All 12 New Subclasses Coming In Patch 8

Although many Baldur’s Gate 3 players thought that Patch 7 would be the final update, Larian Studios has confirmed an eighth major update to be coming to the game in 2025. This update will include cross-play support for people to play together who use different devices, a new photo mode, and brand-new animations, abilities, and cantrips. The developers have also stated that they have more planned when it comes to creating tools for mods.

Undeniably, the biggest part of the new update is how 12 new subclasses are being added to the game – one for each available class. Lots of these subclasses were previously highly requested by fans, and come with unique new dialogue options and abilities. This is likely the last major update, so it may be the last chance for players to see their favorite subclasses from Dungeons & Dragons being featured in Baldur’s Gate 3.

1 College Of Glamour Bard

A Fey-Touched Bard Who Uses Magic To Charm Their Opponents

In Dungeons & Dragons, the College of Glamour Bard uses Feywild magic to charm and dazzle their opponents. Larian emphasizes (via a community update on Steam) their ability to heal allies and to control and manipulate their enemies. This class will likely be a good multi-class pairing with the Archfey warlock, given how both are charisma-based and usually involve attaining magic from the fey. The College of Glamour is overall a good choice for players who want to play a support role while still playing tricky, charlatan characters.

From the sneak-peek of the new ability animations on the Steam update page, also linked by the Baldur’s Gate 3 X (formerly Twitter) account, a Glamour Bard is shown enlarging their allies. It’s likely that players are going to have some of the most fun creating bards of this subclass, as the name implies a fancy and glamorous character, perhaps like Astarion. Though the class perfectly fits a character with Fey Ancestry, players who like building character stories around their protagonists may want to consider how they came into the use of Fey magic in the first place.

2 Path Of Giants Barbarian

Players Deal Damage By Throwing Their Enemies And Allies

The Path of Giants barbarian is perfect for throwing builds, allowing players to pick up and toss their friends and foes alike. The subclass also comes with increased carrying capacity, which is a great quality of life feature for players sticking to the base game. It comes with a new type of Rage called Giant’s Rage, which grants extra size and strength, a much more straightforward buff compared to the Bestial Hearts of the Wildheart barbarian, and a lot more predictable than the Wild Magic subclass.

3 Death Domain Cleric

A New DPS Cleric Subclass

The Death domain cleric is a subclass surrounded around necromancy and necrotic damage – its addition to the game comes with three new cantrips, and some content original to Baldur’s Gate 3. Larian grants the Death domain cleric the ability to “explode nearby corpses,” which has great potential for some interesting strategies. Perhaps a good team combination could involve a Death cleric and a Path of Giants barbarian, given their increased carrying and throwing capacity.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 differs from Dungeons & Dragons in the sense that certain cleric domains are not limited to certain gods, and players can choose a combination of any domain and any god to worship. However, the deities available to be chosen as cleric idols in Baldur’s Gate 3 who would canonically have followers under the death domain include Shar, Kelemvor, and Laduguer. Some other deities in the game who player clerics can’t worship under any circumstances are Myrkul, Bhaal, Lovivitar, and Jergal, though it’s unlikely that the new update will include them as options.

4 Circle Of Stars Druid

A Druid Who Draws Their Power From The Stars

The Circle of Stars grants a druid character new forms to shape-shift into other than the standard Wild Shapes. There are three of these new forms: the Archer, Chalice, and Dragon.

Baldur’s Gate 3 once again proves the versatile nature of the druid class, as the new forms each prioritize a different type of gameplay – healing, close combat, and strategy. It’s possible that they may even rival the moon druid’s elemental myrmidons.

5 Oath Of The Crown Paladin

Possibly The Class Of The Oathbreaker Knight

The Oath of the Crown is a promise to uphold the law, and is often sworn to lords and nobles. This is a good choice for a Lawful player of any sort. Though this is not the only paladin subclass with new content – the update also comes with new dialogue and content for the Oathbreaker Knight. Given who the Oathbreaker Knight was in life, it’s quite likely that he was intended to have followed the Oath of the Crown before becoming an Oathbreaker. This may be the reason why this subclass was added, and may be the source of his new content.

