D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 will now be releasing August 3rd on PC and September 6th on PS5, increased level cap, race & class details and more

[Burnside]

Some notes from today's community update:

PC is getting the game on Aug 3. No more "act 1 72 hours early."

Act 1 makes up less than a quarter of the total content that will be available at launch. And compared to the start of Early Access, even Act 1 has roughly 33% more content in it beyond what's currently in EA.

No ability score prerequisites for multi-classing.

There is an alchemy crafting system I will largely ignore.

The third major villain is Orin the Red, who seems to be a doppleganger/changeling. She is voiced by Maggie Robertson, known to many as the voice of Lady Dimitrescu.

 

[Lidgar]

Actually, I've just noticed something interesting about Swords Mobile Flourish. ...you can also push the target 5 ft. away from you....

This ability has no saving throw or size limitation. You just have to hit and use an inspiration die. BG3 has lots of long drops...

The ability to Shove is really powerful in the game - can mean insta death both ways. While I like using it on mooks, I now avoid using it on bosses, as you then lose all their awesome gear...

 

[Lidgar]

Act 1 makes up less than a quarter of the total content that will be available at launch. And compared to the start of Early Access, even Act 1 has roughly 33% more content in it beyond what's currently in EA.

I thought they said recently that EA amounted to less than a 1/4 of the overall content.

I knew I had heard that at some point. Either that, or ye ole premonition is kicking in again. Comes with old age I guess...

 

[Burnside]

The ability to Shove is really powerful in the game - can mean insta death both ways. While I like using it on mooks, I now avoid using it on bosses, as you then lose all their awesome gear...

I had a situation where I got into a fight near lava that included a bunch of NPC allies. One of the NPC allies killed the enemy boss by shoving him into lava. I then had to figure out how to retrieve a plot-vital item from his corpse which was suspended in lava.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I knew I had heard that at some point. Either that, or ye ole premonition is kicking in again. Comes with old age I guess...

They actually said the opposite previously, which may be what you are thinking of. It was discussed a fair bit a few days ago on the subreddit.

What they'd said, I think about two or even three years ago, it sounded like the intention was Act 1 > Act 2 > Act 3 size-wise.

I assume that as they bulked up and finalized the game, they realized that this was:

A) A bad idea - better to make games last-act-heavy than first-act-heavy, because then people will get further into the game and it typically improves real-terms replayability.

B) Probably just not practical - Because D&D characters can do so much more at higher levels, go to so many more places, mess with so many more magics and monsters, and as Baldur's Gate itself seems to be Act 3, if that was smaller than Act 1 that would seem messed-up.

Anyway it's definitely a good thing.

 

[Ondath]

PC is getting the game on Aug 3. No more "act 1 72 hours early."

Aw man, I was looking forward to getting a headstart, but we're already going to play a month earlier than expected so I can't complain. Also, my Baldur's Gate 1 + 2 playthrough just got three extra days! I've yet to deal with the mines in Nashkel (update: just cleared the mines, take that Mulahey!), so this was sorely needed.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I haven't played the early access more than a few minutes to ensure it doesn't have weird technical issues with my rig (and imagine my surprise when I learned that it supports DLSS, too). But right away, it felt good for my halfling Barbarian, who couldn't reach an imp because there was a lava pit in the way, to just jump over the whole pit and onto a higher ledge, from which they could hit the imp.

So yeah. I'm looking forwards to this, enough so that I installed BG1/2ee and will see if I manage to replay them over this month.

(I am amused by BG3 humans being such loltrash that it feels spiteful from Larian's side, like they really want you to just play the weirder gribblies. I guess I'm just glad I don't have the variant human tempting me away from funnier concepts)

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So we know there are mercenaries and they're specific people, and here they are:

Looks strongly like those are in class order to me, because the Paladin in the exact right place and the one who would be Bard is called "Brianna Brightsong", which is a total Bard-name. Several others have plausible appearances/names for the potential classes.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Looks strongly like those are in class order

Ohh, good call.

It's a bit weird to me to have generics that aren't that generic, but I guess it fits better into the world this way than by saying 'hey, create a person'.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's a bit weird to me to have generics that aren't that generic, but I guess it fits better into the world this way than by saying 'hey, create a person'.

It's also way less stressful for more casual or less mechanically-inclined players.

A lot of people find just creating one character a sweat-inducing nightmare (I admit almost none of those people likely post on this board!) so tend to be terrified of mercenary options in BG-style games (especially the Pathfinder ones, jesus). So if the race/class/stats (and possibly subclass) are already picked, you're good. I imagine most of these guys, it's just "accept and go", and you can respec them if you want to change them.

You can fully respec, seemingly including classes, everyone in your party (though you don't seem to be able to change races).