No but we are talking Baldurs Gate franchise, dont underestimate that. Those are some of the greatest rpg games ever made. A lot of people who played those were dnd players. and alot became so afterwards.
Anyway, I didnt mean to imply that d&d players will be in the majority. I said Huge and Baseline. What I meant by that is that, when BG 3 was announced, a major part of the audience for news were d&d fans and ppl who had already played BG 1 and BG2. Thats what I meant by baseline. But then naturally, as gameplay footage, media attention, word of mouth etc etc gets going like in the past 2 years. Ramping up towards release, d&D players playing the game will be in the minority. But Im still thinking 10-25% to be honest. Which is nothing to scoff at. Larian have already done a few things which might alienate the most stubborn/hardcore 1% of those ppl (like myself).
This recent ability score change have soured my impression slightly of the game (Im kind of furious to be honest), but I love the rest, and look forward so much to the content, that Ill be willing to let that slide. Until a mod comes along that is . To a lesser extent the lack
My dude the game went from the 70s to top 3 because of bear sex.
Here's the thing, all of those changes that may drive off that 1%? Well there causeing exponentially more people to get/keep playing the game.
As a thought exercise, imagine you are trying to bring a few newbies into tabletop but you tell tell them humans are best at nothing and will be inharently weaker no matter what class they play. Do you imagine most people would want to play a game like that? The average person wants to be able to play a barbarian gnome, or lusty dragonborn bard, if they wish, without gimping themselves.
As a side note most. People in the realms pay tribute to multiple gods, even paladins, devoting specifically to one is mostly a cleric thing.
Still doesnt make it right, and I doubt it keeps more ppl playing, the story, combat, cinematics, choices etc etc etc will ensure that.
Humans are probably the most versatile class, and easiest to roleplay for new players to be honest, Id encourage any new player in my group to play whatever they want (within limits, its my table after all , Im a DM and also a player in another group). As a tabletop player, Humans, Dwarfs and Half Orcs are my favourite races to play. So when they imo, get shafted like this by Larian less than a month before release, its gonna upset me. And its gonna upset quite alot of ppl, as one can see on this forum thread alone.
When it comes to Paladins, and deities your wrong. Read SCAG. "Most paladins are dedicated to A deity", thats just one sentence from that book, there are several more. That goes for most ppl in the realms as well. Most ppl pray situationally to different deities, but they usualy have one favourite, often connected to their way of life/proffession. Again SCAG.
As a dm tou should be even more aginst the old way. Considering it had tons of silly stuff like gnomes being better wizards than humans.
Half orcs remain the meta for physical strikers and dwarfs still get their con dice.
Per d&d beyond many, but not most, devotion paladins build their oath off their God and devotion paladins are probably the most religious of the oaths
>The Oath of Devotion binds a paladin to the loftiest ideals of justice, virtue, and order. Sometimes called cavaliers, white knights, or holy warriors, these paladins meet the ideal of the knight in shining armor, acting with honor in pursuit of justice and the greater good. They hold themselves to the highest standards of conduct, and some, for better or worse, hold the rest of the world to the same standards. Many who swear this oath are devoted to gods of law and good and use their gods’ tenets as the measure of their devotion. They hold angels—the perfect servants of good—as their ideals, and incorporate images of angelic wings into their helmets or coats of arms.
Even then though it pales in comparison to a proper cleric bond as fir paladin a god is a rolmodel, for a cleric a god is everything.
If you want to be a god chosen holy warrior a war cleric is for you
. To a lesser extent the lack