Is that evil goddess worshiper the only option for me if I want a healer companion? And is that githyanki the only tank for me to pick up?

More companions will be added further into early access.

Do you mean further into the storyline or the game development? I hope there will be more options at the beginning of the storyline.

Further into the development process. It seems like all of the companions will be introduced during the tutorial in the abyss and then you will be able to find them again shortly after.

Thank you.

Please don't take these as definitive confirmations since these are just some statements I vaguely remember reading a long time ago, but I believe that it was mentioned in some old Q&A that each writer on the team was writing one companion each.
If I recall correctly there are 12(?) writers on the team which also coincides with the fact that the D&D 5e PHB has 12 classes.

Based on these two things I'll make the bold assumption that there'll be 12 (or at least around 12) companions, so to answer your question: yes, there'll be more companions added later on.

That would be very cool to see 12 or more companions and being able to have a fully fledged origin character of each class able to join your party. Looking forward to playing EA first as a Lawful Good Fighter and seeing how these arguably more neutral and evil aligned characters respond!

I really don't understand why "origin companions" seems so popular...

Is that because we can play them as a main character ? Because that's the only thing "origins" characters are... A great background story/quest is not related to Larian's concept to me.
Players really enjoy playing a character created by someone else for another reasons than their background story ?

Can someone enlighten me about it ?

You more or less hit the nail on the head.
The origin characters are companions in the same sense as the recruitable characters/companions you'd find in any other CRPG. The difference here is just that rather than just picking them up somewhere along the road and having them as one of your party members you're able to play as one of them, thus experiencing the game and its story from their point of view. For example in their previous game, Original Sin 2, some events would play out differently depending on whether you were playing as certain characters or if they just were one of your party members. When playing as the character in question you'd usually be given multiple special options to handle various situations that'd unfold in the dialogue.

Thanks for the answer.
If I'm not wrong (correct me if I am), it looks like every specific situation in BG3 is going to be related to race and/or classes and/or the "personnality" of the companions.
I don't think we saw i.e dialogs options specific to "Lae'zel", but we saw specific dialogs to "ghityanki".
If that's the point, what's the interrests playing an origin character ?

Does players like having those little variations in the story (or in the side companions quests) more than playing (another) custom character with another team ? (and with other side quests).
Maybe it's great in multiplayer ?

I read that the problem of DoS2 was that custom character was less interresting to play than origin's because they had no background. In BG3 it looks they're trying to lead custom character to a higher level.
So what's left for origin characters exept that you can experience a character that was created by someone else and give you a few different options during the whole game ?

I personally love creating my own characters, but there are some people who actually prefer to play predesigned characters. It seems odd to me but to each their own.

I think that custom characters are going to be more fleshed out than they were in D:OS2, but they're still not going to be at the level of an origin character because they have a more singular set of goals and are scripted as such. There would be no way for anyone to take into account every possible aspect of a person's personality and then add in countless options to account for the nuance in every single decision that they would make from a human perspective.

Sure, you can inject yourself into a custom character and fill in the gaps in your mind, but it's far easier to see a predetermined character work through their issues in a way that's formatted to make sense because they're scripted.

I could be mistaken but I think that the origin characters not only have backgrounds but backgrounds built into the game. If you create a custom character your background can only be built into the game as much as they allow in character creation (like, race/class/background/etc). Origin characters could already know NPC's in the game. Let's take Laezel for example, she might know someone or something in the game where another githyanki, like a custom character, doesn't. Origin characters might also have events that happen to only them, events you would never see without that specific origin character. Like Astarion; we saw a scene with his vampire lord but if Astarion wasn't in the party we would never have that scene and following dialogue/gameplay. Even if they allow custom vampire spawns, it's likely any custom vampire spawn wouldn't trigger that event because they aren't Astarion.

That's exactly why I don't like origin characters.

ok.

LOL, that's exactly why i like origin characters

And what's the problem in your exemple if Lae'zel or (the awfull) Astarion aren't Origin characters ?
You can still have this kind of background and interractions if they're in your party but NOT playable characters...

Correct me again if I'm wrong but I don't really think playing Sebille as your main character in DoS2 is TOTALLY different than playing with her in your party... right ?
I mean, are you going to replay BG3 way more times than DoS2 because there will be more "origin" main characters ?

The number of companion is what matters for the replay value but do you really care about the ability to play them as a main character ?

I'd rather like to know Larian is working on custom voices and custom background for custom characters than spend LOTS of money so every companions have their voices in every dialogs related to every quests/dialogs (main or side) in the game.

Origin character is just the fact that you can play them and I can't see why this is absolutely necessary to really improve their story or background...
Players still enjoy BG1/2. Players enjoy P:K, Players enjoy Wasteland, Players enjoy Dragon Age, Players Enjoy PoE, players enjoy ...
I guess Origin characters wouldn't be a part of DoS's success if Larian was able to create interresting custom characters, which is their goal for BG3.

More than that : I think Origin characters is a true limitation for them because they're stuck in their story telling : everyone HAS to start the story at the same place and HAS to have to exact same main problem/quest.



Predesigned characters doesn't need to be origin characters.
I.E there are predesigned characters in BG1/2 and I don't think anyone find the main character's story inconsistent in those games, especially in BG2 where a (too short) side quest is related to your class.

I'll be optimistic and assume the lack of character-specific dialogue options are due to the game still being under development. If I were you I wouldn't expect character-specific choices for every NPC interaction, but I'm almost certainly they'll be there in one way or another.

And yes, you're correct about DOS2's custom characters being criticised for feeling lackluster in comparison to the origin character which all had their own unique interactions, personal quests etc.
As you already said it seems like Larian took these complaints to heart and are trying to put a greater emphasis on custom characters (likely through extensive use of choices unique to your race/class/background and so on) so I'm under the impression the origin characters mostly are there for two purposes
a) To act as an option to play 'as' a companion NPC for those interested in that
b) To act as a sort of 'premade character' template for indecisive people, players not necessarily familiar with 5'e character building and so on.

At the end of the day the origin character system was a DOS2 implementation meant to be a creative spin on traditional RPG companions. I'm assuming they liked the results or the reception since the system is getting reused for BG3. Since they seem to be cautious about not leaving custom playermade characters in the shade I think the origin characters mostly just are playable characters for the reasons I listed. Personally I'll be using a custom character for my first playthrough.

I hope there are more companions. Will be very boring with only 5.

They already said there`ll be more after the EA

https://youtu.be/qboLvZ5YQSg


I kinda like the origin characters mechanic. Specifically I like to have both options.

It´s like being able to play the Witcher with Geralt, a character with a past, a story, personality and connections to the world and enjoy the run and then you can replay the game again being a dwarf, or a sorceress, an elven rebel or a Rose knight instead of the witcher.

That's a kind of "glass half empty" observation.

A more fair observation is that Origin characters were "more interesting."


I'm glad that they are doing this. If I was them, I'd focus less on "Origin Characters/Companions" and more on "Origin Classes" and "Origin Races" that have the same depth and story integration of their current origin characters but with more space to feel like you are injecting your custom character into the roles. Even though you may have some history or circumstances that you're somewhat beholden to, at least people would be calling you by *your* name and you'd feel a little less obligated to "do what X would do" etc. In DOS2 you could always do something "out of character" if you were playing an Origin character, but then you were kind of knee-capping one of the benefits of having the origin character to begin with (i.e. a more fleshed out character that heightens the suspension of disbelief because they feel more "real" within the context of the game and story.)



Origin characters do offer developers a depth of integration that your typical custom characters simply won't allow for. My first experience with a multi-player DOS2 play-though had 3 origin characters and 1 custom character. The custom character played a female lizard enchanter. And, honestly, I feel like they missed out on being brought into the story as deeply as the other players because their character *wasn't* as integrated into into it. Cool, interesting and unique things were happening with every else.

However, they could have taken 95% of Red Prince's storyline and applied it to anyone who was going to play a custom lizard character. The same goes for just about any of the origin characters in DOS2 (who were, principally, race based because it uses a fairly classless system.)


