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Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Pre-Release Thread [EARLY ACCESS RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
An excerpt: https://kotaku.com/the-ranger-class-is-getting-some-changes-in-d-d-and-ba-1835659585

The Ranger Class Is Getting Some Changes In D&D (And Baldur's Gate 3)

How is Baldur’s Gate 3 going to implement the modern rules of Dungeons & Dragons? Last week in Los Angeles, we sat down with creative director Swen Vincke and D&D head honcho Mike Mearls on a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen to discuss. One thing you can definitely expect: the ranger is getting some changes.

We talked about how the recently-announced Baldur’s Gate 3 deal came together, why Divinity: Original Sin 2 developer Larian Studios wound up with the project, the challenges of converting a tabletop game with infinite possibilities into a limited video game, and some of D&D’s most confusing mechanics (like spell slots). Vincke and Mearls also teased some big changes for the ranger class.

Listen above, or read an excerpt:

Mike Mearls: One of the things that’s been nice is that [Baldur’s Gate 3developer Larian and D&D steward Wizards of the Coast] have a very similar design culture. So there was one instance where, as we look at our character classes, we look at feedback we get in the tabletop space. There was one class we were working on at that got a lot of negative feedback, so I shot an email over to Nick [Pechenin, systems designer] about “Hey, we’re looking at making some changes, potentially playtesting some new material for this class in tabletop, just to let you guys know.” And he actually got back to me and said, “Hey for this class, actually that same exact issue has come up, and here’s what we’re looking at doing.” It was almost like we had already shared notes.

Jason: What’s the class?

Mearls: Oh, I dunno.

Jason: You can’t give that whole example and then not say what it is.

Mearls: I dunno, because [turning to Vincke] I don’t want to step on any of your announcements.

Swen Vincke: I’m fine. You can talk about the class.

Mearls: I can say purely from a tabletop space, one of the things we found was that the ranger character class, in tabletop players really felt the first couple of levels, they weren’t really making choices that they felt were having a real impact on gameplay... One of the things we learned is that we had some assumptions about how exploration would play out in the game back when we were developing 5th edition—we thought, “Oh, we’ll give the rangers some of these toys to play with because exploration is part of the game.” And we’ve just found that either a lot of DMs don’t use a lot of the sub-systems that those spoke to, or they weren’t really coming up on a level of play at the table that was actually impactful to the narrative.

The ranger, for instance: Oh, I’m gonna pick desert as my favored terrain. We can’t get lost in the desert. Which sounds great—I wouldn’t want to get lost in the desert. But when you’re playing a tabletop role-playing game, it basically means, “OK, you’ve crossed the desert, you’re done.” It’s not really giving the ranger a chance to shine. So we’re looking at maybe play-testing this summer some new options that complement what’s there without overriding it. One of the hard things about working in tabletop is you can’t patch a physical book—unless you’re willing to break into everyone’s house and paste in new things.

Jason: Which you should try to do.

Mearls: Yeah, I mean Amazon’s got drones. That won’t end poorly, right? So yeah, we’re looking at ways, how can we kind of bridge that gap—how can 2019 Mike work within the constraints of 2014 Mike’s world and take those five years and apply them to a game without disrupting everyone’s campaigns?

Possibly related?: https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/class-feature-variants

CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS
Every character class in D&D has features, and every class gets one or more class feature variants in today’s Unearthed Arcana! These variants replace or enhance a class’s normal features, giving you new ways to enjoy your character’s class.

Survey

A survey is also now available on the previous installment of Unearthed Arcana, which presents the Rune Knight for the fighter, the Swarmkeeper for the ranger, and the Revived for the rogue. Please follow the survey link to let us know what you think about them!

This Is Playtest Content

The material in Unearthed Arcana is presented for playtesting and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your D&D campaign but not refined by final game design. They are not officially part of the game. For these reasons, material in this column is not legal in D&D Adventurers League events.

DOWNLOAD
CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS

SURVEY: FIGHTER, RANGER, ROGUE
 

Fairfax

Arcane
Joined
Jun 17, 2015
Messages
3,518
The Ranger got other UA revisions/options over the years, it's by far the most criticized class. This is most likely part of WotC's plan for a PHB2 or Xanathar 2 with optional base classes, since their annual surveys have floated that idea, and they've already said they're against a '.5' revision.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
gvOWTpF.jpg
Take a look at the hanging guy, the one nearer the "camera", as it were. Hairy abs of a male, tits of a female.

...

One can only assume that the deliberate tranny is a woke of the coast demand.


You're seeing things were they don't exist. It's clearly a hanged women, the black line is a shadow or a way for the author to convey the shape of her abdominal muscles.

Now here's a cool dryad artwork:
I think the hanging woman may be being depicted as being sliced open and sewn back up.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
Okay, boys and girls, time for the most autistic person on this topic to speak:

Abdel Adrian, the one that, up to a couple years ago, was peddled by WoTC as the "canon" CHARNAME, is NOT, I repeat, is NOT the same person as from the novels:
- He became captain of the Flaming Fist AFTER the events of the game, not before.
- He travelled with both Minsc AND Coran - the novel Abdel Adrian knew neither of them during the events of BG I.
- The Minsc he knew is the Minsc from the games, not the novels (for those of you who never read these abominations, he is a completely different, very minor NPC).
- His alignment was initially Chaotic Neutral, then changed into Neutral.
- He was initially a warrior, later on this was removed, and his class was unknown as of "Murder in Baldur's Gate" and 5th Edition D&D.
- Despite choosing the "stay mortal" path, he retained the essence of Bhaal, something which directly contradicts both the game AND THE FUCKING NOVEL.
- In conclusion, the WotC version of Abdel Adrian up until "Murder in Baldur's Gate" was one who initially started as a weird amalgamation of the novel protagonist and CHARNAME, and as time went on was turned more and more into "CHARNAME with certain set characteristics". All notions about his romances, his relationship with Bodhi, how the events of BG II occurred, can be safely thrown into the trash (once again, thanks to the Minsc Evidence). Hell, his description in "Murder in Baldur's Gate" doesn't even match his picture in that VERY SAME FUCKING BOOK. In other words, a giant clusterfuck.

