Calling all Roleplayers! (2024)

Calling all Roleplayers!

Hi all! I have recently completed my first playthrough of BG3 and LOVED it! By far my favourite thing has been really getting into the characters head and roleplaying their choices and decisions using their background to influence their playstyle. In essence I love roleplaying as them. Now I find myself looking at character creation, reading the character backgrounds and attempting to figure out who I want to play as next.

All in all I am keen for some inspiration! I would love to hear about your characters in any detail; from their personalities, their life before the nautilus or even just the barebones of what you imagined for them when you were sitting in character creation looking at all the different classes and backgrounds.

Basically, I'm handing out a free pass to gush about why you love your main character.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94513716/07/24 11:32 AM

Sure, I'll give you the details on my successful honour run character.

Miscka, a dwarf sorcerer/rogue with the soldier background:

Her backstory is that she was part of a special military unit called the Twilight Crows (loosely based on the Soviet 588 Bomber Regiment of WW2, the "Night Witches"). The Twilight Crows used stealth and magic to harass enemies and cause attrition during sieges and marches, striking quickly from the shadows before disappearing back into the darkness. Her unit was on leave in Baldur's Gate when the nautiloid attacked and being a commander she became the one to quickly take charge of the survivors of the crash and lead the group.

Her personality is a complex blend of cunning and discipline. Fearless and determined while also resourceful and able to adapt and think on her feet. While she is quick to take charge in strategic situations, outside of her area of expertise she is generally rather stoic and reserved. She doesn't let people in close and the story of the game is how she develops a bond of honor and duty with her companions to eventually take it upon herself to keep them all safe and make sure no one is left behind. She has a romance with Karlach and eventually follows her to Avernus.

My favourite part about this character is how it translated into the mechanics of the game. She is basically a stealthy assassin, but instead of blades and arrows she uses magic attacks and her sorcery metamagic to attack quickly from stealth at long range. Focusing on spell sniper and getting the critical hit threshold as low as possible she could deal massive damage with just cantrips and then disappear back into stealth beyond the enemies' vision. It was brutally effective, especially in combination with Karlach who wielded the Trident of the Waves that would inflict wet condition upon enemies for Miscka to attack with her twinned and quickened Cold Rays.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94514116/07/24 12:07 PM

Vayu Stormgust, air genasi sword bard and fluent in sarcasm - he is a ttrpg character and my current HM run (I substituted air genasi with wood elf, since I lost a HM run to a modded race and didn't want that again)
He grew up in Icewind Dale, but moved away, when he lost his fiance, who was a ranger, in a mysterious accident. He made a living in Baldurs Gate, when the Nautiloid snatched him. While his priority is finding a cure, he is a helper at heart and so takes the time, to help the refugees. During their travels, he fell in love with Gale, who reminds him a bit of his dead fiance,

Helia Moonglow - resisting Durge, halfling and bard or Selune light cleric, depending on playthrough. SHe is a hommage to the scratched origin, a werewolf halfling bard, I substituted the Durge background for the werewolf part. Her background is pretty much fixed by the Durge origin, so I won't say too much, to not spoil it.
She had a bad whoopsie in act 1 and is trying to become a good person. She found Selune along the road, much to SHadowhearts dismay, though both get along pretty well.

Liral, githzerai rogue/conjuration ice mage. She came to Faerun as a child during a portal accident that left her stranded alone in Faerun. She was found and raised by a paladin of the Ilmater temple in Rivington. She herself is not religious, but she kept in contact with some members of the temple. Her adoptive father is often travelling, so not always there, but she visits Donnick, the cook, who makes the best mushroom soup in Faerun according to Liral, and father Loghain, who always has a fun story to tell, often. During one of her visits, she was snatched by the Nautiloid (and will have a nasty surprise, when she visits the temple again). She lied about her background and Lae'zel thought, she was a very inexperienced and not very competent githyanki at first. After they got along better, Liral told her the truth (Liral will be my headcanon reason, Lae'zel will reach out to the githzerai or make Orpheus reach out in the end).

I could post tons more, but that would be too much. I made a lot of my pen & paper characters into BG3 characters.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94517716/07/24 03:52 PM

The hero of my current PT is a Seldarine drow monk, known simply as Lola. Her real Seldarine name is unknown. The community where she grew up lived close to the Cloak Woods. At a very early age, a catastrophy happened to the area. Lola was only a toddler and she never learned exactly what happened, but it was a violent event that destroyed numerous villages and solitary farms and homesteads in a wide area. Lola was found and raised by a clan of Korreds who inhabited Cloak Wood and who gave her her name (Dolorosa, Lola for short).

This fey community had occasional contact with human and elf druids and rangers passing through the area. When Lola was about 6 years old, three monks passed through the Korred domain. Lola was very impressed and admirative of the monks' quickness and toughness. When they left, she followed them in secret. She was quickly found and captured though. But realizing that the Korreds were not the ideal community to raise this child , the monks accepted her as an apprentice and took her with them to their monastery up the sword coast.

