Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Community Update #28 Closed Beta

Ah, the summer. Outside the temperature is rising, the chemical aroma of sunscreen is inescapable, and your dad is on his third day wearing the same sweat-stained tank top. What better time than now to retreat indoors and catch up on the latest updates arriving in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Coming to you this September, Patch 7 rolls out the perfect escape with split screen updates, brand new cinematics for evil endings, plenty of bug fixes, plus our official modding toolkit which we talked more about in our last Community Update!

Let’s take a look! And as always, beware - spoilers lay ahead.

Split Screen Updates



Dynamic split screen mode is incoming! With our next update, friends will no longer be eternally confined to their side of the screen - because the power of friendship transcends all obstacles, including screen partitions.

When playing in co-op, you’ll now have the option to have split screens merge into a single screen when you near one another. You can access this directly from the HUD and within the game settings, both in and out of combat.



Honour Mode Improvements

We’re continuing to make improvements to combat in Honour Mode too. With Patch 7, even more creatures have been bestowed additional Legendary Actions, including the bulette, everyone’s favourite neighbourhood surgeon, Malus Thorm, and githyanki Ch'r'ai Tska'an, Ch'r'ai Har'rak, and Ptaris.

Dror Ragzlin will now also be able to use a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion to rally the spiders that reside in the nearby pit to fight the real enemy - you.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Modding Toolkit

With this update also comes our official modding toolkit! Come September, you'll be able to load up your game with a range of new game mods, and even try your hand at making some yourself.

We recommend giving our Modding FAQ a look for more information on what modding support means for Baldur’s Gate 3.

We’re currently working with Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Authors during our Closed Alpha, who have been busy testing out the toolkit. To find out what some of the Mod Authors have been working on during the Closed Alpha, keep reading!

The Toolkit itself will give you everything you need to edit or create entirely new content, including:

• Items - Equipment like weapons and armours, consumables, and miscellaneous items.
• Cosmetics - Including different hair, beards, and other textures.
• Classes and Subclasses - Creating new variants or modifying existing ones to edit abilities, powers, and skills.
• Races - These can be created and edited to determine overall appearance, as well as their individual powers and abilities.
• Dice Skins - You’ll also have the ability to edit or redesign the appearance of your dice skins!
• User Interface - Including extensions and restyling of the game UI.
• Quality of Life Improvements - Such as some mods that edit or improve gameplay that don’t directly rely on tools outside of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit.
  • While we hope to make modding more accessible and increase mod compatibility with our mod manager and toolkit, third-party modding will still remain an option for players and creators. We do not plan to limit modding to only our official pipeline! We recommend giving our Modding FAQ a look for more information on what modding support means for you, and for Baldur’s Gate 3.

Evil Endings

And, of course, Patch 7 will also be bringing several new cinematics that offer your more evil playthroughs a grander finale!

From avatar Origin characters, including the Dark Urge, to the multiple different pathways that you can take as your own player character, each new cinematic is yours to discover through nefarious means.

While we don’t want to give everything away just yet, you can feast your eyes on the teasers below - and be on the lookout for more heading your way soon!


Would you lie with me and just forget the world?


My sugarboo, I’m levitating.

Dark Urge Bug Fixes

Along with the new evil ending cinematics coming this patch, we’ve introduced a number of improvements and bug fixes for our Dark Urge players - ironing out camera pops, missing inspiration, VFX, and a few other issues.

For instance, a bug has now been fixed where combat sometimes fails to trigger in the event that you decide to murder one of your companions as the Dark Urge and attack the party. This will now lead to combat with the rest of the gang. And Minthara will now respond accordingly if you’ve been stripped of Bhaal’s influence.

We may have also let a certain bard now join the party as a controllable character if there’s an empty slot, temporarily, of course.

“But will we be able to kiss Gortash?” we hear you plead. “We want to kiss Gortash!”

Listen, he’s a complicated guy who’s busy contemplating the minutia of death cult office politics. Babygurl doesn’t have time to kiss.

Origin Character Bug Fixes

This update will also see improvements made to some cinematics, endgame dialogues, and Origin characters - specifically things like clipping issues, a couple of broken triggers for quests, dialogues, and romances, the odd case of retrograde amnesia, and persistent exclamation marks.

