Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Year 3

So, everyone knows we have moved into our 3rd year of Early Access. I am going to highlight features and things that were mentioned for EA and what we're missing.

Larian promised ALL 12 classes would eventually be available in EA. Therefore, we are missing two classes.

• Paladin
• Monk

In the past, no more than 1 class has been released per patch. That is not a hard rule, so maybe Larian would dump both in one patch but it seems unlikely based on hints from dataminers.

A dataminer claims that most of Monk assets had been loaded, while Paladin had been largely untouched for several editions of updates. This leans toward Patch 9 introducing Monk and Paladins coming thereafter.

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Multiclassing was a feature discussed for EA. Larian said it would not be available at EA launch, but would come later.

We have not heard much, if anything, from Larian about this feature since 2020. Please share if you have something different.

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Reaction re-work has been mentioned by Larian staff. We have no idea what a re-work means or what it looks like.

They have not explicitly said it will be aligned with Solasta or anything close to that, only that they are working on overhauling the system. It's been teased and mentioned sparingly throughout 2 full years with no new footage or further explanation.

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We also still cannot select any Origin character during character selection. We can only add them to our party.

This feature, along with customization for Origins, was said to come later in EA.

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We've also been promised the game will release sometime in 2023. That said, it might still hit another full year of EA if it releases after October 6th, 2023.

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What do you think of Year 3 of EA?

Do you think Larian will fulfill all of the above?

Will some things be left out and incomplete?

Will the release date be pushed further back than 2023?

Will we get another patch this year?

Will we hear anything from Larian officially?

Yes, I think for sure we will get another patch this year.😊

It seems likely that future patches will have new classes (because many patches have in the past) as well as the reaction system rework (because they said they are working on it). Not sure if playing origin characters and multiclassing will be in EA or just in the full release.

I am most looking forward to seeing if there will be any dialogue system updates and more info on the rest of the companions.🐻

Releasing in either 2023 or 2024 is fine with me. I want the game to be the best it can be!

I am quite confident for two more patches for the remaining classes/races and then the final release. Larian said they are getting in the finition part and playtesting is already happening.

Do you think Larian will fulfill all of the above? No
Will some things be left out and incomplete? Yes
Will the release date be pushed further back than 2023? No, I expect release early 2023
Will we get another patch this year? Yes
Will we hear anything from Larian officially? Yes, another PFH







**edit can't believe I got my years mixed up there lol...obviously losing it.

We're probably getting at least one more patch, and I'd predict it to either be in late November/early to mid December or mid-January at the earliest. We're obviously not getting anything late December/early January because holiday season. There has been zero teasing at all for the next patch, which rules out October/early November, not to mention that Larian now has their internal playtesting builds to work on for the people visiting their offices, which means less manpower to maintain their EA build. I think we're also at a point where feedback from internal testing is going to be far more valuable than anything we can provide with the EA build, unless the next EA patch has some dramatic changes that would affect all possible playthroughs, such as any possible changes to reactions and level 5. If it's just Monk? Any non-Monk playthroughs won't see any significant changes, and half the community won't even tune in for that.

Given that the game is entering its final stages of development from all we've been told, I wouldn't expect any more than the next patch before Larian decides to put all hands on deck for the completion of the full game.

Do you think Larian will fulfill all of the above?

- Multiclassing: IIRC the last thing Larian said about this was towards the very start of EA. As such, I don't expect it to make it in time for the full launch. It's a feature that will most likely be held back for an inevitable definitive edition. Start planning your builds for a single-classed playthrough first.

- Reactions: As we've already established, we don't know what they're even alluding to in regards to internally exploring options, from that one community manager post on this subject a few months back. I've seen people jump the gun and say that they're talking about an overhaul. An overhaul this late into development? Simple logic says that's unlikely. At the very least, Solasta-style prompts are not happening, how the Bard class was released should have made it extremely clear that dream is dead. If anything about reactions is changed at all, I'd expect tweaks to the current toggle-based system that let us exhibit some degree of control over our automatic reactions, and a lot of reaction abilities yet to be implemented such as the Shield spell being given the Cutting Words pre-cast treatment instead.

- Origin characters: Datamining seems to indicate that work on this has actually been progressing behind the scenes, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is something we actually will see at full release.

