Baldur's Gate 3...confirmed!

[Calemyr]

First, I have to ask: I've heard the buzz on the topic, but is there any confirmation? Is Lariat actually, officially, interested in doing a Baldur's Gate sequel?

If this is the case, I'm game. Lariat is about the only company out these days with a style and focus on quality that I'd find encouraging. So sad to see all my old heroes fall, but what can I say? Entropy is canine.

As for a BG3, I think it would work best as a Post-Charname story. There are two pieces ready for the telling, really. The first would be "based" on the campaign "Murder in Baldur's Gate", where Abdel is killed early on and this sets into motion the resurrection of Bhaal. Never played the campaign, myself (couldn't get my hands on it), but it sounded like it was a fairly complex game of politics and adventure. You could really do something with that.

The second story element that comes to mind is focused primarily on a spoiler from Siege of Dragonspear.

Spoiler: The SOD Story

Show

In the end of Siege of Dragonspear, Irenicus gets you cast out of Baldur's Gate by trying to get you to kill Skie Silvershield. He does this by tricking you into believing she's been turned into the Slayer and forcing you to defend yourself from her onslaught. If you can avoid fighting back (i.e. have a ridiculous AC and spend the entire fight running in circles to kite her), Irenicus kills her himself instead. Either way, the dagger used to kill her turns out to be the Soultaker dagger, meaning that Skie cannot be resurrected without retrieving the dagger. Naturally, her distraught father will accept nothing less than your head and you are either forced to escape execution or discretely exiled by cooler heads in the council.

So you put Skie's body in a Crystal Casket (so time spent dead doesn't count against resurrection timers) and find the dagger. Voila, Skie Silvershield is back in the game. She grew up pretty quickly in Siege of Dragonspear (for her, anyway: she went from a spoiled pampered self-interested do-nothing rich girl to a spoiled pampered self-interested rich girl who wanted to do something meaningful by joining the local militia. She's not a good soldier, but it's clear that she's trying.), and will be forced to grow up even faster now that everything she knew is gone.

Why would this matter? Well, the way her death was set up leaves one thing unclear: Was Skie a Bhaalspawn? Just a low grade one like Imoen, perhaps? Bringing her back wouldn't be enough to stop Bhaal's resurrection, now that Abdel's death has that particular ball rolling, but it might delay it, and might buy this generation's heroes time to save the day. I mean, we all know Bhaal's coming back, the real question is just how colorful his "Welcome Back" party is going to be. And we all know his favorite color is red...

I think you could tell a pretty compelling tale there. Possibly pull a KotOR 2 and use conversations to fill in Abdel's history, such as morality and love interest. Gender and ascension may also be up for grabs, depending on if you wanted the name to be voiced and if Abdel's death is in fact the keystone to the game's crisis. I could certainly see how to do it, too: in the prologue, the player character needs to use their knowledge of the Bhaalspawn saga to solve the puzzles in the dungeon holding the Soultaker dagger. This isn't a quiz of the player's knowledge, however, as whatever choice is made correct and the sum of the answers defines who Abdel actually was.

Then again, I am of the staunchest belief that any story, no matter how awkward the premise, can be a riveting tale if told well and even the most heaven-sent of plots will plummet like Icarus if told poorly. In the end, what makes a story is the storyteller.

[GloatingSwine]

Didnt the programmers take GREAT liberty with the AD&D system already? I feel BG 3 will become to 5. edition D&D what Knights of the Old Republic was to 3.5

For 2e you basically have to.

2e is a pretty wide open system in terms of player options, in a way that a computer game could never possibly account for. It's designed to be much less nailed down to what a character can and can't do than 3e.

(Druid wildshape is one of the classic examples. Any mammal, bird, or reptile between the size of a bullfrog and a bear, once a day each. Try doing that in a computer and not being Tarn Adams).

[Inarius]

First, I have to ask: I've heard the buzz on the topic, but is there any confirmation? Is Lariat actually, officially, interested in doing a Baldur's Gate sequel?

If this is the case, I'm game. Lariat is about the only company out these days with a style and focus on quality that I'd find encouraging. So sad to see all my old heroes fall, but what can I say? Entropy is canine.

It's not officially confirmed no, but in the article linked the author does mention he got in contact with people inside Larian who unofficially confirmed the game is indeed in development. The original leak was from the image in question having copyright notices naming wizards of the coast and Baldurs gate. Add to that they aren't even bothering to deny it like they did with the rumors last year. Basically if its some elaborate con Larian is playing and they're really working on Original Sin 3 they've probably just pissed a lot of people off.

[JadedDM]

By the way, I notice the original site that started this has been updated. Originally it just showed a III with flames flickering beneath it. Now there's creepy music added, and strange black tendrils that start to entwine the III.

[Keltest]

Larian does atmosphere very well. Im going to be honest, if Bg3 was just a tour through different places in the Forgotten Realms and the rest of the gameplay was utterly forgettable, I could probably be happy with it. For a while, at least.

