Baldur's Gate III: Non-Human Companion Races
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As we all know, there are way too few Dwarves across the BG games, and not even a single Dwarven Defender! A travesty! So with that in mind, which race do you feel Beamdog needs to know is in need of some love? Let's assume they give us 20 companions to pick between (I hope more!) that have to cover a lot of alignment and class/party role niches, and since we don't know if they're going to keep to the 2nd ed rules or use the current edition or what, let's assume for the moment that there will be a lot of humans to fill some of those niches and just focus on non-humans (besides, humans always get too much love in any D&D game)! If you think a particular subrace needs some love, vote for the race it falls under and elaborate.
I include in that those of you who wish we could see some planetouched that are based on something other than humans, so pick yr planetouched poison and let the forums know why you think Dwarven Aasimar or Orc Tieflings (or Arctic Dwarf Water Genasi or Orog Earth Genasi for that matter!) would be more interesting than human-lookin' planetouched. Whatever your little nerdy heart desires, trumpet it from the mountaintops (or at least from the Beamdog server-racktops)!
I include in that those of you who wish we could see some planetouched that are based on something other than humans, so pick yr planetouched poison and let the forums know why you think Dwarven Aasimar or Orc Tieflings (or Arctic Dwarf Water Genasi or Orog Earth Genasi for that matter!) would be more interesting than human-lookin' planetouched. Whatever your little nerdy heart desires, trumpet it from the mountaintops (or at least from the Beamdog server-racktops)!
- Baldur's Gate III: Non-Human Companion Races46 votes
- Dwarven Companions34.78%
- Elven Companions2.17%
- Gnomish Companions6.52%
- Half-Elven Companions0.00%
- Half-Orcish Companions4.35%
- Halfling Companions8.70%
- Aasimar/Tiefling Companions15.22%
- Draconic Companions (Dragonborn, Half-Dragon, Planehopping Dragonlance Draconian, Polymorphed Dragon With Memory Loss, etc)6.52%
- Genasi Companions6.52%
- Other Companions (traditional "Monster" races like Orcs, Goblinoids, Trolls, etc, or other more obscure PC races)15.22%
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Comments
I also wouldn't say no to a proper Dwarven Defender companion, and definitely not to more halfling companions. I would love to make a full halfling party and roll out onto the world.
2) Dwarfs
3) ... maybe some Trolls, or semi-monster races
...
99) pansy elves
If dwarves don't get enough love, dwarven females get even less. I don't know of a game with a dwarven female in it, off the top of my head (except for bland characters in bloodstone, an epic dwarven tale, from the 90s; good game, btw, last in the magic candle series)
I just love the voice for the female dwarf in IWD. It is one of my favorite voices ever for all video games.
I have seriously thought about writing a mod using that as the mod's voice...but I got so many ideas for mods, and not a whole lot of modding knowledge, that I'm pretty overwhelmed by it all. Plus, time is a rare commodity for me now.
I couldn't stand Khekgar ironfist in nwn2. He was just too...human. He felt like a human to me, not a dwarf. He was just a drunkard human...short and with a beard.
Edit:corrected typo
I'm also in support of Genasi, as a secondary vote.
But this is, perhaps, for another thread!
/super biased.
Edit: Like legit, in 3.5 the Gnome favored class is Bard but the only one I can think of is Grobnar Gnomehands.
The last two FR games I was a part of had a Genasi in the party, I know that much! I'd still like to see variation in the mortal heritage of planetouched characters tho, which is probably because in the first D&D game I ever played (a Planescape game) someone played a planetouched Dwarf Earth Genasi Fighter (in the Mercykiller faction lmao) and I'll never forget it.
Heck, if they end up doing 5e Planescape I hope WotC provide rules for energy plane and para/quasi elemental genasi. Let me play a sweet sweet Negatai Doomguard Wizard!
Still, more than anything I want to see a female Dwarven Defender companion in BG III like @mashedtaters said, I know she would be in my party for every playthrough where the alignment matchup and my rep allowed for it!
A female dwarf would be a close second. We need more dwarfs. Give her a nice beard and an axe to match please.
If a 1/2 orc can be an anti pali a dwarf can be a skald.
This pleases me.
If we're going to be planehopping, I want a Githyanki.
What I would like are well written characters based on what is reasonable in forgotten realms lore.
How about a few basic NPCs that are "normal" with normal kits, normal pips and are not insane, based on the usual archetypes, then get a bit creative with the rest. I loved Sand from NWN not because he was an elven wizard, but I felt he was well written and an actual character, I would prefer not to mention the other NPCs from that game...
I want race restrictions true to forgotten realms. Not the odd versions we have now with only humans bards for example.
