The wizard is coming to BG3, update 14

New class, graphic redesign, lots of good things in this community update # 14 of Larian Studios Baldur's Gate 3!

The Wizard arrives at Baldur's Gate 3

Test No Rest For The Wicked early access, is it right for you

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It's still time! For months, strange chants could be heard in the offices of the development team at Larian Studios, their mysterious incantations not stopping until one left to accept a food delivery. But today our team has emerged from their dark tomb. "It's over," they said in unison, waving skyward a large stone tablet in which they had carved the notes from our last update.

Patch 6: Forging the Arcane is now live and it's our biggest Baldur's Gate 3 patch yet. This new update introduces a playable wizard class, a new mysterious region called Grymforge, new deadly weapon actions, a huge graphic overhaul, newly added orchestral music to delight your ears, and hours of new content to explore. and that's just a taste of the size of the 10 pages of improvements and changes made to the game this time around.

You can also expect to find new cutscenes in Dark Deepholm or the Grove of the Druids, fully updated animations for Githyanki characters, Turkish language support, as well as something for those of you. who behave badly and tend to be sent to jail. And we haven't even mentioned the Equipped Dual Handling Battle Salami yet.

But there's a lot more, so let's take a closer look at everything you can expect to find in this latest patch.

⚔️ Unleash your inner magic: Baldur's Gate 3 gets a powerful new wizard class

Wizards are not like your typical wizard. Unlike your bookish wizards or soul-selling warlocks, a wizard's abilities come from within. This class taps into its own latent power to wreak havoc in combat. Wizards are receiving five new spells in this update. Gruesome Face is a tadpole action that causes your enemy to bleed and allows you to remove a sorcery point from them to your advantage. Chromatic Orb is a powerful single target nuclear bomb that lets you launch a sphere of energy at whoever deserves it the most. Cloud of Daggers can be thrown by wizards in defense, surrounding them with a protective blanket of flying daggers. Crown of Madness, as the name suggests, drives an enemy mad and can cause them to attack nearby allies. And finally, Enlarge / Reduce changes a character's size while affecting their physical stats.

But the main ability of a wizard is the metamagic. It's their signature skill that lets you tweak your spells in battle, making you a dynamic and unpredictable force to be reckoned with. With the metamagic, a wizard can increase the range or duration of their spell, hit two enemies at once, or purchase other powerful spell variants using witchcraft points earned as they level up. And imagine the kind of devastation you can unleash by strategically applying this ability to spells cast by other wizards. As any D&D fan worth his salt will know, Wizards come in two versions: Wild Magic et Draconic Lineage. Both subclasses have their own particular set of strengths, abilities, and visual appearance. The Sorcerer of the Wild Magic is a manipulator of chance and magic. Using their ability Tides of chaos, they tip the battle in their favor by taking advantage of attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws. But each bonus has its penalty. And for every successful win that a wizard of Wild magic receives, he also has a chance to be randomized. Some positive like winning teleport as a bonus action and some, uh, less good like setting everyone on fire.

This is what happens if your grandfather married a dragon

Wizards of the dragon line, meanwhile, have spellcasting abilities transmitted by their dragon ancestry. Every wizard of the dragon line reaps the benefits of his dragon line and can exploit the type of damage possessed by his ancestor: Fire, Acid, Poison, Lightning or Cold. Was your great-grandmother a red dragon? If so, you will be able to use fire abilities like Hot hands. Additionally, this subclass gets an extra hit point with each level gained, which means that they are quite a powerful opponent in battle. And as you can see in the image above, you will be able to customize the appearance of your wizard of the dragon line with a variety of dragon face designs so scaly that even the heaviest of moisturizers can't soften them.

⚔️ New weapon actions, the combat has become much more interesting!

But the patch Forging the Arcane is not just a question of magic.

