[2021] Community Update 14: Forging the Arcane

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

It’s that time again! For months, strange chanting could be overheard from the offices of the Larian Studios dev team, their mysterious incantations pausing only when one would leave to go accept a food delivery. But today, our team emerged from their darkened tomb. “It is finished,” they said in unison, holding up to the sky a large stone tablet into which they had carved the patch notes for our latest update. Looking for those patch notes? You can find them here!

Patch 6: Forging the Arcane is now live and it is our biggest Baldur’s Gate 3 patch to date. This new update introduces a playable Sorcerer class, a mysterious new region called Grymforge, lethal new weapon actions, a huge graphical overhaul, newly-added orchestral music to delight your ears, and hours of fresh content to explore – and that’s merely a bite-size taste of the 10 pages-worth of improvements and changes made to the game this time around.

You can also expect to find new cinematics throughout the Underdark and Druid Grove, completely updated animations for Githyanki characters, Turkish language support, as well as something for those of you misbehaving sorts who tend to get sent to jail. And we haven’t even mentioned the equippable, dual-wield combat-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 Sorcerer class

                         

Sorcerers aren’t your typical magic-wielder. Unlike your bookish Wizards or soul-selling Warlocks, a Sorcerer’s abilities come from within. This class taps into their own latent power to wreak havoc in battle.

Sorcerers receive five new spells in this update. Horrific Visage is a Tadpole Action that makes your enemy bleed and allows you to leech a Sorcery Point from them for your benefit. Chromatic Orb is a powerful single-target nuke that lets you hurl a sphere of energy at whoever deserves it most. Cloud of Daggers can be cast by Sorcerers for defense, surrounding them in a protective blanket of flying daggers. Crown of Madness, as the name suggests, sends an enemy mad and can cause them to attack their nearby allies. And finally, Enlarge/Reduce alters the size of a character while also affecting their physical stats, which is likewise what my body has been doing throughout the entirety of lockdown.

                         

But a Sorcerer’s foremost ability is Metamagic. This is their signature skill which allows you to modify your spells in battle, making you a dynamic and unpredictable force to be reckoned with. With Metamagic, a Sorcerer can increase their spell’s range or duration, hit two enemies at once, or purchase other powerful spell variations using Sorcery Points gained as they level up. And just imagine the kind of devastation you can unleash when applying this ability strategically toward spells cast by other magic-wielders.

As any D&D fan worth their dice knows, Sorcerers are available in two flavours: Wild Magic and Draconic Bloodline. Both subclasses have their own particular set of strengths, abilities, and visual look.

The Wild Magic Sorcerer is a manipulator of chance and magic. Using their Tides of Chaos ability, they swing the battle in their favour by gaining advantage of attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws. But with every swing there is also a roundabout. And for every successful gain a Wild Magic Sorcerer receives, they also have a chance of being on the receiving end of a random effect. Some positive – like gaining teleport as a bonus action – and some, ah, less good – like setting everyone on fire.

                         
This is what happens if your grandpa married a dragon.
Draconic Bloodline Sorcerers on the other hand possess spell-casting abilities passed down through their dragon ancestry. Each Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer reaps the benefits of their dragon lineage, and can harness the damage-type possessed by their ancestor: Fire, Acid, Poison, Lightning, or Cold. Was your great-grandma a Red Dragon? If so, you’ll be able to wield Fire abilities like Burning Hands. Additionally, this subclass gets an extra hit point with every level gained, meaning they’re quite the powerful adversary in combat. And as you can see in the image above, you will be able to customize the look of your Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer with a variety of dragon facial designs so scaley not even the heaviest of moisturizers can soften them.


New weapon actions - combat just got a lot more interesting

                         

But Forging the Arcane isn't just about magic.

