Baldur’s Gate 3 needs a character appearance changer for all our regrets

Robust character creators are one of those things everyone claims they want in a game, but it’s questionable how much time we actually spend in them before deciding on something that’s “good enough for now,” so we can move on to the actual game. In many games, particularly RPGs, there are ways to update the character appearance later on anyways so that players don’t have to think too much while getting things started. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Baldur’s Gate 3 and many players are now stuck with their initial character appearance in a game that loves to both point the camera on players and will also take a long time to finish.

Why can’t you change your character appearance in Baldur’s Gate 3?

It’s a surprising oversight by Larian Studios not to add any means to change a character’s appearance like hair and facial features after the initial creation opportunity. For a series so dedicated to lore and roleplay elements, personal style seems like it should be a pillar of the core game design. The themes of change and growth are also inherent to good storytelling, which is all the more reason for us to want to go back and tweak our characters.

Whether it be updating a character’s skin tone and facial features to something we like better or adding more personality like some fresh scars and wrinkles on the skin to reflect struggles overcome, the option to change a character’s appearance later needs to be there. Even for those less committed to role play and lore, a simple update to a hair style can also do a lot to match a newly-acquired outfit or make the party look better together.

A lore-friendly precedent

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem out of the question to get an update to address this problem. Larian Studios released Baldur’s Gate 3 in Steam Early Access back in October 2020. Significant updates followed for nearly three years, adding to the game in almost every regard. The developers also have a strong track record at this point for listening to feedback from players and adding desired features to the development roadmap.

Image by PC Invasion

As far as what we might get for a character appearance changer in Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s already precedent in the form of the Magic Mirror. Larian implemented this in Divinity Original Sin: 2 for character appearance changes, so it would fit right in for Baldur’s Gate 3.

For now we must accept our fates of permanent appearances and hope that Larian sees fit to let us rearrange our ugly mugs in some future update. The excellent gameplay at least provides plenty of substance and entertainment to enjoy for many hours to come. If you need any help along the way, be sure to check out our many guides. You can start with our convenient Baldur’s Gate 3 guide hub.