Larian on the challenges of Baldur's Gate 3 DLC

Making Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC isn’t impossible, Larian's Swen Vincke said in a recent interview, but it would almost be like making a new (...)

Making Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC isn’t impossible, Larian studio head Swen Vincke said in a recent interview, but it would almost be like making a new RPG. Vincke made the comments while speaking with Dungeons & Dragons video producer Todd Kenreck about making the game and what comes next, and the conversation turned back to BG3’s level cap.

The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons lets players level up to 20, but Baldur’s Gate 3 stops the party at 12. Vincke and Kenreck say that’s for a very good reason. From level 13 on in D&D, players get access to a range of “world-shattering” spells, magic with substantially more power than anything you get prior to that point. 

Vincke said creating a BG3 expansion like that isn’t unfeasible. It would just be more like creating a new game. Going up to level 20 would raise the stakes drastically, he said, which means probably moving the setting to a different area and definitely changing who the antagonists are.

Vincke also said BG3 DLC wouldn’t have to take place at the end of the game. The team at Larian could explore other points in the story, for example, or even a prequel. There’s already a D&D campaign that covers the fall of Elturel, the event that pushed the Tiefling refugees you encounter in Emerald Grove out of their homes.

Maybe we’d see even more weird Baldur’s Gate 3 subclasses in a prequel or mid-quel. Meanwhile, Larian is continuing to work on the Baldur’s Gate 3 Xbox version and, Vincke said, has plans for another project in the works already.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF