Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Suggestions for DLC / Definitive Edition

Hello all! Here is a compilation of suggestions about content additions and changes / improvements for possible DLC or Definitive Edition. Larian representatives said that they wanted to do more, but did not know what (at that time at least), so we could help them with some old and new ideas. Here are some:

New locations:
- Upper City. Even though Karlach's quest resolution was moved to Avernus, there is still potential content that could be explored here - getting allies against Gortash alongside Florrick, House of Wonders, some general nobility issues and politics games and so on.
- Avernus. Epilogue heavily hints about continuation of Karlach's story in Avernus and we could simply help her. Even if Karlach was killed by player / left / died in endgame, there are still potential plots there - Raphael's machinations (if he is alive) or vengeance of Mephistopheles (if Raphael was killed).
- Portals in House of Hope. They could activate after Raphael's death and allow to explore a bit of other cities and continents in a manner similar to Chult's jungle secret area.

New playable races:
- Goblins - already exist in the game and are a playable race in 5e.
- Orcs - already exist in the game and are a playable race in 5e.
- Aasimar - at least one exists in BG3, so Larian already has a base for their model and could work from that.

New class: Artificer.
The game already has several representatives of this class (most notably Gondians and one of them even accompanies you in Steel Watcher's foundry), so Larian should already have some basics and foundations of this class and could just expand it into a full class in DLC / Definitive Edition. It also would provide second Intelligence based class for Wizards to potentially multiclass with and would bring Intelligence more in line with other caster main attributes.

New subclasses - one for each existing class, but if adding a new subclass for every class would take too much work, new subclasses could be added to classes that have only 3 currently to bring them more in line with classes that already have 4-8 subclasses implemented.

New companions - entirely new companions could be nice, but since creating new stories and characters might take several more years and that would be too long / too much work, Larian could instead take several existing NPC and turn them into companions. They should get enough work put into them to not repeat Halsin's case, but at least they already have their model, lore and role in the world and many of them are already involved in the plot.
Artificer companion - Barcus Wroot or Dammon. Barcus is already heavily involved into Act 2 and 3 plotlines and could just participate in them personally as a companion - save Wulbren in Act 2, deal with Gondians / Wulbren in Act 3 and so on. As for Dammon, he can have heavy involvement in Avernus part, as he both could help Karlach fix her engine like before or get rare materials for new crafts and potentially visit Carixim again, perform a hard quest for him and get / craft a powerful item as a reward. As for his shop, he could simply leave an associate to provide similar wares.
Bard companion - Helia or Alfira. Helia was a datamined Bard companion, but was either not ready or scrapped before release. Larian likely still has her foundations, so if wanted they could fix her issues or have enough time to complete and release her as a companion. As for Alfira - while she does not play much role in Act 1, in Act 2 she could join to save other tieflings from Moonrise Towers and in Act 3 accompany our party to successfully write a song about us. As for her goal to open a school, she could simply do that after the events of BG3 and tell us about its progress in the epilogue party.
Monk companion - One of Orpheus Honor Guard. When we fight them at the end of Act 2, one of the assailants that come through the portal and attack us in camp could survive the encounter and escape. We could later meet him / her in Act 3, for example in Sharess Caress alongside Voss and if we agree to help free Orpheus, he / she could become a companion with plot of getting Orphic Hammer and freeing the prince. Such companion could have additional antagonism with Vlaakith aligned Laezel, interactions with Orpheus and could even offer himself / herself for transformation in addition to existing options.
Sorcerer companion - that is harder, since we almost don't meet them in the game. Might require entirely new NPC or potentially canon Dark Urge (White Dragonborn Sorcerer) available as a companion.