Oh, and the Blade of Frontiers will no longer absent-mindedly swing his sword mere inches from the aorta of shorter races who try to recruit him.

Let’s look at some of the highlights!

Wyll Highlights

Patch 7 includes a heap of fixes for Wyll, ranging from improvements to his dialogue reactivity to fixes for romance scenes.

If you’ve experienced issues triggering the romance scene with Wyll, this update will fix that. Should your relationship be headed in that direction, the cutscene in question will now trigger when you speak to Wyll at camp before your Long Rest.

A bug that had been preventing his romance greeting from triggering has also been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

We’ve fixed Wyll’s dialogue reactivity during the epilogue for partnered players who have either joined Karlach in the Hells or Lae'zel in the rebellion, and we also determined there simply weren’t enough opportunities to kiss Wyll during the epilogue. This update rectifies that with the option to ask for a kiss in more paths of Wyll’s epilogue dialogue.

And if you're in holographic form during the epilogue, he’ll no longer automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel, which was weird.

Astarion Highlights

In Patch 7, we’ve made improvements to the facial animations of your character during some kissing cinematics, including with the ascended Astarion.



We’ve also made tweaks to how Origin characters react within certain cutscenes, to enhance their emotional impact. For example, companions will show Astarion more empathy when he loses his ability to withstand sunlight.

Lae’zel Highlights

Lae’zel will now wait a little longer at her recruitment site if you tell her you’ll be returning. And once she’s set up at camp, she will also cycle through more varied idle animations.

This update will also put an end to an annoying issue where resurrecting Lae'zel on the beach in Act I would cause her to appear in the Party Line but not in the world, blocking you from leaving Act I.

Karlach Highlights

Along with some more general fixes for Karlach, she will now react to Dammon if she finds him dead after he has told her that he can help her.



That sketchy fade-to-black that follows her final scene in Avernus, which also unintentionally gave you a very brief glimpse of the region in gameplay mode, was a visual bug that has also been fixed.

The dialogue block caused by choosing to stay with a different companion the morning after your second romance scene with Karlach is no more.

Also, she’ll no longer brush the shaved side of her head during her camp idle animation.
Wrong side, Karlach.

Gale Highlights

With a few tweaks to camera angles and fixes to animation pops, repeated dialogue, and missing VFX, we’ve polished up Gale and his scenes and further refined his donation UI.

That panel that opens when donating magical items to Gale? This will now show all items eligible for donation - including those on your person, your party’s inventories, and your Traveller’s Chest.

This is part of the work that began with Hotfix #16 to improve the donation UI and update a player’s ability to access certain quest-related items, which has now been completed. We’re reinstating the intended behaviour that was removed in Hotfix #17 as a temporary bug fix to missing UI functionality. So if you now deny Gale a magic item three times in a row with magical items either on your person, your party's inventories, or now from your Traveller’s Chest, he will leave your party.

Alternatively, selecting “I’m not giving you anything. Not now, not ever” will still cause Gale to leave your party forever.

We’ve also patched up a bug that was preventing the final dialogue between Gale and Mystra from triggering, as well as a scene in the endgame that would cut off before you could kiss.

Shadowheart Highlights

In addition to fixing a few of her animation bugs, this update fixes a number of quest issues for Shadowheart.

A bug that saw the Spear of Night either not being received, or being spoken about as if it hadn’t already been acquired, is no more. Another bout of amnesia has also been fixed, in which Shadowheart occasionally thought Viconia was still alive after killing her. The 'Daughter of Darkness' quest should also now close properly if you choose to surrender Shadowheart to Viconia.

And yes, we’ve tweaked a few kissing scenes for her too, fixing a broken romance cutscene that should have triggered after giving Shadowheart the Idol of Shar, and a kissing animation that will no longer kick in before the dialogue option is chosen. We’ve also polished up the appearance of neck kissing. In the words of Michelangelo, no great work of art is ever finished, and so too is our approach to the art of snogging.

Party Banter Improvements

Prior to this update, party banter between companion characters was limited to the characters controlled by a single player. In Patch 7, multiplayer parties will support banter between characters assigned to different players.

