Just over a month ago, I explored my excitement for Baldur's Gate 3, claiming it to be the most definitive Dungeons and Dragons experience; besides traditional pen-and-paper roleplaying games–of course–when the finished game officially ships next year, once development is complete. I also established that I’ll be covering Baldur’s Gate 3’s development permanently on my channel, and considering the number of views on my last BG3 video, I think you all like the sound of that.
So with that said, today I’m uncovering everything you need to know about Baldur’s Gate 3’s development so far, as we prepare for the game’s full launch next year. This video is ideal for any type of fan—those who are just getting into the franchise and want to know everything, as well as those who’ve followed the game’s development over the years but want a decent recap.
So, without further ado, let’s crack into this.
Introduction to Baldur’s Gate 3 and its development:
For the uninitiated, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the third entry in the Baldur’s Gate franchise, a series of party-based role-playing games set in the Forgotten Realms, an official Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. Although originally developed by Black Isle Studios and BioWare, Larian Studios is developing Baldur’s Gate 3 after its successful release of Divinity: Original Sin 2, one of the best role-playing games of the last decade, if I do say so myself.
In June 2019, Larian Studios officially announced that they were working on Baldur’s Gate 3 with Wizards of the Coast, claiming that this project would act as a "true sequel" to the previous games—setting high expectations for fans of the classic RPGs.
At Pax East 2020, the first gameplay demo for Baldur's Gate 3 was unveiled in an extended reveal of an early game build, which was broadcasted by CEO Swen Vincke. While many claimed that the game looked very similar to Divinity: Original Sin 2, the overall reception of Baldur’s Gate 3’s first gameplay was highly positive.
In October 2020, an early build of Baldur's Gate 3 was released on Steam’s Early Access—a service that lets you play unfinished and initial parts of in-development games for a discounted fee—Baldur’s Gate 3’s early build lets players create a character and play through the majority of the first act, either solo or with up to four players online.
Players can embark on many quests, exploring a variety of locations from the Druids Grove, to the goblin-infested Blighted Village, the Sunlit Wetlands to the haunted Underdark. There’s at least twenty hours of content to be enjoyed.
Since its initial release, the early access content of BG3 has been updated with significant patches and updates, giving players new classes, races and areas to play around with. For example, the foreboding Grymforge was added as an entirely new area to explore, as well as Barbarian, and most recently the Bard class—which is an absolute joy to play! Bards bring a completely different dynamic to any playthrough, it’s such a welcome addition.
To this day, BG3 is still in early access. Originally, the full version was to be released in 2022; however, the latest update from the development team stated that BG3 will not be fully released until sometime in 2023. Larian Studios are committed to creating an immense and polished RPG that will do the Baldur’s Gate franchise just right, however, for the time being, the teams need just a little bit more time to ensure that vision is achieved. Let’s delve further and explore Baldur’s Gate 3’s story and setting.
What's the story and setting for Baldur's Gate 3?
Baldur's Gate 3 takes place in the Forgotten Realms universe and features a new story set almost 100 years after the events of Baldur’s Gate II. The prologue opens with the Mind Flayers invading Faerûn. Your protagonist awakes, confined in a holding pod of a Mind Flayers’ world-teleporting ship known as a Nautiloid. A Mind Flayer tadpole is inserted inside your eye with the intent of transforming you into a wicked Mind Flayer.
Suddenly, Githyanki dragon riders intercept and attack the Nautiloid, which teleports to Hell. This assault allows the player and those who were recently infected to escape the ship. Once the player reaches the controls of the vessel and teleports back to Faerûn, the Nautiloid crashes to the ground at a riverbank close to Elturel.
The player-character and a few of their companions are infected with parasitic tadpoles that should, over the course of a few weeks, turn them into Mind Flayers. But for unknown reasons, the tadpoles' transition hasn’t worked properly yet. One of the main goals is to find out more information about the tadpoles and get them removed by a healer before it's too late.
