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.
