History YMMV / BaldursGateIII

** In a similar vein, trying to rescue characters from a fate that happens offscreen or via cutscene - for instance, saving Wyll from being turned into a devil by knocking him out before each long rest, or teleporting past Mayrina's brothers, then killing all the redcaps and disarming all the traps, causing the brothers to disappear but not get killed.

** While the companions are generally beloved and well realized, there's a frequent complaint about how out of 10 possible companions (barring hirelings who have no personality and are silent), 5 are some flavor of elf[[note]]two half-elves (Jaheira and Shadowheart), a wood elf (Halsin), a high elf (Astarion), and a drow (Minthara)[[/note]], and since half-elves and tieflings are also part human, this also makes 6 of them being some flavor of human[[note]]three humans (Gale, Wyll, and Minsc), two half-elves (Jaheira and Shadowheart), and a tiefling (Karlach)[[/note]]. Meanwhile dragonborn, dwarves, gnomes, half-orcs, and halflings have no representative companion. Put it another way, among all 10 companions, the only one with neither elven nor human origins is Lae'zel (a githyanki). Her and Karlach at least comes across as exotic as opposed to "human-looking with maybe pointy ears" that the rest of the cast has going.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Mayrina. While the game allows the player to call her out on her choice to listen to Ethel, who's revealed to be a hag, the game pushes the player to view her as an innocent woman deserving of sympathy, as most of the party save for the more "evil" aligned push for her safety, because she's emotionally devastated over the loss of her husband and discovering she's pregnant without any idea what to do. However, some players felt that her justification was hard to sympathize with, as her being willing to hand over her then unborn child to a hag is shortsighted and selfish, given she wants her husband back without care about her future child's well being, and without understanding the potential consequences of her deal. Even if the player points out the issues making a deal with a hag will bring, she gets angry and calls the party out for it, even if the player demonstrates what Ethel really was going to do as part of their deal (basically revive her husband as a zombie), instead demanding the rod to control her zombie husband, making her look more selfish as a result. While she later mellows out and apologies, even potentially freeing her husband once Ethel is truly defeated, some players still found it hard to view her sympathetically after how rude and selfish she comes across during Act 1.

* The College of Valor is generally considered the least effective Bard subclass. On paper, the Martial Weapons proficiency seems great, but Bards can already use almost all Finesse weapons anyway, and in practice those are the only weapons they'll bother using due to benefiting more overall from Dexterity than Strength. The only Finesse weapons they ''don't'' have innate proficiency in are Scimitars, which are also granted to the much more powerful College of Swords. Meanwhile, Combat Inspiration has its uses, but is generally outclassed by Lore's additional Magical Secrets slot and Swords' Blade Flourish abilities.

* {{Narm}}: The game's facial animations are fairly detailed and help sell many of the emotional scenes a player can experience, but for some reason your party members expressions change in conversations they are present for, but not actively part of, meaning you can have emotional scenes be made unintentionally comical because one of your party members is in the background making over the top expressions despite not being focused on.

* AssPull: [[spoiler:The Emperor siding with the Netherbrain]] in Act 3. If the player choses to free [[spoiler:Orpheus over siding with the Emperor]], the [[spoiler:Emperor]] suddenly declares it has "no choice" but to side with the [[spoiler:Netherbrain]] because of your choice, becoming a boss to fight during the finale. Not only does it run contrary to its established characterization as someone valuing freedom away from the [[spoiler:Netherbrain]], but it comes out of nowhere without any hinting that it might do so if you don't side with it, given how everything else it does is specifically trying to stop the [[spoiler:Netherbrain]] at all costs. While the [[spoiler:Netherbrain says everything about the Emperor]] was AllAccordingToPlan, the [[spoiler:Emperor]] siding with the [[spoiler:Netherbrain]] is never referenced or commented on by it, making it feel even more like it comes out of no where. Even when accounting for the [[spoiler:Emperor]] making a cold calculation about its own survival, most players find that the switch is too sudden and not setup properly to work, especially because it happens even if the player supports [[spoiler: the Emperor]] in every choice ''except'' for that.

** Players can select their character's voice out of several options when creating them, but they're all very similarly posh English accents saying the exact same lines with slightly different enunciation, not necessarily fitting for the vast amount of character options the game gives you (i.e. gruff dwarves, savage orc barbarians, or street-smart urchins). This has led to confusion on the one hand why not just to have one male and one female voice, if they're all going to be that similar anyway, and on the other hand, to players wishing for more variety in tone/accent/lines. This feature had also already been present in many older D&D games, including the previous ''Baldur's Gate'' titles.

* HilariousInHindsight: When the player comes across a book of necromancy in Act 1, they either have the option to destroy it, or give it to Astarion in the hopes he can learn how to summon the undead with it. Neil Newbon would later reunite with D&D to play the infamous lich Vecna in [[https://youtu.be/FKhNYe44u_Q?si=5owLP_z0WAhi3BAk this trailer for the ''Vecna: Eve of Ruin'' adventure]]. ''Oops.''

* HilariousInHindsight: When the player comes across a book of necromancy in Act 1, they either have the option to destroy it, or give it to Astarion in the hopes he can learn how to summon the undead with it. Neil Newbon would later reunite with D&D to play the infamous lich Vecna in [[{{https://youtu.be/FKhNYe44u_Q?si=5owLP_z0WAhi3BAk}} this trailer for the ''Vecna: Eve of Ruin'' adventure]]. ''Oops.''