D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access

Baldur's Gate III is now available for early access on Steam and on Stadia.

I couldn't get the Steam version working on my Mac, but the Stadia version works just fine. The opening tutorial level is pretty gruesome (at one point I had to squish somebody's brain) and the mind flayer airship you're trying to escape from beings to mind the movie Aliens a lot.

Character creation is quick and easy, although options in the early access are limited. The gameplay is like Divinity Original Sin 2 with the 5E rules layered over it. I've only played an hour or so of the game, and as an early access game, it is occasionally a bit buggy, but nothing showstopping (yet).

This isn't a review (I haven't played enough of it to do that, and I don't think it's fair to review an early access version anyway); it's mainly just an alert to the few people who don't already know it's available. If any such person exists!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In the past too - they temporarily disabled the option to play as one of the companion characters for EA.

 

[Demetrios1453]

In the future.

Larian has shown a 2-hour demo where Astarion is the player.

I mean when you create a character, all the Origin characters are there, just not choosable for the moment.

 

[GreenTengu]

I will try this game when there is a mod that allows one to play as a hobgoblin or orc (even half-orc). Since it is very obvious the actual studio won't release such options.

Until then, as impressive as the videos I have watched look, I kind of feel excluded from enjoying this.

 

[Gradine]

I will try this game when there is a mod that allows one to play as a hobgoblin or orc (even half-orc). Since it is very obvious the actual studio won't release such options.

Until then, as impressive as the videos I have watched look, I kind of feel excluded from enjoying this.

Half-orc will be in; all PHB races have been confirmed. The others seem unlikely in the base full game though.

Githyanki are also an option, if that floats your boat

 

[MarkB]

I will try this game when there is a mod that allows one to play as a hobgoblin or orc (even half-orc). Since it is very obvious the actual studio won't release such options.

What gives you that impression? Larian haven't confirmed the final races line-up, but they have said they intend to keep adding more races between now and the game's final release. Since they'll already have in-game models for most common humanoid races, there's no particular reason for them not to adapt them as playable characters.

 

[Gradine]

AFAIK they've ruled out kobolds and goblins. Don't know what that means for other goblinoids though.

DoS2 had lizardfolk so that's not out of the question either

 

[GreenTengu]

AFAIK they've ruled out kobolds and goblins. Don't know what that means for other goblinoids though.

DoS2 had lizardfolk so that's not out of the question either

Ruling out anything just means it is best for me to wait until community mods. The fact that Drow and Githyanki are options but any sort of Orc or Goblinoid is the kind of thing that I dislike. I totally get that there are a ton of elf fans out there, but one doesn't build fanbases for other fantasy races by appealing only to that demographic.
There seem to be a couple fun and interesting hobgoblin NPCs in the limited narrative so far. But telling me I can only observe them for short scenes instead of getting to play as one isn't much of a consolation. And Orcs have just been entirely ignored it seems.

 

[Nymrod]

Btw I've yet to have any graphics issue. Maybe it's because my PC is a beast.
I really hope this proves to be friendly to modders

 

[Minato]

Ruling out anything just means it is best for me to wait until community mods. The fact that Drow and Githyanki are options but any sort of Orc or Goblinoid is the kind of thing that I dislike. I totally get that there are a ton of elf fans out there, but one doesn't build fanbases for other fantasy races by appealing only to that demographic.
There seem to be a couple fun and interesting hobgoblin NPCs in the limited narrative so far. But telling me I can only observe them for short scenes instead of getting to play as one isn't much of a consolation. And Orcs have just been entirely ignored it seems.

Half-Orcs will be in the final game, it seems they just aren't ready yet.

 

[Vael]

I can't recall where I read(heard?) it, so take this with a grain of salt, but I thought Larian was planning on implementing every race and class that is in the PHB. So, yes, Dragonborn, Gnome and Half-Orcs for sure are coming and the other 6 classes: Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Monk, Paladin and Sorcerer.