Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What else do you think Larian is keeping a secret?

With the release coming close-ish and the reveal of two missable non-origin companions, one expected, the other not, what do you think Larian is still keeping a surprise?
More (optional) companions?
More classes (besides the basically confirmed paladin)?
More races?
New game mechanics?
Chapter 1 revamp?

I think the chapter 1 revamp was confirmed.
I do think, we will get reworked reactions, maybe already with patch 9, since paladin is now the second class after bard, that rely on reactions.
Class is probably monk from the PHB and races dragonborn and halforc from PHB too, since it was started that all the races and classes from the PHB will be included.
I would love to see artificer and some subclasses like hexblade, but that is for now just wishful thinking.
I don't know, what happened to Helia, who was a datamined companion, but now they seem to want to swap her for Jaheira or we get more than 8 companions ( which would be great). I personally would love to have a halfling or gnome companion. And/or a dragonborn. For now, the companion races are pretty standard and boring apart from Lae'zel and Karlach.

Define surprise. PHB is supposed to be a base for BG3 so I expect remaining PHB classes and subclasses and races to be there in 1.0. maybe they will throw in something extra, maybe they won't.

Larian said multiple times by now they are withholding things for players and recently in an update that act1 will feel fresh to people who played it multiple times. So some changes/new content are to be expected.

If Minsc and Jaheira are indeed companions that potentially opens door for other non-origin companions, but with how resource intensive companions are I dont really hope for anything more that what was announced/datamined.

Small correction, they only said that they want to include all PHB classes. No promises and no mention of race.


After the game show there was a interview where both Minsc and Jaheira were confirmed to be possible non origin companions. But deprnding on your choices they could also be your enemies.

Sorry, I don't believe there are any *meaningful* surprises still to be revealed. Yes there will be plenty of superficial "surprises" (Minsc and even Jaheira as possible companions is NOT a meaningful surprise to me), but nothing that would get me excited. But obviously, this is one of those instances where I sincerely hope I am wrong.

I'm not quite at this stage yet. I see hints of good in BG3, and I hope they can turn it around. I'm afraid the main story will take a backseat to bombastic characters and cool cutscenes, but I'll wait until it's out to finally decide. I've already paid for it, so no harm in hoping it's good. I hope you're wrong as well

So, as to Jeheira and Misnc being non-origin 'companions', I don't see why everyone is assuming they will be true companions that take up a party slot instead of a camp follower and / or party extender (like the myconid or Halsin when you free him). It'd be pretty odd to down scale their power to a level 5 character (about when you'll find them I assume). I fully assume they'll park themselves in your camp doing 'something important' and maybe we'll be able to have them join us occasionally (final battle of act 1?).

There was a frightening lack of the Dragonborn race in the trailer if you ask me.

Random predictions of hidden/surprise stuff:

1. There will be 12 companions if Larian is now allowing for non-origin companions. One for each class. Also starting to think not all companions will be in Act 1 - but that we will meet some of the non-origin companions later into the game.

2. I think now that we know the release date there is a good chance of rather than doing a patch now and one in March/April they may just give us this patch and then go radio silent on new content until release, while amping up the marketing. But this is coming from someone who isn't a dev - not sure the amount of work it takes to maintain their Early Access branch vs. the release branch.

3. I would not be shocked if at release Larian drops a surprise race and/or class into the game.

4. I bet what we saw of Baldur's Gate was just a glimpse. Someone from Larian commented something along the lines of "You ain't seen nothin' yet" in response to someone talking about how cool the shot of Baldur's Gate was. Wouldn't shock me if the city is a massive place to explore, especially given the amount of time this project is taking.

I most certainly hope that Larian have some Origin Companions hidden from us ...
Since as far as i remember, Swen told us that there will be some more in the future, when we at first started talking about all our companions being evil, or at least not exactly good ...