I don't care much for alignments but if they have to remain then could we please have evil characters who are not insane and wont object to a good reputation (if we have reputations that is) and NO chaotic neutral characters at all. And could they sort of stay true to what's expected in forgotten realms? You would have to search far and wide to find evil dwarves or elves that are not duergar or drow for example..
Ajantis is from Waterdeep, on the southern portion of the Sword Coast North but not from the part of the Sword Coast you travel in BG1 and BG2
Alora is from Irieabor, which is in the Western Heartlands, and while part of the Sword Coast is considered to be part of the Western Heartlands, including the part with Waterdeep in it, I personally wouldn't count this any more than I would Xan's Evereska origins
Branwen is from the Norheim Isles, a series of island just north of Norland in the Moonshae Isles that, despite not being part of the Sword Coast, is literally a direct line West of a point on the coast JUST south of Baldur's Gate, so it's a stretch (and to me, a big one since we never visit the Moonshaes or surrounding islands)
Coran is from the place you meet him in Baldur's Gate II, the Forest of Thethir/Tethir/Tethyr aka Wealdath (lotta names) and that is definitely part of the Sword Coast and of Amn, albeit a bit inland and southerly, Coran is the first one on this list solidly from the regions you travel to in the original games (but far from the last!)
Dynaheir (and Minsc!) hail from Rashemen, which is a heckuva long way away from the origin point of the adventures or any of the places you end up
Edwin is from Thay, again very far from any place you end up in the original BGs
Eldoth is from Ruathym, which is a lot further north than the Norheim Isles Branwen hails from, I think north enough that it's closer to Neverwinter than it is to Baldur's Gate and so technically it's west of Sword Coast North, an even bigger stretch than Branwen IMHO
Faldorn was born to a Black Raven woman, and their tribe lives near the Spine of the World in the far north, inland enough from the northernmost Sword Coast North settlement of Luskan (and North of there anyway) that she was definitely not born on any "coast" even by a stretched regional definition, but if you want to count her on a technicality that she was raised by Shadow Druids, her bio explicitly says that she was sent to where you find her by the Shadow Druids who raised her as she approached adulthood, so it wasn't the Cloakwood Shadow Druids who raised her
Garrick doesn't mention where he's born at all, but the earliest part of his life we're aware of he traveled up and down the length of the Sword Coast "from Neverwinter to Amn" with the Dale Wind Troubadours so I think we can count him as solidly from the regions you travel in
Imoen is a shoe-in for "lives next door to the tavern" to extend the metaphorical analogy to a traditional pen and paper group of D&D characters joining up together...actually considering ol' Puffguts was her Gorion, and he ran an inn, maybe the proper analogy would be "born and raised in the tavern everyone meets in" lmao
Jaheira is from Tethyr, just south of Amn and sharing with Amn a portion of the forest Coran grew up in, she's perhaps the strongest case among the technicalities, since even though you don't visit her place of birth, you still do venture into a forest her country contains, albeit on the Amnian side of it
Khalid on the other hand is from Calimport, far away and never visited by CHARNAME and Company
since Kagain will do some impromptu dental work on me if I say otherwise, I will say he is solidly a son of Beregost and leave it at that
Kivan is from Shilmista, the Forest of Shadows, which is on the Amn/Tethyr side of the Snowflake Mountains, and if we say he's from the Amnian portion of it I think he counts as solidly part of the region even if we don't visit his homelands
Montaron (and Xzar) are explicitly members of the Zhentarim, which implies to me that they're from the Moonsea region in the North but definitely not native to the Sword Coast, though as neither of them are forthcoming about their place of birth or childhoods it's unclear. I mean, it's also unclear with Garrick and Kagain, and since I gave it to 'em due to there being vague pointers that they could be from the Sword Coast, I'll not give it to M and X due to the vague pointers that they are from elsewhere. Seems only fair!
Quayle's bio says nothing about his origins, but mentions him wandering the Sword Coast after instruction in worship of Baravar Cloakshadow and the arts of magic, so he's in the same category as Kagain and Garrick for me
Safana is from Calimport, same as Khalid, far and away
Shar-Teel and Skie's dads are Baldur's Gate natives, you don't get much more Baldur's Gate than Shar-Teel and Skie
Tiax rules, make way! Tiax was born and raised by a cleric of Bhaal-turned-cleric of Cyric on the streets of South West Baldur's Gate, as far as I'm concerned (but no, obviously there's no mention of where he was born and it's similar to Kagain here)
Viconia is from the same city as Drizzt, a far distance vertically and horizontally from most places you visit, and a far distance horizontally from Ust Natha
Xan is from Evereska, and I think his status as being from the region is especially hopeless today.
Yeslick is a Cloakwood Mines boy, born and bred!
