Baldur’s Gate III Community Update #5 – Early Access

Following the recent Panel From Hell event that revealed Baldur’s Gate III’s planned September 30th early access release date, we’re treated to a new Community Update that expands on some of the things mentioned during the livestream. We get an overview of the game’s origin characters, an early access scope comparison between BG III and Divinity: Original Sin II, a preview of a few standout spells and skills, and more.

A few snippets:

Here’s a little about who you’re likely to meet on the road to Baldur’s Gate:

Shadowheart
A loyal cleric of Shar, Shadowheart is the sole survivor of a holy mission undertaken for the Mistress of the Night. She alone must deliver a relic of immense power while threatened by foes on all sides, and a strange, untamed magic burgeoning from within.

Wyll
Noble by birth, Wyll made his name as the heroic ‘Blade of Frontiers’. But to become a living legend, he made a bargain with a devil – and he now longs to break free before it consumes him for good.

Lae’zel
Lae’zel is a ferocious warrior, mighty even by the standards of a githyanki crèche. Faced with transforming into the very monster she’s sworn to destroy, Lae’zel must prove herself worthy of rejoining her people – if they don’t execute her first.

Astarion
Astarion prowled the night as a vampire spawn for centuries, serving a sadistic master until he was snatched away. Now he can walk in the light and has the chance at a new life, but how long can he keep his past buried?

Gale
Gale is a Waterdhavian wizard prodigy whose love for a goddess made him attempt something no mortal should. Blighted by the forbidden magic of ancient Netheril, Gale needs to undo the corruption that is overtaking him, a corruption that threatens to destroy the lives of thousands.

[…]

Immense Scope

During the panel we gave a couple of examples of how the depth of Baldur’s Gate 3 made our numbers soar. We showcased the spell “Speak with Dead”. A spell that could (and potentially should) be easily sidelined or “gamified” because of the immense scope, but instead we’ve ensured that Speak with Dead is relevant throughout your adventures with every corpse that had something interesting to say. Can’t interrogate the living? Interrogate the dead!

The same goes for animal Handling, something many of you asked about. The skill can be used to calm down an animal, intuit an animal’s intentions, or potentially help tame it. You’ll find plenty of uses for this skill on the road to Baldur’s Gate but that’s not all. There’s also the spell Speak with Animals. During the panel we hinted that good use of these spells or skills could even lead to recruiting an owlbear companion!

In the stream, we showed another useful spell in the D&D arsenal – Find Familiar. This spell creates a spirit that takes the form of animal of your choice (Cat, Raven, Spider and more) to serve you as a familiar. The familiar becomes a controllable follower, and can be useful for a number of reasons. Thanks to the spell you can see and hear through the animal, so it’s perfect to send it ahead of you and explore the region as a scout. While mostly combat ineffective, familiars can be used to spy and gain insight on situations before you can encounter them. Certain familiars also have other interesting abilities like a cat – who can use a skill to distract guards, making it much easier for your rogue to do what they do best.

[…]

Wrapping up!

OH – there’s one more thing. There won’t be pre-orders for Baldur’s Gate 3 and you do not need to worry about pre ordering to play with everyone else.

You’ll be able to buy it on launch day, and then start playing the content described in this update. There will not be limited quantities of keys.

That’s pretty much everything you need to inform yourself on Early Access. It’s going to be an awesome journey together. We’ll be sharing new content, features, and improvements with you regularly. We’ll be talking directly with you, and hopefully when COVID is done being a total asshole to the world, we’ll meet again at PAX, or EGX, or wherever else! We miss you!

We have more surprises in store for you up to launch. We’ll post a full, extensive breakdown of Early Access Day 1 content closer to launch, but until then stay tuned to our streams and community updates!