While PS5 players will have to wait until September to get their hands on Baldur’s Gate 3, PC players finally get their chance on August 3rd. With so much content promised, whether new sub-classes, two entirely new Acts, massive locations or loads of NPCs, there’s much to do. Check out 15 such things that we can’t wait to experience.
Exploring Baldur’s Gate
Above all else, we’re looking forward to running around Baldur’s Gate. It features three districts – The Outer City, The Upper City and The Lower City – all connected in one seamless open world. Not only can you talk to every character here (with 2000 interactable NPCs in the entire game), but there’s so much to explore and little secrets to uncover. Players can expect dozens of hours of content, not including all the time spent taking in the sights and admiring the attention to detail.
Hunting for Legendary items
Legendary Items in Baldur’s Gate 3 are the absolute cream of the crop, so it makes sense that there aren’t that many. While their exact functions and how they can alter your builds remain to be seen, they’re difficult to find. For fans of Divinity: Original Sin 2 fans, it’s not unlike the Four Relics of Rivellon added post-launch, providing powerful buffs and benefits but otherwise serving as a fun little side activity. The Legendaries in Baldur’s Gate 3 probably won’t be out-levelled as quickly, making them much more viable over a longer period.
Dying Endlessly on Tactician
Tactician is the highest difficulty and provides the toughest possible challenge throughout the campaign. Not only are enemies stronger, with more health and damage, but smarter, targeting low AC characters and trying to maneuver around tanks to slay casters. Every encounter changes to become that much more challenging. One example is defeating some Goblins at the entrance of a town – on Balanced, it’s a normal fight, but in Tactician, they have flame arrows with explosive barrels and oil everywhere. Navigating this hellscape will doubtless make for some interesting encounters that we’ll die endlessly to.
Playing Around With Multiclassing
Multiclassing is one of those things that encourage you to embody whatever role you want. With no stat requirements in Baldur’s Gate 3 and respeccing, it’s easy to try out different classes. Perhaps you want to adapt the famous Kensai/Mage combo, go with a stealth assassin by putting points into Rogue and Gloom Stalker Ranger or place points into almost everything and see what happens. The sky’s the limit, even if results may vary.
Unleashing Higher-Level Spells
A level cap of 12 allows for a greater variety of spells in the full game, with over 600 to choose from. We already know of a few, like Chain Lightning which arcs between multiple arcs, and Planar Ally, allowing you to summon aid from a powerful entity on the same plane for a price. Otto’s Irresistible Dance causes a creature to start dancing, causing a disadvantage to Dexterity saving throws and making for some hilarious sights. It’s unknown whether Karsus’ Avatar or Extreme Wish are present, but they would make for some broken abilities.
Manipulate the Press
In the city of Baldur’s Gate is the press that publishes your various deeds, noble and nefarious, in its newspaper. Dubbed Baldur’s Mouth, it affects how people think of you, depending on your actions. However, the coolest part is that you can break into the building where the press is and manipulate it to your own end. Not only will the world react to this, but it also results in a “big surprise” per Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke.
Shoving Enemies
One thing currently in early access but never really gets old is using Shove on enemies. Since it’s a free action, you can push them off ledges, getting some free damage and maybe killing them outright. Though hilarious, it’s also very useful, and we’re curious to Shove anything and everything that gets in the way. Is it the best option against dragons and whatnot? Probably not, but it’s worth trying out.
Go Full Renegade
The Dark Urge is the first Origin character created by Larian with a dedicated story and full customization (even if you like their default appearance, you can go with a completely different Class). However, it also provides a way for players to really embrace their dark side, going on a murder spree and having the story react to the same. While you could resist and learn more about The Dark Urge, Larian teases that things can become incredibly dark if you willingly pursue them. That path of true evil is curious if nothing else, and for role-playing fans who are renegade for life, it should be an experience unlike any other.
Dismembering Allies
Another extension of The Dark Urge, but still an intriguing option: You can dismember your allies. As seen when The Dark Urge first meets Gale, you can either lend a hand or, as Shadowheart put it, take one. These then become trophies which you can haul around. If Gale could meet such a gruesome fate, who says you can’t do the same to others? As sadistic as it sounds, we’re keen to see where the story goes.
Speaking to (and Adopting) Animals
Speaking to animals throughout the game is one thing, especially as you may learn new information or start different quests due to interacting with them. However, you can also adopt animals on top of petting them. It’s probably a good idea…until you get an Owlbear Cub, and it starts eating all of your other pets. Still, it’s an option, and other potentially dangerous pets probably await.
Cosmetic Customization
What would a role-playing game, especially Dungeons and Dragons, be without extensive amounts of clothing? On top of the armor you can equip, the city of Baldur’s Gate has plenty of clothes to shop for. You can even dye outfits. The fashion game is always essential in titles like this, and being able to dress our party up to look as silly as possible is appealing.
Replaying the Game and Testing New Choices
It sounds weird to look forward to replaying the game, especially when a single playthrough can take 75 to 100 hours (200 if you go after everything). However, on top of all the choices and Classes available, we’re keen to see how our decisions affect the ending. Larian touts 17,000 variations on the same, but the number of truly different endings is in the low double digits. Nevertheless, those who saw the results of their decisions in Divinity: Original Sin’s epilogue will no doubt be curious to see how certain things can turn out by the end of Baldur’s Gate 3, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem.
Recruiting Different Companions
The different party members you can recruit are all distinct in backgrounds, interactions and objectives. These all significantly affect your playthrough, taking you down new paths and interacting with each other in exciting ways. Will Wyll fulfill his purpose and kill Karlach, or will they become friends? Can Shadowheart get along with her allies and reveal her secrets or not? All this and more can alter your playthrough, and it’s an exciting prospect to experience.
Using Illithid Powers
Illithid Powers or True Soul abilities come from the Illithid tadpole within your character and provide additional powers on top of everything else. While limited in early access, they’re freely usable in the full game, and provide some interesting benefits, from blasting an enemy with psychic energy when concentrating another spell to teleport to someone else infected with a tadpole. The real question is whether there will be any consequences to using them, and if so, we can’t wait to find out what.
Battling New Enemies
Early access already provides a fairly diverse number of threats to fight, from Goblins and Bugbears to Mind Flayers and Ogres. There are even classic threats like Beholders that appear as bosses. We know of other new enemy types, like dragons, and it should be interesting to see what other threats await, and how Larian will twist them to create unique encounters. Of course, there are also the three main villains, which should provide some crazy conflicts.
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