Opening cinematic of Baldur's Gate 3

[Millstone85]

No idea how the game will compare to the Bhaalspawn Saga, but that little movie was epic.

[JadedDM]

That was the most epic thing I've ever seen.

[Narkis]

I watched the PAX live stream. The game looked beautiful, and I was pretty happy with the gameplay. Faithful translation of 5e mechanics, both in combat and out of it, and lots of environmental interactions just like in D:OS. And what I saw of the game's writing largely calmed my worries that it would be as comedic in tone as D:OS. But I really, really, really disliked the dialogue options. When most games give you options like

• Hello.
• Greetings.
• Die scum! *Attack

BG3 instead had

• *I warmly said hello.
• *I greeted him formally.
• *I yelled and attacked immediately.

This sort of narration really kills RP for me.

edit: I forgot to mention the designer guy playing like an idiot and getting completely destroyed in the first couple battles of the game did a lot to convince me it'll be good.

[Corvus]

A spelljammer ship and the long running gith/illithid war? Hadn't really been following anything about BG3 but, dang, consider me sold now.

[Keltest]

Im not normally a fan of gith of any flavor. Im going to make an exception, that was pretty cool.

[Cikomyr2]

Im not normally a fan of gith of any flavor. Im going to make an exception, that was pretty cool.

The dragons did all of the fighting tho.

[W41Blackr4zr]

I really liked the original ones
I hope they can find a good way to connect them somehow
I am not holding my breath though
maybe just maybe it will be as good

[Cikomyr2]

I really liked the original ones
I hope they can find a good way to connect them somehow
I am not holding my breath though
maybe just maybe it will be as good

Well...

Why is the Jammerverse interloping with Faerun? Maybe because of a large rift caused by the attention of Githyanki running after the Bhaalspawn for their silver sword.

Or maybe a real giant hamster recently was discovered on Faerun, escorted by a strange ranger.

[Jamin]

It looks cool but it tells me very little about the game.

[Yora]

I just don't see it having anything to do with the game series that ended 19 years ago. It seems very obvious that it is only called Baldur's Gate because people think a known name will get more sales than a new name.

But it's a new D&D game. That's nice.

[Roi C.]

The opening scene is Aodamn amazing, epic as it gets. Githyanki knights riding on red dragons, blasting a Illithid spelljammer - that's epic level D&D right there.

Now, I really like the way they've implemented the 5e system. The interactive enviroment aspect is awesome - ignting arrows or turning off lights would be something your DM would go with, but is not really an option in most cRPGS. Also, I loved the Baldur's Gate saga with it's RTwP and everything, but I'm really happy they transitioned to Turn-Based, that makes me feel so much more at home.

Now, I know that the UI and art will probably change because it's a very early version, but I hope they'll make some conisderable changes, because right now, the art style doesn't really evoke that Baldur's Gate feeling, and I feel like it's a pretty important thing that they should. Also, I really hope they'll make the dialogue more immersive, and less *I said this thing in that manner* - it worked great in D:OS II, but I think it feels like it's imposing it's identity on this game, and it kinda feels out of place, at least to me. Finally, the character origin shtick was really cool in D:OS II, but I really hope that they won't make it as integral in BG 3, and neglect the aspect of developing your own character with it's own story, which is pretty much one of the biggest things about actual tabletop D&D, at least to me (hoping they'll take some ideas from Pillars of Eternity and Mass Effect for that aspect).

In short, I'm really looking forward to this game, and at it core it looks wonderful, but I hope they'll listen to fan reactions and make some adjustments

P.S.: If there's no Boo and Minsc appearance at some point, this game is unplayable/10.

[JadedDM]

P.S.: If there's no Boo and Minsc appearance at some point, this game is unplayable/10.

This game takes place 100 years after the previous games. So if Minsc and Boo are still around, they are pretty darn old by this point.

[Roi C.]

This game takes place 100 years after the previous games. So if Minsc and Boo are still around, they are pretty darn old by this point.

I was joking, but honestly, in this world, I think if they'll want them to make an apperance, they can make it happen and just blame it on magic or something.

[Cikomyr2]

By the way, 10/10 certain the Giths are going to be gunning for us Illithid spawns during the plot.

Also, was there any clue as to what killed the other downed illithids on the ship? The Flayers seemed to be dealing with some biological problems.

