The Beast is Best

[👁]

He's the most likable character in the game, but the last most people pick.

I say it's saving the best for last, who else is a fan of The Beast?

He's just such a rash lovable rogue, he gets along with shady fella's but he's good hearted, he's not afraid to slum it but he appreciates the finer things.

I love his responses when you criticize him.

Like
MC: "Don't you think that was a little rash"
The Beast: "I'm rash, don't ya know that about me by now?"

[Razorblade]

I certainly think he's likable. Like the rest of the community, however, my issue with him is that his story is pretty much non-existent. Sure, Ifan and Sebille's stories are kind of duds as well, but they at least have a few moments of tangible connection to the game world.

Beast's story, meanwhile, is practically non-existent. You are told at character creation that he is an exiled noble turned pirate, and that is the entirety of his story. He has about as much of a connection to the game's world as a blank-slate custom character. As both a player character and a companion, he just objectively adds less to the experience versus any other origin character. He's the obvious character to leave out of your party when you can only bring 4.

[👁]

I disagree, The Beast is like the Good Guy version of the Red Prince and has just about as much story, the queen who exiled him plans to commit genocide with deathfog and a big part of his quest is stopping her, which you might stumble into anyway I'm not sure because I've ALWAYS taken Beast as my thief, but like the Red Prince there are a lot of things implied about things will play out that never make it into the final ending.

I feel like the game had a missed opportunity to have the Red Prince, Sebille, and Beast Each come to rule their respective peoples in the ending, it really should be an ending that you can ascend to divinity with them as your mortal champions if you do their respective quests the right way and are good friend to them.

[Chaoslink]

The point isn't the relevance of his story, its the lack of objectives. His "story" in act one is literally "get to act two" and his story in act two is also literally "get to act 4" and that's about it. You don't do anything for him until the last act really. He has good interactions with locals and that stuff, but that's about it. Otherwise there's pretty much no quest objectives for him all game. I find him far more interesting than Ifan and much more likable than Fane.

[👁]

The Beast has little objectives here and there but they kind of crop up and get fulfilled on their own. Like in act two you go meet his contact who runs the drug ring in the Arena and it eventually leads you to investigating the fishery and learning that there are source weapons being shipped to Arx and eventually your investigation will lead you to a dwarf who's connected to the death fog and another undead dwarf who's connected to the void woken and deathfog research

But if you don't have The Beast with you, you may just haphazardly stumble into all of that anyway, like you may investigate the fishery on your own because you were stealing or because you passed a persuasion check or because you're hunting a fugitive, and the Lich or the Mind Controlled cultists may lead you to the undead drawf, or you may encounter him trying to find ways to increase your source powers at any cost or maybe you'll run into him by accident just clearing out a cave that's extremely difficult to the point of being almost impossible if you aren't properly prepared for it.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by 👁:

But if you don't have The Beast with you, you may just haphazardly stumble into all of that anyway....

That's what I dislike about Fane too. Sure, his impact on the story is significant, but everything you learn using him you can learn without him and, similar to Beast, he has very few quest objectives. The only reason players talk about Fane like he's great and Beast like he isn't is Fane's relevance to the main story. That's it. Otherwise, they're not really any different.

I kinda find Ifan similar. Though in his case its a combination of him simply boring me as well as the idea that a companion shouldn't be related to a main story. Its like sub-plots in a TV show. You want companions to give you new things to focus on. Ifan (and Fane) fail to do that. So, if you ask me, they're only good if you play AS them. Having them in your party fails the main focus of having a companion side-quest. So if you ask me, the two worst characters are Ifan and Fane, at least when used as companions simply because they fail to meet the most basic purpose of that role.

I only put Beast fourth on the list because of his lack of actual objectives throughout the game.

[👁]

This is why between the three, Beast is Best.

Sure you're going to want to do Lohse's story because it's the most interesting in the game, then Sebille because you need an elf to eat body parts anyway, and MAYBE the Red Prince because he looks interesting and he's a hell of a fighter though if you're playing as Sebille you really should kill him on the spot...

But after that, it's Fane, Ifan, or The Beast. No one ever picks The Beast because almost no one ever actually picks dwarves, but he's just the most likable guy in the game.

Personally I really dislike The Red Prince so I usually end up with Lohse, Sebille, and The Beast.

I kind of feel like they're the most important characters too, despite the Beast not having quest markets, he has meta quests that tie into some serious events that can play out badly if you don't tackle them. In my recent playthrough I've been an Inquisitor Fane, but I've never done a run without The Beast as my main Thief.

[squat_instructor]

idk, he's pretty much a stereotypical RPG dwarf character as far as personality goes, his OST theme slaps tho

[👁]

Nah if you get along with him he's super charming once you've had him in your party for awhile.