Mind flayers are among the most terrifying creatures in Dungeons & Dragons. They possess powerful psionic abilities and can mind control other sentient beings. The party's transformation into mind flayers is not apparent, but the tadpoles have an effect on each of your party. You can link minds with other people who have tadpoles and use incredibly powerful magic, but the more you use your illithid powers, the more corrupt you become, and the easier it may be for a mind flayer to control you.
Essentially, the story follows you and your companions as you search for a cure for your illness by any means necessary. Your character's desperation could lead you to strike deals with some unsavoury figures in order to try and save yourself. The story provides many morally ambiguous notions for you and your companions, so it will be very exciting to see how it all pans out in the end.
Also, considering the game’s namesake, the city of Baldur's Gate will be a location in the full game, but you won't be able to explore the entire city. Only parts of it will be available to you during your adventures. It remains to be seen exactly how much of Baldur's Gate will be present, as we’ve only been able to witness it briefly in trailers and cutscenes. In the early access version, you won't be able to reach the city at all; however, you do see it from a distance during a dream sequence.
What classes and races are available?
At the moment, there are nine races you can currently choose between elf, tiefling, drow, human, githyanki, dwarf, half-elf, halfling or gnome with many subraces to select. Half-orcs and dragonborn will also be options at launch.
Regarding classes, there are ten classes to choose between cleric, fighter, ranger, rogue, warlock, wizard, druid, sorcerer, barbarian and the most recently added bard. Monk and paladin classes will also be options at launch.
Classes play an important role in Baldur's Gate 3, too. "The stories are very much tied to class at times," senior writer Adam Smith told PC Gamer in their first look at the game. "Class is such a part of identity in D&D, in a way that it wasn't in Divinity: Original Sin 2."
How do origin characters work in Baldur's Gate 3?
At launch, players will also be able to experience Baldur’s Gate 3 as a bespoke origin character that have pre-established backgrounds, quests and classes. You can recruit each of these characters to your party:
Astarion - High Elf Rogue
Gale - Human Wizard
Lae'zel - Githyanki Fighter
Shadowheart - Half-elf Cleric
Wyll - Human Warlock
Larian said in an AMA on Reddit that in BG3, "custom characters have a much stronger connection to the world and the main arc of the story. … 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."
“When we say there are serious consequences to your choices, we really mean it. 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."
How does Baldur’s Gate 3 connect to the previous games?
While it may be a new story, players will find many connections to the original games. In a Reddit AMA, Vincke said, "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."
Regarding another potential connection to previous games, Minsc and Boo might just show up in Baldur's Gate 3. Larian CEO Swen Vincke told VG247 that it's a real possibility, saying: "If you look at what the Fifth Edition has done, characters like Boo and Minsc are still alive," Vincke said. "Bhaal and maybe a couple of other guys are still around. What’s gonna happen with that? You’re gonna discover when you play BG3."
Which Dungeons & Dragons edition is Baldur's Gate 3 based on?
Baldur's Gate 3 will use the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset as a basis for its own rules, but Larian has decided to make some changes in order to better suit the computer game format. CEO Swen Vincke stated that some elements of tabletop D&D don't translate well into video games and can actually produce undesirable results if not changed, so Larian has created their own interpretation of the 5th Edition ruleset.
How does Baldur's Gate 3 play?
Baldur's Gate 3 is similar to Divinity: Original Sin 2 in that there's a lot of freedom given when exploring the world or choosing how you want to solve problems; however, the combat is much faster than Divinity, with party members moving around the battlefield with ease and attacking enemies with skill checks. Combat feels very rewarding and fun.
Vincke said BG3 will be heavily systems-driven and Larian will be creating its own D&D-inspired ruleset. "We'll stay true to our roots, so we'll give players lots of systems and lots of agency to use these systems and try to accomplish what you need to on your personal adventure and your party's adventure."
"Almost every object can be turned into a weapon in a pinch—one of my first kills was with a skull that I picked up and tossed at a monster," Fraser says. "This is a side of D&D that was previously missing from Baldur's Gate—the creative, messy sandbox. Every confrontation is an opportunity to push your luck and stretch the game's systems like you're negotiating with a DM."
