Fate Unwoven
Baldur’s Gate III Unlocked Toolkit // Baldur’s Gate III
Systems Design & Balancing, Isometric RPG Design, Exploration & Storytelling
Level Summary
“Fate Unwoven” is a systems & exploration-focused single player (& co-op) level for Baldur’s Gate III. Tasked with a rescue mission in the ruins of a fallen magocracy, players must master a custom wizard subclass focusing on dunamancy: the study of potentiality, gravity, and time.
Design Goals
Custom Wizard Subclass
Implement and balance a custom wizard subclass that fits within the base game
Exploration & Storytelling
Players free to explore a level filled with unique interactions & environmental storytelling
3D-Isometric RPG Design
Expand my design experience to utilize BG3’s camera system to support the player
Implementation Details
Custom Wizard Subclass
For this project, I wanted to implement and balance a custom wizard subclass based off of Critical Role’s “dunamancy”: a study of magic based on potentiality and probability.
The player using what they learned in the first “Investigation Phase” to test their hypothesis
For this project, I implemented three “minimum viable product” spells and one class feature, as well as designed three additional “stretch goal” spells. I wanted to create interesting spells that meaningfully contributed to the BG3 spell library: spells that encourage players to use them in fun and creative ways.
I tracked all of my balancing in Microsoft Excel, and began by planning out my spells, encounters, and other key stats. This helped me keep on an eye on all the variables I had to consider, and gave me a central location to see how the spells interacted with each other.
Wormhole
The first spell I created was “Wormhole”: a 3rd-level utility spell that allows the caster to teleport another entity - both allies and enemies. This spell gives the caster the chance to control the battlefield and the key positioning of entities.
In the example below, the caster uses the spell on Karlach to skip some difficult terrain and enter into melee range of a difficult-to-reach enemy.
Temporal Chaos
Leaning into the “time” aspect of dunamancy, I created “Temporal Chaos”: a 4th-level debuff/boost spell that has a chance to pull an entity through time, skipping their turn with a roll from a custom Wild Magic table.
This spell can be used as a high risk, high reward spell: it can provide your party with the edge they need to turn the tide of a battle, or may benefit the enemy! Or, especially daring players can cast it on their allies to see if the Wild Magic is in their favour.
Gravity Fissure
Utilizing the graviturgy aspect of dunamancy, the final spell I implemented was “Gravity Fissure”: a 5th-level damage/wall spell that has a chance to pull entities towards it.
This spell can be used to drastically change the environment of a battlefield, creating deadly wall of force for foes and friends alike.
3D-Isometric RPG Design
While I’ve developed several levels for RPGs, I wanted to take on the challenge of adapting my design skills to BG3’s detachable, 360° isometric camera.
Though my basic design principles stayed the same, there were several adjustments I had to make for this style of level.
-DOWNhill is better than UPhill
-shrink scale a bit
-poi’s every screen or two
-verticality (“vertical spacing”)
While
Exploration & Storytelling
One of the key features of Baldur’s Gate III is the commitment to filling every nook and cranny with things for players to explore. Even within this linear level, I worked to uphold this core pillar, from hidden riddles & puzzles to non-critical path encounters with special loot.
One example of this is the “Gilded Mirror”, an optional riddle the player can engage with.
Many of my interactions and encounters had Osiris scripting going on in the background. Though it took me a second to get used the declarative language, I enjoyed having deeper control over level mechanics to create fun interactions!
While I did not have the scope during this short development cycle to feature many NPCs and conflicting factions, I was able to use environmental storytelling to weave a narrative throughout the level. It doesn’t have to be complex to be a compelling story!
Design Process & Iteration
With the LDD written and approved, it was time to get to work. One key iteration I made was expanding the gameplay around this mechanic. After discussing with my stakeholder, I focused on creating a strong finale to the quest and working backwards to see what aspects I could simplify. This resulted in implementing a secondary round of investigations following the Mr. Handy’s performance - an important but calculated scope risk that paid off. By “zooming out” the story to focus more on the murder-mystery, I was able to create a better-paced experience for the player.
Especially with monitoring scope while teaching myself this unknown engine, I made some key level adjustments throughout my milestones.
On the physical side, the final boss encounter underwent significant changes. Through playtesting, I found that my original design put the player at too much of an initial disadvantage (and honestly, I felt that it wasn’t that interesting of an encounter). Adding more vertical layers while providing more cover and flank routes evened the odds considerably!
Additionally, I found that swapping the Displacer Beast out for a Spectator, as well as adding in a couple “fodder” ranged enemies drastically improved the interest and pace of the combat.
The final boss encounter at Whitebox (left) vs. Launch (right)
I also iterated on my custom spells: namely - how to make them stand on their own. I wanted these spells to offer something unique to the game, and gave players freedom to use them in creative ways.
For example, ‘Temporal Chaos’ originally did not have the Wild Magic surge on a failed save. I found this was too close to (and not as useful as) base-game spells such as “Confusion” or “Hold Person”. Adding the Wild Magic roll added some interesting behaviours while supporting the theme of dunamancy.
Part of what helped accomplish this was lessening mechanical constraints. Again for ‘Temporal Chaos’, I eventually opted to make the spell affect allies instead of only enemies. This way, players could truly “roll the dice” (pun intended): Wild Magic giveth, and Wild Magic taketh away!
Next Steps
-publish
-more spells
-expand narrative
[maybe a fun stairstep graphic lol]
Post-Mortem
What Went Well
Scope
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Learning the Engine
What Went Wrong
Scope
sdf
What I Learned
Isometric 360 Design
Gallery
