Players have spent entire evenings nudging cheekbone sliders and adjusting eye spacing before a single enemy is even spotted. That ritual is alive and well in Obsidian Entertainment's action RPG Avowed, which launched on February 18, 2025, and still has a dedicated fanbase sharing wild Envoy builds in 2026. The game may present a seemingly modest starting screen, but beneath the surface sits a fungal playground that lets players create everything from elegant forest mystics to truly unhinged spore monsters.
The Godlike Envoy Is a Customization Playground
The player character in Avowed is called the Envoy, a Godlike whose blessing comes from an unknown entity. In the wider Pillars of Eternity lore, Godlike usually carry physical marks tied to a specific deity. In Avowed, however, that mysterious origin means the character creator can lean into a distinct fungal aesthetic. Options include mushrooms, branching roots, shelf-like growths, glowing spores, and a range of colors and sizes. Players can place these growths in strange combinations, creating characters that look like walking compost heaps or luminous forest spirits.
Screenshots from Obsidian's official showcase reveal how far those options can be stretched. It is not just about picking one or two mushrooms; the system encourages blending shapes, moving growths into unusual positions, and mixing earthy tones with bright bioluminescent accents. The result is a creator that feels strange, flexible, and very much at home in Eora.
Sliders and the Long Tradition of Absurd Characters
A proper creator is not complete without sliders. Avowed supplements its fungal attachments with a separate selection of facial sliders and structural options. A player could ignore the Godlike features entirely and still bend a face into something memorable. This matters because absurd character creation is a beloved video game tradition. From Dark Souls and Monster Hunter to The Elder Scrolls, players have always used extreme sliders to create comedic, monstrous, or just off-putting avatars. The binary slider philosophy, where every value is either zero or one hundred, remains a personal art form.
The benefit of a flexible system is that it serves both types of players. Someone who wants a dignified warrior can make subtle tweaks, while a friend who wants a neon mushroom gremlin can push the same tools in a completely different direction. Avowed is a single-player experience, but that has not stopped players from sharing their creations on social feeds and laughing at the most cursed builds.
For anyone who enjoys pushing character creators to their limit, the toolkit includes:
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🍄 Fungal features such as mushrooms, shelf fungi, roots, and spores
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🎚️ Facial sliders for the jaw, eyes, nose, and overall structure
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🧝 Base race options for humans and elves
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🧌 A final result that can be either elegant or completely unhinged
Baldur's Gate 3 and the Trade-Offs
It is impossible to discuss modern character creation without mentioning Baldur's Gate 3. Larian's RPG offers numerous races and subraces, and those choices genuinely change how the world reacts. Avowed is narrower in that respect. Players choose between humans and elves, and while the Godlike background adds visual variety, it does not replicate BG3's breadth of narrative reactivity. Avowed has its own background system, but five backgrounds cannot match the web of race-specific dialogue and events found in BG3.
That said, Avowed's focused approach has a different strength. Instead of spreading its options across many species, it drills deep into the fungal Godlike concept. The result is a creator that feels cohesive with the world of Eora and still allows plenty of absurdity. Fine-tuning a smaller set of choices can sometimes feel better than a sprawling list, especially when those choices are visually distinctive.
| Feature | Avowed | Baldur's Gate 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Playable race choices | Human and elf, with Godlike fungal features | Many races and subraces |
| Core twist | Unknown Godlike blessing and spore-like growths | D&D-style racial and class identity |
| World reactivity | Background-based dialogue and choices | Deep race, class, and background reactivity |
| Slider flexibility | Extensive facial sliders plus fungal placement | Solid but less fungal-specific |
| Best for | Cohesive Eora roleplay and weird builds | Wide narrative variety |
What Players Are Doing in 2026
Now that Avowed has been out for more than a year, the initial gallery of strange Envoys has grown into a full community tradition. Players continue to post lovingly awful creations, and the character creator remains one of the game's most entertaining toys before any quest even begins. For those who want more context, the original Pillars of Eternity games are still a great way to explore the deeper lore of Eora, though they are not required to enjoy Avowed.
Ultimately, Avowed's creator may look limited at first glance, but its fungal Godlike options and facial sliders give players plenty of room to be expressive. Whether someone wants a dignified envoy, a luminous mushroom knight, or an absolute nightmare made of bark and spores, the tools are there. That balance between cohesive worldbuilding and sheer creative freedom is exactly why many players still keep returning to the character screen in 2026.