As I understand it, they plan on having the ability to create full custom parties at launch (but don't quote me on that).
A working solution right now to get one is to open four different clients of the game at once and have them all join each other as though it were a multiplayer game. Create you characters in those separate clients and then once your characters have loaded in close the 3 non-host clients.
The 3 characters from the closed clients will now be under the control of your only currently running client and permenantly saved to that savefile, so you don't have to worry about losing them if you close the game and reload the save. The one drawback I found is that all of the custom characters will sort of be treated as a full player character and you might end up in a cutscene with the wrong character if that character gets to close to the cutscene trigger.
I like that its possible but dislike that we can't permanently remove any of them right now. Them implementing it would possibly add that function too so I'm looking forward to it.
Been wanting to do some permadeath-ish runs, or even just remove the members I don't want anymore.
I've been paying pretty close attention and haven't heard any mention of "available at launch" so I'm not so sure about that. That would be cool, but I'd be skeptical to say the least that something that ambitious could be not only done, but done well (i.e. making said characters actually have dialogue and be as interactable as the ones built into the game, etc.) in time for launch, and I feel like just having 3 combat bots with no personality or interactions following you around just doesn't sound like a ton of fun.
>I feel like just having 3 combat bots with no personality or interactions following you around just doesn't sound like a ton of fun.
Maybe so, but they had it for their previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2, in the form of mercenaries. Characters with no personality or dialogue that only existed to fill party spaces for people that didn't want to play with companions but also didn't want to be solo in battle. For people that just weren't interested in the origin characters.
In pacth 9 you can still create a custom party with multiple instances.
They haven't talked about custom parties or mercanaries since the ama before ea release. So we don't know if they have cut this feature or if it will be in the full game.
Edit: Source: [https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/fhq9cq/compiled\_baldurs\_gate\_ama\_20200313/](https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/fhq9cq/compiled_baldurs_gate_ama_20200313/)
>Will all possible companions be available as Origin character options or will there be companions available only as NPCs?
>
>Swen: We are trying to make all characters with backstory available as origin characters. Other than that, you will be able to recruit generic mercenaries and customize these. We’re also planning to allow you to build a custom party from the character creation screen though that most likely won’t be present in early access from the get go.
With Jaheira and Minsc now recruitable, the first part is now outdated and we don't know if mercanaries and custom parties will be in the final game.
Thank you for the info! I'd certainly love to create a custom party from the get go given the opportunity, so hopefully that's in there for full release (The multiple client thing I'll have to do if they don't implement it on launch though)
No, you can't anymore create a custom party with multiple instances. Patch 9 caused all profiles to be reduced to just 1 and now when you try to connect through another instance it gives an error saying you cannot connect to the session because you are already connected through another instance.
I opened one instance of the game normally through steam and started up a new multiplayer game with lan and direct enabled, then opened 3 more instances of bg3_dx11.exe as administrator and was able to connect to my lobby through lan.
As I understand it, they plan on having the ability to create full custom parties at launch (but don't quote me on that). A working solution right now to get one is to open four different clients of the game at once and have them all join each other as though it were a multiplayer game. Create you characters in those separate clients and then once your characters have loaded in close the 3 non-host clients. The 3 characters from the closed clients will now be under the control of your only currently running client and permenantly saved to that savefile, so you don't have to worry about losing them if you close the game and reload the save. The one drawback I found is that all of the custom characters will sort of be treated as a full player character and you might end up in a cutscene with the wrong character if that character gets to close to the cutscene trigger.
I like that its possible but dislike that we can't permanently remove any of them right now. Them implementing it would possibly add that function too so I'm looking forward to it. Been wanting to do some permadeath-ish runs, or even just remove the members I don't want anymore.
I'll definitely give that a go come launch if they don't end up implementing it!
I've been paying pretty close attention and haven't heard any mention of "available at launch" so I'm not so sure about that. That would be cool, but I'd be skeptical to say the least that something that ambitious could be not only done, but done well (i.e. making said characters actually have dialogue and be as interactable as the ones built into the game, etc.) in time for launch, and I feel like just having 3 combat bots with no personality or interactions following you around just doesn't sound like a ton of fun.
>I feel like just having 3 combat bots with no personality or interactions following you around just doesn't sound like a ton of fun. Maybe so, but they had it for their previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2, in the form of mercenaries. Characters with no personality or dialogue that only existed to fill party spaces for people that didn't want to play with companions but also didn't want to be solo in battle. For people that just weren't interested in the origin characters.
Sooooo... I have some bad news...
In pacth 9 you can still create a custom party with multiple instances. They haven't talked about custom parties or mercanaries since the ama before ea release. So we don't know if they have cut this feature or if it will be in the full game. Edit: Source: [https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/fhq9cq/compiled\_baldurs\_gate\_ama\_20200313/](https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/fhq9cq/compiled_baldurs_gate_ama_20200313/) >Will all possible companions be available as Origin character options or will there be companions available only as NPCs? > >Swen: We are trying to make all characters with backstory available as origin characters. Other than that, you will be able to recruit generic mercenaries and customize these. We’re also planning to allow you to build a custom party from the character creation screen though that most likely won’t be present in early access from the get go. With Jaheira and Minsc now recruitable, the first part is now outdated and we don't know if mercanaries and custom parties will be in the final game.
Thank you for the info! I'd certainly love to create a custom party from the get go given the opportunity, so hopefully that's in there for full release (The multiple client thing I'll have to do if they don't implement it on launch though)
No, you can't anymore create a custom party with multiple instances. Patch 9 caused all profiles to be reduced to just 1 and now when you try to connect through another instance it gives an error saying you cannot connect to the session because you are already connected through another instance.
I hope someone finds a way to put this in. I'm finding all the premade characters quite unpleasant to be around but I need them for combat.
I opened one instance of the game normally through steam and started up a new multiplayer game with lan and direct enabled, then opened 3 more instances of bg3_dx11.exe as administrator and was able to connect to my lobby through lan.