In thisBaldur’s Gate 3 Patch 4article, I’m going to briefly talk about the newDruid Classand itsSubclassesas well as analyze how the improvements, User Interface, Quality of Life, balancing changes, and cinematics will affect your experience of the game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access: Update 4 Patch Notes, Druid, Class Changes, Bug Fixes, QoL Improvements
The first thing we’ll cover in this breakdown article is the Druid Class. This is the 7th Class in Early Access, but the first to be added since Early Access began last October. When will we see more Classes added? Time will tell!
Druid Class
The biggest addition to the latest patch is the Druid Class joining the currently availableRanger,Wizard,Warlock,Fighter,Cleric, andRogue Classes. As a Druid, you can choose from two Subclasses, namely theCircle of the LandandCircle of the Moon. Circle of the Land makes you more attuned to nature as you gain unique perks and Spells based on the region you choose. On the other hand, Circle of the Moon boosts your ability to transform into creatures with Wild Shapes. You will also have exclusive access to the Polar Bear shape. Think of Druids as a cross-breed of Wizards and Clerics since they can perform powerful offensiveSpellsand heal you and your party as needed.
Alongside this, a list of Druidic Spells have been added such asGoodberrythat grant you berries to regain a portion of your HP andThorn Whipto damage enemies as you drag them closer to you.
Furthermore, there are new surprises narrative and combat-wise that await in theDruid’s Groveso it’s definitely something to look forward to. For a more detailed discussion of the Druid Class, be sure to check out our currentvideo. We will also release an in depth Druid Build guide so stay tuned for that.
Improvements
Loaded Dice, Fleeing and Long Rest
With Patch 4 comes the addition of Loaded Dice and a Flee button. Loaded Dice gives you the option to reduce the randomness of your rolls. This means that you will no longer receive a continual series of Natural 1s or 20s when you make aD20roll. Note that this is only applicable forAttack Rolls,Saving Throws, and rolls when conversing with NPCs. This will not impact your Damage Rolls, which accounts for different dice rolls depending on yourWeapon,Actionor Spell. Loaded Dice is active by default so if you want to continue rolling like before, you will have to change it in the game’s Options, Gameplay and then deselect “Weighted Dice”.
Flee is finally a part of combat. You can escape from sticky situations by clicking the Flee button, which is located on top of End Turn. Upon fleeing from combat, you will be teleported to the nearest discovered waypoint. However, there is a requirement that you have to be at least 27 meters away from the enemy and only the character who activated Flee will be able to escape. Therefore, you cannot rely on one character to salvage your entire party from danger. What I did notice is how long the distance between you and the enemy should be to activate Flee, considering that the default Movement Speed is only 9 meters per turn for mostRacesexcept forDwarvesandHalflings. I do hope Larian Studios shortens this distance to around 18 meters because some of your characters may end up dying just so you can save what’s left of your party. As such, I would currently consider confronting enemies rather than fleeing from them.
One big improvement in the recent update isLong Restwhere allCompanions, may they be included in your current party or not, will have their HP, Actions andSpell Slotsrestored in full. This saves you the ordeal of engaging in Long Rest multiple times especially if you forget to replenish your substituted Companion’s resources. In the past, when you wanted to switch between Companions to bring outside ofCamp, the character you swapped out and left behind would not receive the benefits of Long Rest.
Balancing Changes and Fixes
The recent patch brought a lot of balancing changes and fixes but I will only be highlighting the major ones when it comes to gameplay.
In general, damage resistance has been tweaked so that the minimum damage you receive is 1 instead of 0. For instance, if an enemy were to deal 1 Poison Damage and you have yourRing of Poison Resistanceequipped, you will only receive half of it rounded down, which is equal to 0. But now you will instead be certainly hit with 1 Poison Damage.
Classes and Spells
The Classes that have received buffs to their Actions and Spells are predominantly Warlocks and Wizards. Warlocks get a buff with modifications done toDevil’s Sight, which you’re able to choose from a list of Eldritch Invocations when you reach level 2. The range by which you can see inDarknesswith this Spell has been increased from 18 to 24 meters, similar to aDrow’sSuperior Darkvision. While Devil’s Sight is active, you will also be immune to the Blind condition you get from being in the dark. In addition, summonedImpsand Quasit now haveDarkvision. This will now help you survey shadowy areas. It will also prevent these summons from missing hits in the dark due to their improved vision.
One of the most favourable updates is the Wizard’sAbjuration School Subclassas it gets a massive buff toArcane Ward. The protective barrier now scales with the Abjuration Wizard’s level andIntelligence. The computation is as follows:
2x the Spellcaster’s level + their Intelligence Modifier
For example, a level 2 Wizard with 16 Intelligence will now get a total of 7 Arcane Ward HP, which is more than double the amount of temporary HP you used to get with the old value at 3.