In this patch, we wanted to make sure that melee and ranged combat fans gain even more tactical agency in combat the next time they return to BG3. Thus, we have introduced new weapon actions. So what does this mean exactly? Well, characters who are proficient in a particular melee or ranged weapon will now have up to three signature movements at their disposal, giving you new ways to eviscerate any nearby goblin that is funny looking at you. The goal here is to ensure that players experience melee actions that are closer to those imagined in a D&D tabletop game. Crush an enemy's chest to damage and potentially reduce an enemy's actions with the new move Heart-stopper, target an enemy's hands with a non-lethal debuff attack to disadvantage attack rolls, or strike an enemy with all your might for a chance to stun them with Shattering Concussion . But please don't use these new moves on the Owl Bear because our hearts can't take it. For the full list of new weapon actions, take a look at the patch notes at the bottom of the page.

⚔️ Blood, mud and a huge graphical improvement

Baldur's Gate 3 received a substantial graphic overhaul in this patch, and its effects are far reaching. Not only have we improved the visuals of the game world as a whole, but this update also affects the characters themselves. Now, as you venture out with your party, you and your companions will become more bloody, muddy, and bruised with each consecutive fight based on their HP. But it's the overall graphics changes that we think will impress you the most. In this update, we've made huge improvements to Faerûn's visual depth, implementing directional and volumetric lighting, applying new color grading, introducing new particle effect techniques, as well as as real-time clouds, atmospheric scattering, volumetric fog and other visual enhancements. that make the game more beautiful than ever. Feast your eyes on the strategically placed before and after GIF below, which will give you a taste of all that has changed.

⚔️ Welcome to Grymforge: A new region hidden in the depths of Dark Deepholm

This is the big moment. Baldur's Gate 3 now has a new region: Grimforge. TADAAAM! TATATATATA TADAAAM! Grimforge is an ancient fortress of Sharran accessible through Dark Deepholm, via the Ebony Lake. This new region takes you beyond the point where Early Access ended, continuing your journey a little further into a spooky lair where the Dark Chambers are lit by the rivers of magma surrounding you. So what can you expect to find here? Grimforge promises hours of new content you can dive back into, with new questlines, new choices, cutscenes, intricate fights, and characters that we know will whet the appetites of many D&D fans. No, I'm not telling you everything. We won't spoil a thing for you, but we can't wait for you to check it out for yourself and tell us what you think. In the meantime, take a look below:

So what else can you expect in this update?

Forging the Arcane is packed with improvements and fixes, many of which have been requested directly by you, the community. Let's take a look at a few of them. In patch 6, we fixed a common issue where NPCs would sometimes panic completely at the Wild of a druid when he is no longer active. NPCs have now each undergone extensive exposure therapy and are no longer afraid of ghost wild forms. Additionally, we fixed an issue where Fezzerk's goblins would attack Wyll on sight instead of starting his dialogue, which we felt was pretty rude. We've also made a number of improvements to combat and character balance. For example, we have updated the high ground rule so that you will now receive bonus attack rather than advantage / disadvantage. We've also changed ShadowHeart's ability score, lowering its CHA and increasing its RTS. The issues with the mobile exploit have also been addressed, and Focus throws are now displayed through the Air Roll UI. To make your gaming experience even better, this update includes an option to add a semi-transparent background to the text and we've increased the font size of the dialogues for those who have found themselves squinting uncomfortably on their monitor while reading their screens in the past. All of this can be set and customized in the settings menu, as you wish. And we've also included an option to reduce the default frequency that characters say lines when point and click throughout your adventure. This is now linked to a slider, giving you more control over how much chatter you'd like to hear as you explore. But perhaps the most important solution of all: Scratch the Dog can now accept pets again. Forging the Arcane is available to play immediately following Panel From Hell 4 on Thursday, October 14. Be sure to check out Baldur's Gate 3 to see all the latest changes for yourself and let us know what you think. We can't wait to hear!

Translated from original by Asmodée, November 2021