It doesn't follow the rules system all to closely and also, because of Larians Origin system the party is a bit more wacky and illustrious than a typical D&D group. A daywalking vampire spawn, a shar cleric with memory loss, a magic item draining chosen of Mystra in danger of exploding, a Githyanki soldier, a warlock and (optionally) you. And there is lots of Larian style combat meaning everyone is jumping around the place, etc.
It follows the rules about as closely as Solasta does.
Neither of them follow them particularly closely. For example, with Disengage, both of them have completely different ways it works, neither of which is particularly near 5E. Solasta has Disengage as a full Action, not a Move as it is in actual 5E, and it lets you move your entire move with no Opportunity Attacks allowed. BG3 has Disengage as a Bonus Action (like everyone has that Rogue option), but otherwise it works like D&D. Similarly both have issues with Shove/Push, different in both cases (Solasta doesn't let you shove/push people on a different Z-level from you, which is ludicrous, as you can both attack each other and they make a point of having enemies come at you on different Z-levels, BG3 makes it a Bonus Action, which kind of hilarious and somewhat OP). I don't think either of them allow Grapple (IIRC).
Solasta only has six classes - Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Paladin, and Ranger (bit of a warrior bias lol). Allegedly they'll later add Sorcerers, no idea about Bards, Barbarians, Druids, Warlocks, and Monks (all of whom except Warlocks I'd say were more traditional than Sorcerers). BG3 currently has seven classes - Fighter, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard, Ranger, Warlock, and Druid, and will eventually add all the PHB classes.
Solasta also uses mostly entirely fictional subclasses/archetypes. Some of them are pretty overpowered or close to it, as well. Certainly they lean towards the "Whoa really solid subclass" end of the scale (the "Forest Wizard" one I'm using is hilariously good with an Elf at low levels). BG3 uses actual PHB subclasses/archetypes.
There is no "Larian Origin system" currently implemented in BG3. You're thinking of DOS2 maybe? I don't think the BG3 characters are hugely different to a lot of D&D groups. They're not super-traditional, but they're well within
FR traditions, and only the vampire is really rules-dubious. Plus that's not the entire list of PCs, as I understand it (at least one of the other ones is a Tiefling Bard, which I know upsets grogs but is probably the most representative character for 5E D&D), they have others who will appear later in the beta. On top of that, in the full game version of BG3, they'll apparently have mercenaries, so you can just fire all the main companions in favour of them for maximum traditional-ness.
But Solasta does feel more D&D-like. Why? Not because of the rules or the like, but because BG3 is written in a very aggressively Larian way, which is to say that the vast majority of companions and NPCs are massive jerks, there are tons of "GOTCHA" situations like you're playing with an old-fashioned bad-faith adversarial DM, and there's lots of well, grimdark naughty word. They actually toned it down quite a bit since initial release, because people complained so much, but it's still quite present. People frequently claim "Oh only the evil companions are in so far, that's why!", but that's definitely not entirely true. On top of that, in BG3, about 50% of major fights are "puzzle fights", in that you're meant to use environmental stuff to win them (or get killed by the environmental stuff if you don't deal well with it), in classic Larian fashion. You've got exploding barrels and poison pools and stuff catching fire and so on and a couple of the fights have been like "Are you sure this isn't DOS2?". Again Larian have toned it down a bit, but it's pretty silly. Solasta also goes overboard on environmental stuff, but not to this extent.
Solasta also has a much cleaner, clearer UI. It's too large (maybe that's adjustable though), but like, it makes sense and directs you to the right kinds of action and so on.
Also Solasta is on Xbox Game Pass, meaning it's incredibly cheap to try it.
www.gamesindustry.biz
