Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in Early Access for over a year and is therefore far from complete. Now the head developer has accidentally revealed a race too early.
Another small race for Baldur’s Gate 3 has been confirmed. In addition to halflings, we will also be able to begin our journey as a gnome in the finished game. This was revealed by Larian’s founding father Swen Vincke at this year’s Games Developers Confenrence. However, this revelation was not intentional (via PCGamer).
An unintentional slip of the tongue
Swen Vincke is quite an illustrious figure in the games industry. The chief developer likes to show himself in front of the camera and is rarely too good for various silliness. In the meantime, you also see him more often in knight’s armour instead of everyday clothes.
Since he also talks relatively light-heartedly off the cuff, he can occasionally get a little careless in the process. This was also the case during (his talk) on the challenges of developing Baldur’s Gate 3.
Meanwhile, Vincke talked about the different body sizes of the playable races, also mentioning the gnomes as an example of a small race:
“ This game supports a whole lot of playable races, right? And I’ll give you a couple of examples of problems that we run into. You can play as a human, and you can play as a gnome … “
However, this is currently not the case at all. Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in Early Access on Steam since 2020 (and will remain there until at least 2023) and in all that time the same eight races have been playable. Gnomes were not among them. Vincke also confirmed shortly afterwards that this had slipped out of his mouth.
Gnomes aren’t even in the game, so that’s your scoop for today.
What can the Gnomes do?
It was already very likely that gnomes would be added as a playable race. After all, gnomes were already a playable race in the two predecessors and there were also legendary companions like the illusionist Jan Jansen.
In addition, we can already encounter gnomes in Baldur’s Gate 3. One is even tied to a windmill by a gang of goblins and desperately needs help. So it was only a matter of time that gnomes would become playable. It remains unclear whether the gnomes will be added in Early Access or whether Larian is saving this race for the final release. Only recently, barbarians were added to the roster of playable classes.
Vincke has also not revealed what the gnomes in Baldur’s Gate 3 will be. But since the game is based on the rules of DnD 5, we can just take a look at the manual:
Features
- Gnomes have an intelligence value that is 2 points higher
- Gnomes have a movement rate of 25 feet
- Gnomes have dark vision
- Gnomes have advantage on saving throws against magic based on intelligence, wisdom, or charisma
Subspecies
- Rock Gnomes: These gnomes have an additional 1 increased Constitution and are very good at examining artifacts or crafting items.
- Forest Gnomes: These gnomes increase their Dexterity by 1 and, as born Illusionists, they can perform the Simple Illusion spell trick from the start. By the way, these gnomes can easily exchange thoughts with small animals.
Are you looking forward to the gnomes or are there other races you’re dying to play? Write it down in the comments!