New spells - decision of whether to raise level cap and implement level 7+ spells is up to Larian, but there are also many non-implemented level 1-6 spells and cantrips including from non-PHB books that can be added or are even already implemented in the game (like Absorb Elements, Shadow Blade etc). Many of them could improve existing playstyles or even add new ones including:
- Spellblade cantrips like Green-Flame Blade, Booming Blade and even One DND True Strike - they could find good usage in gish / spellblade builds and could help make Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters more competitive with other classes and subclasses.
- Non-Fire based elemental cantrips and spells - they could help address the issue of Fire dominating elemental focused builds and non-Fire Draconic Sorcerers having too limited selection of boosted spells to play with. These include Storm Sphere (currently missing large AoE Lightning spell without target cap for the AoE), Thunderclap (currently missing Thunder damage cantrip), Tasha's Caustic Brew and Vitriolic Sphere (currently missing AoE Acid spells for non-Warlocks), Dragon's Breath (variable damage type cone spell that is pretty much already implemented in game via Dragonborn racial ability, could massively help elemental builds that lack low level AoE spells like Lightning, Acid and Poison) and so on.
- More non-implemented Druid spells to make them less reliant on Concentration for offensive caster builds (with spells like Tidal Wave, Erupting Earth etc) or provide more forms of unique utility that are not accessible for Wizards and Clerics (with spells like Maelstrom, Healing Spirit etc).

New class features - some existing classes could get expanded list of their features for bigger build variety or addressing some of their issues. These involve:
- Fighting Styles and Battlemaster Maneuvers (for example Parry maneuver and Interception style could be helpful for tank Fighter builds)
- Metamagic options: Empowered Spell (exists in PHB, but for some reason not in BG3, if the reason is being hard to code into game engine, it could just add Charisma modifier to one damage roll of affected spell instead), Transmuted Spell (would help non-Fire based Sorcerer builds to become more competitive), Seeking Spell (already exists on one item in game, but is also too expensive, should cost 1 Sorcery Point for any spell like One DND version) etc.

Plot changes and additions - some of existing plot parts could use additions, improvements and changes for immersion, more player choices or better narrative direction. Several examples:
- All companions that remained in camp should participate in final battle, at least the courtyard part. They have just as much or even more motives to fight final boss than allies from Gather Your Allies and should not just sit out in camp / somewhere while the final battle occurs. They could for example be added as AI controlled allied NPC in the courtyard fight and number of enemies there could be increased to compensate - that would both allow to make that battle more epic and immersive and at the same time keep its difficulty on similar level - you get more allies, but more enemies as well. After this battle, they could "cover our back and deal with reinforcements", so that only initial party of 4 would fight the final boss and there could be no need to tweak that battle as well.
- There should be a secret (unlocked by specific quest or item) or very hard option to persuade Emperor to awaken Orpheus and talk to him (while keeping him imprisoned) and persuade Orpheus to work with us and Emperor, potentially as two separate difficult Persuasion checks. If you succeed both, they make a truce and both help you in final battle, but number of enemies there is increased to compensate. For additional flavour and secret reward, you could make imprisoned Orpheus agree to cooperate with us and Emperor via Persuasion check only for players that haven't consumed any additional tadpoles - that is both lore appropriate (since if you have more than just your initial tadpole in your brain Orpheus should feel that and understand that you willingly consumed more tadpoles and treat you accordingly) and provides a reward for players that avoided using them whole game.
- More usage for Mind Protection Ring you receive from Omeluum. It could provide additional options in existing plots - help you avoid being trasformed on failed check in Moonrise Towers, be given to Emperor if you decide to free Orpheus and fail Persuasion checks (then he could still leave, but would have no need to join the final boss and could just not participate in final fight at all) and so on.
- Ethel has letters to other Hags in Baldur's Gate, but we never meet them, even if we kill her. That could be changed and expanded upon - if we oppose / kill Ethel in her lair, she could ally with other Hags or they could try to avenge her, creating an additional plotline.
- Companion quests for Halsin and Minthara in Act 3. For Halsin - Cloakwood is near the Baldur's Gate, so he could deal with some Shadow Druids plot in / near the city, especially if you revealed and stopped the plot in grove earlier and Shadow Druids try to get a revenge. For Minthara - since she opposes her clan after the battle with Absolute and before the epilogue, she could get a quest that would better explain her motives for this crusade (outside of just not worshiping Lolth anymore) - for example being ambushed in Baldur's Gate by Baenre assasins and investigating that further.
- Potential companion quest for Minsc as well and a bit of HP increase for Boo - he is too squishy against high-level enemies. Going for the eyes is a dangerous job.
- Possibility to cure non-ascended Astarion of vampirism (for example in Avernus / via God Gale's intervention / using Gale's scroll of True Resurrection etc).

