Trivia / Baldur's Gate III

• Ascended Fanon: The High Rollers one-shot special with the main cast of Baldur’s Gate III featured Bing Bong, an incidental imp NPC who quickly became popular with the fans due to its adorable interactions with Shadowheart and Lae’zel, even more so as the latter ends up killing the imp by accident that soon led to the memetic “Justice for Bing Bong” campaign. In the Playable Epilogue introduced in Patch 5 when Shadowheart ends up as a Selûnite, she would mention having adopted a stray imp named Bing Bong. Mark Hulmes, the Dungeon Master who ran the one-shot special, quickly took notice of the in-game nod and liked it.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • At the launch of the full release, Karlach had three possible endings: die of her infernal engine overheating, return to Avernus with the PC and/or Wyll, or become a mind flayer. Many players felt that these endings were unsatisfying for Karlach at best and unfair at worst. Patch 2 added more content to the second ending to give it a more hopeful tone, with Larian acknowledging in a Steam post that the addition was to give Karlach "the ending she deserves." Patch 5 also added a new epilogue taking place six months after the fight with the Netherbrain in which Karlach (if she's still alive) talks about a plan to fix her heart permanently that may come to fruition if all the pieces fall into place.
  • Also at the launch of the full release, many players were dismayed that much of Minthara's dialogue, including her Romance Arc past Act 1, were missing in the game due to a major bug preventing them from being triggered by certain events or interactions. Hotfixes 5 and 9 attempted to resolve this issue, as well as allowing players to progress their romance with Minthara during Act 3.
  • One of the biggest complaints regarding Minthara was the lack of a legitimate way to recruit her without resorting to siding with her during the raid on the Emerald Grove, which would otherwise cause a good chunk of valuable NPCs to be killed off as well as some companions to permanently leave the party, as even defeating her non-lethally would still consider her by the game as dead. As of Patch 5, players can now knock her unconscious and kill the other goblin leaders to finish the Emerald Grove questline in favor of the tiefling refugees, and she will still be present at Moonrise Towers in Act 2 for the party to rescue and recruit (although players will still have to choose between her and Halsin to stay with the party).
  • A universal complaint about the game at full release was that the ending felt incomplete and didn't give much closure to your companions' stories unless you romanced them. Patch 5 fixed this by introducing a new epilogue in which the party reunites six months after the finale, allowing the player to see how all of their former allies have been faring.
  • Managing inventory among party members was considered among fans to be one of the biggest flaws of the gameplay. Previously, you could only change a character's inventory if they were in your active party—if not, you'd have to dismiss one companion, find another, ask them to join you, and repeat. Patch 5 makes it possible to manage inventory of all companions in and outside your active party, much to fans' relief.
• Breakthrough Hit: For more than 20 years Larian Studios had been a respected developer of Western RPGs with their Divinity franchise, but had always been a second-tier name behind other studios like Bioware, Bethesda and CD Projekt RED. Baldur's Gate III turned out to be an unbelievable surprise megahit on its release, far beyond even the wildest dreams of fans of the series, widely considered to be one of the best games of 2023, if not the best, with unbelievable sales numbers and shockingly-high player retention that made it one of the top 10 most-played games on Steam even half a year after its release, instantly promoting Larian to the effective status of game developer royalty.
• B-Team Sequel: Previous games in the mainline series were developed by BioWare, and that studio's former employees formed Beamdog and developed an expansion to the first game called Siege of Dragonspear. This game was developed by Larian Studios rather than either BioWare or Beamdog.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Both Jason Isaacs and J. K. Simmons have roles in the game.
• Channel Hop: Made by Larian Studios instead of BioWare.
• Demand Overload: Due to how BG3 released out of Early Access, there was no way for the game to have a preload, and players were advised to uninstall the Early Access version and redownload the whole game to prevent conflicts from how much had changed in the full release. This led to hundreds of thousands of players all downloading BG3 the moment it came out, bringing Steam to its knees. At its peak, Steam's bandwidth usage from all the simultaneous downloads was over 160 terabytes per second.
