Larian Studios’ first major update for Baldur’s Gate 3, aptly titled Patch #1, is now live and includes more than 1,000 improvements to the game.
Announced on Steam (with full notes on its own website because they exceeded the character limit), Patch #1 addresses “over 1,000 bugs, balancing, flow issues, and much, much more”, Larian said.
While the full patch notes are incredibly long, the developer highlighted some bigger fixes to things like NPCs spotting the player that shouldn’t be able to, floating items like mugs and newspapers, and the conclusion to Shadowheart’s romance not triggering for some players. We’ve included this condensed list below, with spoilers omitted.
As well as bug fixes and similar improvements, Larian said it also added “more post-launch polish” to Baldur’s Gate 3 like improving kissing contact animations for short races. Patch #2 is also “right around the corner” and “will feature significant performance improvements”.
Baldur’s Gate 3 already launched to an incredibly positive reception. The Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG has also proven incredibly popular, almost immediately becoming one of the most popular games on Steam and forcing a hotfix from Larian to cope with demand.
It’s also gained attention for being, in the developers’ own words, “big-budget horny”, with players being shocked by the extent of its nudity.
In our 10/10 review, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #1 Highlights
Showstoppers
Fixed a bug where listening in on a conversation as Player 1 and then exiting the dialogue prematurely could result in not being able to interact with anything anymore.Fixed an issue causing the Reaction UI to not work correctly and potentially block progress in combat if you save the game in the middle of a reaction.Fixed loot in corpses sometimes not appearing in multiplayer until an item is dragged onto the corpse.Fixed a bug causing you to get a Game Over screen after helping Downed party members.Fixed the Helm of Arcane Acuity crashing the game. The condition is now capped to 7 stacks.Attacking an NPC during a dialogue after being Downed will now get you arrested rather than giving you a Game Over screen.Fixed an issue where characters could get stuck in an infinite falling loop.Fixed an issue with Marcus being resurrected by players hitting him with a dual-wield attack – the second hit will no longer revive him.
Story Flow and Logic
Wyll should now be able to tell you what to do next if is killed and he has an exclamation mark above his head.Shadowheart should more easily follow up on her proposed romance moments in Act III.Fixed conditions being updated before a savegame finished loading. This, for instance, caused to have 0 HP if loading an autosave created when entering the Lower City, preventing you from progressing through related quests.Jaheira and Minsc’s paths are tied after you save Minsc, so if you’ve forsaken him, Jaheira should now follow after him.Fixed bug that made it possible to break up with Astarion without meaning to.The drider will now recognise that you’re with him when reaching Moonrise Towers if you start following him in the middle of his route.Art Cullagh and Fist J’ehlar no longer get so scared of bears and spiders that their quest breaks.The Zhentarim will more consistently use the mines after their allies have fallen back to safety, and will no longer actively try to blow themselves up by checking active mines.Minthara no longer references irrelevant topics or passes judgement on companions more than once.Fixed the dialogue flow when dating Minthara.You can no longer recruit both Halsin and Minthara to camp in the same playthrough.Made it less ambiguous that you’re starting a romance with Gale when choosing certain dialogue options.During Gale’s spell-teaching scene, you now have the option to picture a future with Gale that falls somewhere in between kissing him and kicking him in the head.Fixed an issue where using non-lethal attacks on Auntie Ethel would still kill her.You can now opt to respect the privacy of the bugbear and the ogre outside the Blighted Village again. Don’t get in the way of real love.Fixed a level design quirk that would allow you to use a spell like Misty Step or Dimension Door to skip part of the main quest sequence in Act II.Fixed an issue where the Baldur’s Mouth headline about a cute cat could get accidentally overwritten.If Wyll isn’t recruited, he will now recognise Avatar Karlach and initiate dialogue.Throwing a single coin at the beggars will no longer damage them.If Dolly Dolly Dolly curses you with the A Clown in Town condition for making her angry while inside the Moonlantern, she will now paint your face. That’ll teach you.The Zhentarim at the Goblin Camp should now be more tolerant if you approach them.
