The following article contains significant spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3.
With a game as massive as Baldur’s Gate 3, there were inevitably going to be reams of content that didn’t quite make it into the full release.
Well, data miners have been hard at work exploring just what was cut from the game's final release. This was initially brought to our attention through a thread from Reddit user Vasgorath, who compiled a list of cut content. This list draws from data mining findings, quotes from Larian and content that was observably available in early access but didn’t make it into the final release.
Firstly, a couple of explorable areas were cut prior to the full release. For those who’ve managed to reach Baldur’s Gate 3’s late game and entered the titular city, you’ll know that the Upper City is inaccessible. This is contrary to what Larian’s CEO Swen Vincke told PCGamer a few months before release.
The casualties of this area being cut are an inconclusive ending to Karlach’s story and Cazador being less of a presence in the game as he would have been if the Upper City were playable.
Full epilogues (voiced by Withers) were intended to be present in the game but were cut for an unknown reason. Instead, we see a fade-to-black and a scene where Withers pokes fun at the Dead Three. A more fleshed-out story for Minthara was allegedly cut, as was a potential romance with Jaheira. According to the thread, Minsc was also supposed to be recruitable near the end of the first act.
You might have felt playing the game that the story of the Tiefling child Mol felt incomplete. Apparently, the final part of Mol’s quest involving Raphael was scrapped, leading to Mol’s personal plot feeling fragmentary in the final release.
A large invasion of the Githyanki Creche by Orin and her Bhaalists was planned to be in the game but was ultimately cut. This quest would have involved an illithid-infected red dragon and the player deciding who to support in the conflict. Much more cut content is detailed in the thread, but not all of this is verifiable because not all sources are provided.
Players have raised the possibility of cut content being re-added to the game, which is certainly a possibility. The improvements made by Larian for Divinity: Original Sin 2’s Definitive Edition were immense, for example.
As for expansions, Vincke has said that the nature of Dungeons & Dragons’ levelling system makes creating expansions difficult because of the calibre of enemies the player would theoretically be facing at higher levels.