Should you pick an origin character or make your own in Baldur’s Gate 3?

I have never been one to play tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons. Not for lack of want, mind you — but regardless it’s only recently I developed a significant interest in the world of D&D. When I started up Baldur’s Gate 3 for the first time, I was met with a confounding choice.

Should I choose an origin character, or make my own persona from scratch?

Every origin character in Baldur’s Gate 3, listed

For those lacking context — an origin character in this sense is a pre-built, pre-spec’d character with an appearance and personality all their own. These characters (for the most part) appear in the story as companions if you decide to select a custom character, and include:

• Shadowheart (Half-Elf Cleric)
• Lae’zel (Githyanki Fighter)
• Astarion (Elf Rogue)
• Wyll (Human Warlock)
• Karlach (Tiefling Barbarian)
• Gale (Human Wizard)
• The Dark Urge (??/??)

In most cases, these origin characters have their own canonical backstory, goals, and motives that you can see play out in real time should you choose to play as a custom character. I think it’d be a different kind of experience if I opted to play as Shadowheart, for example.

Not a worse experience, mind you. Just different. If for no other reason than the player character doesn’t talk — much of the appeal of characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 is their dialogue and voice acting. If I couldn’t hear Karlach talk about her experience in Avernus, or Shadowheart about her devotion to Shar, I get the impression I wouldn’t be as engaged in their respective stories. 

It should be mentioned that the origin characters can be re-spec’d if you so choose, but then again, they can be re-spec’d as companions as well. I personally went with a custom character — a Wood Elf Barbarian named Steve — and I have never once looked back. It makes perfect sense to play a choice-based RPG like Baldur’s Gate 3 from the perspective of an original character, sort of how you might whilst playing a real game of Dungeons & Dragons.

So, if you were to ask me, I’d suggest putting together a custom character over an origin. It might take some time, but I would also encourage you to have fun with it. Think about what kind of character would be fun to play as in Faerun. It also doesn’t have to be a self-insert if that’s not what you’re into — I made Steve have hair of a similar color to mine, but I also gave him heterochromia with one blue eye and one orange because those are my favorite colors.

While I may have created my own character in this run, I am very seriously considering starting a second run with The Dark Urge, where I will go out of my way to be the biggest jerk in Faerun. That’s the thing about Baldur’s Gate 3 — no matter what kind of character you pick, so long as you’re enjoying yourself, you can’t really go wrong.