There Lola completed her training. She was very disciplined training herself, mind and body, but not so disciplined when it came to the chores and rules of the monastery. When things went out of hand, she was sent away to do penance and some "re-education" at a religious center dedicated to Bahamut. On the way there, she was captured by the mindflayers.

Her alignment is chaotic neutral/good. She takes care of herself first, then her closest friends, and then others that she deems to be oppressed or abused by stronger forces. She has little respect for authority and will do pretty much whatever she thinks is best.

She has no patron deity, although of all the Gods she learned about in her monastery days, Tempus turned out to be her preference.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94522817/07/24 12:40 AM

Location: outback nsw

playing d'urg makes a great 2nd run... i wouldn't go there first until you have at least 1 under your belt

as for background... thats the nice part of D'urg not knowing what happened and makes a Shadowheart romance interesting as you share that 'can't share' vibe

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94588027/07/24 09:22 PM

This is Myrna Brandybuck, Lightfoot Halfling Bard

Mechanically, I made her because years ago, after playing Skyrim as a big burly Nord man in heavy armour with a big sword, I thought "wouldn't it be funny to play as a little, shy-looking woman who can throw fireballs and shout people off mountains?" but due to computer problems that never happened. I remembered the idea when I started BG3, but at the time I was playing a wizard in Pathfinder and a sorcerer in D&D, but had never really done a bard.

Story-wise, is much better, although I built up her personality over time as I found what felt right in the first act or so. Myrna grew up in a halfling village in Amn, hearing stories from travelers and reading about great adventures, and started to dream about being the one to capture these stories. When she grew up she moved to Baldur's Gate to study at bard college, but she's actually pretty introverted and, despite learning to handle an audience, never managed to approach those adventurers who kept forming level 1 parties in the tavern like right there. The opening of BG3 throws her out of her comfort zone, and her story through the game is how she overcomes her shyness, first with the companions and during critical scenes (the adrenaline of potential lethal combat helps a bit), and then opening up more and more until she becomes a new, confident person who strides back into Baldur's Gate in act 3.

She starts focussed on removing the tadpole, but soon realises that she can help people, and will always help someone in danger, no payment needed. She especially thinks that the small folk need to work together to help each other in a world built for people twice their size, so she always rushes to help the gnomes up until that point she has to make a choice (though it wasn't a hard choice).
However, she can be impulsive and quick to anger if someone insults her, or abuses the weak

. She's not above lying to people she are evil, either, e.g.

. She's sometimes overconfident, but also gets scared and will avoid certain dangers - generally the sort that an adventurer can't make go away easily, like

By the end of the game, Myrna was great friends with Shadowheart

, Jaheira, and Alfira. She stuck a stake in Astarion's gut, never having liked the guy. Her biggest tragedy is that when Wyll asked her out, she was still too shy to kiss him. He never asked again.

This is the first time I've fully roleplayed a custom character in a video game (probably influenced by tabletop roleplaying), and it was brilliant! It turns out it's a lot of fun to fail for a good reason, to pick the option I know is wrong but that my character doesn't or that her emotions in the moment cloud her judgement. I've just started Cyberpunk 2077, and I'm doing the same thing there, though he'll be a very different character.

Sava - an unlikely hero

Vearack#94626403/08/24 02:28 PM

Happy to join! Here are some story highlights of my Githyanki Necromancer, Sava. Soldier background, lead tactician of the "Risen Legion" and keeper of the peace with intimidation checks (More pictures here...)

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94631503/08/24 08:19 PM

Love all the characters here.

I accidentally made Kimiko from The Boys as an elf character. I liked it and just went with it. I'm pretty obsessed right now with The Boys and low key in love with Kimiko, so no surprise there.
I gave her the Durge origin, since what Durge turns out to be is not so unlike of what was done to Kimiko in the show. Since Kimiko is pretty adamant to better herself in the show and still prone to outbursts, I try to roleplay that by my character sometimes reacting a bit too violent, when she witness abusive behavior. She didn't even let a certain drow speak, before attacking him, after he

And she didn't even try to deceive or persuate Spike and goonies to leave, but outright attacked them, when she witnessed them torturing poor Liam.

The hardest thing was

I was not sure, what to do about Astarion, but I guess, she views him like show KImiko viewed that girl from Shining Light, who had no chance at all. Astarion is basically the same - he didn't have a chance.

As for who is her Frenchie: it had to be Wyll. I mean, Mizora is basically Little Nina and Wyll and Frenchie share a lot of similarities.

Kimiko is on her way to the creche, since she promised Lae'zel that they will at least see, if the githyanki there can help the group.

