Baldur's Gate 3 - Ranking All 7 Origin Characters (Early Access)

greetings everyone hope all of you are having an absolutely fantastic day Baldur's Gate 3 is right around the corner I know many of you are having difficulty deciding what your first playthrough is going to be like in a previous video I broke down why I am so determined to play as well but I'll take things a step further in this one I am going to rank all seven origins in different categories to help you make your own decision about which one appeals to you the most you are free to just listen to this video as a lot of footage may or may not directly relate to what I am talking about a couple of notes before we get started first this will be a spoiler-free ranking I will only mention information that is available from reading the website watching the panels Laren has done and the first couple of hours in Early Access most of which again has been covered on the panels from hell I have already finished early access and that experience will help inform my content here but I will not specifically call any of it out if you may make a comment below that references information which would be considered a spoiler please make sure you add spoiler tags in addition I'd like to note that obviously this video is opinion based so don't waste your time with a comment about how you should put up a disclaimer that this is just your opinion it's YouTube of course this is just my opinion finally at the end of the day it's readily apparent larian has created a spectacular game so no matter what origin you choose you will almost certainly have a blast I'd love to hear about your own personal origin character ranking and which one you are most excited to play in the comments below alright with that out the way let's talk about the categories the first category we'll rank is class where we will specifically focus on their mechanics in combat yes you can respect any of the origins but for all of them outside of dark urge the game will continue to recognize you as having the original class therefore changing their class could create a very weird and immersion breaking playthrough making this somewhat important to consider you can multi-class but depending on what the base class is you have a limited amount of options that actually make sense the second category is reactivity based upon the character's race backstory and what their class offers outside of combat who is likely to provide the richest experience from a reactivity standpoint in the game the final category is first person view when you take control of An Origin character they lose their voice acting and their personality since you have full control over everything they say in some cases this can be a good thing because you don't like the person's Voice or their personality but you do like the character art they go through but in other cases this could harm your ability to enjoy the character story so we'll look at them one by one after going through the categories I'll give you my personal ranking of all the current origin options let's get started the first category is class it's sitting at number seven is Lazo she is a fighter with no subclass allowing you to upgrade her in whatever way you wish Fighters are strictly focused on martial prowess so lizelle gets strength in Constitution saving throw proficiency as well as proficiency with all armors and weapons Fighters also get to select one of six fighting styles which provides small bonuses that help to further specialize your play style arguably the class's main claim to fame comes at level 2 when they get action surge which is available once for short or long rest and allows Lazelle to take an additional action taking two actions in one turn is a massive boost in lazelle's damage and our overall flexibility keep in mind Fighters get an additional attack at levels 5 and 11. these extra attacks can be triggered again after action surge so you can potentially do six wings or six pulls of your bow in one turn absolutely bananas overall Fighters make fantastic tanks Frontline damage dealers and archers the problem is it's all rather than mundane compared to what other classes can provide you can swing a sword or shoot with a bow and not much else the subclasses do not change this except for Eldritch Knight which provides some spell casting but its Effectiveness is based on your intelligence stat you can multi-class to make things more interesting but I think the other classes on this list have more to offer so our ring fighter lasts at number six it's Carlock she is a barbarian with no subclass barbarians get proficiency and strengthen Constitution saving throws light and medium armor simple and martial weapons and shields they also get unarmored defense which allows Carlock to add her Constitution modifier to her armored class when not wearing armor this also means she cannot rage when wearing heavy armor rage lasts for 10 turns gives you additional damage with melee improvibes and throwing weapon attacks resistance to physical damage and advantage on strength checks and saving throws at first it's only available once per long rest but over time you'll get more raised charges that will let you use the Ability more often as you level up you get increased movement powerful attacks that make you vulnerable and extra attacks similar to fighter Barbarian subclasses focus a lot on your rage ability changing or upgrading its effects to make you tankier both allies debuff enemies or increase your damage the wild magic subclass will cause you to automatically use spells when you rage but you have no control over which specific spells are used so even though barbarians are technically similar to Fighters and that all they do is swing a sword in practice I find them to be a lot more fun the concept of channeling your rage into devastating abilities is very appealing to me it's also fantastic that Carlock can do extra damage by throwing party members into enemies depending on your team this might allow several Colossus and Wolverine type scenarios to play out on screen which I am absolutely looking forward to next at number five is historian he is a rogue with no subclass so again your upgrade options are wide open Rogues are focused on single Target damage and receive proficiency and