This patch also resolves issues that had been rendering some romance party banters inaccessible while adventuring.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit: Closed Alpha Progress

With the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit, we’re hoping to make modding more accessible and convenient for everyone.

To help us expand on what the tool can offer, we invited Mod Authors to join a Closed Alpha where they have been busy building their Baldur’s Gate 3 mods using the official modding tools arriving in Patch 7, and we wanted to show off some of their creations!

Mod Author Padme4000 has been tinkering with the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit during the Alpha, and has been able to bring her Dragonborn Scale Colours mod to life.

- Mod Author, Padme4000.

- Mod Author, Padme4000.




Another Mod Author, TechRoot, has also tried his hand at modifying colours in game:

- Mod Author, TechRoot.



Mod Author, LostSoul, said:

- Mod Author, LostSoul.



Closed Beta - July 22nd

Are you interested in playtesting Patch 7? With all these bug fixes, updates to gameplay, and new features, we want to make sure we haven’t broken anything or introduced something that will make your computer explode. (We’re kidding, our legal representatives ensure.)

We mentioned in Community Update #26 that we were introducing additional internal playtesting, but we’d also like to test Patch 7 at scale, with a variety of different systems and savegames - this is where we would like your help!

Registration Now Open

Head to the Baldur’s Gate 3 store page on Steam and register now for your chance to take part in the Patch 7 Closed Beta which will go live next week on July 22nd!

Entry to the playtest will be given to randomly selected registered players, and if you’re selected, we’ll let you know more about what to look out for, including partial patch notes, and how you can report any issues you might come across!

New Merch Online Now

You’ve been waiting for it, and now it’s here! Check out our new merch available online, including two new original t-shirt designs by Anna Hollinrake, the Baldur’s Gate 3 OST on cassette with exclusive bonus track, Down By The SynthWave, a gorgeously ornate mind flayer poster, and more!

It Ain’t Goodbye Just Yet!

It’s hard to believe it’s almost been an entire year since we launched Baldur’s Gate 3. But the journey isn’t over yet.

Patch 7 won’t be the final update for Baldur’s Gate 3. We still have a few things up our sleeve - including many community-requested features like crossplay and a photo mode to capture and share your unforgettable moments. And we’re working on a host of other enhancements, from gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements to bug fixes and performance optimizations.

We’ll keep you looped in on when those are likely to hit a little further down the line. In the meantime, stay in touch with us on our socials, stay tuned, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen.

I'll join in

Finally my Dark Urge story no longer feels broken

And when I see the floating Durge I will be the very best evil Durge... "Sceleritas prepare everything, we'll get something to do."

*Chuckle* ^^

Thank you for giving Wylls story the much needed backbone and reactivity.



I want to point out, that most of the information disks in the nautiloid are currently not working. Maybe you could address that? For us veteran players, that might not be important, but they contain nice tidbits for new players.

And yay for mod support and not having my Durges smooch GOrtash - I don't get the charme of a 'younger handsome man with an easy smile'

Modding for this game should be wild.

The team is aware of the rune tablets not working and they're currently looking into the issue!

Impressive cruelty, to push even further the illusion of her being an actual party member. Here's hoping her clothes can be stolen.

Any news on fixing Shadowheart's hair during the river scene? If she is Selune her white hair turns black when she removes her clothes.

Thank you, that is great.

Any chance for news about arcane trickster? Still find it really shocking that there have been multiple cosmetic fixes and things like kissing animations when an entire subclass that worked in beta has been broken since launch... It's what I've been waiting for to jump back into the game and I'm starting to lose hope 🫤

I totally agree. I never touched Arcane Trickster anymore after full release and people complaining. I guess, a kissing animation is easier and the fangirls are satified, so I hope, it isn't forgotten and they already work on it in the background.

Patch 6. This bug gets me every time:

if you kill Khaga (and the Shadow Druids) the journal updates, but not the Investigate Khaga quest with the entry prompting you to talk to Zevlor… happens if one of the hostile druids is still alive… typically the lonely guy that walks in the side room when the combat starts, because he may remain far from your characters and not enter combat.

