Baldur's Gate 3 colossal new patch adds a playable epilogue set six months after the game ends with 3,589 new lines of dialogue, 2 new difficulty modes, and I'm running out of headline space

Wow...just wow. I am amazed at the dedication of Larian to improve their game and actually listen to their customers and try to please them.

I am a fan of Larian.

Credit where credit is due, Larian was always like this. Even with their less successful titles they still made sure to fix all issues before moving on.
I am also a fan of Larian.
- I own divinity and divinity 2, and you are correct. They keep giving up improvement and fun adds for the game long after release.
I get what you're saying, but it's sad that this very basic aspect of listening to customer feedback and implementing said feedback is so foreign to us now.

The performance improvements alone are insane. I'm playing on PS5, just got into act 3. I turned it off on Tuesday a little frustrated by how the game was running inside of the lower city. Turned it back on after patching and everything is smoother than the entire rest of the game has been for me.

Also, being able to access all party member inventories is a game changer.

The lack of decent inventory management meant that when I got new companions later on, I just didn't use them for more than their story quest, and they were mostly wearing their default gear.
Just seemed more effort than it was worth to sort through everything, including all those chests that litter the camp but might as well be voids because as soon as something went into one, I never used it again.
- Im still in the beginning of the game so maybe I haven't noticed something, but I'm confused by what you're saying. I've been able to access all thier inventories at the same time.
  Do you mean sorting the inventory?
- I used the chests mainly to hold camp supplies, and also a loot dump when there was a lot of valuable armor to loot that was too heavy to carry. Loot until full, send to camp, loot more. Go to the vendor, sell all, go to camp, grab until full, go back to the vendor.
That’s good to read. I had a bug for a few patches where I couldn’t even use DLSS (local multiplayer) so act 3 was quite annoying. Everytime we went into a basement it was noticeable smoother and enjoyable. This was fixed I believe with patch 4.
Hopefully this brings the frame rate up and that will let me enjoy and end act 3.

I’m so glad they love this game as much as I do. If they eventually added a DM or creative mode to run custom campaigns I’d be over the moon. Take my money Larian!

Pretty sure custom campaigns will definitely arrive at some point, just like they did with DOS2. I want to say Larian has even stated that they'll eventually open the doors for it and potentially modding support?
- Mod support has definitely been mentioned as an eventual goal, IIRC though they didn't have plans to implement an official DM mode.
- What is this DM mode?
WotC should hire the studio to build the engine for the VTT in dndbeyond.
- The problem wouldn't be the studio making it, it would be the monetization imposed on every facet of it. Any possible add-on would be dlc or part of a subscription. They wouldn't even allow them to do significant free updates unless it was tied to a paid product or hefty subscription fee.
  I don't really want Larian getting looped into being a WotC shill. I hope they stay independent and keep on making the best games they can make. Single player or small party story games never get old.
  DNDBeyond is just another bullshit live service with subscriptions in perpetuity.
do an expansion pack or w/e set in exandria with the critical role voice cast (along with the og cast ofc because they're awesome)

I've sunk like 150 hours into the game, and my main character is in act 3, but act 3 is so fucking enormous I have no idea what I'm doing more than the first two acts lol.

Wish I could go back to those other places and see whats up with how the world changes

My recommendation with act 3 is to split it up between multiple playthroughs. If you're like me and care a little about the roleplaying aspect, just do the things your PC or party members would feel important. I'd spent a long time and made some decisions I personally wouldn't have made if not for keeping with my characters' story; it didn't make sense to me to go hunting down every nook and cranny of a huge city while it's on the brink of destruction. There's just too much to do!
I think I was at about 160 hours when I finished the game, and I did everything I could find in Act 3, so you might be close to the end. I possibly skipped some content in Act 2 though, and I didn't do the mountain creche.

but where's bing bong and unhinged narrator mode

Spoiler for the epilogue:
- yess! i just saw it on sugarmellie's tiktok and now i can't wait to see ::: spoiler bg3 spoilers aliona's reaction when she and jen get to that part in bg3 :3 :::

Wild Shapes that do not have weapons will now benefit from having the Tavern Brawler feat. 

Aaaaawwwwwww yeah!

Nice thanks for pointing it out

Game is fucking legendary. Every ounce of respect, already earned.

I'm playing the new difficulty and its great. If you fuck up there is no way back except to your last save. You can't even quickload. I don't think it's more difficult than tactician so far but I'm still in act 1.

I might do this for my second play through with my gf. Increase the stakes. Can you still load if you die?
- I don't know yet as I haven't died yet but I believe death is final in that mode.
  In the words of Scar:
  Be prepared.
- You can load, but it won't be considered an honor mode run
I'm still in act 1, so they have a permadeath mode?
- I think you can choose to play on after dying, but you won't get the golden dice after completion.
- I think I read somewhere that it is but don't quote me on that. The biggest reason I'm playing it is because if you beat Honour Mode you get golden dice.

Somehow, I'm still in act 1, 40 hours in and savoring the whole time

Take your time, it's worth it. I reluctantly finished my "first" playthrough (not counting my actual first attempt when I started as the dark urge and restarted after 20 hours because it was clearly fucking everything up) at around 250 hours played. This patch is making me consider starting again. Best game I've played in ages.
Take your time brother. There is no rush. The game has literally been getting better with time.

I really, really hope they are working on the ability to make custom campaigns etc. similar to NWN. That would make it the perfect game for me.

Can we play this from our completed game, or do we need to load a save from before the final fight?

In the patch notes somewhere, it says you need to do the final fight again. Reload from the brainstem works.
- Thank you. I'm glad I didn't delete that save when clearing space for my second playthrough! PS5 only allows 50 saves total for some reason.
- I reloaded a save I had from within the fight. I can't get those spoiler tags to work, so I can't get into more details without revealing the finale, but you definitely don't have to repeat the whole fight. You just need to get to a point before it jumps into the epilogue to trigger it.

130 GB download for a patch? Guess we're just redownloading the game every month now.

I'm pretty much at a loss for words here. This feels like a definitive-edition style update we're getting basically for free. It's 30 gigs of goodness, so game-changing in fact that you need 130GB of space just to let it shuffle everything around, and Larian's straight up recommended just doing a clean reinstall if you're having trouble. Baldur's Gate 3 fans haven't just been eating good, we've been feasting.
- Yeah, only with my connection, I can pretty much expect the next overhaul to come out just around the time this download is finished.
- Larian showing the love! I just love this game and think this studio has become my absolute favorite.

Man I’m glad I waited on this and Cyberpunk to be more feature complete

- Absolutely, I’m going thru a slow campaign with folk, so the bugs I’ve been hearing about and qol go faster than I am progressing for the game. Plus I have a huge backlog to get thru, so it just ends up being I’d rather wait for a good chunk of bugs to be ironed out even if the game has already been amazing so far. I don’t see myself replaying it, as there’s just so much out there, I want my first go thru to be dope af. Then when time and life post backlog permits I’ll go ahead and class up for a differently for a new playthru
- Well ackshawlly...(PCmasterrace smug) BG3 was in early access and playable for PC gamers since last year.
  But seriously - the early access was content rich, but it was pretty buggy. I took am glad I waited for the full release.

With all the added endings soon the end will be longer than the game. But I'm not complaining.

Been playing the game since its release and im happy to see this improvement. Just checked out the epilogue and it has multiple endings as well haha.
On top of that, it opens a few doors to future content on top of the existing ending cutscenes which looks awesome.
Cant wait for a sequel or the next chapter of the baldurs gate 3 story

What are you hoping the epulogue will be and why is it >!finding Karlach's heart!< ?

G.O.A.T.