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Are there plans to make custom characters feel as unique as the origin ones? If so, what can you tell us about them?
Adam: Hello! I’m not Swen, I’m Adam, one of the Senior Writers on BG 3 :D . Custom characters are hugely important to us, and when you choose your class, race and background, you’ll already have made choices that have an impact throughout the game - both in terms of what you can do, how you’re perceived, and what you know. But just as in tabletop, it’s what you do after character creation and how you choose to roleplay that character that will make your adventure and character unique. In many ways, they’re more unique, because you made them.
The world and the characters that populate it - whether companions, NPCs, enemies or potential allies - will remember and react to your actions and attitude. Custom characters are central to the arc of BG3, and as your journey unfolds, you’ll walk your own path. And when your story ends, you’ll have determined your own fate… and the fate of many others.
I think the concern here is that people felt that playing DOS2 as non-origin characters was somewhat pointless because they would miss out on quite a few dialogue options, and would have substantially less storyline. This was especially true if you were playing co-op, because each person who made a custom decreased how much you could interact with even companion stories. Will there be more storyline for customs than what was seen in DOS2? Perhaps something akin to Dragon Age Origins origin characters?
Adam: This isn’t DOS2. In BG3, custom characters have a much stronger connection to the world and the main arc of the story - whether they’re from Baldur’s Gate, further afield, or somewhere else entirely (hey, githyanki). The campaign is much more reactive to your actions - when we say there are serious consequences to your choices, we really mean it - and as you move through your adventure, you’ll discover quest-lines and stories that relate directly to the character you’re roleplaying, and the things that you’ve done. We’re confident that you won’t feel short-changed in terms of narrative breadth and depth if you choose to play as a custom character- we love our origins, but this campaign is built for all of you.
Will the locations be act-based ( eg. a location can be accessed only in Act 1 and not in Act 2 )?
David: Every good story has a beginning, middle, and an end.
Like the original Baldur's Gate, will locations be broken down into sections or will it be like in DOS2, where you are in a huge terrain.
David: You're in a huge terrain, but between acts you will travel from one huge region to another.
Will there be party banters among companions? If so, will they be in dialogue mode (like the originals) or will they just say out their lines during exploration (like the Dragon Age series)?
David: Ah, we have both types! Of course they'll comment and react. They will banter while just walking around (we call these voicebarks and AD for Automated Dialogues) but they will also react to what you and your party are doing (and not doing) in dialogues, and when you go to camp.
Reactions are a really important part of D&D 5e. A lot of classes have features that revolve around them, there are a ton of really important spells that are reactions (shield, counterspell, absorb elements, etc.). Are you making changes to the 5e reaction rules, and if so, how are you implementing these crucial features/spells?
Swen: While it’s not going to be in EA immediately, the features and mechanics that allow a character to perform an action as a reaction will trigger automatically. The players will be able to control which reactions they want to enable in anticipation of enemy actions. E.g. a wizard would disable their Attack of Opportunity but enable their Shield spell, which will be cast automatically whenever the wizard is targeted by an attack or Magic Missile spell.
Along those same lines, you have touted emulating the degree of player freedom offered in table top D&D, but there are a few core battle mechanics that have not been shown off. Will grappling be a battle mechanic? Can you ready an action such as an attack or spell? Will Extra Attack work the same way it does in 5e? Can you set spells (especially cantrips) to auto-cast every turn? Will ammunition and spell component mechanics be present?
Swen: We don’t have grappling, but we have shoving. Extra attack will work like in 5e (though a bit less limiting). You currently can’t actively ready an action, but you can select which one of your reactions can trigger during the enemy turn. We’re not doing auto-casting. Ammunition is there for things that are special ammo. Spell components are only present on spells that require expensive materials as a balancing tool.
In the demonstrated gameplay, many non-magical skills (dash, jump, etc.) had flashy visual effects attached to their use. Has there been consideration given to making mundane skills appear mundane and reserving fancier effects for spells and truly magical/supernatural abilities?
Swen: Yes – we actually started with a more mundane version that but it didn’t work that well and made it harder to read which is why to give it some extra flash.
You have mentioned that the scope of Baldur's Gate 3 is huge, but we do not have much to go off of. How many places will we be able to visit and explore? Will it only be a small part of the Sword Coast or can/could we venture off to places like Neverwinter or to the South to see Amn? Is it closer to an open world or will it be closer to D:OS 1/2 in that it is a large map that is sectioned into smaller areas?
