Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – In this Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes, I’m going to talk about the major highlights of the game including the all-new Bard Class and its respective Subclasses, the upcoming Gnome Race, combat improvements, visual and audio enhancements, and much more. This is currently the biggest patch in Early Access that significantly changes how you play Baldur’s Gate 3 so without further ado, let us dive into it!

You can check out our previous Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 7 Patch Notes as well as the most recent Barbarian Class Guide!

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – New Bard Class, Gnome Race, Gameplay Improvements, And More!

At the moment, the Bard will be the 10th Class in Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access that follows the Barbarian, which was released in February of this year. The Bard is an interesting character who makes use of their musical prowess to embolden allies and heal them of their afflictions while manipulating enemies. The power of their songs grants magic, capable of effectively protecting them in Combat. Rather than the usual offensive Spells of the Wizard, the Bard relies on casting charms and illusions. Moreover, they search for interesting stories and thrive in learning new things, making them natural seekers of adventure.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – Bard Class

Patch 8 features the Bard Class with the College of Lore and College of Valour Subclasses. Unlike the Sorcerer where you can immediately choose their Subclass at Level 1, you will have to wait until your Bard reaches Level 3 to do so. The College of Lore lets you charm your way into certain situations, giving you a distinct advantage and letting you control the attention of the people you meet. This is due to your undeniable gift of confidently performing in front of an audience whether it involves caressing them with your sweet tunes or telling intriguing stories based on the books and tales you learn.

At Level 3, you gain access to Cutting Words, which lets you utilize your shrewdness to confuse and distract your targets. This allows you to make use of one Bardic Inspiration as a reaction to the incoming attack to lower their chances of hitting you or to reduce their overall effectiveness in combat. You even gain several Skills of your choice as a bonus Proficiency.

On the other hand, the College of Valour focuses on highlighting the achievements of the warriors they admire, often dedicating songs to their courageous deeds. Rather than debuffing the enemy outright, this Subclass leans on the defensive such that you become proficient in equipping Medium Armor and Shields as well as wielding Martial Weapons. With Combat Inspiration, you can use Bardic Inspiration to inspire your ally to increase their weapon damage. If they are about to be attacked, they can use Bardic Inspiration to boost their AC against it. You can check out our in-depth Bard Class Build soon!

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – Class and Feat Updates

Among the updates that fans of Baldur’s Gate 3 have been eagerly waiting for are the Character Sheet quality of life changes and the Expertise Feature for the Rogue. The information of your Class, whether they are active or passive Features will all be listed in the Character Sheet together with minor improvements such as better readability and having the ability to filter your spells however you like.

When it comes to the Rogue at Level 1, you will finally have access to Expertise, letting you choose between two options. You can pick two Skill proficiencies or select 1 skill proficiency on top of the thieves’ tool proficiency. Whichever you decide will grant double the proficiency bonus.

With the Bard making a huge debut, any Class can choose to play musical instruments to enthrall their audience as long as they obtain the Performer Feat upon reaching Level 4. Doing so will allow you to playfully sing with NPCs should they decide to join you in your merriment. If they are particularly satisfied with your piece, they will even endow you with certain rewards.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – Gnome Race

The next big change involves walking in the little shoes of the Gnomes themselves since you will now be able to play them in Patch 8! Just be prepared to face the reactions of other Gnomes as we are told that these NPCs will be more reactive to your actions. For starters, you will gain +2 Intelligence and have access to Gnome Cunning, which provides you with an Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma Saving Throws. What’s more is you can choose from 3 Subraces, namely the Rock, Forest, and Deep Gnomes.

Rock Gnomes have a natural curiosity about any object that can be tinkered with, allowing them to create certain devices, which prove useful in adventures. Forest Gnomes are adept when it comes to stealthy tactics and conjuring illusions to help them escape tough situations. Despite their secretive trait, they are communicative with small beasts of the forest. And finally, Deep Gnomes reside in the underbelly of Faerun, granting them Superior Darkvision. Unlike Forest Gnomes, they prefer to keep to themselves for survival.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – Combat Changes

Now some fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 can feel sluggish at times, especially those that include a lot of minor combatants, such as goblins and wolves. Introducing Swarm AI, a new system, which intends to shorten the enemy’s turn time by grouping lesser creatures and having them move and attack simultaneously or in quick succession. This should notably speed up combat so you can focus on major encounters.

Next, critical hits for ranged attacks will activate cinematic highlights to further emphasize your huge damage numbers in addition to the trajectory of your arrows and spells. Hopefully, you get all-natural 20’s from now on! Interestingly, small objects that are incapable of blocking anything will not provide cover at all so you need to be careful of smarter NPCs. Pretty soon, they will now be able to easily target our characters attempting to hide behind these objects.

Last but not least for combat changes is the Toggle Party Stealth. This has been fixed so the party should now behave as expected when it is toggled. Additionally, you can take advantage of this button because it can be used while in combat. It is definitely the right time to find those juicy Attacks of Opportunity!

Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes – New and Old Spells

The more magically inclined will be glad to know that new spells will be introduced once again. Available to all Classes are Calm Emotions, Enthral, Heroism, Phantasmal Force, and Vicious Mockery, as part of the Enchantment School, except Phantasmal Force, while Bards get Cutting Words and Song of Rest. Let us discuss some of them.

Calm Emotions is an AoE spell that forces targets to make a Charisma Saving Throw. Upon failure, one of two effects may happen. First, the target can immediately remove any Charmed or Frightened effects that they are experiencing. Second, it can pacify enemies for a brief period as long as they or their allies are not damaged in any way.

For a more inspiring tune, Heroism is right up your alley. This spell grants immunity to being Frightened together with temporary HP. On the flip side is Vicious Mockery, which goads the enemy into rolling a successful Wisdom Saving Throw. If they fail this, they take psychic damage and incur a Disadvantage on their next attack roll.

The currently existing Detect Thoughts will become more useful as this can now be cast mid-dialogue, just like the Cleric’s Guidance Spell. Additionally, Concentration Spells will feature visible timers on the respective caster’s portrait to indicate the length of their duration, allowing you to make calculated judgments in combat.

New and Improved Items

While Baldur’s Gate 3’s new update does not seemingly have new items, it does add a very handy feature as a throwback to the Divinity Original Sin games – digging! You can now equip a shovel, pick a spot, and start scouring for buried treasure. However, it is quite a shame that you cannot simply use your hands to dig like The Red Prince does in DoS 2.

Who knows, maybe you will end up reclaiming some long-lost salami, as Larian has decided to increase this item’s drop rate. In terms of food, Rotten Eggs and Roasted Dwarf Parts will no longer be a part of a balanced diet since they will essentially stop healing players upon consumption.

Cinematics, Visuals, and Audio

When it comes to the look and feel of the game, there will be many additions, tweaks, and fixes. Let us start with the lighting.

The World

Lighting in terms of sunlight and shadows have received a massive update. To help render these visual enhancements is the introduction of Nvidia DLAA, the company’s way of using deep learning AI as an alternative to traditional antialiasing features such as MSAA or FXAA. What better way to use this new tech than by having enhanced rat graphics in all of the cinematics in the Druid Grove?

For our aural immersion, Sound Occlusion and Auditory Attenuation will be implemented. Sound Occlusion focuses on creating realistic sounds in closed environments like rooms and areas behind closed doors while Auditory Attenuation is a sound-mixing technology that selects specific sounds and enhances those further, giving them deeper emphasis.

Cinematics

Note that lighting is not the only visual focus in Patch 8 since new and improved cinematics will also be showcased. The more unlawful players who get caught in the act will now trigger a unique dialogue sequence with the offended party. In this scene, you can attempt to use your charm to talk your way out of a hefty fine or jail time. Companions will no longer stand around awkwardly in the background while the player character is in dialogue. They will now be more reactive to your decisions, conveying realistic emotion than ever before.

This is also in part due to Larian’s “library of facial animations”. Essentially, it may help speed up development in the long run as they potentially tap into this library for animation data.

Player Character

Character Creation will get new tools as well. Specifically, hair will be getting an overhaul. Aside from shading enhancements, all 66 hairstyles will now be available to every Race and gender whereas 10 new skin colors can be selected for the player character. Speaking of the player character, they will stop contorting when jumping from heights. And related to movement fixes,  Tieflings’ tails will no longer flail around like there’s no tomorrow.

User Interface

The biggest change to the User Interface is the numerous improvements done to Character Portraits. For instance, friendly and neutral characters will have different portrait colors when in combat to help quickly identify them at a glance. These portraits will no longer have an orange hue to them as well, easing up viewability.

For combat, units will not receive highlights if they cannot be targeted by ranged attacks. This should make it clearer when an enemy is considered invalid, thereby saving time.

In terms of information, the combat log will now be more detailed. Computations will show all of the modifiers, even if these add up to a value of 0. Additionally, the Character Sheet will present the unit’s prepared spells and can be changed on the fly from the same window. Clutter will also be reduced since the same spells that belong to multiple levels will not be represented by duplicate icons.

Lastly, the game will now support the Brazilian Portuguese language!

Game Balance and Multiplayer

Patch 8 introduces the right amount of game balancing when it comes to NPC interaction and Classes. Players will be able to attempt a more rewarding non-lethal playthrough as knocking out NPCs will grant XP. Unfortunately, thieving sprees will become a bit harder to pull off since everyone will be on the lookout for repeat offenders.

For Classes, Rangers got the most love as their companions will be receiving buffs. Summon Companions and Familiars will start gaining health benefits from Short Rest, and they will continue to stay with the party even after they take a Long Rest. They will no longer be dismissed into the void once their master falls asleep. The only drawback, however, is that now, these summons can only be cast within the Ranger’s line of sight.

And finally, for multiplayer, those with slow internet connections will experience the game significantly better than before.

To read the entire Baldur’s Gate 3 Update 8 Patch Notes, you can check out our Patch Notes on the Wiki. What did you think of these big changes? Which Bard Subclass will you try out first? Let us know in the comments below!

---

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!