Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Speculation on what Races and Classes might be announced at Panel From Hell

Okay I've been thinking about it for awhile, and given the Baldur's Gate ACT is 5 times bigger then planned, that's given the player options team alot of extra time to work on things they might not otherwise have gotten too.

I'm not including Half Orc, Monk, or Dragonborn because its already been indirectly announced by saying all PHB classes and races will be in full release, so this is just stuck completely unannounced directly or indirectly. Although I will mention its possible it'll be the Treasury of Dragons version given we got the Tome of Foes version Tieflings.

Because of Gortash & his Steelwatch I think Warforged and Artificer are in. Plays to the same themes and kidnapping Nautiliod makes Warforged from Eberron easily justified..

Aasimar we saw in a trailer.

I think the bigger body choice is a sign Firbolgs and Goliaths could be in, and the fact that in 2024. Goliaths are getting a promotion to PHB could make them even more likely.

Tritons and Genasi are easy to do and could be useful if we can visit inside the river.

A Goblin briefly joins the party as a follower so there is presidence for Goblins being in the party.

Githzerai makes sense for plot reasons and to counter balance Githyanki.



People love cats, so Tabaxi are a possiblity, plus you want to get the furry market, its just good business sense.

Really outside chance of Fairies, Satyrs, Haregon, Shifters, Owlin, Minotaurs, Loxo/Loxodons, etc...

Extremely unlikely Leonin (but that would be cool),
vedalken, and Simic Hybrid because they are MtG races that don't appear in normal D&D settings (yet), and Centaurs for having four legs.

Classes beyond the Artificer don't exist unless they use something third party like Blood Hunter or they use one of the unearthed arcana classes that never got published like Mystic.

Thoughts?

Remember the Player options teams had ALOT of extra time to do stuff. And that Larian said they would release the full list of Classes and Races at the Panel From Hell, which would not be needed if it was just the PHB options.

Dragonborn, half-orc and monk. Anything else is too speculative to me. People tend to underestimate the amount of work that goes into adding a new race or class.

I'd love to see MtG races appear in BG3 as I already have a sense of how they function. Leonin and Vedalken would be neat, but I'm curious what you mean by 'Simic Hybrid'.

As per MtG lore, the Simic Combine (one of ten guilds on the city-plane of Ravnica) strive to improve on evolution through cross-breeding and rapid hybridization. They make stuff like jellyfish-hydra-beasts and the sharktocrab (shark+octopus+crab). So, when you refer to Simic Hybrids, do you mean the wizard/scientists who make new creatures in vats (which would be an amazing, if unlikely, game mechanic), or do you mean the cross-bred creatures themselves?

I hate to be sceptical here ... but as far as i know, Swen only admited that they invested much more time and resources into building a city.
Im not aware that anything else was mentioned.

Again ... sceptic in my head is right now screaming that it was not actually an Aasimar ...
Even chubblot Admited on Twitter that he was most likely wrong about this.

And even if, wich alone is quite big if ... that can still be just NPC.

This actually is possible ... not really sure how probable tho.
Since bigger body can only be created for that purpose, so followers like Minsc, who was officialy anounced, can wear different armour, than his default one.

I agree on Genasi ... humans with weird skin collor can be made even now.
Question is if Larian would be satisfied with such lazy design ... i have subtle feeling that they would not.

Whoa, thats quite far fetched theory ...
Problem with Goblins is that their models are right now "made with armor" ... they dont have separate armor models and body model ... and since having a follower that can never change would feel really bad, i kinda doubt Larian would stain their name like this.

So, Goblins seems quite unlikely to me ...
Unless Larian changed lots of things without teling us.

They do?
How?

I mean ... i know many people thinks that Githzerai are basicaly given, since they dont require any additional models ...
But im affraid reactivity would be the real issue here.

As much as it pains me ... i would presume Tabaxi belong to the same group.
They would need to create everything from scratch ...
Also, signature move of Tabaxi is their climbing ... and since we havent seen even a single sign from Larian that they mean to include any kind of climbing to their game ... i have strong doubt that we get cat folk. :-/

Same goes for Lizardfolk ...
Sadly ... very sadly ...

And what is worse, possibly even for Aarakocra.

Haf Orcs, Dragonborn, and Monks [i][maybe/i] Duergar since they were datamined. IDK what would follow that, you'd be getting into options that aren't a great fit for the Realms pretty quick. Even artificer IIRC was called out by WoTC themselves as such.

Longshot would be warforged, but honestly I hope not. Let them stay in Eberron.

Plus, we need to keep into consideration animation/dialogue work that would be needed for each. Half orcs can use the datamined 'buff' body, Duergar can use the already-in-game dwarf animations. Stuff like Dragonborn is going to be a lot of work.

