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

Just trying to build an more or less comprehensive list of meaningful changes we got so far, so I'd like for people to list some suggestions.

To be clear, I'd like to avoid listing stuff like "Added one line of dialogue to X" or similar, otherwise we could just copy-paste here the detailed changelog of all patches so far and call it a day.

I'm also not referring strictly to the addition of new content (classes, races, etc). I'm referring more to systemic changes (mechanics and rules, UI and so on) that are (presumably) going to have an effect across the whole game.


On top of my mind I can think a few:

- Food as a source of healing is gone, and it became part of a resource called "Supplies" consumed during long rest.
- No more backstab advantage
- No height advantage/disadvantage system, replaced by a flat +2 bonus on higher ground.
- No more "Jump as a free disengage".
- The "dirt and blood" system on characters count as a systemic change, I guess.
- Party-wide automated jump on followers, group chain/unchain and group stealth.

...And I'm already out of idea that left a mark, which is why I'm asking for suggestions.

P.S. Just to be transparent about it: I'm NOT trying to draw any conclusion from this, neither in favor of against the developers. So if you plan to jump in just to go on a tirade about how EA sucks OR how much more grateful we should be for what we got, please spare us.
I'm just trying to put together a convenient recap for reference.

- Enemy AI has been updated
- Throwing mechanic has been added
- Surfaces have been toned down a bit
- Many original 2 handed weapons (spear, staff) now have a 1 handed wielding option

Oh, I've been thinking about doing just this as well, at some point. So I'll happily join the effort !

Note 1 : I'm currently in a working/forum visit mode that means I visit somewhat frequently but don't have hours to spare. So I'll just jot down things, mostly from memory. I will correct and complement things later. Basically, this post will get edited.

Note 2 : as Tuco suggested, this is a list of the changes that we consider to be meaningful. Everyone cares about different things, but the goal is still to aim for the main things. (In a way, this is also a way to see what the players did and do care about.)

Note 3 : I'm personally interested in keeping track of which change came with which Patch. Ideally this is listed in the Patch notes but, on the one hand, I don't have all the time I wish I had right now so I won't go and flip through the patch notes and, on the other hand, I know that not everything was documented in the patch notes. So my list will be sorted (primarily ?) by Patch.


Patch 3.

• Movement and Party Controls : Follow-On-Jumps. The whole Group will follow on a jump.

Patch 4 (Druid).

• (Can't remember or can't think of something right now.)
• Actions UI > Spell Upcasting : the upcasted versions of a spell no longer take an additional icon in the Hotbar.

Patch 5 (Systems).

• Backstab rule : gone.
• High Ground rule : changed to +2 instead of granting Advantage.
• Disengage separated from Jump and costs an Action (I don't remember if this was properly listed in patch notes).
• Ability Check UI upgraded : it is now easier to cast buffs during conversations.
• Movement and Party Controls : hotkey to Group All/Ungroup All. (Undocumented.)
• (P5??) Actions UI : revised Hotbar.

Patch 6 (Sorcerer).

• (P6??) Abilities such as Battle Master Maneuvers : now consumes your resources (Superiority Dice) only in case of a hit, as it should. (Undocumented.)
• (P6??) Movement and Party Controls : hotkey available for Jump. Previously it was only Hide. Other actions (such as Dash) still don't have them.

Patch 7 (Barbarian).

• (Can't remember or can't think of something right now.)

Patch 8 (Bard+Gnome).

• Spellbook UI > Spell Upcasting : upcasted versions of a Level N spell are no longer listed in the list of spells for Level N+1 and above.
• Combat AI and speed : Swarm AI.
• Rules > Class Abilities : Expertise added (for Rogues and Bards).
• Conversation UI : Detect Though can now be used during the conversation. We no longer need to pre-cast it (or ignore the spell altogether).

Edit : ok, strike out the part about memory. I've checked the Patch 8 Notes quickly. More edits to come.