[Aotrs Commander]

Well...

Why is the Jammerverse interloping with Faerun? Maybe because of a large rift caused by the attention of Githyanki running after the Bhaalspawn for their silver sword.

Or maybe a real giant hamster recently was discovered on Faerun, escorted by a strange ranger.

Admittedly, I intensely dislike Spelljammer on its base conceptual level (though not unqiuely, I feel the same about anything that tries to do the same sort of thing - don't even get me STARTED), but my understanding is that the silly sailing ships in space sail around/between crystal spheres (instead of having proper solar systems in space) in one of which each of the D&D campaign worlds sits.



Of course, they may have completely changed how it works in 4E/5E (I don't recall Spelljammer coming up in 3.x, not that I would have paid any attention even if it had), I'm most going off what some of the D&D novels which I once read (to my general detriment) and old AD&d-era dungeon/dragon magazine said.



At least the illithid ship in the trailer wasn't actually, like, a sailing ship, so I could look past the spelljammer thing.



I am reasonably hyped for BG3, but almost solely because of Larien's involvement. (D:OS 1 + 2 were the best turn-based experience I'd had until I played Kingmaker with the mod and they are among the few you can trust not to arse about with microtransactions and crap these days.) 5E doesn't particularly do anything for me by itself (though granted, I think I would prefer it to 4E and almost ANYTHING is better than AD&D mechanically (PS:T and BG1+2 suceeded in my opinion, in spite of, rather than due to, AD&D's... pants mechanics) and despite all the games being set there, I still don't really like Faerun as a campaign world. (I mean, what does it say we have to resort to extra-planr stuff to make Baldur's Gate epic..!) To be brutally honest, I just don't find Faerun particularly interesting - though perhaps it is exascerbated by the Sword Coast Region as a whole (where, like, half of all the D&D games seem to be set).

(Despite the lower budget - but not necessarily lower-scale - I think I'm far more hyped for Owlcat's Wrath of the Righteous (PF1 and on a world which remains solely the only one in 30 years of gaming I buy the source books to read for fun); though I'd likely have also backed BG3 if it had been a kickstarter, to be fair.)

Don't get me wrong, though, I do miss the times when games actually made the effort to put in shiny cut-scenes for intros and occasionally beyond!

[Morty]

I would make a comment about how the game should stand on its own instead of trying to replicate the "feel" of the original Baldur's Gate... but they sort of dug that hole for themselves by picking that name. So now they have to make a game that matches up to people's fond memories from 20 years ago. I don't envy them.

That aside, I'm one of the few people who didn't like Divinity: Original Sin much, so I don't trust Larian to do a good job here either. Then again, as much as I'm not a fan of D&D 5E, it's probably still better than Larian's own mechanics in DOS2. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Whether or not you can play a fighter or rogue without doing the same thing over and over will make or break the game for me.

[Narkis]

By the way, 10/10 certain the Giths are going to be gunning for us Illithid spawns during the plot.

Also, was there any clue as to what killed the other downed illithids on the ship? The Flayers seemed to be dealing with some biological problems.

Illithid tadpoles normally devoure the victim's brain within hours, and complete the transformation in a week. They also don't give superpowers.

I suspect the Illithid we saw killed the rest of the crew and modified the tadpoles for some reason.

[Yora]

Githyanki knights riding on red dragons, blasting a Illithid spelljammer - that's epic level D&D right there.

Even though I think the name for the game is inappropriate, I actually really applaud that they seem to be focusing on aspects of D&D that are very much different from generic medieval European fantasy works. Mind flayers, githyanki, and spelljammer ships are unique and original fantasy stuff that you don't find anywhere else. It's easy to see Forgotten Realms as a Standard Fantasy Setting, and at low levels it very often is. But it also is a lot more than just that.

[Cikomyr2]

Admittedly, I intensely dislike Spelljammer on its base conceptual level (though not unqiuely, I feel the same about anything that tries to do the same sort of thing - don't even get me STARTED), but my understanding is that the silly sailing ships in space sail around/between crystal spheres (instead of having proper solar systems in space) in one of which each of the D&D campaign worlds sits.

Thats my understanding as well. It's just.. We don't see much of the Spell jammer verse in Faerun. Why is that? Is Toril considered a backwater world unworthy of visitation by the space travellers?

