Baldur's Gate 3 announced

[Habbaku]

  My next game will definitely be Seldarine Drow for that reason exactly.

[Oexmelin]

Yes, the Dead Three are a bit of stupid plot devices.

The hodgepodge lore from the Forgotten Realms isn't always conducive to the sort of nuanced storytelling authors seem to want to tell. The pantheon is obviously the 20th century monotheist's interpretation of polytheism; D&D can't seem to decide whether it wants to embrace real world references and analogues, whether it wants to stick to the roots of the fantasy genre, or whether it wants to turn to pulp fiction and superhero comics... 

I still think the best version of it was Planescape Torment.

[Oexmelin]

In other news, I found some poutine in the game.

[Sophie Scholl]

My next game will definitely be Seldarine Drow for that reason exactly.

My last character I started was a Seldarine Drow Paladin and I just waltzed into the Orc camp and got to explore it to my heart's content. Everyone bows and scrapes before my character just for being a Drow and only look at me slightly strange when I do nice things. It's amusing. I presume they figure it is all some 5d chess shenanigans and it is for an ultimately evil goal. 

[Valmy]

My next game will definitely be Seldarine Drow for that reason exactly.

My last character I started was a Seldarine Drow Paladin and I just waltzed into the Orc camp and got to explore it to my heart's content. Everyone bows and scrapes before my character just for being a Drow and only look at me slightly strange when I do nice things. It's amusing. I presume they figure it is all some 5d chess shenanigans and it is for an ultimately evil goal. 

There are no Orcs in BG3 

Those are Goblins.

[Sophie Scholl]

There are no Orcs in BG3 

Those are Goblins.

Ha! Right. I've been playing a lot of WoW lately, reading Pathfinder lore, and reading a book with orcs as main characters. Zug zug. 

[Syt]

I simply cannot bring myself to do a Durge playthrough. It just seems so bleak.

There was a line of banter from Shadowheart during my playthrough that encapsulated my thoughts: "Why must the Dead Three be so obvious and ugly with their decor? Blood and bones. Bones and blood. Pointy nonsense. At least Shar had some panache."

Yeah. I will restart my horny cowardly bard character at some point (what with the problems mentioned above), or maybe a really dumb impulsive barbarian (though I assume there's no easter eggs for stupid characters?), but for now taking a pause. (It also frees up a lot of disk space - my games SSD only has 1 TB )

[Valmy]

There are no Orcs in BG3 

Those are Goblins.

Ha! Right. I've been playing a lot of WoW lately, reading Pathfinder lore, and reading a book with orcs as main characters. Zug zug. 

The original BG game intentionally left out orcs and goblins originally as an attempt to use the more obscure FR creatures as opposed to more generic D&D ones. So out were Orcs and Goblins and in were Xvarts and Gibberlings. Goblins were eventually introduced in BG2 though.

But you can play the whole zillion hours of BG1, BG2, and BG3 and not encounter one singular orc. It is kind of a tradition at this point. Though there are half-orcs.

[Syt]

Another update on the way

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/baldurs-gate/baldurs-gate-3-is-going-out-with-a-big-bang-with-12-new-subclasses-so-you-can-finally-become-a-drunken-master-or-maybe-just-befriend-some-bees-along-with-cross-play-and-a-photo-mode/

Baldur's Gate 3 is going out with a big bang by adding 12 new subclasses, so you can finally become a drunken master or maybe just befriend some bees, along with crossplay and a photo mode

The end of the RPG's feature-heavy updates is in sight, but some good stuff is still coming next year.

When Larian said it was ready to "move on" from Baldur's Gate 3 back in March, rather than continue to work on an expansion that had started to morph into Baldur's Gate 4, I assumed that meant it would be winding down the updates, too. But since then we've seen a bunch of substantial patches, and we've just learned that another one is on its way. Yep, Larian just decided to chuck another 12 subclasses into the game, as well as some more treats.

"Before we bid Faerûn adieu in search of stranger shores," the new community update reads, "we have one more major patch waiting around the corner. Arriving next year, this update will introduce some of the most eagerly awaited features to BG3: crossplay, and photo mode, along with 12 new subclasses."

New subclasses
The subclasses are absolutely the highlight here, introducing a different way to play each class. That's a pretty hefty addition. Here's what you can expect:

Bard - College of Glamour: A support subclass that heals allies and commands enemies.
Barbarian - Path of Giants: Become a burly beefcake that uses their rage to grow in both size and strength.
Cleric - Death Domain: One for the goths, this subclass focuses on spells that cause necrotic damage, and you can make corpses explode. Fun!
Druid - Circle of Stars: This celestial-themed Druid subclass gives you three 'Starry' forms with different flavours.
Paladin - Oath of the Crown: A righteous Paladin subclass, you'll be able to heal your pals by soaking up damage and disrupt your enemies with divine taunts.
Fighter - Arcane Archer: This magical ranged subclass can banish enemies to the Feywild and batter foes with psychic damage.
Monk - Drunken Master: Get all boozed up before a fight for the ultimate bar brawl, or intoxicate your foes before aggressively sobering them up.
Ranger - Swarmkeeper: A Ranger subclass for fans of bees! Not just bees, though: you'll be able to summon swarms of moths and jellyfish too. Why not?
Rogue - Swashbuckler: BG3 doesn't have enough pirates, but that's about to change thanks to this dirty, skullduggerous subclass that lets you blind and disarm enemies.
Sorcerer - Shadow Magic: With this subclass you can Shadow Walk between dim places, see better in the dark, or summon a spooky dog.
Warlock - Hexblade: This Warlock has made a pact with an entity that takes the shape of various magical weapons, and you'll be able to summon the spirits of fallen foes.
Wizard - Blade Singing: A martial Wizard subclass, Blade Singing splices spells with swordplay and lets you get properly stuck into the melee scrum.

Boy, that's a lot of new stuff. I'm going to be playing this game forever, I reckon. Oh well! I could think of a worse fate. While a lot of these new additions come directly from D&D, Larian's thrown some fun homebrew stuff in there too, and the subclasses also come with new animations, VFX and voice lines for Oathbreaker Paladins.

Photo mode and crossplay

The subclasses alone would make the update the biggest Larian's put together, but the photo mode and crossplay features give us even more to look forward to.

Crossplay means you'll be able to hang out with pals playing on other platforms. So if you've got some buddies adventuring away on their PS5, for instance, you'll be able to join them in the crossplay lobby. The photo mode, meanwhile, will let you set up your shot with a bunch of options, and then you can edit it to make everything look just right. Camera settings, lens settings, scene settings, post processing effects, frames and stickers mean that there should be a lot to tinker with.

The patch doesn't have a release date yet, but Larian's going to start stress testing it in January. If you can't wait until release, you'll be able to find out how you can participate in the test in the next community update.

I mean, you can get extra sublasses as mods now, but still, Larian making other "AAA" devs and games look bad. "You pay us once, here's the game. No DLC, or live services. Just go have fun."

(FromSoftware are similar, except they do release (usually good and/or big) DLC)