WotC World Reveal of Baldur's Gate 3

At PAX East today, gameplay footage of Baldur's Gate 3 was revealed for the first time by Larian Studios.

According to PC Gamer, the Early Access version of the game will launch this year with five characters:

• Wyll, Human Warlock
• Shadowheart, Half-elf Cleric
• Lae'zel, Githyanki Fighter
• Gale, Human Wizard
• Astarion, Elven Vampire Spawn Rogue

And you'll be able to create characters using these six classes:

• Fighter (Battle Master, Eldritch Knight)
• Wizard (Evocation, Abjuration)
• Rogue (Arcane Trickster, Thief)
• Ranger (Hunter, Beast Master)
• Cleric (Life, Light, Trickery)
• Warlock (Fiend, Great One)

15 races include (amongst others):

• Elves
• Dwarves
• Humans
• Githyanki
• Drow
• Tieflings
• Vampire Spawn

 

[Prakriti]

Until yesterday, I had no idea people could be so upset over BG3. I'm really kind of stunned by some people's negativity.

However, one thing that kind of stuck out for me was the lack of interesting NPCs. All the characters we've seen so far have been young, attractive, and mostly human in appearance. Where are the crotchety dwarves, the goofy gnomes, the alien lizardfolk, and the goodnatured halflings? It would be a shame if all the characters followed the same pattern. (They all seem to be snarky so far too, which gets tiring fast. Can we get at least a few characters who are actually friendly, optimistic, and supportive?)

It reminds me of going from Final Fantasy 7, with its diverse cast of characters ranging from toy cats to mutant lions to burly dudes with a gun for an arm, to Final Fantasy 8, which featured a cast of... nothing but young, attractive people.

So yeah... I hope we see more interesting NPCs going forth.

 

[Zarithar]

Until yesterday, I had no idea people could be so upset over BG3. I'm really kind of stunned by some people's negativity.

So yeah... I hope we see more interesting NPCs going forth.

To your first point - I don't get it either. I am definitely not part of the younger generation that's coming into the hobby either. I loved BG1, 2, Torment, IWD, etc... but this just looks amazing.

As for the second point, I felt that the tieflings looked pretty damn cool and broke that mold. Also, the bandits in the gameplay demo were led by what must have been a halfling. They say that there will be 15 races at launch, and Divinity 2 should teach us that Larian does not shy away from the "weirder" races (lizards, undead). I fully expect to see dragonborn at the very least since they are a core PHB race. I'm really hoping for some more exotic stuff though like Kenku and Tabaxi... but maybe a DLC?

 

[slobster]

However, one thing that kind of stuck out for me was the lack of interesting NPCs. All the characters we've seen so far have been young, attractive, and mostly human in appearance. Where are the crotchety dwarves, the goofy gnomes, the alien lizardfolk, and the goodnatured halflings? It would be a shame if all the characters followed the same pattern. (They all seem to be snarky so far too, which gets tiring fast. Can we get at least a few characters who are actually friendly, optimistic, and supportive?)

It reminds me of going from Final Fantasy 7, with its diverse cast of characters ranging from toy cats to mutant lions to burly dudes with a gun for an arm, to Final Fantasy 8, which featured a cast of... nothing but young, attractive people.

So yeah... I hope we see more interesting NPCs going forth.

With the caveat that by "interesting NPCs" you mean "more unusual NPC races or archetypes", because a few minutes of demo isn't enough time to make up my mind if these NPCs are interesting or not...

I do hope they have a diverse group of NPCs to interact with and recruit for your party. Happy and supportive NPCs along with the dour and edgy ones; I really liked Aerie back in the day, for instance.

That said, I do think the githyanki probable NPC companion looks cool! I wasn't expecting one of them, especially so early in the campaign, and I do like her character design a lot at first glance. If they can throw a few more unexpected NPC choices in I'll be a happy camper.

 

[Demetrios1453]

To your first point - I don't get it either. I am definitely not part of the younger generation that's coming into the hobby either. I loved BG1, 2, Torment, IWD, etc... but this just looks amazing.

As for the second point, I felt that the tieflings looked pretty damn cool and broke that mold. Also, the bandits in the gameplay demo were led by what must have been a halfling. They say that there will be 15 races at launch, and Divinity 2 should teach us that Larian does not shy away from the "weirder" races (lizards, undead). I fully expect to see dragonborn at the very least since they are a core PHB race. I'm really hoping for some more exotic stuff though like Kenku and Tabaxi... but maybe a DLC?

There will be 15 races at launch, and they only had 9 in the demo. I'm sure we'll get the three remaining PHB races - gnomes, half-orcs, and dragonborn - and three more from other sources. Aasimar, firbolg, and tabaxi? Kenku would be hard to pull off with the whole "no talking, only repeating" thing, although it would be impressive if they did!

 

[Seramus]

As long as the brain is functional enough, it will seize it, and gradually assert control until the body becomes a Mind Flayer. By the end, it is really the tadpole that has grown into it's host body, so it wouldn't really matter if it was undead.

So I suspect the tadpole overrides the loyalty to the vampire lord. However, the lord may sense the lost connection and return to reassert its dominance.

Well, the biggest issue is that the tadpole eats the brain. There's no brain left. Some of the memories of the host are retained by the tadpole, but it only takes a handful of hours before you're a brainless corpse with a fat tadpole sitting in your skull.

That's why I was wondering if this was some new kind of ceremorphosis. Usually the process creates a new mindflayer that doesn't know anything but what the elder brain shares with it. So maybe this new version is a way to retain the skills of the host, so they are ready to go as soon as physical transformation is complete, instead of taking a decade or more to train up.

 

[FrogReaver]

So if you don't already own divinity original sin 2 - steam has a sale on it this weekend. I just bought it and I'm expecting it to be a fun playthrough in expectation of BG3.

 

[Demetrios1453]

By the way, in my opinion at least, the chance that the fall hardcover adventure release being the Spelljammer/Lantan one they've been hinting at for awhile has just gone way up. Since the game will likely release between the fall 2020 adventure and the fall 2021 adventure, having a Baldur's Gate/Spelljammer adventure on the shelves when the game releases seems like logical marketing synergy.

I'm guessing that the base premise for such a print adventure would be that an illithid nautiloid has attacked Baldur's Gate and has fled with important people and/or treasure, and the party will need to go to Lantan to find another Spelljammer ship to chase them across Realmspace (and quite possibly beyond).

 

[Oofta]

So if you don't already own divinity original sin 2 - steam has a sale on it this weekend. I just bought it and I'm expecting it to be a fun playthrough in expectation of BG3.

Gahh!!! I was trying to reread all the Dresden files before the next book gets released.

I just got done replaying The Witcher I don't need another game!

 

[Teemu]

With the caveat that by "interesting NPCs" you mean "more unusual NPC races or archetypes", because a few minutes of demo isn't enough time to make up my mind if these NPCs are interesting or not...

I do hope they have a diverse group of NPCs to interact with and recruit for your party. Happy and supportive NPCs along with the dour and edgy ones; I really liked Aerie back in the day, for instance.

That said, I do think the githyanki probable NPC companion looks cool! I wasn't expecting one of them, especially so early in the campaign, and I do like her character design a lot at first glance. If they can throw a few more unexpected NPC choices in I'll be a happy camper.

The githyanki isn't just a companion, she's one of the Origin characters. That means you can play the game as her, with added story tailored to that Origin character, just like in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

 

[Kaodi]

Was nice to see Jesse Cox there, though in the video he did not have much to do.

I wonder what the difference would be if this game were made with PF2 (if we can ignore the impossibility of merging IP for a moment).