Larian Studios Forums Divinity General Discussion Larian needs to make the world of Divinity more interesting! 🙏

I gotta say, I was a little disappointed when they announced Divinity, because I was really hoping for Baldur’s Gate 4.
I found Baldur’s Gate 3 infinitely more interesting than Divinity 1/2.
Don’t get me wrong, Divinity 2 has a lot of good things, but the world weren't as interesting or captivating to me as Baldur's Gate. The design of the enemies, bosses, areas, characters, classes etc. often felt bland and uninspired.

Whereas Baldur's Gate 3 had a much more interesting world, more compelling content, more appealing art direction, excellent enemy designs, excellent quest design.

After all, the game had two previous games, the rich D&D universe, a HUGE bestiary filled with interesting creatures, races etc, lots of cool classes, A LOT of material to draw from as a foundation for creating a masterpiece.

But what about now? What are Larian's plans to make Divinity more interesting? They need to improve all the aspects I mentioned (lore, world, creatures, races, characters, etc.) and also invest heavily in art direction.
I PRAY they can make this game better than Baldur's Gate 3. 🙏

Frankly I can't even say I cared a lot about getting "Baldur's Gate 4" specifically.
In fact, I don't even like D&D -or more specifically the Forgotten Realms- that much.
It's just that my opinion of Rivellon as a setting is that low that I find the alternative so much more appealing.

But I'll make clear that I'm not even necessarily hostile to it. In principle I'm open to witness an unexpected miracle and see Divinity turn out to be an example of phenomenal world building.

They basically immediatey told us there will be no expansion for BG3 and Larian wont make BG4 - at least not in the forseeable future, anyway. Maybe in 15 years or some such, who knows.

Obviously Dinitiy will have more content than previous titles, but not as much as BG3.

I certainly hope they improve what I've learned about the Divinity combat system. That was not so great.

Ironically, I'm the opposite.

BG3 had the advantage of being a very fleshed out setting and having more resources put into its graphics.

But the way Larian handled the setting was awful. Most of the interesting interactions and racial dynamics just flat out didn't exist. It was just the bare bones of "Duergar are mean. No-one likes Tieflings. Gith are d*cks.". That was it, that was the major extent of BG3's setting. No dynamics, no history, no continuation of plotlines established in prior titles and realistically no plotlines to continue moving forwardDivinity has had a lot more nuance to it. Especially the Original Sin games.

OS1 puts the player in the shoes of Mage Hunters, where the entire game it showing how evil they are and they must be destroyed for the good of the world. You get a lot of lore about The Divine Order and it sets up the concept that Sourcery is linked to the Void.

OS2 puts the player in the shoes of a Sourcerer. Thus showing that they aren't necessarily evil. It also provides information to expand on the nature of the Source and how it interacts with the Void. It portrays the darker side of The Divine Order in how they ignore that Sourcerers are people and can be good natured, as well as uncovering all the dark experiments they perform on Sourcerers.

OS also covers the history of the races, with a brief look into the culture of Elves. As well as the the deal with the "Gods" and the Void (And the God King who was imprisoned there)

Personally, I never felt that any places or quests in OS2 to be lacking. While BG3 did have a lot of quests and stories that felt unfinished (Especially Karlach's companion questline).


They have outright stated that this new Divinity title will be "Larger in scope and depth" than BG3.

Of course, this makes me concerned given their inability to finish an Act 3 even on smaller games...

But they at least aim for this title to offer more content than even BG3.

Thats refering to the game itself, not to the setting.

Obviously if Larian works on their Divinity setting for like 50 years, they can reach what D&D reached, too.

To be fair, Duergar and Githyanki were monster book entries when they began their D&D-careers. Due to Duergar and their god being exiled by Moradin (head of dwarven pantheon) they lack the ability to ever feel satisfied. Originally being Grey, or Deep Dwarves, they're extremely susceptible to sunlight, and surrounded by enemies they live in militaristic dictatorship city states in the Underdark. Tieflings used to be rare and highly mistrusted due to their ancestry from the Lower Planes (The Nine Hells, the Abyss, Gehenna, Hades,...). Thus, they often only found work in sketchy areas which only confirmed the bias people held against them. Githyanki are pretty well explained in the game itself and were portrayed pretty close to the source material. For the rest, I think that Larian's take on species was that they're pointy-eared humans. That was okay within the setting of Baldur's Gate, since you often find expats and exiles near great port cities who pick up the lifestyle of their chosen homes, but generally BG3 elves don't look or act very D&D-elvish. For gold dwarves on the other hand, I think it worked pretty well.

From what I understand, Wizard of the Coast, the company publishing D&D, isn't exactly easy to work with. One thing I've heard from several people and found confirmed in one of Larian's statements was that the people in charge change way too frequently for consistent work. You begin a project with an enthusiastic team, but then eventually everybody gets replaced, decisions of former members of the team or their management get revoked, and you have to start over or rework several times. As an affiliate of Hasbro Inc. their orientation is commercial, not creative. They understand the gamer as some sort of hobbyist, like people who like to go fishing or play the piano, and treat us according to the Hobbyist section in their Marketing for Dummies book. This is often great to grab public attention and make huge sales, but never ages well.

So, as much as I would have loved a Tourmaline Depths DLC or one where you go to Cania to get some coolant for Karlach's improved infernal steel heart, I completely understand how corp people just get in the way of creative processes and just hope they'll put all the gained experience into something awesome.

Now you are refering to super old D&D lore. Or possibly lore thats not part of D&D at all.

You could meet a surface Duergar even back in Baldurs Gate 2, which is AD&D, or D&D2. No problem with the sun.

Yes, because that's the Duergars' creative origin as a D&D species. I mean generally species in D&D have become more accessible/likeable and grey. In the beginning, orcs were generally evil. By the mid-90s, even goblins were available as a playable race. Duergar on the surface are of course possible. Drow are described as slowly losing their Underdark-related special abilities, like levitation, and their aversion to bright lights when they spend too much time on the surface. However, there are no rules describing such a process for Duergar which would leave them at a disadvantage unless you give them a house rule. Duergar living on the surface must have been a thing with BG2 which I unfortunately never played, then.

The Complete Book of Dwarves, which I think introduced Duergar as a playable race, states any bright light gives them disadvantages. (Fact check: nope, it was indeed AD&D 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana by Gary Gygax in 1985 - but similar restrictions).

I don't think BG3 being more interesting to you had anything to do with it being Dungeon's & Dragons universe but rather it being game which Larian made after Divinity Original Sin 2.

I do agree that BG3 world was overall more interesting, but D&D even in some ways has less variety and diversity. Larian have been getting much better at things, and i don't think Larian's own world is inherently any less interesting or less varied. Elves are just pointy eared human elves, not flesh eating tree born elves of Larian for example.
Dungeons and Dragons started 52 years ago, it has had long head start, and early Larian games were nowhere near same level as BG3, really only DOS2 is comparable but even that was made earlier and ofc without lessons they learned from DOS2. Now they have learned lessons from BG3 and have full freedom to do whatever they want with their universe, there is no way they will make it less interesting than BG3.

I have fully confidence that their next game will be on same level with BG3, and quite possibly much better. Nothing good lasts forever but i have full confidence Larian's golden age is not yet over.