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Baldur's Gate III

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X
Genre: RPG/Strategy
Developer: Larian Studios
Release Date: Aug. 3, 2023

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'Baldur's Gate III' Details Next Week's Early Access Patch 5, Adds New Mechanics, AI Improvements, Visual Upgrades And More - Trailer

by Rainier on July 8, 2021 @ 5:36 p.m. PDT

Baldur's Gate III is the official next adventure in the venerable Baldur's Gate series.

You are burdened with a great power devouring you from within.
How far down the path of darkness will you let it take you?
The fate of Faerûn is on your party’s shoulders.
Will you carry it to salvation, or descend with it to hell?

Created in close collaboration with the Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards of the Coast, Baldur’s Gate III is based off current D&D mechanics and spells and is the official new chapter in the legendary series.

Baldur’s Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre and offer a rich narrative with unparalleled player freedom, high-stakes decisions, unique companion characters and memorable combat. It is Larian Studios’ biggest production ever and will be playable together with friends or as a single-player adventure.

Alone you may resist, but together you can overcome. Gather your party.

Forged with the new Divinity 4.0 engine and coming to early access later this year, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you unprecedented freedom to explore, experiment, and interact with a world that truly reacts to your choices. A grand, cinematic narrative brings you closer to your characters than ever before as you venture through the Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons in Larian’s biggest adventure yet.

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...

Gather your party for a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Abducted, infected, lost... You are turning into a monster, drawn from a Mind Flayer parasite planted in your brain, but as the corruption inside you grows, so too does your power. That power may help you to survive, but there will be a price to pay. More than any ability, the bonds of trust that you build within your party could be your greatest strength. Caught in a conflict between devils, deities, and sinister otherworldly forces, you will determine the fate of the Forgotten Realms together. Resist and turn darkness against itself — or embrace corruption and become the ultimate evil.

Choose from a wide selection of D&D races and classes, or play as an origin character with a hand-crafted background. Play alone, selecting your companions carefully, or as a party of up to four in online multiplayer.

No two adventures will ever be the same. The Forgotten Realms are a vast, detailed and diverse world, and there are secrets to be discovered all around you -- even verticality is a vital part of exploration. Adventure, loot, battle, romance… how you survive, and the mark you leave on the world, is up to you.

Key Features

  • Online multiplayer for up to four players allows you to combine your forces in combat and split your party to follow your own quests and agendas. Devise the perfect plan together… or introduce an element of chaos when your friends least expect it.
  • Origin characters offer a hand-crafted experience, each with their own unique traits, agenda, and outlook on the world. Their stories intersect with the wider narrative, and your choices will determine whether those stories end in redemption, salvation, domination or other outcomes.
  • Evolved turn-based combat based on the D&D 5E ruleset. Team-based initiative, advantage and disadvantage, and roll modifiers join combat cameras, expanded environmental interactions, and a new fluidity in combat that rewards strategy and foresight.
  • Define the future of the Forgotten Realms through your choices and the roll of the dice. No matter who you play or what you roll, the world and its inhabitants will react to your story.
  • Player-initiated turn-based mode allows you to pause the world around you at any time even outside of combat. See an opportunity for a tactical advantage before combat begins? Want to pull off a heist with pin-point precision? Need to escape a fiendish trap? Split your party, prepare ambushes, sneak in the darkness — and create your own luck!

Larian Studios is developing and publishing Baldur’s Gate III on PC and Google Stadia.


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