Baldur's Gate III News

[Antimatter]

Hello! New to the site and new to the game! Bg3 was introduced to me to a few friends of mine so when i looked into the last panel, i got really into the cinematics and the character customization hehe. But i also saw that the EA was launched years ago, how different was it when it first launched compared to how it is in the current state of EA? And were there people still playing throughout the years when it launched?

Welcome to the forum! So great to see new faces!

Yes, BG3 changed quite a bit since the beginning of EA. The 1.0 will feel like a totally different game, from the UI which was completely redone, to the cinematics, to the writing, to the game mechanics.

Early Access players were different, some (like me) played through that only once, while others continued to play for many, many hours.

 

[Cahir]

It's so good to feel the excitement and see it in other players and industry people, now when the release is in 2 weeks.



This is what I wrote in June 2019, before the game launched into EA:

"BG3 should not be an indie game. It should be right there - among the top RPGs of all time, if not the top one. And for that, you'd want everything "best" in the category. Best storytelling, best cinematics, best characters, best music, best gameplay, best everything. You can't be the best if you use something from 20 years ago. If BG1 tried to use something from 20 years - ok, even from 5 years - before it was released...

This game should define the genre, not trail at the end of it. This game should impress, it should blow your mind. It should blow the minds of millions of gamers. It's impossible to do with an old engine, it's impossible to do with an approach of "this is our spiritual successor to the classics" only.

Come on, people. Lots of gamers didn't try BG1 or BG2. There are many more gamers nowadays than there were 20 years ago. And I hope all of you would agree that the more people learn D&D and become charmed by its magic, the better. That is the aim the company behind such a game should take, IMHO.

If you're not interested in the Dragon Age - type (and here I mention it only from the popularity, only from the genre-defining standpoint) - it's your choice. But how many people will be inspired and absolutely captured by something as incredible as BG1, but for today's world. For today's gaming world. When you see such games as Death Stranding going out in the same (or nearly the same) year, you want to provide quality, you want to impress, you want to be beautiful.

I don't want Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 to look like Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, I want it to look modern and to be cool - while staying modern. There's nothing bad in being from today's world, living in the past is not the only way.

I don't want BG3 to look like BG1. I don't want it to look like PoE. I don't want it to look like DOS. I don't want it to look like DAO. I want more, and I have every right to demand more from such an iconic title."

"I like Witcher 3, I like Dragon Age games, I like TES. I like 3D. It makes me feel as if I'm there exploring the world.

I like DOS. I like tactical battles. I like SCS and can't imagine BG without it.

I always wanted to try a D&D game where I can zoom and look at everything in 3D. Imagine - you are looking at the Elfsong tavern as if you are standing in front of it. And I always wanted to get more tactics into Dragon Age.

DOS gave me a portion of it. It wasn't 3D fully and it wasn't D&D. But if this next game is a step above, that would literally be a dream coming true.

I like the Infinity Engine and I still play BG every week. 20 years later. But in no situation, a new game should use such an old engine. It should set its own rules and be a game of its own, not aspire to 20-year-old mechanics."

And it seems that my wish from 4 years ago to receive one of the best RPGs, a game that will redefine the genre going forward, actually will be granted.

Yeah, you certainly had big expectations for BG3 And that's a good thing! I also want BG3 to do the same to me as RDR2 did, a few years ago. I want to pick up my jaw from the floor, seeing its wonders. I want to feel emotional, as I felt relieving story of Arthur Morgan and his gang of outlaws. I want this game to be groundbreaking for crpg genre. I want it to be so good, that I could turn a blind eye to its (inevitable) flaws. Finally, I want it to draw me to play it not just once, but multiple of times, and make it feel like a different game. I want all of this and more from BG3.

The bar is high, Larian. But you can do it!