And if it comes out that Minsc and Jaheira, who both will not even be origin characters are those companions, i think some people will be disapointed. I certainly will.

I think more companions is basically a guarantee. Whether just the ones that have ben datamined or more.

I think there's a decent chance that they'll reveal maybe one extra sublcass not from the player's handbook for each class. No extra classes though, that's something for DLC (also I'd be shocked if Larian weren't at least considering creating their own entirely homebrew class for the game that they'll release as DLC down the line. Don't know if it'll happen, but I have to imagine the idea has at least come up.)

I do think that act one will change somewhat. Not radically, but maybe a couple more quests, or some quests getting more options.

I suspect that there will be a new map for act one. The one we have just seems so pre 2010. It’s scale just seems to allow us to hurry and experience plot points…

Slings, hopefully. Please give the dexterity druids their trademark ranged weapon, and throw in reworked ammunition on top of it.

In all seriousness, though, I do really hope for there being one companion of each class. We are still missing: a monk, a sorcerer and a paladin (assuming that Karlach is a barbarian while a certain other datamined character is a bard). With there being two "good" companions, maybe the "evil" side will also get two? You could refit Minthara into a paladin (and it will be more optimal with her being a drow and no longer getting her wisdom so inflated) since in 5e paladins now come in all shapes and sizes and alignments, and I guess you could either have a way of the shadow monk or a manic sorcerer as the second one. Then again, there's Delina, also a sorcerer. Will have to wait and see, I suppose.

That's a good point. I have been assuming that current selection covers evil-neutral choices, and good origins will be Minsc/Helia. As it is, opening act1 might be rather short on good characters without some extra faces, though the question is how Larian treats "good" - some might interpret Gale or Wyll as good.

I was thinking about it as well. If Minsc and Jaheira can turn on us, it would somewhat make sense to have someone else cover evil path. I am also thinking of our act1 origins and how they could be split at the end of act1 depending on our choices. That we we get our starting companions leave us and turn into antagonists, while we get a boost of new companions later in the game.

I would be up for seeing even more old faces from BG1&2. There have been mentiones of Edwin being the receiver of the iron flask from act1 - what if he, and someone else was the evil companions, and continuing feud between Minsc and Edwin would be a nice callback to classic games, though I have no clue how Edwin could still be alive (though, if Minsc can, so can he I suppose).

On a side note, I must say the recent trailer made a positive impression on me. Mixing old and new gave me "the next generation" kind of a feel. Act1 might focus on new faces and places, while act2 and Baldur's Gate might deepen the connection to previous two titles.

- D/N Cycle
- Big rework of the resting system (mini camps will be spots on the map inside dungeons)
- Unexpected events/encounters when we rest
- Option for a party of 6 !

Seriously?! You are actually, sincerely expecting these things?

I don't follow your argument here. If Minsc and Jaheira can turn against a presumably good PC, then if anything we need even more good companions. Right now, among the five known companions, we have precisely ZERO good companions. What we do have is an abundance of evil companions, three of five. And let's all keep in mind that if Jaheira is correctly portrayed, then she will be neutral. So thus far, we only have Minsc as a potentially good companion. So it is very much the good path that is getting screwed.

I too believe this was originaly the idea ...
Question is what changed, now if Minsc wont be Origin ... will we get only one good origin character? :-/ I really hope not.

Ironic, isnt it?
There are no Good characters right now, and yet its actualy Evil playtrough where you end with incomplete party. :-/

I assume they will turn against an evil PC => thefore something to counter the balance their absence if players chooses the evil path. So far only killing tieflings can result in loosing a companion, but who knows how act1 will develop further.

No one still believes that do they? It seems pretty obvious that SH is meant to be "good" and the rest are more grey. I think the obvious shift in SH's personality over the course of the EA have shown that Larian was talking out of their ass when they said they were giving us the evil party first. What we have are the main origin characters. They're meant to be our main party, like it or not.

At least from what we've seen, that's my opinion.