Thank you for your continued support. Playing the game, as well as your reports, is already helping to shape and improve it. We’ll share more information about this in an upcoming community update alongside our first patch, but for now we’ve fixed some of the most common issues reported to us.
Hotfix 2 solves the most frequent crashes and multiplayer issues, but we’re still working on a number of other reported errors in multiplayer. The good news is that the majority of issues reported to us are known, and a large percentage of those already have a fix in the works. Generally, for remaining multiplayer issues, reloading the game and loading the next available save will get you back up and running. Thank you to all who provide us the detail we need to get these fixes out into the wild.
We still recommend launching the game in DX11 mode if you’re experiencing crashes or framerate issues. However, those of you who were experiencing issues streaming with OBS while using the Vulkan API should find this fixed. (You may wish to re-install OBS).
Issues with 2FA (two-factor authentication) on Larian Accounts have been resolved, as well as your ability to create the optional Larian Account. Not to throw shade at anyone, but let’s just say some servers had some catching up to do.
On cross-save: we had previously announced that cross-save, though we have the infrastructure for it, will only be enabled and functioning once all our versions are in sync (across Steam, Mac, GOG, and Stadia). We don’t have an ETA for this yet.
We’ve been updating the support FAQ with the most relevant and up to date solutions or workarounds for reported issues. The FAQ is here: https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3
If you’re vehemently against save-scumming, do not read the following message. *whispers*: we suggest quicksaving frequently, as we add more autosave points in the game, and to prevent lost time if you experience a problem. All you need to do is hit F5. If you’re streaming, just create an overlay that hides when you save. Or pretend you cough. Nobody will notice, really.
Graphical quirks on Nvidia 3080 cards have also been fixed. Fun story: because the card was so wildly popular, we couldn’t source any to test with prior to launch. We still don’t have one. At this point, we’re pretty sure you guys made up the RTX 3080. Prove it exists by sending one to us.
We should be back soon with a bigger update and patch. In that update, we’ll go deeper into launch, and share with you some insights. Until then!
Patch Notes BG3 Hotfix #2 (version BG3 EA 4.1.83.5246)
Fixed multiplayer combat connectivity issues
Fixed a crash at the end of Early Access content while playing multiplayer
Fixed a crash when talking to Halsin in multiplayer
Fixed a crash when returning to main menu from a dialog
Fixed a crash when arriving in main menu related to corrupted savegames
Fixed a startup crash related to integrated graphics
Hotfix #1 - The Journey Begins!
Hello everyone,
We are so thrilled with how many of you are playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and we’re glad Steam was eventually able to accommodate you all. Our servers are keeping up, but just about! We never imagined such a huge influx of players in what we had envisioned being a relatively modest party of Early Access players. But we’re up to the challenge, and we’ve been listening!
We’re still working on the multiplayer issues that some of you are experiencing (and we’re very close to solving several of them), but Hotfix 1 already fixes a number of issues and covers other things you reported.
As a general message, if you’re having difficulty getting the game running, or are experiencing crashes, switch the game to DX11 mode (in the launcher, click the gear), and make sure you have the most up to date graphics drivers.
We also recommend in some cases disabling the Steam / Discord overlays, if you experience slowdowns while activated.
Patch Notes BG3 Hotfix #1 (version BG3 EA 4.1.83.3931)
Fixed a crash related to using rush-type actions
Fixed a crash related to the target camera
Fixed a crash in character creation
Fixed a crash during dialogs
Fixed overlapping items inside the inventory views
Fixed "Pickup" and "Pickup And Add To Wares" inside containers
Fixed a player assignment issue when someone would leave from a full multiplayer party. The leftover character can now be assigned correctly.
Fixed an issue with summons showing up as regular companions
Fixed an issue where players could not ready up when other players joined the lobby
Fixed being able to move immovable objects
Baldur's Gate 3 Enters Early Access
Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally ready for you to play it.
Today at 10am PT, we’re going to hit the big green button so you can start playing the start of Baldur’s Gate 3’s Early Access journey, and I can say with confidence each one of the 300 people who helped to make this game, are honored to have you aboard.
We’ll keep this short, because you’ve been patient. The road ahead is going to be exciting, and we’re happy to have you along for the journey. It’ll make us, and the game, stronger. Together, we’ll be a part of creating our deepest, most ambitious RPG yet.
We hope you have fun playing. Since Early Access rolls out what are essentially live development builds, there will be bugs and glitches here and there, but we’ve tried to create a fully cinematic RPG that you can play again and again, with new characters and new permutations, in between our frequent updates.
We hope to see you in the forums, and if you’ve any questions, head to the FAQ.
Until then, join us on social media in celebration of the team, and our players!
Thank you,
Larian
Community Update #8 - Character Creation
What defines you? Is it who you are, or the journey you’re on? In Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s both. Creating a character in Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t the moment the world decides how to treat you, but it’s the very beginning of the shaping of your story. BG3 is a world with great player agency, and the most important character in that world is you. We’ve created not only a character customization system that allows that player agency to shine, but also a world that constantly reacts to how your character develops.
In BG3 you can start your journey by choosing your race, subrace, background and class. In certain cases you also get to choose a subclass, perhaps a deity. These choices will ripple out across the story, affecting how you roleplay throughout the game.
You’ll assign points to your 6 abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma). Then you’ll decide which of the various skills in the game you're proficient with (eg. Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth). Last but not least, you customise your appearance and how your character presents to the world.
Will you be a beast taming mage-breaking charlatan halfling ranger with a toxic frog as a familiar, or a noble githyanki eldritch knight who let herself be seduced by the Absolute, with the ability to psionically drag her enemies towards her. Or, will you go for a more traditional tiefling warlock who made a pact with the devil? The choices are endless!
PROCESS
Our character creation features photorealistic fantasy races, based on 3D scans of actors and models (blemishes and all), selected because their features roughly resembled the direction for each race in the game, as well of course for diversity and variety in the human-like races. Our team spent much of pre-production carefully selecting, scanning, and moulding these scans, to become the base heads for character creation.
