What species you play as completely changes your adventure in Baldur’s Gate 3. Teaming up with Lae’zel and her quest to usurp the false queen comes with unique dialogue and interactions if you play as a githyanki, while being an Underdark drow makes goblins instinctively bend the knee from just your presence. Larian Studios put a lot of work into making the world feel organic, and as such your chosen species is far from a simple aesthetic choice. But it could go even further.

Fans have been asking Larian to add new playable species to the game since its launch in August, and while there are no plans to do so, writing director Adam Smith said the team hasn’t completely ruled out the idea. Looking at Dungeons & Dragons’ extensive world, even when isolated to Faerûn, there are a lot of possibilities for new playable species. But Baldur’s Gate 3 already has the perfect one in waiting - goblins.

Being a drow in Act 1 completely shakes up the story - everyone should try it at least once. Druids and tieflings are naturally apprehensive to your presence, as drow typically lead goblins into battle and the Grove has been under siege by them of late.

It takes far more to earn trust as a drow because of the ongoing hostilities. There is always lingering suspicion over your head, a belief that you are merely there to work the Grove from the inside to ready it for a much more brutal attack. The gnome strapped to the windmill sums it up perfectly, as even after being rescued, he assumes you’re going to carter him off as a slave. But drow are formidable leaders, not to be taken lightly, so while people may be suspicious, you’re left alone. Goblins are thrown in cages and prodded with sticks.

Helping the Grove fend off that first wave of goblins as a goblin would earn you some time, but after stepping into the safety of the druid’s home, it would heighten the tension of playing as a drow without the ability to wield fear as a cudgel. Goblins are easy enemies to take down when they’re by themselves, so earning trust would be less about shirking a reputation and more about survival.

Act 1 already gets flipped on its head by playing as someone so closely associated with the goblins, let alone as one of the goblins themselves. Saving Sazza would be a radically different situation, as stepping in front of the crossbow to protect one of your own would likely result in both of your deaths, given that the bubbling hatred isn’t for Sazza herself but for goblins as a whole.

Then you have Act 2’s Moonrise Towers, in which Ketheric Thorm scolds the goblins for failing to take the Grove. Marching in as one, it’s unlikely you’d be able to infiltrate the tower nearly as easily, let alone be given command of what should happen to the goblins who got away. I can’t imagine where the writers would take such a scenario, but I doubt Thorm would be so quick to send you off to Shar’s Temple on a pivotal mission.

There’s of course the flipside, playing as a goblin who rises in the ranks of the Absolute, wipes out the Grove, and falls in love with Minthara, their drow leader, before venturing to Moonrise Towers and impressing Thorm with your unparalleled feats. Hell, just the idea of getting to see Astarion and a goblin together is enough.

There could even be a hobgoblin subclass.

What species you play as has such a fundamental impact on the story and your interactions with each character, and we’ve seen that extremity come to life with the drow, but goblins would take things a step further. Being such an integral part of the introduction to this world, getting to see things through their eyes would completely alter how Act 1 presents itself. Would a goblin so willingly wipe out their own kind, even to save the Grove? Or would there be another path, something only a goblin could bring about?

The lines would blur, the narrative opening up to new interpretations. We get to empathise with the tieflings and druids on a much deeper level by playing as them, but goblins aren’t offered the same chance. Bringing them forward as a playable species would finally change that.

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