#honestly waht i learned more from the patch notes than anything else was that i still have a lot i haven't found in this game yet XD

[blackjackkent]

As I have done for the last two major patch drops, here's a collection of things that stood out for me in the Patch 7 patch notes! :D

There's quite a lot of them - and this isn't even close to the whole list of changes, so definitely check out the full patch notes here if you're interested.

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First of all, the things I'm actively excited about:

Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs. (Exciting! I've started pondering what my next BG3 liveblog will be - though I might switch to another game for a while first after Rakha is done - and I am starting to lean towards reworking Alexis, my bard, into an evil-run Minthara-mancer. So... intrigued to see more of this in the future!)

Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community. (I don't know details about the existing modding process but the new system seems like it'll be pretty intuitive so - hype!)

You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown. (Neat! I may do this as well on my next liveblog playthrough - not the difficulty changes but just forcing me to stick to my choices with one save.)

The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I. (Amazing. I'm unironically in love with this addition.)

The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.

Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.

A bug that had been preventing Wyll’s romance greeting from triggering has now been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

In Act II, Minthara will now react to you having knocked her out in Act I.

Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.

To improve her chances of survival, Hope now has a new passive called Last Hope that grants her Death Ward for free when she enters combat.

Fixed a bug causing Dark Urge characters to get renamed after using the Magic Mirror. (This threw me for such a loop when I accidentally did it with Rakha.)

When playing as the Dark Urge, if you invite her, Alfira will now actually join your party as a controllable character if there's room for her in your party setup. Temporarily, of course.

Fixed several issues with the portrait that Oskar gives you. Principally, the image on the portrait will now be that of the active character claiming the reward, regardless of their position on the Party Line. (THANK THE GODS. I'm still not over having so many feels about Hector commissioning a portrait of Karlach to have after she was gone, and Oskar cheerfully handing him a painting of Jaheira to look at instead. XD )

Karlach will now tell you her backstory if you reach the point of no return in the Shadow-Cursed Lands even if you didn't confront the paladins of Tyr.

You can now return Mol's eyepatch to her when you find her in the Guildhall.

Fixed the Monastic Robes stretching into a violent-looking point when you wake up on the beach after falling from the nautiloid. (Thank god - this happened all the time with Hector and it drove me crazy. Hopefully this means it's been fixed in other parts of the game too.)

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And then the changes and bug fixes that made me laugh:

If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit [in honor mode], he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.

Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage. ( Oh dear. 😬 )

We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.

You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.

Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.) (Eyyyy, I ran into this in Rakha's run and it made me laugh a lot. XD )

Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.

Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.

If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.

Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.

Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.

Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say. 

Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about Orin after you kill her.

Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene in Avernus at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.

Fixed some issues with Long Rest: Loading a save made during a Long Rest could cause a crash and you could sometimes get stuck in a Long Rest forever and ever, amen.

Fixed a blocker related to Orin's dagger, which will now respawn near the altar if you hurled her into a chasm and a cultist picked it up before you did. (Because it's bound to her, it would zip back to her corpse in the chasm, lost forevermore.)

Monks' Clench of the North Wind spell now targets up to 2 characters at Level 9. They just have to clench a little harder.

Priestess Gut will no longer hit herself with her own conditions. Silly gob-gob.

We've suggested to Yurgir that when he's invisible he should take advantage of it and actually try to move around a little so that he's harder to find.

Fixed some technical names showing up for each of Ansur's limbs. Naming them all 'Ansur' was the ansur.

Raphael can no longer steal souls from creatures that narratively don't have souls, such as Undead and Constructs.

Kled doesn't have Dror Ragzlin's Legendary Actions anymore. Dror's not one for sharing.

Fixed how the Chest of the Mundane handles item stacks higher than its maximum. (It should no longer gobble up your enormous coin stack and spit back a measly 21 cups in return.)

Prevented summons and followers like Glut from being able to consume Noblestalk. Yes, your Mage Hand probably ate it. No, we don't know where its mouth is.

When Withers resurrects an avatar, the Dream Guardian will no longer immediately prompt another nearby avatar to loot them for a tadpole. Similarly, dead, dismissed avatars will no longer trigger this same prompt. Some decorum, please.

When multiple characters in the party discover a trap or hidden item, only one will comment on it. We figured you don't need four people telling you to watch out for the same trap at the same time.

You can now swap out party members by speaking to the companion you want to replace even if the one you want to replace them with is Wild-Shaped. What your companion will think of you replacing them with a sheep is another story.

Fixed multiple spots where Perception checks were being made through solid objects.

Elminster should no longer react to crimes that don't affect him. (We distracted him with some Stilton.)