 

[Cahir]

There's an interview in Polish site GryOnline.pl with Swen Vincke. Here's the English translated version

Baldur's Gate 3 is just around the corner, and the premiere accelerated by a month (not to mention the love scene with the bear) is very intriguing information – it is a rarity in the industry, where the delay of the debut is the norm. Added to this is the shocking freedom that the creators promise, as well as a huge campaign (the usual passage of the game is to take over 75 hours!). Michał Mańka recently had the opportunity to visit the Belgian studio Larian. He played excerpts from the full version and also talked to Swen Vincke, the head of the team and creative director of the upcoming RPG. Here's what we learned.

GOAL: The Baldur's Gate series has a long history. What was the key aspect of the world you wanted to put in your game?

Swen Vincke: I think there were a few things like that... First of all, it was the first adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons at the time. So I think we wanted to make a similar breakthrough by translating the fifth edition of D&D into the game. We also wanted to maintain the team character of the game. Another important issue was the theme "a monster grows inside me, what do I do with it?". We start by being infected by a parasite and then being able to take control of it or resist it. This is present in many origin stories, but especially in the main plot – this dilemma of what you are going to do about it. We also wanted to transfer the feeling of being in the city from the second Baldur's Gate to the actual Baldur's Gate [in the "two" we did not visit the title city, only Athkatla – editor's note]. That was our next ambition.

What do you think was the hardest thing to grasp after all these years? Let's call it a sequel, although I'd say it's more of a continuation of the world.

Yes, it is a continuation of the world, not a direct continuation. So the world is affected by what happened in BG1 and 2, so you will see more than you expect, you will see the dramatic consequences of all the things that happened (especially with Sarevok). I think that capturing the impression of adventure and connection with the characters, known from previous games, was the most difficult for us, and also the most important.

And what was your target audience? Who were you thinking of when you decided, OK, we're doing Baldur's Gate 3. Were they fans of Divinity, Baldur's Gate, or just RPG fans?

The latter. We've always been careful – maybe we were wrong at some point, maybe we're wrong now – but we think if we like it, RPG fans will like it too, because we're all RPG players. This is a game from RPG players for RPG players.

What is the reaction of fans to the fact that you are working on a brand like Baldur's Gate? Were they very positive about what you did with the world? Or maybe they need to be convinced that it is worth investing their time in it?

Opinions are divided. So there are fans of the original games who wanted it to be an exact continuation of that storyline – this is not the case and some are disappointed. Others, however, changed their minds after trying the game. We had testers and there was one particular girl among them. She came from the other end of Ireland, so she had to travel a few hours before she got to the office and tested the game... She said, "I signed up because I wanted to tell you, 'How dare you!'" She walked away, thanking us and saying, "I was very happy with what you did with the city. I was so happy to go in there. I was scared, but you really did the series justice because this is the first time we've seen it all in 3D." So that was a very big compliment.

When it comes to nostalgia and older players, there will always be people who won't be happy with how it's been handled. The same goes for everything else, from Star Wars to everything you can imagine. But if you let that get in the way, nothing will happen anymore. The things I talked about at the beginning, the things we aspired to, the things we wanted to pay respect to – I think we succeeded. The vast majority of players say yes, some say no, and that's okay.

And if you tried to convince someone that it's worth the time and money, how would you sum up your game to convince a fan of this world?

Well, I would say: if you like Dungeons and Dragons, you'll like Baldur's Gate 3.

And that's it?

Yes, I think so. We put a lot of work into making the rules accessible, we did a lot of work to make sure that your decisions, your identity, who you are, what you do – that it's all going to be reflected in the story, in what's going on in it. This will be presented to you as if you had your own Game of Thrones written for you, as the game's script adapts to you when you play it. Based on the things you do using a set of rules... To be honest, I don't think such a game has been created before – in which the systems, multiplayer, narrative layer and cutscenes come together into a coherent whole. Something like a multi-ingredient cocktail, the sip of which you take and find – everything fits together here.

It's amazing that even today, playing for only a few hours, I had three different scenarios where I lost the same companion. And not just in the middle of a regular fight, but simply by making decisions like "hey, she's leaving the team to talk to people; Oh, I'll just check what's around the corner." You come back and she's dead. It's amazing to see how the world reacts to the player's decisions.