Swen: The small portion of the adventure we’ve shown takes place many miles East of Baldur’s Gate, and the initial journey will take players along the banks of the river Chionthar, and surrounding wilderness and settlements, toward BG and the coast. You won’t be walking the whole way to BG in real-time, so there will be several large, open regions. Later, you’ll visit the city of Baldur’s Gate itself, of course. Other places I’m not going to spoil for you because discovery and exploration are part of the joy.
There has been a back and forth over the inclusion of Origin characters in Baldur's Gate 3. Namely how origin characters had much more interesting story/plot beats than player-made characters in Divinity: Original Sin 2. Do you have any plans in place to combat this and give player made characters more agency/story beats in Baldur's Gate 3?
Swen: This is our campaign, but it's absolutely your adventure. The small amount of gameplay we've shown so far, focused on one of our origin characters, but whether you roll a custom or origin character, the choices you make and the actions you take carry the same weight. In Baldur’s Gate 3, ‘origin characters’ are basically fully-fledged companions, that you can optionally play. BG 1 & 2 had companions with intricate, unique backstories and quests, and our origin system allows us to give you the choice of getting even closer to those stories by roleplaying as characters that also act as companions. Even if you’re not playing as an origin, you can explore their backstories and personal quests by having them in your party. Just as with a custom character, you’re still deciding how those characters behave, how their story unfolds, and how they interact with the world and the party.
Custom characters will see the world react to them based on their chosen race, class and background..Creating a character gives a sense of who you are, but the heart of the game’s reactivity is based on what you do after character creation.
A very practical example of how custom characters are tied to the story is the fact that the game identifies and recognises them as Baldurians. Given the importance of the city in the game (in its own way BG is very much one of the game’s protagonists -or antagonists depending on your perspective and how events unfold), making it the players’ home makes the place and the stakes you’re fighting for feel very personal. (It should be noted though that player characters from the Underdark or other places - githyanki and drow for example - have their own unique experiences and backstory in the world, as you’d expect).
Will all possible companions be available as Origin character options or will there be companions available only as NPCs?
Swen: We are trying to make all characters with backstory available as origin characters. Other than that, you will be able to recruit generic mercenaries and customize these. We’re also planning to allow you to build a custom party from the character creation screen though that most likely won’t be present in early access from the get go.
There have been concerns that some aspects of the game, from what has been seen, feel too clean and or feels too much like D:OS 1/2 (i.e. characters not having a certain air of grit or grime about them despite the circumstances) and does not fit the darker themes that have been a part of the Baldur's Gate series. Do you plan on addressing this as you continue to work the overall aesthetics throughout early access and into release?
Swen: Yes. We actually have an entire system in development for grit and grime that adapts to circumstance. But it’s not ready yet. When it comes to world and story we aim for a broad spectrum. It can get very very dark but there are also moments of brightness.
Writing and storytelling is a major point of contention in discussions surrounding Baldur's Gate 3. While there has been speculation about the plot, the player responses when interacting with other NPCs have been specifically noticed. Many agree that the first person, past tense style of the writing is jarring and breaks immersion. Is this the style you wish to continue forward with or is this still being worked on?
Swen: There’s several reasons we’re doing it this way. Of course there are story reasons but it also allows you to get closer to your character; their thoughts, their feelings and moments of introspection allowing you to truly understand their motivations. We’ve experimented with several styles when starting development but this was the one that at the end of the day stood out and we’re actually quite excited by what we can do with it. It turned out to be an excellent way of allowing players to tell their own story and role-play their character on a deeper level. I think it’s a wonderful tool for role-playing and story telling and when you’re playing it’s like you’re narrating your own adventure.
The demo gameplay demonstrated a very strong buff to bonus actions compared to the 5e rules. This seems to break or make other aspects of the game less desirable, especially when concerning the balance of classes. The Cunning Action from the Rogue class becomes largely invalidated when all classes can dash, disengage, or hide with a bonus actions. Is this an issue you are aware of or has there been something lost in translation and this is not an issue?
Swen: We’d like to allow the players to combo small common-sense bonus actions with full actions. From the mentioned Dash and Hide still require a full action while Disengage is merged with Jump as a bonus action. We are aware of the effect this has on Rogues and are looking into ways of keeping them appealing and viable.
There has been concern about the team initiative showcased in the demo. Specifically with how this greatly favors whoever goes first and is able to Alpha Strike their enemy, which worries people that this will cause combat to be too one-sided. Is the plan to continue with Group initiative alone or do you plan on adding individual initiative as an option, at least for single player?
Swen: One of the big themes of BG3 is the focus on party over individuals. As we were trying to encourage more cooperation between party members in combat, we had the idea to let them share their turn for total tactical coherence. Additionally, it provides a more comfortable co-op experience.
