It would be nice, but they need to be more ambitious with this stuff. There is clipping with cloaks and tails, horns and hair. For elves ears clip through the wide brimmed hats etc. There's still a lot of jank there and with weapons on the back.
I wish they would have done some of the conventions adopted in other games of allowing the player to set their armored and unarmored appearance from the character sheet.
Then the player could enable other aspects of their cosmetics, like the illithid transformation stuff or different party hats for different situations. I'd like to see some of the things we get in various MMOs for cosmetic features ported over to a game like this more like this, essentially where the player gains more appearance slots as they level, and then they can quickly cycle these appearances from their char sheet/hotkey.
Because the game is so dramatic, I think it's missing that. Also watching new players or the VA peeps play the game, you see how everyone gets excited for the initial appearance options or the dress em up, but then the game kicks the can on this, and the camp threads and regular armor at char creation would be such a winner. Let the player come up with a unique look there at the start with the unenchanted equipment, and then they could save out the look for stuff like when in dialog. Same way the helmets are handled currently, but for the entire appearance.
I spent a lot of time looking around for hoods and masks to cover the Half-Illithid thing, but I feel like it would be nice to just switch between the visual appealing and visually terrifying on the fly, or just use the conceit that the Tav/Durge or any companions are delusional with regard to their own appearance, so what we're seeing is basically our projected appearance. Maybe sometimes the real one cracks through either at our discretion for dramatic purposes or because something snaps us out of it, but perma vfx are kinda frustrating.
Disabling the item slot is one way, but I'd rather it just looked clean. All the clips tidied up and then more for the player to tease out in the visualization. The portrait and starting outfits would be a lot of fun. Certain guising spells and abilities keying off appearances we can save out would be cool too.
I mean imagine it where we could customize the visualization for various animal companions or familiars, or other summons like say monsters or skeletons but where we can create a unique look for them, stuff like that makes for much replay. I think this same format but done up to the lines for the heads and custom appearance/sounds/idles. The Origins all have unique idles and gestural stuff that the Tav just doesn't have right now. They're scowls and facial ticks, the way they raise their glasses or do little skip steps, the custom character needs to have more stuff like that as well to have staying power. I was kinda surprised we didn't get more, and that some of the stuff we got is gates to NPCs or Origins, for the sounds/visual/animations. I kinda thought they were holding it back for Full release, but a lot is similar to what was there for the duration of EA. Some clips cleaned up, but others still kicking around, but functionally only the hide helmet slot/hide in convo is the only one we got. Needs to be broader I think. More options for the player to set a situational and look and roll with it, or switch quickly to another standard look.
You can usually get something decent going with the same dyes used, but mismatched equipment can still look wonky. For me that's mostly down to the gloves and boots I guess. I think they could have done something cool with regular equipment getting paired with enchanted accents, similar to the way in BG1, that you could have an enchanted accessory combined with regular armor, or enchanted armor but no extra cloak/ring type bonus, so there'd be a reason to sport the unenchanted stuff or hold onto it. Not sure what that would look like for a lot, maybe similar to a circlet or cuff, magic button or brooch maybe.
I like the cloaks and capes, but the weapons clips would have me just hiding them probably.
