Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Things that ACTUALLY changed during EA so far

Some negative changes:

Am I the only one noticing this? Pre patch the game graphics art style looked better.

-Downgraded graphics for lighting. Looks more mushy, colorful and bright now...particularly in dark areas.

I have not played the game for a while.

I know they changed spell UI for upcasting.
Did they also change "cast spell again"?

The first versions had an annoying issue.
You cast spell x by selecting it from the hotbar.
Then a new icon showed up on the hotbar "cast spell x again".
To use the spell first you had to know that a new icon comes and then you had to find it.
If they did not change this already it would be nice if the "cast spell again" option was part of the new upcasting menu, so there is only one icon for every spell.

I don't know about OP barrelmancy, but ogres throwing goblin-laden barrels onto the grove walls is still a thing.

A few additions to the list I haven't seen mentioned already.

• Weapon actions were added.
• Wyll's Devil sight was made compatible with the Darkness spell.
• The Friends cantrip used to have no consequences.
• A bunch of content has made less difficult to access, either by lowering the DC of the check required, or by adding a path that requires no dice-rolling.
• The camp sequences have been reshuffled as of patch 8. I don't have all the details on this, but the story makes more sense now, no matter how often you long rest.
• A bunch of magic items were created, often with their own charge system or status effect. (Not saying it's always good, but it's an EA addition).
• The UI now lets you click on a ressource (action, BA, spell slot...) and shows what you can do with it.
• The trade tab was added alongside the barter tab.
• Committing some crimes will land you in jail.

Yeah, have simmilar experience ...

But today im going to fight Goblin camp, so fingers crossed. ^_^

Well ... yes, but im not quite sure if for the better. :-/
Right now recasting is showed on extra bar that appears on separated 4-slots bar that is invisible if unused, nothing can be dragged out, nothing can be added in, not quite sure if it can expand futher ... but it certainly takes space that could have ben used for regular hotbar.

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//Edit:
On topic ... there was also some major HP reductions for NPCs ... especialy for Goblins.
Sadly there was also sobe boosts ... especialy for Githyanki.

Oh yeah, how Shadowheart joins the party got completely changed. During the earlier EA patches, the earliest she could join you was after the Naulitoid crash. Now as we all know, she can join you aboard the ship, and I'm not even sure the original scene of her joining your party (where she was banging against the crypt door) even exists anymore.

Trying to add things that I dident see people mention.

-They removed alot of clutter from the game. Like, metric tons of clutter.
-somewhat related, you can see upfront now if a container is empty. Dont think that was the case for the early builds. Means you spend less time looting things that dont actually hold anything.
-The encounter in the druid grove with (I think she was called Ellie?) has been made possible to do without save-scumming. Its original incarnation was exceedingly harsh. And while in character for a druid in the setting, was just a tad to much.
-Shadowheart her stats were a complete mess and got a more sensible rework.
-Speaking of Shadowheart. Her demeaner is....less rude. Originally she was VERY unlikable. Now she just somewhat unlikeable when you meet her but her beeing carefull at least makes abit of sense. She opens up more easily I think. Need to do another playthrough to check on her whole arc though, As much as we can see in the EA anyway.
-Added the bard singing in the druid camp. Whatever you like it or not its a nice atmospheric change.
-Spells can now be cast in dialogue more easily with prompts. And you cant use peoples spells against them when you are in dialogue with them.
-Cantrips not leaving surface areas has been listed but their damage has also been corrected. Seeing as we want them to adhere to the written rules I think thats fair to mention when they do listen to us.
-Some encounters have been tweaked depending on player feedback. The minotaurs and Hook Horrors for example got some tweaks AFAIK. They were jumping about, multi attacking and doing concussive blasts with their jumps originally and it was a complete shit-show compared to what those encounters were supposed to be when comparing the monsters to the monster manual counterpart.
-They added the part of the Duergar in the underdark. That part wasent in the game with the earlier builds.
-Dialogue added for quests in the underdark. Think the quest for the boots of speed with the underdark gnome dude. Or was it the dude in the shroom fields? Either way, they added more dialogue based on what had already happened.

Already mentioned by people but I think il add it as well, because people keep insisting that Larian doesent listen to feedback.
-Advantage in melee by beeing behind the target has been taken out due to feedback. Dispite it beeing a literal interpretation from the rules. (you get advantage if your target cant see you attacking) And high ground is now a small bonus instead of advantage. The latter was their own house-rule but the former could be considered PHB valid. Even if it was a very literal interpretation of the rules.

