I'll share my experience. I love oblivion, skyrim, and enjoyed d4. I've never played DnD or a Baldurs Gate game.

I am so stoked that BG3 is getting the recognition for all they've done in putting the gamer experience above all else. Seeing the passion and love they put in and gamers are then experiencing is incredible.

I have also realized the game is not for me. There's too much detail. I don't enjoy controlling a whole party of characters. I may not just be smart enough for all the shit that's in this. I am also a new dad so I just don't have the time or brain power to learn and I feel like it's a big learning curve.

Maybe one day I'll come back to it and feel differently, but I'm also okay watching everyone else enjoy it while I play something else in the limited time I have.

Seems like you double posted. Lemmy can be slow and buggy still; Easy to do, I've done it before. Good answers to your questions here as well, so I'm going to leave both.

You don't need to know anything. There's some cool throw backs, but the story is new with no real link to the previous games aside from some returning characters.

Heck, even the second game didn't rely on knowing the first game's story even though you're meant to be the same character there.

Whether you'd like it based on liking Skyrim or Diablo... Well, it's not similar to those at all other than being RPGs. BG3 is more like old traditional RPGs with actual depth, and a turn-based tactical combat system similar to the modern X-Com games but with more depth from synergizing mechanics (like setting flammable things on fire, turning water to ice, using water to douse flames, throwing tables and chairs, etc).