I think the best way to describe it is like this. As a Dark Urge you can automatically kick a squirrel. As a Tav you DO NOT get to automatically pet a squirrel. That is the issue. You do not get ANYTHING with Tav, nothing, zero, null. That's a problem. At least every Origin in Dragon Age Origins had their own thing, there was no blank slate that had no content.
What kinds of things would you be hoping for from Tav, given that they are by design a completely flexible character whose story we can shape, unlike the Dark Urge whose future we can influence but has a past we need to discover and, it sounds, isn't entirely under our control?
Personally, I don't want to give up Tav's flexibility so for me anything Larian provided would need to be optional. I can definitely think of ways to do this, and think I've mentioned that on these forums before, but I'd be interested in what you would suggest?
Just give it something unique that can be only it's own. Like maybe this whole Guardian thing could just be something TAV has (pretty much what I thought would be a thing before more was revealed). No need to give it to Urge because it already has the Gobbo whispering to them. In fact maybe limit certain things some other classes can do to TAV. Maybe make Paladin as a class available only to TAV because if TDU has amnesia then how would they remember making an Oath? And maybe Cleric too because again, amnesia, how can you even know a name of a God you are to worship? And maybe only TAV being able to speak with their patron as a Warlock or maybe as Dark Urge your patron acting differently because of the Gobbo while TAV has different relationship with them as well. Basically give the most options in terms of classes and what you can do to TAV (maybe even making the Tadpole powerups also only a TAV thing because Origin characters by virtue of being already written wouldn't be stupid enough to shove more of those in, maybe aside from Urge, but Gobbo I think wouldn't like that either) while Dark Urge and Origins are more limited in this way due to their personal issues.
Hmm, I'd be all for additional options for Tav, but am much less sure about accomplishing that by restricting options for other characters, and especially the DU, who seems to have been introduced specifically for people who wanted the freedom to create their own character when it came to race, class, etc but still have the game tell them a strong story for that character. While I wasn't particularly in that camp, anything that would undermine the DU's ability to fill that role for the people who are would get a no vote from me.
I would totally be in favour of more optional ways to connect our Tavs to the world by giving us some more options to set where they're from and what factions they belong to, and therefore potentially have NPCs in the world who recognise them so have some different dialogue (eg as a druid, I'd love to be able to specify I'm either from or at least have visited the Emerald Grove, and therefore have people there respond somewhat differently).
Even if we don't get this level of reactivity, I am hoping that by leaning into race and class, playing Tav would still be fulfilling. I'm guessing that those will be far more important for Tav than for other characters who have other stories to define them (and will likely have other character-specific dialogue options to pick competing with the race/class ones). I'll have to see in practice how well it actually works in the game or whether it still feels like something is missing. It could go either way for me based on what I know so far.
