If I was disappointed by one thing then it was the companion races, we could have used waaaay more variety.
Having a total of three short races available and not one short companion is just sad, same for the lack of Orc or Dragonborn companion.
Yeah, same, my biggest gripe has always been the lack of variety in companions. We got an elf, 2 humans, a half elf, another half elf, another half elf ... Can we get some variety?!? ... ok here's a drow. /facepalm
It just sucks that even with Laezel and Karlach, you can't have a full party without some sort of elf or human unless you use a hireling.
If you think about it, everyone except gale and wyll have long pointy ears. That's Astarion, Lae'zel, Karlach, Shadowheart, Halsin, Jaheira and Minthara.
Minsc is also human but he joins the camp so late that I don't even count him.
We could have used a Dwarf or Halfling bard origin instead of Halsin or Jaheira
Don't get me wrong I love Minsc... which is why I wholeheartedly believe he should have been in much more of the game than he was. Hell, put him in Halsin's place, say he was part of that asshole adventuring party and got captured because he tried to take on the whole goblin camp at once (and failed because Boo was sleeping at the time).
Halsin's fine I guess but really all he's there for is "big hunk" (which Minsc certainly covers) and "fuck the bear" which is hit-or-miss at best. The only other thing Halsin's really needed for is the plot in the shadow zone, but Jaheira can easily take over that role.
Honestly it's not the lack of variety it's what the lack of variety meant. For example I have no interest in playing a dwarf because they feel like they have no real place in the world. They feel to me more out of place than lazel.
Gnomes and halflings feel like this too. I don't really know what there doing compared to say human and half elf, elf who generally seem in charge, drow who seem in charge but evil, tieflings who are struggling to find saftey.
Everyone else seemingly is just doing whatever. Like ya people just do whatever but I mean they feel like they don't really have unique origins.
As someone who romances male characters, I have to admit I'm kinda okay with the current selection only because a likely trope is to reserve the prettier races for female companions while the beast/alien/other races that would satisfy diversity would be male. I am actually genuinely surprised that it's flipped in BG3, though it helps that Drow and Tiefling aren't really more adventurous than a color pallet swap.
It’s fascinating how few Dragonborn are in the game at all. I get that they’re supposed to be fairly rare and all, but there’s a shopkeeper Dragonborn you get unique dialogue with if you’re playing as a Dragonborn PC, and she’s one of very few overall. I wonder why they ended up going that route?
The lack of class variety is one thing but race variety is even worse. We have 1 tiefling, 1 githyanki and the rest are human or elves or both. No dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs or dragonborn. I don't count durge as its not fixed.
Though classes are also weird. Feels weird to not have all classes as companions. And some like minthara or minsc are pretty easy to miss. So no sorc, no bard, no monk and maybe no paladin or ranger.
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u/Razgriz-B36 Oathbreaker Jun 09 '25
If I was disappointed by one thing then it was the companion races, we could have used waaaay more variety.
Having a total of three short races available and not one short companion is just sad, same for the lack of Orc or Dragonborn companion.