Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion About the companions... (Full SPOILERS)

Hey hey!
Just playing my umpteenth playthrough of this game that I adore and a thought crossed my mind about the companions (full spoilers to follow):



What do y'all think?

"Why can't I travel with NORMAL people?!?"
:P

Every DnD player ever...


But in all seriousness, racewise the companion group is far too boring for a real life DnD group, but backstory wise, that is a totally valid DnD experience.

I dunno, I think I'd veto a backstory that included "I used to be in a relationship with a god" for a level 1 character

I've met stranger things during 30 years of DnD honestly

Fair, but I must say I quite like the "special-tadpoles in their brains reset them to level 1" reasoning for it in BG3.
Gale starts off failing at magic and getting stuck in a rock and Wyll jumps into a battle that 18 times out of 20 he loses if you don't intervene.

So they do kind of show how these characters are used to being better at what they do than they are at the start of the game and I like that.
Also finding out why they're special is part of the fun too.

Lol and lol!

It's a lot less strange when you consider that the 3 antagonists are the chosen of gods.

Ketheric is the chosen of Myrkul.

Gortash is the chosen of Bane.

Orin is the chosen of Bhaal.

So, people who are contesting them or outright beating them are likely going to get the attention of gods.

Oh yes, there's certainly a great campaign you could run if you told the players "You used to be level 20 but have lost all your powers and don't know why. Go nuts with your backstory and I'll write it into the plot"

In that sense, companions take their twelve True Soul (class)-levels which kind of clicks with D&D-rules. Since this paradox exists in so many level-based game systems, where you're supposed to be the chosen progeny of the ancient half-alien-jedi-dragon prophecised-saviour-of-the-whachamacallit, but then get your guts handed to you by a low-level enemy at an early stage, I'm really glad Larian avoided that jaded amnesia trope. In my head-canon, Wyll still went to Overnis in Tethyr and battled ankhegs by the River Ith after the end, though. That's where the explanation stops working for me.

I still have a half-written AD&D-campaign in my drawer somewhere in which players start as 0-level just noticing something is odd about reality and become the only beings in that setting that have class and levels while working their way out of the scenario. Perhaps I should dig it out again.