Now, we move further along the timeline. The Minsc comics start being released, and they are very, very careful not to say even a word about the Bhaalspawn or CHARNAME. My assumption is that talks with Larian, or at least plans to continue the franchise, began at that point.

Now, several years later, and after the announcement, "Descent into Avernus" came along. And within it we find these glorious retcons:
- There is a RUMOUR that a prominent member of the city nobility is a Bhaalspawn. This is completely and utterly incompatible with both the games AND "Murder in Baldur's Gate" and other sources of canon, where the entire city either outright knew and/or suspected that CHARNAME/Abdel Adrian is a Bhaalspawn.
- When describing the Flaming Fist, not a peep is made about Abdel Adrian.
- ABDEL ADRIAN ISN'T MENTIONED ONCE throughout the whole module.

In other words, WotC are making a soft reboot. Either Abdel Adrian will quietly disappear into the shadows, never to be heard of again, or he will simply be turned into A Bhaalspawn, instead of THE Bhaalspawn.
Am I the only one who doesn't give a fuck about this Abdel guy, or his "canon" story? Never read or heard about him before this thread, and I hope he doesn't show up his stupid face in BG3.
agree. I skip over any post about that, have no idea who any of these people are and don't care and never have. The stories in these games exist to give a purpose to why you do things, but they are not books or soap operas, I don't give a shit.
 

Elex

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 17, 2017
Messages
2,043
Not only the ranger, they have added stuff to all the class, ranger is the heavy modified one.
with that UA ranger is good, like really good.

All other classes have received more versatility, sorcerer/bard/ranger can now change 1 spell per long rest. Battle master fighter can change the combat manouvers.
Throwing weapons finally have a combat style that make them usable by character with more than 2 attack per turn.
and other minor stuff.

Generally speaking: all the changes look perfect for a videogame and reduce the risk of create a useless character if you select something wrong.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Interview with Swen visiting Malaysia, where Larian opens its fifth studio. Expectedly very coy about BG3, giving generic answers:

 

Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
Are you people really expecting Baldur's Gate 3 being anything other than this:


I'm expecting it to be dogshit all around or a relatively faithful TB adaptation of 5e if we are lucky.

I have no confidence in Larian delivering a good RtwP adaptation of 5e.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,287
Are you people really expecting Baldur's Gate 3 being anything other than this:


I'm expecting it to be dogshit all around or a relatively faithful TB adaptation of 5e if we are lucky.

I have no confidence in Larian delivering a good RtwP adaptation of 5e.

Now, now. Don't be mean. Larian is using a very tried and true system first pioneered by World of Warcraft and copied endlessly ever since. It would be hard for them to screw it up.
 

Jarpie

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
6,603
Codex 2012 MCA
Are you people really expecting Baldur's Gate 3 being anything other than this:


I ain’t even mad, since at least we got PF:K to finally give us one good IR successor out of the whole RPG “renaissance”


Same, plus I don't trust Larian's writing team to write even passable sequel to BG 1 and 2, which weren't greatly written games in the first place, but better than DOS1 or 2.
 

Nihiliste

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
2,998
I don’t know how they’re going to justify the W3 style budget/project size at this point. They have no track record of something like that
 
Self-Ejected

underground nymph

I care not!
Patron
Joined
Jun 9, 2019
Messages
1,252
Strap Yourselves In
Oh man this thread. The ANTICIPATION. Despite whether Vincke is a shitlord or a RPG messiah, one must admire his talent in marketing video games.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Hmmm... this thread.
:updatedmytxt:
We will see who will be the biggest shills of the button awesome connection stravaganza that this game is promising to be, I won't be surprised at all.
 

vortex

Fabulous Optimist
Joined
Mar 25, 2016
Messages
4,221
Location
Temple of Alvilmelkedic
https://www.gameinformer.com/interv...-vincke-talks-the-long-road-of-larian-studios

For Baldur’s Gate 3, how do you encapsulate the entire Dungeons & Dragons system in a video game? Where do you even begin?

It’s really how do we capture the books, the rule system, the feeling you have at the table in a video game, and how do we do that without alienating people that have never played D&D in their lives. Mixing that, I think we found it. You guys will have to judge. You can’t make a game without taking creative risks. You can, but then you’re just making the same game. We’ve taken a lot of creative risks, more than people will expect, I think, considering the amount of money we’re throwing at it.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
"Creative risk" = no risk at all, everything is dumbed down to appeal to the lowest common denominator, at best it will play like Twitcher 3, at worst like a corridor shooter with spells.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Eventually he calls me and says, “Do you still want to do this?” And I said, “Yes!” He invited me to downtown Seattle and in a shady bar he presented to me the full map for Baldur’s Gate 3. It was pretty much everything we had talked about. A couple of weeks later he called me and they said yes. So we needed to present them with a design document as we were making Divinity: Original Sin II.
Hm, is this the first time Swen has hinted as to when production on BG3 began?
 

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