Baldur’s Gate 3 encourages you to romance your gorgeous party members but try not to pay attention to their stats, as they don’t reflect their physical appearance nor how charming they are in conversation.
Baldur’s Gate 3 uses the D&D 5E rules, which means it runs into one of the tabletop game’s issues —how to reflect physical beauty accurately. In the old days, D&D had two stats to address this, with Charisma focusing on personality and Comeliness gauging a character’s attractiveness. These were later rolled into Charisma.
It’s no secret that Baldur’s Gate 3 party member stats are poorly optimized. This is also shown in their appearance, as pointed out on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit, as Halsin is incredibly hench yet only has 10 Strength, which is meant to reflect someone of average build.
One user pointed out a prime example: “Same deal with Minsc. This legendary warrior, jacked as hell, pries himself out of a Mimic’s jaws and has Strength 10.” This is especially bad, as Minsc had Strength 18/93 in Baldur’s Gate 2, which is almost the highest you can get without magic enhancement.
“Astarion, Wyll and Gale all have visible abs and pecs but their starting Strength is 8 lmao,” one user wrote, while another said, “One of my few big complaints about this game – stats are totally removed from the narrative. Mechanics are one thing, story is another.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Notably, Shadowheart, a character half the size of her male party members, has a Strength of 13. It seems Lady Shar has a way better gym than the other churches of the Forgotten Realms. And while she might be the most conventionally attractive female party member, she has 8 Charisma.
Astarion also has 10 Charisma, meaning he’s about as handsome/charming as the average person in the Forgotten Realms. Where can I get a Spelljammer ticket to this twink paradise?
Ultimately, stats had to be displaced from the narrative in order to stop the creators from having to influence the story to accommodate the D&D nerds. The stats are vital when it comes to dungeon delving and fights, but they need to be ignored if they’re going to get in the way of the fun.
