Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General New interview with Sven by Gamespot

I found that in DOS2 it'd eventually spiral to being able to have multiple, also I had Fane ALWAYS carry around a barrel of poison for reasons. 5e Strength is more limited so once you are at 20 Strength, thats it, meaning that Barrelmancy would have less of a chance to spiral out of control, even with Casters who can produce floating disks or pocket spaces it'd still be limited.

Ok so this gets into something specific about barrels, where you wouldn't drag it, you would roll it. Which, theoretically you could do that stealthily - under the right conditions.

However, as DM I would insist - and this is SUPER important - that you play the right Theme Music while doing it.

Otherwise you go at disadvantage. :P

Just to be clear, I don't think there's ANY need here to become particularly pedantic about the EXACT amount kg/lbs a character should be able to carry.

The general point is: incredibly heavy items shouldn't be trivial to throw around on the battlefield. What's even more relevant, sticking to common sense here wouldn't be a case of "realism hampering game design" but actually supporting it, by giving a very legitimate reason to CONTAIN a potential recurring exploit.

Oh yeah, I don't think we need to stick to these exact numbers or anything, but since I saw someone talking about them upthread (with some mistakes), I figured I'd drop the actual RAW in as a starting point for discussion. The point was, unless we are making a large departure from the 5e rules and/or making barrels substantially lighter than they seem like they should be, moving barrels around should be incredibly difficult and doing it without anyone noticing should be even more so.

While you can roll a barrel around, it's still going to be unwieldy and loud. You certainly aren't going to be ducking between shadows with this thing. Are there situations where you could move unnoticed with one? Probably, but I imagine they'd be uncommon.

Also, the appropriate theme music for BG3 is this.

Again, Barrels are actually incredibly easy to move. Its just not feasible to lift them and carry them around. You know they have been around for 2,000 years and nobody has improved on the design?


Has anyone in this thread actually ever seen a barrel?!

My grandfather used to make wine (and olive oil and more). I used to help with the process since I was a kid.
Then again we mostly worked with VERY big barrels, the type you hardly ever move anywhere and when you do involve SEVERAL persons at once. The kind that tend to remain in the cellar, with the tap upfront and al that stuff.

There is an item in the metadata that sets your STR to 27 until the next long rest, but I digress. It is clear what Larian is going for.

I don't know where you are getting your barrels but I think you need to fire your Cooper -- or you are thinking of metal barrels.

Wooden barrels are pretty quiet, on a flat surface anyway, if they have been made right and balanced, sanded, filled and closed correctly.

Good tip is to make sure the floor is clean and swept.

Frankly if they are going with barrelmancy they should just make it into a class.

Barrelmancer- D8 Hit die. Starting equipment is a ramp, broom, metal rings, spare boards, and sandpaper. Create a new class skill called "stealth barrel". You have a set of clips that lets you carry a single barrel on your back. Min strength is 16. You use dex and strength to determine throw accuracy. At Fifth level you get Tensers Floating Disk at will so you can carry a second barrel. Due to the barrel on your back you cannot use any melee weapons, only a special crossbow that is anchored to your chest and can only be fired every other round with a huge arbalest-like bolt that does 3d6 damage.

There is a 10% chance every time you throw a barrel that you suffer 2d6 damage from throwing out your back.

Sounds like an Artificer honestly.

Maybe an empty barrel, but a 300-lb object is never going to be "incredibly easy" to move, even if it is essentially a wheel.

Have you ever tried pushing a barrel up a hill? Even a gentle grade? It's slow. It's loud. It's tiring. Then try rolling it back down that hill and not lose control of it. Now I could be wrong, but what we've seen of BG3 isn't exactly paved smooth and flat.

The notion that we haven't improved on the design of barrels is both untrue and irrelevant. Barrels aren't designed to be rolled around secretly over long distances - they're designed to be easy to construct and seal with simple technology. What constitutes "simple technology" has changed over the years, so we actually have improved on their design over the years. Initially, the hoops they used to bind the staves together were made of wood. In the 19th century, they started replacing them with metal hoops because they are stronger and thinner. Now, in many cases, barrels are made entirely of lighter materials like plastic or aluminum.

Barrels designed to hold liquids tend to be quite heavy, partly because they need to be sealed and such so there is no leak, and partly cause a large amount of liquid (Oil, Water, Whatever) is in fact pretty dang heavy. I am a weakling and actually find it quite hard to roll a barrel, let alone lift it a few inches.

Yeah, but I think you could only carry like 4-5 barrels maximum by DOS2 endgame with a character fully invested into Strength (cap of 40 without gear, 10 pounds per point of strength), because barrels were 70 weight there.

If barrels were the same weight in BG3, a character with 20 strength could probably only carry 3 maximum. But as they currently are, a weight of 10 is laughable and a character could carry a dozen without a problem.


Fun story, I was in a session once where we found an underground brewery deep in the Undermountain near Waterdeep. There was a hallway that eventually led to a storage room for the barrels containing the wine that was being brewed before the area apparently became abandoned. It was obviously trapped with what we thought was a pitfall trap, which made us wonder how anyone could transport the barrels through. One of us said they had a stupid idea and decided to use a piece of equipment that gave them the ability to walk on walls to approach the trap sideways and press their hands against the floor to see if it was indeed a pitfall trap.

The DM instead jokingly insulted us for not coming up with the other stupid plan, which was to put ourselves in empty barrels and roll ourselves down the hallway over the traps.

(And some of the barrels in the storage rooms were trapped with mimics.)

Did you mean ...

I used to be in the "this will be the game of the decade that redefines the genre, and my favourite game ever!" camp until EA hit. Har. Har. Now I'm a... salt mephit, I suppose.

Quite hilariously, about a year ago I looked at this forum and recoiled in horror at the sight of "terrible toxic haters who do nothing but shit on Larian, it's so sad"; I specifically remember you and Tuco. Fast forward to October and, lo and behold, I agree with most of what "the horrible complainers" say. Myself being one of the most critical complainers.


It could be fine. But, honestly, I have exactly 0 hope Larian would go with anything that's a fundamental change in design philosophy. And many such changes would be - in my personal opinion - required for this game to be both a proper main entry in the Baldur's Gate series and an "RPG of the decade". Or just a game I could really like.

(Btw, I love how the topic devolved (evolved?) into a serious, in-depth discussion on the intricacies of historical and technical aspects of barrels.)

Yeah, I too started hyper-super optimistic that this game will be the BEST RPG GAME IN HISTORY! ... now, not so sure. I naively thought that "Larian will understand this is a DnD game, and a successor to Baldur's Gate, so naturally they wont do their silly antics anymore". I still have high hopes for the game, but.... I realise now that my dream game is far off.

Add me as another who was so hyped for this game before EA. This and Cyperpunk 2077 as changed my mind about preordering anything from an AAA studio.

Oh, hi Lester.
Long time not seeing you around here.

I don't remember ever being " a hater" and I'm somewhat hurt by learning you considered me one, frankly. If anything I still remain reasonably positive about the fact that this will be AT WORST a reasonably competent game I will enjoy for many hours.

Of course, I would have preferred if it would turn out to be a timeless classic, but since DOS 1 it really seems Larian just can't help it but put at least a bit of shit on their own plates every time.

I think that the suggestion of increasing the importance of weight is very good. However, enemies should ALSO react to you carrying or rolling or even just interacting with large barrels full of explosives! This should be an instant aggro.

Also, there should be an actual reason for the barrels to be laying around. If there is no good reason for barrels full of explosive materials to be in the room then don't put them in the room!

I'm still hyped for the game!

Of course you are!