Baldur’s Gate 3: What to Expect On Release?

With the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 fast approaching a lot of people are wondering what to expect on release? What new stuff will be there besides the complete story and new items? We’ve seen how big the game can be with all the people talking about it but how big will it really be? What does the potential biggest RPG of the year give us?

We’ll go through all of the planned changes and additions that will be in the release version of the game. From new mechanics to stories and even crafting and hirelings there’s a lot to cover. Now let’s see what to expect on release!

What to Expect On Release?

With the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 comes a whole lot of content, and that’s an understatement. On release there’s going to be story reworks as well as new classes, subclasses, races and mechanics. There are even new ways to play the game so let’s see what the release will add.

Origin Characters and Reworks

Usually when you play Dungeons and Dragons, you’re inclined to play a custom character. Most people go for custom characters since it’s more fun for them. Sometimes though you’ll want to go with a pre-made character, either from a module or your DM. In Baldur’s Gate 3 there are pre-made characters called Origin Characters.

We explain more on what they are in our guide on Origin Characters in Baldur’s Gate 3. But to make things simple, they’re the companions you meet with a custom character. If you’ve played the previous Larian Studio game like Divinity Original Sin 2 then this should be familiar. Playing an Origin character changes how you see the world and adds new story bits to your playthrough.

They’ve also said that they’ll be reworking Wyll’s character from almost the ground-up. For those who found Wyll’s character lacking in the Early Access version might see a better character at release! Not only that, but there will be new companions as well that you can either play or meet with a custom character.

New Races, Class, and Subclasses

If you’re not to keen with origin characters and want a custom one, then you can play with one. At release they’ll be adding even more customization options including new races into the mix. The new races will be the Dragonborn Race that can have different elemental breath attacks and the Half-Orc race which can be amazing with the right martial class.

The release will also come with the new Monk Class, along with at least a new subclass for each class. From the Wild Magic Barbarian to the Storm Sorcerers and Circle of Spores Druids there’s a lot more customization options for you!

Multiclassing and Respec

Now that there’s one more class in the game and a dozen or more subclasses, we’ll also be able to Multiclass in the full game. So if you want to have a Warlock and a Bard in the same class or maybe a Barbarian and a Fighter to get that Action Surge then you’re in luck. It also works differently from the base DnD 5e tabletop RPG since you don’t need any stat requirements to multiclass in BG 3!

Not only that but when the game releases they’ll also give you a chance to Respec in the game. So no need to start a new game if you didn’t like the class, you made or you put your ability scores wrong. You can just go to the Respec NPC in Chapter 1 to change your character!

New Chapters and Chapter 1 Rework

We all know that the release will give us more chapters into the game all the way to completion of the story. What we also know is that they’re going to rework and add a lot more stuff to Chapter 1. The number of things you can already do in that chapter was a lot but they’re going to add more!

You can expect not only new quests but additions and changes to old quests to make sure those who’ve played it can enjoy new stuff.

New Items and Crafting

Of course, there’s going to be new items but there’s also going to be items in all ranges of rarity. From Uncommon items to even Legendary items, the latter of which is much more difficult to find but is quite rewarding! Not only that but there will even be race-specific items for you to find in the world.

These items can vary and some of them can even change the way characters play or augment their already good builds. With all of those items, we’ll have a lot to build and theory-craft!

There will also be Alchemy, so you can make your own potions in the game. This can range from normal healing potions to resistance potions and even more powerful potions later on. We don’t know yet how you’ll do that, but hopefully it’s not like how they handle it in the Tabletop DnD where it takes days!

Along with new items comes quality of life items like keychains to place all your keys in to not clutter the inventory. There’s also the camp supply pouch that you can put all sorts of materials for your camp, it may even let you store food there to not hog all the space in the inventory. Of course, it will probably still add to your weight but now your inventory wouldn’t be filled with keys and food!

Gameplay Changes and Hirelings

While there is quality of life changes for items there’s some for gameplay as well. Certain moves and actions in battle that didn’t have enough feedback will now have them in the game. You also can’t hide at a certain range close to an enemy anymore which makes sense if you’re in a battle. People don’t have 90-degree cone vision in a fight, some of them actually have situational awareness!

Another addition is Hirelings, which are characters you can create and customize as the game progresses. They’ll probably cost money as well as not have the same story depth or have depth at all compared to the origin characters or custom main characters. Well, they’re basically filler party members so what did you expect! This is great for those evil playthroughs where you kill the good origin characters and need some mooks to fill your ranks.

Those are all the planned mechanics and additions to be added in the release of Baldur’s Gate 3. There are probably a lot more the developers haven’t said so we can’t wait to find them when we finally get to play it!

ALSO READ: Baldur’s Gate 3: Which Race Should You Pick?