Alena Dubrovina, our Lead Character Artist wanted to shine a light on this. “When cinematic dialogues were introduced for BG3, we realized we needed to make a huge quality leap in our character art. We wanted to make characters look their best and put the bar very high. We had to be very innovative to make such a large range of heads and hit the quality level we wanted.”
“We decided to use scanned faces in our production to create characters that were as realistic as possible. We scanned 40 people of different ages and ethnicity. While scouting for models we focused on features that would fit our fantasy races and we looked for faces that either had something unique about them or were very versatile to fit different characters.
Eventually, we transformed the scanned heads into approximately 150 unique heads of various races that you can see in-game now, and that number will keep growing. Some of the scanned heads kept their features, but others became a starting point for creating new faces. We also used scanned data as a learning resource because there is no better sculptor than nature.”
RACES
In Early Access, you’ll choose from 8 races, each with their own selection of subraces. More will be added later, but for now they are as follows:
Human The most common face to see in Faerûn, humans are known for their tenacity, creativity, and endless capacity for growth. They live fully in the present - making them well suited to the adventuring life - but also plan for the future, striving to leave a lasting legacy.
Githyanki
Githyanki are peerless warriors from the Astral Plane, known for their legendary silver blades and red dragon mounts. They seek the total destruction of mind flayers, whose ancient empire enslaved the githyanki for millennia.
Elf
High Elf Heirs of the mystical Feywild, high elves value magic in all its forms, and even those who do not study spellcraft can manipulate the Weave.
Wood Elf Wood elves spend their reclusive lives in Faerûn’s forests. Decades of training in archery and camouflage are enhanced by an otherworldly swiftness.
Drow
Seldarine Drow Drow are the result of an ancient schism between the elven deities Corellon Larethian and Lolth. The latters’ treachery drove the drow into the Underdark, where they splintered into warring factions. Seldarine drow can be found seeking allies from all over Faerûn, aiming to settle their conflict with Lolth - and each other - by any means necessary.
Lolth-Sworn Drow Raised by Lolth’s cult in the city of Menzoberranzan, these drow extol the virtues of their corrupt and merciless goddess. Lolth marks her followers with bright red eyes so the Underdark will learn to fear drow on sight.
Half-Elf
High Half-Elf A touch of the Feywild remains in half-elves with this bloodline, and even those untrained in magic possess a hint of wild power.
Wood Half-Elf Like their wood elf parent, these half-elves have a quickened stride and eye for stealth. Yet many break away from isolation in Faerûn’s forests to explore the rest of the Realms.
Drow Half-Elf Most half-drow result from liaisons between Seldarine drow and surfacers. While half-drow inherit a few magical gifts, they aren’t usually raised in the Underdark.
Dwarf
Gold Gold dwarves are known for their confidence and keen intuition. The culture of their Deep Kingdom values family, ritual, and fine craftsmanship.
Shield Shield dwarves survived a long fall from grace, surrendering many of their ancient kingdoms in wars with goblins and orcs. These losses have lead to a cynical mindset, yet shield dwarves will endure anything to restore their ancestral homelands.
Halfling
Lightfoot Halfling Lightfoot halflings are stealthy but social, travelling all over Faerûn to make names for themselves.
Strongheart Halfling Legends say dwarven blood gave stronghearts their hardiness. Resistant to poison and wellsprings of endurance, these halflings easily hold their own.
Tiefling
Asmodeus Tiefling Bound to Nessus, the deepest layer of the Hells, these tieflings inherit the ability to wield fire and darkness from the archdevil Asmodeus’ infernal bloodline.
Mephistopheles Tiefling Descended from the archdevil Mephistopheles, these tieflings are gifted with a particular affinity for arcane magic.
Zariel Tiefling Tieflings from Zariel’s bloodline are empowered with martial strength, and can channel searing flame to punish their enemies.
Baldur’s Gate is a vast cultural hub on the Sword Coast, attracting adventurers of extremely varied races and cultures, all of whom are looking to make a name for themselves in the city. In BG3, the NPCs of this world will react to who and what you are - giving you unique opportunities for roleplay based on your selected options in character creation.
For example, prior to the events in BG3, the city of Elturel has just descended into the Nine Hells. So many innocent people, cast without warning into the fire, never to return. The common folk speak of this hideous event with bitterness, with grievance, and with ill-tempered suspicion. So you can imagine that as a Tiefling (a being with an infernal bloodline and fiendish devil-like features) thanks to these world events you may find yourself the subject of mistrust and fear - at least more than the normal amount of suspicion your bloodline instills.
Races more alien to the Sword coast - like the Drow and Githyanki - are so rare to the average NPC that you’ll find their interactions to be unique as well. Of the nearly 600 NPC’s you’ll meet in Act 1 alone, each one draws from their own experiences. Oft defining how they approach a discussion, or situation.
Each of these races represent a staggering amount of narrative and mechanical complexity. In one playthrough as a human, you might be treated with respect and honor. In the next, as a Githyanki, you might have to struggle for those same courtesies with the sharpness of your tongue, or the ferocity of your fists. What race you pick will be foundation for your appearance, but will also give you a bunch of cool racial features including stat increases, skill proficiencies and potential other bonuses.
CLASS
In EA you’ll have 6 Classes to choose from - Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock and Wizard - each with at least two subclasses to choose from. If you’re unfamiliar with D&D, some classes unlock their subclass early at Level 1 - like the Cleric - while others gain their subclass choice by Level 3.
If you choose a class with access to magic, you’ll be able to select from a number of Cantrips - simple arcane skills you can use to dazzle and destroy your opponents again and again - and Spells - more powerful abilities that you’ll have limited uses of between rests.
Just like your background and race, your class will also give you options in the world with roleplay. NPC’s might recognise the skillset you live your life by, and in turn you’ll gain options in dialogue and unique opportunities your other companions will not have.
Classes evolve as you level up and each class presents plenty of opportunities for customisation. Once you hit level 4 for instance, you’ll get to select from a wide range of feats. Feats represent talents or an area of expertise that give characters special capabilities. They embody training, experience, and abilities beyond what your base class provides.