dexterity intelligence saving throws light armor simple weapons hand crossbows long swords rapiers and short swords the claim to fame for this class is Sneak Attack which allows Rogues to do an additional 1d6 damage against a Target that they have advantage against or is within 1.5 meters of another party member the easiest way to get advantage on a Target is to attack from stealth but there are also some spells that other party members could cast that will give you this status as you level up sneak attack gets more damaging and allows Rogues to absolutely shred targets Rogue has some very interesting subclass options including assassin which provides your advantage against any enemies that haven't taken a turn in combat and any kids against surprise foes are automatically critical hits the thief subclass will let you use objects disarm traps and pick locks with a bonus action Arcane trickster will give you access to spells and a mage hand that can be used to pick lock and pickpocket other characters all in all Rogues are pretty fantastic and the sneak attack mechanic makes them more interesting to use than a standard fighter they don't have the versatility of later options but it's still a great choice next up at number 4 we have shadowheart she is a cleric with the trickery domain subclass cleric skip proficiency and wisdom and Charisma saving throws light and medium armor Shields and simple weapons the trickery domain automatically provides spells that create Illusions and cause deceptions such as Charmed person disguise self and Mirror Image it's not a subclass that I prefer for clerics but they are definitely useful options so it's not trash even more importantly the base fails that you get for being a cleric including the cantrips are fantastic sacred flame gives you a way to do solid radiant damage without expending spouse slots while guiding bolt does fantastic radiant damage and the vast majority of enemies will not be resistant to that damaged type Shield of faith can give more squishy targets a plus two bonus to their Armor class while healing Ward lets you heal a character for a small amount of damage by using your bonus action overall clerics provide a fantastic variety of healing buffing damage and support spells that allow Shadow heart to fit on any team I rank a lore on this list because specializing in trickster pushes her into more of a support role and I think most players prefer their main character to focus on damage not support if she had a domain similar to light or war that would definitely push her up higher on this list next at number 3 we have will will is a warlock with the fiend subclass warlocks get Proficiency in wisdom and Charisma saving throws light armor and simple weapons fiend gives you dark one's blessing which provides temporary hit points every time will Downs an enemy the hit points do not stack but you can refill it with every kill this fits in perfectly with Will since he should be focusing on damage anyway technically it should be a knock against them that you cannot pick your own subclass but it doesn't bother me because feed is the only subclass option that gets access to the fireball spell at level 5. as I've mentioned before I love setting enemies on fire so between Fireball and dark one's blessing I don't really care about the other two subclass options warlocks get the Eldritch blast can trip which does 1d10 force damage since cantrips do not use spell slots this means from a range perspective warlocks can always do great damage even at the end of a long dungeon as you level up this can't trick gives more dice rolls so the damage will scale with more difficult encounters at level 2 warlocks get a list of Eldritch invocations which can do things like let them cast Mage Armor at will provide the speak with animal spell or it can change your Eldritch blast adding your charisma modifier to the damage or pushing enemies back up on successful hits many of these options are useful so there's a lot of flexibility in how you play on top of all this at level 3 you can choose a pact and while it's not available in Early Access one of the options at full release will be impact of the blade which lets you use your charisma modifier for attacking damage rolls with one particular weapon type this will also open up the option at level 5 to get more attacks similar to a fighter so all together this means you can absolutely create someone who does massive mainly damage while also doing pretty solid range damage as well ensuring you can always contribute to the fight the problem with warlock is you get significantly less spell slots than a wizard or sorcerer these slots can be replenished with just a short rest so technically they are more available but honestly resting in Early Access is not a big deal and it doesn't seem like camping will become a significantly greater issue up on full release so you don't get as much flexibility as our last two picks but Warlock and consequently will is still a great option sitting at number two we have Gail Gail is a wizard with no subclass allowing you to upgrade in any way you wish and that's a big deal Wizards have eight different schools of magic that serve as their subclass and each one can potentially actually completely change your gameplay experience the evocation school will allow party members to automatically succeed their saving throws and take no damage from your spells letting you light up an entire Battlefield with Fireball while having complete disregard for where your party members are the necromancy score will let you use anime dead to Target Two corpses instead of just one when creating zombies or skeletons this Undead creature will have more hit points and will add your proficiency bonus to its weapon damage roles all of the Scrolls has something like this that focuses your playstyle in a really cool way Wizards get proficiency and intelligence and wisdom saving throws daggers quarter stats and light crossbows they also get the largest variety of spells in the game and Laren has put a ton of work into making spell casting very compelling both mechanically and Visually whether you want to focus on debuffing bosses debilitating large groups bombing swarms of enemies or even damaging foes from melee range the spell list has you covered and wizard