If you then talk to Zevlor (because you know you should…) he acknowledges Khaga is dead, rewards you, but the Investigate Khaga quest does not complete. If you go back, kill the remaining hostile druid (because you know you should…) the quest updates, you’re prompted to talk to Zevlor, but then he just chit-chat…


Short version: Investigate Khaga quest should also update when Khaga dies, not when all hostile druids are dead.

As of today:
Noticed the following errors:
1. Something strange is happening in the cave with the owlbear. If the mother calls for a helper in the form of a male (legendary action), the child remains hostile after killing them and cannot be recruited in the future.
2. The corpses of Mairina's brothers. Sometimes both are lying, but sometimes, either both or one of them periodically do not appear in the swamp. What it depends on, I couldn't figure out.

I am not sure if this helps with your concern, but there is a turn of events in which they do not turn up dead. If you just let them go their merry way, you won't find corpses and Auntie will say something about them being at a farm.


It's nice to read that Gale's camera glitches and endgame kiss trigger are worked on, though they are probably not the gravest bugs on the list. I hope that the missing companion reactions to the act 2 visit by Elminster for Origin-Avatar-Gale will also be patched. It is a bit depressing if only best girl Lae'zel (and sometimes Wyll) care about the grave news Elminster delivers.

If you flee combat and return later (after long resting) the cub will be gone and can be found at the goblin camp and recruited as normal. It's still a bug, but this workaround lets you recruit this very important companion.

Thank you.
I meant the course of events where they is dead, but for a reason unknown to me, their bodies(one or both of them) disappear from the game. There is a red bloodstain, but no bodies. (and hence no way to talk to them).It doesn't always happen, but I couldn't figure out what it depends on.


Thank you. I was afraid if I escaped, he would remain hostile and replayed this fight until baby's mother forgot to summon a helper. Then the further quest goes correctly.

Curious to ask; does mod support via mod.io mean that Steam Workshop support isn't being added or is it possible that Workshop support could come later down the road? I'm playing BG3 exclusively via Nvidia's cloud streaming service GeForce Now due to me not having a PC to play on and GFN only allows mods via Steam Workshop.

so just to clear, this beta test is for Steam on Pc only yes?
Gog, mac xbox etc need not apply

1 = yes that change was last hotfix... you can just leave the cave with the cub still alive and return after a long rest she should have moved on to the Goblin camp where you can talk to her after

2 = yes the swamp has two different maps and it depends on you passing a test to "see' the real swamp... as far as the story goes its the same result seeing one or both brothers dead and you really only miss out on looting his knife

Yes, I hope the Elminster responses fixed to! The other companions apparently do have comments for Gale Origin, but people have only found them in parsed dialogue. Hopefully it's an easy fix.

Yes, the Beta for Patch 7 will be only through Steam, the registration can be accessed through the Baldur's Gate 3 game page, right under "add to cart".

Also, thank you all for the reports! Please, remember the fastest way to get them to the team is to report them directly to support (if you haven't done so yet): https://larian.com/support/faqs/how-to-submit-a-bug-report_85

Thank you! It was very important for us. Can you please tell me if the animation of Ascended Astarion's kisses will remain the same? Will Tav still get slapped in response to trying to kiss Astarion (kiss with a bite)? And will Tav still be passive and not touch Astarion in kisses, or can we hope for some improvements on this issue as well? Either way thank you very much for the change in facial expressions!


Astarion doesn't get a single opportunity to kiss him in the epilogue at all. Not a single one. He's the only romantic companion who can't even be hugged in the epilogue (Ascended). Will the ability to kiss Astarion in the epilogue be added?

I'm sorry but can the Astarion fans be content for once? He is the character with the most content already, you drove the whole forum crazy for that kiss change. Can you please take a backseat and let the real problems get solved now? Broken arcane trickster, Wyll still not being able to make his own decisions, codexes not working, not a lot of reactivity in act 3.

I'm happy for you, truely, but now other things should get focussed too.

As an Astartion fan I'm extremly happy! I'm also really glad to see Wyll get some updates, and I'm hoping for more for Minthara even through it's not stated in the post. The evil teaser endings looks so good, I can not wait!

