Of all last year’s major game releases, Baldur’s Gate 3 was the biggest in terms of reception and attention, and how much stuff was in it. Larian’s supported the game extensively since then, but the studio’s also made clear it’s more than ready to move on from the franchise. Next year, it’s putting the fantasy-RPG to bed with onelast major patch that it says will have a “large selection of fixes,” and expand upon it in new ways that’ll hopefully keep players coming back for more.
First up are a new array of subclasses for players to dive into. There’s a new one for each main class, and if you already play Dungeons & Dragons, what’s coming will already sound familiar to you—Barbarians can take the Path of the Giant, Fighters could be an Arcane Archer, Clerics may dip into Death Domain to Toll the Dead, and so on. For any Oathbreakers, the Knight at camp will have new abilities, animations, and react with new unique dialogue lines to provide “a touch of homebrewing on certain actions to enhance your role-playing experience.”
The new subclasses and subsequent builds made by the Baldur’s Gate 3 fanbase will likely come through when the patch adds cross-play multiplayer between systems. Larian’s also promising full cross-platform progression alongside it, which is good news to anyone who bought the game more than once for themselves. When the update goes live, players can set up cross-play lobbies to invite their friends, or find lobbies through the Larian Network. And finally, there’ll be a Photo Mode, which needs no introduction at this point.
As someone who fell off Baldur’s Gate 3 in what was probably early Act 2 last year, the upcoming patch sounds like enough to get me to jump back in. Cross-play and cross-platform progression go a long way, ditto the new subclasses being teased. (Having originally made a Monk/Warlock Tav back then, having Drunken Master or Hexblade to play around with is also very enticing to warrant a return.) And with this being the game’s for real last hurrah before Larian moves onto new projects, it’s a nice suite of gameplay additions to go out on.
Patch 8 will hit Baldur’s Gate 3 sometime next year, and Larian’s planning a stress test for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC players in early January. You can read more on the patch and what’s to come here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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