Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion Attractive romance options + Better character creation

Yea,I recall from early access : Scene : he goblin camp torture room where Liam is hanging on the rack. Recollection is fuzzy, but Spike, the torturer who took Wyll's eye, somehow reveals that he knows where Mizora is. He will tell Wyll if he can extract the grove location from the prisoner. Then Wyll begins to torture Liam , with vivid text details of what exactly he's doing to the poor guy. That was a whole other Wyll than the released one.

Not everyone has to be dark and gritty. I love that we have at least two companions, that are different, Wyll and Karlach , well, and Gale to an extent. The dark and gritty trope gets so tiring.
Every companion is so over the top and then Wyll comes along and owns himself like a responsible person without throwing temper tantrums at every corner and it was refreshing.

That is correct, but the premise of the thread is that someone wants romanceable male characters that are young and attractive. Which in my opinion does exist. Regardless of his writing, Wyll matches those criteria in terms of aesthetics.

There's definitely a typecast here... My only similar interest in this lineup is Cullen, but I honestly liked his wonky-ass DAO and DA2 look better. His DAI "glow-up" was jarring.

As a serial Alistair romancer myself, I'd throw a vote to having another sappy-conflicted-romantic-himbo to love, but I'm more excited to see the characters that Larian cooks for themselves, however they end up looking. Going into BG3 I didn't think any of the characters were "hotTM", but I fell in love with their personalities, and everyone is still like way above average in level of "attractiveness" by any normal standard.

Additionally, per your images, there are plenty of these type of "attractiveTM" characters in other games.. I don't want Divinity's companion designs to look like the characters from elsewhere. Just like I was disappointed with Dragon Age: The Veilguard (for almost everything, honestly, but also) when the wonky elves suddenly just looked like regular hot people (DA2 Fenris and Merrill will always be peak! I'll die on that hill.)

Larian's not gonna please everyone, there will always be someone who "yucks" someone else's "yum", but I don't want Larian's characters to suddenly look like they've had Stellar Blade makeovers... I want them too look how Larian intends them to look in their weird, sometimes grimy, and gruesomely hilarious world of Divinity where every surface is often on fire.

I get that it's not your jam, however, as other's have mentioned, eventually there will be mods available to get what you want. I'm sorry (not sorry) you'll have to wait a little longer to have the specific fantasy husbandu gameplay you're looking for.

In a perfect world we'd all get what we want right at the start... unfortunately some of us will never get a male-equivalent Karlach in BG3. (T_T) I just wanted an infernal golden-retriever-barbarian himbo boyfriend... alas.

Whatever is to come, I hope you're able to enjoy... regardless.

They certainly cannot please everybody, though there is a very easy way to satisfy the majority. How? Simple - for those who like women, provide a conventionally attractive and feminine female character as a companion and a romance option. In addition to that, provide a conventionally attractive and handsome male character as a companion and romance option.

The issue with excessive attempts at pandering and providing increasingly niche options is that they never really live up to the popularity of the traditional options. It's the same way in how countless options can be added to the character creation, only for the majority of players to choose a male human fighter or the equivalent. The next most popular options tend to take the form of playable races such as Elves and Tieflings. This is fairly consistent across the board in many fantasy games. Single player and MMO's included.

In other words, there isn't much point fighting against that tide or engaging in spiteful attempts to remove those options altogether. I can tolerate niche options being available, though if they come at the expense of traditional options? Then I lose all interest.

Diversity and options to explore widely different concepts is fun in and of itself. It cannot be measured in popularity or as some market survey because it is fundamental to the creative process of character creation, even to those who ultimately choose something traditional. The existence of variety around your character provides the sense of your character being someone unique.

The formula isn't to simply fill every space with something that satisfies the majority, because in doing so you destroy the illusion of things being unique and special and the entire storytelling you are trying to get people to engage with.

I have specifically stated that I am willing to compromise. I do not care if niche options are added, so long as the more mainstream options are also present. Yet if those mainstream options are absent altogether, then I am not particularly interested in that particular breed of 'diversity' as it rather blatantly becomes a matter of spiteful erasure and pandering.

To me, the romance stuff was something that just happened along the way. I didn't expect it, I didn't push for it, but maybe I was a bit afraid of waking up to a Game Over screen if I turned down Lae'zel. In a way, romances in BG3 were even a bit too realistic, as there is no guarantee your affections are shared by the person in question and you sometimes get hit on by people with who it just wouldn't work for you and suddenly everything is awkward. In that aspect it did serve the drama/soap opera aspect of RPGs. I guess my Tav was a bit more open to things than I would have been. Perhaps getting a dial in character creation that lets you set your orientation and kinks could solve this dilemma.

No guarantee that affection is shared? Have we played the same game?
Every companion in BG3 is playersexual and willing.

Thats a far cry from, for example, the Owlcat games or even BG2 where you can actually by rejected because a companion isn't interested in you or you screw up the romance.

Apparently not, I wasn't hit on by everyone in camp and didn't get romance dialogue options for everybody. From the top of my head - no Karlach, no Astarion, Halsin only very late in the game. BG3 was my first game with any romance options, although BG2 and D:OS2 are on the waiting list.

The point is that in BG3 every companion you hit on was 100% willing and on board right from the start no matter who or what you are while many other rpgs the companions have actual preferences you have to meet or can be not interested in romance at all.

I guess I'm just ugly, then.

You know I wanted to romance Wyll on my first playthrough but he wasn't interested, ended up seduced over to the evil side by the vampire.

As for the discussion on niche options; I don't mind it as long as the shoe fits.