APPEARANCE
Within the Appearance tab, you’ll customise the finer details of your character. You can choose from different voice options, alter facial features, hairstyles, colours, and beards. Hair and Eye colour will have multiple “canon” options, but these options can also be ignored and you can just pick whatever you want from all colours available. Finally you can add the finishing touches with a variety of Tattoo and Makeup options. You’ll notice that many subraces have different appearances to each other, which add another layer of variety to the roleplay in your party.
EARLY ACCESS AND BEYOND
Oh boy, do we have SURPRISES for you when you finally start the game. But we’re not going to spoil those. We’ll be expanding Early Access content throughout the campaign and have quite a few extra things up our sleeves, but since this update is about Early Access, we’ll cover those later.
That’s enough about Character Creation for now. We really want you to discover it. We know many of you are very curious about future races that may be added but with 16 races + subraces to pick from we feel like there’s enough content to get you started.
Our early access date is approaching rapidly so you’ll be able to check all of this out yourself very soon!
Q & A
Will Stadia have m&k support and will PC have controller support? Stadia features a ‘beta’ version of Controller Support, but we suggest playing with a mouse & keyboard if you can for now, while we fine tune the controller for the future. Controller support will also be coming to PC.
Will the respec option be a one time thing or will it follow us through the game? Can we respec classes and races? We’re still trying out different ways of introducing respec so you’ll need to have a bit of patience before we’ll answer that question.
Will it be possible to play without romance whatsoever (like companions trying to romance you or each other)? Who you romance is up to you. It’s completely your choice. You don’t even need to be friends with anyone, and you can reject any advances from characters in the game.
Will the Origin characters have fixed class, or we'll be able to choose one like in DOS2? Same answer as for the respeccing. We want to make some form of respec available but are still working out what the best way will be.
Will crafting be in the game? If so, to what extent? Will my bag get full of crafting supplies or can I drop them off at camp? There will be some form of crafting but it will be limited.
When we equip new armor, boots, amulets, rings, capes, do they show on our characters? Yes as you equip items they will show on characters and appear in game and during dialogues. Rings and Amulets do not appear.
Can I pet the dog (and owlbear)? Yes you can pet the dog! We highly advise AGAINST petting the owlbear though. As for the owlbear cub? We’ll leave that one a mystery for you to find out...
Will we be able to create a character in Baldur's Gate 3? Yeah, like this.
Community Update #7 - Romance & Companionship
It’s a helluva year to talk about romance, but a great one to talk about companionship. We’re all going through our own journeys, and each one is different to the next. We’ve all got our differences, but it’s our differences that make us interesting, and unique. And though sometimes differences cause friction, they also lead to friendship, and often love. Foundationally, companionship is the lifeboat that shields us from the elements.
D&D has always been about bringing people together. The table at which you sit is the canvas for adventure, and as the DM carves a tapestry of adventure in wood and writing, your inter-connected imaginations take you to a faraway land, in your kitchen, or your game room, or around the converted pool table.
Who you journey with is as important as the journey itself. It shapes you, as you shape each other. Malleable, ever-expanding soft-shell adventure sponges brimming with potential, often mired by the enormity of what surrounds you. But that’s what friends are for! To tug us out of the bog, and free us from the dizziness of quick-sand.
Baldur’s Gate 3 aims to take all that binds us together, and offer authentic, reactive relationships from the moment you meet, to whatever eventuality. The road least travelled is best travelled with friends.
“At the end of the day this remains a D&D game and the most important character in a game of D&D is you.”, explains Sarah Baylus, lead writer at Larian Studios, in today’s new video.
[previewyoutube="qYD5HHKmVT8;full"] Four “you’s” is a party of “you’s”, and a party of “you’s” is interesting because not all of them are you. In fact, the only one who’s you is you. (Hello, you). You are all the most important people in your adventure, whether playing alone or with friends. The ways in which you shape each other, as you shape the story, are tangible and varied. Let’s dig in.
Each of your companions have their own personalities, goals, and motivations. Bound by the shared problem of an Illithid tadpole buried in their head, they will join your party but you’ll all have to put your differences aside if you want to survive. The exact relationship you have with your companions, already marred by differences, will be shaped by who you are, what you do, who you side with, and what you say in conversation with them.
We’ve tried to create reactive systems all throughout the journey of a relationship; from the time of meeting a companion, to the potential romance with them. (Romance is a polite word we’re using for sex. But we’re not quite there yet, more on that in a moment.)
Differences breed interesting party dynamics
In Baldur’s Gate 3, a 5e D&D game, creating a custom character will immerse you in the story just as much as playing as one of the Origin Characters. For example, playing as a Drow Wizard will give you different dialogue options than playing as a Githyanki Warlock. These differences will also be present in your relationship dialogues. As you play the game, and you begin to make choices in combat, exploration, and conversation, you’ll be presented with situations and scenarios that are unique to your playthrough. Not too long into Early Access, you will be having an adventure so specific to your character, that no other player is going to see the exact same content as you.
Just as in real life, the sum of character is determined by many factors, and continues to be shaped by your actions and reactions to the world, and the party you journey with. Frictions may test the party’s resolve, and romances might test the party dynamic. Not only will characters have opinions about you, but also about each other, and other factions in the game. Will you pursue love with one companion to the detriment of another? Or will you side with a faction a companion detests, putting feelings to the side to achieve your strategic goals? As with life, many decisions will have to be made, not all of them easy, and not every outcome obvious.
Campfires are where people are at their most vulnerable
Catch Gale at the campfire and you might find a lot of his bravado has been disarmed. Disarmed bravado is an opportunity for Astarion, a vampire. All of this sitting around may be a waste of time for Lae’zel. For you, it’s an opportunity to talk and interact with your party and followers on a more intimate level. But the conversation you have in the camp will also be a reaction to the day’s events, and what you’ve been up to in the world.
Through a mix of systems design, narrative writing, and cinematics, Larian is aiming to create three-dimensional relationships that feel as authentic as possible.
How intimate a character will be with you relies heavily on who they are, and who you become on your adventure. There are factions in the game you may side with, or revolt against. Your party will have opinions about that, and in multiplayer - once Origin Avatars have joined Early Access (not day 1) - the systems will technically allow you to have intimate moments with your friends. Talk about party dynamics!
