Playing as a premade character

[Bosh]

What is playing as one of the pre-existing characters like? Are all their stories still active? Does their morality matter? Can you play as an evil Wyll or good Astarion?

[nod for kiss]

narrative is different and yes their stories can still be done as "personal quest"
you can shape them however as you want good or evil doesnt matter.

[Chrisso]

Yes, their stories are active and the experience very different, you'll see things you won't ever see as a custom character. I absolutely plan to replay as one of the Origins in the future because the unique experience is very intriguing from what I saw on YT.

[hiraethnightmare]

It's great honestly. I played as Astarion and as Gale, and what I've noticed is you get some additional cutscenes and/or interactions; ie. an extra scene at the end as Astarion, lots of Tara interactions as Gale (didn't finish the Gale playthrough). Morality doesn't matter, you can play them however you want.

[nod for kiss]

when playing laezel origin, there is entire new character that you meet on nautiloid ship

[MeltingPotOfFriendship]

Originally posted by Bosh:

What is playing as one of the pre-existing characters like? Are all their stories still active? Does their morality matter? Can you play as an evil Wyll or good Astarion?

I heard the dark urge premade character is the one that’s supposed be hard? If Larian is to be believed. But the background story alludes to you playing the character as one of the extremes.

Still burns my caboose that 5e pretty much ditched alignments. Then again, most dnd games never really approached that right. NWN2 tried it and it only came in at a few points and affected certain party members willingness to stay/betray you. But had no real bearing as it was more of a measure of your characters morality, or shifting further down, and even then, it only really affected characters with divine spell casting.

I can see a bit why they made it more flavor based now, but it still burns my rear.

[Hawke]

Originally posted by Bosh:

What is playing as one of the pre-existing characters like?

The player does not get enough background information on the character, e.g. Wyll MC never tells how or why he got the contract with Mizora. Though, there are few additional cut-scenes and 1 Origin-specific option in some dialogues (unmarked, but recognisable).

Originally posted by Bosh:

Are all their stories still active?

Yes.

Originally posted by Bosh:

Can you play as an evil Wyll or good Astarion?

Yes.

Overall, playing as a custom at least allows to know the companions. Playing as an Origin successfully removes a lot.