gives you the best shot at being able to do all of the above honestly it's just really hard to go wrong with this class number one is obviously no surprise the dark urge sits at the top of this category you can become any class you like along with choosing whatever subclass fits you're fancy the next category we will cover is reactivity and sitting at number seven is Gail Gail is human and larian has already confirmed that more mundane races such as humans and elves will have less special reactivity compared to races that people aren't used to seeing such as Dragonborn or gift Yankee so right off the bat that's a knock against him his background is sage and this will provide unique dialogue options when discussing hidden knowledge and how best to apply it at some point Gail had a romantic relationship with the goddess mystra but he turned against her and subsequently she implanted the nethery's orb into his chest the orb is a dangerous artifact which is set off could release enough energy to level an entire city Gail is desperate to protect both himself and anyone else from being harmed by the orb this is absolutely fascinating but it's hard to say how much the game will or will not react to it so that doesn't increase his rank he's also a wizard and that doesn't help his rank either the class will provide you proficiency and skills such as Arcana history and religion that means in very specific situations he will have unique dialogue but overall he'll probably struggle to pass speech checks this is a big deal because even if you have someone in your party who is skilled in Charisma their bonus does not count unless they are the individual who is speaking you could play as Gayle and have someone like will handle all the dialogue but that would mean missing out on all the reactivity Gail would get in those conversations I definitely believe that there will be a ton of reactivity towards Gail for being a spellcaster my issue is that playing as a human Master wizard isn't really a unique experience in an open world RPG it will be unique from the standpoint of Baldur's Gate 3 being so special but considering the other options on this list Gail doesn't really measure up and number six we have the dark urge of course this origin allows you to pick any race you like so options with more unique reactivity such as Dragonborn or give Yankee are readily available to you you can also play whatever class you like so it'd be easy to pick something that specializes in Charisma and allows you to get the most out of interactions with other characters the dark urge is constantly fighting against a deep desire to commit violent acts this origin will provide you with access to the most violent and evil actions possible in the game I consider that to be both a gift and a curse when it comes to reactivity yes this is fantastic if you want to be a murder hobo and witness how people react to that but what if you are the exact opposite and plan to resist every Temptation it's not clear at all how the game will provide reactivity to what would essentially be an internal struggle therefore with the limited information we have it seems like this path provides great reactivity if you play in a very specific way that most players probably don't have the stomach for larion Studio recommends against using the dark urge as your first playthrough because it provides a very unique perspective on the story and you won't realize how much different it is until you have already played through it once in addition it at least appears that this origin will heavily involve ball and it's obvious that deity factors heavily into other parts of the game so there should be a ton of reactivity off that alone unfortunately this is also a gift and a curse yes the path will have a ton of reactivity but there's a real fear that on some level this is a retread of an experience we have already had in the past two Baldur's Gate games I have a lot of confidence that Laren has figured out how to make this path compelling regardless of how you play but I have no evidence to support that so for now dark urges rank lower next at number five is shadowhard she is also human and we have covered the reactivity limitations there as a cleric she can choose a date in hers is Char Char is a greater deity and the goddess of Secrets loss the ability to forget and dark places such as Dungeons and the underdark her domains are death and trickery and she is considered to be a deeply evil entity this should allow for a ton of reactivity with the wicked creatures who reside in Dark Places that you will meet throughout the game her background is urgent and this provider with proficiency and sleight of hand which is the skill used to pick locks she cannot increase his bonus as high as Rogues but she's still serviceable as the main person opening doors and chests for additional content also she'll get unique dialogue options when talking with kids or when children on the topic of conversation which might be appealing for your playstyle Clarence focus on wisdom so Shadow heart will run into similar speech check issues that Gail experiences however you do get spells that help to make up for that the guidance can trip can be used during every conversation and it will add a 1d4 bonus to your role obviously this is very useful the entire game the trickery domain will give her charm which can be used to gain advantage on ability checks and dialogue with one particular character the domain also gives a disguised self which potentially could let you bypass a persuasion check and enter areas you would otherwise be barred from so Shadow heart most likely has a good deal of persuasion flexibility even without high Charisma the problem is we really know nothing about her there's a holy Mission she's attempted to accomplish and it involves delivering a holy Relic that's pretty much all the details we have there are a ton of theories but most of them are based on pure speculation some people love vague Mysteries and find this lack of knowledge appealing but I am definitely not one of them and without more information it's hard to say how much reactivity there will be for her backstory consequently I play shadow heart in the middle of the pack next up is number four and we have historian he's a high elf which would have