How Baldur's Gate 3's Narrative Interacts With Players

Branching Dialogue Choices

It would be impossible to show the effect of every dialogue choice in Baldur’s Gate 3, simply because there are so. many. You can antagonize people, offer to help someone (or tell them to fuck off), help your companions grow as people or become even worse versions of themselves, all through dialogue choices. The choices you pick can also determine who you fight and who you don’t, and sometimes you can even bypass boss battles completely; if you choose the right options and pass the dice rolls, you can make several bosses in act 2 kill themselves before the fight even begins (all of the Thorms [besides Ketheric] and Yurgir fall under this category).

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Dynamic Quest Outcomes

Almost every quest in the game has multiple ways to complete them, and each and every one influences the story in some way, whether big or small. The companion quests are a broader example of this. For instance, depending on how you complete his quest, Astarion can either break the cycle of abuse he’s been stuck in, become a controlling abuser himself (which affects his behavior towards you for the rest of the game), or leave the party altogether.

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Moral Alignment System

While there isn’t an “official” moral alignment system, certain choices the player makes are considered “good” and “bad” by the game, and these decisions determine what story paths are available to you. For example, choosing to raid the druid grove with Minthara and the goblins will cause Wyll and Karlach to leave your party, as well as lock you out of Halsin as a companion and any subsequent quests involving the tieflings entirely.

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Another (kind of?) example of this is choosing whether or not to use the tadpoles. While using the tadpoles to gain more power isn’t inherently an “evil” choice, it is clearly presented as you flirting with the dark side (I mean, the animation when you unlock a new power is a worm wriggling into your brain, for goodness’ sake), and unlocking even just a few powers could, depending on dice rolls, potentially lock you into becoming half-illithid at the end of act 2. Doing so disfigures your character and nets you the approval of your dream guardian, but has no effect on the story besides a few unique interactions.

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Adaptive Character Relationships

Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of relationships that respond to the player, not just with your companions but with minor characters as well. Doing things a companion approves of will increase their opinion of you, which influences the way they interact with you and opens the possibility of romancing them once it is high enough. Conversely, if you piss your companions off, they will be hostile in their conversations with you and may even potentially leave the party if their opinion of you is low enough.

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Your relationships with minor characters can be changed through dialogue choices. For example, when you save Mayrina from Auntie Ethel, she will scream at you that she had made a deal with the hag to resurrect her husband, and that you ruined everything. However, If you tell her about Auntie Ethel killing her brothers beforehand, she sees Ethel for the monster she is and will instead view you as her savior. She will even try to give you the one thing she has left of her husband as payment, which you can either accept or decline.

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Player Performance and Strategy

If the player fails certain objectives in combat encounters, they can permanently alter the story. If you fail to protect Isobel, for instance, she is taken to Moonrise Towers where she is then killed and turned undead. If this happens, not only do you have to fight her alongside Ketheric Thorm, but she and her girlfriend are locked out from helping you in the final battle against the Netherbrain (who are, in my opinion, two of the more useful allies to have).

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Customizable Player Characters and Worlds

The player character, Tav, is highly customizable in background, abilities, and appearance, and you can roleplay almost anything you’d like with the options the game gives you. In one run, I was a Lolth-sworn drow necromancer who spent all his time in the Underground isolating himself in his studies, suddenly thrust into interacting with other people. In another, I was a tiefling who had a rough childhood on the streets but grew up to be a world class sorceress. This customization really immerses players into the game’s narrative by allowing them to create their own.