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

 

[Oofta]

Also: Early access? Really. I may be too old for this and don't understand how beta testing works nowadays. But a story driven RPG of the epicness and scale that a BG3 should have and then it gets released in early access? Are they running out of funds or what?

Modern games are incredibly complex, early access is how a lot of companies hammer out the last few bugs. It's pretty standard practice.

 

[Gladius Legis]

I would rather see that they make Divinity 3 and BG3 as 2 completely different games.

Well it's a good thing they don't take place in the same setting or have the same ruleset or have the same characters, etc., then.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Sadly this fail will mostly affect Vicke who will be held responsible for this shortcoming by many. It was an impossible project to begin with. I know how much Vicke loved Baldurs Gate and I wished he had the creative freedom that he needed to create the true successor, that he envisioned.

Don't get what you are saying quite a few changes from the core have already been shown off.

Also some extra info from the other thread about the game.

15 races! Nice. But then again, other than art and audio assets, races should be relatively easy to put in. I'd love to see the full list so far, although the previews go a long way towards telling us.

8 classes so far. This article
Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access will launch with 6 classes and 5 origin characters
states that these will be available in early access:

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

That's a nice mix of classes and archetypes so far, although only 6 classes instead of the 8 mentioned here. So they've got two more classes with archetypes ready to go - I'm guessing paladin and druid maybe? Or maybe bard? I honestly can't wait to see. I'm quite a bit more hyped now than I was on the first announcement, where I was definitely interested, but wary. Just about everything revealed so far by Larian has pretty much hit sweet spots for me.

(And also, wasn't that cinematic amazing? It was truly 100% D&D)

Some more Info

 

[charlesatan]

Also: Early access? Really. I may be too old for this and don't understand how beta testing works nowadays. But a story driven RPG of the epicness and scale that a BG3 should have and then it gets released in early access? Are they running out of funds or what?

In this case, it's less about funds and more of:

a) squashing unforeseen bugs,

b) refining game mechanics (whether combat or some other element)

If you're worried about the story, Early Access doesn't release the entire game, usually just one section: enough to play with the mechanics, but not enough to give you the entire experience.

It's the same reason why before 5e got released, there was a public playtests of the game, and we all saw mechanics change.

Larian can do testing internally, but thousands of people playing it are able to provide more feedback than a few playtesters.

 

[miggyG777]

I’m pretty sure it’s Larian’s decision to stick to the 5e rules, not Mearls.

Vicke has been wildly enthusiastic about modeling 5e D&D as Exactly as possible since day one.

Fair point. I might've gone overboard with the speculations there. I will give Mearls the benefit of the doubt. In any case, whoever made the decision, it doesn't make it better.

That's enough ranting for today. I mean no ill towards Larian or WotC but I am passionate about one of my favorite game series.
The opening cinematic was top notch by the way and really felt worthy of a BG3.

 

[EthanSental]

The game will be fine and part of the new D&D players shared experience like the old BG style games are for us older gamers. Hopefully in 20 years they have the same fond memories recalled when playing D&D.

 

[charlesatan]

I did, but who really wants BG3 to be a Divinity: Original Sin 2.5e

Me, because having played several of the modern RTwP games, they're horrible (as in their choice of game mechanics doesn't synergize well with RTwP and the game suffers mostly for it... feels like those games chose RTwP because of marketing reasons more than because it made sense for their game).

 

[vecna00]

I mean, the company makes some great turn-based games, I don't see why they wouldn't make another one.

It looks like fun and I will be giving them money as soon as they allow me to.

 

[Horwath]

I mean, the company makes some great turn-based games, I don't see why they wouldn't make another one.

It looks like fun and I will be giving them money as soon as they allow me to.

We have two camps here.

And TutnBase got their win over RTwP.

I hope it will be a good TB game.

I'm sure not giving money for it.


comment removed

 

[Panda-s1]

Good grief. Yet another "this is going to be horrible" for something that hasn't been released?

What ever happened to being cautiously optimistic and waiting until the game is released before passing judgement?

I'm also a little puzzled at using Mike Mearls as a scapegoat. like is he actually part of the development on this game or just the figurehead of the badwrongfun of 5e?