[Cespenar]

As for a BG3, I think it would work best as a Post-Charname story. There are two pieces ready for the telling, really. The first would be "based" on the campaign "Murder in Baldur's Gate", where Abdel is killed early on and this sets into motion the resurrection of Bhaal. Never played the campaign, myself (couldn't get my hands on it), but it sounded like it was a fairly complex game of politics and adventure. You could really do something with that.

It's one of the best city-based political campaigns I have run, and probably the only non-combat oriented campaign that is published relatively recently. You do have to have that kind of players, though, to really make the best out of it.

And the fact that it comes with 60-something pages of Baldur's Gate lore that is pretty coincidental to the campaign but is there if you need it, is just a bonus.

[Cikomyr]

I have a silly question. Was it ever a possibility to Imoen becoming the next God of Murder?

I mean.. She was a Bhaalspawn..

[Iruka]

By the way, I notice the original site that started this has been updated. Originally it just showed a III with flames flickering beneath it. Now there's creepy music added, and strange black tendrils that start to entwine the III.

Hm, the source code of the page is now rife with octopus references. Kraken, calamari-dine-in, tako-to-go, eight-tentacled.

[danzibr]

I have a silly question. Was it ever a possibility to Imoen becoming the next God of Murder?

I mean.. She was a Bhaalspawn..

Yeah. You can keep her alive. What’s up with that? Irenicus stripped both of their divine essences. I guess only CHARNAME got it back?

[Keltest]

Yeah. You can keep her alive. What’s up with that? Irenicus stripped both of their divine essences. I guess only CHARNAME got it back?

Imoen gets hers back when you kill Bhodi.

[LibraryOgre]

I have a silly question. Was it ever a possibility to Imoen becoming the next God of Murder?

I mean.. She was a Bhaalspawn..

Imoen gets hers back when you kill Bhodi.

If you bring Sarevok back, she gives up her essence of Bhaal to do that. As I understand it, regardless, while she gets her soul back, she never gets back the essence of Bhaal.

[Winthur]

If you bring Sarevok back, she gives up her essence of Bhaal to do that. As I understand it, regardless, while she gets her soul back, she never gets back the essence of Bhaal.

No; you can either use your soul or Imoen's soul to restore Sarevok, and he explicitly says he just takes a little bit of said soul. There doesn't appear to be anything in the dialogue regarding where Imoen's Bhaalspawn essence went. I'm guessing it's just a messy piece of writing they didn't really figure out all that much because Imoen doesn't get an instant KO disappearing hand ending like you do.

In other news, the trailer is out.

[NRSASD]

Well that was unexpected! And unexpectedly messy. That's not normally how illithids are created right? Is this something Far Realm related?

I was wrong, more info can be found in this article here.

[Cikomyr]

Well that was unexpected! And unexpectedly messy. That's not normally how illithids are created right? Is this something Far Realm related?

It's exactly how illithids are created.

They implant their larvae in an intelligent being, who takes control of the body and twist its shape into an illithid.

Certain bodies give variants of illithids.. Larvae that reach a certain level without being implanted are killed outright by the community.

If a larva is left to develop on its own for too long, it spawns the one single thing Illithids are most afraid of. They literally create crusade to try and destroy these things.

Never meet a Neothelid.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah. The only difference is that normally the implanted captive is kept restrained/unconscious so the tadpole can do its work unhindered, but clearly that's not necessary when the Illithid are storming the city in force like this.

[Morty]

It seems they're using D&D 5E, but adding a bunch of new systems on top of it? Not sure how to interpret that. Let's hope they get to take a lot of liberties. I wasn't a big fan of DOS2, but I'd rather have that than directly transplanting tabletop rules to a video game.

[Kish]

Imoen didn't auto-disintegrate when she died because in BG1 she wasn't a Child of Bhaal, and when they decided to retcon her into one in BG2, they had no means of addressing the fact that it was already established that she could be resurrected...so they just shrugged and ignored it, which was probably the best option they had.

She was never a contender for the Goddess of Death because she didn't want to be. If she's involved in the plot of ToB at all, it's about supporting CHARNAME's candidacy. Nothing mechanical was stopping her from being the one to ascend.

[danzibr]

It's exactly how illithids are created.

They implant their larvae in an intelligent being, who takes control of the body and twist its shape into an illithid.

Certain bodies give variants of illithids.. Larvae that reach a certain level without being implanted are killed outright by the community.

If a larva is left to develop on its own for too long, it spawns the one single thing Illithids are most afraid of. They literally create crusade to try and destroy these things.

Never meet a Neothelid.

Huh. I never knew about them.

Absolutely making it into my next campaign.

[Cikomyr]

Huh. I never knew about them.

Absolutely making it into my next campaign.

There's a YouTube video that does into great details about the illithids variants and all related monsters. "Mind Flayers secrets" by MrRhexx

[Pronounceable]

So it really does have **** all to do with the original and the "3" is just marketer bull****. Lamers.