Fixed an issue on multiplayer where Gale would briefly appear to be in his undies for the client if the host has the Donate UI open and Gale is wearing magical robes that he can consume.

Fixed a bug that would let you waltz your way through destructible walls without actually destroying them. (You could attempt to attack the wall and your character would pathfind right through it in search of a comfortable spot from which to take a swing.)

Bald characters with the Wet condition will no longer have darker scalps.

You can no longer loot the underwear of non-recruited companions when you knock them out. (Justice for Minthara's dignity! \o/ )

Fixed a split screen issue where Invisible characters would sometimes not render at all for a second player joining the game. We need them to be invisible, but not that invisible.

Fixed a bug where your party members would very quickly change out of their armour and into their cosy camp clothes when you talked to them after having left the Astral Plane. We don't really blame them for being so desperate to hit the hay.

Fixed an issue where resurrecting a mind-controlled Nightsong would cause enemies to become allied to you.

During the final battle, backup companions being called upon with ally abilities will now appear with some clothes on for the occasion.

You can no longer use the Active Search feature to bypass the booby-trapped display case in Ramazith's Tower and pick up the key inside it. Smarty-pantses.

Improved Lumbar support: Lumbar will now stand still after you paid him to hit him.

Fixed a bug where interacting with the crate full of explosive toys in Rivington could cause you to get stuck in an endless loop of crime dialogues (being interrogated and sent to prison) and/or in combat with temporarily hostile NPCs.

Fixed a bug where dropping or selling certain items looted from the Lower City graveyard could cause NPCs to react as though you'd committed the crime of moving a corpse.

Fixed Cordrane the Recent being able to raise a zombie in Sorcerous Sundries when he shouldn't be able to, like when he's dead or Silenced.

Shadowheart is now more engaged with the flora and fauna at camp. (I don't know what this means but I hope it means she plays with the owlbear and Scratch.)

A camp night scene with Shadowheart will no longer trigger if she's not in the party and, uh, also dead.

Fixed Gale's 'splosion sometimes not showing correctly, meaning you'd get a Game Over without knowing why.

Fixed your player character introducing themselves with the wrong name when talking to Mizora.

Fixed Avatar Lae'zel behaving like a companion at the end of the tutorial and telling you (or telling herself) to hurry.

Kagha will now be imbibing if she's at the tiefling party. (I didn't know Kagha could even COME to the tiefling party. O.O Is this if Halsin's dead? )

Fixed Abdirak's self-flagellation idle animation. (Game dev must be a weird job sometimes. :P )

Ward Magmar and Ward Pistle, the duergar at Grymforge, will now make a snide remark if you're playing a small race.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel will now have new equipment if it was taken during the nautiloid escape and they have travelled sufficiently far to realistically acquire it before getting recruited.

Benryn will no longer follow you to camp or leave with you through a waypoint while you're in the process of escorting him out of the burning building at Waukeen's Rest.

Fixed Korrilla being killable in the goblin camp prison after she kills Priestess Gut. This was causing her to spawn as a corpse later on in Act III.

Fixed a bug where leaving the Shadowfell could resurrect an unrecruited Shadowheart and have her turn up at your camp anyway. She just liked the cut of your jib.

Karlach's death scene no longer ends abruptly when a non-gith player chooses to leave with Lae'zel.

Fixed a bug where, if you promised Cazador to bring Astarion to him and Astarion was in your party, you could go to Astarion at camp and tell him to replace himself in your party.

Zanner Toobin will now trigger the self-destruct sequence correctly instead of suddenly forgetting he was supposed to be in a panic because of the Steel Watcher Titan.

Told Devella to be more patient and wait until the end of the dialogue before she moves on to Basilisk Gate after being saved from Dolor.

Jogged Nine-Fingers' foggy memory - she will now recognise you when you bring Jaheira to her after she asked you to.

Shadowheart no longer sometimes still thinks that Viconia is alive after having killed her. Poor thing.

Wulbren will no longer comment on Toobin's daughter being dead if Toobin is not present.

Gave Sticky Dondo more lines to yell to sell his wares in the Guildhall. (Thank fuck tbh.)

Fixed player characters and the Narrator talking over each other when interacting with Minsc's relics in his hidden chamber. (MINSC HAS A HIDDEN CHAMBER? I have some hunting to do with Rakha lmao.)

You can no longer open the barricaded doors at the Crimson Draughts apothecary from the inside. We forgot barricades are supposed to work both ways.

Yoinked Sceleritas Fel's hat back from Helsik's desk.

You should no longer potentially see the great empty void of Game Developer Land after starting the epilogue.

Added more lines for Jaheira and Minsc to exclaim during the battle with the Stone Lord.

Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck in a dialogue with the Emperor about killing Gortash if you clicked on Gortash's corpse with Karlach (which starts a dialogue, after which she leaves the party and goes to camp) while, with another character, you also clicked on Gortash's body and sent his gauntlet to Karlach via the context menu right before her dialogue ended and she left the party. Yep. You can read it again if you want.

If you fail a pickpocket attempt at High Hall, your allies will no longer become hostile towards you. We reminded them that the fate of the world lies in the balance and that you play a pretty big part in it, thief or not.

Fixed Gortash's title potentially reverting back to 'Archduke Nominee' when reloading a savegame after the ceremony.

Wyll will no longer talk about hunting down Mizora when she's, like, right there.

The 'Embrace Your Potential' quest will now close if you choose to squelch the Astral-Touched Tadpole beneath your toes like a sentient little grape.

Jaheira's journal could at times say she had something to talk to you about, but then she wouldn't discuss it. She's a bit less tight-lipped now, so you know what to do in the city.

Someone pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Eldritch Knight and Battle Master subclass icons. We've switchereed them back.

Fixed a bug where examining a character and then examining an item would merge both character and item into a monstrous model in a single Examine window. The character would also be T-posing and naked.

Removed the turrets from the ground floor of Wyrm's Crossing since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and never worked.

Fixed an unreachable fruit porridge in Wyrm's Rock. Makes you wonder how it got there in the first place.

Moved an unreachable book ('On the Greater Healing Potion') at Last Light. (Unironically this has driven me crazy on every playthrough.)

If Minthara's camp trousers get blood on them, the spatters will now be spread across them more tastefully rather than concentrated between the legs. (Holy shit.)

Kerz, the half-orc hireling, was wearing clothes that didn't fit properly. We found a tailor and everything's looking spiffy now.

Fixed some particularly intense and alarming-looking smoke coming out of the chimney at the Rivington General.

Gave a skirt to the chicken lady who mentions a skirt.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Fixed the animation for the Crawling Claw's footsteps. (Fingersteps?)

Fixed Brynna's clothes clipping through her arm and revealing her armpit. She informed us she was not, in fact, begging for a tickle.

Fixed the Graceful Cloth and Mighty Cloth looking like crop tops on male halflings.

The magicians outside of Sorcerous Sundries were yelling and casting spells so loudly that it was hard to hear your companions over them if you spoke to them nearby. We've toned this down and cleaned up the mix.

Added death vocals ('uurghghhh's) for dragonborn and half-orc NPCs.

Fixed the name of a decorative pot in the Colony, which was lying about being a cookpot.

Tweaked the spikes on the artefact in the dialogue where it passes from Shadowheart over to you so it doesn't look like it's impaling you.

Fixed your hand clipping into your face while smearing poo on it.

Told Wyll he doesn't need to hold his sword threateningly close to the chest of small races during his recruitment dialogue.

Fixed Mizora's body popping when she comes to pay Wyll a visit at camp. Save the popping and locking for the club.

Fixed Volo's hand clipping into your head while he performs his highly professional and sanitary surgical intervention.

Fixed the Dream Guardian's leg getting all jittery when they kneel down to let you stab them. The facade of stoicism breaks a little when you can see their legs turn to jelly.

Fixed a bug where biting off Crusher's toe and then defeating him in a fist fight would result in a cinematic where the toe was still present. An embarrassing inconsistency in an otherwise realistic chain of events. (I noticed this on Rakha's run and was judging you so hard, Larian. XD )

Fixed Shadowheart sometimes turning her head concerningly far over her shoulder during her recruitment dialogue at the Emerald Grove.

Fixed minor pops when playing as Avatar Shadowheart if the artefact explodes and kills Lae'zel. (This can happen???)

Fixed your character snapping their body backwards and wibbly-wobbling around as though trying to pass beneath a cursed limbo stick in the cutscene where Kar'niss approaches you in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Fixed the chalice that you hold when talking to Jaheira at Last Light vibrating suspiciously after you set it down on the table.

Fixed a Reconstituted Duellist's line getting cut off prematurely. He really, really wanted you to hear him finish saying 'come to my inner chambers'.

Dark Urge characters who have not cured themselves of Bhaal's influence or who have embraced Bhaal at the end of the game will no longer appear in Karlach's final scene as though they didn't just stalk off on a mad hunt for blood.

During Gortash's inauguration, Ravengard's head, sword, and legs will no longer leave his body suspended in the air behind him when he walks down the steps. (😱 )

Fixed a cinematic bug where the submersible would approach the Iron Throne and, the moment it arrived, would nope out and appear to reverse back to the surface.