Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Arrests

Hey – so one thing that frequently bothers me in DnD-style videogames (and most games, to be honest) is the reaction non-evil NPCs have to nonviolent crime. Trying to break in somewhere or steal something usually doesn't warrant a lethal response from rational people. Even attacking someone doesn't necessarily justify retaliatory murder, especially if the attack itself is nonlethal.

I know this could actually be kind of a complex thing to implement, but is there any chance there could be some kind of arrest system implemented in neutral/friendly towns? I like for there to be consequences for criminal behavior, of course, but it rubs me the wrong way when you just saved some guy's kid or something and then the instant you try to pilfer 3 coins from his pocket he starts hacking limbs off with a battleaxe. It would feel a lot more like a proportionate response if some guards just attacked you nonlethally and then tossed you in a cage for the night or something.

I think for a fantasy game with a medieval vibe, brutal responses to petty crimes do make a certain sense. Public humiliations are also fit for a game with such a setting. But imprisonment, while still a pretty modern thing, does provide a lot of narrative opportunities to develop stories. I think they should do it more like old westerns, where a small town has maybe a sheriff and a deputy, with maybe like one cell for holding someone awaiting "trial." But done more frontier style like that, so the PC has opportunities to do the jail break stuff, or high tailing it. I think I see my friends coming, Riding many a mile. That sort of thing.

They have the cages and such like for Sazza, and in the Gobbo camp, I'm sure they could come up with a way to make that work for the PCs too. Other more mundane penalties might include fines or whatever. But the cool thing about having a jail, is that then you can also have like gangs and posses or corrupt officials and do it up that way too.

In BG1 and BG2 most times the guards would just merc you on sight, even for simple lock popping. Imprisonment was kind of reserved just for plot points, but it might be fun if they created a more generic system to handle crimes around town. Higher crimes might put some kind of wizard detective on the case. I can imagine a lot of places they could take it.

But yeah maybe some more guards with quarter staffs instead of swords would be novel. Since we're all so used to wildly disproportionate violence in these games lol

I mean, worth noting that player characters can nonlethally attack with any melee weapon – not even totally necessary to give the guards blunt instruments, they just whack you with the flat of the blade, ezpz.

Yeah Sazza was kind of what made me think of it. I pretty much compulsively defend Sazza against execution every playthrough, and at some point I was like "Wait, why on God's green earth do they murder me for the slightest infraction when killing Sazza – who literally attacked the town with an army – is controversial enough to warrant a cutscene?" Sure, there's some argument for them keeping Sazza alive only for interrogation or whatever, but it still felt like a hell of an incongruity.

Prison breaks would be rad as hell, but they also fall under the umbrella of "complex thing to implement" – you can't really lock players up in a DnD-style game without giving them some way of getting out, and that pretty much inevitably involves a whole questline, as you implied. While I find the idea of hiding out from a wizard detective extremely compelling, I can totally understand why the devs wouldn't want to spend so much time on what is ultimately pretty niche content. (Players only encountering it when they fail at petty crimes might be bit of a low payoff.)

Here's half a dozen potential 'get out of jail free' plot devices. They could maybe be done once or twice with some entertainment value I'd think.

Young Guns style: the rest of the party busts your ass out of lockup with bolts and arrows blazing hehe. That's kinda the default, anytime a lone PC gets nabbed, since its pretty simple. Fight your way out!

Young Guns 2 style: similar to the above, but with an inside man hehe.

Prince of Thieves: where the PC is headed to the gallows or the chopping block, but rescued in some sort of public venue.

The Shawshank Gobbo': for the more serious Great Escape, with like a tunnel at the ready, and maybe exposing some local corruption along the way.

The Count of Monte Monteron: another tunneler, but this time with a like a personal revenge angle and a map marked with an X.

High Noon: where the prisoner transfer is interrupted by a vigilante mob, and the PCs duck out at a clutch moment.

Build a Bridge out of Her: just doing something similar to the above, but involving witchcraft

O Brother: the chain gang dash into the woods

Piranha Alcatraz: swimming to freedom, but like with the threat of hypothermia and being eaten by fish people. Maybe a shitty raft

Beastmaster: with some kind of friendly ferriet, just getting it done with the cuteness


I agree, its pretty niche and maybe falls outside what they want to do with their game, but especially for the rogue/thief archetype, having content like that would be fun at times I'd think. I'd be more inclined I think to play as a Thief and do some pocket picking or a few casual B&Es, if it maybe opened up some storyline options. Or you know, where the main downside to failing was just a fine or a short timesink to get out of jail, instead of you turning the entire town hostile like insta-murder fest

Um. There is an arrest system in BG3. I've gotten caught stealing from the Tiefling vendor and thrown in jail. Nettie caught me stealing a book and I had the choice to give it back and apologize or bribe her or kill her, etc. Only if you keep stealing do they attack you.

Stealing also hurts your vendor relations and relations in the grove in general.

Anyway, it might need some work, but it's there.

Didn't they do that in Divinity Original Sin 1? I sware that's a thing.

And O:OS2. Of you commited crime in towns guards would arrest you. I am pretty sure you could talk/bribe your way or resist arrest (combat) but if you agreed you would be moved to jail and had to jailbreak (or be jailbroken by coop players/companions). I would be shocked if BG3 didn't have something of that kind - according to previous posted it is there.

Ya I thought so, thanks for confirming. I have a feeling once we hit a town it'll pop up.