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Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 6 Patch Notes – New Sorcerer Class, Grymforge, Gameplay Improvements, And More!

In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 6 Patch Notes, I’m going to discuss the additions and major improvements to the game such as the new Sorcerer Class, Grymforge Area, gameplay updates, cinematics, and bug fixes, to name a few. This is the biggest patch to date that changes a lot of the things about how you play Baldur’s Gate 3 so let’s get right into it!

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 6 Patch Notes – New Sorcerer Class, Grymforge, Gameplay Improvements, And More!

The first thing we’ll cover in this breakdown article is the Sorcerer Class. This is the 8th Class in Early Access, which follows the Druid Class revealed back in February 2021. The question is, how many more Classes will be added prior to the full release of Baldur’s Gate 3?

Sorcerer Class

One of the biggest changes in Patch 6 is the Sorcerer Class with its two unique Subclasses, namely the Draconic Bloodline and Wild Magic. At Level 1, you can immediately choose which Sorcerous Origin you intend to draw your power from. The Draconic Bloodline provides potent Spellcasting Abilities from a Dragon Ancestor that grants them one specific Spell. For instance, with Draconic Ancestry: Red (Fire), you gain Burning Hands whereas if you select Draconic Ancestry: Copper (Acid), you receive Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.

New Sorcerer Class Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

You also gain a Constitution Saving Throw Proficiency, which provides bonuses when you need to roll for this Saving Throw in order to maintain Concentration. Additionally, you have Draconic Resilience. This raises your max HP every time you level up and sets your Base Armour Class (AC) to 13 + Dexterity Modifier. So even if you don’t have Armour Proficiency, you still get a high default AC as long as you invest points into Dexterity.

Wild Magic, on the other hand, relies on chaotic effects to successfully carry Sorcerers in Combat. Because of this, you’re able to trigger a random effect. For example, you can provide anyone within 6 meters of you additional Force Damage together with Critical Hits, regardless of whether or not they’re allies. Alternatively, you can have the ability to teleport from a precarious situation. The randomness definitely makes encounters more fun and destructive but at what cost? Next, with Tides of Chaos, you gain Advantage on your succeeding Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw, however, you’ll need to engage in Short or Long Rest to replenish this Feature.

Tides of Chaos for the Wild Magic Subclass

What differentiates Sorcerers from other Spellcasters is their capability to manipulate and twist the way their Spells work with Metamagic. This gives you enhanced flexibility since in Early Access, you’re able to choose 3 out of 7 Metamagic Options. For example, you’re able to attack two enemies at the same time in a single turn via Twinned Spell or you can even increase the distance of some of your Spells using Distant Spell. Furthermore, you have the ability to convert Sorcery Points, which is used to activate Metamagic, into Spell Slots and vice versa. There’s certainly a lot of creative ways to succeed in combat depending on how you want to achieve it!

Metamagic Twinned Spell

Alongside this, a list of Sorcerer Spells have been added such as Chromatic Orb, Crown of Madness, and Enlarge/Reduce. Chromatic Orb allows you to select from a list of Elemental Damage Types like Thunder, Poison, Lightning, Fire, Acid and Cold Damage. What also makes the Spell powerful is its Ranged Attack Feature, which lets you improve your Attack Rolls by being on higher ground with respect to your target. Crown of Madness influences the enemy’s Actions by making them hostile against the creature they’re closest to.

And finally, Enlarge/Reduce buffs or debuffs a target depending on their size. With Enlarge, they receive an Advantage on Strength Checks and Strength Saving Throws, plus, they deal extra damage. Conversely, with Reduce, they’re penalized for the same features while inflicting less damage. You can check out our in-depth Sorcerer Class Build now!

Enlarge Reduce Spell Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Grymforge

Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 will be the first major update to feature a new location, the Grymforge. This region is a sprawling system of caverns and ancient hallways. The forge is quite the sight to behold, looking extremely imposing with its gargantuan walls and ruined aesthetic. As with any new location, it features a lot of new quests, combat and NPCs to interact with. Grymforge is a subsection of the Underdark, and is primarily composed of followers of the Absolute like Dwarves and Gnomes.

