Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Confirmed: the level cap will be higher than 10

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=1481&v=S5__muccL1c

Around the 53 minute mark.

How high is yet to be determined, but Swen says unequivocally that it has been moved up. I’m stoked about this news. There is a lot of great info in this interview.

Of course it will be moved up. On Deadfire you barely ship past Tutorial Island™ and have already leveled up like five times -- all the DOS games have you going from level 1 to godlike -- this is the gaming age of insta gratification and level ups around every even numbered hour at the least.

Wonder whether somebody will stand up how this is nothing like BG here too (nor part 2 base game).

I would say something if it were actually like that. EA is still only to level 4, and we're not going to level 20. For all we know the level cap will be 12, or 14, which is a perfectly reasonable cap for a video game adaptation of 5e.

Actually if they'd just go up to level 11, that would really be a big step .

Agreed, even if it´s only one level those are good news, plenty of cool abilites at level 11, like the improved divine smite for Pallys, fighter´s 3rd extra attack, monk´s 2nd monastic tradition ability (including the "sharpen the blade" for kenseis or extra element for element monk), rogue´s reliable talent or relentless rage for barbs.


...and the level 6 spells for full casters and warlocks. good stuff

Are you expressing a cynical dissatisfaction with an increased level cap?

Good news, Im old school i've worked for everything I have, so the insta gratification argument ,,, Meh , I do like God like power. Epic level creating a God character, good times. I have no expectaitons that BG3 will go that high, but it is nice to be able to access some more feats and abilities / spell. Looking forward to sept 30th already have steam money to spend.

Yeah, they say explicitly that we won’t go to level 20. I’m thinking 12 or 14 sounds about right. Hopefully they do a follow up DLC in the style of an old school expansion pack that takes you all of the way to 20.

I think the level 20 will come with the second game, since D&D is capped at 20. At least I hope so. I like games where you pick your character from the previous games, like BG2 or PoE2 =D

congratulations you got what you wanted.

now lets hope this isnt to the detriment of the game.
It certainly wil be to the detriment of the lategame balance.

I don't know what gives you the idea that a cap slightly higher than 10 is going to somehow destroy balance. Seventeen, items notwithstanding, is when balancing a game around a full party of equal XP (or in a milestone game) gets tricky without throwing narrative directly out of the nearest window.

There are some people who prefer to play dungeons & kobolds instead of dungeons & dragons.



He din't said that the lv cap will gonna be 20. My guess is 12 or 13. And fun > balance. Is not as if 5e is even balanced. Sure, in higher level, the difference between a Wizard/Druid and a Ranger/Monk is much bigger on lv 20 but is not as if that difference doesn't exist on lv 6.

One rule which I loved on 2e is that more complex classes required way more XP to level up than simpler ones.

Quote from the 1E Dungeon Master's Guide by E. Gary Gygax: "Inform those players who have opted for the magic-user profession that they have just completed a course of apprenticeship with a master who was of unthinkably high level (at least 6th!)."

It is thus parenthetically established that 6th level is unthinkably high compared to the abilities of a commoner, should so it should be a sufficient limit for the first installment of BG III, as there is little difference between 1E and 5E at 6th level. Or at least, ahh, I don't know of any significant differences. There could be something I missed. Missed ... mist ... by Leira's heart, I am not sure of anything anymore.

Regarding kobolds versus dragons, we should note that a dragon's difficulty level scales with its age. It is quite possible for a party of 1st-3rd level characters to succeed in an encounter with a very young dragon. I am surprised this has not been done before in the BG series. In fact, there was a chapter in the Great Book of the Unknowing that I read concerning a young dragon ... er, well, maybe there wasn't. I don't know.

I really like their slow leveling design.
It gives alot of weight to your abilitys that you achive with every level and even if its just a "poor" masterwork item you wil find in the early game, it will serve its role as power up and stand for its name. Actually a strong item instead of beeing something you casualy skip in other games.
Beeing level capped in game with a slowed down progression helps you alot to find more intresting playstyles. Where you have to be forced to find ways arround certain enemys or big hordes of goblins. Rather then just blasting the heavy wooden door that leads into the castle with your fireball and then blast the group of goblins with your fireball and then blast the magical treasue chest with the fireball.

Well it depends. If this games takes you up to 14, leveling up only 6 times in the sequel might feel as if there isn’t enough of a progression curve for a full sequel. I could see 12 to 20 working, though.

Source??? I believe that 6th magician is the minimum to teach magic to someone. I don't think that someone capable of casting a single fireball per rest and if is a necromancer unable to raise a single skeleton, if a paladin, unable to cast a single cleric spells is "unthinkably high level". Not in a game series with magicians like Karsus(lv 41, who LITERALLY becomed a God casting a 12th circle magic). Only in Netheril, there are thousands of high level magicians.

In fact, if you look to 2e domains of dread book, on page 96 mentions that in life Strahd was a magic user of mediocre skill, of 5th level and the time spend on the domain of dread allowed him to reach lv 16. And the book uses "accomplished" to describe his as a 16th level necromancer. Not crazy high level. A direct quote.



Even Gothic which is a much lower magical setting than D&D(not low setting as Conan or GoT for EG), the most powerful magicians like Saturas, Pyrokar and Xardas can make rain fire, create ice golems and do other cool stuff. Being a mage in Gothic is far harder. Mainly on gothic 2. I an playing returning 2.0 at moment.

As for dragons, only a baby dragon can die to a low level party.

IMO what Larian needs to do is just port many 3.5e tome of battle powers into a 5e game. So marital classes will have cool stuff to do. And note : In Gothic martial classes has cool stuff. Returning mod added cool combos and magical weapons like Claw of Beliar exists even on vanilla.



You are assuming that will be a BG4. And I don't think that Larian wanna become a forgotten realms studio.

Why? You become too dependent of a third party. ToB was rushed due the 3e and licensing stuff.

Larian wouldn't raise the level cap if they felt it would unbalance the game or if they couldn't provide sufficient additional content for those extra levels
Dungeons and Kobolds was a great visual; I, very much, want to play Dungeons and DRAGONS
This is 5E D&D revised/edited by Larian to fit into a video game.
When you play EA, and you will, make sure to click the button that allows Larian to gather data from your gameplay.

Im sure that Larian doesn’t want to abandon their own IP, but this is a huge break for them. They are going from a AA studio to working on their first AAA project. If they were to make 2 or 3 successful BG games it would dramatically improve and expand their resources. Plus, it does seem like they have having a genuinely good time working on this game. I will be surprised if they make BG3, it is a success, and then they just walk away without a follow up.

I've seen people point towards Larian saying they are looking forward to getting back to Divinity after BG3 as indication there likely won't be a follow-up. I suspect they're developing BG3 without the intention of carrying your save forward, otherwise things like level cap would probably be more set in stone and less prone to adjustment as the game continues to be developed. At the very least, it's probably the safest expectation to set.

My best guess is itll be based on spell level since they dont want level 9 magic due to some of it being world breaking or godlike so best guess is 10(if spell level ends at 5) 12 (if its ends a 6) 14(if it ends at 7) and 16 (if the spell level stops at 8th level)