Baldur's Gate 3 director says Larian had "all the freedom we needed" to make the D&D RPG but adapting the tabletop format provided its own "limitations"
16.3k
George Young
2026-01-09
CEO of Larian Studios and director of Baldur's Gate 3 Swen Vincke claims that Wizards of the Coasts gave the team "all the freedom we needed" to develop a game based on the Dungeons & Dragons IP, but did feel some limitations when it came to adapting the tabletop game system for the video game format.
In a Reddit AMA that includes 11 lead developers from Larian, the team answers numerous questions about the studio's upcoming game Divinity. One of the questions comes from a user curious as to whether the developers were held back by Wizards of the Coast as the owner of the Dungeons & Dragons moniker, and if being Divinity's license owner will allow Larian to do anything differently.
However, Vincke claims that the team were completely free to use the Dungeons & Dragons IP exactly how they saw fit. "We had all the freedom we needed on BG3," Vincke says. While Wizards of the Coast gave the devs the freedom to create the game they wanted to, not everything went smoothly with the adaptation from tabletop to video game.
Fallout co-creator Tim Cain's long list of "nitpicky" D&D questions for Wizards of the Coast in 2002 might help explain why Larian wanted to move on from the tabletop license after Baldur's Gate 3
We're getting Divinity over more Baldur's Gate 3 because Larian devs weren't enjoying "doing the D&D thing"
"Baldur's Gate 3 and D:OS2 are the blueprint for Divinity": Larian's next RPG is the studio's "natural evolution"
Comment from r/Games
"The game was based on 5e," Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition rule set, "which is a system that was made for tabletop, not for video games. Most of the limitations came from that," Vincke says. No one from the studio explains what these limitations are, but players in the comments believe they include the restricted level-ups.
With complete freedom over the upcoming game, Divinity, we wonder what Larian is cooking up for us.
Baldur's Gate 3 wins Steam's Labor of Love award following 2 years of updates and community support: "Pretty f***ing good way to start 2026."
tomato_slicer
Jan 09, 05:51 PM
Could be terrible.
stuckInCache
Jan 09, 05:01 PM
i threw it away. skill issue Not streamer friendly. Bought it, maybe a little regret This is relaxing.
shiny_snek
Jan 09, 04:31 PM
hot- π© ;and so on
Recent Articles