When experiencing Baldur's Gate 3 for the first time, players shouldn't pick Origin characters such as Shadowheart – or so her voice actor thinks, anyway.
Jennifer English, the talented voice actor behind Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3 and the likes of Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, reveals as much in a new interview with Fall Damage. When recalling some of her "iconic lines," she looks back on one bit of character creator dialogue in particular: "My lady Shar tasked me with a mission of such secrecy that I surrendered great swathes of my memory in order to safeguard the knowledge of it."
According to English, players only hear the line while considering picking Shadowheart as an Origin character – a decision the actor would actually advise against now. "It's [during] the idle at the beginning, where you can possibly play as me – but don't do that, because then you lose loads of my conversational dialogue." Although I do personally think that at least one Shadowheart playthrough is worth it at minimum, I see her point.
When you choose to play as an Origin character, you do miss out on many of the lines that would occur if you approached them with your own Tav or another party member. Some of the greatest lines stem from such moments, including the one English goes on to mention, in which Shadowheart disappointedly exclaims at the Moonrise Towers, "You can't just stick your hand in every strange hole you come across!"
There are a few other ones English goes over, including the "God's favorite princess" line she saw made canon following its appearance in memes – a highlight, if I do say so myself.