So for BG1 we've got Coran, Imoen, Kivan (IMHO anyway), Shar-Teel, Skie and Yeslick as for sure from where you travel; Garrick, Kagain, Quayle and Tiax are from the region by omission of any other information; Ajantis, maybe Branwen and Eldoth and definitely Jaheria are part of a group you can include if you stretch the definitions a bit; and finally Alora, probably Branwen and Eldoth, Dynaheir and Minsc, Edwin, Faldorn, Khalid, Montaron and Xzar, Safana, Viconia and Xan are all from places outside the region
honestly for me, 12 out of 25 people (13 out of 26 if you include CHARNAME) being from the same region would be like 2-3 out of a 4-6 player pen and paper D&D campaign all hailing from the same region, and while that's not unheard of...most games I've played in literally every character was born and raised in a different region from one another, often all or all but one of them in different regions from where the game begins or is primarily located (not unique to FR either, that's the same almost no matter what setting or ruleset I've played with, aside from Planescape where you can be from any wacky place you want and lots of people seem to choose Sigil so they can RP in cant lol), so while it's not exceedingly rare to see that kind of a % split in party possibilities, I think it fits with the very localized feel of the BG games where it's all about the Sword Coast regions south of Waterdeep and bears out, if not a "doesn't make sense" argument, at least a "makes sense for the BG tradition for it to be otherwise" argument
Now on to BG2, where the case is made even stronger! (I'm leaving out the Beamdog companions for now but I'll do one just on them at the end):
Aerie is one of those technicality examples, since she lived among the Avariel and the only ones I'm aware of live in the North East and it's not said where slavers captured her or where she was enslaved and for how long before coming to the Sword Coast, but Quayle taught her so like with Quayle's bracket of maybes above, we can assume (because of no other information) that the Avariel she used to live with were Sword Coast Avariel not mentioned in any other Realmslore and in any event she was probably raised by Amnian slavers before Quayle helping her out, which was certainly an Amnian part of her upbringing, so she's a bit more solid than the Quayle bracket from BG1
Anomen is def from the region, you visit his family estate in Athkatla lol
Cernd is from Tethyr, similar situation to Jaheira in the first list
Haer'Dalis isn't even from Abeir-Toril
Although you wouldn't be able to tell from the way he's written, Jan Jansen and his wacky family members aren't Dragonlance gnomes, but seem instead to be son and daughters of Amn absent any other identifying information
Keldorn, like the other male human fighter/cleric...err, sorry Keldorn's a Paladin right *ahem* anyway they both have Estates in the Government District
Korgan is probably from Amn, but I wouldn't ask about it if you want to keep your teeth...oh, ears, right, Kagain takes teeth if you ask about his past, Korgan takes ears, gotta keep these evil dwarves with K-names straight
Mazzy is from Trademeet in Amn, which you visit in BG II so yeah Mazzy definitely counts
Nalia loves poor people and wants to help them, which is why clearing a bunch of poor homeless people she doesn't consider people from a pretty sweet squat location her compassionate heart didn't think to give to them out of kindness and charity is how she joins your group, so yeah she's from the region.
SECRET COMPANION is definitely from the region.
Valygar is definitely from the region as well.
Yoshimo is from Kara-Tur, that's further distant than anyone but our resident Sigil berk.
So here we have Anomen, Keldorn, Mazzy, Nalia, SECRET COMPANION and Valygar from the region; Aerie, Jan Jansen and Korgan are from the region by omission of info (altho Aerie has a pretty strong case, she might belong in the first group); Cernd counts if you stretch the definition; and Haer'Dalis and Yoshimo are not from around here. That's 8 or 9/12 from around the region basically, and of the companions who come with you from BG1 it's 1 out of 5, making it 9 or 10/17, still over half no matter which way you slice it which seems kinda excessive to me but them's the facts!
Now on to Beamdog!
BG1: Not sure if we ever find out where Neera's from originally, but it seems like possibly Thay? Other than that possibility (I never used her in BG2 so idk if there is more elaborated on there), they're all from elsewhere than the region, although technically you can visit the Pits Baeloth runs from the menu screen of both games so if you wanna count that you can. Dorn's from an area closer to where Faldorn is from than anywhere else and Rasaad is from Calimport.
SoD: Haven't beaten it yet, so I'll hold off on commenting here with what I do already know since it's probably incomplete anyway.
BG2: Hexxat would be from the furthest places if not for Haer'Dalis and Yoshimo, and Wilson, the best companion of all time, is a true Sword Coast native son. A perfect 50/50 split lol
So we can see that Beamdog is bringing things a bit more in line with a traditional D&D party balance with their additions from exotic locales, but the BG tradition seems to be an even split (or more!) from the Sword Coast region, so if Baldur's Gate III is anywhere near, y'know, Baldur's Gate, then keeping to tradition a half and half split of origins from places we have/will wander throughout and places we don't seems about right.