The point is, no matter which race or gender you are, or which class you are, the levels of intimacy party members share will be defined by extremely in-depth, life-like evaluation of everything you’ve been up to together. We’ve tried to create an authentic, reactive relationship system where characters act and react like people. For better, and for worse.
On a totally unrelated note, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been officially rated M for Mature by ESRB, and that’s probably for the best.
Q&A TIME!
If I buy the game on GOG can I play with my friend who owns the game on Steam? How about if I play on PC and my friend plays on Stadia? “Direct Connect” (yes) is possible between platforms - but all players must be on the same patch number in order for it to work. Note that in the first few weeks of Early Access there may be some minor version discrepancy between platforms as we move to fix and address issues rapidly, and in these cases you won’t be able to play between ‘stores’. Ultimately, you will.
Are there any plans for a physical Collector's Edition release? Last time we admitted we had plans for something (cough: DOS2 on Switch) everyone took it as a 100% confirmation that it was about to shoot out of the void, so we wouldn’t say plans as such. What we will say is that we’re looking into a few cool ideas, but this isn’t for EA.
If I purchase the game in Early Access, do I have to pay again when 1.0 comes out? Absolutely not, and we massively appreciate you joining our Early Access journey. Note: a purchase is linked to your account, and linked to that platform. So if you buy it on Steam, you get the Steam version. Stadia, Stadia version. GoG, GoG version, etc.
I noticed in the gameplay shown in Panel of Hell that the units of measurement for distance were in ft, but the gameplay at D&D live was in meters. Will I have the option to choose between the silly pathetic imperial system and the glorious and only metric system? Yes, you will have the option. There's a toggle in the options menu that lets you switch between imperial and metric units, so if you get pulled over by the cops you can’t use that as an excuse.
Will companions be interchangeable during long rest? Yes, at the start of your adventure your recruited companions will be at camp when not in the adventuring party, and can be swapped in and out at camp. Just like friends in real life! After the first act however you are going to have to commit, also just like in real life.
What's the DEAL with camp and camp followers? Camp plays an important role in the game. It is where your party rests and recovers and where you can engage in dialogue with your companions, building your relationships with them. You'll also find NPCs on your adventure who join the camp temporarily or on a more permanent basis, becoming camp followers. Some will offer services, others have a narrative function. We don't want to give too much more away, as we want you to experience these things for yourself as you play.
Can I solve all of my problems in-game with fire magic? You could even solve your relationship problems with fire magic, if you want. Fire tends to solve a lot of things, but Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t have the same approach to surfaces as DOS2. For example, you will likely kill less of your allies by accident. Still, when in doubt, fire the spout.
D&D lore says if you put a bag of holding into a bag of holding it causes a black hole. Will this happen in game? Thankfully, there are no Bags of Holding in Early Access. We do feel like testing this theory may set the game, and the universe back, a few dozen millenia.
Can I play it without knowing anything about the franchise? Baldur’s Gate 3 is a new story, and a new adventure, with new characters. We don’t want to spoil too much, but when you explore the world for the first time, you’ll enjoy the story from a fresh perspective, but if you’ve played the previous games, you’ll quickly start to join many dots. But those dots aren’t required to enjoy your own personal adventure in the Forgotten Realms.
How will stats be determined? Will they be rolled, Point Buy, Standard Array? Will we be able to choose which method we want? In Early Access we're using Point Buy as the main way to determine stats in Character Creation, but we've heard that there are big fans of rolling stats out there. We will be showcasing more about character creation and the options available for you in our next update. One of the great things about Early Access is that we can test these things out, and talk to you guys about them.
Will there be romance in Baldur’s Gate 3? DIDN’T YOU READ THE UPDATE? :D (c’mon guys).
Community Update #6 - Multiplayer & Cinematics
“You’re telling your story, and we’re shooting it for you,” explains our Cinematic Director, Jason Latino. “We’re taking that camera down from being above the players, and down into the drama, right into the action.”
“I can’t think of another Early Access game that’s done cinematics, on this level. There’s a lot of games where the moment you add cinematics, they have to get smaller.”
“We didn’t want to do that.”
Everyone - it’s time to talk about multiplayer. Cinematics, Crowd Choice, and Twitch integration. We’re creating a huge, sprawling RPG with all the tools you need to direct your own adventure, and weave your own tale. Or, weave that tale with your friends, or your audience online. No matter if you choose to play solo, with friends, or with your audience -- Baldur’s Gate 3 is a huge cinematic experience spanning over 1.5 million words, and that story can be enjoyed together through the games cinematics, in multiplayer, or as an audience in a stream.
If your character walks into a dialogue situation, the cinematic dialogue begins with you by yourself. If one of your posse comes close, they can choose whether or not they join you in the discussion. Once they do, they can tell you what options they would like you to select as you ponder your next choice.
Your party is of course free to roam around the world while you independently charm your way through conversation. They can even pick-pocket you while you’re in a dialogue. Or cause a fire. Or abandon you. Or, put an end to your waffling and kill the person you’re talking to.
Whatever you do, the game will react appropriately. Even if your friends aren’t.
Our ambition is to make all of this as seamless and interactive as we can and during Early Access you can expect us to continue building more and more ways to interact, observe, intraject, and subvert expectations. Raising the level of drama, and expanding the level of depth.
As far as we know, there has never been an RPG this large, with multiplayer, attempting these intimate, character driven cinematic moments throughout the entire experience. We put a lot of effort in it and are super curious to hear your feedback. Applying cinematics to a multiplayer game, and one launched in Early Access, means that our cinematic ambitions can grow alongside all the other iterations and tweaks that come with working directly with our community and that can only lead to good things!
TWITCH / CROWD CHOICE
With Crowd Choice, a Stadia Enhanced Feature, you’ll be able to choose the next story path and alter what happens next during your favorite YouTube Creator's livestream.
Twitch integration works by numbering each dialogue option, which corresponds to the viewer choices. This feedback is seamlessly integrated into the game, where both streamer and viewer will see each percentage vote next to each dialogue option. What’s more, players will be able to interact with the Twitch overlay to access the player’s inventory, character sheet, skills, and spells.