In this patch, we wanted to ensure that fans of melee and ranged combat gain even more tactical agency during fights next time they jump back in to BG3. Thus, we've introduced new Weapon Actions.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, characters who are proficient in a particular melee or ranged weapon will now have up to three signature moves at their disposal, giving you new ways to eviscerate any nearby Goblin who happens to look at you funny. The aim here is to ensure players will experience melee actions closer in line to those dreamt up during a tabletop D&D game.

Smash an enemy's chest to damage and potentially reduce their actions by one with the new Heartstopper move, target an enemy's hands with a non-lethal Weakening Strike attack to give disadvantage on Attack Rolls, or hit an enemy with all your might for a chance at dazing them with a Concussive Smash. But please do not use these new moves on the Owlbear as our hearts can't handle it. For the full list of new Weapon Actions, have a gander at the patch notes at the bottom of the page.

Blood, mud, and a huge graphical upgrade
                         

Baldur’s Gate 3 has received a substantial graphical overhaul in this patch, and its effects are far-reaching. Not only have we improved the visuals of the game-world as a whole, this update also affects the characters themselves.

Now as you adventure forth with your party, you and your companions will become more bloodied, muddied, and bruised with each consecutive fight – based on their HP. Finally, inspiration for my Astarion-in-Bubble-Bath fanart.

But it’s the overarching graphical changes that we think you’ll be impressed by the most. In this update we’ve made huge improvements to Faerun’s visual depth, implementing directional and volumetric lighting, applying fresh colour grading throughout, introducing new particle effect techniques, as well as real-time clouds, atmospheric scattering, volumetric fog, and other visual upgrades that make the game look better than ever before. Feast your eyes on the strategically-placed before-and-after GIF below, which will give you a taste of just how much has changed.

                         

Welcome to Grymforge – A new region hidden in the depths of the Underdark
This is the big one. Baldur’s Gate 3 now has a new region: Grymforge. TADAAAM! TATATATATA TADAAAM!

Grymforge is an ancient Sharran fortress accessible through the Underdark, by way of Ebonlake. This new region takes you past the point where Early Access ended, continuing your journey a little further into a sinister lair where shadowy chambers are lit by the rivers of magma that surround you.

So what can you expect to find here? Grymforge promises hours of new content for you to dive back into, with new questlines, choices, cinematics, complex combat encounters, and characters who we know will whet the appetite of many a D&D fan. No I’m not telling you who. We won’t spoil things for you but we can’t wait for you to check it out for yourself and tell us know what you think. In the meantime, take a peak below:

                         
Property Brothers, eat your heart out.

So what else can you expect in this update?

Forging the Arcane is chalk-full with improvements and fixes, many of which were requested directly by you, the community. Let’s have a look at a few of them.

In Patch 6, we have solved a common issue in which NPCs occasionally completely freak out at a Druid’s Wildshape form when it’s no longer active. NPCs have now each been put through thorough exposure therapy and are no longer afraid of phantom Wildshapes. In addition, we’ve fixed an issue where Fezzerk’s goblins would attack Wyll on sight instead of starting his dialogue, which we felt was pretty rude.

We have also made numerous improvements with combat and character balancing. For instance, we’ve updated the high ground rule, making it so you’ll now receive a bonus on attack rather than an advantage/disadvantage. We’ve also tweaked Shadowheart’s Ability score, reducing her CHA and increasing her STR. Issues with Mobile feat have also been solved, and Concentration throws are now displayed via the overhead roll UI.

To make your in-game experience all the better, this update includes an option to add a semi-transparent background to text and we have increased the font size of dialogue for those who have found themselves squinting uncomfortably at their monitor while reading their screens in the past. All of this can be set and customised in the settings menu, at your leisure. And we've also included an option to reduce the default frequency that characters say lines as you point-and-click your way through your adventure. This is now tied to a slider, giving you more control over how much chatter you’d like to hear as you explore.

But perhaps the most important fix of them 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 14th. Be sure to check out Baldur's Gate 3 to experience all the latest changes for yourself, and let us know what you think. We can’t wait to hear!

And with that, let’s unfurl the patch notes!