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

None of it is 100% confirmed, but based on what we've seen in the character creator, it looks like humans and half-elves get proficiency with all polearms, light armor proficiency and shield proficiency. In gaining this, humans lost 3 attribute points and half-elves lost 1 attribute point. There is no word on shield dwarfs getting anything to compensate at all. This basically invalidates humans and half-elves on any martial class, as they already have those proficiencies built into the class. Humans will get the same attributes as everyone else but will have essentially no racial bonuses whatsoever, and half-elves would be straight up outclassed by regular elves. You can use these new proficiencies to make certain builds more interesting, like having shields on a caster, but it changes these races from having bonuses that helped EVERY build (more attribute points) to only helping a few builds while quite literally invalidating them for many more builds. Again, none of this is completely confirmed, but this is the view we're operating under until Larian clarifies what they're actually getting. I really, REALLY hope they just give us the option to trade these proficiencies in for the extra attribute points that were taken away.