Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General POLL: Replacing companions' starter class

Here's a hopefully unbiased poll, assuming I understood how to make it, as per


How do you feel about potentially being able to change a companion (Minsc, Halsin etc.) or Origin character's (Astarion, Gale, Shadowheart etc.) starter class? Not asking about adding additional classes to them via multiclassing, but changing their level 1 class. Naturally there is more nuance to this than "yes/no/don't care" so the options aren't quite that generic and I think I've phrased this appropriately to reflect that whether or not you choose to elaborate.

Personally I think their default classes shouldn't change for the sake of the narrative, but I'm not opposed to say Shadowheart using the other domains Shar governs or Gale being any of the wizard sub-types.

How do you feel about the ability to change companions' starter class? single choice
	I think it's bad and it shouldn't be implemented
	I think it's fine and it should or could be implemented
	I don't care much either way
Votes accepted starting: 13/07/23 11:46 AM
View Results

I could see it breaking characters.
Making Wyll a Paladin might kill his backstory, but it's possible his bargain isn't tied to his class.
Making Shadowheart a Cleric of Selune might cause story issues as well.
And honestly who doesn't want to re-roll Lazael as a Bard.

I won't be changing the initial class of the companions as it could remove some of their interactions but if folks want to do it in their games I can't see how that could possibly matter to me.

I doubt this vote would surprise anyone ...
It should be implemented.

You want it > you use it.
You dont want it > you leave it.

Everybody happy, no other scenario offers this.

I think it is really dumb.
With the exception of Laezel and Astarion (and even there only the vampirespawn modification), race is far less essential to who they are then their class is.

Gale as a gnome or a dwarf or a tiefling would still be more or less Gale.

Gale as a Barbarian is just a completely different character. What even is his backstory now?
He wants to impress Mystra, and so he hits people with an axe really angrily?

Wyll is a human. But what would change if he was an half elf? Nothing!
But what if he was a Paladin?

And yes, yes, you can stay "what if he was a Paladin who still had a pact with Mizora".
BUT NO! That is what being a warlock is. You can not be a pure Paladin and still be defined by the warlock pact you have with a devil. It is just nonsensical and completely breaks the story.

So no, I think customization is great, but we have the hirelings for a reason...

The option that best represented my feeling wasn't there so I'll elaborate; I think it's bad but I don't care if it's implemented at this point. I think it should be recognized as a bad design choice and considered when people talk about how great they think Larian is, but I doubt it'll actually impact my own gameplay once I'm in there.

I appreciate to be able to change origin classes, but also it's not even remotely important to me.
If it's there, cool, otherwise I wouldn't miss it.
That said, every option is a good option, so I'm in favor.

I hesitated between 2 and 3, but in the end went for "I don't much care either way". Being able to respec companions from level 1 onwards (or whatever level we meet them at) and multiclass in different ways would I think be plenty for me.

I have lots of questions and severe doubts about how a change to companion starting class could work, but if Larian think it does, at least well enough to make it available as an option, I'm willing to reserve judgement and see. And while I can't currently see myself changing any companion classes, if it does kind of work then I wouldn't rule out trying Shadowheart as a monk or Astarion as a bard in my tenth playthrough to mix things up

I don't like it, I don't want it. There can be such a thing as "too much freedom" when it comes to setting rules for a game.
I don't like it because it removes any thematical consistency.
I don't like it because it removes gravitas from a character.

And as I already said elsewhere "If you don't like don't use" is a great principle applied to your collection of sex toys but absolute garbage when applied to game design.

I don't care either way as I won't be doing this. For those that will I hope it will be cleared up if they will miss out on companion interactions because I heard someone saying it might be locking out of content. Not sure how that would work, probably flags getting screwed in some way.

Their story is tied to their class for the most part, so changing their starting class shouldn't be possible. Multiclassing is a different beast entirely and I'm ok with that.

Can we actually playing the origins even pick a different class for the 'non-Urge'? Would be odd if you couldn't, but then in the game you go and respec yourself and your companion's base class.

I guess it depends on the character's story. Astarion could be a lot of things... Gale? The Waterdeep wizard having an affair with Mystra? It takes some creativity to turn him into something else - but the main issue is that the game's story probably ain't doing much to support the change and rather just cuts dialog options/reactions.