Grymforge Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

The perilous cave system is full of hazards such as lava rivers and frequent cave-ins that restrict your movement. An early quest even tasks you to free a fellow True Soul from the opposite side of a large chunk of rubble.

New Weapon Actions

The previous patches probably left out some Martial Class upgrades as it was primarily Spellcasters who had all of the fancy actions in combat. Weapon Actions are being added to Melee and Ranged Weapons, giving Fighters and Rangers more options in fights. You can get up to three new actions, depending on the Weapon, as long as you’re proficient in it of course. Some notable examples are Heartstopper, Weakening Strike, Backbreaker, Brace, Prepare, and Piercing Shot. Heartstopper uses your Weapon to hit an opponent’s chest for damage with a chance to cut down the number of their actions.

Backbreaker attempts to knock a target Prone. Weakening Strike allows you to wound the target’s hands to impose a Disadvantage on their Attack Rolls. Brace and Prepare are somewhat unique, as they give you the option to spend your Movement Speed in exchange for a reroll on your damage dice or to deal additional damage, respectively. Piercing Shot fires an arrow at an enemy and gives them the Gaping Wounds status effect.

Piercing Shot Weapon Action Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Gameplay Improvements

When it comes to gameplay improvements, there are updated features that have been implemented for Skill Checks, background goals, Concentration, and Spell previews. With Skill Checks, you can now add bonuses when you re-roll to improve your success rate, provided that you still have enough Inspiration Points to start with. New background goals, on the other hand, have been added in Grymforge while some have been refined in other areas. Background goals are minor quests, which are related to your chosen Background so if you’re a Criminal and you perform certain illegal activities, you’ll be rewarded for it with Inspiration Points or extra XP.

Updated Background Goals Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

In terms of Concentration, the results of their respective Constitution Saving Throws will be displayed above the character’s head. Additionally, Concentration indicators are no longer limited to your party’s portraits and are in fact, visible on the enemy’s side as well. Furthermore, previews to plan out the Spells you want to cast will now be more controlled, which means that it won’t jump around as much when showing other ideal Spellcasting positions.

There’s also going to be a new environment for the Goblin Prison to exhibit a more lively and cohesive group of goblins. Moreover, they’re now able to arrest you if they sniff out any wrongdoing so this is definitely an exciting prospect for players who intend to do evil playthroughs. You’ll probably have to figure out a way to get out of prison!

Wood Elf NPCs will become more like real Wood Elves since they’ll properly receive all of the traits and features that are part of this race. And finally, Harpies have the ability to follow you anywhere you go, which sounds really horrifying…

Combat Mechanics

On top of these updates, there are also changes to the combat system. For instance, the Advantage that you initially receive when making Ranged Attacks from a higher ground, may it be with your Bow or Spells, is no longer applicable. This has been substituted for a numerical value on Attack Rolls instead. So if you attack from a higher vantage point with respect to your enemies, you gain a +2 on your Attack Rolls but if you’re beneath them, you receive a -2 penalty. When RNG is not in your favor, this change is a good way to enhance your chances of hitting your targets. However, the bonus may be too low in cases when it takes a lot of effort to reach that higher ground.

Higher Ground Bonus on Attack Rolls Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Next, calculations are clearer when it comes to AC so you can now differentiate the values of your Base AC, Bonus AC, and any Ability Modifiers you may have. As such, you can easily see the sources of your enhanced defenses whether it’s from Draconic Resilience or the Mage Armour Buff.

Using Silence against NPCs can result in initiating combat depending on their behaviour. If they’re aggressive, they’ll fight against you, but if their confidence is rather low, they’ll simply flee the scene. Furthermore, those who cast Invisibility will remain concealed for a period of time so you’ll need to find a way to see or reveal them. Meanwhile, other Combat AIs will be less likely to make actions that can potentially damage allies, like AoEs. They will also consider shoving allies in order to wake them up in order to remove the Sleep status, making them smarter this time around.