[Millstone85]

Me, I love Spelljammer's concepts of wildspace, crystal spheres, and the phlogiston. However, the way Volo's Guide to Monsters describes nautiloids, I am not sure these vessels would ever make use of such concepts.

Able to move through the Astral Plane, nautiloids can also transport mind flayers between the various worlds of the Material Plane.

The most notable feature of a nautiloid is its ability to move directly from one world to another in the Material Plane.

If pressed by attackers, the surviving illithids and the elder brain move into the vessel and immediately shift to another world, leaving the attackers in their wake.

It sounds like the ship would just go *puff* from one place to another, much like it did in the video.

[Keltest]

Me, I love Spelljammer's concepts of wildspace, crystal spheres, and the phlogiston. However, the way Volo's Guide to Monsters describes nautiloids, I am not sure these vessels would ever make use of such concepts. It sounds like the ship would just go *puff* from one place to another, much like it did in the video.

Much like other forms of dimensional travel, you generally need to at least have an idea of where youre going first. The major worlds are probably mapped out, but other teams of illithids are exploring, looking for new worlds to harvest slaves and resources from.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Initial thoughts after watching:

* Pretty, but not related in any way to Baldur's Gate or the Bhaalspawn who was the central character of the series.
* This tells us precisely nothing about actual gameplay or core mechanics whatsoever.
* I'm not sure why they felt the need to inject Spelljammer into Forgotten Realms, but I'm not on board with the idea at all
* Why are Gith pairing up with Chromatic dragons? That seems... very very contrary to their basic core doctrine. And I can't really see the Chromatics, particularly not the Reds, signing on for that sort of thing anyway. And they certainly wouldn't have the loyalty to their riders as shown in this cinematic.
* I ran out of palms to face about thirty seconds in.

Initial impressions:

It would probably have been a better game if they hadn't tried calling it Baldur's Gate 3. I think they will lose more of us old guard than attract by doing so, and none of the kids would have the brand recognition for it to be drawn in anyway. It would be valuable to have another D&D-based franchise that actually did well on its own, more valuable than trying to slap a Baldur's Gate label on it to try and milk the old branding. It is clear they've got a very different vibe, scope, and direction with this game. It really deserves its own branding on its own, one that could stand for itself, and be the foundation of a new intellectual property to exploit for the next twenty years or so.

That said, if the cinematic is anything to go on, it isn't going to be my cuppa. I'm not a fan of Spelljammer, I'm not a fan of crossing the streams D&D realms, I'm especially not fond of Illithids in general. So all it has done is made me go "Hmm... the graphics guys really deserve a bonus for this, but I'm going to nope the hell out of here".

[Keltest]

Githyanki riding red dragons is actually apparently a fairly old chunk of lore. I don't blame you for not knowing that off hand, because its been how many years since the gith were relevant?

Also, Spelljammer nominally covers all of the existing settings. We don't see a lot of them in the official materials for the settings because they aren't spelljammer materials, but it is a thing that happens.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Githyanki riding red dragons is actually apparently a fairly old chunk of lore. I don't blame you for not knowing that off hand, because its been how many years since the gith were relevant?

Yea, no. Pulled out my old AD&D books (not 2nd ed, just AD&D) just to be sure. No mention of Red Dragons in association with the Gith. Who don't generally live on Prime anyway, and so their contact with dragons of ANY color would be dubious at best. Reds in particular are too short-sighted and self-centered to agree to any such thing.

This sounds more apocryphal than factual. I don't recall hearing about it back in the 80's at least.

Also, Spelljammer nominally covers all of the existing settings. We don't see a lot of them in the official materials for the settings because they aren't spelljammer materials, but it is a thing that happens.

Which is one of my problems with Spelljammer in the first place. No. Just... no. And STILL not relevant to Baldur's Gate. What's next, hopping over to Dragonlance to stock up on 'worthless' gold then back to FR to cash in? This is what happens when you cross settings. Everything breaks down. Spelljammer just facilitates this. It's a munchkin's wet dream, and a GM's nightmare.

[Millstone85]

Githyanki riding red dragons is actually apparently a fairly old chunk of lore.

This sounds more apocryphal than factual. I don't recall hearing about it back in the 80's at least.