Thats the most I can come up on short notice.. Im sure ive missed some things but the game has changed quite a great deal. Even if each change isent as large as they could be.

You can do that?! Care to share how?

Still exists, I saw her banging away yesterday after failing the 'Ilithid wisdom' check when trying to insert the rune on the Nautiloid. I didn't think it was possible to fail on that roll, since it says 0, but I missed it rolling a 1. I assumed it was just a bug or something, but after failing she was knocking on the door with her mace just like the old times.

Pressing alt shows you the [empty] tag. I believe you could see upfront if something was empty but your reaction makes me second guess myself.

I do know you can see it on corpses (most anyway) but I seem to recall it worked for containers as well. Or did I misrenember things here?

You should only get advantage when you attack while being invisible or in stealth mode.
Attacking an enemy from behind when you are visible should not give advantage. Normally the enemy would see you and look at you when you attack him while you are visible.

I just checked the PHB and it does not mention flanking, so I am not sure about this.

Here's how I remember it. Pressing left alt will show tags for interesting objects and lootables. That feature has been changed during EA (I think), and doesn't show tags for the dumb stuff, like empty vases or pointless barrels.

The "empty" tag only shows up after you've looted something, and only if it's completely empty. Looting a corpse for weapons and armor but leaving behind a bone or empty bottle will not result in an "empty" tag. I don't think there's any way of making sure something is empty without looting it. Context clues help, but that's all you've got.

Not all things show up under ALT too. Maybe that's just them getting around to coding, but many objects with stuff in them won't show up with ALT, so you still want to click on everything if you're wanting all the goodies.

All important stuff seems to show under ALT - I suspect items that are highlighted are handpicked. So yeah, there is generic stuff to be found in some of the unhighlighted contained, but when you enter into the room and wonder what is worth paying attention to, ALT is there to help.

Here are the changes I can remember that I don't think I saw here:


UI/System
- Activating Turnbase mode immediately pauses character movement. In early patches, your characters reforms into formation first even after you turn it on, which can trigger traps, etc.

- Added in-world dates to the Journal (instead of just day 1, 2, 3, etc). Not sure if this will have significance later on, but probably just a minor change.

- AOO Indicator (the circle) was off and unreliable in early patches - seem to have been fixed.


Mechanics/Rules
- Armor proficiency requirements for non-chest pieces

- Fixed effects and conditions (at least closer to RAW 5E). Some examples:
- Fear from Menacing Attack used to make enemies run away
- Enemies used to not stay in Prone
- Blind/Obscurement applies disadvantage/advantage instead of making Ranged attacks unusable

- Adjusted the action cost of weapon swapping mid-combat (costs an action, not RAW, but there was definitely concern about how easy it was)

Oh just after looting then. It wasent as grand an improvement as I renembered then. But I do recall that it did help by showing what you already looted.


Not precisely. Like I said its a very literal interpretation but invisibilityt or stealth are indeed the easiest way of gaining it. On page 194 the unseen attackers and targets section states that if your opponent cannot see you, you have advantage when you attack them. If someone is standing behind you, you cant see it. Hence why moving behind enemies became instant advantage which completly broke combat.

Most groups run the rule that unless someone is hidden when combat starts then everyone at least knows of your presence even if they cant see you directly. I run it the same as well but technicly thats a house rule and not true to the phb. Its completly broken to run it as written though as it just turns into people running behind enemies and having perpetual advantage which I really doubt was the intention.

I'll put this in spoiler as I'm just replying to Demoulius and this is off-topic.

Il also keep it in spoiler tag. Do want to reply but not create a massive wall o text.

Another change... you can no longer bypass the Grove fight without triggering it. You use to be able to jump or fly(pet) from the road up to the grove, land up near the dead harper, then jump/fly down to the road headed toward the Blighted Village and the Grove fight would still be waiting for you to trigger it when you came back latter.

OK..what does Jeremy Crawford say?

I think its a good sign when you see the RAW being dissected . Achieving normality.

I think there can be no doubt that Larian is listening to feedback from many sources.

I dont know if Jeremy Crawford ever commented on it. But hes also contradicted himself in the past on some things so I tend to be hesitant to see things that he says as gospel. Reason why is off topic so il hide that in spoilers.