Thank you. There is so much, I would like to address apart from what I wrote above, like the toilet chain ( I think Tuco invented that word and it just stuck) not really working, meaning the patching of companions and summons.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with the game, but since there are still updates planned, it's worth getting it out. The several romance fans were pretty loud ( and the poor Minthara fans rightfully so, she is a total buggy mess) and I fear it drained out other more important issues. What good is it, if Astarion is now the perfect kisser, if he fails your honour mode, because due to bad pacing he manages to aggro the whole map ( yes, that happened, not to me, but a friend)

Yes since we are talking about Wyll getting dialogue improvements for his epilogue kiss - will Astarion also get an epilogue kiss? Neither the spawn nor ascended get a kiss at all in the epilogue, although the other companions do.

Minthara definitely deserves some attention in this update. She is one of the only evil companions and would oftentimes get neglected or keep getting more bugs in updates.
And I'm excited Also relieved for those who were hurt or triggered by what was added in the last patch.

You have to kill the mate first, then the mom. If you do it in that order then the cub will trigger the scene correctly.

However, if you kill the mom first and then the mate, the cub will remain hostile.

Yes since we are talking about Wyll getting dialogue improvements for his epilogue kiss - will Astarion also get an epilogue kiss? Neither the spawn nor ascended get a kiss at all in the epilogue, although the other companions do.

[/quote]


Really? Now you are complaining, because the companion with the least content gets something that your golden boy, who is the centre of everything, doesn't have?
Wylls epilogue was bugged to hell and that through patches - and it was ignored because the Wyll fans seem to be pretty chill and don't complain a lot.

I wish, Larian would leave the romance content be and focus on story and bug fixes instead. I'm a bit tired to hear the complaints after every patch, because how dare Larian not cater to every romance and sex fantasy out there. They can't win this one.

I'm not complaining. I simply asked a question. I suppose you weren't paying attention when I said I was excited and relieved. I'm very thankful that things are being addressed. You are being very negative towards me, when I said nothing negative about Wyll or the updates he's receiving. lol

Oh, don't play the victim here. Yes, you said, you are happy, but you are the second of the AA circle pointing to Wylls new content today and saying "We want too". So pardon me, when I see a new Astarion campaign rolling through the forum, after we didn't even have time to recover from the last one.

@fylimar I caught you accusing me of gaslighting you before you edited it. I can express my opinion if I want. It's not specifically about Wyll. I saw that epilogue kisses were mentioned, so I made a comment.

I don't know, what your problem is, I can be allowed to have a different opinion than you and now I think we should go back to topic. And yes, I changed my answer, that is actually allowed too. I was angry of you accusing me and cooled down.

Evidently you have the problem, not me. I always try my best to ignore you, even when you're being unnecessarily aggressive and negative. My suggestion is that you stop getting so caught up with the "Me vs. Them" mentality -- that's very dangerous. You attacked me out of nowhere. Reported.

You didn't just have a "different opinion." I'm open to other opinions. You're being uncivil and rude to me, and directed your aggressive comments at me specifically.

You report me for having a different opinion? Alright then. You might want to check your messages though, it's pretty important and not related to this.

I don’t play the Arcane Trickster- what is bugged about it? Honestly curious?

Can Minthara finally get out of early access and get some love?

The list of issues is long: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=940248#Post940248




This is something that's been complained about since patch 5, so it's nothing new. Patch 6 issues simply made this one take a back seat.

Speaking of Astarion, can his hilariously animated model be fixed?

Unfortunately, or fortunately, this isn't just a problem with the pale elf, but with any male character of a given build if you strip him down to his waist. It's just evident in this scene.
Summon a male model of not strong build from Dzhergal (tiefling druid for example) and talk to him. He will have the same hands).
When they're clothed, it's not as conspicuous. But I consider it a small thing.

Thanks for the info, I never noticed it until I saw this scene, since Astarion is quite expressive in it and it became very obvious that something was wrong. This is clearly visible even when he's clothed.

A reminder that everyone is free to suggest whatever features they want in the game, and others are free to say they don’t want or don’t care about those features. I know it can be frustrating when we feel that certain topics that we don’t think are high priority get a lot of attention when things we care about are talked about less, but the solution to that is to talk about the things we think are important and not to dismiss or complain about others making their preferences clear as they’re perfectly entitled to do.

