There hasn't been much news about Baldur's Gate 3 since December, when the game received its third patch. That changed last week when Larian announced a new Panel From Hell event in order to reveal details about the upcoming fourth patch, this time featuring Swen alongside Larianites David Walgrave and Nick Pechenin as well as lead D&D rules designer Jeremy Crawford. Broadcast yesterday, Panel From Hell 2 turned out to be both longer and more straightforward than the previous one. It began with an introduction to some of the changes that will be introduced in the new patch, including the option to make dialogue stat checks less likely to fail repeatedly, new and improved cinematics (including for speaking with the dead), and a variety of quality of life and UI improvements. That was followed by an interlude where it was announced that the Larian empire has expanded once more with the acquisition of Guildford-based studio Turbulenz, who have been assisting with the game's development.

After that was done, the main highlight of the new patch was revealed - the addition of the Druid class to Baldur's Gate 3. Larian are placing a large emphasis on the druid's shapeshifting abilities, with characters able to do everything you might expect in their animal forms, both in and out of combat. To demonstrate the new class and some of the patch's other new features, the panel concluded with a lengthy 70 minute gameplay stream, in which Swen's party took on a powerful swamp hag who had kidnapped a local peasant woman. Spoiler: It didn't end well.


Larian have also put together a new trailer for the druid class. As for when we'll be able to play as one ourselves, the patch was originally supposed to be released this week, but had to be delayed to next week due to some last minute QA issues.