Baldur’s Gate 3 devs explain how D&D homebrew rules impacted development

During a panel discussion on Baldur’s Gate 3’s development, Larian confessed to consulting D&D player forums on homebrew rules to make decisions on Fifth Edition mechanic changes.

In general, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a pretty accurate recreation of Dungeons & Dragons 5e mechanics. However, translating any tabletop experience to a video game requires some adjustments.

Developer Larian Studios took plenty of liberties, putting its own twists on 5e in the name of improving the player experience.

During a PAX West panel, design director Nick Pechenin shared that, while the team initially “thought the job of the [combat and gameplay] designers was going to be easy” since there were plenty of 5e books to consult, they quickly learned D&D rules aren’t straightforward.

In fact, Pechenin added “D&D has a wonderful community of creators, people who think very hard about the rules and try them out. We literally went through forums looking for homebrew rules… we went ‘Okay, so we’re not crazy. Some people do it, so maybe we can try it as well.'”

Discussion of BG3’s design as it relates to D&D rules starts at 8:22.

Pechenin specifically mentioned the 5e rule that magic users cannot cast both a full action and bonus action spell on the same turn as an example of a frequently-ignored rule the designers chose to drop based on D&D player discussions.

It shouldn’t be too surprising that Larian looked to homebrew rules to decide how best to adapt tabletop D&D to Baldur’s Gate 3. After all, most tables use at least some homebrew rules to improve the experience or cater to their groups’ needs.

Still, the idea of Larian devs wading through the wild world of D&D forums to support their ideas and make decisions is funny.

The panel also discussed the impact that Baldur’s Gate 3 is already having on Dungeons & Dragons. Director and Larian CEO Swen Vincke mentioned weapon mastery, a new system introduced in the revised Player’s Handbook (2024) that greatly improves martial classes, as something the TTRPG has adopted from BG3.

Other examples include the ability to drink potions as a bonus action and changes to spells like Cloud of Daggers, which Wizards of the Coast’s lead designers admit were influenced by their time playing Baldur’s Gate 3.