While the series has not been in the public eye for a while, Baldur's Gate 3 looks to put its fantasy world back on the map. In some ways, it's comparable to Dungeons & Dragons 5E, but in others it is its own entity.
The comparison will not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Baldur's Gate 3 or the other games in the series. Each game is set in Forgotten Realms, one of the most popular settings in D&D for many years. It's so popular, in fact, that it became the default setting for D&D 5e, rather than the longstanding Greyhawk. As a fantasy world, the Forgotten Realms are loaded with diverse creatures and people. Everything from dwarves and elves to dragonkin and tieflings roam the world. This is why an apparent trend in character creation for Baldur's Gate 3 is so surprising to developers.
The Baldur's Gate 3 character creator is robust, with players able to draw on different aspects from different races to chimera together the player character of their dreams or nightmares. However, according to the game's developer Larian Studios, most players are not taking full advantage of the character creator. Recently, the studio used analytics to determine the most selected character creator features in Baldur's Gate 3. Larian expressed disappointment at the result, calling it "the default Vault Dweller," in reference to the mascot of Bethesda's Fallout series.
The devs working at Larian made a character creator with all sorts of options. "We gave you demon eyes, horns, and even tails," it said in the notes for a hotfix released on Steam Friday. "We are sorely disappointed." In a game that allows for perfectly accurate representations of races like Tieflings, it's understandable why the devs may find it disheartening to see a basic white, male human be most player's choice for an avatar.
Granted, it's not as though every player has created a basic human, as this is just the summation of traits and physical qualities picked most often in each category. In terms of classes, it's no surprise that healing Cleric is the class most frequently chosen. It works well with humans, and healing is vital at all levels of the game.
It is more the aesthetic choices that players have collectively made that Larian apparently finds lackluster. Considering the 'insane' sales of Baldur's Gate 3 so far, it makes sense that the studio would have expected 'insane' character creation results as well.
Baldur's Gate 3 is currently in Early Access on PC and Mac.
Source: Steam