Those who played Baldur’s Gate 3 I love the characters, and if there’s one common observation about them, it’s that Wyll Ravengard feels underdeveloped. Compared to others like Astarion and Karlach, his personal story felt lacking after his debut in Early Access, and this feeling grew further when Larian made several post-launch updates to the game’s ending and epilogue, where he seemed to get the short end of the stick.
Several Larian developers conducted an AMA on Reddit on Friday, during which lead writer Kevin VanOrd acknowledged that Wyll had “sparser” content than he would have liked, saying he was “split into two stories” between his infernal boss Mizora and the Ravengards. The team didn’t really feel strongly about their quest and recruitment in the initial Early Access release and opted to start over. Unfortunately, much of where Wyll ends up in the final version of Baldur’s Gate 3 arrived in “less than ideal” circumstances due to developmental delay.
When Larian revived it, the personal stories of most of the main cast were “pretty solid”, and much of where he ends up in the final version of Baldur’s Gate 3 came late in development. One example cited by VanOrd was a “key situation” in Baldur’s Gate intended to put Wyll in good stead at the Red War College, which was later removed. This ultimately led to him becoming the son of Duke Ravengard, which the writer then expanded upon shortly before he fell ill, and then again after the epilogue was released.
As for the Wyrmway, a subquest for Wyll obtained after saving Ulder Ravengard (or if Wyll breaks his pact with Mizora), VanOrd said the team had resources for a standalone dungeon and chose to tie it to him. The writer said he “couldn’t get more than a dungeon boss” out of this location and would have to start writing once the encounters were in place.
VanOrd later called it “a mistake in retrospect” to split Wyll’s arc that way, but he’s still extremely proud of what was done with the character, particularly his “sincerity, good nature and enthusiastic heroism.” And he wishes Blade of the Frontiers had a more satisfying ending, something fans of the character have already done in their spare time.
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