Balance
Made gold bounties more generous in several containers across the game.Increased players’ HP bonus in Explorer Mode from +50% to +100%.Fixed the Freecast tadpole power to properly reset on Long Rest. It was creating infinite spell slots and Sorcery Points for sorcerers.Arcane Tricksters’ Mage Hand Legerdemain now does not expire until destroyed, and does not lose Invisibility on Long Rest.You can no longer have multiple Mage Hands active at the same time.The Shield reaction can no longer be used while Silenced.Fixed not being able to create 5th Level spell slots from Sorcery Points.College of Lore bards can now pick which additional skill proficiency they receive. Bards that are already of the College of Lore need to respec to get this choice.Made sure proper spell DC is applied during multiclassing.Added spells to bards’ Magical Secrets feature: Banishing Smite, Animate Dead, Crusader’s Mantle, Hunger of Hadar, Revivify, Sleet Storm, Rage of Enfeeblement, Web, Entangle, Hunter’s Mark, Sanctuary, Thunderous Smite, Bone Chill, Eldritch Morphic Blast, Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Sacred Flame.The Club of Hill Giant Strength now increases Strength to 19 and not some puny 15.Fixed a bug with ranged enemies reapplying Hunter’s Mark constantly, even when not needed.Warlocks’ Pact of the Chain summons now get to use their Extra Attack more than once.Fixed NPCs sometimes spotting you even if they’re not supposed to be able to.Fixed an issue where multiple rolls trigger if you walk along the edge of a cone of vision.Danse Macabre ghouls will no longer kill you when you Long Rest.If you make a successful Saving Throw against a poison, you will now gain immunity to that specific poison for 2 turns.Meenlocks are now immune to the shadow curse.Helped Minthara remember how to use her weapons.Enabled trespass warnings for any additional characters that trespass after the first instead of immediately triggering combat.Fixed NPCs attacking outside of their turn when combat starts during forced Turn-Based Mode.
Usability
Fixed dialogue notifications, like approval ratings and roll results, disappearing too early.The Launcher will now remember whether you chose DX11 or Vulkan.Fixed the incorrect amount of gold being displayed in all UI menus if the amount is too large.Fixed spells like Hex randomly shifting in order, causing you to misclick if you’re moving and clicking around intuitively.Fixed players who are merely listening in on a dialogue being able to skip lines – only the speaker can now do this.Fixed an issue with Camp Supply values for the second local player in multiplayer if they joined during a game. Long Rests will, alas, no longer cost nothing.You can no longer interact with another player’s inventory (e.g. send multiselected items or use their items) if their inventory is locked.Fixed the critical hit text sometimes not appearing.Improved the performance of the minimap when new map markers appear or old ones disappear.Dyed armour will now appear in the right colour in the Level Up screen.Halsin’s Wild Shape tooltip will now correctly call him a cave bear.
Visuals
Fixed the modesty filter not working on dragonborns.Fixed earrings on tiefling female strong character models.Added a Controller Style option, which allows you to override which controller’s icons are displayed.Fixed an issue causing the clown makeup to not only not appear on Lae’zel’s face when applied, but also remove her characteristic tattoos and makeup.Invoke Duplicity now works as an identical copy of your character. And they’re not naked.Fixed a leather helmet, a metal helmet, and the Helmet of Smiting floating on some character models.Lae’zel’s underwear will now more accurately reflect the colour of dyes used on it.
Cinematic Scenes
Made fixes to kissing scenes with the Origin characters across the game, for example to make sure physical contact is made properly, to account for shorter races, and to account for uneven ground.Fixed items like mugs and newspapers floating in the air during dialogues – the characters holding them were correctly hidden but the items themselves weren’t. Ghosties begone!Fixed Scratch’s position so you can try to get that ball out of his mouth. Whether he’ll let you have it is another matter.Lae’zel no longer floats up and down during your dialogue where you discuss dating.Fixed some cameras that couldn’t contain the force that is Astarion in a dialogue with him at night at camp. Also tweaked and added facial expressions where needed.Fixed a camera position when Karlach hugs you for the first time after getting her upgrade.Fixed the mind flayer not appearing in the cinematic dialogue with Dror Ragzlin if you manually trigger the dialogue.
Loot and Trade
Traders who stock dyes now also stock dye remover.Made Lady Esther available to trade with after you’ve completed her quests.Fish vendors now have more fish to sell. That new bait must be doing the trick!Popper the kobold at the circus now sells more oddities.Lady Jannath will now have artsy items to trade.Skeletons around the Selûnite Outpost no longer have fresh food in their inventory.Lohse’s portrait is now reachable, chief.
Misc
Updated the credits and reformatted them into two neater columns.The Digital Deluxe DLC’s D:OS2 bard songs are now also granted to companions as well, instead of just player avatars.All the extra bard songs from the Deluxe Edition will now be available even if you use Lohse’s Lute of the Merryweather Bard from the Deluxe Edition.DLC rewards will no longer get removed if you load a save with that DLC not installed. Any rewards that were removed due to this will be restored.Steel Watcher idle sounds no longer take up streaming bandwidth.You can no longer climb the Shambling Mound.Optimised the walking bounds of Glut so that it navigates the world and the battlefield better.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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