Larian Studios just finished its Panel from Hell 2 live stream, where the developer announced its expansion into England and Malaysia, with two new offices due to be set up in Guildford and Kuala Lumpur. The goal is not only to enlarge the size of the developers working on Baldur’s Gate 3 but also to ensure that the development of the game literally never stops round the clock.
Of course, Larian also showcased the huge Patch 4 for Baldur’s Gate 3, which will add the Druid class to the game. Druids will get to use over thirty between spells and abilities, as well as eight different shapes to shift into (Deep Rothe, Cat, Raven, Dire Wolf, Badger, Spider, Polar Bear, and Aberrant).
Would-be Druid characters will have to choose between the Circle of the Land and the Circle of the Moon, which provide different gameplay benefits. Additionally, when entering the game area known as Druid’s Grove with a Druid player character, Baldur’s Gate 3 will react accordingly with new rewards, options, story moments, and interactions.
Beyond the addition of the Druid class, Patch 4 (which won’t be compatible with your existing saves, unfortunately, just like the previous one) delivers a huge amount of changes, said to be greater than all of the previous three patches combined. Below are some of the highlights.
- Optional Loaded Dice: This optional change helps smooth out the extremes of the bell curve. It retains the core elements of RNG, ensuring a player can no longer be unlucky or super lucky with several dice rolls in a row. The system also runs in two parts. Dice rolls in dialogue are different to those in combat, and this change only impacts the d20. Not damage rolls.
- Speak with dead and polished cinematics: Cinematics in special cases like Speak with Dead have made huge improvements along with the ability to join conversations as an animal. The patch also adds improved animations with the Druids in the Grove as they cast spells and use their abilities. Major improvements have been made both in animation and lighting, which… though not obvious in this paragraph of text, look really neat in the game. Channel your imagination.
- Multiplayer: Those embarking on their adventure together with friends can now see other players Equipment, Spells, Inventory and Character Sheets. As well as the ability to take and place items to and from. There is no lock function – that will come in a future patch. Your friends could for example steal your items, because there’s no lock function yet, but there’s no rush, because they’re your friends. They wouldn’t do that to you, would they?
- Quality of life: A series of much-requested features have been implemented. Players can now target friends and enemies with spells and equipment by clicking on their portraits. As an alternative to trying to click on a character in the world, players can now easily select and attack whoever they want from the UI. We also added a flee button for the errr… tacticians among us. And using torches has never been easier thanks to the long-awaited addition of the torch button!
- Improved Cinematics: Narrative cinematics have been given a new lease of life thanks to a fresh lighting pass, resulting in some truly spectacular sequences in which the story of BG3 is told.
Baldur’s Gate 3 still doesn’t have a release date for version 1.0, but we’re hopeful that’ll be before the end of the year – especially with an increased number of developers on the game.