similar reactivity limitations to human however he is also a vampire spawn which should make for an amazing playthrough in addition he's terrified of being enslaved Again by his vampire faster and desperately seeks the power that will finally let him be free great open world games that let you play as a vampire with reactivity to that status are few and far in between so I am really looking forward to giving him a whirl his background is Noble which gives him proficiency and persuasion so even if you leave charisma at 10 you can still get a plus for a bonus to any persuasion checks which is definitely helpful if you prefer reactivity that treats you like someone from the upper crust that will make this background even more appealing you don't have to use a rogue to pick locks but it's the only class which provides Proficiency in sleight of hand and you can increase that bonus to expertise if you wish so opening all the secret doors and chests in the game is going to be much easier for historian also while the class doesn't interact with Charisma it does give you proficiency and deception which again you could upgrade to expertise when speaking with thieves assassins and other underworld types hopefully being a role will give you special dialogue options which which could potentially let you bypass persuasion checks as well number three is Carlock she's a Serial tiefling and this should provide her with more reactivity than a standard human or elf it also gives her the manager can trip which provides advantage on intimidation ability checks this is limited usefulness since she doesn't get Proficiency in intimidation but it's still something to consider even better she just recently escaped from servitude to Zario in the blood War which is a conflict between themes of the lower plains that directly precedes Baldur's Gate 3. this should be a lot of tieflings and similar characters who are attempted to escape the conflict and its apparent Carlock seeks Vengeance against those who sold her into slavery she also has an infernal engine implanted into her chest that's burning hot and threatens to destroy her infernal engines are used to power vehicles of War used by Devils it's not clear at all how this will factor into the story but there's no question it's right ground for fantastic reactivity that could provide unique insight into the main story on unfortunately at this time we don't know what her background is at level two we have lizelle her background is Soldier which provides proficiency and intimidation this will be useful at first but most likely as the game goes on your lack of Charisma will cause ability checks to outpace your capabilities personally I am not excited about fighter from a reactivity standpoint Lazelle will get unique dialogues with other big Bruiser types but it just won't be as interesting as a starring in connecting with assassins or Shadow heart finding kinship and other worshipers of char her race on the other hand should be an incredible wealth of reactivity first and foremost get Yankee have a very harsh unforgiving culture that Lazelle will allow you to delve into I've been streaming a pilot and gift Yankee playthrough on the channel and the unique dialogue options have been absolutely vicious and deeply satisfying if Yankee play a big role in the game and you'll get multiple opportunities to interact with them not to mention the reactivity from other citizens who are not used to seeing the race even more importantly they provide a unique perspective on mind flares and the tadpoles which all of the origin characters are trying to overcome Lazelle is essentially banished from our own people since they consider her to be a mind flare consequently her journey is one of either figuring out how to overcome this ordeal and prove herself to the gift Yankee queen or accept that she will forever be in Exile great stuff no question the game will provide a ton of reactivity to her and it will be a unique experience that we haven't seen in other d d games number one in this category is Will he's a human which comes with reactivity limitations but he is also directly related to a prominent family in Baldur's Gate this may not come into play until act three but by all accounts that is a massive part of the game and experiencing it as will should provide unique insights into the city also unlike most of the other characters will is considered to be a living legend known as the blade of the Frontiers he's heralded as a hero who travels the sword defeating monsters and saving innocent people the people singing his Praises don't realize will as a warlock who was entered into a pack with a cambion which are half fiends the details of why he entered into this pack are unknown but the alliance has gifted him with powers that his Patron then request to be used in ways will has grown uncomfortable with all warlocks will get a patron they can speak with but none of them will have a relationship as close or deep as well there are also strong hints that he can enter into a romantic relationship with his Patron although whether or not that would end in a positive way for will is up for debate on top of all this warlock's spell casting ability is charisma you'll be pumping this as high as possible so even though the class only gives you proficiency and intimidation you'll be very competent and persuasion deception and performance checks as well with somebody else like Shadow heart on the team to provide a small ability check boost you should be able to clear the vast majority of persuasion options in the game significantly expanding the amount of content you can see e altogether from a strictly reactivity standpoint I think will holds the most promise the next category we'll go over is first person view again this is not about whether the character is good or bad it's about whether you're experience with them can be improved by taking Direct Control or would it be better to have them as a party member so you can observe their character Arc we will leave the dark urge off this list since you cannot have one as a party member and consequently there's not much to say about it number six is Carlock she has a fantastic voice cheerful personality and all around she wants to be a force of good in the world if you took control of her you