Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 is now available and from what the patch notes show, the new patch should bring a lot of improvements and should further polish some things in the 2023 game that players have been complaining about.

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In the patch notes, Larian Studio shows more details about the sixth patch, some of which they’ve already hinted at. This month, the Belgian developer confirmed that players will finally be able to change their party members more easily. Elsewhere, there’s a long-awaited fix for the “Shield Bash” skill, which wasn’t working properly for a while.

Easier Replacement of Party Members Will Make Things Even Easier and Faster

One of the improvements coming with Patch 6 is related to ways to replace and fire party members. Instead of talking to members, you can simply interact with the party member you’d like to swap with, greatly reducing the amount of time you’d otherwise have to spend creating your party.

This has been a long time coming and is arguably the biggest improvement to the party management system within Baldur’s Gate 3 since the November update, which allowed players to manage party members even when they’re not in the party you’re playing with.

“Shield Bash” Has Also Been Fixed

Another big change revealed in the new patch affects the “Shield Bash” ability, which along with “Rebuke of the Mighty” has been fixed, meaning that your passive abilities should now correctly trigger “Saving Throws”, according to the team at Larian.

In online forums, there have been complaints about the “Shield Bash” ability not working properly for months now, so this is another very welcome fix.

“Long Rest” Now Brings a Hangover

Another major change in Patch 6 is a collection of new kissing animations, which Larian has already been showing off for more than a week. This is another segment that will be fixed and one that we’re sure many players will appreciate as well.

In case you’re not interested in this sort of thing and are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 just for the RPG elements, there are a lot of new accompanying idle animations, which are meant to make your party’s campsite seem more alive and realistic. This is also helped by a new effect associated with one of the game’s achievements: you’ll be rewarded for completing a ”Long Rest” with only alcohol, but the alcohol will cause your characters to suffer from a hangover for about one minute after your characters wake up.

Other Improvements Are Related to Combat and Many Other Less Visible, but Still Important Things in the Game

In true Larian gaming style, the notes for Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 are extremely long, which means that the developer has fixed many things in the game. Other big changes are most likely related to combat, and improvements to artificial intelligence, which should contribute to better party behavior and the like. The patch also reportedly improves some of the game’s additional modes; “Honour Mode”, Drider, and Dror Ragzlin bring new legendary actions, while the shadow-cursed Shambling Mound is now a separate boss for “Honour” mode. Furthermore, in “Tactician” mode, Drider gets another buff, and Dror Ragzlin’s “Aura of Leadership” will now weaken enemies.

In addition to all the above, there are also a huge number of changes related to the balance of things in the game. All in all, there’s no doubt that Patch 6 will further improve an already great game.

But how exactly this game is great?

Baldur’s Gate 3 Is a True Sensation in the Gaming World

A true masterpiece, Baldur’s Gate 3, gave gamers new hope for role-playing games (RPGs), single-player experiences, and micro-transactions free of predatory intent. We stress this because RPGs have somehow always been overshadowed by some other genres such as FPSs or MOBAs which not only attracted more attention of ordinary gamers but also moved to a level up to the competitive gaming arena, i.e. eSports, where they got tournaments with money prizes reaching tens of millions of US dollars (e.g. The International 2021 Dota 2 tournament, with an astonishing prize pool of over $40 million!). Not to mention that they entered the sports betting world by finding themselves on offers of sportsbooks from the list of the top Ghana betting sites in 2024 (and other African online operators) at Bookmaker-Expert.com.

Baldur’s Gate 3 offers players who enjoy role-playing games optimism for the genre overall because of its excellent cast and execution. In that it demonstrated that RPGs are still immensely popular, BG3 set the road signs. Corporate suits were saying that the single player was dead not too long ago. With Baldur’s Gate 3, the single-player role-playing game genre proved to be highly viable.

Our expectations for the success of a turn-based (computer) role-playing game were far exceeded by Baldur’s Gate 3. Only a few days after its August 3, 2023 launch, the game achieved 800,000 Steam concurrents. The length of time BG3 has been in early access adds to some of the surprises.

Concerns had been raised by Larian officials that Baldur’s Gate 3 might have given early access to everyone. Prior to the 1.0 release, it had actually sold 2.5 million copies quite successfully, but it hadn’t yet reached drenching out. Although a precise figure hasn’t been disclosed, it’s calculated that BG3 presently boasts over 20 million Steam owners. It’s also available on PS5 and was just published on Xbox platforms.

The tale of how Baldur’s Gate 3 shot to the forefront of the video game rankings is lengthy and intricate, but here’s a simplification of why players are so enamored with the game: It immerses you in a deep fantasy universe with a wealth of historical details and legendary characters, and it offers you the flexibility to approach the challenges and objectives ahead of you in any way you see fit. You get to decide how to handle conversations—whether they go well or poorly—and you may even steer the dialogue and possibly even the game's plot in a completely another path. Furthermore, experimentation is both enjoyable and vital to success in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3 because of the laws and complex but understandable physics that govern it.

Official mod support for BG3, including console cross-platform support, is on the horizon. The official support from Larian is expected to arrive at some point this year, according to their “robust” plan. However, they didn’t provide a specific date for when it will arrive. This will undoubtedly add a new depth to the already incredibly popular game.