Baldur's Gate 3 will let you respec your characters: 'We want the players to really experiment with what is possible'

Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot going on, and that applies to character classes and subclasses as much as anything else. That kind of choice can be intimidating, especially when the unknowable consequences of a poor decision has the potential to leave you unhappy (or straight-up screwed) 40 hours in. The good news for anyone worried about being hung up by a bad call is that developer Larian Studios has confirmed that players will be able to respec their characters if they want to.

"We wanted to avoid players having to restart the whole game, because it's a very heavy narrative experience," Larian's Nick Pechenin said during today's livestream. "There's a character you might meet—you will most likely meet—that will allow you reset your class, and reinvest all of the levels."

And it's not just about recovering from mistakes in character creation. Support for multiclassing in Baldur's Gate 3 will enable players to mix up classes pretty much as they like—if you've ever wanted to be a berserker-bard, here's your chance. Multiclass characters can be extremely powerful, but they can also be, well, the opposite of that. Pechenin said support for respeccing gives players an opportunity to be really creative with their builds, because if their cool idea turns out to be not so cool after all (like, say, a berserker-bard), they've got an escape hatch.

"In multiclassing, there are a lot of really cool combinations, there are some combinations that don't quite work, and we want the players to really experiment with what is possible," Pechenin said. "And respec really helps with that."

Personally, I don't think respeccing belongs in Dungeons and Dragons: You put thought into who and what you want to be, and then you carry the consequences of your choices through to the very end, no matter how bitter it might be. But I'm also of the opinion that six classes—fighter, mage, thief, cleric, monk, bard—is more than enough, and frankly I don't think the monk really needs to be there. I mean, he's just a fighter who forgot where he left his sword, right? So let’s call it five.

But this is new D&D, I guess, and I have to admit that it's a little more complicated than it was back when I was following Gorion through the forests outside Candlekeep in 1998.

The question of whether Baldur's Gate 3 will, or should, allow respeccing has been kicking around amongst fans for quite a long time. This three-year-old Reddit thread, for instance, goes deep on the topic, and while the OP is generally against the idea, there's real thoughtfulness to their opinion, and in the discussion that followed—which was mostly in favor of a respec option.

"I grew up playing BG1 when it launched WAY back in the day on CDs (so I'll admit I'm biased)," Maz437 wrote. "In those games, and in tabletop, you play the character you create. There's no switching half way through to something else, and personally I think BG3 should be the same. My vote is for no respec in the game.

"There is a beautiful simplicity to that decision. Your characters are set in stone, and you truly can get inside the mind of each character you play ... If you play as a fighter, you're going to take different companions with you than if you play as a wizard. If you do an evil playthrough, you're not going to have Minsc in your squad. By locking the characters you add to the replay value of the game, and that is what always kept me coming back. The game just played so differently if you ran a melee focused party, vs a magic focused party. If you can respec your character and companions during the game, you'll never experience that."

Redditor FlamingoBasher countered that point with what I have to admit is a pretty convincing reply. "This isn't DnD—I find the option to respec in a videogame pretty much a must-have in 2021, especially in a game where a build is so important," they wrote. "A huge benefit on [Divinity: Original Sin 2] was the respec mirror that you could access early in the game. It encourages builds, playing around with the game, and getting EVERYTHING out of a party composition.

"[Tabletop] is a lot more forgiving and a DM can work around a shitty build with specific encounters, cheering rolls, and other stuff. If I want to tank some stats and make Gale a glass cannon, I should be able to do that."

Now the matter is settled: You'll have to put in the effort to find the relevant NPC, but aside from that, respec is in. And, my own reticence notwithstanding, that's probably a good thing. Baldur's Gate 3 comes out for PC on August 3.