Rock Paper Shotgun have released a 50 minute video interview they conducted with Baldur's Gate 3 lead systems designer Nick Pechenin. As you might expect, it's a mechanics-centric interview that's mostly focused on Larian's adaptation of various 5th Edition D&D systems. The interview includes footage from last month's demo build and is split into two parts. Topics covered in the first part include the new initiative system, the reduced emphasis on elemental surfaces compared to Divinity, scouting and stealth, adapting the Ranger's Natural Explorer and Favored Enemy class features, and the implementation of companion Astarion's vampire weaknesses. The more eclectic second part covers the inspiration mechanic, low level difficulty and the level cap, drunkenness, adapting the less useful spells from the D&D spellbook, the still WIP reaction system, death and resurrection, long and short rests, using turn-based mode outside of combat, and more.



I'm impressed by how thoroughly Larian are adapting the D&D ruleset. It's not exactly the impression we got when the game was announced and Swen was talking about how D&D had too much missing. If you're interested in a particular topic and don't want to watch the entire interview, RPS have helpfully provided timestamps in the video descriptions.