Yes. It's a sacred rule, it doesn't touch: the player's agency above all else.

It's really wonderful. Did you change any aspect of the previous games, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, that you thought was a bit outdated?

I think these games were great in their time, but it's been 20 years, so everything has evolved. I don't think it's comparable. At that time, these games were the pinnacle of the RPG genre and I think they did very well, they are a testament to craftsmanship, well done work, and they are still really good RPGs, if only because of the Enhanced Edition or the iPad version – I play them on the iPad, it's really great.

BG2 in particular offered a lot of freedom and nonlinearity. Some of the mechanics were really new to the genre. It's a trendsetter. We try to make BG3 the same, we try to push every boundary we can push to try to move forward when it comes to the RPG genre.

That's very nice to hear. I had previously spent many hours with Divinity: Original Sin 2. Is there anything specific you took away from this game? A lesson you remember that helped you work on BG3?

Yes, there were many lessons. DOS1 was really about systems. DOS2 was about connecting narrative to systems, and BG3 was about how to connect cinematic narrative to systems while improving every aspect of them. I don't think we could do BG3 without DOS2 and we couldn't do DOS2 without DOS1. These were all gradual steps in our erepegowym developer craft.

There is one thing about peaceful solutions in the approach to quests that I had in mind. I felt that in those days Baldur's Gate was more focused on combat, comparing it to Planescape: Torment or Fallout. Do you maintain this approach to clashes in BG3, or do you give people complete freedom in how they can resolve potential conflicts?

You have absolute freedom. There are very few fights. You can even ally with Gorthas. And it's literally to ally, he keeps his word. So you don't have to fight it. There are many persuasion options in this game. But there are some fights that need to be fought.

In a sense, we have already touched on this topic, but I would like to talk about it for a moment. Of course, there are many references, characters from Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 appear in the game. What was your approach to creating BG3? Did you feel it was necessary to continue the legacy of the series? Or maybe you wanted it to be more your own interpretation, your own view of this world?

We wanted to show that everything that happened in BG1 and 2 really happened. How it affected the world. But on this basis, we wanted to build something of our own. And I think we did. As you walk through this world, you'll see what the iron throne meant to Baldur's Gate. You will meet characters such as Jaheira, who has a complicated history. You will meet her children. Jaheira is older now and wonders, "Should I stop looking for adventures, is this lifestyle for me; Who can handle it?" She had a friend who had left.

These things took root in the original Baldur's Gate and shaped the city today. But new events are taking place in the game world. In Forgotten Realms, too, everything changed. The gods have retreated, the city has evolved, and you are going to enter it. Then, using a new set of rules, you'll explore them in a new way. So it is a mixture of old and new.

 

[Cahir]

Continued from previous post

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Please tell me from the perspective of a game developer – you always give players a lot of freedom to experiment with both combat and quests and... basically with everything. How do you do it? Do you have to consider all possibilities? Or are your systems designed to give you freedom and see what happens?

Rather, the latter. But there is also some of the former. We had to go through a lot of permutations, that's how we ended up with about 74 hours of videos, so... It's literally pure voice acting and mocap. However, the systems have been designed to be very robust. They will always work and mesh with each other. So a lot of effort was put into making sure it all worked. Sometimes when you ask something simple, system designers are trained to say, "Hmmmm, I don't know." When asked how difficult it may be, they will list you a list of options, and only at the end of it a variant that will not work. Screenwriters are also trained in this way.

I will explain this with the example of the genie that we showed in the presentation. This was prepared by a screenwriter who is also a master of the game and who said, "We're going to do something funny." So the genie cheats. How can he cheat? Since he is a genie, he thinks about his character. It has a magic ring, which means that the player can steal the magic ring and we have to react to this fact. Because if the player is smart enough to steal the ring, we have to have different options for that character. We do this for every single situation, for every single NPC in the entire game. That's how these things arise. It's crazy, but it's cool.

