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Baldur’s Gate 3’s new barbarian makes anger an art formGoblins become improvised weapons in Larian’s new Patch 7
Goblins become improvised weapons in Larian’s new Patch 7
Baldur’s Gate’s most famous barbarian wasn’t actually a barbarian at all. Technically speaking, Minsc was a ranger - a man of the woods who just happened to spin into a rage during battle, hitting friend or foe for extra damage, while ignoring blows that would fell a tree. It was a classification that came with its benefits: since every ranger was entitled to an animal companion, Minsc had justification for his connection to Boo, the “miniature giant space hamster” that lived in his inventory. But the primary reason for the misnomer was a gap in the rules of Dungeons & Dragons.
Larian Studios, the current custodians of the series, don’t have any such issues. Working with D&D’s fifth edition, which has full and flavoursome rules that allow players to embody barbarians, the developers have adapted the class for use inBaldur’s Gate 3. It’s a typically meticulous transposition that holds true to the tabletop game’s definition of what makes a barbarian boil: “More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, the churning turmoil of the sea.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 Barbarian Trailer | Patch SevenWatch on YouTube
Baldur’s Gate 3 Barbarian Trailer | Patch Seven
We built this city on dice and rollsEvery time I speak to Swen Vincke, I ask him how the titular metropolis, Baldur’s Gate, is shaping up. “I’ve been looking a lot at the city lately,” he teases. “It’s not an open world city, that I can tell you. What exactly it’s going to be like, you’ll find out when we show it. It’s not ready yet, but the good news is we’re working on the city.”
During a demo of what’s coming later today in Patch 7, Vincke gets into a scrape with two goblins - one of whom, a ranger, immediately summons a spider. What did we say about that class coming with benefits? In response, Vincke makes use of the barbarian proclivity for improvised weaponry. “Improvised Weapons basically means that if you’re strong enough to pick it up, you can use it to hit something,” he explains. The CEO directs his githyanki main to grab the other goblin and swing it like a club, damaging both spider and goblin in the process.
The enemy ranger has, rather wisely, kept their distance, so Vincke asks a second barbarian to hurl the summoner into the fray. No dice; at 120 kilograms the target is too heavy. If only they were an undead goblin. Less meat on the bones. No matter, though. Vincke commands the barbarian to down a Potion Of Hill Giant Strength, like Popeye. This is Baldur’s Gate 3’s design philosophy: no system existing in a vacuum, instead open to the influence of whatever tool you might have rattling around in your pack. With newly bulging muscles, the barbarian hurls the hapless gobbo, which lands atop the spider, flattening it. “I killed the summon with the summoner,” declares Vincke, proudly.
As the dust settles, Vincke’s two barbarians level up, which means it’s subclass time. The githyanki main becomes a berserker, which transforms Rage into Frenzy. “In addition to all the normal bonuses that you get with Rage, you’re also going to get extra actions - in this particular case, Frenzied Strike, Enraged Throw, and Improvised Weapon attack,” says Vincke. “I get to double the damage, essentially, as a barbarian.” It seems no coincidence that these bonus actions encourage you to weaponise the world around you, lifting objects and enemies off the ground like an incensed litter-picker.
For the backup barbarian, Vincke picks out the Wildheart subclass. That allows you to speak to animals, and double-down on your connection to a specific species. Select Bear Heart, and you’ll become tougher and tankier; Elk Heart, and you’ll gain the Primal Stampede ability, trampling straight through the enemy. With a Tiger Heart, you’ll jump higher and enter a bloodlust, lashing out and lacerating multiple enemies; with a Wolf Heart, you’ll start a new career as a motivational howler, buffing the movement speed and attack rolls of your allies. Wolves are the after-dinner speakers of the animal kingdom.
In the roofspace, despite the planning, things soon go awry. A pre-release bug robs the Wildheart barbarian of her Diving Strike. Then an ogre smashes through a pillar, collapsing the floor above and bringing the bear down with it. At this point, the demo devolves into laughter. “I’ve never seen that before,” Vincke says. “Unbelievable. I didn’t know that was in there. Oh my god, that’s great.”
While we’re taking inventory, so to speak, it’s worth exploring Larian’s newly powerful UI. The developers have installed filters in the menus that allow you to chase down weapons your character is proficient in, or every helmet you own, or potions that improve strength. They have compacted screens like the character sheet, and introduced the ability to “mix and match” screens so that you can, for example, show one character’s equipment alongside another’s stats. “When you play with it,” Vincke says, “it feels less claustrophobic.” These are quality-of-life touches rather than a headline features that sell games, but given just how many hours players burn scrutinising inventories in Larian games, these strike me as development hours well spent.
The new UI is indicative, too, of what makes Larian stand out: a commitment to maximalism. Another studio might see a cavernous inventory - one that takes a search bar to navigate, no less - as a sign that their game has too much going on. They might take it as a cue to cut back and focus. But Baldur’s Gate 3 is not that game. Its mission is to offer the wide sprawl of fifth edition D&D and let players have at it, tackling Faerûn’s problems with whatever tool they see fit. The barbarian, to whom I have devoted hundreds of words? They may never join your party, in hundreds of hours of play. Larian is aiming for a game that is endlessly malleable, a radiant pool of options you cannot possibly see the bottom of. And that, surely, is the beauty of this daft, breathtaking project.
