The companion roster is very "human-heavy"

[Malidictus]

This isn't so much a complaint as an impression I got once I recruited the full set of available companions. Nearly all of them are either human or very "human-like". Let's look through the them.

Right off the bat, the party has three straight-up human characters - Gale, Wyll and Minsc. Nothing to say there. Beyond that, there are two Half-Elf characters - Shadowheart and Jahera. Besides having pointy ears, they look functionally indistinguishable from humans. Then there are two full Elves - Astarion and Halsin. Well, I suppose technically three, if you count Minthara, but she's mutually exclusive with Halsin. So that's 7-8 characters from a party of 9-10.

There are exactly two exceptions to this - Khark is a Tiefling and Leizel is a Gith. They both look visually significantly different from your standard human or mostly-human. I suppose Wyll might count, as he does become a Devil in some circumstances.

But that's it. The game offers so many playable races, but the bulk of our companions are Human, Elf-Human or Elf and all look pretty much like slightly altered regular people. We don't get companions from any of the shortstack races - no Halfings, no Gnomes, no Dwarves. Why couldn't we recruit Barcus, shame him into a proper adventurer and help him get out of his abusive relationship with Wulbren?

No Half-Orcs, either. Although to be fair, I can only think of a single Half-Orc character with more more than two lines: Z'rell. And even she has such a minor role I had to specifically go look up her name. Plus, she's entirely dedicated to the Absolute and wouldn't really be fit for a companion.

Oh, and no Dragonborn, lest we forget. None of those with any real presence. It's just weird that this game offers such a wide variety of playable races, yet almost exclusively uses the ones that look like run-of-the-mill real people. Not really sure why.

[M.A.C.H.I.N.E.]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

no Halfings, no Gnomes, no Dwarves.

I agree that more variety in races would be nice, but don't these 3 just look like humans but smaller/different shape?

My first run through was a gnome character as they weren't one of the companions, didn't seem to show up that much through the game either so made him feel quite different

[Orion Invictus]

It always is. Hell, try to find a playable race in DnD that isn't just "human with pointy ears and/or make-up and/or a different height".

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by M.A.C.H.I.N.E.:

I agree that more variety in races would be nice, but don't these 3 just look like humans but smaller/different shape?

Dragonborn aside, all the races look like humans in make-up. However, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings are still substantially more distinct from humans relative to Elves and Half-Elves. It took me until Act 3 to realise that Shadowheart is a Half-Elf, since her hair hid her ears.

I'm just looking for a bit of variety. At least use the more unnatural skin colours for some of the Elves. Astarian is Edward Cullen pasty white, but still looks human, and he's the most distinct among them. Ambassador Florick, meanwhile, is Githyanky yellow/green. I suppose Minthara fits that, being a Drow...

[Scheneighnay]

My only complaint is the absence of small companions, as small characters have some unique opportunities.
Kindof forces you to either take the small hirelings or play as a small race if you want to take certain approaches to problems.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

For the most part, there are humans, elves, a few tiefling, a few halfling and 1-2 dwarves, and some draconians
You can check this for yourself by looking at the cards of the game's heroes
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate

[Narky]

The Star Trek Effect (for lack of term, it evades me right now), at least where differing races are concerned. It's difficult for people to relate to characters that do not present themselves as at least humanoid, and is why a person is less likely to pick a Dwarf or Gnome to play as opposed to an Elf—even if they're personally not keen on Elves.

You're less likely to endeavour to uncover an amorphous blob's backstory as you are the story to a barbarian northern warrior.

Tldr, consumers are more likely to subscribe to characters that present themselves more... well, as "human". It's a thing that plagues most if not all RPG's and Fantasy Novels out there.

[EDIT]

Ah, there it is, it comes under "The Psychology of Anthropomorphizing"; it's simply hard-wired in us.

[butbka]

"People for race employment quotas in fairy tales".
Facepalm.

[Vixziค็็็็็n]

Originally posted by Black Magic:

The Star Trek Effect (for lack of term, it evades me right now), at least where differing races are concerned. It's difficult for people to relate to characters that do not present themselves as at least humanoid, and is why a person is less likely to pick a Dwarf or Gnome to play as opposed to an Elf—even if they're personally not keen on Elves.

You're less likely to endeavour to uncover an amorphous blob's backstory as you are the story to a barbarian northern warrior.

Tldr, consumers are more likely to subscribe to characters that present themselves more... well, as "human". It's a thing that plagues most if not all RPG's and Fantasy Novels out there.

[EDIT]

Ah, there it is, it comes under "The Psychology of Anthropomorphizing"; it's simply hard-wired in us.

Finally some well thought out facts. Yep this is absolutely a thing and one of the things I hate about human nature. Our need to be able to relate to things that are like ourselves.

I won't get into the hypocrisy of diversity in the real world but in fantasy it's everything's about diversity in terms of changing races to make them seem more inviting which really actually means less diversity because they're being made to be more human rather than just accepting them as they are lmao.

Diversity but when it's convenient and when we can tailor make what said diversity looks like. Brilliant.

Then there's another studied fact that melting pot scenarios that involve different cultures, erases said cultures. Culture is a thing that takes repetition, practice, the space and people to grow it (where it's not butting up against another culture or lack thereof), a lifestyle that is passed down... which is something that disappears when brought into 'modern society' such as in big cities, etc. Which is not to say that diversity isn't cool but at the same time it's not without downsides.

SMH.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

It always is. Hell, try to find a playable race in DnD that isn't just "human with pointy ears and/or make-up and/or a different height".

