Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General 5e references gone

Someone on another thread mentioned that they didn't see 5e references on the Steam page, and I had a look on what the forum banner links to, and it looks like all the 5e references are gone from all the marketing.

Instead what they say is "set in the world of D&D."

Anyone have any idea how long that's been the case? Certainly when I was first looking at that stuff 3 years ago, that it was 5e was pretty in your face.

I don't have much of an opinion on this other than it just makes it feel more like all the PnP I've ever played, where story and fun overruled RAW 100% of the time.

Thoughts? Betting pool on how many days post release a 5e mod is available? (Kidding! I'm sure betting isn't allowed) I'd give it 5 days +/- 2

I mean really, apart from the homebrew stuff there's a decent amount of stuff that WotC are adding for their new edition. I imagine they probably want it to appear as close to the new edition as possible, so as to help with cross marketing and promotion. A lot of DnD crpgs in the past actually appeared using editions that were out of date compared to the ttrpg ruleset and I am sure they want to simply to focus on DnD so that it is as relevant when the new one comes in too

I don’t recall there being a lot of references to 5E one way of the other, but given that next year they are doing away with the idea of editions entirely and switching to a single model for D&D that will be changing and iterating over time, it would make sense from a marketing perspective for Larian to follow WotC’s lead.

Probably an order from WotC. They are currently removing any mention of "edition" so that they can sell their "One D&D" and pretend that its compatible with 5E which is (sadly) selling so well that they do not want to replace it but also different enough so that you should pay them again.

Wotc is already working on dnd 5.5. Marketing the game as an old version is a bad idea

I think so, too.

Does anyone here happens to participate in the One D&D playtest? I'm curious if Larian is maybe already using newer material.

To concur:

Seems to be more of a branding thing than a Cyberpunk calling itself RPG before release and Action Adventure after to save face.

Yeah, it's most likely WoTC wanting to downplay the 5E branding.

"I'd really like to get into 5e but I don't think I have enough time to read through 1-4 first."

That got a hearty chuckle from me.

I learned on second edition, and those rules all seemed fine to me. I never understood what's supposed to be confusing about THAC0. Playing with my buddies on the playground in 5th grade, we didn't have any trouble with it. I honestly don't remember what we were playing in college in the late 90s, if it was 3e, or if we were using the 2e books everyone still had.

I first encountered 5e four or five years ago when introducing my kids to the game. My initial reaction was "wtf? no THAC0? Everything is so different, so weird!" But now that I've gotten over the "this is different!" shock, I have no problem with it. I'm trying to be old and wise and perspectivy about what I've heard about One D&D, which I've only heard about here, and only in the last couple of days. It sure hits those "simplifying for simplifying's sake" buttons, but I'm trying to step back emotionally and remind myself that as different as 2e and 5e are, it's still an enjoyable game, which is all that matters.

(Also related to your joke, once upon a time in maybe '95 or so, there was a movie about England's George III, and it was released as "The Madness of King George". At the time, my mom told she'd read or heard something that the original title was meant to be "The Madness of King George III", and the producers axed that out of fear people wouldn't buy a ticket on account of having missed I and II.)

I wasn’t part of the One D&D playtest but some of the changes that we’ve just seen come out, like floating attribute bonuses, do feel consistent with the direction that WotC seemed to be moving in.

It would also make some kind of sense of why this is coming out now. Given that WotC are still developing the next iteration of D&D it’s plausible these changes weren’t agreed and ready for the last patch and were incorporated late because exactly if and how possible next iteration changes should start to be added into BG3 was up in the air. Though of course the other thing that’s been going on is playtesting, so it’s possible some of the changes are in response to that.

I also don’t have a particular attachment to 5e. Ideally I want a somewhat authentic D&D experience, but as long as it’s fun don’t mind if they’re 5e rules or “5.5e” rules or some hybrid. As long as the rules, spells, races, classes, etc are there in recognisable form that’s enough for me. The main thing I then want is a “feel” of D&D and whether it’s realistic I don’t know but I one of the things I love most about BG3 is that it feels how I imagine playing D&D should feel and how playing it looks to me when I watch live games streamed. Of course, I totally understand that folk who actually play TT and know the 5e system inside out are going to notice and regret what’s changed far more.

But for me, while I’m not in favour of departing from D&D rules unnecessarily, these latest changes feel relatively minor, at least insofar as they’re likely to impact on the way I personally play the game. And I’m pretty sure even though there are some changes from 5e that have emerged that I’m deeply sceptical of, they’re not going to significantly impact my enjoyment of the game.

Bringing it back closer to the topic, my preference has always been that BG3 sticks as closely as possible to 5e and leaves the proposed next-version changes alone. But if the changes coming out now are related to 5.5 than I can see the case for starting to incorporate them if Larian and WotC feel they’re ready, particularly if Larian are planning to continue developing BG3 updates, DLC and expansions for years to come (please!).

The only thing I feel strongly about is clarity. If the rules aren't RAW, fine, that's expected. But I want to know what they are! My only frustration with that in EA has been paladin oaths, and lots has been said about that already, I just hope they find a way to be more clarifying of what the oaths actually mean in terms of gameplay mechanics