In relation to other Spells,Witch Boltwill now make a surface electrified. This will inflict the target with Shocked, which prevents that character from performing Reactions such as Opportunity Attack while giving them aDisadvantagewhen they makeDexterity Checksand Saving Throws.
Meanwhile, level 2Charm Personis now a Spell that allows you to charm at least 2 targets at a time within its AoE. Before this patch, it wasn’t an AoE Spell so you could only charm 1 target per turn.
Patch 4 mostly comprises bug and stability fixes such as fixing crashes when Long Rest gets interrupted or whenGaleis killed by a summoned creature. Fights against Spiders will also be theoretically more difficult since they no longer identify webs asDifficult Terrain. They can reach you much quicker than before since their Movement Speed will no longer be reduced by half. Another noticeable fix they implemented is that your Invisibility will no longer be nullified when you perform self-casting Spells.
Quality of Life
Sorting, Disarming and Selecting Character Portraits
Items you intend to loot can now be sorted by Latest, Value, Weight and Type. This helps you to easily identify the items you want to get especially if there are a lot to choose from. You can even toggle the inventory button beside the sorting option in order to check if you already have them or if you want to loot it regardless.
When it comes to disabling traps, you can now easily do so by double-clicking on them as long as you have aTrap Disarm Toolkitin your inventory thereby saving you time. In the previous version, you had to right-click on the trap and then click “Disarm”.
In addition, you can now cast Spells by selecting their respective character portraits instead of actually clicking them. This is similar to what Larian has done in their previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, and it’s definitely a welcome change given how accessible these portraits are.
Multiplayer
You can now view your friend’s inventory, Spells andEquipment. You can get items from their inventories or fill it with useless stuff to reduce their Movement Speed. A lock function will be added in the future so your friend can prevent your kleptomaniac tendencies. However, you cannot change their Spells,Armourand Weapons. It was also mentioned that Character Sheets are visible but there is a bug that prevents you from viewing these even when selecting your friend’s character portrait.
User Interface
Hovering over an elemental surface now shows the amount of damage you’re dealt with if you step on it while in combat. For example with aFiresurface, you will receive 1d4 Fire Damage. These surfaces and the conditions you receive are now displayed as tooltips in the combat log.
Ability Checksfrom dialogue provide a detailed information about yourAbility Modifier. This helps you easily see how much Ability Modifier you get based on yourAbility Score. So for example, if you choose a Dexterity-based response and you have 16 Dexterity, it will show you that you have a +3 Dexterity Modifier.
In the Character Sheet, your Health andArmour Class (AC)now display your base scores as well as any added bonuses that you gain from your Ability Modifiers, Equipment and level. So for instance if you’re wearing a Druid Leather Armour, you immediately know how to get your total AC of 14 because of the base 10 AC and +3 Dexterity Modifier. TheBase Speedand Initiative are included as well as your Action resources that describe what each Action is for, thereby making the UI more beginner friendly. Alternatively if you want a summary of the resources available to you in combat, you can simply hover your mouse over your character’s portraits, which will show your Health, Base Speed and all available Actions.
TheTorchbutton has also been added in the hotbar. You no longer have to manually equip it or use yourDip Bonus Actionon a Fire surface to light it up.
Additionally, in the Journal section, pressing “Show on Map” now focuses at the center of the particular quest you selected.
Cinematics
Character reactions have improved depending on the dialogue. Previously, their facial expressions and gestures would be noticeably blank when another NPC is explaining something dire but now they react appropriately. You will see them disgusted at theIntellectual Devoureror shocked at sudden loud noises. This adds to how immersive BG3 has become since your characters can actually convey emotions well upon witnessing what’s happening and changing in front of them.
The overall narrative cinematics have also been tweaked to illustrate a more polished and darker version of the game. It’s not a huge departure from the previous version although you will notice some changes to the shadows and lighting.
Specifically,Speak with Deadhas been vastly improved with added lighting and animations that show a living and breathing corpse ready to answer your questions.
Bugs Encountered
There are some issues that I encountered after the release of Patch 4. First is launching the game, which would immediately crash. As a workaround, you need to verify your game files by right-clicking BG3, going to Properties, Local Files, and selecting “Verify integrity of game files”.
Second is the different experience points Companions gain depending on when you meet them. For example is withShadowheart, whom we did not have in our party when we were in the Nautiloid Ship. When I reached level 2 after the Intellect Devourer fight at theRavaged Beach, she did not level up with me. In fact, she still lacked a couple of experience points. What’s odd is when I recruitedAstarion, he immediately leveled up putting three of my characters at level 2.
Patch 4 will be the last extremely large patch, in terms of download size. Succeeding updates and bug fixes will be divided into manageable chunks so that the downloads will be much smaller. You can view the complete list of the patch notes via thisSteamlink.
Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content as we take a look at Classes andBuilds, and be sure to drop by ourTwitch channelif you have questions about the game. If you need something specific, check out ourBaldur’s Gate 3 Wikiwhich is being worked on night and day!