I do not know when this was first introduced, but it is very much canon in the current edition.

In the uprising against the illithids, Gith sought allies. Her adviser Vlaakith appealed to Tiamat, the goddess of evil dragonkind, and Gith ventured into the Nine Hells to meet with her. Only Tiamat now knows what passed between them, but Gith returned to the Astral Plane with the Dragon Queen's red dragon consort Ephelomon, who proclaimed that his kind would forever act as allies to the githyanki. Not all red dragons honor the alliance kindled so long ago, but most at least don't consider the githyanki their enemies.

Regarding Spelljammer and "crossing the streams", the 5e PHB makes no mention of crystal spheres or the phlogiston, but...

All the worlds of D&D exist within the Material Plane, making it the starting point for most campaigns and adventures. The rest of the multiverse is defined in relation to the Material Plane. The worlds of the Material Plane are infinitely diverse [...] They include magic-wasted desert planets and island-dotted water worlds, worlds where magic combines with advanced technology and others trapped in an endless Stone Age, worlds where the gods walk and places they have abandoned. The best-known worlds in the multiverse are the ones that have been published as official campaign settings for the D&D game over the years--Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms, Mystara, Birthright, Dark Sun, and Eberron, among others.

and it later has a paragraph on D&D's other massive-crossover setting: Sigil.

Recently, there has been a partial backpedal with the release of the Eberron setting book.

Eberron is part of the Great Wheel of the multiverse, as described in the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. At the same time, it is fundamentally apart from the rest of the Great Wheel, sealed off from the other planes even while it's encircled by its own wheeling cosmology.

Obviously, some people still find that too much of a connection, and are even less happy when the book then proceeds to describe the Orrery as a miniature knockoff.

The three progenitor wyrms worked together to form Eberron and its planes as a new cosmic system in the depths of the Ethereal Plane. They recreated the elves, orcs, dragons, and other races found throughout the multiverse and placed them in their new world, but allowed them to develop beyond the reach of Gruumsh, Corellon, Lolth, and other influences for good and ill.

I am a fairly new player, which might explain why this doesn't bother me one bit.

[Aotrs Commander]

Yea, no. Pulled out my old AD&D books (not 2nd ed, just AD&D) just to be sure. No mention of Red Dragons in association with the Gith. Who don't generally live on Prime anyway, and so their contact with dragons of ANY color would be dubious at best. Reds in particular are too short-sighted and self-centered to agree to any such thing.

This sounds more apocryphal than factual. I don't recall hearing about it back in the 80's at least.

Google search result implies it comes from the 1e Fiend Folio about page 43/45 - if someone wants to have a check who has a hard copy (or digital one) to confirm, it's before my time.

Googling githyanki and red dragons turned up a goodly number of results; granted most of them are from 3E onwards (the link being the exception), but you are far less likely to find 2E and earlier stuff onlne, of course, since it was really pre-popular internet era.

It is clearly something that has existed for quite some time and is not Larien pulling something out of their arses. (Potentially "from the very start" even, if I am gleaning what I think I am from that afore-linked page.



(Also, githyanki and illithids did show up in BG2...)

[Millstone85]

Also, githyanki and illithids did show up in BG2...

Similarly:

• According to Minsc, Boo is a miniature giant space hamster.
• In the underdark, several characters speak of astral and spelljamming ships.
• One of the quests has you rescue a troupe from Sigil.
• During the exploration of Lavok's Planar Sphere, one of the room is apparently a piece of Athas, filled with sand and anthropophage halflings.

[JadedDM]

I found an article that goes into more depth on the gameplay.

Highlights:
1.) It's turned based (you even have the option to make it turned based outside of combat)
2.) You can shove enemies (including into pits or off cliffs)
3.) You can play as a vampire and snack on your teammates

[LuckGuy]

I love crazy Spelljammer stuff. This is fantastic.

[Millstone85]

You can play as a vampire and snack on your teammates

This is the craziest part to me. Not that you can play as a vampire, since BG2 Enhanced Edition added Hexxat as a possible companion. But that an undead creature was successfully implanted with an illithid tadpole.

Illithid vampires are a thing, you can even fight some in BG2, but I believe the ceremorphosis happens before the siring.

That pilot clearly did some strange experiments.