Larian Studios, developer of Divinity Original Sin have been working on the sequel to legendary RPG Baldurs Gate, which has been in early access since 2020 and as of yet is still unfinished.
The Baldur's Gate games are a series of epic fantasy games based on the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop, role-playing game with 1 and 2 originally developed by Black Isle Studios and Larian have been working on a worthy successor to the classic series.
Larian have been working hard and adding patches, fixes and updates with new character classes these epic updates are announced and explained in a live-streamed event from Larian called Panel from Hell.
The stream features a deep dive into the latest updates coming to Baldur's Gate 3, including detailed breakdowns of new content, abilities and character classes as well as a round-up of other improvements.
They are presented by an armour-clad Swen Vincke, the director of the game and feature him talking to developers in-depth about what has been updated in the game and a spotlight on the new character classes added including the tabletop inspiration for these additions.
The last Panel from Hell was October 2021 and the patch 6 update included the addition of Sorcerers, as well as two subclasses and a new area to explore called the Grymforge. The update also featured numerous graphical updates and tweaks to the lighting system as well as support for Nvidia’s DLSS too.
Today Larian Studios have announced their latest update in The Panel from Hell: Patch 7 which will include many exciting updates including the addition of the Barbarian character class.
Originally added to the tabletop game in 1985 the Barbarian class is a fighter that focuses on brute strength and violence rather than practised martial skills of classes like the fighter or Monk, and honestly who is better to crush some Mind Flayer skulls?
The Barbarian can call forth a rage that further raises their already impressive strength for extra damage and grants them resilience against damage as well as use impressive skills to decimate foes.
With the Improvised Weapons ability, Barbarians can use almost anything you find in the world as a weapon the Barbarian excels at launching objects at foes including tossing other enemies themselves.
Improvised Weapons do damage based on their weight, and characters can wield an Improvised Weapon that weighs up to three times their Strength score. With a high enough strength, you can launch might monsters like a Shot put.
Unsurprisingly these hulks or rage and muscle are also pretty intimidating which you can use to get information out of characters you come across.
Two subclasses are also included:
- Wildheart Barbarians choose a Bestial Heart to inspire, protect and guide them, receiving different combat abilities and facial piercings depending on their choice.
- Berserker Barbarians pull from a reservoir of pure fury, turning their Rage into a Frenzy that grants two new bonus actions – Enraged Throw wreaks additional damage to enemies and inflicts the prone status, and Frenzied Strike allows Berserkers to attack twice using a bonus action like Improvised Weapon.
The latest patch will also add more thrown weapons like Throwing Daggers, Javelins, Handaxes, and Spears giving you more options in combat.
Patch 7 also has implemented a revamp to the UI making it easier to read, sleeker and smoother to navigate for example decks appear in the hotbar so you'll always be prepared and ready with your abilities.
Darkvision has also been improved with a better visualization meaning that characters using Darkvision won’t see a brightly lit room, but will instead see in the dark via a cone of vision effect, like a flashlight. You will also be able to immediately see which of your characters has Darkvision.
Stealth has also been further enhanced for players who like to slink around in the shadows, meaning if you step into any light shaft it can potentially give you away.
Even the already impressive Cinematics have been further enhanced improving nearly 700 cutscenes, tweaking characters, adding and enhancing animations, as well as improving pacing.
New magical loot has also been placed thorough the world giving players more incentive to explore and experiment.
The Livestream also showed off some of the new gameplay, their playthrough illustrated some of the alternative routes that Barbarians can use.
Sven also presented their previous title, Original Sin runs on the up-and-coming handheld game console the Valve Steamdeck.
Larian have said that,
"The full patch notes will be available once the patch goes live – a whopping twelve pages of them, with asterisks noting changes and fixes that were the direct result of feedback from the Baldur’s Gate 3 community."
No final release date has as of yet been confirmed with Larian stating a finalised date will come when they are closer to the end goal, they also mention that lots of progress has been made towards the quality of the game in the past year and stating that:
"Early Access continues to be a key part of Larian’s development process, allowing us to iterate and improve with feedback from our players to make the best game possible."
as well as stating that if work continues on as it h as Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to release out of Early Access in 2023.
