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

Depends on what one considers "major," doesn't it? For me, in addition, to these things, there are also: the party movement mechanic (which is extremely aggravating); a minimum of three good-aligned companions; option to increase party size up to six; a comprehensive system for tailoring gameplay and difficulty settings; a built-in mod manager system; revamped and more user-friendly UIs; custom PC being more central to the party and the game; good-aligned roleplaying choices getting equivalent benefits to the evil side (ex. benefits for NOT using the tadpole); more realistic options within dialogues, including a wider range of options for what a custom PC gets to say in interactions with the origin companions (ex, being able to comment, including harshly, on being a vampire, a Sharran, making a pact with a devil, etc.); a real and meaningful connection to the original games, and not merely superficial connections such as bringing in a couple of old characters.

I think pretty much all of the issues you mention are valid (except maybe the mod manager system, maybe) and I do agree with you on several of them. Especially the stuff about the movement mechanic and the custom PC being more centralto the game. And I'd definitely love to see rewards for not using the tadpole. Ideally I think it would be a situation where the tadpole gives you a lot of immediate benefits, but later in the game we're rewarded for holding back and resisting. Typically I like to roleplay by using the tadpole once early on for something because my character doesn't really understand what they're feeling, but once they does, they never use it again. It seems heavily telegraphed that if we keep using the tadpole, we're going to pay a heavy price for it, so I look forward to seeing what that is.

It might comfort you to hear that difficulty settings are probably only not here now because it's early access and letting players tweak the difficulty a lot before the game is even done sounds like a recipe for confusing data. That being said, there's no promise that we'll get something as comprehensive as the pathfinder games, which I consider leaps and bounds ahead of literally any other crpg I've ever played, so definitely worth sounding off about that more to make sure Larian hears it. Also you actually can react harshly at least to Wyll making a pact with a devil, telling him that you'd never have made such a deal-I can't remember it word for word. And when you find out Astarion is a vampire, you can kill him then and there. Not sure how much harsher it can get. I genuinely can't recall what you can say to Shadowheart about being Sharran.

As someone who's still pretty unfamiliar with the original games, I'm curious what would you consider a meaningful connection. I haven't made it through the first game yet, though I've been spoiled on most of the major plot points.

Thanks for this post. This is the kind of exchange that I've always hoped for.

Re. your last part here, what you say about Astarion is exactly what I find problematic. My choices seem to be either I embrace him or I kill him outright. What I would like is to be able to say something along the lines of: I find it utterly detestable that you're a vampire and that you feed on creatures - even non-humanoid ones. Your actions are uniformly evil. However, I'm going to tolerate you - for now - only because of the mutual situation we find ourselves in. But make no mistake. You give me the slightest of reasons to stake you, and I will. Or multiple such options between the two extremes.

Same thing for Wyll. I should be able to say something much harsher than just that I wouldn't have done what he did. I ought to be able to say something like: You did something evil here, and there is no possible excuse or justification for what you did.

And as for being a Sharran, I can only strongly recommend reading The Twilight War trilogy of FR novels to get a solid sense of what Sharrans are all about.

This is an excellent question. And the short answer is: I don't know. I'm not one of Larian's presumably well-paid writers. It's their job and not mine to figure that out. I can only say this. For years prior to the announcement of BG3, in forum after forum, fans of the original games have speculated and argued very loudly about what the story could possibly be in a potential third BG game. And the general consensus always was that the Bhaalspawn saga was complete, and there was nothing further left to say or explore in that story. And for this reason, it did NOT make sense to create a third BG game. Well, Larian is the one that decided there WAS reason to create a third BG game. They pitched that idea to WotC. So I think it is eminently reasonable for me to assume they came up with some angle to the original Bhaalspawn story where it does make sense to write a new part to that story. The onus is on them to demonstrate that the Bhaalspawn saga is NOT yet complete, and their third game has something meaningful to add to that story.

I'd add this to what I say at the end of my last post above. In keeping with this thread's purpose, if there was any way for Larian to *surprise* me with BG3, and this would be an awesome and beautiful surprise, it is if we learn later in the game that we are, somehow, the actual last remaining Bhaalspawn. And, the perfect way to do this would be to make this so ONLY for a custom PC, and NOT for any of the Larian origin PCs. So if you play as an origin PC, the angle connecting BG3 to the original games is something else. But if you play as a custom PC, then what makes your custom PC special is that they are the last Bhaalspawn.

Bonus points to Larian if our custom PC is the offspring of Abdel and Jaheira. Would obviously require some very creative writing for a non-human/half-elf PC.