"Along with the ability to shove people and throw objects, you can stealthily slink around, make superhuman leaps, dip your weapon in puddles of acid or ignite them using a torch. These abilities can all be used in turn-based battles at the cost of an action or bonus action, as well as freely when you're wandering around in real-time."
"Baldur's Gate 3 is always rolling dice and making passive skill checks to determine if you're going to notice that sliding bookcase right in front of you. These happen automatically, accompanied by the comforting rattle of dice, but the dialogue and active skill checks actually replicate some of the tactile delights of real tabletop roleplaying by making you manually roll a digital D20."
An option added in patch 4 allows players to turn on Loaded Dice, which Larian says, "helps smooth out the extremes of the bell curve [but] retains the core elements of RNG, ensuring a player can no longer be unlucky or super lucky with several dice rolls in a row." Hotfix 10 tweaked the maths further in response to feedback so that strings of lucky rolls wouldn't be punished by increased odds of failure.
Let's talk about romance <3:
Larian Studios revealed that Baldur's Gate 3 will feature character relationships, which will be integral to the game's storytelling. Very much like an iconic BioWare romance system, each of your party members will have opinions about all sorts of decisions that you make as the player character, good, evil, right or wrong, whatever you choose, your companions will judge you accordingly based on an approval system.
You can chat with the members of your party back at the main camp, where you will forge deeper relationships and create more intimate bonds. It’s very exciting and anyone who loves romance will fall in love with the cast of characters involved.
"We are trying to make these relationships feel real and feel like the relationships you have in the real world," lead writer Sarah Baylus explained. "You will meet some people who you have nothing in common with, some will be useful to work together, but that is going to be the extent of it. But there could be situations where you get on really well, you share similar goals and you love travelling together."
According to Vincke, the most romanced character so far in Early Access is Gale the wizard. However, players are also not shy about being evil to get some action. "They're all horny," Vincke says of early players.
How are Wizards of the Coast involved?
As the current custodians of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast are involved in clearing storylines and keeping the D&D lore consistent. The quality of Divinity: Original Sin 2 convinced them to greenlight Baldur's Gate 3.
"I went to Wizards of the Coast after Divinity: Original Sin and I tried to convince them back then," says Vincke. "But they said we were a bit too green. They got back in touch during Divinity: Original Sin 2—they saw what we were doing and asked if we were still interested. That got the ball rolling. During DOS2 we had to submit the design for it, but it was annoying because we were about to release DOS2. So we sat in a hotel for a weekend the month before release, me and a couple of writers and designers, and we made the initial design document. It wasn't very good, but it had the core ideas and they did like it, so they asked us to make another version, and we did that and they loved it."
Baldur's Gate 3 system requirements:
Baldur's Gate 3’s storage requirements are less taxing than you'd expect from such a pretty game. Larian has amended them slightly, though, so be aware that the game now requires 150GB of hard disk space instead of 70GB.
Here are the minimum and recommended PC requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space
Recommended:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 150 GB available space
While we don’t have an official confirmation on Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to consoles, each Divinity game has come to consoles with many optimisations and quality of life fixes following its initial PC release. This can only lead us to assume that Baldur’s Gate 3 will also come to consoles at some point after its official PC release. I’m sure we’ll know more about this in time, once the official release date for BG3 has been revealed.
What's the Baldur's Gate 3 release date?
Baldur's Gate 3 will leave Early Access for a full release in 2023. Despite hopes for a 2022 release date, Larian had been setting expectations that a release this year was unlikely. A recent Early Access retrospective video from a D&D Direct event confirmed a 2023 launch window, asking fans to "come along in 2023 when the game releases."
Conclusion:
That said, we don’t have long to wait until Larian Studios officially release the full version of their RPG. I am very excited to explore the full extent of the game, I’ve already become deeply invested in its characters and their stories, and the game has proven its potential quality through early access releases. So as long as that’s maintained throughout the later acts, we’re going to be in for a real masterpiece.
If you want a complete holistic view of Baldur’s Gate 3, check out my last video where I discussed my initial impressions of the early access build and declared that this game will be a definitive Dungeons & Dragons RPG once it releases.