I don’t care.

I think it is dumb - but it is something that should have no impact on my playthrough. Unless Larian designs encounters i. The way, that they require very specific party combinations for an enjoyable gameplay.

Yeah, I guess that the game have an amount of tags relating classes, so origins characters would lose the dialogs about their previous class, and not being dubbed they will not acquire a new one. Other than this there will be some incoherent moment where a character says "I'm a cleric" while handling a battleaxe and wearking an bear pelt, but I don't expect anything else.

Voted bad, only because it appears to break companion plots. That being said AFTER level one I am all for it. Heck, I would even say that for Wyll (if he is still trying to get out of the pact) it would fit well with his story arc. Why would he increase his warlock levels if he hates the contract. I would say he would focus more on another class and resist depending on Mazora(sp?).

This is something I'm now doubting myself on. When I got to play the full version of the game for a short while last week, I didn't think you could change class if you chose to start the game as a non-DU origin character, but my notes aren't clear and this latest info makes me wonder if I missed something.

I could see a rationale for allowing companion classes to be changed but not the PC's, as it's one thing to lock yourself out of part of your companions' stories as a result of respeccing and quite another to miss out on the story of your own player character. But mainly I'm just finding this whole thing puzzling and wanting some clarification. Despite the fact that the answers probably won't make any difference to my playthroughs, as I've already said

I think the initial class and race should be there for the dialog options around that character. Since multiclassing is added you can in a way respec your origin companion to what you want. However, if Larian has made it possible to maintain the origin character's background story with a different class then I might consider respeccing the classes on some of the origin characters.

E. g. with Astarion you can get him 2 levels of rogue and the continue as a gloom stalker ranger if you want him to excel in ranged combat.

Laezel could e. g. get levels of cleric if you don't want to use Shadowheart.

However, I would definitely like to be able to respec the stats and starting spells of my origin companions so they will better suit the feats and ability increases I'm selecting for them.

Shadownheart needs to start as a Shar cleric with the trickery domain because her story is built around that.

Wyll is a warlock who has made a pact with a fiend. Otherwise his story would fall apart.

Gale needs to be a spellcaster for his background story vs Mystra to work. Maybe he could start as a sorcerer instead of wizard.

Karlach has her rage that she should have as a special power if she was specced out of being a barbarian. She is a melee character so if you select something else then a fighter, monk or paladin should be her choice. I guess her background story as being a front line fighter in the blood wars can still work with her as e. g. a fighter.

Laezel and Astarion are the ones who could start in a different class without too much impact on the background story. Laezel acts like she is a melee character, but you could e. g. respec her into being an assassin rogue or something. Astarion can from his background story be almost any class. I don't see him as a paladin, though.

If we have full freedom I would probably end up playing something like this:

* Me (paladin)
* Shadowheart (cleric)
* Gale (sorcerer)
* Karlach (rogue or gloom stalker ranger)

I think it is pretty silly to be able to change Wyll, Shadowheart, Gale and Karlach as the theme of their character seems to intrinsically tie to who they are.

I could see offering a small amount of selections for Lae'zel and Astarian.

I also think multiclassing them makes sense in a lot of cases. Not all combinations certainly, but I guess either all are allowed or none are.

Asterion’s story arc could be directed in many directions and fits well with some other classes.

Jaheira must always have some levels in Druid

Minsc can go pretty much any martial class, especially Barbarian.

Laziel can be rather flexible, I can see her taking monk levels, but she needs a fighter base level.

Gale must be a wizard, but I can see a few levels as a cleric of Mystra or Shar.

Halsin must be Druid as his story makes him an Arch Druid and a low level Druid just don’t fit. Maybe a small martial dip…

Mynthera (sp?) can be flexible; however, her story arc is still not known.

I personally think you should be able to change starting class. However, I do think there should be a pop-up warning, such as:

“This character’s story and dialog options were created under the assumption that __________’s starting class would not be changed. Special dialog written for this character may no longer be consistent with his/her new class. Changing the character’s class may negatively impact the player’s experience.”