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I think there's a pretty clear disconnect between the power levels of the implied background of the PC and the backgrounds for the other party members. Like okay I'm a Paladin/Warlock who was apparently a Guild Artisan and there are occasionally dialogue options based on these, but generally I'm a blank slate normal guy; the perfect example of a level 1 character background.
Then you have the party members (massive spoilers)
- Shadowheart is an evil cleric who was probably kidnapped as a child but had her memories wiped by the memory-wiping faction she serves. She was doing some super important mission and should probably be higher than level 1.
- Lae'zel is a weird alien fascist who should probably be higher than level 1.
- Gale was a prodigy super-wizard who fucked the godess of magic, but now he's level 1.
- Wyll was a super hero warlock, but now he's level 1.
- Astarion is a centuries-old vampire spawn before he takes any class levels (Challenge 5 in 5e), but he's level 1.
- Karlach fought in the blood war, but now she's level 1.
Every single one of them (except arguably Shadowheart) are way too powerful in-setting to be a level 1 character in D&D.
They kinda explain the party member bit.
spoilers for BG3 and kotor, kinda.
It's partly explained by Wyll in that he mentions he was incredibly powerful before the Nautiloid. I guess getting a monster fetus drilled into your brain is bad for it.
And they added Dark Urge to give the pc a storyline to discover. It's clear that the Dark Urge storyline was developed alongside the rest of the game, almost like it was supposed to be the default story. I guess they didn't want to do a Darth Revan so they made it a separate option.
I hope I didn't spoil things for you, I'm guessing from your description you haven't fully finished the game yet?
Not finished, no, I think I'm either at the start of Act 2 or the end of Act 1?
spoiler
Just killed the Inquisitor and stole the Blood of Lathander.
You're fairly early in act 2, yeah. I personally thought the companion stories were really well written but it's maybe a little annoying that how certain things play out change depending on who is currently in your party.
slight spoiler about the part you just completed
All the interactions at the creche are obviously very different depending on whether or not you have Lae'zel in the party.
spoiler
Re: Lae'zel, I figured as much. She's is on the bench because I didn't get her until I'd finished Act 1, but I would have left her behind for the creche anyway due to conflict of interests. I assume she'd betray me after the lich queen told the entire creche to go aggro.
spoiler
That's a fair assumption to make considering just how many times the game make the party want to kill eachother.
spoiler
That's a fair assumption to make considering just how many times the game make the party want to kill eachother.
0 so far
(except for the time I killed Asterion but then went back to an earlier save because he is the only rogue)
spoiler
I think Dark Urge really was at least considered for a time to be integrated into the default story. I have the vibe that there were three big pillars that you'd always interact with but could make very different choices about: Hells, Mind Flayers, and the older series powers behind Dark Urge. The first seemed downplayed compared to earlier marketing, I get the sense that it was overall squashed down in emphasis, but hilariously that has still lead to the fanbase calling for possible tweaks, new Avernus content, and even a post-game expansion. The second is what they boosted the hell out of (including Illithid skill tree), however still having to cut some content/emphasis out (tadpole consequences, story elements) before launch. The third... strikes me as something that might have been a much bigger deal, and tied to every protagonist, but they reduced and made entirely optional, tossing it the occasional OMG WHAT IS THAT Dark Urge choice/event for the most part. They made it its own thing but probably gave custom Origins some more variety to compensate (at least for earlier acts).
It became the Mind Flayer Focused But Really Let's Just Ship This Giant Game Out story by the end, but I think there were pieces for something even more ambitious than we got.
spoiler
I would love to see more stories in the game, whether they're official or community made. I feel like Larian went for too much fanservice in some points, though,
super duper spoilers for end of the game
Like how the emperor is revealed to be Balduran. There was no real need for that. We're already saving the world, not everone and everything has to be the most important thing or person in the world.
Everyone of them will tell you they lost considerable amounts of power when they got infected.
I guess I haven't gotten those dialogues yet. So far the only ones with an explanation had explanations from what they were doing before they got infected.
spoiler
Wyll got his powers removed for breaking his pact, Gale lost some magic when he opened the evil book, Shadowheart could conceivably have had her powers erased along with her memories.
But that was tangential to my point, which is that all of the party members have backgrounds stating that they were operating on a higher level in a way that contrasts with the blank slate of the player character. This is not to mention that a high-level character in D&D should be swimming in magic items, even if they lost their actual character levels.
You think the mindflayers just let their abductees keep powerful magic items on them while incarcerated? Why wouldn't they just have confiscated them?
Maybe it's revealed later, but the nautiloid's tendrils looked like they just grabbed people and put them in the pods with all their stuff. IIRC the PC starts the game with a Revivify scroll, which is a 3rd level spell, so they don't take all magic items. I know the obvious answer here is "balance reasons", and I'm mostly just nitpicking, I just have a really fundamental dislike for this style of character backstory in D&D and every one of the main companions suffers from it.
Ah you see, they placed those there so their new Absolute thralls would have a good head start in the world without being powerful enough to overthrow the mind flayers.
Kinda just feels like you are trying to nitpick plotholes which is my least favorite type of media criticism, so I guess we are at an impasse here
The plot explains this away with the magic plot device the plot is centered around doing a "reset" on people's brains