Summary
: Welcome to the Baldur’s Gate 3 LP. Before we get started, I realized after I started writing the intro post that I’m probably going to use a lot of jargon - this is what happens when you spend years playing tabletop games with old people.
: This post will serve as a glossary of all terms I might use that people may not be familiar with, as well as some other information. It may be helpful to keep this open while reading the LP.
AD&D: Refers to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the name the second edition of D&D was sold under. Technically, first edition was also AD&D but almost anyone referring to AD&D is referring to second edition. First released in 1989 and was revised in the mid-90s. This is the system used by Baldur’s Gate 1, Baldur’s Gate 2, Icewind Dale, and a number of other D&D PC games.
1E: Short for “First Edition”, referring to the original Dungeons & Dragons game from 1977. Very rarely played these days except as a gimmick to show off some of the absolutely brutal scenarios Gary Gygax wrote for it.
2E: Short for “Second Edition”. See AD&D, above.
3E: Short for “Third Edition”, which released in 2000 and was the first version of D&D to be sold under the Wizards of the Coast branding. Third Edition was the first game to introduce the D20 system that all modern versions (that is to say, all versions released in the last 25 years) of D&D use. Almost the entire system (minus certain things Hasbro has copyrighted) is open source.
3.5E: Short for “Three Point Fifth Edition”. This was a revision to 3E that released in 2003. 3.5E was the equivalent of a patch for 3E that made some balance changes and streamlined a couple of game mechanics, most notably skills. Like 3E, it is almost entirely open source. See Pathfinder, below.
4E: Short for “Fourth Edition”, which released in 2008. Fourth Edition was almost universally hated due to a number of ham-handed changes made to appease Hasbro’s C-suite, including making the game closed-source (which stopped third-party publishers from developing for it) in addition to breaking a lot of things in an attempt to streamline them further from 3.5E. This caused a split in the player base, many of whom refused to move on from 3.5E. See also GSL, below.
5E: Short for “Fifth Edition”. This refers to the original release of Fifth Edition in 2014, as well as the 2024 revision to the ruleset. This is the ruleset that Baldur’s Gate 3 uses. 5E outright removed a lot of things from 3.5E, including stats derived from other stats (things like saving throw bonuses), the ability to attack more than once a turn, and the ability to have more than one spell active at a time.
ACE: Short for “Always Chaotic Evil”. These were races designed to be enemies and not used as player characters. ACE races include drow and orcs. Removed in 5E due to concerns about racism.
Alignment: A concept that exists in 5E but that Baldur’s Gate 3 does not use. Consists of nine alignments on an axis of “Law-Chaos” and an axis of “Good-Evil”. Mostly used to qualify for certain classes - prior to 5E, Paladins had to be Lawful Good, as an example. Also used to determine whether certain spells, such as Protection from Good, work on you (which is why spellcasters will always be some flavor of neutral). The nine alignments are Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil. Each character is given an alignment at creation that can change based on their actions.
AoO: Short for “Attack of Opportunity”. Occurs when a character is within melee range of another character (usually directly adjacent, but not always) and attempts to move. This gives the person or creature that is on the other end a chance for a free attack. The “Disengage” action prevents this but costs a full turn.
Arcane Caster: A spellcaster who casts spells mostly because they can. This includes the Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock classes. Unlike divine casters, arcane casters cannot wear armor.
Daisy: A code-name from the beta of BG3 that refers to the “guardian” created at character creation. Originally the source of the title theme (“Down, Down, Down by the River”) before the plot was changed during development.
D20 System: The core mechanic for all versions of D&D from 3rd Edition onward, which changed the game to use a single 20-sided die (a D20) for most actions. See THAC0, below.
Divine Caster: A spellcaster who casts spells granted to them by their god of choice. In 5E, this includes the Cleric and Druid classes. Unlike arcane casters, divine casters do not get penalized for wearing armor.
Drizzt: A Deviantart-tier character created by author RA Salvatore. Drizzt is a drow ranger (the only drow not to be chaotic evil) whose signature weapon is a pair of scimitars. The bane of DMs in the 90s and early 00s, when there was always one guy who would just play Drizzt with the serial numbers filed off.