The introduction of the common party turns naturally leads to the changes for the initiative system - we need to compare the initiative of groups of characters instead of individuals. We have considered several ways to do that, some more complex than others, and for EA we’re going with taking the highest initiative roll outcome in the party or NPC group.
We chose this way because we want to explore the mechanical subtheme of allowing the entire party to benefit from each member’s personal excellence in some area. The same way an eloquent Bard can lead their entire party through a tough dialogue check, a swift Rogue should be able to give their party the best shot at going first in combat. On top of that, this way of resolving team initiative opens the way for the player to scout out the enemy with the top initiative and neutralize them before entering the combat
However, all of that said, it is something we are still working on and experimenting with. If we find it doesn’t work as well as we hope, we’ll tinker with it. It’s one of the things we’ll figure out during Early Access.
The original Baldur's Gate games were somewhat of a departure from classic D&D in that they focused on a specific protagonist, while party members were more or less just tagging along. Will the story of Baldur's Gate 3 eventually grant special significance to the player character or is it purely a tale of a gang of adventurers who have been uniquely effected by the Illithid "tadpoles"?
Swen: Each avatar will be granted special significance and that significance will be based on player agency. There are many possible fates waiting for you.
And finally, less specifically about what has been seen so far: What makes Baldur's Gate for you, personally? What are its qualities that resonate with you?
Swen: I replayed BG1 & 2 when we started on this and the same things that stood out back then still stand out today: The sense of being on an epic quest with a party of interesting companions which I need to keep happy, the promise that there’s something to be discovered everywhere I go, the sense that I’m someone special in this world and make a difference and a lot of “oh that’s cool”. I think I appreciated it even more now than I did back in the days.
How will the short rest-long rest systems work in the game for hit dice, spell slots, items enchantments, and the like? Or will there be a different system in place for it?
NickP: To take a long rest the whole party needs to go to the camp and spend the night there. This will restore and reset any features normally tied to a long rest in 5e and also give the party a moment to reflect on recent events. A lot happens at the camp, more on that later!
For the short rest, we consider the peace time between combat encounters as taking a short rest.
So will warlocks regain all spell slots between combat encounters? Because warlocks, unlike other spellcasters, regain ALL their spell slots with a short rest (instead of a long rest).
NickP: Yes, they will regain all their spell slots between combat encounters.
Will there be any connection between the story of Baldurs gate 1/2/tob and Baldurs gate 3?
Swen: We really don’t want to spoil anything but we wouldn’t call it Baldur’s Gate 3 if there wouldn’t be a link. Let me just say that we touch upon the story of BG 1 & 2 in meaningful ways, there are returning characters and what happened in BG 1/2/tob leads to what happens into BG3. You won’t necessarily see that at the start of the adventure but you will quickly understand once you get further into the game.
Will all 5e Classes be available at launch?
NickP: Yes, all classes from 5e Player’s Handbook will be included at launch. In Early Access you’ll be able to play as a Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock or Wizard.
Does that include paths, subclasses, etc?
NickP: Yep.
Is there a date set for early access?
David: When it's ready.
Will there be a Dungeon Master mode in Baldur's Gate 3, similar to the one you had for Divinity Original Sin 2? I really enjoyed it and with the Dnd rules it would have even more potential.
David: When we built GM mode for Original Sin, we were of course thinking of D&D and how long it had been since anyone had made such a mode. So yeah it'd make a lot of sense, but we're focusing on developing the game first at the moment...
Where is Volo's beard and is there a quest to retrieve it?
David: It froze off! Seriously though, his custom head wasn't quite ready for the presentation build, but don't worry. He WILL look like Volo!
How will multiclassing work? Like 5e or modified? Also, what can you tell us about your ranger rework?
NickP: 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.
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?
Jan: 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.
Reactions are a really important part of d&d. A lot of classes have features that revolve around them, there are a ton of really important spells that are reactions (shield, counterspell, absorb elements, etc.). Are you making changes to the 5e reaction rules, and if so, how are you implementing these crucial features/spells?
Adam: In BG3 players will be able to pre-emptively select which reactions will trigger automatically when their conditions are triggered. E.g. a Wizard would disable their Attack of Opportunity and enable their Shield spell.
What are you doing to make sure that a player created character isn't left behind in terms of story and development opportunity when compared to your Origin characters?
