One of the countless reasons behind the success of Baldur's Gate 3 is how well Larian adopted tabletop RPG rules into the video game. Of course, the Baldur's Gate IP is part of Dungeons & Dragons and owned by Wizards of the Coast, but adapting the freedom of a TTRPG into a video game was a herculean effort by the devs.
Larian has added Arcane Archer to the game instead of several much better Fighter subclasses.
While the game and all its characters fall under the Dungeons & Dragons umbrella, none of the characters from the game have ever appeared in a D&D rulebook or handbook or manual. However, it seems this has finally changed, as one of the characters from the game has officially been named, and it's everybody's favourite sexy vampire.
Spotted by thewhoovesian on Reddit, Astarion has officially been name-dropped in the 2025 Monster Manual (thanks GamesRadar+). His quote was used as flavor text in the Vampire Spawn section, saying, "Darling, you are simply delicious." Yup, that's definitely the Astarion we know and love.
You might be thinking that Astarion has already appeared in 2024 Player's Handbook as artwork created by David Astruga. You're right, but also wrong....
