to be experienced.

Look, it's easy:
-Make a "Fan Club of [Character]" topic and post fanart to it religiously.
-Mention how much you love [Character] in every thread and subreddit topic and twitter post at every opportunity.
-Produce fanart, comics, videos, and communities all devoted to [Character].
-Be as thirsty as possible and mention romance potential whenever you can.

Speaking of which, anyone want to do this for Alfira?

Dwarves are usually treated seriously in rpgs. Not one dwarf joinable npc in BG history is treated as a 'joke'. Even Larian dud a decent job with their dwarf npc/origin character in DOS2.

As fir popularity... several things... varric is one of the most popular companions in a popular rpg series.

Also if laruan was going by 'popular', they'd only include the option fir human white male fighter. Afterall, thrur own research shows that as 'most popular' by a mile. Lol