I guess if we are wishlisting though, hobgoblins would be neat.


Magic the Gathering is a separate IP. This would be like having Wookies from Star Wars in the game.

I could see Larian swapping out Goliath for Dragonborn for a "bigger than human" character option. The benefits would be that they wouldn't have to adapt armor models to the DB body-type or create a variety of unique DB animations including faces, gaits, and lizardy tail-related things.

Other than that, I'm skeptical of any other non-PHB races being introduced.

Of classes and sub-classes, obviously, Monks will be introduced. I think non-PHB sub-classes are very likely, although it's pointless to try to guess which ones. The PHB is far too sparse for sub-classes, in my opinion.

Who knows? But races that already have assets in the game could happen.
And classes? Make Wyll a hexblade (or even a homebrew version)!

Oooh! I agree!

MtG and DnD are closer IPs than one might think. Both games being owned by the same company, MtG has had more than one set designed around the DnD IP (including one set designed specifically around BG3). DnD has had more than one book based around worlds created for MtG, including Ravnica whence hail the Simic. The infamous Silvery Barbs cantrip, for example, came from a DnD book based on Strixhaven, an MtG set.

None of this is to say I expect any MtG crossover in BG3. In fact, given we have an MtG set designed around BG3, I'd say any creature type not in that set is very unlikely to appear in BG3. Looking to that card set, here are the creature types we have yet to encounter in BG3, though they may not be playable races (mild spoilers):

I only put my money on the PHB races and classes and maybe...maybe artificer, since it does seem, especially after the last trailer, that this class might play a bigger role.

MTG also had a Lord of the Rings set just recently-it doesn't mean they are the same setting. Likewise, wotc published official 'Rick and Morty' for D&D.

Maybe WotC will consolidate their two big fantasy multiverses in the future. I wouldn't put it past them, but I think it would ultimately be a big mistake, as while the two IPs superficially share a lot of similarities, they are very different on a fundamental, world building scale. D&D (the ruleset) is just a medium. Same with mtg. You can potentially explore LotR or Elder Scrolls or Star Wars or Forgotten Realms or Rick and Morty or whatever in this medium, but they are still different settings.

Oh I forgot they already had something from the MtG Settings in the game.

And some of those creature types on your list like Azra were simply reprints for the Commander Decks, so they don't count (In CL sets Commander Decks are concidered apart of the main set, just not draftable, and don't get a seperate expansion symbol).

I'll also add that there was that free adventure with AFR that had the Ravnican villian in the Forgotten Realms. Despite coming from Magic the Gathering, the Campaign Books GMGtR, MOoT, and S:CoC are all written as if they occur in the main cosmology, Theros for example is mention as being in the Material Plane and Strixhaven has Tieflings, Halflings, Slaads, and Dragonborn for example.

Also the Naiad from MOoT appeared in Candlekeep Mysteries with new art.

I have a novel where X-Men and Star Trek crossover called Planet X, so there are stranger crossovers then D&D and MtG.

Swen straight up said Baldur's Gate is 5 times bigger then originally intended, that's his own figure, not mine, that gives the player option teams alot more time to work. Who knows how much bigger ACT 1 & 2 got over time, alot of Act 1, Moonrise Towers and beyond never made it to EA, and that's a huge part of ACT 1.

chubblot datamined video were its straight said up to be an Aasimar.

We have a picture of a woman that looks either like a Triton or Water Genasi.

Goliaths are a PHB race now.

You could be right about Goblins.

Githzerai makes sense because they hate both hate Mindflayers and Githyanki, and so there is that conflicit to explore.

Good points all around. I'd say two things in response.

1. While Wizards of the Coast (who make both games) have had an IP cross-over kick in recent years, the ties between MtG and DnD are older than this relatively new trend. They've shared staff, including designers; they share lore DNA in their common love for Tolkien; the third set printed for MtG (back in 1994!) was based on a DnD campaign played by MtG designers. (They straight up made their player characters into magic cards).

2. I agree that the rulesets could be used to describe any setting. However, I'd argue that the "vanilla" versions of MtG and DnD have settings that are at the very least compatible. It's goblins and dragons and magic, Oh my! Sure, those are fantasy tropes today, but I think DnD and MtG helped normalize their settings as "default fantasy" by being old and popular (and stealing a good amount from Tolkien... with some pushback from his estate ^^).

In the end, do I expect Vedalken in BG3? No, I do not. However, I'm confident the MtG set themed around Baldur's Gate 3 went through several rounds of vetting to make sure the cards ligned up with the video game. Based on that, I'm optimistic about Dragonborn, Lizardfolk, Tabaxi, Aarakokra and Githzerai as well as the artificer and monk classes. The set also has a bunch of named characters but I would recommend against looking into that if spoilers are an issue.