would essentially wipe all of that out also based on what we know about our character Arc I think it will be more interesting to witness it than it will be to play through it stories of taking Vengeance against those who have wronged you are dime a dozen it's carlock's endearing Candor that makes witnessing the journey so compelling so I have little interest in playing her as An Origin character at number 5 said shadowheart at first I wasn't a fan of shadowheart's voice but honestly it's starting to grow on me and I see the appeal everything about her is shrouded in mystery and again there's just too little information for me to be excited about a playthrough that makes me lean even more towards Shadow heart's story being one to witness and not experience next on number four is Gail Gail's voice is just all right to me and has a typical smug I'm the best wizard ever type of vibe technically that makes them a great option to take control of but the problem is that where he has been is more fascinating than where he is going how did he develop a relationship with mystra why did he turn against her why did he think he had enough power to challenge a goddess I don't want to witness these answers myself because I want to know what he was thinking and saying during these situations also this might just be an early access thing and not indicative of what the full release will be like but in my good online playthrough Gail chimes in with thoughts more than anybody else every time I save somebody it's seemed like Gail had a note about how that was the right thing to do and it made playing with him very endearing consequently Gail provides another Arc that I would rather witness than play sitting at number three I have will I wasn't impressed with his voice actor in Early Access larion Studios changed the voice to another person but I've only heard a small snippet of the work during their animated short therefore I cannot really provide an opinion on Will's current voice for all the reasons I mentioned in the reactivity section will is a fantastic choice for a playthrough the manner in which he entered into a pack would be cool to see but I am far more interested in how he gets himself out of this situation or perhaps decide to lead further into it and descend into madness I think it's more interesting to control these conversations directly rather than witness them so he ranks higher up on this list and number two I have historian his voice is absolutely perfect for a noble vampire in addition he's all about the pursuit of more power so a lot of your evil actions will be perfectly fine with him and I am really looking forward to my dark urge smog run with historian as one of my minions I rank him higher on this list because again you get to play as a vampire in a full open world so I think a starring is one of the best balanced origin characters great to witness and also great to play as if you choose number one on the list is Lazo on the one hand unlike a lot of other people I love her Gruff direct matter-of-fact way of speaking and I think her voice is fantastic it's also a real Joy seeing our reaction to some of the things you do and she definitely has a degree of unpredictability that being said I think it's even better to take control of her because playing as a gift Yankee is such a unique perspective on the world and one we haven't seen in a d d game before also your constant conflict with the Mind flare of tadpole should feel especially personal and poignant as a gift Yankee concerning their Eternal war against those creatures all of that together makes me very excited Friday to give blazel a whirl and see bg3 through her eyes alright finally putting all the categories together let me give you my personal ranking of the origin character options from the standpoint of whether or not I want to play them this will also be the order in which I do my first seven bg3 playthroughs except for shadow heart who is out of place because the community voted for us to do a live stream of her starting at number seven is Carlock again great voice great personality and a fantastic class should be a Mainstay in my good online parties but I am not wild about playing her myself number six is Shadow heart solid voice and a very interesting mystery that I am looking forward to seeing play out not enough meat there for me to be interested in a playthrough compared to the other options but I'll still have a great time in the live stream for sure number five is Gail again I'd rather witness him explain how he got into his situation and experience his personality then play the origin myself number four is lizelle I am really torn between how culturally interesting I give Yankee plate there would be and how fascinating I find her as a character Romancing lizelle is one of the main reasons I am excited for the live stream we will do the small scene of her nibbling on an ear definitely has been intrigued number three is historian comes off as a fantastic Road dog for an evil playthrough but also a great option to play as a vampire I'll do both within my first four playthroughs of the game number two is the dark urge those of you who have followed this channel for a long time know that I absolutely love Pure Evil playthroughs and it seems like this will be one for the ages our small let's play will take every Wicked violent option we can and I'll be siding all the way with Oren the red to bring about the age of murder and Chaos she desperately yearns for no surprise that number one on the list is Will great class Proficiency in all things Charisma related known far and wide throughout the sword coast and fertile ground for fantastic levels of reactivity he's not the best in every category but I think he has the best mix and I cannot wait to start my good online playthrough with him with Carlock at his side that wraps up my full ranking of all the different origin character options I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below so let me know your feedback and where you personally rank the origin characters hope all of you enjoyed this video take care

Channel: Slandered Gaming

Views: 26,191

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Id: UIpoHPqFYro

Length: 29min 18sec (1758 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 28 2023