- Adding my own topic, Party Lock after Act 1: Given that the last thing we heard about this was back towards the start of EA, I doubt this is happening the way people fear it might anymore. The overwhelmingly negative reception to this idea is probably the only thing the community is actually united on.

- 2023 release: I believe them when they say this. I think pushing it back into 2024 when they've already seemingly committed to a 2023 release would cause public opinion to turn against Larian, given that they've already said that the game is nearing completion as is, unless we're given a specific release date with the supposed delay.

Will some things be left out and incomplete?

This is a large scale cRPG. Of course there's going to be incomplete stuff. The real question is, how many people are going to binge the hell out of this game to see that incomplete stuff before Larian can patch them up?

I wish they would just release. Then they would be caught in the reaction from the player base and FORCED to go "balls to the wall" to fix it and avoid horrible PR debacle. I may be wrong (because Larian has NOT been forthcoming with anything, they absolutely fail on communications (including roadmaps)) but it feels like they're lackadaisically skipping along the primrose path being distracted by pretty flowers, butterflies, and squirrels. I think EA has lasted too long (and yes I'm opinionated, but I also feel that TV shows taking 2 or more years between seasons is also ridiculous).
Personally, if there were open lines of communication coming regularly, I would have felt better and more forgiving than feeling like I'm playing 'Alone in the Dark' for over two years. But then I've always felt communication was the most important thing in any relationship.

Did they promised they will all make it into EA specifically? I think they very well might, two updates before release don't seem unfeasable, especially I suspect that two remaining classes are mostly done, but withheld from testing.


I do assume it will come, but I don't think it might come to EA. With level 4 cap, what's the point of multiclassing? I don't think we go far enough into character development to be able to play around with this feature. I also don't think it is something Larian needs to test, unless they plan to do some sweeping changes to how multiclassing works.


I assume we will see it in EA, within next update or two. I don't think Community Managers would come up and say they are working on it, if it wasn't fairly certain the rework will come. And Sven mentioned it coupld PfH ago, so it is been a long time in the making. How it will look is anyone's guess. They expressed an opinion that literal adaptation wouldn't be a good fit, so unless playerbase or Solasta change their minds, I don't see it happening. Still, as long as they address somehow underlying issues (lack of control, lack of feedback) I will be OK with that.

At this point I assume it will be held off until 1.0, especially if they plan to do something marketable like full VO for origins. I am not sure how much is there to test, outside seeing origin unique content, which might as well be kept as full release treat.


I would keep my expectations modest for 1.0. I am especially worried for later chapters which will go untested by wide gaming public. Or perhaps it will be Witcher3 of Larian, where after two games that required a release of "Enhanced Edition" a year later, BG3 will come out as a complete package, just in need of some patching. We will see.

I would say there are a lot more subjects that concern me for full release and for the 3rd year of EA.

Let's start with yours.

1) For Paladin or Monk for the next patch, we don't know what will they implement. Someone's datamining on reddit as you said, was nothing more that finding a monk starting outfit from the bard patch. Nothing else. We have the paladin starting outfit, which is chainmail since the start of the game, so there is no conenction there. We also haven't seen any datamined monk animations. It doesn't mean it's gonna be paladin, but we just don't have something to base suspicion right now, as far as what the next class will be. Paladin is a more popular class, but that could work both ways. Also, plate armor, that paladins would probably benefit from for their builds, is absent from the game all this time, so both monk and paladin have things missing.

2) I honestly don't think we will see multiclassing in EA. But even if we do, there are problems with it, and it's not gonna be the same as in tabletop, since most fan favorite subclasses that make it work will be missing. First of all, for EA, we don't have all the classes, and we don't have a lot of subclasses. The most popular multiclasses like sorcadin or lockadin can't work without paladin, and lockadin doensn't work in general in this game, plus we don't know if it ever will. If Larian does not implement anything from other books, like Xanathar's, then we won't have hexblade that makes lockadins work, and even without hexblade, without things from Xanathar's there will not be a eldritch smite invocation. The whole point of multiclassing to actually become a feature people will want to use, is to actually make sense to use it. I guess sorcadin and clericadin would still work, but still. People that want to multiclass rogue are ok, druid/barbs are ok, but lockadins will get the shaft. These multiclasses are the only way to come close to the power level an actuall full spellcaster gets, using a martial character. If they half work, well, let's hope they don't.

