It "Made Sense" For Baldur's Gate 3's Combat To Be Turn-Based, Says Dev

Although combat in previous Baldur's Gate titles has traditionally focused around the use of real-time mechanics, Baldur's Gate III uses a turn-based system. For developer Larian Studios, it's always been a no-brainer to make Baldur's Gate III a turn-based game.

"It was never really a question," Baldur's Gate III design producer David Walgrave said, according to USG. "We've been doing turn-based for a while now. We're pretty good at it. Dungeons & Dragons is turn-based in itself, so it makes a lot of sense.

"Even after we implemented the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, the result was so different from what we concocted with Divinity: Original Sin that we saw that the combat designers would have to do it completely different, so that was a challenge," Walgrave continued. "And we're doing things that we haven't done before, so, for us, it was the best choice."

Though the implementation of a dice roll is definitely Dungeons & Dragons, the turn-based gameplay of Baldur's Gate III is very reminiscent of Larian Studios' Divinity Original Sin series--it makes sense for the developer to return to what it knows. "Part of the decision is that we know turn-based, and secondly, it's that Fifth Edition [D&D] is played in rounds, so it kind of made sense," Baldur's Gate senior writer Adam Smith told VG247.

"It lets you do things like separating the party and having one person on high ground and one person on low ground," Smith added. "It means when the combat starts, there's a better sense of, 'I'm going to get a sense of the tactical situation. I'm going to send this person over here, I'm going to do that, I'm going to send this person behind and shove an enemy.'"

In our own coverage of Baldur's Gate III, creative director Swen Wincke spoke about how he hopes for Larian Studios to transcend the legacy of the game, and also discussed the challenges of creating the game and working with Wizards of the Coast.