Hello, all, I come to you today with the biggest thing that is missing from Baldur's Gate 3- an aquatic race. Now, I already hear many of you saying things like "but this is no swimming mechanic" or "aquatic races seem pointless because we cannot leave the shore."
Well, you're right on one level- The environment of the game is not suited for them. That is where the crux of my argument comes into play.
A common theme in a lot of fantasy media is the concept of an "outsider." Someone who, against all odds, finds themselves completely out of their element. We commonly call this type of character a "fish out of water." Eh?
Right now, we don't have many characters of the sort. The closest example we have are Githyanki, and that element is explored a fair bit if you play as on in conversations. Notice how a lot of the time, a lot of the responses about them being more "alien" are not under the "Githyanki" tag, but rather, a tag called "Planar." Now, that's very interesting to me as I do not believe any other race gets the tag at the moment. There's a chance that Tiefling does, considering the Tiefling we see as NPCs in BG3 are the refugees from Elturel, which recently went to Avernus in the Nine Hells, though I don't see why a player Tiefling would be assumed to be from this batch. Either way, though, it's a tag that one might expect just be given to only Githyanki characters, as the rest of the PHB races (half-orc, dragonborn) are not Planar at all.
The existence of this tag tells me that Larian has at least created the foundation for more "alien" races to be added to the game. While I can see this being a placeholder for Githzerai potentially being added, I see no reason it would not just be under a "gith" tag in that case, and the lines the "planar' tag consist of are about the character's foreign nature to the Material Plane rather than a specific culture.
Tritons originate from the Elemental Plane of Water. They exist as protectors of the sea, and the ones that crossed over to the Material Plane did so to guard portals TO the plane of water to ensure no evil escapes. Tritons spend their lives defending the surface from threats they know nothing of, and they are usually surprised to see the surface folk do not know of their conquests, much less care about them.
Tritons would fit a perfect mold for a race that has no idea what is going on, and you can easily explain why their goal is not to return home. Perhaps, like Astarion is able to walk in the sunlight, the existence of the tadpole in the Tritons restricts their ability to breathe underwater. That gives a Triton PC an obvious reason to be travelling to rid themselves of the parasite on the surface, as well as a mechanical explanation as to why they do not get to swim.
Also, the description of the trident weapon mentions Tritons by name, so Larian at least have taken some notice of them.
Speaking of mechanics, though, it might seem strange to add an aquatic race without keeping what one might assume to be their most useful ability- swimming and breathing underwater.
However, in the case of Triton specifically, I have to disagree. Triton have lots of features, and though the swimming speed and underwater breathing is useful, it's not anywhere near their best abilities.
First of all, they get 3 +1s. One to strength, constitution, and charisma. This makes them excellent paladins, which is good because their lore definitely fits that archetype. They also function well as any charisma caster, as the constitution and charisma increase is useful for any of them.
They also get innate spellcasting, starting with Fog Cloud (a spell that already exists within the game), going up to gust of wind (a spell that I do not believe should be hard to implement) and ending with Wall of Water.
They also gain innate resistance to cold damage, as well as the ability to speak to beasts that breathe water. The last one seems less useful, though crabs and frogs could fit that definition, both of which exist in BG3.
Ultimately, I think Triton are a perfect race to add to BG3, as they are both narratively interesting and mechanically distinct enough to provide new gameplay as well as RP opportunities.