[NRSASD]

It's exactly how illithids are created.

They implant their larvae in an intelligent being, who takes control of the body and twist its shape into an illithid.

Certain bodies give variants of illithids.. Larvae that reach a certain level without being implanted are killed outright by the community.

If a larva is left to develop on its own for too long, it spawns the one single thing Illithids are most afraid of. They literally create crusade to try and destroy these things.

Never meet a Neothelid.

Yeah. The only difference is that normally the implanted captive is kept restrained/unconscious so the tadpole can do its work unhindered, but clearly that's not necessary when the Illithid are storming the city in force like this.

I was under the impression that Ceremorphosis was a more gradual process rather than just "BLAM SQUIDFACE". But I'm not complaining!

The scale of this collaboration is pretty staggering. Between Larian, WOTC, and Google they'll probably have enough resources to throw at it and make it right. Does Larian have the skill to do that though?

Ehh.... maybe!

[The Glyphstone]

I was under the impression that Ceremorphosis was a more gradual process rather than just "BLAM SQUIDFACE". But I'm not complaining!

The scale of this collaboration is pretty staggering. Between Larian, WOTC, and Google they'll probably have enough resources to throw at it and make it right. Does Larian have the skill to do that though?

Ehh.... maybe!

The article mentions that. It's supposed to take a week, but they sped it up a bit here apparently. Or maybe it's been a week and he's just in the final stages.

[Avaris]

Sigh.

Looks like an interesting game, but according to RPS it's not a follow on to the original story. Which it needed to be to call itself '3'. I'm happy with them using the 'Baldur's Gate' moniker, but '3' implies a sequel, which this ain't. Call it 'Baldur's Gate: exciting tagline' or some such if you want to tie into the franchise, just not Baldur's Gate 3.

[Cikomyr]

The article mentions that. It's supposed to take a week, but they sped it up a bit here apparently. Or maybe it's been a week and he's just in the final stages.

Or there's some dark plot afoot.

Maybe a way for the Illithids to spread akin a zombie plague, with quasi instant transformation.

[Morty]

If we're going to fight Illithids, I do hope they don't copy D&D too closely, or else playing a fighter or another class without a good Wisdom save is going to be less than advisable.

[Cikomyr]

If we're going to fight Illithids, I do hope they don't copy D&D too closely, or else playing a fighter or another class without a good Wisdom save is going to be less than advisable.

If we are going to have a illithids-focused campaign, maybe they will take a page outta Dragon Age Origins and find a reason as to why the PC is immune to what is considered the biggest "I win" button of the monster.

Also would explain why everyone is depending on your working ass.

[Calemyr]

Sacrosanct Excrement.

[NRSASD]

If we are going to have a illithids-focused campaign, maybe they will take a page outta Dragon Age Origins and find a reason as to why the PC is immune to what is considered the biggest "I win" button of the monster.

Also would explain why everyone is depending on your working ass.

Personally, I hope they don't. PCs in 5E don't get the benefit of being immune to horrifying insta-death magic; neither should our hero here. But then again, I'm a huge fan of Xenonauts. A good mission means only 1/3 of your troopers wind up redecorating the city block with their innards.

[Calemyr]

If we are going to have a illithids-focused campaign, maybe they will take a page outta Dragon Age Origins and find a reason as to why the PC is immune to what is considered the biggest "I win" button of the monster.

Also would explain why everyone is depending on your working ass.

The most logical answer would be introducing the Gith to the mix. If MrRhexx has the right of it, the Gith not only overthrew the mind flayers, they then proceeded to hunt them down so completely that every indication of their empire is long gone and the only survivors are buried far beneath a planet's surface. They may have had resources (technology/techniques/etc) to combat them, and there were techniques in BG2 to fight illithid techniques.

Of course, there's also the fact that they might be the focus of actual game. Hard to tell. Given MrRhexx's take on them, it could be frickin' epic, yes. (That's a guy whose channel is going to suddenly explode, I suspect.) But they could just as easily be a subchapter in the game just like it was in BG2: oops, we got captured by them and put into their arena, now we side with the Gith, break free, and wreak havoc!

Of course, and now I'm fully joking because the concept is to hilarious for me to leave untyped, my SOD spoiler theory could still be in play.

We kept them for so long. A crystal casket and cursed dagger. We watched in vigil for a life cut short before it's time.
But dark times rise and desperate measures call. Let the darkness above and the darkness below tremble before the whine.
From your dark slumber we summon you, o cruelest of dooms. Last of the Bhaalspawn, now is your time.

Spoiler

Show

Out walks Skie Silvershield, dressed like the Doom Slayer. "How can I help?"

[Aotrs Commander]

If we're going to fight Illithids, I do hope they don't copy D&D too closely, or else playing a fighter or another class without a good Wisdom save is going to be less than advisable.

I hope they follow AD&D not at all. BG2's "two to four hits and reload because dead" illithid fights were just irritating.