We'll see what Larian does going forward, but it does seem like they recognize that they need to make custom characters a lot more interesting.

I very much prefer my custom characters to be blank slates. I would hate it if one of my characters had, for example, the Red Princes’s storyline. This is a D&D game, and a big part for me in playing D&D is coming up with why my character is the way he is. I don’t want to be beholden to an origin story.

Whatever way Larian is planning on more thoroughly integrating custom characters into the story I don’t want it to intrude upon my imagination. There are so many possibilities within races and classes that I don’t want them dictating any of that.

———————— Just going to separate this thought ——————————

Personally I never saw an issue with origin characters having more story. It’s a game that is over 100 hours. Do you really need to squeeze out that extra hour or two from doing 4 character specific quests instead of just 3 (when played with 1 custom protagonist)? And as far as feeling like the protagonist is part of the story and the world: I’m the party leader! It’s all my story. I’m the one making all of the discussions.

From what's described, regardless of whether you use a pre-built character or a custom origin character, your responses will ultimately be personalized - variations of class, race, sex , will all provide certain options in conversations, as will the gestalt of your previous answers along with any special pre-built options from a characters defined background. While you MIGHT be missing those background options - or have fewer than a pre-built character, you will still have a wide variety of options. By let's say the 20th or so conversation tree, you can expect player 1, player 2 and player 3 to have enough variety in their chosen responses that each will have different options - even if playing a custom origin character.

in DOS2 you could customize your origin characters all but tags, i wonder how much customization will be in this game for origins? classes probably are set in stone, starting abilities/spells? appearances?

I suppose the race and class would be fixed at least, because the story of Asterion, Wyll, Shadowheart, etc would have little sense if they´re a Dwarf sorcerer or something like that.

You can see Swen pick his elf cantrip in the Astarion playthrough, so picking your starting spells or abilities is a pretty safe bet. I’m going to guess you can’t change origin character appearances significantly, as unlike DOS2 this game has facial mocap animations. Maybe the ability to change their hair or skin color would be nice. I’d like to give Astarion long straight hair for more of an Elric look.

Will it be possible to have a party of completely custom made characters?

Yes. You can both make characters during your campaign or start off with up to 4 custom characters from the beginning.

Awesome!
Thank you for this info!

I am generally a little bit disappointed about the fact, that we only get like six to seven companions in the whole game. This doesn't even come close to Baldurs Gate 2, and to be honest, NOT EVERY companion in this game needs to have a complex origin story. This feature was really welcoming in DiV2 because DiV1 was an absolute desaster on the companion aspect, but I am not really feeling it for a Baldurs Gate game. Something I definitely would like to see though are specific companions per Act, since I just read that Act 1 is where you will set your origin companions for the rest of the game. Means, that there will be additional non-origin ones (no origins story, but still unique traits and voice sets like in Baldurs Gate 1) in the later acts if you want to mix and match without creating sterile template characters like in Icewind Dale. And if that isn't an option, give us at least the option to create custom voice sets, and maybe portraits, for custom characters, so that we at least can pretend that there is something unique behind them.

Where did you get the idea that there will only be 6 or 7 companions? We already have 5, they will be adding more, but they have never said or implied that they will only add 1 or 2 more. For all we know there will be 12, 1 for each class.

I'm curious to see if anything has changed in the colors. I didn't like the brightly colored comic look in the preview.

My personal estimation when looking back at the older Larian games. I just don't see it happening, having more than 10 origins characters with backstories, as complex as DiV2, in this game (not to mention the huge voice acting costs). I do think that twelve companions are a complete pipe dream.

If it only your estimation you shouldn’t refer to it as a fact. 😂

Larian is a much bigger studio than it used to be (it’s is actually studios plural now), BG3 is a much bigger game than anything they have worked on before and has a much bigger budget. 12 companions doesn’t sound likely to me, but only 6 sounds thoroughly unreasonable too.

We will see, though.

Any game can be desaturated if that’s what you prefer. I tend to desaturate lots of games I play just a smidge.