Both of these features are launching day 1 of Early Access respectively on PC or Stadia. This too is something we’re very excited about not only because it brings the community closer to the player, but also because due to the amount of permutations in dialogues, it enables streamers to “DM” their own adventure for their viewers, and have their viewers partake in their story regardless of whether or not the viewer owns the game.
You’ll be able to become a part of your favourite streamer’s own private canon. Or, as a streamer, or viewer, disable the feature entirely. It’s up to you. As always, the game reacts appropriately.
THE NEXT STEP
[previewyoutube="j_5KuItVaoY;full"] Today’s Community Update video begins with a memory of Divinity: Original Sin quite deliberately. Interactions in DOS1 were merely relegated to rock-paper-scissors (literally!), and dialogue moments between players were a wall of text that scrolled down the screen. We took this a little further in Divinity: Original Sin 2, as characters and players reacted to who you are, and what you’ve done, with many permutations spanning multiple races and tags. Still, dialogues between characters, and interactions in multiplayer were rudimentary though much evolved over DOS1.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the next great leap and once you’ll start playing, you’ll find that the distance between DOS2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 is tremendously large, as we begin to push the boat out on not only cinematic dialogues, but also the ways in which you can interact with them.
In Baldur’s Gate 3 dialogues have more permutations, more depth, and a cinematic layer that reacts seamlessly to any situation using custom adaptive camera technology (see: elves and dwarves are nay the same height) as well as performance capture. Now, not only do we retain the narration our games are so well known for, but you’ll often see the action on screen - whether it’s a vampiric bite in the night, or a slip of the tongue on a goblin’s foot. Long gone is rock-paper-scissors, as we’ve built tools for debate not only within the multiplayer party, but also as an extension to the thousands of people who watch at home, all in the spirit of the D&D spirit of bringing people together. And we still have some surprises up our sleeve when it comes to multiplayer, but we’ll leave those for another time. There have never been a greater number of ways to gather your party in a single game. Now’s the time!
Q&A
Finally, thank you all for your organization across Reddit and Discord regarding the questions you’d like answered. We’re going to try and answer around 10 questions every update, which we’ll try and do quite frequently. Here are the answers to your questions for number 6. Having questions organized in this way gives us time to read them and respond to them, and also gives us a great sense of how to prioritize them based on how you all vote/rank them. We really appreciate the sense of community spirit and organization.
Will difficulty choices affect more than just enemy health and damage? e.g. increasing the DC on some rolls while exploring the world? Yes there are many features planned for different difficulty levels, which we’ll go over in a future update - but EA isn’t launching with difficulty choices, as we prioritize everything you need to have an enjoyable experience.
How much of an impact will alignment have? None, similar to D&D 5e we don’t have a strict alignment system. But your actions and decisions will have a major impact on how the world and people react around you. So you can be evil, or good, or something in between - but there’s no strict system. As we’ve mentioned, EA is about 25 hours of content “in a straight line” so to speak, but we’ve built everything you need to try many different types of characters, interactions, and combinations. The world in Early Access will react. Tell us what happens.
Will early access get modding support, like the steam workshop and its various modding tools? We loved what our modding community did with DOS2, and we’re excited to see what they’ll do with BG3. Modding will be supported, but not before 1.0, not during EA. Again, we really need to focus on working with feedback and creating the game.
Is there a Lone Wolf mode planned? This is actually a question already being asked by a number of our playtesters who are currently playing the game. A Lone Wolf mode is planned, but won’t be in the game at the beginning of Early Access. One of the many great discussions that come from people playing, and talking with us.
About how fast can you make an entire campaign now that you have the game engine made? I’m thinking it’d be absolutely amazing if you could make a few popular 5E DnD campaigns using the BG3 engine now that you have everything working. This is a very interesting question. Indeed since launch a lot of our time has been put into creating the tools and pipelines (including entire new departments) needed to create a game much more ambitious than our previous games. All we can say at this point is that our pipelines are very much up and running, and we’re seeing the fruits of all that labour. Now that everything is plugged together, we’re able to work quite quickly when it comes to content - though many departments are involved, and many things are plugged into each other. However, it takes a long time to make a very big game with so many permutations.
Will there be ultrawide support? Our previous games work well on UW so it’s something we’ll put effort in, we’re already taking it into account in cinematic dialogs so it's something we plan for the future. (Director of Publishing interjection here: I’ve been playing BG3 on UW at home and at the office since day 1. Ultrawide for the win! Let us know how you get on.)
Date + Time of release globally? 10am PST - assuming everything works out exactly as it should. As soon as we hit the button you’ll be able purchase and install the game, or launch it right from Stadia without the need to install it.
What languages are coming for Early Access? And which will be included later? We’ve confirmed English, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish will be available in Early Access. We have decided to include Brazilian Portuguese and Italian in 1.0, but not during EA. This is because it would be too cumbersome to add additional languages as we write the game during Early Access, but we want you to know that we will support you.
Will we be able to carry our characters over from early access into the full game? Unfortunately, as with most Early Access games, there are changes, bug fixes and patches that dictate the fact that wipes will happen to saves. This is because certain fundamental changes to engine, story, etc create incompatibility issues. We will try and tell you when this will happen, in advance.
Will EA be available on GOG? Working on that.
What integrations will be available for Twitch & Stadia streamers? DIDN’T YOU READ THE UPDATE? :D
Community Update #5 - Early Access
Hello everyone! We hope you’ve recovered from the Panel From Hell. We have a huge, bumper community update for you today. We’re going to talk about Early Access at some length, so get a cup of something ready, and maybe a snack. Nestled in? Let’s go.
What is Early Access? What are your expectations? Everyone has a different answer to this, depending on the experience they’re looking for, or their objectives that lead them to shipping a game into Early Access. Regardless how you define it, buying an Early Access game needs to be an informed decision and today we come here to inform.
We’re going to cover a bunch of topics discussed on the 18th’s Panel From Hell, where Geoff, Swen, Adam and Chris talked in some depth about not just Early Access, but also Avernus, first of the nine hells and the setting of the game’s tutorial.