Balance changes - many spells are undertuned (even if they were directly copied from tabletop - they are undertuned there as well) and could use boosts. Examples are:
True Strike - its advantage gain could be useful for Arcane Tricksters, but most other classes get more value from just attacking twice - at worst they get similar chance to land a hit and at best they hit twice and deal more damage. It could use a boost for competitiveness.
Suggestion: Make it additionally increase damage of affected attack or just replace with One D&D version that turned it into a melee spell attack with several damage types to pick from and bonus damage at higher levels.
Witch Bolt - even on Storm Sorcerer / Lightning based Draconic Sorcerer it is severely undertuned and hardly competitive, even more so on other classes.
Suggestion: At the very least make the link activation cost bonus action instead of action and if needed increase initial damage. That could give it some niche of Concentration based damage over time effect with better action economy cost than currently.
Chromatic Orb - can be useful at lower levels, but gets outclassed at higher levels by offensive cantrips and Ice Knife.
Suggestion: Increase its base damage by 1d8 when character gets level 10. That would keep its lower level scaling similar and in line, but can keep it competitive even at level 10+.
Barkskin - fixed 16 AC does not scale well, especially in late game, where cloth with Mage Armour can have similar AC without cost of Concentration and with getting additional benefits from shields and AC boosting items.
Suggestion: Remove Concentration requirement (since Mage Armour does not have it) and make Barkskin scale with the level of character it is applied to - for example from 16 AC for level 1-4 to 18-20 AC for level 12. That would resolve its scaling issue, but still keep it different from Mage Armour.
Magic Weapon - provides too low value for both Concentration and spell slot cost.
Suggestion: Remove Concentration requirement, that would turn it into just a buff for allies at the cost of spell slot in a manner of Longstrider. If needed, to prevent camp abuse it could be active only if its caster is in the party.
Phantasmal Force - does too low damage, especially for Concentration cost.
Suggestion: Just needs a decent damage buff and possibility to upscale, for example 2d6 damage per turn with similar upscaling. That would provide 6d6 (avg 21) damage of flexible damage type per turn on spell level 4 and can make it competitive, but still a bit inferior to Phantasmal Killer with 4d10 (avg 22) damage + frighten per turn and keep the usual rule of upcasted spell not being better than spell of that level.
Shatter - does decent damage at its base spell level, but starting from spell level 3 has bad scaling that makes it entirely outclassed by other AoE spells, especially Fireball and Glyph of Warding.
Suggestion: Make it upscale to 5d8 damage at spell level 3 and then get usual 1d8 damage increase per spell level. That would make it more competitive at higher levels.
Ray of Enfeeblement - too low effect for both spell slot and Concentration cost, especially compared to spells like Hold Person and even Blade Ward.
Suggestion: Should affect Dexterity based damage output as well, no longer require Concentration (since other debuff spell Blindness does not require it) and upscale in a similar manner to it. That would turn it into competitive and alternative to Blindness debuff spell.
Grasping Vine - is severy undertuned compared to most other summons and for some reason requires Concentration while other summons don't.
Suggestion: Remove Concentration requirement, increase its HP and add some damage to its pulling attack. That should make it more competitive with other spells.
Wall of Stone - decent, but high level enemies break it too easy.
Suggestion: Increase its health and allow to be upcasted with 6th level spell slot with more health.
Circle of Death - is a bit undertuned, as for example Otiluke's Freezing Sphere (other 6th level spell) has similar radius, but does 2d6 more damage and has additional benefits.
Suggestion: Increase damage of Circle of Death to 8d8 or 10d6.

That sums up the list of suggestions. Feel free to add some in comments and thank you for reading!