Baldur's Gate 3 initially had an entire mechanic where you'd go to the fugue plane if you died, but it was scrapped

GamesRPGBaldur’s Gate 3Baldur’s Gate 3 initially had an entire mechanic where you’d go to the fugue plane if you died, but it was scrappedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Death in Baldur’s Gate 3 is final—if you’re playing Honour Mode, that is. For everyone else, returning to the land of the living is but a revivify scroll away. This is a streamlining of D&D 5e (the system the game’s built upon) and its resurrection mechanics—which typically require powerful magic that grows costlier and more advanced the longer the poor sod in question has been dead.

Originally, though, this process wasn’t quite so simple. As Larian co-founder and CEO Sven Vincke told PC Gamerin a recent roundtable podcast, Baldur’s Gate’s development team once planned an entire mechanic that’d task players with escaping the fugue plane.

“Whenever you died, you were supposed to go to the fugue plane,” Vincke explains. “[We] had this entire thing so that when you died, you were gonna go into the fugue plane … for instance, you would be in the fugue plane but the rest of your party would still be walking around in the material plane.”

Vincke wasn’t able to go into the details, especially since the studio would be within their rights to retool any systems they built for it forwhatever’s coming next, but that won’t stop me from rolling up my sleeves and doing somespeculation.

The fugue plane in Forgotten Realms lore is described as a neutral area within the Astral Sea—as AD&D Forgotten Realms book “Faiths and Avatars” puts it, it’s “the place where spirits go right after people die.” Gods will come and sort the faithful into their respective heavens. If you didn’t sign on for any particular god you, uh, get formed into “a living wall around the City of Strife” and are “left there until [you] dissolve”. Yikes.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

Advanced D&D art

While I personally think a mechanic like this could’ve been cool, it does sound like a pain in the keister to balance and fit into the game’s pacing—especially since dying happens in combat. One of the cool things about Baldur’s Gate 3 is that it allows players to have several different combats running in the same game if they’d like, since initiative order’s imposed at a local level.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

The scope of uses here is pretty limited, but it wouldn’t take a rocket artificer to figure out that balancing a dead player’s adventures on the fugue plane with the rest of their party’s combat would be nigh-on impossible.The alternative is to just huck a grey filter over everything, but that’s hardly paying due deference to the striking visuals of the source material.

You can find to the full podcast at the YouTube link above, use the Spotify embed below, or find it wherever else you get your podcasts.

More about rpg

A Path of Exile 2 sorceress casting flaming skulls in a hellish landscape

Path of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better loot

Double headed wizard man holding arms up looking sad

LatestLords of the Fallen studio embraces the DEI bugbear, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesSee more latest►

Latest

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces the DEI bugbear, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Lords of the Fallen (2023) promotional image - very large man with a very large hammer on a very large horse charging a very small man with a very small magic sword

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces the DEI bugbear, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

See more latest►

Most PopularSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KIs the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anythingIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 offAMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fabI tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bayFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsTikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ itMSI intros cheaper ‘back connect’ Project Zero Intel motherboards for super-clean PC builds you might actually be able to affordThermaltake’s new 2000 W PSU is too powerful to be sold in the USA and comes with four PCIe 5.0 GPU power connectors

Most Popular

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our fault

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

Is the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

AMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fab

I tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bay

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

TikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ it

MSI intros cheaper ‘back connect’ Project Zero Intel motherboards for super-clean PC builds you might actually be able to afford

Thermaltake’s new 2000 W PSU is too powerful to be sold in the USA and comes with four PCIe 5.0 GPU power connectors

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals