The word “kiss” appears 10 times in the latest blog post for Baldur’s Gate 3’s seventh major patch, while the word “bug” appears 14 times. I think that’s a good indicator of how BG3’s updates have largely been a balancing act between dealing with things like progress locks and satisfying the inexhaustible excitement of its fan base. But Patch 7 is about more than just bug hunting and kissing. It’s due out in September and introduces vigorous split-screen functionality, Honor mode expansions, modding tools, modern endings for bad games, and a few fixes for Origin characters.
Let’s start with things related to split screen. Baldur’s Gate 3 patch 7 will present vigorous split-screen linking when co-op players are close together, “because the power of friendship outweighs all obstacles, including split screens.” You can toggle this directly from the HUD or in the RPG setting, in or out of combat. Adding to the intimacy, the patch allows for banter between characters assigned to different people in multiplayer, rather than being narrow to characters controlled by a single player.
As for Honor Mode, Patch 7 is spreading out Legendary Actions—special, unique Actions exclusive to Honor Mode that become available under the right circumstances—to a wider range of creatures, “including the bulette, everyone’s favorite neighborhood surgeon, Malus Thorm, and the githyanki Ch’r’ai Tska’an, Ch’r’ai Har’rak, and Ptaris.” Always a defender of the people, Larian also gave local hobgoblin Dror Ragzlin the Arachnid Compulsion ability, which lets him unleash a ton of spider-like creatures on you.
As for the modding toolset, it lets you play with: items, including weapons and armor; cosmetics, such as hair and textures; races, classes, and subclasses, including variations on existing classes and their abilities; the user interface; and, most deliciously, the dice you’ll roll during those nail-biting tests of skill. You can read more in this is the official FAQ. Larian is working with specific mod authors to test the tools before the September patch releases. The Steam blog details what they’ve done so far, along with a miniature flurry of notes about very specific fixes for Origin characters. Did you know or care too much about Karlach combing the shaved part of her head during her idle animation at the camp? Did it really annoy you? Well, after September, it didn’t.
The modern campaign endings finally apply to both Origin characters like Dark Urge and custom creations. “Every new cinematic is there for you to discover through nefarious means,” the blog boasts. The bad endings are accompanied by various improvements and bug fixes, particularly for Dark Urge players. For example, they’ve done away with the one where the rest of your team would watch without a care in the world when you accidentally murdered a teammate. Oh, “and Minthara will now react appropriately if you’ve been stripped of Bhaal’s influence.”
It’s not all that straightforward: Dark Urgers may be unhappy to know that you still can’t kiss Gortash. It’s been so long since BG3 went to 1.0 that I can’t remember who Gortash is without checking the wiki, but I’m not surprised to hear that some players want to kiss him. Come on, show me a Baldur’s Gate 3 character someone doesn’t want to kiss. I’ll be back tomorrow and you best believe I’ll be googling your answers, unless they scare me, in which case let’s forget this ever happened.