After playing a bit patch 9, I'm wondering how much of the start will be changed, but I expect changes. They removed the poor enthralled fishermen this patch, it makes going through the shipwreck quite dull now. There was also a cutscenes during the writer's video in the Panel From Hell that happens in the room we start in after character creation. I don't think it's actually "new", but it's not in the early access. I think the ship prologue will get expended at release.

The video basically confirms possible betrayal and party paranoia pre reaching the city too. Something I was expecting. It sound like once you reach Baldur's Gate, your group is very much settled in thought, so I guess no permanent companions are gained post Act 1.

There is also something else said in that video that makes me think that the cult of the Absolute is more of a McGuffin everyone wants too control than an antagonist faction as we know it in the early access. Maybe someone just want all those groups to kill each others over control of it because murder is there thing?

You can leave a rather large pile of bodies just on the first map available in the early access...

The Absolute will either be Boo or the Vampire Imoen who never truly lost her powers and ended up ascending to god hood.
Hi Ya it’s me Imoen! Now bow before me!

Yeah, I am kind of done with the Bhaalspawn thing. It would be fine in terms of background setting of course, but going forward I would prefer something else. The actual theme of the Baldur's Gate series relates to the main PC being a rare case for whom the "coin of fate" has landed on its edge. This theme comes up in many subtle places throughout the game (Jaheira dialog, Portabellarwinden, various astrologers, etc.) but it is prevalent and it beautifully culminates at the very end of Throne of Bhaal. The "coin on edge" should carry into BG III to maintain its spiritual succession to the series.

What else did Aluando the Wise prophesize about ... there must be something else going on in the universe, no?

I think it's fair to want this sort of dialogue, and something along these lines wouldbe warranted within the game, yes. But I have to admit that I am kinda taken aback by the extremity of your opinion on evil. I'm all for the idea of vampires being inherently evil because they're soulless and thus are metaphysically incapable of actually being good, but "even non-humanoid ones" is a fascinatingly intense opinion in my view. I mean, our PCs eat meat. I'd really like to hear you expand on that more. With Wyll, I also disagree with your stance there but it's a stance I see as entirely reasonable. And again something that should be supported within the scope of the game.


Honestly, I feel like having our custom PC be the true "Last Bhaalspawn" might be treading too close to rehashing the original games, rather than just connecting them. But revealing our character to be the chid of Jaheira and Abdel would definitely be too much in my opinion. Especially since I am on principle against them making a canon Gorion's Ward in lore. I generally feel like a bad sequel won't normally actually ruin the past games, but I find that the exception is when the sequel tries to connect itself too much to the prior installments and lean on them rather than moving forward. It can result in taking things that worked in the original and introducing implications that make the original worse in retrospect.

WoTC created a canon Gorion's War right after BG2 released and they killed him to bring back Bhaal when they moved the setting to 5e and resurrected the God of Murder.

But I don't think Abdel Adrian is doing to be reference by name, class, race or gender in BG3. Sarevok is already referenced though and there is a in-game book about the Bhaalspawn saga too.

I guess you could argue based on the magic the gathering baldurs gate set. Not a coincidence Minsk and jaheira are part of it.

Yes that was more a case of my needing to have been somewhat more specific. I'm often writing these posts while in the midst of work. I'm okay with killing animals for food. But a vampire "feeding" on something feels more like torturing an animal rather than eating it. So yeah, feeding as killing and eating would be okay, even for a vampire. Feeding as torturing would not.

Ah, I see. Yeah that makes perfect sense then. I'm just used to the idea that vampire bites have a way of "sedating" the victim in a way that isn't torture, but it does vary from media to media.

So the last patch is out. And while it might be a bit cynical my experience with betas (when they were still a thing) and early access is to never expect more than what is shown or announced. So for now I assume that there won't be monks or dragonborn in BG3

Beta's sure, especially that happen month before launch, but I can't recall early access release which wouldn't come with a healthy dose of new content.

Actually quite a lot nowadays, since early access is sometimes sold for a premium to people some days/weeks before release.

That’s not “early access” though.
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess

Unfortunately, not all companies are as ethical as Steam on that subject.

on monks I won't be too sure. I had a bug where I could enter some dev modules (where the char generator was different). Look what i posted once. There was clearly a monk!

Okay, if that's the monk outfit, I think it looks AWESOME. I love the colors too.

Rumors are spreading. You hear the whispering? May there be an upcoming announcement of the monk and revamped shove attack?