D&D General The longer I play Baldur's Gate 3 ...

[UngainlyTitan]

That's just the nature of CRPGs. They all have far more magic items than in PnP games, it's always been like that since the Gold Box days.

And a lot of BG3 items are not viable in tabletop. E.g. items that accumulate "spark charges". Such things require too much bookkeeping for tabletop.

This is true but I think that the items that give a special action/bonus action once per long rest would be viable. I also liked the finesse longsword one could get.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Timing. It takes about two years from concept to release of a WotC book, and BG3 was expected to be about as successful as other D&D computer games (I.e. sink without trace).

I absolutely do not buy that this in this case. The stats are already in 5E form. The art is already done. Most of the work is finished.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And a lot of BG3 items are not viable in tabletop. E.g. items that accumulate "spark charges". Such things require too much bookkeeping for tabletop.

Change that to rolling a d6 each time and triggering the special effect on a six. (Or a larger die, for more powerful effects.)

This is a pretty trivial design challenge.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is true but I think that the items that give a special action/bonus action once per long rest would be viable. I also liked the finesse longsword one could get.

The one-time use magic arrows, which hearken back to 3E days, are definitely worth putting in an actual WotC supplemental publication.

 

[Burnside]

I'm not that surprised about the lack of a crunch book based on BG3, but I am surprised at the lack of digital-only adventures and fluff products based on it that seem like they would be no-brainers and relatively easy lifts. Like, where is "Karlach's Guide to Sexy Tieflings" and so forth, or "Lae'zel's Ghaik Hunt" one-shot?

I'm also surprised DMsGuild creators aren't moving on this stuff, but I suspect that's because nobody is sure if they're allowed to use the characters or not.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not that surprised about the lack of a crunch book based on BG3, but I am surprised at the lack of digital-only adventures and fluff products based on it that seem like they would be no-brainers and relatively easy lifts. Like, where is "Karlach's Guide to Sexy Tieflings" and so forth, or "Lae'zel's Ghaik Hunt" one-shot?

I'm also surprised DMsGuild creators aren't moving on this stuff, but I suspect that's because nobody is sure if they're allowed to use the characters or not.

Yeah, I would have assumed we would have seen a bunch of githyanki content on DMs Guild, myself, which should be 100% safe to do, outside of specific BG3 references. Maybe not everyone loves Lae'zel and her weirdness as much as I do.

 

[Retreater]

That type of accounting and fine details was intentionally limited (but not entirely avoided) in the design of 5E. Imagine the above scenario with a bunch of monsters with flyby attack diving in and out of the Spirit Guardians. Additionally, the game is angled to up your power level dramatically over a typical 5E PC as you go above 8th level and towards 12th.

Dropping a few iconic pieces from BG3 into RPG in the next edition would be a fun nod - but the overall design of BG3 isn't quite right for tabletop.

My wife has gone all-in on BG3 over the past two weeks. As I watch her play, she mentions how she wishes D&D actually played that way. I remind her that she's not a computer and neither am I. I think there are elements from BG3 that can be ported over, but the fiddly bits are best handled by a machine.

 

[Shardstone]

... the more I'm amazed that WotC didn't put out a digital product, like Gale's Guide to the Magic of Baldur's Gate or something, collecting the dozens of new magic items, handful of variant spells, handful of new monsters, etc., from the game. The game stats are already 99% of the way to conventional 5E stats and would need basically a light editing pass to get them ready, and Larian for sure has a bunch of concept art of items that they could use to illustrate the book.

Even if they have a revenue sharing agreement with Larian on this material (which would surprise me), it's a revenue stream for Q1 2024. As far as we know, WotC isn't selling any new books between now and March, other than Book of Many Things, which only accidentally ended up in this quarter.

Sometimes we disagree but here we are spot on. It is insane that the magic items, variant spells, and monsters (especially the monsters) were not ported over. Furthermore, a lot of the fights you can transform into encounters with battlemaps for an easy buck.

I understand DND24 took a lot of effort, but the BG3 rules were cemented for years and could have easily, with just 1-2 dedicated people, been turned into a money-printing product.

 

[Shardstone]

While they could drop something like this on the DM Guild in a much shorter window, it would not be a great idea. While the video game does a great job of giving players an RPG like experience - it is not an RPG experience and the balance of the items in the game is different than in RPG. There are a lot of items that are outstanding in the game - but implementing them in real time in an RPG would be a nightmare for DMs and players.

DM: "The skeleton mindlessly charges towards you and steps into your Spirit Guardians radius... and fails the save."

Player: "12 radiant. That triggers Radiating Orb from my Luminous Armor to each creating in 10 feet and 2 Radiating Orbs to the Skeleton because of the Luminous Gloves. As this is spell damage, my Coruscating Ring triggers and applies 2 more Radiating Orbs. I think that also triggers my Callous Glow Ring ..."

DM: "Nope. That only triggers on attacks. And I'm not so sure about the Coruscating Ring triggering ... where is the light source?"

Player: "You said there was sunlight streaming through a hole in the ceiling. I thoughts I was in it....?

DM: "Nope, but you would have been if you were over there. Let's just move you and the skeleton to say you went there on your last turn...."

Player: "Oh, OK ... but I think I'd have made a different choice if I knew I'd be so close to the giant yeti skeletons, too. Regardless ... So was that ... 4 Radiating Orbs on the skeleton and 1 on everything else within 10 feet. Right? But wait, now the ogre zombies are not within the 10 foot radius!"

That type of accounting and fine details was intentionally limited (but not entirely avoided) in the design of 5E. Imagine the above scenario with a bunch of monsters with flyby attack diving in and out of the Spirit Guardians. Additionally, the game is angled to up your power level dramatically over a typical 5E PC as you go above 8th level and towards 12th.

Dropping a few iconic pieces from BG3 into RPG in the next edition would be a fun nod - but the overall design of BG3 isn't quite right for tabletop.

This problem only exists if you take everything as-is. It isn't hard to nerf some of the items and ideas to fit vanilla 5E or ODND.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My wife has gone all-in on BG3 over the past two weeks. As I watch her play, she mentions how she wishes D&D actually played that way. I remind her that she's not a computer and neither am I. I think there are elements from BG3 that can be ported over, but the fiddly bits are best handled by a machine.

I think the fiddlier bits, from what I've seen, can mostly be adapted by using good 3D scenery (I know, I don't have the budget or space for that either) or by adapting mechanics that require tracking things like lightning charges to roll-to-refresh, similar to how 5E dragon breath weapons work.

The real BG3 effect, if there is one, will be to open up more players' minds to the idea that you can do a whole lot more in the game than just what's on your character sheet, a trap a lot of people, especially newer players, fall into.

Yes, you can absolutely set fire to the web bridge the giant spiders are on.

Sure, you can stack up all those crates and use them to climb on the roof, although if you do it wrong, you're going to fall and get hurt and/or make enough noise that someone comes to investigate.

You absolutely should scout out before you move into an area and come back to the area later, with higher level characters and/or good tactics, before taking those enemies on.