Edit :
I couldn't tell from the Gatherer web page whether the cards were from commander decks, as the whole thing is called Commander Legends : Battle for Baldur's Gate. That does explain why so many reprints, though. And it makes Aarakokra less likely in BG3, because the Bird Wizard I found (Aven Mindcensor) is just a reprint.

Huh, knews to me. Good info, thanks!

I by the way also do so, it seems I'm not the only one and it gets that it really makes sense :))

I would really like Merfolk, given the apparent importance of Umberlee in the plot and background art, Larian's history with maritime themes and to have a nice simmetry with the "draconic bloodline" and its fire affinity.

Also, I had this dream where my Mermaid Bard showed off against the Harpys and won Faerun's Got Talent, so.

Litteral quote: "We spend i think three times, four times as much effort on the city than we originally planed."
Source. (Timesnap included.)

See the differences?
City ... not ACT ...
Effort ... not size ...
3-4 ... not 5 ...

Let me give you an example ...
I presume i will work 3 hours on making a statue ... but i takes me 12 hours instead ... its more detailed, i made much more effort to make it pretty, than i expected ... it took me 4 times as much ...
But its still just that single statue.
I didnt make 4 statues instead.

Wich is also pure speculation ...
Since nothing about it was ever confirmed.

No ...
Chubblot datamined a few second long clip of some winged being ... and a voiceline that mentions Aasimar ...
He thought they belong together and that winged being is said Aasimar ...

A little later (quite litteraly few hours) he admited that he was most likely wrong in this tweet.

Also ... if we concider another voicelines, he datamined some time ago, in previous patch then...
Both should be taken scepticaly tho, bcs as Chubblot himself repeately reminded people, problem with datamining is that you are basicaly checking work in progress ... and things change as Larian work on them.
Few examples of such would be:
- Minthara was originaly a Cleric ...
- Karlach had originaly a Paladin tag ...
- And acording to some REALLY OLD (and when i say really old, i mean it was most likely some pre-EA build remains) datamining, Helia was originally supposed to be first druid of Emerald Grove ... where she was later replaced by Halsin, and her class changed to Bard ...

I would love to see it, since i must have missed it ...

OH WAIT!
I think i know what you mean!

You are talking about that scene that takes place on 2:23 right?
Those few perfectly human looking womans in quite nice blue dresses with tridents right?

I mean, yeah one of them had a little weird scaly looking thigh ...
But that may aswell be just extend of Dragon Blood Sorcerer (wich was stanting there aswell, if you look at second one from right, she have scales on her face).

Well, any race makes sence, since they simply exist in this world.
Wich is basicaly all and only reason Larian need to include them ...

Question is not if they have anything to do in this story ... but if they are necessary for it.

---

But dont get me wrong ...
I also hope for as exotic races as possible ...
I want to play my Tabaxi Rogue, Tortle Monk, Lizardfolk Ranger, Aarakocra Sorcerer, or Aasimar Paladin ... or at least some of them ... Lizardfolk Ranger, if i would need to pick just one.

Im just trying to not build on false hope ... the worse that will happen to me is that i will be pleasantly surprised.
And presuming something is confirmed just bcs Chubblot thought it, or i have seen picture of something that may teoreticaly be it ... that is false hope.

Right now, i really, really, REALLY hope that Larian will clear matters of classes, races, and prefferably also companions in next PFH (happening 7/7 ... meaning in just 3 weeks if i count corectly) ... but even that we dont really know, if you get what i mean.

y'all really shouldn't get your hope this high. PHB races and classes are all they promised and they haven't shown Dragonborn officially yet. at most one more surprising race. you really bring yourself to be disappointed for thinking they would add so many exotic races.

about the "aasimar"

I'm definitely in the camp that prefers to keep expectations low (with a secret hope of being pleasantly surprised) but I do wonder about that scaly lady with her back to us at 2:23 in the latest trailer. Like you I also thought draconic bloodline sorceror to begin with, but given evidence this scene is in the temple of Umberlee and all the shimmery fishlike scales around, perhaps she is a water genasi or some other water-related race (triton, sea elf?). She also has a fancy hairdo, so unless that's an indication that we'll get more hairstyles in the full release (which I'm desperately hoping, but haven't spotted any other evidence for as yet) then it looks as though she might be a major figure, perhaps a high priestess of Umberlee, with a thematically appropriate race for a cleric of a sea goddess. Though even if so it wouldn't mean that's a playable race.

All total speculation of course. Though I wouldn't be that surprised if at least a few more non-PHB races appear as NPCs but we can't play as them.