Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Patch 8 Speculation: The Bard and ?

What does everyone think is coming with Patch 8, besides the Bard?
What I wanted was the Paladin, but that's not coming yet. With the Bard, Cutting Words would be a problem, if the current reaction system remains. Using a Reaction and expending a use of Bardic Inspiration. You only get Charisma modifier uses per long rest. So unless Larian is going to severely gimp the Lore Bard, I guess we're getting an updated reaction system. YEA!!!!! By the reported size of the update, we may also be getting character level 5 and 3rd level spells. At the very least we should get the Shield spell.

if there's reaction added in and level 5 that making me tempted to play bg3. hmm.. but so far already having the fun in solasta though. wondering how different it will be.

I got my fingers crossed for some more story content. I sat out the barbarian patch because It's not a class I generally care to play unless it goes heavy into the RP factor of said barbarian's culture, and afaik the BGIII barbarians are pretty undefined culturally? I'd assume Uthgardt, which could make for an interesting dynamic with another character from a different barbarian culture, but they are, as suggested-unreleased. And my impressions of the Barbarian was that it was rather 'hijinks & memes' oriented instead of rp oriented with stuff like throwing enemies and talking in all caps etc. I think of bard as mainly a meme sort of class already so I'm unlikely to play one. So I'm hoping for some non-bard related content to sink my teeth into.

I have genuinely no clue of what we could expect aside from the bard, frankly.

If the Bard class does come with a reaction overhaul, then there's a great chance we'll be seeing a fair amount of reaction-dependent spells and abilities being added in too, like Shield and the Protection fighting style.

It's unlikely. But it would be a great surprise to see all three classes. With some abstract imagination the theater looks like a boxing ring and the Bard will be the announcer for a Monk and Paladin clash (because of their different philosophies).

Otherwise I can think of the following things:

- better translations
- more deities for Cleric or all classes
- more pact boons for Warlock
- a higher EA-Level-Cap ideally with multiclassing (I want to start testing it...)
- fixed inspiration goals for existing backgrounds
- Variant Human
- custom party character creation at beginning with character build saves (former export / import function)
- more Battlemaster maneuvers
- more spells
- additional weapons like Ninja-Tos and armor variaty (most skins look really ugly)
- a display for chosen feats (that seems to have gotten lost somehow)
etc. pp.

Edit: - more (immersive) backgrounds such as Guild Merchant, Mercenary Veteran and Faction Agent

If it is bard, then yeah, the reaction system should be reworked too.
I would love to get level 5 and level 3 spells.
And more armor variety.

If you're wondering how Cutting words would work "Larian-Style", as in, what they'd do rather htan have to give us proper reactions, it would work likee this:

Cutting Words: Free action, on your turn, target one creature within 60 feet and expend a bardic inspiration die to cause its next attack or saving throw to be reduced by a roll of your bardic die.

Simple, lazy, unsatisfying and the minimum effort way of actualising the ability into the current system. Just watch.

I'd like to see Gnome but yes Bard will be great

Yep, or something worse. People in here actually believing the reaction system is about to change after 2 years.

Man, the meltdowns and scathing criticism of Larian is going to be EPIC on Thursday.

To answer OP:

Bard class
+ + + + + +
[more subclasses for those missing]
[more items, equips, armor, weapons]
[Karlach can be recruited to party]
[NPCs turned to Bards for dialogue & combat]
[more UI changes]
[missing spells & cantrips added]


what I hope
[shove turn to full action]
[combat AI improvement]
[cheesy sparky items removed]
[wet + cold/lightning removed]

Bard
Weather effect
Random encounter
Shove is an action

Im hoping for an item revamp, with item backstories and more 5e items (and inspection artwork)

Some more bodys in the character creator, and half orc
Since half orc should have come out with barbarian tbh

What i believe, or what i hope will be there? :-/

Quite honestly i expect just the as we get in patch 7 ...
Just class, some items tuned for that class, some small changes in dialogue, and thats it.

What i hope for tho ...
Would be basicaly everything mentioned abowe.
Stuff like level 5, adjustable starting gear, properly made reactions, new spells, missing spells, some additional subclasses, adjustable size of hotbar, option to lock hotbar, updated fog of war feature, updated party selection feature, new companions (plural is quite important here), custom party, stat rolls, additional location, etc.
Basicaly all the stuff we are talking about for last two years.

And then there are wild dreams that i cant shake off, but dont even dare to hope for them ...
And that would be Gnomes, since i still dont think there is litteraly any reason to keep them from us, since we all know how they will look ... i mean what is suppose to be the surprise? O_o
Monk, and Paladin, since i believe that Larian can (and from certain point of view should) release more than one class per patch ... if they would want to.
Party of 6 ... bcs, reasons.
And many, many, many, many, ... and even more MANY, missing dialogue choices ... wich should be in the group abowe, but i doubt i get them all.

My “hope” for this patch would be: bard + revamp reactions + couple new spells + further improvements to UI.

My realistic hopes for this patch are that we get bards, a reaction system rework, some new items and dialogue, and MAYBE we get some nice outfit options. That's the most unlikely thing that is at the same time, in my opinion, reasonable that we could get.

I would be ok with 10 pages of bug fixes like the previous patches.

Whoah! Chill your expectations a bit, will ya?! :P

Yeah, I've kind of already mentally prepared myself for that possibility too. I'd basically stop following the EA at that point, and approach the full game with a DoS alpha strike opener mentality rather than adapting mid-combat like in actual DnD.

Even the person who made the Bard mod about a year and a half ago basically made it so that Bardic Inspiration/Combat Inspiration and Cutting Words increased or decreased *all* of their possible modifiers for 1 turn, instead of just one modifier due to the lack of a proper reaction system. If it turns out that this wasn't some fan-made thing, it's basically going to be Wizard learning any spell from any class levels of busted.

- New Bard action: [Song of Day and Night]: Upon casting this spell the game world's clock is changes to night or day depending of the actual time of day at casting
- Wizz lose ability to cast anything
- camera fix and z axis added
- changes to story/writing: reworked evil route, fix to major inconsistencies
- more junk items with questionable synergetic or conditional effects
- fixed cutscene triggers
- added wildlife and extra 'flavour' NPC's to make the world 'feel alive'
(yeah right, not gonna happen)