• Dueling Games:
  • With Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, which entered public beta testing around the time BG3 entered Early Access. The game also competed with Solasta: Crown of the Magister, which also adapted the 5th Edition ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons and entered Early Access around the same time as BG3. The WotR competition largely died down simply because its final release, and even its Enhanced Edition, came well before BG3's full release - the game was announcing its fifth DLC by the time BG3 came out for real.
  • Closer to release, another duel began with Starfield. Both RPGs were scheduled to release for PC in late August/early September of 2023, but BG3 released only on PlayStation consoles while before Starfield was an Xbox exclusive. Eventually, Larian changed their release to an early August for the PC version while keeping a PS5 release in September.
• Dummied Out: Following the full release of the game, dataminers have discovered a lot of content within the game files which were absent in the final release of the game, some of which may have been present during Early Access. It remains to be seen if Larian Studios would reimplement or fix some of these missing features in future patches or re-releases.
  • The Upper City section of Baldur's Gate is noticeably absent for most of Act 3, only accessible after you've crossed the Point of No Return to the Final Boss despite Swen Vincke's claim two weeks prior to the full release that players would be able to explore it along with the rest of the city.
  • Cleric player characters previously had the option to pick one of the Dead Three gods (Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul) as their deity, each with unique dialogue options associated with them. Additionally, they can also choose Shar, which came with unique interactions with Shadowheart if they revealed themselves to her as a Sharran. In the full release, the only way to be a cleric of Shar is by playing Shadowheart as your origin character.
  • Karlach was going to have an ending where her infernal engine was fully fixed and would therefore survive without having to return to Avernus or becoming a mind flayer, but the required conditions for fulfilling this ending being tied to the aforementioned Upper City area makes this ending currently unattainable.
  • Some of the cut dialogue related to Minthara (both from her and other companions) suggest that her Romance Arc would have culminated in her bearing a child with the player character.
• Executive Meddling: Plans to release the game on Xbox Series X|S hit a major snag due to technical issues for the Series S, specifically where split-screen is concerned as Larian wants "seamless drop-in, drop-out co-op". The problem comes from the Parity Mandate where the game must be released for both Series X and S. This was later averted with Phil Spencer's agreement for dropping the split-screen on the Series S allowed Larian to release the game in December 7, while keeping the promised feature on the Series X.
• In Memoriam: Jim Southworth, who worked as the game's lead cinematic animator, died in November 2023. Following his death, a later update to the game added a dedication to him in the credits.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Neil Newbon (the voice of Astarion) and Maggie Robertson (the voice of Orin the Red) previously worked together on Resident Evil Village as the voices of Lord Karl Heisenberg and Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, respectively.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: Comes in two editions.
  • The Digital Deluxe Edition comes with a special song pack from the Divinity series that can be performed by characters with musical instruments, in-game magic items and paintings inspired by the Divinity series as well as some additional camp supplies and potions, a downloadable game soundtrack, a digital artbook, and digital D&D character sheets of the game's origin characters. Those who have purchased the game during its Early Access period, or have purchased the Collector's Edition (see below), can get the Digital Deluxe Edition for free.
  • The Collector's Edition comes with a custom sticker sheet, a Mind Flayer vs. Drow battle diorama, a hardcover copy of the aforementioned artbook, a cloth map of Faerûn, a physical copy of the aforementioned origin character sheets, a metal tadpole keyring, some Magic: The Gathering booster packs, a custom-engraved metal d20 based on the in-game die, and a certificate of authenticity, all within a mind flayer-inspired collector's box.
• Lying Creator:
  • When asked if it was possible to form a romantic relation with a mind flayer in the game, a Larian employee claimed that they were originally going to do such a scene but decided not to. Sure enough, you do have the option of forming a romance with the Emperor, your mind flayer ally.
  • Shortly before the game's full release, Larian CEO Swen Vincke claimed that players could visit the affluent Upper City of Baldur's Gate, which isn't possible in the final game.
