At this point, I've lost count of the number of runs I've started in Baldur's Gate 3. Even if I were to look at my save files, it wouldn't reflect the true total on account of my deleting some older playthroughs to make room for fresh ones. There are so many possibilities when it comes to character creation and approaches in Larian's adventure, and even after putting 700 hours into it, there are still new ideas, builds, and paths I want to try out in The Sword Coast. After taking a darker route that broke my self-imposed RPG code, I knew I wanted to try out a new Origin character for my latest run. I absolutely love that we can role-play as the characters we journey alongside, but apart from Astarion, I've yet to experience the story through the eyes of the rest of the cast.
While I landed on this decision, I was entirely torn as to who to pick next. See, I've fallen for all of the party members, and each character's unique personal story presented a host of interesting prospects. With so many options to consider, my colleague -and fellow Baldur's Gate 3 aficionado - Jasmine Gould-Wilson suggested an inspired idea: why don't I use the stats Larian posted towards the end of the last year to determine my selection? As of December 2023, Gale topped the Origin charts as the most played character, and I was instantly curious to find out why. With nothing else for it, I took on the role of the wizard of Waterdeep, and just a handful of hours in, I'm already starting to understand why he's such a popular pick.
