Originally Posted by Arne
Ok, back to the actual topic of this thread:

The major problem seems to be that players of Baldur's Gate 1/2 will expect 3rd Edition lore, while 5 Edition apparently changed a lot concerning Drow and Tieflings. In particular:

(1) Players of Baldur's Gate 1/2 will be confused that their Drow/Tiefling character is not feared, hated or receives at least surprised reactions. I have seen a lot of other people in this forum point that out.
(2) They will expect human-like Tieflings like Hear'Dalis and expect them to be special, maybe even connected to planar travel etc.
(3) They will be surprised that the sinister looking Tieflings like Zelvor express fear of the much smaller and more harmless looking Goblins
(4) They might be surprised by the exchange between the two Tieflings and Lae'zel, especially the remark about her looking so alien, because, to a human player, they obviously are at least as alien
(5) They will be confused by the Cambion which mostly looks like the Tieflings, but suddenly is evil and powerful
(6) They might be surprised by the rushed introduction of a benign Illithid in the Underdark

Possible solutions:

(1) somehow give players of Baldur's Gate 1/2 some narrative introduction that the world has changed and Tieflings and Drow are now abundant and not feared or hated much
(2) try to make the Cambion and the Tieflings look more different from each other
(3) try to somehow resolve the issue that the Tieflings look sinister but act fearful and innocent
(4) maybe move the Illithid in the Underdark to a separate hideout, which the hobgoblin reveals to you first by telling you about it and then later on by seeking him out. Maybe also add a few sinister/funny remarks of the Illithid, for example that he feels "your brain looks tasty" or something wink

I mostly agree.
Some things:
- BG1+2 was DnD 2E, why would anyone expect 3E lore in a 5E game that is intended to be the successor of a 2E game.
- I have no problem with the nice Illithid. Its in a mycoid colony and you have to convince his friend first to see him.

The problem is that WotC changes the world constantly. The look of the game is consistent with 5E, which is different than previous editions. This also includes how some races look or behave. I do not like that Tieflings look like devils, but they look exactly as they are described in the PHB.
It is normal that rules change over time, DnD is already several decades old. But it would be really great if they just update the rules and the graphics without changing the whole setting entirely. I am also confused what massive lore changes happened between editions.

DnD is so complex the the devs should not expect that most players know the whole setting. D:OS2 players and new players know nothing while BG2 veterans will be irritated.
How to get the player into the game without thowing a huge lore dump in his face when starting to play.
I mean, to understand the story you need to know:
- Basic knowledge about the different planes, so you understand that this is a multiverse with different creatures from different planes.
- This includes knowledge about the differences between races such as tiefling/cambion/fiend or aasimar/celestrial and probably some other things (we might get similar problems with dragonborn or genasi)
- The history of both Gith races and the illithids

In PST they solved the issue with a usual trick: The main char has amnesia. The player knows as much as the character, both are confused and its normal that they ask many questions, including stuff that every normal inhabitant of this world would know.
This does not work in BG3 because all chars have a long history in this world, so on top of the tadpole they still have to deal with the problems they already had before.

BG1+2 and Kingmaker ( I consider this the best BG2 successor ) did not have this problem. You have a normal fantasy setting, they did not introduce a battle between different creatures from different planes fighting each other in yet another plane in the intro. (gith and illithids fight on a space ship in hell)


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