There are all sorts of tempting Origin Stories to choose from, but play this Character First Says Baldur’s Gate 3 Lead Developer!
Character Creation in Baldur’s Gate 3
The highly anticipated third game in the Baldur’s Gate series is set to release for PC and Macs on August 3, 2023. With less than two weeks to go many players have been planning out the characters they want to create. The classes and builds they want to choose and how they’ll approach the game on their first play through. Character Creation in BG3 is a complex but accessible system. Players can choose race, sub-race, class, sub-class, background and skills. All of that on top of the usual appearance modifiers, which let you experiment with the exact look of your avatar adventurer.
But custom characters aren’t the only options available to players. The very first choice you make in the Character Creator will be the choice of ‘Origin’. Some may automatically move past this, assuming that a custom character is the only option. But Larian Studios is also allowing players to choose to play as one of several companion characters. These ‘pre-made’ Origins will allow you to play the game as Astarion, Lae’zel, Gale, Shadowheart and more.
Additionally, the developer announced the inclusion of a new Origin called the Dark Urge. This is not a pre-made character, but one that the player creates a custom avatar for. However, instead of the standard custom character play though, this Dark Urge character will experience disturbing thoughts and feelings. A voice you can’t identify is encouraging you to give into temptation for evil. The dialogue and action choices you are given in this scenario will give the story you experience a drastically different tone.
Source: Larian Studios
Play This Character First Says Baldur’s Gate 3 Lead Developer
With all of these alternatives, players at the full release of Baldur’s Gate are going to have a wealth of options to choose from. Those who have played the game in Early Access and who have already created multiple custom characters may be very interested in the new Origin options. Playing as one of the companion characters will give you a chance to see more of their backstories in-depth. Additionally, it will give you a fuller understanding of who they are and why they’ve made certain choices.
The Dark Urge may be intriguing for other reasons. Players may want to see just how much it changes the story and just how far evil the developers will allow the character to go. Some may be enticed by the reason for the Dark Urge itself – where is the voice coming from, and who is it?
Despite all of these extra choices, however, Game Director Swen Vincke recently said in an interview with Dropped Frames that he highly recommends that players create a standard custom character for their first play through of the game. While he understands that some players will want to play the alternatives right from the start, Swen felt that it would be better to have seen the story the ‘standard’ way first. This way, when playing as a companion or with the Dark Urge you can more fully appreciate the differences, or better understand the additional information you’re learning from another perspective.
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