Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Gods in Baldur's Gate

And I just want say that I consider my Bhaalspawn having kicked the snot out of both Demogorgon's two faces totally cannonical.

If one picks a Warlock with a Fiend Patron you are most likely worshipping a Fiend in some shape/form. You are kind of like an Arcane version of a Cleric since you learned your magic from an inhuman/otherwordly powerful being, who isn't a God (except for His Infernal Majesty Asmodeus) but is still a powerful being that would enjoy worshippers.

Excuse me. I haven't had the opportunity to play Baldur's Gate 2 yet, because the version I have cannot be installed, and I have to buy NWN1 with add-ons. I haven't even heard about Pathfinder games, hence my lack of knowledge. By saying that Demon Lords and Archdevils are ignored in games, I meant they could not be chosen as deities. I'm guessing that Asmodeus in Pathfinder is the only exception to this rule.

Of course, killing Demogorgon only sends him back to the Abyss for 100 hundred years. And a bunch of Demon Lords wound up in the Underdark pretty recently during the Rage of Demons, and Elturel has only just returned from its brief stay in Avernus, and the presence of Raphael definitely signifies that the inhabitants of the Lower Planes will be taking an interest in BG3. Afterall if the Mindflayers eat all of the mortals, the Soul Trade will be significantly impacted, and not in a good/bad way.

That would be awesome, Vic.

I did some reading about the gods and now I am totally confused.Looks like each new edition of DnD starts with a world changing desaster that completely messes up with who is alive or not, what powers do they have and what is possible or not.

After some minutes I chose to give up and do it this way:
I consider BG3 to be an isolated game that has nothing to do with any other game or story.
When the game tells me that character x is alive and spell y does not work I accept this as a fact and I do not care if this character died in an earlier game or I used this spell before.

examples:
- At the end of BG2 ToB the player is the only remaining child of Bhaal. You can chose to become the new god of murder or to give away this power.
- In Mask of the Betrayer you can kill the already dead Myrkul in the astral plane once and for all.

Many of the old deities made a comeback, like Amaunator or the Dead three(Baal, Bane, Myrkul) ... if you think 5e´s disconnected it´s better that you do not take a look at the celestial lore of 4e XD

More than 100 years happened between the events of AD&D and the world move on. It would be weird if a major catastrophe happened and more than a century and everything remains the same. All the (good) fantasy worlds evolve, and 20 years of development and 3 different editions passed, any of them making changes. And usually the videogame adaptations are not canon, so many of the events in those games never happened in the world.

Every D&D edition there are changes in the world, and they create some lore explanations about the rise of new gods or the fall of gods or civilizations; like the Spellplague, the Second Sundering, the Time of troubles...you have to add the apparition of new races, new dangers and new planes and continents to explore; All made, so the world remains fresh and new to explore and to inspire new people to create brand new stories.

To be fair, BG3 is based in the actual lore of D&D5e, and WoTC is heavily invested in the project so I´m sure that the game will be heavily based in how the world of Faerun in general, and the Sword Coast and the city of Baldur´s Gate, in particular, is NOW, in this edition and in this particular era of the history of the world they´re in. If they mess up something in the game, I´m sure it would not be the lore. In the short gameplay and videos, We´ve seen Volo, a zhentarim halfling, svirfneblins, drows, goblins, the underdark, a Cambion, there´ll be references to the Dead Three,... so I´m sure the game will be connected but connected to the modern Forgotten Realms, which is different from past editions, of course.

If there´s something in the lore or the world you find weird or you do not like, just google it. I´m sure you find that most of the time that´s because that´s the official lore of D&D5e right now.

OK, I love computer RPGs, but I have no strong connection to DnD or PnP in general.

BG2 was my first DnD game, I never heared of DnD or PnP before, I got it because other people said it is a good computer game.
I read the manual and learned that mages throw fireballs, clerics heal and have a god, rogues sneak and fighters swing weapons, so far so good.
I had to learn some basic concepts like thaco, AC and saving throws. The rest was just reading the descriptions and trial and error.
The story was that the bad guy kidnapped my girlfried to become a god and I have to kick his ass.
This was sufficient for me to play and understand the game.

Now I read about BG3 and I think " Hey, I killed this guy 100 years ago and that god was already dead and long forgotten back then. And now I meet them on the street."

I definitely do not want to live in the DnD world. There is a world changing desaster every decade were continents and whole planes shift, dead come back to life while others disappear and gods kill each other all the time only to come back after the next desaster.

For me "100 years later" simply means that the the world looks different ( maybe except some monumental buildings ) and I meet new characters ( except a few who live very long and who have NOT been killed in the previous game ), but the "laws of nature" remain the same.

So what do I need to know about BG3?
I have been kidnapped by illithids, first I have to get this toadpole out of my head and then I have to ass kick the ones who are behind this plot.
The rest is game mechanics I just have to learn.
If the main story is interesting enough to get me going forward and the game makes me care about my main char, my companion, other NPC and my decisions, I am happy. So far it looks very good.

I also want to know why I have been kidnapped by ilithids and how to get rid of that pesky tadpole, but I´m also interested in knowing more about the world around BG3 and the people, places, history, major factions, common knowledge, magic, etc.

i wish theyd bring back 4e Bane.
The idea of a god thats "evil" but on the "good guy team" was great.
also that everyone worhsips an openly evil god, even paladins, becuse not worshipping the god of War and Combat if youre primary occupation is going into Combat and wagign war is stupid

Meanwhile other editions forgotten realms Bane: "Hahaha heeee maaan, you will never stop my new wacky plot to be eviiiiil!"