3) For the Reaction system, only a Larian employee has unifficially said that they are looking for ways for it to work, they didn't say they are actively implementing it, or that they ever will. So i would wait for some actual confirmation from Larian for that. As it stands right not, it makes a lot of class features obsolete, so it should get reworked, but again.

4) Origin characters. Boy, where do i even start with this one.There won't be origin characters in the EA. They will come at release. The problem here is not when they will come. The problem is they exist. If an origin character with a tailored backround associated with quests you will experience in-game is the protagonist, they will always, always, have more depth to them than a custom character. That's the way it works. If your origin character can be your protagonist, they have to experience everything a custom character would experience, and their own origin. There is ONLY one way of going around that, and that involves actively making a serious plot that exists only for Tav, if you play a custom character. And that plot would be a spoiler to say anything more. It is something that if it happens, will change the story significantly every time you play a custom character compared to an origin character, so i'm way too skeptical about what they actually did with it. They said they took care of it, but i hope that doesn't mean just an acknowledgement for your backround or if you say you are baldurian. You need an actual, serious plot for Tav themselves, one that the others cannot experience.

And that's my problem with the origin system. Baldur's gate was always about the Bhaalspawn saga, and a special protagonist that exists because of that. The DOS2 origin system that makes every character in the party equally important to the main plot, just makes the custom character pale in comparison to the depth of the origin characters. It goes against the mentality of the original storytelling, and that is my biggest fear about the game. No matter how you try to counter this, if your protagonist is special, then it means origin characters as protagonists get to be special too. The "special" part of the main character is gone, because we have a lot, and that's a different way to tell a story. I am not a fan of it. I will remain skeptical until i see what did they actually do with it.

5) As for full release, the game will be in early access for at least 2.5 years. That is if the game releases during Q2. Since 2022 release was "probably" not going to happen, it means they were getting close. We also have some hints that the game actually is very different from what we see in EA, that is their internal build to test the rest of the game. So March-April-May-June, anything goes and it is possible. I would not expect it sooner than March or April, and there is a possibility we even have another year in front of us, a dreaded thought i don't want to be thinking about. As for the people that outright say that they should take their time to finish it as long as it needs, well it doesn't work that way. Too soon is bad, and "taking your time" is also potentially bad for a game. We know games that had all the development time in the world, and how they ended up. Waiting for the sake of waiting for something better, or "the later it is, the better and more polished" mentalities, yeah it usually doesn't work like that. You need a target date and to work for that. Whatever you do , bugs will exist, and game breaking ones at start.

Anyway, this is getting really long.

I am very hopeful about BG3, but also very skeptical. I want to play the game and experience it, but at the same time, not playing as my favorite subclass or multiclass combination makes me somewhat less interested. It also makes me wonder how come companies like Owlcat implement so much more classes, prestige classes, archetypes and abilities/spells for a much more complex system, but according to Larian "it's so much work". I also don't like the origin system, and i am not thrilled so far about the armor designs i've seen, noting of course, we haven't seen most of it. Put the infamous Larian thing about making a lot of NPC only gear that the player can't get-although they should COUGH DOS2 paladin armor, blackring armor COUGH, and you can get "worried" pretty easily, especially with the lack of communication, although it's an EA game, so you would expect something more.

Anyway, i hope they have something to say at some point. This is BG3, it's big for some people, they have been waiting for a BG game for 20 years. We all want it to be "right", and that can be a big pressure on a company.

Do you think Larian will fulfill all of the above? Probably not. If they do they may fulfill them in a different way than people think or was originally intended.
Will some things be left out and incomplete? I think we will have all of the classes and races promised. Given how much Larian seems to want to do the Baldur's Gate franchise justice and make this a big deal - I wouldn't be surprised if we get some surprise classes, races or subclasses. As far as overall features? I'm sure most will be in and some will be missing.
Will the release date be pushed further back than 2023? This would be both shocking and a disaster for Larian. I know a lot of people are predicting early 2023, but I am predicting late 2023. The more I think about it, the more I think Larian is going to want to dodge the loaded early part of 2023. Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Starfield and the likely release of Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty. Those are some major, major releases seemingly slated for the first half of 2023. I think Larian is patient, keeps polishing and releases later in 2023.
Will we get another patch this year? Almost 100%.
Will we hear anything from Larian officially? There will be another Panel From Hell this year.

+1

I couldn't sum it up any better.