Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Character creation: suggestions, diversity, etc.

Strange how discussion about a game with nearly 50 years of established lore can get bogged down with SJW's telling people what they are and not allowed to request in game. We cannot have fat people because of some mythic victitm that may or may not get offended because they #feelsbadman that fat people exist? Whatever.

Elves are viewed as beautiful by the other bi-pedal races especially humans. Making them look area 51 would go against this lore but I don't really care tbh. However if you are creating an elf and they all have giant fish eyes and have bodies like bi-pedal spiders then humans would not consider them beautiful....unless fish eyed spider people happen to be your thing I guess.

Half elves look human to elves and elvish to humans, this should explain how different elves are to humans. Elves are shorter and have smaller bodies and facially very slender or feminine. Male elves don't have square jaws, broard shoulders or beards. They live for 700 years+ and behave and react very different to humans. Artist depictions of said races have something called artistic licence so as long as there are options you can make your character look like whatever you like. It is up to the devs and modders at the end of the day as they have the licence.

What you're saying, without needing to dip into social commentary, is that the races have defining characteristics and given ranges for certain things. A pot-bellied human or halfling is a thing whereas a 350 pound, 5 foot tall, couch lounging, elf isn't. Humans in particular have the greatest variability and you get less so within the other races such as dwarves, who were forged by their god as perfect in their form and were literally created by a god to be unchanging in both form and thought. By necessity, diluting or removing these defining characteristics removes the ability to have defining characteristics resulting in an amalgamous society with a uniform and restricted set of customs and abilities as many current races have contradictory practices. Furthermore, staying within the canonical universe provides the material to have narrative consistency with abilities and relationships re custom and personal. Combined, the the prior reasons would lead one to reasonably conclude that it would be better off to stay in canon for the purposes of establishing a believable, consistent, diverse, and true-to-source world. In this case, increasing diversity would, in a more global sense, reduce it.

Currently available voice sets are limiting character creation even more. None of them suits a dwarf character for instance. Here is a discussion about voice sets: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=720440#Post720440

+1

I mean just because your character is asexual doesn't mean people telepathically know that and won't even start flirting with you to try.

That said, romance starts way too early for most characters.

You don't need telepathy to understand someone who isn't interested in your advances. Body language and demeanor will make it abundantly clear to all but the worst of creepers. Human beings signal interest to one another, some are better at it than others but the dude that doesn't look up from his work, never engages you in any unnecessary conversation, doesn't notice what you wear or do with your hair, isn't thinking about you unless he's forced to.

I do find it.. awkward when Lae'zel says she would do me but we're too different, while I DIDNT ASK

Why isn't this an option xD!?

what did you do to that poor woman's neck?

To be fair, the whole party seems to be this level of oblivious. Despite your showing exactly zero interest, they will still try to get in your pants, or comment on how they won't when no one asked. At least with Astareon it makes sense, because he doesn't direct his lust specifically your way, he's just a little too eager in general and flirts with all the male party members. But I think just about everyone has at least one NPC they just can't stand and would rather leave in the camp no matter how useful they might be (for me that's Shadowheart and Gale). Having that person you can't stand, don't want to talk to, and won't talk to unless it's absolutely necessary flirt with you is just EXTRA creepy.

It does seem like each of the NPC's has their own sexuality. I haven't played a female character, so I don't know how they respond that way, but Lae'zel and Shadowheart are probably straight or bi, Wyll seems to be straight. Gale might be bi, as he does flirt with the male character at the party with the tieflings, but I shut that down right quick, so no idea there. Astareon is definitely gay (and a bit of a cartoonish stereotype at that) as he flirts with every male member of the party and never either of the women.

What bothers me is that their sexuality is always respected, but the protagonist's sexuality is not only left ambiguous (no choice either at character creation or established through dialogue) and is not respected even if you try to make it obvious that you are not interested. It's hardly unrealistic that there might be one person like this in the party (*Astareon*), but for all of them? Over the years there have been a few memorable times where I was sexually harassed (typically at work), a few times where someone would not understand my politely declining their advances (one woman I politely declined, then she flirted even more and I just flatly told her I was gay, then she introduced me to her daughter).

Personally, I'd just turn the "romance" option OFF since it seems to mean MAYBE having a romance subplot, but DEFINITELY having a sexual harassment subplot.

Agreed. If I wanted to play a dating sim, I'd play a dating sim. If I wanted to watch a soap opera, I'd watch a soap opera. Companions constantly flirting with each other or the PC is annoying to say the least.

I scanned the thread specifically to see if anyone had brought this up, so thank you!

I'd also like to see separate color options for hair "body" vs highlights. I'd like to make a grizzled warrior with a salt-and-pepper beard, for example, or use highlights to make some hair colors less "flat."

Yeah.. coming in expecting the amazing range of customization from 5e wich is basically infinite (within the rules)... its a little underwhelming to have only 2 voices per gender and less than 10 faces with no slider.... and only a few haircuts with physics enabled.... haircuts who clip with any and all headpieces.....

I think sliders might help, like for height, weight, change up the face a little, that kind of thing. But I'm assuming that would be a LOT of work so I don't know if that's in the plans, so at least more options to chose from would be nice.

At least there is a wide range of colors to choose from in the color palette session.

Honestly, this, if you're not gonna do it well, don't do it at all, and Larian, you're not doing it well...

I don't think this has ever been stated more properly. Thank you for this!

It would be really nice to see a variety of diverse features in the face options, I feel like there's lack of ethnic noses (hooked, wide, narrow etc) and even some of the face shapes and lips look quite similar,

I'm just hoping they add more options since I feel like all my characters kinda look the same

Мне нравятся эльфы - люди с острыми ушами, и раздражают уродские эльфы из DOS 2 или например из Skyrim. А если создается впечатление, что эльфы недостаточно идентичная раса, то стоит делать упор на их культурные особенности и менталитет, это интереснее чем внешность.

Я считаю, что лучше нацеливаться не на увеличение числа лиц и прочего, а на добавлении таких параметров как пирсинг, шрамы и строение тела. Так же было бы интересно создать для каждой расы уникальные виды причесок, породы, тату и прочего

The character creation so far is great but I do agree there could be some additions (as I'm sure they'll be doing for full release). Body shapes/sizes would be a nice addition. I personally would like to see more diverse faces available for the different races. Also, (at least in the female faces) I have to see any mature faces. I'm sure there are a lot of older players that would love to have a face more similar to theirs in game, or just anyone in general who would want to roleplay as an older character, especially since it's a factor lots of games don't incorporate into character creation

I know, armor class is involved in D&D 5e in the character class. But personally I prefer separated armor class. Give character build a lot more of diversity. I like to play mage and there can be for example destruction mage, necromancer mage, illusion mage with different armor.

Maybe I am old one D&D Player, but sorry all the characters looks all like Barbies Dolls. Too much glow on it, colors to shiny. I prefer D&D more dark tones one. Remember me Sim´s and D&D had fortunately had nothing to do with this EA junk.

Also Voice Action for my preferences can be more harsh, like typically in the time of Middle Age.

For my opinion, character builds needs a lot more options.