Adam: I’ve already answered a similar question elsewhere - custom characters are very important to me, so I’m looking out for people asking about them! For me, D&D and indeed BG, always starts with me cooking up a character in my head, rolling it, and heading out into the world to see what becomes of me. We want to make sure you have that same feeling - the one I had at when I set out from Candlekeep in BG1 all those years ago. A custom character has just as much weight in the story as an origin character. The class, race, background and other factors that you choose during character creation are the beginning of defining your character. Many of you will be playing as Baldurians, with strong connections to the city you know and love (or hate… Baldurians often have a COMPLEX relationship with the place), some of you will be denizens of the Underdark. Your experiences, agendas and perspective on the world will be unique - and the further into your adventure you travel, the more you will define what type of hero (or villain) your character is. You’ll find characters, dialogues and quests that are tied specifically to your character, because of who they are, and because of what you’ve done.
Of course, I want you to get to know our origin characters as well - we put a lot of love (and other emotions) into them. So if you are playing a custom character, I hope you get to know some of the origins and their stories by fighting alongside them, and hanging out with them at camp. Or betraying them, and stabbing them in the back… your call!
How will our characters' background effect his/her story?
Adam: In a lot of dialogs backgrounds, race and class determine what options you are going to get. A Githyanki or a Drow for instance will get a very different experience than an Elf. In the demo Swen gave at Pax he encountered a companion named Shadow Heart. That entire conversation goes completely different if you approach her as a Githyanki because she’s had experience with the Gith before. Things like this permeate throughout the entire game. It’s true to say that no one playthrough is ever like another person’s, so if you look at it like that, the background and the choices you make create a completely unique story.
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).
David: 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?
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?
David: Semi open world: Yes. You explore a big region and then travel to the next huge area :)
Can you say anything about the level cap?
NickP: We’re planning to cover levels 1 through 10 in full release.
In D:OS every character was able to take more than one action per turn. How generous do you plan to be with additional actions compared to PnP?
NickP: In BG3 we’re going with the same action economy that 5e uses: a character generally can take one Action like attacking an enemy or casting a spell during their turn and move up to their Movement Speed for free. Additionally if they have a Bonus Action, they can do that too. Some classes get access to free additional attacks per turn.
Can you tell us anything about itemization? Will magical items be scarce, or will there be a lot to find?
NickP: Not like in Original Sin. BG is a different type of game when it comes to loot and item fever. We still want to make treasure exciting, though, and that means a lot of manual work.Treasure has to make sense in the context, and that means hand-placing and hand-creating it. There will be equipment with magical bonuses, but not many - they’ll feel special, and they'll be tailor made.
How are you balancing encounters with group initiative? It seems that in many cases the combat would be decided by the initiative roll, how does one side come back into the combat if they get fireballed twice or more times before being able to act?
NickP: Verticality and larger scale of combat arenas help us make sure that covering the entire enemy team with AoE is extremely rare. Rushing into the fray is a risky play because if your plan doesn’t work out, you’ll be exposed to enemy retaliation. Additionally we are still experimenting with tweaks to the initiative system. BG3 combat is much higher stakes than in DOS2.
There is a lot of criticism on tone and story (which could be unwarranted due to only seeing 1 hour of gameplay). What are you doing to make sure the tone and story has the soul of the original Baldur's Gate 1/2 (which we all love) and not just D&D.
Jan: At PAX you saw around one hour of what will become a very, very long story. In other words, you’ve seen nothing yet. Rest assured that the story of BG3 is a dark epic rife with dark encounters and tough choices that will challenge your preconceptions about what it is to be a hero. In fact, I’d say heroic players will have a hard time staying on the righteous path, whereas fiendish players will simply have a ball.
One of the strong themes of the Baldur’s Gate series is the discovery of a darkness inside your character- and the choice of how to deal with what you are and what you may become. There’s a very obvious interloper inside our player characters - the illithid tadpole - and as your story unfolds, you’ll soon realise that the ways it is changing you aren’t quite what you expected.
But just as in BG 1 and 2, the dark sides of the story are balanced with romance, humour, heroism, catharsis - these are very large games and they contain a multitude of situations and tones. We’re going to put you in some very dark places, with some very unpleasant characters, but we’ll show you a lot of beauty and wonder as well.
Again, it’ll be in no small part up to you how dark the game becomes. We don’t actively encourage you to do terrible things, but it’s certainly an option. Giving you the freedom to roleplay means we’re already preparing to mop up a lot of blood...
For those unfamilar with the Baldur's Gate series, what would you say is the defining difference between the upcoming Baulders Gate 3 and the Divinity series?
Swen: The level of immersion. From the narrative to the depth of the systems and mechanics, we’ve never made a game before that brings you closer to its characters, and offers more tools to the players to define the story they way you can in BG3. This is really core and the new version of our engine has allowed us to make huge leaps in every area of development. Not to mention it’s also using an entirely different rule-set, in an entirely different setting, of course. And it's lot darker. You can do some really terrible things.
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