You must always assume that a character can be killed, you must assume that if he has something on him, players can take it off and take it away. So these are the basic principles that apply to every element we create. We have a few of them, so it's hard work, but it's great for the player because they learn to trust the game. He's like, "Hey, if I saw something, I can take it. If I can't take it, then the creators haven't done their job. If I've killed someone, I can talk to them because I can talk to the dead. Which means I can approach the situation in such a way as to just kill everyone and start interrogating the corpse." Of course, there is a rule that says that if you have killed someone, he is unlikely to want to talk to his killer. In turn, if you meet an animal, you can talk to him. The same applies to quests. That's why we have to have so many cinematics. At the beginning of the game there is such a small temple, try to approach it in different ways, and you will see how differently the situation will develop.

The thing that convinced me that I wanted to invest my time in this game was that when I started playing Early Access and left the starting area, one woman was already waiting to jump on me. I could have killed her before she could interact with me. For me it was like a signal that I can really interfere in the script... I love it.

The thing that convinced me that I wanted to invest my time in this game was that when I started playing Early Access and left the starting area, one woman was already waiting to jump on me. I could have killed her before she could interact with me. For me it was like a signal that I can really interfere in the script... I love it.

Today... When I got out of the ship, I saw the mind scavenger under the rubble and I liked how hardcore the game can be. Then I tried to resist his control and just threw one point on the ankle.

[sighs and laughs]

And although I probably had +4 from my companion, I felt that I was hitting the bottom and failing. Besides, I didn't save the game before the interview, because what for?

You learned the F5 button very quickly. [laughs]

Oh yes. [laughs]

But now charging works very fast, so it's fine.

You've been making RPGs for a long time and they're highly appreciated by the community, but why are you one of the few studios that can and want to design classic isometric RPGs? Why do you think there aren't many other studios working in this area?

I do not know.

There are a lot of action RPGs, but not like these.

Frankly, I don't get it. Because we have proven with Original Sin that the demand for this is huge. It is up to other studies to decide what they think about it. I know why we do it. We enjoy it, we have a lot of fun with it. Apparently we are able to finance our development because we sell enough copies, so... As long as this cycle works, we are happy. Personally, I wish more people would make similar games because I could play them. Meanwhile, there are not many games like ours, and I would like them to exist.

Who are your main players? Are these people who played these classic RPGs as children, or are you attracting even more, say, young players these days?

This is one of the surprising stats, because we thought we were really competing with other developers for this archetypal classic RPG player – it turns out that we are not. What counts on the market is a more midcore RPG player. It seems to me that this is because of the systemic nature that such people like. This was certainly the reason for the success of DOS2. I think it will be the same for BG3. We'll see. But it was surprising. We did not expect it ourselves. We've always seen our games as "classics" to compete with Obsidian or inXile, but that's not the case.

Oh, that's very interesting. I should be finishing now, so it's time for the last questions. You mentioned over 70 hours of in-game videos. But given that someone will only play the game once, how much of it will they be able to experience, assuming they probably won't want to do all the tasks to the max?

I answered one journalist 20-30% because I was pressured, but I think it's actually less. But I don't know, I didn't measure it. It depends on how you play. Journalist from Fextralife – he really pushed the pace, trying to get to the second act as quickly as possible, he did it in 5 hours. It's an extreme, but it's great that it can be done. Remember, however, that this is only a fraction of what is there. An ordinary player will never get there at a similar time. This is a really difficult question, so I refuse to answer it from now on. [laughs]

[laughs] No problem. Are you planning a well-deserved holiday after the premiere?

Yes.

Think you've done enough?

Yes. [laughs]

GOAL. I asked in a positive sense. You're ready for launch and I'm sure people will love this game because they love what's already in it. And then you take some time off and work on something else?

Every time you finish such a big game, you have to detoxify yourself, so this applies to the whole team. We need to refresh ourselves. We put a lot of creative ideas into it, so... We need to refresh our creativity. This is very important.

Any plans for the development of BG3 in the future? Apart from updates, of course.