Speaking of other creatures, Gnolls will receive updates on how their Multiattack Feat functions. Instead of starting encounters with Multiattack, they now have the Seething Fury status effect during their first two turns. When this expires, they gain Multiattack. This new pair of feats is redistributed among all Gnolls in order to make fights against them much more balanced. They also won’t pick up random Weapons lying around.

On the other hand, Bugbears are also getting a few tweaks. First of all, they will no longer be able to use Weapon Actions. Their Morningstar damage is also being reduced from 2d8 to 1d8. However, to offset this, they now have the Brute passive, which makes them deal an additional 1d8 damage. The bottomline is that the Bugbears’ damage is now going to be much higher. But at least, you’ll be able to loot their Morningstars when they die.

Lastly, for Shadowheart, her Ability Score Spread starts out at 12 Strength and 10 Charisma. This means that her Melee Attacks are more likely to hit as compared to before.

New Shadowheart Ability Score Spread Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Visual Enhancements

Baldur’s Gate Patch 6 also brings in a large amount of graphical improvements. The most impactful update is the addition of Nvidia DLSS 2.3 and AMD’s FSR upscaling technology, which should help people get the best performance possible in-game. Speaking of performance, lower-end setups should also have improvements as texture compression settings are being updated. The game’s Auto-Detect Graphic Settings is also being upgraded.

AMD FSR Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

New color grading and HDR rendering have also been added to give off better hues. Aside from that, lights and particle effects should look much better thanks to the introduction of volumetric fog and better environmental lighting. You can expect the skies to look much more vibrant with the introduction of atmospheric scattering and dynamic clouds.

There have also been a lot of enhancements to animations. Cinematics have received extra polishing, thereby showing better scene snapping and other blending work in order to look as seamless as possible. Lae’zel’s idle animation in Camp also got an update where you can find her drawing and sharpening her Weapon from time to time. Perfect practice for creche-finding! The rest of the Githyanki should also have a few new animations.

Improved Cinematics Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Also, have you ever wondered why characters in Baldur’s Gate 3 always look so clean despite fighting through hordes of monsters, or spelunking through the deep Underdark? This won’t be the case anymore as they will now be riddled with dirt, blood and sweat as they journey around Faerun!

The User Interface will be more accessible. Specifically, the dialogue font size is now adjustable and you can also add a semi-transparent background for increased readability. These additions are applicable to dialogue screens as well as overhead texts.

UI Dialogue Font Size Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 6

Audio Enhancements

Along with visuals, the latest patch brings some much appreciated improvements to the audio. A new dynamic mixing system is being introduced, which emphasizes the balance between audio elements such as combat sounds and music. Expect to hear more orchestral music especially in the main menu and camp areas. The intro cutscene will also support 5.1 surround audio.

Fixes and Other Improvements

Of course, it wouldn’t be a major patch without a laundry list of fixes together with other improvements. When an NPC is wearing a helmet, they will actually have one in their inventory. Additionally, a bug preventing players from jumping through the gaps in between doors has been fixed. In the introductory area, the Mindflayer will now only betray the player’s party after all of the invading devils have been eliminated, and if it survives so you’ll have to fight these devils until the end to see what happens next! You can also anticipate that the Druids in the Grove will react accordingly and will become hostile if their ritual is interrupted by the death of one of their colleagues.

In terms of Twitch integration, the official Baldur’s Gate 3 extension is also getting an update where the inventory and quest log sections are to be added. Viewers now have the ability to highlight items in Twitch streamers’ inventories. And lastly, the game can now be played in Turkish.


Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content as we take a look at Classes and Builds, and be sure to drop by our Twitch channel if you have questions about the game. If you need something specific, check out our Baldur’s Gate 3 Wiki which is being worked on night and day!

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