Baldur’s Gate 3 Final Q&A

If this article were a meme, it would start with the infamous Titanic-based animated image bemoaning the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 fans have been waiting for an extraordinarily long time. The expansion, Throne of Bhaal, for the second installment was released on June 22nd, 2001. Since then, gamers have only been given mediocre spin-offs.

Finally, just before E3 2019, Larian Studios made an appearance at Google Stadia’s event to confirm the rumors that the studio behind Divinity had convinced Wizards of the Coast to move forward with their Baldur’s Gate 3 project.

The game made its debut on Steam Early Access in October 2020. Over time, Larian added more classes, features, and systems. However, for those like me who wanted to avoid spoilers and experience character creation in the 1.0 release, the wait has been agonizingly long.

Thankfully, the full launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 is just four days away, at least for PC users (PlayStation 5 users will have to wait until September 6th). With the game already topping Steam’s best-selling chart for the past ten days or so, it’s poised to make a big impact upon its release. I reached out to Larian to delve into some of the final outstanding topics. Enjoy!

In a previous statement, you mentioned that you planned to make custom characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 as interesting as Origin characters, unlike in Divinity: Original Sin 2. How did you achieve this in the final version of the game?

In Baldur’s Gate 3, custom characters have much more reactivity based on the identity you’ve built, compared to Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game that revolves around different perspectives. You can experience the story through the eyes of a character you’ve created yourself, with your own chosen identity and appearance. However, we also provide preset characters, known as Origin characters, who come with their own identities and appearances. With the Dark Urge, we’ve included an Origin character that you can also customize. It’s up to you to decide how you want to play and interact with the characters and the world.

It has been confirmed that you can respec a companion’s class. How will this affect their personal storylines? For example, if Wyll is not a Warlock, how will that change his interactions with Mizora?

The set narrative of the Origin’s story remains the same, even if you respec the companion’s class. Using Wyll as an example, if you change him into a wizard or even a paladin, his background will always depict him as a Warlock who made a pact with a demon.

The difference lies in the reactive elements tied to the class he has respecced into. So, if Wyll is now a wizard and you engage in a conversation as him, he will have dialogue options that reflect his wizardry.

In a recent interview, questions were raised regarding the changes you’re making compared to the core ruleset. Can you clarify the adjustments made to multiclassing caster classes? Some fans are concerned that this might lead to overpowered characters, unless martial classes are also allowed to stack extra attacks when multiclassing.

When multiclassing, the levels of your classes and subclasses that typically have access to spell slots are combined using a weighted formula. This overall spellcasting level determines the number and level of spell slots you receive. However, Warlocks are an exception in that they only receive fixed-level spell slots.

Could you share the new racial bonuses? The community seems to be quite interested, especially in the human variant. Is there a possibility of including the beloved human variant ()?

For half-elves and humans, we have added extra proficiency bonuses to avoid locking players into specific races if they want to play a specific class. Usually, players would have to make this trade-off in order to maximize their character’s effectiveness. Through playtesting, we discovered that players actually preferred the extra proficiency bonuses, so we chose to go in that direction.

Were you at all prepared for the overwhelming response to the Druid bear scene?

We expected it to resonate with players to some extent, but we were not prepared for the extent to which it did.

Is there a way to choose the character you want to speak during dialogues? If not, could this feature be added in the future?

In the game, the person who initiates the conversation becomes the host of the conversation, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. However, your multiplayer partner can “listen in” and vote on your responses. This approach aims to create an organic feel to the conversations. For example, if you enter a room and trigger a conversation as part of a cutscene, it is meant to catch you off guard. Allowing the choice of who speaks in such situations would spoil the surprise and the pacing. However, in many cases, you can exit a conversation, select another player to control, and engage in the conversation with them. So, there is plenty of choice in most cases, except when it is triggered by a cutscene, in which case it is determined by the trigger.

I was mostly referring to the single-player experience. Some fans were disappointed that they couldn’t seemingly choose the character best suited for a conversation.

You actually can choose the character you want to control by clicking on them and starting the conversation. However, you cannot do this if the conversation takes you by surprise as a result of an expected cutscene or other events. In these cases, selecting the conversing character wouldn’t work because you didn’t know the conversation was going to happen.

Fair enough! In a recent interview, you mentioned that you don’t want to release the game without split-screen co-op functionality on Xbox Series S. If you can’t make it work on Xbox Series S, will Baldur’s Gate 3 be indefinitely delayed on Xbox Series X as well? Or do you plan to ask Microsoft to release the game exclusively on Series S?

Our team is still working on optimization, so we cannot say for sure at this point.

Did you utilize any of the DualSense features, such as adaptive triggers or haptic feedback? If yes, will these features be available on PC when using a connected controller? If not, is there a possibility of adding support for them later on?

On the PS5’s DualSense controller, we have included rumble and lighting effects, and these will be added to the DualSense on PC after the game’s launch.

Will there be crossplay functionality for co-op multiplayer between PC and PS5?

Baldur’s Gate 3 will have cross-saves between PC and PS5, and we will consider crossplay after the game’s launch.

What can players expect in terms of post-launch support for Baldur’s Gate 3? You previously mentioned wanting to include all subclasses. Is there a possibility of more subclasses being added in the future?

We are not ready to make any announcements regarding post-launch plans at this time.

Thank you for your time.

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