Larian’s Third Panel From Hell Gives New Details on Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch 5, Coming July 13
During Larian Studios’ third Panel From Hell live show today, the team unveiled some of the major updates and improvements coming on July 13 in Patch 5 for Baldur’s Gate 3. The panel included the company’s very first #LARPG (Larian-LARP-ARG), plus a community video from founder and Game Director Swen Vincke, who went through many of the new features coming next week.
Patch 5 will expand on the breadth and depth of Baldur’s Gate 3. Starting Tuesday, July 13, players will discover new game-changing mechanics, tons of combat and AI improvements, visual upgrades to weapons and cinematics, a bigger focus on role-playing, and more Owlbear cub content to make your heart burst. You can also expect to take a tantalizing step toward unearthing Shadowheart’s mysteries.
The full patch notes for Patch 5 will be revealed on Tuesday, July 13, when it releases. For now, here are some of the highlights from the patch:
The Active Roll System
Rather than leaving you at the mercy of the RNG gods during skill checks, Patch 5 ensures players have much more agency. Active Roll gives players the ability to swing the odds in their favor by applying spells and bonuses to their rolls. Additionally, players can now see their modifiers and status effects happen directly within the UI, rather than being calculated in the background.
Background Goals
Players have always been able to select a Background at the Character Creation screen (e.g., Folk Hero, Acolyte, Urchin, and so on). Now every character will have their own series of secret miniquests based on these roles called Background Goals. So when a Folk Hero does something Folksy and Heroic or an Urchin does something Urchiny, they’ll be rewarded. It’s a new way to encourage role-playing, with players directly benefiting from acting as their characters would in any given scenario.
Camp Supplies
Camp Resources are a new feature that will make you think a little more strategically about when to activate a Long Rest. Know all the food and scraps you find around Baldur’s Gate 3? Well from now on, you’ll need those supplies to make camp and set up for a full rest. Finally, a use for your giant hoard of dead fish!
Also coming in Patch 5 are Mini Camps, context-dependent environments that offer an alternative to returning to your HQ by the river. From the Chapel near the Ravaged Beach to the Underdark, we’ve recreated every landmark as its own isolated location that can be accessed when you’re ready to hunker down for your Long Rest.
And there’s more!
We’ve given the AI a serious tune-up, with enemies now being far more intelligent and resourceful than before. Watch as unarmed enemies pick up discarded weapons! Gasp at a group of goblins tossing health potions to each other! Wonder as your NPC companions make sensible, self-preserving decisions!
There are a huge number of other improvements we’ve made for Patch 5, including Non-Lethal Attack Mode, old-school point-and-click dialogue, and some very intriguing new story content around a certain party member…
Be sure to catch the Panel From Hell 3 if you missed it for all the latest news and updates, as well as the community update that goes into greater detail about these changes. And remember that even more info is coming with the full patch notes on July 13.
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