Here’s an interesting bit of information regarding the hit fantasy epic game Baldur’s Gate 3. The game’s director Swen Vincke recently shared that there was a Dungeons & Dragons spell that Larian Studios really wanted to include in the game, but they couldn’t because it would have “doubled the size of the game.”
During a recent interview with Dungeons & Dragons, Vincke was asked what he’d have liked to add to the game and he revealed that, “We wanted to do Dispel Magic.”
With Dispel Magic, you can choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range, and on a successful check, the spell ends. Dispel Magic can be used in a variety of situations. It’s useful for countering the spells of enemy spellcasters, removing curses or other harmful effects from allies, or negating beneficial spells on enemies. This spell can be a game-changer in situations where magic plays a dominant role.
While there are several spells that weren’t included in Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s explained that Dispel Magic was “on the table for a long time, but it just became too much, because there’s so much magic in the game.” Vincke went on to say that during the internal playtesting of the game, Dispel Magic caused plenty of problems and headaches for the developers.
He added that “there are still traces” of the spell in the game “where [developers] foresaw” the system and still wanted to play around it. Vincke says “we wanted to do it, but it was just too much. It literally would have doubled the size of the game just to support that one spell properly.”
It’s pretty crazy to think about how one spell such as Dispel Magic would cause such insanity in the game’s development. The game is already so freakin massive, and the thought of one spell doubling that seems like madness. But, that’s why they make the games I just play them.