Summary
One of the biggest draws of role-playing games, especially for fans of classic tabletop systems, is the experience of adventuring with a party. In most computer RPGs, players meet and recruit a colorful cast of companions along the way, each with their own personalities, backstories, and builds.
But not every player wants to rely on premade allies. For those who have a very specific party fantasy in mind, whether it’s a perfectly min-maxed team or a thematic squad with matching outfits, only full control will do. Fortunately, several RPGs embrace this philosophy, allowing players to create their companions entirely from scratch.
InWasteland 3’s post-apocalyptic Colorado, it’s just about impossible to survive without a solid squad of rangers as backup. Rangers are available for recruitment at their HQ, and while there is a fine set of pre-made faces to choose from, players are also able to build their own as they did for their avatar in character creation.
This flexibility means players can fine-tune their squad for synergy, roleplay a thematic crew (like a band of deadly snipers or loudmouthed brawlers), or just min-max their numbers for an overpowered group to matchtheir own overpowered ranger’s buildto take on the snowy apocalypse.
Right from the start ofThe Temple of Elemental Evil, before making their descent into the legendary dungeon, players are given full control over a party of up to five adventurers, including their race, class, skills, feats, and personality tendencies. The player can choose from preset adventurers or go to town creating their perfect quintet. The only constraint is that each party member must follow the party’s alignment.
However, this makes sense from a group cohesion and narrative perspective.The Temple of Elemental Evilmay not be the most polished CRPG ever made, or evenFalloutcreator Tim Cain’s greatest work. However, there is still a lot to love about this wonderfully faithfulDungeons & Dragonsadaptation, and when it comes to letting players build a party from scratch, it absolutely delivers.
When it first released,Guild Wars' deck-building, buildcraft-first gameplay, and cross-class (or profession) combination already gave its players unparalleled control over the way they played. After the “Nightfall” campaign, players were able to assign skills and builds directly to special AI-controlled party members called heroes, each with preset models, professions, and backstories.
“Mercenaries” took this one step further by allowing players to make their own characters recruitable Heroes. Once the player speaks to a Mercenary Registrar, their alts can take a copy of that character out into the world. This takes a little work to set up, but it gives players full control over their name, appearance, and armor, and most importantly, profession, which potentially leads to some extraordinarily overpowered team builds, especially for teams of mesmer mercenaries.
WhilePillars of Eternityoffers a memorable cast of story-driven companions, it also gives players the option to bypass them entirely for a lone-wolf playthrough, or alternatively, hire custom-built adventurers at any inn (for a fee). These hirelings are blank slates with no backstories, no banter, and no chance for romance, but full control over class, stats, abilities, and roles.
This hybrid approach strikes a fine balance of being able to dive deep into narrative, or treating the game more likea hardline tactical RPG, constructing a party purely around synergy and strategy. Many players end up blending the two, keeping a few story companions while filling out the roster with custom recruits built for specific roles.
Dragon Quest 9breaks from tradition by placing full party creation squarely in the player’s hands. Aside from the silent protagonist, there are no default companions to meet or recruit. Instead, players visit a local inn early in the game and assemble their entire team from scratch, choosing the adventurer’s appearance, class, and name one by one.
This gives the game a distinctly personal flavor. The warrior is exactly who the player wants them to be (dressed like a clown if they so wish) and specced to round out the team as needed. It might lack theemotional interactions of traditional JRPG party members, butDragon Quest 9’s custom hero system offers a refreshingly modular approach.
The Wizardry series, dating all the way back to the early ’80s, helpeddefine what party-based RPGs would become(especially in Japanese role-playing games). Thanks to the remake of the original,Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, newcomers can experience the original dungeon crawler computer game for themselves with modern quality-of-life features. Before stepping into a dungeon, the player is tasked with building every single member of their adventuring party from scratch.
That includes rolling stats, picking races and classes, and assembling a balanced (or deliberately chaotic) squad of their own creation. However, given the game’s notorious difficulty, there is certainly a wide breadth to make the wrong choice. While later entries layered in more complex systems and lore, the core party-creation feature remained intact until the final entry,Wizardry 8.
The design philosophy of cRPGs, when it came to companions and party members in the genre’s first golden age, seemed to fall into one of two camps: those interested in the tactical combat side of things and those interested in bespoke, character-driven storytelling.Icewind Dalefalls into the former category, as players are expected to fill out their entire team during character creation.
At the beginning of the game, players create up to six custom characters, choosing everything from class and stats to alignment and appearance.Icewind Daleis less about meetingquirky strangers on the roadand more about building a team that plays well together or tells a story of the player’s making.
Dragon’s Dogmaintroduces a unique take on player-created companions through its “Pawn” system, a central feature that blends customization, world-building, and online connectivity. Early in the game, the player creates a single pawn companion to travel with, leveling up alongside their Arisen. Everything, from themyopic details of their appearanceto their vocation and behavioral tendencies, is set by the player.
Once created, this custom companion can be recruited by other players online, gaining knowledge, items, and experience while away. In turn, the player can hire other players’ pawns to fill out their party. Each carries memories of quests and monsters they’ve encountered in other worlds.
