What’s new in Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7?

We're getting closer and closer to the full Baldur's Gate 3.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

The latest update to Baldur’s Gate 3 is big. And by big, we mean a new class, a new HUD UI, improved stealth gameplay, 700 newly polished animations, new mocapped spell-casting animations and much much more. To say that Larian don’t care would be synonymous with blasphemy. Larian Studios have been hard at work on making Baldur’s Gate 3, something that is evident to see at each Panel to Hell, the livestreams Larian host to showcase the latest they’ve been working on. Particularly responding to players’ feedback and critique. With each new patch comes a phenomenal amount of work, wherein the team at Larian are hard at work to translate the feeling of table-side D&D as best as they can to a digital format.

As per Larian’s Gazette, this latest update features 12 pages of raw patch note details. But for your convenience and ease, you won’t need to scrawl through 12 pages, we’ll get the best and biggest changes out here for you.

New Class – Barbarian

The latest class to be added to Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Barbarian.

After Sorcerer was the last class to be added to the game, and Druid prior to that, we assumed the next class would in-fact be a melee one. Barbarian is pretty much as melee as you can get, focusing on hard-hitting attacks bolstered by the Rage mechanic. Although some Barbarian sub-classes can be magic, the two sub-classes that have been added to the game are primarily melee focused and damage dealing.

The Barbarian is a devastating damage dealing Tank. And one that’s usually integral for a good team! If you don’t know much about Barbarians, or just want to see what you can expect, read more about the Barbarian here.

New Feat – Improvised Weaponry

If you’ve not wondered what it’s like to pick up a Goblin and throw it at another Goblin, then have you really been playing D&D? Well, Larian are not the type to disappoint. They’ve added the latest and newest feat, a revamped version of the D&D Tavern Brawler feat.

Improvised Weapons do damage based on their weight. Objects between 0.5kg and 10kg will do 1d4, while anything over 10kg will do 2d4. Characters can wield an Improvised weapon that weighs up to three times their Strength ability score.

If you want to read more about the Improvised Weaponry feat, you can check it out here.

Improved Gameplay – Stealth and Darkvision

In a game where you can choose exactly the type of gameplay you want, it’s important that everything feels fluid. It might be more common for some players to just kick doors down and take names. But for others, the stealth option is one that’s preferable. So making a stealth-based mechanic that looks and feels just as fun as the more aggressive playstyle is important. To improve upon the game’s stealth, lighting has been adjusted. Now the Advantage that you gain when fighting in a lit area, and the Disadvantage you receive when fighting in shadows, is much more accurate than before.

Thus rewarding players for hiding in the shadows, or punishing foes who are brightly lit and an open target. You’ll be less likely to miss a shot when in broad daylight, and hiding from NPCs will be easier and more precise as you take advantage of the dark around you.

Furthermore, Darkvision has also been improved. When you control a character with Darkvision, the area won’t be brightly lit anymore. Instead, they’ll see in the dark via a cone, representing their FOV. Whereas characters without Darkvision will be left in the dark. This is intended to add to the immersion, as well as more utility in certain spells, as well encouraging players to problem solve.

Improved Gameplay – Unexplored Rooms

A new addition to the game sees players unable to ‘sneak’ a peak into separate rooms. Unexplored rooms and their interiors will be concealed from the players unless you go in. This means you won’t be able to take advantage of unsuspecting goblins waiting on the inside. This particular update helps that immersion, as you’ll feel more tension and surprise each time you go somewhere new.

New Items – Magic Loot

Another way to give the EA more replayability comes in the form of new loot. In patch 7, the devs have placed 24 new pieces of Magic Loot throughout the game.

These hand-crafted items range from helmets and gloves to lightning-charged tridents, each of which grant its owner an impressive stat boost, buff, or additional perk. 

The Hamarhraft maul, for instance, causes the wearer to deal 1d4 Thunder damage in a 10ft radius upon landing after a Jump. Fleetfingers gloves let the player Jump after a Dash without using a bonus action. While other items, like Reason’s Grasp, are ideal for Barbarians – giving the wearer temporary hit points when they end their Rage. 

Visual Changes – HUD UI Upgrade

A new addition to the game changes the HUD UI, meaning it’s a bit more in-depth and more condensed. Not to mention, with the character profile, it looks a lot more like old-school isometric RPGs.

The hot bar has several ‘decks’. Each sorted via:

• Spells
• Items
• Weapon Actions
• Bonus Action
• etc…

Meaning it’ll be easier to see what you can and can’t do. Not to mention, it’ll mean you won’t have to open you item menu to use an item you didn’t fix to the hotbar. The main aim in this change was to streamline what is on the players’ screen as well as ensuring all the info you need is on hand.

Visual Changes – New Spellcasting Animations

There’s been the addition of different animations for spellcasters. Rather than all spellcasters having the same arm-waving spellcasting, now each class has their own tailor-made casting animations that better reflects the spirit of their classes. For example, a Wizard might look more mathematical and thoughtful when conjuring a spell, while a Warlock’s movement will be a lot creepier and twisted with their movements.

Rangers were specifically inspired by emotive sign-language and the team at Larian got a sign language-speaker to come to their studio and mocap their movements during spell-casting. As an example, When casting a Buff, for instance, a Ranger will sign the word “Shield”.

Visual Changes – Improved Cinematics

Hundreds of cinematic events have seen some substantial changes and upgrades. Tweaking characters and moving the camera to bring new visuals to the overall experience and when watching cinematics. Rather than them being stilted and mostly identical in format, different sets and events will look different too.

The cinematics team have been particularly hard at work for this new update. Working on over 700 cutscenes, adding 400 new animations and enhancing creature animations in 200 interactive dialogues and improved the pacing of cinematics too.

Release Date

As a surprise, Larian did release an estimated release window. This is pretty big news, considering we’ve not had any kind of window for their release at all. However, according to the Larian Gazette, they expect Baldur’s Gate 3 will come out of Early Access in 2024.

There’s still plenty more, but the rest are gameplay changes, tweaks, animation changes, spells, items and combat changes. If you want to see all that Patch 7 has, you can read it here!