Originally Posted by etonbears
I would say you are accurate in your assessment @Topgoon.

Prior to the EA release, there were several months of forum debate ( mostly civil ) discussing how Larian might implement 5e rules and the BG legacy.

At that time, the main complainants were expressing angst that the game felt more like DOS than the original BG games, but there were also discussions on obvious changes to the 5e action economy, lack of control over reactions, and a number of other changes that could be easily gleaned by looking at the gameplay streams and developer comments.

It was very clear from available game footage and developer interviews that BG3 was never intended to be a tabletop emulator, or a tabletop game-aid; unlike NWN/NWN2 which were both designed to be used in that way. There have been no guarantees of providing anything beyond a story-driven co-op RPG; everything else that has been mentioned by Larian is aspiration, at best.

If anyone posting here thought there was a promise to implement 5e closely, then that is wishful thinking.

Of course, anyone ( and everyone ) should be free to express their preferences, and ( if you care to ) make rational arguments to support your preferences. That is one way that Larian will be able to guage how broad or narrow their market is, and how well or poorly their design decisions are received by different market segments.

Ideally, Larian will provide enough optional gameplay settings to allow most players to feel comfortable with the game, but if your expectations diverge too greatly from the EA experience, you should expect to be disappointed.

Larian have never said they cannot implement the 5e rules exactly; tabletop RPG rules sets are sometimes exhaustive, but rarely exceed simple arithmetic in mathematical complexity. What they have said is that the 5e rules do not always work well for the game they are making and the broad audience they are aiming to please.

Unlike Solasta, whose audience will likely be dominated by PnP players, BG3 is an expensive production that needs a broader audience, most of whome will be mainstream videogame players. Larian could not make BG3 based on the Solasta sales model.

With such a broad audience, I doubt there will be consensus on anything very much.

Oh, I can't believe I'm seeing the voice of truth on this forum.


I don't speak english well, but I try my best. Ty