Patch #1 for Baldur’s Gate 3 just dropped. And it is huge. So huge that it goes beyond the character limit for the Steam community page, requiring Larian to post the full (nearly novella-length) Patch Notes on their own forums. Coming about 3 weeks after the launch of the game, Patch #1 includes changes and fixes across the entire game, the vast majority of which being small bugs, errors, and glitches. It covers so much, in fact, that Larian studios had to do what we normally do any post the highlights on their steam community post.
Here are some of the highlights (of the, er… Highlights):
- Karlach (and other characters with kissing scenes) now bends down to kiss short kings (Halflings, Gnomes, and Dwarves) instead of kissing above them.
- Wyll’s dialog is now more fleshed out.
- Reduced Gale’s propensity to romance you (and added options to reject him without insulting him).
- Throwing coins at beggars no longer hurts them.
- Increases in gold across several containers across the game.
- Explorer Mode gives players double their standard health instead of 1.5 times as much.
- Grym, the Protector of the Forge, is now harder on Tactician.
- Lae’zel’s underwear now more accurately reflects the color of dyes used.
- Traders who stock dyes now also stock dye remover.
But that is just a tiny, tiny sample from the Highlights, to say nothing of the full Patch Notes. Below is the full list of those highlights. Be aware that there are spoilers in these notes, so proceed with caution:
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #1 Highlights
- The Emperor will no longer leave you stranded in the Morphic Pool.
- Starting to use the boat to go to the Morphic Pool, sending that character to camp, and then using another character to make the journey will no longer block you from progressing.
- 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.
- Wyll should be able to talk about Ravengard being at Moonrise Towers, and will no longer have an exclamation point above his head without having anything new to say.
- Wyll should now be able to tell you what to do next if Ansur is killed and he has an exclamation mark above his head.
- Ravengard no longer addresses non-tadpoled characters as True Souls in Wyrm’s Rock.
- 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 the hag to have 0 HP if loading an autosave created when entering the Lower City, preventing you from progressing through related quests.
- Fixed Karlach not going to camp after being freed from the Wyrm’s Rock prison if your party was full.
- 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.
- Fixed Minthara’s body disappearing at camp after you decide to bring a sweet moment to a terrible end.
- You can no longer recruit both Halsin and Minthara to camp in the same playthrough.
- Changed several precise map markers into more appropriate general area markers, such as for investigating Kagha, investigating the cellar in the Blighted Village, and finding Halsin at the Goblin Camp.
- 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.
- When confronting Raphael in the House of Hope, Raphael will no longer target his own pillars or allies with Flames of Avernus.
- The Rescue the Grand Duke quest should now receive a proper update about the duke’s whereabouts, regardless of the way the quest started.
- 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.
- Made sure Mizora can always interrupt Wyll, no matter where he runs off to.
- 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.
- 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.
- Grym, the Protector of the Forge, now deals more damage in Tactician Mode.
- Meenlocks are now immune to the shadow curse.
- Increased the HP and AC of Orin.
- Lorroakan can no longer cast his signature reaction spell, Elemental Retort, when silenced.
- Helped Minthara remember how to use her weapons.
- Fixed enemies targeting you from above through the ceiling in the Gauntlet of Shar.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Undergoing partial ceremorphosis will now rot your teeth!
- Lae’zel’s underwear will now more accurately reflect the colour of dyes used on it.
- 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.
- Made sure Dame Aylin’s armour and wings are correct in the scene where she kicks Lorroakan’s butt.
- 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.
- Improved Volo’s aim during your ice pick lobotomy.
- Lae’zel no longer floats up and down during your dialogue where you discuss dating.
- Made sure Wyll has room to dance no matter where you’re camping.
- 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.
- The red dragon you see through the telescope in the Emerald Grove will no longer remain blurry after you pass the Perception check.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Full Patch Notes Summary
Of course, these are just a small chunk of the overall patch notes, amounting to about 15,000 total words (or about 40 standard pages) of notes. Those are a bit too much even for us to repost, but you can find the full patch notes here on their forums. The patch include fixes for the following categories, in addition to the notes above:
- Crashers and Blockers
- Multiplayer
- Combat and Balance
- Actions and Conditions
- Gameplay
- Flow and Scripting
- Journal
- Writing
- Loot and Trade
- Character Creation and Level Up
- Items
- UI and Tooltips
- Level Design and Map
- Animation
- Art
- Audio
- SFX
- VFX
- Cinematics
- Engine
- Launcher
- Controller
- “Other”
Considering how packed each of those categories is, it is fair to say that basically the entire game has been patched to remove countless errors and bugs, and to make hundreds of small changes, all in order to make the game that much better. The sheer size of these notes makes Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch #1 a veritable monument to bugfixing, and demonstrates Larian’s desire to continue improving upon and polishing their game after release.
It is good to see a developer take such care and passion to polish up all the little details of their game. These patch notes contain no gigantic content additions or new gameplay mechanics — instead, they are 15,000 words of small tweak that, when taken as a whole, ought to make a smoother, more enjoyable experience for the millions of players of Baldur’s Gate 3. You can check out their Steam Community post about this huge Patch here, and can see the full patch notes on their forums here.
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