The full Panel From Hell is a pretty lengthy watch, but it’s just below here.
[previewyoutube="qboLvZ5YQSg;full"] If you made it all the way to the end, you learned we’re aiming to launch Baldur’s Gate 3 into Early Access on September 30. The Steam page has been updated to more accurately describe what we’ll be releasing first. While the content will be limited, there should be enough bells and whistles to make it a fun, engaging experience.
Early Access will feature around 20-25 hours of gameplay in a single play-through, with performance captured dialogues and cut-scenes, voice overs for most dialogs, multiplayer (but no split-screen for now), several translations available (but not all) and an Act 1 story that should feel fulfilling to play through many multiple times, with multiple characters. At the start of Early Access, support for custom characters will consist of 6 classes and 9 races, with several subclasses and subraces included. You won’t be able to play as an origin character yet but you will be able to recruit 5 of them as companions when your journey commences.
Here’s a little about who you’re likely to meet on the road to Baldur’s Gate:
Shadowheart A loyal cleric of Shar, Shadowheart is the sole survivor of a holy mission undertaken for the Mistress of the Night. She alone must deliver a relic of immense power while threatened by foes on all sides, and a strange, untamed magic burgeoning from within.
Wyll Noble by birth, Wyll made his name as the heroic 'Blade of Frontiers'. But to become a living legend, he made a bargain with a devil - and he now longs to break free before it consumes him for good.
Lae'zel Lae'zel is a ferocious warrior, mighty even by the standards of a githyanki crèche. Faced with transforming into the very monster she's sworn to destroy, Lae'zel must prove herself worthy of rejoining her people - if they don't execute her first.
Astarion Astarion prowled the night as a vampire spawn for centuries, serving a sadistic master until he was snatched away. Now he can walk in the light and has the chance at a new life, but how long can he keep his past buried?
Gale Gale is a Waterdhavian wizard prodigy whose love for a goddess made him attempt something no mortal should. Blighted by the forbidden magic of ancient Netheril, Gale needs to undo the corruption that is overtaking him, a corruption that threatens to destroy the lives of thousands.
We’ll go into the exact available classes, sub-classes, and races a little closer to launch as we iron out some last-minute content planning, but for now I think the easiest way to open your eyes to just how huge BG3’s EA content is, we’ll compare that content to our previous game’s Early Access, Divinity: Original Sin 2.
Amount of combats: 22 in DOS2 EA vs 80 in BG3 EA
Amount of dialogue lines in english: 17.600 in DOS2 EA vs. 45.980 in BG3 EA
Amount of characters: 142 in DOS2 EA vs. 596 in BG3 EA
Amount of spells/actions: 69 in DOS2 EA vs. 146 in BG3 EA
These numbers are changing continuously as we’re actively developing the game and new content gets introduced daily.
An example of content coming in hot is an Intellect Devourer named ‘us’. The story of how ‘Us’ made it into the game was introduced during the Panel and showcases what’s possible when multiple disciplines at Larian come together. And this is still early footage! It’s only going to get better, and bigger, from here.
You could accurately state that BG3’s EA is 3x larger than DOS2’s EA, but that requires further context. The 3x multiplier essentially translates to density. More permutations. Many more permutations. It’s the deepest game we’ve ever made, and if you’re the type of player who played 100 hours in DOS2, you’ll see entirely different content on your second or third playthrough compared to your first, depending on the decisions you make. We wanted to create real, tangible storylines that permeate throughout happenstance and decision and so if you try out early access, it may be a good idea to try out what happens on an ‘evil’ playthrough and compare that to a ‘good’ playthrough.
Immense Scope
During the panel we gave a couple of examples of how the depth of Baldur’s Gate 3 made our numbers soar. We showcased the spell “Speak with Dead”. A spell that could (and potentially should) be easily sidelined or “gamified” because of the immense scope, but instead we’ve ensured that Speak with Dead is relevant throughout your adventures with every corpse that had something interesting to say. Can’t interrogate the living? Interrogate the dead!
The same goes for animal Handling, something many of you asked about. The skill can be used to calm down an animal, intuit an animal’s intentions, or potentially help tame it. You’ll find plenty of uses for this skill on the road to Baldur’s Gate but that’s not all. There’s also the spell Speak with Animals. During the panel we hinted that good use of these spells or skills could even lead to recruiting an owlbear companion!
In the stream, we showed another useful spell in the D&D arsenal - Find Familiar. This spell creates a spirit that takes the form of animal of your choice (Cat, Raven, Spider and more) to serve you as a familiar. The familiar becomes a controllable follower, and can be useful for a number of reasons. Thanks to the spell you can see and hear through the animal, so it's perfect to send it ahead of you and explore the region as a scout. While mostly combat ineffective, familiars can be used to spy and gain insight on situations before you can encounter them. Certain familiars also have other interesting abilities like a cat - who can use a skill to distract guards, making it much easier for your rogue to do what they do best.
The Early Access Experience
Early Access gets you all of the content you’ve seen us playing in our previous live-streams, plus everything we’ve still got to show you, and much more we’ve left for you to discover for yourselves (which is, to be fair, almost everything - we’ve tried to show you as little as possible).
However. September 30 isn’t going to offer a polished experience. Which brings us full circle to the introduction of this update. The purpose of Early Access for us at Larian is to make the game better. We want to iterate on the game, hear your feedback, debate internally and debate with our players. We don’t know how long Baldur’s Gate 3 will be in Early Access, but we do know that all your feedback will make the game so much better and ensure that the 1.0 launch will be so much stronger than if we were to do it just on our own.
If you’re in it for the story, and you’re not interested in providing feedback or navigating some bugs, then Early Access may not be for you. However, know that even if you don’t provide direct feedback, you still help us make the game better by just playing a bit!
How?
Because we’re collecting all kinds of data behind the scenes that inform us how players are playing the game. Heat maps are a good example of this.
The above example is taken from the Early Access of Divinity: Original Sin 2 and allows us to see the difficulty spikes. Literally, where people are dying. If it’s red where it’s not supposed to be red, it means the fight may be too tough. So then we can have a debate, and figure out what to do about it. You don’t need to tell us, you just need to die. I mean… or win. That’s cool too. Heat maps like this are also used to analyze loot distribution, exploration, and loads of other stats that help us to understand how you interact with the world.
