Community Update #16: Of Valour and Lore

The next time someone quotes to you from that famous old adage, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," grab hold of their lapels and ask: “But what if those words were spoken by a Bard?”

Hello again, friends! I come to you today with a fresh Community Update to ring in the release of our latest patch, Patch #8: Of Valour and Lore. As you may have already gleaned from the title, today’s update introduces a playable class: Bards!

Whether they’re spitting pithy one-liners on the frontlines of combat, or inspiring your party with instrumental buffs from the sidelines, Bards are a powerful class to have in your party - a jack-of-all-trades who can cast powerful spells with just a melody, wield cutting insults as if they were weapons, and potentially kill a man with a pun about his scrotum.

But a new class isn’t all you have to look forward to in this update. Today’s patch notes are an eye-watering 19 pages-long, and features countless improvements and fixes alongside a new playable Gnome race, a major upgrade to the pace of combat, musical instruments, fresh hairstyles and colours, and much more.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the highlights you can look forward to in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Trebel Makers: A new Bard class comes to Baldur’s Gate 3

Bards are a versatile class who inspire their party with words or music. Their signature move, Bardic Inspiration, positions them as a robust support class, allowing them to boost an ally’s effectiveness in combat and emboldens them to hit harder and faster. But whether your Bard’s other strengths lie more in spellcasting or in combat will depend on which of their two subclasses you choose once they reach Level 3.

Bards of the College of Valour are deadly with simple weapons, using the proficiencies and skills of their subclass to deal devastating attacks. Their signature ability - Combat Inspiration - makes them a powerful addition to any team, allowing them to inspire allies with their valour, boost weapon damage and Armour Class, or add a +1d6 bonus to the next Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving throw.

Bards of the College of Lore, on the other hand, are capable spellcasters who seek out knowledge anywhere it lives, and use deft wordplay and magical abilities to confuse and debuff foes. As a Bard of the College of Lore, you’ll be able to unleash a string of insults that sap the confidence of your enemies – dealing out a 1d6 penalty to Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, and damage dealt until their next turn.

Their signature ability - Cutting Words - allows them to unleash a string of insults to sap the confidence of their enemies, dealing out a 1d6 penalty to Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, and damage dealt until their next turn. Inspired by this power, Patch 8 features 97 bespoke insults, each meticulously crafted by our team of talented writers who have spent years honing their wordsmithing skills in the Rude Arts.

Here are a few highlights, ranging from Subtly Backhanded to Emotionally Devastating:

• Cosmetic“Your eyes/pools of tepid piss.”

• “Didst your idiot mother beclothe you?”

• “Get thee gone, custardous discharge.”

Try one out for yourself next time someone cuts in front of you in a queue.

The Realms are alive with the sound of music

“Chuck! Chuck, it's Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that new orchestral Bard sound