I can say that we have many plans. But in reality, we need to see how it all pans out, and that will define what those plans will be. There are many of them for now... After 6 years, you have many plans. But we need to figure out how it will work. We take a break, we do our post mortem, we look at what went wrong, what went well, what we can do better and differently in the future, we review different ideas, things like that. We're certainly not going to come up with something new in the next few months, that's for sure.

 

[Zaxares]

At this stage I'm confident in saying that, barring MAJOR and game-breaking bugs in the subsequent acts, BG3 will be an excellent, even phenomenal CRPG that will win a bunch of awards and be remembered fondly by gamers for years to come. Although it has bent or changed some tabletop rules for the sake of better gameplay, it cleaves well to the spirit and atmosphere of D&D as well, so I expect it will be a stellar D&D game as well. The only thing that still keeps me from declaring BG3 as the perfect sequel to the BG series is... well, I'm still not quite convinced that BG3 really is a sequel to BG1 and 2. For me, the BG series was the story of the Bhaalspawn, and in particular, of Gorion's Ward. Obviously Gorion's Ward can't be the protagonist of BG3, but I remain disappointed that Larian seems to have no plans to allow us to customize who Gorion's Ward was in our games, and what was their legacy. (Other, more minor plot points like "Why are Minsc and Jaheira low-level adventurers again??" also bug me, and I would have put them into the game in a different fashion to respect their higher levels at the end of BG2, but they're not as crucial.) FR has its own official canon, of course, but the ability to specify in my game that "Gorion's Ward was a LG Paladin, or a TN Wizard, or a CE Assassin, and they loved so-and-so and wound up embracing/rejecting godhood" would make the difference between a GOOD game and a GREAT game. It would mean that, at least in my game, the stuff that I did previously HAPPENED. It may not have any real direct impact on the events of BG3, but just knowing that the game acknowledges the mark I left on the Realms almost 130 years earlier would mean a LOT to me.

 

[mlnevese]

Hello! New to the site and new to the game! Bg3 was introduced to me to a few friends of mine so when i looked into the last panel, i got really into the cinematics and the character customization hehe. But i also saw that the EA was launched years ago, how different was it when it first launched compared to how it is in the current state of EA? And were there people still playing throughout the years when it launched?

Welcome to the forum! Take a seat and have fun!

Regarding BG 3 I Bouth EA in the first few days but have barely played it to avoid getting tired of the first chapter. I have run it quite a few times and have seem steady progress on the UI, graphics rendering, and even mechanics.

Otherwise, I refuse to watch anything talking about classes and races in the final version. I have all the intention of going in as blind as I can.

 

[Butters]

Hello everyone! New here. Games like BG3 aren't usually my cup of tea, but the hype and the previews have officially drawn me in. Idk if I'll be pre-ordering, but I'd love to know what people love about the game and if there are any recommendations for approaching all the information in Character Creation and creating a Build!

 

[inryu13]

Welcome to the forum! Take a seat and have fun!

Regarding BG 3 I Bouth EA in the first few days but have barely played it to avoid getting tired of the first chapter. I have run it quite a few times and have seem steady progress on the UI, graphics rendering, and even mechanics.

Otherwise, I refuse to wtch anything talking about classes and races in the final version. I have all the intention of going in as blind as I can.

I'm new to the DnD scene and have been asking around if I should go in blind, 'cause I see people in forums really taking a crack at all the stats and multiclassing technicalities and such .
But I think ur right there's gonna be a lot of novelty and fun going in super blind

 

[Juk0]

Welcome to the forum! Take a seat and have fun!

Regarding BG 3 I Bouth EA in the first few days but have barely played it to avoid getting tired of the first chapter. I have run it quite a few times and have seem steady progress on the UI, graphics rendering, and even mechanics.

Otherwise, I refuse to wtch anything talking about classes and races in the final version. I have all the intention of going in as blind as I can.

I got really interested in the classes, especially the origins, which certainly gives a different perspective. I dont think i've ever come across a game like that.

 

[Juk0]

I have been avoiding to play EA for 3 years (even if I own BG3 almost from the beginning), which I believe is accomplishment on its own, so I can't say first hand, how much has changed during those long 3 years of EA, but from what I've read and seen... this is a completely different game now, with every aspect of the game polished, tweaked, upgraded and expanded.

