Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Community Update #8 - Character Creation

Calling them Sun Elves would be kinda wrong, though. In Faerun 5e (according to the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at least), High Elf race both represent Moon and Sun Elves.

Under the term Seldarine Drow, I think Larian means drows who follow the Dark Maiden, Eilistraee and wish to be accepted by the Seldarine again (as the drows were spiritually cut off from the Seldarine, in a similar but not the same way as Irenicus was, back during the Crown Wars).

I for one am really glad for the distinction between Lolth-worshipping and renegade Drows because it gives deeper 'backstory' for the custom made Drow characters. Now the game will know instantly what kind of drow you want to play as.

If for no other reason than roleplaying, I wish they would have kept the distinction between sun and moon elves rather than lumping them together as "high" elves.

Indeed, Moon Elf and Sun Elf should be separate subraces. And if they can put in made up subraces like "Seldarine Drow", then making those two subraces separate shouldn't be a problem

Yeah but what is the point of making a separate Sun and Moon elf subrace other than cosmetics?

The Player Handbook does not separate them (no special subrace feature for either Sun or Moon elf).

In terms of roleplaying, it is a very minor distinction (not like the difference between a drow who follows Lolth and a drow who tries to redeem his/her race).

They have been distinct subraces since 1st edition D&D Forgotten Realms Campaign Set. And there are differences between the two subraces are significant within the Forgotten Realms setting.

In 3rd edition there were mechanical differences between the two (moon elves got +2 DEX, -2 CON, and sun elves got +2 INT, -2 CON)

The main differences between the two subraces are that the moon elves are the most common of the elves, the subrace most often found in human cities, as they posses a natural wanderlust and perhaps the most open-minded tendencies of the elven subraces. Whereas the sun elves are generally staunch traditionalists who cling strongly to the memory of their prestigious past (many of the great elven empires and nations of ages past were lead by sun elves). They often think of themselves as the custodians of elven culture and of the elven people in general, and consequently may sometimes come across as elitist or domineering towards the other elven subraces. Sun elves are also one of the elven subraces that are most rarely encountered in Faerun compared to moon elves and wood elves, as they generally dwell in elven lands like Evermeet or Evereska, or in cities with a particularly large elven population like Silverymoon.

I think, paying attention to details like this is important since this is Larian Studios' first dip into the Forgotten Realms universe, and ideally I would like them to depict it as faithfully as BioWare and Obsidian did

I would also like to see moon elves.

My guess is that WotC in not making a distinction was trying to get away from some of the things they introduced in 3.5 -- sun elf supremacist organizations and the like which got a bit too close to real world politics for my taste. (and did so in a problematic way)

But the solution isn't to eliminate the distinction but avoid making links to real world politics imo.

Yeah but this is not on Larian. Wizards of the Coast was the one who kinda walked back on the distinction btw sun and moon elves in 5th edition. Larian just follows the lead.

This, High Elves should be split into Sun, Moon, and Stars Elves.

Only mechanically, even the PHB mentions Sun and Moon elves under high elves, and the SCAG mentions Star Elves. This isn't a problem in PNP where the dm can use the proper term, but it a problem in BG3.

Perhaps the TCoE will have a solution for this, after all I suspect it's where the idea for Lolth-Sworn Drow vs Seldarine Drow Arised.

My hypothesis is that Lolth-Sworn are simply the Drow tainted by Lolth and her minions, and Seldarine Drow are the Drow that got cleansed by Elven High magic, neither forced you into a particular religion.

I agree with you that Ilythiiri Drow sound better and will cause less confusion then Lolth-Sworn Drow and I would push to share that on other forums, reddit, amd feed back to Larian.

I'm going to play a Zariel Tiefling Acolyte Ranger/Beast Tamer or Urban Tracker/Santified Stalker/Beastmaster with the feat Ritual Caster: Wizard or Cleric. I want see both how they did fixing the Ranger, and if being a Tiefling of Zariel makes a difference to the plot compared to other Tieflings given what Zariel did to the Swordcoast.

And there are more races coming (some of which have subraces).

I am really disappointed that it looks like BG3 is classifying Drow as its own race when it should be a subrace of Elf.

Yes this is exactly how i see it as well. It doesn't really matter if mechanically they are all the same. This is a role-playing game, and game mechanics is secondary to and meant to facilitate role-playing. So within the "high elf" subrace they should include the sun, moon, and star elf distinctions at least for role-playing purposes.

As for the drow, again I agree there are some meaningful differences from an RP standpoint even if not mechanically among the drow.

Im not sure why that is the sort of thing that would really disappoint you. That’s kind of odd.

The reason might be that NPCs react to the player based on their race, not their sub-race. Drow and Half-Drow will obviously be treated very differently from surface Elves, requiring that they be made a unique race.

This is a videogame, in character creation elves and drows does not look like the same so it´s logical that they will separate them so you can customize their appearance In your own way.
The differences in their features, background and looks makes them good candidates to be in a different category.

Yeah, the elves are looking pretty human unfortunately, none of the preset faces shown seem to have the characteristic elven features shown in official artwork and manual descriptions -angular features, high cheekbones, catlike slanted eyes, heart-shape face, etc-. They even seem to share the same body with human characters as opposed to being more slender and graceful. I remember making a topic back then because I feared just this when I saw Astarion's design.

Even worse than that is the absense of the Seldarine from the deity list, but I guess I understand FR has just too many deities to include all of them, it might be too ambitious. It couldn't have hurt to include just a few of each race though.

We don't have a full deity list for EA, do we? I imagine they will add to it.

Update: I was too mouthy! There are a few non human deities, which I am happy for! I'm also very happy with the hairstyles, I don't know or care much about male hairstyles to be honest, but females do get quite a few cool hairstyles. Very disappointed with the faces though.




I know beauty is subjective but damn.

Guy on the right looks like he could bite the roof off of a truck.