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

 

[gyor]

Speculation, companies like Blizzard have CGI Studios and they cost a ton of money. I highly doubt Larian would allocate a major part of funding towards building their own studio.

Larian Studios got a pile of money from Google, with no creative interference, in exchange for porting BG3 to Stadia, so they might have had the money to build their own studio, they do have their own experienced mocap guys who used to work on something called Tall Tale or something.

 

[ad_hoc]

If a player declares that he fireballs the thing the DM just described, a good DM does not roll initiative first, he allows it to happen because it flow much better with the storytelling than imposing a structure when it's not needed.

1. That's not the rules of the game.
2. The game isn't just 1 person's story. The whole table is playing.
3. If initiative was decided by who says something first then no one would talk or do anything except immediately fight.

Your definition of a 'good DM' is a very narrow one and one I would not want to play with.

 

[gyor]

Fail?? In what world is this an indication of failure. What separates this from the myriad of other games out there? Its the fact that this game uses the 5e engine. This is easily going to be as successful as the previous BG games. I play lots of turn based games. The turn basis is a feature not a bug. And perfect because it is a ttrpg sim.

Your wrong, its going to be alot bigger then the previous BG games.

 

[gyor]

The funny thing is I have won twice over from this announcement, BG3 is turn based as I was hoping, and the fact that its turn based has driven those who prefer real time with pause to back Wrath of the Righteous kickstarter causing a spike in donations!

Its like heads I win, tails I still win. Mawhahahaha. And Wrath of the Righteous while primarily RTwP, has a turn based mode. Its like I win a third time!

 

[EthanSental]

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).

sounds plausible but Chris P. was asked specifically about spelljammer at Pax East Friday...didn’t seem like his answer was in support of a spelljammer themed booked but things like Mad mage with it sprinkled in.

 

[MNblockhead]

1. That's not the rules of the game.

Okay, but sometimes the rule of cool applies.

2. The game isn't just 1 person's story. The whole table is playing.

Yep. Important that the DM doesn't allow one person to hijack the rule of cool and detract from everyone else's fun.

3. If initiative was decided by who says something first then no one would talk or do anything except immediately fight.

You may be taking the OP's comments to an absurd conclusion. In my games initiative governs, but there are times where the party gets the surprise and I would allow the player to cast the fireball before rolling for initiative. If another player objects and says that their character would try to stop the other character from casting the fireball, then I would call for initiative. I don't see my approach as breaking the rules, but don't really care if they do. I don't run Adventurer's League games.

Your definition of a 'good DM' is a very narrow one and one I would not want to play with.

Well, that's a mean-spirited way to take it. But we're all free to play or not play with whomever we want.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The funny thing is I have won twice over from this announcement, BG3 is turn based as I was hoping, and the fact that its turn based has driven those who prefer real time with pause to back Wrath of the Righteous kickstarter causing a spike in donations!

Its like heads I win, tails I still win. Mawhahahaha. And Wrath of the Righteous while primarily RTwP, has a turn based mode. Its like I win a third time!

Yup. Two games are better than one, I plan on buying both.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

They should probably have named BG3 something else if they didn't want disappointed reactions form old Baldur's gate fans who were hoping for a game similar to the old ones.

My guess is that after the Sword Coast Legends trainwreck, WotC decided to resurrect an old beloved franchise to show that this time they were serious about making a computer game based on D&D and not just a random game with D&D labels.

 

[IgnatiusJ.Reilly]

Actually, this looks amazing, I didn't think they'd be this far along at this point. As far as it 'looking like D:OS', the games still in alpha, there's probably some placeholder art assets remaining, so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

[Derren]

My guess is that after the Sword Coast Legends trainwreck, WotC decided to resurrect an old beloved franchise to show that this time they were serious about making a computer game based on D&D and not just a random game with D&D labels.

And then make Divinity Original Sin III with a D&D label...