What you need to know
- Baldur's Gate 3 launched in early access on October 6.
- Larian Studios has been releasing changes since then based on player feedback and collected data.
- The next big update will add the druid class.
Larian Studios used its Panel From Hell 2 livestream today to announce the release of its latest major update for Baldur's Gate 3. Patch 4, which will be released soon, contains as many changes as all the previous patches and hotfixes that have been put out since the game's launch in early access on October 6. These updates could help Baldur's Gate 3 become one of the best CRPG games on PC.
The hilariously bizarre event featured creative director Swen Vincke in platemail, patch notes read off of an extremly noisy old printer/fax machine, and a cow chewing on hay and occassionally being pet by a woman with demon horns. The bovine eventually "transformed" into lead systems designer Nick Pechenin who announced that druids, which are able to turn themselves into animals, will be added to the game's list of playable classes.
The developers also showed a gameplay review of druids transformed into giant badgers capable of burrowing and spiders that can web enemies. Druids are also capable of using fire magic to blast enemies with nature's destructive power.
Among the other pending changes are loaded dice, an option for those frustrated by the capriciousness of a d20 roll. When the feature is turned on, the game will remember if you've recently missed and shift the odds a bit in the player's favor.
The spell Speak with Dead has also been improved. You can now easily see which corpses can be communicated with, more bodies are capable of talking, and audio and cinematics have been added to make the necromancy effect spookier.
The lighting team has also reworked many of the cutscenes throughout the game to improve the cinematics. Additional cutscenes have been added and the animals in the background of the scenes now have animations.
Torches are now much simpler to use. Picking one up will add a torch image to your hotbar which you can click on to swap your weapon with a torch. Players can also disable traps just by double clicking on them.
In other quality of life improvements, you can now heal or buff your party members just by clicking on their portraits. Multiplayer is also being updated to improve stability. They have also added a flee mechanic that allows players to escape from a combat they are going to lose. You can also learn more about the effects your character is on by mousing over them.
The event was riddled with audio issues and delays which hopefully isn't a sign of bugs that will plague Larian Studios next update.
