Portraits

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. All portraits are gender locked.

Most of the portraits are already in use by one of the NPC companions that share its file name. 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.^[1]

Adding Custom Portraits[]

All games allow for adding custom portraits.

Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II[]

	Size	Color depth	Filename
Small	38 × 60	8 bit	xxxxxxxS.bmp
Medium	110 × 170	24 bit	xxxxxxxM.bmp
Large	210 × 330	24 bit	xxxxxxxL.bmp

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.

Enhanced Editions[]

For player character portraits only one file is now required, the file ending is not important (S, M & L are all 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[]

Baldur's Gate includes 32 portraits in total, seven of which are not used by any of the main companions, though except for one they are used by the temporary companions in Candlekeep's storage cellars or the pre-made characters.

Player Only[]

Female[]

Male[]

Companions[]

Female[]

Male[]

Baldur's Gate II[]

In addition to all of the portraits introduced in the original Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II offers 20 new portraits. 16 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 includes all of the portraits from original Baldur's Gate and adds 25 new portraits, three of which are also used for companions.

Player Only[]

The first five of the new protagonist portraits for each gender have been drawn by Jason Manley, who also created the portrait artworks for the first Icewind Dale. The other portraits were added to the game in version 2.6.0.

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 includes all of the available portraits introduced in the games listed above and adds 10 new potraits.

Female[]

Male[]

Companions[]

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 available portraits in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, 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.

DLC[]

Baldur's Gate: Gallery of Heroes II[]

These portraits are available for Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition via Baldur's Gate: Gallery of Heroes II portrait pack in-App purchase for Android and iOs versions. Included for free for computer versions. The artist is Kieran Yanner.