Though it’s also good manners to not hog the discussion by repetition or to derail threads by repeatedly bringing up our own hobby-horses. I’ve not seen that here, but as those behaviours do breed irritation thought it worth asking folk to take care not to slip into them.

I’m aware that factors outside this thread may have been at least partly behind it getting so grumpy, so will just request that we take a breath, reset, let bygones by bygones and treat each other with courtesy and respect going forward.

Thank you!

A friend of mine looked into it with the script extender and apparently the flags are a bit odd. I hope it gets fixed because apart from Lae'zel's (my bro, my besti, my confidant) encouragement, Astarion's little speech about personal will opposed to that of the gods is a highlight.


I hope I don't try our dear mod's patience by adding that I don't want an epilogue kiss for Spawn Astarion. I really like that he has a hug instead. It's both a throw-back to his act 2 scene and evolution of it. Where the act 2 hug was stiff, the epilogue hug is one of two people being extremely comfortable with each other.

Totally support. Minthara is a great companion, after I got her in my new playthrough she deservedly became a constant companion. Would really like more content for her.

Since everyone can make suggestions and ask questions, I'd like to make a suggestion to simply add the Ascended Astarion kiss from patch 5 to the epilogue. The animation is already there, meaning no extra cost is needed for this. Like Shadowheart with the hug, there is a separate line for that and she can be hugged as many times as the player wants. You can do the same with Astarion's kiss. The hug animation for Astarion is in Act 2 - it's a great hug, you just need to trim the beginning a bit where he's surprised and doesn't immediately accept the hug. This is an option that can be done with minimal work. And the wonderful kiss animation already made earlier will be used in the game, not wasted.

I am curious as well.

The special Mage Hand for Arcane Trickster is supposed to be able to pick locks and pockets and both doesn't work.

So exciting

Will yet a reasonable method be implemented to create a custom party from scratch without having to open multiple game instances... THAT would be a really nice “KISS”...! It's still cumbersome...

It's good that we will be finally able to hear the romance party banter, but though it's mostly good, some of ot is really upsetting. I mean the one in Act 3 where Gale is talking to Astarion and telling how great it was to be with Mystra... AFTER the boat scene. Hate that one. He must be over her by that moment, dammit. And telling things like that right in front of Tav? That would make everything he was teeling before just a lie. Not only it spoils the whole romance but also it ruins the character arc. Dear Larian, please, if you are that determined to hurt all the Gale romance fans and won't remove this banter, PLEASE at least move it to act 1.

Some of the romance banter in general is a bit cringe - I wouldn't mind if it stayed enternally bugged.

So...what about the CROSS PLATFORM MULTIPLAYER? WE like all the new content and all but we've been promised to be able to play with friends since the beginning. We understand it's on the "road map" but can you at Larion Studio stop checking out "The World's Largest Ball of Twine" and hit up a promised Stop? After all Games are made to play with Friends.

[quote=Asguardian]So...what about the CROSS PLATFORM MULTIPLAYER? quote]
a network tunnel solves most issues but yes ... only testing one platform makes this a bit of a joke beta

The team continues to work to bring crossplay to Baldur's Gate 3 and that should be coming a bit further down the road, but not on Patch 7. Once we have a specific date we'll make sure to let everyone know!

I've personally submitted multiple bug reports about how arcane trickster doesn't function as intended and finesse daggers aren't properly using dexterity when thrown and these are two significant bugs that have plagued the game since it left Early Access. Any chance we might finally hear something about these in the coming weeks?

+1k

Yes indeed, I finally wanna see my ATs throwin daggers (using dex) kissing some bloody gobbo hearts! Larian, how about that kind of (proper combat mechanic / proper AT class implementation) "kissing animation" for a change?!

Shadowheart no longer changes into a mystery leather outfit during the ship crash onto the starting beach i.e, if you put another armour on her before the crash then that will be what she hits the beach with

Hi folks, given the closed beta is over and patch 7 is released, I'd suggest posting in one of the patch 7 threads or creating new ones from now on!