Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Additional Weapon types

Hi Larian.

First of all, loving the game overall.....even if those Gnolls are making my life miserable ATM 😉 (seriously, how dare they use my trick of pushing enemies off high places against me 😛).

However, I was wondering if you could consider expanding the range of weapons in the game? I know this is based on 5e rule-sets, but I don't think you should be afraid to look at older editions of D&D for weapon types. Broadswords, Composite Bows, extra arrow types (sheaf, flight, armour piercing) that kind of thing.

Anyway, keep up the great work & can't wait to see your first full patch.

some folks retroengineered the design pattern for 5e weapons to be used to create new, consistent weapons. Like Two Handed finesse, one handed with reach.. so much interesting new options that i hope to see implemented as new weapons

On a related note, I'm loving the graphics used for the weapons. Those longswords look like longswords instead of steel cricket bats. The bows are a simple and elegant bow shape instead of some art student's dream of a bow.

The axes heads are too large (especially the battleaxe), but they are at least within reasonable limits and look like axes. Pathfinder: Kingmaker's axes had ridges on the blade egde, for goodness sake.

Thank you to Larian's art department for this, and so much more.

I'd like to see flails.

There is actually a Gnoll Warlord at one point who has a flail, it looks kinda janky cause it's got 3 chains with spiked balls on the end that are just completely static, and I haven't bothered using it myself on a character to see how it looks after it drops because it's pretty meh as rare weapon abilities go.

I do love the way weapons look, my only real complaint about the longsword is the handle just seems a bit too long, but maybe that's just me. Looks massive in my characters hands, almost great sword sized.

From a historical perspective, the longsword was designed to be used in two hands. It was what early D&D/AD&D called a 'bastard sword', although designs varied over time, of course. It was specifically designed to be wielded with one or two hands as needed. D&D5e finally recognised this by allowing two-handed use, and I am very pleased that Larian brought this across.

RPGs don't always look for historical realism, but I am pleasantly surprised when they do.

A real medieval longsword, circa C14th.

I wish they will add the following type of weapons:
- ninjato, katana, nodachi
- nunchaku, claw/glove
- scythe

I still hope to see monk class or kensei archetype

I hope that this is not going to upset people, but I'd prefer that they don't use non-European weapons, at least not as commonly available options. If your character hails from Kara-Tur or the Endless Wastes then more 'Eastern' weaponry should be considered as their starting gear (this will especially be the case if they use the Samurai fighter option - maybe linked to a starting gear option selection), but otherwise the developers appear to have firmly grounded the campaign in Faerun's Sword Coast - which is very Medieval European in style (for better or worse).

The ethnic make-up of the character is obviously down to the player, limited by what Larian allows in the character face selection tool, and it makes sense that not every prisoner on that nautiloid ship comes from the same continent (or even from the Forgotten Realms - it travels dimensions, after all), but the vendors of the Sword Coast are going be stocking predominantly local styles of weapons and armour. Maybe Baldur's Gate might have an 'exotic weapons' trader who sells katanas and all that, but I would prefer most vendors not to.

I agree, thoses weapons are clearly not common.
I still think they should be an available/viable option for the related class (if they ever add thoses class).
Like you said it could be from unique exotic shop in a big city.
It could be something fancy like class quest or anything well written from them

The thing to remember (both the folks on this forum, and any Larian folks trying to sort through all of these) is that the reason that 5E pared back the weapons so drastically is for ease of use. Just because the PHB doesn't have a bastard sword and broadsword is because those have been merged into the longsword. This is done for simplicity's sake, and doesn't remove those (or the katana) from the game - they've just become the flavour of your weapon rather than the name of it. There's no reason that Larian can't add a broadsword as a longsword without the versatile property (so only the two-handed option), or a bastard or hand-and-a-half sword. Gladius, katana, naginata, flail, nunchaku - they can all be done with a simple name change.

This is actually mentioned in the "Flavors of Fantasy: Wuxia" portion of Chapter 1 of the DMG, though it only gives the non-European weapon names.

You probably wont see additional weapon types you may see appearances added for those weapons overlaying an existing weapon well personally myself I think the 3.5 weapons system was far better than the 5e weapons being simplified. I doubt you would see it implimented in balders gate 3. Maybe when 6e comes out as a large amount of the community has expressed they find the weapon system rather lack luster. Some of the aspects to weapons in 5e are good but most of the basic concept to it is lackluster in its lack of diversity. You probably wont see it fixed outside a cosmetic change. Maybe with a patch dlc or a mod.

the weapons still look decidedly fantasy
the longsword is a greatsword
and characters wear swords on their back
that's peak fantasy right there

I disagree that they look like fantasy weapons. I'd also disagree about your classifying the longswords as greatswords. Sword taxonomy is a mish-mash of actual medieval terminology, Victorian interpretation, and modern casual terminology (including from Hollywood and RPGs). However, the 'greatsword' is generally agreed to be a sword to large to be wielded one-handed. This might be due to weight or it might be due to length and balance, but in any case, I would say that the BG3 longswords look about right for 'hand-and-a-half' swords - which are actually longswords in this context (definitions might be different is the game was set in, say an Early Modern/ Renaissance period). Also, how you primarily employed the weapon, and the different techniques used for each type of sword, might alter your definition.

Going by the length of the blade compared to the human figures, the sword seem about five feet long - reaching to the human-sized figure's shoulder if the tip was on the ground. This is a little long but about right for a medieval knight's longsword. As I say, a bit long perhaps (i'd be looking at four feet), but not yet in the greatsword category where the sword was often as tall as the user. Remember that the medieval longsword was not designed primarily as a one-handed weapon; it was a two-handed weapon that could be used one-handed if required (such as whilst mounted). I think generations of AD&D/D&D editions have muddied this point considerably due to frequently pairing it with shields.

As for back-scabbards, however, I am with you 100%. Horrible and with little historical basis. You might sling a sword on your back when journeying, but in any situation where combat was likely (i.e. adventuring), it would be on your hip. The characters would find it very difficult to draw a five-foot sword from their shoulder.

Great swords are horribly oversized IMO (like their weight and width are plain wrong), wich is looking dumb in most cases...

So what about war scythes? I really liked the scythes in DOS2, but haven't found in BG3. It might sound silly but in medieval times there were whole divisions made of ppl using scythes accommodated from traditional scythes used in a field.
These kind of troops were quite prominent, I don't need to mention, that it was particularly popular weapon in between rioting peasants; There are even few songs about those troops called 'kosynierzy'.

Here is quite interesting depiction of War Scythes and how those were used:
[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/_fujM6vvgF4[/video]

Equipment diversity is a big element of these types of games and if I was Larian I would be adding some whether it was apart of 5e or not. Clearly room has been left to essentially makes your own variants and they should do so. Decreasing equipment diversity would be a poor choice. The pathfinder pc game(s) have fantastic variety and has a much better feel. Aside from general item diversity BG3 feels empty of equipment in general which takes away from exploration incentive. I dont want to fight through a dungeon only to come with a basic longsword and dagger and some plates and cups...