Baldur's Gate 3 dev hints at character appearance change update

Baldur's Gate 3
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios could be working on a way to alter your custom character's appearance.

We've all been there; you're reaching Act 1's conclusion in Baldur's Gate 3, and a thought crawls into your mind. What if my character had red eyes instead? I wish I'd gone for this hairstyle. What if he was purple? Well, fear not, as it seems like the game's developer has plans for a character alteration feature to one of the year's best RPGs.

Responding to a Twitter user's request to allow players to change up their Tavs' appearance, Larian's director of publishing, Michael Douse, simply replied: "Things are being cooked."

While not an outright confirmation that appearance changing will come to Baldur's Gate 3, it appears that the team is at least testing such an option. Probably yet another duty that poor old Withers will be saddled with, no doubt. Baldur's Gate 3 players can already respec their custom character's class and stats by visiting their undead pal at camp, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to add looks changes to the skeleton's list of quality-of-life services.

Now, to what extent Larian will let players change up their characters remains to be seen. Given the complex and weaving nature of its narrative in relation to the player's actions, being able to change up our race and background may cause some unwanted inconsistencies. That's already an issue for players who aren't Long Resting enough.

I find it more likely that we'll be able to tweak our Tavs within the confines of their race chosen at initial character creation. And that's perfectly fine by me. I already buy too many character-altering Fantasia potions in Final Fantasy 14; I don't need another game where I'm mired by indecision over what my character should be.

Baldur's Gate 3 isn't the first game to launch without character appearance editing. It took Cyberpunk 2077 just shy of a year and a half to finally implement the feature. Hopefully, we won't need to wait that long to be able to do so in Larian's RPG, but personally, I'm easy either way, being pretty satisfied with how my Tiefling Warlock looks in-game.

Baldur's Gate 3 continues to be one of the biggest Steam releases of all time. Want to learn more about the game? Be sure to read our interview with some of Baldur's Gate 3's voice actors.

Rhys Wood
Hardware Editor

Rhys is TRG's Hardware Editor, and has been part of the TechRadar team for more than two years. Particularly passionate about high-quality third-party controllers and headsets, as well as the latest and greatest in fight sticks and VR, Rhys strives to provide easy-to-read, informative coverage on gaming hardware of all kinds. As for the games themselves, Rhys is especially keen on fighting and racing games, as well as soulslikes and RPGs.