I've seen some playthroughs here and there but im looking forward to seeing how the final full launch will look like

 

[Juk0]

Welcome to the forum! So great to see new faces!

Yes, BG3 changed quite a bit since the beginning of EA. The 1.0 will feel like a totally different game, from the UI which was completely redone, to the cinematics, to the writing, to the game mechanics.

Early Access players were different, some (like me) played through that only once, while others continued to play for many, many hours.

I'm looking forward to seeing how different it looks compared to the beginning EA to the full launch soon :'>

 

[Cahir]

I got really interested in the classes, especially the origins, which certainly gives a different perspective. I dont think i've ever come across a game like that.

There were origin characters in Larian's previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, but not on the scale we're about to see in BG3, no. Swen Vincke said, playing as origin character gives you an unique perspective, reliving the same events from another perspective, as someone who obviously knows things about their past, things players need to discover on their own if playing custom character. That's why Swen recommend to roll a custom character for the first playthrough, which is for me a sign, Larian invested a lot of work, so that playing a custom character doesn't feel like you are missing content, comparing to what you can experience with origin character. This is a bit of adjustment vs DOS2, where playing origin character did feel more rewarding. Seems that in BG3 neither approach is superior, they just both offer different experience.

 

[Juk0]

I dont think i've seen/played any games by Larian before but its nice to know thats its something in their previous games.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Hello everyone! New here. Games like BG3 aren't usually my cup of tea, but the hype and the previews have officially drawn me in. Idk if I'll be pre-ordering, but I'd love to know what people love about the game and if there are any recommendations for approaching all the information in Character Creation and creating a Build!

I don't think it's possible to give recommendations because we don't know yet how exactly the release version of the game will be.
Even those of us who have played that kind of games for a while, have followed BG3 and watched videos or played the Early Access will most likely spend days on character creation.
Usually the best approach is to read enough information during character creation, pick something you personally gravitate towards and not something that will have the most powerful build.

You'll play with a party of 4, so skills will complement each other, and it's not an MMO where you play against other people, so optimized builds aren't the main thing. It's a long game, full of choices, so the most important decision is "what kind of character do I want to play".
The emotional, conflicted half-orc who wants to be a paladin? The sneaky little halfling who steals everything that isn't nailed down but has a heart for people? The flashy bard who gets through tough spots with charisma and persuasion?
The fierce big strong fighter?
Those are few examples and maybe tropes I could just come up with, but maybe you get the idea:
Going through the character creation with the sense of "Who is this person I am steering through the game?" matters more to enjoy a good RPG than perfect builds. There will be respec options later to correct mistakes in leveling, the difficulty can be adjusted on the fly, and with a balanced party there are always multiple ways to solve even difficult fights, especially in turn-based combat where you have time to think and decide, compared to action games for example.

I still haven't decided myself which race and class to settle on. Bard of Swords, Arcane Trickster, other rogue, they're still on the list, and probably some half-elf, but I still haven't outruled tiefling either.

If decisions about character type are difficult but someone is not the type who prefers a custom character, in Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Larian's last game) the origin characters were great, because they made you experience the story through their eyes, tied more deeply to it through their unique perspective.

The problem I have with this approach in BG3 is that I don't feel that kind of connection to most of those origin characters (yet, maybe), and if I pick, for example, the only one I like enough, it means I can't pick that person as companion or even potential romance option anymore.

As for actual builds... we will certainly discuss them starting from August 3. At this point, we have no idea how it's going to work. And that's exciting!

 

[inryu13]

I don't think it's possible to give recommendations because we don't know yet how exactly the release version of the game will be.
Even those of us who have played that kind of games for a while, have followed BG3 and watched videos or played the Early Access will most likely spend days on character creation.
Usually the best approach is to read enough information during character creation, pick something you personally gravitate towards and not something that will have the most powerful build.

