Two years on and it’s still Baldur’s Gate 3’s world we’re living in. Every new RPG is measured against it, and Larian’s next game, Divinity, is still hotly anticipated even amid criticism of the studio’s admission of experimenting with generative AI.
Until Larian unveiled Divinity, we didn’t know what it was doing next—only that it wouldn’t be Baldur’s Gate 4. At GDC 2024, about nine months after BG3’s release, Larian boss Swen Vincke dropped a bombshell: The studio would not make an expansion pack or sequel to its most successful game to date, and was parting ways with Wizards of the Coast and D&D entirely.
But they sure took their time saying goodbye, huh? Cyberpunk 2077 is the only recent singleplayer game I can think of that has received more free, post-launch additions—and that was in response to a deeply compromised launch. Baldur’s Gate 3 started on top, and just kept climbing.
Before Vincke’s early 2024 farewell, BG3 had already gotten the überhard, permadeath Honour Mode, as well as an expanded, playable epilogue. Here are some highlights from after:
- New evil ending cinematics
- Modding tools and an in-game mod manager/browser
- Console cross-play
- Photo mode
- 12 new subclasses, one for each new base class
Taken together BG3’s post-launch support feels like a diet expansion pack, or a reprise in all but name of the “Definitive Edition” updates for Larian’s Original Sin games. It’s been a rare delight to be pleasantly surprised over and over again by improvements to one of my favorite games.
The playable epilogue is a treat, but as a sweaty buildcrafting boy, Honour Mode and the new subclasses have been the most transformative for me. The former reminds me of the Hardcore/Survival modes in Skyrim and the Fallout series, which introduce requirements for drinking, eating, sleeping, and sometimes even save game restrictions.
They all make the game more difficult, but not by increasing the reaction speed requirements or ballooning enemy health bars into war of attrition territory. They instead inject more consequences into small decisions. You have to think, plan, and engage with the game on a deeper level, and when you take a risk, the stakes feel more pressing.
In an RPG that invites replays while encouraging mastery and familiarity, I find these conditions very grounding and immersive: You can’t take the same things for granted anymore. The game demands more from you, but that means you get more out of it. The new subclasses are the perfect tools to handle such a challenge in BG3. The College of Swords Bard, available from day one, remains the Baldur’s GOAT in my book. But new additions like the Hexblade, Bladesinger, and Arcane Archer come close, while also just being plain fun.
The new subclasses added this April seem to signal the official end of Larian’s major additions, but the party doesn’t have to stop. Modding continues apace, and even aside from user-made additions, Baldur’s Gate 3 is so malleable it demands you return to it again and again.
Now’s as good a time as any for a replay. And if you’re one of those people who got 20 hours in at the end of summer 2023 and always meant to go back—we have a few of those at PC Gamer—just make a new character.
There’s a really good build guide I can recommend for you. Just don’t run with that version of the Swords Bard, I’ve been meaning to update it—Bard 6 / Thief 3 / Champion 3 is “What’s Not.” Bard 10 / Fighter 2, trading Hand Crossbows for The Dead Shot and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel in Act 3, is officially “What’s Hot.”
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