Baldur's Gate 3: Early Access. Bards and Gnomes.

 Shredding Lute

Baldur's Gate 3 is happily trucking along, totally oblivious of it's own tail as it drags now to an early 2023 release date (If we're really lucky) and along the way our Early Access overlords slowly peicemeal fundamentals that seem just about done. After this update I believe there's only a couple more base classes left to introduce, so we're pretty close to the end of our big content updates before the big one. For Update 8, entitled Bards and Gnomes, it's pretty darn obvious what the team have cooked up for us. Going into the update I have to confess that I was totally blindsided by the fact that Gnomes weren't yet playable. I mean I thought about it, sure. Especially given how my original Baldur's Gate 1, 2 and Throne of Bhaal character was a gnome, originally I was a little bummed how I couldn't relieve the glory days. But I never really thought it was going to be something the team would get around to. I'm greatful, I guess; but I think the Bard is the addition that's drawing the eyes to the yard.

The Bard is one of the most interesting, and most boring, classes in these CRPG like games. On the tabletop game they're a font of creativity and roleplaying, dripping with utility and purpose and tricks up their every dextrous sleeves; but a lot of that comes from play outside of combat. Many CRPGs, quite rightly, focus heavily on combat; relegating Bards to mostly limp support roles depending on the quality of the ruleset adaptation. In Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Bards were practically just supremely underpowered rogues; maybe there's a trick to drawing blood out of their stone, but I'd dare anyone out there to go ahead and solo the series with a Bard and see how long it takes for them to rage quit or pass out. In more modern CRPGs like Kingmaker they're a lot more involved, but still more as dedicated support unless specifically built otherwise, and that doesn't speak to the spirit of the bard class in my mind. 

Though it may not sound like it by name, Bard's are actually the perfect class for the all around adventurer who doesn't want to exclusively specialise and instead prefers to have their hands in a little bit of everything. A 'Bard' is essentially a wandering adventurer who has picked up a lifetime of minor expertise in just about everything over time, and it hasn't been until this iteration of them in Baldur's Gate 3 that I've really felt that bought to life. Of course this mechanically works thanks to their Jack-of-All trades trait which bestows a +1 on just about every ability check ever, but that feeling also expands to gameplay. The Bard is an actually versatile spellcaster in Baldur's Gate 3, gaining access to powerful spells, somewhat sound-related that are fun to play around with like Thunderwave and Shatter, and use their signature 'bardic inspiration' as a bonus action. But for now they also have their own spells, based around the concept of bardic performances such as the powerful 'Dissonant Whispers', which does hefty psychic damage and has the chance to frighten, or perhaps my single favourite mindworm ability out of all the classes so far; Stage Fright. A spell which, get this, gives a group of enemies disadvantage on their attack role and then punishes them with damage everytime they miss an attack! That's groovy.

But of course, all of this pales in comparison to the single greatest ability that any Bard has at their disposal. The real signature of the Bard's repertoire, 'Vicious Mockery'. A cantrip wherein the Bard quite literally insults the enemy so hard it does psychic damage. I know that technically in the lore the Bard is actually enchanting their words as they speak them, but I like to believe they're literally just dropping such spicy burns that it literally short circuits their opponents brain and kills them. Of course, to bring this alive Larian sat down and recorded something like over 70 (if I remember right) insults for the player to cycle through, all for a move which only does a maximum of four damage and so isn't exactly going to be the burning go-to. All for that hardwork to be replaced once the game comes out and someone immediately creates a mod to replace those insults with utterly incomprehensible British road-man slurs. But doesn't that alone just present exactly how much effort Larian is putting into every fibre of this game to make it not just the best game it can be, but the best framework from which to launch countless custom stories (hopefully) or DLC or maybe just be a springboard for Baldur's Gate 4; because I think we all know Larian isn't going to just be happy giving us a single DnD game where the max level cap is 14. If the DLC doesn't do it, they're going to give us another game to explode the spectacle all the way to twenty; that feels like a given.

The amount of effort that Larian has put into this one class, as they do with every class, defines the best-of-the-best of triple A CRPGs. No other CRPG has come close to capturing the level of prestige that Baldur's Gate 3 is aiming for. The Bard class has their selection of instruments, each of which carries unique animations and sound scapes for when they're playing or casting spells. There are multiple renditions of songs that players can play for roleplaying purposes or to draw the attention of a crowd. The update also came with a swath of new hairstyles to pick through, not just a flicked switch that allows men and women hair to be worn by either gender; there are some new hairs as well. And a two tone hair dye system and a greying hair system. We just need that sort of detail expanded to the facial details and the character customizer will be complete!

Now, is the Bard update perfect? No, in fact Larian may have introduced a rather meddlesome exception in the game for the soul purpose of realising the Bard. What I'm referring to is the fact that reactions have been turned off for enemies being pushed so they no longer see it as a violent act, presumably because otherwise they'd see playing music as a violent act. But this essentially allows you to, in areas where it's applicable, go around pushing people into lava without recourse. Bardic Inspiration isn't perfect, in that it's hard to nail down exactly what action you want to inspire, specially in a defence scenario, thanks to Baldur's Gate 3's lacklustre reaction system. And for some reason the 'Friend' spell is now a hostile action. As in, when is wears off the person who was charmed gets angry. So angry that they may just try to kill you. Which doesn't seem in the spirit of 'friends' if you ask me.

Having played with the Bard quite a bit now, once through as a College of Lore subclass and now a bit away through enough as a hybrid dual-wielding crossbow style College of Valour bard; and I think I've enough experience to sum up thoughts on the class. I really like it. Just like it's supposed to; the Bard class is versatile and dynamic, giving you a response to just about any situation you come across. It may not always be the perfect response, and you may fail miserably and end up surrounded by a group of harpies who just resisted your 'Stage Fright' and are currently pecking your eyes out; but you get the chance to try. I've also been encouraged to be more creative with the way I solve problems thanks to not being the master of my field, which can go from the usual: try to lure enemies near a ledge precarious enough for my Thunderwave, to the more tactical, douse my hand crossbow with fire and wear fire-damage buff gear to make my hand-crossbow into a scion weapon from hell.

Bards and Gnomes represents a Baldur's Gate 3 which is getting closer to it's final face than ever before. The UI tweaks here and there are making visual information sing just that little bit more, and whilst I think new comers would seriously benefit from an optional walkthrough of how to navigate the abilities panel (No one ever notices the passives panel on the first run) it seems like the Baldur's Gate we're seeing today is almost perfectly wrapped up. (At least for this, hopefully tiny, snippet of Act 1.) Larian are just looking to bring in internal testers for the other two acts, most of the classes are wrapped up, it really does feel like we're approaching the other end of this Early Access and I couldn't be more excited. Even after 4.5 playthroughs I still love going through BG3 again and again and must sing the praises of Larian's inspired encounter design, if they keep up the momentum they build in this first Act, I have no doubt BG3 is a modern classic waiting to be unleashed.