You'll play with a party of 4, so skills will complement each other, and it's not an MMO where you play against other people, so optimized builds aren't the main thing. It's a long game, full of choices, so the most important decision is "what kind of character do I want to play".
The emotional, conflicted half-orc who wants to be a paladin? The sneaky little halfling who steals everything that isn't nailed down but has a heart for people? The flashy bard who gets through tough spots with charisma and persuasion?
The fierce big strong fighter?
Those are few examples and maybe tropes I could just come up with, but maybe you get the idea:
Going through the character creation with the sense of "Who is this person I am steering through the game?" matters more to enjoy a good RPG than perfect builds. There will be respec options later to correct mistakes in leveling, the difficulty can be adjusted on the fly, and with a balanced party there are always multiple ways to solve even difficult fights, especially in turn-based combat where you have time to think and decide, compared to action games for example.

I still haven't decided myself which race and class to settle on. Bard of Swords, Arcane Trickster, other rogue, they're still on the list, and probably some half-elf, but I still haven't outruled tiefling either.

If decisions about character type are difficult but someone is not the type who prefers a custom character, in Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Larian's last game) the origin characters were great, because they made you experience the story through their eyes, tied more deeply to it through their unique perspective.

The problem I have with this approach in BG3 is that I don't feel that kind of connection to most of those origin characters (yet, maybe), and if I pick, for example, the only one I like enough, it means I can't pick that person as companion or even potential romance option anymore.

As for actual builds... we will certainly discuss them starting from August 3. At this point, we have no idea how it's going to work. And that's exciting!

Yes, exactly! I asked in a diff forum if I should be planning ahead for multiclass specifics and such, and someone said the same thing; it's DnD and what makes DnD fun and exciting for most, if not all, is really more the role-playing aspect, and that changed my whole min-max perspective on it. I'll treat it like DnD where my character's creation is informed more because of role-playing themes/contexts that I choose.

Also yes I'm in the same boat with the Origin characters. Although, I haven't played any other DnD video game so I don't have a comparison. It makes the game have even more replayability though so we're really in for a treat hehe

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Yes, exactly! I asked in a diff forum if I should be planning ahead for multiclass specifics and such, and someone said the same thing; it's DnD and what makes DnD fun and exciting for most, if not all, is really more the role-playing aspect, and that changed my whole min-max perspective on it. I'll treat it like DnD where my character's creation is informed more because of role-playing themes/contexts that I choose.

Btw I didn't mean character optimization and playing around with builds, a grain of multiclass here, a redistribution of stats there, a back-and-forth choice between skills to pick at level up shouldn't happen or isn't going to happen.
I plan to start on Tactician difficulty, so I expect I need to think carefully about my choices.
I don't intend it to be the only or main deciding factor. It's such a long game, full of choices. Identifying with the character and roleplaying concept (I don't mean "playing myself" but being able to sink into their story, personality and playstyle, either origin or custom created) is what makes me stick to it and feel comfortable with it.
If it turns out I have to use a lot of metaknowledge, read spoilers for perfected builds that require a masters degree in multiclassing, go back and redo a battle countless times with choices that are entirely out of character for the protagonist I have started to play with, then I'd rather lower the difficulty than do that, because I know it will make me lose interest in the long run and the game IS going to be long.

Also, as I said before, it's neither PvP nor a solo game, so a balanced party is more important than an optimized protagonist.

For other people, having the optimized powerhouse that can singlehandedly steamroll every encounter in a game is exactly the main fun and that's a valid way to play too, and in that case it would be strongly recommended to experiment with perfect builds. I was merely sharing my own approach and what works for me.

I'm sure we will all share a lot about our character creation choices and build choices as soon as we start playing, so much so that we will probably need an extra thread for that only.
It's just impossible to do anything more than speculate right now, because Larian devs have left several questions unanswered. We don't know all changes yet, we don'tknow which changes will make it into the release version and how exactly they are implemented.

