The games come with a large number of portraits that visually showcase what the different characters look like. This includes a the protagonist, for whom the player can choose a portrait themself. It is possible to change the protagonist's portrait afterwards by opening the character sheet, clicking CUSTOMIZE and then APPEARANCE.
Most of the portraits are already in use by one of the NPC companions. But if the player chooses to use one of them, it will be replaced by another portrait, to assure that the same portrait isn't used twice in the party. All portraits are gender locked.
Adding Custom Portraits
All games allow for adding custom portraits.
Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II
The games use three different sized portraits. For custom protagonist portraits only the smaller two are required, which both go into the 'portraits' folder in the game's directory (i.e. C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate\Portraits). The file name can't be longer than seven characters + the ending S, M or L.
To replace a companion's portrait all three files are required with the exact same file names as used in the game. These files go into the 'override' folder in the game's directory (i.e. C:\Program Files\Baldur's Gate\Override). A list of all companion portraits plus file names can be found here.
| Size | Colour Depth | File Name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Portrait | 38 x 60 px | 8 bit | xxxxxxxS.bmp |
| Medium Portrait | 110 x 170 px | 24 bit | xxxxxxxM.bmp |
| Large Portrait | 210 x 330 px | 24 bit | xxxxxxxL.bmp |
Enhanced Editions
For player character portraits only one file is now required, the file ending is not important (both S, M & L are fine). Any size of up to 1024px works in theory, but to assure that the image doesn't become blurry it should be a minimum of 169x266px and the side ratios need to be the same as the ones mentioned above, otherwise the portrait will be distorted. It needs to be a .bmp in 24 bit colour depth and goes into the 'portraits' folder in the documents folder of the desired game (i.e. C:\Users\[Your Username]\Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\Portraits).
Replacing companion portraits works just the same as in the originals. The override folder is also in the game's installation directory (i.e. C:\Program Files\BeamDog\Games\00783\Override)
Baldur's Gate
Portrait placeholder in the original Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate includes 32 portraits in total, seven of which are not used by any of the main NPC companions, though except for one they are used by the temporary companions in Obe's Training.
Player Only
Female
Male
Companions
Female
Male
Baldur's Gate II
Portrait placeholder in Baldur's Gate II
In addition to all of the portraits introduced in the original Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II offers 15 new portraits. 14 which are also used by the companions and one for male protagonists.
Player Only
Male
Companions
Female
Male
Other
These portraits are used in the game but are not available to be used by the protagonist.
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal does not add any new portraits available to the player, but there are a eleven new ones that can be seen throughout the game.
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition adds 13 new portraits, three of which are also used for companions.
Player Only
All of the new protagonist portraits have been drawn by Jason Manley, who also created the portrait artworks for the first Icewind Dale.
Female
Male
Companions
Other
Baeloth's portrait does show up in-game but is not available in character creation.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition adds seven new potraits and includes all of the portraits introduced in the previous games.
Female
Male
Other
These portraits are used in the game but are not available to be used by the protagonist.
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear includes all of the portraits from the first Baldur's Gate, a selection of portraits introduced in the other games and nine new portraits. Listed below are the latter two.
Player Only
Female
Male
Companions
Female
Male
Other
These portraits are used in the game but are not available in character creation.
Unused Portraits
These portraits can be found in the game codes but not in game.
Baldur's Gate II & Following
All games starting with Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn include an unused test portrait.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition & Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
These portraits where meant to be included as new additional portraits in character creation but can't be accessed in-game. The artist is Kieran Yanner and these images are supossed to be made available in a future patch.
