Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford reveals that Baldur’s Gate 3 directly influenced some changes in D&D’s spells. Read on to learn more about his thoughts!
Lead Designer Takes Some Notes From Baldur’s Gate 3
D&D 5th Edition “Patch Update”
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford revealed that spells in the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons 2024 were "revisited" and in some cases, "have received functional upgrades" because of the critically-acclaimed CRPG Baldur’s Gate 3, which makes use of the 5th Edition of the popular tabletop game as its binding ruleset,
Crawford’s experience with the game made him realize that some of the spells were "painful to cast in terms of their action economy," and thus needed a little bit of tweaking. One of those "painful" spells was Cloud of Daggers. "This spell [Cloud of Daggers] now lets you move it. [...] My main frustration with it is when I cast it and then the monsters move over there—and even when I cast Cloud of Daggers in Baldur's Gate 3, I want to be able to move it," Crawford shared in an interview detailing the new changes with spells on the Dungeons and Dragons Official YouTube.
He also highlighted the cantrip Produce Flame as being particularly "excruciating" to set up. "That cantrip was really painful to set up - once you got it going it could be fun to hurl the fire, [but] now it's way easy to cast it. And that is, funnily enough, another one where it was not only a pain to cast in the tabletop game but when I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 was excruciating... And it was while playing Baldur's Gate 3 I thought 'we are going to redesign Produce Flame so there will not be as much friction to cast this cantrip'."
Dungeons and Dragons Updated Guide Books
Dungeons and Dragons will be getting a "content update" this 2024, with new spells and upgrades. The newer version of the Player’s Handbook will make it easier for beginners to ease into the game, offering more comprehensive explanations and examples of the rules. The Monster Manual rebalances existing monsters’ strengths and weaknesses while also adding plenty of new enemies, such as apex monsters that serve as epic bosses.
In addition to that, the Dungeon Master’s guide also becomes a much better version of its past reiterations, now redesigned to be more intuitive and useful for Dungeon Masters (DM). It will contain advice on what the DM should do in-game, a guide for writing adventures, and how to create your own campaign, along with an example campaign setting.
These guides are now available for pre-order online should you wish to purchase and start your D&D journey!