- Swam AI
- Location-based camp sites instead of everything in the forest.
- Companions doing more than just always standing there during dialogues.
- Made the UI represent a level up more than it initially was (a bunch of players didn't realize they had leveled up and how to do that early on)
- Several iterations on how spells are presented in UX, consolidating spells to drop-downs for spell levels instead of requiring multiple slots for the same spell on actionbar (still need more iterations IMO)
- Search filters for items, weapons and abilities
- Tooltips and how info is presented
- Strength requirements for throwing stuff
- Backend of how light affects hit-chances
- (Unsure about this one), limitations to how far you can free-cam away from the characters
- Enemy portraits displaying more information like if they have active concentration
- How statuses are displayed on player UI, with hoverable tooltips to see what they do
- Less surfaces
- Weighed dice, if that counts. Technically an addition rather than change, but can be considered a change possibly because of being due to feedback
- Making lockpicking/trap disarms be something you roll for, and not automatic
- Tooltip-pinning
- Changes to dialogue history window and increased length of it
- Inventories being lockable in multiplayer, so other players can't tamper with yours
- Removed food's ability to heal - Became food supplies for long rest instead
- Encumbrance got three tiers of progression, the system was binary and more unreadable to some players early on
- More experience reward opportunities if playing as a pacifist
- Can target allies/enemies with spells by clicking portraits as well as their unit directly



Feel free to include/ignore anything that doesn't fit what you're going for, I've just glanced through my feedback docs since release and noted down a few things I recognized at a glance from memory, that could maybe fit (?) what you're trying to summarize. Looking forward to lurk it and see where the buck lands! 😸

Narration changed from first person to to the current style

Swarm ai

Saving Shadow

Fireblot going back to d10 with no fire pool

Oh I think additions totally count. I mean, intuitively, to me, the list is meant to be about "what has changed/improved since EA started", and additions ideally improve the game, so they qualify. More technically, an addition is a change : where a feature was in the state "non-existent" (e.g. weighted dice : absent), it is now in the state "exists".

It's good to have something like this. Recently posting on the forum can feel like...whatever the opposite of a 'victory lap' is.

• Whether you like it or not, they've made the chained portrait control a little tighter since the beginning.
• In that vein, the party will, on its own, try to jump to follow you
• The combat AI has been tuned and retuned, I think they reached a point were they had to make it stupider
• Probably the biggest impact on my personal games, the Detect Thoughts revamp, as well as changing a number of utility spells to work without concentration
• Not really an EA thing but they've made the game prettier every patch, sometimes it's gotten too 'pretty' for some
• For the first time I realized they made tadpole uses; once per long rest, I don't know when they changed that.
• There have been some revamps to the character sheet/inventory unlike a lot of things, I'm not sure they're finished with it. Sorting and a search bar are nice to have working.
• They toned down the surface effects of spells. I think.

I'm sure there's more I can't think of

Overall, besides the horrific graphical changes and misc bugs, the game is shaping up in a good direction.

The Bards and instruments get an A+.

The toned down surface effects of spells (and frequency of mobs having surface effect potions) is a big difference I noted having come back after skipping patches 5-7. Makes a very large difference to a number of encounters in a very positive way.

Did I miss it? Has no one mentioned the removal of OP Barrelmancy? Remember when ogres threw barrels onto the grove walls and goblins sprang out, and when goblins would pick up 40 pound barrels of liquid fire and blow you to smithereens with one throw?

Ah yes. I remember it well, with seething, burning hatred.

Well... Ogres lobbing barrels onto the grove wall was fun. That, I miss. That made the grove fight SO much more interesting and difficult.

Shadowheart is less of a ***ch

This is my favorite so far as well along with the earlier update when they added Guidance and other spells to dialogue!😊

Haven't played it yet but newest patch had a big change imo. I can now summon Shovel once and keep it through the game since... "familiars no longer unsummon on a long rest"!

If I remember correctly, WAY back, SR was unlimited. They made it 2/day to prevent spamming SR to fully heal the party between every fight.

They made it so certain areas prevent LR, like the Hag's Lair. Oh wait. You said meaningful. I don't know if that is really meaningful.

wasn't SR originally 1x per long rest? Then was bumped up to 2?

Yep

There was a complete UI overhaul at some point, I remember in the earlier patches, bringing up the inventory used to pull up the inventories of all four party members at the same time.

Im really surprised you didnt include Swarm AI Tuco ...
That was really significant mechanical change.

And picking heavy stuff up aswell ...
Also encumberance was not present in first patch ...

Since launch, they added new melee options to weapons.
Added throwing damage to stuff like daggers, javelins and axes rather than weight based damage
Ability to throw healing potions at others to heal them
added casting sounds
added goals based on background (the inspiration points)

And that is what I can think of at the top of my head really. I mean there has been tons of rebalancing of course and spells added as well.

There was plenty that I didn't include, but that aside I just went through an entire playthrough of patch 8 and I can't really say I've had a ton of chances to appreciate Swarm AI.
In fact, I distinctly noticed it just ONCE when four goblins in the temple courtyard moved concurrently and (so far) that was pretty much the full extent of it.