The more of you playing in Early Access, the more data points we get to make better decisions about what to change. That’s of course on top of the forum discussions and the feedback we get via other channels. It’s a pretty amazing thing that has historically made our games better.
In case it’s not clear, we all really hope you’ll join us on our Early Access journey, but we want to make sure you know the game won’t be ready yet. If you want a full polished experience, wait until we release version 1.0.
You can read the whole Early Access blurb on the Steam page for more information, but to be honest we pretty much covered it all here.
Also - thanks for all the memes from The Panel From Hell, and thanks for the continued support.
Wrapping up!
OH - there’s one more thing. There won’t be pre-orders for Baldur’s Gate 3 and you do not need to worry about pre ordering to play with everyone else.
You’ll be able to buy it on launch day, and then start playing the content described in this update. There will not be limited quantities of keys.
That’s pretty much everything you need to inform yourself on Early Access. It’s going to be an awesome journey together. We’ll be sharing new content, features, and improvements with you regularly. We’ll be talking directly with you, and hopefully when COVID is done being a total asshole to the world, we’ll meet again at PAX, or EGX, or wherever else! We miss you!
We have more surprises in store for you up to launch. We’ll post a full, extensive breakdown of Early Access Day 1 content closer to launch, but until then stay tuned to our streams and community updates!
PANEL FROM HELL
Mark your calendar for Tuesday the 18th August at 10am Pacific Time! Our Creative Director Swen will be joined by Geoff Keighley, Chris Perkins and Adam Smith on the Panel From Hell!
We’ll be deep diving into what you can expect from Early Access for Baldur’s Gate 3, there will be discussions about lobotomies, the permutations in gameplay and we’ll be showing the last part of BG3’s cinematic intro.
Check out the official countdown timer over at the Baldur’s Gate 3 website and we look forward to your company on stream next week!
And never miss any Larian, Divinity or Baldur’s Gate 3 news by signing up to the Larian Gazette.
Community Update #4: A Little About Combat & Stealth
Hey everyone!
We haven’t spoken in a little while - at least not since we released our latest trailer and took a deeper dive into development during our live gameplay stream - but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been extremely busy working on the early access version of Baldur’s Gate 3.
We know you all want to know when we’ll release BG3 into early access but you’ll have to be a bit more patient before we can announce an exact date. The one thing we can tell you is that we are making good progress.
Today we’d like to take a bit of time to discuss how Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you plenty of easy to understand systems which you’ll use to overcome increasingly more complex challenges. The way combat works and how you can use our brand new shiny forced turn-based to get advantage are good examples of this.
BG3 deploys fifth edition D&D rules and is class-based. We’ll go into what that means per-class later this year, but for now let’s focus on how BG3’s combat plays. It’s come a long way since the reveal in February. It’s now faster, and more responsive. And it works well in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
If you watched the gameplay stream, one thing many of you have noticed is how fluid combat in BG3 now feels. Despite being turn-based, which allows you to have an authentic D&D experience and really deliberate over your moves as a team, BG3’s combat is much faster than DOS2. But how? Magic? A rift in the space-time continuum? Currently, neither of those things. In fact a lot of it is down to how animations are both created and processed. We invested heavily into what drives our animation pipeline, and specifically made tweaks to improve the feel and motion in combat. The increased brevity and flow is down to many, many changes shaving off microseconds (and sometimes entire seconds). For example, another character’s turn will begin - behind the scenes - as the previous character is ending their animation. Even things as simple as combining move animations with the hit of a melee strike shaves seconds off combat.
Since the initial gameplay reveal in February, we totally overhauled the order of combat. Early Access means change, and change is shaped by feedback and testing over time. BG3’s combat is now set so that each combatant takes a turn at a time but there’s a twist. If multiple combatants of the same faction follow one another in the turn order, then you can simultaneously command each of them.
That means that based on the results of the initiative roll, you’ll experience a different tactical puzzle in each combat that really mixes everything up but still allows you to react to the “cards” you’re “dealt”, so to speak. (There aren’t literally any cards, sorry MTG fans!) Between the RNG of initiative, and the planning, you should be able to have a fresh experience with every combat while still being able to predict and plan with friends how to combine spells and abilities, and ultimately win the fight.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a party-based game that you can play alone, controlling each character, or as a party of up to four where each person rolls their own character. (It’s of course possible to also play as 2, or 3 people, with AI, etc).
In multiplayer, when your avatars and companions are next to each other in the turn order players can simultaneously control characters. This allows you to communicate with your friends and combine spells and abilities to take advantage of more brains on the battlefield, and more hands on the keyboard. This, compared with Divinity: Original Sin 2, drastically reduces the amount of time each player would have to wait between turns, since they’re able to move together.
Stealth is also a big part of Baldur’s Gate 3 - if you want it to be - and it goes hand in hand with the game's great sense of verticality, and ability to shove people. Sneaking is a really useful technique for positioning your party prior to the initiative roll, ensuring you get the first strike. Using stealth, it’s perfectly viable to sneak into a camp, avoid being seen, and roll crits to victory. With a little thought comes the perfect ‘shove’.
Using stealth to prepare for combat is even more fun due to the introduction of forced turn-based mode. This is a big new feature that allows players at any moment during exploration to switch to turn-based rules. Each turn equates to 6 seconds, allowing players to predict and navigate enemy movement, or solve puzzles that require clever navigation (for example, not getting hit by a fireball!).
Our stealth mechanics now also take light and darkness into account. You can be obscured or heavily obscured so that even when you are caught in the visibility cones of the enemy, you still have a chance to slip through unseen. Of course, that is if your enemies don’t have darkvision. Here’s a little table that summarizes how light, darkness and darkvision affect stealth.
Things get even more interesting when you discover you can manipulate light by using spells or throwing water at a torch, as lighting is dynamic, and thus shadows are also.
