Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Hey what will the level cap be for the final release?

I wonder of you were able to find a definitive answer to your question ?

If not, try this:

I feel that mechanical limitations in videogame adaptations tend to nerf some of the most heinous imbalances when it comes to caster advantage at later levels. Don't get me wrong, casters will still rule the day, but the gap usually closes a bit since the more creative applications tend to get ruled out.

E.G. Wish and True Polymorph will likely not work the same way as Table Top. Wish is simply too unlimited to capture that in current videogame programming. I can't imagine Larian keeping the permanence aspect of True Polymorph (although I believe AL limits that too), because it'll cause tons of problems in various aspects of the game (i.e. dialogue animations if you're in various forms, etc.,) so they'd rather just limit it.

We didn't see it as much in BG2 because the discrepancy in 2.5E was simply too big, but we did see a little bit of that in NWN 1/2, and Pathfinder Kingmaker (so 3E/3.5E/3.75E). Casters are definitely nowhere near as dominant (though still the best IMO) in those game compared to the respective table top versions. The gap in 5E is even smaller than those editions, so I think purely from a mechanical standpoint, it can work.

Whether going up to 20 actually makes sense and fits the story of BG3, that's another question.

25+ according to the multiplayer options (if they remain the same of course)

It's a programming carry over from D:OS2, where I think level 25 was the level cap for that game. Although realistically most players wouldn't get past 22/23 in a normal playthrough.

I hope its at least 15, I feel like 1-5 works better for chapter one... what we have gotten thus far (an extra level in early access would help a lot I think)

5 levels a chapter would be pretty sweet, and 15 is pretty much the cap for a campaign where it becomes completely unmanageable.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, dnd 5e does not have levels past 20 in raw. 4e, and other editions did though and had epic levels as past 20 is where characters as a party can start to contend with strong and godly beings in those editions. Around 17-20 in 5e is where you reach that kind of pinnacle if you did not multiclass.

I think for me the level cap depends on the end feel of the game, but also if they plan on doing expansions, dlc campaigns/quests, and sequels. If you hit max level when released and all that is left is going through the game multiple times with either the same or imported characters it would possibly get stale when expansions come along. I think that BG1 only got you to a certain experience cap that was somewhere around level 12 depending on class, but you could hit 40 in the BG2 expansion (or maybe that was dragon spear idk). Either way that is pretty common for DnD games, even with the first ones i played like Eye of the Beholder, you never got near max on the first game out.

That being said the more options that become available may make me want to hit 20 sooner rather than later. Right now I dont think theres enough in the game to make me want to drive to that point. I loved trying to roll high powered characters or min/maxing strengths in point buy systems so see how good a character you could generate rather than just a generic Captain Above Average (what the old gaming group called a character you rolled with all stats between 11 and 15). Right now the DnD nerd in me looks at these max 16 stats and cant help but think there are better characters out there and this one is rather mediocre. Those 18s make your character feel more special especially back in the table top days where it wasnt always so common.

I mean one of the tropes Ive been wanting to do in 5th ed was make a barbarian that fights, Pict/Caledonian style, no armor just run out to fight wearing the bday suit but you need a good con and dex, along the good strength. Without roles it probably wont make it on BG3 and would just be slow and kind of boring to run without more magic items, better stats and decently high level.

If it pushes past 10, then it should probably cap at 12 or 14. Purely speaking in terms of single class, level 12 gives you your third ASI (more for fighters and rogues), 3rd attack for fighters and 3rd die for cantrip damage. 14th level gives most classes an additional defining ability for their class. Rangers get screwed because their 14th level ability, vanish, was given to everyone for free when they gave cunning action to everyone. Kind of funny that the worst designed class in 5e got screwed over by the dev implementation of hide, and it also shows you just how powerful hide as a bonus action is in 5e.. its a 14th level core ranger ability.