Baldur’s Gate 3 capitalizes on a controversial aspect of D&D 5e.

Baldur’s Gate 3 credits several factors for its success, but at its core it can make Dungeons and Dragons, what it is built on, easily available to players. From simplified combat rules to role-playing possibilities, Baldur’s Gate 3 lives up to what fantasy buffs most enjoy about the tabletop RPG, especially its magic.

A few vociferous critics of D&D 5e for being excessively magic-heavy have come from the TTRPG realm, and the forthcoming updates to the Player’s Handbook support that. But BG3 deftly employs magic in a way far more empowering than it can be at the game table.

Though it demonstrates a typical balancing issue in games, in retrospect Baldur Gate 3’s too bountiful loot economy is a good issue to have.

BG3 Leans Into D&D 5s Magic Focus

Baldurs Gate has perfected its Magic Item Methodology.

With increasingly magic-oriented Dungeons & Dragons, spellcasters can be far stronger than martial characters, or some of the finest martial classes are good solely because of their magic. At least not generally confined to one playstyle, casters usually have more utility. Sometimes those who choose not to utilize it feel left out or forgotten. Worse still, it can make full casters—like the much-loved D&D wizard class—less unique when so many builds rely on magic use. For this Baldur’s Gate 3 provided answers.

BG3 players have access to a great range of magical tools for all classes during their journey, but martial classes are particularly spoilt with weapons and armor. BG3’s rings and amulets offer extra enhancements for which every player has three slots. Particularly plentiful and freely available for anyone are spell scrolls and potions.

Unlike becoming mired down in selective, magic-favoring world-building, each player will be able to adopt a mechanic recognized for its great potency and employ it when each has such casual access. Where martial classes are lacking, BG3’s equipment more than makes up for it, and it creates an overall satisfying gaming experience.

Larian Forgotten Realms Creates Arcene Balance

Baldur’s Gate 3 looks to have perfect harmony between too much and too little magic. It does not seek to oversaturate its game, hence the loot seems earned and the environment feels like a complex high fantasy where not everyone is an accomplished caster. A region does not run across the D&D 5e criticism that there is no value in the mundane when high-level magic exists so often even if it has gifted allies and foes scaling alongside the player. Still, the range of items in BG3 allows everyone to enjoy magic, and use may be tailored to suit each individual.

Baldur’s Gate also interestingly and freely uses experience points, which many recent and homebrew 5e games have shifted away from in their leveling systems. But in previous D&D iterations, obtaining loot itself would provide experience as part of dungeon-delving, and the same is true in Baldur’s Gate. Thus, as BG3 returns to the TTRPG’s roots, actively seeking its magic as well as using it is quite fulfilling.

All of these elements forward the more general objective of accessibility. D&D’s present magic focus is a divisive issue; if it veers too far from magic or too strongly into it, it can occasionally stop feeling like a properly balanced fantasy game. Of the few things Baldur’s Gate 3 does right, though, its awareness of how to distribute its treasure, how to balance the game, and how to make the player, regardless of their magical leaning, unique is outstanding.