Baldur’s Gate III – Larian Studios AMA

Now that Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate III is headed straight towards early access, you might be interested in learning more about this intriguing CRPG. As such, you should check out this recent Reddit AMA with the game’s developers that covers a lot of ground. And if you’re not used to Reddit’s UI, there’s also this WCCFTech article that highlights a number of questions and this one from IGN that confirms that there will be some sort of story connection between Baldur’s Gate III and the earlier games in the series.

And here’s just a few sample questions to get you started:

Q: How will multiclassing work? Like 5e or modified? Also, what can you tell us about your ranger rework?

A: Multiclassing rules will follow closely the 5e DnD. On level up characters will be able to continue with their current class or choose a new class, provided they meet the requirements. Multiclassing is not going to be available in Early Access at launch, we’re planning to add it later.

As for the Ranger, we will be implementing alternative variants of Favourite Enemy and Natural Explorer features that are not limited to specific monster and location types. When we were working on these changes, we went to WotC for their approval and it turned out that we were completely on the same page. Mike Mearls shared some of their playtesting material, and we’re rolling with that.

Q: The variety of alignments in Baldur’s Gate I & II allowed for many interesting party compositions and conflicts (for example, Edwin becomes openly hostile towards some companions and will straight up start a physical fight with them or refuse to be in the same group as them due to his Lawful Evil alignment). It’s been said there won’t be an alignment system on Baldur’s Gate 3 as it’s no longer relevant to 5e, but will we still get to have openly evil/selfish party members that actively support “evil” actions and might leave the group if you play in a more heroic fashion, or will all party members have a more neutral/good behavior?

A: Alignment may carry less weight in 5th edition, but all companions definitely have their own moral compass. Some are fine with evil and underhanded deeds, others are not – and they’ll be vocal about their approval or opposition to the decisions that you make. It’s absolutely possible to take actions that cross the line for someone and he or she will leave the party, or even decide to attack you.

From a player perspective, there’s the freedom to play the game in any which way you want from an alignment perspective. In dialogs, there are plenty of choices to be made, from heroically good to patently evil and the different shades in between. Added to that, there are unique options to be had from a player race or class point of view that fit within the good/neutral/evil perspective. As you would expect, a drow will get different options compared to a Paladin of Tyr for instance. For sure, the world will react to your actions, and the choices you make, since these will in some way define you. For example, Astarion is a vampire spawn and when you play him, you can try and hide this from the party. But if they find out -because, well, you might try to bite them as they sleep- they will obviously be shocked and unless you manage to handle the situation with the necessary tact and diplomacy, you may just find you’re left behind companionless.

Q: In Baldur’s Gate 2, you go to De Arnise keep. In the basement, there are a bunch of umberhulks, and if you go in and put dog meat in a certain place, it lures the umberhulks and you can lock them in, then you get a bunch of experience for doing it. Has creatively solving problems by following hints given throughout the game like this been a major focus in the development of Baldur’s Gate 3? In Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, it seemed like at points throughout the game it was a focus, but it wasn’t as common as I would like it to be. I prefer the sneaky problem solving over the hack n slash problem solving (I guess I’m lawfully aligned irl or something).

Also, will there be awesome items like the golden pantaloons that you have to carry throughout the game/multiple games to be able to unlock the full potential of the item?

Last one, I swear. Will the map be like BG1 and 2 where you travel to destinations, or will it be like divinity, where it’s semi open world?

A: Regarding creative solutions: our world is really a simulation, held together by rules and systemics. Creatures and items adhere to these rules. This means that reactivity like the one you describe, is always available to the player, it doesn’t have to be scripted. Creatively solving problems is one of the things that we envisioned when writing these systems. If systemics don’t allow for it, we also use n+1 design when it comes to solving situations. In short, this means that there should always be multiple ways to solve a problem, and that we need to take into account everything that could have already happened, and anything the player can come up with. What does the player expect to be possible?

Golden pantaloons: We are creating unique items by hand. They will have special properties. I shouldn’t go into details and promise golden pantaloons, so that’s all I’m saying.

Semi open world: Yes. You explore a big region and then travel to the next huge area 🙂