Summary
Although considered one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and Game of the Year in 2023,Baldur’s Gate 3didn’t launch in a perfect state, despite how amazing it was. With every patch since launch, Larian Studios has added amazing changes that make it better each time.
While most of these are additions added to fix minor issues and annoyances, they all do so with immersion in mind and keeping to what the players are asking for. With so many changes between every hotfix and patch, the best changes to Baldur’s Gate 3 can be easy to miss.
10Withers' Wardrobe Of Wayward Friends
Introduced in Patch #2 with minor changes made to it again in Patch #4, Wither’s Wardrobe of Wayward Friends allows you to dismiss co-op party members, storing them inside. This frees up your multiplayer game saves so that you don’t have to have your AFK friend following you around.
They also won’t lose their dialogue progress when they eventually come back; or, if they choose to stop playing for any reason, you don’t have to start all over. Whenever they’re ready, just drag their body out of the wardrobe and dust them off.
9The Magic Mirror
Similiar to the Wither’s Wardrobe, the Magic Mirro is a camp item introduced in Patch #3 that allows you to permanently change your character’s appearance. Unfortunately you can’t change your race, body type, or remove any visual curses or tadpole effects.
This addition is great for every player, especially role players who wish to change their character’s appearance to better reflect changes between each act. However, you aren’t allowed to change the appearance of the origin characters, even if you start a playthrough as one.
8Honour And Custom Mode
Complimenting both more relaxed playstylesand hardcore gamers, both honour and custom mode can drastically change the game. With custom mode, you can change specific details of enemy difficulty, trader prices, visible rolls, and even multiclassing options.
In Honour mode, not only does it prevent you from reloading saves — meaning that, when you die, your game is over — but almost every boss enemy becomes stronger with legendary actions as well. There is even a way to make custom mode harder than honour mode, for those who truly want a challenge.
7Scratch Can Fetch Anything
Although a small change to some, before Patch #4, Scratch would only be able to play fetch with a specific ball item. Now, you will be able to throw practically anything and scratch will hunt to retrieve it for you.
Some players discovered this can even work for some surprising items, like Gale’s hand, if you play the Dark Urge origin character. Pretty much anything that will fit in his mouth, Scratch will fetch for you, as long as you are in the camp. What a good boy.
6Jumping Fixed
For those who played before Hotfix #15, one of the most annoying, and unintentional, gameplay mechanics resulted in companions following your character refusing to make jumps they should be able to. This forced you to control their character and manually jump, reconnect them to the party, and catch up.
This resulted in many memes, usually involving characters with a small jump distance, of noticing one character is on the other side of the map stuck behind a small gap. Although preferably intended from launch, this small fix helps save a lot of time.
5New Ending For Karlach
One of Baldur’s Gate 3 early criticisms was that Karlach had no good endings, or rather, there was no solution to her infernal engine and each time resulted in her death or exile. Although Larian didn’t decide to just add an ending where she’s smelling flowers under a rainbow, a new cutscene made players feel better about her decision to stay in Avernus.
However, with this new cutscene, there are choices allowing both you and Wyll to decide to join her, becoming a devil hunting trio in the fires of Avernus. This is arguably Karlach’s best ending, as she remains alive and in the company of trusted friends.
4Use Sponges And Soap To Clean Yourself
What you will likely notice after slaughtering a goblin camp or a group of duregar slavers is that your character usually becomes covered in blood, grime, and other liquids that make them look rather disgusting. Now, with the sponge item, you may quickly remove it.
Previously, the only ways to remove it were to take a long rest, castCreate Wateron yourself, or throw a bottle of water on the ground. This always wasted resources and was one step too many, and your character just ended up in a constant state of being dirty.
3Epilogue Scenes
This is probably the best addition to the game and one that many players felt they were missing after destroying the nether brain. You can now have a camp party with all of your allies that takes place six months after the events of Baldur’s Gate.
Depending on your choices, different allies and characters will appear with various voice lines reflecting them. This scene is very satisfying as it allows you to engage with your allies in a context outside of imminent doom and constant danger.
you may trigger this epilogue on already completed save files by reloading just before the final battle.
2Accessibility Options
Better late than never, more and more accessibility options are added through every patch that allows the game to become more available to every kind of gamer looking to enjoy one of the best RPGs ever made. One of these options is adding more languages to the game, including Korean and Japanese.
The other major addition is colorblind modes, which help distinguish all the various color-coordinated elements, such as spell slots, spell types, and map icons. Accessibility options are important to make sure everyone has the same opportunity to enjoy the games we love.
1Recruit Minthara On Good Playthroughs
What many felt was a missed opportunity was only allowing the companion Minthara to be recruitable on evil playthroughs, or ones that involve attacking the Druid’s Grove. Since she is such an iconic character with a unique personality, it seemed like a loss.
Although it requires a bit of metagaming, and ignoring obvious roleplay implications, you must knock her unconscious in the goblin camp, and then rescue her from the Moonrise Towers prison later on. This allows youto romance herwithout having to resort to mindless bloodshed.
This only works if you knock her out while she is only temporarily hostile. Halsin in the room will make her permanently hostile.