True enough, but that's just D&D. Not a lot Baldur's Gate can do about it without inventing new races out of whole cloth. Besides, "humanoid" characters are easier to deal with in 3D graphics, since you can share the same animation rig and gear meshes between them. I'm just perplexed as to why Larian put so much work into designing a decent variety of playable races, then mostly didn't use them.

With that said, though - I'm still kind of surprised at some of the omissions. I get not letting us play as Goblins as they seem overwhelmingly just... evil little critters. But Hobgoblins are depicted as pretty much just another race of people. There's that one merchant fellow from the Society of Brilliance, as well as the one refugee in Rivington just trying to get by. Their temperament doesn't seem that dissimilar from Half-Orcs.

Originally posted by Scheneighnay:

My only complaint is the absence of small companions, as small characters have some unique opportunities. Kindof forces you to either take the small hirelings or play as a small race if you want to take certain approaches to problems.

Yup. The only source of shortstacks is either the player character or Hirelings. At least Hirelings have a decent spread of races. Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling AND Duergar. Honestly, I kind of wish I could bring multiple Avatars, who could have separate relationships from my "main", but that's a separate issue.

Originally posted by Black Magic:

The Star Trek Effect (for lack of term, it evades me right now), at least where differing races are concerned. It's difficult for people to relate to characters that do not present themselves as at least humanoid, and is why a person is less likely to pick a Dwarf or Gnome to play as opposed to an Elf—even if they're personally not keen on Elves.

Yeah, but you can go pretty far afield from humans and still be technically "humanoid". Dragonborn are VERY far-removed from the rest of the "slight variation on human" choices while still fitting most of the same animations and gear. Hobgoblins are another example, as well - though I don't believe I've seen female versions of those in the game. There aren't many in general. Would have been interested to have some kind of sentient construct, as well... though that's probably not feasible on technical grounds. It would affect A LOT of a character's stats and mechanics.

I don't know. Just seems like a waste for the majority of the cast to be indistinguishable from humans in a fundamentally Fantasy setting.

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Then there's another studied fact that melting pot scenarios that involve different cultures, erases said cultures. Culture is a thing that takes repetition, practice, the space and people to grow it (where it's not butting up against another culture or lack thereof), a lifestyle that is passed down... which is something that disappears when brought into 'modern society' such as in big cities, etc. Which is not to say that diversity isn't cool but at the same time it's not without downsides.

As someone who puts absolutely no value in culture or tradition and indeed finds both detrimental, I'm probably the wrong audience for that line of reasoning. I like to see people as individuals with their own story to tell rather than part of a collective, and consequently prefer that sort of storytelling in my fiction.

[CollapsibleChair]

you get a dog companion

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by CollapsibleChair:

you get a dog companion

Narratively, yes. Mechanically, not so much. Scratch is a summon, not a companion. Although I'll be honest - if the game let me have a "Beast" class for animals and monsters, I would absolutely devote a party slot to that. I mean it already kind of does, via Druid Wildshape. Why not have a character who's just that, but with a few more abilities?

[old.school]

For the cutscenes that have no romance/no sex does the player character ever make contact with the companion? like do they ever shake hands, or hug or anything like that?

Ceems like romance/sex cutscenes would be a problem for a small companion so why not just introduce a companion that cant be romanced? we already have that with Jaheira and Minsc. I know that people out there reaaaaaaally want to romance Sazza. But would you be willing to give up a Sazza romance and just be able to get her as a companion IF that would make her easier to implement as a companion?

[Adam__86]

That is the D&D lore

Very few races are non-human looking

[Moonbane]

You know you want to see a gnoll companion and wanting to go at it like animals with them.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by old.school:

For the cutscenes that have no romance/no sex does the player character ever make contact with the companion? like do they ever shake hands, or hug or anything like that?

Nope. The vast majority of conversations work on Mass Effect rules. That is to say, characters stand stock-still a good meter apart and don't interact. If items are handed across, it's always done out-of-frame so neither the item nor the hand motion needs to be animated. There are a FEW exceptions to this rule (such as the Diabolist lady handing me a key on-screen), but even those don't include mesh-to-mesh interactions.

Originally posted by old.school:

Ceems like romance/sex cutscenes would be a problem for a small companion so why not just introduce a companion that cant be romanced? we already have that with Jaheira and Minsc. I know that people out there reaaaaaaally want to romance Sazza. But would you be willing to give up a Sazza romance and just be able to get her as a companion IF that would make her easier to implement as a companion?

That's already the case, though. Halsin is HUGE (taller than my Dragonborn lady), and he can be in a sex scene with a Halfling Avatar. Besides, the actual sex scenes are... honestly quite terrible, from an animation standpoint. There's a reason kisses are mostly shot from behind - easy way to hid lips clipping through each other. And even the actual sex scenes are full of clipping and mostly obscured by 90s softcore porn angles where the actual model-to-model interactions are always out-of-frame.

So to answer your question: I'm not that fussed about awkward or glitchy sex scenes, because they already are :)

Originally posted by Moonbane:

You know you want to see a gnoll companion and wanting to go at it like animals with them.

I already have Bear Halsin to scratch that particular itch. A Gnoll companion would be pretty hard to do, since Gnolls don't seem intelligent enough to be a full party member. Barnabus struggles just to speak, and that's with training and mind control. Gnolls strike me as more beasts than characters, like a Warp Spider or a Displacer Beast. Hobgoblins and Bugbears are probably the closest we can get to "animals" who are still full party members, as both seem to have standard intelligence and use of language.