To summarize, forced turn-based mode, allows you to switch to turn-based rules in exploration, to set up traps, bypass patrols, steal, and otherwise head on many other roguish exploits. But you don’t have to be a rogue class, of course.
These are all super useful techniques that, when used imaginatively, really help you to get the best chances during your initiative roll as combat starts. Baldur’s Gate 3 has high-stakes combat, so making good use of surprise mechanics will give you a leg-up.
If you haven’t already, check out 90 minutes of live Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay which was aired as a part of D&D Live 2020. It showcases several of the features highlighted here.
In the show, we allowed people to vote on which adventure we’d take. Down into The Underdark, or to dive deeper into the Goblin Camp. If it wasn’t clear yet, player choice is going to be a huge part of Baldur’s Gate 3 and not just for those playing.
But enough teasing, we’ll talk about that another time… Stay tuned!!!
The Road to Baldur’s Gate - Community Update #3
After announcing the game almost precisely one year ago now, we’re finally on the road to Baldur’s Gate. It’s been a lot of work getting there. Recent disruptions caused by Covid-19 slowed us down, but today is special because we’ve finally locked down the content we’ll be releasing as the foundation of the initial Early Access version. We’ll share this with you soon, but for now, let’s focus a little on the past, before we go full steam ahead towards AUGUST, 2020.
We announced Baldur’s Gate 3 just prior to E3 2019 with the first part of our CGI trailer, the first time you folks really got a sense of the mood and themes we were shooting for with the game. Shortly after, we shared with you our adventures at the Wizards of the Coast HQ, as we infiltrated the building and brought back with us the secret source of Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, it was all in jest. We’ve been working on this for far longer than the announcement; it’s coming close to about four years now, all things considered.
In the last Community Update we talked about the world-wide gameplay reveal of Baldur’s Gate 3, presented to an auditorium full to the brim of eager fans, curious to see where the game would take them. This followed the press-tour, where journalists sat through a 3 hour presentation of Baldur’s Gate 3, which was really the first time we saw people react live to the game. They laughed as we fumbled our rolls, and we laughed at the choices they shouted out at us that defined our journey. It went off script. There were bugs. But this is Early Access, and above all else Early Access is about interaction. It’s a long journey, but it’s one that’s supposed to be fun. We’re having fun, and we hope you are too.
In that update we talked about the tone, theme, and how Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place 100 years after Baldur’s Gate 2. We can’t go into too much detail about how they’re connected, because spoilers - we want you to discover these things when you play it. Between that press-tour, seeing your reactions as we played inside our awesome castle booth at PAX, and the live-stream, we’ve been collecting that energy and channeling it into the development, which admittedly in recent months has been problematic due to Covid-19, with an inability to record cinematics with actors. Work continued on though, changes were made, and you’ll explore some of these changes at the next live-showing of Baldur’s Gate 3 which is right around the corner. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Since then, we also did a Reddit AMA to answer a lot of your questions and the community has kindly and conveniently compiled that into an easy FAQ that you can read over on Reddit. Within that are certain teases that tie Baldur’s Gate 3 to Baldur’s Gate 2 and talks about many of the topics raised since the PAX Live Showcase.
We’re really excited to show you how the game is continuing to shape up. There are many improvements between what you saw at PAX and what you’ll see later in June. The narration in BG3 has been totally overhauled, the impact of your choices is becoming impressive, Origin characters have been adjusted, many visual improvements are already implemented, and the game’s UI continues to be tweaked and shifted around with a new UI style in development (But not ready for prime time yet). We started refining how the DnD fifth edition ruleset is integrated and are having loads of fun seeing the emerging gameplay that comes from so many systems working together. Combat is starting to be really fun with many tweaks getting implemented and we have a new initiative system which adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. We also have the new, official key-art nearly ready to be revealed. And we haven’t even started Early Access yet!
That pretty much covers where we’ve been, but where are we going? SO MANY PLACES. Today we’ve released the first official trailer for BG3 featuring the latest up-to-date visuals and mood we’re targeting. This trailer, functionally to announce the release window, comes with the caveat of a MAYBE. MAYBE is a real thing, because the world of development is a complex one with a lot of challenges, especially in the face of a global pandemic, and we wanted to be 100% honest with you. Secretly, all release dates are targets. Games are ready to be released when they’re ready to be played, and that’s true for Early Access games too. Though we’re back in the office, equipped with hand sanitizer and face-masks, and performance capture can continue with a two meter distance, we’re still playing catchup on the last three months. But that’s okay, because on June 18 we’ll be kicking off D&D Live with another massive chunk of live Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay, and we’re incorporating that community spirit that’s inspired us ever since that initial press tour.
We’ve never created vertical slices or “press builds” of the game, it’s always been the latest we had. While we have a good idea of what we want to show you, we’ll try to let the game do the talking and that probably means we’ll go off script. It instills horror into the hearts of our QA team but we like doing it because it’s super fun when people shout out directions, laugh at our mistakes, and cheer on our successes. That’s the way of the dice, right? So during D&D Live you’ll be able to choose - live - if we delve deep into The Underdark, or take on the nefarious Dror Ragzlin. Maybe.
Between the initial announcement and today, we’ve had an ongoing game of spot-the-difference, and that’ll continue towards August as we roll into Early Access. We can’t wait to start getting that feedback when you start playing the game for yourselves. It’s a huge game, much deeper than anything we’ve ever done before. The visual and systemic target is also much higher than anything we’ve done before.
https://youtu.be/-YsT9eQ_CO4
We hope that today’s Announcement Trailer gives you strong mood-vibes, and sets the tone for the live session we’re hosting with our friends at Wizards of the Coast on June 18th. We haven’t gone into a huge amount of detail on what’s changed in BG3 over the course of the year, because it’s fun when you find it. We enjoy that engagement. Expect many more changes, improvements, and announcements of content the closer we get to August. And after.
The road to Baldur’s Gate is paved in friendship, and the adventure defined by the party. 2020 is a weird year. We’re used to seeing you in person at PAX and elsewhere, and we hope that at least this live-stream and today’s announcement will bring us a little closer. We’re very eager to see you again, and to share some more memories and talk about Baldur’s Gate 3 before we really start the journey together in August.