As for class: I did choose rogue/monk for her, because she is quick and prefers unarmed fighting. I might change her class later, since I don't find it unrealistic, that she learns a few tricks. Kimiko in the show also was teaching herself to play the piano, so bard wouldn't be unrealistic too.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94635703/08/24 11:37 PM

Location: outback nsw

as a side note shadowheart [no spoilers] but i basically flip her subclass at a certain point for story reasons i.e, she plays as a shadow cleric then turns to a light cleric... i know lots of min max players have their "best" but i see this as more of a story change [love her hair] at that point

do others do something similar?

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Ussnorway#94636804/08/24 05:01 AM

I level Wyll as a different class after a certain confrontation in the Shadowcursed Lands. Mostly paladin, since he is shown to be melee focused and he gives paladin vibes for me. Canonically I think he will become a ranger, so that fits too. I just for some reason see him clearly as a paladin.

Jaheira at least gets some levels in fighter, since she canonically is a fighter/ druid in the other games.

Minsc becomes a strength based character, since that is lore appropriate. And I sometimes change his class. Barbarian berserker fits him a lot. He was a berserker in the old games as a kind of ranger subclass. And he called himself that too.

I don't use Halsin, but if I would, I'd change his strength stat for sure.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94707513/08/24 11:14 AM

Miss Adalind 'Ada' Clover is a renowned clockwork sorceress and adeventurer. She comes from a very influential family of shield dwarves in Baldurs Gate and wanted to pursue a career as artificer like her parents and siblings. But she found out very soon, that she has a special magical talent and so started experimenting with this and the family artificer tradition and ended up with her own thing. She uses it to solve criminal cases as a private investigator. One of those cases turned out to be more complicated, it involved ritual murder, whispers of a cult and ties to higher authorities. She felt that she was on to something, when she was attacked from behind and woke up on the Nautiloid during a nightly investigation and tadpoled.

Out of character info: Ada came across the Bhaal murders and while Orin wanted to kill her, Gortash reasoned that her talents could be useful as an Absolute cultist (since you find out in act 3, that some people weren't selected randomly, but for their talents or knowledge), so she ended up in the tadpole gang.
The armor is from a mod - I wanted the Bhaalist armor look, since this is the most steampuny look, small races can get, but the stats are overpowered, so I just used transmog to give a normal armor that look.
I use the Clockwork Sorcerer mod, since I love that subclass, and I used class mods from that modder before and they are well done and don't break the game.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

fylimar#94708013/08/24 12:39 PM

Location: Moscow, Russia

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

neprostoman#94708213/08/24 12:55 PM

That would be a great concept in a pen & paper game - as much as you can do in BG3, there are sadly limitations compared to DnD.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

fylimar#94708913/08/24 03:37 PM

Very nice! I've never thought of writing a backstory based on the events that get revealed later in the story because I've been thinking so much about characters for the first time you play a game (whether that's a video game or a tabletop game).

I just leveled up all the companions with their default subclasses, which I took to be the story-wise "right" ones. So Trickery Domain, Battlemaster, and whatever Wyll's subclass is (that one pretty well is fixed). I'll admit I didn't get a lot of use out of Shadowheart's Channel Divinity options (why would I use Cloak of Shadows when Tav has Invisibility and Greater Invisibility?), and yeah it makes a lot of sense to multiclass Wyll. With Jaheira and Minsc I largely built them to fill the gaps in my party. I think I made Jaheira a Moon Druid for the extra wild shapes, and Minsc was a Gloomstalker Ranger to get someone who could sneak in and attack hard.

Re: Calling all Roleplayers!

Vearack#94711013/08/24 07:45 PM

Location: Moscow, Russia

Once a monastery craftsman, Pal Seka was adept at pottery and bone carving, most known by the townsfolk for shaping femurs and skulls into peculiar talismans. As all who lived by the temple, he practiced the way of the four elements and the discipline of the monks. Our young man was a worthy practitioner of the martial arts. Not an exceptional one, though - he spent most of his time in the shop besides the monastery. Your average passerby would say he had "a kind face" and "an easy way about him", yet only his faith brethren knew the unrest of Pal Seka's heart and soul. Pal Seka's thoughts were often orbiting around concepts estranged to the common folk, pondering the ideas of life, death and balance. Separated from the flock by a mind flayer's tentacle, he was granted a chance of a lifetime to not ponder the balance, but bring it by unveiling the illithid plot and putting an end to it.

Here goes my latest character, who placed himself to be my second favorite of all time! A pure dwarven monk of the 4 elements, a figure of health and vigor (23 CON and Tough feat do wonders), unburdened by earthly desires (he can fly), wielding the mighty Orphic Hammer, he seeks balance in all.

My main driver for roleplay was to make choices based on balancing out any given situations/scenarios. Gale was used by the God of magic as a mortal suicidal pawn? Lets nurture the seed of ambition and significance in Gale's heart! Karlach had the best years of her life stolen from her? We WILL balance this out by giving her a second chance as a mindflayer. This turned out to be a very interesting idea for the RP, because balancing out does not always mean "doing the good thing".
Gale can turn out to be a sh*tty God, for example...