Baldur’s Gate 3 devs completely rewrote Shadowheart to “dial down” her sassiness

One of Baldur’s Gate 3’s greatest strengths is the varied and extensive cast of memorable characters that confront the player during their three-act journey. One of the most important is Shadowheart, but she was nearly a very different person from the one featured in the finished game.

For the most part, Shadowheart is beloved by the Baldur’s Gate community. A big part of that is her strong personality, blending humor, solid advice and, for lack of a better term, a certain amount of sassiness.

According to GamesRadar+, that sassiness was considerably more pronounced in earlier iterations of the script. Speaking at a BAFTA panel in the UK, director Swen Vincke confirmed that the writers may have pushed the character beyond her likeable limits initially.

“We thought Shadowheart, in the beginning when she was very sassy, she was great because our main thing was, we’re going to create a party of people who distrust each other, and then they’re going to grow to trust each other,” Vincke said.

Larian Studios

He then went on to recall an instance in which a senior developer approached him and simply said, “I really don’t like Shadowheart.” When pressed on whether this had led to the character being toned down, Vincke confirmed it did, saying, “Yeah, heavily dialed down.”

With the benefit of hindsight, the decision to change Shadowheart seems to have been a good one. The character is one of the most recognizable from the third entry in the Baldur’s Gate series, and she remains one of the most popular romance options for players.

Larian Studios has now moved on to an as-yet-unannounced new project. What we do know is that it won’t be Baldur’s Gate 4, as the developer confirms they are moving away from the franchise, much to the chagrin of the player base.