• Multi-Disc Work: In the Deluxe Edition (excluding the Japanese release with one disc requiring patches to play the game), the PlayStation 5 version of the game is distributed on two 4K UHD discs (100 GB for the data disc, 66 GB for the play disc), while the Xbox Series X version is distributed on four 50 GB discs, the first time Series X reached that amount of discs.^reasonOriginally it was supposed to be released with three discs. However since it required 500 MB more to be placed on a fourth disc, they did this to avoid players having to download the rest.
• Newbie Boom:
  • Because of the general hype around the game, cross-promotion with other D&D properties, and the time it took to release, the final game ended up spawning one of the biggest newbie booms for D&D CRPGs ever. Millions of players who'd never played the previous games, Neverwinter Nights, or what have you, gave BG3 a shot and loved it.
  • Needless to say, it's also the biggest Newbie Boom Baldur's Gate in particular has ever had. Not even the release of BG2 or Throne of Bhaal caused a boom this big.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • The game's two most prominent theme songs, oddly enough: "Down By The River" and "The Power." The songs allude to "Daisy," an earlier incarnation of the Dream Guardian, less a mentor and more a temptress, a manifestation of your tadpole, intent on progressing its corruption by drawing you deeper into an idyllic dreamscape of river and meadowland you would share.
    • Related to the above, the ability to design the dream protector. Considering You see them in that form less than 5 times before they drop the disguise and reveal themselves as the Emperor and they no longer act as a tempter/temptress, it seems strange you can spend so much time crafting their appearance.
  • All your companions and the narrator make ominous comments about feeling part of yourself disappearing whenever you get an illithid tadpole or use their powers. While these are definitely legitimate concerns for the characters to have In-Universe, it seems to be related to a cut illithid transformation fail state and so becomes Fauxshadowing gameplay-wise in the final game because there is no downside nor any sort of progressive penalty for using illithid powers or upgrading yourself with the tadpoles, with the small exceptions of having your appearance changed with Tainted Veins, and it being harder to refuse the Emperor's offer if you've already been using tadpoles beforehand.
• The Other Darrin:
  • As revealed in the December 2022 Panel from Hell livestream, Matthew Mercer will be voicing Series Mascot Minsc, who was previously played by Jim Cummings.
  • Jaheira has also been recast, with Tracy Wiles taking over the role (though in that case her original actress, Heidi Shannon, appears to have left voice acting completely, having no roles since 2001 and being one of the few cast members not to return for Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear).
  • The same can be said for Viconia DeVir, with Jess Nesling voicing her rather than Grey DeLisle.
  • This also applies to the Origin companion Wyll, who was extensively reworked for the final release and is now portrayed by Theo Solomon instead of his Early Access actor, Lanre Malalolu.
  • Sarevok's brief role in the plot also has him recast from Kevin Michael Richardson to Redd Pepper.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • As both a big fan of the Baldur's Gate series and of fellow voice actor Jim Cummings, Matthew Mercer considered it a pristine honor to be taking up the role of Minsc, which Matt has stated is his favorite of Cummings' voice roles.
  • Astarion's voice actor Neil Newbon was already a veteran D&D fan, so when the cast of Baldur's Gate III did a promotional one-shot with High Rollers playing their characters, he was the only one who didn't require explaining the mechanics to. He was also able to recognize and identify Drizzt Do'Urden before DM Mark Hulmes even needed to say the character's name.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Shadowheart is bisexual, and voiced by sapphic actress Jennifer English, who also met her girlfiend Aliona Baranova during the game's production.
  • Trans woman Abigail Thorn voices Nocturne, who is also a trans woman.
• Role Association: BG3 is narrated by Amelia Tyler, who previously played Nyrissa and Wenduag in Owlcat Games's Pathfinder CRPG series (BG3's most direct competitor). More in-house, she also voiced Malady in Divinity: Original Sin II
• Romance on the Set: According to an interview with Dan Allen Gaming, Jennifer English (Shadowheart's voice actor) met her girlfriend Aliona Baranova (a performance director for the game as well as the voice of Corinna the Squirrel) during production.