 

[inryu13]

Btw I didn't mean character optimization and playing around with builds, a grain of multiclass here, a redistribution of stats there, a back-and-forth choice between skills to pick at level up shouldn't happen or isn't going to happen.
I plan to start on Tactician difficulty, so I expect I need to think carefully about my choices.
I don't intend it to be the only or main deciding factor. It's such a long game, full of choices. Identifying with the character and roleplaying concept (I don't mean "playing myself" but being able to sink into their story, personality and playstyle, either origin or custom created) is what makes me stick to it and feel comfortable with it.
If it turns out I have to use a lot of metaknowledge, read spoilers for perfected builds that require a masters degree in multiclassing, go back and redo a battle countless times with choices that are entirely out of character for the protagonist I have started to play with, then I'd rather lower the difficulty than do that, because I know it will make me lose interest in the long run and the game IS going to be long.

Also, as I said before, it's neither PvP nor a solo game, so a balanced party is more important than an optimized protagonist.

For other people, having the optimized powerhouse that can singlehandedly steamroll every encounter in a game is exactly the main fun and that's a valid way to play too, and in that case it would be strongly recommended to experiment with perfect builds. I was merely sharing my own approach and what works for me.

I'm sure we will all share a lot about our character creation choices and build choices as soon as we start playing, so much so that we will probably need an extra thread for that only.
It's just impossible to do anything more than speculate right now, because Larian devs have left several questions unanswered. We don't know all changes yet, we don'tknow which changes will make it into the release version and how exactly they are implemented.

All good points!!!! And yea no worries I don't think your initial reply invalidated or lessened anyone else's thoughts on how to play the game. You're exactly right;

Man I'm so hyped tho. When I recently found out about this game (it really wasn't on my radar before). When I recently found out about this game (it really wasn't in my radar before), and saw the Early Access content I was already like woah this is epic. Now I've seen a lot of B-roll footage from people who got to play the full game for a bit on Youtube, like Fextralife was one I think? And like, this is crazy they made it even more epic, like aside from some bugs here and there and some understandable rendering delays and such I thought the graphics and art direction in terms of the HUD and stuff were already ok, but they even improved on that. It's crazy O.O

 

[Cahir]

So, let me tell you how I feel about Baldur's Gate 3 right now.

A month and a half ago, my hype towards Baldur's Gate 3 was already high, but I was equally looking forward to Starfield. After Stafrield Direct, I couldn't stop thinking about Bethesda's new game, rewatching their show multiple times, analysing all the details. At the same time, I was disappointed by Larian's showcase, both on Summer Game Fest and PC Gaming show, because of how little they revealed. But I had in the back of my head, that there's still this last Panel from Hell planned, where they should reveal more. I kind of expected them to show monk class and dragonborn race, but I really didn't expect more than that, besides the usual goofing around by their project lead, Swen Vincke.

And then 7th of July came, and I had a blast. Suddenly, I totally forgot about Starfield, and all I could do, was to analyse and discuss everything I saw about BG3 during the panel. Then, every once a couple of days, we learned news about the game, some of them exciting, other provoke more questions. But boy oh boy, I don't remember a game I was waiting for more than BG3. I really hope I am not overhyping it, but if Larian delivers a game I dream of.... I won't even dare to think about it

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

A little more than 2 days!
I think it's time to discuss how many new threads we need for BG3?
Like, one for showing off our characters and spoiler free stuff, and one spoilery to discuss story, with careful and clear warnings at which point of the game someone is? Or how are we going to handle it?
We can't possibly squeeze everything into this thread?

Also, has anyone found out something more clear about preloading?

 

[Antimatter]

I've now created a subforum for BG3, our first subforum related to one game/developer. We might add more subforums based on requests / relevant amount of threads, e.g. Bethesda games, Larian games, CDPR games etc.

I've changed the thread title to News now, so everyone, please feel free to start as many new threads related to BG3 as you want, be it about best builds, "show your Tav", who is your favourite romance character, etc etc.

BG3 is such a massive game for the whole RPG genre, so let's embrace it and enjoy the ride!

I would say that a good idea would be to have a dedicated thread for discussing anything spoilery, and ideally every comment there would begin with explaining what the appropriate spoiler would be about.