Larian Studios' Swen Vincke is loving players' systems-based hijinks in Baldur's Gate 3: 'everybody knows about the Owlbear now'

An Owlbear from Baldur's Gate 3 stares angrily at its potential supper.
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Much of the joy in writing about Baldur's Gate 3 has been seeing its players' absolutely hairbrained tactics play out. It's a Dungeons & Dragons tradition old as time to mash rules together in unique and interesting ways, like one player sneaking 15,000 gold into a boss's pockets then hitting them with an otherwise terrible magic mace, or another minmaxing a monk into a 240 damage-per-turn monster.

This is all very much intended, and something that Larian Studios' founder and CEO Swen Vincke has been celebrating too. Vincke spoke on the topic during an interview with Dungeons & Dragons earlier this week. "We try to make our systems intuitive … if you look at our video games one after the other, we do more and more and more of that. Everybody knows about the Owlbear now—it's heavy." 

Vincke's referring to the 'Owlbear off the top rope' combo. Players were wildshaping into an Owlbear, casting (or drinking a potion of) Enlarge, and jumping from a high ledge onto an unsuspecting victim. Enlarge brought the Owlbear's weight to 5005kg, which scaled absurdly with height, producing 800-damage blows that could oneshot most of the dragons from D&D 5e's monster manual.

Vincke also shouted-out YouTuber Okoii's great Four Halfling Barbarians video as another example. "We put those systems in there for you to abuse them in that sense—our thing really is: 'bring that level of systemic freedom, and marry that with narrative, and make that work in all cases' … that's really the focus of how we approach [game design]."

Four heroic halfling barbarians from Baldur's Gate 3 gather around a fire, weapons drawn, shirts off, prepared for an adventure.

(Image credit: Larian Studios / Okoii on YouTube)

I recently had a similar throwing-based buzz of excitement when, about a hundred hours into my playthrough, I realised that my Bear Heart Karlach was strong enough to yeet everyone in my party. I promptly used her to toss the entire group up onto a higher ledge, which I would have otherwise burned Misty Steps on.

Vincke also mentioned his own experience with the game's interlocking systems, when he used the Gaseous Form spell to sneak through a pipe: "That was not pre-scripted at all, but the rule was that you had to be a tiny creature to get through a pipe. So I went to the system's designer, and went 'If I'm a cloud… surely?' He looked at me, and said 'I don't know?' But normally if [the system designers] did their job, I guess so. So I went through [the pipe] and went 'Yay!' like a child."

Vincke also gives another anecdote about streamer Luality, who sent him a video of her sick execution of a boss in Act 1. "There's a moment where there's like a big hammer coming out of the sky, and you get crushed when you're under it, and you get killed. You can control it with a lever … she put herself on the spot where the hammer was gonna come down, the boss was standing next to her. She dropped a healing potion on the floor, and then she shot the lever.

"The lever is triggered, the hammer comes down—killing her and the boss, but it also destroys the healing potion … the healing affects her, it doesn't affect the boss because it's mechanical … it's beautiful, I love it."

Absolutely galaxy-brained stuff. I've come nowhere close to the level of immersive sim nonsense other players have shown since the game's release, instead focusing more on the sweaty, rules-based minmaxing side of things (great weapon master represent). But Vincke's celebration of these stories is a sign of the thought put into Baldur's Gate 3's design—there's room for both barrelmancer mavericks and multiclassing maestros to play in the space.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
Baldur's Gate 3
2024 was still the year of Baldur's Gate 3: Why we're all still playing Larian's once-in-a-decade RPG 16 months later
Baldur's Gate 3 Gale romance - Gale sacrificing himself
Baldur's Gate 3's accidental PS5 release of Patch 8 has the theorycrafters in a flurry—though I'm just glad D&D's blade cantrips are officially here
Astarion
Players are still finding edge-case Baldur's Gate 3 scenes, like one where you play as a kidnapped Astarion even if you made your own player-character
Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach concept art
I'm a Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode sicko, and these are the 4 new subclass builds I'm most excited for in Patch 8
Casting a fireball at a mushroom creature in Avowed.
My respec in Avowed turned the combat from Skyrim into Dishonored, and now I'm having a blast as an invisible parkour sword-mage
Shadowheart's eyes go white as she holds a glowing magic artifact
Baldur's Gate 3 modder says the community's been making 'huge strides' towards custom campaigns: 'I think we'll see many of them refined, improved, and released this year'
Latest in Baldur's Gate
Minthara BG3 looking upset
Another round of Baldur's Gate 3 unearthing reveals Minthara can end up living in a sewer, an unused beach ending, and more
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
Baldur's Gate 3 player character made to resemble Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.
Wait a minute, Geralt of Rivia actor Doug Cockle was in Baldur's Gate 3 this whole time
Half Orc wearing rare Bhaalist Armor in Baldur's Gate 3 standing in front of Astarion and Karlach
It turns out you can get Baldur's Gate 3's best assassin armor without killing a baby angel elephant and joining a cult, all you have to do is pickpocket a ghost
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update has, mercifully, made one of its new OP cantrips halfway balanced again—but it's really still quite good
Withers Big Naturals mod image - Withers with big naturals
Sure, why not, here's a guy beating Baldur's Gate 3 without a race or class at all
Latest in News
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event