• Schedule Slip: Was initially meant for a 2020 release, but only made it to Early Access on Steam that year. Swen Vincke stated that the COVID-19 Pandemic seriously disrupted development, along with several other issues causing the game to be delayed several times.
• Sequel Gap: Released about 23 years after Baldur's Gate II (or about 22 if you count Throne of Bhaal).
• Star-Making Role: While Neil Newbon had supporting roles in games like Resident Evil Village and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in the years preceding Baldur's Gate 3, he received widespread recognition from gaming outlets and fans for his role as Astarion, punctuated by him winning several acting awards over the likes of Ben Starr in Final Fantasy XVI or Yuri Lowenthal in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.
• Urban Legend of Zelda:
  • There is a persistent rumor that if you take too many long rests during Act 1, the druids will complete the ritual to close off their grove. In game there are ways to cause them to do it early (such as attacking the druids or killing tieflings), but taking long rests does not cause it to trigger.
  • A common belief among fans about Raphael's boss fight is that casting Silence on him will also stop him from singing his Villain Song, which plays over the battle. In reality, this does not happen, and the song continues to play with his singing intact even while he's under the effects of the spell.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There were multiple attempts at making the game before Larian came along. What became Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal started as the third game but for various reasons, it was stripped down to an expansion pack. Black Isle Studios started developing the third game (subtitled The Black Hound) alongside Fallout: Van Buren, but both games were canceled in 2003 by Interplay Entertainment due to financial problems. Several years later, Atari wanted Obsidian Entertainment to follow up Neverwinter Nights 2 with Baldur's Gate III, but Atari ran into severe financial difficulties and ended up losing the D&D license.
  • Beamdog, inXile Entertainment, and Obsidian all made attempts to acquire the Baldur's Gate III rights, though they lost out to Larian.
  • Early access had different ideas or plans that ended up being changed in the final release. For examples:
    • While the game was in early access, Wyll held an immense distaste toward goblins; the creatures not only tortured him, but also destroyed his hometown. This is what partly led to him making a pact with the cambion Mizora. In the full game proper, however, Wyll's backstory has been completely reworked and his hostile attitude towards goblins was toned down significantly (although not removed entirely). His backstory was that of a Former Teen Rebel who became a warlock later, which is what lead to his complicated relationship with his father.
    • Also during early access, Astarion played more into the Aristocrats Are Evil trope, having been a former magistrate of Baldurs Gate who helped Cazador willingly before being made a vampire spawn against his will. While he still hated Cazador and was abused by him after being made a vampire spawn, he was closer to an Asshole Victim than the final release's portrayal as a victim of abuse.
    • Gale was more arrogant in early access, verging on Green-Eyed Monster. He was fairly manipulative and less willing to explain his situation, which made his romance have toxic undertones. In the final release, Gale's manipulative and envious traits were removed and his arrogance was adjusted to be a flaw that relates to his backstory and potential character arc instead of being a core trait.
    • The tadpole originally played into a Power at a Price role, where choosing to use it more or empower it would give the tadpole more influence over the player, and give them things like veins on your face from it. This ended up being removed in the final game. In addition, the tadpole the party had was heavily implied to be special, which was why the characters hadn't turned into mind flayers, as Ethel, if she tried to remove it, implied that Netherese magic was bound to the tadpole some how. While Netherese magic still is a factor in the unique circumstances of the tadpole, the final release makes it clear the being inside the Prism is what prevents you from becoming a mind flayer.
    • Originally the player Cleric could have the Dead Three: Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul, as well as Shar as their patron deity with unique dialogue options for each as well. These four were removed in the full release however due to potential conflicts with those deities' roles in the story.
  • Several spells were cut from being in the game due to gameplay balance. This especially included Dispel Magic, which would have been broken in the magic-item-heavy gameplay. Also, the dev team said that it would have required the game to be twice as big as it already was to accommodate every single thing that Dispel Magic could have been used for. The team didn't have time to program such a spell, so it ended up on the cutting room floor.
