The sixth major update for Baldur’s Gate 3 has been detailed by Larian.
Information on the patch was provided during the fourth Panel From Hell live show. Baldur’s Gate 3’s sixth and largest major patch, Forging the Arcane, introduces a new playable Sorcerer class, as well as the new region known as Grymforge.
Grymforge continues your journey past the previous point where Early Access ended, progressing the story a little further, with new enemies, and new quests and characters to meet. Though Grymforge offers new challenges, it’s across the entire Early Access experience that Baldur’s Gate 3 receives gameplay, visual, and content updates.
Along with new content, this update comes with a huge graphical upgrade, lethal new weapon actions, and hours of fresh content to explore. Forging the Arcane is available to play immediately following the live show on Thursday, October 14th — so long as the office doesn’t flood (again).
A new class, the Sorcerer, is the latest playable class to join the game, and these magic-wielders can harness powers from within. The class adds new spells to the game in addition to the signature ability, Metamagic.
Metamagic allows you to adapt your spells during combat. With it, you can increase a spell’s range, duration, or hit two enemies simultaneously, among other powerful variations on your spells. Metamagic can be used alongside other casters for extra string effects.
Sorcerers feature two subclasses, each with their own strengths, abilities, and visual design: Wild Magic and Draconic Bloodline.
- Wild Magic: Wild Magic Sorcerers embrace chaos and chance, using their Tides of Chaos ability to manipulate the forces of fate. This ability allows them to gain an advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws, boosting their powers during combat. In turn, a Wild Magic Sorcerer can find themselves on the receiving end of a potential random effect. Examples include putting everyone around you on fire, gaining teleport as a bonus action, or summoning a hostile mephit!
- Draconic Bloodline: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers possess magical abilities passed down through their dragon ancestry. Their faces are etched with colored scales, these Sorcerers wield powers that correspond to the dragon they descend from. A Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer whose blood has mingled with a Red Dragon will gain additional benefits for fire spells, while dragon ancestors of other color-types can offer abilities relating to Acid, Lightning, Cold, and Poison. Additionally, this subclass receives an extra hit point with every level gained, making them powerful adversaries.
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With a magic class comes new spells, including:
- Horrific Visage: A new Tadpole Action that makes your enemy bleed and allows the Sorcerer to leech a Sorcery Point off of them.
- Enlarge/Reduce: This new spell alters a character’s size, affecting their physical stats in the process.
- Chromatic Orb: A powerful new single-target nuke that allows Sorcerers to hurl a sphere of energy at their foes.
- Cloud of Daggers: This spell protects the caster, surrounding them in a cloud of flying daggers.
- Crown of Madness: As the name suggests, this spell sends an enemy mad, and can cause them to attack their nearby allies.
The update also improves melee and ranged combat. If you are proficient in a weapon, you can now gain up to three lethal signature moves such as Heartstopper, the non-lethal Weakening Strike attack, and Concussive Smash.
These changes and additions to weapon actions were designed by Larian to give melee players more diversity and strategic options.
As mentioned above, there’s the new location Grymforge, which is an ancient Sharran fortress accessible through the Underdark. Here, rivers of lava and fire illuminate the halls and chambers where you will find new questlines, cinematics, combat encounters, and new characters.
The game has also received a large graphical overhaul, and you will notice substantial improvements to visual depth. The team implemented directional and volumetric lighting, applied fresh color grading throughout, introduced new particle effects, real-time clouds, atmospheric scattering, volumetric fog, and other visual upgrades. You will also notice cosmetic damage and dirt have been added and is based on a character’s HP. This ranges from sweat, dirt, bruises, and blood, depending on how much “you’re failing at being a hero.”
With the notes for patch 6 nearing 11 pages in length, we won’t post them here. Instead, just head over here to give them a read. It also weighs in at approximately 60GB, so make sure you have enough space before downloading it.
