This scene for loth-sworn Drow is really good. I talked about how there should be more dreams and moments to flesh our custom characters out in previous feedback posts and reviews, but I don't think I talked about these introspection moments very much. There is a reason for this: there is only one of these moments, and you can only get them if you haven't recruited anyone. There should be ALOT more of these scenes, and these shouldn't only happen if you are resting alone. There should probably be at least one for every important narrative beat. Surviving the nautaloid, meeting Auntie Ethel and resolving her quest line for Act 1, the tieflings at the druid groove, meeting Kagha, rescuing Halasin, meeting Minthara, learning of the Absolute, reaching the Underdark, the society of brilliance, the goblin camp, after meeting the Owlbear Mom, encountering Gnolls, after meeting Raphael, starting a romance path, noticing Shadowheart with the gith weapon, learning of Shadowheart's worship of Sharr, learning of Gale's condition, learning the truth about Astarion, after the having encountered the figure in the illithid dreams, meeting Scratch, and Wyll's anger issues could all be good moments to have one of these at camp.

The moments of introspection should have a queue, where if you have experienced the event that would get the moment of introspection to trigger you'll get it on your next rest, and if have gotten multiple triggers for introspection moments since your last rest it should be in either order of importance (as in the sooner the player gets this scene the more sense it will make), or by order in which each was triggered. As an aside there really needs to be a queue for Origin approval scenes as well, because I've been locked out of starting Gale's romance multiple time because I got too much approval before The Weave scene.

These scenes, along with custom character exclusive narrative beats, and more dream sequences outside of the tadpole's influence that detail our character's origins before our capture at the mindflayers, would a go a long way to bridge the gap of quality between custom characters and Origin characters. If you're wondering what I'm using to measure the quality of custom characters in BG3, in comparison to the BG3 Origin Characters, considering the Origin Characters aren't playable yet, I'm using DOS2's custom and origin characters, BG1 & 2's custom character, Kotor 1's protagonist, Kotor 2's protagonist, and Dragon Age Origin's custom characters as my base of comparison. I genuinely don't believe it's unreasonable to expect our custom characters to be at least as fleshed out as the ones we could make in Dragon Age Origins' when A) that was a game that came out back in 2009, was a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, and is very similar to the type of game that BG3 is already, and B) Larian promised that custom characters would get the love they need, and I'm trying my best to give them feedback that will help them actually keep that promise.

As for feedback for this scene specifically, there should be a few more dialogue options, and you should also fix the strange gap between choice 2 and 3 (but thats an obvious thing that needs to change lol). Before moving on to the next video I want to point out an issue I have about the game's dialog system I haven't actually pointed out or mentioned before. Alot of the race specific dialog options, Drow in particular, have no business being race locked, because they are things people of any race or background could have said. For example alot of the Drow options are threats that have nothing to do with the fact they are drow. You could make those options available to everyone, so I hope you guys go back and check through all the race specific dialog options and make sure they are something that is actually race specific or something anyone could have said.



The Githyanki one is ok, but much like my criticism of the previous one there should be more than 3 options for any given dialog response. At present, the way it is written, I wouldn't be shocked to learn its the exact same scene as Lae'zel's, and if it is the case that would be sorely disappointing. Custom characters need more love and care put into them than they are currently getting, and I'm probably gonna talk about it in every feedback post I make when its relevant until I feel they are of the quality they should be (even though its a tad bit exhausting for me to do so, but its a subject I care about immensely). Adam Smith, you promised us custom characters would be given greater narrative focus than in DOS2, and I desperately what to believe our complaints on this major flaw of the game aren't falling on deaf ears. There should probably be a character creation option for whether or not the Githyanki you are playing is actually loyal to Vlaakith or not, similar to Drow, and if you aren't loyal to Vlaakith there should be dreams or moments of introspection as to why.



This is, to my knowledge, the last moment of introspection in the game to talk about, which everyone that isn't a full blooded Drow or Githyanki, gets. I like this one alot, but it does seem to be the most generic of the three custom character ones, and I do think there should absolutely be a unique one for Half-Drow as well (alot of work needs to be done on half-drow, but I talked about it here already https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=731424#Post731424 ). There is a reasonable number of options here though it could use 1 or 2 more.

Outside of race specific moments of introspection there should be class based ones as well. I'll use the great old one warlock for this example, because I plan on playing a sorlock in the final game, and I'd like that narrative experience to be better than it currently is. There could be a moment of introspection about how you gained your power. The narrator talks about how as you rest your mind drifts, and a particular memory comes into focus. The player would then have the option to remember how they made a deal with either a malevolent, benevolent, or indifferent eldritch creature, or if they stole that power being via an artifact, reading a strange book, or on complete accident by unearthing forbidden knowledge. Then the player and the narrator have a back and forth describing the scene. You could get even more specific by letting us choose one of these beings during character creation like a cleric does their deity, and it could have an effect on the scene that plays out, and what option the player gets https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Great_Old_One_patrons . I'd probably choose Kezef (I love of wolves, even eldritch abomination ones, and I think theres a lot of potential for interesting dialog with the Talkative Skeleton, much like there is if you talk to him as a cleric of one of the dead 3), or Ghaunadaur, because I plan on playing a half-drow, and his relation to Loth is something I find interesting.

Thank you for trying all of this. I agree with your post and I think it would be a nice way to flesh out custom character personality through his memories. For example, we could have "You remember X" and choose how the character reacted.
Which would be even more interesting is if these choices had a passive effect on behavior/dialogs depending on how much a kind of answer was chosen but maybe that would be too much to work on.

Thanks, I have never seen those cut scenes or any dream scenes.
I have also missed many companion scenes as well.

Just to be sure: by "resting alone" you mean resting before you recruit any other party members?
You can get the first companion before the first battle after you left the ship, so its likely that many players miss this.
This also means you will never see them once you have recruited at least one companion?

Looks like the game really wants us to rest after every encounter, and even before the first encounter.

I agree that having the opportunity to flesh out custome characters is important. The problem is that it seems they are putting most of their effort on origins, not so much on custom. They might not even decided on how to flesh them out. How to offer an story arc that is only for custom but that doesn't overshadow the origins (in interviews they always talk about how we "need" to play origins to "understand" how special the character is and how that comes into the plot). So if they offer the same to custom characters, people might not be as interested in planing as an origin. I think that they would improve custom only when they finish the origins.

I also like custom characters better, but right now they feel too generic.