  • Datamining the game revealed quite a bit of cut content, such as several companions who were originally slated to be Origin Characters, a cut Origin Character named Helia who would have been a halfling bard werewolf, and many exotic races that could have been options as PC races like tritons, warforged, yuan-ti purebloods, aasimar, firbolgs, and genasi.
  • The Upper City of Baldur's Gate and Avernus were meant to be full areas to explore with their own quests, enemies, and non playable characters. The Upper City is instead reserved for the final battle and is very small, and Raphael's House of Hope is the only part of Avernus the player can access.
  • Cazador was meant to have a bigger role in Act III, particularly in the aforementioned cut Upper City, with him potentially even being an ally against the Absolute.
  • According to Devora Wilde, at one point Lae'zel (and presumably the other githyanki as well) was supposed to accompany her Gith language dialogue with jerky insect-like head movements to emphasise her alien nature, but this ended up being cut as it was painful to motion capture and looked awkward when animated.
  • There was meant to be an entire Hag Coven the party would have to defeat throughout the whole story instead of just Auntie Ethel. This is evident in the notes Ethel has in her lair mentioning another hag called, "M", as well as the debuff you get from accepting Ethel's aid in removing the tadpole giving you a penalty against Hags.
  • Omeluum's ring, despite him claiming it will prevent illithid influence on the player, only gives you a buff against being charmed. Data mining revealed this ring would've actually done just that and halted the tadpole entirely. It couldn't grow or get stronger, and you couldn't use illithid powers.
  • Tav and the Dark Urge were originally going to have much more spoken dialogue. There are certain cutscenes where they do speak, but the characters were originally supposed to be fully voiced like everyone else. In the end, most of these lines were left on the cutting room floor.
  • The developers confirmed that Karlach, Halsin, and Minthara were originally just meant to be NPCs, with Karlach having a different model and looked pretty normal in early access before getting redesigned near the end of Early Access, complete with a new VA. Both Halsin and Minthara became popular with the fandom, so Larian decided to make them companions you could recruit. Karlach was made playable closer to the release of the final game, as evidenced by her lack of appearances still closer to release.
  • Minthara's earlier characterization was more straightforwardly evil, with her not just admiring the Dark Urge's Slayer form, but outright chewing them out and breaking up with them for refusing to reclaim their mantle as Bhaal's chosen, emphasizing her Psycho Supporter nature and undercutting the Pragmatic Villainy and disdain for gods she developed in the final release. This legacy dialogue was accidentally enabled in Hotfix 21 before being removed in the next Hotfix.
  • It was originally possible to fully redeem Ketheric via speech checks, following which he'd complete his Heel–Face Turn and become an ally. This was changed to a Heel–Face Door-Slam in the final release as part of rescoping Act 2.
  • Before it was decided the Dream Guardian be a rogue Mind Flayer, it was originally a person simply named, "Daisy". They would've been a representation of the tadpole and try to tempt the player into evolving their illithid powers, with the goal of becoming a mind flayer. Several songs even point to this, such as, "The Power" and, "Down by the River". The player would be able to accept Daisy's offer of being with her forever, "down by the river". In their mind, they are living a happy life with Daisy as their lover, but in reality, they would be surrendering their body and mind into becoming a mind flayer.
  • Raphael was meant to be a legitimate option to remove the tadpole, and Soul Coins were meant to be an exclusive currency accepted by Raphael in exchange for powerful items, instead of just being used for Karlach's infernal engine.
  • Larian briefly teased the idea of some kind of expansion or DLC after the game was released, with some later patches adding hints of potential directions it could go. Swen eventually revealed that they cooled off on the idea after their Christmas vacations in favor of moving on to new projects.
• Word of God: Astarion's height is 5'9", according to Larian's twitter account. He is however specified to be "approximately 5'11" ingame by a gith (a notably rigorous race) PC.

---