Baldur’s Gate 3 Developers Initially Hesitant to Include Key D&D Rule, But Player Feedback Changed Their Minds: “We worried it might disrupt the pace of the game.”

Baldur’s Gate 3 nearly omitted a fundamental aspect of the D&D ruleset, but thanks to the early access community, it made the cut.

In D&D, Reactions allow players to respond to specific triggers even when it’s not their turn. One of the most notable examples is Counterspell, which can interrupt a spell being cast. While there are numerous Reactions for various scenarios, Larian initially hesitated to include them in the game.

“We didn’t want to have Reactions in Baldur’s Gate 3,” Vincke shared. However, during early access, the community expressed a strong desire for them. Larian was concerned that adding this feature would “slow down the gameplay too much,” but they eventually relented and discovered that the community had a valid point. “There was a lot of cursing, and we started plugging them into the entire game, and it was a really good moment because it made the game better.”

This kind of player feedback is precisely why Vincke hopes the next Divinity title will also enter early access. He noted that early access has become “the blueprint” for shaping both Divinity: Original Sin games and Baldur’s Gate 3. The games saw significant improvements through this process, as player involvement adds pressure and engagement, resulting in a more polished final product, even if it requires extra development effort.

Following the announcement of the new Divinity title, Vincke mentioned that Larian aims to move away from the strict constraints of adapting a tabletop ruleset into a video game. Reactions weren’t the only element they considered cutting; Dispel Magic was entirely removed from Baldur’s Gate 3 because it would have “literally doubled the size of the game.” Vincke explained, “the problem with BG3 was that we had to port an existing tabletop ruleset into a video game, which came with limitations.”

In related news, Astarion’s voice actor, Neil Newbon, criticized the use of generative AI for dialogue, stating that any studio employing it should compensate actors for re-recording lines: “You’ve got the money now.”