GamesRPGPathfinderPathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand devs say Baldur’s Gate 3-style level caps help make games shorter, because not everybody has “time for 100-hour RPGs"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGPathfinderPathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand devs say Baldur’s Gate 3-style level caps help make games shorter, because not everybody has “time for 100-hour RPGs"When 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.
(Image credit: Ossian Studios)
Indie developer Ossian Studios doesn’t wantPathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand— its idyllic, turn-based take on Pathfinder 2E — to feel like an insurmountable obligation, so it’s taking cues from Baldur’s Gate 3 and opting for low level caps.
“As I’ve gotten older — and you’ll hear this from other RPG players as they get older — they don’t have time for 100-hour RPGs,” Ossian founder Alan Mirandatells PC Gamerin the magazine’s issue 404. “It’d be much nicer if it was a 20 or 30-hour game. And we thought that’s something good to focus on.”
In theory, low level caps can make a game feel elegantly concise, all tied up with a neat bow and arrow.In theory.
Baldur’s Gate 3,controversially, maxes characters out at level 12 instead of source material Dungeons & Dragons 5e’s maximum level 20. It still takesabout 6 million hoursto complete, give or take.
But that proves another thing Ossian likes about low level caps: simplifying one aspect of a CRPG doesn’t mean sacrificing its richness anywhere else.
“Baldur’s Gate 3 demonstrated that you can have a relatively low-level spread but still have a huge gain with lots of character choices, lots of build options,” Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand lead designer Luke Scull tells PC Gamer.
“[CRPG Pathfinder developer] Owlcat was making adventure paths, which are basically three of these kinds of modules put together,” continues Miranda. “We chose that smaller size module to make it manageable for us as an indie company to do.”
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Pathfinder: The Dragon’s Demand does not yet have a release date, butOssian’s Kickstarter pagefor the project notes it became fully funded atthe end of October.
Now is the best time to try the biggest D&D rival, Pathfinder.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”