D&D's 2024 Player Handbook Was Influenced By Things The Team Didn't Like In Baldur's Gate 3

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shows off a lot of what makes great, but the game's weak points are actually what influenced 's upcoming 2024 the most. After a decade of following the rules established in the 2014 core rulebooks, is getting a refresh that maintains backward compatibility while making a lot of tweaks. Pinpointing exactly what needs to be changed can be difficult, however, and provided a surprising assist in that regard.

In an interview with, lead designer Jeremy Crawford explained that helped the team get a feel for some rules and mechanics that could use reworks. Although 's designers obviously have plenty of tabletop experience, feeling something out in video game form can clarify just how much a tune-up could help.

Jeremy Crawford: "[W]e would see how some of our own rules worked in BG3 and then change them in the tabletop game, hoping that then in the next Baldur's Gate we could use our new design and not the old one. So it was much less about us adopting design decisions from BG3, but instead reacting to our own design that was in BG3 and saying we want to change it."

It's interesting to get some confirmation of 's impact on, although it might not be in the way that everyone would expect. Despite staying generally loyal to 's core ruleset, does make a number of tweaks to various mechanics, and it doesn't sound like any of those will be carrying over to the 2024 The one concept that definitely will recur is the Wildheart Barbarian, a subclass name that developer Larian Studios and publisher Wizards of the Coast chose together.

Baldur's Gate 3 goes about Dungeons & Dragons combat in some smart ways, and one particular emphasis has had a big impact on my tabletop campaign.

Tabletop and video game design prerogatives are ultimately very different, and it makes sense that the tweaks that worked for would often be less purposeful in actual play. As to whether the next will follow up on the new changes in the 2024 like Crawford hopes, that mostly hinges on whether the game gets a