6 Arcane Archer Fighter

A Ranged-Focused Fighter Variant

The Arcane Archer fuses the use of regular weapons with magic and spellcasting. The subclass adds a new focus on psychic damage, and comes with new bow animations. Though in the lore of Dungeons & Dragons, the techniques used by the Arcane Archer are elven in nature and involve fey magic, this may become a popular choice to give to githyanki characters such as Lae’zel given how she is already a fighter by default, and githyanki tend to excel at psionic attacks.

7 Drunken Master Monk

Baldur’s Gate 3 Finally Has A Use For Excess Camp Supply

The Drunken Master is an unexpected subclass addition, but an extremely fun one nonetheless. Notorious drinker Thisobald Thorm will have nothing on these players, as they will gain the ability to drink alcohol straight from their inventories, as well as something to do with the hundreds of bottles of wine they’ve collected that never seem to be used as camp supplies. Monks of this nature will deal more damage towards drunken targets – though this may seem like a small niche of enemies, they luckily also have the ability to inflict their drunkness onto others with the Intoxicating Strike.

8 Swarmkeeper Ranger

Bees!

Yet another fun subclass is the Swarmkeeper ranger. While the Beastmaster can summon their own animal companions, these rangers can call forth swarms of them.

Players will be able to summon three different types of swarms – the Cloud of Jellyfish, the Flurry of Moths, and the Legion of Bees. Any swarm can grant the player teleportation abilities, but each swarm deals different types of damage with potential extra effects.

9 The Swashbuckler Rogue

Players Can Finally Live Out Their Pirate Fantasies

A highly anticipated subclass, the Swashbuckler rogue, comes with the pirate-inspired flair that many players were missing from Dungeons & Dragons. This type of rogue is very strategic, and can blind enemies or forcefully disarm them while avoiding opportunity attacks. Players should have high hopes for this subclass when it comes to roleplay ability and unique dialogue, as it’s unlikely that Larian will stop players from living their true pirate fantasy. A lore-abiding multiclass with the Swashbuckler could be with the Tempest Domain cleric – possibly worshiping Talos, the god of storms and destruction.

10 Shadow Magic Sorcerer

A Dark Subclass With A Brand New Summon

The Shadow Magic sorcerer is a great addition for players who want their characters to have a darker edge to them. It introduces a brand new summon, the Hound of Ill Omen, and has potential to be one of the most effective spellcasters. Though the magic-based classes are known for being easy targets in battle, this subclass grants players Strength of the Grave, which prevents them from being downed. The class also comes with extra buffs when obscured by shadows, as well as Superior Darkvision, which before was limited to Underdark races, Gloomstalker rangers and warlocks with devil’s sight.

11 Hexblade Warlock

Make A Pact With An Entity From The Shadowfell

Patch 8 allows Baldur’s Gate 3 warlock players to choose another deity, the Hexblade. Warlocks with this subclass make a pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell, a plane entered from the Gaunlet of Shar, granting them the use of magical weaponry. After defeating a sentient enemy (i.e. not undead, constructs, or other soulless entities), Hexblade warlocks can raise their spirit from their body to fight alongside them for ten turns. Players of this class will deal necrotic damage at the same time as healing themselves.

12 Bladesinging Wizard

Blades Meet Magic

The new update introduces the Bladesinging wizard, where players can merge their weapons with their spellcasting ability. With lots of new custom animations, this subclass comes with the Bladesong bonus action, which grants enhanced agility, focus, speed and a bonus to constitution. This class adds some much-needed flavor to the schools of wizardry, and opens up more character possibilities outside the typical scholarly wizard.

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With Patch 8 being implemented when many players never thought there would be more official content after Patch 7 and the addition of the Mod Manager, Larian truly demonstrates how much it listens to the voices of its fans. With each class being granted one new subclass, the developers of Baldur’s Gate 3 are giving all players new content to try out with their favorite classes. Larian seems to imply that Patch 8 is the end of major updates, but given how Patch 7 turned out, this may not be the last time they come back to the Sword Coast.

Sources: Larian Studios/X, Steam

Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3 is an upcoming role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.

Platform(s)

PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X

Released

August 3, 2023

Developer(s)

Larian Studios

Publisher(s)

Larian Studios

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer

Number of Players

1-4

Local Co-Op Support

1-2 Players

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical Only

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