Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Weapons on Backs

You know, about 5 years before anyone ever heard of a Witcher game, I carried a great sword around with me at Renaissance Fairs. I did not have it sheathed on my hip, but instead hung on hooks that were attached to a harness right at the base of my neck. Why? Because I'm 5'11" tall, and the sword, from tip to pommel, was just over 6' long. If you looked at it from a medium distance, where you couldn't see the hooks, it looked like it was floating behind me, instead of hanging on the hooks. It didn't have a sheath, I was a poor bard, not a fancy noble. I was lucky I could afford the sword.

How many had short swords, rapiers, maces, clubs, staves and torches hooked to their back though? I don't think anyone is arguing about lugging around big bulky gear on your back. I got 4k gold in my pouch and a +1 rapier, I need it on my side so one hand can sit on the pommel and the other on my hip =)

Oh maaaan do I want a "Toggle" for how a character should carry their weapon by default. (Much like a "turn off helmet" toggle is needed)

Not only is the "on my back" thing silly. I seriously dislike that they don't use their weapons for casting spells. DnD requires a Focus or component pouch to cast spells in most cases. The fact that Gaels go to spell casting is "put staff on back, and wave my hands" is so silly.

How long has it been since WoW came out? I get they did it there, but this is a 2020 game, it's a bit silly they don't have better solutions for all this yet.

Oh, and when you have a torch, you hold it over your head, not dragging it downwards as if it was a heavy mace...

You're probably right: I nearly skimmed it as I thought it was another topic I'd already "done". I may merge them together at some point, presuming that doesn't simply cause additional confusion.

Never was a fan of Manga inspired oversized weapons worn on the back compulsively. And though I love Larian, I HATE how they manage inventory and how they overemphasize loot. This extends to the graphical feedback or lack thereof. For instance, BACKPACKS should be a requirement to carry much at all and be shown on the character's back. Only large weapons, with the exception of polearms, should be worn (alongside backpack) on the back in my opinion.

A toggle for helmet on/off would be nice, but I would hope that this would cost a bonus action to toggle during combat. Suffer for your beauty

Good point! But scabbards would be a whole different discussion and more or less independent of where the sword is.

You described it much better than I did, a toggle function, akin to "hide helmet" is precisely what I had in mind.

Nice story! But let's say you could afford a scabbard for your 6' sword...that would be a 5' scabbard, right? How would you draw the weapon without looking silly?

I stand to be corrected, but I don't think they made scabbards for swords with 5' blades, at least not on a regular bases.

But besides that, a great sword swung on the back for transportation does make sense. Or carried in some other way, such as:

Personally, I've just never been a fan of weapons being on my character's back. a lot of times I'll just use weapons that sit on his side and so far in EA that would be daggers, or choosing no weapon at all and just spamming cantrips all day.

I don't have an issue with how it's currently implemented in this genre. In more action-oriented games that focus on a singular character where the camera is parked behind them and they're up close, I tend to be a bit pickier, but in this instance where 90% of your time is spent with an eagle eye view of a battlefield, I can't say that it's something that I've even noticed.

I feel like this concern falls alongside concerns similar to "I'd like to see a crisp eating animation instead of my character just putting their hand to their mouth" and "why don't my characters relieve themselves or require sleep?" I don't think that these little nuances can or should be a feasible focal point.

Yeah, I couldn't have carried it like that and played my guitar... Awkward x9000. There was a young lady that participated in some of the Fairs that I did that had a short sword hung similarly, unless she was participating in the Live Steel events, where people would actually sword fight. She, also, played an instrument, a lute, and hip carry could have done damage to the instrument.

The absolute last thing I want to see in a DnD game is creative choices making way for historical accuracy. Unless you are playing a campaign that has been tailor made to take place in a historical period, but that's obviously not the case here.

DnD, and in this case FR, is about the larger than life elements of story telling and roleplay, and about transporting yourself to another world to experience something fantastic. I think it is totally acceptable to have elements of the game to have an incredulity or to focus on how cool something looks as opposed to how believable it is in real life. However, I think having an option of where to put the weapon as an extra layer of customization would be acceptable, and I would also encourage it. DnD is afterall all about personal choice. I just would rather not see historical accuracy enforced on anything and that goes for armors and shields too.

Blame Bioware. Or at least, it was Mass Effect and the Dragon Age games where I first started seeing weapons floating on the backs of the characters.

Now, in some cases, I don't think it's an issue - a longbow would be slung over the shoulder when not carried. And I'd love to have an option for a slung quiver of arrows on my ranger's back.

Yeah but rapier on the back? The thing that drives me nuts is that there weapons they decided are good enough for hip but rapier on back?

When you and your crew be keepin' it real

That's well and good, but in some cases looks utterly ridiculous and makes no sense... like rapiers or hand crossbows worn on the back. I can certainly see longswords, greatswords, -axes, -clubs, polearmss, bows and crossbows as being worn there, but small or lighter weapons like a rapier, scimitar, hand axe or hand crossbow should definitely be worn on the hip.

What Kendaric said...

and I think you misunderstood my point. I am not pushing for historical accuracy, far from it. It is a fantasy world after all, as you rightfully pointed out. I made the reference to historical use of weapons because that's how they would be used, even in that fantasy world, because it is the most practical and efficient way. BUT, you are also right about the fact that it is about choice, so if there was a choice to toggle, both sides of the argument would be happy, more copies of the game would be sold, Larian profits and everybody wins.

Oh yes, Dragon Age. I am pretty sure they introduced that weapon-on-the-back style out of necessary (easier to program). Now people build questionable scabbards to justify it. Amazing. They do have my respect though, it requires persistence and creativity.

As stated above: Larian, give us both and we will all rejoice!

I don't recall where I first saw it; I thought it was Oblivion but mine was so heavily modded it's anyone's guess. It soon had actual scabbards, anyway.

My biggest gripe tends to be impractical sword designs that would be incredibly fragile and tend to have loads of pointy bat-wings and dragon-claws that would probably cause more injury to the person wielding it. That and the perplexing belief that swords weight "literally 40 pounds". No, they don't: that's not only completely unusable but physically impossible.

I agree with your entire post, however this is one thing I want to highlight.

Currently, there are no sheathes or quivers.
This bugs me beyond belief. Running around with weapons just "sticking" to you looks awful, especially for bows that fire without a quiver to draw from. It gives me a genuine "naked" feeling.

I really hope they create scabbards and quivers, or it's going to look super lame running around like it currently does.
Yeah, this giant flaming sword on my back definitely doesn't burn at all!

In about 30 years of gaming, I have never had anyone I know say that they passed on a game because of how weapons were carried. I was in a Legion of over 200 in Aion, and there were a ton of people in my DDO guild, not sure of the exact count, but in all the times we talked about games we were planning to check out or pass on, "weapons aren't carried the way I like" never entered into the conversation.