Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Is the new racial attribute system optional?

Look, I get that the new system of no set racial attributes and instead having a generic +2/+1 to allocate wherever you want allows you to use certain race/class combos that normally wouldn't work very well like a half-orc wizard and stuff like that, but I REALLY do not want to use this new system. I want to use the system that has been in the game for the entirety of the early access period. The new system heavily changes/straight up nerfs many of the races, and I DO NOT want these changes. Will we be able to switch back to the OG system? I don't have a problem with the new system existing, but I'm going to be flabbergasted if this isn't optional since the old system has been in use for ~3 years and is already created, so why erase it instead of making it an option?

I'm sure there will be mods to revert it, so in that sense it is optional.

Sure, but I'd rather not have to resort to mods, especially since I was planning to be a half-drow sorcerer for my first playthrough. Those mods likely won't be there day 1, so I'm gonna have to play something else. If this is just an optional toggle then everyone wins.

I hope so. But probably not.

You can still play a half drow sorcerer though. If anything that combo will be better now

Meh. I don't care much about the min-maxing, but I *do* care about the racial things having relevance in the universe. Dwarves ought to be more tanky than elves. Elves ought to be more dextrous than Half Orcs. Half Orcs ough to be stronger than Humans, Humans ought to be more versatile than everyone else.

I could, yes, but I would be missing out on an attribute point that I previously would have had. I don't want to do that, so I think I'll play a zariel tiefling paladin instead, since they're basically unaffected by the changes this new system brings. I'll wait until a mod comes out that reverts to the old system to play any of the nerfed/heavily changed races, unless this new system is optional, of course.

It doesn't appear to be optional. And to make it worse, it appears that martial races now get to feel oh-so-martial by getting gear proficiencies instead. Which offers absolutely no advantage for martial classes but might be of some use for spellcaster classes.

Thus we seemingly have the ass backwards result that the best spellcasters are martial races with no inherent flair for spellcasting and the best warrior types are squishy races with no inherent talent for combat. Want to be a front line brawler? No, don't pick dwarf, pick elf! Want to be a master sorcerer? No, don't pick elf, pick dwarf or dragonborn!

Yeah, the goal of making it so you can do race/class combinations that normally don't work well is understandable but it just throws everything out of whack. Making this optional would solve it, and I don't see it being hard to do so considering the old system is already there, just let us choose it.

You get medium armor profincy and polarms instead. Much better than 1 attribute point

I mean for the most part you can opt out of it yourself by putting the ability score increases on the races traditional stats, there's nothing to stop you from giving your wood elf +2 dex and +1 wis, the only the races you can't do this with are the ones that got extra ASI's (human, half elf, and mountain dwarf).

You get medium armor profincy and polarms instead. Much better than 1 attribute point

I don't think it is but I don't mind it that much. Humans and Dwarves lose out the most and then Dragonborn and Half-Elves are also pretty terribly but it'll be fine. Larian are still balancing that stuff, I'm sure they'll do something to help out the races that need a little extra to make them not be as terrible.

I disagree.
Yes, I know. My point is that screws over those races that previously got more than a combined total of 3 points, and as others have pointed out it makes certain optimal choices very strange. Again, if this is just made into an optional toggle then everyone wins.

That point would have been spent in dex or con reguardless, and that 1 point would be worth less in tank atats than medium armour.

That point would have been spent in dex or con reguardless, and that 1 point would be worth less in tank stats than medium armour.

I'll take that over polearms and armor that I don't intend to use. In any case, I'm not here to argue my build ideas, I'm here to argue that this new system shouldn't just replace the old system and that you should be able to choose which system you use.

Indeed, a dextrous elf has become no more dextrus than a dextrous half-orc or human. And an exceptionally strong half-orc has become no stronger than an exceptionally strong halfling. Meanwhile, dwarfs now gain what exactly that they didn't gain before, to make up for the fact that they're as a whole no tougher than gnomes? What advantage does a dwarf fighter have over a gnome fighter, for instance? How about a dragonborn fighter, are they scarier or tougher or stronger than high elf fighters?

I can do a whole bunch of stuff, but there's absolutely no way for me to pretend that any races are inherently stronger or tougher or smarter or more coordinated in their movements, because the game plain and simply contradicts that notion in very explicit terms.

And the end result, like I said, would seemingly be that the meta will end up being martial races for squishy classes and squishy races for martial classes, because the martial races really don't offer any kind of synergy with martial classes.

Honestly it depends on what class you plan to play as. Being able to have +2 to main stat instead of +1 is great. You lose out some points as you go from total +6 to total +3 but that's not a big a problem as some of those would have gone into stats that you'd have dumped anyway so really you're only losing 1 meaningful point. Beyond that medium armor is great...especially if you don't plan to play a class that relies on dex. Polearms are not great, I hate them, so I see that as a wasted bonus. But Larian are still balancing this stuff so hopefully in the final game there will be something more there.

I disagree with your point about the +6 being overkill, I was going to use humans as my race for wacky multiclass options that use more than 2 main stats. Again though, I'm not here to argue my build ideas or optimizations, I just want the old system to be an optional toggle. I appreciate that you're trying to mitigate my dislike of the new system, but I am simply never going to like it, though again I appreciate what it's trying to do and that many others will prefer it. Have your system, but please don't erase mine.