Errata: A legal term referring to a sheet of corrections to the record. This is normally used in depositions when a court reporter puts something down by mistake. All versions of D&D (and most book-based tabletop games) have an extensive errata list. The list for 3.5E is almost 7MB in size.
Hasbro: Toy company that currently owns the D&D franchise. Known for their extremely heavy-handed licensing restrictions, they nearly killed the game on two separate occasions.
GSL: Short for “Game System License”. This is the copyright scheme that all content for 4E was released under. Compared to the license 3E and 3.5E used, it was incredibly restrictive in that it stopped third-party publishers from using text from any of WoTC’s books in their own books and effectively killed the third-party publisher scene for 4E.
Martial: Refers to a class primarily based around physical combat. If you’re not a caster, you’re probably one of these.
OGL: Short for “Open Game License”. This is the open-source license that was used for 3E, 3.5E, and the 2014 version of 5E (but not the 2024 revision). The OGL is extremely permssive (to the point where most of the core rules are freely available online) and allows for free modification without paying Hasbro a dime. Hasbro has attempted to kill it multiple times and has been met with backlash each and every time. See also 4E and GSL, above.
Pathfinder: A tabletop RPG based on 3.5E’s open-sourced ruleset that was released by Paizo Publishing in 2009 as a direct response to Hasbro attempting to kill the OGL. Its fanbase considers it to be the true 4th Edition of D&D. Probably responsible for Hasbro attempting to kill the OGL in 2022. We don’t talk about Pathfinder Second Edition in this LP.
PFS: Short for “Pathfinder Society”, the official organized play campaign for Pathfinder which uses pre-written scenarios that are almost always laughably badly written. I GMed this for three years.
Sigil: Sigil was an official virtual tabletop (see VTT, below) introduced by Hasbro with the release of 4th Edition, as the company realized that an increasing amount of people did not want to play D&D in person. It was known for being garbage, costing a shitload, and also being the only way to make a character sheet for 4E because of how locked down the GSL was (see “GSL”, above).
SoD: Short for “Save or Die”, spells that require an enemy to make a saving throw or die. Usually have very little to no effect if the enemy successfully saves.
SoS: Short for “Save or Suck”, spells that require an enemy to make a saving throw or take a penalty big enough that it effectively removes them from combat. Color Spray is an excellent example of an early-game SoS.
Splatbook: A supplementary book, released either officially or by a third-party publisher, that adds items, mechanics, and monsters to the game. Both D&D and Pathfinder have tons of these - one example from Pathfinder was the book that added the haramaki, the only armor spellcasters could use without penalties. You can bet everyone who played a caster owned that one (I did).
SRD: Short for “System Reference Document”. There is an SRD for 3E, 3.5E, and 5E under the OGL that contains all of the open-sourced content under the OGL. 5E has a second SRD for the 2024 revision that is licensed under Creative Commons because again, Hasbro hates the OGL.
Tav: A code-name from the beta of Baldur’s Gate 3 that referred to the default appearance for custom characters (the default character in the beta was a male tiefling). Still used by modders to refer to custom characters.
THAC0: Pronounced “thack-oh”, and short for “To Hit Armor Class Zero”. This was the system 2nd Edition used to determine whether you hit in combat or not, and was incredibly obtuse. Done by taking your character’s THAC0 value (plus modifiers) and subtracting the opponent’s armor class (plus modifiers) to determine what number you have to roll on the die to hit. These days, it’s largely used as a derogatory term for overly complex systems.
TPP: Short for “Third Party Publisher”. These are the equivalent of modders for a tabletop game: they release their own splatbooks (see the entry for “Splatbook”) in addition to things like pre-written adventures and adventure settings. Paizo was a TPP for 3.5E before they launched Pathfinder.
WoTC: Short for “Wizards of the Coast”, the department at Hasbro responsible for D&D. Also the department responsible for Magic the Gathering.
VTT: Short for “Virtual Tabletop”. These are programs and/or websites that allow you to play games like D&D and Pathfinder online - everything from Tabletop Simulator on Steam to sites like Roll20.
