This is a minima-list summary of the new features that were announced during the Panel From Hell 3 / LarPG show and that will be shipped with Patch 5.
There will probably be an official list in the Community Update, when Larian publishes one. Whether this will come right after the Panel From Hell 3, or to accompany the release of Patch 5, I do not know.
The Patch will be released on Tuesday 13th July 2021.
Upcoming features for Patch 5.
- New UI for Ability Checks during cutscenes.
- Swen called this the Active Roll System.
- It shows the check's Difficulty Class and the various bonuses that apply : Ability Score Bonus, Proficiency, and other sources (such as spells).
- It allows to cast spells from within the Ability Check's UI.
- For what it's worth, it seems as if the dice will look a bit different and no longer be red. - Background goals.
- Larian added specific mini-quests throughout the game, that are related to background.
- You will get inspiration points by "playing to background". I guess this means at least completing the background-related quests that you find.
- I believe I heard there will be 130 background goals. Not sure if this is intended for EA, or throughout the game. For context, there are 13 official backgrounds in BG3, so that's 10 per background. - Camp setting now matches the place where you sleep.
Examples mentioned include Underdark, Crypt, Cave, Forest. - Rest system : new mechanism, resource management.
- This puts limits on long rests and start creating a difference between short rest from long rest.
- If you eat enough food when resting at camp, you get the benefits of a long rest. If not, you get only the benefits of a short rest.
- Thus, managing supplies (both food and class abilities) becomes a thing. And finding food becomes important.
- This mechanism is announced as a trial. No guarantee that it will remain in that form in the final version. Swen explicitly said they are seeking feedback on this. - Jump and Disengage.
- Jump and Disengage are now separated.
- Also, there is now be a hotkey for jump.
- Disengage now costs an Action. This was described off-handedly by Swen as an answer to a chat question, and is meant to be a trial in Patch 5. - Concentration can now be stopped.
- New gameplay / story content.
- While Larian announced that the focus of this Patch was on systems, not content, there will be a couple of new things.
- He mentioned new cutscenes in camp. Check out Scratch and the Owlbear.
- It is apparently be possible to free Shadowheard in the Nautiloid. Expect her to be the teased surprise on the beach.
- I think Swen also mentioned new quest permutations. - Characters now say things when the player issues them orders.
- Basically like when you select or give order to units in some RTS games or CRPGs.
- What they say depend on the order : Move, Hide, etc.
- Swen called this the point-and-click system. I'm sure someone can find / knows of a better name for this. - New combat actions.
- Non-lethal attacks. This should apparently be activated via a toggle.
- Disarm. - Inspiration point cap.
- The cap will apparently be 4 Inspiration Points (for the whole party, I'd assume, not per character).
- Gaining Inspiration Points beyond the cap should bring you XP instead. - Visual effects for spells.
- The VFX team has been working on theming spells to classes, if they are class-specific.
- I don't remember if this was for Patch 5 or later. - Crafting/loot.
Apparently more crafting is coming.
Swen also did a sort of live AMA (Ask Me Anything), answering some questions from the Twitch chats. So here is additional information, not necessarily related to Patch 5.
- Act 2 in EA : definitely not.
- Overall, mechanical content (such as races, classes) and gameplay/story content (new maps, quests, plot progression) is definitely something people should not expect. - Reactions will not change in this patch. But it is a something that Swen actually mentioned. And he said they'll be expanding (?). Basically it sounded like they're working on it.
- Inventory management : they are working on a revamp.
- Multiclass will come. But much later. Probably.
- Difficulty level : will come very late.
- The AI is going to start using/knowing the rules of the game. (Not sure I caught that well.)
We also learned that Swen is a save-scumming expert, though that wasn't as part of the AMA and I doubt this was an intended Patch 5 announcement.