I have been Asmodeus man since they made Warlock a main class. For a long time, if I wanted to play as evil spellcaster necromancer was the only realistic and fun option for me, but then they gave us warlocks with the Fiendish connection and I was hooked. Back then I was a Myrkul fan, his portrayal in NWN2 Mast of the Betrayer really highlighted his deviousness and maliciousness, best god for any necromancer really, but I have matured with age and now I am firmly on the side of Asmodeus, the Nine Hells and Lawful Evil.

Hey, totally agree with you on this. This is a perfectly acceptable way to approach playing a game (any game) that is supposedly part of a series. A well designed "sequel" game would allow for players who don't have any knowledge of the previous games or of the setting's canon lore to still be able to get into the game and fully enjoy it. I'm a Forgotten Realms lore junkie, and yet I myself would say to you: don't worry about what came in the past. Only what's going on in this current game truly matters to you. The rest is just fluff; nice to have, and maybe even interesting, but ultimately fluff.

It was exactly this way for me playing Witcher 3. I did not play either of the previous games, and had zero knowledge of the franchise and the setting and the books. But everything I needed to know to fully understand and enjoy the game was provided to me in that game. And that's all that matters.

When I got TW3, I played TW1 and 2 first.
All 3 games can be played alone without problems.
When starting part 3 I was confused by 2 characters: The damsel in distress you have to save (Ciri) and your mage friend (name forgotten, not Triss but the woman who wears only black and white silk).
I never heared of them before and suddenly they are mayor characters and it looks like Gerald knows them since a long time.

I think TW3 is one of the best RPGs ever so far, especially if you look at single character action games.
Second would be Nier:Automata (absolutely linear, but one of the best atmoshere and music ever, sometimes you just want to stand there, look at the landscape and listen to the music)


Regarding gods I will quote Nier:Automata:
"Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle...and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him."

Looking at all the magic desasters that are permanently cause by gods fighting each other, this fits also perfectly to DnD.

Many people I talk to rave about Nier:Automata. But I just can't get past the robot dinosaurs. Ugh.


Within the Forgotten Realms fandom, this type of event is known as an RSE (Realms shaking event). Towards the end of the 3.5e era, WotC was pushing out an RSE every year. People just got sick of it all. Every year, every person living in the Realms went through an RSE, a catastrophe to end all catastrophes. Then, you finally somehow survive the RSE and get through it only to find yet another catastrophe to end all catastrophes waiting for you around the corner. It was ridiculous. The whole Spellplague business was supposed to finally move us away from that model. And for a few years we were free of RSEs. But now WotC is back in the business of RSEs one after the other. Why? Because RSEs are what sell source books and game modules.

It´s also an easy way to explain why magic changed, continents appear, Abeir and Toril are separated again, gods revived and why fighters cannot feint anymore...

A God Did It



After the Spellplague business I think they tried to go back on track and restore (wipe out) most of the changes that 4e made and retake a more classic stance in D&D. They even called the Cataclismic event (tm) of this times "The Second Sundering" to evoke ties with the old first Sundering of AO and the time of troubles and the FR setting become more alike the one of versions previous to 4e.

Yep, money is king.

My idea of the FR is rooted in 2e lore, and if I were playing PnP I would probably be ignoring all the WoTC silliness since.

Personally, I would have preferred them to broaden and deepen the FR lore rather than continually "updating" the bits we already had. Most of Toril is still a blank canvas, plenty of opportunity to create extra source books and game modules; and that's before even considering the rest of the planes.

I guess it's more interesting for them to write materials concerning RSEs than books on the social etiquette of trolls.

What's this? Leira the Lady of Mists has returned! Well, that's great! Uh, that is, I guess it's great. Are you sure about this? Maybe this is not so good after all, the more I think about it. But then again, I could just be making something out of nothing. Aagh, now I am faced with even more unknowns ... but I guess that is the point, isn't it?

I didn't really follow anything in FR past 3rd edition, but it sounds like a mess initially designed to push people to Eberron/4e which didn't work and had to be reversed with another mess for 5e ?

I wonder if any of this will actually be explained in BG3, or will it be assumed that everyone is a DnD super-nerd

Agreed with this. If my chosen deity doesn't have the largest impact that's fine by me, but having the choice as a Cleric of who I want to worship would add a lot to immersion and RP for me. I wouldn't be mad if all deities aren't represented, but it would probably limit the characters I created if I couldn't find a deity that it seemed like they would actually follow.

Personally I'm hoping for Eilistraee, which is probably obvious. I want as many Gods/Goddesses as we can get though, even if it's just in name, as they are a large part of the Realms, and always factor in to my decision for a character regardless of class. I love thinking of who they would follow, and what makes sense for their background and beliefs.

IMHO that was more or less what it was with all of the sucession of cataclismic events, yes.

Like in any adventure or videogame based in a franchise, you only need to know about what you need for the adventure, and they usually explain it ingame. The lore easter eggs for fans of the PNP usually are there just for flavor.

I mean, you do not need to know the story of Volo,Drizzt or Elminster to figure out them when they appear in the game; but for people that know the characters beforehand it´s a nice surprise.



As I said before, Larian has the habit of include conversations with your God´s avatar ingame, It would be nice if you can have it here too, but I understand there are too many gods in this pantheon.

Another thing I have to point out is that (sadly) in 5e you do not need to have a God to cast divine spells. You can worship all of them or none, and you still receive spells. You can even be a paladin that broke his vows (and oathbreaker) and still have your usual paladin features and many more.
I hope that Larian will include god-related content , even it´s not that important in the PNP anymore.